Okay wow you guys, the Beifong family dynamic will be the ultimate end of me. It's just…Lin, baby, you don't need the drama. I love her so much you guys. Suyin is shady in my opinion, and just…ugh, I'm still undecided about her honestly.
At the ripe old age of four, Lin felt a comforting affinity with the weather. Today, it just so happened to be storming, and the rain was coming down in sheets and falling hard on the roof of her house. Thunder rumbled and cracked, and sometimes shook the house. The sound was soothing to her ears as she closed her eyes and imagined all the fat raindrops splattering against her house. With every clap of thunder, she felt some of her frustration ease.
A tiny cry punched a hole in her serenity.
Lin narrowed her steely green gaze on her newborn sister cradled delicately in her mother's arms. Lighting flashed and sent shadows across the room, and then fierce thunder clapped across the sky. Suyin began to cry out even louder.
"She makes too much noise." Lin barked as she crossed her arms across her chest. Toph didn't look up from comforting her newborn to respond to her eldest child, but looking at things was never a priority in her case.
"You made a lot of noise, too."
Toph heard Lin huff. She smiled softly for a moment, letting the semantics of a four year-old and the excitement of a new baby get to her, and then felt the smile vanish when she heard Lin sniffle. Toph knew Lin would have a hard time adjusting to a new baby, being that she had been the center of Toph's world for so long, and Toph had tried earnestly to warm Lin up to the idea of being a big sister. She had shipped Lin over to Air Temple Island multiple times to talk with Kya about how fun it could be to be a big sister, but Bumi and Tenzin always managed to irritate their sister and spoil the sales pitch. After that plan had failed, Toph felt a more hands on approach would be more appropriate, but all the practice babies she had bent for Lin to play with ended up broken or in the pond.
"Lin, honey…" Toph's voice cracked from fatigue and anguish as she reached out with her free hand for Lin. It was hard to see things on the bed, and it took her a bit of groping before she felt her daughter's soft hair. She ran her fingers through the silky locks and patted Lin's cheek, which was streaked with hot tears. Toph swallowed the lump in her throat.
"Come here."
Toph patted the spot on the bed next to her and smiled in Lin's direction. The four year-old didn't move. Toph patted the spot once more, like she was coaxing a polar bear-dog. Lin sat like a statue. Lightning flooded in through the window once more and mere seconds later the loudest clap of thunder resonated through the house, making Lin jolt up in surprise. Fed up, Toph reached over, grabbed Lin at her little waist, and pulled Lin in to her side.
"No," Lin whined as she pushed tiny hands against her mother's body. The whine dissolved in to tears when Lin realized her mother had a vice grip around her waist, and that she wouldn't be going anywhere. Lin tried to turn away from Toph and cry in to the pillows and blankets, but Toph kept rolling her over and back in to her side. From where this patience sprung, Toph had no clue, but she let this process continue until Lin's efforts dwindled and she finally submitted grumpily against her mother's lap. The storm continued to crash outside.
Toph put her free hand on Lin's back and felt her heartbeat in the palm of her hand. With her other hand, she comforted the still cranky Suyin.
"Lin, can you do me a favor?"
Toph felt Lin squirm against her, most likely weighing her options.
"What?" Came Lin's muffled response.
"Tell me what the baby looks like."
Lin pulled a face and sat up. From her spot on Toph's right side, Lin looked down at her sister lying gently against Toph's chest. Her skin wasn't as pink as it was when she was first born, and was now evening out in to a tone a bit darker than Lin's. Her hair was dark, fine, and wispy, and it laid flat on her head. Her eyelashes were long and dark, and her eyes were barely open but they looked green. Lin frowned at their resemblances.
"Well?" Toph asked after a minute.
"She's ugly."
Toph laughed heartily. "She must look just like you, then."
"Hey!"
Lin's indignation boiled in her belly and set fire to her cheeks. She turned away from her mother and sister and started to scoot off the bed. Toph reached out, now with a more accurate sense of where Lin was, and pulled her back over.
"I don't think so little lady, Beifongs don't run away." Toph declared as she tucked Lin back against her side, and resumed her iron grip on the four year-old. Lin fought her harder this time, now with her anger and frustration fueling her like the full moon did a blood bender. Lin kicked her legs, and used her arms to push away, and kicked again and pulled against the bed. Even after giving birth, Toph could still reign in little Lin with remarkable ease. But the patience she had earlier vanished as quickly as it appeared.
"Lin, stop being ridiculous!"
"No! I don't like her; I don't want her! I want her to go away!" Lin began to cry again as she continued her escape efforts in vain.
"You're gonna forget about me!"
Toph gasped and lost all strength in her grip. Lin wrestled free and fled to the edge of the bed where she knew her mother couldn't reach her. She looked back at her mother with guilt in her expression and tears in her eyes, and saw the same look taking hold of her mother's face. Toph's shoulders drooped and she lowered her head back down to her newborn. Emotions she hadn't felt in years surfaced faster than tidal waves; her own childhood of overprotective neglect and loneliness seeped back in to her bones. She bit her lip, knowing that Lin was feeling the same way. Toph had sworn she would never let Lin experience anything like what she had, but she had already stomped on that promise in ignorance.
"Lin, please come back to me."
"No! I don't want to sit next to you. I don't want to sit next to the baby."
Toph felt her eyes burn with tears.
"Why do you think I'm going to forget you?" Toph asked quietly.
"Because you only care about her now."
"That's not true, Lin."
"Yes! When you started getting fat, you stopped spending time with me."
Fat. That was endearing.
"I had to get ready for Su. Babies are a lot of work Lin, I did the same thing when I was fat with you."
Lin was quiet.
"I did a lot of the same things with you. I had to focus on getting ready for you, I had to make your room and make sure everything was ready for when you came. You needed a lot of special attention because you were just a tiny baby, and now I have to do the same thing for your sister."
"I wish this was easier to explain," Toph sighed and ran her hand through her bangs. "You're still important to me, Lin, you always will be. But I have to give Su different kinds of attention then what I give you, that's just what you do for babies."
"Having babies sounds like a dumb idea." Lin quipped quietly. Toph snorted violently and tried to keep her laughing from waking Suyin.
"Because it is a dumb idea, kid! It's the dumbest idea in the world," Toph bolstered jovially. "But here I am with two of you, and I don't regret a thing."
Lin's eyes widened at her mother's sudden mood swing and she watched Toph pensively.
"You're happy being dumb?"
Toph grinned from ear to ear.
"Yup."
"But that's…" Lin struggled with her words. "That's dumb."
"Sometimes dumb things make people happy, kid, you'll find out when you're older. But right now, I just want you to know that you're not going to be tossed aside."
Toph patted the spot next to her once more.
With the atmosphere a little lighter, Lin hesitated, then crawled back over to her mother's side. Suyin began to stir. Toph rubbed Lin's back and held her little arm.
"Hold your arms out.
"Why?"
"Because I said so."
Toph began to move Suyin to Lin's arms. Realizing what she was about to receive, Lin shook her head.
"Uh-uh," She grunted and tucked her hands away. Toph arched a brow.
"What is your name?" Toph barked authoritatively.
"Lin…"
"Lin what?"
"Lin Beifong."
"So long as you live and breathe, and so long as my blood runs through your veins, you will always be a Beifong. Beifongs never quit, and they never run away, we always stick together."
Lin's cheeks turned red. She knew what her mother was getting at.
"Hold your arms out."
Lin did as she was told, and readied herself for what was to come. Her mother gently placed Suyin in Lin's arms, and kept her hands on the baby in the places little Lin's couldn't support. Her sister was tiny and warm, Lin noticed, as her hands held firm. The baby smelled powdery and clean, and her skin was incredibly soft. Lin stared at Suyin tentatively, still undecided.
Toph watched with one foot on the floor as her daughters introduced themselves. She smiled when a rough delineation of Lin's face came in to focus, and how her cranky visage had smoothed out to something more neutral. Toph was a realist: she didn't expect a miracle sisterhood to develop overnight, and she knew she would have to be more proactive in dealing with Lin. But right now, as the thunder began to roll off in to the distance, Toph knew, the two just needed some time.
The only thing that brings me comfort about Toph having two kids is that she must have gotten some serious booty, like she was laying those guys out. That makes me proud.