Chapter Three: Stone
It's a point of personal and professional pride with Toph that once her decision is made, it's set in stone. The career-saving choice to cut ties with Councilman Sokka, at least for a little while, is no different.
(She hates that even in her head she has to treat him with cool distance.)
For the most part, she's pleased with herself for sticking with it. She hasn't so much as nodded at him for several months. The public still picks at the story when they're bored, but other than that, the heat's died down.
(Or so she's told. She keeps a tight lid on why she's really avoiding him now. No one needs to know that the difference between her at twelve and her at thirty is a badge and a suit of armor.)
Mr. So-and-So on the Council is throwing a gala tonight, and as Director Chang informs her, Toph's attendance is mandatory. Republic City's government officials know she's still the best of the best, and it would be unseemly to now show support for the newly-elected members, so find yourself something pretty to wear and get your butt uptown, Bei Fong.
Her initial anti-authority kneejerk aside, his points make sense. Her "something pretty" is pulled together by Katara, who is midway through her second pregnancy and in that irritating bubbly stage Toph doesn't hate nearly as much as she should.
The really excellent thing about rich people, Toph muses as she pretends to mingle, is that they have penchants for marble floors. She's unfamiliar with the voices, steps, and heartbeats in the room, as many as there are, but she can pick Sokka's out with ease. He's telling a story about getting two fishhooks stuck in his thumb, laughing with his audience and holding out his arm for—
Oh.
She has to rein in her automatic reaction. She's too old to storm from rooms in an adolescent funk. Luckily for her, she's found by someone she was hoping to meet, anyway.
"Toph, my dear, how are you?" Yuuko Jinxei booms, clapping her on the shoulder. "You look lovely, my dear, just lovely!"
"Yuuko," Toph beams, letting the older man hug her and getting a nose full of fluffy, wispy hair, "good to see you."
"Figuratively, I assume?" Yuuko chuckles merrily, discreetly maneuvering her towards the refreshments and putting a cup of punch in her hand. She grins. "As the young people are fond of saying these days, 'what's up'?"
"Nothing much," Toph shrugs, aware of Yuuko's penchant for juicy gossip. "Thieves and jaywalkers, is all."
"Ah, peacetimes are so boring," Yuuko sighs, then chuckles again. "But war is hideous. One former soldier to another, I prefer being bored to being stabbed or crushed." Toph merely smiles, since in her twisted heart of hearts she knows exactly which she prefers. "Enough about that. Where's young Master Sokka?"
She gives him a tight, bland lip-twitch and thumbs the general direction. "Entertaining."
"I see," Yuuko sniffs. "Glamorous little thing, that Miss Su, though I never pegged Sokka for the type to pick dates for mere glamour." She can almost feel his scrutinizing gaze. "Everything alright, my dear?"
"Peachy," she hisses, though she doesn't mean to; Miss Su's laugh carries and it sounds like silver bells.
"Pity," Yuuko harrumphs in his throat. "I much prefer it when you two are friends, you know."
She shrugs, because it's the only safe thing to do.
"I particularly enjoy it when you both agree to come thin out my winery," he teases, but recent memory stiffens her spine. Luckily, she's not friends with Yuuko merely because of his congeniality. The old man is shrewd and observant to a fault. "Perhaps another time."
The music sways on and Toph's toes tap an impatient rhythm into the floor. She stops when she accidentally starts kicking up little bumps in the floor and certain dignitaries start tripping.
"Toph," Yuuko finally says, and his voice is dead serious, "avoidance is hardly a virtue."
She swallows around the sudden lump in her throat, because that's all she does, isn't it? For all the earthbender "straight and steady" talk, she's anything but in the face of emotional confrontation.
"I'm not avoiding anything," she replies after far, far too long a pause.
(Her hands start fidgeting. They've been doing that a lot, recently.)
"That is complete moose-lion bull butter," Yuuko says sternly. Toph breaks into a sudden snort of laughter, and Yuuko allows her time to mop up the punch she'd been drinking before continuing. "Listen to me carefully. I've been in your social circle since before the police force was the size it is today, young lady, and it has not escaped my notice that neither you nor Sokka are happy at all about the current arrangement."
"He seems fine," Toph says without thinking, inclining her head in the direction of the laughter leaking her way.
"Don't make me spout nonsense at you again, my dear, I'm far too hard-pressed to top my last outburst as it is," Yuuko chastises. "He is far from fine, unless 'fine' is in this case a rather colorful acronym my granddaughter was telling me about earlier today." He nudges her. "You know him best. Tell me what you see."
She doesn't have the energy to take the neatly-presented joke opportunity, instead firmly planting her feet. She already knows what's going on, knew it before she came tonight, because his laughter is too hearty and he's kept his back to her the entire time. A little more digging and she senses Councilman Yang nearby, and scowls. Yang Su would, of course, be hovering. His daughter is, like so many unfortunate young girls Toph's met, a double-edged weapon: a tool to keep an eye on Sokka tonight, and, if Yang has his way, a future way to forge a political alliance that runs straight to the Avatar and therefore has footholds in all areas of Republic City's workings.
(She momentarily wonders if Twinkletoes would try to stop her if she decides to bury the Councilman up to his eyes, but he and Katara are already making their excuses and leaving early. She toys around with the thought and ultimately discards it. No need to get back in the doghouse with the directors after she's just gotten out.)
"It's been four months since the story ran," Yuuko hints. "I think that's long enough, don't you?"
She nods, stands, takes several steps in Sokka's direction, and is waylaid by Director Chang.
"Chief! Good to see you!" Chang says, his voice all niceness but his hands tight and steering her away.
(She makes the mental note that next time he does something like that he's going to lose his hands. He seems to sense this and immediately lets her go, but doesn't stop herding her away.)
The night is exhausting from then on. Yuuko watches primly as Toph's every attempt to sidle up to her longtime friend is blocked by someone with more authority than her and a say in how long she gets to keep her job. Ridiculous, he muses—he was commanding an airship the first time he met her, en-route to the Earth Kingdom. If the metal-plated little girl back then could see what was happening now, there would be a very smashing incident, pun intended. Yuuko himself can't do much, unfortunately—his pockets are not as deep as the obstacles' are, and his duties are mainly clerical and alcoholic, anyway—but he can pretend to be drunk and talk at the top of his voice about the state of affairs in his brewery, within earshot of Sokka, and the latest half-truth scandal in the ears of any and all passers-by. Unfortunately, like Toph, Sokka's attention isn't his to command, either. Whenever he turns to seek out Yuuko or Toph he's blocked by the pretty heiress he's brought as his date or her steely-eyed father.
The night is nearly over when Toph collapses into a chair and huffs angrily, burying her face in her arms. Yuuko pats her shoulder, silent and equally put-out.
It's a matter of personal and professional pride with Toph that when she makes a decision, it's set in stone, Yuuko thinks as the despondent police chief gets up and leaves the gala. However, he notes as Sokka looks miserably in her direction, she seems to forget sometimes that she's an earthbender.
A/N: Unfortunately, Yuuko doesn't show up after this chapter, much as I love his character; he's a greatly underutilized source of hilarity and friendship. One might ask why I included him anyway if he just shows up here, but the answer is that I love him too much to cut him entirely, and he serves an excellent purpose in this chapter. SO. Um. Here you go.