A New Years Drabble
"Toph!" Teo said in surprise. "What are you- I mean, hi! Um... that's a cute outfit."
"My mom picked it out," Toph said grumpily.
Oh, he thought, right off the bat, he'd picked at a sore subject. Worse he'd complimented her mother's taste, which Toph hated. What if she got upset that he complimented her appearance when her mother dressed her but failed to compliment her when she dressed herself? She might get insulted that he didn't like her taste - or worse, think that she did an abysmal job dressing herself! He shouldn't have said anything at all; she might take it personally that he complimented her appearance when she couldn't see it. Stupid, Teo!
"So what are you doing here?"
"Oh, my dad has a science club after school on Fridays. I just decided to study in the library." Actually this was a lie, the meeting was upstairs in the lab today and he hadn't wanted to ask anyone to help him up the stairs. "What about you?"
"Mixed Martial Arts is having a New Years party."
"Oh."
"You wanna come? We're not throwing people around today," she said this in almost a wistful tone. "I was taking a breather from Twinkle-toes, but I can usually stand him a lot better when I have someone to put between us. Help a girl out?"
Teo was sort of glad she couldn't see him then, his face was feeling very red when he replied that he would love to join them.
Toph put her hands on the back of Teo's chair and followed as he rolled himself out the front door into the cold.
It was snowing lightly, but the grounds already had a healthy layer of snow. Most of this was fresh, so Teo could see Toph's tiny footprints from where she'd left the dojo, walked to the corner of the school building, then hugged the wall until she found the door.
"Toph have you ever thought about getting a guide dog?"
Oh, he thought, he'd said something insensitive. He'd suggested that Toph needed assistance - well sure she sort of did but she didn't want to hear about it! She didn't need reminding that she had trouble getting around, and she didn't need people to point out that they noticed it. Stupid, Teo!
Toph grunted and replied in the high-pitched, hoity-toity voice, which she reserved for impressions of her mother. "I should say not! Dogs drool and defecate and they might bite! I am far too small and fragile for such a large, difficult animal."
Teo let out a little laugh that came out as a white puffy cloud in the cold air.
"Although that reminds me," Toph said as they reached the dojo doors and he leaned forward to open them. "Twinkle-toes brought his dog."
As soon as the door opened Teo was enveloped in a mass of thick, white fur with one huge, cold nose.
"Woof," the dog groaned as he sniffed Teo's face in greeting.
"Look, Teo! Appa likes you!" Aang appeared off to the side, with, strangely enough, a ferret perched on his shoulder. This must be Momo, Teo thought. The young, foreign exchange student had shown Teo enough pictures of his newest pet to last him a lifetime.
"Hey, Aang," Teo patted the massive dog.
Seemingly satisfied that Teo was a good human being and had been properly greeted, Appa slowly meandered away while Aang brought his two friends further inside.
The members of the Mixed Martial Arts club lounged around a set of tables that had been pushed together to form something of a banquet hall in the middle of the dojo. There was a surprisingly huge amount of food - real food, not just chips and sweets like the usual school related parties that Teo had attended. There was fish, Bakkwa, dumplings, noodles, nian gao, mandarin oranges, yu sheng, lots of tea, and all sorts of little cakes.
The club members must have gone home before coming to the party; they were all dressed in street-clothes. Teo felt a little out of place in his uniform. The young boy looked around and realized he knew everyone in the club (roughly) but didn't recognize the heavy-set, bearded man sitting next to Piandao.
"That is Zuko's uncle, Iroh." Aang explained when he saw Teo's face. "He is friends with Piandao - he brought all the teas and cakes!" Aang picked one up and ate the whole thing in two bites. "They are really good!" He picked up another and fed it to his ferret.
Teo pushed a chair aside at the table to scoot himself in. Toph sat on one side of him, while Aang took the other. The young girl seemed pleased with this arrangement.
At Aang's urging Teo loaded up a plate for himself. "Try the noodles! I made the noodles!" Aang was talking to him but Teo didn't hear much, he was busy watching Toph's hand as it slid across the table, touching each bowl before her. Should he offer to pick out some food for her? She pulled a bowl of mandarin oranges toward her. Ever so subtly, she bent her head and sniffed. Apparently satisfied that the citrus smell was emanating from this bowl, she reached a hand in to grab one of the fruits. Teo felt self-conscious just watching her, but then he supposed, she might not feel self-conscious if she couldn't see that someone was looking at her.
"Aang!" Katara called from across the table, "Watch Momo!"
Teo looked back over at his friend just in time to see the ferret take a swan dive off of Aang's shoulder and onto a plate of cakes. There was a collective groan around the table at the loss of the sweets. Jet and Zuko's uncle burst out laughing. Momo's tiny, frosting-covered head emerged from the mess of desserts, he struggled to pull himself out of the cake pile, then, giving up, resorted to eating his way out. This just set the whole group into peels of laughter.
"Sorry guys," Aang said as the laughter subsided. It seemed he was forgiven; Suki and Katara were busy taking pictures of the spectacle and Iroh was wiping tears of merriment from his eyes.
The group settled down and Teo noticed Toph was trying to peal her orange, and seemed to be having some trouble with it.
"Do you want some help?" He asked.
Oh, he thought, he'd just asked something rude. He'd implied she couldn't do something as simple as peal an orange without help. Monkeys could peal oranges and he'd implied she couldn't! Once again he'd pointed out the fact that things were sometimes difficult for her because she couldn't see and then further implied that being blind made it impossible for her to do these things. Stupid, Teo!
"Nope," Toph replied. She quit searching for purchase on the fruit's smooth skin and simply formed her hand into a stiff claw of death and raked it across the orange's surface. She had no trouble peeling it after that.
"Are Zuko and Jet making out yet?" She asked casually.
"What? No," he paused. "Although they are doing that thing they do. You know, where they think they aren't acting lovey-dovey, but they are?"
Toph snickered, then laughed outright. "Who's making seal noises? Sokka?"
"Got it in one," Teo laughed.
"What are they talking about that would require that noise to be made?"
Teo was too busy laughing at Sokka's ridiculous impression and the knowing glances that Katara and Suki were sharing at the sight of him.
"Would you like some tea, young lady?" Zuko's uncle appeared at Toph's side, smiling kindly.
"Sure. Iroh right? Jet says you make a mean cup of tea."
Iroh laughed as he poured her a cup, "Jet is a very respectable young man, now isn't he?" Teo looked over and noticed the 'respectable young man' offering Iroh's nephew a piece of food off his own chopsticks. Zuko hesitantly, and with much blushing, ate it. "Would you like some too, young man?" Iroh asked Teo.
"Yes, please."
"Sokka brought Bakkwa right? Can you pass it over?" Iroh did so and Toph split a strip of the dried meat in two, putting one piece in her mouth and chewing with an intentional lack of grace. The second piece she held in her lap, where Appa's large muzzle suddenly slid into view. He gently took the piece from her fingers and then it was gone, swallowed in one bite. He licked her hands in thanks, then vanished back under the table.
Iroh laughed at the exchange as he poured Teo's tea. "Toph, have you tried some of Suki's dumpling's yet? They are very tasty."
"I haven't, yet," Toph replied.
"Oh! You must have some! And some of these cakes too. I find them to be quite delicious, although I may be a bit biased - I made them! And the nian gao is very good too, you wouldn't believe that Piandao made it!"
"Piandao?"
Iroh casually put food on a plate and set it before her. "Just try it! I was telling Piandao he should try to start a cooking club if he's so good at it."
Toph snickered and started to eat as Iroh moved on to refill Aang's cup.
Teo watched in wonder. Amazing! Iroh had managed to fill a plate for Toph and tell her what he was putting on it without seeming insulting or insensitive. What subtlety! What manners! What skill!
Aang looked up from his attempts to clean Momo suddenly, whipping out his phone.
"It is six o'clock! Time for firecrackers!"
Toph shoveled the remainder of her food into her mouth as the club members started to gather their coats to go outside.
"You guys have firecrackers?" Teo asked in amazement.
"Yep," Toph wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I like the part where they make the exploding noises.
Aang, Toph, and Teo moved outside after the other club members. The two adults set up the firecrackers while the students milled about.
"Hooray for the year of the dragon!" Aang cried, then blew air out strongly from his nose so that clouds of steam rose from his nose. "I am a dragon!"
Teo laughed.
"What?" Toph asked.
"Oh? Oh!" Teo blushed, "Well in winter when the air is cold your breath looks like steam... and steam kind of looks like smoke so it looks like smoke is coming out of your mouth... like a dragon..." He teetered off awkwardly.
Toph just looked confused for a moment then breathed heavily from her mouth, creating a large cloud of steam.
"Toph is a dragon!" Aang shouted excitedly, breathing out from his mouth and making a roaring noise as he did.
Toph copied him and soon Teo joined in. He noticed Suki take a picture of the three of them, but didn't care to say anything to dampen Toph's fun, so he kept on roaring.
Piandao set off the first of the firecrackers and they banged into life, the lights writhing about on the ground as the explosive noise filled the cold, dark air. There was a whoop of delight from the students.
As they waited for the second batch to be lit Jet produced a large packet of sparklers and began passing them around. Teo noticed Zuko give Jet a suspicious look when the club senior produced a lighter from his pocket, but Jet just smiled and shrugged. Soon the whole group was carrying around the crackling sticks.
Jet and Sokka carried a whole mass of them in each fist and began to do martial arts moves that way. "Hoo-hah!" Sokka roared.
"What are you guys doing?" Suki laughed as she snapped another photo.
"Fire bender battle!" Jet cried as he and Sokka began kicking at each other and waving around the flaming sticks.
Zuko and Suki exchanged bemused glances at the state of their boyfriends.
Teo noticed that Toph was just sitting with her unlit stick. Should he offer to light it for her? No, that'd be rude, right? Should she even hold a sparkler? What if she hurt herself? No, no, that sort of thinking was definitely rude. Toph could do anything.
"Hey, Teo, can you help me with this?" She held up the stick.
"Oh!" She'd asked! "Sure."
The fire bending battle ended abruptly when Katara started throwing snowballs. The second set of firecrackers went off as the students began a massive snowball fight. Zuko, Suki, and Katara fought against Sokka and Jet. Aang joined in and after a few minutes the sticky ferret on his shoulder decided to abandon ship. Momo jumped from Aang's back and began hopping around in the snow. Aang turned around to find him, but the ferret had already been picked up and carried off the battlefield by Appa.
The huge dog trotted over to Teo's chair and plopped down to watch the show with Momo cuddled in his paws.
Ignoring the banging firecrackers and the flying snow, Teo lit Toph's sparkler. "Hold it away from yourself - yeah like that."
"This is cool." The little, fizzing flame illuminated Toph's face revealing a broad grin. "It sounds weird and the heat feels kind of tickly."
Teo flushed up to his ears. "Let's light some more!"
Oh, he thought, this is the best New Years ever.
"My mom picked it out," Toph said grumpily.
Oh, he thought, right off the bat, he'd picked at a sore subject. Worse he'd complimented her mother's taste, which Toph hated. What if she got upset that he complimented her appearance when her mother dressed her but failed to compliment her when she dressed herself? She might get insulted that he didn't like her taste - or worse, think that she did an abysmal job dressing herself! He shouldn't have said anything at all; she might take it personally that he complimented her appearance when she couldn't see it. Stupid, Teo!
"So what are you doing here?"
"Oh, my dad has a science club after school on Fridays. I just decided to study in the library." Actually this was a lie, the meeting was upstairs in the lab today and he hadn't wanted to ask anyone to help him up the stairs. "What about you?"
"Mixed Martial Arts is having a New Years party."
"Oh."
"You wanna come? We're not throwing people around today," she said this in almost a wistful tone. "I was taking a breather from Twinkle-toes, but I can usually stand him a lot better when I have someone to put between us. Help a girl out?"
Teo was sort of glad she couldn't see him then, his face was feeling very red when he replied that he would love to join them.
Toph put her hands on the back of Teo's chair and followed as he rolled himself out the front door into the cold.
It was snowing lightly, but the grounds already had a healthy layer of snow. Most of this was fresh, so Teo could see Toph's tiny footprints from where she'd left the dojo, walked to the corner of the school building, then hugged the wall until she found the door.
"Toph have you ever thought about getting a guide dog?"
Oh, he thought, he'd said something insensitive. He'd suggested that Toph needed assistance - well sure she sort of did but she didn't want to hear about it! She didn't need reminding that she had trouble getting around, and she didn't need people to point out that they noticed it. Stupid, Teo!
Toph grunted and replied in the high-pitched, hoity-toity voice, which she reserved for impressions of her mother. "I should say not! Dogs drool and defecate and they might bite! I am far too small and fragile for such a large, difficult animal."
Teo let out a little laugh that came out as a white puffy cloud in the cold air.
"Although that reminds me," Toph said as they reached the dojo doors and he leaned forward to open them. "Twinkle-toes brought his dog."
As soon as the door opened Teo was enveloped in a mass of thick, white fur with one huge, cold nose.
"Woof," the dog groaned as he sniffed Teo's face in greeting.
"Look, Teo! Appa likes you!" Aang appeared off to the side, with, strangely enough, a ferret perched on his shoulder. This must be Momo, Teo thought. The young, foreign exchange student had shown Teo enough pictures of his newest pet to last him a lifetime.
"Hey, Aang," Teo patted the massive dog.
Seemingly satisfied that Teo was a good human being and had been properly greeted, Appa slowly meandered away while Aang brought his two friends further inside.
The members of the Mixed Martial Arts club lounged around a set of tables that had been pushed together to form something of a banquet hall in the middle of the dojo. There was a surprisingly huge amount of food - real food, not just chips and sweets like the usual school related parties that Teo had attended. There was fish, Bakkwa, dumplings, noodles, nian gao, mandarin oranges, yu sheng, lots of tea, and all sorts of little cakes.
The club members must have gone home before coming to the party; they were all dressed in street-clothes. Teo felt a little out of place in his uniform. The young boy looked around and realized he knew everyone in the club (roughly) but didn't recognize the heavy-set, bearded man sitting next to Piandao.
"That is Zuko's uncle, Iroh." Aang explained when he saw Teo's face. "He is friends with Piandao - he brought all the teas and cakes!" Aang picked one up and ate the whole thing in two bites. "They are really good!" He picked up another and fed it to his ferret.
Teo pushed a chair aside at the table to scoot himself in. Toph sat on one side of him, while Aang took the other. The young girl seemed pleased with this arrangement.
At Aang's urging Teo loaded up a plate for himself. "Try the noodles! I made the noodles!" Aang was talking to him but Teo didn't hear much, he was busy watching Toph's hand as it slid across the table, touching each bowl before her. Should he offer to pick out some food for her? She pulled a bowl of mandarin oranges toward her. Ever so subtly, she bent her head and sniffed. Apparently satisfied that the citrus smell was emanating from this bowl, she reached a hand in to grab one of the fruits. Teo felt self-conscious just watching her, but then he supposed, she might not feel self-conscious if she couldn't see that someone was looking at her.
"Aang!" Katara called from across the table, "Watch Momo!"
Teo looked back over at his friend just in time to see the ferret take a swan dive off of Aang's shoulder and onto a plate of cakes. There was a collective groan around the table at the loss of the sweets. Jet and Zuko's uncle burst out laughing. Momo's tiny, frosting-covered head emerged from the mess of desserts, he struggled to pull himself out of the cake pile, then, giving up, resorted to eating his way out. This just set the whole group into peels of laughter.
"Sorry guys," Aang said as the laughter subsided. It seemed he was forgiven; Suki and Katara were busy taking pictures of the spectacle and Iroh was wiping tears of merriment from his eyes.
The group settled down and Teo noticed Toph was trying to peal her orange, and seemed to be having some trouble with it.
"Do you want some help?" He asked.
Oh, he thought, he'd just asked something rude. He'd implied she couldn't do something as simple as peal an orange without help. Monkeys could peal oranges and he'd implied she couldn't! Once again he'd pointed out the fact that things were sometimes difficult for her because she couldn't see and then further implied that being blind made it impossible for her to do these things. Stupid, Teo!
"Nope," Toph replied. She quit searching for purchase on the fruit's smooth skin and simply formed her hand into a stiff claw of death and raked it across the orange's surface. She had no trouble peeling it after that.
"Are Zuko and Jet making out yet?" She asked casually.
"What? No," he paused. "Although they are doing that thing they do. You know, where they think they aren't acting lovey-dovey, but they are?"
Toph snickered, then laughed outright. "Who's making seal noises? Sokka?"
"Got it in one," Teo laughed.
"What are they talking about that would require that noise to be made?"
Teo was too busy laughing at Sokka's ridiculous impression and the knowing glances that Katara and Suki were sharing at the sight of him.
"Would you like some tea, young lady?" Zuko's uncle appeared at Toph's side, smiling kindly.
"Sure. Iroh right? Jet says you make a mean cup of tea."
Iroh laughed as he poured her a cup, "Jet is a very respectable young man, now isn't he?" Teo looked over and noticed the 'respectable young man' offering Iroh's nephew a piece of food off his own chopsticks. Zuko hesitantly, and with much blushing, ate it. "Would you like some too, young man?" Iroh asked Teo.
"Yes, please."
"Sokka brought Bakkwa right? Can you pass it over?" Iroh did so and Toph split a strip of the dried meat in two, putting one piece in her mouth and chewing with an intentional lack of grace. The second piece she held in her lap, where Appa's large muzzle suddenly slid into view. He gently took the piece from her fingers and then it was gone, swallowed in one bite. He licked her hands in thanks, then vanished back under the table.
Iroh laughed at the exchange as he poured Teo's tea. "Toph, have you tried some of Suki's dumpling's yet? They are very tasty."
"I haven't, yet," Toph replied.
"Oh! You must have some! And some of these cakes too. I find them to be quite delicious, although I may be a bit biased - I made them! And the nian gao is very good too, you wouldn't believe that Piandao made it!"
"Piandao?"
Iroh casually put food on a plate and set it before her. "Just try it! I was telling Piandao he should try to start a cooking club if he's so good at it."
Toph snickered and started to eat as Iroh moved on to refill Aang's cup.
Teo watched in wonder. Amazing! Iroh had managed to fill a plate for Toph and tell her what he was putting on it without seeming insulting or insensitive. What subtlety! What manners! What skill!
Aang looked up from his attempts to clean Momo suddenly, whipping out his phone.
"It is six o'clock! Time for firecrackers!"
Toph shoveled the remainder of her food into her mouth as the club members started to gather their coats to go outside.
"You guys have firecrackers?" Teo asked in amazement.
"Yep," Toph wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "I like the part where they make the exploding noises.
Aang, Toph, and Teo moved outside after the other club members. The two adults set up the firecrackers while the students milled about.
"Hooray for the year of the dragon!" Aang cried, then blew air out strongly from his nose so that clouds of steam rose from his nose. "I am a dragon!"
Teo laughed.
"What?" Toph asked.
"Oh? Oh!" Teo blushed, "Well in winter when the air is cold your breath looks like steam... and steam kind of looks like smoke so it looks like smoke is coming out of your mouth... like a dragon..." He teetered off awkwardly.
Toph just looked confused for a moment then breathed heavily from her mouth, creating a large cloud of steam.
"Toph is a dragon!" Aang shouted excitedly, breathing out from his mouth and making a roaring noise as he did.
Toph copied him and soon Teo joined in. He noticed Suki take a picture of the three of them, but didn't care to say anything to dampen Toph's fun, so he kept on roaring.
Piandao set off the first of the firecrackers and they banged into life, the lights writhing about on the ground as the explosive noise filled the cold, dark air. There was a whoop of delight from the students.
As they waited for the second batch to be lit Jet produced a large packet of sparklers and began passing them around. Teo noticed Zuko give Jet a suspicious look when the club senior produced a lighter from his pocket, but Jet just smiled and shrugged. Soon the whole group was carrying around the crackling sticks.
Jet and Sokka carried a whole mass of them in each fist and began to do martial arts moves that way. "Hoo-hah!" Sokka roared.
"What are you guys doing?" Suki laughed as she snapped another photo.
"Fire bender battle!" Jet cried as he and Sokka began kicking at each other and waving around the flaming sticks.
Zuko and Suki exchanged bemused glances at the state of their boyfriends.
Teo noticed that Toph was just sitting with her unlit stick. Should he offer to light it for her? No, that'd be rude, right? Should she even hold a sparkler? What if she hurt herself? No, no, that sort of thinking was definitely rude. Toph could do anything.
"Hey, Teo, can you help me with this?" She held up the stick.
"Oh!" She'd asked! "Sure."
The fire bending battle ended abruptly when Katara started throwing snowballs. The second set of firecrackers went off as the students began a massive snowball fight. Zuko, Suki, and Katara fought against Sokka and Jet. Aang joined in and after a few minutes the sticky ferret on his shoulder decided to abandon ship. Momo jumped from Aang's back and began hopping around in the snow. Aang turned around to find him, but the ferret had already been picked up and carried off the battlefield by Appa.
The huge dog trotted over to Teo's chair and plopped down to watch the show with Momo cuddled in his paws.
Ignoring the banging firecrackers and the flying snow, Teo lit Toph's sparkler. "Hold it away from yourself - yeah like that."
"This is cool." The little, fizzing flame illuminated Toph's face revealing a broad grin. "It sounds weird and the heat feels kind of tickly."
Teo flushed up to his ears. "Let's light some more!"
Oh, he thought, this is the best New Years ever.