A/N: Inspired by Stevie Nicks' song of the same title.
R O S E G A R D E N
The first thought that comes to mind when Toph steps on the soil of her childhood home is how soft the earth is beneath her feet. She wiggles her toes gleefully and twiddles some blades of grass between them. The garden is alive, busy with birds who twitter on tree branches, fish that swirl in the pond and ants that march across the earth to gather food.
Toph likes being outside, it's exciting to be amongst all this life. She looks towards the house and no longer sees the stale wood and the heavily textured fabrics on the walls that used to be her prison. Instead, she sees her childhood home – and both happy and sad memories fill the warm rooms.
Oh, how time has changed her. She ran away from home and taught the Avatar. She camped under the stars, got deliciously dirty with earth and wore fire nation clothing. She dined in Ba Sing Se and had her first crush.
It was good to be home, if only for a little while. The earthbender looks forward to sleeping in her clean bed and eating sweets early in the morning.
She hears his footsteps across the stone bridge and the lemur preens himself on his shoulder. He stops and turns his head towards the sky, one hand raised to protect him from the hazy afternoon sun. He's grown taller - his head shaved again - and he wears the clothes of an adult monk.
"Hi, Aang."
He remains where he is and she joins him at the bridge. They listen to the sound of the carp gathering underneath, waiting for something. Aang takes out some leftover bread from the kitchens and tears it into three pieces, giving one piece to her but saving the largest part for Momo. Smiling, Toph leans over the edge and throws a small piece of her bread into the water. Greedily, the fish snap it up. The sound of water splashing is pleasant to her ears.
They continue like this for a while until all the bread is in the stomach of the fishes and all the crumbs are on their palms. Chattering about nothing, they walk across the grounds to the south wall of the garden. Momo remains at the bridge, nibbling on his bread and watches the fish stare at him with their large, shining eyes.
Toph is barefoot. Aang wears shoes. She reaches for his arm and they embrace each other under the shade of an apple tree.
"You've got an easy life, Toph," he remarks casually. "It's great here."
"It wasn't always like this, remember how we met?"
"I remember."
Toph gets up and Aang leans against the tree trunk and watches her walk on the well-kept grass and straight into the rose beds. Toph doesn't mind getting scratches from the rose thorns but she's careful not to snag her fine home clothes; her parents wouldn't like that. Rolling up her sleeves, the earthbender weaves her way freely through the flowers and stops every so often to wiggle her toes in the dirt.
"Hey, nature boy, why don't you come over here?"
Jumping up, Aang leaps into the air and lands easily in the middle of the garden bed, making a soft cushion of air billow around him. The early blossoms sway.
A particularly full rose catches his eye and he urges his sweetheart to see it. It is red – a deep, dark red that reminds him of the fire nation flag. He chuckles when Toph sniffs the bloom and wrinkles her nose, saying that it smells too sweet for her.
"It's supposed to be that way."
"Whatever, Aang."
They run through the roses and do cartwheels on the grass. Their fingertips touch as they build tiny anthills in the dirt and laugh when Momo wonders why Aang is carrying Toph on his shoulders, trying to reach an apple on the tree.
"Have you seen your garden from above Toph?" Aang asks mysteriously and she wonders what he means. He knows that she's blind and that she can't see. What else is there to find?
"Twinkletoes, you know I don't like heights." He grins.
"I know."
He wants to climb trees - and Toph realizes that she's never climbed one before.
Carefully, he gives her a boost up into the leaves. He pushes the heel of her foot upwards and Toph grabs the branch above her and pulls herself up. He's right behind her and they sit together in the tree with their feet smeared with dirt and dry grass.
It's unusual to not feel earth under your feet. It's scary and different. But this time, it's not so bad because she knows that the ground is close by and she can feel the comforting bark support her weight. She's in the air, but not. It's like being in both worlds at once.
"What do you see when you're up here?" he asks.
She thinks before she replies. Momo takes this moment to perch on her shoulder and the earthbender rubs the lemur behind the ears.
"It's – different. I can still feel the earth, I can see the ants and the fish and the birds – but they look strange." She pauses. "I can't explain it, but it's cool."
When they first met, they used to have conversations like these often. He was so fascinated by her method of earthbending - waiting and listening to the heartbeat of the earth. Now he knows how to hear those vibrations and understands them.
Toph closes her eyes and lets out a sigh. She loves this place, she really does.
Up in the trees, shaded from the hazy afternoon heat, Aang asks now long she plans to stay with her parents. She asks how long they'll have to separate. The both know that Aang will be away for a while, he's going back to the temples of the air nomads, and they both know that right now she can't come with him for reasons they don't want to mention.
The airbender doesn't know how long he'll be gone. The earthbender will only stay for as long as she wants to.
They don't mention the reason why she's residing here for a short period of time. This is her childhood home and she's too wild to stay here for too long. They don't want to remember the time that Aang asked for her parent's blessing to have Toph live with him. He wants to show her his home, the temples and the mountains and the bright sunrises. But they refused, saying that the Avatar has no money, has no secure method of providing for their daughter. It is an unstable situation and one that worries them.
They knew that it wasn't easy.
And Aang can't wait to go back home to the clouds. Up in the treetop, he tells her all about the swirling colours of the sky and how high everything is and the trees that he climbed. He's going to fix the temple with the earthbending she taught him. Okay, maybe not the whole temple – but parts of it.
She should come see it.
And with a bittersweet heart swirling with hope and worry, Toph says that she will. She wants to see his childhood home. She has seen enough of hers.
"But you better come back for me, Twinkletoes."
"Of course." He starts to get excited and stands up on the branch, making it sway dangerously. Momo chatters and climbs higher up. Toph holds onto the branch tighter and for a moment, her sight's gone.
"You better promise," she insists, wanting to strangle him at the same time but too occupied to maintain her balance. "Stay still, won't you?!"
He chuckles. Then he leaps from the branch and cushions his landing on the grass below her. The earthbender is relieved, she can see again. Aang's laughing and his voice sounds so young.
"In the temple, I'll make a rose garden, just like this one." Aang stands up and spreads his arms wide, "Just for you."
A day or two passes slowly when Aang leaves for the mountains. She stays with her parents for a while longer then leaves for the world. Weeks pass, then they too stretch into months and now it's been two years since she last saw the airbender who promised to come back for her.
He writes letters to her and she replies. He says that he's really busy and he didn't know there was so much to do, but that's okay because Teo (did she remember Teo?) and the others are helping him rebuild the place. Momo has found a mate and Appa's shedding again. The place is a mess but it's great. He visits Katara and Zuko and Sokka and everyone else too. But in his letters, he fails to mention that they're never in the same place at the same time.
Toph says that she's glad he's doing well. She's busy with the family business and stupid politics and trade, but it's nothing, she's got everything under control. She's grounded in the earth.
She knows that's he's not coming back anytime soon. She's visiting her parents right now. He doesn't point it out and she's wise enough not to ask (bad timing, she keeps telling herself) but it hurts. They're getting older and with each passing year, she wants to see his home – and wants to see how time has changed both of them again. She just misses him.
Tonight, Toph goes out into the garden for a walk. The night is bright with the half-moon in the sky. It is the season when the roses are the most fragrant and their sweet, heady smell fills the air around her. She knows that she still loves him.
It must be possible for roses to grow at high altitudes. She was unsure before but now she's confident that they do. They're strong plants; they grow from the earth and reach for the sky. They're the most beautiful when they grow wild.
Toph's feet touch the dirt and she reaches out for the closest bloom. She can't see it, but she pretends that it's a deep, dark red colour – just like the fire nation flag. She closes her eyes.
And she smells it.