Ye Chang Meng Duo: Chapter 7

[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.”]

Katara woke with her face nuzzled against Toph’s neck, and with Toph’s arms wrapped around her.  She took a deep breath, sighing when the muscles in her back twitched from spending the night partially upright.  Toph sat, still asleep, propped against a wall, Katara sitting in her lap and leaning against her chest.  At Katara’s shifting, Toph stirred, eyes opening slowly.

“I’m going to make you start sleeping in a bed,” Katara mumbled, lips half pressed to Toph’s neck.

“Too soft,” Toph replied.  “Can’t see anything in a fluffy old bed.”  She grinned at the smile she felt against her neck, and at Katara’s quiet chuckles.  One hand rose from its place resting on Katara’s shoulder to touch her hair, and Toph kissed Katara’s forehead.  “Morning, Katara.”

“Good morning, Toph,” Katara replied.  She stretched as best she could, folded in Toph’s lap as she was.  The fact that Toph did not lift her arms from Katara did not help the other woman, and Katara snorted with laughter.  “I don’t get to move, do I?”

“Not a chance, Sugar Queen,” Toph said.  Katara glanced up, giggling at the grin on Toph’s face.  She turned to look at the window and smiled at the yellow glow of sunlight that suffused the paper.

“It looks like going to be a beautiful day,” she said.  “Sunny, and warm.”  She gave another half-stretch, burrowing her head under Toph’s chin.  Toph did little but let her hands idly stroke at Katara’s back, and at the soft lengths of her hair.  She drew in a deep breath and let it out in a long, low sigh.  Katara lifted her head from beneath Toph’s chin, looking up to see that Toph’s eyes had closed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.  Toph shook her head slowly, opening her eyes as she lifted one hand.  Her fingertips touched Katara’s face, her thumb passing slowly over Katara’s lips.  She followed the curve of Katara’s cheek, her touch so light and gentle Katara could not feel the roughness of her calluses.  Her fingers curled as she brought her hand down, her knuckles running along the rise of the other woman’s collarbones.  Her hand soon rose again, tipping Katara’s chin up.  Toph let her head tilt forward slowly, moving until she felt their foreheads touch.

“I wouldn’t have cared if it was still raining,” she murmured.  She began to move forward again, but paused.  Her thumbs touched just above Katara’s eyes, and pressed lightly on her eyelids when they closed.  Unable to see, Katara took a quick breath when Toph’s lips brushed against hers.  Toph chuckled, but did not take away her hands.  Katara’s hands moved to hold Toph’s wrists, laughing in giggles that made Toph grin all the more.

“What are you doing?” Katara asked.

“Trying to give you a ‘good morning’ kiss,” Toph replied, patting the sides of Katara’s head with her fingers.

“I can’t see while you’re doing it?” Katara asked, still giggling.  Toph smiled though Katara did not see it, placing a kiss on the other woman’s forehead.

“I’m trying to show you how it feels to me,” she said.  Katara grew still, eyelashes fluttering against Toph’s thumbs in a blink that could be neither started nor finished.  Toph stroked Katara’s temples lightly enough to tickle and renew the woman’s giggles.  “So quit jumping around for a second, already!”  Katara nodded slightly, and her giggling and shifting about came to a stop.

It was Toph’s breathing that she first noticed.  The sound had lulled her the night before, as had the touch of the hands that kept the daylight from her eyes.  When Toph kissed her once more, Katara returned it, smiling when they parted.  She tightened her grip when Toph began to move her hands away.  With Toph’s thumbs still over her eyes, Katara carefully reached out to touch Toph’s face.

She chuckled at the arch her fingertips could follow in Toph’s eyebrow, careful to keep her touch light as her hands curved around Toph’s eyes.  The skin under Toph’s eyes was soft, and Katara could feel the brush of her eyelashes when she blinked.  Her fingers came together over Toph’s cheeks, one hand continuing on to caress Toph’s chin and the other coming to rest on the woman’s lips.  Katara sat without moving for a long moment, breathing slowly and feeling Toph’s breath wash over her fingers in time with her own.  When the moment passed, Toph lifted her hands from Katara’s eyes.

“Wow,” Katara whispered.  She opened her eyes, blinking at the return of light.  She looked at Toph, unsure of why a blush spread on her cheeks when she saw Toph’s small smile.  “That’s what it’s like when you—look at my face?”

“Probably not exactly the same,” Toph said.  “But probably something like it, too.”  She pressed another kiss to Katara’s lips.  Neither felt the urge to part, Katara’s hands finding comfortable places on Toph’s shoulders, and Toph’s fingers sliding into Katara’s hair.  It was many minutes before they separated, and only because of the audible rumbling of their stomachs.  The two women pulled away from one another, Katara coughing to cover her laughter as Toph groaned and let her head fall against the wall.

“Why do our stomachs keep interrupting us?” Toph asked.

“Because the spirits cursed us with large, hard-to-fill bellies,” Katara remarked.  “Come on—I’m sure there’s something left over from what—what we ate last night.”  Toph was still for a moment before taking her hands from Katara’s hair and slapping her palms against the ground.  Stone rose up beneath them, rising high enough for Katara to stand when she slid from Toph’s lap.  Toph swung her legs from the stone platform and stood, striking the stone with her knuckles to level it once more.

“It is a beautiful day,” Katara said.  She had opened the door and stood on its threshold.  The sun, far above the eastern horizon, shone bright and warm enough to dry the muddy ground.  Katara smiled both at the sight of the day and at the weight of Toph’s hand on her shoulder when the other woman placed it there.  She touched Toph’s hand, looking up at the other woman.  Toph’s expression was stern, a frown on her face.

“Katara, we have to talk to Aang,” she said.  Her voice did not waver, and Katara bit her lower lip at its strength.

“I—know,” Katara said in turn.  “It’s just—what do we say?”

“We tell him the truth,” Toph replied.  “That’s all we can say.”

“I don’t want to hurt him, Toph,” Katara sighed.  Toph closed her eyes and let her hand slide from Katara’s shoulder.  Her fingers came to a stop in the small of Katara’s back, her head tilting forward as she took in a slow breath.

“I don’t want to hurt him either,” she said.  “But we still need to tell him.  It’ll hurt him more if we don’t.”  With her hand on Katara’s spine, Toph could feel the woman’s slow, single nod.  She opened her eyes, but pinched them shut once more at the painful groaning of her stomach. In her fingers, she could all but feel a similar rumble vibrating from Katara’s belly.

“Can we have something to eat first?” Katara asked with a soft laugh.  Toph nodded, laying her arm over Katara’s shoulders and guiding her over the threshold.  They made their way down the gently sloping hill, silent as they took one another’s hand.  As they walked into the courtyard, Toph squeezed Katara’s hand, smiling as the other woman stopped.  Katara laughed as Toph gently tugged her closer, and wrapped her arms around Toph’s waist.  Toph’s free hand took hold of her chin, her head tilting forward until their foreheads touched.

“Are you going to do this every time you want to kiss me?” Katara asked.

“I could always try to kiss you without knowing what I’m trying to kiss,” Toph replied.  Katara laughed and tipped her head up to kiss Toph for a brief moment.

“Katara!”  Aang’s shout came from just inside the house, and Katara jerked back too quickly for Toph to keep hold of her.  Through the windows, she could see the bright orange-red of the man’s shirt as he rounded a corner.  His head turned, and he grinned at Katara before vaulting through the largest window.

“Katara, Toph—you’ll never guess what I just got!” he said.

“Aang, we need to talk,” Toph said in turn.

“There’s no time for that right now!”  He laughed and held out a rolled up sheet of paper.  “Look—it’s from Kyoshi Island!”

“From—from my brother and Suki?” Katara asked.  She took the paper and unrolled it, chuckling quietly at the neat script.  “Suki must have written this.”

“Momo just got back with their answer!” Aang said, all but cheering and bouncing on the balls of his feet.  “I sent them a letter asking if they could come to visit!  They’re going to come—they want me and Appa to pick them up as soon as we can!”

“Aang, wait a second!” Toph said, holding up her hands as her brows furrowed.

“We can talk later!” Aang replied.  “We should all be back by sundown!”  He took Katara’s hands in his, grinning broadly.  Toph turned her head toward the other woman, and Katara did not look up in return.

“We’ll talk then,” she murmured.  She smiled up at Aang and nodded once.  He gave a small cheer and kissed her lips.  He turned on heel before she had a chance to wonder if she should return the kiss, waving over his shoulder as he rushed toward the edge of the courtyard.  A gust of air aided his jump, and he landed on the roof.

“Don’t get into any fights when I’m gone!” he said.  Katara waved a hand at him, and he mirrored the gesture with another grin.  He charged away after a moment, leaping from the roof.  Toph could not keep the frown from her face as she watched Katara’s arm slowly return to her side.

“Why didn’t you make him just stop for a second?” she asked.  “He at least would have listened to you.”  Katara turned as slowly as she had let her arm drop, but she strode to Toph without pause.  She took one of Toph’s hands in hers, rubbing her thumb along the line in the center of Toph’s palm.

“I’m—sorry,” she sighed.  Toph let out a breath through her nose, closing her fingers around Katara’s thumb.  “It’s just—I know I should have stopped him before he left.  I’m sorry that I didn’t.”  Toph’s breath was hard once again, her frown soon joined by her furrowed brows.  Katara sighed, eyes falling to the ground.  She let the hand that Toph had no hold upon rise to touch the woman’s cheek.

“Toph, please,” she said quietly.  “I’m sorry.  I really mean that.  I—I know we have to tell him.  We are going to tell him.”  Toph did not reply, and did not turn to press her face against Katara’s hand.  Katara looked up slowly, and a small smile came to her when she saw that the sharp angle of Toph’s brows had softened.

“He’ll be back by sundown,” she continued.  “And he’ll have calmed down enough to sit down and talk by then.”  She rubbed at Toph’s cheek with her fingertips, moving to press their foreheads together.  “I’m sorry that I didn’t make him stop.”

“You said that already,” Toph mumbled.  Katara chuckled at the wry smile that appeared for a moment.  The frown that returned after the smile vanished was not as harsh as its predecessor, and so Katara’s smile grew stronger.

“I know,” she replied.  “I just want to make sure that it gets through that head of yours.”  She tipped her chin forward, brushing her lips against Toph’s hesitantly.  Toph returned the kiss, and their parting did not come quickly.  Katara sighed and let her head move to rest against Toph’s neck.

“He’s already gone,” she said quietly.  “He’ll be gone the entire day.”

“Well, yeah,” Toph replied.  “It’s not like I can just walk on the beach and spit over to Kyoshi Island from here.”  Katara coughed, torn between laughing at the remark and gagging at the imagery.  She wrapped an arm around Toph’s waist, pulling the other woman closer.

“No, you couldn’t,” she said.  “And even on Appa, it’s a full day’s flight there and back.”  Toph shuddered at the memory of the long days and nights spent on the bison’s back.

“I don’t care how nice the view is for everyone else,” she said.  “And I don’t care how comfy the saddle was.  I hate flying.”  Katara blinked, letting out a breath that mixed a laugh and a sigh.  She nuzzled against Toph, squeezing her gently.

“Toph, do I have to write it in a rock?” she asked.

“Write what?”  Katara lifted her head, and smiled as she lifted a brow at the grin Toph had on her face.  Toph put her free arm around Katara’s shoulders, snickering at the gentle punch her chest received.

“I want us to have a day to ourselves,” Katara murmured.  “Just us.  Can we do that and not worry about everything else?”

“Have you been planning this?” Toph asked, drumming her fingers along Katara’s back.  Katara smiled, gripping Toph’s hand and tightening her hold on the woman’s waist.

“No,” she replied.  “But I know somewhere we can go.”

----------

Had she not been a master earthbender, Toph would have balked at the task Katara had given her.  Years ago, while swimming aimlessly about, Katara had discovered a small cove just to the north of the city.  The mountains bordered the cove until its mouth opened to the sea, and the hills coming down from the mountains were too steep to reach the cove without some type of earthen manipulation.

As Katara explained the trouble of reaching the cove, Toph had simply crossed her arms.  At the closing of her eyes, the ground rose up under her feet in a burst, flinging her into the air.  Katara watched as the woman passed over her head and made a clean forward flip.  The ground powdered itself behind Katara, and Toph landed with barely a bend in her knees.  She turned about, eyes still closed, and grinned lopsidedly.  Katara crossed her arms as well, smirking.

“All right,” she had said.  “If you’re so ready to show off your earthbending for me, why don’t we make this more fun?”  Toph’s grin grew first at the challenge, and continued to brighten as Katara explained.  It would be a race to the cove, Toph over land and Katara by sea.  With the manner and grace of a sportsman, Katara promised not to aid her swimming too much with waterbending, with the stipulation that Toph also carry a meal for them to share during the day.  It was with some confusion, however, that Toph took a bundle of cloth that Katara pushed into her hands.

“What else am I carrying?” she asked.  Her fingertips brushed against soft, familiar cloth.  There were no sleeves to speak of upon the long shirt, and the legs of the pants would only reach to her knees when held up with the belt.

“Katara, why do you have my sleeping clothes?” she asked.

“Because I want you to at least get in the water once with me,” Katara replied.  “I can’t help you swim in all the clothes you’ve got on now.”  She rose up on her toes to speak in Toph’s ear, her bare shoulder brushing against Toph’s.  “And it’s not really fair if you’re wearing more than I am.”  Toph heard the rustle of cloth, a soft vibration near her toes showing her the crumpled shape of Katara’s discarded clothing.

Toph blushed, choking on her breath, and Katara laughed at the sound.  She fell back heavily on her heels, but Toph could hear the soft flutter of loose cloth more than she could sense the echoes of what Katara wore.  As Katara strode away, the images came back more clearly.  Her clothing were simple wraps, binding her breasts while baring her stomach.  The cloth extended from waist to mid thigh, the fluttering sound Toph heard moments before having come from a length that hung to her knees.  Katara continued on until she left the courtyard and stood near the edge of the sea, rocking back and forth on her heels and laughing quietly.  Toph let out a slow breath, frowning at the blush that still warmed her cheeks.

“That wasn’t too mean, was it?” Katara asked in a giggle.  Toph smiled, shrugging her shoulders.

“No,” she replied.  “Just—a surprise.”  She grinned, drawing back one leg.  “Like this.”  She kicked the ground, and the stone beneath Katara’s feet shifted.  Katara gasped, wobbling as she was carried out to hang far over the sea, standing on a narrow shelf of stone.  She looked back at Toph, who continued to grin as she lifted her leg.  Before Katara could protest, Toph stomped her foot down.  The stone under Katara’s feet crumbled into loose dirt, and woman and earth fell into the sea with resounding splashes.  When her head broke through the surface of the water, she heard Toph’s loud laughter and looked up to see the woman standing near the edge of the courtyard.

“You—brat!” she shouted, unable to keep from laughing even as she slapped the water.

“Takes one to know one, Sugar Queen!” Toph called in reply.  Katara smiled, lifting one arm slowly from the water.  A sphere of water rose with her hand, and she flicked her wrist.  The water rose in a high arc to splash against Toph’s face, and Toph’s laughter was quickly replaced by Katara’s giggles.  Toph wiped the water from her face, crouching down to grin crookedly at the ocean and the woman floating in it.

“You better start swimming now, Sweetness,” she said.  “I’ll be waiting for a long time unless you hurry up.”  She turned, rising from her crouch as she moved, and broke into a dash that left behind puffs of dust and dirt.  Katara did not hesitate, gesturing sharply at the water.  It swelled around her, pushing her forward as quickly as Toph ran.  Through the splashing in her ears, Katara could hear Toph’s laughter.  Even as she began to swim with little bending, muscles burning with effort, Katara smiled and fought the urge to laugh.

Toph made her way along the edge of the coast, watching where the echoes stopped short and listening to the steady breaking of the water.  When the hills began to grow steeper, she hardened her steps.  The rocks beneath her feet rose swiftly, lifting her high enough to take another step.  The vibrations came back to tell her of where to place her foot next, the most solid structures of rock pulsing strongly back against her toes.  When her speed began to falter, she heard the splashing of Katara’s arms and legs against the water slowly creep forward in her ear.  Soon, the sound of the other woman had moved from beside her to just ahead of her.

“I thought you weren’t using your bending!” she shouted with a grin.  Amidst her deepening breath and the rhythmic crashing of water against limbs, she heard Katara laugh for a moment.  They fell back into motion, Toph pressing onward and coming quickly to the peak of the hills surrounding the cove.  The way down was a blend of leaps and a steady run, and Toph snickered at the sudden mental image of herself as a rabbaroo, misplaced on the rocky hillsides.  Katara could see the mouth of the cove when she lifted her head to breathe, letting the water push her forward all the faster at the sight of Toph so far down the hills.

Neither knew who won the race.  Toph skid to a halt at the water’s edge, toes splashing as Katara swam up to touch the soft silt just yards from where Toph had stopped.  They paused to catch their breath, Toph falling on her rear and Katara sitting up in the shallows with her fingers creating imprints in the silt.  After a time, they lifted their heads, Toph aiming a crooked grin toward Katara and receiving an unseen smile.

“Do we say it’s a draw?” Toph asked.  Katara laughed, dragging her fingers back into the water to rinse them of the silt.

“I’d be happy with that,” she replied.  She rose to her feet and took three wobbling steps before the muscles in her legs protested too loudly to be ignored.  They seized, and the gasp Katara gave was both to the flash of pain and to the way she pitched forward.  Toph dug her fingers into the stone and forced the patch of earth beneath her rear to shift to one side.  The packed food and clothes were shoved away, and Katara fell only to have Toph catch her gently.

“I thought you were supposed to be good in the water,” Toph chuckled.  Katara laughed and laid her head against Toph’s shoulder, reaching down to rub at her twitching calves and thighs.

“I’ll be ‘good’ in a minute,” she said.  “Don’t you need to catch your breath?”  Toph laughed and wrapped her arms around Katara’s shoulders, hugging her close.  They sat together, listening to the waves that broke on the shore.  The sound came in odd beats, larger waves striking the hills before smaller waves sloshed into the cove to splash against their outstretched feet.  Toph stroked Katara’s hair, occasionally flicking off the drops of water that collected on her fingertips.

“I like this a lot better than our last trip out near the water,” Katara murmured.

“Me too,” Toph said, her voice soft.  Her hand stilled, resting on the back of Katara’s head as well as her shoulder.  She smiled slightly, tightening her grip.  “But now I don’t know if I’m jealous of Aang or not.”

“What?” Katara asked, unable to suppress a smile.  “Why?”

“I should be jealous because he got to hold you a lot more than I have,” Toph explained.  “But now I get to hold you.”  Katara only nodded slightly and reached to take hold of the hand Toph had on her shoulder.  The muscles beneath her free hand had stopped twitching, and she could flex her toes without needles of pain prickling under her skin.

“Well, I never taught him how to swim, so there’s something else,” she said.  She squeezed Toph’s hand and rose to her knees.  “Come on—I promise that there’s no giant serpent here.”  The laugh in her voice gave Toph reason enough to reach up and gently see the other woman’s smile with her hand.

“That’s good,” she replied.  “I’ll be worried enough about drowning without that thing here.”  Katara smirked, taking Toph’s hand away from her lips and leaning forward to kiss the other woman.

“Maybe we should just wait for everyone to get here,” she said after a moment.  “You seemed pretty happy to have Suki rescue you.”  Her smirk grew wider.  “Should I be worried when she gets here?”  She laughed at the scowl on Toph’s face, exaggerated more than usual.  She stood up, moving to stand in the water.  Toph shook her head, rising and taking hold of her sleeping clothes.

“Not a chance,” she said.  “Suki isn’t nearly as fun as you are.”  She jabbed two fingers toward the ground, angled slabs of stone rising to meet at a point over her head.  Another twitch of her hand closed the stone tent.  Katara smiled, dragging her toes across the surface of the water with her arms behind her back.  It was mere minutes later that the stone sank back into the ground, and Katara bit her lip at the sight of a blush on Toph’s face.

“Don’t you dare laugh when we start doing this,” Toph said, tossing aside her crumpled clothing.  She hesitated at the water’s edge before striding in deeply enough for the water to lap at the hem of her loose, knee-length, and faded green pants.  As the water dampened the cloth, creeping slowly upward, she frowned and held her arms at her sides.  Vibrations barely traveled through the silt under her feet, the tips of her toes unable to find solid earth even when she dug them deep into the loose, grainy soil.

“Sand and water,” she muttered.  “My favorites.”  Katara laughed.  Toph concentrated on the sound of the water sloshing around Katara’s legs as she strode forward, smiling when Katara’s hands closed on her elbow.

“Come on,” Katara said.  “It’ll be easier if you get deeper than this.”  She began to guide Toph away from the shallows.  Their steps were slow, Katara pushing back against the water gently as Toph dragged her toes in the silt.  Toph grimaced visibly when the water rose over her waist, lifting her arms as they drew nearer to the water.  Katara smiled and tugged Toph’s arm down, kissing Toph’s shoulder when Toph groaned at the wetness surrounding her hand.

“Not having fun yet,” Toph grumbled.

“If you’d just relax, you’d be having fun,” Katara replied.  She smiled and let go of Toph’s elbow.  Toph started, reaching to grab at Katara’s hands.  Katara dodged aside, and Toph did not move from where she stood.

“Now I’m really not having fun,” Toph said.  She lifted one foot slowly, shoving it back into the silt when she wobbled in the water.  The vibrations her foot made, dying away after only a few yards, did not return to her.  Toph jammed her feet all the more deeply into the silt.  “Katara, I can’t see you at all!  Where are you?”

“Right here.”  Katara’s hand brushed along Toph’s back, and vanished as quickly as it came.  Toph turned, but the hazy afterimages she received only showed a few stones buried in the ground behind her.

“Are you swimming?” she asked, turning one ear toward the quiet burble of water rushing back against skin.  Katara laughed, and Toph turned quickly to her left.  She reached out, hand bumping against Katara’s shoulder.  Before she could take hold of Katara’s arm, the other woman moved out of reach.  Toph pulled back her hand, shoving at the water to keep from falling forward off her feet.

“You can do better than that!” Katara giggled.

“Not if you’re cheating and floating off the ground!” Toph replied, coughing to cover a laugh.  She stopped moving, turning her head from side to side.  The waves, breaking against the various shores, did not register in her mind.  She waited, ignoring the rushes that the water made against her.  The waves pushed on her stomach, and she continued to wait.  Pressure came to the middle of her back, and the water slopped lazily as a hand broke through to the surface.

Toph spun, fighting against the water as she tried to leap forward.  Katara shrieked and laughed as Toph fell upon her, the pair of them splashing into the water.  Toph kicked her legs, standing straight when her heels sank into the silt.  She sputtered when her head came into the air, lifting Katara against her chest and coughing to clear away the salty water in her mouth.

“Who’s a brat now?” she demanded, laughing.  Katara laughed as well, reaching to touch the arm Toph had draped over her chest.

“You’re like an old bearded cat in the water!” Katara giggled.  “If you’d just calm down, it wouldn’t be as bad as you make it!”  Her legs drifted down from where they floated in the water, heels coming to rest gently on the tops of Toph’s feet.  “It’s actually really relaxing if you just let it be.”

“Did the water go up your nose and into your brain?” Toph asked.  Katara snorted and slapped Toph’s wrist.  “Good solid earth is really relaxing.  Water is just—squishy and weird.”

“How is water ‘squishy?’” Katara asked, tilting her head back to rest it on Toph’s shoulder.  One foot rose through the water, her toes coming into the air.  She patted her foot back and forth, sending out ripples with barely a splash.  “It’s really not that bad, Toph.”

“Well, it makes the ground squishy,” Toph replied.  “Mud is just as bad as sand, remember?”  Katara shook her head with a smile.  She brought her leg down and stepped off of Toph’s feet, turning to put her hands on Toph’s cheeks.

“If I show you something about the water that’s relaxing, will you admit that it’s not as bad as you thought?” she asked.  Toph’s brow rose, her head tilting down toward Katara’s voice.  She was unsure if Katara was shifting her weight from foot to foot or if the waves were simply making her sway and readjust her balance.  The silt did not give her a clear enough image, and so she touched Katara’s lips with her fingers.  She saw a smile, and managed one of her own.

“You’re not going to trick me or anything, are you?” she asked.  The smile under her fingers grew broader, and Katara kissed Toph’s fingertips with a giggle.

“I promise on my mother’s necklace that I’m not going to trick you,” she said.  “It’ll be fine—just trust me for a few minutes.”

“I already trust you,” Toph said, smirking.  Katara ducked under the arm Toph had around her shoulders, moving to stand behind the other woman.

“Trust me a little more than usual,” Katara said.  She put her hands on Toph’s back, fingers curling just under Toph’s arms.  “Lie back and lift your feet.”

“No way.”  The reply was immediate, and Katara laughed at its speed.

“I promise it’ll be all right!” she insisted.  “I won’t even let your head go in the water!”

“I don’t really want to be completely blind,” Toph muttered.  She did not struggle to move away, however, and Katara stood on her toes to kiss just behind Toph’s ear.

“I won’t let go of you, okay?” Katara said.  “Just relax, lie back, and lift your feet.”  Toph groaned quietly, pinching her eyes closed.  She clenched her teeth and began to lean back against Katara.  Her knees bent slightly, but her feet remained entrenched in the silt.  Katara smiled, and the water swelled behind Toph’s ankles to gently push her feet out of the silt.  Toph made a strangled sound, half a cry of Katara’s name and half a shout of protest, but stiffened too swiftly to think of returning her feet to the ground.

“Relax,” Katara murmured.  She put her chin on Toph’s forehead, holding the other woman’s head against her chest.  Toph did not open her eyes, for what good it would do her, but her tight jaw began to loosen.  She cast her mind about for something to focus upon.  In the back of her skull, she felt a slow, rhythmic pulse.  In her ear, she heard low sounds, as if a hand had patted a drum, in time with the pulse.

“Your heart is really loud from this close,” Toph said.  Katara chuckled, and the muscles in Toph’s legs began to relax.  The water pushed at her body with the waves, but Katara only let her be rocked gently from side to side.  She remained level, head out of the water and Katara’s heartbeat in her ear.  Toph opened her eyes after a time, blinking when she noticed Katara’s chin on her forehead.

“Are you making the water do this?” she asked.

“Do what?” Katara asked in turn.

“Keep me off the ground,” Toph replied.

“No,” Katara said with a smile.  “You’re floating by yourself—no bending needed.”  She lifted her head, looking down at Toph’s face.  “How do you like it?”  Toph blinked, feeling the waves lap against her chest.  The sun warmed the skin of her shoulders, the cool water stopping halfway on her upper arms.  She blinked again, and there was no difference between the images of blackness.  Her hand rose out of the water, reaching slowly to touch Katara’s chin.

“It’s still kind of weird,” Toph said.  “But it’s not awful.”

“Ready to learn how to swim, then?” Katara asked with a grin.  Toph’s hand slid up Katara’s cheek to push at the end of her nose.

“Not really,” Toph said, grinning crookedly.  “I think I’ll be staying on solid ground, where I can see.”  She bent her knees, pulling her legs down through the water to sink into the silt.  She stood, lifting her head from Katara’s chest, and turned about.  With their toes almost touching, there was no haziness in the image Toph felt from Katara.  Smiling, Toph leaned forward, waiting until their foreheads touched before tipping Katara’s chin up for a kiss.  When they parted, Toph grinned once more and took one of Katara’s hands.  They waded back to the shore, Toph dragging only her heels against the silt as they walked.

The moment her toes were out of the water, Toph kicked a solid stone patch up from under the silt at the water’s edge.  She turned on heel and fell onto the stone and her rear, drawing up her knees and digging divots in the damp sand between stone and water with her heels.  She offered a hand to Katara, guiding the other woman to sit with her, Katara’s back to Toph’s chest.  Toph wrapped her arms around Katara’s shoulders, and Katara nuzzled back against Toph, drumming her fingers slowly on Toph’s knees.

“You really like having me in your lap,” Katara remarked, chuckling.

“I told you, I like being the one holding you,” Toph replied.  One of her hands drifted up the curve of muscle that connected Katara’s shoulder and neck, fingers pausing on the damp cloth of the choker.  She followed the choker to the pendant and rubbed her thumb along its edge.

“Do you only promise on your mother’s necklace?” she asked.  Katara’s hands stilled, moving to lie flat on Toph’s knees.

“It means a lot for me to promise on my mother’s necklace,” Katara sighed.

“I know,” Toph said, patting Katara’s shoulder with her free hand.  She did not let go of the pendant, thumb still rubbing gently at its edge.  “Would it mean anything to promise on this one?”

“Toph, stop,” Katara murmured.  “Please.  I just—this is going to hurt Aang so much.  I don’t even know how to start to tell him.”  Toph’s thumb stopped for a moment before moving to rest on the pendant’s face.  She rubbed her thumb over the pendant slowly, each centimeter’s movement taking full seconds.  Katara blinked, unable to look down.  A minute passed by before Toph took her hand away from the stone.

“It wouldn’t be that hard to start,” she said.  Katara reached up and touched the pendant, rubbing her fingers on its face.  The inverted triangle of swirls had vanished, replaced instead by an open-bottomed, flat-topped pyramid enclosing a single whirl imprint.  The imprinting was clean, the edges smooth and angles sharp.  Katara blinked, lips twitching up to a small smile.

“That’s—Toph,” she said, words bursting from her mouth in rushes of laughter.  Toph grinned, closing her hand around Katara’s and the pendant.

“No, that’s the Earth Kingdom mark,” Toph said.  “Do you like it?”

“I—I do,” Katara stuttered.  She pressed her thumb hard against the whirl in the center of the stone.  Her smile weakened as her thumb came away, and she sighed.  “But—put it back.  Please.”

“Why?” Toph asked.

“Aang made that for me,” Katara replied, her voice quiet.  “I don’t want to tell him like that.”  Toph sighed, grin fading to a faint scowl.  She took the pendant in hand once again, carefully restoring the Air Nomad’s mark to the stone.  She dropped her hand when she was finished, her chin falling to rest on Katara’s shoulder.

“Katara, how do you want to tell him?” she asked.  “We’re going to talk to him tonight when he comes back.  Shouldn’t we think about it now?”  Katara sighed once more, leaning her head against Toph’s.

“We should,” she said.  Nothing more was said for another full minute.  Toph blew a puff of air between her pursed lips, lifting her head from Katara’s shoulder.

“But you don’t want to,” Toph said.

“I just want to know how to tell him first!” Katara protested.  “Toph, do you know how happy he was when I accepted this necklace?”

“As happy as I was when you kissed me last night?” Toph asked in turn.  Katara did not reply, and Toph squeezed her around the shoulders when more time had passed in silence  “Katara, I’m not saying we try to hurt him.  He’s just going to get hurt no matter what we say to him.”  Katara drew in a deep breath, letting it out in another sigh.  She shook her head slowly, reaching down from Toph’s knee to pick up a pebble.  The pebble, tossed in a high arc, vanished under the water’s surface with a quiet plop.  Katara dropped her hand back onto Toph’s knee, and Toph reached to lace their fingers together.

“Can I think of how to tell him?” Katara asked.  “Just for a little while?”

“What’s a ‘little while?’”  Katara smiled halfheartedly and squeezed Toph’s fingers.

“Can you believe that I want to ask for Sokka’s advice?” she asked.  Toph blinked.

“The scary thing is that I can,” she said.  Katara giggled, stopping the sound quickly by biting her lip.  Toph chuckled quietly, and the tension that had appeared so quickly in Katara’s shoulders began to weaken.  She gripped Toph’s hand tightly, turning to look at Toph’s face.

“Please, Toph?” Katara asked.  “I’ll think of what to say to Aang.”  Toph sighed, but did not take her hand from Katara’s.

“Promise?” she asked.  Katara smiled, kissing Toph’s cheek.

“On my mother’s necklace,” she said.  Toph smiled and nodded slowly.

“All right,” she said.  “But ignore Sokka if he tells you to do something stupid.”

“It’d be something new if I didn’t ignore him,” Katara said.  Toph rolled her eyes, moving to tickle Katara’s side with her free hand.  Katara giggled and laughed, burrowing back against Toph’s chest and twisting about to avoid Toph’s fingers.  Toph stopped only when Katara was panting for breath and tears were rolling from her eyes.  They settled against one another, smiling and letting the sun dry their clothes.  As the afternoon came, they continued to lounge together in the quiet, eating when they grew hungry and playing in the water when the sunlight grew too hot.  When all other ideas had failed, Toph had laid down on a dry patch of earth, closing her eyes and drifting, immediately, to sleep.  Katara joined her on the ground only, watching the other woman’s face as she slept and thinking of nothing while she smiled.

The afternoon had begun to wane, shadows growing long, when Katara sighed and lifted her head from its familiar resting place on Toph’s chest.  She sat up, Toph lying prone, asleep, on the ground.  It took more than a fair share of quiet entreaties, sharp prods, and gentle kisses to wake Toph and make her rise to her feet.  Silently, Katara and Toph gathered their things, Toph changing back into her dry clothes and Katara bending the water from the cloth she was wrapped in.

The idea of another race never came to either of them.  Toph simply pulled level stone platforms from the sea, following the coastline in its wide, slight curve.  She and Katara walked, hand in hand, back to the courtyard of Katara’s house.  The sun was nearly below the horizon when they arrived.  By the time Katara had dressed properly and the two of them had set about lighting candles, night had fallen.  It was not long before they heard the lowing moans of a sky bison in the distance, and Aang’s shouted admonishments for Appa to take care while landing in the courtyard.

Toph stood to one side and Katara rushed forward when the bison’s six feet touched the ground.  Two people leapt down from the saddle, one landing heavily and the other barely creating a vibration in the earth.  Toph ignored the cheery shouts as Katara and Sokka hugged each other, focusing instead on Aang’s light footsteps as he strode toward her.

“Here they are,” Aang said, chuckling.  Toph nodded, blinking once when Suki landed on the ground, Sokka’s proffered assistance unnecessary.  Aang smiled as Suki kissed away Sokka’s exaggerated pout.  When he looked at Katara, he blinked, smile fading as memory returned to him.

“Hey, Toph?” he said.  “What was it that you and Katara wanted to talk about this morning?”  Toph did not blink, her head tilted forward and her eyes aimed at the ground.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she replied.  She started forward before Aang could think of the flatness of her voice.  “Come on, Twinkle Toes.”  Aang blinked as Toph strode straight to Sokka and slapped her hands against his cheeks.  When he saw the dirty handprints she left behind, he laughed, shrugged, and went back to join the small group with a smile on his face.

—to be continued—