Sorry, for a short chapter, guys! Tell me what you think. Promise the next one will be long and multiple parts. ;)
She's seventeen when she sees him again.
Or, more so, they see each other.
This time, in the heat of summer, with dirt-crusted feet and wrapped knuckles, she makes her way past her mother's Earthbending Academy in the rich part of town.
He is there in training gear, now with a graying beard and tired, wrinkled-lined eyes, but she would remember that face anywhere.
She looks to the lines of students in front of him as he demonstrates the basic breathing exercises of Metelbending that she had mastered at age thirteen. Some pupil's heads tilt in thought, others have set faces, eyes locked in determined awe as he breathes and focuses. Tremors write a patter on her feet as she sees the metal blocks shifting and changing shape to the every bend of his arm and stamp of his foot, and Wow, Sufi Setti, show me, show me! That's so cool, do it again!
He was a weasel-snake in lemur's clothing...
As she grasps the bars of the gates lining the school with white knuckles, she tries to imagine him teaching her these things and saying something like, Good job, kiddo, with a hair ruffle and slap on the back.
But it's her mother's face she always sees.
A young boy at the front of the line walks up to the first mental block. He takes a deep breath, eyes closed, and face set, as the block slowly beings to float in the air. With a bend of his arm, the block slices into two thin sheets, and then he does a sharp upper cut, and the sheets fly until they make contact with the wall, and crash to the ground, the earth vibrating.
The boy smiles and cheers. He comes up and pats the boy on the head with a prideful grin.
"Very good, Tuppa! Great job!"
Very good, Lin! 'Atta girl, I knew you could do it!
Thank's, Mommy!
Tuppa bows, "Thank you, Sifu Setti!"
Something breaks inside her. The bars enclosed in her fingers, morph in her tightened grip. No breathing needed.
The boy looks in her direction, eyes curious.
"Sifu, who's that?"
All eyes turn to her.
She pales, feels her throat close up.
His eyes go wide, deep wrinkles between furrowed brows, mouth open in a way that makes him seem like he has seen a Spirit.
"...T-toph?"
But no, he seems to realize a second later that the green in her eyes are seeing-looking right at him- and her hair is short and framing her face instead of wild locks hanging down. With a sturdy nose very much like his, and the same shade of hair...
He swallows, and breathes out the one syllable in a way that she thinks pain is supposed to sound.
"Lin...?"
She backs off the bars, walking backward, shaking her head in a stunned silence.
"LIN! No, please!" he starts coming towered her, all long legs and big strides, " Lin, please, let me explain! Please, Lin, let me-"
The next thing she hears is silence, because the rocks she's buried him under have knocked him out.
"That was for my mother."
And she spins on her heals, and walks away in a earth-rumbling huff, before he can wake up and tell she was even there.
Because you can't miss what you don't even know exists.