a/n: I needed to take a break from dark and poetic. xD
So I wrote a nice, fluffy Taang drabble! Yay!
I tried to refrain from using too much visual imagery in this one.
I hope it worked. Haha. This is set somewhere in the near future.
Probably before defeating the Firelord, I suppose.

- - -

Truth be told, Toph hatedthe snow. Not that it was a secret or anything – Toph hated anything that made her feel what she really was: blind – but the stubborn little girl just needed to say it. Over and over again. Sokka said that she had complained about it every two minutes since they had arrived at the South Pole, but that wasn't true. It was really only about every five minutes.

But this particular winter afternoon, Toph was at her absolute worst. For a completely justified reason, of course (in her mind, anyway). Because while she couldn't see, hearing certainly wasn't a problem.

Horribly suppressed laughter from Aang and Sokka reached her ears as she heard Katara shriek, "Zuko! Ugh, that's it! You're going down!" Then unfamiliar chuckles from old Sparky McSparkPants and soft whap! sounds accompanied by Katara's girlish giggles were thrown in Toph's direction. What they were doing, while fun to them, was only annoying to the youngest member of the team (Aang had turned thirteen the week before).

How rude of them to have fun without her!

So Toph sulked in her spot by the fire, trying her best to ignore the childish laughter and focus more on the comforting crackle of the small bit of warmth beside her.

Suddenly, she felt a presence standing in front of her.

"Toph?"

The voice belonged to none other than the Prince of Perky himself, Twinkletoes.

Toph heaved a sigh, turning slightly into the direction of the fire. Why did it have to be so coldin the South Pole, anyway? "What do you want, Aang?"

There was a pause. It was probably because she only called him by his real name whenever something was bothering her. Gee, wasthere something bothering her? Maybe he should've been clued in by her irritated expression and short(er) temper as of late.

Yet another sigh was stolen by the sub arctic wind. Typical Aang.

Toph was startled by a sudden embarrassed cough. "Well, I don't know, I was kind of wondering if maybe… you wanted to help me build a snowman."

Noway.

He wasn't serious.

…Was he?

"I don't know what it is with you people, but you all seem to keep forgetting, so I'll happily remind you. I'm BLIND!" She waved her hands in front of her face for emphasis, "I have no idea how to spell it, but if I could, I'd do it out loud so I could imprint it into your thick skull!"

But before the exasperated young girl could even beginto process what was going on, she was suddenly being carried in a pair of strong, wiry arms. "Just come with me, okay?" There was a strange lilt to his voice – almost excited – that only annoyed Toph even more. What was with this guy today?

"Well it doesn't seem like I have much of a choice in the matter anymore," she huffed, holding onto the avatar's neck as he started to walk away from the village.

After a good few minutes of freezing, complaining, and an unexplained increase in heart rate from Aang, the pair had seemingly arrived at their destination.

"It sounds funny over here. Where are we? Why did you take me here? Seriously, you're acting really weird today –"

Toph's feet met solid ground.

"What the…?" Was this metal?

Very gently, Toph felt her horrid (yet warm) boots being unlaced and discarded by unseen hands, and her bare feet hesitantly touched the floor.

Itwas metal.

A metal boat, to be exact.

Toph's eyes widened and she slowly pushed back the hood of her borrowed parka. "Why…? What…?"

Aang grinned (although she couldn't see it), reaching stealthily behind him, his hand closing around a fistful of the snow that he had scattered around the ship – now free of booby traps – and threw a snowball at her arm.

"Catch me if you can!"

The airbender then proceeded to race down the narrow hallway, as Toph took a moment to take it all in. Then her mitten-covered hand grabbed the loathed white mess of ice, forming it into a sphere.

"Oh, no you don't, Twinkletoes! You're mine!"

Reckless laughter echoed off of the ship's steel walls, breaking off and multiplying into a hundred, equally as childish versions of pure joy.

And later, as they sat by the firelight, sharing a secret memory with identical smiles, Toph decided that maybe (just maybe) she didn't hate snow after all.