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Clothes littered the apartment floor like a trail of ants marching to a crumb of food. A little bit of outerwear, a little bit of underwear. Male and female. No rhyme or reason.
No rhyme or reason.
Just like the emotions playing out in the bedroom where all these clothes led to.
He had ruined the friendship by proposing to be lovers instead.
A proposition that was accepted with open arms and a warm bosom. A contract sealed with the passing scents of sandalwood soaps and bargain brand cologne. A pact affirmed with soft lips upon the rough skin of a neck.
Her soft lips. She too had ruined the friendship.
There was nothing that could be rescued at this point no matter what the rock ballad on the radio was saying as it let out its melody into the huddled air of the bedroom.
“So how did it go?”
It was a simple question with a difficult answer. Zuko really couldn’t give out a response to his friend Ty Lee as the two looked over the night skyline. The young man’s golden eyes were quick to track the passing centipede-like lights of a passing train in an attempt to get his mind to focus away from what was asked. Trains. Car headlights. The distant lights of buildings that were away from the blinding core of the downtown metropolis. A helicopter or airplane or whatever was up there blinking an occasional red and white strobe. Anything that could distract him. Anything.
“You know Mai tried to call you the other day?”
Ignore that. Zuko merely pulled out a cigarette from the box hidden inside his bomber jacket pocket and lit it up by activating his bending with a snap of his fingers. If there was anything he wanted to talk about on this still, cool night it would have been nothing at all.
That’s kind of what he liked about Toph. Her words weren’t wasted or excessive. Sure they were brash and direct but she spoke just the right amount of substance. Nothing over this weird emotional questioning and all the webs that connected to it. Ty Lee should have known that Zuko wanted little to do with a discussion over his ex and much less with the borderline accusatory tone she presented it with. They were one and done. There was no fixing what was broken.
“Must’ve been busy.”
Ty Lee snorted in equal parts disbelief and humor from being stunned at how brazen he was despite the fact his expression was as neutral as it had been since the beginning of their nightly contemplation. What was this man hiding? There was no way he could be so unmoved by the break up! Not only unmoved, but if the rumors were true, completely moved on! From what Ty Lee knew her friend was by herself brooding and shrouded in an air of melancholy while the word round the street said Zuko had gotten himself a new squeeze. Someone young and lively. Someone who for all intents and purposes was the complete 180 of Mai.
She could see it in his posture.
She knew it was true.
“It’s true, ain’t it?”
Zuko let out a scoffing chuckle as he watched some ashes drop from his cigarette into the three stories of air below where it vanished in the breeze.
“What do you want me to tell you, Ty?”
“Why, mostly.”
“I don’t think it’s very much important but sure. It’s true whatever you may have heard.”
Tired but genuine eyes were what Ty Lee saw for the moment Zuko had turned his head to look at her before returning his gaze back to the skyline. For all that Ty Lee wanted to be angry she just couldn’t bottle enough spite and scorn to feel anything meaningful towards her friend. It was true that there was a part of her that wanted to continue this crusade in defense of Mai but what cause could she justify it with? Zuko and Mai were officially split so whatever Zuko did after that was fair game no?
“Plus I really couldn’t it into words why.”
Zuko spoke the truth. The question Why in relation to falling in love was so hard to answer especially to someone so abysmally inept in the ways of romance. Perhaps the ‘Why’ was the long black hair he held in his rough hands which shone like silk. Perhaps it was the paradoxically soft and strong face that ‘looked’ back at him with those silvery moon-like eyes.
The ‘Why’ was probably the fact she was blind.
The scar on his face was a major point of his insecurity so someone who couldn’t see it was a welcome person. Sure the scar was brought about by an accident, but damned if he didn’t feel like his father didn’t just outright say he was an accident too. He was popular before it and after it people looked at him as some alien. Only the most faithful of his friends remained and even then it took them months if not years to get accustomed to the sight.
This girl didn’t have that problem. He could be as ugly as sin and she wouldn’t bat an eye.
What mattered most was on the inside- a corny statement Zuko had to admit but it truly hit him deep. All the prejudice this girl could have held came not from the external but he presented with his character and boy did he wish everyone else did that. They said she was a good judge of character to begin with, somehow being able to tell who was dishonest and see the true heart of people.
Now that was getting deep. It wasn’t that serious. She was just a friend turned lover.
Nothing more. All Zuko did was ask her to come over one night and one thing led to another and here they were. Here she was in fact. On his bed with only a blanket to cover her after the conclusion of tonight’s adventurous events.
“That was good.”
That brought a juvenile pride in Zuko’s bosom that he hadn’t felt in a good while. To be desired and appreciated was always something pleasant especially when paired with that look of feminine satisfaction when Toph let out a drawn out exhale as the tingles in her body began to die down and the fire in her core cooled to a crisp wave of relaxation. While Zuko’s efforts had been different this night, markedly different by the way her cheek’s were quite flushed with blood and her porcelain skin spotted with sweat, Toph knew the underlying dogma was still no different.
No rhyme or reason. It was all biological. What she felt right now was nothing but chemicals and satisfaction of a primitive sort. What Zuko had pride in was nothing more than completing a primal mission in taking a woman and securing himself within her. That was the arrangement they came up with and that was the safest option for the both of them. Spirits knew there was no better thing than to be safe when it came to these situations. It wasn't that serious anyways.
Zuko lit a cigarette from a pack he had on his night stand and took a soft drag from it before he offered a fresh one to Toph he had between the fingers of his right hand. Tapping her sternum with his knuckles he got her attention and received an answer to his offer when she grabbed hold of his arm and ran her way up to his hand where the cigarette lay. The whole trip was soft and sensuous. Her hands felt like velvet. Her grip was firm but not imposing. It was an absolute absent-minded and reactionary thing he did when his hand closed in on hers before she managed to grab the cigarette.
Slipping through his fingers was all sense and logic.
Once he had been a bumbling romantic chained to a rigid sense of honor. Serious relationship then intimate relations. Had Mai not the body of a night goddess we would have kept the intimate relations to the bond of marriage as his mother had raised him to believe but inside him was always a man taken by the wiles of desire. Feeling the ecstasy of physical closeness changed his life forever and now that someone gave it to him so freely was an even more earthshaking perspective.
Though with anything new came worry. And with worry came fear and confusion. Thinking back on Ty Lee’s words he found himself asking that dreaded question: “Why?”
He had no deep romantic attachment to Toph- sure they were friends and he did find her cute as a button but nothing more than that existed. Compared to what he once felt for Mai, Zuko knew that his sentiments were completely lacking.
That was the arrangment so it wasn’t a surprise when Toph only gave him a brief grin before retracting her hand and requesting he light it ever so nonchalantly. Zuko obliged like a friend, but like a lover he kept his eyes upon her even when she became focused on the act of smoking itself. He watched as the goosebumps built upon her porcelain skin with every drag while her face mellowed out to an expression befitting quite contemplation. Sure she was blind, but Zuko still wondered what she was looking at as her gaze was affixed dead ahead to where his dead black television lay on his entertainment console.
What was in that mind’s eye of hers?
Zuko took a drag for himself and looked to see the smoke spewing out his mouth wisp away and merge with the smoke that came out from Toph. It was a like a kiss by proxy. Childish, he knew, and woefully romantic for their situation but still a heartfelt thought regardless. The young man shook his head at the thought of the word ‘heartfelt’ and repented of using it as he knew he couldn’t have his heart in these affairs at all. That was the arrangement. It wasn't that serious.
“Sparky.”
“Yeah?”
“What are you doing next weekend?”
“If my uncle doesn’t have extra reports from the new bottling plant to pull out of his ass, nothing. It’s gonna be a busy week coming up but I should manage.”
“You always do. You’re that kind of guy.”
A girlish grin escaped Toph’s mouth seconds after that genuine compliment did. Even though it was rare for her to give compliments so openly, Toph knew that Zuko was genuinely someone to be admired despite his faults- which she already openly bantered with him over to begin with.
“Thanks, Toph.”
Genuine words for a fake romance. If Toph didn’t know better she’d have fooled herself into thinking they’d been lovers for years by the way he spoke so kindly and sweetly. Such thoughts made her snicker to herself and even physically wave away the thoughts. It wasn't that serious.
“Yeah yeah. Regardless… Want to link up? You know, for some tea?”
“We did that already.”
“Oh, right.”
Zuko chuckled as he playfully rustled Toph’s hair for being so ditzy as to forget they just had a tea date this day. Her express request too. He wasn’t much of a tea drinker but sitting down and shooting the shit with Toph made it at least palatable.
“How about a movie? It can be later in the day so you can stay over and… well, you know…”
He reached out for her chest and cupped her petite breast, twirling his thumb upon her tit and watching a sensuous open-mouthed expression appear which was replaced with a toothy grin when she returned the favor by placing her hand on his abs and slowly moving down until-
“Hold on there, cowgirl… Still haven’t recovered.”
“What a shame… Guess there’s no part two to this movie, huh?”
“You know there’s always some time between before the sequel releases, right?”
“Fair fair. Regardless, I think a movie sounds fine.”
Satisfied, Zuko smothered the last of his cigarette in the ashtray on his nightstand before turning back and grabbing hold of Toph's chin to plant a quick but meaningful kiss on her pomegranate shade lips. Though take by surprise, Toph wasn't too against it and even gave him a second quick peck before the two returned to their typical friendly selves.
Perhaps it was a little serious.