Two in one day? I'm on a roll. As usual, just some Lin and Toph fluff. There are some miniscule spoilers for The Promise series, but really, if you haven't read The Promise, you won't know. I'm also not spoiling any major aspects of the plots in the comics, so all should be well. Feel free to rage and flame about it though.
Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra belong to Mike and Bryan and Nickelodeon. Enjoy!
"…General Iroh was to advance under the cover of darkness to infiltrate the walled capital of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se. After several weeks, the Fire Nation infantry finally broke through the Outer Wall, officially beginning the First Siege of Ba Sing Se…" Toph was distracted from her daughter's reading by the faintest vibration against her arm. She attempted to ignore it at first, wanting to be fully involved in her nightly ritual with Lin, but the movement continued, gaining strength until Toph was nearly feeling pain.
Lin was oblivious to her mother's frustration and preoccupation, completely enthralled by the tale she was regaling for her mother. As Lin turned another page, Toph realized that the source of her discomfort was the "space" bracelet she had received decades earlier. Immediately, her aggravation vanished, replaced by shock and the beginnings of pride.
Toph had used the bracelet, made of "space earth," years before to recruit students for her metal bending academy. Before, her attention had to be solely upon the bracelet for her to detect any sort of reaction and such a reaction seemed to only result from an earth bender in some sort of emotional distress. Yet, the bracelet was vibrating nearly painfully against her arm, the frequency of vibration increasing and decreasing in time to the cadence of her daughter's voice.
Her twelve year old daughter clearly had an affinity for metal bending. Really, Toph shouldn't have been so surprised, seeing as her daughter was only a year or two away from being a master earth bender and one greater than herself. Toph was dying to have Lin try to bend the bracelet and some metal, but she did not want to end the reading session prematurely. It was clear that Lin was enjoying herself immensely, her enjoyment most definitely the cause of her latent ability having revealed itself.
Lin finished not long after Toph's revelation, her patience having not been tested too much. As her daughter stowed away what had recently become her favorite book, Toph retracted the metal sleeves of her uniform, revealing the bracelet she wore on her right upper arm. She removed the treasured piece of her childhood, altering its shape a few times while awaiting her daughter's return. The "space earth" was once again in the form of a bracelet when Lin hopped on to the couch beside her mother.
"Good reading tonight, squirt." Toph ruffled Lin's hair, leading the pre-teen to beam at her mother, despite the latter being unable to see it.
"Thanks. Hey, what do you have there?" Lin reached for the bracelet in Toph's hand, but the chief of police moved her arm out of the girl's reach.
"Well, I was about to tell you, but you got all grabby…" Toph smirked, revealing the deception laced in her tone.
"Mooom…" Lin thought about reaching for the bracelet anyway, but wisely decided against it, not quite in the mood to spar with her mother and still rather sore from their earlier match.
"I guess I'll tell you." Lin inched as close as she dared to her mother, watching
with rapt attention. "This was given to me by your Uncle Sokka when we were kids…"
"Oooh! Was it because he liked you?" Toph rolled her eyes and shoved her daughter lightly.
"You need to stop spending so much time with your Aunt Katara." Lin only laughed, but quickly halted when her mother spoke again. "This bracelet is made of the same material that made up your uncle's "space sword," which you've no doubt heard about."
"Why are you showing this to me? And why is it moving?" Toph's mysterious smile only served to confuse Lin further.
"Do you remember me telling you about the school I formed right after the end of the war?"
"Yes, but I fail to.."
"Lin, shut up, I'm about to tell you." The aforementioned sighed, but did not speak. "I used this bracelet to find students, to identify earth benders who could become metal benders. It responds to them." Toph's smile grew into a full-blown smirk.
"So…what you're saying is…"
"It's been vibrating since you started reading today. It only stopped when you left the room and the vibrations began again when you came back."
"I'm doing that?" Toph nodded. "Awesome." Toph crushed the bracelet into a deformed ball and offered it to Lin.
"Try it out." Lin took it eagerly and it wasn't long before she was changing its shape.
"It feels so weird." Lin's expression was a mixture of awe and disconcertment.
"Your uncle called it 'space earth.'" Toph watched her daughter become familiar with the material and bend it with ease for several minutes, Lin's delighted sounds amusing her.
"So, does this mean I'm a metal bender?" Toph laughed, shaking her head.
"Not at all, but you certainly have a strong affinity for it. We'll start you on some metal tomorrow."
"Why not now?"
"Because I'm tired and it's time for you to go to bed."
"C'mon…"
"No. Off you go." Lin sighed and reluctantly placed the "space earth" in her mother's hand after returning it to its bracelet form. Toph's brow furrowed at the action. "Why'd you give it back."
"…It's yours, isn't it?"
"Take it."
"But…"
"I want you to have it." Lin hesitated a moment before taking the bracelet from her mother.
"Thank you." Toph smiled, standing to kiss the top of her head.
"Don't mention it. Now, go to bed." Lin ran off to her room, leaving her mother to walk at a much slower pace to her own bedroom.
Just as she said, Toph began Lin's metal bending training after work the following day. She instructed her the same way she did her officers, even using the training room at police headquarters. Three months into her training and it was clear to Toph that Lin was destined to become an ever greater metal bender than herself and quite possibly the best metal bender to ever live. Her progress was astonishing and she often left rookie officers and even some veterans in deep pools of envy, when she wasn't leaving them unconscious or howling in pain on the sparring mat that is.
Lin was never without the bracelet her mother had given her and she never kept it out of the circlet shape for long. She didn't abandon the gift in her twenties, nor in her thirties. In her forties she clung to it as the last tangible reminder of her late mother and at fifty, it gave her strength when her bending was ripped from her. The bracelet made of "space earth" was a physical memory, one of her mother and of her "uncle" Sokka. It was her most valuable possession. As a child it was proudly displayed and as an adult it was hidden by the very same armor her mother had worn, but always it remained on her upper right arm.