Heimat | Aang

TWENTY

Toph Beifong, as Tapeesa had learnt, was quite the character to be around. She was stubborn, loud at points, unbelievably blunt as well. It was obvious who she was from the moment she introduced herself to Tapeesa, and it was then she realised most stories about her were true.

She was truly quite small. Tapeesa considered herself a tall woman, her eyes level with Aang's nose as they walked side by side, their attention on Toph as she kept talking about her time teaching earthbenders how to bend metal. She had been moving from city to city, she had learnt, and so far, she seemed to have been disappointed by what she had found, although she didn't seem ready to give up just yet—that was yet another rumour that was true—stubborn as she was, she wasn't about to move on if she wasn't satisfied with her progress. Another rumour that was actually true was that she hardly ever called people by their names, although she doubted she did it because she had forgotten them.

Tapeesa had thought she wouldn't have liked Toph. Not when she was so loud, so expressive in her complaints, so intense. The more she watched her talk to Aang, though, the more she respected and liked her. She was honest with him, hid nothing from him, wasn't afraid to be blunt and straightforward. She knew she cared about him, though, and soon enough, she noticed herself looking forward to her next dry comment.

Aang, on the other hand, hadn't stopped grinning ever since Toph had flung herself at him back in the garden. They had left right then and there as she had dismissed her disciples and now they were just moving around the city, the two old friends exchanging stories. Toph showed them around, all the while never stopping her talking, and it was only when the sun was low on the horizon that she suggested they stopped to have something to eat. With that in mind, they finally headed to a diner Toph claimed she knew the owner.

The moment they got inside, it was truly evident Toph knew where they were. The people working in the diner treated her with bright smiles that only seemed to widen as they caught sight of Aang, the Avatar himself, following after her. Tapeesa brought the rear and even though the patrons were confused, they still greeted her politely despite not knowing who she was.

They sat down, made themselves comfortable, all the while Toph hadn't stopped talking. She had moved from the subject of the port of the city that she claimed was bustling with movement to the dinner she had had in this place the last time she had visited, and anyone would have claimed she was oblivious to everything around her. They couldn't have been more wrong.

Toph couldn't see. At least, not with her eyes. But she could feel. She could hear. Through the ground, she could even see. And she knew what she had seen. So, while she was talking, her senses were on high alert, in tune with anything happening between her two companions.

She hadn't thought anything of it at first. When they had first begun moving around, she had written it off as Aang being friendly, and after he had explained the way they had met, she had thought he was just grateful for all Tapeesa had done for him. There was an undeniable fondness in his tone though, not entirely noticeable, but to Toph, it was glaringly obvious. She could hear the smile in his voice when he spoke, she could feel his body as he moved closer, she could see it with her feet, the movement he did as he glanced at her, the way he reached to brush his arm against her own in an attempt to show her something. She decided early on, his behaviour wasn't a result of gratitude only.

She had been intrigued to realise Tapeesa was responding. She always answered his questions, she heard her smile a couple of times as well, and when Aang reached over to brush an arm against her own, she had felt her heartbeat pick up just a notch. Toph had had a difficulty hiding her smirk for the next couple of hours.

While she had been talking, she had also been paying attention to Tapeesa. She was observing her without looking, in the more discreet way there was. She was curious about her. She learnt how she met Aang, she learnt she was part of the Fire Nation fleet, she learnt she was a waterbender. She wasn't that interested in all of that, however.