Woot, our first real intersection with canon! Sorry this took a while to get out. I'm wrangling a lot of stuff in RL right now :(. Enjoy this chapter! And I promise that this won't be a mostly-identical-to-canon story for long. Changes are going to snowball :)
Chapter 3: Life Is Like a Rumble
"Goodnight," Poppy called as Zhi headed away.
He made his way to his room, closing and locking the door behind him. Over to his closet, moving faster now, but carefully. It wouldn't do to make a lot of noise and alert suspicion. Take out the nondescript clothes he wore to remain anonymous. Strip off the stifling, fancy robes, pull on the laborer's garb, stuff the robes in the closet, close the door. Hair pulled back. Soft boots on. He knelt by his bed and, after a moment, knocked softly, three times.
Nothing happened. He sat back for a couple minutes, then knocked again. Still nothing. On the third time, there was a grinding sound, and the marble floor split open, rough stone steps descending into a dark hole below. He hurried down, taking out his glowcrystal pendant. At the bottom of the stairs, ten feet down, there was a tunnel lit by his glowcrystal and two other softly glowing green lights.
Above him, the hole in the floor slip closed again and the steps shifted back into the side of the tunnel. Zhi blinked into the dim tunnel at the other lights. They resolved themselves into two other glowcrystal pendants, hanging around the necks of Meilin and Jiao. Toph, who stood between them, did not have a glowcrystal for obvious reasons. Meilin and Jiao were wearing similar clothes to Zhi, brown and plain. Meilin wore a hood. Toph was in her usual rumble outfit, a tan tunic over a green shirt and pants. Her hair was pulled back into a bun, courtesy of Meilin, and she was wearing her favorite headband (although Zhi could never figure out why, since her bangs were still in her face anyway). She had the elaborate green-and-gold champion's belt slung over one shoulder, ludicrously big for a petite girl like her.
"Ready to go knock some heads?" Zhi asked. Toph grinned. "Am I ever," she whispered. "Now keep your voice down, Sunshine."
Zhi sighed. He'd gotten up on the wrong side of the bed a while ago, and when Meilin commented on it he'd snapped "Yes, I'm just a big ray of sunshine!" Toph had latched onto that and hadn't let go, for some reason. It was rather irritating.
But Toph had a point. They really didn't want to be too noisy and raise suspicions. Toph's web of tunnels under the house and grounds was extensive, and if Dad ever decided to get an earthbender to investigate the strange noises under the floor they were in trouble.
The four walked in silence for a few minutes before Toph opened up a tunnel to the surface, a few hundred feet away from the main path. "You guys know what to do," she said softly. "Zhi, you have the tickets?"
"Right here."
"All right. Have fun."
Zhi, Meilin, and Jiao all hugged Toph. "Good luck, baby badgermole," Meilin said. "Go beat the pants off those guys. On second thought, don't. We'd have to look at them."
Toph laughed and waved as the three of them headed up the tunnel and out into the dark woods. The ground sealed behind them as Toph headed off to the backrooms of the arena via her own tunnels, and her siblings made their way to the road, joining the stream of people moving through the night to the brightly lit Rumble arena entrance.
;=;=;=;=;
The Gaoling Earth Rumble VI had a proud history. Earth Rumbles were an old sport, originating after the defeat of Chin the Conqueror from the practice of formalized matches between disagreeing earthbenders. The matches were created as a way for warring factions to settle disagreements, loosely modeled after the Fire Nation's tradition of Agni Kais. The concept quickly became adapted for entertainment, and the first modern Earth Rumble was held in Omashu. Gaoling was the sixth location in the country to start hosting rumbles. While technically illegal, rumbles were far too popular to shut down, as Gaoling knew well – they profited a great deal from the revenue that all the rumble attendees brought in. Today there were hundreds of rumbles all over the country, but Gaoling's Earth Rumble VI was one of the biggest and the best, holding weekly rumbles as well as larger events. People came from all over to attend, especially for the event of the year: the annual Championship Rumble.
And, for the last three years, the annual Championship Rumble had been won by a little blind girl.
Zhi stood in line with Meilin and Jiao in one of the entry lines, idly looking at the posters tacked up around the cave's entrance, illuminated by clumps of glowcrystal. There were a lot of advertisements for everything from two-for-one specials on tea samples, to the local massage parlor, to hand-painted collectible Rumble fighter figurines. Zhi admired the gaudy poster with a passable image of Toph's likeness splashed across it, proclaiming that the Blind Bandit would be back for this year's championship. Underneath the picture was smaller text with some theories as to her identity and other rumors about her. Zhi had heard a lot (his favorite was the one where Toph was the incarnation of a wrathful spirit from thousands of years ago, roused from slumber by greedy sorcerers who made her fight in the ring so she could win a lot of money for them, but it backfired when she consumed their souls and then stuck around because she liked winning). This poster had several of the most popular rumors (she was an adult, just a short one; she wasn't really blind; she was the daughter of one of the legendary Dai Li from Ba Sing Se) as well as a few more far-fetched or speculative ones (she was granted her incredible power by Oma and Shu, who wanted her to crusade for them; she was a Fire Nation sympathizer who was trying to take out the most powerful earthbenders so they couldn't fight; she had bound a bunch of spirits to her service and was getting them to fight for her). There were a few Fire Nation wanted posters up as well, although they were in a dark corner.
Jiao snorted. Zhi looked down, and the boy pointed up ahead at the front of their line. "Kids didn't buy tickets ahead of time."
"Oof," Zhi said, watching the three kids Jiao had indicated, several people ahead at the entrance. "They're going to have to pay through the nose for those, if they get spots at all." Everyone knew it was best to buy tickets well in advance – spots filled up fast.
"They might get front-row seats," Meilin said, watching the kids argue with the person taking tickets.
Zhi snickered. That was almost worse than not getting in at all. More dangerous, certainly.
"I think those two are Water Tribe," Meilin said, and Zhi looked back with more interest. It was a boy and a girl, both wearing blue clothing with a simple, foreign cut and unusual hairstyles. The third kid was wearing green clothes and a low hat. Zhi couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl.
The girl finally handed over a pouch of money, and the ticket man slid them stamped tickets over the counter and pointed down the green-lit hall to the arena seating. Zhi was relieved – the kids had been holding the line up. The three headed down the hall, arguing. Probably not happy with how much it cost to get in, if Zhi had to guess.
Toph had gotten her siblings tickets. The contestants got free tickets for a few guests, and Xin Fu, the current Rumble host, was more than happy to get the Blind Bandit as many as she wanted. As long as he made money, he was happy to accommodate. And all the Blind Bandit's fans were quite lucrative.
They got their tickets stamped and walked down into the arena. Toph had gotten them some of the best seats in the house this year – lower middle. The higher seats were too far away to see or hear everything, and the lower and front seats were too close for obvious reasons. But the middle seats were just right.
There were a few minor fights occurring, giving people something to watch as they waited for the real event to begin. Zhi, Meilin, and Jiao found some good seats and settled in, watching the four guys currently fighting.
A boulder went astray, whacking into the lowest stands. Zhi looked where it landed, and laughed. "Look, it's the kids." The three kids from the line were sitting in the very front seats close by where the boulder had hit, and appeared to be rather disconcerted by the near miss.
They waited as the stands filled, illuminated by the mass of glowcrystals above. Many audience members had their own glowcrystals as well, filling the stands with bobbing lights.
Finally the last fighters filed out, and Xin Fu appeared on a stone pillar. "Welcome to Earth Rumble VI!" he boomed. "I am your host, Xin Fu!"
Zhi made a face. He'd never been fond of the guy. But Toph was willing to work for him, and Zhi trusted Toph to take care of herself.
Xin Fu announced the rules of the rumble – knock the other guy out and you win – and leaped away as the first championship contestants entered the ring: the Boulder and the Hippo.
Zhi watched as the Boulder took down one opponent after another. He was a strong and skilled bender, and had a good sense of timing. He wasn't on Toph's level, though. It was really, really hard to be on Toph's level. She was Dragon-of-the-West and "Sea-Serpent"-Aluk levels of good. More than a master.
Jiao yawned and leaned his head on Meilin's shoulder. It was much later than the kid was used to being up, and even the excitement of a Rumble couldn't keep him totally alert.
Finally The Boulder had worked his way up through the ranks, beating everyone in his way. There was only one person left for him to face, and Zhi was eager to watch.
"Now the moment you've all been waiting for," Xin Fu intoned. "The Boulder versus your champion…. The Blind Bandit!"
And there was Toph, decked out with belt and cape, flanked by two female attendants. As the crowd roared, the women took her championship belt and cape, leaving her in her rumble outfit. Zhi smiled a little at how tiny and defenseless she looked in the giant ring, against the hulking, sculpted Boulder. If ever there was proof that earthbending didn't require lots of muscles, Toph was it.
The Boulder shifted his position as Toph stepped forward. "The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young blind girl," he declared loudly.
"Idiot," Meilin whispered. "Didn't he see what happened to her last challenger?"
Zhi shook his head, remembering how last year Toph had flung the so-called Stone Emperor into the wall so hard some of the ceiling crystals cracked loose, and she'd caught them before they hit the ground. Toph always got dangerous when her championship was being questioned.
Toph cocked her head. "Sounds to me like you're scared, Boulder!" she retorted.
"Ooh, burn," Jiao said. Zhi grinned. Toph was adorably good at trash talk.
The Boulder rocked back, then narrowed his eyes. "The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings," he announced, "and is ready to bury you… in a rockalanche!"
"Bring it on, Pebble!" Toph said, and did her favorite cackle that had been known to make grown men wet their pants. Zhi and Meilin glanced at each other, smirking, and then back down at the ring.
The Boulder took two steps forward, and Toph shot her foot out. A line of disrupted earth slammed forward, reaching him just as he put his foot down. His foot shot out and he dropped into a perfect split.
"Ouch," Zhi said fervently as The Boulder yelled, "Oooooh!" in pain.
Toph brought her hand around in a sharp motion. Three pillars erupted from the ground, slamming into The Boulder's body and sending him flying out of the ring. And just like that, it was over.
Xin Fu raised a fist. "Your winner, and still the champion… The Blind Bandit!"
The crowd erupted, cheering and hollering. Toph grinned, wide and happy. Zhi whooped and hollered, waving his fists. Toph didn't get to be herself much, and these times in the ring were some of her best.
Xin Fu leaped down, landing near Toph. He was holding a sack in his hand. "To make things a little more interesting, I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat The Blind Bandit!" he announced, holding the sack aloft and turning. "What? No one dares to face her?"
Zhi shook his head in exasperation. That was Xin Fu, always looking for some way to spice things up, some way to make more profits. Who in this entire place would dare challenge the Blind Bandit after watching her wipe the floor with The Boulder -
"I will!"
Oh. Apparently that kid would. The one with the Water Tribe, none of which seemed to know anything about the rumbles. Could the kid even earthbend?
Xin Fu seemed rather surprised – he wasn't expecting this either – but he jumped out of the ring. Toph turned to face the new kid, two children facing off.
"Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?" she demanded, and the audience ooohed. Jiao punched the air. "Tell it, Bandit!"
"I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk!" the kid – boy? - said, hands up. Zhi stared at him. Why had he gotten into a Rumble if he didn't want to fight?
The weird thing was how… bouncy the kid was. Toph launched him up into the air, and he almost drifted back down to the ground, touching down gently. Toph scowled.
"Somebody's a little light on his feet!" she said accusingly. "What's your fighting name, the Fancy Dancer?"
The boy grinned and shrugged. Zhi watched worriedly as Toph turned her head, scanning the ring. "Where'd you go?" she asked.
Zhi bit his lip. If Toph couldn't sense the boy's vibrations through the ground, she couldn't find him. It was hard to hit something you couldn't see. Maybe if she shook the ring to make him fall over, so she could find him -
"Please, wait!" the boy cried.
Or that worked, too.
"There you are!" Toph said, and Zhi recognized her tone. It was her "finishing" voice, when she was done playing. She was ready to knock this boy into next week and take home the championship. She whipped around, a boulder ripping out of the ground and slamming at the boy -
and then the boulder was stopping -
and Toph was flying back -
and as Xin Fu and The Boulder and Meilin and Jiao and Zhi and the entire audience stared in total shock, Toph tumbled over the side of the ring, leaving the boy standing in the middle.
"Toph!" Meilin cried, a hand lying to her mouth as she remembered too late not to call her that. Not that anyone else would have noticed.
Zhi stared down at the ring, at his little sister who had flown off the side. As the crowd finally went wild, he turned urgently to Meilin. "We have to get to her."
The boy was trying to talk to Toph. Over the noise of the crowd, Zhi heard her voice raise, strained with tears and anger, before she slammed down a tunnel in the wall and closed it behind her.
"She's probably gone to the back rooms," Meilin said, already getting up. "She wouldn't leave without us, she knows we can't get home without us."
Zhi and Jiao got up as well. "We should probably be able to get back there while everyone's watching the end," Zhi said softly. The three of them headed out of the arena. No one paid any attention, focused on the new champion getting the belt (Toph's belt) and the bag of gold from a bewildered and unhappy Xin Fu.
Zhi clenched his fists as they made their way out of the arena and into the wide hallway, splitting off to find the back rooms where the fighters hung out between matches. He didn't know what the boy had done – it hadn't even looked like earthbending – but he'd just whacked Zhi's little sister off the ring and ruined for her the only place she could really be herself.
If he ever saw that boy again, he was going to give him a piece of his mind. Or a fist, seeing how the kid liked playing rough.
Zhi knew this wasn't a very fair reaction. And he knew she was probably not injured. But he'd never seen Toph look so small before, so beaten. His big brother instincts were hard to ignore.
;=;=;=;=;
They found her in a back tunnel, hunched up against the wall, crying softly. She didn't even try to stop when they approached.
Oh, Toph. "Hey," Meilin said softly, sitting down next to Toph and putting an arm around her. "Are you hurt?"
Toph shook her head. Her hair was coming out of its bun, spilling down around her face. Dust coated her, except for where tears had tracked down her face.
Meilin pulled her in for a hug, and Toph resisted for a moment before leaning into it, solid, warm, strong, and somehow so fragile at the same time. Toph was tough as granite and stronger than a sabertoothed mooselion, and sometimes Meilin forgot that she was still only twelve years old.
Zhi put a hand on Toph's back, and Jiao wiggled up next to her, too. They sat in the dim tunnel for a while, silently comforting, before Toph sniffed and pushed back, sitting up.
"It's ruined now," she said, her voice thick.
"What's ruined?" Meilin asked softly.
Toph gestured around "The rumble. I'm done. The Blind Bandit was beaten by some weird nobody kid. I'm going to be the laughingstock of the entire countryside."
"Hey," Zhi said, smiling sympathetically. "I know it's hard. But think about it. The Blind Bandit herself was just some weird nobody kid when she started out. It's hard to get back up after a defeat like that, but it doesn't mean that anyone's going to think less of you for losing."
"It'll work out," Meilin said. She didn't say that the news of the Blind Bandit losing her first match in four years was going to sweep the entire southern half of the Earth Kingdom faster than you could chuck a stone. That didn't sound like the kind of thing Toph needed to hear right now. Instead she asked gently, "Do you know what happened?"
Toph blew out a breath, leaning her head back against the wall. "I – I don't know. I couldn't feel him, he was so light, and his heartbeat wasn't heavy enough for me to find him from that far away. But when he talked, I could find him, and I threw a boulder at him and – and I don't know. I felt it stop, he must have just held it with his earthbending, and then it felt like something threw me off the side of the ring. Not like I was hit with rocks or something. It was like I just got blown off the side." She bit her litp. "I just – I just couldn't feel anything coming..."
"Blown?" Zhi asked, frowning, and Toph nodded.
Meilin shook her head in confusion. She didn't know what had happened anymore than Toph did. Poor Toph. Not only was she defeated, but she didn't even know how – had it even been earthbending? If Mielin ever saw that boy again...
"We should get home," Zhi said, pushing himself up. Toph nodded, scrubbing her nose on her sleeve, and got up as well. Jiao took one hand and Meilin took the other, and together they headed off.
;=;=;=;=;
Jiao shuffled his feet as they walked down the road, raising dust. It wasn't fair that that boy had beaten Toph. His sister was the greatest earthbender in the area, maybe even the whole world. How come the kid had beaten her?
He must have cheated somehow. Jiao looked over at Toph, walking with her head down, and scowled as hard as he could. The boy had made her feel really bad. Nasty boy. If I ever see him again, I'm going to hit him with rocks. No, wait, not rocks. I'm going to find a big ugly octopuspede and put it down his pants. And I'll find where he's sleeping, and put acacia-pine needles in his bed, or maybe fire antbeetles. And I'll tell everyone that he wets the bed and cries whenever he stubs his toe and he has big ugly warts on his head, that's why he wears the hat.
Jiao really, really hoped he ran into the boy sometime. But not when Toph was around, because that might make her feel bad.
;=;=;=;=;
It wasn't until after they were home that Meilin realized that her leather bracelet with the Beifong symbol was missing.
;=;=;=;=;
Toph blew her breath out and sat down in the grass, letting the sun warm her upturned face. It had been two days since the disastrous Championship Rumble, and she still wasn't feeling great. The soreness she could deal with, but losing was hard on her.
She smirked a little at that thought. "Sore loser," she muttered. Zhi would appreciate the pun.
She idly tracked the footsteps around her. The Rumble had made her realize that she really needed to work on improving her earthsense. When she was facing the lightfooted boy, she hadn't been able to tell where he was until he spoke. Being able to detect his heartbeat would have been helpful, or even just telling where the ground had something on it.
There were guards moving around farther away. A pair of lighter feet approaching from the direction of the house. She made no move to indicate she was aware of Jiao's presence as he plopped down next to her.
After a moment he said, "You want to play pai sho?"
Toph thought about it for a minute. Meilin had been teaching her to play, by helping her "read" the different patterns engraved on the tiles and the board. She was also working on making a set of stone tiles so she could feel them more easily.
But right now she didn't feel like doing that. She just wanted to sit here in the sun (before Mother came out and made her come into the shade and put lotion on to keep her from freckling, anyway). "No thanks."
"Okay." Jiao shrugged. "I'm not very good at pai sho anyway."
"Neither am I."
"Then we'd be good together, right?"
Toph felt a reluctant smile tugging at her lips. "I guess -" She cut off, frowning. There were footsteps outside the estate wall, light and hesitant. And they felt familiar…
"What?"
"Shhh." Toph put a finger to her lips, standing up and moving back. Confused, Jiao followed. She felt the kids scaling the wall, much faster and lighter than they should be. With their bodies against the stone, Toph was sure of it. One of them was the boy who had beaten her at the rumble, and the other two might have been with him then, too.
They reached the top of the wall, and Jiao's heart jolted. "It's them!" he hissed. "What are they doing here?"
"That's what I'd like to find out," Toph whispered back. The boy had been making some noise about teaching and nonsense at the rumble, but surely he hadn't tracked her down…
The kids jumped down off the wall, and Toph stomped the ground, sending all three of them flying into the air. Two of them even landed in bushes (the landscapers wouldn't be happy about that). Toph stormed up, Jiao trailing behind, and glowered down at where she was pretty sure the boy was. "What are you doing here, Twinkletoes?"
"How did you know it was me?" the boy asked, trying to pry himself out of the bush.
"Don't answer to Twinkletoes!" hissed one of his companions. "It's not manly!"
Toph's lips twitched slightly. She forced them down. This was not helping. "How did you find me?"
"Well, a crazy king told me I had to find an earthbender who listens to the earth," the boy said earnestly. "And then I had a vision in a magic swamp, and-"
Toph tried not to laugh. This was made easier by the disconcerting fact that the boy seemed perfectly sincere. He wasn't lying, as far as she could tell.
The girl interceded. "What Aang is trying to say is, he's the Avatar. And if he doesn't master earthbending soon, he won't be able to defeat the Fire Lord," she explained, like that helped things.
"The Avatar?" Jiao said in disbelief before Toph could say anything. "He's the Avatar?"
"Sure am," the boy said cheerfully. "These are my friends Katara and Sokka."
"So you cheated!" Jiao said angrily.
"...what?"
Toph was torn between telling them to leave and letting Jiao at them. She decided to wait and see what happened, if only so she could have an opportunity to whap the Avatar's spirit-blessed heinie.
"In the Earth Rumble! Why do you think it's called an Earth Rumble? You can't use other elements! You beat Toph by cheating!"
"Aang didn't cheat," the girl he'd called Katara said angrily.
"Yeah," the Avatar said quickly. "I was just trying to talk to her. I need her to teach me earthbending -"
"Why me?" Toph demanded, sticking an arm out to keep Jiao from trying to bite the Avatar. "Go find someone else."
"Because I had a vision of you in -"
"-a magic swamp," Toph finished. "Yeah, I heard. Tough luck. Come back in a few years."
"But King Bumi said-"
Toph whirled. "You mean the King of Omashu? The city that is in Fire Nation hands? Yeah, I'm really going to trust him. Whatever information he had is probably way out of date."
"No!" Aang stepped back a little. "We just talked to him!"
"Then if you can get to King Bumi so easily, and you're on such great terms with him, why didn't you get him to teach you earthbending!"
"He wouldn't," Katara interjected. "He said he wasn't the right one. You are."
"This is a big load of bat-beetle baloney," Toph snapped. "I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to see you. Go away before I really get mad."
Next to her, Jiao muttered something about octopuspedes for some reason.
"Look," the other boy - Soeka? - said, "we all have to do our part to win this war, and yours is to teach Aang earthbending."
Toph did laugh then. "Funny, very funny. Get out of here."
"Please!" Katara said. "Aang needs to learn earthbending by the end of the summer, or the Fire Nation is going to win the war!"
Toph paused. "Why?"
"There's a comet coming then!" Aang said. "It will give firebenders a lot more power! They'll be able to win the war easily. Please, I need your help."
"Maybe you should have thought of that before you threw me out of a ring and ruined my four-year reputation," Toph said coldly. Turning, she raised her voice. "Guards!" she cried. "Guards, help!"
The three kids' heartbeats spiked, and they scrambled to get back over the wall. Toph smirked, then hastily rearranged her face into a look of worry as the guards arrived. "Toph, Jiao, what happened?" asked the guard in front, Luo.
"I thought I heard someone," Toph invented. "And Jiao couldn't see anyone but I got scared."
"You know your father doesn't want you wandering the grounds without supervision, Toph," Luo scolded as the guards escorted them towards the house.
"I was there," Jiao said.
"Yes, well, I believe Lord Beifong was thinking of slightly older supervision," Luo said kindly. "Toph, don't forget that you have an earthbending assessment meeting with Master Yu and your parents this afternoon."
"Of course not," she said primly.
;=;=;=;=;
Dinner with the Avatar. Joy.
Zhi eyed the Avatar with no little annoyance. The nerve of him to come waltzing in and presume on Toph after cheating in the Rumble! No wonder Toph had lost. It wasn't exactly fair to pit any earthbender up against the Avatar.
He wasn't sure what to do with what Toph and Jiao said the visitors had told them. If the Fire Nation was really going to win the war by the end of summer if he wasn't stopped…
He was sitting across the table from the Water Tribe boy, a year or two younger. Sokka was inhaling the food in front of him like there would be no tomorrow. His sister cast him annoyed glances at his improper eating methods.
One of the kitchen workers, Nelai, brought Toph a bowl of steaming soup. Lao looked over. "Blow on it," he instructed Nelai. "It's too hot for her."
Toph looked irritated. She liked her foot hot.
"Allow me," the Avatar said, raising blue-tattooed hands (seriously, those arrow tattoos were weird, what culture gave kids full body tats like that?) and creating a little whirlwind over her bowl, sucking away the steam and cooling it down. The adults clapped politely. Jiao tried to glare a hole through the kid's head.
"Avatar Aang, it's an honor to have you with us," Poppy said, smiling demurely.
"In your opinion, how long do you think the war will last?" Lao asked. Zhi leaned forward in spite of himself. It seemed like an unusual question for Father to ask, but Zhi supposed the man would do anything in the name of small talk.
"I'd like to defeat the Fire Lord by the end of summer, but I can't do that without finding an earthbending teacher first." The Avatar gave Toph a meaningful glance, which was stupid because Toph couldn't see it.
"Well, Master Yu is the finest teacher in the land," Lao said, gesturing to him. "He's taught Toph and Jiao since they were little. In fact, Jiao is a fine earthbender, quite advanced for his age."
"Really?" the Avatar asked, looking at Jiao.
Zhi's fists clenched under the table, and he glared at Aang. Toph was one thing, Jiao was another thing altogether. He was only nine, after all.
"Well, I'm sure that he and Toph are both quite good, maybe good enough to teach someone else – ow!" Aang said as Toph sent his chair jumping up slightly. Lao glanced at him, then at Toph, who took a sip of her soup.
"Jiao is becoming an accomplished bender, but Toph is still learning the basics," Master Yu said.
"Yes, and sadly, because of her blindness, I don't think she will ever become a true master," Lao said.
"Oh, I'm sure she's-" the Avatar began.
"It looks like the main course is concluded," Meilin interrupted, looking at Poppy, the hostess. "Shall we move to the living room for dessert, then?"
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Poppy said.
In the living room, Zhi ended up on a couch next to Sokka. "Hi," he said.
"Hi." Sokka looked around. "Fancy place you have."
"Ah, thanks." Zhi shifted on the couch. "So, have you really fought the Fire Nation?"
"Oh, yeah. You have no idea." Sokka chuckled. "We just keep running into them! When you travel with the Avatar, the entire Fire Nation's out to get you. We were in a big siege and everything at the North Pole, even. And there was this weird jerk prince with a ponytail who chased us literally all the way from the South Pole to the North Pole. Seriously, we couldn't keep him off our trail! Except for a few times, like when we went to Gaipan and Katara had a crush on this terrorist kid who wanted to destroy the entire town, and when we went to the Southern Air Temple, there wasn't any Fire Nation there, except I guess there was. Hundred-year-old Fire Nation doesn't count, though, right?"
Zhi blinked. He got the feeling this was going to be a long evening.
;=;=;=;=;
They met in Meilin's room, like they usually did. She had the biggest, softest rug, and the added bonus of being the farthest away from the master bedroom.
"I don't know," Meilin said, sitting on the bed with her legs pulled up. "If you teach him earthbending, you'll probably have to go away with him and his friends."
"But what if he stays here?" Jiao said, leaning against the side of the bed.
"Jiao," Meilin said, "for one thing, we can't really feed that monster bison for long. And for another thing, how are we going to explain that Toph's teaching him earthbending? Which is the ultimate problem, really."
"Yeah," Zhi said. "Any way you dice it, Toph, if you teach him with Mom and Dad knowing, it means you have to come clean about your earthbending. And probably everything else." He sighed. "It's a good thing Mom and Dad don't like rumbles. But sooner or later, they are going to hear something about the Blind Bandit, and I can't promise they won't figure it out. We aren't going to be able to keep this a secret forever."
"I know," Toph said, sprawled on the rug in her pajamas. "But this could be my chance to strike against the Fire Nation. To do something important. Yeah, I'm not fond of the Avatar right now. And his girlfriend rubs me the wrong way. But isn't saving the world more important?" She grinned. "Also, if I teach him earthbending, I get to kick some serious Avatar behind in the process. Tell me that isn't attractive."
"Fair point," Zhi said. He leaned back, propping himself up on his elbows. "Listen, why don't you talk to him? Everyone is settling down for the night; it'd probably be really easy to nip in and have a chat with him. Talk. Ask him about what he's planning, what he expected, where he's going."
Toph shrugged. "Yeah, I guess." She pushed herself up off the rug and stretched. "None of you want to come?"
Meilin would have shrugged if she weren't too well brought up. "I don't think it would help anything. Since the Avatar wants your help, and I think the rest of us would be less than kind to him, it's probably best if you talk to him first. See if you can make it through a conversation with him without trying to kill him."
"Heh." Smirking, Toph walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
;=;=;=;=;
Toph had been gone for a while.
Zhi, Meilin, and Jiao ran into Katara and Sokka just coming out of the guest room. "Have you seen Aang?" Katara asked.
"Toph was going to go talk to him," Zhi said. "We were wondering what was taking so long."
"Yeah, she stopped by," Sokka said. "She and Aang went out into the garden. We thought we'd go find him, since it's been a while."
Zhi tried to pretend he wasn't thinking about his little sister alone with a strange boy in a dark garden, and walked outside at a totally normal and reasonable pace. Was it his fault the others had to run to keep up?
When they found the ransom note, Zhi thought he would have rather come across the first scenario he'd imagined.