A. N. : Toph is a lot less present in this fic than I thought she would be when the Gaang finally appeared, but nevertheless, she is here and I love her. The next chapter will still be Headband arc, but it will be the last - sort of a proper conclusion to this arc I guess. Also, I am thinking of doing another short (like last year's Of honey and flesh) for the Viper-birthday next month, so if you have any suggestion, I am open. I have my ideas, but yours might be interesting too !
Toph is sort of impressed by Twinkle Toes on this one.
Sure, everyone did their part and she even turned this cave into an actual ballroom in record time, but Twinkle Toes actually managed to organize his secret dance party in less than a day.
And from what Toph remembers of the parties – sorry, receptions – at her place, it normally takes a lot more time to organize these things for even less guests. So yeah, kudos to Twinkle Toes for once !
The first kids to arrive are the orchestra, promptly renamed The Flamey-os for the occasion. Sparky makes the longest sigh at that and Toph snickers because really, how did he not see this one coming ?
When the next kids come – and damn, that's a lot of people Twinkle Toes managed to convince – it's… awkward. No one really knows what to do, some don't even know if they want to be here – and geez, if you don't know what you want why are you even here, why can't people just make up their mind once and for all instead of always hesitating !
Seriously, dealing with these kinds of people is driving her crazy.
But for once Twinkle Toes doesn't give up – heh, looks like her lessons finally bore fruit – and he shows the kids some steps from a hundred years ago.
Very smooth Twinkle Toes, no one is ever going to guess you were actually there at the time… or not.
The music is nice, loud enough that Toph feels her body vibrate, but not too loud. That tsungi horn player is very good.
Toph taps her foot in rhythm. She sort of wants to dance.
She was never taught how to dance, not even the boring, Earth noble, dancing together but not too together, don't even think about touching your partner kind of dancing. She knows the steps, sure, not like there's a lot to do aside from sensing what the other are doing when you're stuck on a chair because poor, blind Toph wouldn't know what to do –
What a whole lot of bullshit. She'll show them poor and blind.
But the thing is, even if she's reckless, she's not stupid. Her parents knew she can sense the earth and they still couldn't imagine her capable of dancing, or even of following a partner's steps. These kids here would probably freak out if the blind girl started dancing like them.
And she is not pretending to be useless again, she is done with that.
And so Toph taps her foot and laughs at Stalker's efforts to convince Sparky to dance. On his own of course. And of course Sparky uses the sleeping Fire Turtle as a shield, all but I have to take care of her, even though they all know he just really doesn't want to dance. Never change, Sparky.
Stalker brings out the ultimate argument – Katara could watch over her – but sadly, and as much as Toph would love to feel Sparky's awkward little feet dance, the Sugar Queen is currently busy with Twinkle Toes.
And it's weird, because it feels like they're bending, but Toph doesn't hear the flow of water, doesn't feel faraway stormy winds, doesn't smell rain – it always smells like rain when these two bend together, rain form the end of fall that's not sure is doesn't want to become snow and feels heavier than normal rain.
Toph doesn't sense any of that, and anyway Sugar Queen knows not to bend in the middle of little Fire kids. So Toph supposes they're either dancing or pretending to – and they way they're not-bending is so rhythmic that in the end it doesn't matter.
They're beautiful and Toph really wants to dance, or fake-dance, or whatever, and she is definitely getting the others to organize another dance party just for the six and a half of them. Plus Appa and Momo of course.
But she doesn't say that. Instead, she says she could hold the Fire Turtle while Sparky dances, and laughs when Sparky stumbles on his words because he clearly doesn't want to say yes, but he doesn't want to tell her no either because he is a softie.
Of course, since both Stalker and Snoozles are laughing too much, she just has to add that Stalker should totally dance too, and don't worry, she'll make sure the Fire Turtle doesn't burn off Snoozles' hair this time.
Only his normal hair, she says to Snoozles' ears only, and he welps.
And Toph laughs, she laughs the loudest of the four, because that's how things are supposed to be, because they're all beautiful and happy, the whole of them, and there's no way she'll ever say that to their face so she just laughs at them – with them, and she might not be able to dance right now but this is the next best thing.
She laughs, and when the party is crashed by the headmaster Sugar Queen dislikes so much she cackles as low as possible because these kids are amazing and that dance party is the best idea Twinkle Toes ever had, and she feels the guards tap their foot and the kids trembling with the excitation of doing something wrong and fun, and they're all fleeing and once Appa starts flying they all burst into laughter.
This is what freedom feels like, Toph decides. Laughter and fun and the warm bubble in her stomach when she remembers the headmaster's shouts to stop, all of you stop –
This is what freedom feels like, and she is never giving it up, ever.