This is a good one, and It's more than twice as long as the previous one.
Enjoy!
They had just said their goodbyes to Zuko and were now flying away from the Fire Nation.
Toph was sitting next to Katara in the saddle, they were in the middle of writing a letter to her parents when Aang spoke up from Appa's head.
"Toph, where do you want to be dropped off? I'm guessing somewhere in the Earth Kingdom?"
The blind girl lowered her head slightly, feeling conflicted.
When she felt Katara's comforting hand on her shoulder she straightened her back and made her decision. "I wanna go to the Southern Water tribe."
Aang's eyes widened in surprise.
Sokka's jaw dropped comically wide, but it didn't take long for the boy to grin widely. "Really?"
Toph shrugged. "I've never been there before, so I thought why not."
Suki had a pained smile on her face. Of course she loved the earthbender and was happy that she chose to stick around, she was just concerned for Aang.
Was he really going to be okay alone?
Aang was careful to not make any sudden movements, instead he exhaled slowly and nodded. "Okay... we'll go straight to the Southern Water tribe then."
They fell into another silence, everyone lost in their own thoughts.
Aang was feeling a mix of emotions, he was mostly nervous. He had promised Zuko to ask the siblings if he could go with them, but he didn't know if he could muster up enough courage to actually do it.
This is stupid. He thought, annoyed with himself.
Suki frowned when she saw the airbender stretch and yawn. He had been steering for awfully long, and she remembered Zuko telling her that Aang only got a small amount of sleep last time.
He needed rest.
"Aang, you should sleep or at least take a nap, let one of us steer Appa for a change." Suki suggested, crawling closer to the airbender.
Toph held a hand over her eyes. "Want me to steer?" she joked.
Katara's eyebrows furrowed, having noticed Aang's fatigue as well, but said nothing.
"Suki, I'm fine." The Avatar claimed, heart racing. Please Suki, don't insist.
He didn't want them to know about his sleep issues. It was bad enough that Zuko knew.
"She's right, just do as she says." Sokka said, rolling his eyes.
Aang let out a harsh breath. "Why do you care?!" he wanted to shout it out so badly, but kept his mouth shut.
He didn't want to start an argument with Sokka right now.
He grit his teeth. "I really am not tired, guys."
Suki pursed her lips. "At least let someone else steer for a little bit and go lay down on the saddle."
He could do that.
"Sure." Aang shrugged, standing up and walking away.
Suki looked back at the water tribe siblings, her eyebrows raised pointedly.
She couldn't steer since she had never done it before and Toph couldn't either, for obvious reasons. "Which one of you is going to step up."
Sokka waved his hand rapidly. He was bored out of his mind and wanted something to do. "Me, me!"
Katara smiled and nodded, making Sokka grin. He really did miss Appa and wanted to hang out with the fuzzball again.
His grin disappeared when he made eye contact with the airbender as he was walking back to the saddle.
"Don't even think about trying anything funny with my sister." He warned, pointing a finger at him.
Aang's eyes widened and he held his hands up defensively, feeling his cheeks burn.
"Wha-"
"Sokka! What is wrong with you!" Katara fumed, face red as a tomato. "Go steer Appa before I throw you out of this saddle."
"I'm just saying." Sokka shrugged, walking away from them.
Suki held back her laugh when the two lovebirds awkwardly made eye contact, before they both looked away blushing, and sat as far from each other as possible.
Toph didn't bother holding it in. She burst out in loud laughter, making Katara bury her face in her hands in embarrassment.
"Oh my... I can feel your pounding heart even through the saddle, Sweetness." Toph teased the waterbender, smirking.
Katara had enough, she lunged at her, raging. "Shut up, Toph!"
Suki gasped and managed to grab Katara just in time, stopping her.
However, she quickly realized that the younger girl was escaping her grip. Her fingers were slowly slipping.
Suki looked up desperately at the Avatar who was now watching them wide-eyed, not knowing what to do.
"Help!" Suki shouted over the two benders loud back and forth. She felt her fingers slip and Katara escaped her hold.
The waterbender jumped on top of Toph and pinned the girl down. "You wanna say that again?"
"Get off me, Sugar Queen!"
"This'll teach you to mind your own business!" Katara seethed. She was pulling the younger girl's hair when she felt two strong arms wrap around her waist, making her gasp.
Aang pulled her off the earthbender gently.
Katara's heart skipped a beat when she realized who was grabbing her.
"Relax..." he murmured in her ear, trying to calm her down. Katara swore she felt her heart melt.
He set her down slowly, and she almost whimpered in disappointment when he let go of her.
Stupid airbender...
Sokka had been too busy patting Appa and making hilarious jokes to keep the bison entertained to notice anything.
He didn't hear what was going on behind him either over the wind and Appa's loud growls.
When he finally did turn around, he nearly fell off Appa in shock.
First thing he noticed was Toph, the girl's hair was disheveled and she was being held back by The Kyoshi Warrior.
What shocked him the most though was that Toph looked like she wanted to murder his sister.
Next he saw Katara and Aang sitting on the opposite sides of the saddle, and he guessed that part was normal considering the recent circumstances, but the weird part was her sister's face, she was blushing like crazy and looked almost... breathless?
Aang looked like he wanted to curl up in a hole and disappear.
"You're lucky I can't feel anything up here, Katara, or I would've cracked your teeth!"
Katara scoffed, her previous anger coming back. "Mind your own business next time."
"Let's calm down guys." Aang spoke up, feeling awkward. The two girls huffed, but reluctantly stopped their bickering and looked away from each other.
"Aang, you think we could land somewhere for some time?" Suki suggested, pressing her fingers on her head. "I think it would do us good to stretch our legs a little, we've been cooped up on top of Appa for too long."
"Yeah, it looks like you guys need it." Sokka exclaimed, walking closer to them and looking at the two furious girls. "Seriously, what was that all about?"
Katara glared at his blockhead of a brother. He started all of it and had the audacity to tell them off.
Aang nodded, quickly walking away from them and grabbing Appa's reins. "I know a spot."
Some time later, Aang landed Appa in a beautiful forest clearing, surrounded by mountains.
A majestic waterfall was cascading down one of the mountains, making the place feel lively.
The airbender jumped off Appa first and stretched his limbs. The others got down one by one.
As Aang waited for them, he noticed Katara struggle slightly and instinctively offered to help her down.
She refused his help, making him sigh.
Why do I even bother...
"Finally!" Toph hugged the ground. "Sweet, sweet earth."
They all chuckled at her.
Sokka, Suki and Katara started setting their tents down.
Aang and Toph went deeper inside the forest, looking for pieces of wood that they could use to make a campfire.
They walked in silence for a while until Toph suddenly stopped and whirled around toward him, irritated. "What's up with you?"
Aang looked at her in shock, not having expected her to talk to him. "Uhh, what?"
The blind girl rolled her eyes. "I can sense your ridiculously fast heartbeat, you want to talk?"
Aang blushed. Right... she could do that.
How could he forget.
"I can't figure you out, Toph." He ran a tired hand through his hair and sighed. "Are you mad at me or not?"
He saw her eyebrows furrow before she turned her back on him.
Aang's head dropped when she didn't answer.
She was ignoring him.
He continued walking, jaw clenched. But was stopped by her timid voice.
"Why are you so stupid."
"What?" Aang turned around, confused. "What do you mean?"
"You didn't have to leave us... we could've helped you through it."
"Oh..." Aang's mouth opened in realization. "I'm sorry."
"Bullshit!"
Aang stepped back in shock.
"That's a lie! You're not sorry at all!" Toph shouted, she had enough of his empty apologies. "Tell me how you really feel!"
"I... I don't-" he was cut off by an earth spike flying toward his face.
He ducked under it narrowly, eyes widening.
"Toph! What the-" she sent more attacks at him, this time two spikes and a large boulder right after.
Aang dodged the spikes and punched through the massive boulder.
He tried to speak up but the earthbender didn't let him, the ferocity of her attacks increasing.
Aang gave up trying to calm her down and instead focused on defending himself, letting her vent out all her anger.
He had to be careful to not move his bandaged arm around too much. He didn't want to damage it further, or worse, break it again.
She growled when he kept avoiding her attacks.
"Fight me back!" she yelled, punching the ground and ripping huge chunks of earth out of it.
She broke them into tiny pieces and hurled them at the Avatar.
Aang knew he couldn't dodge them all so he protected himself by creating a strong earth wall.
There was a few seconds of silence after the bullets hit the wall.
He set the wall down, warily, and looked around for the earthbender.
Suddenly, his eyes widened and he whirled around, punching through a big earth disk that was about to smash his face in.
Toph growled, encasing herself in rock armor, and charged at the wide-eyed Avatar.
Aang quickly encased his own arm in earth and blocked the girl's strikes with it.
"Why-" she started, and with each word she punched and kicked harder.
"Are-"
"You-"
"Lying-"
"To-"
"Me!" She finished, digging her feet in the ground, before bending her knees and catapulting herself forward at full speed, toward him.
Using the momentum, she delivered the strongest punch she could manage.
Aang raised his arm to block it, but gasped when she broke through the earth surrounding his arm.
The force of the punch was so strong it sent him flying back slightly. Luckily, he managed to stay on his feet.
His muscles tensed in apprehension, waiting for her to attack again.
However, the blind girl fell to her knees and buried her face in her hands.
After a moment, The Avatar tentatively walked closer and crouched down in front of her.
"Hey..." he whispered gently.
He let out a sharp breath when she looked up, there were angry tears running down her face.
"Why do you keep lying to us?"
Aang's throat tightened and he looked away. "B-Because... I'm scared."
Toph frowned, not understanding. "Scared of what?"
"Of losing my friends."
"Why would you lose us?"
"I-I-" he shut his eyes. "I don't really regret leaving, and I don't feel sorry for what I did." he confessed.
Toph smiled sadly. "I figured."
Aang shook his head. "But not for the reasons you think."
"Explain."
"After the Ozai fight, I was in so much pain, It was overwhelming. I felt like my chest was going to explode at any moment." he bit the inside of his cheek. "I knew I couldn't stay in the Fire Nation with you guys, I needed space. I needed to really think about everything."
"It felt like ever since I got out of the iceberg, I hadn't had time to really collect my thoughts and to just... think."
"Those three years I spent in isolation were really important and helped me heal."
Toph sat down, her legs crossed. A small encouraging smile on her lips.
"That is why I don't regret leaving." Aang sat in front of her, gazing at the shorter girl. "I'm so sorry for hurting you, Toph."
"Thank you for telling me..." Toph grinned. "and I accept your apology, Twinkletoes."
She called him by his nickname! Last time she had done that was over three years ago.
Aang threw his head back, laughing.
"Thank you, Sifu Toph."
"What took you two so long?" Sokka complained, holding his rumbling stomach. "I'm so hungry!"
Aang and Toph had come back to their camp to see that the tents were already set down and everyone was waiting for them.
They must've been gone for a while.
"Calm down, Snoozles. We got what you need." Toph announced, throwing the stack of wood in the middle of the camp.
Aang threw his own stack down as well and lit them on fire with a flick of his fingers.
"There."
"Thank you, Aang." Suki smiled kindly and sat down on the ground, motioning for Katara to do the same.
"I'll go get the delicious meat we bought." Sokka walked toward Appa, rubbing his hands and licking his lips.
Aang chuckled, sitting down.
"You seem to be in a good mood?" Suki noticed, a wide smile on her face.
It was rare to see the airbender happy these days.
He glanced at Toph who had sat down next to him and smiled, a genuine smile. "Yeah, I am."
Katara looked at the two weirdly. "What happened in there?"
"Nothing interesting." Toph crossed her legs, and stuck a finger in her nose. "We just had a quick bending match and I beat him up."
"No you didn't!" Aang spluttered. "It was an even match."
"You keep telling yourself that, Twinkletoes."
The waterbender tried to take a look at the airbender's damaged arm, worried, but she couldn't see it since it was hidden under his cloak.
"Is your arm okay?"
Aang's head whirled toward her in shock. She was talking to him?
"Y-Yeah, it should be fine."
"Let me take a look at it." She said, her harsh voice leaving no room for an argument.
Aang nodded. Maybe it wasn't so bad to let her have a look.
It was one way of spending time with her, he guessed.
They walked slightly away from the others and Katara told him to sit.
Aang nodded. He saw a fallen log and sat down on it, before pulling out his arm for her to see.
Katara bit her lip and walked closer to him, holding his arm softly in her hands so she could take a better look.
She nodded after a moment, satisfied. "It's all good."
Aang stood up, and the height difference between them once again shocked the waterbender. He was towering over her
He shot her a charming smile that made her heart flip. She was about to look away from him but made the mistake of looking into his eyes.
Those beautiful silver eyes.
Katara became lost in them, and before she knew what was happening her eyes subconsciously fell on his lips.
"Twinkle toes, Sugar Queen!" Toph's voice knocked the sense back into Katara and she flinched, jumping away from him like she got burned.
Aang felt a cold emptiness in his chest when she withdrew from him. Did he really disgust her that much?
He quickly thanked her and left, a heavy sigh escaping his lips as he walked away.
Katara wanted to punch herself for being so dumb, and the airbender for being so damn irresistible.
She was so close to kissing him, if it weren't for Toph she would've done it.
She shook her head in anger, hating that it got that close.
I need to stay away from him.
What do y'all think?