Prompt: Infected Wound
Hurt Character: Toph
Comforting Character(s): Aang
Characters: Toph, Katara, Aang
Relationships: Toph & Katara, Toph & Aang
Warnings (Aside from the Self-Evident): Burns, mentions of amputation
Other Tags: Western Air Temple era, canon compliant
"I told you to stay off your feet until they were better!"
Yeah, she remembered what Katara had told her, thanks. Ever since the day she'd first joined the group Katara had been telling her things. "Help us pitch camp, Toph." "Go take a bath, Toph." "Come spend a day in the spa with me, Toph." "You have to spend all day being completely blind and immobile and helpless until I tell you it's okay to get up, Toph."
"Yeah, I heard you, Sugar Queen." Toph slammed the heel of her free foot—the one Katara wasn't currently holding—against the ground, causing the air temple to shake and eliciting near-identical yelps of alarm from Sokka and Zuko. "What's the big deal, anyway? They don't even hurt that much!"
(Okay, so that was a lie—not that anyone else would actually be able to tell. Her soles were still unnaturally hot, not to mention tender in ways no self-respecting earthbender's feet should ever be tender, in ways that made her feel as if every step was rubbing her skin raw. Not that she was ever going to tell Katara any of that, mind.)
"The big deal," Katara retorted, her voice now dangerously low, "is that now you've got an infection, and water healing can't do anything about that. If it gets bad enough, you could end up losing your feet."
"I could what!?" Toph yanked her foot out of Katara's grip, as if afraid that she was going to start amputating right then and there.
"…but if we can get the infection under control," Katara continued, reaching out to grab Toph's ankle again before she could get out of reach, "which is a lot more likely if you do what I say, there's still a good chance your feet will heal normally. So, it's up to you: do you want to walk now, or do you want to walk later?" Yet another unexpected touch made Toph flinch, but it was only cool water against the burned sole of her foot, cleaning it.
"Hey, Katara. Hey, Toph." The sound of Aang's voice nearly made Toph jump out of her skin; she hated not being able to tell where people were. "How are the feet?"
"Infected," Katara said bluntly before Toph could answer. Then, under her breath, "I'm going to kill Zuko."
Yeah, Toph didn't even need full contact with the ground to tell that was a lie. Sugar Queen didn't have it in her to kill anybody.
"Katara, we kind of need him." Of course, not everybody could be as amazing as her. All of her efforts to teach him notwithstanding, Aang had never managed to pick up her ability to ferret out lies, and Toph wasn't going to correct him because she needed some form of entertainment as long as throwing rocks was off the table. "Besides, nobody in this group is killing anybody else." In response, Katara only huffed, and Aang, in a clear effort to redirect the conversation, asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Katara's hesitation told her that Aang's plan had worked: he'd given her something to think about that was more important than murdering Zuko. "I… don't have anything with me I can use as an antiseptic," she said at last, quietly. "If you could send Sokka or Haru to the nearest market—"
"Oh! Actually, I might be able to find something right here at the Temple."
"Aang, are… are you sure?" Katara's voice had taken on the tone of someone who was trying to be gentle about breaking bad news. "It's been a hundred years. Even if there is still medicine stored here, it might… well, it might not be…"
"Katara." Aang's voice was gentle, but also incredibly sad. "I know. That wasn't what I was talking about." Then, before either of them could so much as open their mouths, he was talking again and his voice was right back to its usual cheerfulness. "Just wait here, I'll be right back!" Then, he was gone in a rush of wind, leaving behind only Katara's soft "Oh."
Katara was the one who eventually broke the silence. "Well, we might as well see what we can do in the meantime. Give me your other foot."
While Katara healed whatever she could with her water and Toph grumbled, she placed a hand against the ground so she could at least somewhat tell what was going on around her. While it wasn't as good as what she could perceive with her feet, it was at least something. Right now, for example, she could tell that there were three people gathered around their designated fire pit and that someone (probably Haru, since Aang had just left to look for… whatever it was he'd gone off to look for) was practicing earthbending on the other side of the Temple. Automatically, her fingers twitched with longing, and the stone she was in contact with crumbled to dust in her hands.
"You know, this would go a whole lot easier for both of us if you would stop moving." Katara sounded like she was speaking through gritted teeth. Toph was just opening her mouth to retort when Aang blew back over.
"Hey! Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."
"Actually, you got here just in time." Katara sounded exasperated, and Toph got the feeling that she wasn't solely talking about the fact that she'd just finished cleaning the burns. "So, did you find what you were looking for?"
"Yep!" There was a rustling of cloth as Aang presumably handed it over.
"Um… Aang? Is this…?"
By this point, though, Toph had had enough of being left out of the loop, and imperiously held out her hand. "Give it here." Wordlessly, Aang placed his miracle medicine into her open palm.
She'd been expecting a clay jar, or at the very least a box with some sort of ointment or powder inside, so when her fingers instead met with a texture that was soft, springy, and unmistakably organic, she was so startled that she nearly dropped it. Carefully, she rubbed it between her fingers, then just for good measure, brought it to her nose to give it a sniff.
"Hey, Twinkletoes? Did you just go and grab a bunch of moss?"
"Yeah, but it's not just any moss! The monks have been using this for centuries in order to treat wounds. I don't think an Air Nomad has died of an infection for at least… well, for as long as I've been alive, and for as long as Gyatso could remember as well."
"Well, I suppose it's worth a shot." Katara still sounded skeptical; she was definitely using her 'I-have-serious-doubts-about-this-plan-but-don't-want-to-hurt-Aang's-feelings' voice. "After all, what do we have to lose?"
"Um, my feet?"
"Toph, you're not going to lose your feet—as long as you actually do as I say and stay off them this time."
"Hmph." She crossed her arms and blew her bangs out of her face with a huff of air, but didn't protest when Katara began packing Aang's miracle moss into place around the still-healing burns. She knew Aang would never knowingly give her something that would make her injuries worse, and he'd sounded pretty sincere when he'd described its healing properties. So for the time being, at least, she was willing to trust his judgment.
If it made her infection worse and she ended up losing her feet, then she could kill him.
In the meantime, though, her feet were feeling about as good as they were going to get and Sparky owed her a piggyback ride. So, she thanked Katara as grudgingly as she could get away with, and let Aang lift her up on a bubble of air to rejoin the others.
A/N: There actually are some varieties of moss out there that have antimicrobial properties.