Prom Pt. V

Toph woke up first the next morning. Her grip around Aang's chest was still tight, maybe afraid that if she let go he would go away. She waited for a few minutes, just thinking, basking in the fresh spring sun. After a while, her little body squeezed Aang and he woke up.

"Uhh…Toph?" He blushed. They were both naked and in his bed. "Did last night happen?"

"Yeah. It happened." She hugged him more. Aang started brushed her forehead.

"That…was amazing." He smiled, naturally proud of himself.

"Yeah. It was." Toph nodded, but still sounded upset. She looked really scared

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm more than fine." She hugged Aang tightly, her voice still wavering, sounding unhappy.

"You sure?" Aang rubbed her back.

"I…have just been thinking." Toph kept hugging him.

"About…bad things?"

"No. About really good things." Toph shoulder's arched, a signal that she was incredibly upset.

"Toph?" Aang was getting worried. Toph sat up, her slender body moving over Aang's. She is so beautiful, thought Aang.

"There's something I want to say. Something I…really…want you to know." She spoke slowly.

"Okay. I'm listening."

"…I'm…not good with emotion. Talking about them. I'm not…"

"Toph, it's okay. Really, I understand."

"No Aang, wait. I know you know, but…I need to say it to you. Please, just listen" She cleared her throat. Aang waited. "I'm…I…I love you Aang. I love more you so much that I can't even say it. But it's not just cause…because…"

Toph's eyes began to well up. But she continued.

"…I'm weird Aang. I'm so weird. My own parents think there's something wrong with me. My teachers think something's wrong with me. I'm…just so different. But you've never treated me like I was strange. Even when we fought, when we hated each other, you never said something was wrong with me or that I was the problem. You saw me. Just me. Not my stupid, messed up mind or whatever makes me this way."

She put her palm over one eye. She gasped once, and then continued, her speech babbling as tears slowly dripped off her chin.

"You didn't see my money or my family either. Look at all we've been through. The homework, the fights…five years! I have been to England and China and all over the world. My dad dragged me along, like I was some decoration to make him look better. But I have more fun sitting on your crappy couch watching a stupid movie than I do anywhere else. If I had to choose between a day sitting outside just watching the clouds or throwing rocks at a dumpster with you, and…I don't know, anywhere else, I'd choose you every time. Because you've always chosen me. And you…you…you never judged me for that."

The walls came down and the tiny rebel started weeping like a baby. She fell onto Aang's chest. Aang put his arms around her and, trying not to cry himself, hugged back.

"I hate that people look at me and think I'm a problem. I hate it so much. I just want to be who I am, do what I want. But when I act like myself around other people, they look at me like I am a freak. Aang…I'm myself around you, and I feel like that's okay. Like I am okay. Like I'm not a weirdo."

She sobbed and sobbed. Aang held her and just waited for her to calm down. It took a while, but he didn't leave.

"I'm…" Aang started. "…I'm…the same. I have…" He laughed a bit. "…look at this place. I live in a broken down rut. I have no…no parents. No one…notices me. I'm like a piece of the furniture, or I was. Now I am too tall and too thin. I'm a teacher's pet and a bookworm. I'm…not like everyone else. I have no other friends except you and Sokka. Remember when you got me that hat for my birthday?" Aang asked. Toph nodded, not looking at him. He kissed her forehead. "I can't think of what happened before you were here. I get really scared thinking of my life with you not in it. I don't want to. You're my best friend. You're everything I have Toph. Everything."

Aang hugged her hard as he could. Though she was the strongest persons he knew, she felt more fragile than ever. She cried for a while, hiding her face.

"I don't want to go out today." Toph said, still crying.

"Okay." Aang rubbed her back again.

"I just want to stay here, in your house. Watch a stupid movie later." She started calming down, but still cried.

"Okay." He kissed her forehead again, starting to get misty himself.

"I don't want to go back out there. I wish I never had too. I…" She sat up and wiped her eyes. "…I have to go to the bathroom." Aang smile. Then Toph smiled. Then they both laughed together. Aang tried to get the smeared mascara out from under her eyes and they laughed more.

"Okay. I'll be here when you get back." They kept laughing. For a while, the stress went away. For a while, there was just the two of them.

Toph came back into his room, still naked, still as vulnerable.

"Thanks…for listening twinkle toes." She sat down next to him. "If I start hearing anyone say that I have a soft side, I'll kick your ass."

"I know. I'd be worth it though." Aang pinched her butt and she flirt punched him.

"Do you think I am weird?" Toph didn't look Aang in the eye.

"No. Do you think I'm weird?"

"No. Even if I sometimes say you are, I never mean it."

"Yeah." Aang forced himself not to cry and pulled Toph back into bed with him. "Yeah."

"Are you okay?" Toph asked him now.

"I'm honestly better than I have been in a long time." He smiled. "And I'm not a virgin anymore."

"Haha. And hell didn't freeze over."

"No it didn't." They sat there for a while. "So?"

"So what?"

"Wanna go again?" Aang smirked. Toph giggled and tackled him. She said she didn't want to go outside today. That would be fine.

Romance. ^_^

I was thinking of making Clear Skies and Concrete into a VN. Same story but with different character names. Would anyone be interested in working on that with me?

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