A/N: This series is somewhat inspired by Zuko Alone. The episode stressed being true to yourself, discovering yourself, remembering who you are. I think this theme not only applies to Zuko, but to a horde of other characters as well. So, I started a series about it. Because I'm stupid like that and I update drabble/one-shot series more often that my baby Entente Cordiale.
Ahem. Um. The first one is Toph.
Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Toph: The World is Blind
I can see so much more than a normal person can. I feel the tiniest ant crawling through the grass to the bulkiest Earthbender in the ring at Earth Rumble Six. It's all the same, really; I can feel everything, see everything. And sometimes I see things that I shouldn't see. I can see through walls, I can see through forests, I can hear people whispering across the room—my parents never knew, but I always heard them.
They always talked in hushed voices about me, and father said he would rather die than lose his honor and prestige. Apparently people wouldn't respect him if they found out he has a first-born daughter, a blind one at that. Rich, powerful families always have first-born sons. A first-born daughter cannot carry on the family estate; and the first-born is always the preferred one to inherit the parents' estate. It is a sort of tradition of wealthy and powerful families that the first-born is the aristocrat, the second-born is the soldier, and all the others after that are the artists or world-wanderers.
Whatever. It's not like I care. I don't exist. I only exist as the Blind Bandit, the single greatest Earthbender of the area. People don't dare oppose me. I have the Belt, as I have held it since entering in Earth Rumble Three. Three straight championships—I remember the first one. The Boulder was certainly no match. He was too hasty, too cocky. But that only made it easier for me. The Belt was mine in no time.
I'm surprised my parents never noticed I was gone for so long when the tournaments occurred. But then again, they never really paid attention to their fragile, blind, little daughter that didn't really exist. It's all for the best, I suppose. They're too dull to realize that I was away for so long; so it really was advantageous that they didn't pay attention to me when I ran away to join Aang.
For so long, my parents never told me about the war, or the Avatar, or anything about the outside world. But I learned: in town, I heard people talking about the war and other boring stuff like that. I didn't care about it because it didn't really affect me. I had everything I ever could want (except full independence and the ability to just be me), and no war was going to stop that. The war never concerned me until Aang turned up at Earth Rumble Six. It kept gaining more momentum from there.
Now, I'm away from my home, away from my parents, away from my old life. Now, I'm allowed to be me. I have everything I want, and I want it to stay this way. The fragile Bei Fong daughter that never existed really didn't; it was only me the whole time. And now, it's only me still. Except there's no acting involved.
Whatever happens to us all, I don't care. I'm free, and that's all that matters. I'm who I am, and if the world can't accept that, then they might as well be blind.
No matter what anyone says, I am not blind. I can see better than anyone could ever dream of seeing.
And now I see, plain and clear, than I am me and no one else.
A/N: So, who should I do next?
