Chapter 31: Gaoling

"How far are we from Gaoling?" Katara asked Aang, calling from the saddle to Appa's head.

"Less than an hour." He jumped back and joined the other three. "Getting excited for your big homecoming, Toph?"

"Are you sure we can't just fly right over and go straight to Ba Sing Se?" The earthbender asked miserably.

"The Earth King isn't expecting us for another week." Sokka pointed out. "And you and Aang are supposed to appear at Earth Rumble. They've promoted the event with both your names and we've accepted an advance payment on ticket sales." Sokka was particularly proud of the way he'd negotiated the contract by mail.

"But we can fight at Earth Rumble without seeing my parents. We can just stay at a hotel, or camp." Toph argued.

Her friends exchanged glances. They'd known Toph's parents were a sore spot for her, but it was very unlike her to avoid a problem instead of facing it.

When they didn't respond to her suggestion, Toph explained herself. "I know it's insensitive for me to say this, since you've all lost at least one parent, but sometimes parents are terrible, and you're better off without them."

The other three were silent for a moment, looking at each other and taking in their friend's extreme statement, trying to understand it objectively.

"I think that is definitely true in some cases," Katara answered carefully. "Zuko, for example. But are you saying your parents are that bad?"

Toph sighed. "No, they're not that bad. Obviously they didn't try to take over the world or burn half my face off. But I ran away for a reason, and if things are the same, I'm not going to stick around."

"Maybe you can give them a second chance?" Aang proposed. "You can see if there's anything there worth salvaging, and if not, you'll know that at least you tried."

"We'll be right there with you," Katara assured her.

When Appa landed in the large garden of the Beifong estate, servants poured out of the mansion to see the return of their young mistress. Lao and Poppy Beifong stepped forward to greet the teenagers as they came down from the sky bison's back.

Aang's eyes watched hungrily as the older couple came forward and hugged Toph, but he couldn't tell what any of the three were feeling about this reunion. Lady Beifong was wiping her eyes, and Toph and her father both looked stiff and gruff. Were they putting on a show of being emotional, or unemotional? Or were they truly touched to be together again, and hiding it?

The couple invited the young people in for dinner. "I asked cook to make your favorite moo-pork dumplings, dear." Lady Beifong said to Toph. "And I remembered your friend is vegetarian, so we have noodles and sugar beets…"

"Thanks, that sounds great!" Aang enthused. "Not many hosts make accommodations for my eating habits."

Seated at the opulent dining table, waited on by multiple servants, eating from fine china, the six made awkward small talk about their flight, the weather, and the food.

In a lull in the conversation, Lao Beifong suddenly started talking in nonsense syllables. Katara, Aang, and Sokka looked at each other in confusion, and were even more astonished when Toph answered in similar sounds, her face pointed straight down at her plate, but making the tiniest smile. Some of the tension in the room seemed to dissipate.

When Sokka heard Lao mention the factory he owned, where his workers processed iron ore into metal, he began a series of questions that dominated the conversation for the rest of dinner. Always fascinated with technology, he wanted to understand how every process functioned, and Lao was only too happy to explain, since he rarely had such a willing listener in his home. He seemed somewhat surprised that a young man from the South Pole knew enough about science and industry to ask insightful questions. The others ate the delicious food quietly, somewhat relieved not to have to come up with something to say themselves.

Before they went to bed, Katara asked Toph about the incomprehensible words she and her father had spoken to each other.

She seemed embarrassed. "It's kind of a secret language he made up and taught me when I was little. We used it to talk about my mom and the servants behind their backs. You put the beginning of a word at the end…. I didn't know he remembered." Katara found that incredibly sweet, but didn't want to say so and make the earthbender scowl.

When they went to sleep, Toph in her old bedroom and her three friends in the same guest room they'd used a year ago, they all felt somewhat hopeful. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad visit after all.


The next morning at breakfast, Lao Beifong wasn't there; he'd already left early for his factory. Toph's friends were surprised to see her come down to the table in a white dress with elaborate embroidery at the neckline, her hair pulled back from her face.

"The maid wrestled me into it. She's so old I would have hurt her if I tried to fight back." She explained in a low voice to her friends. "Just tell me this isn't because we're expecting the matchmaker." She groaned miserably at her mother.

"No," Poppy Beifong replied stiffly. "She refused to come."

"Best news I've heard since we got here," Toph said, relaxing visibly.

When they finished eating, her mother asked briskly, "Well, Toph, are you here to stay, or do you plan to continue this disreputable gallivanting around the world?"

"I don't know," Toph replied through gritted teeth. "Would I have to pretend to be a helpless little blind girl?"

Sokka tried to distract Lady Beifong from her daughter's reply. He could tell it was a rhetorical question meant only to start a fight. Besides, the mother's premise was flawed, and he wanted to point that out. "Traveling isn't exactly disreputable when you're the invited guest of multiple world leaders, is it? I mean, a palace is a pretty respectable place, am I right?"

"Our next stop is Ba Sing Se." Aang told Lady Beifong, catching on to Sokka's attempt at preventing an argument. "Maybe you can come along with us? Not on Appa, that might get too crowded, but Toph mentioned that you have a house there."

"Yes, we do own a house in the upper ring. We go there every year for the season."

"What season is that, fall? Spring?" Katara asked brightly, hoping to lead the conversation to a safe topic, unaware that revealing her ignorance of high society customs made her look exactly like the unsophisticated bumpkin she was trying not to be. Toph cringed visibly at her friend's misstep.

"The social season. A series of balls and parties for the elite of Earth Kingdom society, beginning with the blooming of the cherryrose trees." Her mother replied, nose in the air.

"Like the Spring Festival Ball?" Aang asked. "We're going to that."

The older woman appeared to be taken aback. "Yes, that is typically the highlight of the season."

"King Keui has invited all of us, including Toph, as guests of honor." The airbender informed her. "You know, since we saved his kingdom and everything. Did Toph mention she's a war hero? She's even got a medal."

"I suppose you will need a new gown, Toph." Her mother said. "We will go to Madam Malkin's dress shop."

Toph groaned. "I hate shopping! Why did you have to mention the ball?"

"Sorry," Aang muttered to her.

"I'd like to come with you, if that's all right, Lady Beifong", Katara asked politely. She wanted to provide a buffer and support for her friend, and she also enjoyed shopping in the different places where they traveled. "I need a new dress for the ball too."

"We have to meet with the Earth Rumble people anyway," Sokka put in.

After a short carriage ride into town, Katara and Toph found themselves inside an exclusive boutique full of silk gowns and fine cotton sheets. Poppy Beifong made a single suggestion, and almost immediately she and her daughter were arguing. The root issue seemed to be a fundamental disagreement over whether the purpose of clothing was elegance and sartorial expression, or simple comfort. Katara could tell they'd had the same dispute many times before. She pulled Toph to a different corner of the store to separate the two.

There, Katara found a pale yellow dress with light blue and green trim. She thought it would look nice when she was standing next to Aang in his formal yellow robe. When she touched it, she was amazed at the smooth silkiness of the almost weightless material, and insisted that Toph feel how soft it was.

"You're wondering if Aang will like it." Toph stated, and felt her friend's pulse quicken. "Trust me, if you're in it, he'll like it."

Poppy Beifong, who had followed the girls quietly, looked at the waterbender in surprise. "What do your parents think of that? Of you traveling with a boy who's….interested in you in that way?"

"Well, my mother was killed years ago." Katara explained. She had the urge to shock the society lady and show her there were different, easier ways for parents and teenagers to relate to each other. "My dad and grandmother both like Aang. What's not to like? He's sweet and polite to them, he treats me well, he saved the whole world… And I think my family knows that if they tried to forbid me from dating him or traveling with him, I'd just do it anyway, and stop visiting them. So they've wisely decided not to make it an issue." She saw Toph pick up on her intention and smirk a little.

Lady Beifong pursed her lips, her disapproval deepening.

"You were thinking about setting me up with Aang, weren't you?" Toph accused her mother. "You figured if the matchmaker won't see me, then the Avatar is prestigious enough to marry into the Beifongs? Well, as you just heard, he's taken." She paused, then added. "Sokka too."

"What about your pen pals?" Katara teased Toph, thinking of Chao and Chen in Omashu.

"What pen pals? I can't write." Toph deadpanned. Clearly she did not want her mom to know about them, so Katara shut her mouth. Was that because her mother would disapprove, or approve too much? The twins were royalty, so probably the latter.

A small jade gown caught Katara's eye, giving her a chance to change the subject. She picked it up and showed the other two how the dress looked like a compromise between the fashionable, constricting styles the mother favored, and the loose, boyish ones the daughter preferred. She hustled her friend into the dressing room with it, feeling endlessly relieved to have found something her fractious shopping companions could agree on. After Poppy picked out a selection of handkerchiefs and table linens, they were ready to leave. Katara would have paid for her dress, but before she knew it, they were walking out of the shop without even discussing payment with the attendants. She supposed the Beifongs were above talk of money, since they could have afforded to buy the whole store, and it was all simply charged to their account.

When the women returned from the shop, the boys had just arrived at the estate, laden with Earth Rumble merchandise. Toph's father, home from the factory, came out to meet them as well.

"Shirts for everybody!" Sokka declared, passing out apparel, commemorative cups, posters, and action figures. "They gave us extras for Zuko and Mai, Dad and Gran Gran and Pakku, all the Kyoshi Warriors, our friends from Omashu…."

Katara excitedly pulled a shirt over her head. "Look, sweetie, I'm your number one fan!" She pointed to Aang's face on her chest.

"My favorite fangirl," he kissed her on the cheek.

"That's enough of that," Sokka exclaimed roughly, getting between the two, shoving cups into their hands and covering their faces with shirts depicting Toph as the Blind Bandit. Katara thought she noticed Lady Beifong make a little V-shaped smile when she saw this, and realized she and her boyfriend hadn't exactly been completely unchaperoned in their travels.

"Hey, Toph, want to go practice for Earth Rumble?" Aang asked, putting the souvenirs away. "We saw a quarry on the way to the stadium; it reminded me of the place where you gave me my first earthbending lessons."

"That quarry is much too dangerous!" Lao Beifong spoke up before his daughter could, his voice stern. "Three workers were killed in a landslide there."

"Like these two couldn't stop a landslide." Sokka snickered. "Come on, sir, that quarry can't be any more dangerous than the Fire Nation airship we infiltrated. Or that volcanic crater where Combustion Man attacked us."

Poppy Beifong gasped, her hand clutching her necklace.

Katara elbowed her brother. "I don't think you're helping things." She muttered.

"I will not allow it." The nobleman stated adamantly, crossing his arms.

"Oh. Well, we could train here in the garden instead," Aang suggested, eager to avoid a fight.

"What's the point?" Toph spat. "You're the one who needs practice, not me." She stomped into the house and shut herself in her room.

Her parents shrugged at each other and went into the house as well, the father to his office, and the mother to her sewing room.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka looked at each other, dumbfounded.

The airbender rubbed the back of his head. "Ummm, wanna visit Appa?" The two Water Tribe siblings nodded and followed their friend. The sky bison always had a calming effect on them.

There was a surprise in the stable: a flurry of red and brown feathers descended from the rafters. Katara shrieked and ducked; Aang covered her with his arms, but Sokka cried out joyfully, "Hawky!" The bird landed on the boy's forearm and squawked. His long-lost master spoke back, as if the messenger hawk could answer him. "Did you stay here after my mean old sister sent you away from me? I guess you didn't know where I was after that, did you? Did they take good care of you?" Sokka dug in his bag for popcorn from the stadium, and gave the bird as many treats as it would eat, then played a kind of game of fetch with it.

Aang and Katara watched her brother's reunion with his pet, while stroking Appa's fur and checking his food and water.

"That's how it should be, right? When you see someone you love again after a long time?" Aang asked, watching the boy and his bird.

"Yeah. More like that than like this, anyway." Katara gestured to the mansion. "They really make me appreciate my dad and Gran Gran."

"I'm going to write a letter to Suki!" Sokka was heading to the house for paper. "I can write her even more if I've got my own hawk, and I'm not just using one of Zuko's when they're free…."

"Want to hide out here til dinner?" Katara asked.

"That sounds great." Aang settled down next to her on Appa's tail. "I should probably practice earthbending, but it's not like I'm trying to win the tournament anyway."

"You're going to be amazing. I'll be cheering for you."

He smiled at her, but there was something sad and guarded behind it.

"No pressure, just support." She clarified.

He put his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple. "You're really good at that."

She tried again to get to the bottom of his mood. "Let me guess. You feel responsible for what's happening here." She meant between Toph and her parents.

"If I'd never asked her to run off and be my teacher….."

"Isn't it clear to you that what's wrong here got started long before we ever came to Gaoling?"

He sighed. "Yeah. But I kind of brought it to a head, forced Toph to make a choice. Deepened this rift between them, so that it might not be bridgeable anymore."

"I don't think Toph is sorry about it. If you hadn't come, she might have run off with a group of outlaws instead."

"Yeah, I can imagine that happening." He chuckled.

"I bet if you asked her, she'd say your showing up here was the best thing that ever happened to her. That's how I feel about finding you in that iceberg."

Aang gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "Have I told you how glad I am that you're the one who found me?"

"A couple times, but I could always stand to hear it again." Katara lifted her face to his for more kisses.


Toph came down for dinner wearing her regular clothes. She'd changed out of the embroidered white dress the maid had forced her to put on that morning, and looked much more comfortable in her usual loose pants. There was something defiant about her attitude, as if she knew her choice of clothing constituted a challenge.

As soon as she saw her daughter, Lady Beifong's face fell in disappointment. "Oh, Toph. You looked so nice in that pretty white dress. Surely it's not too difficult to cooperate with some simple expectations for your appearance?"

"What do I care about how I look?" The girl replied, an aggressive edge in her voice.

Dinner was a tense, mostly silent affair. Sokka tried to get another conversation going about the metal refinery, but Lao's answers were short, and the boy had already asked most of his questions the previous night anyway. Earth Rumble seemed an out-of-bounds topic, as did the teenagers' travels and adventures. Aang asked the girls about their shopping trip, and Sokka thanked the Beifongs for taking care of Hawky. It turned out they hadn't even known their stable boy had been feeding the bird. When they retired to the sitting room for after-dinner tea, that was when things really got ugly.

The head of the Beifong family took a deep breath before addressing his daughter in his most imperious manner. "Your mother and I have been talking, Toph, and we've agreed that you should not participate in this wrestling competition. It's not safe. You could get very seriously injured. And, besides, it's not the proper place for a young noble lady."

"You think those guys stand a chance against me?" Toph smirked. "They're the ones who should be afraid. I'll be fine."

"Last year Toph didn't get a scratch on her!" Aang assured her parents. "You should have seen how quickly she took out this big guy who called himself The Boulder. Two moves. And now she can even metalbend!"

"I'm afraid you don't understand. We are forbidding it." Lao Beifong's tone was final.

For a moment they were all silent.

"Um, sir, we already signed a legally binding contract and accepted an advance." Sokka informed him awkwardly.

"Contracts can always be broken for the right price. I assure you we can afford to pay whatever penalties may ensue."

"It doesn't matter what you can afford. I want to fight." Toph banged her fist on the arm of the couch.

"It doesn't matter what you want." Her mother snapped at her. "We are thinking of your reputation. If it becomes public that you have been taking part in such vulgar competitions, you'll never find a husband."

Offended on her behalf, Sokka jumped in to defend Toph. "Any idiot guy who doesn't want to be with her—"

"Ha!" Toph barked.

Aang and Katara looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

Sokka reddened, sputtering a little before he repeated himself, adding some conditions. "Any idiot guy who's of an appropriate age and not already in love with someone else, who doesn't want to be with her-"

"I'm not worried about finding a man." Lady Beifong waved an unconcerned hand. "Men aren't picky, but their mothers are. That's why the matchmaker has high standards. When we heard you were on your way, Toph, we invited her here to see what she might say, but she wouldn't even meet you. We had to admit that you were traveling unchaperoned with at least two young men, engaging in combat…."

"That's all you want from me isn't it?" Toph shot back at her mother. "You want me to be boring so I can marry advantageously, as you would say. I don't know why you think I'd ever want anything to do with that. It's not like it made you that happy."

Toph's friends looked on in horror. They felt like they were watching a trainwreck, one they'd tried and failed to prevent. One that was probably inevitable.

"The point isn't happiness, it's respectability, and the Beifong name." The noble lady replied, her voice tight and almost shrill.

"I have honored the Beifong name! I'm a war hero, didn't you hear?" Toph yelled. "And if the point of marriage isn't happiness, then I don't want it! I have been happier since leaving here than I ever was in this house. I had friends who accepted me and challenging things to do. I could use my abilities to help people instead of acting like a fragile little weakling."

"No, it's clear you're not a weakling." Lao Beifong said stiffly, his anger coming out in clipped, precisely articulated words. "You're something worse. You're a child incapable of sound judgement. You're stubbornly, ignorantly resisting our efforts to protect you, and insisting on living a life that is not best for you."

"That's not best for YOU, you mean." His daughter retorted. "All you care about is your reputation. I'm sorry my saving the Earth Kingdom was so inconvenient for the esteemed Beifongs!"

Her father pounded the table next to his chair, making a lamp flicker. "We kept you safe for years, and this is how you repay us! Ungrateful—"

"You're right." Toph interrupted, standing up. "I have been ungrateful. I should thank you. After all, you're the reason I invented metalbending. Not just because you tried to have me kidnapped and transported in a metal box, not just by giving me something to escape from. That wouldn't have been enough if I didn't already know how to be the metal. All my life, you tried to do to me what your refineries do to iron ore. When I was in that cage I realized I knew what it was like to be melted down and pressed into an unnatural shape. I felt that heat and pressure boiling me down again, and it made me stronger, more resilient, unbreakable. And suddenly I was able to do something no one in history had ever done before. But you don't care about that. All that matters to you is that I don't fit in your mold. But I'm glad I'm not the soft, disabled little wimp you wanted me to be. Because I think even if I were, it wouldn't have been enough for you. You wanted a girl who could see, and who would actually like being shown off like a prize-winning pet. A mindless puppet who'd be thrilled to dress up for fancy parties and spend your money, and eventually marry whatever empty-headed twit you pick out. Start the whole cycle over again. But you know what? I don't care either! It doesn't bother me that you were too blind to see the daughter you had instead of the one you wanted. I know that I'm awesome, but I had to learn that in spite of you. I'm never going to let your ignorance keep me from loving myself. Because it looks like maybe I'm all I have."

Her friends got up from their chairs and joined her.

"Don't say that, Toph, you know it's not true!" Aang cried, grabbing her hand.

"We know you're awesome, even if they don't." Sokka told her, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"We're your family. You've got us. Always." Katara reminded her.

Sokka turned indignantly to the older couple. "When I helped Toph take down the Fire Nation airships that were about to destroy your whole country, it was the bravest, most amazing thing I'd ever seen. If you would rather have a defenseless doll for a daughter, than a bonafide hero, just because you have sexist ideas about what a girl should be like, I don't know what to say to you except that you don't deserve Toph. If she had been a boy, even a blind one, would you feel differently about anything she's done? If her only value to you is as a prize to marry off to the highest bidder, then we will be thrilled to take her away from here and make sure she never has to see you again."

"You know, I was a runaway too." Aang admitted quietly. "I left my family in the middle of the night, and now they're gone. I was so excited to come here and see my friend get the reunion I'll never have. Toph told us that things would be tense here, and I knew her running away must not have been easy for you, but I thought surely, after so long apart, and after she helped save the Earth Kingdom, she would be welcomed and accepted in her home. I never imagined that leaving you and staying away might be the best thing Toph could do for herself. I'm sad for you, that you don't see how smart and skilled your daughter is, and how much fun! Not to mention what a great earthbender. I couldn't have defeated the Fire Lord without Toph's help. She taught me to hold my ground and fight instead of dodging and evading. She's naturally pugnacious like that, and I'm the opposite, but I needed to learn to be a little more like her to survive the comet. Toph never backs down from a fight, but I think she would have gone against her natural inclination and avoided this conflict if you'd let her. It's just too bad that you put her in a position where she had to choose between fighting you and losing herself."

"I know that Toph isn't easy to deal with. Katara began diplomatically. "She and I had a lot of disagreements over the past year. She is stubborn, and will almost never admit it when she's wrong. I had to bug her to contribute to setting up camp and even to bathe. I was kind of the mother of the group, taking care of everybody, including Toph. And that's how I know that any parent should be proud of her. It's a parent's job to accept their child, to love them not for who they want them to be, but to take them as they are. You know, it wasn't easy for my mom and dad that I was a waterbender. There was no one to teach me, and my talent caused them a lot of headaches because I didn't know how to control it. Just by being myself, I put the whole village in danger and cost my mother her life. But I never felt like I had to hide myself the way Toph did here. Now I see that Toph needed to be obstinate to hold on to who she was in this house. And I'm grateful for that, because I wouldn't want her to be anyone else. As different as we are, and as hard as it's been for us to get along sometimes, I'm glad she is exactly herself. And you should be too."

"We'll leave in the morning," Aang told the older couple, and led the other teenagers to their guest room. As soon as the door closed, the three had Toph surrounded in a group hug. It didn't last long, until she pushed them away, wiping her eyes.

"Thanks, guys. For what you said in there."

"It's all true." Aang told her.

"I'm so mad at them!" Katara fumed.

Toph took a deep breath. "I don't want to go back to my old room. They might have put servants in there to watch me. Can I sleep in here with you guys?"

The other three looked at each other for a minute. Of course their friend was welcome in their room, but there were only three beds.

Finally, Sokka asked, "Katara, would you rather share a bed with me or with Toph?"

They both sounded equally uncomfortable to the waterbender; she knew that her brother slept sprawled out, limbs colonizing the entire bed, and that Toph made abrupt punching and kicking movements in her sleep. Aang, though, he was a peaceful, compact sleeper, now that his nightmares had ended. And he was always warm. Sharing a bed with him would be easy. Cozy, even. But of course Sokka hadn't said that was an option. She might have fought about it, at least for the sake of provoking her brother, if they hadn't had quite enough arguing for one night.

Instead she just asked Toph, "Would you rather sleep next to me or in a bed by yourself?" She knew the younger girl was only asking to stay with them because she felt so hurt and vulnerable. Putting her friend's feelings first was more important than where she slept tonight.

"I could go sleep with Appa," Aang offered.

"Don't worry about it," Toph said, in an unusually agreeable way. "I'll sleep on the nice, cool stone floor. All that camping has made these beds feel too soft. I just like hearing you all breathe."

"You don't mind Sokka snoring?" Aang asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"I do not snore!" He objected.

"You do." Katara told him.

"Meh." Toph shrugged. "It's rhythmic. And I'm used to it."

They got ready for bed, passing Toph extra blankets and pillows to prop up her feet.


Toph, Katara, Aang and Sokka were packing Appa's saddle and discussing where they could find accommodations in town when Lao and Poppy Beifong came down to the stable.

"Please don't leave." Lady Beifong implored her daughter.

The others looked to Toph to follow her lead. She crossed her arms. "I'm listening." Her friends stood behind her protectively.

"First of all, we didn't know Master Yu and Xin Fu would put you in a cage, Toph". Her father informed her. "I told them to use any means necessary to bring you back to me, but they're the ones who interpreted my instructions that way. I'd have them prosecuted for abusing you like that, but they seem to have disappeared."

"We honestly thought you had kidnapped her," the noblewoman said to Aang. "It wasn't until we got her letter that we found out she'd left of her own free will."

"Wow, you guys really don't know me at all, do you?" Toph asked incredulously. "After the way you promised to lock me down and never let me do anything ever, you thought I wanted to stay here?"

"No, I suppose we don't know you." Her mother replied sadly. "We had no clue you were this unhappy."

"You carried out this whole secret life behind our backs, fighting in a wrestling ring." Her father pointed out. "Surely you understand why we'd think that was unsafe? And why we couldn't trust you to have any freedom, if you were sneaking around and lying to us like that?"

"Surely you understand why I didn't tell you the truth?" Toph retorted. "When you found out, you just proved I had been right to keep it from you."

"That's fair. We're sorry, Toph." Lao Beifong apologized. "Our mistake was trying too hard to protect you. We didn't imagine how…. smothering it might become. I hope you realize that we did that because we do love you. And we want to accept you, just as you are. But now I see that we never understood you. We didn't know what you needed from us, or perhaps we refused to listen, because we were too scared that you would get hurt or rejected in the world outside our estate. You were right that keeping you sheltered was what we needed, not you. And now you've made it clear that if we keep trying to cling to you and tie you down, you'll just run away again and never come back. At this point, all we want is to have you in our lives in whatever way you'll allow."

"We lost you once and don't want to lose you again." Her mother put in, almost getting teary. "The house was so empty and lonely…."

"Please, Toph. Stay." Her father begged. "Let us get to know the real you."

The teens exchanged glances. The Beifongs seemed to have learned their lesson. They were all focused on Toph, wondering what she would say. She appeared deep in thought for several moments, keeping them in suspense.

Finally, she offered a condition. "There will be no arranged marriage. I've been around people who are really in love, and I don't want to give up my chance on that just to live in a fancy house. I marry someone I pick, in my own time, or I just don't ever get married. I hear one word about a matchmaker ever again, and that's the last time you see me."

"Done." Lao responded, as if it were a business deal. His wife threw him a panicked glance, but he held his hand up to quiet her. He seemed to recognize that he had no negotiating power here and must accept his daughter's terms. "Is that all?" He asked. "We'll do anything to make it up to you."

Toph grinned. "You could come to Earth Rumble."

Her parents looked at each other again. "The….wrestling match?" Her mother asked with trepidation.

"Yeah, the earthbending tournament. The one I won two years ago, and my mom and dad weren't even there to see it. I was the youngest champion ever. I think it would be the perfect place for you to meet the real me."

Toph's friends could almost see her mother weighing the disgrace of being seen in such a place with the necessity of proving her sincerity to her daughter. "All right, we'll come." She nodded stoutly, as if she'd just agreed to face the wrestlers herself.


As trip planner, Sokka had scheduled and negotiated his friends' appearances at Earth Rumble. He hadn't had to bargain hard; once he'd recognized how eager the wrestling organization was to feature his two friends, he'd been able to name his price. Despite the big payment Aang and Toph would be receiving, the Earth Rumble organizers were surely going to make record profits on the event. They'd aggressively promoted the Avatar's participation, charged higher ticket prices than ever before, and still sold out. They had tried to talk Sokka into multiple engagements, but he said Aang was too busy. That meant they could advertise it as a one-time-only event, which only increased demand for tickets. Aang and Toph would both be paid handsomely, in addition to any prize money they might win.

When Katara heard how much her boyfriend was going to earn, she elbowed him. "That's another possible career opportunity for you. Pro bending."

"That might be fun." Aang scratched his chin. "I think I'd like it better as a team sport, though."

The Beifongs and their guests all put on their gear and loaded into the carriage. Katara wore her shirt with Aang's face, and over her hair she had a green and yellow leather headpiece with puff balls at the ears, similar to the one Toph had worn as the Blind Bandit. Sokka wore a Blind Bandit shirt and a cap with a blue arrow on it. They had talked the Beifongs into putting on Blind Bandit shirts as well. Katara had pointed out to Lady Beifong that it would make her less recognizable, as surely no one would expect to see an aristocrat like her dressed that way.

At the door to the arena, Katara kissed Aang and said, "Have fun, sweetie." He was in his usual one-shoulder tunic, though the Earth Rumble organizers had tried to talk him into adding a cape or some sparkling crystals to his outfit.

Sokka tousled Toph's hair affectionately. "Go get that belt!" She was wearing a metal breastplate she'd made that morning, with loose green shorts that looked like a skirt at certain angles. When a wrestler changes her name, she has to change her costume, she'd explained.

"Be careful, dear!" Lady Beifong called anxiously to her daughter before she disappeared into the locker room.

Toph shook her head. "Careful doesn't win championships, Mom."

When they got to their seats, Sokka explained the rules of Earth Rumble to the Beifongs. "There's a tournament among the regular wrestlers first. Then the winner of the tournament has to beat last year's defending champion. That's Aang. Then the winner of that match will take on any challengers. Last year that was how Aang first met Toph. He challenged her and won."

"Toph is planning to challenge Aang again to take back her title," Katara informed them.

"She thinks she can beat the Avatar?" Lao Beifong asked, horrified.

"Sure." Sokka shrugged, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "She's a much better earthbender than he is. He could probably be considered a master, but it's still his worst element. He used airbending to beat Toph last year, and this year he said he's only going to use earthbending."

They watched the garishly dressed and strangely named wrestlers face off against each other. Sokka enjoyed the spectacle just as he had the previous year, cheering and hooting. As the show went on, Lao Beifong started to appreciate it as a form of theater, it seemed, but his wife's horror at the uncouth violence only increased with each match.

Finally, for the tournament's last match, The Dirt Bag, whose costume was a filthy sack, faced Graveler, who had covered himself with pebbles as a kind of armor. The Dirt Bag's fighting specialty was sending dust clouds to confuse his adversaries and make them cough. But Graveler was able to turn the arena floor into thousands of tiny rocks that he used to either pelt other competitors or create a surge that pushed them out of bounds. When winner was determined, Graveler stood victorious.

"And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Graveler versus your champion, Avatar Aang!" The orange-clad teen stepped into the arena, waving to the crowd.

"The Avatar? I have to fight the Avatar?" Graveler cowered.

Aang encouraged his opponent. "Hey, don't worry, I promise I'll only use earthbending. You're obviously really good at wrestling other earthbenders, and it's my least favorite way to fight! I actually don't like fighting at all. I'm a pacifist. This is just for fun."

Graveler was too overawed and intimidated by the slight teenager to fight properly. He barely defended himself. Aang pitied him and would have thrown the match, except that he wanted to be the one to face Toph's challenge next. He simply put up a wall and used it to push the man out of bounds while he crouched behind it. It was probably the least interesting match of the night.

"Your winner, and still the champion, Avatar Aang!" The announcer boomed. He struck a couple poses for the cheering crowd. Katara thought he sought her eyes in the stands and winked at her.

"To make things a little more interesting, I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat Avatar Aang!" The announcer paused dramatically. "What, no one dares to face him?"

A bold, but girlish voice boomed out from one corner of the arena. "They used to call me the Blind Bandit, but I'm not hiding behind an alias anymore. My name is Toph Beifong, and I'm the greatest earthbender of all time!"

"Hi, Sifu!" Aang waved brightly.

"You got to give it to her, she knows how to put on a show." Sokka pointed out.

"She knows how to brag," Katara corrected him.

Toph stepped forward and continued her challenge, pointing to Aang in the arena. "I taught the Avatar everything he knows about earthbending, and that's how I know I can beat him. He's been easy on the other wrestlers, limiting himself to earthbending. But Avatar Aang, I can beat you with any two of your elements!"

Excited murmurs swept across the audience. This challenge match was shaping up to be the best in Earth Rumble history!

"Oh no. She can't do it if he picks air." Sokka started chewing his nails. "Any two of the others, she can beat him. But if he flies, if he takes his feet off the ground, she won't have a clue where he is."

"If I know Aang, he'll let her win." Katara thought of how they'd sparred on their date. This wasn't romantic, but he would make sure that Toph felt good about herself when this was over. Earth Rumble mattered to Toph; it had been the way she had first proven her skill to the world and herself. For Aang, this was just a fun sparring match. Katara knew he would play along with using his elements strategically to let their friend win and make it an enjoyable battle for everyone to watch.

"Let her? She'll wipe the floor with him!" called a fan behind them. "Go Bandit!"

Next to Sokka, Lao Beifong was having a panic attack. "He's the Avatar! He just defeated the Fire Lord! He won't hurt her, will he?"

Katara reassured him. "Of course not. He has complete control."

"So does she." Sokka put in. "She can defend herself."

In the arena, the combatants were setting their terms.

"I can pick which two elements?" Aang asked to clarify.

"Sure." Toph answered with a cocky shrug.

"Best two of three rounds?"

"As always."

"All right. Air and earth!" He yelled, spinning and sending a strong wind right at Toph. She brought her forearms in front of her face, raising a wall to shelter herself. The people in the crowd behind her lost their hats to the wild gust. Then Aang chopped his arm at the wall, cutting it off from the bottom, so that it began to topple down on Toph. She laughed and lifted it above her head before throwing it at him. He jumped up and landed on it, riding it until it fell to the ground and skidded to a stop just inside the boundary. The rest of that round was a bit of a game of hide and seek. Aang flew and flipped around the arena, dodging rocks that Toph tossed wherever she thought he was. Sometimes he intercepted the rocks in midair and tossed them in different directions to mislead her. She also tried to grab his feet with the earth whenever he touched down for an instant, but he could free himself just as easily, so she stopped bothering with that after a while. After that first attack, he didn't use air offensively again, and stuck to his typical evasion techniques. The round timed out at ten minutes; neither won, so Aang, as the defender, got the point.

"Round two!" The announcer called.

"I'd pick water but there isn't any around." Aang called.

The tournament organizers were ready for this. Toph had warned them of the additional challenge she wanted to set for herself, and they'd been only too eager to cooperate. They'd known that bending multiple elements would make their spectacle extra memorable, so they wanted to make it possible. Large stone troughs of water appeared around the edge of the arena.

"That enough for you?" The attendants asked him.

"Thanks, that's perfect." He told them. "Water and earth!"

Aang shot hard, fast streams of water at Toph, but she just put up a stone shield and dug in her heels. He tried it again and again, even after everyone could tell it wasn't working. And then it was too late: the dirt on the arena floor had been turned to mud. All except the area around Toph's feet. She had hardened it to stone, so that the water just rolled off, making the rest of the ground even muddier. Aang felt foolish: of course the two elements would mix this way and backfire on him like this. Then Toph started pushing him through the mud toward the boundary line. His feet kept slipping, but she didn't seem to be having the same problem.

Katara understood what was happening and described it to the others. "She's controlling the consistency of ALL of the earth in the arena, so that the ground under her feet stays hard like a stone, while the dirt he's trying to manage stays soft and absorbs all the water."

Sokka made an impressed face. "I didn't know she could do that."

"I guess it's similar to how I can work with liquid water and ice at the same time." His sister explained.

"Maybe she's been watching you."

Katara snickered at her brother's slip. "I doubt that."

In the arena, Toph continued to push Aang, and his feet could find no traction to resist her. Soon, his foot crossed the boundary.

"Toph Beifong wins round two! The score is tied!" The announcer yelled, and the crowd went wild.

Both combatants took a minute to bend the dirt off their clothes. Toph normally wouldn't have cared, but the mud was kind of caked on in an uncomfortable way, and the importance of these kinds of appearances had been explained to her by the event organizers. They needed to give the badgermole some time to clean up the arena anyway.

"How do you like that tied score, Twinkle Toes?" Toph jeered once they were clean and ready to fight again.

"I think I'd like to burn it up!" Aang yelled. He was getting into this trash-talk thing. He called his elements: "Earth and fire!"

Aang shot fireballs at Toph, which she blocked easily. Her parents clutched each other desperately, and her mother hid her face in her father's shoulder.

Then Toph knocked her opponent upside the head with a big chunk of dirt, making him stumble. Katara gasped and grabbed Sokka's arm. It gave Toph only a moment to use to her advantage. She bent down and touched the dirt on the arena floor. With some intense concentration, she heated it until it turned bright red and flowed as lava. A gasp went up from the crowd. Toph pulled the molten rock up into a vertical wave and pushed it toward Aang, spiraling it around him.

"She copied that move from me!" Katara realized. It galled her to see it used against her boyfriend.

Aang couldn't stop the oncoming lava with fire, and couldn't bend it in that form, so he was practically helpless. He tried bending a wall, but it got knocked down. Then he raised himself above the wave on a pillar, which only put him in danger of being undercut and toppled into the magma. When he saw the bright red surge closing in on him, Aang tried to cool it down with dust, but he wasn't any good at controlling the temperature of earth. Before the lava could touch him, he blew on it, knowing he was breaking the rule and forfeiting the round. Still, all that accomplished was keeping him from getting burnt as the liquid rock surrounded him and hardened, so that he was trapped in a cone with only his head poking out the top.

"Did you catch how he blew just now?" Sokka pointed out. "Bet anything he was airbending to cool the lava down. That means he used 3 elements, so he loses."

Katara's arms were crossed and she looked upset. "He really could have gotten hurt. I thought Toph would be more careful."

"You got me, Sifu!" Aang called out goodnaturedly from his obsidian prison.

"Of course I did, Twinkle Toes. Now say it!"

"You are the greatest earthbender of all time."

"And don't any of you ever forget it!" The crowd cheered while Toph lifted her arms in victory.


The next morning, the Beifongs and the teenagers were having breakfast, and everyone seemed to be in a much better mood than they had since the sky bison had landed on the estate.

"So how did you feel watching your daughter defeat the Avatar?" Sokka asked Lao smugly. "Does it assure you of her safety? Make you feel like she can take care of herself and doesn't need your protection?"

"The strange thing is that, yes, it did. I think I'll always feel protective of her. I won't ever fully trust the world not to hurt her. But I never imagined my little girl could be so…..formidable." Toph grinned in a very self-satisfied way. Her father glanced at his wife and took her hand. "I think we're ready to hear the whole story. Everything that happened, all that you did. No leaving anything out. We can handle it." The older couple braced themselves.

So Toph led the storytelling, with the others chiming in. It took most of the day. They took breaks to eat and illustrated the story with demonstrations in the garden or used pai sho pieces to show how they and their enemies had been positioned during a conflict. When the story was finally concluded and brought up to date, they all sat in awed silence for a couple minutes.

"Well? What are you thinking?" Toph asked nervously.

"I'm just amazed. You did all that on your own?" Lao Beifong asked in wonder.

"Well, we had each other." Aang answered.

"Yes. You do seem to make a good team."

"We're more than that, we're a family." Sokka corrected him, throwing his arms around Katara and Toph.

"Yes." The older man seemed genuinely puzzled. "What makes it work?"

"We just….trust each other." Aang shrugged, as if that were simple.

Lao Beifong gazed at his daughter with unbearable sorrow in his eyes. "I suppose that's what we need to do, too." He looked at his wife to share his new understanding. "Have faith in Toph and just…. let go."

"Sometimes that's the best way to show love," Aang said wisely.

"At the same time, it is….hard to accept. If you don't need us to protect you and keep you safe, darling, then what do you need us for at all?" Lao asked his daughter mournfully.

When Toph didn't answer immediately, Katara jumped in. "For comfort and closeness. To enjoy each other's company and share life's simple moments and transitions. I think I'm always going to need my mom. I've had to figure out how to get by without her, but that need doesn't go away. It just turns into an empty ache when it doesn't get filled. That's why I'm glad it's not too late for you."

"Just because we can get by and survive without our parents, and just because we like traveling the world and being free, doesn't mean we love them any less." Sokka added.

"It does mean we're growing up and we don't want to be controlled anymore." Toph put in.

"The relationship you have with your parents as an adult is different from when you're a kid." Sokka said philosophically.

"But you are still kids." Lao protested.

"No, not really." Sokka shook his head. "Somewhere along the way between surviving on our own, facing death, and defeating a dictator, we grew up."

"For your sake, I'm sorry that happened that way." Katara said regretfully. "The war cheated you out of some good years of your daughter's childhood."

"I guess when we came here last year, I kind of….drafted Toph into the war, and she answered the call." Aang shrugged apologetically. "She could have stayed here, in this protected little haven away from all of the fighting. But she chose to give up her privileges and face danger and hardship. You kept her safe, and then she turned around and made the rest of the world just as safe as her home."

The Beifongs seemed to like this interpretation of events. It made Toph's decision to leave less a rejection of them, and more an unavoidable patriotic duty.

"We are proud of you," Toph's father told her, taking her hand hesitantly.

"Very proud," her mother echoed.

Toph's face pointed down, her hair hiding her smile.

"I suppose we owe the three of you a debt of gratitude," Lao said to the other teens. "You took care of Toph and understood her when we couldn't. Thank you."

"She took care of us too." Aang reassured them.

"Saved our sorry a-behinds several times." Sokka added.

"I just….feel like I don't know what to expect for your future, dear." Lady Beifong said carefully. "Every girl in both of our families went to the matchmaker. It's scary for me to watch you go off on your own in an entirely new direction, with no one to show you the way or support you. I know you don't want us to arrange a marriage for you, but it makes me feel so worried! And like I'm failing in my duty toward you. Who will look after you? Where will you live?"

Toph waved away her concern, "I'll find my own way. I can fight, build, sculpt, scam—there's not much I can't do. I know how to survive. Running away gave me all of these experiences I would never have gotten here."

"You can do anything, but what would you like to do?" Her father asked.

Toph grinned, and Katara could practically watch her gain an inch in height as her chest puffed up in pride. She wondered if anyone had ever asked Toph a question like that, one for a child with endless potential. One that boys got asked more often than girls, and that was practically never directed to a young person with an impairment.

"I think I want to teach metalbending." Toph replied. "Like, start a school. Teaching Aang was fun." She punched his arm.

"Fun for you, maybe." Aang put in, rubbing the spot.

"You just like telling people what to do," Sokka told her.

"Yeah. And yelling. I love yelling."

"We were going to leave tomorrow for Ba Sing Se, but we hope we'll see you there," Katara told the older couple.

"Yes, I think we will come." Lady Beifong said. "The King's Spring Festival Ball is always an event worth attending. Would you like to travel to the city with us, Toph?" The mother's eyes were full of hope and vulnerability.

"We can talk about your metalbending school on the way." Lao added an enticement.

"And I'll pack some of those dumplings for the road?" Lady Beifong offered.

Lao said something in that made-up language that only Toph could understand, making another smile appear on her face.

"Well, a carriage is closer to the good solid ground. I still sometimes get airsick on Appa." She decided.

"Great!" Aang said. "We can meet you there!"

As the teenagers went to their room for the night, Sokka nudged his friend and said in a low voice, "If we can get this family to reconcile, it kind of gives you hope for the colonies, doesn't it?"

"You know, it does." Aang replied thoughtfully. "And all it took was a wrestling match."


Author's note: Inspiration for Toph's words about the origins of her metalbending come from The Promise graphic novel. Same for her words about why she wants to start a metalbending school.

Lao and Toph's made up language is supposed to be something like Pig Latin, if that wasn't obvious.

Bonus points for anyone who can find the non-ATLA reference in this chapter!

Please leave me a review and tell me what you liked about this chapter!

I don't have the following chapter ready, so I won't promise to update on time next week, but let me know if you want a PM instead. I'm sending extra content to those who want it on the Fridays when I can't update.