Author's Note: Cursing because it's Toph.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Avatar universe.
Stupid-ass Triads. Stupid-ass tourists who didn't have the sense the spirits gave a pigeon-rat and thought it would be fun to wander into obviously dangerous parts of the city despite warnings. Stupid-ass kids who, ditching school, had nothing better to do than vandalize and steal.
And stupid-ass unnatural autumn heatwave which made everyone irritable and sent the crime rate soaring.
Toph Beifong trudged through the door of her townhouse well after nine o'clock, having left it a little after five that morning.
"Lin?" she called, plodding into the living room.
"I'm in the kitchen, Mom," answered her daughter. Pausing a moment to bend her armor onto its stand, Toph headed into the kitchen. She rolled her shoulders to ease the ache from wearing nearly 30 pounds of steel. Even with her metalbending, the weight took its toll.
"Hey kid," she said, finding her thirteen-year-old at the kitchen table. Lin marked her place in her textbook, stood, and accepted Toph's hug. Toph suddenly realized Lin's recent growth spurt had made them the same height. "How was school? You get something to eat?"
"School was fine. I picked up noodles on the way home from the dojo. There's some left over in the icebox if you're hungry?" Lin replied, not moving from her mom's arms.
"Naw...already had dinner." Toph released Lin. She yawned, eyelids drooping. "I'm pretty tired, you need anything before I go fall into bed?"
"No, I'm good. You go on."
"Okay - don't stay up much longer."
"I won't, just a few more pages," said Lin.
Toph nodded, caught Lin in a brief one-armed hug, and said, "Night, badgermole."
"Goodnight, mom."
Leaving the kitchen, Toph halted by her armor. She fingered it, sensing dirt and grime and small imperfections throughout. It needed cleaning.
Tomorrow morning, she promised. I'll get up early and do it. Pushing the concern from her mind, she trudged to her bedroom. Her shower and beckoned.
The next morning, the clock on her bedside rang out the alarm. Groaning, Toph rolled over and reached for it. She felt the hands' position and cursed, "Fuck. Forgot to change the alarm. Fuck."
She hurried through her morning routine, hoping she could squeeze in some attention for her armor.
Dressed, she hustled into the living room and to her armor. However, upon touching it, she cocked her head.
"Huh?" Checking it carefully, Toph confirmed her initial impression: the armor remained polished and gunk free. She muttered, "Must have been more tired than I thought."
"Morning, Mom," said Lin, her footsteps pattering down the hallway, past Toph, and into the kitchen. With a shrug, Toph followed her.
"Good morning, what do you want for breakfast?" she asked.
"Toast and scrambled eggs, with papaya juice, please," Lin replied.
"Sounds good to me - you get us juice and I'll start on the eggs."
The doorbell rang as Toph was gobbling up the last of her eggs. Answering it, she found an one of her officers, hat in hand and carriage waiting.
She returned to the kitchen. "Lin, I have to go."
"Yeah, I know." Trailing Toph into the living room, Lin waited until her mother had donned her armor before giving her a hug. "Have a good day, Mom."
"Not looking likely - but thanks. Love you," said Toph.
"Love you too." Lin watched her mother sally forth to defend Republic City. Then she finished her breakfast, washed the dishes, collected her bookbag, and started for school.
...
The heat wave ended two days later; the crime wave did not. Viper Triad assassinated several of Steel Hawk's foot soldiers and a middle-level boss. Viper retailed, leaving their marked kills on the border between their two territories. Within a week, full-scale war erupted, threatening to spread and enflame the entire underbelly of Republic City.
Departing the house before dawn and returning after dark, Toph lived in a state of exhaustion. Oftentimes, she would collapse into bed as soon as she changed out of uniform. Despite the best of intentions, she rarely managed to spend more than a half-hour with Lin. Her armor's care fell by the wayside too.
Yet, each morning, her armor materialized clean, polished, and oiled. In the rare moment of quiet, Toph would realize this and begin wondering. However, given the chaos whirling around her, this wondering was never allowed to last long enough for Toph to arrive at any conclusion. Other considerations, such as Officer Feng who had been hospitalized or the body of a member of a currently non-combatant Triad which had washed up and whose murder needed to be solved now otherwise his Triad would join the fray, pushed the minor mystery of her armor from her mind.
Three weeks later, Toph arrested the leaders of Viper and Steel Hawk along with a multitude of their underlings. As their cell doors slammed shut, she declared, "That's it! I'm out of here!"
Collecting Lin from school, and Sokka from City Hall, she insisted upon a celebratory dinner at her favorite restaurant. Afterwards, once at home, she spent an hour working with Lin on her metalbending. As she boasted to her men, Lin's control of metal outstripped anyone's except her own. Privately, she admitted Lin would probably surpass her; her daughter already possessed precision and deftness Toph hadn't mastered until her twenties.
When both Beifongs retired to bed, Toph eagerly anticipated catching up on missed sleep. She changed into sleepwear, settled into bed, and had just started to slide into sleep when her brain popped out a question.
What was going on with her armor?
Jerking upright, Toph decided to stay awake and see what happened. With her feet planted on the tile floor, she could watch the entire house and learn how her armor was being maintained. A suspicion nudged at her, reinforced when footsteps traveled from Lin's bedroom to her armor's stand in the living room.
Toph waited until Lin had removed a piece of the armor, a greave by the weight, and seated herself on the floor with it in her lap. Then, she tugged on a robe and crept to the living room, earthbending to keep her steps silent.
"Lin, what are you doing?" she asked. A sniff brought the acrid odor of the polish and cleaning solutions to her nostrils.
"Mom!" Lin's heartbeat jumped, but resumed a normal tempo quickly. She didn't intend to lie nor did she fear Toph's disapproval. "I was cleaning your armor."
"I know that - which is good because it means I'm not going mad when it keeps turning up in perfect condition in the morning and I know it wasn't that way the night before - so I guess what I'm really asking is why?"
Lin answered, "You - and Uncle Sokka - always said everything counts in a fight, that it only takes one little mistake, one tiny opening and, if your weapons or armor aren't maintained, they could give your enemies a weakness to exploit. So you always have to make sure your weapons and your armor are well-maintained."
"Not new information, kiddo, and it doesn't explain why you've been doing this for the past - what has it been - month? When you should have been asleep?" Toph pressed Lin. "It's my armor, it's my responsibility. Not yours. If you hadn't done this, I would have found the time."
"But I can do this!" Lin blurted out, her voice breaking. "I can't - I'm too young - I'm not good enough yet - I can't help you - I can't help you catch criminals - I can't fight with you - I can't do anything else - but I can do this."
Frozen, Toph heard Lin swallow down a sob. Her daughter continued, "I know you're tired and when you're tired, you make more mistakes and you can't react as fast. I've watched you clean and polish and oil your armor a hundred times, and I do it for my Kyoshi fans and katana so I thought - I thought - "
"You thought, if you kept my armor in peak condition, I wouldn't have to do it and I'd get more rest so I wouldn't make mistakes and still not have to worry about my armor failing me - failing me maybe right when I needed it the most?" hypothesized Toph, gently.
In the span of Lin's nod and low "Yes", Toph crossed the distance between them and dropped to her knees beside Lin. Throwing her arms around Lin, Toph clutched her daughter to her. Lin buried her head in Toph's shoulder. She was trembling and breathing hard, obviously on the verge of crying. Toph stroked her hair to try to soothe her.
"I want you to know that I'm very grateful for what you've done and how very much it means to me," she murmured into Lin's ear. "But, little badgermole, you do a hell of a lot for me by just existing. Don't ever think you don't. Having you, having the bestest daughter in the whole world, makes me a better Chief - makes me want to keep this city safe because I want you to be safe. But it also makes me stop and think and be more careful because I know you're waiting for me to come home and I can't disappoint you; I can't let you grow up without me because I know you're going to keep getting more and more amazing and I have to be there to see it and brag to everyone that you're my daughter."
Closing her eyes, Toph listened to Lin's heartbeat as Lin's tears soaked into her robe. She switched to rubbing circles on Lin's back as her daughter gradually calmed.
When Lin stopped sniffling, Toph asked, "Okay? You got it?"
"I got it," said Lin, lifting her head from Toph's shoulder. Although she didn't break their embrace, she pulled back a bit. Toph laid her right hand on the side of Lin's face, tracing Lin's cheekbone with her thumb.
"Good." Toph smiled and felt Lin smile too.
"I still want to do this," declared Lin, "Help with your armor."
"How about we do it together?" Toph suggested.
"Together," agreed Lin.
Between the two of them, they soon had the armor shined to mirror brightness with every hinge and overlap lubricated to move effortlessly.
"Looks great, kid," Toph said. She gave Lin a light push towards the hallway. "Now, off to bed with you."
"Yes, mom." Lin headed for her room. Standing in front of her armor, Toph ran her hands over it. The steel hummed merrily in her senses. Grinning, Toph set course for her own bed.
Along the way, she halted at Lin's door and cracked it open.
"I love you, badgermole."
"Love you too, Mom," came Lin's drowsy response. Toph closed the door and went on to her room.
As she climbed into bed and snuggled down into the blankets, Toph mumbled, "Bestest daughter ever."