She was a good girl.
"Want some good advice? Just enjoy the present. Laugh, run, eat, and enjoy the company of the people you love. Don't let something like jealousy rob you of the great experience of being a teenager. You have a whole lifetime to fall in love and a whole lifetime to enjoy the company of good friends."
"…"
"Believe me, time is... cruel. One day you're having fun with your friends, and the next you're an old person who hasn't shared a cup of tea with the people who were once your friends for years. You don't want that to happen to you, to become a grumpy old woman isolated from everyone."
"No…"
"Is love important? Yes. More than friendship? Of course not. People who force you to choose between love and friendship don't deserve you."
"..." Caressing the smooth porcelain of the cup, Toph thought about what to do. Did she really want to go home? To leave everyone behind just because of what Naruto did with another girl? No, it wasn't worth making such a fuss.
Even if it hurt her, seeing him happy with that girl might be the right thing to do.
They would always have a special bond, just a friendship, one in which they would continue to have fun, play, and joke around. It was something she had wanted to do with another person since she was a child.
Toph had always wanted freedom, but she also wanted someone to make that freedom fun, and she knew that person was Naruto.
The minutes passed slowly as the girl remained lost in her thoughts, convincing herself that running away would not do anyone any good.
With a long sigh, Toph hit her head against the table.
She hated having to think about so many confusing things.
Well, at least if that bitch ever dared to hurt Naruto, she could smash her skull with a rock. That's what best friends would do.
Iroh smiled in surprise at the slightly dark smile the girl had acquired. He couldn't help but feel worried about Azula, who would have to sleep with one eye open.
"What will you do now?"
"I'm going to apologize to the little girl and tell her that... I want everything to stay fun."
"It's a wise choice."
Smiling, Toph slowly stood up. She felt much better now.
"Toph! What are you doing here?!"
"Katara, don't scream!" growled the earthbender, feeling her ears ring from Katara's high-pitched scream as she nearly knocked the door down while entering.
"What are you doing here?" Katara had gone around asking people on the street, looking high and low for the blind bandit, and luckily, a lady had told her where she had gone. But that luck went down the drain when she saw who was accompanying her friend.
"Talking... with a friend," she murmured with a small smile, pointing at Iroh, who greeted Katara with a wave.
"Stay away from him." Obviously, the girl did not return the greeting. Instead, she asked the blind bandit to stay away from him immediately.
"Why?" Toph didn't understand why her friend was so tense. Breathing heavily, with her muscles stiff, she seemed ready to fight.
"He's from the Fire Nation!" she shouted angrily at such a question. She felt very nervous. She doubted that this old man would be so careless and let his guard down like his two nephews, but in moments like this, there was no time to hesitate. The water in her backpack churned as she prepared to attack.
"Yes, I am from the Fire Nation, but that doesn't make me your enemy."
"..." Katara stopped when the old man, without getting up from where he was sitting, simply raised his hands. "You were with Prince Zuko. You invaded my village and tried to capture Aang!"
"Was anyone from your village hurt by our fleet?"
"No…"
"And the Avatar is still free. I think the prince and I are bad even at playing the bad guys," he joked with a smile before pulling an extra cup out from under the table. "Some tea, little one?"
"I don't want tea." Katara felt very angry at the old man's lack of seriousness, but she couldn't attack him, not when he... didn't seem like a threat. "I don't know what games you're playing here, but if you hurt my friends... I'll kill you."
"You care about them. You want to protect them. That makes you a good friend, as long as you don't smother them by making decisions for them."
Toph had remained silent throughout the entire conversation. It wasn't as if she had anything to say, although she didn't want Katara to attack the old man.
"I don't want to see them get hurt. I already warned them about getting too close to Naruto, and now Toph too. They're acting like they're one of us."
"We are like you, people who care about others and want the best for them."
"They're not like us!" Water shot out of Katara's backpack and formed a long ice spear that went straight for the head of the Dragon of the West, who didn't move in the slightest, even when the spear almost touched his forehead.
He stood firm like a mountain. There was no fear in his eyes, nor anger, only calm—the kind of calm that only a pool of water in the mountains could have.
This made Katara stop. She couldn't do it, couldn't attack a man who didn't even lift a finger to defend himself. It would be doing the same thing her mother's killer had done so many years ago.
Moving her hands, she turned all the ice back into water and returned it to her bag.
"We're leaving, Toph." Without waiting for a response from the blind bandit, Katara grabbed her wrist and led her away. "I'll tell the Earth King you're here. Don't expect to get away with everything you've done."
"Have you lost someone important to the Fire Nation?"
That question made the waterbender stop dead in her tracks.
She turned to give the fire master a deadly look.
"My mother..."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"You have no right to say that!"
The silence stretched through the tea shop. Katara didn't want to hear those words from someone who had surely been on the front lines, burning and fighting for his nation.
Iroh looked down. He wouldn't deny it. In his days as a soldier, he had done things... that embarrassed him.
More than what he had done, it was what he had seen and hadn't had the courage to stop.
"I lost my son..." Katara felt her fury evaporate at the sight of the old man's sad and somber expression. "He was just a child to me. He had so much to live for, so much to see and do. He was my son, and I couldn't save him..."
"…"
"A father who cannot protect his son is a failure..."
"…"
"Seeing you standing here, protecting your friends, makes me happy to know that your mother, unlike me, did not fail."
'Daughter... stay here and don't move.'
'Mother?'
'Shhh… I'll be alright… just stay here… I love you.'
"Katara?" Toph was concerned by the frantic beating of her friend's heart. Katara was struggling to hold herself together, but it wasn't long before she broke down and her vision blurred with tears.
Iroh stood up carefully and walked over to the girl, who was trembling, her shoulders shaking as tears streamed down her cheeks.
"..." She froze when she felt the old man's hands on her shoulders. She didn't know what to do when he pulled her into a hug that made all the strength leave her body.
"Please don't let your hatred toward the man who took your mother away prevent you from seeing that even in the Fire Nation, there are good people."
Both were people who had lost a lot.
Close loved ones.
A mother.
A son.
At the end of the day, they were just two damaged people, desperately clinging to the people they loved most in the world.
Afraid of losing them, as they had already lost others before.
The moment was beautiful.
Until Iroh pushed the girl away and, with his left hand, stopped a lightning bolt that traveled through his body before shooting out of his right hand into the sky, destroying the roof above their heads.
"That was moving. I think I'm going to cry."
Amid the dust raised by the falling debris, the old man and the two girls saw a silhouette coming toward them, and from its voice, they had no doubt who it was.
[ If you want to read advance Chapters then go to Pat reon and support me there.
PAT REON I'D:- Alzero ]