Toph Beifong didn't remember the last time she had cried.

Perhaps it had been back then, when she had escaped the tight grasp of her overbearing parents. Not cried on her own with only one person around, but publicly broken down into tears. But she couldn't help it. Why did this hurt so much? Why did she want to throw back her head and shout until her lungs shrivelled up? At that point in time she couldn't think of anything but wishing she were lying on the futon instead.

Aang hadn't left her side. The Avatar knelt down slowly as Toph dabbed at her mentor's forehead, blindly fumbling to brush the strands of hair from her face. Was her make-up washing off? Was Kyoshi aware they were with her?

"I'm sure she is," was the reply to the question Toph wasn't sure she had spoken out loud. But it came from Aang, who dutifully remained by her side, passing her the folded up scrap of cloth to help whenever Kyoshi's body temperature began rising.

Kuruk had said that they had an idea about how to help. It came in the form of an anti-venom. The catch was that they had to go out and find the location where the attack had taken place, and search for the dangerous viper. But Kuruk hadn't gone with them, instead opting to remain behind.

There he sat, sulking in the corner, legs pulled up to his chest and eyes half-mast. Ever since they had left, he had remained in a silent vigil, stirring only when Aang moved up close to ask for something. Every now and again Toph could sense distant things. They weren't pictures with sound or outline, nor vibrations which allowed her to get an instant detailed map of her surroundings. But somehow she just knew where things were.

Yangchen was out there leaping through the branches of trees, skimming across the surface for twitches of shadows. Roku had in his hand a torch, the fire crowning the larger end snapping and snarling with frustration. And there were two others with them, two that Toph didn't know the names of. But then again she didn't really care.

She guessed it had something to do with her connection to the Avatar Spirits, and Kuruk sending out mental directions to his colleagues. In that brief moment when the Avatars minds linked, something happened. Mind sharing, she supposed. Yangchen and Kyoshi had, apparently, both done it with her.

But there was one thing she couldn't figure out even with the short bursts of information invading her head. Wringing the soaked cloth onto the floor, her hand fell slowly onto her lap. Aang had reached out to take it, to rinse it again, but he stopped. Sensing there was something to be said, his fingers curled back into a very loose fist and he retracted his arm again.

"How did this happen?" she asked to no one and everyone. Her eyes flicked upward in that moment and a chill ran down Aang's spine—she must have had some sort of cold look in her eye, and she did. Toph didn't know that, and inclined her chin when nobody responded to her inquiry.

Aang looked to Kuruk, as if wondering that himself. But the Waterbender was too deep in thought to respond.

If he was talking to the other Avatars, that conversation abruptly ended when Toph threw the cloth in his general direction. It missed, because he hadn't spoken in some time, and smacked against the wall. Jumping, he caught the cloth before it fell to the ground and looked up sharply. Toph's face was twisted in grief and hurt, and she growled, "I asked you how this happened!"

Sighing, Kuruk bowed his head in resignation. He had been hoping nobody would have asked him that. Now it made things more difficult.

"Walking helps me think," he said simply. "I was … walking through a charred forest within the Earth Kingdom, just trying to get a closer feel of how much was lost. It was night, I was a bit bored and … I felt like something had been watching me for some time. I passed that off as tiredness, figured I'd head back somewhere to sleep it off." There was guilt in his voice, as if he were dragging the confession out of himself. And then he choked on a laugh, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe what had happened next.

"Kyoshi just came outta nowhere, told me to fuck off. She had her sword in her hand, shield in the other—I didn't know what to think. Kyoshi rarely uses her shield. It was covered in blood and bite marks, so I guessed she'd been fighting and was just looking for a bit more action. When she's battling she tends to get overexcited. It's one of the things she enjoys, besides games."

Kuruk took a steadying breath through his nose, lifted his head, and let his eyes lift a second later. Leaning forward, he pushed himself up using one hand and rubbed his wrist as he paced half of the room. "I laughed at her, told her she was welcome to fight me if she wanted. This … weird look came over her. I didn't understand it. I didn't know what to think."

Toph could picture it as Kuruk brought up the expression in his mind. No colour, no outline. But a sense of where everything was. It was like Kyoshi walking into a wind current. A mixture of disbelief, fear and anger, as the shorter male dismissed her warning. But she had a deepening pit in her stomach, and her mind raced ahead, slotting together the pieces of what had transpired.

Kuruk went on. "She started shouting at me, told me it wasn't a time for joking around. Then she turned around behind me and stared into the bushes, and I couldn't see what it was at first. I didn't even see it until it was too late. The Spirit Viper lunged … it was aiming for me … Kyoshi just threw me aside. Took the hit herself."

Tentative fingers glided over sensitive skin, searching for the puncture wound. She knew nothing of snake bites. Words failed to come to mind, she couldn't respond or hear what was being said behind her. It'll be okay, she thought. You'll be okay. We're gonna find a cure.

Toph recoiled as her fingers finally found the wound upon her throat. It was a slight touch, a brush against it as gentle as a butterfly's wing. Kyoshi screamed. Kuruk scrambled to her side, holding down her hands as she thrashed and snarled. Aang pulled Toph back sharply, trying to avoid being struck.

"You two should go outside. Go!"

Toph found herself dragged outside, Aang's hand clamped around her upper arm. She let herself be led as the gears in her head halted. That scream echoed through her mind like a mantra. She had thought it impossible. Kyoshi was so strong and fearless, Toph had never thought she'd fall so hard. She had never believed it possible that such a sound could be ripped out of her throat like that—that she had been the one to cause it!

The thought that Toph had made her cry out was sickening. Aang walked her to the side of a pond and they sat down. For a moment there was silence while he tried to figure out what to say. Then he wrapped one arm around her shoulders, pulling her a bit closer so she could rest her head on his cheek.

"You really care about her, don't you?" he asked quietly.

Toph shuddered, crossing her arms over her abdomen and closing her eyes. "Yeah."

Aang sighed. "I don't understand any of this. I don't know if I want to. Kyoshi isn't the sort of person you should get involved with." Toph bristled. "She's a bad influence. She's-"

"She's not a bad person!" Toph snapped, shoving him. "Just because you don't like her doesn't mean I shouldn't!"

"She hurts people, Toph!" Aang shouted in retort. "She hurts you. All those times I woke up to see you with bruises on your arms. Jerking and gasping in your sleep, waking up more tired than when you went to sleep."

"It's called training. Maybe you've heard of it?"

"I don't see how you can call that sort of brutality training!" Toph winced as her head began to pound. It felt like something cold and sharp was being pushed into her temple. "I'll never forget that hand-shaped mark on your arm. You still didn't tell me what happened."

Toph glared at him. "I told you what happened. I fell in a pit of water, she got me out. It happens. I shouldn't have been stupid enough to fall in in the first place."

"You're lying!" Aang bellowed. "You're lying to me again. When will you stop, Toph?" Toph felt a shock run through her.

Kyoshi was training her and she was in do-it-or-die mode. Toph figured that even though she wasn't too interested in dying so soon, she wasn't going to let her mentor see her as weak.

That was her mindset until Kyoshi deepened the water pit while she was half way across.

"Are you insane? I can't swim!"

"Now's a good time for you to learn how."

"You didn't fall in. I saw it."

"Shut up."

"Kyoshi's head is so messed up her thoughts and memories are flooding out all over the place. I saw what happened that night!"

Shaking with rage, Toph blinked more tears from her eyes. "I said shut up!" she roared, pulling back her arm. Before she knew what had happened, Aang was spread-eagle on the ground, his eyes wide with shock. Cradling his jaw, he stared up at the Earthbender, his teacher and girlfriend, unable to comprehend that she had just punched him in the face.

Toph couldn't digest it either. She didn't care to. Turning on her heel, she ran in the direction of Kuruk's voice as the Water-born Avatar exited the house, moving past him in a green rush of wind. She ran too far left, crashed into the outside wall. In a few short seconds she had fumbled for the door, thrown herself inside and slammed the door behind her.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

"Nice night, I take it?"

Aang opened his eyes and glanced backwards towards the newest member of the team. Toph Beifong, who stood with her arms by her side, her expression neutral. It was, indeed, a nice night. It brought with it a sense of peace which had been so very rare as of late.

Ever since she had joined their merry little entourage, they had been pursued by angry women, chased by a massive tank, and had quite a few sleepless nights. The bonding hadn't gone all that well in Toph's opinion. From the easy connection the Air- and Waterbenders (or Water Tribesman, in Sokka's case) had made, being paired with an Earthbender seemed to feel like a kick in the face.

Toph didn't see the half-smile that Aang sent at her, though she took his response—turning back around to gaze outwards across the glade they had settled in—as an invitation to join him. Lazily tossing a bag of berries onto his lap, she sat down and leaned forward slightly, her head angled towards the grass in front of her, but eyes ever unseeing.

"Do you miss your parents?" Aang asked, curious, but with a sadly thoughtful note in his voice. Toph didn't know what he was getting at, but her response was immediate.

"No."

Aang seemed startled by the sharpness of her response. Shifting into a half-sitting, half-reclining position, the young, blind Earthbender breathed a sigh of relief. And that was the simple, honest truth. Five days of freedom, and it felt good. She didn't have to listen to the constant nagging of her parents as they ordered the servants to do her bidding.

Out in the wilderness, she didn't have to take anything from anyone but herself.

"Not even a little bit?" Aang probed.

Toph narrowed her eyes at him. There was an obvious unspoken no. "What are you getting at?"

The Avatar fell quiet. Something hung heavy in the air; it weighed down his shoulders and made his heart skip when the question rolled out of her mouth. Toph waited for him to answer, the young Earthbender not understanding the reason for his abrupt silence.

Gazing at the ground for a moment, Aang turned his eyes skyward. "I was just curious." His voice was quiet. Meek.

Toph retreated into her own thoughts at that point, with nothing left to say. There was a mutual, slightly uncomfortable and awkward silence stretching out between them as the night went on. It wasn't long before Toph felt a pair of footsteps gliding across the ground, not much different from an Airbender, but still fluid and graceful.

"Are you two going to come back to camp?" asked Katara gently.

Unaccustomed to taking orders, Toph bristled. "I'll stay out here a while longer," she replied to the Waterbender. But Aang got up without a word, blinking at her as he passed, and glancing uncertainly at Toph as he headed back down to the camp. Sokka was throwing some straw for Appa, who was lightly dozing as he consumed his evening meal.

For a moment Toph figured Katara would follow him, but she just sat down. "So, how are you settling in?" she asked.

"Fine."

There was a pause. It was as if Katara was expecting her to say more than that, more than Toph's usual blunt facts. When no further explanation came, Katara tried again. "So, uh … how's Aang's training coming along?"

"Good." Actually it wasn't good. It was appalling. But Toph hoped if she sounded approving, Katara would just leave her alone.

A few days ago the Waterbender had said something very hurtful to Toph. They had been pursued by a massive armoured tank while exhausted and without sufficient sleep, and Katara's temper had gotten the better of her. Toph hadn't exactly been courteous herself, even though she hadn't been as affected by the late night stop up as the others.

Back in Gaoling, she had pulled all-nighters repeatedly. Earth Rumble Tournaments took place during the later hours of the day, bordering into the night. It was because some of the combatants had lasted for much longer than expected, and nobody knew when the fights would end. Unlike other tournaments, Earth Rumble had no time restrictions. If a battle lasted for five hours, it would. Though the crowd would probably get impatient pretty quickly.

Katara let out a sigh. "Listen, Toph. I'm sorry about what I said. I know we were stressed and under a bit of pressure, but it's still no excuse."

Toph wasn't sure she really wanted to hear it. The apology sounded genuine, but the damage had already been done. Sorry was just a word. Granted the insult had been too, but that was different. That had hurt. Her blindness was an issue she joked about simply because she was self-conscious about it.

"If we're going to travel together, I don't want us to be enemies. I want us to be friends." Katara went on, and Toph's jaw clenched. Right. So it wasn't about her. Katara just didn't want to put up with her incessant bitching for the next few months, possibly years. "And we're not going to be able to teach Aang if we can't work together."

Toph glared ahead of herself. Who knows, maybe Katara was sincere in her apology and didn't intend for it to come out that way, but Toph saw it as an attempt to make the travelling easier on herself. Grunting, she stood up and walked away. But she didn't remain silent. As she walked, she growled, "yeah, you're sorry alright."

Katara stared disgustedly at the back of her head, as if something had curled up and died in her bun.

When morning came, Toph had received a full night's rest. She woke to find Katara busy cooking breakfast. Sokka was chopping down branches to use as firewood and Aang was grooming Appa's thick ivory fur, taking extra care with his Airbending not to blow leaves up into his pelt.

Deconstructing her earth tent, the Earthbender walked past Katara and towards Aang. She still remembered the conversation from the previous night, though it wasn't at the forefront of her mind. "You need help with that?"

Aang paused. There was a snapping sound as if he were whipping the dust from a blanket, and then he turned fully and smiled. "Sure. I'm trying to get some of the dust out. Think you can get it out?"

Toph scowled and gave him a look that said, of course I can. Now step back and watch. Aang did so, his shoulders relaxed and lip quirked into a casual smile as he watched his mentor, in one motion, tug the dust from Appa's fur. "There," she said as the ring of loose dust settled, and a flicker of movement behind her as Aang's nose tickled.

"Ah … ahhh … aaa-choo!" Launching himself backwards into the air, Aang flipped backwards and landed on the middle branches of a tree.

Toph's ear twitched in response to the sound. "Can you fly higher doing that?" She hadn't seen him—she couldn't see anything not in contact with the ground or something earthy—but she had heard his sniff, the high pitched choooo as he reached a height Toph hadn't ever felt anyone leap to just by sneezing.

Aang smirked at the challenge. "You wanna see how high I can go?"

Toph glared in affirmation. However neither got to test out how far he could really reach, because Katara called them over for breakfast. For Aang there was some rice and berries set at the side, and for everyone else there was some meat instead. Wolfing down her meal, Toph tossed aside the makeshift plate and headed to the stream for a drink of water.

It shouldn't be long before training starts, she thought, washing the taste of the meat from her mouth. Today it should be me teaching him for the morning. I can't believe I finally have an apprentice. It's been five days, and it feels so strange. Like this is all a dream.

A dream. That was one thing Toph was hoping it wasn't. Because after all the excitement, the thrill of the case and of delicious freedom that she had tasted so far, the blind Earthbender couldn't face being trapped again.

It was like a bird being contained to a cage, wings bound to its back with chains. The key was right there, the door was open a fraction of an inch, but there were eagles and tigers patrolling outside and observing her with gleaming eyes, it was tormenting.

"Toph, look at this!"

"I'm blind, you idiot. What?"

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ x ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Aang hated that she liked Kyoshi.

Toph hated that he liked Yangchen.

Shaking from head to toe, she massaged her bruised knuckles. That had been the first time she'd ever raised her hand against him. In her opinion he deserved it. Had he shut up like she'd told him to, she wouldn't have punched him in the face.

Kuruk was out there now with him, nursing his incarnation's bruised and slightly bloodied jaw. Aang just stared, his storm grey eyes round with shock and slightly dazed. Because he couldn't believe she'd punched him either. As soon as her fist had connected, the impact had bowled him over. Maybe he should have seen it coming or predicted that she would have lashed out. In his eyes, it was just another thing she'd learned from Kyoshi.

"Earthbenders look after their own," murmured the Blind Bandit. That was her first rule. The rule she abided by no matter what. "They're Airbenders."

Earth. If Iroh could hear her now, he'd be telling her that everyone should be treated equally. He'd be telling her that, as a Diamond Lotus, she couldn't harbour this form of loyalty towards her own nation. But he would also give her advice dealing with Aang—on making amends with him. Yangchen would scold her that she was loyal to the Airbenders now, and not her own people. Kyoshi...

Well, Kyoshi would call her stupid for acting so emotionally, and tell her to do whatever she pleased. Toph was already bound by the chains of responsibility. She'd tell her to live, not just survive.

Back when they had been travelling, Toph remembered when her excitement started to dwindle. Like a leech had started sucking out her enthusiasm and replaced it with boredom. That was a few weeks after her escape from Gaoling. The battles were the highlights of her time after that, and the odd sparring match when Aang had started gradually but certainly improving. He was still atrocious in his Earthbending, but then again, if he had the guts, he'd have told her the same about her Airbending.

It was around that time that the black-outs had started, although they had been rare. Like daydreams, momentary distractions. Zoning out, which had happened usually at the times when her mind had started to wander.

"Aang has gone," announced a voice from the doorway, which made Toph jump as she blinked up at the Avatar. Walking slowly towards them, Kuruk looked over her shoulder to their casualty, and then eyed her. And then tripped over a pothole in the ground. "Owww... that hurt."

"I don't care."

Kuruk stopped rubbing his rear and adopted an expression of surprise. "Now that's just rude," he complained.

"Yeah? Well, tough." Toph cared little for her current attitude. She was angry.

Pouting sadly, Kuruk scratched his chin and shifted into a more comfortable position. Then he grinned. "Aw, come on, Toph. Maybe a hug will cheer you up?" As if to hug her, he reached out with his hands.

"Don't touch me!" Being hugged was the last thing on her mind. She had just slapped her boyfriend, and her teacher was dying. Toph felt absolutely useless. "You know what would cheer me up right now? For this not to have happened."

Kuruk frowned again. "You don't mean that." Catching Toph flexing her hand in the lower part of his vision, he motioned to it habitually with a knuckle. "I suppose it would be insulting to ask if your hand is alright?"

Even though Toph couldn't see him, she still turned her gaze away. "I've punched harder things," she muttered. The hand in question currently lay on Kyoshi's, whose glove had been removed to help keep her from overheating.

"Toph, I know this is hard. But Aang was just worried for you. He has been for-"

Toph scoffed. "Concern?" she echoed. "You think that was concern? He doesn't understand. He doesn't even trust me any more."

"Well you have been telling a few whoppers, you know. Can you honestly say you don't blame him? And besides, some of the things he was saying are true."

Toph bristled defensively. "Like what, Kuruk?"

"Kyoshi does hurt people," Kuruk replied, leaning back onto his arms. "She is a bad influence. Oh so very bad. She swears a lot and says really mean things to me, you know. Why, some of the things she's said were just scan-dal-ous!"

Toph's teeth ground against one another. "Stop talking in that stupid voice, or I swear to Gaia..."

Kuruk sobered instantly and sat up. "Toph, you need to understand that Aang does have a point. Kyoshi's training methods are brutal, her temper is aggravating and her attitude and sense of respect need some serious refinement. BUT," he emphasised, to stop Toph from the torrent of ranting he knew was otherwise imminent. "She has come a long way. Before we assigned her to teach you, she was much, much worse. There are things you don't know about Avatar Kyoshi. Secrets, which would not be secrets if I told you what they are. Do you remember when you first met her?"

Of course she remembered. That had been a turning point of her entire life.

"She was rude, brash, and aggravating. She acts this way because she is insecure. She believes herself to be weak, and she feels the need to assert herself constantly."

"B- but Kyoshi's not weak! How can she think that?"

"...I knew she wouldn't tell you. She's always hated that about herself," he murmured so quietly Toph wondered if she was supposed to hear. But her hearing had sharpened to find out what he had to say, and she was starting to get nervous. "Toph, Kyoshi is the only Avatar in existence who failed to master all four elements."

The silence that accompanied his words was deafening. Toph shivered; her hand clenched around the calf-length leg of her robes and she stared in his direction. Slowly, the blind child began to shudder, until she released a strained laugh. It sounded forced.

"Thought I told you to stop pissing around," she told him.

Kuruk's voice didn't waver. "It is the truth."

"Yeah, and I'm her Earthbending teacher." Toph growled. "I know she can Bend. I've sensed, and even felt it when she was training me."

Kuruk shook his head wistfully. "I am being serious. She has mastered three elements."

"She lived to be two-hundred-and-thirty years old." Toph had mastered Earthbending in record time. Aang had been practising three of four for a year and he wasn't near mastering any of them, but considering he was balancing three at the same time, she expected him to take a lot longer. "Explain how, in that time, she didn't master all four elements."

"...I'll tell you. But you must listen, and not interrupt. This is … this is not something I wish to repeat."