A. N. : You'd think being on real holidays would make me able to write more, but the truth is that without regular train travels I just never bother. Good thing I write these in advance... On the bright side, once I start my masters (and lockdown stops for colleges) I'll take the train a lot more, so I might even finish this fic before 2024 ! Anyway it's Toph time.
Toph waits.
She crosses her arms, partly because that always seems to intimidate people when she does and it will hopefully make Sparky start talking faster, and partly for the pleasure of hearing the chime of the chain on her arm.
She's not sure what she'll do with Uncle's shackles yet – she had a lot of fun tying up that Dai Li guy with Princess', so maybe she'll keep them for that kind of thing. For now, she wears one shackle around her bicep and the other on her forearm, and plays with the chain between them sometimes, feeling the smooth metal under her fingers, finding the asperities and polishing them with her thumb, and listening to the change in the tone of its clinging, depending on how she holds it and which links are hitting each other.
That metal doesn't obey her as much as the meteor bracelet Snoozles gifted her yet, but it's only a matter of time.
She hopes Snoozles will be okay. He should, both Sugar Queen and Uncle said so, but that doesn't stop Toph from reaching out to feel his pulse and the way his chest fills with air, from time to time.
But right now that's not the issue. She taps her nail on the shackle with a dull series of tings, playing up her impatience. Come on Sparky, don't make her point out that he told Stalker he'd tell the rest of them, it's always awkward to remind people Toph can often hear their secret conversations, whether she wants to or not – and not the fun kind of awkward, where Toph laughs at how people don't know what to do.
She can feel Sparky shifting uncomfortably where he sits, the dim echo of Uncle gently patting his right thigh, and Stalker on the left moving slightly closer, the change in his posture combining with Sparky's left side growing a little more grounded – a hand on a shoulder.
Sparky takes a sharp inhale, then exhales softly. The Fire-Turtle babbles in his arms.
Azula – he starts, stops, shakes his head, starts again.
There are… consequences, to failing to meet the expectations of – he stumbles on the words, getting out something that sounds like Father Lord, and his hesitation would be awfully cute if it didn't make Toph's insides crawl up inside her throat in discomfort. At home, consequences were always more security, more guards to watch her every move, suffocating Toph until she played the part of the weak little Lady Beifong and let Mom dress her up in stupid dresses she couldn't move in.
She can't imagine Sparky's consequences to be much better.
At the time, he says, he was sure he deserved it all. Now, he's not so sure anymore – no, rather, he's sure it wasn't fair, but… he thinks Azula still hasn't realized. That's why he knew she wouldn't come, because she is – perfect, he says, and it doesn't sound like a compliment. He calls his sister perfect like Toph's parents called her blind, like an unfortunate fact of life.
Azula always does what's expected of her, and right now what's expected is that she come home and take her punishment.
There's silence at that, so heavy and deafening that Toph almost wants to cover her ears. There's something she's missing, she thinks, in the way the others tensed when Sparky mentioned punishment, the sharp breath and skipped heartbeat, like things suddenly make sense.
She grinds her teeth. She's missing something, same as her poetry was always off to her tutors' ears because they didn't like how her seasons smelled like pines or felt like damp air and didn't look like colors and what in Koh's name is the red of maples or the pink of cherry blossoms anyway !?
Princess saves her from having to ask, thankfully – and spirits, Toph hates having to ask, it always feels so… so much like standing on damned wooden planks, unstable and uneasy and blind, blind like in Mom's voice and her teachers' ears.
Princess asks Sparky if that's where the scar comes from – she makes a move, probably miming where said scar is supposed to be, somewhere above her shoulders – and Sparky shifts uneasily.
It was… it – ah –
He stumbles again. It must be bad, that scar, Toph thinks, if no one wanted to talk about it. No one but Princess, who doesn't yet like Sparky, and who always stands strong like Oma. Toph can't imagine it, leaving a visible scar, a bad one, on a Prince's body. It's wrong, just as wrong as executing royal blood. Even servants only get the willow at most !
She shakes her arm gently to hear the chain's song, frowning. Sparky is still looking for the right words, softly refuses Uncle's help on this front – it's fine, I'll, I can do it –
He breathes.
It was an Agni Kai. A duel of honor. He did something he wasn't supposed to, was challenged, and lost. He didn't want to fight. He was – he was burned, and exiled, and sent to find and capture the Avatar if he wanted to come home.
He shifts in place. Azula will probably… she was there. In the public. She saw it all. She knows.
The ground under Toph's hand turns to sand as she claws at it in anger.
Sparky said these things like it wasn't about him, like the one who treated him worse than a servant wasn't his own dad – Toph wonders, for a second, what's worse between being a doll and being chased out like a racoon-dog, but decides that it doesn't matter – and she wants to shout at him, to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he realizes that. But Sparky is shaking slightly, and warmer than usual, and Toph thinks he knows already.
The way he was yesterday shows that too.
You knew ? Sugar Queen asks, something raw in her voice, like she's trying real hard not to scream or cry. Oh, if she gets her hands on the Fire Lord, the guy will be lucky to only be frozen to death.
Stalker moves a little – a shrug – makes a non-committal sound. Most of it, he says dryly, then adds – that a problem ?
The temperature drops as Sugar Queen tenses, but then she draws back, breathing deeply. She huffs. No, no it's not a problem, he's Zuko's friend, friends tell each other things. And ooohh, someone is mad !
It's probably nothing to do with Sparky not talking about that stuff earlier, Sugar Queen is petty but not that petty. It's the fact that Stalker knew before her, and that it's Stalker. Toph finds the way Sugar Queen resents him for literally every little thing hilarious – although it was funnier before last night.
Sometimes, good ears are bad.
Still, Toph slaps her knee and lets out a loud laugh. Sucks to be you, Sugar Queen ! Can't mother Sparky if Stalker beat you to it !
Sugar Queen's offended splutter and Stalker's snicker and Sparky's relieved sigh are music to Toph's ears, much more melodic than the chain's chime. Meshes well with Twinkle Toes and Snoozles' very much alive heartbeats.
Princess' appreciative nice work is just a bonus.