silver soul | avatar, the last air bender

chapter twenty six

"Who cares? We're traveling around the world, making easy money, with no annoying parents around telling us what to do," Toph explained, leaning her back against a rock.

Katara nodded. "Oh, I see. You're acting like this because of your parents."

Toph's face fell slightly. Katara clearly struck a chord. "Whatever."

"They were controlling over you, so you ran away. Now you act like you hate them, but you don't. You just feel guilty. I think you miss them. But instead of feeling your feelings, you act like a crazy person."

Toph frowned. "I ran away to help Aang," She stood up.

"These scams put us all at risk and we don't need that right now," Katara said.

"We already have combustion man after us," Naia added.

"We have enough money, you need to stop this!" Katara demanded.

Toph clenched her fist. "I'll stop when I want to stop!" She exclaimed, brushing past Katara and sitting on the ground. She made her own rock tent and closed all the openings.

Katara was about to run after her but Naia put her hand on Katara's shoulder. "Don't," Naia said calmly. "Let her blow off some steam."

"Speaking of money, I'm off to spend it," Sokka said. "Naia, are you coming?"

"We're going shopping?" Naia lit up.

"Yes, shopping," Sokka said with a nod. Naia beamed and began to walk with him back into town. They walked to town with their hands interlocked. "I actually had a place in mind for you," Sokka said. "Wait! Close your eyes!" He exclaimed.

"Sokka—" Naia started, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Do it!" He pleaded. Naia sighed and closed her eyes. She felt Sokka's hand intertwine with her and lead her into a store.

"I wonder what it is," Naia thought out loud.

"Open your eyes," He said. Naia's eyes fluttered, seeing shelves and shelves of books. She gasped, running her hands along the spine of each book.

"There's so many books in here!" She smiled.

Sokka leaned against the edge of a bookshelf. "Buy any book you want," He said.

"Really?" She almost squealed.

"Of course," Sokka said smoothly.

Naia ran up to him. Sokka wrapped her arm around the lowest part of her waist as she threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you thank you thank you!" Naia repeated, shopping around. After a hard decision process, Naia settled on eleven different books. She was more than ecstatic to start reading them.

When they exited the store, Naia had to hold her books while Sokka bought a messenger hawk, who he named "Hawky". Then, they quickly exchanged what they were holding, with Naia holding Hawky and Sokka holding the eleven books she purchased. They passed by what looked like a wanted poster. What caught Naia's eye was how much the poster looked like Toph.

"Wow, that looks a lot like Toph," Sokka commented.

Naia's stomach dropped when she got a closer look at it. "It is Toph. We have to warn the rest of the group!" She exclaimed, swiping the poster off of the wall and picking up her pace.