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Fire War Renaissance--Ch.3

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Chapter Three: The Field Trip—Part One

"You have a message Master Toph." A maid commented one morning that Toph was enjoying her breakfast. Her, Zuko, and Aang where the only ones up at the time. Aang smiled at the maid referring to Toph as Master—not that he was denying she was one—her title was originally Lady Toph but she insisted on them calling her Master.

Toph just handed it on over to the next person which happened to be Aang, but he passed it to Zuko when his coughs returned. Aang had been sick for at least a week but was getting better, he managed to finally get up before Katara did and have breakfast out of bed that morning.

"What does it say?" Toph asked, sounding a little excited but masked it well enough.

"It's from your parents." Zuko stated, letting the paper fall from in front of him slightly to look at the blind girl. She, oddly, didn't look surprised, as if she already knew somehow.

"I don't want to hear it then," Toph snipped and Aang stopped eating.

"Toph," he breathed but she just stood and left the room, not bothering to clear her part of the table.

"Okay what's the story with Toph and her parents, I know things are rough between them but I was never informed with the whole story.

"Well, she ran away from them to come with us against her parents blessings to make a long story short." Aang shared, sipping his grape fruit juice.

"Well, I knew that she kept blabbing on and on about how her parents never gave her love or approval when we were looking for you on Ember Island but why doesn't she at least want to talk to them?" He threw his arms up, just a little excited to learn more about this mysterious blind girl.

"Toph's relationship with her parents is a little questionable and still on uneven grounds. She sent a letter to them when we were still routing around in the Fire Nation but they never returned it nor did they show up after the war was over so I guess she thought they didn't want to talk about it."

"But that may not be the case," Zuko added, looking over in the direction Toph walked away in. He silently wondered if she was listening since her hearing was so acute.

"Look, Zuko, telling Toph to believe something she doesn't think is true is like telling someone not to breath, she only believes herself on the grounds of her parents." Zuko smiled at his metaphoric explanations, remembering when he had referred to him as "Guru goodie goodie".

"Should one of us talk to her?" He suggested while placing his palms on the table in a getting up motion.

"If you feel the need, maybe you can get through to her." Aang just shrugged, but then slid down in his chair when he heard familiar footsteps approaching.

"What's the matter?" Zuko asked when all he saw was the top of his head poking from the table; Aang just lifted his hand and pointed a finger at the person coming into the room. Zuko raised a brow to see that it was Katara, expecting him to be happy to see his girlfriend.

"Aang, you get your sick butt out here right now!' She seemed pretty mad this early in the morning, and now Zuko saw why Aang hid, Katara looked a little violent.

"K-K-Katara I'm sorry I was just really hungry and I didn't want to wake you up so I just thought I'd have breakfast with everyone else! I'm sorry, I'm sorry but I feel better really!" The Avatar's words were jumbled together enough that Zuko only got a snippet of what he said since half of what he said was emitted when he was being chased around the table by Katara. Zuko just smiled, though, Katara was obviously just worried about him and her harsh temper got on her good side that day.

So he left the two alone, to destroy whatever part of the kitchen they would end up destroying in the process of catching Aang, and went to find Toph.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"What do you want?" Toph's bitter voice echoed from the still closed door that Zuko was about to open. He was still getting used to her blindness yet ability to tell who was at the door before they even gave a single word, but he strangely found it fascinating.

"It's Zuko," He responded, feeling stupid for forgetting that she already knew that piece of information. "I mean, I want to talk." He opened the door, seeing Toph just sitting on her bed, her feet resting on the headboard; leaving her temporary fire nation dress slid down to her upper legs.

"I don't want to read that letter from my parents. They're only sending me this to see if I'm still alive after the war." She spit out a cherry pit from a bowl the maid left her.

"Do you honestly believe that?" Zuko asked, sitting beside her on the bed. Her stubbornness reminded her of Azula when she was about five, when her attitude was harmless. Come to think of it, he did almost view her as a little sister to some extent. Toph still didn't answer his question she just continued to chew and spit out cherries.

"Toph!"

"What? What do you want from me, what do any of you have to do with my relationship with my parents?" She threw one of the pits at Zuko, and it stuck between his eyes.

"Okay, fine if you don't want to talk…I'll just stay here until you do." Zuko said as he pulled the pit from off of him. "I know that once you forgave your parents, so what changed exactly?"

More silence.

"What was in that letter that made you feel so vulnerable? Why did you forgive them just to be mad at them again?"

"I'm not mad." Toph whispered; a small whimper was in the back board of her voice that sounded a little awkward even though it fit her small voice well. "And I don't feel vulnerable."

"Than what is it, why are you still mad?"

"I don't want them to just think I'm some scared little girl that can't be away from home, if they want to patch things up they have to come to me. I'm not running home."

"So you do feel vulnerable." Zuko concluded; amusement thick in his voice for some reason.

"I don't get vulnerable! Toph Bei Fong isn't a wimp!"

"I never said you were, but taking the imitative to see your parents first is what will make you mature. Because right now you're acting like the spoiled little blind child you were raised to be." Toph blew some of her hair out of her face again, a placed the bowl of cherries from off her stomach.

"Alright hot head, let's go." She finally said, a wide smile appearing on her face when she grabbed his arm.

"Go where?" Zuko questioned.

"On a life changing field trip, I'm earning my maturity." She placed her thumb firmly on her chest when mentioning her maturity and jumped down strait after.

"Wait, what?" Zuko asked once more, thoroughly confused as he was pulled down the hall.

Though, when the two made it to the kitchen once more they came upon a site that was oddly disturbing that both of them—though Toph could "see" it better—could look at. Turns out Katara ended up catching Aang for his morning antics, and Zuko was right when he said she was violent that morning. By the looks of it they both were.

"Geez, you two get a room, not the table where we all eat at." Toph smirked, when some food from the breakfast prior fell to the floor. Zuko, though, was still speechless. He was a little stuck on the allusion that Aang was twelve and he wouldn't do anything, but then he also recalled that just a week ago when he commented that the two had probably gotten urges and were respectful enough not to act on them in public but that was obviously not the case that day. He was just glad Sokka wasn't there that morning.

"Sorry, we didn't think anyone was….so what are you two up to?" Aang trailed off on the first part, brushing off the back of Katara's dress from any crumbs that got on it.

"We're going on a field trip." Toph smiled.

"Wait I thought you two already went on field trip looking for Aang." Katara said and Aang corked a brow. How much had happened when they were looking for him before the comet?

"Well, it was a little short lived." Zuko commented while scratching the back of his neck. "But are we really going somewhere?"

"Yes," Toph said simply, grabbing his hand again. "Aang We'll be taking Appa so we'll keep him fed and all that."

"How long will you be gone?" Katara yelled just when Toph was about to turn the corner, Zuko still being pulled by his arm.

"A week tops!" Toph yelled and with that she turned the corner.

"But wai-" Zuko's voice could still be heard but the words were faded, he was probably asking more questions.

"That was odd." Aang mused, scratching his head.

"I guess no Toph or Zuko for a week, huh?"

"Yep."

The two looked over at each other, a twinkle in each pair of eyes.

"Maybe we should take Toph's advice on getting a room." Aang suggested when he got the idea of what they were both thinking, but he couldn't help looking over at the table where they conducted their first means of business.

"Don't forget you're still sick and-" she just stopped mid-sentence when she took a good look in Aang's eyes, shining with desire. He had said he felt much better.

"Okay," she finally agreed and Aang beamed, a little too happy for the moment that just made Katara giggle and she grabbed his hand the same way Toph had with Zuko down the long hallway. Only their destination was entirely different.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Shouldn't we at least tell Mai? She'll worry." Zuko asked as Toph came back to the stables with some small supplies for their trip. She had changed out of her fire nation dress and into her new Earth Kingdom robes. They were pretty casual compared to Zuko's attire but she threw a change of clothes at him as well.

"I'm sure someone will tell her, besides we don't have time for this. I just want to get this over with." Zuko just sighed, climbing on Appa's head and taking the reins. But it wasn't till about two hours of flying toward the Earth kingdom when he noticed something.

"Hey, wait a second do you even know where we're going?" Zuko asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"Of course, don't you think I know where I live?" Toph snickered a little.

"I know that, but we're up in the air and you can't tell me which direction whether we're on land or not!" Zuko began to panic slightly.

"Oh, calm down I'm not stupid." She pulled out a piece of paper from the pocket in her dress. "I took a map from Sokka's room." She threw it in his general direction hoping he would catch it, which he did. "I live in the town called Gaoling, you can figure out the rest right?"

"Oh, boy." Zuko sighed; turning Appa in realization that he was going the wrong way.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"So this letter to your parents, what did you say in it?" Toph didn't reply she just stared at the fire some more. "Toph? You know that this avoiding is the problem, you can talk to some people about this."

"I told them everything. Why I left, that I didn't mean to hurt them, and how happy I was to be training the Avatar. But somehow I have the feeling that they're still not happy for me unless I do what they want me to." She sighed as well, lying down on Appa's leg.

"Tired?" Zuko asked, smiling fondly. Toph just nodded.

"Taking a life changing field trip can wear you out you know?" She laughed silently, rolling over and Appa groaned as an indication that he was bedding down himself. "Good night Zuko."

His smile grew and he flared down the fire a bit. "Good night Toph."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Toph, I think we're coming up on a town, I'm going to land nearby." As said Zuko landed Appa and the bison groaned once more. Zuko fed him a peach and petted his nose. Toph jumped off the saddle and planted her bare feet firmly on the ground.

"So?" Zuko asked, crossing his arms. He gasped when he saw a huge smile cross the blind girl's lips that, for once, wasn't a smirk.

"We're here, this is my home. This is Gaoling."

To be continued...
These chapters are pretty short huh? Don't worry, they'll get longer....much longer XP.
© 2011 - 2024 BlackRose108
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