The day began like any other, mechanist woke up first to an alarm set for five in the morning. He bathed, started a kettle of water, made his side of the bed, combed his hair over then brought tea to his lady who just happened to be…
RING!
"Chief Beifong… Spirits fuck it all, I'll be right in," the Esteemed Chief of Police of Republic City grumbled, slamming the telephone back into it's cradle, crushing the entire thing with her metalbending in irritation.
"That's the sixth phone we've gone through this month, Toph," the mechanist said bringing his wife some tea.
"Sorry, Satoru. I've—I have no excuse. I just haven't been feeling quite right lately," the Chief replied brushing her scraggly hair out of her face.
"Is there anything I can help with?" he asked sitting beside her.
"Would you mind helping me on with my uniform. My bending has been a little off lately. Nearly knocked myself over the yesterday trying to bend the damn thing on," she mumbled.
"Sure thing," Satoru replied, crossing to pick up the pieces of his wife's metalbending uniform which lay in a mangled heap. He picked the chest plate up with a grunt and brought it over to the bed. Toph kicked her feet over and planted them firmly into the ground with a sigh of relief as her sight returned to her body. She leaned over and opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of grey pants and from another drawer, a green skirt and stood up, pulling them over her underwear. She removed her tank top as Satoru handed her a strip of white fabric to bind her chest. The Chief pulled on a clean tank top and then lifted her arms so that her husband could drape the armor over her head and secure the concealed clasps that ran up both sides.
"I wouldn't ordinarily say something like this, but does it feel tighter at all?" Satoru asked, snapping the last clasp shut
"Are you calling me fat?" Toph asked, scrunching her face up in curiosity.
"Not at all!" he responded quickly. "You could be gaining muscle mass. I only meant that… never mind," Satoru replied, shaking his head, reaching for her metal shin guards and propping them up in front of her legs. She slipped one foot in effortlessly then lifted the other and banged her toe on the upper rim.
"OW! FUCK THE SPIRITS! WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO BE SO FUCKING BLURRY?!" Toph cursed, grasping her foot, falling back on the bed, seething with pain.
"Blurry?" Satoru asked, worry lacing his tone.
"Maybe I just need to drink more water," Toph suggested.
"Maybe you need to take a day off from work," Satoru suggested. She shot him a familiar look of "no way, no how" and turned away. "Toph, please at least hear me out. You need your sight to be as accurate as it has been your whole life to be able to protect your officers and the rest of the city. If you slip because you can't see, it could cost lives. The Dark One is a good deputy. He can cover for you for a day just fine and the city will still be standing. You need to find out what has been happening with your bending."
Toph sat up, still clutching her foot. "Fine!" She growled picking up the mangled phone.
"Hey Moochee, you gotta cover for me today. Not feeling well. Don't give anybody any reason," Toph ordered her deputy.
"Aye aye, Chief. Hope you feel better soon," her deputy responded over the phone.
"Yeah, me too, kid," Toph grumbled in response, hanging up. She felt Satoru's face curl into a smile. "What ju grinning about?"
"That you call the Dark One, kid even though he is four years older than you."
"Eh, but I outrank him," Toph replied, yanking the clasps of her uniform open again to change into something a bit lighter and easier to move in.
"Will you be okay on your own?" Satoru asked as they exited their home in Republic City.
"Thing's may be a little blurry, but I can still see alright," Toph replied. "Don't worry about me. If you chuck a big rock, you eliminate the need for accuracy."
"Be careful today, Love," Satoru reminded her, kissing her on the cheek.
"I will," Toph replied heading for the hospital.
That evening, he returned home to find his wife completely intact, sitting at the kitchen table with her fingers intertwined around a cup of ginger tea. "How did it go?" he asked, turning on the lights that she never needed when she was home alone.
"Fine," she replied brusquely. "Satoru?"
"Yes, my lovely badgermole?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and kissing her forehead before going to set down his brief case in his study.
"I wanted to ask you, if you don't mind, how is the company doing? And our… finances?" Toph asked.
"Just fine?" Satoru asked, surprised by the sudden randomness of the question. The company was thriving. The multi-national conglomerate managed the mining and refinement of crystal, iron and carbon and produced nearly all of the world's steel.
"Are you sure?"
"Toph, I would never lie to you, besides. You can read my heartbeat, right? Everything is fine."
"In that case, I was wondering if we could take a trip, a long one if possible,"
"What kind of trip? Like a vacation?"
"Of sorts. You can still work if you want to, but I won't be and I won't make you stay with me," Toph replied.
"Does it have to do with your vision going?" Satoru asked.
"Yeah. That among other things," Toph replied. Satoru decided not to press more on her degrading earthbending. If it were really something to worry about, Toph would have made it very clear to him and everybody else around her.
"Where would you like the trip to be?"
"Gaoling. I—" Toph paused. "I want to see my parents. Well not 'see' persay but you know what I mean," Toph began to say nervously.
"We can do that. I'll see about transportation tomorrow morning. Do you expect they will invite you to stay with them or…"
"Ideally, I'd like a place of our own down there, one we can come back to just in case… the triads come after us again…" Toph replied.
"I can have a secretary start looking into property listings in Gaoling tomorrow morning. Do you want an apartment, a mansion, or a plot of land where you can earthbend your own dwelling?"
"Hm… a plot of land to earthbend my own dwelling…" Toph thought pensively. "That sounds very tempting, but by the time I get down there, I may be too tired to even bend my belt buckle, let alone a building."
"That is new. I didn't think such a thing was even possible for the greatest earthbender in the world," Satoru replied, stroking her cheek and neck.
"Me neither. Then again, it's not the only thing that's new," Toph said, taking his hands in hers and sliding them down the front of her body before bringing them to rest on her lower abdomen, breathing slowly. "I was in denial at first, frightened by it, but now… it's almost comforting in a world where I can see nothing else."
Satoru's eyes widened. Her lower belly was firmer than he remembered it, but completely unlike when she flexed her abdominals. And it was smooth. He could feel some slight movement, some shift in weight inside of her and he started crying.
"You mean…" Satoru fell speechless. "No! Tell me it's a body suit that you use for undercover work! It MUST be!" Satory yelled in disbelief, yanking her shirt up over her head.
"Satoru!" Toph shrieked, flailing her arms blindly at him.
"Tell me you're lying!" he yelled, picking her up out of her chair while she laughed at the change in atmosphere. He laid her down on the couch and lifted her shirt carefully and lowered her waistband and placed his hands on the small mound forming on her lower abdomen.
"Are you crying?" Toph asked, groping the air blindly for her husband's wavy hair.
"Because I am happy!" Satoru replied, holding his warm hands on her cool, pale belly. "Have you told anyone else—"
"Before you? What kind of wife would do such a thing? I may be mean, but I am not cruel, not to you, at least," Toph replied affectionately.
"And will you tell anyone? Your deputy? Katara? Aang? Sokka? If not, may I?" Satoru asked.
Toph took a deep breath and sighed.
"I am sorry," Toph said quietly. "I know how happy you must be, and I am too, but I am worried both for my safety, and his. You know how the triads can be. They're constantly searching to find and exploit a new vulnerability of mine."
"I know. I have the scars on my wrists and back as a reminder of their brutality," Satoru replied, becoming sadder.
"I could not possibly put my unborn child at that risk. I will not. If the triads found out that I was pregnant and that I couldn't even use my seismic sense, it would only be too easy for them to get rid of both of us or make a move against the police or even the City. It is another reason why I would like a home base in Gaoling. It is far enough out of reach of the bending triads, and strategically located in the mountains, away from all the chaos of the rest of the Kingdom. It's location even enabled it to be left untouched by the Hundred Year War. I haven't ever seen a map, but I know it is at least three days away by Appa flying, so hopefully it is far enough out of reach to keep our child safe until he can protect himself, or at least long enough to get help." Toph explained.
"He will be safe. I promise," Satoru told his wife soundly.
"We will have to leave the City soon, though."
"Because you'll start showing?"
"No, I don't care about showing. I am worried primarily about my bending. Earlier you mentioned my lie-detector. That was the first of my skills to be eliminated during this pregnancy. It went months ago."
"Why didn't you say anything? Wasn't that scary- to lose such a major part of you?"
"A bit, but at the same time, there was this little second heartbeat that took its place. It made me feel still complete and ... okay for some reason. It is only a matter of time that my reflexes slow and my bending fades completely."
"Is that normal for a bender to lose so much control during pregnancy?" Satoru asked.
"I am not sure, but for some reason, with this tiny presence, I still feel safe," Toph replied with a hand on her lower belly.
Three weeks later, Republic City's Esteemed Chief of Police gave her leave of absence and then set off for Gaoling with her husband on a whole new journey. They took three trains and then a carriage to get to the wealthy, but somewhat remote city located in a strategic mountain range that left it relatively untouched by the Hundred Year War. In the unfamiliar terrain and only vaguely familiar city, Toph needed Satoru's physical assistance and guidance as anything further than ten feet away had already gone completely blurry.
They came to the great gates of a large estate in a rather upscale neighborhood of the city. "Here we are! Home sweet home for the next few months!" Satoru announced as two earthbending guards swung open the gate while two firebending guards stood on the wall above in watch towers. "It has over twelve acres, and a stable in case you want to start raising ostrich horses or keep pig chickens or something else you can hold on to until the baby arrives. It is all brand new, completely furnished, and staffed, so you won't have to lift a finger if you don't want to!" Satoru exclaimed proudly.
"It is wonderful, Satoru! Thank you," Toph said, weary from their travels, collapsing on the closest thing that felt remotely like a sofa lounger, and kicking her feet up quickly.
Without a second though, Satoru fell to his knees, sliding over and started massaging them.
"You'll be glad to hear that I've also been able to get some warehouse space in town to use until the home workshop space being constructed here is complete. It isn't very functional yet for prototyping, but we do already have radio equipment installed so that I can keep up with how the company is running," Satoru added.
"That is excellent, sweetie, it really is!"
"But you're tired."
"I'm sorry," Toph sighed genuinely, removing her headband from her otherwise unmanageable hair. "Growing a human inside of you is takes its toll on the body."
"Don't apologize for anything. You've done nothing wrong," Satoru wiped her bangs from her unseeing eyes as they fluttered closed and smiled.
Sooooo... this is an experiment. I write mostly in the LoK timeline, but thought I would try writing one of my OTPs from the ATLA timeline and the OG generation. So here is some Satoph for you. (Satoru is the guy from the Rift Comics that Toph ACTUALLY liked!)
I am working on my world-building so I am going to be expanding on the ATLA world. Here, strange things happen when a bender when she gets pregnant. If you have time, please let me know what you think and if it still feels plausible in our favorite world (and if I should even continue the story).
BTW, I just finished my last final and should have some more time over the holiday break to write. :)