Yes, I'm aware that it's been quite a while, and I'm terribly sorry for that. Time just got away from me. Love me or hate me, here's the next chapter (: Enjoy

Chapter 2

"And now some news for our younger generation: it has been rumored that after the benefit concert last night hosted by the infamous band Bad Rep, the band's guitarist, Haru was seen storming out of the area after several minutes of shouting took place. This shouting was also rumored to have been between Haru and his ex-band-mates. Rumors immediately began to fly and panic ensued among the band's enormous fanbase. Eighteen hours later, it was confirmed on both the band's official and personal pages that yes, the band has lost a member. What do you think about this, Bryan? I'm actually kind of shocked. My daughter is very into Bad Rep and this morning all she would talk about is how much of a shock this is."

"Now I don't know about this band, Bridget. It seems to me that Jet Chang, the band's front-runner, is just a total jerk. If you look back at clips of the show last night, you'll see that he didn't even know what they were fundraising for - they have it on tape! If you want to see that tape you can check it out on our website and judge for yourself. I don't know, Bridge, I don't think I'd want to put up with that either. I don't blame the kid for quitting. As far as what the band's going to do now, I think they're in pretty deep. Records of the band's website show that they were planning to do a local concert and then begin their big tour. It looks like for the time being, they might just have to put their tour on the back-burner until they can find a replacement guitar player."

Jet turned off the TV, groaning irritably. "I knew they were gonna be all over this."

"Well what'd you expect?" Toph scoffed, swiping a piece of bacon from the singer's plate and biting into it. "You screwed up and Haru walked out on us. Both of those things are pretty much a cry for media attention."

Jet slammed his fist against the table's surface. "You know what, Toph-"

"Could you guys shut up for just two minutes?" Mai interrupted from her spot on the couch, earning a glare from her friends. She held up the book in her hands. "I'm trying to read the climax. It's exciting."

Jet sighed. "Fine. Where's Zuko?"

"He met up with his uncle for breakfast," Mai answered. "He'll be back soon."

Jet frowned. "I need him here now, though."

"Look, it doesn't take Zuko to put you in a good mood. We can cheer you up, too," Toph folded her arms, insulted.

Jet looked from her to Mai, smirking. "Yeah - right, Toph. Thanks, but no thanks."

"Come on, Jet. That Haru was a good-for-nothing, a complete sap," Toph said surely, although she felt an aching pain in her chest as she betrayed her friend with her words. "He was - he was always trying to take control."

"Not to mention he was boring," Mai added, not looking up from the pages of her book.

"Yeah," Jet agreed, chuckling. "Yeah, you guys are right. And really, he doesn't belong with us. He didn't have much of a 'bad rep' anyway. Goodie, goodie."

"Right," Toph sighed, folding her arms. To her great relief, the door of the hotel room clicked open and Zuko strolled in, juggling two cups of coffee and a bag of Fire Flakes. She took the moment to escape, grumbling to Zuko as she passed him. "It's about time you got back. I'm gonna go jump off a cliff now."

Zuko could only look at her in confusion as he handed Mai her coffee; he knew better than to raise his voice at all. Jet, however, hadn't the slightest clue that anything was wrong. Feeling suddenly indebted to the young blind girl, he called after her. "Hey, where are you going, Toph?"

"Just to-" Toph paused to think, smelling the coffee in the air. "-just to get a cup of coffee. Now if you ladies will excuse me-"

"Well hold up, Toph," Jet stopped her. "Why don't you let me come along and buy it for you?"

Toph's face fell flat. "No."

"I owe you one, Toph," Jet insisted. "Would you let go of your pride and accept my offer?"

Pursing her lips, Toph could feel that she had no real choice in this. At any rate, Jet was her friend. It shouldn't have been so bad to spend some time with him. The problem lied more in the situation. All Jet was going to want to talk about was Haru and how much he hated him. Toph, having a soft spot for all of her band-mates would have to go along with it. Not only did this make her feel guilty, it made her feel powerless. She was not fond of these feelings. Still, she faltered.

"Fine, fine. Let's get out of here, Pretty Boy. Make it worth my while."

Toph took the lead, heading down the narrow hallway towards the elevator. Trapped with Jet inside of the tiny cube made for an awkward minute. Jet twirled his keys around his index finger, his need for another cigarette becoming more clear in the silence. He cleared his throat once, hoping to spark some conversation between himself in the blind girl, but Toph made no effort. It suddenly became painfully obvious how long it had been since the pair had spent time together without the requirement of a manager. They had once been good friends - never as close as he and Zuko were now, but good and honest friends. He'd known Toph for several years before meeting any of his other band-mates. Their friendship had taken off after they bumped into each other at a friend's open house; he had spilled his drink all over her, and once he'd convinced her to not kill him, they'd had a decent conversation. One conversation had led to another, and soon a friendship had blossomed. That friendship was now barely holding onto the threads of existence; it made his stomach churn in sadness to realize that. The truth was, Toph also longed to have those good times back. Things were so different now, though - they were different: Jet had become selfish and egotistical and Toph had become cold and blunt. They both knew it, but neither was willing to change or sacrifice.

And so their friendship drifted.

Still, there was a small spark of hope in each of their hearts that they might reconnect here. How hard could it really be? Perhaps it would only take another simple conversation.

"What are we going to do?" Jet asked, saying the only thing that came to mind. Toph didn't turn towards him to respond; she never did. She only put her hands on her hips and tossed her head back.

"We're going to get coffee, dumbass."

"That's not what I was talking about, 'dumbass'," he replied crossly, his hopes of a rekindled friendship damaged. "I meant about our band. We're supposed to go on tour, we lost our guitar player - you heard the news report. What's our solution? What's the plan?"

"You think I know?" Toph snapped, her frustration flaring. "You're the one who had issues with Haru; you're the one who fought with him until he quit. What are we going to do? Find a new guitar player - hold auditions, issue a public statement asking for people, call some people up - I don't know!"

Jet winced. Regularly, he would have let the debate go on without missing a beat; however, he was caught by her mentioning of the fact that Haru had quit because of that very thing. He needed to work on his temper; Toph had better control over her temper than he did, Zuko had better control over his temper than he did - and if Zuko was more controlled, then this was really a problem. It wasn't just his temper, though - it wasn't even mostly his temper; it was his pride. He had lost himself and everyone else a band-mate, and now Toph was angry.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, finding it difficult to apologize.

The elevator door opened with a ding and Jet stepped out quickly. Toph lingered behind for a few seconds, thinking over the situation. She knew how Jet was; he didn't like to apologize for things and rarely did. The kind thing to do would be to accept his apology and talk it out. While Jet didn't like to apologize, however, Toph didn't care to have gushy, emotional conversations, so she decided that - selfish as it was - she would avoid the route of telling him that she forgave him. Still, it wouldn't kill her to be nice to him again so that he knew her intentions were good. She caught up to him outside of the hotel, just in time to hear the click of his lighter as he lit a new cigarette (it seemed as if he always had one tucked between his teeth - almost like they were a security blanket to him).

"You know those aren't good for you," she said, punching his arm. Jet had been told this so many times; it drove him crazy, but that's why Toph had said it just now.

Jet looked down at her, feeling relieved. He pulled out the package of cigarettes and held it out towards her, grinning. "You want one?"

Recognizing his sarcasm, Toph pushed his hand away. "Do I ever?"

He shrugged. "More for me."

"So where's this coffee place at?" she asked, not feeling anything that felt specifically like a coffee shop.

"There's a neat little shop just around the corner," he answered. "I went there yesterday morning; their stuff is to die for."

"It better be, or I'll have to go all 'Boulder' on you," she said in an overly serious tone, causing Jet to snicker.

"Oh no; I'm so scared," he mocked her.

The Boulder was a fictional character that Toph and Jet had made up several years ago in the early times of their friendship. They'd been at a park - struck by boredom - trying to think of the scariest people in existence. Toph had at first answered that she was obviously the most terrifying person on earth, but Jet said that she wasn't so scary once you got to know her. Unable to think of anybody scary enough, the pair had begun thinking of their own scary character. What they had come up with was much less intimidating. The Boulder was his name, and he was a muscular pro-wrestler who could also earthbend. The Boulder's interests consisted of wrestling and earthbending (of course), gymnastics, ninjas, classical dancing (it had been determined that his mother made him take classes and he had become fond of it), playing the mandolin, building Lego towers and talking in third person. Needless to say, both children had spent the remainder of the day talking in third person and pretending to be The Boulder. The following week, Jet had awoken to find a large boulder in the middle of his driveway, courtesy of Toph. Jet's foster parents hadn't been crazy about it, but Jet had found it hilarious.

"I would kick your ass right now," Toph continued in a deep voice, "but The Boulder doesn't like to fight little girls."

"Ha! What are you saying?" he laughed, unable to feign anger.

Toph laughed freely; it felt good to laugh. Even better was the fact that they were laughing together - like old times. Maybe this friendship was salvageable after all.

"Well, here we are," Jet announced, settling his breathing as he came to a stop. "Little Biggie's Coffee Shop."

"I'm guessing the floors in there are plastic?" Toph predicted, and Jet nodded. "Right. Do you wanna just get it for me? I've had enough blind walking at the hotel and the studio."

"No problem. What do you want?"

Toph opened her mouth to answer but lost her chance. Jet's phone buzzed loudly in his pockets, and he held up his hand to Toph, signaling her to wait. He dug around in his pockets and finally found the phone. He didn't recognize the number, but instinct told him to pick up anyway. Toph, having a bad feeling about the call, settled in a comfortable position, preparing for a long wait as she listened to the conversation from her end.

"Hello? Haru's lawyer, huh? Is this a scam?" Jet was quiet for a moment. Apparently the person on the other end was talking. "Alright, you've got my attention. He wants what? No, he really can't do that. Bad Rep has legal rights to that. Excuse me one second - Toph?"

Toph folded her arms, raising her head to show him that she was listening.

"I have to take this. Wait here, okay?" he didn't wait for her to object before walking away.

She didn't bother to stop him, too disgusted wish him back to her. She did, however, find it necessary to raise a small portion of the sidewalk, tripping him and making him stumble along. Frustrated, she leaned against the wall of the coffee shop and sighed; just when she thought a friendship was about to re-blossom between them. She wanted to let it go and to not be bothered by it, but she had to admit that she felt angry and slightly hurt. Not only that, but now she would have to get the coffee herself, which was an entirely new batch of trouble. Fortunately for her, before she even reached for the door, a familiar pair of feet came waltzing out. Clumsy and cool - and unlike any other walk she'd felt before - she quickly identified her company and grabbed his arm before he could walk away.

"Hey, Coffee Guy," she beckoned, yanking him back towards her. After omitting a yelp, he steadied himself and looked at her wide-eyed.

"Toph Bei Fong - you remember me from last night?"

"How could I forget the douchebag who nearly burned my feet with coffee? I'd know your steps anywhere," she said, trying to take a whiff of his coffee in the most subtle way possible. "Nutmeg again?"

Ignoring her question, the fan cocked his head to the side. "You'd know my steps?"

"I can feel them," Toph explained, shrugging casually. "I see with my earthbending, right? So I can identify people by the steps that they take. That's not why I stopped you, though. You see, I was - well - go and get me some coffee will you? The floors in there are plastic and I can't see through plastic. French Vanilla."

She shoved some money - an amount unknown to the blind girl - in his direction and waited impatiently for him to take it. He finally did, but didn't move for the shop. He just stood there.

"Well, go on," she punched his shoulder, seeming tot have brought him back to life. He flinched on her impact.

"Right, um, I'll be right back then."

Unlike Jet, this dedicated fan did fulfill his duties, bringing Toph her drink and even handing back the extra cash from the purchase.

"Thank you, uh - I don't think you told me your name."

"Sokka," he said, nodding his head just slightly. "My name is Sokka."

"Well then, thank you, Sokka. I appreciate it. If you don't mind, though, I'll be on my way."

This time it was he who grabbed her wrist, pulling her back towards him. "Wait, hang on. Do you mind if I ask how you're holding up? I heard about Haru."

Toph sighed. "I'm fine. We're all fine. It's not a big deal."

"Are you sure?"

Irritated, but also entranced by Sokka's open personality, Toph replied "Of course I am. It's not something any of us want to talk about, though, so I'll just leave and waste away on my own, thank you."

"Come crash at my dorm." Toph's jaw dropped at the fan's words, and little did she know, but he was just as shocked at himself as she was. He watched as her fingers drummed uncomfortably against her Styrofoam cup and decided that it was too late now and that he ought to at least sound sure of himself. "Just for a while to hang out. Maybe then you can take your mind off of the band business for a little bit."

Toph thought about this briefly, considering her options. She could go back to the hotel and remain irritable, she could go after Jet and give him a piece of her mind, or, lastly, she could go off with this guy. It was easy to pick the option

"I'm sorry," Sokka laughed, ruffling his hair. "I probably seem like a total creep. I promise I'm not going to try and rape you or kidnap you or anything like that."

"As if you could," Toph scoffed, not the least bit concerned. In the silence she could still hear the faint sound of Jet yelling into his cellphone. "You know what? I've got nothing better to do. Let's go, fanboy."

Aha, how scandalous, right? Yeahh well, not really. I promise wholeheartedly that I will try my very best to get the next chapter up soon. I can't make any guarantees, but with summer coming up it will definitely be more likely.

A big thank you to all of the followers/favorites/reviews; after just one chapter I didn't expect the amount that I got C: I appreciate it.

As for the next chapter, we'll be getting more in depth in Sokka, and the plot shall thicken! Dun, dun, dun!

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xoxo ZuEra