Opposing Elements
Based on a prompt from Override7400 on dA. http:/ override7400 . deviantart . com /journal /44636706/ (take out the spaces).
Toph leaned against a tall stone pillar, her feet planted firmly on the ground to watch Zuko and Aang's firebending session. Sozin's Comet was drawing nearer at an alarming rate, and Aang hardly ever seemed to take a break from his training.
"That's so neat."
Toph turned to face the voice that had spoken.
"Teo," she said, her feet recognizing the vaguely wheelbarrow-shaped form.
"Yeah," Teo said, coming up beside the blind earthbender. "Bending's awesome. Especially airbending. I'd love to be an airbender."
Toph harrumphed.
"Airbending is for sissies."
Teo just laughed.
"Haha, you'd think that, being an earthbender."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Toph snapped. "Besides, you're from the Earth Kingdom, too."
"Not really. I've lived in an airbender temple for as long as I can remember. I'd take the sky over the earth any day."
Toph shook her head.
"You're as bad as Twinkletoes. I don't get you at all."
...
Toph had hardly thought about the young Earth Kingdom boy since he'd left the Western Air Temple with Hakoda and the others before the war. She'd seen, or rather felt, him briefly, at Zuko's coronation and a few other major events following the war, but he'd usually been busy talking with Haru and the Duke, or Aang.
So Toph wasn't exactly sure why she was at the Northern Air Temple now, except maybe because it was the last place her parents would ever think to look for her.
"The Avatar's friend? How lovely!" shouted the strange man who'd greeted her upon her arrival at the temple. "Any friend of the Avatar is welcome here."
"Thanks," Toph said gruffly. "I just need a place to stay for a few days."
"Toph!"
Although she didn't recognize the voice, that wheelbarrow-shape her feet were picking up on was unforgettable.
"Teo?"
"Hi! Wow, what are you doing here?"
"You know this young lady?"
"Yeah, Dad, she's the earthbending girl I told you about, remember?" Teo explained.
"Oh, of course! I remember now! The metalbender, right? That's incredible! You must tell me all about this amazing new technique you created!"
Although Toph usually wouldn't pass up a chance to boast about her exploits as the world's greatest earthbender, she was exhausted. Trying to get to the temple on foot hadn't been easy, even with her exceptional earthbending. It was at time like these that the young earthbender missed that old sack of fleas that was Aang's precious bison. She made a mental note to give Appa a good belly rub next time the Avatar had enough free time to visit his friends.
"Dad, she looks pretty tired," Teo observed.
"Oh, of course, poor thing, you look like you're asleep on your feet! Teo, why don't you take her to the spare room in the second wing?"
...
Toph flopped down on the soft bed, burying her face in a fluffy pillow.
"Ahhh, this is great," she said, yawning widely.
She heard Teo laugh slightly from the doorway of the room.
"Glad you like it," he said. His voice had gotten much deeper in the past few years, Toph realized.
"So… you gonna tell us why you're here alone? Somehow I don't think you came just to say hi… that's more Aang's thing."
Toph groaned and rolled over in the bed, wrapping a thick blanket around her shoulders.
"I couldn't stand another minute with my parents."
"Your parents? Huh, I always thought you were an orphan or something. I mean… you never mentioned your parents or anything."
"Because they're idiots," Toph grumbled.
Teo didn't say anything, but she could still feel his presence in the doorway.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch me sleep?" she growled.
"Not stand, no," Teo answered, and she could hear the smile in his voice.
"Not funny," she grumbled, except it was exactly the sort of joke she'd make, which annoyed her even more.
"Okay, then. Sleep well, Toph."
...
Toph had a very reliable internal clock. The light of the sun never woke her up, but when she stumbled out of bed, she knew exactly what time of day it was.
It happened to be early morning when Toph woke up after her first night at the Northern Air Temple. She'd been so eager to sleep the day before that she hadn't eaten anything when she got there, and her stomach was growling painfully.
She grabbed for the bag she'd dropped on the floor next to her bed the day before and riffled through it, producing a small handful of jerky. She'd developed a taste for the stuff from traveling with Sokka.
Munching on her breakfast, the young earthbender left her room to explore the temple. Aside from the fact that it wasn't hanging upside down from the underside of a cliff, the Northern Air Temple was quite similar to the Western one. Toph's feet could feel the temple's architecture, it's very structure. Airbender buildings were very different from Earth Kingdom buildings. Instead of thick walls anchored to the ground, these stone walls seemed to be lighter than normal stone, their very fibres infused with airbender spirit. Sissy walls.
Toph came out into the outer courtyard of the temple. Spring sunshine warmed her face, although the air this high up was chilly.
The sound of wheels on cobbled stone made Toph turn as her feet registered a familiar shape.
"Hey, Teo," she said.
"Hey yourself. I didn't know you were an early riser."
Toph shrugged.
"Usually I'm not. I was hungry, though."
"Oh. I could take you to the temple's kitchen if you like-"
Toph held up the last few pieces of jerky in response.
"Want some?" she offered.
"Nah, I'm a vegetarian."
"What? Just like Twinkletoes. You haven't changed at all."
Teo laughed.
"Neither have you."
"Heh, you sound like my parents."
"Hm?"
"They still think I'm a weak little blind girl who can't even take care of herself. The fact that I helped the Avatar save the world doesn't seem to have changed anything in their minds."
"That sucks," Teo supplied, because it seemed like the appropriate answer.
"Oh, wait, it gets worse," Toph continued. "I'm not good enough to take care of myself, but apparently they don't really want to take care of me any more either, so they're gonna marry me off to someone who will."
Teo whistled under his breath.
"Marry you off? What are you, fourteen?"
"Almost fifteen. They were actually making me take tests in table manners and how to be a proper nobleman's wife. At least they aren't trying to hide me anymore."
"Hide you?"
"Long story."
"So you got fed up with your parents and came here?"
"That's about right," Toph answered, chomping down violently on the last of her jerky.
"Wow. I wish I was as brave as you."
"What?"
"I love this temple and my dad… but after the things I've seen and done, just hanging around here has gotten so boring. I'd love to just grab my glider and fly off… Every time I think I'm going to do it, though, I always end up coming back before my dad even notices I've been gone."
"… Told you you're a sissy."
She expected him to laugh again, but instead he sighed.
"Yeah. Maybe I am. A real airbender would leave to travel the world."
...
After a lengthily conversation about metalbending and all of it's possible uses with the Mechanist, as Teo's talented technologist father was fondly known throughout the temple, Toph found herself aimlessly wandering through the temple. She figured Teo had a point. She'd only been at the temple for a little over a day and she was already becoming bored, although the freedom to roam as she pleased was a million times better than the torture of being constantly watched by overprotective parents and servants.
When the young earthbender's feet noticed the wheelbarrow-ish shape in a room to her right, she turned sharply and stuck her head in the doorway.
"Yo," she called. "What are you doing?"
She could vaguely sense him doing something with his hands on the table in front of him, but the wood of his chair and the table muffled the vibrations enough to blur her view.
"Hey, Toph," Teo answered. "I'm playing solitaire."
"Playing what-now?"
"Solitaire. It's a card game."
"Oh. Cards," Toph said, crossing her arms.
"What, you don't like card games?"
Toph waved her hands emphatically in front of her eyes.
"I don't really see the appeal of little piece of paper."
"Oh. Right."
"You're as bad as Sokka."
"Hey, you're the one who asked if I was gonna stand around the other day."
"You knew what I meant!"
Teo laughed again. He seemed to laugh a lot. Toph harrumphed. Must be an airbender thing.
...
"Bored?"
Toph turned her head to face the voice she'd come to recognize in the last few days.
"Kind of. I think I'm going to leave soon. Maybe head to the Fire Nation. Or visit Sokka and Suki on Kyoshi."
There was a long pause.
"Oh," Teo finally said, slowly. "Well. I have something for you."
Toph sat up a bit straighter.
"Something for me? If it's a glider, there's no way you're going to get me to fly."
Teo laughed as he pressed something small and rectangular into Toph's palm.
"What's this?" she asked.
"A deck of cards."
Toph rolled her sightless eyes.
"I thought we had this conversation the other day. Cards are just pointless pieces of paper-"
"I know. These are special cards. Open the box," Teo insisted.
Toph raised an eyebrow, but she did as he instructed.
The cards fell out of their box and into her lap in a flutter of paper. She picked one up and ran her thumb over its smooth surface. She felt three raised dots in the top left hand corner, and a set of raised dots in the middle of the card that formed a diamond shape.
"See?" Teo said excitedly.
"No, I don't see," Toph snapped. Then she softened slightly and added, "But I do feel. This is… cool."
"I can show you how to play card games! Here, there's a really simple one called Go Skunkfish!"
...
Toph tossed her bag over her shoulder, fully refilled with jerky and other food for her journey. She waved goodbye to the Mechanist and the small crowd of other temple dwellers as she prepared to leave the Northern Air Temple behind. She'd only been there for a few days, and although she'd enjoyed her stay, she still felt restless. An air temple wasn't really the place for an earthbender.
She turned to go, clutching the pack of cards in one hand. The night before, she'd told Teo she was leaving in the morning. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a bit disappointed when the Mechanist told her Teo had headed off on his glider early in the morning and wasn't back in time to see her off.
She forced herself to shrug it off, though, and prepared to earthbend herself down the sheer slope of the cliff.
"Wait!"
Toph started at the sound of Teo's voice. She couldn't sense him anywhere near her, which meant he must still be gliding in the air.
A loud crash to her right signalled Teo's ungraceful landing.
"Toph!" he shouted again.
She heard the Mechanist and the others begin to run back towards them.
"Toph, wait," Teo said, coming up next to her. "Take me with you."
"What?"
"I want to see the world, and so do you. Let's go together."
"I'm not going to see the world-"
"You know what I mean."
She pursed her lips, prepared to say no. She didn't need extra weight dragging her down- she was fine on her own. It would make travelling easier.
"Teo, son, what are you talking about?" the Mechanist exclaimed, stopping next to his son.
"I'm bored here, Dad. There's so much to see in the world, so much to do. If Toph won't take me with her, I'm going alone."
"Teo, you can't. You-"
"He's coming with me," Toph interrupted, surprising herself as much as Teo and the Mechanist. "Teo's just as much an airbender as Twinkle- Aang. He's a nomad at heart."
She could feel Teo smiling at her.
The Mechanist spluttered for a moment, but as he looked down at the two kids- no, not kids, a young man and woman- he saw the intensity and determination in their faces. They'd seen and done more than the average grown man. They could take care of themselves and then some.
"Take good care of each other," he finally said.
Teo laughed, a laugh Toph decided she quite liked, and reached out a calloused hand, gripping Toph's hand in his own.
"We will," he promised.
And Toph figured she could live with this kind of care.