Author's Notes: Warning for language. I frickin' hate foul language, ok? Or rather, there is a specific subset of curse words that I am A-OK with, and others set me off. It's not about being proper or whatever, it's literally the meanings of each word that frustrate me. So, I have no problem with the words Toph uses initially. I DEFinitely won't be making a habit of it, as the Gaang is not the setting for it, but this chapter in particular needed it.

However, the word that the other person uses, I have written a fairly lengthy essay, in rhyme, about why I loathe it.

But, sometimes, it's justified, I guess.

Or, no. That's not it at all. It's that it's the most emotionally powerful word in the English language, and if I want to get a point across in the most rhetorically accurate way possible, I am kind of dragged into it kicking and screaming.

Sigh.

Sometimes, I hate my Muse.

But, ze's gifted me with so much treasure, I guess I just have to grumble and ultimately, be polite.

Even when ze's not being polite.

What Meets the Eye

"I'll roll your whole head!' -Toph, Book 3, Chapter 11: Day of Black Sun, Part 2

Chapter 22: The Facets of Stone

Toph took Aang's advice, and strolled into town. Extending her bending sense out further, and taking her focus off the moving shapes of people, she began examining the foundations of houses.

She came upon a construction site, and decided that 'getting up to a little mischief' advice might be followed, too, even though he probably hadn't meant it genuinely. She ignored the surprised yells and words to warn her off.

But finally, they were beginning to surround her to corral her, and one man in particular stepped forward, which she could tell by their body language, the way heads turned towards him, he was probably the boss of the operation.

"Hey, uh," she shrugged, with a wide grin. "I think you have some soft spots in the foundation you're setting here." she lied. "Want me to help you?"

She had no idea what the reaction would be. Maybe he'd actually take her up on the offer, and she could learn something? Doubtful. This wasn't like the butcher, with Sokka, or the seamstress, with Katara and Ty Lee. This type of work, you had to be trained and qualified for.

He grabbed the girl by the wrist and pulled her away from the circle of people.

"Let go!" she exclaimed.

He ignored her.

"Hey! I mean it!"

He didn't release.

He continued to pull her along.

They were getting further away, out of earshot.

"Hey asshole," the girl growled, "If you do not let me go this instant, they're not gonna be able to piece you together again, hear me?"

"Who the fuck are you?" he hissed under his breath. "What kind of little kid waltzes up to an active construction site, past signs to stay clear, refuses to go back when the men tell her it's dangerous? And curses? Where do you get off telling someone with three decades of experience that they're doing their fucking job wrong?"

"I'm going to tell you exactly one more time," the powerful earthbender said in a deadly tone. "Let. Me. Go."

"Why, so you can go running off to mommy and not get in trouble?" the man demanded.

Her hands, whose grip strength had been honed by years of battering stone into submission, were swift and not merciful. With the one that was free, she made a vice on his forearm, five pinpoint bruises that dug into the soft flesh so hard that he yelped, and reflexively slapped at her shoulder.

Further incensed, she spat, "How dare you hit me you shithead!"

Still with the strong grasp, she turned the arm outwards, wrist facing upwards.

"What the-" he tried to pull away, but she held him fast.

He yanked again, but she was immovable as her element.

"How are . . .! How are you doing that?"

"That is none of your concern," she said, with a deadly grace that was a hybrid of her polished, proper upbringing bubbling with menace that was built out of the toughness of an Earth Rumbler.

"What is your concern," she went on, "Is that if you do not do what I say, when I say it, you will find this arm of yours dislocated. Do you understand?"

"What? Just- just let go."

"Hm. You didn't seem too intent on letting go when I asked you. Nor when I shouted. Nor when I warned you. So you're about to eat the bitter fruits of the bitter seeds you have sown," the poetic line again reflected her days cooped up and reciting flowery lines to her tutors, but with an underlying threat of gritty violence that she was all too happy to back up.

Now that she was back in control, she had slipped out of cursing in anger and fear, and she was enjoying herself, like a cat with a mouse at its mercy.

Her grip tightened down even further, like a wench with a tonne needed to move, and he yelped again, squirming.

"Are you going to yell for help?" she mocked him with a sightless leer. "Have someone rescue you from a 'little girl?' I would enjoy that immensely, by the way. Feel free."

"You're a bender, aren't you?" he asked, swallowing in fear.

"Oh. The ordie peasant has rubbed his two sad brain cells together to solve a timeless mystery."

"Peasant?" his brow furrowed. "A-are you nobility? I'm sorry, miss! If I had known, I wouldn't have-"

She sank his feet into the earth, and pushed. The strain on his ankles caused him to cry out yet again.

"Am I to understand, that if I had been a low class child, you, a grown man, would've pulled me into an alley, apropo of nothing, out of earshot of other adults?" she said in the same wickedly polite tone that Azula might've envied, "The more comes out of your mouth, 'sir,' the more I am inclined to stop holding back."

"What? What? No! It's not like that," he shook his head furiously, "I'm not a monster!" he pleaded.

"I would be able to tell if you're lying, with my earthbending, if I hadn't terrified you so much," she groused. "I was rather enjoying feeling your heartbeat speeding up."

"What? What on Earth are you talking about? Sweet Mahimata! Are you insane?"

She breathed out. "Though, if I did read this all wrong, I'm probably not doing earthbenders' reputation any favors, hm?"

"Uh . . . uh . . . I mean, not all earthbenders are like that," the nonbender said, meek as the metaphorical mouse she had been picturing.

She loosened up her grip, but still held him. She waved her other hand, and the earth reordered itself into a natural plane under his feet.

"Oh thank you," he breathed out himself, in relief. "Heh, well it's . . . actually pretty nice to know some piece of shit might mistake you by your appearance and get his ass handed to him."

"Haha! Well. Maybe I don't need to 'read' you. That sounded pretty genuine to me," she lapsed back into her normal voice she used with the Rumblers. It wasn't quite the same as the one she used with the Gaang. It had a stronger undercurrent, more towards alto than soprano.

In the same way that people naturally mirrored those they talked to, picked up accents when living in a place with a different one, and even could begin talking like a 'peasant' when not around other nobility, she was unconsciously shifting in and out of her vastly varying life experiences.

Like the facets of a singular diamond, with light entering at different angles.

"Oh shit," she said jauntily. Now, the cursing was friendly. The type of word that would come out when people got off from work to hang out, and didn't have to hold back their language in their day job. "I didn't bang you up too bad did I? Shit, shit. I have a friend who's a healer. So, uh, if you need it . . ."

The man flexed his arm and hand. "I think it'll be ok. So, did your family employ someone from the North Pole as an attendant? That sounds interesting."

"Haha, oh no no. The only waterbenders around my neck of the woods are the Swampbenders, and my parents would rather die than allow them in their nice clean house. I think my mom would literally faint." She guffawed.

The little girl brushed a tiny thumb gingerly over his wrist. "Man, I can't even see bruises." Her hands were only just beginning to show callouses from her training with Aang. When she was at the house, she had to carefully keep her palms from toughening up, or her parents would start to fret and give her lotions, and grill her about what she had been doing to 'ruin her nice soft skin'. She couldn't see the callouses on her own hands, either. "I wonder what they're like."

"Wait, you're blind?"

She laughed. "Yup."

"So no wonder you didn't see the signs."

"Well actually, I would've rolled up whether they were there or not."

She explained how she saw through the earth.

"That's fascinating! I had heard of waterbenders who could close their eyes and locate pearls to sell, but I didn't know earthbenders could do stuff like that! Being totally submerged in your element is way different from having contact with just soles. Being submerged in earth is . . ." he rotated one of his sore ankles, "obviously not very pleasant. Even sand would be totally not nice. I suppose mud might not be too bad, if you knew how to get yourself out of it. But, heh, what would you use it for? What would you be looking for? When a waterbender senses which oysters have pearls in them or not, it saves a whole lot of work prying them open, like nonbenders have to do."

"Whoa! I had never heard of that!" the girl exclaimed in delight. "Wait till I tell Katara."

"Katara? That doesn't sound like a Northerner name."

"Do the different tribes have different names?"

"Oh yes, of course! I don't have a whole lot of experience with that, but some Southerners passed by here several weeks ago, and they all sounded different. You sound like an EK Southerner, yourself, miss."

"Nah, quit it with the 'miss' thing, bud. I'm just a regular old joe when I'm not in my house."

"Um . . .? All right . . .? Wouldn't that be 'plain jane,' hm?" he tentatively joked.

"Nah. Joe's fine," she laughed. "More my vibe."

"A child who's just 'one of the guys,' huh. Hope you don't walk up into any bars demanding adult things. Like you did just now. What in Spirit World's name . . . And I thought I'd seen everything. Southern nobility must act differently than around here. Cursing? I don't think I've heard so much as a quiet little 'hell' or 'damn' pass the lips of a single-"

"Oh no, I am one of a kind. Nothing to do with where I'm from, geographically. I would give you the whole story, but, meh." She thrust her thumbs into her belt. "And really, I'm super sorry about how I acted. Man, I even used a slur against you. Two of them really, if you count 'peasant.' Shitty of me. I guess I say peasant sometimes with no ill will, like, it's just a neutral designation, but that time, well." There were many facets to the usage of words. Just like the cursing. "It was definitely an insult. I totally would NOT have threatened and handled a nonbender that way if I thought you didn't deserve it!"

"Hm."

"Have you been threatened by a bender like that before?" she asked in concern.

"Um . . . well yes."

"Dude! Dude, I'm so sorry. Really." The little bender patted his forearm, and grasped his hand briefly. The softness she didn't show much came into play. Although she didn't use the tone of her mother, and it was more reassurance of an ordinary little girl, or boyish girl, it was nonetheless genuine. "That's terrible. Ach. Man, and me going and stepping in it like that. Power is corrupting, I guess." The power dynamics here, of age, nobility, training, and gender, were really flipped around from what you'd expect. "You sure you good without healing? Of course, Katara would take a piece out of my hide if she heard I hurt someone else after Aang, but I would totally put up with that for you."

"You make a habit of hurting people?" he shied away from her a bit.

"No! No, you got me all wrong. Guess mistaken impressions are going around today. We were training. It just happens sometimes. And she is really good at it, too. You'd be as good as new."

"Uh, thank you. But, like I said. No harm done. Or at least, no appreciable harm."

He paused.

"Though, I have to kind of ask a similar question that you did about the low class thing. What if I had been a bender? What would you have done?"

"I probably would've just straight up let loose on you, honestly. If I knew you could handle it. But see, I could tell by your gait you had never done a squat in your life, haha. You've maybe put a little muscle on your shoulders from carrying around stuff, but it's like super obvious to me when someone's done yoga or training. Their balance and steadying themselves. I coulda pulled you over, with a lot of effort on my part. Whereas someone who does, even non-combat stuff, would've resisted more naturally. Core muscles and stuff. I knew which of my attendants was which, because, being blind, I was pulling on sleeves and leaning into people a lot. So even if you were a bender that just didn't put it to use, I wasn't gonna go all out."

"Ha, if that's you being 'merciful,' I don't want to be on the receiving end of you when you're pissed."

"I was plenty pissed. I just figured I'd have to hold you in place until somebody could haul you off. And if you were hurt in the process, I wasn't gonna give one shit. In fact, yeah, like I said, I was enjoying it- if you think about it, kinda sadistic."

"Yes, definitely. But uh, I guess, still understandable in a small sense."

"You're actually incredibly lucky. See, my 'teachers' weren't too big on gradations between 'smash' and 'disable without harming.' Like most bending masters. Those facets of stone just weren't something they 'told' me about. I took it upon myself while I was . . ." the child briefly considered whether she should bring up sneaking out of her house to an adult. That facet of this interaction was interesting between the status and bending ones, too. "uh, 'learning,' to also 'observe' nonbender training in how to take control of a person's movements hand-to-hand and other masters doing lighter bending. Self-defense was a pretty HUGE concern for me, given I was . . ." around adult men four or more times her weight who were strangers "interested in staying safe. But, like, I had also seen what earthbending could do to a person if it got out of hand, so even for somebody who had the worst possible intentions, best to learn stuff that wouldn't put a hole in somebody's head if it wasn't necessary."

She never had really felt safe at the ring. But, that was the risk she took.

Even when lounging around, being around them was tense. Men tended to tussle with each other in friendly ways, put each other in loose headlocks, slap backs, push each other, that sort of thing.

With zero experience 'seeing' that, raised by a noble father that would rather commit suicide than lay hands on a lady especially, it had taken the little girl a long time to figure out that what they were doing wasn't aggressive. Or at least, not aggressively intended, only a type of rowdy physical affection.

She stuck out like a sore thumb.

By the time she had claimed the title the first time, she felt left out, but at the same time, what are you going to do, ask a thirty year old man to let you 'join in on the fun' when all of your survival instincts squirmed at the idea?

It was lonely.

It was almost as lonely as the mansion.

She had a feeling that, even when she was full grown, with that experience of sort of being in 'danger' all the time, she wasn't going to be able to be rowdy with guys as an adult, either. Now, Sokka and Aang and Zuko? Absolutely. But casual buddies? A group of men at a bar? Not a chance.

Some women did that, she had observed while she snuck back and forth. And someone might expect that of her. But, they wouldn't know the whole story.

Even when she had a sense of security firmly in her grasp, that she could fend one of them off should they get any ideas, it was still just . . . plain uncomfortable.

She gestured to him. "And it's especially good that I decided that early on, that I wouldn't kill someone over that. Even if I were tempted to. When I was 9, I was dead set and convinced I was gonna become a secret vigilante. It just seemed the most natural thing in the world. When I got a little older, since I had so much time to myself, because I was impossibly isolated, between my lessons, and snooping on my parent's handling of crimes in my town, I started thinking about the more serious logistics. Unfortunately, I have plenty of financial resources that would post a bail for me, and lawyers? Psh, no problem. You know, you're totally right about the mandhandling of lower class people, aren't you? No one in their right mind would touch a noble who could make their life a living hell. My dad would be up your ass. But somebody with bad intentions attacking some nobody, or especially a beggar who not many people knew or whatever. Ugh. It's messed up, the more I think about it. It's just that my intentions as a vigilante wouldn't be quite as bad, I guess? And Xin Fu would say stuff to me like 'Eh, a bender can get around the law, even without money to bribe people.' Even though he was referring to gambling and stuff, not talking about murder in particular. They do say 'celebrities can get away with murder,' and what are nobility but celebrities that haven't really earned the fame? Man, you are one lucky bastard."

He gulped.

"Well, in one way," the man held out a palm, "I'm glad that our element is the most lethal. Even without the intent. Because we're the strongest. But, it doesn't help the Fire Nation see us as anything but backwards brutish people, either. Almost can't even blame them. Is an earthender supposed to feel bad if they do roughly the same movements and amount of force, but hurt people worse? I almost think it mentally conditions you to be a little less empathetic by default. It almost has to."

She shrugged. "Dunno. Sounds accurate to me."

"Paired with your scary smarts . . . heh . . ."

"Dude, I really don't mean to be intimidating here. Like, I appreciate that when I'm fighting in the ring, but uh, it's so freakish to be talking to an ordinary person who doesn't see me as this helpless little blind girl. Even though I hate that, I also kinda hate being the big bad bender too. Ugh. Why can't my life ever just be normal."

Well, she guessed it would be 'boring' if it were normal. She definitely wouldn't trade her merry band of misfits for anything! But, was one scrap of normalcy too much to ask?

Like, wasn't there a happy medium between getting pitying looks and somebody cowering like this poor guy?

He said, "I bet the relations between waterbenders and their nonbenders aren't as tense. I know for a fact, a lot of earthbenders who have hurt people badly envy waterbenders."

The idea of envying Katara was so ludicrous that she nearly burst out laughing.

Nah, she was just fine with being lethal. In concept, anyway. She hadn't just hopped atop Appa without the expectation that she might kill someone. That's just the way war was.

Aang may have spent lots of time verbally fretting to the Gaang about people getting hurt, and she found it kind of sadly cute, she felt a little bad for him, but she herself was under no illusions.

Unlike using many facets in evaluating the threat and dealing with one measly outclassed, untrained nonbender here, if anybody got hold of Aang, she definitely wasn't going to be pulling any punches.

Speaking of.

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Um . . .? I guess? I mean, I only just met you. Kind of early to be asking favors."

"It's a good one. Tell me truthfully, are you good at keeping secrets? Like, I know some people kind of have loose lips, and whatever, if you've got no filter you don't, or if you're forgetful. But, like, can you? Are you the other type?"

"Um, yes. I would never betray a confidence!"

"Seems like you're telling the truth."

"It's not so much that I'm worried about, as what if it's something that I'll feel compelled to tell for moral reasons? No offense, but, uh, you're coming off as a shady character. No clue who 'Xin Fu' is, but . . . Casually talking about crimes, and hurting people, and murder. I don't know what you're doing here. Alone. No entourage as is usual for nobility. And, though I can see why you hurt me, those skills could easily enable you to . . . well . . . I mean, the gang leaders around here are all benders. They have bender underlings in addition to non, sure. I could even see them try to recruit someone like you, who could act as a spy to the upper classes. It wouldn't even necessarily have to be anything real bad, you know . . . just smuggling some goods to avoid paying tariffs, that sort of thing . . ."

"Hm. Well, though you've given me plenty of fodder for adrenaline daydreams I'd never act on . . . Hell, that might've been me if I hadn't been snapped up by my current found family. Yikes. I am a thrillseeker and adrenaline junkie, no doubt. And if the fracture between me and my parents kept widening . . . Let me try to explain here. I am . . . what would be a way to put it . . . I guess it is a little like a secret mission, to help end the war."

"Well, in that case, no. I'm a civilian, mi- I mean, buddy. It's weird to call a little girl that. Um. Ha. You're quite the interesting character. I don't want to get caught up in any of that if I can absolutely help it. Besides, some ash crawler might capture me and torture it out of me, or something. No, no. Keep it to yourself."

"Ash . . . crawler?"

"Firebender."

The little girl's face fell.

The derogatory term reminded her just where she was.

"Yeah, maybe you're right, this isn't the place to be blabbing about my 'entourage'" she used the word mockingly. "They're all pretty . . . diverse, let's say." She snickered.

"If there's a waterbender among them, then yes! And from the other side of the world to boot! Maybe some people from the colonies?" he caught onto her words. "Oh. You have a colonial here? Mixed family, perhaps? Well, not his fault if someone marries one of them I guess," he said, but with a tone that implied he didn't approve. "I guess, that might come in handy if you wanted to infiltrate fire troops, so, I get it."

She was silent.

Silence was definitely the 'better part of valor,' here.

It was strange to feel alienated from her own Nation.

She had been enjoying this conversation.

She didn't often interact with townspeople when the Gaang stopped, because her blindness made it awkward.

She sighed.

Yet another facet of the difference between her and this new person, that, on an ordinary day, kept her feeling like that isolated little kid locked up in her gilded cage.

Still, she was glad she had taken Aang's advice. She might even mill around and watch the building process, from a 'safe' distance. Not that she was ever unsafe, she thought haughtily. She was the master.

She was the queen. Given what Aang had told her about Bumi, who became king even not being a prince when he was young, it was totally not out of the realm of possibility that she could win the favor of some city-state and literally be declared a fiefdom queen.

Ha, realm.

The unintentional pun amused her.

So many ways her life could have gone, had her destiny not dropped into her lap. Some of those paths were pretty rough and potentially irrevocable ones.

Nothing like an ordinary person ascending to a throne by popular approval could happen in the Fire Nation or the Water Tribes. Nor the Air Nation, when it had existed.

She loved her little rainbow diamond facet collection of nations so much, she figured she should try not to let the outer social isolation over blindness bother her too badly.

Again, if anybody got hold of Zuko, shared nation with his captors or not, she wasn't going to be pulling any punches.

But the thought of that made her a lot sadder than the first version of the idea.

"Well, despite this little mishap, you've been very good company," she said in her nobility voice, withdrawing emotionally from the situation. Her playful, rowdy tone was gone. That facet's light faded. There was a certain chillness to the words, though not unfriendly. "I fear I must bid you goodbye, kind sir. Good luck with your construction."