Title: The Avatar's Lover

Shipping: Taang

Rating: T

Summary: The Avatar is not the only one with power beyond a human's imagination. But what happens when The Face Stealer wishes to seek out this power? Who is its beholder? Secrets of an ancient legend will have to be revealed.

A/N: Long time no see, guys. So I'm going to start my new story for you all. But first let me clear up some things. First off, all the things that happened in the series happened in the story. Yes, everything. Also, this is about four years after the war. I'll try my best to update as much as possible. I'm off of school pretty soon so updates will come more frequently. Alright…I'm done.

Disclaimer: Yeah, go ahead and laugh Mike and Bryan. So what I don't own Avatar *sniff*. There's more important things in life *runs off in tears*

Toph was lying down on her bed staring up at the ceiling. There was a strong smell of jasmine wafting in the air. She guessed it was because of the perfume the maids had recently drowned her in. Her hair was loose and damp from her recent bath and was sprawled all over her silk sheets and pillows along with her new dress. Her windows were barred with wood, the door was locked, and there was absolutely nothing in her room of interest. She sighed. Another boring day, she thought.

She started wondering why she was being dressed up today. Usually, she would just sit in her room and do nothing if there weren't any visitors coming to this prison her parents called a house. Occasionally, she would ask one of the maids to read her some of the scrolls that apparently were piled high all over the shelves in her room. They were often about maidens who were captured by an evil criminal and was swept off of her feet and saved by her prince in shining armor. Toph hated those stories but they were all she had. It was pitiful to see anyone be that completely helpless that they needed someone to come in and save them. But as she laid in her bed in her terribly uncomfortable dress, she realized that was exactly what she needed.

"Miss Bei Fong?"

Toph swung her feet over the edge of the bed and placed her feet on the floor. She tapped her foot on the polished wood and was able to barely make out a woman who was only as tall as half of the doorway. By the high pitched voice that came from the short figure, she knew it was Ming, one of the sweetest maids in the whole house.

"Yes, what is it?"

"You need to came downstairs, my dear. Your parents said that a special visitor should be coming shortly."

Toph hung her head. Another person to come and admire her for what her parents disguised her as. Ming came over and took her hand and sat Toph in front of her rather large makeup vanity. The maid pulled at her hair and combed it through. Then she managed to put Toph's waist-length hair into a bun. Ming reached into the drawers of the vanity. When she wasn't looking, Toph pulled out her bangs and had them hang in front of her face just as she liked it. Then Ming caked up her face with expensive makeup.

Toph stood up and followed Ming through Toph's part of the house over to the parlor.

Toph couldn't tell where she was going very well at all. Ming had to pull her which made her feel terribly useless. When Toph came home after the war, her parents had made it a point to make sure that Toph couldn't run away again. They had added another wing in their house that was completely wooden, right down to the door knobs. What they had done worked. Toph wouldn't have been able to find her way out no matter how hard she tried.

After walking for about ten minutes, Toph and Ming made it to the parlor where Toph's parents were sitting. Toph felt a ray of relief when her feet stepped on earth again, but knew she couldn't try anything fishy as long as her parents were watching. Toph sat down and Ming had walked back out.

"Hey Mom, hey Dad," Toph said in a bored voice.

Mrs. Bei Fong stood up and walked toward her daughter. "You look absolutely beautiful Toph. You truly are a sight to see."

Toph rolled her eyes. "I'm not a doll you can dress up to be beautiful. I know I look ridiculous." Mrs. Bei Fong was a bit taken aback by the venom in Toph's voice so she sat down beside her husband.

"We have a special guest to come and have dinner with us tonight, Toph," Lao said to his daughter. "Please try to behave."

"Well, it depends entirely on who's coming," Toph replied.

Toph's mother got extremely excited by the way her heart suddenly sped up. "Oh Toph you're just going to love him. He's a rather rich business man who is about your age. He is quite charming."

Oh great, Toph thought. Another suitor. Toph had had countless amounts of rich, stuck-up men try to take her hand in marriage. She had already known by now how they all worked. They sucked up to her parents during dinner, held her hand against her will, and she was forced to comply. Then in the middle of dessert, they would ask her if she would walk in the garden with her. Everything after that varied from a talkative jerk to a seductive creep. The evening would not end up well for any of them.

"He should be here shortly," Lao said. "I suggest that we go to the front to greet him. Have some self control, Toph."

Toph's parents filed out of the room and Toph followed. She hung her head the whole way. She knew it was going to be a long night.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bei Fong, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Toph stood in the corner of the front room while her parent met the idiot she was expected to marry. She couldn't believe that she of all people would be subjected to someone who would expect her to cook for him, clean for him, and be a trophy wife. All of a sudden, the man came up to Toph and caught her hand in his, breaking her from her thoughts. He brought it up to his mouth and kissed it.

"Hello, Miss Bei Fong. I'm Lo Jing. It's an honor to finally meet you."

"I'm glad you have chosen to join us for dinner tonight," Toph said in the nicest voice she could muster.

"Why don't we make our way to the dining room for dinner and talk there?" Mrs. Bei Fong suggested.

Lo Jing held his arm out towards Toph. "May I?"

Toph tried her hardest not to kill this guy for even thinking she would let him touch her when he barely even knew her. But she had already promised her parents she would behave and she didn't want to risk losing any freedom she still had.

"Of course," she said, faking a smile. He looped his arm in hers and they walked towards the dining room.

Walking with him, she realized he was a head taller than her. He was wearing clothing that felt like velvet and was trying to pull Toph as close to him as possible. However, Toph was strong in more than just spirit and made sure her arm was kept up to keep Lo Jing a good distance from her side. She hasn't even had a proper conversation with the guy and she was already disgusted by him.

They all reached the dining room and found that the food was already set out. Various types of salads, soups, meats, fruits, drinks and appetizers were set out and filled the entire dining table. Toph's parents sat at one side of the table. Toph was about to sit down until Lo Jing quickly came up behind her and pulled out her chair for her. Toph sat down, annoyed at the fact that he pulled out her chair when she very well could've done it herself.

Dinner was full of conversations that Toph tried to drown out as much as possible. She did manage to hear that Lo Jing had a successful business extending the city of Ba Sing Se. Adding buildings, adding roads, extending the subways, stuff like that. Occasionally, he would reach for Toph's hand and try to hold it, but the young earth bender was quick enough to jerk her hand out of the way and reach for her cup at that same moment. The meal droned on for hours and she heard many hearty laughs from Lo Jing that she quickly identified as his suck-up laugh.

The maids came and cleared the table and at the same time, the chefs brought out their famous custard pies.

"Amazing dinner you have prepared, Mrs. Bei Fong," Lo Jing had said in a voice that seemed almost too nice.

Toph rolled her eyes and dipped a fork into the pie and took small bites. When she was halfway through her dessert Lo Jing spoke up again.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bei Fong, would you mind terribly if your daughter and I may take a small walk in the garden?" he asked.

"I don't see why not. Enjoy yourselves," Mr. Bei Fong said happily.

Lo Jing held out his hand and Toph took it reluctantly. Right on schedule, she thought. She wondered if there was a manual on this stuff as they both walked out of the dining room and out of the front door into the garden.

Toph was quick enough to let go of his hand once her parents weren't looking. She led the way and decided to take the shortest path around the garden which was unfortunately still rather long. There was a long and uncomfortable silence between them. Then he had the courage to speak up.

"Beautiful night isn't it?" he asked.

"I wouldn't know. I'm not exactly the person to ask," she said with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

"Oh…ummm…right. Sorry," he stammered nervously.

Toph rolled her eyes. He was absolutely ridiculous.

"May I call you Toph?" he asked.

"No you may not!" she said with a little too much anger which must have shut him up for a while.

Toph and Lo Jing walked in silence again. Toph felt al little bad, so she started up the conversation again.

"So, you're adding on to Ba Sing Se, huh?"

Lo Jing looked over at her. "Yeah. It's a pretty in-depth project, but it should look wonderful after it's done. Of course it does get lonely."

Toph looked puzzled. "You don't have a family or something?"

"Well I do, but they don't approve of the profession I've decided to take up. They would rather see me dealing with trade. So I don't get to see them often."

Toph stood quiet for a while, but wasn't too into his story. After all, her current situation was far worse. Though she had to admit that the guy wasn't too bad. But then he ruined his track record.

He placed his arm around her waist. "Though it isn't all bad now," he whispered in her ear.

Toph's eyes widened. Oh no. Another guy trying to get fresh, she thought.

"I'll be happy to have you as my company on those cold and lonely nights."

His voice was dangerously low and Toph knew he was getting at something. She tried to push him off but unfortunately, he was stronger than she thought he was earlier when he was apparently serious about things like this.

"Um, I think we should get back—"

Toph jumped when he felt his hand run across her backside. She pushed him off of her as hard as she could and he fell to the ground.

"How dare you bring me out to here just to get into my skirt! I am not some floozy you can just take advantage of you jerk!" she yelled at him.

"No, no, I-I was just trying to—"

Toph stomped her foot on the ground and a pillar of earth came up from under him. He flew up into the air and made it over the wall of the garden. Toph listened for the loud thump and sure enough, she heard him crash into the ground with a rather loud scream of pain. Toph smoothed out her dress and smirked.

She found a bench, sat down, and propped up her feet onto a rock. She knew she would never hear the end of this from her parents. She had a habit of doing this to everyone; especially the ones who had pulled one of those moves that jerk did two seconds ago. Though she had to admit, some had gone for far more private regions like her chest. She was sure she had taken the right from those men to have children. She leaned against the tree behind her and looked up.

The breeze was cool tonight and she decided to just sit here until she had to go inside and hear an hour or two lecture from her parents. Then she heard a familiar voice next to her.

"I think that guy will be feeling that in the morning."

Toph placed her feet on the ground and felt familiar light footsteps walking toward her. Toph smiled and ran toward them, completely ecstatic.

Oh yeah! This is why Toph is my fav character. So here is the first chapter of my new story. Hope you liked it. I'll try my super hardest to come up with the next chapter as soon as possible. Please review *gets down on her knees* I beg of you!