Set a few hours after the episode "The Western Air Temple" and before the morning training session of "The Firebending Masters."
Burned
"Please, just let me take a look." Zuko insisted. "I promise I won't do anything that hurts."
Toph folded her arms, refusing to give in. She may have forgiven the firebender for burning her feet, but she was still adamant that no one touch them but Katara.
"Just go away, Sparky. I'm fine. Katara says my feet will heal. So I don't need you or anyone else looking at them in the meantime."
"Fine," Zuko signed. "Then at least let me carry you back over to the fire pit. Your feet are going to become permanent raison-prunes if you sit in that water any longer."
Toph splashed her feet in the fountain one last time before relenting. She hated not walking. The water helped sooth even if wasn't mixed with Katara's healing gifts. But she had been soaking for quite a while and her feet were feeling more wrinkled than normal. She would have refused help to cross the short distance, but since Zuko was the one who'd ended up on unofficial "Toph-sitting duty" this shift while she healed, Toph didn't mind taking advantage of making him do some extra work as payback.
"I guess you're right. Besides, I kinda like having a prince as my personal palanquin."
"Lucky me," Zuko muttered, but scooped her up gently making a chair out of his arms.
Toph placed her arms around Zuko's neck for support. He carried her with little effort back to the area where they cooked all their meals. Dinner wasn't for another hour, which meant the others were still off doing chores. It was just the two of them for the moment…and Appa, who lazed about on his side sunning himself in the dying heat of the day. It was Zuko's job to get the fire started and boil the tea.
He lowered Toph to her sleeping bag, but just after he set her down, curiosity got the better of him. He grasped on of her ankles and lifted it hoping to see the extent of her burns. Toph shrieked.
"Let me go!"
Zuko did just in time to narrowly avoid a chunk of rock that sailed past his head.
"Don't touch me!"
When he turned back, the girl had erected an earth tent in his face with her securely inside.
"Toph! Toph!" But there was no answer. Slowly, Zuko turned to light the cook fire with his bending. He hesitated, reminded of how his irresponsibility with his gift had hurt Toph. "I wasn't going to touch your feet," he said, hoping she could hear him inside her tent. "I just wanted to see what color the burns were. I mean no offense to Katara, cuz she's a good healer and all, but I think I know a little bit more about burn damage than she does, considering my own scar."
Zuko sat there sulking for a few moments listening, but no response came. He lit the fire with a burst of chi and put the kettle on. He heard rumbling behind him as the door to Toph's tent slid open. He couldn't see her face behind her long bangs, but when she spoke in his direction; her voice was calm and even.
"I can tell you weren't lying. Sorry, I threw a rock at your head."
"S'okay. Sorry I scared you too."
An awkward silence then passed. Cricket-spiders filled the gap with their chirping. In the distance, Appa snorted and rolled over onto his back.
"Soooo, what did you mean about your scar?" Toph finally asked.
"Aside from the obvious?" Zuko snorted.
"Helloooooo!" Toph waved a hand in front of her blind face, annoyance in her voice.
"I know that!" Zuko snapped, then seeing Toph's scowl he tried again. Why was he always messing up when it came to everything lately? A hand self-consciously went to his face. "No, I mean – I'm just surprised none of the others mentioned it."
"Well, I think Sokka did refer to you as 'angry, ponytail boy' once."
In spite of himself, Zuko laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing. I'm just kinda flattered he didn't even mention my worst feature."
"Well, you can get pretty angry..."
"I know." Zuko still had a small half-smile. "But my scar is…Heck, I don't even have a ponytail anymore! I cut it off a long time ago when Uncle and I became refugees in the Earth Kingdom." He ran a hand through his shaggy locks as if to prove his point, then remembering her lack of vision tried to describe it instead. "I have, uh, been growing it out again though. I can put it up in a topknot if I want. Not that I'm wearing one now. And…I'm rambling aren't I?" Zuko realized as he heard Toph giggling. "Sorry. It's just so weird trying to imagine your mental picture of me."
"Go on. What else do you look like now, Sparky?"
"Um, what have your feet told you about me already?"
Toph put her head on her hand and adopted her best thinker pose and pondered how to best describe to Zuko the way she saw him.
"The vibrations when you walk give me a good sense of your height and built. Your voice tells me your approximate age as well. You're taller than the rest of us, except Haru. And I'd say you're maybe a year older than Sokka. You move like a firebender, which is to be expected, but you carry yourself like nobility, kinda like my parents, only you're not stuck up about it, like some people I've met. You just have confidence and are proud of being who you are."
Zuko stared longer than was polite, taking in all she had said. "And you can tell all that from your feet?"
"Yep."
"That's pretty amazing!"
Toph shrugged. "I know. Buuut," she lingered for definite pause. "They tell me nothing about your burn."
Zuko was silent.
"C'mon, Princey. I'll show you mine if you show me yours."
"No!"
Toph heard his body turn away, his back to her now.
"Please. Just let me take a look. I promise I won't do anything that hurts."
Zuko felt the sting of his own words from earlier used against him. He watched the water in the kettle, still not boiling yet. Here was one person who didn't know about his greatest shame. He wanted to keep it that way, didn't he? Out of the corner of his right eye, he saw Toph's wide, seemly innocent, toothy smile. Coming to a decision, he shifted his weight from where he sat cross-legged and faced Toph again. He sighed and let out a deep breath.
"The scar is on my face." But if Zuko expected any surprise from the blind girl at that revelation, he got none as she just continued to look in his general direction, though she might have blinked at little.
"Here, let me guide your hands," Zuko said letting her know what he planned to do first this time before taking her wrists.
"I can do it myself!" Toph pulled away on instinct. She wasn't about to be babied by anyone.
"I'm just trying to help!"
"Well, I'm not helpless!" She folded her arms keeping them out of his reach.
"And I'm not used to people touching my face, so we're even!" The prince shouted back. What was it with this girl? Anything he did around her seemed to be the wrong move. "Just forget it! This was a bad idea!" He threw up his arms in exasperation.
"Wait!" Toph lowered the remaining walls of her earth tent, and reached out a hand again. "How about a compromise?" She'd overreacted and she knew it. She just resented people doing things for her so much, and her recent situation had left her feeling blinder than usual. All the prince's fault of course, but he was only trying to make it up to her. He didn't pity her, as so many others would. She sensed he had similar feelings about how people viewed his own scar. "You guide one hand and I'll follow with the other."
For a moment nothing happened, and then Toph felt a hand on hers. Zuko brought it to his left cheek. She cupped the other one herself and felt him try not to flinch. Letting go, Zuko closed his eyes and kept his breathing as calm as possible, like a meditation exercise as Toph's fingers explored his face.
Toph could feel the immediate difference in the sides of the prince's face. The right was smooth with the light fuzz of teenage stubble he had yet to shave for the day. In stark contrast, the left was tough and leathery, concaved in places that reminded her of the topiary of the rocky canyon vs. the meadowy plain of his other side. Thinking of her own feet ever being burned that badly made her almost pull away in fear, but she didn't. She kept her touch light as she probed everywhere. His nose was unblemished and aristocratic, same with his lips and chin. The burn must go upward then.
She brushed back his shaggy bangs and felt its outline, the lack of an eyebrow on the left, and how the scar reached into the hairline a little. Finally, she found his ear that had the same texture as the rest of his burned skin. She held in a gasp as her fingers compared it's malformed, shrunken shape with the normalness of his right. Toph could sense Zuko's nervousness in the tiny vibrations his body sent out and she realized just how much courage it took him to let her do this. She had so many questions she wanted to ask, but she kept them to herself.
"Thank you." Toph lowered her hands having gotten what she needed. "I know that wasn't easy for you, but I think I understand you a lot better now."
Zuko's response was to let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "The answer is my father."
"What?"
"That's the question you're trying not to ask isn't it? Who gave me that scar? It was the mark my father gave me right before he banished me." Zuko then told her the story and Toph listened quietly. When Zuko got to the part about his flaming face, the tea water whistled reminding him of his own screams and shame from three years ago. He used the distraction to turn away from his bitter memories and tend to the boiling pot of tea.
"That's horrible!" Toph said. "And I thought my parents were bad." For once, she really didn't know what to say. At least she knew her own parents loved her. She wondered if Aang and the others knew the full story. She let Zuko have a moment with the tea before she allowed herself to change the subject. "But that wasn't what I was going to ask. Actually, I was curious if you could see on your left side or are you partially blind like me?
Zuko wrinkled his brow, the lines of the scarred side of his face formed deep concaves as he did so. He spoke carefully, trying to find the right words to describe it. He was surprised at this being her most prominent question, but shouldn't have given her own background. Nothing about this girl should surprise him anymore. He almost regretted jumping to conclusions and sharing his story in detail. He hated to be pitied, but he'd figured by now from her own behavior that Toph Bei Fong didn't pity anybody.
"I can see," Zuko explained. "But it's hardly one hundred per cent. I have no peripheral vision on that side. My left eye only opens about half of what my right can. I can see clearly enough when I focus on a freestanding object, but movement makes things fuzzy. While I can usually concentrate enough to follow it, it often leaves me with a platypus-bear of a headache. But I make up for it with my other senses. My hearing is still good, maybe even better than most because of the way I trained to make up for my lack of vision, despite how ugly my ear looks. I also use my firebending to sense the body heat in people and the flow of their chi paths, kinda like you do with your earthbending vibrations I guess."
"That's pretty cool. And for the record, I don't think you're ugly. I really have no concept of what ugly is. I like your face because it has character. It reminds me of the texture of the earth. So many faces are bland and blah like the neverending sameness of a farm field stretching on forever. It's boring! That's why I like older faces, like your uncle. Old faces have variety with low and high places, both rough and smooth ones too. Your face tells a story, like the land itself. And from what you've told me it's a pretty exciting one, even if it's been hard or scary in places. But you should be proud of those parts too, because it means you're a survivor."
"I guess so," Zuko mused. He'd never thought of it that way. While some of it seemed hard to swallow, it was a refreshing perspective after he'd dared to bear his scar to her.
"Now are you going to look at my feet or not?"
Zuko shook his head in awe and resignation at her sudden demand. Carefully, like he'd tried before, he held her ankles one by one and looked at the soles of both feet.
"You'll be fine. Right now your feet are still pink and tender, but you only caught the edge of my flame. They won't scar and with Katara's treatments you should be back to normal in a few weeks. And drink this." Zuko held out a cup of steaming tea for her.
"How will this help my feet?" she half joked. Toph could pour her own tea, but given all they'd been through she wasn't going to protest being waited on by a prince as she took her cup.
"I don't know. Though Uncle always says that tea is good for helping cure almost anything. But be careful it's hot."
Ignoring his warning, Toph downed the tea in nearly one gulp and wiped her mouth on her sleeve.
"Y'know something, Princey. You make some pretty good tea."
"Thanks." There were times working in the tea shop under Uncle's tutelage that Zuko had wondered if his efforts would ever be appreciated. However, with time and patience, he had improved. It was good to know he'd mastered something other than firebending in times like this. He poured a cup of his own and let it warm his hands. He was lost enough in his own memories that he almost missed Toph's next words.
"I'm glad you decided to join us after all."
Zuko examined Toph for a moment. He could feel the glow of her inner heat – radiant, strong, and loyal. With a smile after swallowing a mouthful of tea Zuko answered, "Me too."
"Now where is everybody?" Toph complained. "It's dinner time. Their tea is getting cold. And I'm starving! Let's eat already!"
Notes: Zuko and Toph, my two favorite characters. Another moment I would have loved to see in the series, but never happened. And while Katara and Mai got to touch the scar I always thought it might mean the most coming from Toph. The blind bandit and the scarred prince. Alas, the field trip moment that never was. Pure friendship piece here. But while I fully support cannon Maiko, I confess to some Toko leanings as well.
