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In the city of Omashu, the locals observed an old holiday: the Zhilang Festival. Like the city itself, the festival took its name from an old tale of forbidden love. Whereas Oma and Shu were kept apart by their warring tribes, Zhi and Lang found themselves separated by the forces of both the physical and spirit worlds, but their devotion to one another was so strong that even the fleeting moments that they could share were enough to sustain them for the rest of their days. In honor of their love, couples throughout the city would spend the day and night exchanging gifts and spending time together. Those who had no partner, be they young or old, would offer prayers and gifts to the spirits and their ancestors, asking for good luck in their romantic endeavors. Some would use the festival as their golden opportunity to pop the question. Omashu was an old, proud city, whose legendary strength made them a bastion in a century of warfare, but even they were not so stony that they would pass up on a chance to celebrate the softer parts of life. Throughout his reign, King Bumi always treated the Zhilang Festival with the utmost respect and sincerity, sparing no expense for the celebration. As he would often say, between random fits of mad cackling, Omashu was a city for lovers.
Once, the Zhilang Festival meant nothing to Toph other than a day when her neighbors were loud and the markets were overflowing with fried pastries. Then, she got a girlfriend, and suddenly the day became one of the most important of the year. Katara had been living with her for three years, but this year’s Zhilang Festival would be the first that the pair would spend together as a couple. Toph had resolved to make it one to remember. The day would be perfect for her love.
Karma, however, had decided that it was high time for Toph to pay for her sins.
Bugs got to the bouquet of flowers before she did. The bakery informed her that the order of desserts she had placed three weeks ago could not be completed due to the discovery that key ingredients had gone bad, as several customers before Toph had discovered too late. Her gift for Katara, which she had entrusted in the hands of Omashu’s legendary mail system, had been accidentally placed in a cart bound for a border town and would not be delivered until the weekend after the festival. The restaurant she had reserved, a favorite of theirs, had caught fire in a freak accident. Finally, in fate’s ultimate kick while Toph was down, the pair arrived at the local opera house only to discover that the night’s performance had been canceled due to half of the theater troupe being bedridden with food poisoning and the lead actor mourning the loss of his eyebrows in the same fire that had ruined their favorite restaurant.
As the pair stood outside the shuttered building in a quickly dispersing crowd of disappointed theater-goers, Toph's trembling fist dug into her side, only for it to be broken up as Katara’s smooth fingers gingerly slipped into her hand. “Follow me,” she said, her voice soft and reassuring. Toph let out a breathless grunt and followed.
Katara led her to a familiar spot: a park on the north side of the city with a small man-made lake. A parade several blocks away had pulled all attention away from the area, leaving it for the pair to enjoy without fear of interruption. A short fence and several signs warned visitors to stay off the narrow beach and out of the water, but they had never stopped them before. Katara kicked off her shoes, leaving them in the grass behind them, before leading Toph to where the water met the sand. Without a word, she guided Toph to sit down before taking her place behind her, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend and resting her chin on her shoulder.
They sat together in silence for some time, with the only sounds of their night being the occasional chattering of magpies in the trees and the distant thrums of a city celebrating a night for lovers. Finally, when enough time had passed, when Katara felt enough of the tension in Toph’s shoulders and chest had melted away, she asked, “Copper for your thoughts?”
Toph’s initial answer came in the form of a series of groans that could pass for words if her lips weren’t sealed shut. Katara softly rubbed her thumbs against the back of Toph’s hands to keep them from tightening back into fists. “You know that none of the nonsensically unfortunate string of events that happened to us today were your fault, right?”
Toph sighed. “I know.”
“Then what’s got you so down?”
She knew that Katara was just trying to make her feel better, but Toph wasn’t ready to be fully comforted just yet. She did not care for traditions, holidays, or any business that she could brush off as lovey dovey fluff, but she knew that her sugar queen did. Anything that got in the way of her girl’s fun would meet Toph’s ire. If a meteor had fallen from space and crashed into the city, her first thought would still have been to curse fate for ruining what should have been their perfect day. Her second thought would have been to sink into the despair of her disappointment, that somehow it was her own fault for failing to prevent that which she could not have predicted. "I wanted today to be special."
Katara gave Toph a gentle squeeze. "This is special."
"How? We come to this stupid park all the time."
"So what?" she asked. "Maybe this isn't unique for us, but we are special. In the whole world, there's only one woman who I want to bring to a beach and get my feet wet with, and that's because there's only one Toph Beifong. It doesn't matter if we do this a hundred, a thousand, or a hundred-thousand times. It’s us, you and me, together. That's what makes it so special, and that’s why it will always be special.”
At that moment, Toph couldn’t help but smile. It was no wonder why the Southern Water Tribe had named Katara as their first ambassador to the Earth Kingdom after the end of the old war. She always knew just what to say and when to say it.
"Besides," Katara added, "there was one part of this holiday that I was looking forward to the most, and that came through in the end.”
“What?” asked Toph.
Katara gently moved a strand of hair that had fallen in front of Toph’s face with her finger and tucked it behind her ear before whispering, “Seeing these pretty cheeks of yours turn pink."
The last of Toph’s melancholy shattered as she erupted into giggling. Her hands instinctively flew to her face to cover her reddening cheeks, only for Katara to pull them away to make space for her lips. Toph's laughter continued as Katara showered her in eager kisses, roaming from her cheeks to her forehead, to the side of her head, to her neck, and finally to her lips, where she lingered as the two exchanged a long, passionate kiss. Katara broke it just long enough to climb on top of Toph before kissing her again. As the pair sank into the moment, their hands starting to wander along the other’s body, all of Toph’s thoughts about chewed up flowers, spoiled sweets, and a particularly unlucky pair of businesses flew away into the night, completely forgotten.