Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The last Airbender or any of its characters
A/N: "means character speech"
'means character thoughts'
---- Means POV change
Toph's Pride Ch. 2 Breaking through the Barrier
"They're not here." observed Katara sadly, holding Toph's trademark headband in her hands.
"If this is where they were supposed to land, then that just means that they must have survived." Aang pointed out. "As long as they're alive, we'll find them." Katara nodded as they both climbed on Appa and took off.
"How are we supposed to find them Aang?"
"If they're headed across the valley, then we should spot them if we keep flying in this direction."
"I sure hope so. I have to apologize to Toph."
"Why should you have to apologize? She's the one who started it." Aang reminded.
"I know, it's just…I don't know, I just saw the way she looked at me. She actually looked hurt when I called her a dingbat. Maybe I'm just imagining things."
"Now that you mention it, she did seem a little angrier than usual. I guess we'll just have to ask her when we meet up with them."
"Do you think she'd really tell us? Sharing her feelings isn't exactly something she makes a habit of doing."
"What are you talking about? She's always telling us what she's feeling."
"No, she's always telling us what's on her mind. She never tells us when something is bothering her."
"She'll open up eventually. It's just going to take some time."
"I hope you're right Aang."
"It's inevitable." Katara looked up in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"As long as Sokka's around, she'll have to open up to shut him up." Aang explained.
"That's true." Katara agreed and giggled at the thought. Aang, Appa and Momo soon joined in the laughter and the four friends filled the sky with laughter, squeaks and bellows as they set off to find their missing companions…
"ACHOO!!!!" sneezed both Sokka and Toph.
"Bless you. Thank you." They said in unison.
"Someone must be talking about us." Sokka deduced.
"Naaaah, it's probably because I kept my feet in the water too long."
Sokka stopped walking, causing Toph to bump into him and almost lose her balance.
"That reminds me, how did you manage to get all the way to the lake? You'd think that because I was bigger, that I'd go further than you. Unless blowing up the rock was what sent you further."
"Actually I stopped a few feet short of the spot where you landed and woke up. I just crawled on my hands and knees to get to the lake."
"Oh, so blowing up the rock didn't affect the distance you flew." Sokka nodded with full faith restored in physics.
"It might have if I hadn't put most of my focus into blowing up your side." Toph corrected as she made her way around Sokka.
"What, do you have a death wish? One mistake and you could have been hurt."
"I did get hurt." Toph called back.
"I meant that you could have been hurt worse." Sokka clarified. "Why'd you take the risk?" Toph stopped and looked back.
"It wasn't much of a risk. I was close enough to earth to use my bending if I needed to. You didn't have that option." Toph pointed out. "I wish you guys would make up your mind. First, you complain that I'm not being a team player; now, you're complaining about me making sure that you survived that fall in one piece." She scoffed as she continued forward. Sokka walked ahead of her and stopped.
"News flash, Toph! You're the one who was talking about how worrying about others makes a person weak." He reminded.
"With my feet off the ground, I am weak." She declared with a solemn look on her face before she pushing past him, leaving Sokka to stare after her.
'What did she mean by that?' he wondered as he followed…
"I can't see any sign of them." Katara said disappointedly.
"Me neither. The trees are too thick." Aang reported.
"Do you think they made it to the other side?" Katara asked hopefully.
"It's possible I guess. We were fighting Azula for a while."
"I'm worried about Sokka though. I hope he's okay."
"What about Toph? You said you weren't mad at her anymore." Aang reminded.
"Of course I hope that Toph is okay. She's our friend, and I don't want anything to happen to her, but at least she's an earthbender. Sokka doesn't have any bending abilities." Katara pointed out.
"That's true, but Sokka has survived this long on his skills, luck, and that enchanted boomerang of his that comes back no matter what. As the Avatar, I'm the master of all the elements and the bridge between this world and the spirit world, but that thing still has me beat in the supernatural department. Sokka will be fine as long as he and Toph stick together and refrain from killing each other." Aang looked at the darkening sky before them.
"It's getting late Katara. We'll fly to the other end of the valley to check for them. If they're not there, we can set up camp tonight and retrace our steps on foot in the morning."
"Okay." Katara agreed as they flew on…
"Ooooof."
"You okay klutz?" Toph asked.
"I am not a klutz. It's just so dark that I can't see where I'm going." Sokka defended.
"Dang. That must be so inconvenient." Toph said dryly.
"Sorry." Sokka apologized sheepishly. "Still, we should probably call it a night and set up camp."
"Whatever." Toph replied as she made her way over to a log and sat down. 'I needed a rest anyway.' A sharp pain in her ankle interrupted her thoughts as she realized that Sokka was raising her foot off the ground.
"Ow! What are you doing meathead?" She demanded.
"You need to keep your leg elevated." Sokka explained as he gently lowered her foot atop a nearby stump before he stood up and started walking away.
"I don't need you to take care of me. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Sokka stopped and turned around.
"Toph," he said "I really don't know what it is you're thinking of in that rock filled head of yours, aside from new ways to make fun of me, but I'm not trying to act like you're helpless. I don't pity you or anything like that. It's the simple fact that you're hurt and I'm trying to be your friend, but you're being so stubborn, you can't accept any kindness from others. Maybe you have a reason to be stuck up, and it's something Aang, Katara and I just don't understand, but that's only because you never give us a chance to. You always hide whatever you're feeling like you're making one of your earth barriers." And with that, Sokka turned back around and increased the distance between them.
"I'm going to go look for firewood. Call if a wild animal attacks." He called back before stopping. "Not that I think you need help or anything like that. I just want to be called back if potential dinner shows up." He continued walking away until she could no longer hear him…
Aang and Katara sat nestled in Appa's fur in front of the blazing fire they had set up in front of them.
"It's dark already and we still haven't found them." Katara frowned as she looked at the flames dancing in front of her. Aang took his eyes off the stars and looked in Katara's direction.
"They've probably already camped out for the night and plan to continue in the morning. We're bound to run into them sooner or later." Aang reassured.
"Maybe we should still be looking for them though."
"It won't do them any good if we get lost out there. We should rest now and head out in the morning."
"You're right Aang." Katara agreed before putting the fire out. "Goodnight."
"Night Katara." Aang returned as she yawned and fell asleep. Aang turned over to face the other way as he looked out into the woods.
'Sokka and Toph had better be okay. I don't know what Katara would do if something happened to them.' He thought before sleep took over…
'At least it's a warm night.' Thought Toph silently as she turned her head in the direction that Sokka was sitting and doing his best to ignore her.
'Not that I can blame him. I have been a total jerk to him, and he's only been trying to help me. Should I just keep this up until we find the others, or should I try to explain myself? I don't know what to do anymore.' She thought sadly as she lowered her head.
"Toph?" She immediately raised her head at the sound of his voice.
"What is it?" She asked with far less edge in her voice than normal.
"I was just wondering…" he trailed off as he put his hand behind his head while thinking of the best way to ask his question.
"What is it?" she asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Promise that you won't get angry and use your earthbending to open up a chasm to the center of the earth beneath my feet first."
Toph 'glanced' at her throbbing ankle. 'Not really sure if I could manage that with this leg; not that he needs to know that.' Toph thought to herself.
"Fine." She promised out loud.
"Okay, then. I was just wondering why you got so mad when my sister…called you a dingbat."
"Oh. That." Toph sighed and lowered her head again.
"Well, yeah. I mean, you didn't attack me when I called you a dingbat, so I was wondering if it was the word or who said it that got you so mad." Sokka finished.
"Believe me, I wanted to carry out my earlier threat."
"Then why didn't you?"
"I wasn't exactly in any condition to." Toph reminded.
"Oh, right." The gentle calls of crickets chirping and owls hooting were the only sounds keeping the forest from succumbing to complete silence before Sokka spoke up.
"So?"
"What?"
"You never answered my question." Sokka pointed out.
"Why does it matter anyway?"
"Hey, no fair. I asked you first."
Toph sighed. "You're not going to let up are you?"
"Tell you what. If you answer my question, I promise not to bug you at least until we meet up with Aang and Katara."
'That's probably the best I'll ever get from him.' Thought Toph with a small laugh.
"Fine, meathead. I'll talk." Toph agreed before beginning her explanation.
"Back home, my parents hid my existence from the entire village."
"I know. You told us that already." Sokka reminded.
"Yeah, but I never told you that it didn't start out that way. Before I started taking private lessons with -cough- 'Master' Yu six years ago, my parents had me enrolled into a private school. I always needed a bodyguard or two when I left the house, but it was the closest thing I had to freedom. All of that changed on that one day, when my escort was talking to the teacher about my schedules interfering with my schoolwork.
I wandered over to the play area and tried to use the opportunity to make some friends that weren't the children of my father's aristocrat friends. I came across some kids that were jumping in a familiar pattern that I recognized as hopscotch and asked if I could play with them. Now that I know the situation a bit better, I'm not all that surprised that they said 'no', but at the time I didn't know why because I could use my earthbending to detect their jumping pattern, and I'd heard some of the game rules before. I didn't think my blindness had anything to do with it because I thought that all blind people could 'see' the way that I could; which is why I had no idea what they meant when they called me a dingbat. I asked them what it meant, and they told me that it meant because I was blind as a wolf-bat, I couldn't possibly play because I would mess up the game since I couldn't see where I was going. They even went as far as to tell me that I wouldn't ever be able to do anything for myself because I was different, and that meant I wasn't worth as much as a normal person." At this point in the explanation, tears rolled down Toph's cheeks as her memories of that day flooded back.
"Wow, Toph. If Katara and I had known, we never would have called you something that hurt you like that. You know we don't think that about you." Sokka assured and Toph nodded to show that she acknowledged his words before continuing her tale.
"I tried telling them that I was worth just as much as they were, but every time I tried opening my mouth to defend myself, they kept chanting 'dingbat' over and over again until I finally couldn't take anymore. I covered my ears and ran back to where my escort should have been, but they followed after me."
"Why didn't you just send them flying or bury them?" Sokka asked.
"I didn't know that I was an earthbender at the time; not until I became so upset that I locked myself inside of a stone barrier. I kept pleading for someone to let me out, but the only responses I got were dingbat and the sounds of laughter until my escort finally found me. I was lucky that he had been a student of Master Yu; Otherwise I would have been stuck between, well a rock and a hard place. After that little stunt my parents decided that it was no longer safe for me to go out in public."
"But if you were such a capable earthbender, why'd you're parents hide you away? I'm not saying they should have trained you for fighting, even though you won the championship for 4 years, but I would think that they'd have figured that you could protect yourself."
"They didn't know that I was an earthbender at the time either at first, so they thought it had been a practical joke from one of the other kids; or worse, that it had been an attack from someone after my family's money. Until I could prove that it had been me, because I was an earthbender, they took matters into their own hands and put me under house arrest where no one could do that to me again. Kind of ironic how they tried to keep me away from the person who was responsible for trapping me, only to trap me with the culprit.
A few months later after constant begging and pleading, my parents finally hired Master Yu to verify that I was, big surprise, an earthbender. They paid for my lessons so that I could start controlling my powers at will. I thought that they were finally viewing me as something other than a blind, fragile, little girl. It wasn't long before I found out that my parents had instructed Master Yu to keep me at a beginners level, effectively taking away my last chance at freedom, or so I thought. One day I overheard Master Yu telling my parents that he had to cancel my lesson for the day. When my parents demanded that he explain himself, he informed them that he wanted to boost the ratings of his school by entering something new called the Earth Rumble tournament. My parents were furious with him. They threatened to run him out of business all together, until he told them that he sincerely thought that he had been pushing me a little to fast and wanted to slow things down so I wouldn't get hurt. My parents instantly agreed to this after hearing his 'concerns' and decided to put more restrictions on me to ensure that I got 'proper rest'. I guess that I really should be thanking Master Yu though."
"What? But he held you back and got your parents to limit you even more than before, just so he could boost his ratings." Sokka pointed out.
"And it's because he kept me at the basics that I'm as good as I am." Toph stated.
"Okay you totally lost me now." Sokka stated as he scratched his head in confusion. "How does getting stuck at the bottom raise you to champion status?"
Toph smirked. "Because I'd practiced the basics for so long, I had better control when I perfected my own style of fighting. And once I felt I was good enough, I entered Earth Rumble II and won every match I had until Twinkle-toes came and beat me. You know the rest from there." Toph finished.
Nothing was said between them while their campfire illuminated their faces, when Sokka abruptly got up and sat next to Toph.
"Wow, Toph. I had no idea." He consoled as he put a hand upon her shoulder.
"Well, now you know." She said simply. 'And soon they all will ' she thought as she looked away.
"No, I mean I have no idea how your parents couldn't see what an amazing daughter they have. You might not be able to see the smile on my face Toph, but your parents are the ones who are truly blind."
Toph turned to face him, and even though it was true that she couldn't see the smile on his face, she could feel the sincerity in his words.
"Do you really mean that?" Toph asked shyly, as the very idea seemed ridiculous to her. After all, she had given him plenty of reasons to think otherwise.
"Of course I mean it. You can't be anything less than amazing to pass the extremely difficult selection tests needed to become one of my friends." Sokka stated.
"Huh?" Toph asked confusedly.
"What do you mean, 'huh?'. Aang is the embodiment of thousands of past lives that were also known as the Avatar. Plus he's the last known airbender in existence. Appa and Momo are the last known living flying animals that inhabited the Air temples nearly a century ago. And my sister Katara, will never know I said this about her, but she impressively mastered waterbending in less than a month."
"But where does that leave me?" Toph interrupted.
"Simple. You're a champion earthbender that never lets anything stop you from achieving your goals." Sokka answered, leaving Toph speechless, until she couldn't hold back the tears threatening to form any longer and started crying.
'Oh great' thought Sokka, 'We're finally getting along and then I have to go and make her cry.' Sokka mentally slapped himself, but was thoroughly surprised when Toph leaned forward and buried her face into his chest.
"Thank you Sokka! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" her muffled voice repeated over and over. Sokka hesitated before he put his arms around her and smiled.
"You're welcome Toph." He whispered in her ear as her sobs echoed through the night…
A/N: Chapter two is through. This is just my take on Toph's past. I hope I kept the year leaps accurate. As usual, sorry for any OOC.
