Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Smile Because It Happened ❯ Chapter 14

Chapter 14

 

The tray with the cups fell to the floor. Everyone looked at the woman in surprise.

 

Her hands were covering her mouth and her eyes were wide with a mixture of shock and horror.

 

“Zuko?” she breathed, her voice cracking. “Is… is that you? …What happened to your face?”

 

The young Fire Lord stared at the woman, recognition dawning.

 

“Mom?”

 

Tears filled the woman's eyes. “Zuko,” she whispered.

 

“Sura?” Tam hurried out from the kitchen, concern evident on his face. “Honey, are you okay?”

 

Zuko stood up shakily. “Sura?” he said incredulously.

 

Katara appeared by his side. “Zuko,” she murmured in warning, placing a gentle hand on his arm, “watch what you say. Tam… may not know her, um… past.”

 

“I'm so sorry!” Tam apologized, putting his arms around his wife's shoulders. “Please, forgive us if we have caused any problems-!”

 

“No, there's no harm done,” Katara told the owner soothingly. “Please don't worry yourselves.”

 

Tam stood up carefully. “She has these odd spells once in a while,” he explained awkwardly. “We're terribly sorry.” He turned toward the kitchen doors. “Ling! Could you come clean this up while I tend to your mother?”

 

Zuko jerked. “Mother?” he hissed under his breath.

 

A young boy, probably no more than 7 years old, scurried out of the kitchen, hauling a bucket of water nearly as big as himself. With dark brown hair and light brown eyes, he was the very image of his mother.

 

And yet still bore a striking resemblance to a certain scarred Fire Lord.

 

“No,” Ursa- Sura- protested. “I'm fine. Please. I was just feeling a bit faint.” She bowed to the five patrons. “Please forgive my clumsiness.”

 

Ling looked up from where he was putting broken crockery on a tray. “It's okay, Mother,” he chirped. “I'll clean this up. You need to rest like Father says.”

 

A second pair of hands appeared to help support the older woman. She blinked at Zuko. “You should rest,” he said in a normal voice. “But I expect answers from you before the day is through,” he whispered coldly in her ear.

 

Wearily nodding, she allowed herself to be escorted away. Katara stared after them, a concerned look on her face.

 

“Wow,” Toph remarked. “That was a trip and a half.”

 

Sokka lifted an eyebrow at her. “Where'd you hear a phrase like that?”

 

“From those hippie nomads.”

 

“Figures.” He turned to Ling, who was finishing up his cleaning and was making ready to carry the tray of broken pottery to the kitchen. “Hey, kid. Where's those meat buns?”

 

Ling grinned, showing a missing front tooth. “I'll bring them right out, mister!”

 

“Katara and I'll have some fruit and bread, if you have any,” Aang called out.

 

The Waterbender in question turned toward her fiancé. “What?”

 

“Well, Air Nomads don't eat meat. You know that.”

 

“But I like meat. It's part of life.”

 

“You're going to be my wife. Eating dead animals and wearing their skins isn't part of our life.”

 

“I'm a Water Tribe woman first and foremost, and living off the land is a part of ours.”

 

Aang stood up, frowning. “You're going to have to stop thinking like that, Katara. It's up to us to maintain the Air Nomad traditions-!”

 

Katara growled and slammed her hands on the table, causing Sokka and Toph to jump in surprise. “I am NOT AN AIR NOMAD!”

 

Still seething, Katara spun around and stalked over to the counter to the kitchen area. “Ling, might I trouble you for a moment?”

 

“Yes, ma'am?”

 

“Where did my friend take your mother?”

 

He pointed at a door to her right. “There's a stairway through there. Second room on the right at the top of the stairs. That's Mother and Father's room.” He cocked his head curiously. “Why?”

 

“I'm a healer,” Katara said proudly. “I'd like to see what I can do for your mom.”

 

Ling beamed- and he looked so much like a younger Zuko that Katara's heart ached. She was sure Zuko had been just as innocent as this boy… until his mother had been sent away by his monster of a father. “Gee, lady! Thanks!”

 

.o(O)o.

 

Sokka pursed his lips. “Nice work, Avatar.”

 

Toph snorted. “Not too subtle.”

 

Aang looked both bewildered and irritated as he sat back down. “What? She knows how important restoring my people is to me. As my wife, she's going to have to make a lot of changes in her lifestyle- or else our traditions will die.”

 

“Like I said, Twinkletoes,” Toph said, “you can't make people change. Sugar Queen is always going to be Sugar Queen- and no amount of traditions or commands are going to turn her into anything except herself.”

 

Sokka nodded. “Katara's as stubborn as they come. Trust me- I know. She'll just dig her heels in deeper the more you push her.”

 

Aang pouted. “Well, she's going to have to grow up and realize that this is bigger than both of us. It's our destiny.”

 

Tam reappeared, looking rather embarrassed. “I'm so sorry,” he apologized again. “Please- if it would help, we would like you to stay here for the night. We run a small inn for the weary traveler and would like to make it up to you.”

 

Toph stood up, bag in hand. “That sounds great.” She waved in the men's general direction. “I'm going to take a nap. See you buffoons later.”

 

Aang and Sokka watched as the petite Earthbender followed the owner through the same door Katara disappeared through. Ling came out carrying a huge platter of steaming buns and placed it on the table, much to Sokka's delight.

 

Aang stood up again. Sokka watched with his mouth full of succulent meat bun as the Airbender followed the others' route through the door. “Wherf fou goinf?”

 

He didn't answer as he pushed through the door.

 

Sokka swallowed his mouthful and glanced at Ling, who looked equally perplexed. “So…” he hummed, taking another bite out of his bun, “you don't have any insane urges to go on a frothing rampage and take over the world, do you?”

 

Ling blinked in complete and utter confusion. “What?”

 

.o(O)o.

 

Aang paused long enough to kneel down and use Earthbending to find Toph. She was walking around in a room at the end of the hall. Good. She's not asleep yet.

 

Stalking down the hallway, he flung the door open wide without knocking, intent on giving Toph a piece of his troubled mind. Instead, he found that all thought indeed had been scattered to the wind.

 

Toph stood in front of him, pausing in her movements. She wasn't facing him, but it was enough for him to see that she was in the middle of changing.

 

In fact, she was almost completely naked.

 

Clad in only her cream-colored loincloth and the diamond-chunk necklace he had given her three years ago, she turned toward him and propped her fist on her hip. “What do you want?”

 

Aang's eyes were just about as wide as they could go. “Ehhhhhhhhhh…”

 

Toph's expression went from mildly annoyed to downright mischievous as she sensed his heart rate speed up. “What's wrong, Twinkletoes?” she purred. “Hasn't Sugar Queen shown you her goods yet? I mean, you two would train in your underwear, for earth's sake. I would've thought things like this wouldn't bother you.”

 

“Put some clothes on!” Aang squeaked, slamming the door behind him in order to protect her privacy- and effectively closing himself in the room with an almost-naked diminutive blind Earthbender.

 

“I sometimes sleep in the nude,” she informed him. “A new habit I picked up when I visited an island off the eastern Earth Kingdom shoreline. The inhabitants went without clothing all the time and I found that it was easier to get in touch with my element that way.”

 

“You're not on that island now!”

 

“Obviously.” Toph crossed her arms underneath her bare bosom and smirked. “What's wrong? See something you like?”

 

Finally a small part of Aang's brain reminded him he could close his eyes- so he did so. “Toph, will you just put some clothes on so we can talk?!”

 

“Picky, picky,” she muttered as she walked over and pulled on her tunic. She sat down on the floor, ignoring the fact that she was dressed in only her loincloth and a shirt. “Now what do you want?”

 

Deftly averting his gaze- and finding that it continued to drift back to Toph's half-dressed appearance- Aang cleared his throat. “What you were saying before? About pushing people to be something they're not?”

 

“Yeah? What of it?”

 

“You were talking about me and Katara, weren't you?”

 

Toph waved her hand mockingly in the air. “Ding ding ding! Give the Avatar a prize! Duh. In case you hadn't noticed, Twinkletoes, she hasn't been all joyousness and delight since you surprised her at the Southern Air Temple with that necklace. Does that sound like a woman who is happy about getting married?”

 

“She's just nervous.”

 

“Nervous? She practically flinches every time she's near you. Or have you been ignoring that?” She sighed. “How far have you gotten with her?” she asked, changing the subject.

 

“WHAT?”

 

“Exactly what I said. How close have you two gotten? Kissing? Fondling? Full-blown s-?”

 

“I've only kissed her!” he blurted out with a bright red face, cutting off the rest of her sentence. “I… I don't know how to do anything more.”

 

Toph snorted. “You may be a monk, but you're still a man. Don't you have… I dunno… instincts or something? Maybe you need to talk to Snoozles. He and Fan Girl were at it long before they married.”

 

Aang gave her a disgusted look. “This is his sister we're talking about. I doubt he'd want to talk to me about that particular subject in regards to her.”

 

“Well, what do you suggest?”

 

“I don't know! I'm a monk- sex wasn't exactly a major part of our education!”

 

Toph's expression remained carefully neutral. “I don't think I'm really the one you should be talking to about this,” she said, her voice strange. “You should be dealing with Katara. She's your fiancée.”

 

Aang sighed. “I know. But… I don't know. Sometimes… sometimes it seems… she doesn't love me like I thought she did.”

 

Toph blinked slowly. “What makes you say that?”

 

He stood up and started pacing the room. “Just… little things, I guess. Like she is never the one to instigate any kissing. She did, like, once, I think, back when we were just kids… but since then, it always seems as though it's always my idea.”

 

“Maybe she's just shy.”

 

Aang paused. “And then when I gave her those robes I got especially made for her-“

 

“Maybe she doesn't like big floppy sleeves and huge collars.”

 

“And when I asked her to marry me.” He sighed again. “I thought she'd be so happy. Instead, she looked like I had broken her mother's necklace.”

 

Or her heart. Especially with Sparky right there. “I don't know what to tell you, Twinkletoes,” she said, leaning back on her hands and stretching her legs out in front of her. “Do what you did when you fought the Phoenix King of Getting His Butt Whooped-“

 

Aang chuckled.

 

“-And listen to your heart. You didn't compromise your principles then and I know you won't now. Even if your heart tells you that you and Sugar Queen weren't meant to share the same destiny.”

 

Aang knelt down by Toph's side and leaned close, kissing her on the cheek. “Thanks, Sifu Toph,” he murmured, smiling faintly. “It seems that I still have a lot to learn, huh?”

 

She blushed but shrugged nonchalantly. Reaching up, she touched his cheek- and shifted his face so she could kiss him back.

 

On the lips.

 

His lips lingered on hers for more than a moment and three-quarters, his eyes wide with shock. When it finally registered in his brain that Toph was kissing him instead of hitting him, as that was how she usually showed her affection, he pulled away quickly.

 

“Wh-wh-wh…?”

 

Toph shrugged again, her face as red as his even though her expression was painstakingly neutral. “I figured you're getting married in a couple months,” she said as though she didn't care, “and I figured I better say goodbye now.”

 

Aang shakily got to his feet, turned, and all but stumbled from her room, closing the door on his Earthbending teacher…

 

…who refused to let the tears fall until she was certain he was gone.