Katoph: In Between the Lines

Lake Laogai

[A/N] Hey! Thank you for being super patient with me. I highly, highly appreciate it. So, if you couldn't already tell, this is a longer chapter than usual (it's 4500+ words long). If you guys are more into a certain length (short/medium/long) of stories, let me know and I'll see if I can adjust it. Regardless, enjoy the read! ;)

x

Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph all trailed behind Jet as he offered to take them to a place where Appa might've been. It was a silent and awkward walk, the tension being so hot and heavy, the words would evaporate before they could roll out of your tongue. It really didn't help that Katara's eyes basically burnt through the back of Jet's head. Whatever happened must've been pretty bad, Toph thought. She always knew Katara to be forgiving, and it was painful to say the least. Of course there were days fights between the two would be so intense that if one of them heard the other breathe, all hell would break loose. But the next day, the water bender would have the audacity to apologize and ease the earth bender simply with her annoyingly sweet voice and her annoyingly gentle touch. Katara was everything Toph wasn't. How can she be so nice and considerate? How can someone like Katara be so naïve?

It didn't matter right now anyways, Toph inwardly grinned as she felt how tense and ready to pounce the water bender was. It was a side of Katara that she hardly got to see, if at all, and the thought kind of saddened the young girl. Oh how better they'd get along if she was always like this. But her happiness was quickly taken away once she picked up on Jet's subtle head movement, to which she can only assume was towards Katara based on how the older girl's shoulders perked up, as if to hide her face, and how her heart started racing. Pain seared through Toph's chest like holding scalding hot tea. She could only avoid her feelings for so long.

There were two things she hated more than Katara's caring nature. One of them was none other than Katara herself. It made her blood boil the way Katara would elegantly move her body as she bent water; swiveling her arms ever so smoothly and her legs moving in correspondence to her pushing and pulling. Katara knew she was good at water bending, and you could tell just by watching her bend. It was in her shoulders; the way they'd punctuate with grace and confidence, screaming I've done this a thousand times and I can do it for a thousand more. And Toph hated the way Katara would warmly greet each one of the Gaang post-workout so as to nonchalantly say, yeah I can do some of the hardest techniques but I'm too humble to brag about it. It irked Toph how reserved she was. So when it was her turn to be greeted, Katara would say, "hey Toph!" and all she could say back was, "what's up Sweetness," because how could she ever stay mad? There was something so alluring, so captivating, so magnetic about the water bender. The young girl would scoff whenever she noticed some stranger absolutely swoon over the sight of Katara. How stupid, she'd think. How can you fall for someone you don't even know?

But she does know Katara. So why did the earth bender still feel so stupid? Above Katara and everything else, Toph hated herself the most. She didn't know exactly when her feelings passed a certain point, but once she realized it, she shoved it down a box and threw it as far away from her mind as possible. But who knew that disobedience was relentless? After her heart absurdly chose Katara to fall for, she had no reason to believe that her brain would repel any thoughts of the older girl. As a matter of fact, her brain practically welcomed those thoughts and it infuriated Toph endlessly. These thoughts crept its way into her mind at night before she'd fall asleep or when she'd sit about, minding her own business. And as she tried to fight each thought back, she stayed strong, holding a sturdy stance-- bending rock walls up, hurling boulders, and spraying pebbles like a machine at each invading thought. But it was no use, she was outnumbered. Before she knew it, Katara was all she could ever think about.