"Wakey, wakey!" Bolin sang as he jumped on her bed. Lin cracked one eye open to see that the sun hadn't even begun to rise. Nope, no 'wakey, wakey' yet.

"No! Go back to sleep, Boy." Lin grumbled, closing her eyes as tight as she could. There was no way she was getting up this early. She wasn't a morning person by any means and since taking Bolin into her home she found out that a full night's sleep was the greatest joy a caregiver could ask for. So, now that she was on a mother-enforced vacation, Lin decided she was going to sleep in for once.

"But the Earth Rumble's today." He whined, trying to roll her off the bed without success.

"It's just a preliminary. And it's ToNIGHT! Let me sleep, or I'll feed you to the wolfbats."

"Nuh-uh." He wouldn't be falling for that trick anymore. Damn shame, Lin thought to herself. Life was so much easier when the kid thought she'd really kill him. Well, it seemed that he was far too excited to listen to commands and he wouldn't think twice about any punishment that she could deliver. One option left, bribery.

"Kid, go back to sleep for an hour and I'll let you have coffee with breakfast."

"Really?" That tasty drink Lin said he wouldn't touch again as long as she lived...cool, "Deal!" He flopped on the bed and wormed his way under her arm.

"Uggh. Kid, you're all elbows." She groaned as he got situated and breathed a small sigh of relief when he finally settled down. Oh Lin knew she was going to regret that deal later, but right now she didn't care. She found herself quickly drifting off to the land of unconsciousness before a malevolent creature that feasts upon human suffering burst into the room.

"Good morning Beifong family!" Toph yelled as loud as her lungs would allow. Bolin perked up because he knew that Grammy Toph was going to be on his side. Lin grimaced because she knew that this was the end of her rest...and the owner of the inn might kick them out for this after the other costumers complained.

"Go away."

"Fine. C'mon Half Pint, we'll let the bed bug over there have her beauty sleep."

"Can I Lin?" He put on his best pout, not that she could see it through her closed eyelids.

"I don't care, just let me sleep."

"Okay!" he sprinted towards the door, grabbing the old bender's hand and let her lead him out of the room, "Where we goin'?"

"If we're lucky, we can make it to last call at the Corner Tavern." Toph grinned, three...two...one...

"THE HELL YOU WILL!" Thumps and the rustling of cloth were heard, but they just kept walking. Soon Lin stormed up and took Bolin's hand away from Toph's because there was no doubt in her mind that her mother would make good on that threat.

"Nice of you to join us, Pup." The matriarch didn't even try to sweeten that evil smile of hers. The boy looked at his guardian and frowned,

"Do I still get coffee?"

"Not a chance." This wouldn't be a good morning to give Bolin that particular drink. If she did someone, either her for giving him the drink or her mother for not letting her get the sleep needed to deal with a hyperactive boy, would die.

"Well, I'll go find something for breakfast, you two go train." Toph didn't give her tired daughter or (always) hungry grandson a chance to argue or even beg.

"Crone." Lin muttered as she crossed her arms.

"Hardass!" Her mother sang from down the hall, "I'm blind, not deaf."

"Good!"

"Lin, can I please go with Grammy? I'm starving to death!"

"I gotta suffer, then so do you, kid." She took his hand and started towards the nearby canyon, "Let's get this over with."...

"When am I gonna learn to see with my feet?" Bolin asked as he got into a sloppy horse stance. Kid should be happy that she'd waited for the light so he wasn't stumbling around and running into things, what she would've given to have daylight be a mainstay of her training.

"When I say so." If it were up to her mother, seismic sense would have been the first thing he learned, but Lin believed that the kid should at least know the basic earthbending moves before she put a blindfold on him and used him for target practice, "Now let's work on that stance. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were an airbender."

"Is it about to start?" He was so bored. Why couldn't they just start fighting already?

"In a few minutes. For the sixth time." Lin wondered if she was this annoying when her mother took her to see her first match.

"Kiddo," Toph decided to intervene before her daughter blew up, "what's the first rule of earthbending?"

"Wait and listen." He recited.

"So what do you think you oughta do?"

"Wait?" He guessed.

"Atta boy." Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one...

"When is it starting?"

"Never, kid." Lin couldn't help it, the boy was getting on her last nerve.

"Really?" Fear gripped the heart of the little boy. Spirits, Bolin was gullible. They were going to have work on that.

"Sarcasm, Boy."

"Welcome everyone, to the second week of the Earth Rumble Preliminaries! I'm your host Qing Yuan!"

"It's finally starting!" Bolin pointed and laughed. Finally something fun.

"Yes kid, finally." Toph laughed as Lin rolled her eyes, but if someone where to look very hard, they might see a smile trying to claw it's way on to the stoic woman's face.

"Our first match for the evening, 'Stone Feng' vs the 'Rabaroo Kid'!" The crowed cheered as the two fighters took to the ring.

"'The Rabaroo Kid'?" Toph sneered, "What kind of fighting name is that?"

"Like you have any room to talk, Blind Bandit?" She countered.

"Shut your mouth, girl, that is the coolest fighting name ever. At least it's not a fluffy animal name." Yes, that was one point couldn't be argued with.

"Whoa." Bolin watched with wide eyes as Stone Feng pined the Rabaroo Kid's arm the ground then threw the ground out of the ring. He laughed as the man sailed through the air before landed outside the ring.

"Stoney ain't half bad. But," she turned to the general direction of the loser, "Rabaroo, change the name! 'The Rabaroo Kid' sounds like an airbending six-year-old!" The audience laughed with her. Lin felt a pang of pity for the guy as she saw him run away, but that was just part of the sport.

"Our next match, Desert Heat vs Bashing Aki!"

"You call that a match?" the former champion yelled after an admittedly pathetic fight. "You two losers don't know a rock from a pebble!" And that was how the rest of the show went. Bolin stayed memorized by the bending, Toph kept heckling the fighters, Lin kept rolling her eyes. Finally they had the special show for the evening, team fighting. After her mother 'congratulated' the winning team, remarking how clever it was to tell puns that made the other team want to pound their own heads against a rock, the fighters finally had enough.

"Hey old woman, why don't you come down here and say that to our faces?!" The Shifty Shirshu shouted, oblivious to the danger he was putting himself in.

"With pleasure!" She strutted up to the ring, "You two are so annoying, I'm going for a knock out just to shut you up."

"You? You're just a stone-ile old woman." The Laughing Hyenashark barked. "You wanna tumble with the rumblers?

"I thought you'd never ask." The unrecognized woman cackled and got into a stance...a somewhat familiar stance.

"A challenger!" Qing Yuan shouted gleefully as gasps were heard. Not that he expected a fight, surely a woman so...seasoned...wouldn't try to go against young Earth Rumblers. While the fighting team was trying to decide whether or not they should put the old woman in her place Toph blew up her bangs impatiently. The Laughing Hyenashark immediately jumped behind his partner.

"We can't fight her." He squeaked. He, unlike the spectators in the high stands or the host on his perch, got a good look at her eyes.

"No, no." Sweat appeared on The Shifty Shirshu's brow, "I mean, it's not fair." The crowd seemed to agree, watching young men and women getting the daylights knocked out of them was one thing, but seeing a little old lady get knocked around was something else entirely. In the low stands, a woman was taking off her boots for some strange reason.

"Yeah, you should go get five or six guys to help you out, then I might actually get a decent workout." Toph smirked. But the host only thought her as senile and he had to stop it from getting any worse.

"The rules are clear!" He jumped into the ring, "This is Team Fighting, sorry Ma'am but-"

"Girl, get in here!" She yelled, seemingly to nobody.

"Stay right here, Kid." Lin instructed as she stood up and headed for the ring, tying a blindfold around her head as she went.

"A blindfolded earthbender?" Even the Blind Bandit could see the light in the host's eyes as he spotted Lin's telltale scars and put the pieces together. After a quick peek beneath Toph's bangs Qing Yuan addressed the crowd,

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We have a surprise for you this evening. A challenge, on the right side of the ring... The Shifty Shirshu and The Laughing Hyenashark," who were shaking their heads and waving their arms in protest, "and on the left side of the ring, the woman who holds the record as the youngest Earth Rumble Champion, Lin Beifong...'The Dodger'!" the applause was thundering, "And now Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honor to present the greatest Earthbender in the world, no... in History, the Mother of Metalbending herself, Toph Beifong...'The Blind Bandit'!" And when you thought the noise couldn't get any louder, it did. People were on their feet, clapping and shouting and Toph was loving every second of it.

...

"Wow, I can't wait to tell Asami! You two did this," he jumped on his bed and punched the air, "and this," he almost fell trying to do a leg sweep, "and then they went out outside of the room."

"Gotta hand it to ya Dodger," Toph punched her on the arm, "you got good aim."

"Wish you coulda saw their faces as the flew outta the entrance." Lin smirked, happy that she'd pulled off the blindfold just in time to see the mix of shock and pain on their opponent's faces. Toph chuckled as they both reclined against the wall and watched (sorta felt) Bolin try to recreate the bending moves on the bed.

"Yeah, I always said I don't care about sight, but I would like to see their faces when they realized they got their asses handed to them by a blind midget." Typical, some blind people wish they could see what their family looks like, Toph wishes she could see the humiliation of her beaten opponents.

"An old blind midget."

"Watch it, girl. I may be old, but I can still beat you into the ground." The old blind midget threatened.

"Hey, can you teach me to do that stuff?" Bolin rejoined the conversation, falling to the bed after tiring himself out.

"Kid, I'm training you. Of course you'll learn that stuff. Now it's time for bed."

"But I'm not tired." He didn't look it, but he had to be with the full day he'd had.

"Too bad, Half Pint." Toph kissed his forehead and ruffled his hair like always, "Pup, if you need me, I'll be at the Corner Tavern."

"I'm not bailing you out again." Lin thought that maybe if she gave fair warning that her mother might behave herself.

"Hag." Wishful thinking.

"Midget." Ah, the mother/daughter relationship...beautiful isn't it?

"Lin," Bolin called from his bed after Toph left, "why do you and Grammy call each other names?"

"Because that's how Beifongs show affection." She replied without even thinking.

"What's affection?" That was one question Lin chose not to answer.

"Never mind. It's just how we are, Kid. We don't mean a word of it." She pulled the covers out and threw them over his head, he always found that funny for some reason, "Now go to sleep."

"Do you love your mom?" What kind of question was that?

"Of course, we're family."

"Do you love me?"

"We're family, aren't we?" She asked. He nodded, "There's your answer."

"But-"

"Goodnight, Boy." She said with a warning in her tone, this conversation was over.

"Goodnight, Mom." Bolin looked just as surprised as she was. In fact, he hunkered a little like he expected her to scold him. But she was at a loss, so picked her chin off the floor, cleared her throat and went to her own bed for the night.