Just a Little Blind

If there was one possible thing that could top finding Lan Zhan in this life, it was finding Lan Zhan and Lan Sizhui on the same day!

"A-Yuan!" Ty Lee cheered, holding TomTom up in the air in delight.

TomTom let out a happy squeal and reached out to her with his short arms. "Shaan-gege! Seenor Wei! Baba!" he babbled back in between baby talk.

"Oh Hanguang-Jun! Once again you've given my little radish back to me," Ty Lee said, pulling TomTom in for a hug, squeezing the baby tight and pinching his round cheeks.

"He's my brother in this life," Mai said next to her (having not left her side for a moment since their reunion). "We might have to share him with my parents later… if my father isn't Su She, that is. I couldn't leave him there just in case."

"I'm not going to complain," Ty Lee said, pressing a kiss to TomTom's head, making him giggle. "But that's definitely a downside of this reincarnation business. There's always the possibility of meeting unpleasant people again."

"Or finding out you're engaged to them," said Yue with a put-upon sigh. "I was not pleased to find my previous fiance was Jin Zixun."

"Ummmm... who?" asked Ty Lee, wondering if that was someone she was supposed to remember.

Sokka wondered how she could forget, but the other reincarnations didn't look surprised.

"My cousin who ambushed you at Qiongqi Path," Sokka said slowly.

"Oooooh, that guy," said Ty Lee, remembering that particular unpleasant person with a frown. "He broke the present I made for A-Ling."

"That's your takeaway from that confrontation?" Sokka asked, aghast.

"That and being very, very sorry for what happened to you," Ty Lee said, having apologized profusely numerous times already.

Yue just giggled at the look on Sokka's face. "That's just how A-Xian always was."

"So, basically, crazy is contagious, got it," Toph said. She'd been dubious from the start about this whole reincarnation business. She could tell they believed it to be true, but it was a bit too mumbo jumbo for her.

"Is it really crazy if-" Ty Lee started to reply to her before a now familiar sensation of recognition flashed across her eyes and Toph froze and clutched at her head.

"Oh," said Ty Lee as she realized, sympathy running across her face. "A-Qing."

Mai tensed beside her, and the others were shocked.

Toph just clutched her head and didn't say a word.

"Wait? Toph's a reincarnation?" asked Aang in surprise.

"But she's been with us for a few days," said Katara. "Why is her memory coming back just now?"

"Because none of you ever met A-Qing in the last life," Ty Lee explained. "Zuko and I figured it out not too long ago. We found another reincarnation (don't ask) that I'd not really met but Jiang Cheng had, so he triggered her when I didn't."

"I was there," said Mai, looking a little confused. Lan Wangji had been in Yi City when the case with A-Qing had happened.

"But did you meet A-Qing?" asked Ty Lee. "Or even see her? If I recall, you spent most of that adventure fighting off Su She, Xue Yang, and a city full of fierce corpses. The most interaction you had with A-Qing was when she tapped her bamboo staff to tell you where to strike, but I wouldn't really count that as a meeting. Meanwhile, I was possessed by her for Empathy, and you can't really get closer to a person than doing that."

"Possessed?" asked Iroh, alarmed.

"A-Qing goo' ghos," TomTom babbled.

Ty Lee glanced at the toddler. "A-Yuan had a few interactions with her, though. Wonder why he didn't trigger her."

"Toph has been avoiding him," Mai admitted. "She told me he was tiny and fragile."

"Well, she's right about that," said Ty Lee, cuddling the baby to her. "At least until he grows into a fine young gentleman like he was before."

TomTom giggled at that.

Aang glanced at his new earthbending teacher, growing concerned at her continued silence. "Toph? Are you-" he started to ask, before Toph stood up, trembling.

Then, with a mighty stomp of her foot, she made the entire ground shake enough that her friends had to brace their balance and some of the more rickety buildings in the ghost town toppled over.

Recognizing the look on her face, Ty Lee quickly clapped her hands over TomTom's ears, and Sokka and Yue followed her example with Aang and Katara.

"THAT FUCKING SHITTY BASTARD!" Toph yelled at the top of her lungs. "THAT LYING, SCUM-SUCKING, SICK, MOTHERFUCKING WEASEL! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HIM I'LL-"

Toph continued to swear a blue streak that would make even the most hardened sailor blush, and occasionally smashed things like trees and rocks and buildings with her earthbending as she vented out her anger.

Ty Lee watched this, unsurprised. "I almost feel sorry for Xue Yang, if he's here," she remarked. "Almost."

The rest of them watched Toph tear a trail of destruction into the countryside and almost felt sorry for him too.

But better him than them.

It took a long while for Toph to finally feel the anger and resentment at her last life's fate fade enough to actually talk to people again.

Not to say she was in any kind of good mood, but she didn't want to verbally eviscerate the people she'd just made up with on purpose, so there was that.

She stomped back over to their camp and sat down with a huff.

Yue, who had begun preparing dinner, looked over at her. "Toph," she said, kindly ignoring the tantrum she'd just been throwing. "I know you feel you can handle yourself on your own while traveling with us, but you've had such a hard day. Would you like some soup with the rest of us?"

Toph was silent for a moment, but she'd already resolved herself to this crazy group, so she might as well put in some effort. "Yeah, sure, thanks," she said.

"It smells delicious, Princess Yue," said Iroh with a jovial expression. "Thank you so much for preparing it."

"It's no problem," said Yue kindly. "We're finally all together again. We need to celebrate it."

Ty Lee was practically vibrating in anticipation. "Shijie's soup is the best!" she said.

Zuko was trying to hide it, but Toph could feel his excitement too. "It is really good soup."

"It really is," said Sokka also in agreement, before glancing back at Toph. "I kinda was feeling bad for you if you really were going to insist on pulling your own weight. You'd miss out on Yue's cooking. It's the best."

Katara tensed next to Sokka. "Better than mine?" she asked in a suspicious tone.

"Sorry, Katara, but yes. Way better," Sokka said without missing a beat. "Good enough to be punched over."

"Punched over?" asked Katara in bewilderment.

Ty Lee stopped vibrating and grew sheepish but unrepentant, telling Toph exactly who had been the one doing the punching.

Interesting, but Toph's mind wasn't on soup right now.

"So, is Xue Yang here?" she asked, going for the throat (Forcing her voice to stay calm).

That killed the mood of anyone who knew who Xue Yang was. Those who didn't look confused, but given the way Toph had been shouting, he couldn't be anyone good.

"If he is, we haven't met him yet," said Zuko.

"We haven't either," agreed Mai.

"Xue Yang boo!" said TomTom on Ty Lee's lap, and blew a raspberry.

"Do not speak poorly of others," Mai said to him, reaching over to wipe TomTom's mouth. "No matter how deserving."

TomTom just blew another raspberry, making Ty Lee laugh.

"Who's Xue Yang?" Aang dared to ask.

"Evil murder gremlin," Ty Lee said, the humor leaving her voice.

Mai nodded in agreement, and said to the younger members of their group, "If we find him I want you to stay away from him. He's twisted and enjoys hurting people for fun."

Aang seemed like he didn't know such a person could exist, the naive kid.

Katara looked all too familiar with the idea, and their hearts broke for her.

"Well, if we do find him, you leave him to me," said Toph darkly. She had some serious payback to dish out (She staunchly ignored the way her hands trembled slightly at the thought of being along with that monster again).

Those older than her shared a glance. "We can't promise that," said Zuko seriously.

Toph immediately jumped back to her feet, indignant. "Why not?" she snapped.

"Because he's a demonic cultivator and he's dangerous. Taking him down as quickly as possible before he gets any more victims is more important than any vendetta you might have," Zuko said firmly. As Jiang Cheng he'd had similar conversations with Jin Ling about if Wei Wuxian ever returned. Not that his nephew had listened.

Toph was quiet for a long moment (She ignored how relieved it made her feel that she might never have to see him). "What about the Dàozháng?" she finally had to ask, trying to keep her feelings out of her voice. "Are they here?"

"We haven't met them either," Mai said.

"Or if we did, we didn't really know them, so we probably couldn't trigger them even if we did," said Ty Lee. "I mean, I might be able to trigger Song Zichen, but I don't know if one fight and one conversation with his fierce corpse is enough to count as 'knowing' him. And I doubt holding his shattered soul in a bag counts as knowing my shishu. If they're here, it's possible the only person who might be able to trigger them is you, Toph."

Toph fumed, but before any more arguing could happen, Yue's soup was finished, and she shoved a bowl of it into her hands. "Dinner's ready," she said.

Toph huffed but sat back down to eat.

When Zuko and Ty Lee got their bowls, both of them grew choked up. "Lotus and pork rib soup," said Ty Lee, like it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen (well, second most given the way she'd talked about Mai).

"I knew we'd find you eventually," Yue said fondly as she handed out a vegetarian version to Aang and Mai. "I made sure we had the ingredients on hand until we did."

"Thank you, A-Jie," Zuko said in a softer tone than any of them had heard before, and Ty Lee was practically crying into her soup as she nodded in agreement.

Given that reaction, Toph just had to take a bite.

And wouldn't you know it? It was the best damn soup she'd ever had.

Guess that pulling her weight plan was dead in the water, but Toph wasn't going to complain.

A/N Sorry this is late. I was traveling again.

Anywho, congrats to all those who guessed Toph was A-Qing. You were right. She now has beef with Xue Yang, whoever his counterpart is, but also a bit traumatized from dying horribly. She's also going to be a lot more of a potty mouth. I am an advocate of letting Toph say "Fuck".