Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Pairing: Toph/Zuko
Theme set: Gamma
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: This is the theme set from . It was fun. XD Also, I am aware some of these are not really sentences. I don't care. <33 Yes, it's assuming Zuko joins up with the gang.



#23 - Fire
Zuko thinks the fire that once burned his face burns in him still; once he used that flame to drive his hunt for the Avatar - Zuko thinks it's funny that now he uses it to hunt with him.

#22 - Journey
Often, Zuko wonders if they really know where they're going, but they seem so confident and easy-going and innocent, that he just decides not to bring it up.

#39 - Overwhelmed
The watertribe siblings can't trust him, and when they make camp, they wage a quiet war over who gets to be farthest away from him; the Avatar isn't much better, but at least sometimes the younger (older?) boy gives him a friendly smile that makes Zuko hope; Toph, on the other hand, gets right in his face, all the time, and he's not really sure if that's better or not.

#33 - World
To Toph, the world is her playground, and now that she can, she intends to explore it as much as she possibly can, so she wakes everyone up in the mornings before it's really decent to be awake ("Come on people, the Avatar's not going to restore peace to the world by sleeping! Up, up, up!") and when Zuko tries to sleep in, earth begins to attack him, and he decides that it's easier just to wake up.

#37 - Lies
Azula always lies; Toph doesn't and the truth she hits him with is bitter and harsh, but he finds it oddly reassuring.

#21 - Silence
It's not often that the group is silent and Zuko relishes in it and a moment later, Toph kicks Sokka 'by accident' (he suspects she got bored with the silence) and Appa once again has to compensate for the movement on his back.

#24 - Strength
He has to admit, he underestimates her, but the day they spar and Zuko is left sore and battered on the ground is the day he realizes she's stronger than him.

#11 - Midnight
By midnight, no matter what, Toph is asleep and Zuko looks down at her sleeping face and wonders how someone so young got pulled into the war.

#42 - Talk
There are nights when Zuko can't sleep and Toph keeps him company ("You're so noisy," she mutters, "Can't sleep if you're pacing.") and they talk and Zuko is pleasantly surprised to find they can have a good conversation.

#01 - Ring
Zuko hates arguing with Toph because she stubbornly sticks to her own opinions and he feels like he's foolishly going in circles.

#16 - Cover
Sokka screams like a scared little girl, to Toph's amusement, as hail begins to fall ("We're going to be bludgeoned to death!") and though Zuko makes it obvious that he thinks Sokka is a complete fool, he's secretly relieved when Toph creates an earthtent to cover them.

#47 - Highway
"Princess," Toph says, and manages to convey all her annoyance into that single word dripping with disdain, "We're fugitives; taking the highly public highway is the dumbest thing we could do."

#14 - Music
When the head of the town invites them to a ball, everyone dances and has a good time, except for Toph, who stands quietly off to the side, her head tilted slightly towards the musicians playing the music and when Zuko looks carefully, he sees a slight upturn of the corners of her mouth and thinks that she looks like she's having fun.

#29 - Dance
Aang asks her to dance, and she accepts, her eyebrow raised skeptically, and Zuko is amused to see later that Toph is teaching the Avatar how to waltz properly.

#20 - Talent
Azula has always had the natural bending talent and he always assumed that that was why he never really liked her, even though she was his sister; but Toph has natural bending talent, and so now he thinks that the reason he doesn't like Azula is simply because she's a crazy and manipulative bitch.

#10 - Drink
One morning, Zuko walks out of his tent and is startled to see Toph sitting casually and nursing a cup of tea (jasmine tea, from the smell of it); she cocks an eyebrow at him and asks, "Tea?"

#27 - Fall
Zuko has never seen her fall, and after a while, subconciously assumes she never will and so when she does, he reacts too late to help and feels immeasurably guilty as she cries out in pain when as something in her foot snaps.

#02 - Hero
"My hero," Toph says dryly, as he carries her on his back through the murky swamp, her foot bandaged and set to the best of his ability.

#30 - Body
Once, Zuko commented that he thought Toph was a boy in a girl's body; her retort was that she was pretty sure he was an ass in an idiot's body.

#38 - Forever
Zuko isn't quite sure when it happened, but suddenly he's part of the group and he watches Toph make fun of Sokka and Aang laugh freely as Katara tries not to giggle at her brother's face and Zuko wants to stay here forever in this bubble of content happiness and comadrie.

#25 - Mask
He finds it freaky and comforting at the same time that no matter what he wears or does, Toph always recognizes him.

#36 - Laugh
When Toph laughs, not mockingly or fake or anything, but really, truly laughs everyone stops to stare in surprise, and Zuko is slightly smug at being the one to elicit the sound (though he's not so proud that it happened because he walked into a tree while not paying attention).

#18 - Dream
Zuko has a dream that his father beheads Uncle; when he tells Toph about it the next day, her face takes on the expression that he's guessing was on his when he woke up.

#03 - Memory
Toph asks him about his mother and he brushes her off, not because he can't talk about it, but because, to his horror, the memory of the loving, warm mother is slowly but surely fading from his mind.

#28 - Forgotten
Captured, bound, and chained, Zuko sits in a Fire Nation holding cell, wondering if he's been forgotten - he's never been happier to see anyone than the moment Toph breaks through the metal on the side of his cell and growls, "What kind of idiot are you?"

#04 - Box
Bounty hunters are plentiful in the next town they come across, but they need more supplies; as a result, everyone gets disguises, but it's hard to disguise a blind girl who walks around barefoot (she refuses to wear any kind of footwear) and so the box Zuko carries into the town periodically mutters death threats at him.

#40 - Whisper
"Zuko," Toph hisses into his ear, her palm pressed over his mouth, her other pulling him down with her, "Be quiet, I'm trying to hide!"

#49 - Lock
Toph scowls at him from the other side of the portable cell that clatters over the rocky road, her hands and feet tightly bound and tells him, "This is all your fault."

#15 - Silk
Toph hates wearing silk ("Too easily ripped," she tells him, a displeased look on her face, "You can't do anything in it.") and so he's surprised when she's forced to dress up, she chooses to wear a silk dress.

#34 - Formal
It's bizarre to Zuko to see Toph act so ladylike and prim - he stares at the Lord and Lady Bei Fong and wonder what kind of evil mind control powers they have.

#12 - Temptation
Toph's parents wheedle and beg and try to bribe her with pretty dolls and nice dresses, and Zuko wonders just who they think their daughter is.

#31 - Sacred
Zuko always thought that the word of the adult was sacred, but now he watches the Bei Fongs fawn over their daughter and treat her like glass and try to hide her away and thinks that her parents are the one afflicted with lack of sight.

#46 - Gravity
Since they've arrived, it feels like Toph slowly droops farther and farther towards earth and Zuko misses the sarcastic, bold girl he traveled with who seemed to be soaring to greatness - gravity never really seemed like such a problem before.

#05 - Run
There is a huge commotion outside his room and Zuko rises to find out what it is when his door bangs open, and Toph announces, "It's time to go!" and drags him out the front door, and he's surprised at how fast she can run.

#13 - View
They end up having to climb over a mountain and when they reach the top, Zuko exhales sharply and murmurs, "What a lovely view," and Toph scowls and quite assuredly, does not feel jealous.

#41 - Wait
Toph taps her foot impatiently, and gives Zuko a sense of deja vu when she says, "Princess, I realize hygeine is very important to you, but if you don't wrap up this bath soon, I'm not about to wait for you."

#50 - Breathe
As she lies next to him, listening to him breathe, Toph thinks that being stuck with him isn't so bad.

#07 - Wings
Zuko notices that after they've left her parents, Toph seems upbeat and strangely optimistic - he supposes that she's a bird stretching her freed wings and wonders if she was like this the first time she left.

#19 - Candle
"Happy birthday!" Toph announces, and gives him a slightly mushed and lopsided cake and Zuko hopes she got a discount for it; "It's not my birthday," he tells her, and she shrugs, indicating she doesn't really care and sticks a small candle into the cake the wrong way.

#48 - Unknown
"Where do we go from here?" Zuko wonders; "I think," Toph says, "that the better question is, 'Where are we?'"

#06 - Hurricane
They come across a town that looks like it's been ravaged by a hurricane; tress are uprooted, homes destroyed, and confused, wide-eyed people wandering around in a daze, but no hurricane has ever left scorch marks and blackened, burnt, and indecipherable objects lying in the streets arranged into the Fire Nation symbol.

#44 - Hope
Toph insists on staying to help, so they stay and rebuild homes and dig graves and at the end of the day, Toph doesn't cry or mourn and she snarls, "I hope that we meet those bastards; they deserve their faces beaten in and..." but Zuko puts his hand on her shoulder and she quiets, suddenly very weary.

#09 - Red
There is a slight pause, and Zuko begins laughing; Toph sees red and a block of earth throws him about ten feet and Zuko quiets because he knows she could've just as easily thrown him fifty.

#35 - Fever
The first day, he complained of a headache, and Toph was unsympathetic ("Boo-hoo, Princess. Live with it."); the second day, it got worse, and he was cold even though the weather was warm and Toph actually got a bit concerned ("Stupid, lay down and rest if you're sick, I'm not going to carry you."); the third, he was sweaty and Toph confined him to the bed after a nearby midwife confirmed that yes, he had a fever ("If you were sick, you should have said so!" she shouted at him, making him groan and roll over and pull a pillow over his head) and he bemoaned his immune system and hoped he wouldn't have weird dreams again.

#17 - Promise
"Don't-" Zuko squinted blearily at the figure that seemed to fade in and out of his vision, "Please, don't leave me alone again," he whimpered; Toph sat next to him and touched his face uncertainly, and whispered, "I won't - I promise."

#43 - Search
"What took you so long?" Toph demands when Appa lands heavily beside her and Zuko, and Aang rubbed his head sheepishly.

#26 - Ice
When they go to the South Pole, the ice is slippery and Toph slips on it all the time and complains about not being able to see; as a result, Zuko follows her around (to keep her from falling) and always has one hand on her elbow (to lead her around) and everyone thinks it's strange how natural it seems.

#08 - Cold
Toph shivers, and Zuko summons a small flame to at least warm her ice-cold fingers ("Stupid Katara," she grumbles, "stupid Sokka, having to go back home for 'one last time' because that's not depressing and morbid at all...).

#32 - Farewells
They ask her about it, but she refuses to do it - "Farewells are for people who aren't coming back," she says angrily, and stalks away.

#45 - Eclipse
The sun rises but already a dark shadow is creeping over it ("Ready?" Toph whispers to him, and he nods), and the tense atmosphere seems to be pressing down on them oppressively ("Good," she says, and makes a decent effort at a condescending look to cover her fear, "You're no good to us if you just run away.") and he takes ahold of her hand, and waits for everything to start.


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