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[OOM: Toph is annoyed with everyone. (Spoilers for The Western Air Temple.)]

The door to Milliways flies open and Toph comes sailing through, landing on her face in the middle of the floor. She pushes herself up with her arms, grumbling things that would make a sailor blush. She scurries across the floor on her hands and knees until she reaches a table. Letting out a groan, she pulls herself into a chair, careful not to touch the pink and tender soles of her feet against the floor.

It's been a while since she's been in the bar, so she keeps an ear out for familiar voices. She plays with a fork that she grabbed from the table as she listens, molding it absentmindedly into various strange shapes.

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"That'd be a reasonable assumption, I think," Zuko points out. "Since Ba Sing Se."

The metalhead is making him stare. It's strangely hypnotic.

She shrugs, the face turning into a frown. "The others are pretty mad at you. I, being the only voice of reason among those lunkheads, think you're okay as long as you're not throwing around fire like a crazy person."

"...huh?"

Wait, what?

Zuko does not compute.

"You're -- okay -- with --" A dead or near dead Avatar? He doesn't -- get it.

And thent he intelligent question: "What -- time is it? It's-- I've been home a ...week or two. The Avatar is supposed dead. Is-- am I missing something?"

Zuko is confused.

"It's been longer than that. A month or two, I guess?" It's hard to keep track of the time when you're skipping around the Fire Nation.

"...oh."

Zuko is not sure what to think about that.

"You're-- all okay, then?" he hazards to ask, trying not to sound as if he cares.

"Yeah. Well, at least we all were fine."

She lifts her feet and slams her heels onto the top of the table, showing off her mildly-burnt feet.

"...you tapdance over the lava flows?" Zuko asks with an arch of his brow.

Maybe it might not be best to spoil the boy's own future for him.

Edited 2007-12-18 22:35 (UTC)

She's silent for a moment and her expression could be best described as 'stupefied'. "Yes. That's exactly what I did."

Hey! It's not his timeline.

Yet.

He'll really feel stupid about this later, swear.

"Uh. What'd I say?"

You've realized that all boys put their foot in their mouths nine times out of ten by now, Toph, right? After all, Sokka's as bad as Zuko!

Sokka might be even worse.

"Actually, this stupid jerk from your country did this to me," she grumbles.

See, it'll be funny in a few weeks. She can't wait.

Zuko's brows furrow and he FROWNS. Despite that he is no Airbender, it wouldn't be hard for Toph to feel the thunderhead forming over his Prince Grumpiness.

He doesn't want to feel strangely guilty over it. She went and got herself into trouble with some Firebender.

"So-- you're all okay, then. Well, beyond your feet." Zuko's a lousy deciever or liar. He's fishing for the 'Aang's alive' statement. Afteer all, he's pretty sure if Aang wasn't, she'd be kicking his ass, burned feet or not.

"We're making it," she says, understanding what he's getting at. She just likes tormenting him. "How's your uncle?"

She might have to hit him if he's not treating him well.

Zuko goes pale. Not that she can see it, but the sudden silence can't bode well.

"His fate's out of my hands."

She pauses for a moment herself. "What does that mean?" She's already clenching her fist, Zuko. Be glad that her feet are burnt so she can't jump across the table at you.

Zuko's lips purse, and his breathing is tight, slow -- he refuses to get nervous, to tremble before this little girl.

"Father has him," he simply says. "We-- he made his choice to defy him."

One Zuko has paid for already; the fool old man... well, he should have known better. He truly, truly should have known better.

She's glaring at him. The explanation obviously doesn't satisfy her.

"You better be glad I can't walk over there and smack some sense into you," she grunts angrily. Wait, actually...

The hunk of metal is back in her hand, and she hurls it at him. It forms a smooth, flat rectangle that should smack him right in the forehead if he doesn't do something to stop it.

OHSHI LITTLE ANGRY METAL PROJECTILE!

Zuko puts his hands up -- which means it hits them, instead of his fingeers, but it still smarts quite a bit. "Ow! Hey-- this isn't my fault! He decided-- the Avatar--"

HE CHOSE THE AVATAR OVER ZUKO.

Or something like that.

"He made his choice to become a traitor, just like I made mine once. I just-- didn't chose the same this time. I couldn't." Not again.

The slab of metal shoots back to her hand--she might need to use it again, after all.

She points an accusing finger at him. "You chose a bunch of psychos over a nice old man that cares about you! I've met your sister! She's messed up!" She pounds a fist into the table as if it makes her point all the stronger.

"You don't think I know that? We're home a week and she's already set me up to fall for HER failure to kill the Avatar! She told Father I killed him!" Zuko blurts. Doesn't she see this from HIS perspective? (No, don't be stupid.) "When he finds out that isn't true, I'll be lucky if I'm not put on a pike outside the palace!"

"And whose fault is that?" Sorry Zuko, but you're not gonna get any sympathy from Toph. As far as she's concerned, he's dug his own hole and is now complaining about how deep it is.

"Just because you have no idea what it's like to be-- discarded--!" Zuko snaps, and there's the sizzle of heat, the scent of too-hot hands on a tabletop.

Yeah, this Zuko doesn't know how to control his fire.

She is intimately aware of how quick he is to set things on fire.

"Yeah, that's definitely a good reason to ignore the person who didn't discard you!" The slab of metal is flying toward him again, this time heading for his solar plexus to push him away from the table.

This is a bit harder to block -- and Zuko's chair squeaks and his breath whoofs out -- his heat is stifled, and a moment later, you have a coughing Zuko holding on to his chair and trying not to choke or fall over.

He'll get back to you on that in a minute, Toph.

She will count this as a victory. The piece of metal returns to her hand and she leans back in her seat, already feeling better about about the situation. Hurting people has a cathartic effect.

"Maybe you'll think harder before you do something stupid next time," she mutters, just to add insult to injury (literally).

"I did what I thought I had to do!" Zuko says, his voice raw from coughing (among other things). "It's not like I shot your stupid Avatar down, or put Uncle in cuffs!"