Even if that protection had been stifling enough to drive her away for half a decade.
They reached Gaoling so early in the morning that it still counted as night. She let her wave dissolve and lead him through the city on foot, fighting off the exhaustion to keep her back straight and proud even if there was no one awake to see them as they walked straight to the estate. The gate was locked but that didn't matter, it was the work of a second to open a quick hole in the wall to let them in then closing it back up behind them. For just an instant all the fear and weariness were pushed out of her mind by the weight of nostalgia and it felt just like the old days, sneaking in and out through the wall to get to the Earth Rumble without anybody ever being the wiser.
She felt where the guards were and allowed a group to spot them, laughing out loud when the leader confronted them with a "Halt intruders! Don't even try to get away!"
"You guys are new, aren't you?" she asked, digging the seal that she'd carried with her all those years out of her bag and flashing it at them. When they just stood around staring in silent amazement she rolled her eyes and pointed at the house. "You probably really oughta be getting your bosses now, don't you think?"
After they ran off, the leader stammering back as he went "Wait here! O-or not here, if that's not what you want. Wait wherever you want! You probably know this place better than me!" she guided Iroh to the house. It was different than it had been the last time she was there, some things missing, others added, furniture rearranged here and there. When her parents finally came out to see if what the guards were telling them was really true they found her asking Iroh to describe a vase that was bugging her by behind in a spot where there had been no vase before; this was supposed to be her house that she had memorized better than anywhere else in the world so was was up with that vase being there?
When she felt them come in she froze for a moment, then turned to awkwardly start greeting them. She wasn't exactly sure what the right way to say 'Hi' to your parents was when you were seeing them for the first time in years after running away from home, but before she could really try to work it out they were both hugging her tightly enough that it choked. She'd always thought that whenever she finally gave in and went back to see her parents again she'd be able to keep herself cool and aloof, at least until she'd finally gotten it through their heads that she wasn't going to break if someone sneezed at her too hard, but with their arms wrapped around her she suddenly found herself crying her eyes out and squeezing them back with an even tighter embrace. It was the exhaustion. It had to be.
When they finally broke away, Lao and Poppy turned to Iroh and both bowed low to him. "Thank you so much for bringing our little girl back to us," Poppy told him.
"Any reward you could ask for is yours," Lao added.
"Please, stand," Iroh told them both. "I'm afraid that there's been a misunderstanding."
"Yeah," Toph added, "I'm the one who brought him here. We're kind of in trouble, and need somewhere to sleep... for a long time."
They turned back and finally really looked at Toph and an instant later Poppy's hand fluttered to her mouth to vainly try to hide a gasp that Toph's ears would have picked up even if her feet hadn't been strong enough to feel her mouth drop open. "Toph! You look as if you're half-way to the land of the dead!"
"Gee, thanks." It wasn't like she couldn't have guessed what she looked like, but her mother didn't need to say it like that. Of course, her parents wouldn't be at their best themselves after being dragged out of bed to greet her in the middle of the night, so just for then she'd be nice and give them a pass if they said anything like that.
"I'll call for food, it you think you can wait a short while before sleeping," Lao told them graciously. "That will give us time to have our finest guestroom prepared for your travelling companion, and, of course, to make sure that the servants have been diligent about dusting and airing out your room, Toph."
Good food instead of dried produce and chunks of unseasoned meat was just about the only thing that could, have made them want to hold off sleep any longer. Toph suspected that the only thing that had kept them from feeling unbearably hungry for at least the last two days was that by the time they reached that state they were already unbearably tired instead, and it drowned out the hunger. "Food sounds great," he told him, "Oh, and do you think you could have the servants prepare whatever the best tea you have in the house is?"
"Of course," Lao said. "Anything for our daughter."
Someone, whether it was her parents or the chefs, was smart enough to start with food that didn't need to be cooked and could be brought straight out to them. Or maybe the chefs just didn't want to fire up the ovens for the day quite yet. Either way Toph was only able to control herself long enough to tell her parents, remembering how they were about wanting her to be neat and dainty at all times, "Just so you know, I do still remember how to use good table manners, but try to forgive me if I ignore everybody and eat like a pig. I've barely had enough in the last week to make one decent meal." That said she tucked in, hoping that it would be enough to hold off an argument about propriety.
They tried to fill her in on news about what had happened in Gaoling over the last five years while she ate, apparently forgetting that while she'd still lived there they'd done their absolute best to make sure that she didn't know anything about what happened outside of the estate. Because of that things like who the neighboring children had married, whose fortunes had risen or fallen, or which of Poppy's friends had had new children didn't mean much of anything to her.
When they finished, much faster than was probably healthy for the amount of food they'd shoveled in, a servant lead Iroh to his room while Lao and Poppy escorted Toph to hers. They both assured her that they hadn't changed anything at all, though Poppy added, "Of course, that will need to change now. Oh, Toph, you've grown so much! At the very least we'll need to get rid of all your old dresses and have new ones made."
Toph stepped into her room and didn't let her expression flicker at all at what she found there, although after moving perfectly normally though the rest of the house she made a subtle show then of holding out her arm while she walked forward until it found the bed. She ran her hand along it all the way to the head, remarking for their benefit, "I can feel that it still has all the old bedding and everything. Thank you, I know I'll be more comfortable having it be just the way it always was." She turned back to where they were both still hovering at the door and forced a smile. "I'm really sorry to ask you to waste the whole first day that we'll have together again, as a family, but could you make sure nobody tries waking me up until tomorrow morning? It's been so long since I've had any sleep that I don't think I'll wake up today at all, and things have been so stressful that if I hear somebody opening the door when I finally feel like I should be safe I'll probably scream my head off."
"Of course we will," Lao promised. "We're so glad to have you back, having to wait an extra day to really speak with you will be a small price to pay to make sure you can be happy with us now."
"But, Toph..." Poppy hesitantly added, "There is one thing we'd like to know before then. Since we had no time for introductions, who is that man? What is he to you?"
"It's too complicated to talk about now. I promise I'll tell you I'm done sleeping, but for now can you just just accept that all you need to know is that he's with me?"
"We... suppose," Lao said, not sounding at all happy about it, but when she climbed into bed without taking off her clothes, or even trying to brush off some of the dirt coating her body to make sure they wouldn't lecture her about what it would do to the bedclothes, he seemed to realize that she really was too tired to keep talking. "For now it can be enough that somehow his connection with you was enough to bring you home to us at last. Goodnight, my daughter." They closed the door, and a second later she heard a faint click.
Once she was alone she climbed right back out of bed and sighed, her shoulders drooping. She walked over to her window and reached out to touch it, then shook her head sadly when she found metal under her fingers.
She dug through her closet until her fingers felt the distinctive embroidery on the collar of a nightgown she remembered which had been designed to hang on her so loosely at twelve that it still basically fit her even after puberty had worked its spells. Finding and changing into it gave her parents enough time to walk away from her room, and once she was done she twisted her door opened and slipped out to find Iroh.
It was easy enough to work out where he'd be; unless things had changed even more than she'd already noticed there was only one room that they could describe as their 'finest' guestroom. Luckily he was still awake when she reached him, even though it would have been easy for him not to be if felt at all like she did. She walked into his room without even thinking of knocking; after everything that had happened since the day she'd pulled him out of the mountain it just felt like privacy no longer existed between them, or maybe like they'd reached a point where privacy could include each other. "Can I stay here with you?" she asked softly as she closed the door behind her. "Not just tonight, but for however long we stay here?" And there was that damnable tremor in her voice again, though she'd thought that she'd left it behind with the abandoned village, the one that she didn't want him to be able to hear.
But wanting didn't mean much, because when he asked, "What's wrong?" his voice was worried enough that she was sure he had anyway.
She pressed herself back against the wall, the feel of cold stone against her back making her feel more secure, and bowed her head as she answered. "...There are bars on the windows in my room. A new metal door that locks on the outside, like it belongs on a jail cell. And they got somebody to cover the walls and floor and ceiling with wood planks, to try and keep me from just bending a hole in the stone. I guess they still don't understand that I'm not as blind as they always believed, if they thought that I just wouldn't notice..." Her voice caught, and for the second time that day she was pulled into a tight hug. She didn't start crying again, but her whole body shook as she added, "Lucky thing they never heard about me metalbending, huh? Like that door could ever stop me."
"You are safe here, Toph. If you feel sorrow you don't need to feign strength in front of me." He gave her one more squeeze then released her except for a arm around her shoulder that he used to guide her toward the bed. "Of course you can stay."
Although the bed was more than big enough for both of them to have plenty of room, once they were both in it she curled right up against him, the only person in the whole building that she felt like she could trust.