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Characters: Toph and Temeraire

Location: Their apartment

Rating: PG, tops

Time: Feb. 10, afternoonish

Description: For all that they're partners, the two really don't know that much about each other's lives back home. We're fixing that.

Toph hated stitches. Completely and utterly hated them. They itched and annoyed her and just gah.

To try and keep herself occupied, she was listening to one of the audio books she'd bought, using Tem as a bed. The disc was playing on the fancy CD player, and she didn't have her headphones in since Temeraire liked listening to them almost as much as she did.

The book today was some fictional one, and it involved this guy who wanted to marry a noblewoman (as a side plot. Toph's books were always the action-y type, but sometimes you just couldn't escape the sap).

"'But being noble has got to be better than my life', he said. 'I mean, you get all these...freedoms I don't!' I shook..."

Toph snorted. "Freedoms my eye," she muttered. "I sure as heck didn't get any."

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She couldn't help it--Toph laughed at Tem's confusion.

"Chicken pigs are just what they sound like, and boarqupine is spicier than pork," she explained. "I only had zebra seal once, but it's pretty good. Not too fatty."

She really lived in a very interesting world, he thought, aside from knowing that there were dragons that also lived there. She probably thought this all weird and rather foreign, but she has remarkably kept pace and gotten used to it to a very good degree.

Then again, she always told him that nothing is ever normal, even more so in this world, and there's nothing else aside from just getting used to it. Yet, he himself still clings on to his own ideas and ways of doing things.

"Seals are not too tasty, especially if one eats only them for a long stretch of time. Perhaps the zebra seal is quite different in flavour, if you say it is pretty good. Or perhaps they also prepared it in some way that was ideal.

Now that has gotten me somewhat hungry."

Talk of food eventually does.

"I think we have some leftovers in the fridge?" That was something Toph still had to get used to. Leftovers. They never had food leftover after meals back home. They just ate it all right then.

It was also a new thing for him as well, seeing as he was able to devour entire cows and sheep in the first place. Now, leftovers are still very good, but it was something he had adjusted to as well.

"In that case I am much obliged if you could heat them up for me in the microwave."

Another new invention for him. England had taught him about it in his first days in Death City. As much as he missed the man-country, all he could be glad about that is that he was at least returned from whence he came.

"Oh, and if you would be so kind as to put some of that dried spicy pepper flakes into it, I would greatly appreciate it."

The really, really small things, they are still difficult to handle.

Toph nodded and stood up. "Where are the pepper flakes?" she asked, heading into the kitchen. Being the only one of the right size to move most things in the kitchen meant that she knew were everything was and could navigate it safely. Gray, way back then, had even taught her how to use the microwave, guiding her hands to each button and telling her what number was what (they had managed to find one that had the number buttons sticking out, not in a touch pad like most). She still tended to lose track of the smaller bottles, though, since Mushu moved those.

"I am unsure, but I am quite sure I can tell you. Hold on a moment..."

He stood and followed her, his nails starting to make clack-clacking noises as they got to the kitchen area.

"I can look for it and tell you which one it is. Ah..."

He smelled the air a bit for a moment with his forked tongue, trying to see in which one of the cupboards it could be.

"Try opening the second one from the right on top. It smells strongest there."

Toph grabbed the stepstool and opened the suggested cabinet. She opened all the bottles until she found the dratted pepper flakes. Unfortunately, that was almost every last bottle in the cabinet.

"This would be easier if there was some way to mark the bottles for me," she grumbled, stepping down.

He saw her go through her own process of going about this. It was indeed rather time-consuming, and if she could have some sort of way of tell--

Wait a moment. He'd read about it before. He had come across it well before he was partnered with Toph, when Mr. England was kindly helping him with the borrowing of books from the library. The thought had not occurred to him until now, but he should have thought about it before.

"Oh, now I feel like a right scrub," he said, as he sulked a little as he felt a bit of shame. First for not having thought of it before, and second, because now he felt he had let her down in some odd manner for not having told her about it.

"I read something, some time ago, about a way that blind people are able to read books. There is a certain way of marking things that allows them to read perfectly well."

"Braille?" Toph snorted. "Tiny little bumps that are supposed to make characters and words and all that? Puh-lease." She'd heard about it. It wasn't interesting to her. "My hands aren't sensitive enough for that."

Which was a lie, actually. Even if she had calluses and such on her hands, they were remarkably sensitive. She just didn't want to use something for someone who was handicapped. She wasn't handicapped. She was just blind.

Oh.

She knew about it.

That most certainly changes things.

"Then you do know about it. Even if you say that your hands are not sensitive enough for that, it is a process through which one learns how to read. I am quite sure that you are very capable enough to do so, if only you put your mind to it.

And yes, they do make out words. It is a sort of code that one only needs to learn, is it not?"

Of course she knew about it. When she first got here, everyone was suggesting it. It annoyed the hell out of her.

"I don't need to read!" she retorted, probably a little more vehemently than she really meant. "I've managed for thirteen years without it. I just need a way to mark the stupid spice bottles."

A little bitter? Maybe. Back home, it wasn't a big deal that she couldn't read. Someone was always willing to read something for her, and most entertainment was live, anyway. Here, it was mostly recorded, and people seemed sour when she asked for someone to read out the menu for her.

He nudged her lightly ~~despite her handling the spicy pepper flakes~~, to see if his touch could help calm her a little. She really did seem to have a rather staunch stance on this, however.

"If you could learn, perhaps we can read something together, and that would be fun, would it not?"

He is quite sure he's told her about how it was that he learned how to read in the first place -- by Laurence first reading to him every night before he went to sleep.

Toph nudged Temeraire in return before getting out the leftovers and added the pepper with a sigh.

"How could you read tiny little bumps, Tem?" she asked. "They're not letters."

"I could not, but you could. Braille is not letters, exactly, but they represent letters. As I said, it is a sort of code that you can decipher with your fingers, and thus render you be able to read.

I am not capable of doing so because I have scales and claws and am more liable to badly scratch a braille text, whereas you would be able to deftly read it when you've enough practice."

And oh, that pepper and that still-pleasantly-fragrant food are making his stomach rumble a bit.

"I dunno, Tem. Reading's not my thing. It's boring, and you just sit there." At least her audio books had noises and all that. It was just like a radio, or a play she couldn't see.

"You know, you could read to me. We can even pick an adventure story and you could tell me the story in whatever voices you would like."

He liked those stories as well, just as he knew that she liked them.

Toph stuck Tem's food in the microwave, hitting the minute button.

"Maybe," she said, though it sounded more like "I don't want to can we just drop this please".

Oh, oh, it's warming up! His wings flutter a little at the prospect for nice, warm, spicy food that is going to be ready soon.

"If I could oblige you in doing so, I would really appreciate it. We can read a chapter every evening once you are proficient. That way, we can have something to look forward to every evening."

He wasn't good at reading between the lines, was he?

"Maybe," she repeated, still a little annoyed. She loved her Weapon, really she did, but...he was a little overeager.

He was good at it to some extent. He's just choosing to ignore it in this particular case.

Well then, if that was the way that she was going to play it, then he'd have to ask as nicely as he could.

"But Toph--!"

Okay, so not ask, nor nicely ~~but at least somewhat politely, if only with a slight whine in his intonation~~, but he really would like her to learn.

"What are you, Katara?" Toph made a face as the microwave dinged; she grabbed Tem's food. "Anything else you want on it?"

His ruff pricked up at that.

"I am most certainly not. Still, it would be nice, I think, to listen to you read to me."

After she grabbed his food, he only shook his head before saying, "No, thank you. I do think that this will be quite tasty yet filling."

He went ahead of her as he walked toward his place on the table, tail swaying slightly one side to the other. It was not necessary to have a seat over on his side of the table, and he managed to learn to sit a specific way to eat there along with everyone else.

Only that he might be a little bit messy at times. He'd try to clean up as well as he could, though.

"I'm not a good storyteller, Tem." Toph slid the bowl in front of him on the table, grabbing a soda. "Seriously, I'm not. My stories are lame."

"Oh, no. No, Toph, that is where I have to disagree with you."

Only because he rarely ever disagrees with her, and usually goes along with what she would like. If she was happy, so would he, and he would be content enough in knowing that. However, this was different.

Recalcitrant!Dragon mode is a go!

"You are a great storyteller. Imagine how I would be clueless about your world if it weren't for your telling me the stories of where you kicked loads of butts with your Earthbending, and your friend Aang's everything-bending, and helping to save your world. You told it very well, and explained it to the best of your abilities, which I have to say are very good.

As I said, if I could I would like to see your world... and perhaps even see what sorts of "awesomeness" you can do with your Earthbending, since I know you are a genius at it."

If what she's shown while on their missions is any indication, she could really do a great many wonders with Earth and rocks alone.

"One, did you just use the word 'butt'?" Not the point, but still. Temeraire never said butt! "Two, that's different. I'm just telling it like it is. Was. Whatever. I'm not telling some made up story."

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short tag is short, orz

that icon's adorable

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