Ch 22- Universal Truths

Bumi had been trying to draw Toph out of her sullen mood since they began their battle. But like most earthbenders, she was stubborn like their element and refused to be sidetracked.

"Are we bending or gossiping like old ladies?" she snapped, sending him stumbling back with a well timed attack.

That's when he knew something was bothering her. Bumi had heard the stories about the Blind Bandit and the one thing she did better than fight was trash-talk.

"Thought we can do both," he chuckled, sending a rock wall to come crashing down on her. She escaped with nothing more than a little dust, but the smile on her face spoke volumes.

...

Some days Gran-Gran made a point of instructing Suki how to mend trousers or braid hair or prepare blubbered seal jerky. All essential, though not very exciting, knowledge to Water Tribe life.

"I'll leave my two favorite ladies to it," Sokka would say, huge smile on his face as the women continued working.

Other days, Gran-Gran turned to her future granddaughter-in-law with her own smile and Suki was reminded this was the same woman who fled her homeland because of its chauvinistic practices.

"Today, Suki, you are going ice-dodging. Tomorrow, I will show you the trick to igloo building."

...

"Tired, little girl?"

"You wish, old-timer."

Earth flew into the ceiling and the walls, crashing into the ground with a resounding thud, so that dust filled the entire arena, limiting Bumi's sight. It was time to try a different tactic.

"Hey, I thought you and Aang were good friends?"

The question, though spoken in a curiously low tone carried over the thundering sounds of earth colliding against earth. Toph heard King Bumi's words as though he had been standing next to her and not across the arena.

"We are, what of it?" she growled, the ground beneath her feet shifting, nearly securing her in place. If Bumi's goal was to distract her in order to win, she wasn't gonna let him. Turning, she launched a huge boulder straight at his head.

Touchy subject I see, he thought, snorting in amusement.

Bumi was barely able to avoid being buried under the huge boulder since Toph sent it with such ferocity. In fact, he only had enough time to redirect its trajectory so that it crashed into the side wall of the arena instead of his head. The thunderous roar made him grimace. Su would run in complaining at any moment.

"Aang is my oldest friend, did you know that? Technically, we're the same age."

Toph laughed outright. She always considered Aang to be her age. Funny that he was her oldest friend, too.

"Care to explain why any of that matters," she countered, disappearing underground.

"I have a theory," the king replied, fully aware Toph couldn't hear him. When the ground he stood on trembled, he had an idea of what she had planned. He had only to consider how to counter her attack.

Toph surprised him when she raised the earth supporting him, high above her head. Then when she swung her arms up, the earth encased the old man like a cocoon. That lasted about a second before Bumi sent the earth trapping him flying out in every direction. The entire palace shook again.

Not a few minutes later, Aang flew into the arena on his glider.

"Toph! Bumi! Stop!"

But the benders continued their battle. To stop now would mean defeat.

Determined, Aang landed between them. "This has gone on long enough!" he cried. "You're about to bring down the whole palace!"

"The whole palace?" Bumi asked. Not quite believing him. "Even the newly refurbished wing because I had lots of help reinforcing it."

"All of it," Aang replied, sounding out of breath.

Bumi looked over at Toph, who had sharp rocks positioned to strike any minute. "Tie?"

"Yeah, yeah," she muttered, letting the rocks return to the earth. But she wasn't upset, she was smiling. Fighting Bumi, an earthbender nearly as good as herself, she had been able to go all out, so that her muscles were aching in that delicious sort of way they hadn't in so long. She even managed to clear her mind of the confusing thoughts she'd had only hours before. Toph felt great, a little tired, but great. "What we need is a big open space with no one around to cry about our bending."

"Like the Great Divide?" Aang ventured to take a guess since Toph seemed to be in a good mood again.

"The what now?"

Bumi's weathered face lit up. "We'll have to look into that," he agreed. "But for now, a snack!"

...

"The wedding is in a few months," Katara said, trying not to giggle. "You shouldn't be so stressed about a gift."

Zuko, sitting behind his desk, looked up at her with what could only be described as a pitiful expression. "I have no idea what to get them," he admitted. "Perhaps matching boomerangs?"

Katara's laughter filled his study. It was a soft and joyful sound, nothing like Toph's loud, unabashed howling, and Zuko found himself smiling with her. Even though he hadn't been making a joke, he wasn't annoyed that she found it amusing.

"We'll come up with something good," she promised, leaning over to squeeze his hand.

Once again Zuko found himself thanking the Spirits that Katara had been made ambassador to his country.

...

More tired than hungry Toph headed to her room leaving Aang and Bumi alone in the kitchen. After eating enough rock candy to keep them both up all night, Bumi spoke.

"Is something on your mind, Aang?"

Smiling, the young man shook his head. "No, why do you ask?"

"You've been quiet since you and Toph arrived."

Was it that obvious, he wondered. Must've been.

After a few moments of trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to ask, Aang simply said, "Have you ever been confused?"

"Many times," the old king replied without missing a beat.

Aang couldn't help laugh.

"No, I meant about a specific person."

"Ah...well, I suppose I have," Bumi replied, then added, "Not for a while, mind you."

Relieved it didn't feel as strange as he first imagined it would be to have this type of conversation, Aang looked amused instead.

"You're at an age where lots of things get muddled. Thoughts and emotions and expectations, but it's natural to see a-," Bumi paused to inspect his friend closely, "Are we talking about a girl or a boy? Because liking one or the other or both or none is perfectly normal."

"It's a girl," Aang replied, ears growing hot.

Nodding, Bumi continued, "I've discovered a few universal truths in my life, Aang." He held up five fingers. "One, purple rock candy tastes better than any other. Do not let anyone convince you otherwise. Two, try as you might, you can never run away from your knees." Aang blinked and Bumi went on, "Three, letting the cat owl out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in. Four, you can walk by something everyday and not see it. Then one day, someone or something calls attention to it and you start to notice." That got Aang thinking. "But perhaps the most important is number five: the more you know, the more you realize how little you actually know."

Aang tilted his head to the side. "I think I know exactly what you mean," he said.

"So you agree about the rock candy?"

...

In the morning, after a surprisingly restful night, Aang lay in bed still half asleep, thinking about all Bumi said. Number four of his universal truths stood out in his mind. He couldn't help wonder if...if he was only just noticing something that had been there for a while. He and Toph...? The thought made him feel like he couldn't breathe. Add to that the dream he awoke from and it only got worse.

Toph was lying in his bed, while Aang played with the ends of her hair. He twirled the strands around his thumb and forefinger as he waited for her to wake up. She looked so cute and peaceful, none of that mischievous mirth could be found in her expression at the moment.

With no plans to do anything but enjoy the view, Aang drew her closer to him, savoring the way she felt against his body. But the moment was short lived. A sudden knocking came at the door.

She was obviously beautiful, but that wasn't the sole reason he wanted to be close to her. Was that weird?

"Breakfast has been served," someone from out in the hall informed him. It sounded a lot like Su.

Toph stirred in his arms, her body sliding against his, making Aang's breath hitched in his throat.

"'S too early," she mumbled into his neck, making him shiver.

Was it weird that he wanted her to want to be close to him?

"Are you hungry?" she asked, voice groggy.

"A little. Are you?"

"Guess I could eat," she answered, sitting up, her disheveled hair making him laugh. "Quiet, Twinkletoes," she threatened, holding him in a headlock. After only a short bit of teasing, she stood. "C'mon, let's get you some grub." Toph pulled him up by his hand. "You're too skinny as it is."

He wanted them to have fun, he wanted them to look out for each other. Aside from the closeness he suddenly longed for, how was that any different than how things were now?

Aang found he could breathe again. Not only that, he was smiling from ear to ear. Unfortunately, he didn't get a lot of time to sort through these new realizations because the northern wall of his room opened and Toph stepped through.

"Don't tell me you're still sleeping?"

"No, I'm up," he confirmed, raising his head to look at her. By her grin alone, he could tell everything was back to normal. Shaking the lingering haze of sleep, he sat up in his bed.

"Good," she said, "'cause I know what we're gonna do today."

"Does this mean you forgive me?"

She crossed her arms. "Look, Twinkletoes, you were a jerk, you apologized for being a jerk, you promised not to act like a jerk again, so we're good."

That was one too many 'jerks', but he deserved it. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," she smiled. She hadn't liked the distance she felt growing between them since that stupid dance party anyway.

"Thanks," he said, meaning it. Not wanting to end their conversation just yet, he said the first thing that popped up and said, "I shaved my head last night."

"Really? Why?" she asked, sitting next to him and reaching for the top of his scalp. Yup, the hair was gone, replaced by smooth baby skin.

"I don't know," he shrugged, "I didn't feel like me." Toph waited for him to continue. "This wasn't like when we were in the Fire Nation before the war ended. I didn't need to hide my identity this time for our safety, I did it for selfish reasons," he admitted.

"There's nothing wrong with needing to take a break," she stated flatly.

"You don't do that."

Toph laughed. "What do you think this is, Aang? I'm here with you because I didn't want to deal with stuff back home anymore."

"That's different. I didn't want to be...bothered. I wanted to be able to travel without the role of being the Avatar following me around everywhere," he sighed. "But I can't hide who I am and still be me."

Toph understood that, trying to balance the different roles that made up who they were.

"Thought you were having fun, Kuzon," she teased, punching his arm lightly.

"Those girls didn't know me. Not the real me anyway. Not like you do," he added with a smile. Aang took her hand in his. When he looked over at her he wanted something he didn't know how to express. Okay, so maybe he wanted more than just the closeness.

Toph could feel it in his gaze, burning wherever he looked. She could feel it in the heat of his hand and she had a hard time suppressing the emotions it induced.

They were just getting back to normal and Toph didn't want to mess things up because she was having those weird thoughts again. Instead she shook her hand free of his and stood. "Come on, we got stuff to do."

"You mean besides getting the silk Suki wanted?"

"That can wait," Toph replied, her mischievous smile doing strange things to his stomach.

...

Stepping into the earthen box after Aang, Toph regretted ever coming to Omashu. As the chute began its descent, the one thing Toph was certain of was she was going to kill Bumi for suggesting riding the mail chutes in the first place. And if she died before that, she was going to find a way out of the Spirit World to torture the old coot.

"Hold on!" Aang yelled seconds before they plummeted down the steep slide. Behind him, Toph buried her face into his back, but willed her mouth shut. It was bad enough she clung to Aang as if her life depended on it, there was no way she was making a bigger fool of herself in the process by screaming with the terror that suddenly filled her.

To Toph's utter surprise, her dread was short lived. After only a few seconds, and once her stomach stopped doing flips, she realized it wasn't that scary. It was kind of like flying on Appa only way better because Toph could see everything. All the vibrations blurred together so that she only got quick glimpses of the whole and not the entire image, but she could see which was all that mattered.

As the chute curved on a sharp left, she whooped as loud as Aang. She did keep one hand on his shoulder (just in case), but the other shot into the air as she laughed along with the crazy airbender sitting in front of her.

When they reached the end of the line at the bottom, she jumped out and said, "Let's do that again!"

And they did, riding down together one more time. Then they raced to the bottom in separate mail chutes, each using their bending to gain the advantage.

AN: Curious as to what Aang and Toph look like riding the mail chutes? Check out tissine dot deviantart dot com /art/Mail-Rides-337319514 (remember to remove dots and spaces!)