A/N: Pro-Bending Circuit Round One: Feels Like the First Time

Position/Team: Earthbender, Capital City Catgators
Prompts Used: yellow, Ba Sing Se, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"
Bonus: earthbending
Word Count: 2,658

Sightseeing in Ba Sing Se

Everything about the train ride heightened her senses. The warmth of the sun beating through the windows told her that it was midday already. The smell of sweat and tobacco told her that they weren't alone in the first class cabin seating. The shift in the vibrations she felt told her they'd entered the middle ring of the city. She couldn't see because she was blind, but she didn't need that to sense what she already knew—she hated this place.

"Oh, it's been ages since I've been to Ba Sing Se!" a sickeningly sweet voice sang beside her.

Toph sniffed at the smell of ginger tea on her mother's breath. It reminded her of Iroh and the Jasmine Dragon. Maybe there was one good thing about the Earth Kingdom Capital. But if she knew her mother, their time would be scheduled down to the last minute, and she doubted visits to a former-war-general-turned-friend was on the agenda despite his royalty status.

Poppy Beifong did care about status, though. They planned to meet with an elite professional who was working on a cutting edge venture. Toph only assumed this was to benefit her father's business interests after his shaky dealings at the earthen fire refinery. She'd somewhat made amends with him recently and had agreed to go on this trip with her mother at his request.

Another shift in the frequency of vibrations, and the train neared their destination in the upper ring. Toph tugged at the collar of her dress as a trickle of sweat rolled down the back of her neck. A sense of foreboding settled in her stomach. Everything about the train ride made her want to go back to where she came from now that she was finally here.

"You're not from the Earth Kingdom," Toph said to the man after shaking his hand. Fire ran through his blood, and she could feel it.

"You're very intuitive, young lady," he replied. "Of course, I would expect no less. I am Dr. Yuu. Pleased to meet you."

Toph then perceived a concentration of power near the man's forehead. While everything about their encounter thus far was very normal, she'd learned enough about chi flow from Ty Lee to recognize who—what he was. She gasped. "You're one of those..." The only words that sprang to mind were Sparky Sparky Boom Man.

"Well, some call it combustion bending. Which sounds really destructive if you ask me. I've learned to channel my ability—fine tune it, if you will. And use it for a more constructive purpose," the doctor explained.

"That's interesting." Toph felt her pulse resume a more steady pace.

"Well, as you know, I'm a doctor. And I've found that human tissue responds to a certain intensity of heat and light in a way that allows me to break down, remove, repair, reshape, reconstruct, you know, that sort of thing."

Toph had to admit that she really didn't know what that sort of thing was. Apparently her mother did, though.

"Oh, Dr. Yuu, that's amazing! And you really think you can cure blindness?" Poppy clapped her hands together in delight.

Toph's heart pounded in her chest, all efforts of remaining calm thwarted. "What!?" It sounded like they were suggesting that this man shoot fire from his forehead and aim it directly and precisely at her eyeballs. Upon further explanation of the procedure, this was exactly what they proposed to do, more or less.

"No fucking way," Toph protested. "You have got to be kidding me."

"But Toph, dear. Don't you want the chance to be able to see?" Poppy reached out toward her daughter, but Toph recoiled.

"I can see just fine… through my bending," she retorted. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen to her bending if eyesight became a factor—perhaps even an obstacle, who knew? Toph's breath began to quicken as she considered the implications.

"I thought you might say that," Dr. Yuu said with a frown. "There's nothing to worry about. You're perfectly safe with me. Here, have a seat. Relax. Let's have some tea, and then we can talk about it some more."

Toph would agree to tea, but she wasn't so sure about the talking. And she was adamantly against the procedure. Once upon a time she might have wished away her blindness so her parents would treat her like a normal kid. But she suspected that wouldn't happen regardless, so it was decidedly better for her to be herself—blind, bold, and the best. Her thoughts became fuzzy as she sipped her tea, and the voices around her faded in and out until she realized through the haze that they had drugged her.

She awoke sometime later to a scratchy sensation on her face, darkness surrounding her, a hard surface underneath her, and a warm hand holding hers. She groaned.

"Toph? Sweetie?"

Toph decided she'd rather go back to sleep than talk to her mother. She felt betrayed. Alone. Scared. And even with the prospect of sight, everything was so, so dark.

The next time she woke up, everything was blindingly bright.

"Good morning, sunshine," the doctor said.

Toph opened her eyes but shut them quickly. She then took inventory of everything else she could sense about her surroundings. Same cold hard surface that could hardly count as a bed. Her mother had left. It was indeed morning because she felt the warmth of the sun. She could always detect brightness, but this was different. She opened her eyes again.

It was an onslaught of sensory overload. She couldn't even describe what she was seeing. She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that it was just that—seeing.

"You're probably feeling overwhelmed right now, and that's completely normal," the doctor advised. "So, just take it slow."

"You tricked me," Toph said through gritted teeth. She hadn't caught a glimpse of the man, yet. His voice came from the other side of the room.

"True, but I thought once you saw results, you'd forgive me."

"You can't just do that without a person's permission!"

"Toph, I know you've traveled the world, and you're a powerful bender, but you're still a minor. I had your mother's permission."

She folded her arms across her chest and squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't want to cry, but the tears came anyway. And they stung.

"Tears are good." The doctor moved in closer now. "They'll help with the healing process."

Toph then looked up at him, her vision blurred with emotion. For the first time ever, she saw a person. She had touched hair and noses and even lips before, but seeing them come together as parts of a whole—it was enough to take her breath away. Now, she wanted to see someone she really cared about—and not her mother, either.

Her wish was granted sometime later when Aang and Katara came to visit. Poppy had arranged for accommodations in an upper ring villa. Dr. Yuu wanted to conduct regular checkups for several weeks, and he instructed for Toph to take her time and take it easy. She would have to relearn a lot about the world with her newfound sight. Toph suspected that she kept her eyes closed more often than open, but she was truly fascinated by what she did see when she allowed herself some insight.

"What is that ridiculous thing on your head, Aang?" She reached out to rub her bald friend's arrow.

"Oh, um, it's a tattoo. I got it when I mastered airbending," Aang answered with a shrug and a grin.

Gestures and facial expressions became a new point of interest for Toph. Especially when people said one thing but meant another. She knew she could sense things through her bending, but she was also intrigued by the visual cues that people gave as well.

"I still think it looks stupid." Toph then redirected her attention to Katara. "But it looks the same as her eyes."

"Huh?" Aang quirked a brow in confusion.

"Oh, I think she means they're both blue?" Katara mused.

"What's blue?" Toph asked. She'd heard the word before but could only guess as to its meaning.

"It's a color," Katara answered. "Blue like the sky… or the ocean… or my dress…"

"Ohhhhhh!" Toph then decided colors were also a new topic she wanted to explore. "Tell me more!"

"Well, Aang's clothes are yellow and orange," Katara continued.

"Yellow," Toph repeated. "Like the sun… and Dr. Yuu's eyes… are Zuko's eyes yellow, too?"

"Well, they're more like gold, I'd say," Katara replied. "But yellow works, yeah."

"Is Dr. Yuu Fire Nation?" Aang asked.

"Yeah. A combustion bender." Toph shuddered at the admission. It still didn't settle well what he had done to her against her will.

"Have you tried earthbending since your surgery, Toph?" Katara's knitted brow spoke of her concern for her friend.

"Not yet. I'm supposed to be resting. But soon. Very soon." Toph couldn't help but be worried, too.

Bending did not go well at all. With her eyes open, she struggled with balance and depth perception. She could summon her element just fine, she just couldn't command it. Even with her eyes closed, everything seemed different than before. She had seen too much to not want to rely on sight, yet she faltered in her innate ability to simply feel. This was exactly why she didn't want to do this in the first place.

Toph stormed into Dr. Yuu's office. "You will reverse the surgery! Make me blind again!"

"What!?" The combustion man stared back at her with not just two eyes, but three.

"I am the greatest earthbender in the world, and you took that away from me!"

"Oh, Toph, don't you see? This is so much bigger than you? You are my greatest success. There are so many possibilities."

"I don't care. I was my greatest success until you came along!"

"Toph, I know it's hard, but it's a step in the right direction. It's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!"

"Well, go find another man to do your stepping and leaping. And fix me back to the way I was!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. It doesn't work that way."

Toph let out a noise of pained frustration before overturning the doctor's desk, bending his filing cabinet into a crumpled mass of scrap metal, and slamming the door behind her as she fled.

She could think of only one place to go, and surprisingly she hadn't been since coming back to Ba Sing Se. Uncle Iroh would have the answer. He always did.

Even though he was the shop owner, Iroh sat down at a table with Toph and gave her his undivided attention. She made a few offhand comments about the funny style of his beard and how his eyes weren't really yellow like the sun as she expected them to be, but then she got down to the truth of the matter. He wondered why she surveyed her tea suspiciously before taking a sip, but then that part of the story came out, too.

Iroh stroked his beard thoughtfully. "You know, sometimes those who love us think they know what is best for us. They really just want to help us, but they might not know how."

Toph nodded and studied the old man's features intently while he talked.

"But listening to each other is sometimes the best thing even though we might not think it is enough. Some might say that sight is the most important sense, but just because one can see, does not mean he has the right vision." Iroh smiled, and Toph found it comforting. He then continued, "No, I think hearing is the most important. Because when I hear what you have to say, then I can learn who you truly are. We can't always trust what we see before us, but we can always dispel the lies by setting things straight with our words."

Toph sighed. "So, what you're saying is that I need to talk to—reconcile with my mom."

"Perhaps. It sounds like you have already started that healing process with your father. But you may recall that words are powerful. They can be both constructive or destructive, so choose them wisely."

Constructive and destructive were words the doctor used to describe his bending ability. They could be used to describe any element, really. Maybe she could apply them to her eyesight, too. She loved how she could now construct meaning from faces—how eyes glisten with emotion, how noses twitch with discomfort, how mouths turn with decisions, and how cheeks color with anxiety. She had considered it destructive to her bending ability, but maybe it was more like a part of a whole, a piece to a puzzle. She just had to figure out how to make it fit.

"Toph? My dear?" Iroh's voice pierced through her thoughts.

"Oh, right. Sorry. I was just, uhh—"

He nodded knowingly and refilled her tea cup.

"These things take time," he said after a few minutes of companionable silence.

Toph wasn't sure if he was referring to an impending conversation with her mother or her adjusting to not being blind anymore.

Poppy Beifong had decided to leave Toph alone for the time being, hoping that she would come around once she came to cherish her new sense of sight. Much like the doctor, she expected automatic forgiveness in light of the great gift bestowed to her daughter. She did carry some guilt about the way things had happened, but Toph had always been stubborn. They hardly talked at all these days, but it wasn't much different. They were together, at least.

Poppy did not expect to be woken by Toph screaming for her one morning. She'd never heard her daughter call for her like that. It wasn't just unnerving—it was terrifying. She ran to Toph's bedside to find the girl frantically clawing at her eyes.

"Mom, Mom, I can't see! I can't see!" Toph shrieked.

"What!?" Poppy firmly gripped her daughter's shoulders and peered into familiar milky white irises. "What did you do?"

"What did I do? Nothing! I just woke up this way!"

"I'll go get the doctor."

"No! He'll just make it worse. It won't—it doesn't work." Toph collapsed back on her bed into a fit of chokes and sobs. Nothing made sense. As in, she couldn't make sense of any of her senses. The bed felt red—no, warm? The morning sun was hard—no, bright? Her mother's caress on her cheek was salty—no, that was the taste of her own tears.

Toph didn't want to face the doctor, but she did anyway. Her mother promised there would be no more experimental procedures. Dr. Yuu apologized for his failure and suspected that whatever chronic disease that had caused her blindness in the first place was the culprit in its resurgence. He didn't think ongoing combustion treatments would be a good idea but offered to do some more research on her condition. Toph then understood she would be the subject of said research, so she forcefully declined. In an effort to atone, the doctor offered to remove the calluses from her feet to which Toph replied, "Hell no." She said her hasty goodbyes and booked herself a ticket on the next train out of the city.

Everything about the train ride muddled her senses. The warmth of the sun told her it was midday already, but she had no idea what she would do when she got to where she was going. This time she was alone in the first class cabin seating, yet she missed the smell of ginger tea that always lingered on her mother's breath. And as the train's vibrations shifted, she knew she was leaving the city she hated, but it was the first place she had ever seen.

A/N: I briefly reference events from the comic book trilogy, The Rift, where Toph reunites with her father, Lao Beifong. Also, the name Yuu means "higher, superior" in Japanese, and I chose it because I wanted to show how a combustion bender could choose a higher path for his/her abilities than just war and destruction. I suppose a modern-day parallel to the medical procedure would be LASIK surgery, although I realize a combustion bender isn't exactly shooting lasers per se. So... this is fiction, right? And we can suspend reality, rrrrrrright? But for me, it is more about redeeming the bending arts. In another one of my fics, I have Jeong Jeong using lightening bending to apply electrotherapy in a medical setting. Again, it's probably a stretch, but don't you remember how he envied the waterbenders' healing ability and thought firebending could only be used for destruction? So, I'm not out to make any medical claims here. I just think the Avatar series has beautiful redemptive themes, and that's what spoke to me, I guess. As far as what this fic, Sightseeing in Ba Sing Se, means for Toph, I think it continues to set the scene for her reconciliation with her past and her parents which may or may not mean that she actually reconciles with them. It may simply mean that she reconciles with herself on a few things. And perhaps having the gift of sight for a few weeks proves insightful.