#taangst

Taangst, you say?

Okay it's not too bad actually. This isn't Taangst Week 2.0. Not yet, anyways. (@mycomfortblanket and @authorjoydragon still won't let me do that.)

One of Toph's biggest regrets is that she didn't make a move on Aang when she could. They'd been young and free and single...and she hadn't made a move. She's never sure why she didn't - just that she regrets it every day that she never had the chance.

She always thought she would, and then police departments, conflicts, new nations, and time got in the way, and before she knew it, a lifetime had blinked by.

And then Aang was gone.

The one comfort she has, running her fingers over the metal versions of group portraits Aang had made her for her, decades ago, is that each day, she's a day closer to seeing him again.

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"But did you ever stop to think about how I would feel?"

The clothes that she is wearing, Aang knows, are far from her comfort zone, but nevertheless, Toph is radiating confidence. He watches as she leans forward and laughs at something the guy across from her says and he feels jealousy and anger rise up in his throat. How the hell could she do this? Bring some guy to the party and shove it in his face.

"Will you go get me another drink?" his date slurs. Looking down, On-ji is leaning against his arm and holding her empty cup up to his face. Sighing deeply, he takes it from her and gets up off the couch and makes his way into the over crowded kitchen.

The line for the jungle juice is a few people long and are taking longer than they should to get a cup full, but if it gets him away from On-ji and her grabby hands, then he's fine by it.

"Seriously, Aang? On-ji?"

Shit.

Aang turns around and sees Toph standing behind him with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyebrow arched at him.

"Yeah. On-ji."

"I cannot believe you brought her to the party. Did you ever stop to think about how that would make me feel? Seeing you with the girl I wasn't supposed to 'worry about'," she puts quotation marks around the two words and her tone is hard.

"I could ask you the same thing, Toph. Bringing Chad-"

"That's not his name!" her voice is quickly approaching a yell.

"- and rubbing him in my face. It hasn't even been two weeks."

"Oh, and bringing On-ji is fine because...? Toph waves her hand as if waiting for him to fill in the blank.

"Because she is my friend and she asked me. What's your excuse?" Aang asks, crossing his arms over his chest. He's completely forgotten about getting On-ji her drink, and to be honest, he doesn't exactly care to do so.

@taangst-week-2021 yay! It's time for taangst week!

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Rating: General Audiences

Relationship/s: Aang/Toph Beifong, Aang & Toph Beifong

Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Bittersweet Ending, Angst, Taang - Freeform, Soft Toph Beifong, Aang Needs a Hug (Avatar), Sad Aang

Word Count: 1,764

Summary: "It's like I don't even know you anymore!"

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Not rlly proud of this tbh but it is what it is ig

"I've known you since... forever. I can't imagine my life without you."

Toph stands at the pyre, her head bent downwards as she struggles to hold back tears. Everyone has already left, minus Katara, Zuko, and Sokka who stand a hundred feet away.

All day, people had been offering their condolences, paying their respects, giving her pity speeches about how he would want her to move on and be happy, that he is in a better place. She never thanked anyone for coming, gave a fake smile, or even remotely pretended to be okay.

Reaching out, she takes Aang's cold hand in hers. Out of habit, she waits for his fingers to curl around hers, for his heartbeat to spike before settling back into rhythm. When she doesn't feel this, when she is given the grim reminder once again that he is gone, a sob escapes her.

She senses Katara step towards her, but Zuko reaches out a hand and holds her back. He knows that she needs to do this, that she needs to face this on her own. She had asked them to go ahead and go home, saying that she just needed a moment, but that had been hours ago. She has been rooted to this spot, face casted downwards as she struggles to continue breathing.

The tears finally win and they slip down her cheeks until they drip off her chin. She rubs her thumb back and forth over the back of Aang's hand, feeling the smooth skin that will never feel warm again. She sucks in a breath, stealing herself for this jump.

"Spirits, Twinkletoes. How did we end up here?" her voice trembles and she's not sure she can get out what she needs to say. She stands there for a few more minutes, trying to gather the courage.

"I've known you since... forever. It's always been you and me against the world, against Mother Katara, against what the world expected from us. I could never imagine my life without you, but," a sob chokes her and she covers her mouth with her hand, biting down on the skin of her palm to try and calm herself. She tastes blood in her mouth and the pain from the bite is a welcome distraction from the pain in her heart.

"But," she continues, "But, I guess it's just me now. It's just me against the world," she rubs her hand across her face, ridding her cheeks of some of the tears, "And now, I'm expected to go home to our empty house and carry on like I'm okay. Continue living in this world without you."

Send me a prompt!

Hi! We're going to pretend that I didn't ignore this ask so that I didn't have to write it :)

They're sitting side by side on the couch in the living room, both of them have tears streaming down their faces. Neither of them can stand to look at the other and the gravity of the situation is sitting on both of their hunched shoulders.

A million thoughts are running through Aang's mind, but he doesn't know how to form them into real sentences or what to say to her. Toph hasn't said much since they agreed to talk about their situation. They've tried everything they could think of to make this relationship that was blooming between them work, but nothing ever seemed to go as they planned.

"Is this the end? After everything we've been through?" His voice is choked through with a barely held back sob. He doesn't actually want to know the answer, he regrets asking the question as soon as it left his mouth.

He risks a glance at Toph. Her head is down and tears are dripping from her cheeks every few seconds. He hears her sniff hard, trying to clear her clogged nose, "Yeah. This is it. This is the end," she nods her head hard, as if it's attached to a heavy spring.

For @samyescalona for the Terror Prompt “I can’t open my eyes. I don’t want to” So sorry this took me so long, I don’t have an excuse for myself

Aang’s eyes shoot open and his breath is coming in gasps. He can feel the sweat on his body and it makes the sheets cling to him uncomfortably. Koh had been so close to him, so close to taking his face. Koh had said something about Toph that had caught him off guard and when he winced, he could practically feel the centipedes smile as he started moving towards him. 

His breathing is just starting to calm down when he feels Toph shift in the bed next to him. 

“Aang?” her voice is tense and panicked and it instantly shoots his heart rate through the roof. In the dark, he can just barely feel her sitting up and looking over to him. Even through the dark, he sees only the smooth expanse of her face, none of the characteristics he has come to know so well over the years. 

“No, no no no!” Aang mutters, shaking his head, trying to back away from her. He squeezes his eyes shut, not wanting to see her like that, he wouldn't be able to bear it. 

“Aang, what’s wrong?!” Toph says, her voice becoming a little shrill, her panic feeding off of his. 

“Oh spirits, Toph, your face oh spirits your face, I'm so sorry, I'm so fucking sorry!” He covers his own face with his hands and lets out loud sobs. 

“My face? What about my face?” Toph says, her panic beginning to ease as she starts to understand what's happening and that he is still a little delirious from a nightmare. 

“It's gone, Toph! He took it, just like he said he would,” Aang says, eyes still clamped shut and head buried in his hands. 

He feels her kneel down beside him and slowly pry his hands away from his face, “Aang,” her voice soft and soothing, “Aang, look at me, my face is still here.” 

“No! No, I don't want to see, I can’t. I can't open my eyes.”

“Aang,” she says again. She lifts one of his hands to her face and places it on her cheek, “do you feel me? I'm still here, okay? I'm still here,” she moves his other hand and places it on her lips, lightly kissing one of his fingers. 

Slowly, she feels his heartbeat slow as he begins to take notice that she still has her features. His fingers map out her eyes and nose, the parts of her that he knows so well. 

Finally, he opens his eyes and the room is still incredibly dark, but he is able to just barely make out her eyes, almost glowing in the dark. 

“Okay, okay,” he says, a breath of relief caught in his throat. He throws his arms around her and buries his face in her neck, inhaling her scent.