The thing most people didn't realize about Toph was that she was always conscious for a while before she opened her eyes. Being blind, she wasn't eager to see a new day in the morning; if she was, she'd lazily rest a toe on the ground or a finger on a brick wall. It was more restful to keep her eyes closed while she was laying down, so she did. She'd never really thought about it until now.
Drifting slowly back to the waking world, she heard running water first. It was a gentle trickle, as if from a small fountain rather than a faucet, but she was sure she was indoors. It didn't really concern her very much; it soothed her sharp headache and let her rest easily. Since she was on a bed she couldn't feel much of the earth around her, but she was fine with that. In her condition, she didn't really give a shit.
But when a familiar voice started singing a sweet lullaby about the Southern Lights making a colorful show in the sky, she finally decided it was time to take a stand.
Her eyelashes were stuck together, and so were her chapped lips, but it was easier to pry her mouth open. Her tongue was painfully dry as she rolled it around her mouth, trying to make words come out.
"Air Queen," she croaked. "Shut the fuck up."
"Toph!" Cold hands on her forehead, and the hum of healing water. "How are you feeling?"
"Thirsty. Is Zuko okay?"
Katara laughed and carefully bent some of the healing water into her mouth. "Is that better? I'll fill up a cup for you."
"Yeah." Carefully, she pushed herself up on her elbows, and her head only spun a little. "Is Zuko okay?" she repeated, concerned.
"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't he be? He keeps coming by to check on you."
Toph exhaled a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Okay. How long have I been out, and what's been happening?"
"Lay back down," Katara ordered her, pressing a wooden cup into her hand. "You're not ready to jump back into action yet."
Grudgingly, she obeyed.
It turned out she'd been sleeping for a week, and Aang thought she had bent so har she sprained her chi, or some crazy shit. "The way you earthbent was really permanent for some reason," Katara finished, after a solid rundown of where everyone was and what they were doing. "So your students just built roads from the hill instead of trying to lower it back down again."
She knew why; it was how she'd sliced and layered the earth to raise them up. Her students had followed her lead and done a lot of the heavily lifting, but most of them probably didn't grasp the overarching strategy. It had been the fastest and strongest way to do the job. She took a long swig of water as Katara continued.
"Anyway, everyone is talking about you saving the city."
Toph shrugged. "It was mostly my students. They're actually pretty good in a crisis. Who knew?"
Katara laughed. "Sokka claimed he knew you were responsible as soon as he saw the capital on an island."
Toph smiled. "Snoozles remembers I'm the greatest earthbender in the world. The rest of you forget it too easily." As Toph drained the remainder of her water and waited for Katara to give her a refill, she heard the door open and close. It was a nuisance not to be able to feel heartbeats and breathing.
"Honored Lady Beifong! You're awake!"
Toph would recognize the nervous voice of Zuko's steward anywhere, but today he seemed genuinely happy to see her. Whatever; she'd return the favor. "Yeah. This healer's singing could wake the dead."
Katara scoffed. "My singing is fine."
The steward didn't seem to know what to make of that. "How can I serve you, Honored Lady? Master Katara?"
"Tell the Firelord that Lady Beifong is awake, but still weak." Katara was clearly enjoying herself.
"You tell him that I'm awake and strong enough to kick his ass!" Toph said, pointing at the little man. Or the source of his voice, at least; she couldn't really tell where he was standing. And come to think of it, he was bigger than she was.
"Of course, honored ladies." She felt the gentle whoosh of air as he bowed to each of them in turn, then he left.
For a few blessed minutes, there was quiet, and after shifting her weight and feeling the blood flow back into her extremities, Toph was appreciating the comfort of lying down.
"I didn't want to say anything," Katara said softly, "but he really loves you."
Toph sighed. "I don't need to have my feet on the ground to tell when you're lying, sweetness. You were dying to say something. Look, he's a very lonely man and I came to visit him."
"No." Her friend leaned closer to speak more quietly. "It's not just that. His feelings are real, Toph. And I know you wouldn't stick around out of pity, so yours must be real, too."
Silence.
"Am I wrong?" Katara pressured.
Toph lifted one hand to her forehead and said nothing, and that was enough of an answer for Katara to lean back in her chair with a smug smile.
"Help me put on my normal clothes before he gets here, at least," Toph growled.
There was a screen for privacy in the corner, but getting there was a problem. As soon as her toes touched the ground, pain followed the path from the ground to her mind, and she jerked her foot back onto the bed.
"Aang said this might happen," Katara said apologetically. "Try to block the flow of chi before it gets to your body."
"What the fuck does that even mean?" Toph snarled.
Katara shrugged. Toph decided to ignore it, because there was no way Katara could have known Toph would hear the rustle of fabric and deduce that she'd shrugged. All of this gesturing to a blind person was massively rude, in her book.
As much as Aang's flowery spiritual understanding of bending irritated her, Toph could piece together what he really meant. The flow of power, from bender to element and vice versa, was something many people had to consciously abet through their forms and breathing. For Toph, who had learned bending as an extension of her body, the experience was different. She was constantly communicating with the earth to see; everything she did passively drew on the earth's power.
Stopping that connection was a pain in the ass.
She had to focus as hard on not earthbending as a novice had to focus on bending; she breathed deeply and centered herself, extending her foot out into a stable earthbending stance. Ironically, it worked; there was no pain. She could feel Katara's confused stare as she stood shakily, but she knew better than to ask Toph about it right now, or, worse, gush over her unique bending style. Ugh.
"Do you need some help?"
"No, you pervert. Go look at your own tits."
A sigh from Katara. Apparently, she just didn't appreciate a perfect joke when she heard it.
It was slow going, changing into normal clothes by feel alone, and Toph was dismayed to find they didn't fit quite right. A week in bed, even with with Katara force-feeding her body what it needed, had weakened her considerably, and her arms and legs felt like cold, brittle twigs.
"I always alter them so they fit just right," she bitched to Katara through the privacy screen, tying on her belt. "And now they're baggy, but if I take them in, what happens when I get back to normal?"
"Just get some new clothes while you recover," Katara said. "I'm sure there're at least a hundred tailors working for people in the palace alone. Hire one of them."
"I'm not made of money!"
"Uh, you kind of are."
Toph snorted.
She barely had time to climb back into bed and chug down another cup of water ("Not so fast!" Katara chided. "You'll make yourself sick!") before the door opened again. It turned out that she didn't need her seismic sense to know when Zuko was near; she knew the sound of him, the rhythm of his step and his breath, and that made her smile. Someone else came with him, but she didn't really care.
"You finally made it over here, Sparky."
"And you finally made it back to me." Zuko was not as good at hiding the emotion in his voice. He never had been.
"Yeah," she said softly. "I think we both know that no matter what happens, I'm always going to come back to you."
"Will you?" She felt the bed shift under his weight as he sat on the edge brushing stray hairs away from her face.
"I never say anything I don't mean."
"Then will you marry me? No, wait, I didn't mean to ask like that! I had it all planned out. It was going to be-"
Toph was already laughing. "For fuck's sake, Sparky. When are you going to get used to the fact that nothing in our lives is ever going to go as planned?" She reached for him, her fingers brushing against the cloth of his sleeve and tugging him down towards her.
He barely seemed to notice. She must really be weak; usually she could push him around without a problem. "Does that mean-"
"I've got conditions," she said, "but yes, I guess I'd love to marry you. Now shut up and kiss me."
"Firelord," the steward stammered, "a-a-are you-"
But it was hard to hear him over Katara's squeal.
They swore them both to silence and kicked them out with orders to find food.
"I don't trust Katara as far as I can throw her, you know," Toph said.
"She knows it's a delicate situation." Zuko's callused fingers grazed over her face, as if he was the blind one. "I can't believe you said yes. I can't believe I asked."
"Eh, there's no use resisting it," she said with a careless grin, covering his hand with hers.
"You're skin and bones," he murmured, pained.
"I'll recover." It was her bending that worried her, not her body, but this wasn't the time for her confidence to falter. It would come back.
His hands cupped her face, and she knew he was leaning of her because a few strands of his hair brushed her ear. "What are your conditions?"
She turned her head to kiss one of his palms. It was thrilling to finally, finally get him alone, but she was weak, and when her heart started pounding it made her shake. "First, I understand that I'm going to adopt a lot of Fire Nation traditions, but you've got to understand that I won't be a normal Firelady. From what I heard, they mostly sit around, look pretty, and have kids. I mean, I've got not issue with the second two, but I'm not going to sit around. For one thing, I love vigilante justice."
"I know who you are, Toph. You're a natural leader and you almost laid down your life to save this city. That's the kind of Firelady this nation deserves. Besides," he reasoned, "your justice wouldn't be vigilante if you're the queen. It'd just be justice."
"There's a scary thought," she said.
He did his little pathetic Zuko half-laugh. "What else do you want?"
"Before we get married, I need to go do a few things, quietly, no questions. Alone."
"Things?"
"Old business," she said shortly. "And a little new business. I said no questions."
"Of course." He paused, and she could practically hear the demanding questions he was holding back. "At least take a small escort detail with you."
"No way. I've always travelled alone."
"But as the future Firelady-"
"I'll think about it," she interrupted, waving a hand dismissively. Even that took too much effort, and she was starting to realize just how hungry she was. "Third, and final condition, and I know I'm going to regret this: I want a seat on your council. I own like a quarter of Yu Dao, after all."
His hands stilled on her face; she could feel his surprise. "Really? You could have had that whenever. I never thought you cared."
"Yeah, I know, but I didn't feel like asking until now."
"Done. Anything else?"
"Nah. Those are the big ones."
"I have a few conditions, too," Zuko said. His caution was almost palpable. "You need to take the healers' instructions seriously and really recover before you leave. Katara thinks it'll be a few weeks."
"For fuck's sake," Toph muttered.
"And," he went on, "I came up with an idea while you were sleeping, and I want to try it out. As long as you're recovering, I'm going to teach you to read."
"For fuck's sake! I'm blind!"
"I took that into consideration," he promised. "Deal?"
If she kept caving instead of telling him to fuck off, love was going to be a hassle. "Deal. Let's kiss on it."
"Fine, but no groping me this time," he said. "You're still too weak."