FicWad

((Kettles: okay, so this is my first long Avatar fanfic. I have it up on fanfiction.net, and I'm reposting it up on this because that's the only way for me to transfer my stories from my laptop to my home computer.
Unfortunately, I have NO IDEA how to make italics or bold work, so you're all going to have to bear with me.
I hope you all enjoy my gradually Zutaralicious fanfic.

Disclaimer: pfffffft. No way man. I ain't that cool))


"Why are you always doing this?!" Katara shouted, handfuls of her pants gripped tightly in her fists. If the cloth wasn't there as a buffer, her nails would already be deep within her palms, such was the force with which she carried her voice.

"Doing what?" Toph hissed back, her brows knitted deeply.

"Starting fights! Being confrontational all the damn time!"

"I am not being confrontational, you wanted a conversation and I gave you one, it's not my fault you're so touchy." The fog swirling in Toph's unseeing eyes sparked and flashed with wrathful lightning.

"I am not touchy, you just have no tact." The argument-shouting match- had gone on like this for a considerable amount of time, with both of the girls retorting as loudly as they found possible, and still somehow managing to beat the other when their turn came around. By now no one could remember the true reason of their hostility towards each other, but perhaps the fact that they had been suspended in the air for a few days on a growling, stinking bison with a secret destination known only to their driver might contribute to their antagonistic feelings somewhat.

As for Toph, she was always on edge whenever the comforting vibrations of her element were severed from her senses, so it was very possible that the blame should have come to settle atop the master earthbender's shoulders.

During the first ten minutes of the feud, a flustered airbending monk rushed between the two of them, trying to provide the something that could successfully dampen the flames on their tongues, but to no avail. The most progress he had attained was a "Bud out, Twinkle Toes!" from his earthbending teacher, which Katara retaliated with: "See, this is what I'm talking about. Aang is just trying to help, and here you are attacking him!" Other than that, the pacifist simply haunted the brawl. He was getting nervous as their escalating shrieks were captured and scattered by the wind. The logical side of the monk knew that it would be impossible for the Fire Nation to pick up on their words, but still... what if they could?

"Aang, just give up, they've been at it for probably an hour now. Avatar or not, I doubt you could stop that catfight," Sokka lounged in a niche in the saddle, peeling an apple with his characteristic boomerang. Even his azure eyes had relinquished any sardonic glint after the first few days out there. The most surprising change in the company, however, was in the mischievous Momo, who was currently draped over Sokka's knees, a glazed look in his eyes and a slack jaw.

Deflated, the monk floated into place on the crook of Appa's neck, slipping the leather reins into his lap. But he was nearly knocked from his perch as the bison yawned a musty greeting towards him. The Avatar flattened himself deep into his friend's pallid fur, attempting to block out the din behind him, because the whistling wind in their ears apparently wasn't up to such a task.

Aang's eyes closed tightly. He lay spread-eagled on the bison's neck, fist-sized bunches of fur in his ears, and still the noise invaded his mind. Irritation contorted his face, and Appa let loose a guttural growl when he clamped onto even more fur, in the process pinching the bison's neck. His face calmed, and he sat back up. "Sorry, boy," he apologized wearily. At this time Katara and Toph were both ranting about workload or something of the sort, their faces both rouge. Aang spun around once more to behold the girls. His mouth drooped into a crooked frown, and he twirled the air into a sphere that could rest in his hands. Holding it close to his lips, as if he were going to drink it in, Aang muttered "maybe I should just bend all the air from their lungs, that way they'd stop fighting", and flicked it into Sokka's ears.

A ghost of a smile flitted across the water warrior's face, but he shook his head vigorously, and drew his thumb across his throat. Then he mouthed the words "she'd kill us", and stared pointedly at his younger sister. A deep sigh squeaked between Aang's tightly pressed lips, and he crawled on all floors to the top of Appa's head. A cobalt river snaked about below them, flanked by a pulsating forest, as if attempting to beat the flight of the bison. Aang's gaze meandered across the rushing landscape, until he met the horizon, where a string of mountains seemed to explode from the forest and pierce the clear sky.

For the first time in what seemed an eternity, a smile alit on the monk's face, and he whirled around to his companions. "Hey, guys," he called out, but he might as well have not, for all the attention he was receiving. "Guys!" The girls were a foot from each other, figurative lightning shooting from their mouths. Aang scratched the arrow on his scalp, and then drew in as much air as he could, arching his back in the process. Then he rebounded back into a sitting position as he yelled "SOKKA, KATARA, TOPH!!!!"

Momo squawked as he was tossed from Sokka's knees. The lemur then launched himself onto Sokka's pony-tail, chattering in anger as he dragged knots through the boy's hair. "Gah! Momo!" the water warrior shrilled as he slapped at the lemur, and even began to rub his head against the saddle. Katara and Toph, both with slitted eyes of rage and deep frowns, snapped their mouths shut and turned to Aang.

Before they could reprimand him for his intrusion, the Avatar hastily announced: "Behold, Earth Kingdom City of Midori." Aang moved forward with a satisfied flourish into the presence of his comrades, who mostly looked upon the forest with indifference. As was to be expected, Toph, the only one native to the Earth Kingdom, took the news most enthusiastically, and crawled to her knees. "Aang," she said, abandoning his nickname in excitement, "Quick, your arm, let me see." No one commented on her statement, as one confrontation had just ceased, but instead Aang grasped Toph's hand within his. Both water tribe siblings noted the blush that crept along the Avatar's cheekbones as their fingers brushed. Sokka donned a devilish smirk, but Katara's frown thickened and her face dropped.

As Aang led Toph to the edge and eventually had to wrap an arm around her shoulders to prevent her from falling, Katara rested her head on the edge of the saddle. Her heart was pounding softly within her rib cage, but the area around it felt sore. Aang's description of what he saw settled into Katara's ears, and she would have had to be stupid not to notice the gentle affection that softened each sentence. She massaged the area over her heart and tried to think of other things. Both Aang and Sokka had decided long before then that the cause for all of Katara and Toph's arguments was their contrasting personalities, but Katara knew the truth.

Ever since Toph had joined their troupe and brought Aang under her tutelege, the monk found more reason to flutter around his teacher, hiding under the guise of a devoted pupil. This meant that his and Katara's bending skirmishes dwindled in numbers. The monk even stopped bouncing up to the waterbender randomly to demonstrate a new trick or challenge her to a game. That shy smile that had previously passed between the pair, their secret glances, had all shifted from Katara and Aang to Aang and Toph.

At the beginning, Katara had simply let her hope of being with the Avatar die. She had watched them grow closer, and whenever they would come into camp from training, their footsteps in unison and their bodies close, Katara would provide them with her well-practiced smile, beneath which moved numbed limbs and a limp heart. But soon she found that this reserve only held up in the midst of the offending pair. When she was alone with Sokka, her brother, the family that will always and has always been there, she would grow depressed, moody, and snapped at him randomly. Sokka approached her about this one time, hurt laced in his irises, and Katara decided then to switch tactics.

But her new idea was just as bad, if not worse, than the former. Actually, it was devious, backwards, and shameful. Throughout any words she or anyone shared with Toph, Katara would go out of her way to listen for something that sounded remotely detestable, and would blow the situation up. 'Perhaps,' she thought lamely, almost too far gone for any hope left, 'I can make Toph sound so horrible that Aang will come back to me.' In reality, her plan had no effect on Aang's infatuation. The only result was that the new combative layer of Katara's personality grew on everyone else's nerves. But she was too far in it now to quit, let alone realize this.

***********

It had taken Appa another half hour before they were close enough to land, and even then they stopped a mile out so as to not arouse suspicions. Throughout that time, Katara sat in bitter silence, her chestnut braid dangling over her shoulder and the end between her teeth.

The trek towards Midori held astonishing sights, at least they would have, were Katara's gaze not blinded with jealousy. She ignored the towering trees, the lush foliage and vegetation, the crystal brooks, and orchestra of birdcalls and cackling. Her stare was fixed to her boots, watching her feet move, but not feeling the motion at all. In the background, she could faintly hear Sokka complaining while he slashed away at groping branches. Aang tried to speak to Katara once, pointing out a flamboyantly colored bird that was hopping from branch to branch, but Katara made no move to speak, let alone lift her head. If she did, she would probably see Aang holding Toph's hand. Could she handle that?

"Katara?" Aang's voice came once again into her reality. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, "Just a headache." At this she lapsed back into silence, unaware of the worried look that passed between her brother and the monk. Neither did she realize that Toph was not attached to Aang, but about twenty paces in front of everyone, humming softly to herself and barreling through branches and leaves and tangled grasses. All that seemed to exist in the silent world around Katara were her phantom feet trudging ever forward, and the muffled beating of her heart in her throat.

Toph's voice broke the uncomfortable silence. "You guys, we're here."

"But how do you...." The brilliant Sokka began before Aang clamped a hand down on his mouth. Toph twisted her head a bit in the direction of Sokka, then stomped on the ground once. A roll of earth slid under the water warrior's footing, successfully knocking him on his butt.

"Ow!" Sokka moaned. "What'd you do that for?"

"For being stupid." The warrior scrambled to his feet; both him and Aang were surprised, and therefore grateful, to find that Katara hadn't even lifted her eyes. Regardless, Sokka pouted until they reached the front wall of Midori.

The sandstone wall was taller than any trees the traveling group had seen, and the forest itself stopped many yards before the gates began. This was to mainly protect against intruders, but it seemed that the area had remained untouched by the Fire Nation and any other threat, and so thick blankets of ivy had crept up to nearly the top. The awesome sight caught even Katara's attention. As they came closer, Toph spoke up again.

"Those markings along the wall are protective runes and spells to keep enemies at bay."

"But how do they know who are enemies?" Sokka, too impressed by the foundation itself to stupidly make a "blind girl" comment, brushed a hand along the symbols.

"Dunno," Toph answered truthfully. "They say a witch lives somewhere in the village or the surrounding forest. A while back she had made a deal with the village's lord, saying that if they would provide her with food and other necessities, she would give them protection."

"Well then, how do we get in if there are no guards or anything to tell the wall that we're not enemies?"

Instead of an answer, Toph approached the wall and swept her hand over the engravings. Most of them were gibberish to her, but some words she understood, though that mattered little since that was about one in every ten words. The water tribe kids and the Avatar settled into the shade after about thirteen minutes of this process. Sweat started glistening under the earthbender's hat, slinking down to rest in her eyebrows. Finally her hand brushed over something odd.
It was a group of symbols that were neither conventional gibberish nor actual words. The first one was shaped like an arch, the second was awkwardly shaped like a four, and the third was yet another arch, but the right side of it was bent slightly. All three had two dash marks above them in various positions, with the last having one dashmark out far.

Recognition alit on her face, but she continued to run her seeing fingertips along the coarse surface until she reached another interesting spot. It held some sort of prayer for protection, but that wasn't the reason her hands stopped their search.

Only an earthbender would be able to decipher this last clue. Toph noticed that her fingertips felt hollow when she touched the sandstone at that curious area. If she moved her hand more to either direction, then she would feel normal again, but if she kept going in the direction, she would reach another hollow feeling. Her breathing hitched, she followed the hollow feeling until it created an imaginary circle. Somewhere in her head the two bits of information she gathered clicked.
"I got it," she said, more to herself than anyone else, though her companions sat up immediately.

"What is it?" Aang asked, his monk robes clinging to his skin with sweat. He rushed to Toph's side, and darted his eyes about the runes, trying to figure it out as well.

"Back up, Twinkle Toes." Before Toph could shove him aside, Aang leapt into the air, wind propelling his feet, and landed a foot or two to the side. The water tribe children hesitantly came to be beside the monk, though Sokka had to nearly slap his dazed sister awake. Backing up a few steps, Toph shuffled her feet apart to achieve a wide stance, her arms locked under her ribs. Following the second symbol, she lifted her right leg until her foot was parallel to her left knee, and then stomped down into the third rune, thrusting her right fist directly into the wall with all her might.

Both Sokka and Aang gasped when they beheld Toph's hand to have made not a centimeter of head way, and Aang in particular sucked in a sharp intake of breath when he saw that blood was trickling down the wall. However, this only lasted a moment, and then Toph's hand shot into the sandstone, almost with as much ease as if it were liquid. She felt her fingers meet a metal ring, which she grabbed onto and jerked roughly to the side. This being completed, the earthbender withdrew her hand and danced backward hastily as a section of wall as tall as two Sokkas collapsed in a heap of sand.

"See?" Toph turned to the Avatar, her mouth lingering somewhere between a grin and a grimace as she cradled a scraped and bleeding fist. "What would you guys do without me?" This last one was directed towards Katara, whom ignored her.

((Kettles: thanks again for reading.
Review please! If you do, I...uh....love you long time? ...great, now I'm gonna get my ass sued by Fergie....))