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The Price of Peace	By : Looneyluna Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > Het - Male/Female > Katara/Zuko Views: 19176 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Interlude Twenty –

Feeling the crickets hop along the ground, Toph sighed and listened to their song. She flexed her toes into the soft dirt and closed her eyes, mentally chastising herself not to relax her guard too much. It was her job to protect her father.

She frowned at that thought, pondering the irony around her present circumstances. All her life, he had protected her. Now, he barely knew she existed. Ever since her mother’s death, her father had walked a fine ledge – a ledge between sanity and madness. He was more mad than sane nowadays, a walking shell of the man he used to be.

The village was slowly recovering. People had started to return once they heard that the Avatar was here. Of course, they did not know the real reason behind his extended visit – to capture the bitch of a Fire Nation princess. It was a long shot at best, but Aang had vowed to stay with her family for as long as he was needed.

From what Aang had told her, it was likely that Azula would double back and tie up loose ends. She was an unknown quantity. She could be anywhere. She could do anything. Aang’s purpose was two-fold. He was here to protect her father and Meng, the girl who had survived the attack at Mt. Mahaku.

Toph grinned. It’s about time Twinkle-toes got married and started repopulating the Air Nomad ranks. He wasn’t getting any younger. As much as Aang liked Meng, he kept the young Earth Kingdom girl at arm’s length, which frustrated Meng to no end. Aang had always had a thing for Katara. Maybe he was still nursing a broken heart over her marriage to Zuko.

Either way, she was just glad he was here. Yeah, she could take Azula, but she would rather have backup.

Feeling the vibrations of footsteps behind her, Toph tensed. She recognized the tread of the person instantly – Sokka. He was in stalking mode, checking up on her to make sure she was okay. It was ridiculous. She could take care of herself. Add that and the fact that she had practically begged him to…

She shook the humiliating thought from her head and felt her cheeks grow warm. “Go away, Boomerang guy. I don’t need or want your company.”

Squaring his shoulders, Sokka sighed and continued to walk toward Toph. Ever since they had kissed, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. She had viewed his refusal as rejection, but the truth of the matter was that he respected her too much to rush things. Yes, he had respected Suki and Yue, but that was a different time. The world was about to end. Just this once, he didn’t want to be hurry things. He wanted to take them nice and slow.

Of course, conflict had a way of finding him. When Aang had come back with the news that Azula was alive… Well, he wanted to find Katara and make sure she was okay. He still had nightmares of Azula dragging Katara through that river. To see his sister so beaten that she couldn’t even harness the power of her element sent shivers down his spine. But she was safe at the South Pole. Azula would never try to get to Katara there. Azula would never survive the trip. She was too much like her brother in that respect. She never thought things through.

Zuko’s latest plan was seriously flawed. If he thought for one minute that Katara was going to simply stay at the South Pole, he was sadly mistaken.

Keeping the flute he had carved behind his back, Sokka approached Toph. “Like it or not, I’m here to stay.”

He immediately regretted his antagonistic remark. Old habits died hard, after all. Her mild frown turned into a deep scowl and she crossed her arms over her chest. “Not if I have anything to do with it.”

“Your father likes me,” he reminded her, unable to resist the urge to rub that fact in.

Toph blew the hair out of her eyes and shifted on the balls of her feet. “My father would like a platypus bear right about now.”

Sokka smirked. He did not let the snippy banter dissuade him. “That’s an improvement. Yesterday, you compared me to a purple pentapus.”

Tapping one of her feet in irritation, she glowered at him and asked the question that would hopefully get rid of him. “What do you want?”

Sokka cleared his throat and pulled the flute from behind his back. “I wanted to give you something.”

“Why?” she snapped.

Rolling his eyes, he took a steadying breath. Perhaps kissing her senseless wasn’t such a bad idea after all. “Because today is the day you were born.”

“Huh?”

“We celebrate birthdays by giving presents.”

“Yeah, so do we. But we don’t exchange gifts until the New Year. Why would you get me a present anyway?” Her ire grew as she felt her heart pound in an unfamiliar rhythm.

“Because we’re friends,” replied Sokka, inwardly cringing. “And I like you.”

The friend word stuck like a knife. Aang was her friend. Katara was her friend. Even Zuko was her friend. She had enough friends! With a heavy sigh, she controlled the impulse to knock Sokka on his ass and walk away. “Gosh, I’m honored.”

He could hear the sarcasm in her voice and frowned. This wasn’t going exactly as planned. Heaving an exasperated sigh, he grabbed her hand and placed the bone flute in it. He folded her fingers over it and started to walk away. “Happy birthday anyway.”

“What is it?” Toph asked quickly, running her fingers over the smooth surface. There were grooves in the cool material and it had a pointed end.

Stopping, Sokka turned around. “It’s a flute. I carved it from whale bone.”

A small hesitant smile graced her lips. “Oh…I…uh…thanks…I don’t know how to um play it.”

His frown turned into a wide smile and he snagged the opportunity to show her how much he liked her. Brushing his fingers against the hand that held the flute, Sokka wrapped his other arm around her waist. “That’s okay. I can teach you.”

Her mouth went dry and she froze like a bull antelope in the middle of a field of cabbages. He was standing behind her, encircling her with his arms. She closed her eyes, focusing on the thundering beat of his heart she could feel through the earth.

“Oh,” was all she could manage to say, as she turned her face toward his.

“Happy birthday, Toph,” he whispered, bending down and touching his lips to hers before she came to her senses and knocked him on his ass. Vowing to take things slowly, he kept the kiss simple. He had received enough whalebone from his father to carve the flute and something extra.

He had followed Aang to the Southern Air Temple years ago, partly as a measure of support for his friend and partly because he didn’t know where else to go. He didn’t want to return to the drudgeries of the Southern Water Tribe. He didn’t want to return to the Northern Water Tribe. He doubted that he could face the memories of Yue. He toyed with the idea of visiting Kyoshi Island, but decided against that due to the way things ended with Suki. He shuddered as he contemplated the broader implications of his wonderings.

Opening his eyes, he stared into Toph’s heavy-lidded misty green eyes and turned her petite frame in his arms so that she did not have to crane her neck in such a painful manner. Just as he started to deepen the kiss, Toph stomped hard onto the top of his boot and slid out of his embrace.

“Ouch!” exclaimed Sokka, the romantic stupor he had been cultivating suddenly crashing around him. “What did you do that for?”

Toph crouched low to the ground, lightly touching the hard soil and confirming the vibrations she felt with her feet. “Somebody is heading this way…fast…on an ostrich horse.”

Forgetting about the throbbing ache of his foot, Sokka ran ahead of Toph and unsheathed his boomerang. “Go! Run! Go get Aang!”

Growling, Toph rushed Sokka and kicked his feet out from under him. “You run and get Aang! I’ll take care of the mystery rider.”

He hit the ground hard, watching Toph’s silhouette gracefully swoop toward the earth, causing a ripple of the ground to rise and move toward the unsuspecting rider. The sun had set, but the moon shone bright. The grinding sound of the earthen wave hurtled toward the rider and Sokka realize that he was holding his breath.

The wave cut off the path of rider and ostrich horse, startling the beast and causing it to throw its rider.

The rider landed with an undignified “umpf.”

Toph paused, “seeing” who the rider was through the vibrations of the ground. “Sugar Queen?”

Sokka ran toward the intruder, slowing as he neared the grumbling rider.

“Like my butt wasn’t sore enough,” a familiar voice groused loudly.

Sokka stopped in his tracks, slightly winded from running the distance across the field. “Katara?”

--

TBC

A/N – Today, I got my stitches out and my cast off and my hand hurts like hell. Therefore, I doubt there will be an update any time soon. It’ll be a couple of days before I start working on the next chapter. Thanks for all the well wishes!
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The Price of Peace