This is my first avatar fanfic. It had to be about Toph, cuz she's really the only character that matters. Eventually I'll add the other Avatar characters in but not right now:) I don't know who to pair her with yet, cuz frankly I can see Toph with any boy or girl except Sokka...so tell me what you think and I'll make a decision.
Toph struggled with herself internally. What was she going to do? Everyone was leaving. Sugar Queen was running off to the South Pole to create her school of waterbending brats. Snoozles was going to back as a man of the tribe, and it's future chief. Sparky had the whole freakin fire nation to run, while his uncle ran a tea shop, and Twinkle Toes was flying into the sunset with Appa to start his whole peace-keeping shiz in the four nations.
Which led her back to not knowing what to do.
She was the world's greatest Earth Bender-the Blind Bandit, unfortunately she was also a Bei Fong, and if she went home to her family they would imprison her again. They were freakin evil like that. Twinkle Toes and the others didn't know that she had been keeping tabs on her parents through old contacts from her Earth Rumble days, and apparently her parents had decided to renovate her rooms while she was gone, and replace the stone walls with a lovely wooden interior. Bastards. They made a wooden cage, and had every intention of putting in it.
She stood up from her comfy palace bed.
She wasn't going anywhere near the Bei Fong estate, and she wasn't getting carted around like a third wheel by any one of her friends.
Hmmm…
She shifted as her thought process was interrupted and she heard familiar footsteps at the door. Toph sighed despairingly.
What did Katara waaaant?
Jezus what did the Sugar Queen always want? Girl, talk….If they ended up talking about Katara's freakin feelings, and all the mushy shiz she experiences when Aang, or Sparky walk in the room…
Toph scowled, and glared at the general direction of the door.
"Hurry it up Sugar Queen. I have important crap to do."
Important crap like hunting down Iroh, and getting some advice. That was important.
Toph felt the waterbender's hesitant steps as she entered the room, which was odd because Katara was alway graceful. The only time her steps faltered were when she was injured, or…
Toph's scowl deepened. "Sugar Queen, I swear to god you better be complaining about something not-stupid or I'm burying you so far underground that you'll fall off the face of the earth, crash into another planet and get eaten by cannibalistic aliens."
Katara was staring at her like she was an idiot. She could feel it.
"Toph, look I wanted to know what you planned to do…You know when we all leave tomorrow?"
Toph stared at her blankly.
"I mean are you going back to your parents?"
Yeah. No.
Toph thought about it for another second.
Yeah…..Hellz no.
Toph replied slowly, annunciating each word carefully. "Sugar Queen, if I wanted to suffer and DIE there are much less painful ways to go then to be forcefully held against my will while my parents sedate and brainwash me to do god knows what with whatever rich lunkhead they find on the street."
She could feel the waterbender's annoyance filtering through the ground.
"So, you're not going home? Toph what are you gonna do? You can always come with Sokka and me-"
Toph held up a hand cutting her off.
"Are you hearing yourself Sugar Queen? You want me," Toph pointed to herself "To go with you," The earthbender pointed accusingly in Katara's direction. "to a place with no Earth, where I will be virtually blind, and freezing to death…No that's okay I'll pass on that lovely experience Sugar Queen."
Toph held back a snicker as Katara stomped one foot on the ground-beyond frustrated at this point.
"Then what are you going to do?"
Toph sat down and leaned against the headboard of the bed.
"Honestly, after all the crap we went through. I like traveling and moving, and fighting…and bashing people's faces in. I'd like to travel some more."
Toph grimaced as she felt Katara's heart rate spike in excitement.
"You can go with Aang then!"
The former Blind Bandit rolled her eyes. "Sugar Queen, I'm not going with Aang either. Twinkle Toes is a peace emissary, and his do gooder crap will stop me from getting things done my way. No I wanna explore a little bit on my own, be independent for once since I can actually do that now.
Toph could still feel Katara's hesitancy.
"Look Sugar Queen I'll be fine. I don't function well with people anyway. I'm not even sure how I survived traveling with you and the boys. I mean really there was a voice in the back of my head screaming 'Pwn all these losers, and get the hell off the tattooed buffalo.'"
"Toph…."
The world's greatest earthbender sat back at the exasperated note in Katara's voice, and the blind earthbender closed her eyes.
Maybe if she took a nap, Sugar Queen will be gone when she wakes up.
"Toph I know you're not sleeping. We need to talk about this."
Nope can't hear you…really busy fantasizing I was somewhere else.
"Toph!"
Oops did she say that out loud?
(2hours later)
Iroh…Iroh Iroh. Where did that old man slink off to? Toph meandered around the palace listening intently for her sometimes mentor's footsteps. Honestly, he was old and slightly decrepit, how far could he have gone?
She paused as the sound of a tea pot whistling vibrated throughout the air.
Where there's tea there's Iroh. It's a scientifically proven fact.
The earthbender deliberately headed for the source of the sound, and found herself in front of a double set of doors, a large elaborate double set doors by the feel of it. She pushed the door open, and was greeted by the smell of Jasmine Tea and a particular smell that could only belong to Iroh.
"Aw Toph my favorite child how are you?"
Favorite? Yeah. Right. He drank too much tea. Way too much.
"I'm doing alright Iroh."
She felt him nod, and the earth vibrated as he motioned to the seat across from him. "Sit child, and have some tea with an old decaying man."
Toph normally would shove a rock down someone's throat for telling her what to do, but this was Iroh, Dragon of the West, hell the man that acted more like her parents should have. She really respected him, so to illustrate her respect, when he said sit, she flopped down on the palace cushions immediately and took the cup of tea he handed her.
"Well, young earth bender since it's physically impossible for you to get lost, I'm going to bet you were looking for me. Right?"
Toph delicately sipped her tea.
Heh. Delicately… stupid word.
"Yeah, I need some advice Iroh."
He said nothing obviously waiting for her to continue and after a second Toph complied. "Well, everyone's paired off, and has their life planned out, but I don't know what to do. I refuse to go with Katara and Snoozles to a place where I can't earthbend. I can't travel with Aang because I will physically murder him. I can't stay here because I don't want to deal with Zuko and the political garbage he's going to face for the next ten years, and I can't go home because my parents are going to dictate everything I do and lock me up in a nice wooden cage so I can shrivel up and DIE."
"Well…what do you want to do?"
Toph threw her hands up exasperatingly in the air. "That's why I came to you. I don't know what I want to do!"
She heard Iroh take a sip of tea.
"It's unlike you to be goes against your element but it sounds like you want your own life. You don't want to be a third wheel, and you don't want go anywhere without Earth."
"Right!"
"Hmm…well…Perhaps we should discuss this while we play Pai Sho."
Toph groaned.
Never ask a tea drinking Pai Sho master for help in anything.
She did not protest when he brought out the wooden board game. She did not protest when he gave her the choice of tiles that would she choose. She did vaguely protest when her hand ran along the center of one tile and felt a familiar flower.
"No no no this belongs with your tiles, I'm not part of your White Lotus group thing you guys made up."
"Well why not?"
He was kidding right? She blinked as his vibrations revealed nothing even remotely resembling a lie. He must be confused. She came to the conclusion he must have Alzheimers and in no way was asking her to join a club composed of men in blue house robes that were old enough to be her grandparents from a hundred years ago that were too stubborn to die like normal people.
He was talking again.
"Really, Toph I mean you asked for direction and I'm giving it to you. The purpose of the White Lotus Society is to defy any and all social and racial barriers and unite people who can appreciate the little things and enjoy the beauty of life across the four nations."
"I'm blind I don't appreciate beauty. Little things deserved to be stepped on, and I don't unite people I break them."
She heard him chuckle.
"Toph, I know you. You're sight allows you to see and understand beauty on an entirely level, and you don't have the luxury to judge people by their appearances, only by their character and actions. I know that when you met my grandson, you knew he was sincere in wanting to help the Avatar even though he had hurt many people before. No one else would trust him but you. I also know that you love creating chaos because having a good time and getting punished is better than having no fun at all. You enjoy the little mistakes in life that make you stronger."
Toph sighed.
"So you want me to train to be a White Lotus member? Even though I'm a girl, I'm blind, and I enjoy violence of varying degrees."
Toph could feel Iroh smiling smugly behind his cup of tea.
"Be whatever you want, but I would enjoy your company as the youngest member of the society after you gain some training. That is assuming you actually manage to earn a white lotus position before you get old and senile."
Toph smiled dangerously.
Old man thought he was slick. He was targeting her ego. Purposely baiting her into accepting a challenge. She wasn't gonna fall for that crap.
She opened her mouth totally intent on voicing a clever refusal
"Where do I sign up Gramps?"
…
Her mouth did the opposite of what she told it too. What the hell?
Mutiny!
Later…
Toph began shoving her clothes in a pack. She had to meet a fire nation advocate-one of Iroh's contacts. Apparently she had to go train. Iroh was ruining her life. After she learned earthbending, metal bending and sandbending she was suppose to be done with training but nooooo…
She scowled as light eager footsteps stampeded to her door, followed by several more steps of people that she would rather not see.
"Sifu Toph!"
She groaned as her door flew open and Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Suki all ambled into her room.
"Sifu Toph, We're going-"
She heard Aang pause. He must have noticed the bags on the bed.
"Toph…?"
She slowly turned to look at her unwanted guests.
"Is there any particular reason you all decided to plant yourselves in my room?"
"Why are their bags in your room? Are you going somewhere?"
It was Suki of all people who was bombarding her with questions. Fangirl needed to stick to what she knew, like sharp objects and intimate knowledge of Snoozle's anatomy.
Toph shoved her championship belt in her bag, and closed the flap, and in one smooth motion hefted the bag over her shoulder.
"You guys are all leaving tomorrow. I'm leaving tonight. It's been five months since the invasion, and we're all going back to our respective lives. I have things I have to take care of now instead of later."
"Toph we were all going to hang out celebrate our last night together. It won't be fun without you."
The earthbender blinked as the vibrations registered to her. Twinkle toes didn't even bother to lie convincingly. Team Avatar would have fun without her and they both knew it. She would bet her Earth Rumble belt the group had forgotten to invite her and only showed up after someone reminded them.
Gee thanks guys next time don't call me and I won't call you.
"You guys had fun before I joined the group and started teaching Aang, and you'll have fun once I leave too."
"But Toph…"
She held up a hand, stopping Sokka midsentence.
"I'll be back for reunions and crap, but right now I really have to go…It's been a hoot guys. I'll miss all of you, and our crazy adventures."
She wasn't lying. Being alone was almost as bad as being imprisoned.
But not quite.
Toph thought adamantly as she shoved Aang out of the way of the door, and waltzed down the hallway, towards the palace courtyard and ultimately towards the palace exit.
1 Hour later.
After leaving Sparky's palace Toph traveled on foot towards the Fire Nation's capital, more than happy with feeling of real dirt underneath her feet instead of the palace alternative. If she traveled through the night, she would reach the capital, and be able to take a boat to Omashu where her training would begin.
She paused as a thought occurred to her. She would be walking all night. All. Freakin. Night.
She was going to be bored.
Toph sighed and slowly removed her meteor bracelet from it's place on her wrist, and practiced making intricate shapes with it.
A dragon
A fire flake
A tiny four eyed three kneed chicken.
Her interpretation of Twinkle Toe's face
A baby moose bear
…..What was that?
Toph paused in the middle of melding a shape that seemed suspiciously inappropriate and listened intently. Hmm. There it was again. It sounded like a cross between a pained grunt and an annoyed growl from something distinctly not human. She twitched as she heard it again this time louder and more menancing
The blind earthbender walked until the sound turned out right feral, and she could feel distinct thrashing and snarling vibrating the earth in front of her.
From the vibrations it was a dog of some kind.
She winced as another round of vibrations shook the clearing
A stupidly large pissed off dog.
Hell maybe even a wolf.
Hmm..What to do? Fido Godzilla Jr. was obviously stuck under a tree, and there was no way to earthbend the tree off of the mutt without hitting him. She could physically shove the tree off, but while shoving the tree she would be within biting range and if for whatever reason the dog actually did manage to bite her…
Well, she was gonna tie her bag around his neck till he choked, strap a saddle onto his back and make him swim her across the ocean to Omashu, while wearing an orange doggy tutu...
Don't freakin judge her.
She took a cautious step forward, and held one hand hovering near the tree.
"Alright you vicious blood sucking mutt. Stay still and-"
She snatched her hand back and felt a glimmer of relief as the Fido's jaws snapped shut with and audible click around the space of air her hand had been a second previously.
…Bloody hell. Her hand just almost got raped by some random dog's fangs. She would have NEVER recovered.
She wasn't even remotely amused any more.
"Alright, I'm done playing."
Quicker than the mutt could follow Toph swung both arms back and slammed them against the tree. The sorry piece of wood had no chance at all as it ricocheted away from them in the opposite direction, skidding down the dirt path into the woods.
Fido Godzilla Jr. was free.
Said canine did not exactly jump for joy though. In fact he was hardly breathing.
Toph took a cautious step forward, and paled when she heard nothing. No warning growl. No threatening snarl, just ragged almost inaudible breathing. Fido was hurting bad.
The earthbender slid to one knee, kneeling over the canine, trying and epically failing to not be concerned. With infinite care she slowly placed one hand on his flank, ignoring how the dog flinched at her touch, with a gentle-ness that was absolutely foreign to her she caressed along the dog's side up to his shoulder, and jerked her hand back, knowing it was slick with blood.
Toph rocked back on her heels.
She wasn't a healer. Katara was a healer. Healers know how to heal things. Kick ass Earthbenders that help save the world don't know how to heal things.
Toph took a breath telling herself to calm the freak down. Rationalize.
Okay. So Fido was bleeding. They were in a forest by themselves. Herbs would help. She didn't know shiz about herbs, and might accidently poison him. Poison is bad. A healer would help. The nearest healer was a night away, and Fido could die while she was gone…Fido is still bleeding. The bleeding needed to stop.
Pressure. She vaguely remembered Sugar Queen wrapping Aangs wounds to put pressure on them which stops the bleeding.
Toph quickly took a spare shirt from her pack and ripped it in half. She laid it across the canine, hearing it whimper and pain, as she held him up and wrapped the cloth around his wound. She fumbled, but continued to weave until the wound was completely covered.
Jeeze. Blind Bandit, and part time nurse. The world was screwed.
Toph yawned. She was exhausted. She had left her home. Again.
This time Twinkle Toes and the gang weren't with her though.
She sat back in the earth made a swift outward motions with her hand creating an earth tent for her and Fido.
Sleepy…it was bed time….
She vaguely remembered a blob of fur encircling her protectively while she slept.
The next morning her fluffy companion had left, leaving her all on her own. She didn't know whether to feel relieved or annoyed that she got abandoned by a dog. Seriously, man's best friend just ditched her. Wtf.
She sighed despairingly Oh well. Not a big deal.
Toph once again slung her sack across her shoulder, determined to reach the Fire Nation's capital and not miss her boat to Omashu.
She was about an hour from the city.
Eventually she was going to get there.
She started walking calmly- striding in between trees, occasionally vaulting over rocks…
Ignoring the pretentious and slightly paranoid voice in her head that was telling her she was being watched by someone or something of the non-friendly variety.
She sidestepped a fallen branch, and began whistling aimlessly.
And she whistled
And whistled.
And whistled.
Eons later, familiar vibrations caught her attention.
And hey look there's the capital.
She smiled as she quickened her pace to reach the heavily guarded gates. If someone was following her they had to leave or risk looking suspicious, when stalking her into the capital.
She arrived at the city gates, and could feel two beefy, and slightly intoxicated guards waiting for her. Wait. What the hell? Slightly intoxicated…? Since when are irresponsible alcoholics' put on guard duty in front of one of the Fire Nation's most prestigious cities. She grew up around dirty politics and under the table deals. Something reeked here, and that paranoid feeling was back again
One of the meaty guards aimed a spear at her.
"We need your papers ma'am."
The papers that branded her as the Runaway, and confirmed she was Bei Fong…
Hmm…How much did she want to get arrested?
Although…
She pulled out another set of papers that identified her as a Fire Nation citizen, and as a noble in Sparky's court. She placed them in the apes hand and tapped her foot impatiently as he took forever and a day to examine them, before slowly glancing at his buzzed partner.
"Is this the one?"
Toph felt a chill run down her spine.
Something was wrong here.
"Yeah, this is the Avatar's teacher."
Yeah. No. It's time to leave.
Toph slammed a foot into the ground and a mound of earth exploded an inch from guard number one's nose. Hopefully the explosion would improve his face, but she wasn't a miracle worker, then without pausing she swept her arm in a wide arc and a pillar of earth slammed guard number two face first into the dirt.
From that point two annoying things happened.
One a dart stabbed her in the neck, and she slowly felt herself losing consciousness.
Two, the voice in her head smugly said;
"I told you something non friendly was after you."
Her world went black.
Several hours later...
"Wakey, Wakey…little earthbender…C'mon little one wake up."
Toph groaned as she entered consciousness.
A broad hand covered her forehead, probably checking her temperature.
"How do you feel kid?"
"I hope you said goodbye to the bastards that KO'd me because after I take a nap I'm breaking all their legs, shoving my hand down their throat and strangling them with their vocal chords."
"I wouldn't talk like that around here. It's liable to get you dead before you can kill anyone."
Toph sat up, and quickly regretted it, feeling light headed and nauseous,
"Where is here?"
The voice got softer. "A camp. A prison camp. They caught you kid, and they really wanna break you."
Toph was no longer tired. She was completely awake, and for the first time two things became very real for her one she was not in her regular clothes, nor were her feet her bare, and two her hands were cuffed, along with her ankles, and heavy steel chains clinked as she moved into an awkward sitting position on her bed of earth.
She said the first coherent thing that came to mind.
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit."
"Hold it Cookie."
"My name's Aerin."
Toph rolled her eyes.
"You're soft spoken and full of useless wisdom like a fortune cookie. Hence the nick name. Deal with it. So Cookie what you're saying is basically that we're slaves in a death camp. Fire Nation anarchists work us to death and beat the crap out of us, or muder us off if they don't like us." Toph held up one cuffed arm. "These restraints stop us from bending, and no one has ever successfully escaped."
Toph felt her shrug nonchalantly, and physically restrained herself from bitch slapping her new companion.
What the hell was wrong with the girl sitting next to her?
They were in a death camp filled with psychopaths. No one could be this calm, but this girl…
"And the other thing is there's a routine here. We work from 5-"
"In the morning?"
The girl, Erin nodded slowly, and Toph died internally. Oh hell no. Five in the morning was too early. She refused.
"We work from 5 in the morning until 10 and night, at all we eat and socialize and then go back to sleep at 12."
Toph blinked, and slowly sank into the dirt. This sucked. Royally sucked. She did not have time to whine about how much it sucked because one aspect of her new unwanted situation was about to present itself that she would hate for the rest of her life.
"Alright you fugly curs line up. We have new merchandise that needs inspection."
Merchandise...
Toph's thoughts echoed darkly.
The earthbender could hear the frantic scrambling as everyone moved to comply. Aerin grabbed her hand pulling her to her feet and dragging Toph in line next to her. Toph could feel people in neat rows in front and behind her. She could hear their raging hearts and feel their short anxious breaths as they were inspected like fucking cattle.
She memorized how the man inspecting them walked, how he breathed. She memorized how the gravel crunched under his feet, because by the time all this was done. She was going to end him.
Aerin must have felt her tense because she hissed next to her.
"Toph don't do anything stupid. Just let him look at you and he'll move on."
Yeah because earthbenders always avoided conflict. Yeah. No. Who did she look like? Twinkle Toes?
The man stopped in front of Erin, and Toph by pure force of will contained the urge to lunge at him. She counted to ten, but math always pissed her off and she could feel herself getting more frustrated. Finally he finished with her companion and he took a step forward, and paused obviously assessing her.
"It's been reported that one Toph Bei Fong helped trained the Avatar." Toph could smell his rancid breath as he stepped closer to her. "It's also been reported that you are Toph."
He took another step forward and in one swift motion grabbed her chin, examining her face like one would a prize stock animal. "I expected more."
In that instant Toph did not think.
Her hand clenched into a fist and she brained him, smiling smugly when she heard him the dirt muttering expletives.
Someone jumped on her, and someone else sucker punched her, in the stomach and once in the jaw, and from there her world exploded into pain.
What felt like years later, she barely felt it as she was unceremoniously dragged along a narrow passage way. She almost ominously heard a wooden door close behind them, and they meandered into an underground passage way.
She had never been this helpless. It was pissing her off.
Everything hurt.
She knew for a fact that at least two ribs were broken and everything else ached.
The men carrying paused, and she heard a large clank and a door swing open and they dumped her face first onto the ground. She bit back a whimper as her body exploded in pain and she cursed blindly at everything. Next time a Pai Sho master told her to do something besides make tea she was telling them to shove it.
"Alright, I'll let you bitches get well acquainted since you two cause the most trouble I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of each other."
Two..someone else was in the cell with her…
Shit what if it was some crazy sadistic lunatic? Toph was kinda vulnerable right now.
The two guards who obviously didn't care about her life ambled off, laughing obnoxiously, and eventually even their voices faded in the dark damp greyness that was their prison, leaving two unknown females alone in the same dreary quiet pit until-
"What exactly is the Avatar's earthbending teacher doing here?"
Toph eye's widened disbelievingly. She knew that unamused drawl.
Oh hell she even knew that annoyed twitch she could feel through the vibrations.
"Azula?"
Wtf!
So there's my cliffhanger. Next chapter is coming so R and R in the meant time.