Ages:
Toph is around ~18/19
Satoru ~22/23
Mai ~21/22
Zuko ~22/23
Toph works part time at the Beifong Metalbending Academy and part time as a technician for the Research and Development Team at Earthen Fire Refineries. It now has multiple locations, Lao handles the Earth Kingdom Operations in the south and Satoru handles the Republic City Operations! SOON they will open a couple of Fire Nation locations so we have an excuse to go over there! :D
Oh and Zuko is Fire Lord, Mai is Fire Lady!
I really hope you enjoy this story!
They woke up together to the sound of the mineral processing machine whirring to life as factory workers trickled in. The space where they lived sat just above the offices, with a little common area that overlooked the factory processes.
Though it was scarcely more than a metal box with a futon on the floor, they called it home.
"Do you have to go?" Toph asked him, running a finger along his jawline.
"Unfortunately," Satoru confirmed. "Somebody has to save up for the children we'll have one day!" Satoru cupped her cheek and planted a kiss on her head.
"Even though I'm a trust fund baby?" Toph replied.
"Yes!" Satoru insisted as he groped the floor for his glasses. "Let me be your provider!"
"Fine! You can provide me with some of that jelly drink you showed me yesterday!"
Satoru laughed to himself as he opened the mini fridge on the counter. "Apple or peach?"
"Apple!"
He tossed her a pouch of the konyakku jelly drink and grabbed one for himself. Satoru stuck the opening of the drink pouch in his mouth and held it there with his teeth while fumbling with the hot plate in their little studio apartment to make something to eat.
"Stop," Toph interrupted after three seconds of fruitless clicking. With a wave of her hand, she opened the gas valve on the canister and struck the flint mechanism with her metalbending, turning on the little stove.
"Er… thanks," he responded bashfully.
She got up and wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder. "How can someone as brilliant as you invent and operate something as complex as a forklift and fail to operate a hot plate?"
"Hey don't jab at my ego this early in the morning!" He reminded her, cracking two eggs into the pan and opening a container of leftover steamed rice from the previous night.
"You know you love it!"
"No, I love you," he turned to kiss her just as someone knocked on the door.
"Wait— we're not dresse—" Satoru began to say just as Toph threw open the door with her Metalbending.
"WHAT?" the World's Greatest Earthbender bellowed at the factory worker.
"Forgive the intrusion!" the secretary squealed, turning away from the shirtless earth bender and co-owner of the company. "Master Beifong arrived at the factory and asked if you had a minute this morning to—"
"I'll be right there, Asha. Thank you for telling me." Satoru spoke with a soft kindness that starkly contrasted Toph's brashness.
"You're welcome, Sir— I mean— I'll go tell Master Beifong right away—"
"No need to rush yourself, Asha. It's okay! You're doing just fine."
"Thank you, Master Obami!" the secretary bowed and ran down the stairs and across the main floor of the factory to the guest offices to alert Toph's father.
"You're too nice to them," Toph critiqued.
"One could argue you're too mean sometimes," Satoru sighed. "Not everyone is an earthbender that needs to grow a steel skin to learn metalbending."
Toph picked up a comb and wrangled her mop of hair into a bun. "I suppose you're right, I'll try to be nicer."
"Thank you," he kissed her forehead again and then dished out their breakfast into two small bowls.
Just as they sat down at their low table to eat, Toph's seismic sense went haywire. "Someone's on the roof!"
Satoru grabbed a broom while Toph slipped into a bending stance and threw open the window for the person to come in.
Satoru released his broom and dropped to his knees, bowing with his head touching the floor out of respect for—
"Mai?" Toph asked, relaxing her stance.
"Fire Lady Hatsuharu—"
"Satoru-kun, pick yourself up please! We're friends!" Mai insisted, heaving the shirtless young man off the ground. "Besides, one can only take so much pomp and ceremony before 10AM."
"Is the life of a Fire Lady really that bad?" Toph asked, sitting down with their friend.
"Mai, konyakku?" Satoru offered.
"Please! Thank you!" the Fire Lady accepted the drink, slurping unceremoniously loudly from the juice pouch.
"So what brings you here of all places this morning? I heard your schedule is booked solid through June of next year!" Satoru asked, returning to his breakfast.
"I got bored. Work is— well work. Every morning I get debriefed on the state of affairs in the Treasury and Education department and that's fine; I get to have impact, but after? Ugh! Forcing smiles and pretending to enjoy the other ladies of the court is absolutely grueling!"
"I bet!"
"They serve little purpose to society aside from providing babies to their governors and regional lords!" Mai groaned laying down on the floor with her empty juice pouch in her hand.
Satoru took it away like a proper gentleman and host.
"Isn't that what your primary purpose is right now? Isn't that why Zuko hauled your ass out of who knows where?"
"Yes, but— at least— If I am going to be here, back in society, I want to use my influence and power to help people!" Mai explained with a heavy sigh as she looked up at the massive vent tubes that ran across the ceiling of their flat and into the factory.
"I feel ya!" Toph agreed, leaning back on one hand and sucking the life out of her jelly pouch before Satoru took it away.
"Become a vigilante with me, Toph!" Mai demanded.
"What?" Satoru's jaw dropped.
"Huh?" Toph raised a brow.
"I want to use my knives again— to be able to see the people I help and change things! Just yesterday I saw a policeman taking a bribe from the window of my palanquin and turning a blind eye to an assault but I couldn't do anything in my official capacity not in my home country! Please! I need to do something!"
"I—" Toph began to say before Satoru cut her off.
"Absolutely not! My Lady! As a citizen of the Fire Nation I can't allow you to put yourself in harm's way like that! Make a squad or something! Delegate! But don't fight on the front lines when you're supposed to be giving the Fire Lord a baby!"
"We've tried!" Mai yelled, sitting up with her eyes squeezed shut.
Both Toph and Satoru fell silent as Mai pulled her knees into her chest. "Nobody is supposed to know, but we have tried— we've been trying. The first one that came to term miscarried. We didn't want all of the gossiping hussies of the court to know so we came here where we can live with a greatly reduced staff and security. The doctors say that part of my body needs to take a break anyways from all that. For five months at least."
Satoru's jaw dropped.
Toph moved closer and wrapped her arms around her best friend.
"I want to feel — like more than just a broken baby maker." Mai whispered.
"Have you told Zuko?" Satoru asked.
"He knows. He's the one who suggested I go to Toph. She can at least keep her mouth shut, unlike Katara," Mai replied.
Toph laughed. "This is true, I'd be happy to kick ass with you any day! When do you want to start?"
"I'm thinking Friday night, when the crime's highest."
Toph grinned. "We'll mop the floor with the asshats of this city!"
Satoru bent down to kiss Toph and hug Mai. "Please be safe, you two! If not for Zuko and me, then... for our countries!"
"We will!"
