Although helpless, the rock-manipulating tomboy was not without nerve.  “What is this?!  Twinkle Toes, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll let me out of this!”

Aang did the exact opposite, though.  Instead of unfreezing her, he used his water bending skills to move the ice block towards him with her feet facing him.  Afterwards, Aang created a little ring of ice and froze Toph’s big toes, preventing her feet from moving around.  Toph felt a chill from her big toes upwards.  But what was worse was that since she was no longer touching the earth, she couldn’t “see” at all.  This began to freak her out deep down, but she had no intention of letting Aang know that.

“You better let me out of this, turd brain!  If you don’t let me out right this minute, you’ll see what the inside of a land whirlpool looks like!” snapped Toph.

“I don’t think I’ll do that just yet.  I wish to take advantage of your helplessness first,” Aang replied with a grin.

Toph was less than amused.  “You better hope I don’t get out of this.”

Aang began to move closer to Toph’s feet.  “I don’t think you will.  Not without my help.  You know, Toph.  I remember you telling me how you use earth bending to see due to your blindness.  But that only happens when you’re barefoot and in contact with the earth, right?  Well, since you’re now frozen in ice and raised above even the bottom of this pond, I think you’re as vulnerable as can be.  Not only that, but being blind also means your other senses, including touch, are heightened greatly.”

Toph was now becoming visibly nervous.  “What exactly are you getting at, Aang?”

Aang let a grin more mischievous than even Katara thought he would be capable of.  “I guess you must have pretty ticklish feet, Toph,” answered Aang.

Toph’s eyes began to widen at those words.  Aang was right.  Being able to see with your feet does have more than one consequence.  When she was younger, her mother and father playfully tickled her feet before and even that was enough to make her scream.  And even though she went everywhere barefoot, including the present, her feet were still insanely sensitive.  Tickling was the one thing she hated other than being treated as a fragile china doll.  So when she heard Aang say he planned to tickle her, she became really frightened.  But true to character, she wasn’t about to let him know that.

“Me?  Ticklish?  You wish, fudge butt.  I’m as ticklish as a rock,” Toph replied, almost sweating.

“Whatever you say, ‘Sifu Toph’”, retorted Aang.

The next thing Toph knew, she felt a pair of wiggling fingers on her instep.  As soon as Aang’s tickling fingers made contact, she began laughing her head off uncontrollably.  She tried wiggling her feet around, but thanks to the ice ring on her big toes, she had almost no chances.  The sensations became unbearable in only a matter of seconds and all she could to about it was shake her head and laugh nonstop.  Aang had no problems in tickling his master, however.  He just kept running his fingers up and down Toph’s insteps and arches in quick, crawling movements.  He was also feeling these strange thoughts going into him.  Not only was it rewarding to be getting revenge on Toph, but it was also amazing how ticklish a girl like Toph actually was.  Aang also noticed that Toph never begged once while he was tickling her cute feet.  Apparently, she was too proud to do such a thing.

After five minutes of making Toph scream, he decided to stop.  However, the torture was not over.  Aang had something else in mind.  But as he was thinking, Toph caught enough of her breath to actually speak.

“Look, if you have a brain in that head of yours and a life to value, you’ll let me out of here,” seethed Toph.

Aang simply grinned back at her.  “I’m not done yet.  I haven’t even begun softening you up.”

The very tone in which Aang said those words sent shivers down Toph’s spine.  She then tried to negotiate herself out of more tickling.  “If you let me out now, I promise I won’t hurt you… too much.”

Aang acted like he didn’t hear her.  He just stood up and said, “I’m just going to go get the brush, Toph.  Don’t go away now.”

The fact that he added insult to injury made Aang giggle as he walked towards the bush.  Toph just laid back in both fear and confusion.  She knew that the tickle torture was going to continue, but she was trying to figure out why Aang would need a brush.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, she didn’t have to ponder that for long.  She heard something being repeatedly dipped into the water.

Aang returned with two brushes, a scrub brush and toothbrush he had in his bag.  He dipped it into the water and with a grin on his face; he began to scrub Toph’s heels with the scrub brush.  If the fingers didn’t send her over the edge, the brush certainly did.  Toph made the birds in nearby trees take to the sky, frightened by Toph’s ear splitting scream.  She desperately tried to move her feet away from the tormenting bristles, but due to Aang immobilizing her toes, she didn’t fare that well in her desperate attempt.  And since the only part she could move was her head, she was completely at “Twinkle Toes” mercy.  To make matters worse, her laughter rose ever higher when Aang began to scrub against her nearly untouched arches.  Toph felt like she was losing her mind in an endless stream of extremely vocal laughter and a myriad of bristles rubbing against her feet.

Aang could not help but make a quip.  “How about this?  You actually sound like a girl for once.”  He giggled.

The only response was more laughter.  

“What, no comeback?  No macho attitude?  You’re not yourself today, are you Toph?”

To Toph, the tickling was already unbearable, but now Aang was making fun of her?  If her feet weren’t so sensitive and if she had enough air in her lungs, she would have made a snappy comeback.  However, that would never happen now, not when Aang began to move the brush along the balls of her feet.  Toph took note that they weren’t as ticklish as her arches, but that wasn’t saying much.  That was like saying being attacked by a platypus bear was better than being attacked by a swarm of wasps.  With all the tickling she was being put through, her voice was becoming hoarse and the tears in her eyes multiplied.  But despite her hellish experience, she was still conscious.  For how much longer, however, would be another story.

When Aang noticed how exhausted Toph was, he immediately let up for a few moments.  Toph was damned grateful that the horrible tickling stopped and gratefully took in lungful after lungful of air.  Aang even brought water to the panting girl’s lips, which she greedily drank.  At least she was still her normal self.  After her breathing went back to a normal level and her tears began to dry, Aang smiled at his prowess.  He brought a nearly invincible, badassed earth bender to a complete wreck in only ten minutes.  Yeah, only ten minutes.  But to Toph, the torture seemed like forever.

Still smiling, Aang walked over to his captive.  “I’m a delicate instrument, huh?  You are obviously more delicate, but in a completely different way.  And here I thought you were an incredibly tough earth bender.  I guess all those rumors about you were exaggerated.”

Through tear stained, sightless eyes, Toph spat, “I’LL SHOW YOU HOW DELICATE I AM WHEN I GET OUT OF THIS!  YOU ARE SO DEAD, TWINKLE TOES!”

“Hmm… you know Toph, I’ve just remembered something,” mused Aang.

Toph felt a little uneasy about his tone of voice.  “What?”

Aang grinned once again.  “Why, I forgot to clean your toes.”

Toph gulped.  She knew how ticklish the rest of her feet were, but even though she was only tickled in between her toes only once, she still remembered how hellish that felt.  Recalling how ticklish her arches were, those little fleshy ticklish spaces were just barely worse.  By the time she realized that, she tried struggling even more to get free, or at least try to break the ring of ice keeping her big toes together.  But with all the factors Aang pointed out being against her, it was just as fruitless as before.

This was when Toph actually began to lose her nerve.  “N-n-now Aang.  I know you’ve had a busy day.  We all have those days, right?  Right?  Look, you want the staff back?  Take it, it’s yours!  Just get me out o—AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”

Her words were ignored as the Avatar brought out the toothbrush and began scrubbing back and forth in between her toes.  That loud screech of hers went up a couple of octaves, barely bypassing her other ones.  The scream turned into a cacophony of crazed laughter.  Aang also made sure to make all his scrubbing strokes as slow as can be, much to Toph’s dismay.  If she could Toph, would start begging right about now, but with all the air escaping her lungs rapidly, even that wasn’t possible.

Ten minutes later, after Aang cleaned the last toe, Toph finally got to breathe some much-needed air.   Aang, on the other hand, smiled and said, “Now, doesn’t it feel better to have nice, clean feet, Toph?”  He put his nose towards her foot and jokingly sniffed it.  “They even smell a lot better than before, too.”  He giggled.

After having enough air in her lungs, Toph decided to come clean with the whole act.  “Look, Aang,” Toph insisted, “when I took your staff from you, I wasn’t really trying to be mean.  I was only trying to get you to stand up for yourself, to make you as tough as an earth bender.  If I did that, then maybe you’d learn how to be… trainable.”

Aang considered.  He began to think that maybe he went a little too far with this whole “teaching a lesson” deal.  After hearing Toph’s story, he began to feel somewhat guilty.  Sure, tickling and messing with Toph was kind of fun and somewhat rewarding because after all, she messed with him a while back.  Looking back, though, he began to think he overdid it by torturing Toph half to death.  He even began to wonder if she would still like him or at least, still teach him earth bending.  Without another thought, he released Toph from her icy bondage.  Noticing she was still pretty tired from the whole ordeal, and guessing her soles must still be feeling like they were electrocuted, Aang gave his Sifu’s feet a little rub.  He even made sure to apply firm pressure to her now cleaned and softened soles, not too hard, but enough to make it as non-ticklish as possible.

A relaxed Toph giggled to herself.  “In retrospect, I never knew you had it in you, Twinkle To… Aang.  It must’ve taken you guts to come up with a plan like that, let alone actually spring it on me.  Maybe I did succeed in teaching to face your problems head on, after all.”

Aang smiled.  “Does that mean you’re not mad at me?” he asked hopefully.

Suddenly, Aang felt his feet give way into the ground where he sat.  With his legs locked into the earth, Aang couldn’t get up.  At that moment, Toph stood to her feet and walked over to her student’s direction.  Grabbing him by the collar of his tunic, she pulled his face up to hers.

“All right,” warned Toph, now her usual self, “if you ever mention what happened here to anyone, your new name will be Dirt.  And if you even give them a hint about my ticklishness, you’re twice as dead.  Got it?”

Speechless, Aang just nodded.  “Good,” said Toph.  

As quickly as he was trapped, Aang was freed.  Toph then pulled Aang up and slapped a hand over his back.  “Come on, let’s get back to the others.  Chances are they’re probably worrying about us.”

Aang was surprised at how his ally quickly forgave him.  Returning the gesture, he smiled back. “That’s something we can agree on.  So, you’re still going to teach me earth bending, Sifu Toph?”

Didn’t you listen to a word I’ve said?  I haven’t given up on you, even though your bending skills make my eyes twitch.  We’ll get there, I know it.”

Aang smiled.  “Thanks, Toph.  I’m honored to have you as my teacher.”

“Never mind the mushy stuff.  Don’t think I’m going to go easier on you tomorrow.  That’s what Day 1 is about.  I’m going to be tougher from now on, especially after what happened today.”

Aang nervously laughed.  It didn’t look like she completely forgave him after all.  

As the Sun went down completely, the two young benders made their way back to camp.