Avatar: Alphabet Challenge: Curiosity

Jun 04, 2009 21:00

Title: Curiosity
Rating: K
Characters: Toph-centric, Aang and Co
Summary: It just doesn't appeal to her.
A/N:Written as part of my Alphabet Drabbles challenge, as requested by liregran, with the prompt "hug". Set during the series, right after Bitter Work



hug
-verb
1. to clasp tightly in the arms, esp. with affection; embrace.

At first, she wonders if it’s her upbringing. Then, she wonders if it’s their upbringing.

Either way, she doesn’t get these three, and how easily they can throw their arms around one another. Toph’s been pulled into a couple of these group hugs, but mostly she stands back and watches them carefully - it’s not unusual for Aang’s waterbending lessons to end with a hug, and Katara regularly embraces Sokka for the littlest things, like savaging some berries she’s especially fond of.

It’s not that she really minds. She just doesn’t get it.

At the end of another grueling earthbending session, Aang looks downcast. To be fair, she can’t see how he looks, exactly, but she can feel it coming off of him in waves: total disappointment, utter discouragement. He’s still struggling with earthbending. As sure as she is that the problem is his as a student and not hers as a teacher, part of her wants to make him feel better. Part of her is wondering if she should just hug him, like she knows the Sugar Queen would do.

“Toph? Are you okay?” Aang voices the question weakly, breaking through her reverie. “You have a weird look on her face.”

Instead of hugging him, she digs her heel into the dirt, tossing him off the rock he’d been perched on and into the air.

“Get some sleep!” she yells after him. “You’ll need it for tomorrow!”

Maybe it’s her upbringing. She’s suspects it’s not his.

avatar, alphabet challenge, aang, toph

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