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The Price of Peace	By : Looneyluna Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > Het - Male/Female > Katara/Zuko Views: 19137 -:- 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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Chapter Twenty-two

--

Heaving a contended sigh, Toph felt the vibrations of recovery through Gaoling. Farmers were replanting the fields. Carpenters and masonries were rebuilding and Sokka was as far away as possible.

Life was good.

Not even the threat of a psycho Fire Nation princess bent on revenge could ruin her day.

She wiped the sweat from her brow as she planted some seeds in her father’s garden. She should be out in the fields with the farmers, but her father had become agitated when she had mentioned it and she had capitulated. Much to her chagrin, the only person who seemed capable of calming her father was Sokka.

And he reminded her every chance he got, promising things to her father that made her blood boil.

Like she would ever marry his scrawny ass!

Sure, he could kiss like a demon, but he had the annoying habit of grating on every last nerve that she possessed. Of course, Aang and Katara had honed in on her obvious displeasure and hadn’t stopped teasing her since. Meng, Aang’s girlfriend, was at least nice about it.

It was a toss-up. She honestly didn’t know who she wanted to bury first, Sokka, Aang or Katara. She should probably start with Sokka.

One day she had finally made it out of her family compound. Sokka had hounded her, blocking her path in anticipation of an attack. He had tripped her so many times that she had buried him up to his waist. When he started screaming at her to let him go, she had honored his request. The earth had released him and had raised two stories into the air.

She had intended to trap him on the gilded tower to show him what it was like. But he had adopted the blasted “watchtower” as a strategic advantage. It was thanks to Aang that Sokka had finally been able to climb down.

That’s where Sokka was now, the watchtower – blissfully out of her hair and not under foot. Thank the Goddess for small favors.

Patting the dirt onto the seeds she had planted, she leaned back. “Okay, Sugar Queen. Lay some water on me!”

Katara bristled as Toph used the title she had given her long ago. Smirking, she watered the dirt mounds the young Earthbender had painstakingly planted by hand, then took the rest and doused her with it.

“Hey!” Toph sputtered indignantly, pulling the ground from beneath Katara’s feet in retribution.

In the distance they heard the sound of the small handheld bell Sokka had equipped the watchtower with, which meant one of two things. Either Sokka was having some kind of fit or the kids had climbed into the tower and were ringing it again. Either way, the bell didn’t really work as an alarm system.

Finding a dry patch of ground, Toph dug her bare toes into the ground and “looked” past the fields and into the village. The bell continued to ring, the agitation of the rippling sounds belying the urgency of the matter. She tried to “see” past the outer structures of Gaoling, but even she had her limits.

Katara hurried past her, opening the heavy gate and leaving it open.

“Wait up!” Toph shouted after her.

--

“Do you think it’s her?” Sokka squinted into the distance and continued ringing the bell. All he could see was a dust cloud as it steadily advanced toward Gaoling. His imagination was his worst enemy.

Surely Azula would be more subtle. The ominous dust cloud just didn’t seem like her style.

“I don’t know,” answered Aang over the clanging bell. “I can’t glide out there. I forgot my staff.”

“What about Appa?”

Aang shook his head and looked over his shoulder reassuringly at Meng, who had been watching the children of the village while their parents helped with the various reconstruction projects around town. “He has a cold…and he’s shedding.

Will you stop ringing the bell! I think everybody has heard it by now!” Aang shouted, putting both hands over his ears for emphasis.

Nodding, Sokka set the bell down and climbed down the rickety ladder.

“What is it?” Katara shouted breathlessly as she ran up to the watchtower.

“Right now, it’s a dust cloud,” Aang announced, skipping the ladder and jumping off the tower. He landed with the practiced ease of an Airbender.

“It’s an advancing army!” Sokka blurted.

The Gaoling residents made a collective gasp of panic as Toph joined the crowd.

“No it’s not!” Aang and Toph shouted in unison, trying to calm the nervous masses. Yes, she was a master Earthbender and he was the Avatar, but their fighting abilities did little to calm them against Sokka’s pronounced paranoia.

Toph sighed, trying to block all the noise and “sights” around her. She needed to concentrate if she were to “see” what the idiot was blabbering about. “Everyone be quiet!”

Heeding the petite mistress’ command, the surrounding people grew quiet. Everyone, except Sokka, who was preparing for battle.

Closing her eyes, Toph burrowed her toes into the soft earth. She clicked her heel down and pinged the earth as far as she could. Her perception altered as she focused in the direction of the “advancing army.” She ignored the shuffling feet of the nervous villagers and took a step forward.

“Can you see anything?” Aang asked softly, knowing she was concentrating. He was the only one who understood how she “saw” the world. In teaching him how to earthbend, she had taught him how to see things differently. She was much better at it than he was. He knew what she was doing.

The sight wave came back to her with images so detailed it took her breath away and gave her a slight headache. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “It’s a man on an ostrich horse.”

“How do you know it’s a man?” Sokka said, a note of jealousy peppering his inflection.

“Because I can see that it’s a man, rocks-for-brains,” she retorted, pressing her palm to her forehead and leaning against Aang. She so didn’t want to explain about the details she could see, least of all explain who was coming for dinner.

Aang chuckled and tried to explain how his blind friend saw every little embarrassing detail. “Toph’s ‘sight’ is very detailed. She can see lots of things that we can’t.”

It took Sokka a moment to process the information as Katara clutched her sides and doubled over with laughter. He cupped himself, suddenly feeling very exposed as the detail of Toph’s abilities dawned on him. “You mean she can see that?”

Toph snickered and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Looking” as far as she had had created one hell of a feedback wave. Her headache wasn’t going to go away easily. “Trust me, rock-head. Seeing you naked all the time is not my life’s ambition.”

Katara dropped to her knees. She was laughing so hard that the only sounds she made were strangled gasps of breath. Most of the villagers dispersed, while some watched her laughing fit with keen interest.

“Is she going to be okay?” Meng asked, touching Toph’s arm and helping her toward the nearest bench.

Not one to be coddled, Toph let Aang and Meng help her along. She smiled knowingly, appreciating the irony of what was to come and realizing her chance to get even with Katara for teasing her about Sokka’s intentions was at hand. “She’ll be fine. Won’t you, Sugar Queen?”

Katara snorted loudly, waving her hand toward Toph.

Meng looked baffled.

Aang shook his head. “Any idea who it is? What do they want?”

Toph sat down and leaned against the bench. “Yes, and I’m not a mind-reader.”

“Well,” Aang coaxed, “who is it?”

Toph stretched, rounding her shoulders and dragging the moment out. “It’s Zuko. He’s probably here to collect Sugar Queen.”

--

TBC

Author’s notes – I know I am an evil cliffhanger witch. Would it help if I told you that the next chapter is already written? It’s very short though. I didn’t want the big reunion chapter to be so huge it wouldn’t upload, so I broke it down to smaller chapters. The next chapter will be up tomorrow.
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- 44
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The Price of Peace