The Prince's Choice (Zutara)

XXVI

Once Toph got over her awe, she wasted no time in stripping naked (much to Katara's horror) and literally diving into the pool of mud, ignoring the careful work the spa ladies had done to keep her hair up. When she re-surfaced, she gave a moan that was almost orgasmic, rubbing the mud deep into her face. Katara shuddered.

"No judging! You looked exactly like I do now when it rained," Toph said sharply. "Ahh, yeah, this is good mud."

"What's the difference?" Sure, this mud felt softer, but Katara was half sure she was imagining it.

"It just is. Trust me," Toph said. Katara was half-worried she'd eat the mud she was so in love. Luckily, Toph reached up, taking a bottle of wine. She used her teeth to tear the cork off, drinking straight from it.

"What if I wanted some?" Katara leaned onto the tile flooring.

"There's another bottle." Toph burped. "So, it's all good." Indeed, Toph was right.

"You are so unladylike." Katara wrinkled her nose.

Toph put her hand over her chest, making an 'awww' sound. "I think that's the nicest thing anyone could ever say to me," she said.

They spent the next hour working through the two bottles of wine and eating really good food. Toph tried to convince Katara to dunk her whole head under, saying it was 'good for her'. Firstly, Katara didn't want to ruin the silkiness of her hair that the spa ladies had done, and secondly, Katara didn't really want to spit up mud. She was fine to sink back into the warm mud with her head above the surface.

Eventually, Toph got a little tired of just sitting in mud, so she began making strange shapes with it, ones that fell apart quickly. When Katara tried, her shapes were more formed, but Katara attributed this to the fact that this mud bath was more liquid than dirt.

It made Katara think about how, up until Toph had pointed it out, Katara didn't even know she could bend mud.

"Toph?" Katara asked, sending the mud rippling like a spider's web, "How did you figure out how to bend metal?"

"I just did it," Toph said.

"Well, okay, but how did you know you could?" Katara asked.

Toph rolled her head toward Katara, her face becoming a little bit more serious.

"Well," Toph frowned, "I'd bent mud successfully, and mud is mostly dirt, but not really. And I can bend rocks, which is earth, but hard. And I suppose I just thought, well, maybe I can bend anything made from the earth, you know? And I started asking around, to my Earthbending teacher. He's pretty useless. I learned my earthbending right from the source - badgermoles - and he was equally useless here. He hadn't tried to bend anything fun ever, said bending metal was preposterous. But, metal comes from the earth, right? I learned that in tutoring. So...yeah. There was resistance, but that's how I knew I could. If I try to bend like, water, there's no resistance. It just doesn't yield."

"But you felt that you could, it just wasn't moving, not yet," Katara realized.

"Exactly." Toph nodded. "It was just like learning to earthbend originally. I just knew I had to practice. Still, I'm not great, but when you're the only metal bender, you're also the best one," she said, her voice returning to her usual teasing tone, as she winked haughtily.

"Huh..." Katara frowned.

"You bend anything cool?" Toph asked.

"Water things, I guess. I mean...anything mostly water, so mud, snow, tea, even milk. Just, liquids I suppose. Though, if it were a liquid not made of water, like at all, that might be difficult. I just haven't had the chance."