Toph was in the middle of her nap when the loud door slamming woke her up. She was instantly put in a bad mood. She had had a long day at the station with countless, nonsensical reports that pretty much wasted her time, and had gotten home just to flop on the bed and sleep. She couldn't tell what time it was, and to be honest, she didn't care. She heard footsteps in the next room and recognized them to be her teenage daughters. The door slamming had probably been Lin as she came into the house from school.
"Lin!" she called. "How many times do I have to tell you not to slam the door?" She didn't get an immediate answer so she sighed heavily and dragged herself out of bed. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she could tell that it was really her daughter and not some stranger with Lin's foot size. She walked out of her bedroom and knocked on her door.
"Lin Bei-Fong, you need to answer me when I'm talking to you!" Toph scolded. "It's not for your sake, it's for mine!" It was true. Whenever Lin didn't answer her mother, Toph got a little nervous.
"Go away!" came Lin's mangled and muffled reply. Lin was obviously on her bed, because Toph couldn't feel her. She could tell that she'd been crying from the sound of her voice, and sure enough, she could hear sobs coming from her room. Toph sighed and opened the door.
As soon as the door was opened, she could feel something being thrown at her face obviously to get her to leave. Toph skillfully dodged it and chuckled.
"You should know better than to do that, little Lin," her mother teased. "I can feel anything you can throw at me ahead of time. Surely you can remember that?" Lin just moaned and Toph heard her bed creak as she fell onto her pillow, her sobs continuing. Toph's bad mood evaporated while listening to her daughter's sadness. She sounded so heartbroken. She walked over to sit on the bed.
"Now why don't you tell me what the matter is and we can sort it out," Toph said, stroking Lin's back.
"N-no offense, m-mom," she sobbed, trying to sound strong but failing. "But this isn't really s-something you can help me with." Toph felt annoyed, and it showed on her face too.
"And why not?" she questioned. This just made Lin cry harder.
"Because Itsumi t-told Tenzin that I-" she cried harder. Toph waited patiently, softly rubbing Lin's back as she cried. Soon she calmed enough to talk to her mother.
"Itsumi told Tenzin that I looked like a h-hideous s-spider-monkey!" she finally got out. Toph felt several emotions at that moment.
One; rage. No one ever called her daughter ugly and got away with it. She was going to make sure that this child had a miserable existence. She was also going to talk to Aang to hear what Tenzin had to say for himself. Toph knew that Lin had a huge crush on Tenzin and she'd learned from Katara that Tenzin returned the feelings. But if that was the case, why didn't Tenzin speak up for Lin? She knew he'd been brought up better that.
Two; amusement. This was what had Lin so worked up? She couldn't imagine dwelling on things like that when there were far worse things to worry about. But then again, she remembered as a kid, she wondered if she was pretty. Everyone told her she was, but she often doubted it. Which led her to her third feeling-
Three; guilt. She wished she could understand what her daughter was feeling, so that she could comfort her. She also wished that she could see her so that she could remove all doubts. But she didn't know what Lin looked like, so if she tried to deny what those girls had said, it would make her look foolish. The thought often bothered her, that if she could suddenly see, she would not be able to pick out her daughter amongst a crowd.
Toph wanted to say something wise and helpful, but all she could muster out was, "A spider-monkey? That was what they compared you to? Well I can honestly say I've never heard that one before." This caused Lin to stop crying for a moment.
"Mom," she said, exasperated. Toph held up her hands.
"What do you want me to say?" asked Toph. "Do you want me to tell you what you already know? That I could care less about looks and that who you are is all that matters to me? You already know that. I can't tell you about your looks from my perspective because as you very well know, I'm blind; however I've heard it from several people that you do look incredibly beautiful. In fact, I have it on good authority, aka Katara, that Tenzin believes you look beautiful as well. You already know what we think of you. But I can tell you honestly, honey, that you look nothing like a spider-monkey."
"And how do you know what I look like, mom? How do you know I'm not as hideous as a spider monkey?" Lin asked, still angry. Toph frowned.
"Well, spider-monkeys are hairy, right?" Toph said.
"Yes," she said, curious as to what her mother was getting at. Suddenly, Toph reached over and started patting Lin's face.
"What are you doing?" Lin asked.
"Checking to see if you are hairy," came Toph's reply. Lin laughed loudly, and Toph joined her. They continued laughing for several minutes until their sides hurt. When they finally calmed down, Toph thought that Lin was feeling better, so her daughter's next question surprised her.
"But Itsumi said that I looked as ugly as a spider-monkey, not like one. What if I really am hideous?" Lin said softly. Toph glared at the wall. Lin was used to her mother not being able to look her in the eye.
"What if?" Toph asked. "What if you're hideous? Tell me, what would be the worst possible outcome if you were hideous?" Lin looked down.
"I'd never have any friends," she muttered. "And Tenzin would never like me."
"Ahh, but you do have friends," Toph stated. "And I have information from a reliable source that says that Tenzin does like you." Lin perked up.
"He does?" she asked. "Who told you?" Then she slapped her forehead. It was obvious. "Katara," she said quietly.
"Yes," Toph replied. "It was Katara." Lin leaned back on her bed and sighed with happiness.
"Now do you see that looks don't matter?" Toph asked. "And that you are not hideous?" Lin sat up again.
"But how would you know that I'm not?" Toph shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't," she answered honestly. "I truly have no idea what you look like, or anyone else for that matter." Then, she got an idea. "Why don't you tell me what you look like, so that we can straighten this whole thing up?" Lin laughed.
"Um, okay," she said. "I suppose I could try."
The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon talking and laughing while Lin tried to describe her appearance to her mother. They soon moved on to what Toph looked like, as well as Katara, Aang, Sokka, Suki, Zuko, Mai, Tenzin, Kaya, Bumi and as many others as they could think of. Toph could honestly say that she had never felt more connected with her fourteen year old daughter, as all the stresses of work and daily life evaporated as they laughed and talked together. Lin soon forgot about the whole reason that she was sad in the first place. When it was time for bed, Toph kissed Lin on the forehead and whispered in her ear, 'I love you my little badgermole."
A/N: Hey peoples! First off, I love those little mother/daughter moments between Toph and Lin, and I don't see too many of them, so I thought I'd write this one just to satisfy my author needs. I always imagined that it would be hard on Toph to not be able to see her daughter, literally. And I thought it would be equally hard on Lin to not be able to have her mother understand what she was feeling, and not have Toph be able to tell her that she was beautiful. I really tried to make the whole thing seem as if you were looking through Toph's "eyes" but I am not a good enough author to make it work yet, so maybe another time. And I do admit that I lost some of Toph's sarcastic character in this, but this was supposed to be a sweet mother/daughter moment between the two of them, no humor really.
Mmk, I hope you liked my little one-shot. It was my distraction from other stories I am supposed to be working on (aka, believe and the avatar state). So please make it worth my while and review!
I seem to be doing a lot of these. It's been ages since I wrote this (or anything for that matter), and I was looking back on some reviews and realized how right they were. This story sucked. I continually reminded everyone that she was blind, and I didn't need to do that. I have taken out all the unnecessary awkwardness. If you catch anymore let me know.