The moonlight fell slanted through the bars of the high window. Pale light splattered haphazardly across the stone cell floor. Toph hung her head as she sat on the edge of the bed. She could feel the incandescent glow of the moonlight against her face just as well as she could feel the heart beat behind her slowing and steadying itself.
She reluctantly wiped her slick fingers on the silky sheets. She would rather have tasted them instead but could not have afforded for the other to see.
How she found herself here again she didn't know. Or if she knew she cared not to think of the reasoning behind it. It was like the pull of the moon itself-inexorable. Toph had always considered herself grounded, strong and immutable like rock. But lately she had found herself tugged toward these strange shores and not entirely unwillingly. Only the first hints of morning were capable of pulling her out and back towards her world, her duties, and her senses.
"What, admiring the view? It sure is the finest this hellhole has to offer."
A mocking voice cut through the dull silence like a blade. Toph jerked slightly at the interruption of her grim musings. Jeers at her blindness, however, she had grown accustomed to at this point. Toph swore she could hear lips parting as Azula leered contemptuously behind her in the dark.
She shifted slightly as she felt the firebender raise herself and begin crawling toward her on hands and knees. She closed her sightless jade eyes as she felt Azula's warm breath on the back of her neck.
"As if you understood what it was like to recognize beauty." Azula hissed softly and almost ruefully into Toph's hair. With that she slowly licked up along Toph's ear. Toph exhaled deeply through her nose and slipped back into the murky pool of her own mind.
It had almost been a full month now that Toph had come to Azula after she got off her shifts. As chief of police her shifts were conveniently long and unpredictable. This greatly facilitated visiting Azula after active guard duty hours. At night only a few White Lotus guards were left on premises. And when the chief came, none usually stuck around at least on the floor she frequented. This was no ordinary prison for crooks-this was a sanitarium for the criminally insane and impossibly wealthy. Toph found it unbearably ironic that the princess's own ancestors had originally erected it.
Toph never spent the entire night with Azula. She would always rise the moment she first smelled dawn seeping through the window. The wizened old prison guard who ferried her back to civilization every time never asked questions. If he had suspicions he never showed them in his ancient amber eyes. Toph had never felt compelled to fabricate some excuse because frankly she had never felt as if the ancient Fire Nation man had demanded one. She was sure he had seen worse and stranger in this fiery pit of cruel and unusual characters. Their trips together back to the light were always peaceful-wrapped in a cloak of silent camaraderie.
Upon returning home Toph would always be careful not to wake her daughter. Lin was a light sleeper like she herself was, but there was something about childhood that acted as a protective shield against the sad or the unclean. As a baby Lin would unfailingly awaken and cry whenever Toph even so much as closed a door. As a child, however, she had never stirred even once upon Toph's returns from her indiscretions. Toph could not reason why this was so but she was deeply thankful for it.
Toph had always been proud of her sightlessness-she had never envied others for their vision. Recently though Toph had begun to feel novel pangs of remorse at not being able to watch her daughter sleep. Though Lin had been described to Toph countless times by others Lin knew in her heart that she would give more than she cared to admit for a single moment to look upon her daughter.
"So that's it, one shot wonder? And all along you had silly old me expecting more. Burning out so quick tonight-it's not like you one bit! But trust me I get it I know all about burning."
Toph sat up with a jolt as Azula's incisive yet mellifluous voice snapped her back to reality. Toph could not believe that she had half dozed off while sitting at the foot of a would be Fire Lord's bed.
"Maybe I could…wake you up a bit?" Azula asked huskily as she took Toph's hand and placed it upon her collarbone. With her other hand she turned Toph's face toward her. Azula ran Toph's hand downwards as she leaned in to kiss her deeply.
Toph eventually began kissing back and she turned her body to face Azula. After a few moments Azula groaned ever so slightly into her mouth causing Toph to feel a dull kick in her lower abdomen. She could feel herself beginning to dampen again for the second time that night.
Emboldened by the return of her lust she roughly grabbed Azula's left breast. Azula gasped and broke the kiss to lie down on her back, pulling Toph on top of her. Toph settled her weight onto her elbows above Azula and swiftly jammed her hand up Azula's bafflingly high quality prison shirt. As she brought her lips back against Azula's she could feel Azula's lips pulled up in what could have been a sneer. Toph stiffened momentarily in anticipation for some cutting remark. When none came Toph again relaxed cautiously and transferred more of her weight onto Azula and off her elbows. Azula sighed contently and wrapped her arms around the chief's shoulders-drawing her deeper in.