Ye Chang Meng Duo: Chapter 6

[Disclaimer: Nickelodeon (and all others) own “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”  I own whatever I write/create.  Don’t steal and don’t sue.]

[A/N: This is a collaborative work between myself, and the artist Mag (fortheloveofpizza.deviantart.com).  Please make sure to visit Mag’s deviantArt page for artwork that is, not so much inspired by this story, as the story is inspired by Mag’s exceptional imagination.  The title is Chinese for, “The longer the night lasts, the more our dreams will be.”]

When she was confused, Toph would turn her focus onto her feet.  She would dig her toes into the dirt, knowing with certainty that her earthbending and her sight had not changed.  As she walked alongside Kailas and Hova, she did so with a heavy gait, barely giving her attention to the strong echoes that returned to her.  She turned her head when a small hand touched her elbow, knowing that it was Hova by the callused skin of her fingertips.

“Thank you, again, Toph,” the woman said.  She giggled weakly, and Toph could see that her other hand was clasped tightly in one of Kailas’s hands.  “I guess this is where I say that I was really scared.”

“Anyone would have been scared,” Toph replied.  “How long were you standing with your feet stuck like that?”

“Not too long,” Hova said, voice quiet.  “I wouldn’t have been so scared if they hadn’t been benders.”  Toph grinned and lifted her arm, reaching over Hova to pat Kailas on the back.

“You’re lucky you’ve got a bender yourself,” she said.  “A pretty good one, too.”

“I’d ask if one of those rocks hit you in the head, miss earthbender, but I’m not looking to get hit again,” Kailas said with a somber chuckle.  Toph felt the echoes in the ground and saw the way Kailas’s head tilted down, turned away from Hova.  She flicked Kailas in the back of the head, grinning crookedly when Kailas turned back around.

“You did fine,” Toph said.  “You’re not a certain crazy ex-princess, but you held your ground.”  She smiled all the more broadly at the snort of laughter Hova produced.

“Let’s not bring up the lunatic,” Kailas murmured.  Toph sighed, even as Hova grew completely silent.

“We all hated Azula,” Toph said.  “I even fought her a few times.  No reason not to crack a few jokes about her.”

“I’d still rather not think of a seven-year-old girl burning firebender girls and women because they had the same birth date as her.”  Toph, even as she turned her head away, could not help but feel the new echo as they walked on.  Kailas reached up to lay a hand on her chest, fingers coming to stop on a place between her breasts.  Silence, interrupted only by their footsteps, reigned for many long moments.

“Sorry,” Toph muttered.  Kailas drew in a breath and let it out in a chuckle.

“It’s all right,” she said.  “I’m just in a bit of a bad mood.”  Toph reached out to flick the woman in the forehead, grinning at the laughing mutter of pain that came afterward.

“I wonder why,” Hova said, nudging Kailas’s shoulder with her knuckles as they all laughed.

“You really did all right,” Toph said after the laughter had ceased.  “You just didn’t have a lot of focus.”

“And you can tell all of this by coming by after my arm was broken?” Kailas inquired.

“You were fighting two earthbenders who were boxing you in and trying to get to Hova at the same time,” Toph replied.  “With some training, you’d probably have been able to get away with no broken bones and a couple of crispy idiots.”

“What, would you train her?” Hova asked, laughing as she leaned her head against Kailas’s arm.

“You could always ask Twinkle Toes,” Toph said, shrugging her shoulders.  “He knows how to firebend, at least.  He’d probably teach you if you ask him.”

“So charitable,” Kailas chuckled.  “I wouldn’t have thought someone who prefers waterbenders to be this friendly to a firebender.”  Toph did not turn her head, though she sensed the shudder in Hova’s steps as she lifted her head and looked up at Kailas.  Before another comment could be made, Toph stopped, reaching out an arm to bring the two other women to a halt.

“Is your home near here?” she asked.

“Yes,” Hova said slowly.  “Just at the top of this hill, by the forest.  Why?”

“There are two people standing by a small wooden house,” Toph said, head tilted toward her feet.  She crouched down, patting the hard dirt with her hands.  “A girl and a man.”  She paused, digging her fingers into the dirt as her eyes closed in concentration.  “And the girl is playing with your raccoon-dog.”  Kailas and Hova looked at each other as Toph straightened, unsure of what to say.  Toph strode forward, hands open and loose at her sides, and Kailas and Hova followed behind her.

Fai, at the sound of shuffling footsteps, turned away from the young girl who had been scratching behind his ears.  He charged at Hova, barking and yapping, to sniff at her feet and paw at her toes.  She laughed and crouched down, picking up the fluffy animal and hugging him tightly.  Toph and Kailas stood side by side, facing the broad-shoulder man as the girl moved to clutch at his leg.  The man gave Kailas a quick up and down glance, and she did not move despite the frown on his face.

“You got healed up,” he said.

“Our resident waterbender saw to that,” Kailas replied.  The silence that followed would have made Toph settle into her stance, were it not for the girl’s nervous shuffling sending out waves that let her see how the man stared at the ground.

“That was really mean of them,” the girl said suddenly, voice quiet.  The man looked down at the girl as she moved away from his leg.  When she looked up at him, he patted her on the back and nodded slightly.  She moved forward, clasping her hands nervously in front of her.  “Everyone thought it was mean.”

“Everyone,” the man said, nodding.  The girl smiled, all the more emboldened by the sheepish smile on the man’s face.

“But—but I thought you were really brave!” she said.  She darted forward, careful to take Kailas’ left hand with her small ones.  “How come you never did any firebending before?  It would have been really neat to watch you do that!”  She blushed vivid crimson, dropping her gaze to the ground.  “I mean—you’re both really good at playing music and dancing, too.”  Kailas slowly crouched down on one knee, and the girl peeked up at her from beneath her neatly trimmed black bangs.

“Thank you,” Kailas said, smiling.  “Maybe we could add firebending when my arm is better.”

“Firebending is a popular display now that the war is over,” Toph said.  “I’ve fought in a lot of tournaments where the opening acts were firebenders.”  She felt the man’s nods in faint pulses through the dirt, and grinned broadly.

“We’d all be interested in seeing that,” the man murmured.  “But—you’d better not waste that free healing Miss Katara gave you.”

“I’m not going to let her hurt herself,” Hova laughed.  “No getting into any more fights.”  The man nodded again, moving to pat Hova on the shoulder.

“You’ve got a good woman here,” he said.  “So you take care of her.”  When he held up a bag, one that Toph had not felt clearly before, Fai leapt out of Hova’s weakened grip.  Kailas turned away from the girl, staring at the bag, which bulged and clinked with metal.

“No one likes losing their day’s money,” the man said gruffly.  He put the bag in Hova’s hands, closing her fingers around it.

“We can’t take this,” Hova protested.

“It’s not pity money,” the man replied firmly.  “It’s fair payment for what you would have done today if that scum hadn’t attacked you.”  Hova looked from the bag to the man, her eyes soon turning toward Kailas, wide and confused.  Kailas could only stare at the bag, eyes open completely.  The little girl tugged at her hand gently.

“I put something in there too,” she said, smiling brightly.  “I was going to come today.”  Toph resisted the urge to stride over and slap her hand against the back of both Kailas and Hova’s heads, crossing her arms and drumming her fingers against her skin.  After a time, Kailas chuckled quietly.

“I suppose it would be rude not to accept, then,” she murmured.  The little girl’s smile turned to a massive grin, even as Kailas rose to her feet and gently took her hand away.  Hova blinked when Kailas took the bag from her hands, only able to mimic Kailas slowly when the other woman bowed at the waist to the man.

“Thank you,” Kailas said.  “We’ll make good use of this today.”  The man returned the bow, and the little girl did the same in a clumsy rush.  They all straightened, and the girl smiled and laughed.  She moved forward and took one of Hova’s hands, reaching to close her small, chubby fingers around the edge of Kailas’s shirt.

“Get better soon, okay?” she said, tugging at Kailas’s shirt.  She turned her eyes up to Hova, still grinning despite the wideness of Hova’s eyes.  “It’s boring without you.”  Hova blinked and slowly crouched down to look at the little girl’s brown eyes.  She smoothed down a standing lock of the girl’s hair, managing to smile after a moment of broken laughter.

“Thank you,” Hova said, patting the girl’s hand.  “We’ll come back as soon as we can.”  The girl gave a small cheer, wrapping her arms around Hova’s neck in a brief hug.  She darted back to give her hand to the man, waving as the man bowed again.  Kailas returned the bow and Hova the wave, and the girl and the man started away.  Toph watched them go, letting her focus shift only when she heard the clink of metal coins.

“It’s more than what you’d get in one day, isn’t it?” she asked.  Kailas chuckled and Hova sighed.

“Oh, it’s enough to pay for our meals for today,” Kailas replied.  “And there’s enough left over to properly pay your waterbender for healing me.”  Toph turned on heel, face toward Kailas’s voice.

“Why do you keep calling Katara mine?” she asked, frowning.

“By the way she watches you, and the way you’ve always got one ear turned toward her, it certainly seems like there’s something between you,” Kailas murmured.

“There’s nothing going on,” Toph snapped.

“Not with the Avatar around,” Kailas said.

“Let’s not bring up Aang.”  The statement was punctuated with a sharp kick to the ground.  Fai yelped as a rock shot up from the dirt at the forest’s edge, whining when it crashed against a tree hard enough to splinter the bark.  Hova squeezed Kailas’s hand firmly before walking to Toph and putting a hand on her shoulder.

“That just kind of proved it,” she said.  Toph did not reply, her eyes aimed toward the trees and her arms still crossed over her chest.  Hova sighed, giving Kailas a frown over her shoulder as she said, “I’m sorry Kailas is a brat.  But—have you at least said anything to Katara?”

“It’s not like I can just flat out say anything,” Toph muttered.  “She’s—she’s engaged to Aang, and she said that I made her uncomfortable—and now I don’t even know if we’re going to talk at all, after this.”

“After what happened with us?” Hova asked.  She frowned, reaching up and striking Toph’s temple sharply with her knuckles.  “We’re not you!  Just because something happened to us doesn’t mean that anything would happen to you two!”

“She still seemed upset by what happened when we left,” Toph replied, turning to frown at Hova’s voice.  “I mean, I still want to talk to her, but she said that she didn’t know if we would talk, and now Aang’s with her again.”  She scowled and sighed, rubbing at the sting Hova’s knuckles left behind.

“I don’t see why you still can’t talk to her,” Hova said.  “Doesn’t she feel the same way about you?”

“I don’t know,” Toph said, her voice grinding in a snarl.  “She kissed me a long time ago, and now I don’t know if she cares about me or not!”  She sighed, rubbing the heels of her palms against her eyes.  Time passed, and the three women spent it in silence.  When the time grew too long, Toph sighed once more and lifted her head.

“This isn’t a very earthbender way of dealing with this,” she murmured.

“No, it’s not,” Kailas agreed.  She shrugged at the narrow-eyed glance Hova gave her.

“I just don’t want to hurt Katara,” Toph said quietly.  “And Aang’s an old friend—I don’t want to hurt him either.  But I want Katara with me.”

“Will you please tell us why you’re saying all of this to us?” Kailas asked.  Toph turned her head, neither smiling nor frowning.  “Your waterbender has never told us how you were indecisive.  She told us how you made your own choices and acted strongly enough to make those choices work.  And she told us more, and almost always with a smile.”

“Then why are you telling me this?” Toph asked.  Kailas sighed, gesturing toward the city.

“Forget about us, and forget about the Avatar,” she said.  “Go make a choice.”  Toph let out a slow breath, but smiled.

“Shoving me into a cave of wolf bats, huh?” she asked.  “No more friendly advice?”  Kailas laughed, her chuckles weak.

“Oh, not when I’m about to pass out like this,” she said.  Hova rushed away from Toph’s side, steadying Kailas before she swayed too far in any direction.  She nodded at Toph, unable to bow with Kailas leaning so heavily on her shoulder.

“Thank you for bringing us home,” she said, smiling.  “And—I agree with Kailas.  It’d be better to just go and do something, wouldn’t it?”  Toph nodded slowly, a small smile on her face.  Hova gave her a final parting nod, turning to lead a mumbling Kailas into the small wooden house.  Toph turned about, waiting until she sensed the solid echo of Kailas all but falling to the floor, and chuckling at the fainter echoes of Hova quickly kneeling down beside the other woman.

She began to make her way back toward the city, walking down the hard dirt slope of the hill with a sure-footed stride.  With her head held high, she kept to the streets on the edge of the city, hearing the ambient buzz of activity grow by the minute.  In her mind, scenarios did not play out, and words did not lay themselves out in a script.  Toph had only an intention, and did not think of what to say, or when to act in one way or another.  Over the years, she had learned with her second life as the Blind Bandit that such planning only worked when everyone else made similar plans.

There was no assumption on her part that Katara had created any such scripts or prepared her actions.  The memory of Katara taking hold of her pendant once again kept Toph from thinking of such things.  She dwelt only on Aang’s departure from Katara’s home, and beginning the conversation that she and Katara had agreed to have.

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“Are you all right now?” Aang asked, one arm around Katara’s waist and the hand of the other holding one hand of hers.  The woman sniffed and nodded, her free hand wiping away the wet trails on her cheeks.  They sat together at the table, Katara leaning against Aang with her head on his shoulder.  She sighed and put her hand on the table, fingers trembling until she calmed enough to still them.

“What happened?” Aang asked, his voice as gentle as the grip he had on her hand.  Katara stared at the table, head shaking slowly from side to side.

“I’m not sure,” she replied.  “It was just after you left me—I was coming back here, and something had already started.”  She let out another sigh, shoulders quaking with her shuddering breath.  “I’m so glad that Toph showed up when she did.”  She glanced up at him for a moment before lifting her head and looking at the table.  “And I’m glad that you were on patrol this morning.”

“So am I,” Aang said with a nod.  They sat in silence, his fingers, roughened slightly by stone and always warm, absently stroking the lines in her palm.  Katara was neither stiff nor relaxed, simply sitting with his other hand on her hip and thinking, distantly, that Toph’s fingers were rougher than Aang’s.  They both jumped when a sharp knock sounded through the wood of the front doorframe.  Aang rose to his feet without his bending, walking to the door and sliding it open slowly.

“Hey, Twinkle Toes,” Toph said, holding up a hand and grinning crookedly.  Aang sighed and found it in himself to smile as he stepped aside.

“Hey, Toph,” he replied.  “Did you get them home?”

“Yep,” Toph said, walking past the man and going toward the table.  “They’re all right.”  She paused when she stood at one side of the table, just to Katara’s right.  “Are you all right, Katara?”  The way Katara started made Toph turn her head.  The strong vibration that traveled up her legs showed her that Katara’s hands were nowhere near the pendant of her necklace.

“I’m—I’m all right,” Katara said, nodding.  She looked up to see Toph smiling at her.  The smile remained as Toph sat down and put a hand over Katara’s.  At the touch of Toph’s rough hands, the scrape of her calluses creating a pleasant hum on her skin, Katara felt her throat grow tight and her face grow hot.

“I’m glad,” Toph murmured.  Her smile lost some of its gentleness and warmth when Aang strode away from the door and Katara pulled her hand back into her lap.  She turned her head slightly, eyes aimed between Katara and Aang as the man sat down on Katara’s left, at the opposite side of the table.

“Do you know why those men attacked Kailas and Hova?” Aang asked.  Toph shrugged her shoulders.

“I wasn’t there before Katara was,” she said.  “It probably just had something to do with them being together.”  She smiled at Katara, reaching to touch the other woman’s knee when she felt her quaking through the floor.  When Katara shifted, looking up, Toph said, “But those guys weren’t how everyone feels.  There were a couple of people waiting for Kailas and Hova when we got there, and they were pretty mad.”

“That Kailas and Hova were hurt?” Katara asked.  Toph nodded, grinning crookedly as Katara’s stiffness began to fade.

“Yep,” Toph said.  “This man and a little girl were there to make sure that they were both okay, and to give them the money they would have gotten.”  Aang smiled and chuckled, patting Katara’s shoulder.

“You picked a good town to live in,” he said.  Katara nodded without speaking, the weight of both Toph and Aang’s hands on her.  She reached first to lay a hand over Toph’s, and then to press her fingers to Aang’s hand a few moments later.

“I’m just happy everything’s all right now,” she said quietly.  The crack of thunder that followed her words made them all jump away from one another, turning to look out the nearest window or focusing on the ground beyond the walls.  Before the echo of the thunder had faded, the rain began to fall, roaring in the distance as it splashed down on rooftops and stone pathways.

“Everything except the weather,” Katara said with a laugh.  Aang let out a strangled breath before beginning to laugh and shake his head.

“Oh, wow,” he said, letting his words drawl and stretch.  “Every first storm of spring, I freak out over the sound of thunder.”  He gave Toph and Katara a weak grin, twisting his arm to put a hand on his back and his fingers on the starburst scar that broke the line of his tattoos.  “My back twitches every time lightning strikes.”

“I never liked lightning, but I love the rain,” Katara said, smiling.  “I guess that’s just me being a waterbender.”  She looked at Toph, whose head was tilted down toward the floor.  Aang’s gaze followed hers, and he put a grin on his face and lightness in his voice.

“Do you like storms, Toph?” he asked.

“I like them,” she replied, her voice soft.  “Even if things get blurry from mud later, I really like rainstorms.”  She smiled, and Katara’s face grew hot once more at the sight of simple, honest pleasure on Toph’s face.  “I can see everything.”  She turned her head, and Katara smiled at the eyes aimed toward her.  Toph’s smile soon became a grin, and she let her head turn to face between Aang and Katara.

“Didn’t you and Katara waterbend all the rain in a storm once?” she asked.  “Against a whole regiment of Fire Nation soldiers?  That’s what Sokka kept shouting and cheering about, anyway.”

“We did, didn’t we?” Aang asked, his chest puffing out with pride and a real grin curling his lips.  “I remember that.  It was a little while after we escaped Ba Sing Se, wasn’t it?”

“Where were you, Toph?” Katara asked.

“I was there,” Toph replied.  “I just couldn’t see anything because the ground was already mud.”  She put one elbow on the table, cupping her chin in her hand.  “Come on—tell me about it!  You know how much I like old war stories.”  Aang grinned and immediately began to recount the tale, embellishing his words with broad, sweeping gestures that Toph could see clearly with the rain’s constant vibrations carrying images to her.  Most of her focus remained on Katara, and how the woman’s shoulders were finally free of tension.  What gave Toph’s smile the most brightness, however, was neither the story Aang told nor the relaxed way Katara sat.  It was the simple fact that, for the hours that they passed telling stories, Katara’s hands never once moved toward her necklace.

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When night had fallen and given the world a second level of darkness beyond the continuing storm, Aang stood up, stretched with a groan, and bade the two women a good night.  Katara watched him run as quickly as he could through the rain from the doorway, Toph snickering at his fleet-footed dash where she sat on the floor.  Aang turned a corner in the distance and went out of sight, and Katara slid the door shut.

“I’ll take you back to where you’re staying,” she said, turning and walking swiftly to the other side of the room.  “I’ll bend the rain so we don’t get soaked.”  She opened the door to the courtyard, barely waiting for Toph to stand up before walking outside.

“Katara, hang on!”  Katara stopped when Toph’s hand came to rest lightly on her shoulder.  She wondered for a moment how quickly Toph must have run to catch up before she had taken ten fast steps from the door.  As she thought, her hand rose to touch Toph’s fingertips.

“You still want to talk, huh?” she asked.

“Not really.”  Katara began to turn, only guided by the gentle pressure that Toph gave to her shoulder.  Before she could speak, Toph’s hand left her shoulder, and took an equally gentle hold of her chin.  Before she could ask a question, Toph leaned forward and pressed her lips against Katara’s in a kiss almost identical to the one they had shared seven years ago.  Toph lingered a moment or two longer, and it was stronger than the feather-light brush of skin against skin Katara had begun, but they both still found themselves thinking of the afternoon they had spent together.  Toph smiled when she pulled back, letting her thumb rise up to touch Katara’s lower lip.

“What are you doing?”  Katara’s voice started with a waver, but grew stronger, louder, and sharper as she continued.  “What are you doing?  What makes you think—stop that!”  She shoved Toph’s hand away and stepped backward.  Toph’s smile vanished, eyes widening in confusion at the way Katara’s hands bunched into fists at her sides and her shoulders stiffened.

“What makes you think you can just—I’m engaged, Toph!” Katara snapped.  “I’m engaged to Aang!  You can’t just—just do something like that!”

“That’s what you did to me,” Toph replied, her voice low.

“Oh, and seven years later you finally see what it actually was?”  She waved her hand in a sharp gesture, and Toph could not help but wince at the sound of a shattering urn and the splash of water as it fell against the courtyard stones.  She reached out and caught Katara’s hand before the woman could make another gesture, but Katara jerked her hand free before Toph’s grip could tighten.

“This is what I wanted to talk about!” Toph said in protest.  “Why are you getting so upset when we agreed to talk?”

“Because you kissing me isn’t talking!” Katara shouted.  “It’s you acting like you finally understand everything that happened!”

“I do understand!” Toph replied.

“No, you don’t!”  The vibrations that traveled up Toph’s legs were stronger than ever, and the faint crunching sounds she heard told her that the rain was freezing into pellets of ice when they came close to Katara.  “You don’t understand at all!”

“What don’t I understand?” Toph demanded, snatching Katara’s hands and holding them tight when Katara tried to wrench them away.

“You turned away from me, Toph!” Katara said.  “I tried to show you how I feel about you, and you turned away from me!  You never said anything about it, and then you left for seven years without sending me a single message!  Not even a friendly ‘hi, I hope you’re doing well!’  You don’t understand how much that hurt!”  She tried, once more, to pull her hands out of Toph’s grasp, and succeeded.  Toph’s hands fell, heavily, to her side, and Katara backed away, wrapping her arms around herself.

“You don’t understand how much that hurt, and you expect me to forget everything that’s happened since then just because you’re here now?” Katara asked.  Her voice had softened, but an edge remained.  “You left me, and I’m engaged to Aang.  He loves me.”

“Do you love him?” Toph asked in turn.

“Yes—I care about him.”  Toph’s shoulders slumped, but she squared them after a moment.

“Do you love him?” she repeated.  “Do you care about him more than you care about me?”

“That’s a cruel thing to ask, and you know it,” Katara hissed.

“Look, I like Aang a lot!” Toph snapped.  “He’s practically my goofy little brother!  But I’m not going to apologize for wanting you!”  She sighed, and lifted her hands, palms up and out to Katara.  “I’m really, really sorry that I hurt you, Katara.  I never meant to do that—I didn’t know what was happening.  I didn’t really get anything.  I mean, I was twelve.”  She chuckled weakly, and sighed again when Katara did not reply.  She stepped forward slowly and put her hands on Katara’s shoulders.  Katara neither flinched nor tried to move away.  The rain gave Toph the sight of Katara looking up at her, and she spoke though her throat was painfully tight.

“I understand things a little better now,” she said.  “I understand that I hurt you, and I’m sorry that I did.  And I understand that you care about Aang, and that you don’t want to hurt him.  But what I understand best is that I love you, and I won’t ever say I’m sorry for that.”  She closed her eyes, wanting to pull Katara into her arms.  She swallowed, forcing back the urge.

“All I want to know is if you love me, too,” she murmured.  “Can’t you give me that answer?”  Katara did not speak, instead lifting her hand after a moment and pressing it to Toph’s cheek.  Toph leaned into the touch, but Katara remained silent for another long moment.

“I need you to leave,” she said.  She pressed her thumb over Toph’s lips before the other woman could speak.  “I need you to leave.  I can’t give you an answer right now.  Please leave.”  She took away her hand, stepping around Toph and walking back into the house.  The door slid shut before Toph could protest, and she let her focus linger on the doorway for many minutes before moving.  She walked out of the courtyard, barely noticing as the rain soaked through her clothes.

Toph went inside the small stone house, closing the door behind her and sitting down on the floor.  She dripped rainwater onto the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.  With a heavy, wavering sigh, she pressed her forehead to her knees, wishing, for once, that she could focus on nothing, and darken the world as if she could see and had simply closed her eyes.  She kept her mind away from the door, dwelling on the vibrations that ricocheted from a far corner.  The rain made the corner vividly clear in her mind, and she stared at that clarity with all the concentration she could muster.

She gripped her legs all the tighter when her focus began to falter.  The thought to stand back up and rush back to Katara came at her every few minutes, as did the urge to touch the other woman’s face and see if there were tears, a scowl, or a smile there.  Her hands tightened until she knew by their stiffness and pain that her knuckles were white.  Still, Toph remained sitting, dripping, on the ground.  The rain continued to fall hard and fast enough to create a rushing sound on the roof, and perpetual splashing as the water rolled and hit the ground.  Toph pressed her hands against her ears until her temples throbbed, barely able to breathe with how tightly she had folded her torso against her knees.

With her mind so unfocused and her hands over her ears, Toph barely heard the soft knock at the door.  Her head jerked up, hands rising.  Another knock sounded through the door, and Toph stood up.  She went, hesitating on the first step, to the door.  As she had known from the tremors that touched her feet, Katara stood just past the threshold, as soaked as Toph.  Her head was tilted to look up at Toph, her hands at her side.  Toph did not know what to feel, sensing Katara’s shoulders without tension as they had so often been before.  She opened her mouth and did not know what she meant to say.

Katara put her fingers over Toph’s lips, and Toph closed her mouth.  Katara’s touch was slow and gentle as it moved across Toph’s lips and came to rest on the woman’s cheek.  Her other hand rose to the other side of Toph’s face.  As she stood up on her toes, Toph moved to meet her.  They kissed, Toph wrapping one arm around Katara’s waist and letting the fingers of her other hand slide into the woman’s long, wet hair and cradle the back of her head.

It was only the need for breath, brought both by time and by the warmth that had settled so firmly in their chests, that made Katara and Toph part.  They felt each other’s breath on their cheeks, smiling at the sensation and at one another a moment before kissing once more.  Katara put her arms around Toph’s neck, and Toph pulled her all the closer.  It was with another gasp that they parted, and Katara pressed her cheek against Toph’s, hugging her tightly.

“I still love you,” she murmured in Toph’s ear.  “I do.”  Toph smiled, and felt Katara’s smile when she kissed it.  They held each other close until Katara giggled at the cold tickle of her wet hair on her neck.

“Let—let me bend the water out of your clothes before I go,” she said.  Toph chuckled and leaned to rest her forehead against Katara’s.

“I’ll let you waterbend, but I’m not letting you go back out in the rain,” she said.  “Just stay here tonight.”  She laughed aloud at Katara’s blush, radiating heat strongly enough for her to feel near the tip of her nose, and said, “I want to be able to go to sleep holding you—that’s all.”  She grinned crookedly.  “And to kiss you more.”  Katara chuckled, and nodded her head against Toph’s.  They stood still a moment before kissing once more.

“I love you,” Toph murmured when they parted.  She hugged Katara close, smiling at the warmth of the woman in her arms.  Katara smiled as well, nuzzling her face against Toph’s neck.

“I love you, too.”

—to be continued—