Zuko rubbed his arm where the tiny girl hit him.

Azula and Raizu had the excuse of the inner fire to explain how hard they could hit during spars, but Toph, an earth bender, was instead like her element: very sturdy. Uncle had taught him and his siblings about the earth bender armies when he was still actively serving as a general, earth benders utilized Chi by filling their bodies with it and using that to move the earth with their will. At the same time, the same Chi they used to bend also protected them from the earth attacks of other earth benders. Earth stood their ground and hit back, and it was a necessity to keep themselves rooted because of how their element responded against their bodies.

To move something that didn't want to move, the bender had to be more stubborn than their element's natural state.

Power in fire bending came from the breath. The better one could keep their cycle of Chi with breathing the easier it was to generate and sustain flames sourced from the inner fire. Earth, on the other hand, came from how well the bender could maintain their concentration on keeping their Chi solid. And just to round it out, water bending generated power from the flow of movement. Unfortunately, Uncle didn't know enough about air bending to talk about that, but maybe Raizu knew something from reading the old records.

"Were you planning on going back soon?" It was hard not to worry about one of the few friends they had.

Toph shrugged. "I'm not learning anything new with the earth bending lessons so far, so I don't see a point to staying for them."

Earth bending lessons were just one of the new courses added to the Royal Fire Academies together with water bending to accommodate the new students—children born from the former colonies and newly welcomed citizens. There were also some other subjects like basic math and history, though the former had been extensively revised from old propaganda into proper accurate accounts. Better that their people remember and acknowledge the mistake than ignore it completely. The point was less about being right and leaned more towards preventing something so big from sweeping the nation again.

Zuko didn't like how the citizens were implied to be responsible for the royal family going astray—but from what he'd seen of their father so long ago, then in some dark corner of his heart he felt the implication reasonable. It was unfair for their entire nation to be judged by the sins of those who wore the Crown. But that wasn't how the rest of the world saw it. To them, the Fire Nation as a whole was responsible for what happened, not just the person wearing the Crown. The chain of command existed only in the Earth Kingdom in the context of keeping their conscripted peasants and benders in line as opposed to the burden of responsibility in the Fire Nation Army.

They were sitting near the shop on one of the public benches by the road, a new fixture for the busier areas of cities and towns.

"That sounds a lot like Zula and Raizu before," he said. Zuko noticed she had a bit of ice cream on her chin and passed her his handkerchief. "And you've got some below your lips."

"Thank you," she said, "Crazy, I get. Zula, I'm impressed."

Zula raised an eyebrow. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Toph grinned in a distinctly unladylike way that reminded him of his younger brother. "Because you seem like you turned out alright."

"Seem?" Zula snorted.

"Hah," Raizu said, "have you seen her stick to Zuzu?"

That got him a quick jab from their sister.

"Hey, affectionate violence is Toph's thing."

"That wasn't affectionate."

"But your poor youngest brother is severely starved for sisterly attention."

Zuko couldn't keep himself from chuckling.

Usually, it was the other way around with Raizu bothering either of them without regard for time. He was really hoping his brother would grow out of the habit but it had only gotten worse over the years, especially after Raizu found those roasted beans before in some seedy port overseas about two years ago.

He kept calling it magic bean water and the practice of drinking it spread like wildfire among the many scholars and fire sages. Uncle hated it so much and called it a heresy, sparking a very heated rivalry between the traditional tea drinkers and the new age bean water supremacists.

Toph, however, found it hilarious to the point Zuko now found their little group the sudden interest of a lot of nearby people. He ducked his head a bit and apologized to them in his heart.

"It's fine Broody, other people don't care that much."

"Let's just try not to bother other people?"

Toph shrugged. "Speaking of, how come you guys aren't at school? Royals get their own tutors?"

He shook his head.

It took a moment to remember that wouldn't work. "We sort of have them, but also not really."

Toph tilted her head at him.

"Raizu doesn't really need to go to school anymore, he's uhh, actually part of one of the new royal departments already." A few, actually, but that might scare her away, and he and his siblings already had so few friends. They literally had three between them and no, Fire Sage Shyu didn't count.

That piqued the girl's interest. "See, this is why 'Crazy' fits. Also, don't bother with any details about him"—she jerked her thumb at Raizu— "there's no point comparing that against normal people."

"Hi, yeah, I'm literally right here."

Zula gave their little brother a patronizing pat on the head. "Aw, its alright dear sweet little brother, she didn't mean anything untrue with that."

"I know you know that's not how you comfort anyone."

"Hush tiny person, big sister attention time is being given." Which was true since Azula was born earlier and was already taller too since she'd already hit her growth period.

"Cheer up pipsqueak, at least you don't have to have someone read everything to you and do homework."

Zuko was sure the last word couldn't be said with a hiss but somehow Toph pulled it off.

"Toph," Zula said with a straight face, "Raizu's idea of fun is staying awake through the night writing reports."

The girl scrunched her nose. "Do I even wanna know what those are?"

After a quick explanation Toph took a deep breath, stomped one foot down the ground shaking their immediate area by the tiniest fraction, then crouched to the ground and set her one hand against the cracks between the stone tiles. She then used her other hand to do a sort of pulling motion against her hand still on the ground.

Raizu, crouched down next to her, and was about to poke the girl when Azula slapped his hand to stop him.

Toph straightened herself up to a stand after a good long moment with a light sheen of sweat against her brows. She used his handkerchief to clean herself before facing Raizu. It was moments like these that made Zuko remember how he was somehow surrounded by crazy bending prodigies—Zula somewhat included but she got a pass since she was nice.

Toph opened a surprisingly clean hand that had a mound of fine white crystals.

Zula blinked. "Did you… just bend at the ground to get salt?"

"I'm more surprised that salt counts as earth," Raizu added.

Then Toph threw the salt behind and over her shoulder—barely missing some guy peddling cabbages—and made a very rude gesture that would have had her father fainting in court.

"You disgust me, Crazy," she said with a weight that reminded him of how the Dragon Emperor always condemned the evil Water Spirit. He knew he should've found that funny but instead it just made his stomach do a front flip that shouldn't have been possible.

Zula pinched the bridge of her nose, and Raizu was just shocked.

"Was bending salt really that easy?"

And worse, interested. Zuko knew that look Raizu was giving Toph. It was an omen most ill in the palace and one that had the unsuspecting clerk and occasional orderly cursing their sudden predicament.

"Run," he whispered behind her.

But Toph hadn't seen or spent enough time in the palace to know better, Zuko decided that needed fixing.

"Why is Crazy's heart beating like crazy?" Toph almost sounded afraid

"You know miss Beifong, how'd you like a job with the Department of Research and Technology?"

Toph scrunched her nose. "Why does that sound like a scam?"