Birth Of Fire

Unexpectedly.

Gardening was so time consuming.

Toph huffed as she dug her shovel into the ground, digging a small but deep enough hole to plant a mango tree. They were Aang's favorite, but he ate so many of them that it was hard to keep up with going to town to buy them, and, now that he was pregnant, and eating for two, he ate more than usual.

She wished that she could just earthbend, but Aang had insisted that she take the time and effort to manually plant it. The little monk believes that when you put time and love into plants, they grow faster and healthier.

She blew hair out of her face.

Aang was, of course, helping her a few feet away with a peach tree, so it wasn't as if she was doing it by herself, nor was he making her do anything that he wouldn't do himself.

She had no room to complain. Aang was pregnant and still gardening with a happy face.

Toph adjusted her sun hat and repositioned her sports bra, her boobs were annoyingly big and made her back hurt.

But at least the kid was healthy. She had been worried when he passed out three days ago, but, now he was out here working hard as if he hadn't almost died. It was surreal how fast he got better, but she was not complaining.

At least, not about anything but how time consuming and uncomfortable gardening was.

Especially when, no matter how much she dug, the dry soil would just slip right back into the hole.

She growled in irritation and threw her shovel down when she finally had enough. "Ugh! This is impossible," she all but yelled out.

Aang looked up from his own workplace, putting his own shovel down and getting up to walk over to Toph. He looked down at her hole and laughed. "No wonder you're having trouble Toph, you're supposed to wet the ground a little so the dirt doesn't fall back in." He opened his water pouch "Here." He sprinkled it down into her hole until the dry dirt became a thick black mud.

Toph sighed. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of that. "Thanks. I never thought I would hate dirt so much."

Aang giggled. "You just have to be more patient, Toph. Gardening is supposed to be relaxing."

His own sun hat shadowed his face, which didn't look at all like he had been gardening for the past few hours. He had a little bit of sweat on his brow, but he still looked as if he had the energy of someone who had only just started the task of digging holes and pulling out rocks.

Zuko came up behind them, his own gardening tools in hand. "Gardening is about as relaxing as fighting my sister was." He had dirt on his face, so his attempt in a scowl only made Aang laugh at him.

Katara came out of the house with a tray of drinks. "Who wants watermelon juice?" she called while Zuko furiously tried to wipe off the dirt on his face.

"I do!" Aang excitedly ran over to her, grabbing a cup and chugging the juice down, the sweet cold liquid quenching his burning thirst from working under the hot sun. He hummed in approval as he felt the chill of the liquid travel down his chest into his stomach.

Toph followed him a bit less enthusiastically, but just as ready for a cool drink.

Suddenly she felt something as she sipped threw her curely straw; Sango was looking at her again. She shrugged it off, however; he did that a lot. It used to creep her out while growing up over the last 15 years, but, now, she didn't actually mind. As creepy as it was that she could literally feel his unknown colored eyes on her, she hasn't brought it up in years.

She remembered a time when she was 16, back when Zuko was still Firelord and Aang wasn't # 1 on the world's most wanted, where she was playing with the ducks in Zuko's courtyard. Sango, Minho, Aang and Katara had been the only ones there with her. Zuko was off doing Firelord duties and Sokka was with Suki planning a wedding somewhere. She could hear that Minho was talking to Katara about something, just barely out of earshot, and Sango was sitting on the edge of the pond a few feet away from where she sat playing with some baby ducks.