A/N: Toph gives his son his first taste of metalbending. GB!Toph/Lin father-son bonding. I think Toph would be proud of Lin when she showed signs of metalbending, since it's not something everyone can do.

Submission for:

Gender-Swap Boot Camp: metal

Toph dropped his space band into his son's hands and asked him, "Do you feel anything?"

Li tossed the piece of rock back and forth between his hands. "It's your special space rock, Dad."

Toph nodded and asked again, "Yes, but do you feel anything?"

Li closed his eyes and concentrated, feeling with his bending the individual particles that made up the space band. "Yes, I can feel the little pieces of Earth inside, but it's not the same like the boulders we usually bend."

"Right," Toph said, taking the band and bending it flat before giving it back to his son. "Today, Li, I'm going to teach you how to metalbend."

Li's eyes lit up as he turned to his father. "Really?"

Toph nodded. "Now this band is special. The meteorite is part rock, part metal, which makes it a good way to bridge the gap between the two materials. I want you to concentrate and feel those same particles and try to reform the band."

Li nodded before he stared back at the strip of metal-rock in his hands. He extended his senses through the metal, just like his father always thought him, moving over the Earth and the strange ones, imagining them folding on each other, curving to his will.

Li let out his breath. The edges of the strip had moved slightly, pointing to each other across the ends. "I'm sorry, Dad," Li said, handing the band back to his father. "I don't think I'm a metalbender."

"What are you talking about?" Toph said. "You got way further than Twinkletoes one his first try, and he can't metalbend at all." Toph placed a hand around Li's shoulders. "You got it, kid."

Toph split the band in half and handed a piece to Li. "You keep practicing with that and come find me when you can do this." Toph bent the metal-rock into a ring before slipping on his finger. "Can you do that?"

Li nodded, "Yes, Sir."

Toph smirked. "That's my boy."