A Great Team
Chapter One
A/N: So here it is, Chapter One of my Toph/Zuko fanfic. I hope you like it! Reviews and comments are most welcome! I have tried to stay in character as much as possible but it is a story about personal growth, so if characters are a bit OOC, please bear with it a little. I do not own Avatar:The Last Airbender! It is property of Brian, Mike and Nickelodeon!
"Speaking"
'Thinking'
Writing
'Why am I doing this again?' Toph thought grumpily as she undressed, shooing away the attendants and putting on the robe the salon had provided. 'Oh yeah, because Mom sounded so happy when I said yes, I thought she was going to cry. Oh well, I guess this could be ok, as long as nobody touches my feet.'
Tying the robe's belt firmly, she pushed through the curtain she had heard her mother swish through a moment ago. Her mother and two other women waited for her in the bath room. Other salon attendants, she assumed. Probably waiting to torture her with "beauty."
Not that Toph cared about how she looked, being blind, but her mother had really made an effort to get to know the real Toph when she had returned home afterdefeating the Firelord. It just didn't seem fair to refuse "female bonding time" when it obviously made her mother so happy. Besides, Uncle had been right. Reconciliation had to go both ways.
Reminding herself to smile at her mother, Toph padded across the beautifully cool marble tiles towards certain discomfort. Then she paused. Tapped the floor again with her heel. Usually, she couldn't see water unless it had an extremely high mineral content, and even then, it was fuzzy, worse than sand. But she could make out the contents of this bathtub fairly clearly. She blinked in surprise.
"It's a mud bath Toph." Her mother's clear voice explained. "I know that your interests…differ from mine, so I wanted to find something that we could both enjoy. Rhassoul mud is wonderful for your skin, and I thought it might make you feel more relaxed, since you like earth so much."
Toph's polite smile widened into her trademark grin. "Mom, this is great! A mud bath!" She hurried to the edge of the tub that was set into the ground and experimented with a few bending forms. It was a bit runny, but sure enough it responded to her movements, first twisting into a column, then arcing into a wave, then swirling into a vortex.
She heard gasps from the lady attendants and reluctantly allowed the mud to slide carefully back into the tub without spilling a drop. Sugar Queen would be so proud of how she'd grown! Eagerly, she slipped out of her robe and descended the marble steps into the glorious warm mud. She felt her mother join her a moment later.
"So, you like it Sweetheart?" Her mother asked, her voice a mix of happiness and uncertainty.
"Like it? This is awesome! I can see in this! I can bend this! It's like a bath without all the uncomfortable parts!"
Her mother started slightly. "You can see in this? How? You keep insisting that you can see just fine, but I'm afraid I don't understand."
"I see with Earthbending. I feel vibrations in the earth and they come back to me. Sort of like how wolfbats see by hearing in the dark. Usually I can't see water at all and it makes me pretty uncomfortable, but this is great!" She splashed around a bit for emphasis, causing swirling eddies.
"So that's why you always hated bathing, even as a baby you would cry and cry." Her mother mused.
Toph wrinkled her nose in embarrassment, reminding herself not to punch her mother in the arm to cover up her discomfort. 'I can't do that, it would hurt her and she wouldn't understand.' Instead she said, "That's also why I don't wear shoes if I can help it. And why I hate it when people mess with my feet."
Her mother shifted. "Oh. Well then I suppose I should cancel the foot treatment."
"Yes please. I've been through one of those before with Katara and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was like having someone knock me in the funny bone over and over; the vibrations were terrible and I couldn't see anything."
They sat in the mud in silence for a moment, then Toph felt her mother's hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Toph. I never realized all the ways we were hurting you by trying to raise you like any other girl. You have your own gifts and needs and we didn't see any of them. I never considered what it must have been like for you. I am so sorry. I'll…" Her voice choked up. "I'll try my best from now on. I probably will still make mistakes and do things without thinking, but I'm going to try. Is that alright?"
Toph felt prickling behind her eyes. She was never good with these sorts of mushy things. Unable to think of a response, she bent some mud into a lotus and floated it over to her mother. She heard a soft inhalation. Then a whispered, "Lovely." Blushing, Toph bent more flowers for her mother, hoping she would understand that past transgressions would be forgiven if not forgotten.
She ran out of flower shapes that she knew well enough to bend, so she switched to other shapes: stars, animals, plants, even regular items like her mother's comb, her father's chair, Uncle's beloved tea pot.
She stopped. Thinking about Uncle made her miss him and her other friends from the old gang and that made her sad.
"I had no idea you could perceive things so accurately. Is this my hair comb?" Her mother asked, interrupting her reverie.
"Yup. It's made of alabaster, so I can sense its outlines really well. The flowers I can only trace with my hands though, so they are probably a bit off."
"Not by much. I can certainly tell which types they're meant to be. How wonderful! I didn't know you were an artist! With a bit of practice, I'm sure you could rival any sculptor in town!" Her mother's voice rang with joy and confidence and despite feeling shyly pleased, Toph could smell more lessons coming on.
She sighed inwardly. 'Oh well. At least I'll get to bend, even if I don't get to smash faces doing it.'
After finishing their bath in the wonderful mud, they had been subjected to other, less enjoyable treatments and Toph was exhausted by the time they got home. Her father's exclamations over her beauty and "ladylike appearance" were simultaneously gratifying and annoying and she was pleased to escape to her room where she could ruffle up her hair and change back into trousers. "Mother-daughter time" was tolerable now and it did make her mom really happy but Toph's heart just wasn't in it.
Throwing herself onto her bed, she kicked up her (mercifully unmolested) feet and began toying with the earthen armlet that Sokka had given her almost a year and a half ago now. Bending always helped her relax and she tried to empty her mind, focusing only on her breath, on the flowing energy, the different shapes she wanted, feeling them form in her hands.
Sokka. Damn it! She was thinking about Snoozles again! And the gang, and Uncle, and the good old days. Who knew that a life of hunger, constant danger, and sleeping out in all weather could be preferable to plenty, safety and a nice soft bed?
Well, ok. The bed part wasn't that much of a stretch. Even now, she preferred sleeping on the ground in a lot of ways. But at least now she didn't have to put up with Sugar Queen griping about her not doing chores. Or Snoozles constantly craving meat. Or Twinkletoes being Twinkletoes instead of bending properly. Or even Sparky's moodiness. Yup. At least she didn't have to put up with that crap anymore…
She groaned. If she didn't get to go somewhere exciting or grind someone into the ground with earthbending soon, she was going to go crazy. It had been good to make up with her parents. She had missed them and she knew they had been worried sick about her. But she had been cooling her heels at home now for more than a year! She had tasted freedom and adventure, how was she supposed to go back to her golden cage, even if it wasn't locked now?
Sugar Queen was back at the South Pole, rejuvenating their culture and waterbending; Snoozles spent half his time on Kiyoshi Island with Suki and the other half helping Sugar Queen; Sparky was ruling the Fire Nation; Uncle was running his beloved tea shop; and Twinkletoes was gallivanting all over the world doing Avatar stuff. It felt like she was the only one without some important part to play, now that the fighting was done.
There wasn't even any more Earth Rumble VI, since Xin Fu had been arrested for his many crimes, and the local Earthbending academy was closed due to Master Yu's "mysterious disappearance."
She knew that he was making himself scarce from the wrath of both her father and herself, but that meant she didn't have any place to spar, or anyone to spar with. It was boring and it made her feel lonely, much as she hated to admit it.
Who was she now? She wasn't really The Blind Bandit anymore. She wasn't a part of the gang, saving the world. She certainly wasn't the perfect, porcelain doll that her parents had thought she was, before realizing she was a real person.
Annoyingly enough, she wasn't even a little girl anymore, her monthly courses having started about eight months previously. Now that was a total pain. Literally. Pretty soon her parents would likely start trotting her out in front of rich young men, hoping to land her a good marriage. What a nightmare!
Deciding she would bust through that bridge when she came to it, Toph got up and called for her maid, Lin. A moment later, she heard the young woman's light, graceful tread approaching.
"You called, Lady Toph?" Lin said as she entered. Toph sighed. She had tried to quash all that 'Lady Toph' business, but so far Lin had held her ground. It would have been cool if it wasn't so annoying.
"Yes. I wish to send a letter please." She waited as Lin settled herself at the writing desk and prepared her brush. When ready, Lin tapped once on the table to let Toph know, as per their agreement, and Toph began.
"To Iroh, called Dragon of the West, son of Azulon, The Jasmine Dragon, City of Ba Sing Se.
Dear Uncle,
How are you doing? Hope the tea business is going well and that you're still kicking butt at Pai Sho." Lin shifted uncomfortably at the casual language but Toph just grinned and continued:
"I am doing well enough here I suppose. Mom and Dad have been trying hard (and so have I!) and I think we will be alright as a family now. Mom even took me for a mud bath today! It was great! I bent a bunch of flowers out of mud for her too and she got all excited about me being some sort of master artist or something. She'll probably make me take art classes now. Oh well, at least she's trying to understand me.
It's pretty boring here though. My options for kicking butt in the Earthbending ring are basically nil and I'm kind of going crazy. I was wondering if I could maybe come visit you for a while? I'd be happy to help out in the shop and I could probably convince my parents that it will be a good cultural experience or something like that. Also, I've been craving your tea. Nobody makes tea as good as yours.
Hoping to see you soon,
Toph
Lady Bei Fong, City of Gaoling"
When she heard the whispering of brush on paper finish, Toph said: "Please send this right away. In fact, use Hawkey."
"Yes Lady Toph," came the gentle reply, as Lin carefully rolled the letter, addressed it and sealed it.
"And for Spirits' sake, enough with the 'Lady Toph' stuff alright?" Toph couldn't resist adding. "We're practically the same age! It's weird!" When only silence answered her, she added: "Please?"
Finally she heard a soft sigh. "Yes L—Toph. If you wish it so, I shall do my best." The teenage girl's voice was cultured and gentle sounding, but there was some hesitation there as well.
Toph realized belatedly that she had just put the girl in an uncomfortable position. The Bei Fongs were one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the world. Her parents certainly knew that and would likely make life unpleasant for Lin if they heard her addressing their daughter without proper title. She sighed herself.
"Only when we're alone, okay?" She allowed. Toph could feel the maid relax, tension leaving her body.
"Yes L—Toph." She struggled again with the lack of honorific, before curtsying and leaving the room to mail the letter.
Toph smiled. Progress!
Iroh sat in the kitchen of his apartment above the shop, putting his sore feet up with a soft groan. He loved running the shop; Making tea, meeting new people and old friends, and playing Pai Sho were some of his favorite things, but it was pretty hard on an old man's feet to go running around all day.
His own personal pot of Jasmine steamed on the table beside him and he poured himself a cup, sighing in appreciation. He picked up the book he had started the previous evening and was just flipping to his page when he heard the cry of a messenger hawk that landed just outside the window.
Putting down his cup and book, Iroh got to his feet and went to greet the bird. He scratched it lightly on its handsome head and opened the letter cylinder. Absently placing a sweet bun on the sill for the bird, he unrolled the letter.
It was from Toph! He chuckled as he imagined her voice saying the words to him, what a delight that girl was!
Iroh finished reading the letter and searched out his own writing supplies.
To Toph, Lady Bei Fong, City of Gaoling
My Dearest Toph, he wrote.
I would be absolutely delighted to host you for as long as you like! I am always happy to have you around. I confess it will be a joy to have your help around the shop too, these old legs aren't what they used to be, haha.
I am pleased to hear that your relationship with your parents has been going smoothly. I am proud of how you have grown and I look forward to hearing all about it from your own mouth.
I'll have the tea brewing,
Iroh
Son of Azulon, The Jasmine Dragon, City of Ba Sing Se
Still smiling, he addressed and sealed the letter, sliding it into the cylinder and gently prodding the bird out onto the sill, where it ruffled its feathers in annoyance before flying away.
A/N: So it's a bit short, this first chapter. Next one coming soon! Please let me know what you think! :)