Who We Are

Loyal part two.

Toph.

She stood there, her mouth hanging open.

To say she was shocked was an understatement. Usually she trusted Aang's judgement but when she heard him tell the low life responsible for Bay-lings death and Appa's near one, that they needed to talk, she questioned his sanity.

"Are you kidding me?! This dude killed Bay-ling and almost killed Appa!...and me!" She added as an afterthought.

"I know, but-"

"But nothing Aang!" She cut him off, coming to stand before him. "I can't believe you! I'm going to check on Appa since you don't have the guts to handle this the way it should be."
She shoved passed him, bumping his shoulder.

"Toph wait-" Aang tried to stop her, gently grabbing her arm to pull her back to him.

"No!" She ripped her arm away. She knew he wasn't a violent person, but the fact he wasn't ripping this guy a new one enraged her. "I'm not standing here while you make nice with this thing!" She shouted, pointing her finger at the man on the ground.

Turning on her heel she stomped off, ignoring her friends calling her name.

She was shaking. Because of that man, she lost her aunt before she even got a chance to know her, on top of nearly dying herself. And she could practically feel Appa's pain from the burn's he suffered.

She had never been so angry with Aang.

*************
Aang.

He had to get her to understand.

He reached for her but she was already walking away.
He was about to go after her but stopped. He had to deal with this first.

"Katara?" He said, turning around to face the waterbender standing beside her husband.

"Of course." She said, running to catch up with her.

He watched them go, his heart heavy.
He hated it when she was upset but after seeing the little girl, he knew he couldn't keep fighting the man.
He couldn't be the monster that took away a child's father.

He rolled his shoulders and sighed deeply. Time to be the Avatar.

He turned his gaze to the man still on the ground with his daughter in his arms. A woman broke through the crowd and dropped to her knees, wrapping her arms around them both.

"Love, I need you to take Sho Young and go home. I'll explain everything to you later, okay?" The man told her.

"Jihoon-" She started to protest but stopped when her husband shook his head.

She untangled her crying daughter and pulled her away.
Aang flinched at the sound of her calling for her daddy.

"Well? Shall we?" Jihoon said standing and brushing the dirt from his pants.

Aang exchanged a meaningful look with Zuko and Xiang before following Jihoon into a small barn.

Time to get some answers.

*************
Katara.

"Toph! Toph wait!"

Toph finally stopped and waited for Katara to catch up.

Coming to stand beside her, Katara waited to see if Toph would speak first.

"Well?" The younger girl said placing her hand on her hip.

"Well what?"

"Well, are you going to give me a lecture about how I spoke to Aang and stormed off or what?" The annoyance practically dripped off her every word.
Katara looked at her friend and noted the dark circles under her eyes and was alarmed to realize she had lost weight as well and her heart twisted.