[Avatar] only collaboration (Toph & Zuko gen)

[storypaint]

Title: only collaboration
Fandom: Avatar
Length: 554 words
Prompt: polybending fic meme: Zuko talks to Toph about his girl troubles
Pairing: Zuko/Mai; mentioned Sokka/Suki; mostly Toph and Zuko gen
Other: n/a

Excerpt: Toph didn't look up from her feet but interrupted, "If you finish that sentence, I'm going to earthbend you into the pond. The turtleducks will be sad."

"What'd you come to me for?" Toph asked, making a face. She settled down into the grass around the turtleduck pond and began to pick leisurely at her feet. Zuko frowned and didn't bother telling her it was gross. Last time he'd tried, she'd put those feet in his face, and he'd rather have a real conversation than a wrestling match (especially one he wasn't sure he'd win).

"I don't know! You're a girl but also sorta--" He gestured in a slow circle, trying to find the right word.

Toph didn't look up from her feet but interrupted, "If you finish that sentence, I'm going to earthbend you into the pond. The turtleducks will be sad."

Zuko twitched. "Well, I wasn't going to ask Sokka," he said after a long moment.

Toph grinned. "Smarter than I thought," she announced. "Take a seat, Sparky."

She patted the ground beside her and after a moment, Zuko sat down, trying to do so in a dignified manner.

"Just because I'm sixteen now and my chest is doing weird things," she began, and his heart speeded up when he blushed, although she chose to ignore it for the moment, "doesn't mean that I really know a lot about how other girls think. Me and Katara never got along that well, and right now the whole wedding thing is making her more impossible than usual. Suki is still dating Sokka, so that puts her mind in question, and as for your Lady Gloom, I barely know her."

"You taught her all that stuff when I became Firelord, though. I thought you..." He scratched the back of his head. "Bonded or something. I don't know."

"Yeah, we gossiped about cute boys and I let her do my nails," Toph mocked. "She's kinda hard to talk to, which is I assume why you're talking to me instead."

"You certainly don't hold back," Zuko muttered, trying to keep the irritation from his voice. Toph smiled a little and leaned back against a tree, done with grooming for the moment.

"But from what I've seen, okay, you guys suck at talking to each other. You just kinda suck at talking in general, actually," Toph continued. "You put your foot in your mouth without trying, and Mai practically makes a game out of pretending not to care, even when she's angry."

"I asked her why she was mad at me!" Zuko protested. Toph shook her head.

"Go ask her what you did," she said.

"You give advice like Uncle," Zuko grumbled.

"Nah. Otherwise I would have made up some metaphor about tea, or clouds or something," Toph said. "It's just that we're both very wise, so we sound the same."

She grinned as she got to her feet. Zuko shook his head and followed.

"Time's a-wasting," she said to him in a sing-song tone. "The Fire Nation needs an heir~!"

"Aaargh!" he said eloquently as she laughed and made her way back into the palace. Sometimes he really missed her innocence. Generally when she made awful jokes like that.

She did give good advice, though, so he sighed and went off in the other direction towards Mai's chambers.

Comments

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Bwahaha, Toph. Direct and dirty-minded. Sometimes I really wish that Avatar had aired on something not Nickolodean, so we could get to see her making cracks like that. I love the dynamic going on here, especially the bits about the wrestling match and Zuko knowing that he'll lose.

[storypaint.livejournal.com]

looool yes I know exactly what you mean. I RP her in a game and although she's the kind of person who would learn and treasure swear words, I never use them because I think... Nickolodeon, it just doesn't work.

Zuko/Toph are such bros. It's great.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

They are fantastic, you're right.

And re: RP'ing, do the other characters in the game swear around her?

[storypaint.livejournal.com]

They do... Uh, not her castmates, of course, but we have some foul-mouthed folks. It's just a mental block I have eheheh.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Naw, I get the thought process.

A part of me is tempted to dust off my RP journal and start again, but given that I completely faded out of elegycity I'm not sure that I ought to start a new one just now.

[storypaint.livejournal.com]

You probably didn't find the right game for you. The right chemistry is very important. I've left quite a few games because of that.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

No, I liked it (they had a great Hope - a castmate of the girl in my icon, who I played) but RL and other fannish things kinda exploded and next thing I knew I'd missed way too many activity checks and pfft.

Playing an antisocial character was also not too wise, especially given the format of the game. Rookie lessons, I guess.

[storypaint.livejournal.com]

Heh, yes. Antisocial characters are totally the hardest, especially for a newbie. |D

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Not my best decision in retrospect. She's one of my favorite characters, though.