Who: Toph + Aang What: Heavy Petting. When: 4/23 Where: Petting Zoo Rating: Low. Despite the what. Get your mind out of the gutter. Status: Complete
Aang was sure he had bruises from Toph’s talking with her hands the previous evening, but he didn’t care. Maybe it would help him toughen up, and he’d develop biceps of steel. Or something. It wasn’t as if he didn’t get bruises from freerunning, or from work. Bruises were preferable to papercuts from homework!
He was looking forward to finally showing her around the petting zoo. Finally! If she didn’t show up, he was going to text her obsessively until she came to shut him up.
No need! It’d taken her a while to both get a ride from her personal aide, and then make the girl go away after that. Really. Like she couldn’t handle herself at a petting zoo! Toph rolled her eyes even as she slammed her way out of the car and extended her walking stick. She really did wish she could fire that girl.
She voice dialed Aang out of ease. It was so much more simple to find people via cellphone than it was to just wander around aimlessly.
“Hello, hello!” Aang called out, into the phone, as he wandered around, waiting for her. “Are you here? I’ll come find you.” Maybe if he’d met her at the gate, it would have been easier to ditch her aide. But he was pretty sure they’d be doing this again.
“Yup, here!” Toph said. “There’s a uh-- gate thing.” She thought. It sounded like a gate when she tapped it with her cane, and then gave it an experimental kick. Definitely metal. To be fair, she was pretty easy to spot. Sure she was short, but she also had wickedly bright hair. It was red this week.
“I see you,” he said, spotting the bright hair. “I’ll be right there.” He sprinted over to the gate, so he could get her a bag of pellets to feed the animals, and get her into the park. “Ready to be mauled by cuteness?”
“Fuck yeah I am!” she said -- and was quick to pocket both her cell phone, and then disassemble her walking stick as well. She hated the thing more than she should have. Any chance she had to not use it she took. Instead, she reached out and grabbed for Aang’s arm. She hung on tighter than she needed to.
If Aang hadn’t know better, he might have classified that tighter than usual grab as a hug. He told himself he did know better, but he gave a little squeeze back, and set off at a leisurely pace, figuring she would prod him if he was going too slow. “What would you like to check out first?”
Toph could meander with the best of them, and so didn’t bother poking him to go any faster. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say she just kind of liked hanging on his arm. But that would be a lot of introspection and she wasn’t the sort.
“Well,” she said, her tone dripping with bland sarcasm. “I think I saw something over there that I wanted to check out.” She gestured to nowhere in particular. Because she didn’t have to. The point was, everything smelled a little funny here and she couldn’t differentiate animals by scent. Okay, admittedly she really just wanted to touch a porcupine.
“The toilets?” Aang asked incredulously, as if Toph really had pointed to the restrooms. He was completely teasing, of course, but turnabout was fair play, right? He wondered if she’d pick up on the act, and how quickly. “I am so not following you into the ladies room!”
She laughed at that, and gave him another bruise to match all the others from the previous night. She hadn’t quite given Aang enough credit in the cleverness category. “No?” she asked. “But I’m blind, what if I need help?”
“They pay me to clean up after the animals,” he countered, laughing. He didn’t actually get paid for working at the zoo, yet; he was on volunteer status. But for the purpose of this conversation.... “If they want me to clean up after the visitors, I’m gonna need a raise!”
“Don’t be a punk, I’m worth more than all that. And who said I needed help cleaning up?” Toph said, sounding amused and possibly kind of flirty as she glanced in his direction. “I wanna touch something spiky, now. What’ve they got here?”
“Let’s see...I think they have some hedgehogs...and we could probably find some rose bushes.” Aang looked back at her, smirking, and the smirk showed in his voice. “Of course, I think I’m already touching something prickly.” And he patted her head.
“Don’t think I won’t bite you,” Toph said, closing her eyes and half snarling in Aang’s direction. The joke here was that while she definitely had some bark to her, her bite wasn’t really as bad as most people assumed it’d be. Okay, except for the punches. There were those.
“Have we reached the biting phase already?” Aang asked, with a hint of mirth in his voice. “Aren’t you going to make me buy you dinner first?” He was starting to enjoy their verbal sparring--even if it was accompanied with actual sparring. Maybe one of these days, he’d be able to dodge those punches, but in his defense, she did sort of have him in what could easily be turned into an armbar. He was still trying to suss out whether or not she’d enjoy it if he punched back.
She’d probably murder him if he punched back. All was not fair in love and war, apparently. “Oh, yeah,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I forgot all about the steps it takes to get to it. Coffee, heavy petting, dinner and then biting.” She was listing them off, raising a new finger on her free hand with every new item. Heavy petting. And they were at a petting zoo. Get it? Harr harr.
Aang snickered. “I guess I’ll have to find a very large animal for you to grope,” he parried, resisting the urge to pet her hair again. He figured he’d pressed his luck enough for now. “But that could probably be arranged.”
He had. But maybe more later. If he bought her dinner. Or if they weren’t walking. “Dork,” she said it very matter of factly. This, here, was no opinion. “Really though. I wanna pet a hedgehog. Show me one?” And then she was all cute, and bright faced and blinking innocently. Because it was something she knew how to fake pretty darn well. If she was faking, anyway.
“Yes.” He was a dork, he could freely own up to that. I mean, it was pointless to deny it at this point. He laughed, and wandered in the direction that they wanted to go. “Okay,” he said, when they had arrived. “Here we are. Let’s see if the hedge-pigs are ready for their close-up.”
Although she’d dropped his arm once they reached their destination, she stood exceptionally close by -- her shoulder brushing against his even as she made to peer in the general direction they appeared to be looking in. Not that it did her much good. “They don’t have to look nice,” she pointed out, because obvious joke was obvious.
Aang shifted, turning slightly toward her so that he could guide her hand into the hedgehogs’ cage as the attendant opened the lid for them. “You want to stroke from head to tail,” he said, touching her fingers to one of the spiky little creature’s heads so she could feel the lay of its spikes. “Like so.”
Toph didn’t say anything. Instead, she let him guide her fingers into the cage, huffed in a little breath as she experimentally pet the little creature. Such a strange texture. She’d always heard the animals were cute. It felt cute. In a rough, badass sort of way. Which she liked.
Sometimes she forgot she was meant to be a wry, sassy thing. Sometimes she forgot that she could smile so brilliantly over the silliest, smallest things.
Aang let her hand go, but stayed standing close to her, watching the smile that broke across her face, and feeling an answering one on his own. Toph could be prickly and a bit defensive, like roses, and hedgehogs, but she was actually pretty cute. “I think they like you.”
“I think I like them,” Toph said, and wasn’t really sure if she was actually talking about the hedgehogs. Still, she kept petting them, mostly quiet and just amused -- until one licked her and she couldn’t help but give a tiny bark of laughter.
Aang laughed with her, reaching down to tickle one of the animals under its chin. He was perfectly content to hang out and pet the cute little things for as long as Toph wanted. It was fun to hear her laugh.
“What else is there?” Toph asked, pulling her hand away after another minute or so of intermittent hedgehog petting and licking. It licking her, not her licking it. She wasn’t that damn weird.
“There are some goats, ponies, alpacas...might be some rabbits...” He ran through a list of animals. “We could just make our way around to everything, if you want.”
“Yes. That.” Toph agreed because she had all day, and she was having fun (even if she probably wouldn’t tell her cool friends about it later), and Aang seemed pleased enough, too. She supposed he would. He did work here. “Lead on, kiddo.”
“All right.” Aang bumped her shoulder with his, offering his arm as they set out again. He’d wander for a while, and stop them at whatever animal enclosure came next.
She took his arm again, and this time didn’t bother to punch him for any good measures. They’d wander around a bit. Maybe they’d feed goats -- she remembered having done that when she was younger, with her parents. Goats, she recalled, were pushy, excitable creatures that headbutted and clambered for food pellets. Toph had found it fun and funny both, but her parents -- ever protective of their helpless daughter -- had gotten scared for her and refused to let her do it again. It’d been a long time.
“This is fun,” she admitted to Aang, pleased to be doing something normal for once.
They found the bunnies first, and Aang watched with dubious anticipation to see how Toph would react to fluffy balls of cute that could kick like small mules. And then, when she got tired of those, then they’d come to the sheep and goats, and the alpacas.
The bunnies, Toph was not so taken with. Sure she petted them for a while, because they were soft and probably adorable, but mostly they just sat still and she was reminded of petting a very boring, although slightly more well behaved cat. They did have funny noses though. She had to appreciate that on some level.
“What’s your favorite thing, here?” She asked, after a time. Toph might be a bit brash and rude, but she was not without her own curiosities; she did want to get to know Aang.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Aang said, “The sheep and goats are kind of fun. And there are a lot of interesting animals in the Australian habitats. I just like animals in general.” It might explain why his ‘people skills’ were so ‘rusty.’
Toph hadn’t really noticed. She’d just assumed that vaguely awkward was Aang’s default. It was a bit endearing, anyway. Not that she was the type to notice when people were being endearing.
She pulled away from the bunnies, crossed her arms thoughtfully. “Do you? I’d never have guessed.”
“Never?” That sounded a bit like sarcasm to Aang, considering he’d introduced himself by raving about the zoo, and cardboard boxes. “I guess all that talk about empty boxes must have psyched you out, huh?”
“I wasn’t paying attention,” Toph said, sounding both amused and smug. “I was just too busy looking at your pretty face.”
Aang laughed, and shook his head. “How do you know it’s pretty? I could look like a goat. Although, in that case, I suppose I might sound like one, too.”
“How would I know the difference?” Toph’s counter was fairly astute, considering. “But if you are ugly, you should probably tell me now. I’ve been assured that I’m at least a seven on the hot scale. And if you’re a two -- well. I’ve got appearances to keep up, kiddo.” Clearly, she was kidding. Probably.
“I don’t think I’m ugly,” Aang said, “But it’s kind of cheating if I rate myself. I think this is where you’re supposed to ask your girl friends if they think I’m cute. Or guys, I guess that would count too.”
“I guess,” said Toph, who sounded like she could really care less one way or the other. Looks weren’t exactly things she actually worried about for the most obvious of reasons. And it was sort of funny, since she always seemed to have her hair and make up done pretty well. “You can meet Korra if you want. She’s cool.”
“Okay,” Aang said. He could tell that Korra seemed to look up to him; he supposed it was because he was the Avatar. Even if he didn’t fully understand what his role was supposed to be yet, he did care about people, deep down, and wanted to help, if he could. “Is there anybody that I should, you know, try to avoid pissing off?”
Neither did she; Korra had assured her that she was meant to be an earthbender, whatever that was, but the diminutive girl had had no dreams of her own to know what that was all about, really. Maybe she’d find out eventually. Maybe she wouldn’t. “Beside myself?” she asked, sweetly.
“Yes, besides yourself,” he said, bumping her shoulder with his own. He was quite sure that he already knew better than to piss her off, whether or not he would succeed in avoiding such a thing.
She was probably harder to actually annoy than most people thought. But she certainly wasn’t going to tarnish her own reputation and tell Aang that. “Nope,” she responded, and when she grinned her teeth showed. “Just me.”
“Well, all right, then.” He gave a humph of agreement. “I guess we’d better find some of those large animals we talked about, eh?”
“I guess we should,” she agreed, and couldn’t help but look a bit haughty as if it’d been her idea in the first place.
Aang just smiled, and led her around the petting zoo to the hooved animals, pressing the bag of alfalfa pellets into her free hand. The sounds of bleating lambs and kids could be heard from the enclosure, and he led her up to the gate, where the attendant was waiting to let them inside. “This is gonna be fun.”
“Lambs? Goats?” Toph frowned, attempting to figure it out by sound alone even as they were let into the little area with the creatures. They clearly knew what was up and flocked to where the people were. She grabbed a handful of the little food pellets and held it out experimentally -- letting out a little noise of both surprise and pleasure as whatever creature it was greedily went for it.
“Yup.” Aang grinned, and stood back to watch as the small, greedy little creatures butted each other to try and get close to the girl with the goodies. “I’d try and tell you which was which, but they don’t seem to want to hold still.”
“It’s better that way,” Toph said, clearly delighting in a game of feed, half pet, headbutt, rinse repeat. She liked that animals were honest - that they didn’t care about whether or not she could see. She could handle their greedy mouths and recklessness just as well as anyone else.
Even Aang got in on the game, the greedy little animals butting his hands and snuffling at his pockets to see if he might be hiding treats somewhere on his person. He had to dance around a bit, but it was fun. “I think we should have brought more pellets.”
“I think they’d just eat forever,” Toph laughed as one of the goats literally stole the empty food bag from her hands, but then wondered if maybe that wasn’t supposed to happen. “Fuck. Er -- come back, goat.”
“You’re probably right,” he said, laughing as the goat ran off. “Hang on!” And he darted off after the goat in question, catching some air as he leaped over the puddle of a spilled water bucket, to help the attendant capture the goat. The paper sack probably wouldn’t hurt the goat much, but it wasn’t exactly nutritional either. “Gotcha!”
Toph did her part to play innocent of that little transgression; Aang could chase all the animals around he wanted. Her? She was going to pet this one in front of her and blink wide, sightless eyes in a way that clearly said Oh that? That’s not my fault.
Aang didn’t think it was her fault the kid had run off with the paper. Baby goats were very quick. It could have happened to anyone. But he did come back over and pet her hair again once the empty sack had been properly disposed of. “All better.”
“My hero,” Toph snarked it out - sarcastic and biting -- but that didn’t mean she didn’t really look pleased, anyway. It was hard not to look pleased around a bunch of lambs and goats, though.
“Yup,” Aang said, puffing up his chest in an exaggerated fashion. Not that anyone was looking, but it helped the overall effect “That’s me.”
“I said so, didn’t I?” Toph managed giving him a look, complete with raised eyebrow that authentically said you are kind of stupid, but I accept you. How she managed that was something close to a mystery of the universe, considering she had nothing to go off of in terms of mimicry. “Does this place have ice cream?”
Hey, as long as she liked it, he’d keep workin’ it. Or at least not bother trying to be anything he wasn’t. “Yes!” he said, brushing her arm with the back of his hand. “They definitely have ice cream. It’s over this way.”