we all want love/we all want honor
Part 18: how to stack your stones
"Children aren't as simple as we'd like to think."
- Dessa, "Children's Work"
As it turned out, finding an earthbending teacher in Ba Sing Se was just as hard as it had been everywhere else. (At least they knew they'd be getting an audience with the Earth King eventually, even if it would take weeks.) Aang scoured every dojo in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Rings. Nowhere did he find anyone who waited and listened the way Bumi had described.
(Listening, huh? He'd met one other earthbender who listened, but the odds of her becoming his teacher… well, that was about as likely as Zuko hanging up his mask and becoming a tea server.)
Sokka and Katara claimed he was being too picky (Katara made some comment about how lucky he was to even have so many options), so Aang tried to just pick a random place, but he could never bend so much as a pebble.
"What do you think, buddy?" Aang said, petting Appa's head. The two of them were flying in the fields on the outskirts of the city, the only area Appa was allowed to be in. "Am I giving up too easily?" Just then, he looked down and froze.
I must be dreaming.
A girl who couldn't be more than a few years older than him was down there, and she was earthbending. On its own, that wouldn't have been surprising (it was the Earth Capital), but there was something different about her movements.
Most of the earthbenders he'd seen had used their bending as a weapon. Even when they practiced on their own, they always looked as though they were facing off with some invisible opponent.
That girl didn't look like she was fighting. She was bending as though it was what she had been born to do, as though it was trapped inside of her and she needed to let it out.
It was self-expression in its purest form.
(She wasn't fighting. She was dancing.)
She looked different than the last time he'd seen her. She wore a simple green outfit with a burlap overtunic, and her hair was tied in a braid that hung down in front of her shoulder, but it was definitely her.
The Blind Bandit.
It hadn't taken long for Iroh and Zuko to get jobs as tea servers, but Pao's shop was tiny, he didn't need another new waiter. (Toph had been relieved, she didn't think she was cut out for customer service.)
Which meant Toph had to look elsewhere for a job. (Uncle and Sparky had insisted she didn't need to work, but she'd been determined to carry at least some of her own weight around here.) Unfortunately, not too many places, even in the lower ring, were looking to hire a little blind girl, even if she was a talented bender.
For now, she'd decided to take a break from job-hunting and just have a little fun. There wasn't much space in the crowded city for an earthbender to really get into it, but luckily, even a poor refugee was allowed out into the Agrarian Zone.
(The place was incredible. Just vast expanses of farmland and open fields for miles. Which gave her plenty of space to bend.)
She'd found a quiet spot, away from the planting fields, where she could just go all-out as much as she wanted. It was awesome.
Or at least it had been. Right up until a large flying animal landed in front of her, and a slight-footed little airbender hopped off.
"No," Toph said. "No, no, no, absolutely not, what are you doing here?"
"Here as in… this particular field?" Was the kid stupid?
"No, here as in Ba Sing Se," she said, crossing her arms. "You're supposed to be, I don't know, literally anywhere else in the world?!"
"What about you?" The Avatar seemed confused. "This is the Earth Kingdom."
"Yeah, and?" Seriously, why was he here?
"Did you and Zuko… split up after what happened with Azula?"
"Of course not," Toph said, her scowl deepening. "After what happened at the North Pole, you think I'm letting that dunderhead go anywhere without me?"
"So… why Ba Sing Se?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, but Sparky isn't exactly the most popular guy in the Fire Nation right now." She gestured around. "Last I checked, you wanted to get away from the Fire Nation, you go to Ba Sing Se. We're trying to make a fresh start here, away from the war, and you being here will ruin everything."
"So you're telling me that Zuko is just living a quiet life in the city?" The kid laughed. "And he's, what, a tea server or something?"
"How'd you know that?" Toph frowned. "Wait, have you been spying on us?"
"What? No, that was- I was joking," Twinkletoes said. "You're serious."
"As a heartbeat." The kid was quiet for a few moments, and then he jumped forward and grabbed her hand.
"Please teach me how to earthbend!"
"You- what- why- huh?" The girl in front of him looked absolutely bewildered by Aang's request. "Why on earth are you asking me?"
"Well, from what I saw, you're a pretty great earthbender," Aang said.
"Pretty great?" The blind girl scoffed. "You're looking at the greatest earthbender in the world."
"Exactly!" Aang may not know much about earthbending, but he'd never seen anyone else like her. "And I need an earthbending teacher, so…"
"You're insane, you know that?" She laughed. "Public enemy number one of the Fire Nation, and you want to learn earthbending from the Fire Lord's future daughter-in-law?"
"Um… yes?" It had sounded like a good plan in his head.
"Alright, I'm in."
"Really?" Was she serious? "Why?"
"First off, Old Man Ozai's kind of a jerk." It took him a second to remember that Ozai was the Fire Lord's name. For so long, he'd just been a nameless, faceless enemy, but here was someone who actually knew the man. It was weird. "Also, I do need a job."
"Thank you!" Aang jumped ten feet in the air (literally).
"Not so fast," she said. "I've got a couple conditions, first."
"What… sort of conditions?" Suddenly, he wondered if this was really such a great idea. What was I thinking, Sokka and Katara are going to kill me-
"First off, you can't tell anyone," the earthbender said. "Not your little Water Tribe friends, not the Earth King, not whoever it is you came to see in this city. No one can know that Sparky, Uncle and I are here. Got it?"
"Alright," Aang said, reluctantly. He didn't like keeping secrets from his friends, but he could understand why.
"Second, you don't bother any of us at home," she continued. "We'll only meet out here. I do not want Zuko to find out about this. Understood?"
"Completely." Aang didn't really want the prince to find out he was here, either. "Anything else?"
"There's a small matter of payment," she said.
"Payment?"
"This is a job, doofus," the girl said. "I don't work for free."
They spent a few minutes haggling prices, and then she said had to be going.
"You better be here on time tomorrow, Twinkletoes!"
"Yes, Sifu!"
(Sokka and Katara didn't seem the slightest bit concerned when Aang told them he'd found a teacher. Katara had muttered something under her breath and Sokka had shrugged, but neither asked any questions or demanded to meet his new master. He wasn't sure if that feeling in his stomach was relief or guilt.)
Toph had never had a student before, but she was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be this hard.
"What if I came at the boulder from another angle?" The Avatar was just so… flighty. He seemed to think he should be getting it right away, and if he didn't, then there must be a better way to do it.
"Patience, airhead," she said, sighing. "You have any idea how long it took me to figure out metalbending? You've just got to keep chipping away at it."
"Metalbending?!" Right, she hadn't mentioned that.
She considered showing him, but she knew they were being watched. The spies were far enough that they wouldn't be able to hear their conversations, but she knew any display of something as unique as bending metal would end with her being dragged in front of the head of the Dai Li, and she was not interested in getting involved in that mess.
"You know, that thing I do, with the knives?" She mimed throwing something. "You didn't notice how they turned and moved in midair?"
"Oh yeah, I guess Azula's friend can't do that," the little brat said. "So you can really bend metal? Can you teach me?"
"Before I teach you anything, you have to be able to move the rock," she gestured at the boulder. Twinkletoes sighed.
Aang couldn't figure the stupid rock out.
"Just move already!" And now he was yelling at inanimate objects. Wonderful.
Sifu sighed again.
"Stop thinking like an airbender," she said.
"What do you mean?" Aang looked at her, confused. "I am an airbender."
"Yeah, but you don't bend water the same way you do air, do you?" She moved her arms in a floaty kind of way he assumed was meant to imitate waterbending.
"I guess not," Aang said. "But it's not like I think about it."
"I suppose we can't all have an uncle," Sifu muttered. "Alright, sit down, let me see what I can do… tell me about the difference between different types of bending."
"Well, airbending is about freedom and misdirection," Aang said, dropping to a lotus position, "and waterbending is all about adaptability, but earthbending is stubborn and-"
"No, I'm talking about where the bending comes from," she interrupted.
"Where it comes from?" Aang tried to remember what the monks had said. "I think Sister Iio said something about a lionturtle? I can't remember how that story went, though."
Sifu groaned.
"Also not what I meant." She moved so that she was sitting directly in front of him. "Guess I've got to start at the very beginning."
"The beginning?"
"When you bend air, the air doesn't belong to you. It's not a part of you, exactly- if anything, you're a part of it." She raised her left hand and pressed it to his chest- not to the left side, where his heart lay, but the center, directly above his diaphragm. "You take the air in, and then you let it go. Air isn't selfish- it wants to share. It allows you to take control of a small bit, no more or less than you need." She slowly moved her fingertips up his throat, towards his lips, and then she lifted them away and made a spiralling gesture.
"How did you know that?" Aang gaped. He'd never thought about it quite like that, never put those feelings into words, but she was right. The wind was his friend, but he'd never made the mistake of thinking of himself as its equal- it was a power to be treated with respect.
She didn't answer the question.
"Water is similar, but it's not exactly the same." She cradled his left hand in both of hers, pressing the forefingers of her left hand to his pulse. "It flows through you in constant motion, but you don't let it go the same way you do with air." Again, she slowly dragged her fingers across his skin, this time up his arm, towards his heart. "The water within you recognizes the water outside of you. It's not like air, that recognizes you as an extension of itself. The water is not the same as you, but it sees you as kin- as family. And water would never abandon one of its own."
"Kid, why are you crying?" Toph could hear him sniffling, could smell the salt water as it trickled down his cheek.
"I'm not…" The Avatar raised his hand to the edge of his eye, and seemed surprised when his fingertips came away wet. He brushed at his eyes with the back of his hands a few times.
Why is talking about water making him tear up? She suddenly remembered that his traveling companions were from the water tribe. They're different from him, but they're probably the only family he has now… kind of like me, I guess.
"Anyhoo, earth is a little different. Unlike air, the earth is a part of you, not the other way around." She put her left hand on his knee, and her right hand on his shoulder. "Like water, it's already within you- in your very bones. The difference is that the earth outside of you is nothing but an extension of the earth inside of you."
What?
"I'm sorry, Sifu, could you explain that a little more?" Aang had understood what she was saying about air and water, but he couldn't figure out what she meant about the earth being the same as him.
"Think of it this way: When you bend air, you're like a windchime or a flute, moving with the air. When you bend water, you're like a magnet, moving something else in a mimicry of your own movements."
"I get that," Aang said, annoyance leaking from his tone. He wasn't stupid. Sifu frowned, and he suddenly felt the ground jolt beneath him.
"Moving the earth is more like moving another one of your limbs," she said, stretching her arms out to demonstrate. "You don't ask your hands nicely if they would please pick stuff up- you tell them what to do, and they do it."
Huh. Aang thought about that. So air was his friend or teacher, water was his family, and earth was… his body?
"What about fire?" He'd sworn to never bend the destructive element again because he couldn't see it as anything more than devastation. Even Master Jeong-Jeong had called it a curse. But what was it? An enemy to defeat? An adversary to tame? Maybe-
"The fire is you," Sifu said, interrupting his musings.
"What?" Surely she hadn't just said that. How could such a cruel element be who he was?
"Earth is a part of you, but it isn't who you are, anymore than your elbow is." She poked his left elbow to demonstrate. "Fire, however, is. It's more than just an extension of yourself. That's why firebenders don't need a source of flame to draw from- the bender is the element."
"But fire is destruction," Aang said, still not comprehending. "Are you saying that firebenders are nothing but that? No wonder-"
"Where'd you hear that nonsense from? Sure, fire can destroy things. So can avalanches, and tornadoes, and thunderstorms," Sifu said, shrugging. "Fire's also heat, and energy- both of which are kind of important. And I don't know much about light, but from what I understand, you seeing people think it's pretty great."
But…
"You've got air in your breath, water in your blood, and earth in your bones." She raised her right hand again, this time pressing it on top of his heart. "But fire, Twinkletoes, fire is in your heart."
Oh…
"But I'm not here to teach you about fire," Sifu said, hopping up and gesturing for him to follow. "Last I checked, you hired me to teach you earthbending."
Right. They were here for his earthbending lessons.
"So if earth is part of you, what do you do when it doesn't listen?" Toph pointed to the rock.
"Umm…" The Avatar walked around the boulder, examining from all angles.
"What would happen if you woke up one morning and your arm went, 'Hey, I'm not in the mood to move today, so would ya mind managing without me?' Say, 'No problem, arm, have a nice day?' Of course not!" She shook her head. "You tell your arm that you're the boss, and unless there's an actual problem, it's going to do its job. So what do you tell the rock?"
"Um, I'm sorry you don't feel like moving, but I need you to do it anyway?" His tone was questioning, unsure.
"Yes!" Toph pumped her fist in the air. "Now, do it!"
The kid stomped his foot, punched out his arm… and bent the rock.
"I did it!" He jumped ten feet in the air. "I can't believe it!"
"Congratulations, kid, you're an earthbender," she said, laughing. "Now go home, and make sure you get lots of sleep- tomorrow, the real training starts."
"Guess what, guess what!" Sokka looked up from the map he was inspecting (he'd picked up a couple new ones at the market, but there was something really weird about them) as Aang came barrelling into the house.
"What is it, Aang?" Katara wandered in from where she'd been cooking.
"I finally figured out earthbending! Look!" Sokka watched as Aang gestured towards the street, and one of the paving stones rose out of the ground.
"That's amazing, Aang!" Katara said, smiling.
"Great, great," Sokka said. "Maybe put that back before the creepy lady shows up to tell us off again?"
"You seem to be in a good mood, Lin Yu," Uncle said over dinner. "Any luck with the job hunt?"
Zuko looked up from the food he was aimlessly picking at. He'd noticed Lady Toph seemed happy today, but he hadn't been sure whether to comment on it- her definition of interesting often involved lots of small, sharp things.
"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Lady Toph said around her mouthful of jook. "Yeah, I got a job teaching this snot-nosed brat some real earthbending."
"That sounds like a wonderful job, suitable for your considerable talents," Uncle replied. Zuko snorted.
"You got a problem with that, hothead?" She turned in his direction.
"A teacher?" Zuko rolled his eyes. Lady Toph was a prodigy, and Zuko knew prodigies- they made for horrible teachers. "I pity the poor kid who wants to learn from you."
For some reason, she started giggling.
She'd been teaching him for nearly a week when he realized they'd never actually introduced themselves.
"You do know my name isn't actually Twinkletoes, right?" Aang asked, ducking the boulder she was aiming at him. He could hear it whistle past his ears. "It's Aang."
"Do I look like I care?" She certainly didn't sound like it. Aang pulled off the blindfold.
"Your name's Toph, right? Toph… Beif-" Suddenly she was standing in front of him, her hands pressed over his lips.
"Don't say that name around here," Sifu said, scowling. "How'd you even know that? Sparky never uses my last name."
"Well, I had this vision in a swamp, and then I ended up in Gaoling, and then I met your father, and then-"
"Wait, you met my dad?" She looked flabbergasted.
"Yeah- for some reason he thinks you're dead and wouldn't listen when I tried to tell him you weren't. Any idea what that's about?" Aang paused for breath. "Your mother believed me, though. Which reminds me, I promised I'd write to her if I saw you again, I should-"
"You can't." Sifu's hard voice cut through his rambling.
"What?" He didn't understand. Why wouldn't she want her parents to know where she was? He remembered how excited Katara and Sokka had been when they'd run into their friend Bato. "Why not?"
"Twinkletoes, I'm a wanted criminal- so are you, remember?" Sifu- Toph- sighed. "If my parents actually think that I'm…" Her voice trailed off. "As long as they don't know where I am, they're safe. What do you think someone like the princess would do if she thought she could use them against me?"
"Oh." Aang had already lost most of the people he cared about, and Katara and Sokka were with him. He tried to imagine what might happen if Azula got her hands on one of them. "Well, do you want to hear about them? I don't know how long ago you left, but your brother looks just like you, and-"
"No! I don't want to talk about them." Sifu snarled. "New rule- Gaoling is off limits."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Aang said, raising his hands apologetically. "I won't bring them up again."
"Now then, put the blindfold back on, we're-" Suddenly, she froze, as though realizing something. "Did you say brother?"
Iroh walked towards the little room he and Zuko shared, then paused. There were strange noises coming from Toph's room.
Is she… crying?
He knocked on the door.
"La-Lin Yu? May I come in?" She was so particular about those false names, and would become rather annoyed when either of them slipped up. 'If you do it in private, you'll do it in public.' (Iroh had a sneaking suspicion that the real reason was because it meant they'd finally stopped referring to her as 'Lady Toph.')
"Okay." That was definitely a sniffle. Gently, he opened the door and walked over to the corner of the floor where she was curled up. He sat down next to her.
"Do you wish to talk about it?"
"There's not really anything to talk about," she said, sighing.
"Is that so?" Iroh wasn't used to seeing her so… vulnerable.
"Uncle?" She leaned her head onto his shoulder. "Do you ever miss him?"
"My son?" Who else could she be referring to? "Of course! I think of him ev-"
"No." Lady Toph reached out and gripped his arm. "Him. Your brother."
His brother? Ozai was a madman. He needed to be stopped before he burnt the world to ash. If the Avatar succeeded, the man would likely be dead before long.
He'd hurt Zuko, and Iroh could never forgive that.
But she hadn't asked if he was angry at his brother. She didn't want to know if Iroh hated him. She wanted to know if he missed Ozai.
"I don't know if you are aware, but I'm quite a bit older than him," Zuko heard as he went to get a drink. "I was around your age when my brother was born."
He froze. Are they talking about my father?
"He was an adorable baby," Uncle was saying. "Unfortunately, I was given my first command only a few years after he was born. I spent most of his childhood on the battlefield. By the time I married my wife and returned to live at the palace, he was already grown. We've never been close."
"So…?" Lady Toph's voice trailed off, questioning.
"Do I miss that sweet little child who used to toddle after me? Perhaps." Uncle continued. "Do I miss the man he has become? I can't- I don't know him. What I miss, Lin Yu, is the relationship that could have been."
"Do you think Zuko misses her?" Her voice sounded sad. "Azula, I mean?"
What? What kind of crazy question was that?
"What do you think?" Uncle sounded vaguely curious.
Zuko considered that for a moment. Did he miss his sister?
Azula was crazy, and she always lied, and she'd tried to kill him, and she'd hurt Lady Toph.
But he could still remember the child she used to be. The little baby in his mother's arms. The girl who'd chased him around the gardens, laughing and giggling. He missed that person.
Did he miss her? He didn't know. And that hurt.
"I hated it there," Lady Toph was saying, and Zuko tried to figure out what he'd missed. "I couldn't stand the place, to the point I was glad to get away. I've never once considered returning. I don't ever want to go back."
Is she talking about wherever she went after Grandfather died?
"But they're still my family. You know?" Zuko's eyes widened. He'd never heard Lady Toph mention her parents. She changed the topic every time he tried to bring it up. "I haven't seen them in nearly eight years, and I never thought about whether they might miss me. Does that make me a horrible person?"
"Do you miss them?"
"Can you miss what you never had?" Toph asked, sighing. "They loved me. But they also smothered me until I couldn't breathe. The best thing my father ever did for me was sell me off. He got me out."
"And your mother?" Uncle didn't sound judgemental. That was a good sign.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I can't remember much about her. She mostly just went along with whatever he said. Except that last time… she didn't want me to go. She was scared for me. I think she was always scared for me."
"Such is the fate of a parent," Uncle said. "We worry for our children. But we also need to realize that, despite our fears, we must give them the freedom to live their own lives."
"Do you think… if I hadn't gone away, if I'd stayed in Gaoling, that they would have realized that eventually?" Uncle sighed.
"I'm afraid I can't answer that," he said. "I only met them for a brief period of time. What I do know is that, whatever else they felt, they truly did love you. Don't underestimate the power of a parent's love."
"And now they probably think I'm dead," Toph said. Iroh looked down at the tiny girl who was his family in all but blood, and stroked her hair.
"Perhaps." He'd considered reaching out to the White Lotus to find out more about the Beifongs before, but he'd always decided in the end to respect her wishes and leave well enough alone. "Would you like me to see if one of our friends could get word to them otherwise?"
She shook her head.
"I don't want to get them involved in this mess," she said. "Maybe someday, when all of this is over."
He stayed a few minutes longer, then tucked her into bed and walked back to his room. Zuko was already fast asleep.
They'd been training for nearly two weeks when it happened.
"Uh-oh," Sifu said. "We've got trouble."
Aang looked around. He didn't see anything especially troublesome. She pointed to the outer wall.
"There's some kind of giant metal thing coming towards the city," she explained. "I get the feeling it has something to do with the Fire Nation."
The two of them headed toward the wall. Sifu held her hand to its surface and concentrated.
"It's the ice princess," she said. "She's got some kind of giant metal drill. Her goons have already taken out the earthbenders the city guard sent to deal with it. If we don't stop it, the Fire Nation's finally going to get inside the city."
Aang gulped, and looked at his teacher. They never discussed it, but he had a feeling that if it came down to a choice between the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation, she'd side with the Fire Nation.
"What are you going to do?"
"I guess you're finally getting a lesson in metalbending, Twinkletoes." She smiled.
Toph opened a tunnel under the wall, making sure to stay far away from any guard posts.
"It's dark down here," Aang complained.
"The horror," she said. "What have I been teaching you, Twinkletoes? You've got to see with your bending. Concentrate. What does the drill look like?"
The kid closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pressing his palms to the dirt.
"It's long, and round, and noisy, but I can't tell much more than that," he said. "It's metal, not earth."
"Aha!" She took off her bracelet, and put it in his hand. "And what is this?"
"It's metal? Isn't it?" She could hear the confusion in his voice.
"It is metal," she said. "But if you concentrate, you'll notice it's got earth inside of it."
He shrugged, then gripped it tightly.
"You're… right! I can feel it." He sighed. "But I can't bend it. It's too…" his voice trailed off.
"Different?" Toph smiled. "This is where being the Avatar might come in handy. It took me months to figure this out, because I spent too much time thinking about it like an earthbender."
"What?"
"It's actually more like waterbending," she explained. "What did I tell you about how waterbending works?"
"The water outside recognizes the water inside."
"Exactly! Instead of thinking of the earth in the metal as the same as the earth outside of the metal, think of it as similar. It's not part of you, but it will still recognize you."
He gritted his teeth, and, slowly, she sensed the bracelet shifting, changing. It wasn't much, but it was enough.
"Congratulations, kid, you're the world's second metalbender," she said. "Unfortunately, we don't have time for a party. Now, regular metal is a little trickier than that bracelet, but it's the same sort of principle. See if you can figure out what's going on with that drill."
She felt him shifting, breathing slowly.
"It's like… a tube. No, two tubes, one inside the other," he told her.
"Good. But how are they connected?"
"There are… beams." He was breathing hard. (Carefully, she widened the air holes- she wasn't used to making sure two people could breathe down here.) "Braces, all around, holding the inner tube in the center of the outer tube."
"Now, then, what exactly do you think would happen if those braces broke?" She crossed her arms, smiling.
"The whole thing would collapse!"
"Ding, ding, ding, we've got a winner," she said. "It's a little much for me on my own, but if the two of us work together, I think we can do it."
Slowly, slowly, the two of them worked to bend, break, warp, and snap the metal beams holding the drill together. Aang took a while to get the hang of it, especially since it was his first time and he wasn't actually touching the metal.
Before long, they'd reached the last one.
"Now then, let me handle this part." She sent a jolt through the ground, shaking the drill. Without the support of the beams, the entire structure collapsed.
The princess's screams of rage were loud enough that Toph was surprised Zuko didn't hear them.
"Anything interesting happen today, Aang?" Katara asked over dinner.
"Actually-" Aang froze. What was he supposed to say? If he told them about the drill, they'd want to know how he stopped it. And Sifu had insisted that he not tell anyone about metalbending. "Nothing in particular."
(It was strange, how lying to his friends became easier and easier every time he did it.)
"That idiot! Didn't I warn him? 'This guy is bad news,' I said, but does he listen? No!" Toph punched the nearest boulder, and it split in half. It was still a few minutes before the Avatar was due to show up, but she'd needed to get out some of her frustration ahead of time. "Instead, he nearly gets himself caught by the stupid, hook-swords, wheat-in-mouth dunderhead! What kind of name is 'Jet,' anyway?" The story Zuko and Uncle had come home with last night was insane- she couldn't believe the so-called 'Freedom Fighter' had actually followed them.
"Did you say Jet?" Twinkletoes landed in front of her. She hated when he did that- it was so jarring to suddenly have a person next to her who she hadn't sensed coming.
"Yeah- this absolute maniac who's convinced Sparky and Uncle are firebenders," she groaned, throwing a rock at him. "He's been stalking them at their job, and then last night he apparently barged right into the tea shop and challenged the hothead to a fight. He ended up getting carted off by the Dai Li, screaming about evil firebenders invading the city. Jet, I mean."
"I met a guy named Jet, once," the airbender said. "Bossy, always chewing on wheat, calls himself-"
"-a 'Freedom Fighter,' yeah," she interjected, sighing. "Sounds like the same guy. How'd you meet him?"
"Well, it all started with Sokka's instincts…"
By the time the kid finished his story, Toph felt torn between wanting to punch Zuko even harder for not listening to her the first time, and relieved their encounter hadn't gone worse.
One day, Aang actually managed to get to training before Sifu. He decided to take the chance to meditate- things had been so crazy, lately, he hadn't had a chance to just sit and clear his mind.
He'd only been there for a few minutes when he heard her loudly saying, "So you don't use a candle. Makes sense, I guess."
"A candle?" Aang asked, opening his eyes.
"Yeah, Uncle and Sparky always have at least a couple of candles going when they meditate," she explained. "Guess it's a firebending thing."
"I think Master Jeong-Jeong used candles," Aang said, trying to remember. "So you're probably right."
"Wait, you've met Jeong-Jeong?" Sifu seemed impressed. He always forgot that his old master was an infamous deserter. "Cool."
"Yeah, I guess…" He scratched his neck awkwardly and stood up. "What are we doing today? Rock dodging? Wall climbing? Crystal growing?"
"Nah, let's switch it around today," she said. "Why don't you teach me something?"
"What?" Aang supposed he technically was a master, but he'd never thought much about teaching… Besides, what was he supposed to teach an earthbender?
"I've practiced with Sparky, and Uncle's taught me some things he's learned from waterbenders, but I don't know much about airbending." Aang gaped at her.
"But you knew all of that stuff about where it comes from!" Now he was getting kind of confused.
"I mean, I know the theory," she explained. "But you're the first actual airbender I've met, remember?"
So, not really knowing what he was doing, he walked her through a few of the basic movements Gyatso had taught him when he first started his training.
"I think I get it," Sifu said, a few hours later. "It's kind of like waterbending. But a waterbender turns their opponent's attack back on them. An airbender lets their opponent take out themself."
Every time Aang thought he'd figured her out, she surprised him again. She was marrying the Fire Prince (and wouldn't he love to get the story behind that), but she'd helped him defend the Earth Kingdom Capital. She loved earthbending, but she respected and understood other bending styles. She was tough and inflexible, but she also wanted to learn about airbending.
She was one of the strangest people he'd ever met- and somehow, without even realizing it, she'd become his friend.
"So, can you show me how you meditate?" Sifu asked, interrupting his musings.
"I thought you already knew how to meditate," Aang said, tilting his head in confusion.
"Nah, I've never really been interested- it's not like I need it for earthbending. But now I'm curious."
And that's how Aang found himself walking his teacher through some basic meditation exercises.
"What are you doing up this early?" Zuko asked the diminutive earthbender in front of him. He and Uncle always woke at sunrise. Lady Toph, however, liked her sleep.
"Lin Yu has decided to join us for our morning meditation," Uncle explained. "Isn't that nice?"
What?
Meditation was about finding balance within oneself, and keeping a careful peace with one's internal flame. Lady Toph didn't have an internal flame, and she was one of the most self-assured people he knew. What did she need to meditate for?
He had to admit, though, that sitting between her and Uncle, eyes closed, facing the morning sun, was more soothing than he'd thought it would be.
"What is that?" Twinkletoes asked, gesturing at the object Toph was holding in her hand.
"A book," she said. She didn't know where Zuko had found the time to retranscribe the entirety of Love Amongst the Dragons (from memory, no less!) but she was grateful for it. She'd forgotten how much she enjoyed reading.
"I've never seen a book like that before," the airbender said.
"Neither have I," she said. "It's for blind people."
"I didn't know they made books like that," he said curiously, ignoring the quip. "Can I see?" She handed him the first page, a sheet of metal no thicker than her pinky, the symbols delicately welded into its surface.
"And they don't," Toph explained. "I made up the writing, and Sparky copied down the story. It's a birthday present."
"That's so cool!" He gestured towards the pile of metal sheets next to her. "Can you teach me?"
"What?" Sure, she'd taught Uncle, and he'd taught Zuko, but that was Uncle. She'd never considered teaching anyone else- especially not a seeing person. Why did he even want to learn? "Why?"
"This is how you read and write, isn't it?" The kid tilted his head. "If I learn how to read it, I can also read and write messages to you. It'll be so fun!"
Every time Toph thought she'd figured him out, he surprised her again. He was fighting against the Fire Nation, but he'd chosen her as a teacher. He was flighty and free-spirited, but he'd quickly become one of the best earthbenders she'd ever met. He could read and write normally, but he wanted to know how she did it.
He was one of the strangest people he'd ever met- and somehow, without even realizing it, he'd become her friend.
"Oh, all right," Toph said. She curved her hands, forming several symbols in the dirt in front of her. "There are thirty-six symbols, and each represents a different sound. The first one is…"
And there they sat, the Avatar and the blind earthbender, as the latter taught the former how to read.
"He taught me how to meditate, I taught him how to read."
- Dessa, "Children's Work"