Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with this premise. I do not plan on making any kind of profit from this story.
Well anyway this is my first story ever, my first attempt at writing any type of story and I hope people who read this will like. Also this is a femme slash fic, yuri, Shoujo-ai, lesbian interaction, so if no likey don't read, seriously. Oh and as for the whole coupling, it won't really get to anything serious for a while cause even though lolli is legal, hehe, I have a little problem with the age, c'mon 12. But trust me it'll get there. Also for like the first 2 chapters is going to be heavily based on the episodes before it changes to my actual story and it's also to show my writing style so people can get a feel before the story pics up. I'm hoping to get a chapter done once a week. Oh and I might need a editor so e-mail if interested. Well on with the story.
Chapter 1: The Blind Bandit
This is so a waste of time. Once again repeating the same train of thought she had for the past hour. Her idiot of a teacher was drabbling on and on about the same basics of earth bending to her as if she was a small child. Well this wouldn't be so bad, she thought considering she really wasn't all that old but that wasn't what was bothering her, if he wasn't still explaining this to me since last week. It's not like she was a incompetent earth bender, on the contrary she was quite skilled, and she could guess where her teacher and parents were coming from, treating her as if she was some fragile object and would break under any harsh touch. They didn't really know how to handle her, never really had to deal with a situation as…unique as this. Her name was Toph Bei Fong and she was blind. But, she had learned long ago that even though she couldn't see with her eyes, she could see through the very earth itself. Her teacher, and certainly not her parents, did not know of this.
Being of a very wealthy family, they hired an expensive tutor to teach her personally the basics of earth bending and apparently that was all, considering he was still going on about whatever it was he was going on about now with demonstrations Oh joy, they were willing to let her learn.
Finally, she thought as her tutor finished what he was doing, a couple of demonstrations later to show what she "learned", they were on their way back to the inside of the estate. As she entered she told her parents that she was going to rest because she felt "tired". Once in her room she pulled a belt out of her little hide away by bending the wall next to her bed and made her way out her window, almost running to her destination to catch the next boat, because she couldn't very well miss her match today. On that note, a smile formed on her lips.
Toph entered the arena once her alias was called, The Blind Bandit, and introduced as the current champion. Her opponent was a guy named The Boulder. Greeeat, another overly vain opponent that likes to speak in the third person, she thought as he was droning on about emotional reservations and blah blah blah. "Sounds to me your scared Boulder!" she mocked. The Boulder's eye twitched, not that she could really tell, "The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings and now he's ready to bury you in a rockalanche!" The Boulder announced with much conviction and posing. "Whenever you're ready The Pebble! Hahahahaha!" she taunted yet again trying, and very much succeeding, to get him angry. She could feel his thunderous movements vibrating all across the arena as he raised his foot ready to stomp the ground, hoping to end this quickly with one powerful earth bending move. As his foot came down, almost like slow motion to her "eyes", she had already launched an attack of her own. Said attack was nothing more than moving the rock where his foot will eventually land and when it did The Boulder was singing soprano and all the guys in the stadium winced just a little.
Deciding to finish the match, she launched three rock columns from the ground to ram him into the wall outside the arena. I love to win, she thought as the announcer proclaimed that anyone who could defeat her, The Blind Bandit respectfully, would win a bag of gold pieces. "What? No one dares to face her?" The announcer asked with disbelief hanging on his words. "I will." Said, as far as she could tell, a little boy. "Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?" She taunted. "I don't really want to fight you, I want to talk to you." The boy pleaded. "Booo, no talking! Ow!" "Don't you boo at him." said two of the audience members. He sure has an obnoxious voice, she thought, referring to the booer. After which she began her attack by trying to launch the kid into the air but he just jumped off the rising earth, and didn't come down. How the? Where'd he go? dismay and frustration marring her features. A couple of seconds later she felt him land off to the side. "Somebody is a little light on his feet, what's your fighting name? The Fancy Dancer?" she taunted trying to get the little upstart upset enough to make some sort of mistake. She decided to take this opportunity to raise the ground from under the boy's feet again, hoping to catch him off guard and knock him out of the ring but the boy once again jumped up and out of the way and hovered around her while she tried to figure out where he'll be coming from. "Please wait." The boy said as he landed, she let a small smile grace her lips, "There you are." And as she was speaking she raised a sizable chunk of rock from out of the ground and hurled it at her opponent. Instead of the thud and cries of pain she was hoping for, all she felt was a strong wind as the rock she threw was forced back past her and that same unnaturally strong wind force her to the ground and out of the ring.
Feeling humiliated at the quick loss she was handed, she got up and was heading out of the arena when that boy came running up to her, "Please listen, I need an earth bending teacher and I think it's supposed to be you." The boy tried to explain but she was having none of that. Why that little, she thought furiously. " Whoever you are just leave me alone." "Wait!" but she gave no indication she heard as she left the arena.
As she was walking around the grounds the next day, trying to alleviate some of the frustration of yesterday, she felt him just outside the walls of the compound with apparently his two other companions. As they landed from going over the wall, she lightly stomped the ground making the earth raise up fast enough to launch them into the air. A few seconds later she heard them land in some bushes, one right on the ground. As the group got up she walked over to them and asked in a demanding voice, "What are you doing here twinkle toes?" "How did you know it was me?" the boy from yesterday's match asked. "Don't answer to twinkle toes, it ain't manly!" The other boy from the audience said. "You're the one whose bag matches his belt." Said their female companion in a very lovely, apparently annoyed, voice. She has a nice voice, wait where'd that come from? Slightly shaking her head to clear such thoughts.
"Well, a crazy king told me I had to find an earth bender who listens to the earth, and then I had a vision in a magic swamp and…" "What Aang is trying to say," the female of the group cut off, "is he's the Avatar and if he doesn't master earth bending soon he can't defeat the Fire Lord." Raising her hand up to keep her from saying more, she voiced irritably, "Not my problem. Now leave before I call the guards." She then began walking away. "Look," the other male of the group began, "we all have to do our part to win the war and yours is to teach Aang earth bending." He finished matter-of-factly. They don't listen too well do they, she thought as she stopped. "Guards," she began in helpless voice, "guards help." She smiled a little to herself as she could hear them scurrying away to not get caught. "Toph, what happened?" asked one of the two approaching guards. "I thought I heard someone," still in the same helpless tone, "I got scared." she finished rather convincingly. "You know your father doesn't want you wandering the grounds without supervision Toph." The other guard reprimanded. They then helped escort her back into the house.
Boooooring, she thought irritated as her parents discussed her training, or lack there of, with her instructor, making sure she was taking it easy and not doing anything too "dangerous". At least this day won't get any worse, and as this train of thought continued a guard then came in to announce that the Avatar had arrived. Her right eye twitched.
Toph was angry and very frustrated. Not only did he, this Aang person, have the nerve to show up and stay for dinner, but he was also going to be staying the night. As she sat there fuming, her father, who saw her soup being set down, said, "Blow on it, it's too hot for her." "Allow me." said their "guest". Apparently whatever he did to cool her soup was worthy of admiration from the rest of the people at the table. Her agitation grew.
Then he started to go on about needing an earth-bending teacher. Dread started to slowly overcome her, as she already knew where this conversation was going. Thinking quickly, as he directed the topic onto her, she did a little earth bending to "kick" Aang in the leg to shut him up. Satisfied with the yelp of pain, a carefree expression to show she didn't know what was going on, and all was right again. Of course the discussion didn't stop there, it picked up again with her father dismissing her as frail and weak. While hearing him say such things wasn't new, it still hurt. Of course the boy would then start discussing her abilities again but before he could finish she decided to bring his face crashing into his bowl via earth bending. Again satisfied with the resulting splash of the soup, eating her rice with a carefree expression once again, hoping that it would be the end of the matter and Aang would get the hint.
Of course it wasn't as she heard him sneeze not a moment later, and her bowl leaving the table to occupy her face instead. Why that little, "What's your problem!?" she yelled angrily. "What's your problem?!" Aang countered right back. As they stood there glaring at each other from across the table, Toph's mother decided to defuse the situation at hand, "Well, shall we move to the living room for dessert then?"
While everyone else was enjoying dessert, Toph was silently fuming in her room. She couldn't believe how close this boy, Aang, was to exposing her secret. Of course, she thought reluctantly, he doesn't really know it is a secret. With that silent resignation in mind, while everyone was finishing up and going to bed, she headed toward the room where Aang and the two others were staying.
Apparently she snuck up on him, if the surprised yelp was any indication. "Relax," she began, "I'm sorry about dinner. Lets call a truce, ok?" after a few seconds she felt Aang shift into a more relaxed position, she then started to walk away leading him outside.
She hoped up on the ledge of the little bridge they had as she decided where to start her story. "Even though I was born blind," she began as she hoped off from the ledge, "I never had a problem seeing," she then looked towards the ground, "I see with earth bending. It's kind of like seeing with my feet. I feel the vibrations in the earth and I see where everything is. You, that tree, and even those ants." Looking confused about where the ants were, Aang was fascinated. "That's Amazing!" Aang said to emphasize his apparent joy. "My parents don't understand," she went on, a sad note ringing with her words, "they've always treated me like I was helpless." "Is this why you became the Blind Bandit?" "Ya." Looking a little lost, Aang then went on to say, "Then why stay here where you're not happy?" Turning away to hide her face, she replied, "They're my parents, where else am I supposed to go?" "You could come with us." Smiling a little to herself at such a simple answer, "Ya, you guys get to go wherever you want, no one telling you what to do, that's the life." She said, sounding as if to convince herself that's what she should do, "It's just not my life." She finished, her head hanging a little lower as an awkward silence descended.
Something wasn't right. People were coming here and judging by their path and movements, it was to organized to be coincidence. "We're being ambushed!" she yelled with sudden clarity. She ran, leading Aang with her to what she believed to be a safe place to hide. They completely stopped when the announcer from the arena cut off their path. Going into a defensive stance and all attention focused on that one intruder, Toph forgot there were more and before the thought ever came to mind, solid steel cages were dropped on top of them, trapping them in. "I think you kids owe me some money." Their kidnapper said very sternly.
Toph couldn't believe it. She was outrage at their kidnapper's audacity to pull such a stunt and even more so at herself for getting caught at all. He probably thought he was so smug for his achievement, probably standing there, smiling a victorious smile in her direction. "You think you're so tough," she began heatedly, "why don't you come up here so I can smack that grin of your face!" she finished, slightly winded. "I'm not smiling." He, Xin Fu, replied very seriously from the ground.
"Toph!!" her father's voice rang throughout the arena. She let a small smile grace her lips at the thought that he cared enough to get her. "Here's your money, now let them go." Aang's male friend demanded. She then felt her cage lower and the underside open as she fell out. She then ran to her father and they started leaving the arena.
"Toph!" she was stopped by Aang's female friend's worried voice. "There's to many of them. We need an earth bender, we need you." The girl pleaded even more. She almost felt compelled by her voice, so full of worry, alone but she couldn't without showing her father how she secretly lived her life. Then her father started talking, "My daughter is blind. She is blind, tiny, helpless, and fragile. She cannot help you." He finished very sure of himself, not knowing it hurt her to hear him say such things with her there. To hell with secrets, she thought angrily. "Yes, I can" she said in a stern voice that left no room for argument. Then she left her father and teacher and headed to the arena where Aang was still being held.
"Let him go!" she shouted to the small group of opponents. They stopped to look at her, "I beat you all before and I'll do it again!" she finished. "The Boulder takes his shoe with that comment." She then felt one of her seven opponents toss the cage holding Aang aside. All, save Xin Fu, came charging at her. Their combined, unorganized movements felt like thunder roaring across the sky. They were so in trouble. She raised her hands, causing the entire ring to start slowly trembling, becoming movable. She then brought her arms in using all the energy built up into moving the arena crashing down into it in a display of power as debris and dust flew forward. The vibrations and resulting shockwave knocked her adversaries away and covered them in a cloud of dust. She then walked in after them.
Stomping around and clearing the dust cloud was her first opponent. She could feel him, as he noticed her, slide his foot across the ground in front of him, the earth as he moved it to his will, and as rock was shot like a stream of water towards her. She took a step to the side effectively avoiding the attack, then with a solid hand motion she steadily had the ground to his side jut out straight onto his ribs and sending him flying across the arena to impact the wall on the other side with a satisfying smack as rock gave way to the force of his impact.
She went over to her next opponent where she could feel him crawling around apparently trying to get a feel of where he was. She felt him jerk a little in her direction, guess he found her if the two flying hand size boulders he tossed at her was any indication. Merely grabbing them and shoving them to the side, she kicked the ground causing the rock underneath her current opponent, as he was falling back down from his attack, to come up and slam into his chest, tossing him back into the air where she did it twice more before he was tossed out of the ring right where she felt her last opponent start to get up. Satisfied yet again as she heard their bodies make agonizing contact.
Her next opponent decided to take the initiative and find her, of course moving around underground she could've felt him a mile away. As her recent foe came out he hurled a chunk of rock at her backside, turning as the projectile flew she effortlessly caught the rock and chucked it back with greater force sending her latest opposition straight through the arena and out the other side and into her last two opponents. She smiled to herself as she went to where she could feel her next two punching bags getting out of the dust cloud.
As she came out she could feel them stop, so she started to move to the side which they did as well. "Ahhhhhh!" came the cry of yet another opponent as he came at her from above, she was wondering where he went when she couldn't feel him walking around anymore. The ambush might have worked if he didn't yell as he was attacking. Oh well, moving her foot more to the side with some swift hand movements, she caused the ground from under them to spin until she heard them crash into the ground as they were hit body first by their own ally. After forcibly clearing the field of their bodies she went to search for her last opponent. Until now he didn't even budge. Well, she thought, better to look him eye to eye... figuratively anyway.
With one hand motion, she cleared the dust cloud and faced Xin Fu from a couple of yards away. She felt the vibrations of him popping the joints in his neck; she guessed he was trying to look cool and nonchalant about facing her. To counter she collected the flem in her throat and then hawked it to the side. Apparently Xin Fu took that as a sign to start things as he tossed and kicked rock after rock at her. They impacted against the earth walls she raised and when she felt them stop she sent one side of the wall tearing across the arena to Xin Fu causing him to jump to avoid it. Xin Fu used the momentum of his jump, while still in mid air, to reach down and lob another chunk of rock in her direction at a much faster speed. As it got closer, she turned her body to the side and felt the wind from the object brush gently across her face as it zoomed by harmlessly, she then whipped her body back around with her arm shooting out in a forward motion resulting with a crushingly devastating blow to Xin Fu's mid section from the spire of rock she caused to impact him from below. She could then feel him land brutally near where her father and teacher where watching from the seats.
So here she was, in front of her father. Secrets no longer hidden, ready to explain herself and her intentions. She felt nervous. "Dad," she began, "I know it's probably hard for you to see me this way, but the obedient, helpless, little blind girl you think I am just isn't me." She paused to collect her thoughts and then started speaking again but with more conviction in her voice, "I love fighting, I love being an earth bender and I'm really really good at it." Her head dropped a little with the thought she was about to voice. "I know I kept my life secret from you but you were keeping me secret from the whole world. You were doing it to protect me but I'm twelve years old and I never had a real friend." She paused again to let all this sink in for her parents. "So now that you seen who I really am, I hope that doesn't change the way you feel about me." She finished, waiting anxiously for her father's response. "Of course it doesn't change the way I feel about you Toph," she felt a wave of relief pass through her, then he continued, "It has me realize something." "It has?" she asked with a smile. "Yes, I let you have far to much freedom, from now on you will be cared for and guarded twenty four hours a day." Her smile fell, her mouth felt dry, and it felt as if something was slowly squeezing her heart. "But dad!" she yelled, trying to get him to change his mind. "We are doing this for your own good Toph." Her mom said as if it made everything ok. She couldn't believe her parents, she couldn't believe that they were actually thinking what they're doing was good for her. Hanging her head in defeat her father continued, "Please escort the avatar and his friends out, they are no longer welcome here." She could feel them walking away, leaving her here. "I'm sorry Toph." She heard Aang say sadly from the doorway. "I'm sorry too, goodbye Aang." She could feel a tear fall across her face as they all left.
She was then escorted to her room. The guards stationed themselves outside the door thinking she would go to bed. Putting on a new set of clothing and packing the little amount of stuff she thought she might need, she jumped out her window and quickly dispatched the guards out her window by sinking their bodies into the ground at the neck and then quickly created an opening in the wall surrounding her once home. She broke out into a sprint where she could feel them still loading up their stuff before they would leave.
As she came running up to the group, she heard Aang shout out to her, "Toph, what are you doing here?" Stopping and catching her breath she replied, "My dad changed his mind, he said I'm free to travel the world." She smiled through her lie. "Well we better get out of here before your dad changes his mind again." She heard the other male of the group say. She thought so too as she believed it wouldn't be long until her father found out she was gone. "Good idea." She said. "Your going to be a great teacher Toph." She heard Aang say. She felt happy to hear that as an idea came to her, "Speaking of which, I want to show you something." "Ok." Aang said as he jumped from his perch to the ground. As soon as she felt him land, She hit the ground causing the earth under Aang's feet to rise dramatically and send him flying into a nearby tree. She smiled at the grunt of pain as Aang landed on a branch, "Now we're even." She felt happier than she ever felt in along time, but there was just one more thing, "Um, I'll take the belt back." She held out her hand waiting for her belt to be placed in it. Instead she felt it hit her not a moment later as it impacted on the side of her head, "Ow." She said in a bit of a daze from the ground. "…Sorry."