Beware!
If looks could kill, well… then Toph would have been coveted by the Fire Nation as a most valuable weapon because as it was, she was blindly stabbing people left and right with fierce glares. When one of those daggers hit Sokka, he squirmed uncomfortably and fled behind Katara.
"Alright, whose idea was it to bring her here!" Sokka nearly squealed, waving a finger madly around at the glowering girl.
"Yours," Katara said blandly with a roll of her eyes.
"Yeah, yours," Toph's hard voice cut through, her head trained towards where her ears picked up the sound of Sokka's voice.
"Oh, right," Sokka sighed.
"Yeah! And you now have approximately ten seconds before I—!!!" Toph tripped, and despite the advent of a hundred very fierce looks, her slight form sprawled across the ice really just sabotaged any semblance of any bite behind the bark, and she, more or less, looked the perfect picture of ridiculous.
"I shiver in my boots," Sokka snarked behind a snicker.
Aang was openly laughing while Katara giggled despite her attempts to be dignified and not openly take pleasure at Toph's reduced state.
And then there was a hand and strength pulling Toph up by the shoulders, back up on her feet.
"Thanks," she sniffed reluctantly, leaving off the 'Princess' that always trailed her words whenever she addressed Zuko. The cross bearings in her face only multiplied when she swore she could just feel a smile rising on Zuko's face at the absence of her nickname. He started leading her towards whatever building they were heading, his silence accompanied by her incoherent grumblings.
And then there was another hand on her other side, with less strength but more familiar warmth. A large patch of ice and she almost stumbled again, but the hand kept her steady.
"Thanks Twinkletoes," said Toph, pulling the words through her teeth. She kept Aang's nickname; there was no way she'd leave it off after his torrents of laughter earlier.
"See, Toph? We'll keep you safe!" Aang chirped with sunshine.
Toph's eyebrow twitched. When they were back on solid ground, Aang was so dead.
"We all have our moments of weakness," Zuko said knowingly.
For the record, so was Zuko.
"Aw, look at widdle Tophy between her two strong bodyguards," Sokka cooed.
But first, first, Toph was going to get Sokka.
Author's Note: Wrote this up really quick when I saw the most adorable fanart on deviantART where a blushing grumpy Toph was between a charming Zuko and a carefree Aang. Toph here isn't so blushing, but she is grumpy. hee.
For the curious, the fanart was by Leng Tu (lengtu deviantart com).