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“Hey Twinkletoes, can I ask you something?”
Aang lifted his head from Toph’s lap and sat up. It wasn’t often that she would carry such a pensive look or initiate a thoughtful conversation, and by the look on her face, she wasn’t asking a question to be facetious. Despite this, Aang still replied to her with his normal enthusiasm. “Sure Toph! You can ask me anything.”
“Why are you with me?”
The airbender frowned, “Like, why am I with you, or why am I with you?”
Toph gave an exasperated sigh, but she responded, “The last one. Why are you dating me?”
“Oh, well…” Aang pondered the question. He wanted to make sure he answered this sincerely, but he also wasn’t quite sure the answer himself.
It wasn’t like he regretted being with Toph, but it wasn’t like he planned to be with her, either. They were just friends, until they weren’t, until they couldn’t stand to be away from each other. They understood each other like no one else did, and Aang trusted his life to her, and on some level, Aang knew that Toph trusted him with her life, and more importantly perhaps, her heart.
Aang didn’t really choose Toph Beifong. It was like they were already destined to be with one another.
So he responded candidly. “I’m not quite sure, but it’s like… I have this feeling that we were just meant to be together. We were best friends until we realized we were in love, and now I can’t live without you.”
A small smile grew on her face, and he couldn’t help but grin with her. She always looked beautiful, but he loved her quiet smiles that told him she was at peace and content with the moment in time.
“Good,” she replied, cutting off the brief silence they held. And when he got the hint that she wasn’t planning on saying anything else, Aang posed the same question to her. “So, now that you know my reason, why are you with me?”
Toph gave a light shrug of her shoulders and leaned back on her hands. She faced Aang, and with an openness she gave only to him, she said, “I just feel like I’ve always known you.”
Aang frowned. “Say that again?”
“I feel like, in a different life, perhaps even in this one, I’ve known you all my life. You’re familiar, like the earth I bend or the air I breathe or the grass beneath my feet. I know you better than I know myself, and I feel safe with you. It’s just nice, you know? I feel most like myself when I’m with you.”
The response shocked Aang. Not because her answer was wrong or inaccurate, but because it felt true to Aang as well. There was something so special and different about how he felt when he was with Toph that made it so simple. Easy. Like they had done this before.
In a different life, perhaps.
“So,” he began after a moment. “ Would you consider us soulmates?”
Toph blushed at the question. Thinking and actually saying the word soulmate was different. It made things real. And the declaration carried a great significance for one another, so Toph bit her lip as she pondered what it meant to be a soulmate.
“Yeah,” she replied quietly with a smile. “Yeah, I think we are soulmates, Aang.”
His breath caught in his throat, and his eyes couldn’t pull away from her. She looked so sure and at peace with her response, and the statement gave Aang so much love and hope for his life with her.
They were soulmates, ready to take on the world together.
So Aang grabbed Toph’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “That makes two of us,” he responded, smiling.
And in that moment, they were the only two people in the world. They were the only ones on each other’s minds, and when their lips met, Toph and Aang melted into each other.
They could get used to that feeling.