Mama's Girl

It wasn't easy growing up the only child. A series of excerpts from the childhood of Lin Beifong. Toph/Sokka, Rated M.

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"It's not like you were an accident," clarified her mother. "Your dad's just an idiot." Then she paused and dropped the slab of earth that levitated a few feet away. She straightened her pants and cleared her throat, clapping the dust from her hands. "I guess I was just as big of an idiot too. Gotta be honest when we talk about this sort of thing. It takes two. Just remember that when you meet some guy you think is a big deal. You'll wake up one day with a baby in your belly and find him snoring like a train. His mouth all open like this"— she slacked her jaw, crossed her eyes, snored grotesquely through her nose, and Lin giggled —"yeah! Not such a big deal then. That's when reality smacks you out of the dream, Lin-Lin." Toph widened her stance and lifted an even larger slab of earth, swirling it above her head and smashing it into the ground with a great, muffled crash and an "Umpf!" of effort.

Lin – known affectionately by her mother and their neighbors as Lin-Lin – was very bright for a two-year-old, but Toph knew that most of what she said wouldn't be understood for quite a few years. Her mother often said Lin's genius genes must have skipped a generation, because her father wasn't the brightest. "Your aunt is good," Toph would claim, as if affirming this for herself. "Katara's a smart cookie when you get past the ditzy good-girl act. But Sokka? Huh."

At two years, Lin could already earthbend, but only loose earth that her mother broke down for her. Pebbles, rocks, and other crumbled debris were easy. Lin rolled these around the lot behind their apartment, sorting pebbles by color, rocks by size. Her mother was happy the girl was realized as a bender, but feared that Lin's weak nature would hinder her bending ability later in life. It hurt Toph doubly, because she could not teach her daughter the way she had taught Aang several years ago. She couldn't place Lin-Lin in the way of a rolling boulder and force her to stop it. Though she almost never admitted it aloud, Toph loved Lin too much to ever dare a stunt like that, no matter how effective.

Now, as her mother bent the earth in the dirt lot behind their home, Lin watched carefully. Toph reached her fingers through the solid ground, scooping out handfuls of dry clay and topsoil. She kicked at the air and earth would follow the movement of her still leg, then the movement of her arms as she thrust the boulders hundreds of feet up, towards the sky, even higher than the apartment building. Lin watched with her mouth open. She didn't even notice her father standing at the backdoor of the noodle shop. As she was watching the moving earth, Sokka was watching Toph, the sweat that beaded on her brow and forearms, the expression of loss and focus that could paradoxically exist on a blind girl.

When she felt him approaching her, Toph shifted the earth under his feet into a kind of quicksand. He slipped downward until only his head protruded from the ground. Lin, delighted, came and stroked his ponytail.

"Very funny," mumbled Sokka, wincing as Lin pulled his ears. "You know, it was even funnier the last twenty times you did it."

"The last ten times." Toph shrugged, a satisfied grin painted lopsidedly under her nose. "I figure you belong down there," she added smartly. Then she crouched near him and, pulling on his hair, yanked him out of the ground.

"Doesn't get old, I bet," he said, dusting himself off. He picked up Lin, who swung her arms around his neck and chirped, "Baba, baba, baba!" Toph plopped down on a wooden crate and sighed audibly. To her displeasure, the pregnancy and Lin's birth had taken much of her strength. She could still feel the difference two years after the fact. Usually it would take an entire day of earth and metal bending to drain her energy, but now it was only a matter of hours.

Sokka was continually elated by Lin's lisp. She was quiet by nature and often didn't speak, listening to her mother instead. Yet somehow having her father around turned Lin into a chatterbox, and she repeated now to Sokka, "Katawa's a smaw coowie when you go pass dissy goo-giw ack!"

He was laughing too hard to realize Toph was blushing. "I bet she is!" he said to his daughter. Then he looked at Toph, rubbing her own foot on the crate. "Tired?" he asked. "Is she giving you any trouble?"

"Can it," Toph snapped. "Don't patronize me."

"Would you quit it with the 'patronize me' thing? Gosh!" Sokka put Lin on the ground and crossed his arms. "I'm not patronizing you. I want to make sure you're okay."

"You're so thoughtful!" returned Toph effortlessly, standing up to face him. She pulled the earth beneath his feet so that he was inches away from her nose. She pushed at his chest but he held his ground. "Hey, how's your wife? And the kids? Why don't you go make sure they're okay?"

Sokka was quiet. He watched as Toph dropped her arms. Both of them stood silent and still. He could smell her hair and her skin, the way it used to smell after they had spent the night together, giving and taking and kissing until he had to go back home. He was sick of having this argument whenever he visited, and he visited often enough where it bothered him. Regardless, he had never confronted Toph or returned fire when she accused him, when she threw their affair in his face, when she mentioned Suki or their children in a way that made his stomach drop.

This time, he said, "If you hate me so much, why do you let me come here?"

"I don't let you," she answered quietly. "You come here on your own."

"You can earthbend me out," he said. He motioned at the slabs of rock and broken boulders. "Go ahead! Pick up one of those with your magic earthbending and hit me. Kick me out. Do it! If I'm such an issue, then take care of it, Toph Beifong."

"Take care of yourself!" Toph shrieked. She pushed him with more force this time, and Sokka stumbled backwards. He fell and landed on his back. When Lin saw him strike the ground, she started crying and ran towards him. He blinked and moved up. Toph held Lin back with one hand on her shirt. She lifted the girl in this manner and pulled her to her chest.

"I wish you'd stop fighting me," he said from the floor. He took Toph's hand and she pulled him up.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." Very carefully, he moved forward and kissed Toph's cheek. She flinched but didn't move. Then he kissed Lin's forehead. Lin squealed and clapped.

"Come get something to eat with me," he said. "Go upstairs and freshen up. We can go somewhere nice."

"I don't want to be seen with you," Toph said, but her tone had softened. "It's not a good idea for either of us." He waited. She added unsurely, "Maybe… maybe you can go get some groceries or something, and we'll make something to eat here. Just the three of us."

"Just the three of us!" He repeated, and Toph smiled because he sounded like he did when they were seeing each another between sunset and sunrise, when he would call her his and only his. "Alright! The three of us," he said. "Sounds like a plan. I'll take Lin with me!"

"But—"

"Relax!" He said called out, putting Lin on his shoulders. "No one we know is going to see us at the market"

"Not that!" Toph said back, and Sokka froze, waiting for the rest before leaving the backyard. "Be… be careful," she warned to the back of his head. "With Lin, I mean. Just don't do anything dumb. Keep her close to you. Don't let go of her hand."