Toph
A very grumpy master earthbender tentatively walked forward out of her room. In the end, her father had agreed and far quicker than anyone had thought he would. Toph had cheered on her success that day but she quickly discovered a new hell and that hell was called a Fire Nation ship.
Toph had never traveled anywhere before, not any significant distance anyway. She hadn't truly realized just how far they were going until she was told how many days the trip would take. Fucking days! And worst of all there was no earth on the metal monstrosity that they called a vehicle, well, not any that she could touch. They had some carbon here and there but she couldn't use it for much.
For the first time in her memory, she was truly blind and it wasn't a good feeling at all. Toph attempted to walk forward and hit her toe with the corner of something and she held back a scream.
This is it. she couldn't take this anymore she needed earth, hell she would take sand right now!
"Toph" the voice of Mai came from her left and she attempted to twist in her direction only for her face to be pushed back "Woah, you almost hit your face with a wall. Sometimes I had almost forgotten that you were blind since I never saw you struggle"
"Yeah, make fun of the blind girl. How much is this going to take?" Toph wasn't whining she would never whine, that was for weaklings and she wasn't one.
Mai let out a badly concealed snort and answered her "You're in luck. We're about to land"
"Yes!"
"In an hour"
"Fuck!" Toph shouted before covering her mouth aware that if her mother or father heard her the trip would be summarily canceled.
"No need to hold back on my account our parents are drinking after closing another deal about importing raw materials for the Fire Nation. Honestly, with the money they will make many in the mainland will forget that they're foreigners, they might even meet the Fire Lord" Mai said casually before taking her hand into her own and guiding her out of the room, Toph couldn't help but notice that Mai's hand was soft unlike hers.
"Seriously?!" That was big, huge even, Toph had learned that the bog man of the Fire Nation rarely if ever saw foreign nobles as the guy had an ego the size of the largest volcano and like many thought that just because they weren't born on the Fire Nation it made them dumber, which honestly just made them dumber than the people they thought inferior in her mind.
"I also received a message from Azula. She is also making her way back and she probably is in the capital already or at least close to it by the time we get there she will have something prepared for us to scurry about without your parents noticing"
"You really think she can distract them? They're not the best at letting go" Toph mumbled out. It would be just her luck to finally get out of the house only to end up as a pet for display in the Fire Nation.
"Azula is the most cunning and brutal person I know. I may not trust her in a lot of things but causing trouble or fooling someone else, I would trust her with my life on the line when it came to any of those things"
"Huh, cool. So what do you think she has planned?" that whole trouble thing wasn't very reassuring and overprotective or not those were still her parents.
"Honestly, I think she might just send people to seduce either of them or maybe both at the same time. Azula has recently become fixated in relationships and found out just how distracting they can be"
Toph decided right then and there that she wouldn't ask questions after her parents were distracted, concern was all well and good but she didn't want to find out anything about any seduction mission.
"Anything else?" Toph asked sarcastically not really expecting a response.
"She wants to fight you" As soon as the words came out of Mai's mouth Toph smiled.
"Did you tell her I'm an underground fighting champion or that I'm super strong?"
"Yes, that's why she wants to fight you. Don't tell anyone I said this but Azula told me she fought against Bumi while on her latest mission and she wants to see just what is the difference between a strong earthbender and the strongest earthbender"
"She fought Bumi?! Wait that means that if stomp her hard enough I would be better than him! I would be the strongest earthbender in the world!"
Toph was now even more anxious to get there, she could already imagine the face of the princess when Toph beat her ass into the dirt and proclaim herself the strongest in the world. Even if she didn't get that far she could still lay claim to the tittle of strongest woman!
"Can't you tell them to hurry up! I'm gonna go insane at this rate!" Toph stomped her feet on the metal floor impatiently.
"Sure, but wait for me here." Toph let out a snort at that, where would she even go when everything around her looked like the same ugly blackness that she had known all her life.
"Make your blind jokes while you can cause once we're on land again your ass is mine!" Toph said triumphantly until it registered in her mind what she'd just said "Wait I-"
Mai interrupted her words by pressing her lips to her ear, her hot breath sent tingles down Toph's spine as they were very sensitive "if you want my ass you're going to have to catch me first but I can give you a taste if you want~"
Toph knew Mai was joking, that this was just teasing and while she hadn't met many men in her life that were her age she was sure that she liked them but that didn't stop her from feeling embarrassed or being left a blushing mess.
"Stop joking like-" Toph didn't finish her words as a shocked sound came from her throat as she felt something very soft being pushed into her hands. Toph squeezed and Mai let out a little moan that had her rethinking everything she knew about herself.
"I better go and hurry the captain" Mai spoke as if she hadn't just done that and left Toph there thinking about butts.
'it's ok, I can handle this! This just means I like butts, not that I like girls, what would I even do with a girl, I mean I know what I would do but it would be better with a boy…but not at the same time! or maybe…'
Toph's thoughts continued to spiral out of control and the foot previously tapping the floor in impatience was now moving faster thanks to the distress she felt, the rhythmic tapping let her come back to the real world and leave those confused feelings and a myriad of questions behind for another time as she found something even weirder than Mai.
Toph stomped on the metal floor again, frowning she got the feeling that there was something there just out of reach, the feeling was like when she forgot a word and it was on the tip of her tongue, all there all along just waiting for her to say it. there wasn't a word on the floor but there was something there.
Raising her foot again Toph let it fall down even harder and there it was again or rather there they were again.
"What the hell is that?" Toph said out loud as she got up and started jumping. If anyone were to see her they would surely ask her what the hell she was thinking but Toph was so concentrated on her task that she wouldn't have heard anything else but her feet hitting the ground not even if the Fire Lord himself was throwing out lighting just outside the door.
Again and again, Toph let her bare feet hit the metal floor until she felt the soles of her feet start to hurt. Then she threw herself to the ground and started doing the same with her hands. The more she did it the more she felt the things in the metal until she finally figured out what they were.
It was earth, little pieces and bits of it. just like sand but spread apart. They were so small that if she hadn't repeated her actions so many times she wouldn't have noticed them, luckily Toph was always passively using her earthbending to 'see' and managed to feel them, then again, she couldn't really turn that off. She had honestly forgotten how to do so.
Against her better Judgement Toph found a little crevice on the floor and even if it was just with the tip of her fingers, Toph started pulling. Huffing and puffing at the effort she almost gave up until the creaking sound of metal gave way in front of her strength.
Toph laughed. Bumi who? Toph was the best! The greatest! The strongest earthbender!
"That princess won't even know what hit her" but first Toph had to practice, she would practice until metal moved just as easily as dirt did.
AN: So I did a little time skip to get things going and to have the Azula and Toph interaction I think about now and then. Also, Toph had a little bit more trouble here with the metal bending because she hasn't really practiced with anything other than solid rock for an extended period of time as OG Toph had trained extensively through her journey before she finally invent it. Also work is an absolute bitch and i've been working over time since yesterday.
