Toph wakes up in the middle of the night to the feeling of cold air and the sound of a resigned huff of annoyance, but it's a familiar huff, so she simply scoots over just in time for a slightly smaller body to throw itself almost belligerently down beside her.
A second later they're lying back-to-back, and Toph finds herself facing the realization that the de-aged firebender is currently not much smaller than she is.
"Sorry." For waking you, he doesn't say. He doesn't need to.
"Shut up and go to sleep," she says instead of acknowledging the fact that he, also, seems to have missed their usual sleeping arrangement based on the way he shifts and lets out an impressively long breath of air. She can feel the tension draining from his body as he settles. Not all of it-never all of it-Sparky at his most relaxed is still practically a walking bundle of nerves. But he's considerably calmer right now than he has been since that first night he woke up trapped in his younger body, and the change is a welcome relief.
He lays there quietly, but doesn't seem ready to drift off just yet.
"You okay?" Toph asks, voice low. She doesn't want to risk being overheard, but she also doesn't want to spook him.
"I hate this." The whispered confession barely reaches even Toph's sensitive ears.
"Me too," she admits.
"I don't like feeling useless. Helpless. Whatever."
"You saved our asses today," Toph points out. She's not in the coddling business, not even when it comes to Sparky, but the firebender's been through a lot this past week, and it is the truth.
"It's my fault we got caught in the first place."
Toph snorts. "So?" she asks, instead of arguing. "You got us free, and that's what counts."
He doesn't respond, but Toph knows by now that doesn't mean he agrees with her.
"What else?" she asks a moment later. "You might as well spit it out, because I have zero interest in spending the rest of the night trying to figure out what's keeping you up."
Toph knows she sounds harsh, but she's also fully aware that there's only so much kindness the guy can handle at once. If she has to run the risk of sounding callous to even her own ears in order to help her friend, so be it.
His breath catches. A second later a too loud sniffle reminds her that even now he's not her Sparky, not completely, and she wonders if she's miscalculated.
"The others think that since I'm still aging anyway, that if nothing else works we can just wait for me to get back to normal that way." They both ignore the waver in his voice as he whispers, also trying to avoid attracting unwanted attention from the rest of their group. He stops, swallows, and sniffs again. Toph can hear him rubbing his hand against his face, but refrains from commenting.
"Not ideal," she finally ventures, when he doesn't continue. "You're what, eight? That's how much longer we have to stick around waiting?"
"Another eight days."
He's the same age as Sokka. Toph wonders why she's surprised-she knew he wasn't an adult, not quite, but sixteen somehow seems so young, at least on him, even though she also can't imagine being that old.
"A little over a week," she agrees. "In the meantime, Aang seems to be trying really hard to convince you he's taking his training seriously."
"I never meant to say those things." Another whispered confession. Toph shifts just enough to press her shoulder against his for less than a second.
"He's fine. Probably needed to hear it. And anyway, he's still getting his training. So what if we have to stay put for a while?" She doesn't expect an actual answer. He's working toward a specific point, one that doesn't seem to want to be brought up, based on the way his heart is hammering away in his chest and the tension is back in his shoulders full force.
"I don't have a scar," he says after a long moment.
"So?" Toph knew as much, from conversation, but isn't sure why he feels he needs to say so.
"Right now, I don't have a scar. I didn't have it when I was younger."
"So?" she feels a little bit dumb, but still can't quite figure out what he's trying to say.
"So-" he breaks off, swallows nervously. "So I-it happened when I was thirteen." Another pause as he attempts a calming breath. "When-when it happens-I don't know what will happen."
He falls silent. Toph takes a long moment to consider his words.
"You don't know whether you'll simply wake up with a scar, or-" Toph takes another minute to think.
"It took a long time for it to heal," he says, and again Toph finds herself ignoring the tremor in his voice.
She doesn't have any answers. Or reassurance. Only a sudden churning in her gut as anger wars with fear, one that makes her want to track down whoever or whatever is responsible for doing this to her friend and pummel them into oblivion.
She's tense now, and that makes Sparky even more tense. Her reaction isn't helping anyone. She forces herself to take a deep breath, one that he echoes a second later, and tries to calm herself.
"We'll worry about it when it happens. If it happens," she tells him, trying to sound unbothered and failing miserably. "I've got your back. You know that, right?"
She feels him nod, something he only reverts to when they're having one of their admittedly rare late-night heart-to-hearts. The rest of the time he generally does a pretty good job of remembering she's blind.
Actually, he generally does a pretty good job of not just remembering her limits, but of anticipating them without her needed to point them out. It suddenly occurs to her to wonder if there's a reason for that.
She doesn't ask. Right now isn't a good time-there might never be a good time.
He's apparently said what he needed to. Less than a minute later his breath evens out and his heart slows, tell-tale signs that the firebender is finally starting to relax enough to drift off.
Toph lies awake for a long time, listening to him breathe.
Author's Note: That's right, I'm back. Hopefully for a while. Life has been good, but busy. Trying to get my second book ready for release, it's a lot of editing and fixing things that don't quite work, but it is finally in the editing stage, so that's great, plus I've got about twenty-some students now (I teach private music lessons), which is also nice, but also keeps me busy, especially since we have a recital coming up in June, and some of the other teachers and I are working on some summer camp ideas.
Anyway, thanks for sticking with us in the meantime. And if you're new, welcome! Got a few ATLA pieces, and a bunch of other stuff as well, so if you liked this, maybe take a look at the rest sometime. And please review! Reviews are great-very encouraging.
Anyway, hope you enjoy. This story is probably long overdue for an update, but here it is (finally).
Disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender does not belong to me.