“How Could I Lie to You?”
Taang oneshot because I wanted one for this photo try and stop me.
Okay so this isn't the oneshot, this is Lorii talking. First off if you couldn't already tell, I am a diehard guilty Taang shipper and they are my favorite ship and no one is taking that fact from me.
I've said it before and I will gladly say it again, we need more Taang content. I know a lot of people won't like that, but this is the internet and we have freedom and this is just how fandoms are.
That out of the way, I would've posted this earlier but I didn't get the art done till today (I wanna add the fact that I spontaneously decided to write this oneshot mid-post).
I wanted something for Valentines day, but unfortunately this is coming late, but better late than never I guess.
Enough of my yappering, enjoy the story!
Btw if there r any errors, I’ll go back fix them, this was a rush post💀
<3
Aang felt his heart begin to pound in his chest, followed by the rising of heat on his cheeks. His feet began to pace around the large Fire Nation Palace bedroom he found himself in. Following each step he took seemed to be a new thought of worry tumbling after him.
What if this goes terribly wrong? Am I making a mistake by doing this? Is this the right decision to make? His heartrate only seemed to rise even more each passing moment to the point where he felt his breathing become heavy and sweat begin to form in his palms.
Finally, he forced himself to stop his anxious pacing and to gather himself, as this was most definitely not the state he wanted to be in for what he was going to do.
Aang stopped and stood before the large window in his bedroom overlooking the palace courtyard with the turtle-duck pound as the evening sun's light began to cast it's golden brilliance over the Palace.
You can do this, he told himself. You have to do this.
Suddenly his heartrate spiked again as something, or rather someone, caught his eye sitting beneath the tree by the pound. Aang blinked several times taking a step back from the window reaching for his bed to sit on.
Once he sat, he leaned forward and brought his hands to his temples and began massaging them with his fingers. Stop this! Why is this making me so nervous? I should never be this nervous!
After another couple minutes of trying to relax himself and get his mind in order, Aang stood to his feet and made his way to the door.
The young man took a deep breath and softly exhaled. I can do this. He took a few more moments of relaxation before walking out his room down the long Fire Nation Palace hall.
While he walked, time felt like it was slowing down and yet going by very quickly. Everything around him appeared to blur as he seemingly gained some sort of tunnel vision the closer he came to the hall that lead to the courtyard.
With each stride he took, he felt perturbation trying to grow ever so much more in his head and stomach. But he wasn't about to back down, he was going to face this head on.
A small smile formed over his lips as those words made their way into his thoughts. Those were the things he really needed his mind to focus on. It was words like those that assisted in palliating his mind of what could possibly go wrong, and it only pressed him to go forth with this even more.
He really did wonder though, was it the words that were dulcifying him? Or rather was it the thought of the one who spoke those words?
Toph.
Definitely the person who spoke the words.
Ever since a year and a half ago when the two of them had traveled together for six months dealing with some Earth Kingdom conflicts along with groups of Ozai supporter Rogues, the two of them really bonded and grew close. And though he didn't want to admit it, maybe he felt some way for her even before those six months, but that time had propelled and completely changed the way he saw her.
They had learned to rely on one another and grew together. Figuratively and literally since that was when they were fifteen and they were seventeen now.
In between those disputes, the two would also just hang out being crazy teenagers causing trouble. 90% of the time it was Toph's ideas and Aang would go along with them, but he managed to surprise her a few times and actually had been the one to take initiative with their shenanigans.
Over that course of time, he truly grew a fondness and admiration for the young Earth Bender. He would find himself grinning at her while she practiced her bending, or when they sparred together. Even when she would always pummel him in their sparring sessions, he kept that smile on his lips and joy in his eyes.
There was something about being with her and just being in her presence that brought something alive in him.
And it wasn't until they parted ways when he had to go back to the Fire Nation to assist Zuko with peace keeping in the Fire Nation colonies and Toph had to return to the Earth Kingdom that he realized how much those six months together had impacted him.
The day they had parted ways, Aang felt such a heaviness weighing in him when he watched Toph leave with Iroh, and for the next two weeks after her departure he could hardly get anything done in the Fire Nation.
Aang was hardly able to sleep at night, his appetite was practically none existent, and even meditating was nearly impossible.
Anytime Aang wasn’t in a meeting or helping sort something out, he would be off either lying in his bed unable to get rest because of the aching in his stomach, or outside in in the garden because the rocks and earth reminded him of her.
He felt desolate without her, like some part of him left when she did. Zuko noticed Aang's obvious off behavior and had no choice but to question him about it the fifth time he zoned out in one meeting with the high officials in the Fire Nation. And this had to be around nine days of him being in there.
It wasn't so much the fact they were apart, it was the fact that he had no idea when he was going to see her again.
It could be more than a year when he would see her again and the thought of that quite literally was tearing his heart. So when Zuko pulled Aang away after the meeting to ask him what in the Spirits was wrong with him, Aang didn't even know what to say.
What was he supposed to say to him? That ever since Toph left it sent him into a deep place of melancholia? Then he would be asked why and Aang wasn't up for that conversation at all.
Because quite honestly, he didn't even know what was wrong with him at the time. He hadn't realized he had fallen for the Earth Bender and how far he really had fallen.
So he just chalked it up to a lot going on and it was stressing him out, which Zuko knew was not the whole truth but had decided to let it go for the time being.
It took a couple days after that conversation and an intense mind battle for Aang to realize he was feeling this way because he had fallen in love with Toph after nearly two weeks of denial. And he only wished he had figured this out sooner and maybe he would have been somewhat alleviated from this mental turmoil.
It wasn't until now, a year and a half later that he was seeing her again for Katara and Zuko's Engagement Commemoration.
A whole year and a half. And oh was that year and a half agonizing. Not only because he didn't see her for that whole time and could only reach her through letters and both of them were too busy to even visit each other, but because Katara came around a lot to the Fire Nation to visit Zuko and vice versa, along with Sokka and Suki.
The whole couple thing with everyone was driving Aang crazy because he was either the fifth wheel or was just stuck doing Avatar duties.
Now the reality was that Aang wasn't the fifth wheel to any of them and was more than welcome with them when he wasn't currently occupied with something, he was just aggravated and was wishing he was with Toph.
So as soon as he saw Toph coming back into the Capital with Iroh he went running to her and he nearly knocked her down with the force of how he threw his arms around her. Toph noted how she could hardly breath in the moment while Sokka, Katara, Suki, and Zuko all laughed at their greeting.
It had been only two days since she had came back and the feelings Aang had for her never left and in fact felt stronger. Zuko and Suki had known of his feelings for the past year and a half and were in complete support of him pursuing her.
And not long ago he told Katara and Sokka about it, who also were very supportive of the whole thing.
In fact, none of them would leave him alone about confessing to Toph. Any chance they would, his friends would ask about when he planned on telling her to which Aang's response was always 'soon'. Never actually knowing how soon.
But Aang knew he had to tell her.
He wasn’t about to let this slip away from him again because this time he knew how he felt, and he had to take this chance with her.
Adrenaline was now pumping through his blood as he the warm air of outside hit his skin. His eyes fell to his left where the courtyard opened up and saw the tree beside the turtle duck pond he had seen from his room, and Toph lying on her back with her hands behind her head.
The sun is wasn’t overbearingly hot this time of year since it was fall in the Fire Nation, and Toph must have taken advantage of that and decided to bask in the evening sun.
Spirit's, she looked so beautiful in that state of rest. For a few moments Aang stood there just admiring her before snapping himself back into reality. Okay, now go over to her and tell her!
The young man took in a deep breath and began to make his way over to her.
His eyes were on her the whole time he walked, and before he even made it beneath the tree, he saw a smirk come over her face.
"I'd know those footsteps anywhere," She chimed. "What's up Twinkle Toes?"
Aang felt his heart begin to race and face heat up again in almost an instant after she spoke. No no!! Stop it! Calm down, calm down!
"Um, you doing alright there?"
"Huh?" Aang said back. "What do you mean?"
"Your heart is going all kinds of crazy like you just got done sparring, you okay?"
Shoot, I forgot she could do that. How could I forget that? Okay, just take a deep breath and relax. Relax.
"Oh yeah I'm alright," He responded back. Lie. It’s entirely a lie, but I'm not going to say too much either. "But I did want- need- to talk to you about something."
Toph opened her eyes and raise a brow suspiciously. Aang stopped himself from letting out a soft gasp as the golden light illuminated her facial features and eyes.
"Oh?" She said as she began to sit up, bringing her knees beneath her sitting on them.
"Yeah and it's kind of important." He lowering himself down, mirroring the way she sat. His eyes fell on hers and he was lost in them for a few seconds. How was it they were sightless and yet held so much emotion gazing back at him?
"Well judging by your heartrate I'd say so." She commented.
"Um, try to ignore that."
"That's gonna be kind of hard but okay."
Aang looked at his hands that were resting on his knees and took in another deep breath, something he found himself doing a lot of in the past twenty minutes. He looked back up at her and calmed himself as best as he could.
"Okay, you remember almost two years ago when me and you were traveling for six months?"
Toph smirked and snorted a laugh. "Hell yeah I do, those were some fun times we had. A lot of kicking butt and causing trouble, why? You asking me to go on another six month trip?"
As much as Aang wished they could go on another six month trip, he knew he couldn't do that. But just the thought of another extended period of time with her made his stomach feel like it was floating.
"Mm no, but it was- something that happened- no- what happened on the trap- that trip!" He stammered. The fire bending side of him must have come out because Aang’s body was burning with embarrassment. He repressed the urge to face palm and walk away, instead opting for gripping the fabric pants on his knees.
"Uh, okay. So it was something that happened on the trip?" She questioned, rephrasing what he said making him sound even more dumb. But it was clear Aang was nowhere near done making himself sound like a fool.
"Well not specifically on the trip, kind of before- but it was on the trip."
Toph gave a confused expression to what she had just heard. "Wait, so it happened before the trip or on it?"
"Both."
Way to go stupid.
Toph sighed and rubbed her forehead with one finger. "Twinkle Toes, I'm not understanding what you're talking about here, mind making it a bit more clear?"
Then Aang did something he had not anticipated doing in the slightest. He had no idea what came over him or what had possessed him to do such a thing (maybe a past life grew tired of his stumbling), but he moved he inched his body closer to hers to where their knees were touching, and he reached for Toph's left hand, and held it.
Aang looked back up at Toph's face to see nothing but utter shock and a rosy coloring flushing over her cheeks and nose.
"Twinkletoes..." Her voice lowered into a quiet and softer tone.
Aang felt a blush come over his own face as he gazed at her softly with a gentle smile. Just for a moment he wasn't sure if he could bring himself to say what he wanted to her, losing his focus to her placid semblance. The way her black bangs had fall over her face but were being blown off her face by a gentle breeze that carried the sound of lightly rustling leaves.
A strange calm had settled over him, and where it came from he had no idea, but he wasn’t going to question it because it needed to stick around.
"Toph, I said how this thing happened before the trip," He looked down at her hand that was in his and rubbed his thumb over her fingers. "I... I say that because the trip only seemed to..."
He brought his gaze back to her and looked into her pale green eyes before going on.
"...It only seemed to enhance what I was feeling before that trip."
"Feeling," Toph breathed faintly. "A-Aang, what are you saying..?"
Aang felt his heart jump again. She rarely ever used his actual name. It was always Airhead, Baldy, or of course, Twinkle Toes.
"I'm saying… I’m saying that I have feelings for you Toph." There it was. He'd said. He just confessed to her. His heart was spiraling out of control and in a way so was his head, yet at the same time he felt imperturbable. But he was not yet done with this conversation.
"All that time we had spent together, growing closer as friends, it made me see you in a different way. I already sort of had thoughts of you before that, but that trip, just you and me… I don't know, something changed."
He then brought her hand up and placed it over his chest so she could feel his heart beat even more. "You changed me."
If Toph's cheeks weren't a burning red before, they certainly were now. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it at a loss for words as to what she was hearing.
Aand blinked slowly at her. "I only wished I had realized this sooner, before you left."
His gaze softened at her yet again as he smiled tepidly.
"For the past year and a half we've been apart, I couldn't stop thinking about you, I even started to think there was no point in even trying to tell you anything because I know how you are. You're headstrong and independent, so I tried to let go, but... Seeing you again brought everything back to me."
Toph let out a small gasp and blinked several times.
"You... You can't be serious." She uttered in disbelief. "I-I don't believe this."
Aang made her hand lay flat against his chest.
"Why would I lie to you? Even if I did you would know."
Toph felt her face burn. There was no way this was actually happening to her. This had to be some sort of dream.
"How could I lie to you?" He whispered.
"You're not lying," She uttered under her breath. "You mean you actually-"
"I mean every word I said Toph. Again I just wish I told you sooner." Aang then felt like his stomach had fallen from a high place. "Well, I’ve told you about how I feel. Now..."
He paused letting the message try and make it’s own way to Toph. Now for how she felt. If he had just ruined everything between them, or just blossomed something new for the two of them.
"Aang, I-I," She stammered. "I don't know what to say."
Coldness rushed over Aang. That was not the answer he was looking to hear at all.
He sucked his lips in. "W-Well, how do you feel? About me..?”
Toph was quiet for what seemed like forever with Aang staring at her face that was blushing red and still as stone. A small grin began to crack over her lips, followed by a sniffle-like laugh as she lowered her head, and then began to actually laugh.
Now Aang was confused. Was this a good sign or bad? He still had her hand over his chest and she hadn't tried to move it away so maybe that was a good thing?
After that she brought her head back up and chewed on her bottom lip and smiled at him. "Sorry Aang, I guess I'm just, shocked, hearing you go so serious like that." She chuckled.
Okay now he was really confused.
"But um," She lowered her head slightly and chewed her bottom lip again. "I mean, I guess you could say I feel the same way..."
Wait. Had he heard that right?
Aang went silent and stared at her dumbfounded.
"Huh?" He queried.
"Aang you dummy! I said I like you too!" Toph retorted, using her other hand to knock him in the head.
"Ow!"
"Jeez you go from serious to Airhead quicker than my willingness to get out my parents house." She rolled her eyes in amusement.
The throbbing on the side of Aang's head began to subside and was quickly replaced with laugher. "You really mean what you said though?"
Toph shrugged, tilting her head to the side and scrunched her nose as she smiled at him. "Would I lie to you?"
Aang blushed because of how adorable she looked doing that but shook his head. "You would, and I wouldn't know because I'm not a human lie detector like you."
Toph let out a scoff. "Okay fair point, but I assure you, I'm telling the truth."
"I'd hope so after pouring my heart out to you like that."
Toph laughed again as both of their facial expressions began to sway back into their relaxed states. Never had Aang felt such a relief in doing this. That weight had finally been lifted off him and he felt amazing. But Aang apparently wasn't done with surprising the two of them just yet.
He took her hand he was holding and moved it so that the back of it was facing him, he looked at her hand as he did. Somehow, as rough and wild as Toph was, he found her hand to be really soft.
He also noted how small her’s was compared to his. He lifted the back of her hand to his lips and placed a kiss on it and looked into Toph's eyes.
It was clear he had once again taken her by surprise with the action as she was yet again, struck with shock and appeared flustered.
Then he turned her hand again so that her finger tips were on his lips and he smiled against them, so she could in her way, see him smiling.
Toph blushed more even more somehow and lowered her head ever so slightly again.
"I really could never lie to you, you know." He said as he lowered her hand away from his lips to speak.
She brought her head back up again so he could see her face and a warm smile was what he was met with.
"I know Aang." She said faintly.
Silence passed between them as the world around them seemed to fade, Aang was lost in her visage, and Toph was lost to his touch.
But the moment didn't last too long because Aang was met with another punch, this time into his shoulder which made him drop Toph's hand.
"Ouch!" He yelped. "Again? What was that one for?"
"Sorry!" Toph quickly apologized waving her hands at him. "Force of habit, if I feel myself getting too vulnerable I punch."
Aang rubbed his shoulder and shook his head letting out a sigh. "Fine fine, guess I'll have to get used to it.”
Toph caught onto what he said and scrunched her nose at him as she began to stand to her feet.
"Don't get too cocky Twinkle Toes, you know I'll put you in your place."
Aang got up with her and folded his arms. "Oh will you now?"
"Sure will." Toph retorted and cracked her knuckles. "Maybe I ought to do that right now as a matter of fact, you're rusty on that earth bending too, you're gonna need it."
"Oh is that so?" Aang replied.
"Mhm."
Aang looked at her up and down with a challenging smirk. Gosh she was gorgeous. She was returning the same look he was giving. And that was one of the many things he adored about her. They could just be... Themselves, with one another. Free as flowing breeze, and still as one when it came to it.
Aang was still high on the moments from before, and maybe that was going to interfere with their spar, but that was the least of his worries. He had just told the world's Greatest Earthbender, and more importantly his best friend, his feelings for her, and she confessed back.
That was all that mattered to him right then and there. And though Toph would never come to admit it, but she was feeling the exact same way. Minus Aang being the world's Greatest Earthbender of course.
And they both knew that this was the start of something new for them to endure together one way or another.
"You're on Sifu Toph."
Taang, you have my heart🧡💚
