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“You’re right,” she said, picking a stray bit of meat out from between her teeth. “This is worse than the party at the Fire Palace.”
“ Right ?” Sokka said. “At least that one had fireworks.”
“Fireworks don’t exactly do it for me,” she said. “But the Bending performances were neat. And it had a sit down dinner, not this stupid finger food.”
She flicked a hand up and tripped a passing server, catching his plate in one hand and holding it out to Sokka.
“Crab puffs,” he said. “It’s safe.”
She grabbed a handful of the pastries and tossed them back into her mouth.
It was the third seventeenth birthday party for Zuko she’d attended this week , and she was starting to get sick of wearing this stupid dress and towering hair piece.
“And the assassination attempt was fun,” she said. “I really enjoyed subduing that idiot who tried to stab Zuko.”
“That’s what I’m saying ,” Sokka agreed “The Fire Palace always has something going on. And yesterday, celebrating with just us at the Jasmine Dragon, that was nice. But this ,” he waved an arm to encompass the Grand Ballroom, the Earth Palace, and - for all Toph knew - all of Ba Sing Se, “is dull as dirt. No offense.”
“I’d prefer dull as snow , but none taken.”
“Why is the Earth King even hosting a birthday party for Zuko?” Sokka asked.
“As a symbol of goodwill between the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation,” Katara said in her know-it-all voice, coming up behind them. “And because he has nothing better to do.”
Toph grinned and offered her the tray of crab puffs. She always tried to reward it when there was a flash of a real person beneath that sickly sweet veneer.
“Speaking of parties,” Katara said. “Do you think we should do something about that?” She pointed up at the high table.
“About what?” Sokka asked, snagging a meat skewer from a passing waiter.
“Zuko,” Katara said. “Earth King Kuei has him seated at the place of honor between him and the bear. Should we come up with some sort of excuse to get him out of there? I mean, it looks like he’s in physical pain.”
“Not my problem,” Toph said.
“Yeah, Katara,” Sokka said. “Leave the royalty alone to do royal-y things.”
Toph snickered into her sleeve as Katara huffed and stalked off.
She and Sokka spent the next few minutes amusing themselves by tracking down the Earth minister who had called Katara a “snow savage” behind her back at the last Harmony Restoration Movement council meeting. They waited until he was passing by the drinks table, then Toph shifted the ground under his feet and sent him headfirst into the punch bowl.
She and Sokka shook with laughter, holding each other upright, until she felt the telltale, feather light footsteps of the other buzzkill approaching. She flapped a hand at Sokka to warn him and schmoozed her face into an expression of blank innocence.
“Hey, guys,” Aang said. “Toph, can you help me find Katara?”
“Umm,” she said, sorting through the fragmented vibrations that were coming up her feet. “I think she’s walking onto the dance floor. With Zuko.”
She followed Aang and Sokka as they moved towards the dance floor, handing off her plate of crab puffs to a passing nobleman.
“That’s interesting,” Sokka said as the music started. “I didn’t know Katara knew any Earth Kingdom dances.”
“I didn’t know Zuko knew any either,” Aang said. “I thought dancing was outlawed in the Fire Nation while he was growing up.”
“Hey,” Sokka said as the two began to circle each other.
“They’re doing the Sun and Moon,” the three of them chorused when they realized.
The Sun and Moon was a Bending form that Katara and Zuko had developed the last time they’d been stuck in Ba Sing Se, during the official peace negotiations at the end of the war. Katara had gotten the idea from Iroh’s Firebending move that redirected lightning - a Firebending move inspired by the Waterbending art. She had wondered what other new moves could be developed by combining the disciplines. After a lot of trial and error, they had come up with a complete form that could be used to Bend either fire or water.
“That makes sense,” Sokka said. “A lot of Bending forms look like dances when they’re not being used to kill people. Aang, remember when you and Katara danced that Waterbending form in that Fire Nation cave?”
“Mm,” Aang said.
Katara and Zuko were about halfway through the form now. More and more space was forming around them as the other dancers realized there was something remarkable happening nearby and stopped dancing to watch. Zuko and Katara lunged around each other, switching places, and as Zuko straightened he brought a hand to his throat and undid the clasp on his Fire Lord’s cloak. He let it fall off his shoulders, then kicked it off the dance floor.
“Pretty slick,” Sokka said appreciatively.
“What are they doing now?” Aang asked. “They’ve finished the form.”
“I think they’re going to mock spar,” Toph said, referring to the practice of sparring without using any elements. On the dance floor, Zuko and Katara bowed to each other. There was a moment of stillness before Toph was proved right: Katara opened with a stomach-height kick. Zuko slid under it on his knees, stopping behind her, and hooked an elbow around one of hers and used her as a counterweight to pull himself back to his feet.
“Okay, that was pretty slick,” Toph said. There was a smattering of applause around the ballroom, and Toph joined in.
Even this looked sort of like a dance, she thought, as Zuko weaved around Katara’s guard and tapped her collar bone, earning himself a point. They were the only ones on the dance floor by now, and the King’s musicians were accompanying their movements almost perfectly, like the whole thing had been choreographed.
“Wait a second - is Zuko winning ?” Sokka asked. “Zuko never wins when they spar.”
“Maybe it’s birthday magic,” Toph said.
“Come on Katara, for the Water Tribe!”
On her other side, she felt Aang hunch his shoulders when Zuko grabbed Katara around the waist, unbalancing her before she could strike, and catching her easily and twirling her back onto her feet so she didn’t fall.
Aang stalked away, making a beeline for the drinks table. Toph let him go. He just needed to cool off; he’d feel better after a glass of water. She did keep half an ear on him, though, as he walked, just in case. In the end, she was glad she did.
Aang was about to move past a group of young Ba Sing Se noblewomen - teenagers. Toph didn’t know them, but she knew their type: rich, fussy, self-important, gossipy, and malicious.
“They look great out there,” one said, gesturing at Zuko and Katara with a closed fan.
“Totally.”
A few more steps and Aang would be out of earshot of their conversation.
“Do you think they’re banging?”
“Totally.”
He froze, just a pace or two behind them, and Toph winced.
As naturally as she could, she drifted back the way Aang had gone, wanting to get a little closer in case she had to toss anyone into the punch bowl.
“I don’t know, Hua Ming,” one of them said. “He’s the Lord of the Fire Nation. Don’t you think he’d have more dignity than to bang a snow savage?”
Behind her, Katara scored a point by placing the flat of her palm against Zuko’s abdomen. If they’d been using elements, she would have had him in a block of ice.
“He is the Lord of the Fire Nation,” the first one said. “He’s used to doing what he wants. I’m sure he’s used to doing who he wants, too. And he clearly wants her .”
Now Zuko had overbalanced Katara again, breaking her root by getting one of his legs between hers and knocking her right foot out from under her. Again, he didn’t allow her to fall, catching her in his arms with brotherly care before swinging her back upright.
“But she’s the Avatar’s girlfriend ,” a new voice said. “Why would you cheat on someone who can bring a mountain range down on your head if he gets angry?”
“The Avatar is a sweet little boy with a massive infatuation,” the first voice - the mean one, Toph was beginning to think of her - spoke again. “Do you really think he’d notice anything beyond the bridge of his own nose? She’s probably just humoring him - playing at being his girlfriend to avoid upsetting him. They say that about the snow savages - that they’ll say anything you want to hear.”
“I mean, she can’t possibly be dating him for real ,” one of the others agreed with her. Toph felt Zuko score the winning point when Katara tried to get him with a twirling kick - but she twirled right into his waiting hands. “Didn’t you see them come in together? He’s four inches shorter than her, and his voice hasn’t finished dropping yet. If nothing else, she ,” she said, voice heavy with disdain, “is a woman . With all a woman’s… needs.”
Katara and Zuko bowed to each other, and the music came to an end. The girls, realizing the show was over, began to disperse. Toph took a few steps towards Aang, wanting to intercept him before he had a chance to work himself into a tizzy of panicked mortification over what he’d heard - but she never got the chance to.
“ You !” Someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her around. She mentally kicked herself - she’d been so absorbed in reaching Aang that she’d let some noble quack get the jump on her. She wrinkled her nose as the cloying scent of mango and pineapple reached her.
“Got up close and personal with the punch bowl?” she asked. She didn’t even bother to wrench her arm free. Anyone dumb enough to call Katara a snow savage in her hearing was beneath even the dignity of an honest pummelling.
“I know that was you!” the minister said through gritted teeth. “I’ve heard all about you, Toph Beifong, and after my next audience with the Earth King…”
He trailed off. People had a tendency to do that when she was smiling like this.
“Watch this space, cupcake,” she said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. Then, she gave her very best noble lady’s scream.
“What are you doing? Why are you touching me there? Let go of me!” she added, voice high and panicked, just for good measure. In a matter of seconds, Zuko, Katara, and Sokka materialized behind her, holding flame, ice, and boomerang, respectively. She savored the feeling of the minister’s heart rate spiking in panic.
The four of them turned him over to the Earth King’s guards in short order, who escorted him out of the palace.
“Toph, are you okay? Who was that creep?” Katara asked.
Toph kicked Sokka before he could say something stupid.
“Just some Earth Kingdom minister - well, ex -minister,” she corrected herself, “who needed to be taught a lesson.”
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Katara asked, ever the mother. “Do you want me to get you some water?”
“Don’t worry about me, Sweetness,” she said, rolling her shoulders. “He just startled me, is all.”
“Okay,” Katara said. She glanced around. “Has anyone seen Aang?”
Belatedly, Toph scanned the room for Twinkletoes’ dainty little footfalls. She didn’t feel them.
“Viperrats,” she muttered.
“What was that?” Katara asked.
“Nothing,” Toph said, “I think some bigwig Earth Kingdom nobleman dragged him away to talk to him.”
“Oh - okay,” Katara said. She sounded disappointed. “I wonder if I should go and find him. Some of these noblemen can really talk your ear off.”
“Hey, Sokka,” Toph said brightly. “Didn’t you want Katara to try some of that meat?” He hadn’t said anything about it, but it was a pretty safe bet.
“Oh, yeah! Thanks, Toph!” Sokka said, grabbing Katara and dragging her away.
“Well, I’d better go check in with my noble host. And his bear,” Zuko said glumly. Toph grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“What do you mean, no ?” Zuko asked, trying to shake her off.
“We have to go on a little field trip.”
Zuko groaned. “You’re not still hung up on this, are you? I’m sorry we never went on a field trip together while we were training Aang, but do you really think now is the right time -”
“Cool it, Fire Lord Hotman,” Toph cut him off.
“I can’t believe that caught on,” he muttered. “Where are we going ?”
They had exited the ballroom by now, and Toph was leading them down the great corridor back towards the main entrance.
“To find Aang,” she said.
Zuko pulled back against her, trying to slow her down. “Didn’t you just say he was talking to some nobleman?”
“Yeah. I lied. He left the party.”
“Well, where is he?”
“On the roof.”
Zuko was silent for a moment. “You can’t possibly be able to feel an Airbender on the roof four stories up.”
“Of course I can’t,” Toph snapped. “But where else would Aang go if he was upset, genius?”
“Toph,” Zuko said. He was getting better at sounding reasonable, even when he was angry. Iroh would be proud. “If something’s upset Aang, isn’t that a job for Katara ? Sweet dragons, even Sokka is better at… well, emotions than either of us.”
Toph rubbed her temple and stopped walking so she could turn around and face Zuko.
“What makes Aang feel more insecure than anything else in the world?” she asked.
“Katara,” Zuko said immediately. “Mai thinks it’s sweet. She says in a perfect world, all men would realize that their girlfriends are too good for them.”
“Exactly,” Toph said. “And what specifically always makes him slink off alone to sulk?”
“Oh,” he said, and for a moment, she thought he understood. “Did somebody make a pass at Katara back there? I didn’t see anyone frozen in a block of ice.”
“No, you dunderhead!” she exploded, throwing up her arms. “It’s you and Katara that really bothers him!”
Zuko boggled at her. When he finally did answer, it was in his typical, mild vocal range:
“There is no me and Katara! I’m in a very happy relationship!”
As soon as her ears had stopped ringing, she started moving again, an outraged Zuko trailing in her wake.
“Hey, don’t fireblast the messenger,” she said. “According to Sokka, there was quite a bit of tension between the two of you before I joined up, while you were still hunting the Avatar.”
“Because we hated each other!” Zuko roared.
“Personally, I’ve never seen it,” she said, going for soothing. Zuko growled deep in his throat. “But you have to see why that dance the two of you did tonight might have upset him.”
“We were sparring ,” he said, but there was a note of panic in his voice. It was probably starting to occur to him how sensual sparring could be. He and Mai would “spar” sometimes, when they thought they were alone, and it always ended with Mai pinning him to the ground, kissing the living daylights out of him.
“Well, while you two were sparring , Aang overheard some girls speculating about how often you and Katara are screwing ,” she said.
“Oh, flame of my forefathers,” Zuko swore, hitting his forehead with the butt of his hand.
Toph led him out the main palace doors and around the central courtyard. When Aang was upset, he always went for height, and there was an archer’s tower on this side of the building that was the highest point for miles.
She arranged Zuko on a handy slab that, by her estimate, was pretty near the archer’s tower. She stomped her foot and raised her arms, using the stone as a sort of elevator.
“Toph, this is a terrible idea,” Zuko hissed on the way up. “He’s not going to want to see me - I’m not exactly comforting! Especially if you’re right about what’s upset him!”
Toph ignored him. They were just about at the right height now. She thrust her hands forward, bumping the slab up against the wall of the tower. She pressed her hands together until the stone fused to the wall. It wouldn’t hold forever - the tower wasn’t balanced properly anymore, with a two-ton marble sheet protruding from one of its sides - but it would do for a while.
“Hey, Twinkletoes,” she said, hopping up onto the tower roof. Zuko followed just a second behind.
“Hi guys,” Aang said. Now that her feet were on the roofing slates, she could see him: he was sitting cross legged on the roof’s top ridge, feet upturned on his thighs, in his typical meditation pose. He had his prayer beads in his hands. “I actually want to be alone right now, if that’s okay.”
“I overheard those girls talking,” Toph said, flopping down next to him.
“Oh,” Aang said, as Zuko sat down, too. “Then I guess you know why I’m up here, huh?”
“I’ve got a pretty good guess,” she said. “And I’ve got to tell you, if you make a habit out of listening to Ba Sing Se gossip, you’re going to wind up with more insecurities than you have past lives. These people spend their whole lives making up nasty stories about each other. Some of the things they come up with even shock me !”
Toph felt a smile flicker across Aang’s face - but it was only a flicker.
“Thanks, Toph,” he said. “I know you’re right. Nothing good ever comes from listening to idle gossip. Most of the time when people say stuff about me and Katara, I do just ignore it. But this time…” he sighed, and his fingers moved to a new bead on his strand. “This time, I think they’re right .”
“ What ?” Zuko yelped, but Toph elbowed him before he could shoot any sparks out of his fingers.
“What were they right about?” she asked.
“Maybe Katara is just going out with me to - to humor me. To keep me happy.”
Suddenly, Toph was glad that she’d decided to leave Sokka downstairs. If he heard Aang saying he doubted his sister’s intentions towards him, he would have cheerfully thrown him off the roof.
“I mean, it’s obvious that I like her more than she likes me. I like her so much - love her so much - that sometimes I feel like I can’t even breathe. Katara… just acts the same way she always has around me.”
“Except for all the kissing and touching and hand-holding,” Toph pointed out, but Aang ignored her.
“She always does whatever needs to be done to make people feel cared for and special. What if she knows the only way I’ll be happy is if she agrees to go out with me, even if she doesn’t feel the same way about me as I do about her?”
For a moment, the only sound was the rustling of the autumn breeze.
“Aang,” Zuko said, voice low and serious. “That… is the single stupidest thing I have ever heard you say.”
Toph bit her lip to keep from snorting while Aang turned his startled gaze to Zuko.
“I mean, are you even listening to the words coming out of your own mouth? You sound insane ! Katara’s been in love with you at least since I joined up with you guys at the Western Air Temple!”
“You don’t know that,” Aang said.
“Of course I know it! Why else did you think she threatened to kill me?”
Toph blinked, and cocked an ear at Zuko.
“Um… say that last bit again,” she said.
“The part about Katara threatening to kill me?”
She felt Aang shoot her a questioning glance and shrugged back.
“Yeah. I don’t think we knew about that.”
“Oh,” Zuko said. He leaned back on his hands. “It was my first day with you guys. After Sokka had taken me to my room, Katara came in and told me that if she even thought I was going to do anything to hurt you, Aang, she would kill me on the spot.”
She felt Aang staring. She supposed she was staring, too.
“And you stayed ?” she finally asked.
“Sure,” Zuko said. “I knew it was my destiny to teach the Avatar Firebending. And besides, once I thought about it, I found it kind of comforting.”
“ Comforting ?” Aang said. “This isn’t another one of those words that means the opposite of what it did a hundred years ago, is it? Like “sick” being a good thing now?”
“No,” Zuko said. “I mean, in my family, we try to kill each other all the time for no reason. It was comforting to know that you guys would only try to kill me if you did have a reason.”
He must have seen the horror on their faces.
“That’s not the point! My point is, she loved you enough to kill for you, even then. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s just humoring you.”
“Thanks, Zuko,” Aang said, but he still sounded pretty dejected. “But if that’s really true, then why didn’t she want to be with me then ? Why didn’t she want to be with me until my seventh chakra got unblocked?”
“What?” Toph said.
“Nothing.” He dropped his prayer beads in his lap and scrubbed his hands across his face. “Just… one of those girls said Katara’s probably too smart to reject someone outright who can rage-drop whole mountain ranges. It made me realize that Katara was pretty definite about not wanting to be with me while my seventh chakra was locked. As soon as I could access the Avatar state again, her decision changed. I don’t want to - to intimidate anyone into being with me, either.”
Toph fought the urge to rub her temples. Those girls had really done a number on Twinkletoes’ brain. Some people had a talent for malice the way other people had a talent for embroidery or the soonghi horn, and those teenagers had instinctively known what buttons to press to make Aang feel totally miserable. She had only seen him up close in the Avatar state once, after Appa had been kidnapped by the Sandbenders, and she knew he was still haunted by how easy he had found brutality and destruction in that state.
That… actually gave her an idea.
“Yeah,” she said. “That might be something you should worry about.”
“ What ?” Zuko said. Toph punched him.
“I mean, I’m sure she knows that if she ever did reject you, the pain and loss you would feel would be enough to trigger the Avatar state. I mean, I’ve only seen you like that up close the one time, in the desert, and it was terrifying.”
Aang dropped his head.
“I mean, me and Sokka - we’re both pretty brave. And we both love you. Like, a lot. And even we ran for our lives.”
“Toph,” Zuko hissed. “I can’t see how this is helping .” She punched him again.
“There’s only one little problem,” she said, holding her fingers up to her face so that it looked like she was examining her fingernails, as she had sometimes felt Katara do right before delivering a verbal coup de grace. She waited for Aang to look up at her before she continued. “ Katara’s not afraid of you when you’re in the Avatar state. ”
“Toph, don’t. Anyone would be afraid of that much destruction-”
“I can feel heartbeats through the ground!” she yelled over him. “Listen to the words coming out of my face! Sokka and I ran away from you, but Katara ran towards you! She fought her way through the spinny air-ball of death to get to you! And then what did she do, O Mighty Avatar, who has the power to drop mountains on people’s heads?”
She could feel that Aang was a little scared now, but she wasn’t quite done with him yet.
“She held you in her arms! She cradled you until you calmed down! Does that sound like someone who’s scared of you?”
Aang opened his mouth to say something, but Toph still wasn’t done with him yet.
“But you want to know when I have felt Katara be scared? After Azula shot you down at the fall of Ba Sing Se! When you ran away from the Fire Navy ship to try and fight the Fire Lord on your own! When you disappeared before Sozin’s comet came!” She listed them off on her fingers. “You want to know what scares her more than anything else in the world ? It’s you leaving her behind ! And if you can’t fit what that means through your thick skull, then I don’t know why the two of us are up here trying to make you feel better!”
They were both a little scared of her now, but she couldn’t really think of any other way to do comforting.
“Is that true?” Aang finally asked. “About what scares Katara?”
“ Yes !” she roared. “I literally feel heartbeats through my feet! What part of this -”
“Okay, okay,” Zuko said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Calm down before you knock us off the roof.”
“Hmph,” she said, crossing her arms and hoping neither of them would notice her blush at his nearness. “Honestly, Twinkletoes, I get that you think Katara’s too good for you. To be honest, she kind of is. But for whatever reason, you’re the one she loves. So stop running away from her like a little kid when you feel scared or insecure, and start communicating like an adult!”
She was the only one who heard the tell-tale pinging sound from below them of water being forced into ice, so she was the only one who wasn’t surprised when Katara clambered onto the roof.
“Is everything alright?” she asked, dusting herself off. “I thought I heard raised voices.”
“Everything’s fine,” Zuko said. He stood up, dragging Toph with him. “The two of us were just leaving.”
He towed her to the rock elevator, and waited while she lowered it.
She let it down a couple of feet - just so that they couldn’t be seen over the eaves of the roof - and stopped it again.
“What are you doing?” Zuko hissed.
“We’re just making sure Sweetness doesn’t throw him off the roof,” she said.
“He’s an Airbender! He can fly! You’re just being nosy!”
“If you don’t like it, the exit is all around you. Now be quiet, or they’ll hear us.” She placed her palms against the underside of the roof’s overhang so that she could see what was going on.
Katara had sat down next to Aang, but they weren’t touching.
“I wondered where you had gotten to, sweetie,” she said. “I missed you.”
“Sorry. I just needed some air. To clear my head.”
Toph had really chosen the perfect spot - even Zuko, with his baby hearing, could probably hear every word they were saying.
“Is… this about my mock-sparring match with Zuko?” she asked.
“No. Yes. Sort of.” He rubbed his forehead. “I overheard some girls talking. They said that from the way you two were dancing together, it looked like you were sleeping together, too.”
“Oh, Aang,” Katara said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You know how ridiculous that is, don’t you? People just like to gossip, and we’re public figures now. The other day, someone told me they had seen you making out with Toph!”
“ What ?” Toph said, feeling bile rise in her throat.
“Sh!” Zuko hissed.
Aang gave her half a smile.
“They said some other things, too,” he said. “That kind of got into my head. They said that - that you’re only dating me for one of two reasons: either because you don’t want to hurt me, so you’re indulging my adolescent fantasy, or because you’re scared of what I could do to you in the Avatar state if you rejected me.”
Katara didn’t answer right away. In fact, she was quiet for so long that Toph was considering jostling the stone under her to get her talking again. Finally, she said:
“And that upset you?”
“Yeah.”
Katara brought both hands up to cup the engraving on her necklace, like she sometimes did when she needed courage or peace of mind.
“Aang, please don’t do that.”
Toph raised her eyebrows. It almost sounded like Sweetness was about to cry.
“Katara?”
“Please don’t doubt how much I love you. You have no idea how much it hurts me.”
It sounded like she was crying now, and Aang gathered her up in his arms, holding her against his chest.
“Can I tell you something?” she asked. Her voice was a little muffled, but Toph could still make it out.
“Anything,” Aang said.
“You remember when I told you how there’s that legend in the Water Tribe? That if a maiden heals a warrior, it’s like declaring herself his betrothed?”
“Yeah.”
“One of the reasons why I wouldn’t let anyone else take care of you while you were in that coma was because of that legend. I wanted everyone to know that I intended to never be apart from you.”
Aang pulled away from her then, one hand on her shoulder, the other cupping her cheek.
“What?” he said. “I thought you weren’t sure about this - sure about us - until after the comet.”
“I didn’t want to start something that would distract you from your training,” she said. “It seemed… selfish to risk the world for a few weeks of happiness. And besides, being together then would have made it hurt even worse if the worst were to happen.”
Aang gave her a twisted smile.
“You always seemed so sure I’d come back,” he said.
“I always was,” Katara said, putting a hand on his cheek. “But how could I be sure that I would?”
Toph felt Twinkletoes’ heart skip a beat.
“Oh, Katara,” he said, pulling her close again and burying his face in her hair. Now it sounded like he was the one tearing up. For a long while they just sat like that, him rocking her.
Toph was starting to think that the show was over, and she ought to get this slab back down to the courtyard before anyone fell into the pit it had left, when Aang made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat.
“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Katara asked.
“It’s - nothing. It’s stupid. I’m being stupid.”
“Aang, what is it?”
“I don’t know why it bothers me so much,” he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. “It shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. But…”
“But what?”
“You want him, don’t you.”
Beside her, she felt Zuko start to panic.
“Who?”
“Zuko.”
For a second, Toph was sure Katara was going to hit him.
“ Aang! ” she said instead, horror in the syllable.
“It’s okay if you do,” Aang said “I mean, it makes sense. He’s older, and actually taller than you, and -”
“ Please don’t make me listen to this,” Zuko hissed to her.
“Cover your ears if you don’t like it, you old lady,” Toph hissed back.
But Katara seemed to agree with Zuko.
“Stop talking. Please,” she said over him. “Unless you want me to ice block your head.”
“It... would make me feel a lot better to know,” he said.
Katara sighed. She took her time with it, too - like it was the last breath she was going to get for a while.
“Zuko… is good looking,” she said. Toph could smell the sweat coming off of Zuko now. “So is Haru. So was Jet. But I don’t want any of them. The only person I want is… you.”
Okay, now Toph was really glad she’d left Sokka inside.
“Is that… really true?” Aang asked. “But I’m younger than you are, and…” he trailed off, swallowing hard, as Katara grabbed one of his hands and began to trace the arrow up his arm.
“I, uh…” Katara said. “I don’t think you realize the effect these tattoos have on me.”
Aang grabbed her chin and pulled her into a kiss, then. Now Toph understood why Katara had wanted to take in all that air a second ago. Her arms went around his neck, and his trailed down her front, to her -
Toph jerked her hands away from the stone like she’d been burned.
“Show’s over. Time to go,” she said, letting them down as silently as she could.
“ Finally ,” Zuko snapped. “I hope you’re happy with yourself. That was a complete invasion of their privacy!”
“Aw, come on,” Toph said. “Isn’t it worth it to know that the love birds are all happy and lovey dovey again?”
“ No ,” Zuko said. “I’m going to be scarred for life! And I don’t say that lightly!”
Toph grinned. Sure, they had invaded their privacy a little . But after living together for so many months, with her ears and her feet, there was only so much privacy left to invade.
Besides, if Toph had learned anything from teaching Aang, it was that sometimes he needed a little help facing the sabre-toothed mooselion in the canyon.
She was always happy to be there to give him a… gentle nudge.