It's been awhile. Anyway. This story went in a direction I hadn't really intended and I was surprised to find myself writing angst. I don't think it's entirely depressing, but whatever. Enjoy!
I, of course, have no right to Avatar: The Last Airbender or Legend of Korra.
Dusk had long since passed, leaving the residents and guests of Air Temple Island in darkness broken only by the torches dotting the island. Katara and Suki maintained their vigil in the courtyard, despite having been standing in the wind and chill for the three hours that had followed dinner. The tiniest bit of fear had nagged at them when no one had returned before dinner as those who were missing had assured them they would not be long. True worry had settled in the hour after dinner, there still being no sign of those who the women were watching for so diligently. In the third hour, Katara and Suki were engulfed in a panic that had been wrought by their own thoughts, their unbroken watch, and a disturbing radio broadcast about violence having broken out in the courthouse, where their loved ones were supposed to be.
What was most frightening was how little informative the broadcast was, giving no time of the event or if there had been injuries. The source of the violence was also unknown, but Katara and Suki easily deduced the root cause. Despite their best efforts, their immense anxiety was poorly disguised from the children. After all, Kya and her cousins were teenagers and Bumi was just on the precipice. Tenzin and Lin, though quite a bit younger, were not fooled either. The gravity of the situation, however, was lost on them. They merely understood that something was wrong. Nonetheless, no one was left untouched by worry.
Really, Katara and Suki should have shuffled the children off to bed, but they couldn't find the heart to with the fear shimmering in the eyes of the eldest and that same fear reflected in the youngest. So they all stood in the courtyard, their eyes never leaving the sky for long. Their prayers to the spirits were answered on the latter of end of the third hour as a shape could be observed approaching. Appa was revealed as he landed, the torches illuminating his distinctive markings and giving sharp edges to the Avatar who held the reins.
Everyone raced to the sky bison, but no one spoke, waiting in apprehension. Three had left the island that morning and yet only Aang could be seen, the saddle appearing to be empty. The air bender moved slowly and not to dismount, much to everyone's surprise, but to the saddle. In a moment, it was made clear that the saddle was not empty as Aang rose from the saddle, an armored form in his arms. He hopped gracefully to the ground as all those gathered had seen countless times before, but staggered. He was nowhere near to falling, but the action spoke to his family and friends as if he had.
As Aang drew closer, the form in his arms was recognized, eliciting gasps from everyone save a little girl who cried out instead. "Momma!" Seven year old Lin rushed forward, but was held back a moment later by Kya. Aang shot his "niece" a look of sympathy before speaking quietly to his wife and sister-in-law. Whatever he had to say did not last long as he was soon striding away towards the dormitories while Katara and Suki walked in the opposite direction, clambering up on Appa. Lin raced after the Avatar as her eldest "cousins" helped the struggling matriarchs lift Sokka from the saddle.
Lin found Aang in the first unclaimed bedroom, helping her mother remove her metal armor. He was doing most of the work while Toph struggled to sit up and gave quiet instructions. Lin rushed in, but before Aang could find the energy to tell her to leave, she had her mother in only her tunic and the metal breastplate in her arms. Aang smiled weakly and helped Lin remove the rest of Toph's uniform. By the time they were finished, Katara had found them, carrying several skins of water.
"Lin, why don't you…" Katara was cut off by a rasp from Toph.
"She can stay." Katara had half a mind to argue with the earth bender, but refrained due to her friend's condition. She pulled the water from the first skin and set to work, laying her hands upon Toph's abdomen beneath her tunic. Lin watched her "aunt" intently, the words flying between Katara and Aang completely lost on her as she watched the water bender work. She was fascinated and revolted by the way the veins in her mother's arms and neck were raised against the pale skin.
Her mother's soft cries of pain struck Lin very hard. She had never seen her mother in such a way. She was always so strong, like the element she bent to her will. Lin was in no way an unintelligent child, but the trauma that her mother had been through was lost on her. She understood that she was injured and badly at that, but nothing much further than that. She was scared though, scared out of her mind to see her mother so weak. It pained her deeply to see her mother in such obvious distress, a reaction that was very much beyond her years.
Lin spent quite a while just standing at her mother's side, but eventually, the desire to be closer overwhelmed her and she climbed on to the bed as carefully as possible after checking with Katara that it wouldn't cause her mother harm. Katara was only about half way through healing the earth bender. Her body had been maliciously assaulted, the attack doubly as vicious as that of Hama upon Aang, Sokka, and Katara so many years prior.
Though she could barely see her, Toph managed to find Lin's hand with little trouble. Lin clung steadfastly to her mother's hand with both of her own, afraid of what would happen if her mother let go. Toph, despite her being very nearly in complete darkness, kept her glazed eyes on her daughter and Lin could not look away.
When Katara finished, she kissed mother and daughter on the head before leaving, presumably to heal her brother. Lin broke her mother's gaze for a moment to watch her "aunt" depart and was surprised to find that she had missed her "uncle" leaving and did not know whether or not he had left just before Katara or quite sometime earlier. Toph shifted a bit, biting back a cry of pain as she settled herself against the headboard. The movement caused Lin to jerk her eyes back to her mother.
"Lin, come here." Lin did not hesitate and threw herself into her mother's arms, her face buried in Toph's neck as tears escaped that she did not know she had been holding back. Lin was comforted by the pulse she could feel and hear quite clearly. Tears also streaked down Toph's face, for herself and for her daughter. Her body had nearly been broken and used against her. She had been violated so thoroughly. She cried for these things, cried for herself for the first time since she was twelve years old. Yet, she cried mostly for what Yakone had done to her daughter without laying a finger on her.
"Momma?" Lin pulled back enough to speak, but remained fully enveloped in Toph's arms, her own arms wrapped tightly about her mother's neck.
"Yes?" Toph had gained a bit of her voice back, it no longer escaping in a rasp, but it still pained her to speak just as it pained her to do anything else.
"Are…are you going to die?" Lin's heartbeat soared, alerting Toph to the turmoil that her daughter had so thinly veiled. Toph also knew she had started crying again, feeling her tears splashing on her chest. The elder earth bender managed a smile and to raise a hand to cup the side of Lin's face.
"You're not getting rid of me yet, kiddo. It takes a bit more to finish a Beifong." To her surprise, Lin did not laugh at Toph's words, instead the little girl clung more fiercely to her, the tears seeming to come with added force. Toph held the girl as tightly as she could in her weakened state, stroking her hair. Comforting had never been Toph's strong suit, but she had certainly improved since Lin came along. Yet the tears kept coming. It was a wonder that such a tiny thing could produce so much.
"I don't…I don't want you to l-leave me, Momma." Lin pulled back slightly once again and Toph's confusion dispersed. Toph knew that she was about to broach a very delicate matter. She had never been known to be tactful or sensitive, but Toph always strived to be better than what she was with her daughter. She had to diffuse Lin's fears and prevent new ones, but she could not deceive her, her daughter was much to bright for that. With astonishing accuracy, given the lack of earth connected to her limbs, Toph cradled Lin's face in her hands.
"Lin, I don't ever want to leave you either. I can't promise that there won't be other days like today and you know that, but I can promise you this. I will always be fighting to come back home, to stay with you, alright?" The child nodded, the tears finally abating.
"I love you, Momma." For some inexplicable reason, Toph found tears welling in her eyes, but she forced them back, instead wiping away the remnants of her daughter's tears.
"And I love you, squirt. Now, let's get some sleep before your Uncle Sokka starts snoring, otherwise no one's getting any shut-eye." Lin giggled before sliding off her mother's torso to curl into the earth bender's side. Toph kept an arm around the girl's back, holding her close. The two were found that way the following morning by Katara, who didn't have the heart to wake them up just yet. Instead she moved down the hall to give her brother breakfast.