Title: Nights of the Full Moon

Author: Emjen Enla (Fanfiction)/emjen_enla (Wattpad)

Teaser: Katara is the only member of the Gaang who is positively affected by the full moon so why is Zuko using this night to train?

Rating: PG-13/T

Word Count: approx. 3,200

Canon: Mainstream (not an AU)

Timeline: After "the Firebending Masters" but before "the Boiling Rock Parts 1 and 2"

Dominant Characters: Toph, Zuko, Katara, appearances/mentions of Aang, Sokka, Haru, Teo and the Duke

Pairings: none, just friendship :)

POV(s): Toph

Warnings: none really

Notes:

-I watched this show for the first time probably four years ago, but I only started reading Fanfiction for it last summer. I'm working on another, longer A:tLA short story which will hopefully be done sometime this millennium, but I can't make any guarantees.

-Title's terrible, but I never claimed to be any good at those.

Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Dinner was, per usual, an awkward affair. Toph figured she should probably be used to it by now, but she wasn't. She thought longingly of the times when the group would laugh and joke away their mealtimes in peaceful carelessness.

They still joked but now there was an edge to it. They were trying to take their minds off something right in front of them.

The former Fire Prince Zuko sat few feet away from the rest staring into his bowl of rice. He'd officially been a member of their little gang for a week and it didn't escape Toph's notice that he still hadn't tried to actually sit with the group at mealtimes. She figured this had something to do with the death glares Katara kept giving him. This last week had brought out a side of Katara that, quite frankly, terrified Toph. Sure, she'd learned that Katara was a person of many layers fairly soon after they'd met, but the feelings Katara directed at Zuko were different than the petty annoyances that Toph herself had been subjected to during her initiation into the group. Katara hated Zuko. Toph had never been surer of anything in her life. Katara's hatred emanated from her, surrounding her like a swarm of angry butterfly-wasps, freezing anything that got too close.

With that thought it mind, it was perfectly understandable that Zuko felt it necessary to keep his distance.

Still, it wasn't right. Zuko was sincere. Toph could feel it. He truly wanted to help them take down the Fire Nation and restore peace. His sincerity alone was enough to make Toph respect him. It couldn't be easy to voluntarily choose to help destroy your people, your own family. Granted, Zuko's people and family were pretty lousy, but they were still all he knew.

Too bad the others—cough Katara cough—couldn't see the courage in that.

Aang finished wolfing down his second helping of rice and held out his bowl. "Can I have some more, Katara?"

Katara laughed and the veil of hate parted, but only slightly. She heaped another helping of food into Aang's bowl and handed it back. "You're eating a lot these days, Aang," she said, "you must be growing."

"I don't think so," Aang shoved the rice into his mouth. "Firebending's hard."

Bang. The hatred was back as strong as ever. Toph winced and wondered if she was the only one who noticed. The others didn't react all except for Zuko but he seemed to be in the habit of bracing himself every time firebending was brought up around Katara. Toph sighed. And these people have the nerve to call me blind!

"I thought earthbending was the hard one," Katara said, outwardly calm, but her heartbeat racing with barely contained fury. "You know, because it's your natural opposite."

"Oh, I don't mean hard like that," Aang said, apparently oblivious. "It's not hard to do like earthbending was, it's just hard to keep going. It's tiring."

That was probably the wrong thing to say. Zuko and Aang had been training all morning with little to no break. Toph had been impressed—Zuko was an even harsher teacher than she was—but Katara hadn't been happy.

Katara leveled a glare at Zuko. "I told you, you were pushing him too hard!"

Zuko, who'd been staring into his bowl, shoulders hunched, lifted his head. He was frustrated, Toph could feel it, but his voice was calm when he spoke, "Firebending is different. Benders of other elements rely on having their element close by, firebenders create their element from their own chi, literally from themselves. That makes it the most physically taxing element to bend." Zuko paused then went on, voice stronger, less non-confrontational than before, "Aang will never be even a halfway decent firebender if he doesn't develop stamina."

Katara seemed taken aback. She'd been constantly antagonizing Zuko for the last week but he rarely fought back. Toph could practically hear the waterbender trying to think of something cutting to say in return.

Zuko stood up and sent his empty bowl and chopsticks near the fire. "Thank you," he said calmly, then turned and walked off into the gathering darkness. Katara spluttered as she realized the despised firebender had gotten the last word, then hunched angrily over her own food.

Aang finished his food. "I think I'm going to go to bed early tonight. Zuko's making me get up early tomorrow to watch the sunrise."

"Watch the sunrise?" Sokka said in his typical confusion. "That's…weird."

"He probably plans to have you meditate during the sunrise." Toph said. "He does that every morning."

"How do you know that?" Katara asked sharply.

"I can feel him moving around in the morning," Toph said. "He gets up just before the sunrise and goes and sits on a balcony while it rises."

"But how do you know he's meditating?" Katara spat. "Not plotting our demise?"

Toph let out a disgusted sigh. "His heartbeat slows down and gets really steady the way Aang's does when he meditates. If he was plotting betrayal his heartbeat would speed up."

She could feel Katara weighing her words. Before she could come up with something cutting to say, though, Sokka went off on some funny anecdote about a dream he'd had the night before. By the time that story was finished, the whole "let's be suspicious about Zuko" cycle was broken and Haru began a story about the crazy weasel-fox he, Teo and the Duke had run into while gathering berries earlier in the day.

The stories went on until Sokka yawned. "You know, Aang, you might have something with the whole 'I'm going to go to bed early tonight' thing. I'm gonna hit the sack too. See you in the morning!"

Haru, Teo and the Duke began agreeing with Sokka and heading off to bed. Not tired, but even less enthusiastic about being left alone with Katara with the way she'd been acting recently, Toph followed. As she left she felt Aang start to leave then pause and look back. "Aren't you going to go to bed, Katara?"

"Not right now," she said.

"Why not?" Aang asked.

"It's the full moon," Katara said like that should be obvious—which it wasn't especially to someone like Toph who could see the moon. "I'm going to stay up and bend for a while."

"Okay," Aang chirped. "Goodnight."

Toph headed off to her room and settled down on the stone bed she'd bended for herself. She lay there for a while feeling the vibrations of Sokka, Aang, and the others getting ready for bed. After they lay down she could feel Katara running through her bending forms in the Temple courtyard. Toph closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but motion she hadn't felt before kept her awake. Her heart jumped. Who was that? Was there someone sneaking towards the Temple to attack them?

She rolled off her bed and dug her fingers and toes into the stone floor so she could see clearer. No, it wasn't an enemy. It was just Zuko on the balcony, training.

Wait…training? It was nighttime, why was Zuko training now of all times? She'd thought Katara was the only one who liked bending when she was supposed to be asleep.

Somebody obviously had to tell Zuko that there was nothing brave or awesome about training instead of sleeping, especially if you woke up as early as he did. Toph stood up and padded out of her room, heading towards Zuko.

It took her longer to reach the balcony because she took care to avoid Katara, the last thing Toph wanted was to do was explain that she was still up because she was going to talk to Zuko on a dark balcony.

As she neared Zuko she could get a better vision of what he was doing. He was training easily as hard as he'd been forcing Aang to train earlier in the day, just as fast at least. However his steps seemed less sure than they'd been when he was demonstrating moves to Aang. Every once and a while he'd stumble or a blast of fire wouldn't be quite strong enough and he'd start over. He was training in more difficult firebending forms, Toph realized, ones that he wasn't as good at as the ones he'd been teaching Aang.

She walked until she was close to the balcony but far enough away that she thought she'd be safe and waited for Zuko to pause, then she cleared her throat and called out, "Hey, Sparky, can I come over with being fried?"

Zuko whirled around but didn't lash out with his bending like he had the last time she'd shown up when he wasn't expecting it. After a second, he relaxed. "Sure."

Toph walked towards him. She could feel him watching her carefully. "Why are you here?" he was panting, she could hear it. "I thought you'd be hanging out with the others.

"They all went to bed," Toph said.

"Really?" Zuko asked sounding confused, "It's not that late is it?"

"No," she answered. "Aang wanted to go to bed early because you're making him get up tomorrow, the others decided he had the right idea."

Zuko nodded, the slight jerk of his head feeding clearly into Toph's feet. She could feel his heartbeat too, it was thundering in his chest. He was tired, very much so, on the verge of stretching himself too far. "You know," she said. "You feel tired too."

Zuko snorted softly, but didn't say anything. They stood in silence for several minutes, then he asked, "Is Katara enjoying her full moon?"

"You know it's a full moon?" Toph groaned, "Man! I was going to tell Sugar Queen no one but her even noticed!"

"Of course I know it's a full moon," Zuko said quietly. "That's why I'm out here."

That was something Toph hadn't been expecting. "What? I thought the full moon only granted power to waterbenders."

"It does." Zuko said taking a few steps away from her and doing a series of firebending moves. Toph frowned, why did he have to go and do that when his breathing and heartbeat were just starting to go back to normal? "Actually, since it's the night of the full moon and firebenders are naturally weaker at night, my bending's about as weak as it'll be for the whole month."

"Then why are you training?" Toph asked. "You're just making it difficult for yourself."

Zuko stopped bending and turned towards her with a sigh. "Yes, I am making it difficult for myself. Weren't you listening at dinner tonight? Firebending's hard and you'll never be good at it unless you make yourself strong enough."

"Yeah, I guess I can see some truth to that," Toph said, "but still, you and Aang were training for hours this morning. Why do you have to train now too?"

Zuko was getting frustrated. She could feel his heartrate changing. Her stomach fluttered. All benders had a tendency to lose control of their powers when under the influence of strong emotion, but Zuko losing control would be far more damaging than say, Katara, who would just freeze all their drinking water.

"Because I need the practice," Zuko snapped, at least for right now he seemed to be content to vent his frustrations with words. "Aang's learning faster than I ever imagined he would. I'll probably end up having to teach him these forms eventually."

Oh, Toph understood now. Once Aang had gotten over his initial trouble with earthbending he'd learned so fast it had taken Toph's breath away. He could learn so many new forms and moves in one session she'd been unsure what to think. Granted, the forms were always sloppily and distractedly performed because Twinkle Toes couldn't focus on anything for more than a few seconds, but they were technically correct.

"Yeah, Twinkle Toes learns fast," she said. "Training all night isn't going to change that. Besides, if you're not good at the form, just don't teach it to him. We're on a limited time schedule, so it'll probably be better in the long run."

There was a long pause and she wondered if she'd said something wrong, then Zuko sighed, a soft, disgusted sound. "That's easy for you to say. You're an amazing earthbender, I'm…" another sigh. "I'm a pretty cruddy firebender."

Toph hadn't been expecting that but she wasn't overly surprised now that she heard it. There always had been something odd about Zuko when he was teaching Aang, like he didn't quite trust himself. Toph had figured it must have just been some odd form of guilt for things he'd done before, or that he was still getting used to the idea of helping the Avatar. This was something completely different.

"You seem like a good firebender to me." Toph said awkwardly, this sweet stuff was Katara's thing and not hers.

"That's because you don't have a lot of experience with other firebenders," Zuko said. "If you did you'd know what I'm talking about."

"I think I've had a lot of experience with firebenders," Toph said, "after all Aang, Katara, Sokka and I have been being chased around by them for a while now. You're pretty good." Not as good as Azula and his uncle but that was because they were uncommonly good not because Zuko was uncommonly bad.

She knew better than to say that, though. Zuko seemed to have calmed down a little, though she doubted he actually believed her. Toph decided it would be best to let that compliment stand without adding in words like "but."

Zuko thought about what she'd just said for several minutes then asked, "Alright, if I'm not allowed to train, then what am I supposed to do instead?"

Toph flopped down on the ground facing out towards the night sky. "We could watch the full moon."

"You can't see the full moon," Zuko pointed out.

Toph snorted. "Yeah, but I never claimed to be any good at this kind of thing. Normally, when one of us is having issues Katara straightens it out, but I don't think she'd be too thrilled to talk to you."

"She'd probably drown me instead," it sounded like Zuko was trying to make a joke, but a tremor ran through his body when he spoke. For a second she wondered if he was that scared of Katara, then she remembered something she'd heard someone say once—probably at Earth Rumble VI; the one thing all firebenders feared was drowning.

She guessed that kind of made sense, since fire and water were opposites, but were all waterbenders afraid of burning? What about airbenders and earthbenders? Were all earthbenders afraid of flying? Toph had never been a fan of flying, but she'd always assumed that was because she couldn't see when in the air. What if that was only part of the reason and she also had some deeply ingrained pathological fear of flight because she was an earthbender?

Now was not the time to think about stuff like that, though, now was the time to reassure Sparky. "Don't worry," she said, "I won't let Sugar Queen drown you."

Zuko snorted. "Sugar Queen?"

"Yup," Toph said. "It exactly suits her."

Zuko laughed quietly and sat down next to her. They sat in silence for a while, then he cleared his throat. "I'm sorry for burning your feet," he muttered.

"You've said that already, Sparky," Toph laughed. "Several times. I forgive you. It was an accident. I startled you." She finished by punching him in the shoulder to prove her sincerity.

She waited for him to stop rubbing his shoulder in pain before she asked, "Training with Aang really going that well?"

"I dunno," Zuko shrugged. "He's definitely learning fast, but he just can't focus. He really is nothing but an absent-minded kid," He let out a soft laugh. "Kinda makes me wonder what I was doing wrong all those years I was hunting him. He was wandering across the world taking in the sights while kinda-sorta trying to master all four elements, while me on the other hand…" he sighed again. "He was the only thing I thought about. I was Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation and I was going to capture the Avatar and restore my honor. After a while there wasn't even anything else to my identity, Toph."

"That's horrible," Toph said, and meant it with her whole heart. It sounded very strange—crazy, actually—but also exactly like the Zuko they'd once known.

"Yeah, it made me a pretty rotten human being," Zuko said. "But I really should have been able to capture the Av—I mean Aang. How did he so constantly escape me?"

Toph shrugged. "He's really lucky?" she offered.

Zuko laughed quietly. "That's gotta be it. I can't think of another explanation," he was quiet for a minute then asked, "Does it bother you that I still think about capturing Aang?"

"No," Toph said. "If you were obsessing over capturing him as much as you say you were, I'd be surprised if you weren't having trouble adjusting to not obsessing over capturing him."

"Well, that's good to know," Zuko said. "It feels weird," he continued. "You know, being part of the team now. It's almost foreign. Like a different life."

Toph gave him another punch, this one gentler than the one before. "You'll get used to it."

They laughed quietly then lapsed into a comfortable silence. Toph assumed Zuko was looking at the moon, she pressed her hands to the ground to better feel the now steady, serene beating of his heart. He was almost as calm as he was in the morning when he meditated.

After a long while, Toph yawned. "We should probably go to bed," she said feeling Zuko turn to look at her. "I'm getting tired and you have to get up and meditate with Aang first thing tomorrow."

Zuko groaned. "That oughta be fun. I'm hoping he'll be more focused afterwards, but still…"

"Sunrise meditation is normally your private time," Toph finished.

"Yeah," Zuko agreed. "How did you know?"

"I know everything that goes on around here," Toph grinned. "You guys just keep forgetting," she shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, Aang already knows how to meditate. Maybe it won't be as hard as you think."

"I hope so," Zuko stood up and started to hold out his hand like he was going to help her up, but Toph had already rocketed herself to her feet with her earthbending.

"We can't go back the normal way," she told Zuko. "Katara's bending and if she hears something she'll probably take it upon herself to check that everyone's safe in bed."

She could feel Zuko's heart rate jump. "She does that?"

Toph grinned and clapped him on the back. "Don't worry, Sparky, I'll make sure she never sneaks up on you in your sleep."

Zuko laughed quietly. "Thanks, Toph."

She laughed too, "No problem, Sparky," and they started back together.

Don't ask me what I like so much about angry!Katara, I don't know.

Emjen