Accidental Avatar 3.5: The Burn Book

Heated Moments make poor Friends

"How's that?" I asked as Mangetsu flexed his fingers.

"Stings, but I'll live," he sighed. "At least I won't need stitches."

"Ugh, can you imagine having to do that?" I shuddered.

"Hey, I can take the cut, I can take the stitch," Mangetsu stood up and stretched out his legs. "It's the infection I hope to avoid."

"Well, you've been really good about keeping it clean," I spotted Katara digging through Toph's things. "Katara, what are you doing?"

"Aha!" she said, holding up a piece of paper. "I knew they were hiding something."

She marched over to us and presented it to me with a self-satisfied smirk. It was a picture of Toph. A really good one. Not.

"Sokka suddenly got good at drawing?" I suggested. "Katara, I can't read that."

"It's a Wanted Poster," she said. "It refers to Toph as the Runaway."

"Catchy," Mangetsu said. "But you realize, digging through her stuff without her permission was wrong, yeah?"

"Why aren't you angry about this?!" Katara demanded. "You were the one who told them this was dangerous!"

"And it is," I sighed. "But I can see what Mangetsu is implying here. They're not going to learn anything until it bites them in the ass."

"But this is dangerous to the group!"

"Then we'll deal with it as a group," Mangetsu was fast losing his patience. 

I'm surprised he had any to start with. 

"Blowing up at each other over crap like this is an excellent way to make it a them and us issue."

Before Katara could retort, the others returned with even more bags of money. I didn't like it.

"Ah, speaking of our daring Robin Hoods," I said dryly, folding my arms over my chest.

"Where have you four been?" Katara demanded. "Off scamming again?"

"Yes, we were," Toph sniffed.

"And I suppose you don't think what you're doing is dangerous at all?" she pressed.

"No, I don't!" Toph answered defensively.

I decided I was going to sit this one out. I said some things I didn't mean last time, so no point sticking my foot in it again.

"Really?" Katara pressed again.

"Yes, really!" Toph snapped.

"Well then, what's this?" Katara held the paper out in front of Toph.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Really? You're shoving the paper into the face of a blind girl?" Mangetsu asked sarcastically.

"Must be a family thing," Mogui commented. "Sokka-"

Muteki shoved a bag into Mogui's mouth, his eyes darting towards me with mild panic.

So they knew about it after all. I mean, seriously. They would have had to. I decided not to say anything and only raise an eyebrow in their direction and do the thing.

Hands on hips, hip tilted, head cocked. Now, we wait to see how this plays out. How deep are they gonna dig this one?