(no subject)
characters: Katara and Toph.
what: TALKING.
Toph had been one of the lucky ones. But then again, it was hard to hit a small target that could summon up a wall of rocks on command. Despite this, she had still ended up spending half of the night sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair, the other half not sleeping back in her apartment, and the morning after getting up at an ungodly hour to walk Katara home.
Even though the setting of the older girl's apartment was much more familiar than that of a sterile hospital room, Toph couldn't help but feel uneasy. The whole thing the night before had been too reminiscent of what had happened to the boy Jet in Ba Sing Sae, only on a much larger scale.
"This sucks."
Though many of them were released the morning after, Zuko had stayed behind because of his sister's injuries. Katara tried admonishing him, telling him that she wasn't worth it, but the boy's sullen and determined look made her turn around. He was too bothersome when it came to that, too unwilling to budge when he was determined. She didn't understand why he would want an attachment to the Fire Nation, but she was injured and it was for the same reason as Aang. But a part of her couldn't help but wonder if that was Azula's fault. Azula had been speaking to Mukuro not long before that happened, taunting him and telling him he was unimpressive--it wouldn't surprise her, but maybe she wanted Azula to remain in the poor light that she had always been in.
When it came to leaving, she felt somewhat frustrated, but she remained silent on the walk home to her apartment. Her body ached and a part of her wished she could have done more. But seeing those people controlled, seeing them doing that in a way that wasn't so different from the time in the woods back home, where she first learned to bloodbend, made her uneasy. Katara tried to look pleasant, easy, pleased to be out of the hospital, but her lips curved downward in a permanent smile as they stepped into her apartment.
"I know, Toph," she began, heading toward the kitchen to get something to drink. It only occurred to her now how dry she felt as they moved through the dome. The dome felt dry, as if it lacked life--it wasn't the sort of place where a waterbender would ever feel at home. "And it doesn't feel like we can do anything to stop it." Her eyebrows furrowed as she turned on the water and poured it in the glass. It wasn't long before she was gulping it down. Unfortunately, the water did little to ease her troubles.
"Back home we were the only people who could do something." Toph frowned, clenching her fists that were resting at her sides. The Earth Nation girl was more used to feeling powerless, being the caged bird kept away from the real world. The dome didn't feel real to her, in a lot of ways. With fake earth and no wind or sun or rain. Most of the time she felt like she was in some kind of glass ball, waiting to be dropped and broken out into the real world again.
"Here we're just a bunch of kids."
Katara left the kitchen and moved to sit down on the couch. She cradled the glass in her hands. The water swished left and right in a way that was probably too rhythmic, but it was no secret that she was a waterbender. She let herself be entranced by it for a moment before thinking of Toph's words. Was it true? In this world, even with their bending abilities, even with Aang in their company, were they really just kids? The thought made her head ache, as if some purpose she used to have was immediately stripped away from her.
"I don't want to think that's true, Toph. We can still do things! Not everyone can and I think ... maybe we haven't figured it out yet." But it was hard to sound optimistic when she looked so defeated, and the words seemed to fall flat. "We all want to help things, but I think we'd all rather be home. That might be the problem."
"What's the problem with that?" Toph spoke, sitting down next to Katara and putting her feet up on the small coffee table. "Everyone wants to be home, that doesn't mean we're not doing anything less than we were back home. It just means that there isn't much for us to do because we're not home... I think."
"But what if that one guy was right, Toph?" She looked up from her water to look at the girl. A part of her thought to correct Toph for puting her feet on the table, but that could come at another time. "What if this is our home now? We did a lot more things when we traveled with Aang! And I don't think anyone here knows how special he really is ... Especially since we keep letting him get hurt." Her hands trembled at that, so Katara had to lean forward and set her glass on the coffee table--away from Toph's feet, for the record.
"It just feels like we could be doing more. I just don't know how ..."
"If this dump is our new home, that doesn't stop us from missing our old one," Toph grumbled. "And what Twinkle Toes does is his own fault; if he gets hurt it's not because of you or me." She added after a moment, a bit awkwardly. Comforting was never her strong suit.
"And here it's just... Back home when we wanted to do something, we could just go and do it! We'd just hop on Appa and go help people. Here it's too much talking."
"There are a lot of people setting up agencies, but I don't think Aang would be very good at being in charge of something like that. I bet Zuko could help, but I don't really want a business--you shouldn't need something like that to help someone--but maybe we don't need to listen to people talk anymore! We can help clean up things out there and then we can do what we can. Whenever someone is bored or is missing home, we can help them." Even for Katara, it was a little reaching, but she knew Aang would like something like that. Without Appa, without the sky, he had been just as uncomfortable in this place as the rest of them.
"I just want to help, and I think we need to make them want us to help them."
"And how do we do that? 'Hi, we're kids that can control the elements, let us help you with your problems'? Do you think people here would actually go for that?"
A smile creased Katara's lips as she looked at Toph. Again, Toph couldn't see it, but she imagined Toph could imagine it--and that was all that mattered. "It's not like we ever asked before! And sometimes, people didn't want our help, but it worked out in the long run." The idea was starting to make her excited. "It could be like a job ... only we don't get paid. But it's not like we need that, anyway!"
"I guess." The small girl shrugged, smiling a little. She could tell Katara was excited about the idea from the way she was moving, and helping people (even if they didn't want it from a bunch of kids) seemed like a lot more fun than sitting around and waiting for the next disaster to happen. "I think the boys would go for that, yeah."
"I wish Sokka was here," Katara admitted. It was hard to be in a world without her brother, especially since he seemed to have answers at almost any time. "He would be able to put together a plan of action. But we can do something ourselves, I'm sure of it!"
"Yeah, I kinda miss the dork," she said off-handedly, blinking just once. "But between the three of us we could probably fix some stuff, even if takes us a while."
There was a stretch of silence before Katara corrected her. "Zuko will help us, too. We might be able to use the dancing club as a front for helping people! Everyone there seems nice enough ... I bet we can really do something with it! And dance, too." Dancing was half the reason why she got Zuko to start it, but it was obvious that there were bigger things to worry about than trying to get Aang's attention.
"Flamey'll probably be up for it. He wants to help, even if he's dumb about it." She nodded slowly. Dancing wasn't her thing, but if they could use it to get to things she was actually into, like earthbending to help people out, she wouldn't complain about having to 'see' Aang and Zuko's dorky dances.
"We definitely have a plan, then, Toph!" It was the first time in a while that Katara actually felt uplifted. She rose from her place on the couch and glanced toward the window. "We should go get breakfast to celebrate having an idea!" Plus, she was fairly certain that there wasn't anything in the fridge at the moment. She needed to go shopping, and maybe she would have--if the circumstances hadn't happened the night before. "I'll treat, of course," she added, in case Toph was wondering.
"I want waffles." Toph grinned, sitting up. If Katara was pleased with the plan than she was just happy she wouldn't have to deal with her badly-hidden brooding. A happy Katara was a happy Avatar gang. "Rube said he was going to make some with those blueberry things today, we should check it out."
"Waffles are really good!" Katara said. "They're really different from the food in our world, but everything is ... It's been pretty hard getting used to things, hasn't it?" The question was just an idle statement made as she brushed her fingers through her hair. She knew she needed to wash herself, but that could wait--for once. No one would care about her hair right now. When she reached the door, and when Toph was behind her, she started out and toward the restaurant.
what: TALKING.
Toph had been one of the lucky ones. But then again, it was hard to hit a small target that could summon up a wall of rocks on command. Despite this, she had still ended up spending half of the night sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair, the other half not sleeping back in her apartment, and the morning after getting up at an ungodly hour to walk Katara home.
Even though the setting of the older girl's apartment was much more familiar than that of a sterile hospital room, Toph couldn't help but feel uneasy. The whole thing the night before had been too reminiscent of what had happened to the boy Jet in Ba Sing Sae, only on a much larger scale.
"This sucks."
Though many of them were released the morning after, Zuko had stayed behind because of his sister's injuries. Katara tried admonishing him, telling him that she wasn't worth it, but the boy's sullen and determined look made her turn around. He was too bothersome when it came to that, too unwilling to budge when he was determined. She didn't understand why he would want an attachment to the Fire Nation, but she was injured and it was for the same reason as Aang. But a part of her couldn't help but wonder if that was Azula's fault. Azula had been speaking to Mukuro not long before that happened, taunting him and telling him he was unimpressive--it wouldn't surprise her, but maybe she wanted Azula to remain in the poor light that she had always been in.
When it came to leaving, she felt somewhat frustrated, but she remained silent on the walk home to her apartment. Her body ached and a part of her wished she could have done more. But seeing those people controlled, seeing them doing that in a way that wasn't so different from the time in the woods back home, where she first learned to bloodbend, made her uneasy. Katara tried to look pleasant, easy, pleased to be out of the hospital, but her lips curved downward in a permanent smile as they stepped into her apartment.
"I know, Toph," she began, heading toward the kitchen to get something to drink. It only occurred to her now how dry she felt as they moved through the dome. The dome felt dry, as if it lacked life--it wasn't the sort of place where a waterbender would ever feel at home. "And it doesn't feel like we can do anything to stop it." Her eyebrows furrowed as she turned on the water and poured it in the glass. It wasn't long before she was gulping it down. Unfortunately, the water did little to ease her troubles.
"Back home we were the only people who could do something." Toph frowned, clenching her fists that were resting at her sides. The Earth Nation girl was more used to feeling powerless, being the caged bird kept away from the real world. The dome didn't feel real to her, in a lot of ways. With fake earth and no wind or sun or rain. Most of the time she felt like she was in some kind of glass ball, waiting to be dropped and broken out into the real world again.
"Here we're just a bunch of kids."
Katara left the kitchen and moved to sit down on the couch. She cradled the glass in her hands. The water swished left and right in a way that was probably too rhythmic, but it was no secret that she was a waterbender. She let herself be entranced by it for a moment before thinking of Toph's words. Was it true? In this world, even with their bending abilities, even with Aang in their company, were they really just kids? The thought made her head ache, as if some purpose she used to have was immediately stripped away from her.
"I don't want to think that's true, Toph. We can still do things! Not everyone can and I think ... maybe we haven't figured it out yet." But it was hard to sound optimistic when she looked so defeated, and the words seemed to fall flat. "We all want to help things, but I think we'd all rather be home. That might be the problem."
"What's the problem with that?" Toph spoke, sitting down next to Katara and putting her feet up on the small coffee table. "Everyone wants to be home, that doesn't mean we're not doing anything less than we were back home. It just means that there isn't much for us to do because we're not home... I think."
"But what if that one guy was right, Toph?" She looked up from her water to look at the girl. A part of her thought to correct Toph for puting her feet on the table, but that could come at another time. "What if this is our home now? We did a lot more things when we traveled with Aang! And I don't think anyone here knows how special he really is ... Especially since we keep letting him get hurt." Her hands trembled at that, so Katara had to lean forward and set her glass on the coffee table--away from Toph's feet, for the record.
"It just feels like we could be doing more. I just don't know how ..."
"If this dump is our new home, that doesn't stop us from missing our old one," Toph grumbled. "And what Twinkle Toes does is his own fault; if he gets hurt it's not because of you or me." She added after a moment, a bit awkwardly. Comforting was never her strong suit.
"And here it's just... Back home when we wanted to do something, we could just go and do it! We'd just hop on Appa and go help people. Here it's too much talking."
"There are a lot of people setting up agencies, but I don't think Aang would be very good at being in charge of something like that. I bet Zuko could help, but I don't really want a business--you shouldn't need something like that to help someone--but maybe we don't need to listen to people talk anymore! We can help clean up things out there and then we can do what we can. Whenever someone is bored or is missing home, we can help them." Even for Katara, it was a little reaching, but she knew Aang would like something like that. Without Appa, without the sky, he had been just as uncomfortable in this place as the rest of them.
"I just want to help, and I think we need to make them want us to help them."
"And how do we do that? 'Hi, we're kids that can control the elements, let us help you with your problems'? Do you think people here would actually go for that?"
A smile creased Katara's lips as she looked at Toph. Again, Toph couldn't see it, but she imagined Toph could imagine it--and that was all that mattered. "It's not like we ever asked before! And sometimes, people didn't want our help, but it worked out in the long run." The idea was starting to make her excited. "It could be like a job ... only we don't get paid. But it's not like we need that, anyway!"
"I guess." The small girl shrugged, smiling a little. She could tell Katara was excited about the idea from the way she was moving, and helping people (even if they didn't want it from a bunch of kids) seemed like a lot more fun than sitting around and waiting for the next disaster to happen. "I think the boys would go for that, yeah."
"I wish Sokka was here," Katara admitted. It was hard to be in a world without her brother, especially since he seemed to have answers at almost any time. "He would be able to put together a plan of action. But we can do something ourselves, I'm sure of it!"
"Yeah, I kinda miss the dork," she said off-handedly, blinking just once. "But between the three of us we could probably fix some stuff, even if takes us a while."
There was a stretch of silence before Katara corrected her. "Zuko will help us, too. We might be able to use the dancing club as a front for helping people! Everyone there seems nice enough ... I bet we can really do something with it! And dance, too." Dancing was half the reason why she got Zuko to start it, but it was obvious that there were bigger things to worry about than trying to get Aang's attention.
"Flamey'll probably be up for it. He wants to help, even if he's dumb about it." She nodded slowly. Dancing wasn't her thing, but if they could use it to get to things she was actually into, like earthbending to help people out, she wouldn't complain about having to 'see' Aang and Zuko's dorky dances.
"We definitely have a plan, then, Toph!" It was the first time in a while that Katara actually felt uplifted. She rose from her place on the couch and glanced toward the window. "We should go get breakfast to celebrate having an idea!" Plus, she was fairly certain that there wasn't anything in the fridge at the moment. She needed to go shopping, and maybe she would have--if the circumstances hadn't happened the night before. "I'll treat, of course," she added, in case Toph was wondering.
"I want waffles." Toph grinned, sitting up. If Katara was pleased with the plan than she was just happy she wouldn't have to deal with her badly-hidden brooding. A happy Katara was a happy Avatar gang. "Rube said he was going to make some with those blueberry things today, we should check it out."
"Waffles are really good!" Katara said. "They're really different from the food in our world, but everything is ... It's been pretty hard getting used to things, hasn't it?" The question was just an idle statement made as she brushed her fingers through her hair. She knew she needed to wash herself, but that could wait--for once. No one would care about her hair right now. When she reached the door, and when Toph was behind her, she started out and toward the restaurant.