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*
"Toooff...Toph?"
Everything clears up in her hearing after it's been muffled. By being unconscious.
Grunting, she sits up.
The side of her shoulder and her head keep aching... did somebody punch her lanterns out? Or was it a bad fall?
"It's Katara, Toph. You're finally awake," comes a voice from the nearby girl healing her. "Thank goodness. How are you feeling?"
"Fine, I guess... who is Toph?" she asks, becoming a little confused.
After a period of long and horror-struck silence, Katara yells for 'Aang' and for 'Sokka'... whoever they are.
(Guess nothing's really fine after all.)
*
"What do you MEAN that Toph doesn't REMEMBER her own name?!"
"Sokka, calm down." Another girl whispers, patting over Sokka's arm, "This isn't helping."
Katara clucks her tongue in agreement, passing her bowl of healing water to Aang. "Exactly, Suki. Like she said, we need to stay calm."
"B-but what ELSE doesn't she remember?!!"
"Um, hello? I'm right here, you know," Toph complains softly, picking at one of her big toe-nails.
She sniffs what's underneath.
"Ew, ew..."
In a hurry, somebody crouches down in front of her. (Even though she's blind, Toph makes that out as anything else.)
"Toph? It's your old pal, Sokka, here. How many fingers am I holding up?"
A round of groans. Katara hisses out "Sokka!" while he thumps his forehead with a palm.
"Oh, right... hey, hey!, we all forget Toph is blind sometimes..." Sokka mumbles, and they go quiet as Toph bursts out laughing. Her arms wrap to her stomach as she laughs and laughs, Toph's head aching fiercely. For some reason, the metal canister by Toph bends out-of-shape.
"Ha!... I like you guys. You're funny," Toph says smiling and not noticing how Sokka's cheeks warm.
From the doorway, Aang and Suki smother their own laughter into their hands.
Toph wonders if this is what having friends is like?
(Shouldn't she... know?)
*
Wherever this place is, it is hot. Beachy.
The ground feels like it vibrates all of Toph's senses she has.
She overhears Aang talking to one of the other boys. A 'Zuko'. They talk about 'Firelord Ozai' and what to do if Toph isn't better by 'Sozin's Comet'... whatever that all means. (Katara heals with 'waterbending' and Toph hasn't been able to 'earthbend' since losing her memories.)
Zuko avoids her. Toph doesn't know why. And it's bugging her.
"Oh! Do you need help, Toph?"
Suki's voice drifts in, and Toph gets a sense of her all fuzzy and broken up. Like the sands.
"Probably, yeah," Toph admits, grabbing Suki's arm like a lifeline as both of them head into the grass. "I'm having trouble... seeing."
"You've been really honest lately. And not so grumpy. It's nice." Suki then lets out an embarrassed noise. Toph can feel how Suki's heart pounds in response to her emotions by touching Suki's arm. "N-not that it is nice you don't remember anything, Toph," she insists, "just... dear Kyoshi, what I mean is... if you were yourself right now, you wouldn't have accepted my help. That's all. So it is nice you are."
"Really?" Toph wrinkles her nose. "Why wouldn't I?"
"I dunno... it's just not who you are, Toph. Let's go get some lunch, huh? I think Katara's making fish stew."
*
It's just not who you are, Toph.
So... who is she?
The night air smells salty and cool. Toph arranges herself on a boulder, listening, learning the world around her.
"Hey, Toph. I thought I might find you here outside," Aang says, and he talks like he walks around, Toph realizes. It's light and pleasant. "We're on the outskirts of the Fire Nation for now. It wasn't safe to be where we were before. We travel and hide a lot... what's wrong?"
Toph huffs a little at Aang's question while he sits.
(What's wrong? What's wrong besides EVERYTHING not making sense?)
"I overheard you and Zuko," she mutters, frowning. "Am I supposed to be training you? For ending a War?"
"Don't worry." Aang sounds like he's grinning through the words. Maybe that's how he usually is. A part of Toph feels irritated, and the other part feels... good around him. "You've trained me on a lot. It's my fault for not reinforcing my earth-domes enough when you break them apart."
For a moment, Toph's fingers clench like a muscle-reflex. As if mimicking it.
By their feet, unnoticed, a beach pebble rattles.
"I keep waiting for someone to tell me what happened to me... Katara doesn't seem to want to."
The air grows heavier when Aang doesn't say anything at first.
But Toph isn't going to give up.
Somehow she knows it isn't her to give up. At all.
"Katara was the one who pulled you out of the waterfall," Aang explains, even more heavily. "You jumped in. You called Zuko a 'chicken-hog' for not wanting to jump from the canyon's wall with you. But it was so high... the melon-cart guy even said jumping was too dangerous." Aang's next breath shudders. "Zuko told you not to do it right before you got hurt... so I think he feels guilty most of all. He didn't stop you."
Swallowing, Toph reaches for the half-healed wound on her head. Katara tries to heal her memory, too. Everything aches again.
"I jumped and hit myself on something?"
"Rocks," Aang tells her. "There was rocks under the water too."
Toph's mouth flattens.
"Rocks?" she repeats back in disbelief. "But I'm an earthbender... I didn't move the rocks away?"
"You said you would miss them and didn't need to... then, there was blood." She hears a sniffle, and hears how Aang runs a hand wetly under his nose and over a eyelid. "It's my fault, Toph. Not Zuko's," he confesses like it's some secret. "I could earthbend, too. And I didn't."
Opening her hand between them, Toph waits. For Aang's snot-covered fingers to wrap around hers. Ew, ew.
"It's not anybody's fault, Aang."
"Thanks."
*
In the middle of waking up, Toph gasps. Unable to breathe. Water... water filling her lungs. Pain leaks hot from Toph's broken head.
She jolts upright with a living furball latched onto Toph's nostrils and lips.
"Geddoffme, Momo—"
Toph then gasps out, much more low. "Momo? Momo?" she says excitedly. "I remember you!"
Stomping out to the warm coastal grass, Toph hears Aang's sky-bison grazing for a morning snack.
"You too, Appa!" she shouts over the wind, cupping her hands.
Roaring back, Appa distracts everybody else...
"Toph?"...
"Are you okay, Toph!"...
"Is it Fire Nation soldiers!?? Lemme at 'em!"...
"Sokka!"...
"What's going on, Toph?"...
Toph runs into everyone's direction, smiling without holding herself back, jumping into Katara's and Aang's arms. One of Toph's arms wrap to Zuko's neck. She hugs a blushing and bewildered Sokka after a moment, and then, hugs Suki who hugs Toph with all of the enthusiasm possible...
Her friends...
"Thanks, you guys."
*