Snow White Powder Baby

Written for Probending Circuit (Round 2).

Team/Position: Red Sands Rabaroos/Earthbender
Prompts: (Color) White | (Smell) Baby Powder| (Restriction) No dialogue
Bonus: Use of my element
Word Count: 1280

Note: This is written for the prompt that someone finds out they are having a baby. Please enjoy!

She could feel the heartbeat, but she preferred to pretend that she couldn't.

Toph wasn't ready to be a mom. By the spirits, she could hardly take care of herself.

So, when the little pulse started in the pit of her stomach, she pretended it wasn't there and continued on her life as normal.

That being said, just because she pretended the baby wasn't there, didn't mean it wasn't going to grow. And Katara seemed to be so very perceptive. The waterbender never once commented on the awesome muscles she had grown into during her time at the Earth Kingdom Police Academy, but the moment she gained a few pounds, Katara couldn't shut up about it.

The situation became even more annoying when Toph couldn't seem to wear her clothes without struggling to pull them over the bump. She started wearing baggier clothing and hoped that her friends would believe her when she said she was just gaining weight.

Aang was suspicious of it. He knew how hard she trained herself. He knew if she wasn't working, she was earthbending. But, thankfully, he stayed relatively quiet.

Toph wondered if he could feel the heartbeat too.

Ever since Toph had begun to "gain weight," Katara had insisted she help out with her kids. The smell of baby powder was now nauseating. It reminded her of her own neglected childhood and of the nannies who handled the powder instead of her parents. Or the younger cousins when they came to visit. Her mother loved to coo over how pretty the babies' eyes were.

Everything about children was repulsive. They had grimy hands. They didn't know when to shut up or what personal space was. It takes them way too long to grow up. Toph had a hard enough time waiting for herself to grow up, how was she supposed to care for another living being for the twenty years it took to get grown up?

Toph was gaining too much weight. She only had so many hoodies. Republic City didn't get that cold.

About five months after Toph first felt that heartbeat and immediately decided it didn't exist, Katara decided to make it finally exist.

The waterbender had absolutely no sense of privacy, almost like a child herself, and had decided to just mosey on in to Toph's room in the middle of her changing. Toph had felt her coming, but assumed that she would knock on the door like a normal seeing being. She could only guess that Katara had immediately focused on the bump of her belly. Toph tried to convince her that it was weight and then that it was nothing when it became unbelievable, but there was no way to get rid of that awful joyful tone to her voice.

She went on and on about everything to buy: the clothes, the toys, the diapers, the Braille parenting books, the baby powder. Even when Toph bent a wall between the two of them, her motherly voice still found its way to her.

As far as Toph was concerned, there was no baby coming. She was not with child. She was just hungry, nauseous, hormonal, and rapidly gaining weight. If that was pregnancy, then… well, the point was Toph wasn't having a kid anytime soon.

This idea became harder and harder to believe once Katara told their friends about the news. The boys started to treat her like she was a doll. Katara and Suki kept trying to pass on their knowledge about kids because obviously she needed it. Her parents got wind of the news just from gossip around the Earth Kingdom which led to them staying in her apartment until she got sick of their complaining and told them to go home (which only took a week).

The situation started to become incredibly stressful for Toph because it had become abundantly clear that there was a child coming, but it still didn't feel like it was her child coming. This giant lump on her stomach may as well have been a backpack she was wearing for nine months. That little beating was just clock she had left in it.

Toph wasn't ready to be a mother. And she wasn't sure if she ever would be. So, there was no snow white baby coming out of her.

That's what Katara told her (it was always Katara). She had said that considering who the baby's mother and father were, the baby would have snow white skin. Toph didn't really know what that looked like, but it sounded pretty the way she said it.

And Toph hated herself for the moment that she thought about holding that tiny snow white powder-covered baby.

The next few months were a whirlwind of emotion. Despite her reluctance, Toph found herself thinking about the baby. Her work performance dipped at an exponential rate and her superior had forced her to take time off until she wasn't so fat.

Then, she was forced to be around it 24/7. There wasn't anything in the world to keep herself from feeling the heartbeat if she was sitting home alone. Her unrelenting curiosity and boredom had led her to pick up those Braille books Katara had given her. And she wandered into the room Aang and Sokka had fixed up for the baby, feeling the cutouts of animals and the crib waiting for a 'bundle of joy.'

She started dreaming of her- no, dreaming of it. It was always a girl when she held it in her arms. But Toph could not bring herself to believe it was coming. She was as fat as a woman who was nine-months pregnant, and yet this talk and gossip of a baby were still not about hers.

Fortunately, as Toph would learn later, it's very hard to stop a baby from coming. She was lucky she was with Katara when her water broke. The waterbender knew exactly what to do while Toph was busy feeling how fast the heartbeats in her chest and stomach were.

Katara called for the midwife as Toph lay on her bed, not entirely sure what was happening. Was she sick? Was she dying? She wasn't sure.

Of course, she wasn't stupid. This notorious baby was coming, but Toph didn't want it to have to be coming from her.

Aang arrived soon, panting almost as much as Toph, who was pretty sure she was having a panic attack. The rest of her friends wouldn't be able to make it to Republic City for another few days.

There was no going back now, Toph knew. She was most terrified, not of raising that baby, but how she would feel holding it, she realized. She didn't want to reject it, as her mother had when Poppy had learned she was blind.

This baby was real. Her baby was real. Toph wanted to love her more than anything. She wanted to hold her and kiss her and put her to bed in that damn crib and use baby powder to keep her snow-white skin perfect for the world to one day see.

Toph was going to have a baby.

…

Katara told her she had Toph's green eyes and how they were looking at everything. Aang handed her the baby, telling her how beautiful she was. Toph reached out, taking this delicate, warm doll from him. Her fingers shook as she traced the baby's features, letting that heartbeat that was just inside her help her see her better.

Her chest began to swell with love and pride. This was her baby. And she loved her!

Toph shed a tear as she hugged the child to her chest.

She loved her.