Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar.
A/N: Just a cute little Toko fluff I thought of when I saw City of Walls and Secrets.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in
a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.
You're Beautiful, James Blunt
"Oh, Toph, we have to stop for a moment. I want to look at these hair accessories. '
Toph sighed. They were stopping, again! Apparently Katara had little time to think about the stores before but now she was making up for lost time stopping at about almost every store. She kept repeating that they had time before Aang and Sokka would be at the ball every time Toph began to complain.
Toph rested outside the small shop leaning against the wall trying to keep her as clean as possible. Though she felt uncomfortable in the fancy clothing, she had to stay in them so that they may speak to the earth king. She was growing bored very quickly and despite the crowd of people that bustled about them to return home everyone avoided her.
"This is so stupid…" she muttered to herself, gently kicking the dirt.
On the other side of town, a young refugee firebender was thinking along the same lines. After the fight with Jet, Zuko was understandably fired up and highly annoyed. His uncle suggested he'd take a walk to cool his head. Howler, the more he walked, the more he became irritated. He hated being in Ba Sing Se. He hated these people, the tea shop, and the apartment he and his uncle shared. There was nothing for him within these walls, nothing to keep him happy. Then again, he couldn't remember the last time he was truly happy.
A sigh escaped his lips and his eyes looked up from the ground. The crowd was thinning now, everyone was warm and comfortable in their homes with their loved ones, and something caught his eye. A small girl leaning against wall looking quite bored, her eyes however weren't focusing on anything in particular with seemed odd until he noticed the fogged look and realized she was blind. This wasn't what caught his eye though, what had caught his eye was that this girl was absolutely beautiful despite her blindness.
He began to feel uncomfortable, why was he thinking this way? He hadn't thought anyone beautiful since his mother. He shifted his weight, not realizing he had stopped moving when he had started observing the girl.
"I know your there, I can feel you move," she said suddenly.
Zuko couldn't help the shock that crossed his features, how had she known? She felt him? What did that mean? He decided not to respond; rather he began to walk again, trying to pass by the girl as though he was just another merchant running home.
"What is it?" She spoke once more.
Zuko paused in his steps. He almost wanted to glare at her, who was she to ask him questions? He knew the glare would have no effect though as she could not see it. So he decided she deserved some kind of answer in the very least.
"Nothing," he said quietly.
"I can tell your lying."
What was this girl? Then again, now that he thought about it, it made sense. His uncle once told him that once a sense left you, the others grew stronger. He didn't know how she used this to tell he was lying but he didn't have time to figure it out. Seeing how she knew he was lying, Zuko opted for telling the truth. After all, she didn't know who he was and they would probably never meet again.
"Your...very pretty."
The girl looked completely off guard. Had no one ever told her before? She turned her head down and he could see a tinge of red crossing her cheeks.
"That's a first…"she muttered, "Usually people say that about her…"
Zuko didn't question who her was. He just found it appalling that this girl had never been complimented before. Why, he didn't know.
"Well…I'm going," Zuko said slowly as he again began to walk past her.
"…Thank you...?"
"My name is…Li."
"Thank you, Li."
When Zuko walked away, both he and Toph couldn't help but think maybe Ba Sing Se wasn't as bad as they believed it was.
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