This one was inspired by two things. The movie Take the Lead and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Yeah, I know, weird combination. But I thought about the Shakespeare quote "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." And I was like... blind. TOPH. Yeah, that's how my brain works. So I was trying to think of some way Toph could be like Cupid. And the only way I could think was by teasing Aang or Katara. I picked Katara, because I haven't done a lot with her lately. Thus came the whole "It kills him" thing, which was inspired by the whole "It kills her" scene from Take the Lead. There. Now it makes even less sense than it did before.
Anyway, this is pretty short and very simple. I wanted to toy with Katara and Toph's relationship, since we don't see them interact much on a personal level in the show. And uh... this is what happened.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind."
Sometimes, Katara thought Toph was lying about the whole "blind" thing. Because she seemed to see a lot more than anybody else. And she had no inhibitions when it came to making that fact abundantly clear.
One instance of this stood out particularly strongly in Katara's mind.
It was just another day of being undercover in the Fire Nation. The four of them hadn't left the house in two days, as someone had reported a sighting of the Avatar and the soldier patrol had increased alarmingly. But this had happened before; it would die down in a few days. They just had to last that long without dying of boredom.
Sokka was asleep in the boys' room. Toph appeared to have dozed off on the floor of the living room. Aang and Katara were lounging nearby, sitting on the floor and talking quietly. They inevitably got back to the subject of Aang's hair, as was common these days. Katara, grinning as Aang complained about how itchy it was, lifted a hand and lazily slid her fingers through his dark locks. A light blush was visible on his cheeks as she repeated the action, smiling in satisfaction at the look of intense calm it brought over Aang's face.
He finally said he had to get on his feet and move around, and Katara nodded her understanding. He then said something delightfully sweet to Katara as he got to his feet. She smiled warmly at him and tugged at his sleeve, making him bend back toward her so she could kiss his cheek, something she was doing more and more often recently. He blushed and grinned at her as he left the room, and Katara couldn't stop smiling to herself.
"It kills him when you do that, you know."
Katara looked over in surprise. Toph was clearly awake, smirking at the ceiling from her position lying on the floor.
"When I do what?" Katara asked, hiding her annoyance at Toph's eavesdropping.
"When you run your fingers through his hair like that," Toph continued, amused. "And when you kiss his cheek. It kills him."
"What do you mean?" Katara asked warily, blushing slightly, though she couldn't imagine why. "And how would you know, anyway?"
"Are you kidding? I could probably feel his heartbeat from Ba Sing Se, going crazy like it does whenever you do that to him," Toph snorted.
"His… his heart speeds up?" Katara asked quietly, trying to sound offhanded through her painfully obvious interest.
"Sweetness, you must be kidding," Toph shook her head in amusement. "His heart speeds up when you so much as look at him. When you touch him like that, he practically has a heart attack."
Katara looked down a little, smiling to herself and blushing again. Toph rolled her eyes.
"What uh… what else happens to him?" Katara asked at length, trying and failing to sound casual again.
Toph let out a half-exasperated-half-amused laugh. "Please, where do I start? Everything about him pretty much freaks out when you're around," she paused, grinning wickedly. "And I mean everything."
"Toph!"
"What, you asked?"
"Well yeah, but…"
"What about you, huh?" Toph countered quickly, wolfish smile back in place. "Oh yeah, I can see what he does to you."
Katara flushed, eyes widening in embarrassment.
"For example, you just got embarrassed," Toph said airily, clearly enjoying this. "Your body temperature just jumped. And her heart sped up for a couple seconds."
"It's creepy how you do that," Katara muttered grumpily.
"Oh I'm not done yet," Toph was now openly laughing. "It's kind of amazing, actually, what it does to you when he earthbends."
Katara froze, flushing even deeper than before.
Toph snickered. "Your heart just skipped a few beats. You okay?"
"What… uh… do you mean, when he earthbends?" Katara asked nervously.
"Well, there's the obvious," Toph started with an air of great superiority that made Katara want to punch her. "You stop whatever you're doing. You openly stare. Nine times out of ten, you drop whatever you're holding."
Katara groaned, mortified. She buried her face in her hands.
"Then there are the things only I can tell," Toph was truly enjoying this. "You heat up like mad. Sometimes your knees shake. Your heart goes so fast, I'm surprised you've survived this long. You practically stop breathing. It's hilarious, really."
"Thanks," Katara snapped, glaring daggers at her.
"It's just Aang, too," Toph continued, undaunted, as she couldn't see the glare. "When there are any other men around earthbending, nothing. Mild interest, maybe."
"Would you stop, please?" Katara groaned, pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes as if she'd seem something horrible.
"Funny thing though, about the same thing happens to Aang whenever you're teaching him to waterbend," Toph added, sounding rather disinterested.
Katara looked up immediately. "What?"
Toph grinned again, pleased with herself. "He drops whatever he's doing immediately when you strip down to your undergarments. Sometimes he trips and falls over."
Katara couldn't contain a smirk.
"Oh, and my favorite," Toph was laughing again. "When you move around behind him and grab his arms to fix his stance."
Katara's smirk became something more akin to Toph's wolf grin.
"Yeah, I can feel that one too," she said quietly.
"You would, considering you're smashed up against him," Toph chuckled. Her blank eyes turned toward Katara. "You do that on purpose?"
Katara blushed and smiled guiltily. "Sort of…"
"I'm impressed," Toph intoned with a smirk. "It kills him."
"Yeah well… I kind of like knowing that I can do that to him," Katara admitted, still smiling rather sheepishly.
"Well, you're the only one," Toph agreed frankly.
Katara sighed. "We haven't been able to practice waterbending in a while," she stated, sounding downtrodden.
"I know how you feel," Toph said grumpily. "I can't earthbend here." She looked in Katara's direction again. "But be reasonable, Katara. You don't have to waterbend to make him nervous."
Katara smiled at her, amused. "True," she said with a shrug. "You know Toph, for someone blind, you sure see a lot more than people give you credit for."
Toph shrugged. "Eh, I consider it an advantage," she reasoned. "Element of surprise and all that."
Katara laughed as she got to her feet. "I'm going to go uh… find Aang," she said evasively.
Toph laughed. "Yeah, I figured you would."
Katara left the room and Toph flattened her feet on the floor, straining her ears. Katara found him in the next room. It was only a matter of minutes before her hands were in his hair again. He was blushing, his heart beating frantically. Katara mentioned something about Aang's earthbending. He made some smooth remark, and then Katara was blushing.
Ten minutes of teasing and touching and speeding heartbeats later, they were locked hotly at the lips, hands running through hair and over skin, blushing and breathing fast, and Toph was smirking again.
This story would definitely embarrass both of them.