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Aang sat in the clearing, face tilted toward the morning sun. Breathe in… breathe out. He forced his thoughts away from betrayal of the past few days and reached out with his mind toward the Spirit World.
Do you think we could be friends in another life?
He scowled. Not likely after that stunt he pulled in the cave. Traitor. What did she see in him when he, the actual Avatar, was right there, offering her the world?
A pebble whacked him on the back of the head.
“Hey Twinkletoes! You’re late.”
“Go away, Toph. I’m trying to meet with my past lives.”
She plopped down next to him, wiggling her toes. “Sounds boring. Whaddya wanna do that for?”
“I have to figure out how to fix what Zuko screwed up.”
“What does that mean?” Toph sat up and crossed her arms.
“Everything had been fine - no, perfect , before stupid Zuko showed up and stole everything from me. So now I need to figure out how to fix it.”
“So let me get this straight - you want to invoke your past lives, possibly triggering the Avatar State, because the girl you have a crush on is kissing somebody else.”
“Toph, it’s not a crush! I love her! We are destined to be together. She’s my Forever Girl, the reason I wake up in the morning, the reason I’m doing all of this! I can’t give her up.”
Another rock cracked him in the head. “That is the stupidest shit I have ever heard in my entire life. Katara is a person, you entitled dumbass. She’s not a fucking trophy!”
Aang jumped to his feet. “Now you just sound like him ! Why can’t any of you see how wrong this is?”
“Why can’t YOU see that you’re acting like a toddler who lost his favorite toy? Sparky’s great and he’s great for her. You’re too busy sulking to see it.”
“He chased us around the world!”
“Yeah. He did. And then, when it really mattered, when his back was against the wall and his sister was offering him the world on a silver fucking platter, he chose you. Not Katara, though that probably was a factor. Not even his uncle. He chose you.”
“Yeah right. He probably is planning to hand me over to Azula as soon as we get across the border.”
Aang barely evaded the boulder she shot at him. “You idiot . You absolute fucking moron . Do you hear yourself right now? You want to whine about ‘losing everything.’ He did lose everything. You do realize that he can’t ever go home again, that his uncle might not ever be the same, even with Sweetness healing him?”
“At least he has a home! His family destroyed mine, killed my people!”
Toph sobered. “They did.”
“See? He shouldn’t be with us.”
“No, Aang. They did. Sozin and Azulon and Ozai and the Fire Nation Armies. If you want to be angry with someone, Iroh is a better target than Zuko.”
“I don’t care. Leave me alone.” He sunk back to the ground and closed his eyes. Please, Yangchen… Roku… someone. I need you. I need help.
Another pebble hit his forehead. “ Would you stop that??”
“Nope,” Toph said with a pop. “It’s up to you to win this for us, and you can’t do that without Firebending. I know Snoozle’s been hounding you to learn. So I’m going to stay here and be as annoying as possible until you get your head out of your ass.”
“I won’t do it and you can’t make me. I gave up everything for Katara because I love her. I’m not going to learn from him .”
Something in his voice sent a chill down her spine. “What did you do, Aang?”
“... Nothing?”
Toph trapped his feet in stone. “I know you’re lying. What the fuck did you do? ”
“IkindofgaveuptheAvatarstate!”
“ WHAT. ”
“I… sort of…”
“No, I fucking heard you. I know you’ve got rocks for brains, but how could even you be so stupid?”
“It’s not stupid, Toph! It’s destiny!”
“It’s horseshit! You gave up the Avatar State - the one tool we have in our arsenal to save the whole entire goddamned world - over a girl??”
“The Guru said I had to give up worldly attachments, but then Katara was in danger in Ba Sing Se and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t give her up.”
“Aang. I need you to look me in the eyes right now.”
He cautiously lifted his gaze from the ground, just to get pummelled with a shower of stones.
“Of all the boneheaded idiotic moronic stupid foolish batshit bullshit you’ve spouted over the last year, this has to be a new low. She -” rock “does- “ rock “not - “ rock “like you. She treats you like her baby brother at best and her child at worst.”
“She does not! Why would you say that?”
“Because everyone with a pulse can tell except you! Even if Zuko was out of the picture, she still wouldn’t date you . And you are risking the fate of the entire fucking world over someone who will not ever, ever return your one-sided oblivious-ass idiot crush. Get over yourself. You want to fix something? Fix your own damn head.”
Toph freed his feet with a huff. “I’m going to tell them what you did. And if you think I’m angry? Wait until you see what your ‘Forever Girl’ has to say. I don’t think you’ll like what you see.”
With that parting shot, she stomped back towards camp.