"Zuko, this is Toph."

Pushed by his mother's warm hands, the young prince found himself face to face with the tiniest girl he had ever seen. Her hair was as black as night, yet it was pulled as sharp and tight as a stinger from her face. A few thick strands of hair managed to somehow come loose from the tight bun, though.

She was pulling them back from her face roughly, tossing the irritable bangs behind her rather large ears.

That's when Zuko caught a quick glance of her eyes. They were as foggy as the atmosphere in the earliest of mornings. Clouded as the darkest day, yet the slightest hint of green shone somehow. But instead of sparkling, they gave the impression of coldness.

Which is exactly the way the young maiden was acting.

"Something wrong, your highness?" the girl hissed through gritted teeth.

Zuko didn't know what to do, so he did the thing he always did whenever he was faced with something such as this. He turned to his mother.

"Mom, somethings wrong with her eyes!"

He pointed a finger in the weird-eyed girl's face, waving it frantically. She snapped at it, as if trying to bite it off.

"Zuko..." Ursa whispered, but she was ignored by the two children.

"It's called being blind," Toph answered sarcastically. "Doofus..."

"Toph!" Her mother whispered frantically. But both of the worried mothers were ignored.

"Mom! Did you hear what she called me?"

"Keep this up Mamma's Boy and your parents are going to be so ashamed of you they'll most likely banish you!"

"Mom!! That's not true, is it?"

"You're a scardey-cat AND a cry-baby? I'm speechless..."

Ursa leaned toward the appalled Earth Kingdom mother. She whispered quietly, so as not to draw any attention. (The children were already doing that.)

"This play date isn't going exactly as I planned. Any different for you?"

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Zuko glared at the mountains that loomed over the and around the palace. At times he hated this place, and today was one of those times.

He was seated on the wall that bordered the palace. He usually didn't sit here, but he certainly didn't want to be standing on the same ground as her. Up here, all he had to do was keep his gaze averted from the ground and she was no longer within his view.

He continued to stare off into space. It wasn't fair that he had been cast off into the gardens. Alone with her. The again, maybe their parents had hoped that they would sort things out better if there was no one else to talk to besides themselves.

Well, he wasn't going to talk to her. That was for certain. He huffed angrily and, feeling as if everything was silently settled between them, he returned his gaze once again toward the hills and mountains off in the distance.

A soft breeze ruffled his hair as it blew all across the vast palace grounds. Then, he heard. The one he had so been trying to avoid.

"Hey."

He whipped around, and saw that...that girl sitting right beside him. But...he was at least 15 (give or take a few feet) high up! He had had to climb up a tree growing next to the wall to get up here, and he hadn't seen her climbing up anywhere.

"H-how'd you get up here?"

"Jumped."

The young prince gave the girl a skeptical look. But he didn't say anything more.

The young girl moved her head around a moment before finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"But I should ask you the same thing. What are you doing up here, exactly?"

Zuko reluctantly turned to face the tiresome peer. "I don't think it's your business what I'm doing up here, do you?"

The young girl frowned and turned her nose up higher than was necessary for this particular argument.

"I believe that it's rude to judge someone when you barely even know their name, am I right?"

Zuko gritted his teeth together and cranked his head toward the girl. Who did she think she was? She was talking to the heir to the Fire Nation throne! She should've been cowering in fear.

"My name's Zuko."

The girl nodded silently for a moment, then her voice spoke up.

"Actually, what I meant was my name. My name's Toph, by the way. Goodness, are you always this self-centered?"

Zuko was so angry he could've spitted on that vial girl. The only thing stopping him by committing such a disgusting action was the remembrance that he was a prince.

"Whatever. Listen, why don't you just go off to...whereever you came from to begin with."

That Earth Kingdom girl...Toph... just shrugged as if people addressed her in that way all the time. Then, she said, quite plainly, mind you.

"There's nothing much I can really do. It's my parents who control the means of transportation for me. Maybe when I'm older though, I can decide for myself when I want to leave someplace."

And with those simple words, she hoisted herself up into a swinging position on her hands and threw her entire body outward. Away from the already far too narrow ledge.

Zuko lunged forward to grab her hand, for it happened all too quick to let out a scream of terror for the young girl. But as this Toph fell off into the air, a rumpling noise sounded. Before the little firebender could comprehend what was going on, a huge mini-mountain of earth shot up and caught the calm girl.

She stood on the space that was flat and turned to face him once again, brushing the hair out of her face as if being caught by a giant moving-hill top was the most natural thing in the world. It took Zuko a few more minutes before his innocent brain could catch quite up to speed.

"Of course! You're an...Earthbender."

The girl sighed impatiently before replying to the astounded boy.

"What else is new?"

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Zuko was actually starting to have some fun with this Toph girl. She was unlike any child he had ever met before. Considering that he had only been allowed to associate with Royal children, or kids with very high ranking parents, this really was a pleasant surprise.

But he would never dare admit it to this girl.

He quickly dodged the rolling wave of dirt and grass lifting up toward him. Then, returned with a powerful fire blast of his own.

He didn't even try to hide his smile.

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Toph threw her arms upward to the sky and shifted the ground along with her. Great mounds of rock flew up from the quiet soil and blocked the fire ball.

As soon as the fire had disappeared back into the air around her, she pushed her hands forward with the strength not meant to be possessed by a girl of her age and size.

The boulders quickly soared forward, heading straight for the boy. But he leaped away at the last minute, giving her heart a tremendous feeling. He had never met any kid like this one. Then again, she had played with children only a few times in her life, but still...

She couldn't help but feel that something was different about him.

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"Ha! You're going to have to be better than that if you want to defeat the heir to the Fire Nation throne, eyeballs!"

"Hey! Leave the name-callings to me, got it Daddy's Little Outcast?"

"You leave Dad out of this!" And with that, he shot some flames at the blind child. But she just smiled and allowed some rocks to come between them.

The children laughed, and the Queen found herself chuckling a bit to herself as well.

Ursa straightened up, and flicked one last smile in the direction of the two one children.

She allowed one last laugh to escape her lips, then continued down the hallway.

Maybe the Play-Date was a good idea, just not in the originally expected way.