Avatar the Last Airbender - Playing With Fire (2)

ðHgeocities.com/crystalangel0105//pwf2.htmgeocities.com/crystalangel0105_/pwf2.htm.delayedx²WÕJÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÈð1·0OKtext/html€8»LÜ·0ÿÿÿÿb‰.HTue, 14 Aug 2007 22:40:20 GMT¸Mozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98)en, *²WÕJ·0 Avatar the Last Airbender - Playing With Fire (2) Title: Playing With Fire
Summary: AU; Firebender!Toph
Disclaimer: Most anything you recognize is not mine; much dialogue is stolen from the first episode, The Avatar Returns.

“Argh,” Sokka yelped when water splashed all over him and gave his sister an annoyed look. “Why is it that every time you play with your magic water, I always get soaked?”

Katara scowled at him. “It’s not ‘magic,’ it’s waterbending. And it’s--”

Sokka rolled his eyes and waved a dismissive hand at her, cutting her off with his next words.“ Yeah, yeah, an ancient art unique to our culture, blah blah blah. Look, I'm just saying that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself.”

She gave him a disbelieving look and said, “You're calling me weird? I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water.”

“She’s got a point, you know.” A bored voice said, from somewhere above them.

Sokka nearly fell out of the canoe. Katara yelped, and clutched desperately at the sides of the small boat, and luckily Sokka managed to keep his balance and keep them from capsizing. “Who said that?” he demanded, trying to seem tough but failing rather spectacularly due to the frightened look on his face.

It was silent for a second. “An evil spirit,” it said sarcastically, “I’ve come to haunt you and make your life hell.” The voice, Katara noticed, was young and high-pitched. It sounded female. She glanced around, looking for the source of the sound.

Sokka’s eyes became round as plates in horror. “Really?” he squeaked.

“No,” the voice said flatly, “Look up, idiot.”

They looked. A young girl, wearing a thick red coat hung from, presumably, a protruding piece of ice in a glacier. She had her arms crossed irritably, and swayed almost casually from the dangerous position.

“What are you doing up there?” Sokka asked blankly.

She gave them a flat look. “Oh, I just thought that hanging myself from a glacier above freezing cold water –and I can’t swim, by the way- sounded fun.”

He blinked, and turned to Katara. “It’s mean,” he announced, “Can we leave it there? Do we have to save it?”

“I am not an it,” the girl huffed, “I’m a she. My name’s Toph.”

“Well, Toph,” Katara said cautiously, “Can you get down from there?”

“Well,” she said, strangely calm, “Whatever’s holding me up should melt sometime soon, and I suppose I’ll fall- how many feet?”

Katara took her best guess. “Maybe ten feet?”

“Sure. So I’ll fall ten feet, crash into the water and probably drown, which, I must say, does not sound pleasant,” Toph said blandly, “Unless someone saves me. Hint, hint.”

“Well,” Katara said, unsurely, “We’ll do our best.”

“We will?” Sokka asked. Katara smacked him.

She directed Sokka towards the glacier Toph hung from, with him muttering under his breath irritably the whole time. “Okay,” she called, “If you come down now, we should be able to save you.”

“Yes, thanks,” Toph muttered, “I feel very reassured now. Here I come. If I die, I really am going to become an evil spirit and terrorize you guys, just to spite you.” As she said it, she pushed herself carefully from the glacier and promptly fell down into the freezing water with a shriek, managing to fall almost right next to the canoe, splashing the two of them and rocking the boat dangerously.

Katara plunged her hands into the water after Toph and hauled the dripping, shivering, water-logged girl up onto the canoe as Sokka kept the balance by using his weight to counter the sudden extra movement.

Toph grimaced once safely on board. “It’s freaking cold,” she complained, “How does anyone survive out here?” Her lips were already turning blue, and she trembled violently whenever the slightest breeze passed them by.

“Not even a thank you,” Sokka grumbled.

“Fine,” Toph said, “Thank you, whatever your name is. Who’s the sourpuss?” Sokka bristled to see the girl facing only Katara pointedly.

Suddenly something struck the canoe. “Wha-?” Sokka got out before a current dragged them away.

“Left, left!” Katara shouted as huge pieces of ice dragged along with them came far too close for comfort.

“What the hell is going on?” Toph demanded.

Katara shrieked as two enormous ice block approached rapidly on either side of them. The canoe smashed between them, and Sokka and Katara dragged Toph up onto one of them before she became nothing more than fish food.

“Are you sure you’re not an evil spirit out to get us?” Sokka asked Toph suspiciously. She made a face at him.

Katara stood up shakily, and attempted a joke. “You call that left?” she said weakly.

Sokka didn’t see it as a joke and puffed out his chest like a bird ruffling its chest feathers in a huffily dignified way. Of course, looked less dignified than like posturing on Sokka. “You don't like my steering. Well, maybe you should have waterbended us out of the ice.” Sokka said, miffed, accompanying the word “waterbending” with a strange waggle of the arms, which Katara assumed was a poor parody of what he perceived waterbending to be.

Toph, virtually ignored, peered strangely at the iceberg behind Katara. “What the hell…?” she muttered to herself in confusion, inching carefully towards it.

“…Leave it to a girl to screw things up.” Sokka was saying, and Toph whirled around, iceberg forgotten. She opened her mouth to say something, but Katara beat her to it.

“You,” Katara snarled, “are the most sexist, immature, nut brained-” Toph raised an eyebrow. Looked like the girl wasn’t a complete pushover, like she’d thought at first. She was startled to hear something crack, and turned automatically towards the sound, rather uselessly. The ice they stood on rocked as Katara waved her arms around in aggravation, and Toph clutched the side.

“-ugh, I'm embarrassed to be related to you! Ever since Mom died I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier!” Katara was still ranting.

“Uh,” Sokka said timidly, so unlike his previous manner, making Toph wonder what was really happening, “Katara?” The cracking sound continued, and seemed to intense.

”I even wash all the clothes!” Katara cried, “Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!” Toph grimaced and turned back to the two at the last comment.

The glowing, heated figure in her vision lying on the ground waved its arms in what it obviously thought was a soothing manner. “Katara! Settle down!” The voice Toph had come to know as ‘Sokka’ cried.

”No, that's it,” Katara shouted, sounding determined and still very, very angry, “I'm done helping you. From now on, you're on your own!” The other figure with the slightly increased body temperature that Toph assumed was Katara (it was hard to tell with the amount of thick, warm clothing they were wearing) threw its hands up.

A horrible grinding sound cut through the air and stopped as the iceberg fell apart, and then the only thing that could be heard was the crashing of multiple iceberg pieces falling over each other and into the water.

“So, that’s waterbending, huh?” Toph mused.

Sokka recovered rather quickly, and gave his s

ister a flat look. “Okay, you've gone from weird to freakish, Katara.” The girl wore a shell shocked look. “You mean I did that?” she squeaked.

“Yup,” Sokka said, sounding unimpressed, “Congratulations.”

Toph whooped suddenly. “I was right! Teach me to not trust in my senses.” She pointed at where the iceberg had fallen apart. “There’s something living in there!” Toph announced.

“What?” Katara asked dumbly.

Sokka snorted. “Please. As if anything could survive in there. Right, Katara?” he turned to his sister expectantly, waiting for her to back him up.

Silence as Katara ignored him and stared at something, wide-eyed.

“Katara?” he asked, somewhat less sure of himself now.

She gasped suddenly, and pointed. “No, she’s right! He’s alive!”

“He…?” Sokka asked, and turned to look. “What the hell?!” A boy with glowing white eyes and, oddly, arrows on his head and hands sat in what looked like a meditation pose and was completely encased in ice.

“Told you,” Toph said smugly.

“We’ve got to help him!” Katara cried, and stole Sokka’s spear and began running away toward the boy in the ice with it.

“Katara!” Sokka cried, and tried to follow her, but was held back by Toph.

“You are not leaving me here,” Toph informed him. He sighed.

Katara used the spear as a club and smacked the ice as hard as she could, denting it slightly. Sokka, who was carefully leading Toph over the ice, cried out in protest at the misuse of his precious weapons. She ignored him, and struck the ice again. And again.

Toph was nearly shoved onto the ice as Sokka hurriedly went to try to save his spear thing.

“Katara!” he cried, just as she hit the ice again. It finally broke, and wind exploded out of the crack, pushing the watertribe siblings back, and making Toph shiver in the cold. Katara and Sokka, nearest to the explosion, covered their faces to shield themselves from the flying particles of ice.

The wind slowed, and Katara and Sokka looked up warily. Toph carefully unfolded herself from her fetal position and pushed herself up onto her feet. “Something’s coming,” she warned them. They huddled around each other, and Katara was abruptly reminded that Toph was still wearing all of her soaked garments.

All thoughts flew from her mind as something – someone staggered up the hill, his eyes white and glowing ominously. It seemed as though the white eyes were judging her, and Katara shivered.

The glow faded, and the boy fell. Katara ran forward to catch him. Sokka poked the unconscious boy’s head curiously. “Stop it,” she scolded him, and pushed the stick away.

Toph leaned forward and peered at the boy. “It seems human enough,” she informed them.

The boy stirred, and his eyes slitted open, and focused on Katara blearily. “I need to ask you something,” he whispered hoarsely to her.

She leaned in, and asked apprehensively, “What?”

”Please, come closer,” he whispered again.

“What is it?” Katara whispered back.

He suddenly brightened up, and grinned at her. “Will you go penguin sledding with me?” he asked, abandoning the quiet tones.

”Uh... sure,” Katara said, bewildered, “I guess.”

“Oh,” Toph said, grimacing, her voice sounding a bit strained, “That’s sweet.” She sneezed violently and promptly collapsed into a faint.

Sokka stared at her prone form. “Well, that’s bad.”

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