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Tweak says, "Everybody Hurts "

Katara of the Southern Water Tribe (k_waterbender) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-11-01 19:06:00

Entry tags:

complete, day 21, katara, toph bei fong, zuko

Day Twenty-One
Who: Katara, Toph Bei Fong, and Zuko
When: Day 21 ; Late Morning
What: Confronting Zuko once again
Where: Building E first, then to the meadow
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete

Katara had been so upset and so bone weary the day before that she’d gone straight to her room to do some relaxing yoga positions before sleeping. She didn’t even eat dinner that night, and she definitely hadn’t gone to Toph with the information she learned about Zuko’s sudden loss of memory. She figured it could wait until she could better collect her thoughts.

She had dreamed about the confrontation between herself and Zuko over and over in a loop in her mind. Each time it was a little more distressed, a little more desperate, a little more insane. Sometimes his fire blast had singed her hair, and sometimes the candles exploded around her, burning her flesh. Other times she had to freeze him to the wall, and still others her voice would suddenly become high pitched and difficult to understand. Other times it all seemed to move in super slow motion, and she felt heavy like she was trying to walk through mud. The entire thing was so absurd that she could completely understand Zuko’s unwillingness to believe her, even if she knew she was right. He thought he was right, too, after all.

Katara didn’t awaken until mid-morning, and the waterbender was still upset about the entire ordeal when she regained consciousness. She went through some relaxing exercises, and they helped to calm her. By late morning, she knew Toph would be waking soon, so she bathed and dressed in her Water Tribe battle attire. She had taken to wearing this ever since the kidnappings occurred, and she wasn’t about to let her guard down, especially not now. She was also sure to strap two full water skins to her back as well before she left her room to cross the hall to Toph’s door. Her fists rapped upon the wood, and she waited for her earthbender friend to answer.

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rocksolid
2008-11-03 12:05 am UTC (link)

She would have said 'don't get used to it'. Would have rolled around on the floor just for spite if Katara made a point of even showing the slightest bit of praise at her cleanliness. It wasn't any special effort or anything. Toph bathed as frequently as anyone, it was just that she would usually earth bend or promptly sit back on the ground resulting in a fresh coat of dirt before anyone was the wiser. Her friend just happened to be fortunate enough to catch her before that happened for once. It wasn't the time though.

"Yeah. It happens all the time. I've gotten used to it." She commented as Katara jumped when the table and chairs appeared. Clothes, blankets, pillows, food...They would all show up at any given moment, usually when she needed them so it was easy enough to anticipate but still weird.

"It's not like it could've gone much worse." Toph wasn't surprised though that she got a better response out of Zuko. The earth bender wasn't very good at persuading people to talk in a way that didn't include throwing big rocks at them until they gave in. Katara on the other hand was just the sort of person you couldn't help wanting to confide in, she had the patients and compassion to wait until the other was ready to talk no matter what they threw at her in the meantime. Toph didn't. She would listen, and make an effort to be their for her friends, but she wasn't going to waste her time trying to convince someone to share their problems with her -- especially when she wasn't very good at comforting people anyways.

Toph closed the door and sat down across from Katara, plucking grapes from the bowl, drinking the grapefruit juice provided to her, as the explanation began. She nodded slightly at the question. At the mention of Iroh being dead, even if she was sure it couldn't be true, had the teen near choking on the grapes she'd eaten. She remembered the kindly old man very well. She and Sokka had visited him while they'd been traveling through the earth kingdom to her home. Toph considered him a friend, and the idea that someone would kill him -- true or not, she understood why Zuko had been so angry. Of course, Iroh was more then capable of fending for himself, but Toph wouldn't give a second thought to crushing anyone who tried to hurt the old firebender.

"He can't be dead. I saw him a few days before coming here. He was running his shop same as ever." She pointed out quickly, reassuring herself as much as anything. Toph made a face at the thought of Joo Dee as well. That woman, or women rather, had been all kinds of creepy. How the Dai Lee and Ozai had escaped though -- it made no sense. They'd all been in prison. Still, the brain washing thing explained a lot, and it was a relief to know that hopefully they could get him back to normal.

"Didn't Aang get through to Jet by reminding him about his friends?" Toph was pretty sure that's what the airbender said. If they could get him to hold still long enough to listen, couldn't be that difficult, a little creative metalbending if it came to that, then maybe telling him about traveling together, the end of the war, about her last visit with Iroh...

She couldn't see the gaze, but hearing her name -- She could almost imagine it. That look that would have told her that even if it sounded like a suggestion, there was the expectation that she would do it. Toph planned to anyways. "I was going to apologize." She might've been insulted, if not at that comment then at the condition that followed about her not attacking first. "Jeeze. He's my friend too. It's not like I wanted to fight him, Katara. I'm not going to attack him if I don't have to." She was tough, stubborn, liked to fight, but she wasn't going to go starting fights with Zuko. Especially not after yesterday.

"Really. I don't need the speech. I said I'd help." She scowled and leaned back in her chair. Did Katara really think she needed so much convincing, think so little of her? Was it about her stabbing his foot?

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