AN

Okay so I know the last thing I need is to start a new fic but whatever. Whether this turns into an epic or comes down for revamping is up to you all.

AN

"Toph."

Toph Bei Fong looked up at her father, a gesture far more of courtesy than one of actual need. Across the table Lao Be Fong looked at his daughter with a sense of bittersweet pride. Toph always had looked like her late mother, his beloved wife, the woman who had clung to the last breaths of life in desperate hope that her daughter would return home to see her to the next life. Toph had made it as Poppy breathed her last, though Lao doubted his wife knew it he prayed that she had. He knew the guilt Toph felt, the failure of running around with the rest of her friends instead of doing her duties as a daughter, was the main motivation for her bidding them farewell. And while he was happy to have his daughter home, he knew that her sadness was the kind he could not cure.

"Yes, father?" she prodded patiently.

At the age of twenty two it had been ten years since the blind little girl ran away from home, nearly ten since the world had been saved by the Avatar and eight years since her mother died. Eight years since she had spoken to any of the so-called Team Avatar. The first year they kept coming, she kept sending them away. There were letters (which she threw out) and pleas (which she ignored). It was fortunate the world was still in such a horrible state and the so-called Heroes had their own jobs to do in the rebuilding. Fortunate because if the world was so horribly broken, who had time for one broken little earthbender? They all knew she was stubborn, stubborn enough to turn them away for the next twenty years if she so chose.

How could she bare to be with them knowing what it meant? Knowing that while she had been out running around with them after the war instead of going home, her mother had been wasting away? No, she could not bear the thought of being near them and even if she could she imagined they had all moved on to their own separate adventures. So her separate 'adventure' was anything but, she deserved this. This, this life she was living, it was her penance. She deserved everything, the boredom, the responsibility, the dissatisfaction--she deserved it all. The silk kimono she wore seemed to weigh even more than normal, as if the gold embroidery on her sleeves was the metal that used to obey her so easily.

"Toph," Lao began again, "a message arrived for you earlier," he continued, "I would respect your wishes, of course, but this bore the Royal Seal of the Fire Nation and was delivered with a very persistent messenger Hawk who refuses to leave without a reply."

"Then give him the usual one," she replied cooly, "I have no desire to speak to anyone from the Fire Nation."

"Its the Fire Lord himself," Lao said, surprised.

"I repeat, I have no desire to speak to anyone from the Fire Nation," she said, the barest traces of frustration in her voice, "that includes the Fire Lord."

"Will you at least hear it?" he pleaded, "Toph I can hardly bare to see such sadness in your--" he trailed off, "features," he finished lamely.

"I apologize if my sadness has been troublesome for you father," Toph said respectfully before she rose, her silks rustling as she got to her feet with the grace and dignity of someone of her social status, "I am going to take a walk in the gardens, I will return shortly."

She had long ago memorized the layout of the Bei Fong manor. With careful steps she walked across the expanse of rooms into the garden, her slippered feet making hardly any sound. She felt the smooth wood change into the weathered stone as she moved from the inner sanctuary to the outer one. A few murmurs reached her ears which she returned with a respectful incline of her head, the ornaments in her ebony locks chiming pleasantly as she did. Soon the few murmurs vanished and she was alone in the gardens. The slippers on her feet acted like a barrier between her and her earth-bending, preventing her from any kind of clear sight. Only the barest traces of the earth's natural vibrations reached her, the rest of it was shrouded in mystery.

But even she could sense the person against the tree.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice low and soft, a mockery of what it had been, "why wasn't I informed of you being here?"

"I asked the guards not to tell you," came the reply, "I knew you wouldn't see me if you knew."

"Well I know and I won't," she snapped turing to go.

A warm hand closed around her upper arm. Every muscle in Toph's body tensed as she felt the warmth of the hand through her sleeve. How long had it been since anyone had touched her? Years at least. Even her father's hugs were the barest caresses. This was, this was intoxicating. It was painful and wonderful and a thousand things she ended when she turned and broke the hold, her palm striking his cheek with a resounding slap. To his credit, he didn't even flinch.

"Why don't you leave me alone?! Wasn't me ignoring you all for years enough of an indication I wanted nothing to do with any of you?!" Toph cried furiously.

"Yes," he said, "but To--"

"Don't 'but' me!" she shouted, cutting him off, "why don't you just go back to Sugar Queen and leave me the hell alone?!"

The furious demand hung between them.

Between a boy and a girl.

Between the Earthbender and the Airbender

Between the heir apparent to the Bei Fong Family and the Avatar.

Between Aang and Toph.

Both older, not necessarily wiser. Both hurt over the young woman's choice. Both in need of the other but she was unwilling to bend. Aang knew he wasn't the Avatar in that moment, he was a young man dealing with a very hurt young woman. Toph's sightless eyes were as reflective as they had been that first day he had beaten her and tried to plead for her help.

Aang knew Toph blamed herself for her mother's death. Even if it had been a disease that took Poppy's life, Toph blamed her absence. Though she may not have shown it, Aang knew Toph loved her parents. The death of one was hard to anyone but Toph seemed to be taking it even harder than Aang thought. Like the rest of them he had tried so hard to get her to speak to them but she didn't want too. They were heroes now, they had responsibilities to the rest of the world and though he would like to think that friendship triumphed over all the fact was that there were times when it didn't.

No matter how much he wanted it too.

"Look," he said, his voice low, "i know you want me to go and leave you alone but I can't," She glared at him, her sightless eyes sparking with a fraction of the old fire they used to glow with, "That's what Zuko's letter was, I got one too," he spoke quickly, "there's a rebellion brewing in the Fire Nation."

"The Fire Nation brews rebellion like Iroh brews his Jasmine tea," Toph shot back.

"Not this time, this time its serious. They broke into the mental health facility. They got Azula out."