Writer's Note: This is my first real attempt at Zuko/Toph, written as a request for Zephyras13, so it is a little stumbly and probably could be better...but it's a first, at least. Of course there's a bit of Maiko in it, but I wanted this to have a plausible angle, and I just couldn't see Mai and Zuko suddenly breaking up shortly after the finale. So, yeah, I gave them a few years, and I gave Mai a good reason for leaving, in my opinion, which doesn't break with canon. So, as a result, this fic. Uh, enjoy?

It wasn't as if finding Toph in the Fire Nation was a huge surprise,. Everyone knew how much she loved it there; it was the place with the most adventure and freedom, a place she was, even after so many years, still exploring. It was also the place that, she admitted, she had done the most growing-up, and as a result she would always have a soft spot for the place.

It also didn't hurt that, over the years, her friendship with Iroh had gotten stronger and stronger. They were kindred spirits, really, almost like foils to eachother without losing a sense of camaraderie that they had gained all of those years ago. She would spend hours in his teashop, in the apartment above, sitting across from Iroh and just listening to his stories. Thus it was no surprise when, once Zuko asked Iroh to assist him for a while with his new duties, that Toph also followed.

Despite their shaky start, Toph had to admit that she had always liked Zuko. From the moment she felt his strange presence through the earth below her feet, she was intrigued by him - he seemed so cautious, so unsure, and yet so desperate to prove himself.

It was never too hard to smuggle herself into the Palace, either. All she had to do was dress as fancy as possible and drop her name, and she was in. She kept up her appearance until the doors shut and she was alone with him, and then she just let it all out and was herself.

The first time she had shown up to the Palace in aristocratic gear had seriously traumatised Zuko. He thought he was staring at a complete stranger, so unlike the crass and dirty tomboy he had known. She was all dressed up and looking like a noble, and when she spoke, it was with the same clipped tones and lyrical words that he had been raised with. It was like being in some kind of play about alternate realities.

But then, once they were alone, she fluffed out her bangs, stuck a finger up her nose, and said in her normal voice, "So, Fire Lord Fancypants, how's the wife? Getting your mack on?"

Which had, back then, made him wince. It was early in his marriage with Mai, one that, for a while, seemed to be working just fine. But eventually, they started falling into bad patterns, and Mai, despite her background, was becoming restless and impatient with him. He loved her, he really did, and knew she loved him, but there was something missing, something wrong, and for the life of him, he had always thought he had had it figured out, that Mai and him were forever.

But people change. He was changing. So was she. And when she asked that they divorced, that she move on and find her own way, alone and without just being "Fire Lord Zuko's wife", he was hurt, but he agreed. She wasn't happy, and it was true: her identity was blurred, and she needed to reassert it. Some time away would be best. And she was always welcome in the Palace, no matter what.

That had been two years ago. Mai was always a devout writer when it came to letters, and two years away had done nothing to cease this. It was enough to learn that she was happy alone, roaming the world, shaking free of politics and nobility, and being, above all, a woman of her own name.

It hurt still, but it was getting better with time. And he wasn't alone.

The Eerie Toph was in the Palace again.

Granted, she had been invited, and it was a very special occasion, so everyone was dressed to the nines and on their best behaviour (even Sokka had shaved a little bit before showing up, although his attempt at a beard was laughable). It was five years to the day that Zuko and Aang had declared peace in the world, and it was a joyous reunion if anything. Everyone that Zuko had met on his journey was invited, and Aang also added to the list of people to show up. This resulted in a strange cocktail of average merchants to high and mighty nobles. It was awkward at first, but eventually everyone seemed to find a stride they enjoyed, and it got better.

Eerie Toph was only eerie when she was surrounded by nobles, which was, given her name, often. Despite the fact that she had avoided her home for the better part of five years, people were still eager to learn the gossip from her home estate. Zuko found this rich; after all, five years ago these same nobles didn't even know she had existed.

He was seated at the head of the table, alone. Normally lack of a warm body beside him filled him with longing and melancholy, but the atmosphere was too jovial to pine on it.

For starters, Aang was having too much fun showing off his bending to anyone who would watch. Katara had told Zuko privately a few years ago that Aang tended to do this whenever he felt overwhelmed or desperate for acceptance. Watching his dear friend dancing around the table and acting pretty much like a demented turtle-duck forced him to agree with this. But then Katara would know; she was, after all, his wife.

And then there was Suki and Sokka, who were in their own little bubble of arguing, unaware that their section of the room was absolutely smitten by how they fought. While Suki was, without her Kyoshi make-up, average at best, Sokka was - in both Water Tribe and outside of it - a rather attractive male. When the courts of the Fire Nation had met the two, there was much speculation about them, mostly having to do with Sokka's fidelity and Suki's less-than-stellar looks. However, as the couple began to visit more and more, it was agreed that it didn't matter: they were too much fun to watch for any of it to matter.

For starters, it was about Sokka's "beard": Sokka defended it as his right to be a man and have a warm face, and Suki thought it made him look like he had burrs stuck to his face. It was a harshly-worded and very scathing argument, but you would hardly know it just by watching them: Both wore smiles on their faces and were leaning in close to eachother, despite the insults that flew from between their lips. Suki's eyes were narrowed, but Sokka's were wide and flashing. Their voices varied from silky to snarky, but it didn't make it any less fun to watch. And it was fun. Even for Zuko, who was used to it.

What none of these people saw was that despite the arguing, there was still a deeper love in the words, a sense of amusement laced in the tone of voice. It was a real fight, but it was also a game. It was verbal sparring. Their relationship was really just one ongoing spar, and it was what made them both so compatible.

And then, there was Toph.

She stood surrounded by a sea of nobles, her face a perfect mask of sincerity in reply to whatever it was that was being said. Although from this angle, Zuko could barely see her - her height had only increased a bit over the years - he knew that she looked just as fake as the ones surrounding her. It was rather nauseating to watch, really, these people who were so eager for gossip and information about Toph's family. What they didn't seem to realise was that she hadn't seen her family in over five years, and it was less than that amount that the world had known she had even existed. Almost ironic, really.

Her hair, now incredibly short (thanks to her own ill-fated idea of trying to style her hair, only to get it so tangled that Katara had to cut it all off - a blessing, since now she preferred it that way), was styled flat to her head and dressed with a very pretty hairband. She wore long, pretty robes and had her face done in perfect, pretty make-up. It would have been fine to see her that way if it wasn't for the fact that she was absolutely fake in addition to it.

Zuko realised that he wished the nobles would get lost, just so that the real Toph, the one with dirty feet and a dirtier mouth, with flyaway hair sticking up around her head and a finger up her nose or in her ear, would come back. He wondered idly why she even bothered, after all of these years. Didn't anyone really realise who she was? Why did she bother keeping up the charade?

It bothered him. It made him moody. And it marred what should have been a fun evening for him.

An elbow nudged him in the ribs, and he tore his eyes away to find his uncle at his side, holding out a cup of delicious-smelling tea. He took it wordlessly, smelling it deeply without drinking any of it.

"I would hate to be nosy, nephew, but--" Iroh began, sitting down at his side.

Zuko blurted it out before he had gotten comfortable. "Toph is acting fake again."

Iroh raised his eyebrows, then looked into his own cup of tea. "Indeed," he agreed.

Zuko narrowed his eyes, glaring into the teacup and aiming his glare at the dredges at the bottom. "I hate it."

"Oh? And why do you hate it, Zuko?" Iroh wondered, his voice almost too casual.

"Because it's fake. And it's not the real her." He sighed and took a sip, savouring the nice flavour before going on. "I'm just moody. Forgive me."

"You are prone to moodiness, Zuko, and it's not something I would change in you," his uncle replied with a smile, which made him wrinkle his nose. "However, this is a day of celebration. You should relax, and not let things bother you so much. She is a woman now, after all, and she can make her own choices. If she chooses to be a noble, there is nothing you can do to change that."

Zuko looked up, at Toph, for just a moment, before looking back down. He was silent.

Toph was having a blast.

While her mouth went on autopilot, supplying courtesies and verbal fodder she had known all of her life, her mind was as sharp as ever and was picking up on the most subtle of nuances involving the people around her.

The mayor of one of the cities outside the capitol was drinking again. His breath reeked, and his heart staggered a little.

One of the women from the highest ring in Ba Sing Se was having an affair. She smelt like two different men.

Another woman's breathing was laboured: she was in digestive pain but was too eager for gossip to see to such a simple necessity.

And that was only a grain of it all.

It made her laugh inside, really. Sure, she had to get dressed up and wear make-up and whatever, and she had to pretend to be someone she wasn't and would rather die than become, but the pay-off was way too much fun to fret about it for too long.

It was only when the babbles around her stuttered to a halt and she sensed a very familiar heartbeat that her mask slipped a little and she had to bite back a crass comment.

"Can I have a word with you?" Zuko's voice was annoyed, and his heartbeat was quick. She had to struggle not to roll her eyes, but she nodded, giving her formal regards and following him outside of the banquet hall.

Once her feet touched new ground and it was only them, she reached up and dug a finger in her ear, groaning in relief: she had had a severely wretched itch in that ear for over an hour.

Zuko sighed, and she stopped, for only a second, before continuing, now just enjoying the feel of her finger in her ear. "What's up, Zuko?" she wondered, her voice a little distracted. "Someone try to make you laugh tonight and it pissed you off?"

Zuko made a face, although of course she couldn't see it. She must have sensed something, because she laughed, her familiar - although deeper - unabashed laugh. "Just spill it, will you? Sometimes you're such a chick when it comes to things like this. Lemme guess..." And here she held her hands out in front of her, a wry grin on her face. "I should already know what I did, right? So you're not gonna tell me?"

"How can you just stand there making fun of me when you were the one who was a complete caricature of yourself in there?!" he snapped. "How can you stand it, just standing there with those...those idiots, and not want to reach out and smack them all?"

Toph tilted her head to one side, her unfocused eyes blinking slowly. "It's funny, that's why," she replied. "Sounds to me like someone is projecting."

Zuko blinked, his mouth open. When he spoke, his voice was a little too high for his liking. "I'm not projecting!" he protested. "You asked me if I was pissed off, and I am! At you!"

Toph waved her hands in the air, her face full of mockery. "Ooo, the Fire Lord is mad at me! I'm in trouble now!"

"Toph--!"

"Zuko," her voice was sharp, and it stopped him. "Relax, okay? It's funny - these people have nothing better to do than to suck up to other nobles." She smiled, and while it was real, he could see that it was also bittersweet. "They tell me the stupidest shit, without even realising that, given the chance, I would totally use it against them."

Zuko sighed, putting his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "If you're going to be here alot, you should at least act like yourself," he protested. "People should know the real you."

"Wouldn't that embarrass you?"

He jerked his head up, eyes wide. Her face was solemn and serious. "Wouldn't it? I mean, come on; I'm not exactly the poster-child for orthodox noble, here."

Zuko barked out a laugh, one that made her jump. He threw out his hands. "And you think I am? I may have the background, but I have no idea what the hell I'm doing! I haven't had any idea for five years! And now I see you acting like a...whatever those things that the Mechanist makes, those things made of gears..."

"Automaton," Toph muttered.

"Yes, one of those, and I just feel like, everyone else knows what they're doing except me, and shouldn't I, out of us all, know?"

Toph leaned against the wall behind her, her arms crossed. "You do know," she answered, making him freeze. "You do. You're maintaining the peace, and you're doing a damned good job. You know what else it is that I hear when I'm sucking up to those morons? I'm hearing about what a great job you're doing, even though the first year and a half was a little stumbling." She smiled. "Stop being such a baby, Fuss Lord. You're doing fine."

Zuko stared, utterly speechless. It was so insightful, and so utterly the thing he needed to hear, and yet...it was coming from Toph, as unlikely a source as anyone.

Toph smirked. She held out her elbow. "Come on," she commanded. "If we leave Twinkletoes alone for too long, the entire room is going to be blown away."

Feeling something warm bloom deep within his chest - almost like he had felt before Mai left - he smiled, looping his arm through hers.

"Escort me, Fire Lord Zuko," she finished, her voice clipped once more. "I do need help around, after all. I am blind."

He chuckled, and did so, thinking, She's the least blind person I've ever met...