Chapter Text
Conversation comes a bit more easily after that. Each day after that, Toph could feel the circle on the ground that lets her practice sensing fire, it doesn't work, like, at all, but Toph feels like shes becoming more sensitive to warmth now than before, which is progress.
After the third day of just sticking her hand in the barely warm fire, Toph gets bored. She can’t help it, okay? She can practice all she wants but this is an entirely different element shes working with, and shes not a firebender. Toph instead focuses on the rest of the cave, instead of the fire.
She can feel Sparky practicing with his swords, he seems to be practicing through some forms with both swords in hand, it was sorta elegant looking.
And it felt like a way better way to practice. They hadn't had an official spar yet, not since they first met and Toph decided to be stupid and tell him about half her life as she tried to fight him. In hindsight, as much as she can regret the decision, she doesn’t, it felt nice to just have someone in the cave with her as they do their separate things. Anyways, yeah, no spar yet, and with how practicing with fire is going, she might as well just get the other boy to fight him.
“Alright—” She said loudly, making sure that the boy heard her. She could feel him leave the position he was in to stand more normally. “—This sucks, were going to spar now.” She stood up and moved her head in his direction
“I’m not throwing fire at you,” He said bluntly
“I’m talking about your swords, this fire shit isn’t working as much as I wanted anyways”
“Don’t swear, you’re like, ten.”
“You literally swear every five sentences, if anything its your fault I’m starting to swear now, you’re not a good influence,” Toph said defensively, which wasn’t completely true. Just being at Earth Rumble last year, she learned more swears than she could ever dream of using, its just the fact that she doesn’t have a place to use them that’s the problem, can’t exactly start swearing left and right at the estate anyway.
Lee sighed in response and asked, “Have you ever fought against someone with swords before?”
“Nope,” Toph grinned widely as she said it, the boy in response decided to sigh again before moving away from her to get into a fighting stance. Toph did the same before yelling “Go!” loudly.
Immediately, Sparky started moving, his steps careful and light, it was hard to guess where he was going as he kept on jumping into the air, not letting her see him through the earth. But that didn’t stop Toph, in response, she sent wall after wall of earth without a sweat, only moving her foot slightly. He dodged them, but stood still a second too long and toph sendt a small hill of dirt towards his legs trying to make him trip.
He didn’t. Instead he just fell backwards slightly before regaining his composure and darted towards her again. They did this for a bit, each time the boy got close, Toph would send a small pillar to create distance and Toph would send a couple of walls his way. Toph knew that if she really really wanted to, she could just win this. But it was shockingly fun, more fun than the stupid flame that she wanted to test out and more fun than she thought it was going to be. And if she is going to be honest, it was a bit of a challenge, she had to pay more attention to how her pillars or walls were made as Sparky literally just cut through them once or twice, which was a surprise. The light feet and jumping were less of a surprise as Toph remembered back on how they met, no, the surprise was the fact that she wasn’t able to see where he was moving to, but it wasn’t that big of a problem as Toph would just send multiple blocks of earth in his general direction. It was a delicate balance of easy and hard, as sure, if she wanted to she could just win now with her awesome bending, but that wasn’t the point of sparing with someone, Toph thought, the point was to train both their own abilities while training agents another, to be prepared, and at least next time Toph is fighting someone that can cut through rock, she knows exactly what to do.
In the end, Toph won the fight as she sent him flying with a block of earth right in the chest. Toph walked over to the lying boy, hearing a quiet groan coming from him. ‘Hopefully I didn’t hurt him’ Toph thought as she decided to quicken her pace
By the time Toph made her way over to him, he was already sitting up. Toph could feel the glare given her way, and tilted her head in confusion. “You were holding back” He said, no clear emotion in his voice. “well yeah, i dont want to kill you” Toph replied, thinking it would be the end of it, but it wasn’t, apparently, as the boy grumbled something under his breath but Toph shrugged it off, if he wanted her to hear it, hed speak louder.
“Alright, break times over, I wanna go again!” She told him as he started standing up again, he answered her with a sigh, slightly rubbing the area he had gotten hurt before getting to position again.
Toph won again, and again, and again, and again until it was so well into the night she could feel both of them become more sloppy with their fighting from drowsiness. It was amazing if she was going to be honest, to be able to fight against someone that she couldn’t predict that well, at least in motion, but the more they fought, the more she noticed and learned, and the easier it became to win. But he was still really good, even if he was fighting without his firebending.
It was fun doing this, Toph thought as they sat around, having finished up the last spar, Sparky was sharpening his swords with a sharp rock while Toph was just lying on the ground nearby. She doesn’t think her smile ever wavered from the very first spar of the day. It reminded her of last year when she competed in Earth Rumble for the first time and won. She was aware that there was a gambling station to bet on participants…. She wondered if she could maybe get Sparky to gamble on her this year…That's something a maybe-somewhat-friend would do, right?
Abruptly, he stood up, as if he remembered something. “I’m going to go now” was all he said as he gathered his things. Toph wondered where he was currently staying if he wasn’t sleeping in the cave anymore. Was he even sleeping in the cave from the start? “Kay, spar again tomorrow?” Toph responded, distracting herself from her thoughts
“You're only saying that because you liked beating me up.” He responded, there wasn’t any malice or hatred in his voice, it was oddly natural for something like that.
Toph hummed, “Well yeah, of course that part was fun, but it was also fun training with another person, I don’t usually get visitors up here looking for a fight you know” Toph told him, and he responded with a shake of his head and an exasperated sigh.
“yeah yeah, fine, I’ll let you kick my ass tomorrow too” He said as he left the cave.
“You better!” Toph yelled out in response.
Tomorrow was going to be great
Tomorrow was not great
Neither was the day after that.
Lee hadn’t bothered to show up for two days after that conversation. The next day after the spar Toph had shown up at her normal time, if not a bit later, the guards outside were earthbending, so Toph was worried they’d notice the underground tunnel, luckily, they didn't. As Toph entered the cave, she noticed that neither Sparky nor any of his stuff was there, which wasn’t too odd, maybe he was late. But he ended up just not showing up, like at all.
At first, Toph thought about the possibility that he was caught as a firebender, but it was immediately thrown out as he’d definitely get himself out of rubble if he had those swords. Maybe something came up? He did have a job, as far as Toph knew, maybe his Uncle came back? Anywho, Toph was slightly mad that he did appear, even if he promised, he didn't seem to be the person to break a promise anyway.
It wasn’t until the second day of a no-show that she became mad. Toph knew it was irrational to be mad like this. He had his own life, he wasn’t entitled to spar with her, but a promise was a promise, even if they didn’t shake on it. Toph thought that it was stupid that she was this upset over this, and so that night she used some of the bigger moves to tire herself out so that she could immediately sleep when she went back.
On the third day she had a feeling that he wouldn’t be in the cave, at least not yet, so she faked being sick, sneezing and asking to be left alone in her bedroom, and to leave her dinner in the kitchen somewhere she could eat tomorrow. Toph was always shocked by how easily they just leave her alone and ignore her, the fact would have made her more mad if it didn’t work in her favor as she put on the same clothes she wore when she forced Sparky to buy her food before sneaking out of the estate. They only ever guard against people trying to get in, not out.
Walking out in the village while the sun was still out felt weird, sure, it was sunset in a couple of minutes, but she never really got to go out at this time that often, as most of her sneaking-out sessions happen under the moon. But Toph ignored the feeling, she had a heartbeat to find. She listened intently to find it, there were maybe hundreds of different types of heartbeats to listen onto, and Toph was honestly really grateful that the boy had such a specific heartbeat. It made it a thousand times easier to find him.
When Toph did find him he was standing in front of something, Toph could actually tell as it was made of wood, at least Toph assumed it was made of wood, she wasn’t too sure. All she knew was that the rock foundation around it was holding something, and Sparky was looking at it.
Toph marched over to him and said in a loud tone, “Where the fuck were you!?” She asked him and stopped right in front of him, he was turned halfway towards her, looking the something he was looking at and her. “Uhmmmm,—” Toph could feel the slight turn of his head as he looked at the something again, ugh “Around..?” He said like it was a question.
“Bullshit!” Toph told him, “You promised me two days ago that we would spar again, two days ago!!” she continued. Sparky quickly turned back at the something again before turning to her, clearly about to say something, but Toph cuts him off. “And what the fuck are you looking at!?!” She asked him, and she waved her arms around the area he was looking at. He seemed slightly taken aback as she asked that, but quickly answered.
“its like a village notice board, a place people hang up posters for people to see.” He explained.
“Well, I can’t see, so I need you to tell me what poser you were looking at.”
“Uhmm, don’t worry about it” He said, like spirits were she going to do that.
“Is it about you?” she asked
“No” He said, way to quickly.
Lie
“Liarrrrr,” Toph dragged out, “Now spit it out!”
“What!?—” he deflected, “how do you know that?” he asked
“Same way I know your heartbeat dumb-ass! Catch up! Now spill”
Sparky stuttered for a second before answering, “Yes—” he answered through gritted teeth “—fine, I'm on the board, are you satisfied now?!” ‘sorta’ Toph thought internally,
“Is your face on like a, banned poster or something?” She asked instead.
“Uhm…sorta?” He said, like it was a question, couldn't he be more specific?
“You need to be more specific than that” Toph told him, voicing out her thoughts.
“Uh… I mean I guess I’m on it, but like, you don’t see my face, because i was wearing a mask..?”
“Are you two kids talking about The blue spirit?” Said a third voice suddenly, it was the sound of an old woman and she walked closer.
“The blue spirit?” Toph asked, “Is that the guy on the poster you’re talking about?” She moved her head in Sparky’s direction, waiting for him to answer her, but instead, the old woman continued talking. “A kind soul that one, you could say they were gifted by the spirits, by the way they move!—” The woman laughed, but continued, “ My wife thinks that they're an actual spirit! But I personally think it’s just another person like you and me,” she finished. She had moved from talking to them from behind to standing next to Sparky.
Toph spoke up, “I’ve never heard of them before” which was true, she might have listened in on gossip from the butlers and maids at the estate, but she was still sheltered. Besides, she was pretty sure Lee over here wouldn’t say much about it.
“Really?” The woman asked in disbelief, “I can’t blame your brother for telling you much I suppose. Most stories involving The blue spirit are quite gruesome…” Brother? Oh wait, the woman was probably talking about Sparky, it was probably best to play along with it then, did they even look similar? Toph thought about it for a second before another question suddenly filled her mind. ‘Wait, gruesome!?’
Toph grabbed Sparky’s sleeve to move him out of the way and looked at the woman's direction, “Gruesome!? You have to tell me!” She told her, the woman seemed stunned for a moment, before laughing again, “Oh my! Maybe there was another reason you didn't know! Now lets see, from what i know, The blue spirit was seen here, in Gaoling yesterday and the day before that, they were giving the guards a run for their money!” The woman said, shifting slightly from looking at Toph and Sparky to look at the poster on the board.
“The blue spirit is a folk hero of sort i suppose, always protecting the people, regardless of nation” The woman said, her head not in the direction of Toph or Sparky “Even fire nation?” Toph asked, although she was pretty sure she knew the answer. This time, the woman didn't answer, as Sparky answered her before the woman could.
“The blue spirit protects people in the late at night from others, i don't think he’d care much about nation” he said, the woman hummed from her position. “its such a shame—” Said the woman “—to have the only person to care about the people be wanted by both the earth kingdom and fire nation, but i quite sure the only people that want them arrested are the ones in power, the guards aren't exactly given a good look when compared to The blue spirit after all” The woman humored, which made Toph let out a small giggle.
Mind made, she knew what she wanted to do as she grabbed Sparky's sleeve again and said “Come on, now you have to tell me about The blue spirit!” Sparky in turn yelped out a small “Huh?!” before toph used all her might to drag them away, she could hear the old woman giggling to herself as they left, and could feel the woman also leaving, probably going away to do her job. Wait didn't Sparky have a job to do? Actually wait, she had more pressing matters to be worried about, like the whole ‘blue spirit’ thing
As they continued walking away, Toph spoke up “Is that why you weren't here the last few days?”
Sparky didn't say anything, but he dug is heels into the ground, forcing Toph to stop, she turned around and let go of his arm. they stood there for a bit, taking in the sounds of the market before Sparky sighed out loudly, “listen..uhm, Toph? That’s your name right? Anyways, listen, ill tell you later, i have a pay check too earn right now.” Was all he said, before he started walking again, not waiting for Toph to follow, which didn't even matter as Toph followed him anyways.
‘He was really weird’ was the only thing Toph could clearly form in her head, all her other thoughts were running rampant along side the fact that she want…really sure what to do?
No sane person would revile their secret identity to anyone, Sparky was probably included, she says probably due to the fact shes supposedly been chased by guard the past few days. So she actually want sure if he was sane or not. Sure, she want completely sure that he was ‘The blue spirit’ but with all the signs pointing his way, well, shed be stupid not ignore it, especially when one of the signs were screaming at her saying that the mask he wore when they first meet could have been the same mask ‘the blue spirit’ uses.
Okay, at least he was smart enough to use a mask when doing vigilante business. Toph wondered how it looked like, or felt like in that regard. The mask better be blue if that’s what their calling him.
They weaved through the people walking through the market, it was quite big actually, Toph often forgot that she lived in one of the biggest city’s here in the Earth Kingdom. Toph could feel the annoyance radiating through Sparky as she walked right behind him, following wherever he went. It helped that he didn't try to lose her, he probably knew it would be a lost cause and she'd just find him again.
They continued walking in silence, and walked, and walked…and.. where the fuck were they going? Toph had just assumed that the boy just worked somewhere in the market, but this seemed like he was leaving town? It took a bit, and Toph was bored out of her mind, but they arrived at a farm near the outskirts of Gaoling, and they both went up to the barn and opened up the side door, or well, Sparky opened it up with a key.
Toph wasn't quite familiar with animals, but she could tell there were a bunch, and a bunch of different types too as well. “Is this where you work?” Toph asked. “Then why were you at the market?”
“I was helping the farmer at their stand selling things,but he told me to come over here and feed the animals.” He said and Toph felt him move through out the barn looking for something, probably food for the animals.
The barn was quite big, or at least Toph assumed it was, there were just a bunch of heartbeats every where so it was hard to tell. But that didn’t matter as she went to one of the ends, where Sparky was and sat down of the piles of hay that were there, or, she wouldn't say sat, more so that she laid down back first into the hay, feet still planted in the ground below.
She felt the boy walk back and forth from his current place and do the various animals, presumably feeding them their food. They were kinda noisy, she had no idea now farmers lived with them. She waited there for about twenty minutes as Lee feed the animals, and so she paid more attention to the sounds of the animals, trying to figure out what they were.
There were multiple moo’s, so there was probably a platypus-cow in here somewhere, the neighing and grunts were probably ostrich-horses and horse-donkeys, the baa’ing was definitely a sheep-dog while the oinks were a pig-goat, and the—
Pep!
Toph opened her eyes when she hear the sound, she wasn't sure when she closed them or why, but she had distracted herself by the sounds she hadn't realized that Sparky was now also sitting in the pile of hay with her.
“Did you take an owl-duck?” She asked him, disbelief in her voice
“a chick-bee”
“A what?”
“A baby chicken-bee”
“Okay, well, my question is still unanswered”
“Oh, uhm,i was kinda hoping you'd forget—”
“No, I’m not talking about the blue spirit thing, or well, i will be, later, I'm asking you if you just took that chick-bee or not”
“Would you believe me if i said no?”
“Nice try Sparky” Toph deadpanned, “But my feet are still on the ground, id be able to tell if you were lying or not”
They were quiet after that, the occasional peps from the small chick-bee that Toph assumed Sparky was holding being the only sound coming from their vicinity.
Eventually, Toph got bored and wanted answers.
“Are you the blue spirit?” She asked bluntly
“…Yes” He answered
“Really?” Toph hadn't quite expected that, that being him admitting to being The blue spirit immediately.
“…Yes..? Were you expecting me to say something else?” He asked, confusion in his voice
“No, and well, yes,i just didn't expect you to admit being a vigilante like, immediately”
“Oh” was all that he said as they quieted down again. Toph could feel the occasional strands of hay moving near her and only realized why that was happening when she heard a '“pep!” come from right next to her ear. It moved and lowered down, before sitting right next to her arm, which she moved to be able to start absentmindedly petting it.
it was oddly soft, after then shed expect, it had two antennas that toph made sure to avoid as Toph petted it. She wondered if a fully grown Chicken-bee would bee softer or not.
“Wait so why were the guards running after you yesterday? You don't strike me as a person to go against the guards, no offense” Toph asked before thinking.
“People want money I guess, and if they get me they’ll have a lot of it”
“Money? Like, wait. You have a bounty?! You’re an actual wanted fugitive?!” Toph sat up and looked at him , that’s so cool!
“Uhmmm, I guess?”
“man that's so badass, id kill to have a wanted poster,”
“that's…generally how it works” Toph snorted.
“it wasn't literal, or, hmm, actually no i wouldn't kill, per say, probably scam and steal, probably injure too”
“you're not above murder?”
“Nah, scamming seems way more fun, also im not sure how id get away with it” Toph waved her hand in front of her eyes. She could feel the glare Sparky gave her
“I should not be having this conversation with a ten-year old…” he said, in low voice.
‘Hey! for your information, in not ten, im actually eleven!”
“that's the same thing!”
“No its not! there’s a whole year in difference!” Toph could feel his eyes (eyes? is he missing an eye or just blind?) roll in response and they both became quiet for a bit, or until the chick-bee got tired of petting and got up and walked and as Toph had nothing to do, she opened her mouth up again and spoke.
“Do you have your mask with you?”
“…Yeah”
“Can i feel it?”
It took a moment before Sparky started moving, surprisingly he had a bag that Toph didn't notice he was carrying and started rummaging through it. ‘Spirits i really needed to get better at sensing things, how long did he have that?’ Toph thought.
eventually Toph could feel the boy reach his arm over while holding something, as toph moved her hand to grab it, the first thing she noticed was that it was wooden. Not a real shocker honestly, most masks were wooden.
As Toph used both her hands to trace over the wooden mask, she noticed multiple things, the mask seemed to have a type of combined mustache nose, or facial mark? She wasn't sure, but supposedly spirits weren't exactly known for making sense, so Toph paid no mind to the design. There were differences in the groves in some places, probably different colored paint, it seemed quite high quality actually. It had sharp teeth pointing out and horns at the top, it felt like it would be sorta scary looking, at least for seeing people she supposed.
“This shit is so cool, do you think you could get me one as well?”
“You want to be… a wanted vigilante..?”
“sure, i could go with a second secret identity”
“You're a kid, im not helping you fight guards”
“boo, you're such a killjoy, just to let you know id be able to beat up any guard that comes my way, don't forget that” Toph handed him back the mask, which he took, and stuffed it deep into his bag.
“…the mask was made in the fire nation, i don't think they'd sell it here” Here being in the middle of the earth kingdom, as one of the last three major city's that the fire nation hasn't taken over. Toph didn't really think about the war too much, sure, its been going on for almost a hundred years, but it had never actually affected her. it might have been one of the main things the servants would talk about, but it always felt so…far, something that would never touch Toph, but that want something lee could say. If she remembers correctly, he has a scar, one that Toph would definitely tell you was from the war.
“would you go back to the fire nation?” Toph asked, she tried to make her voice sound as neutral as possible
“I cant, even if i wanted too” Huh, weird, he definitely could, he is fire nation after all, spirits hes even a fire-bender! Why not? Toph didn't ask.
“Well if you could, would you?”
It was silent for a moment before he answered, “i…don't know, yes? no? im not sure..”
Toph could feel him bring his arm up to drag it down his face, wow, this was definitely something he hand thought about before, Toph could even blame him for not giving her a straightforward answer, if she got to be a whole continent away from her parents with an uncle looking after her while she became a world renown vigilante, she would be sure if she wanted to go back either!
“i… already have my uncle i guess, but he can go back whenever he wants..” his voice became a bit more breathy and raspy at the end. Whats up with the rules of not being able to go back to the fire nation?
“But you wouldn't”
“huh?”
“but you wouldn't go back, even if your uncle did, you'd stay here in the earth kingdom”
“I..Yeah, yeah i would”
“Do you have anyone else here in the earth kingdom?”
“No, just my uncle, the rest of my family live in the fire nation, they uh, don't like me too much, don't think id be appreciated if i came back unannounced”
Toph genuinely didn't know what to say to that, so she didn't say anything. Sparky must have noticed and stood up before he started talking.
“If the war ends, ill get you a mask, alright?”
“Really!?—” Toph sat up “You better get me a cool one, if it doesn't fit my brand ill kick your ass”
“Your brand..?”
“Uh yeah? I have a color scheme to follow, my fans wont recognize me without it”
“The entire point of the mask it to not be recognized”
“Oh yeah, hmmm, Oh! ill just use it to commit crimes then, but i guess i don't really need a mask for that—” Toph looked directly at the standing boy. “—You don't happen to know a place or two that deserves a bit of petty theft to happen to them?” Toph smiled innocently
“n-… im not answering that”
“Boooo,” Toph tuned an upside-down thumb at him “You're no fun” Toph could feel him rolling his eyes.
In that moment the two of them both could hear the voice of a man talking to someone else nearing, probably the farmer. Toph stood up from her sitting position and walked near Sparky, just so it didn't seem like she was using the hay they feed the animals as a resting place, she could feel more of what was going on from here then there anyways.
The door the two of them walked through a couple of moments ago opened up again, and Toph could feel three people, the man in the door, and two people walking deeper into their house.
“Ah Lee, thank you once again for helping us today, i really hope you didn't mind feeding these critters over here”
“No problem, i didn't mind”
“well then, i hope-” The man stopped, Toph could feel the farmer look at her, “Toph,” She responded, “i saw sparky over here walking through downtown and joined with” She shrugged
“She means me”
“That’s no problem then, my wife told me to invite you too dinner now if you'd like”
“No thanks-”Yes please!” Toph interrupted and bowed slightly in response as well, just to sell it.
The farmer in turn laughed, and told them to come inn.
As they entered the kitchen, Toph noticed the woman, or wife pouring out a bowl for another girl. “Who’s this?” Asked the woman who looked in their direction as she gave the bowl to the girl, who hurriedly started eating, not even bothering to sit down.
“Toph—” Replied Lee, “She saw me walking down here and tagged along” Toph nodded along
“Aww, that's quite sweet” Said the girl, food still in her mouth,
“Its not sweet, she kept bothering me when she first saw me and all the way here” Sparky complained as he was given a bowl of food.
“That’s not my fault! You've been ignoring me for the past two days!” Toph said, The couple started laughing as Toph was given her own share of food. She wasn't sure why they gave her food, she didn't do anything, but she wasn't going to complain.
Toph patted her stomach as they waved the couple and girl goodbye, they had stayed there for a bit, not too long, but long enough that she could barely feel the suns rays on her. They had been a nice couple, with the girl being their niece looking for work, Lee as well ended up getting his money, so they were back on track to the cave to do some more sparing.
or at least that’s what they normally would have, instead, toph wanted to do something else.
“Come’onnnnn you're the blue spirit! stealing from some horrible people isn't too bad!”
“Toph, im not taking you with me so that you can beat up unsuspecting victims”
“ughhh, pleaseee” Toph said as she dragged out the last e. She could felt the glare he gave her, before he sighed deeply and said “alright”
“Really!? Yes! Okay, show me the way oh vigilante” Toph mocked, She could feel him roll his eyes again at her as she started smiling.
They walked for a bit, actually, for a while, probably about an hour or so until they reached one of the farthest mountains that was a part of the valley of Gaoling, There was a small earth-bent tunnel they could walk through, and the only thing on the other side could be described as a small port.
“Can you see the fire nation ship?” Sparky asked as they slowly walked into the port.
“Sorta, i can see bits and pieces of earth in it, not much else though, i can only tell its there because of the wooden ramp their using, its causing vibrations” Toph told him, no reason to lie when they were doing something illegal anyways.
“This port is so small that the only people who use it are the locals and the odd people traveling, the fire nation noticed, built their own port to house their own boats and are taking advantage of the lack of guards here, come this way, i have something to show you” Lee started walking, and Toph hurried to follow after.
Walking a bit up in the mountains, Toph noticed a hidden away box stashed among the trees, as they walked up too it, Sparky opened the box and Toph immediately stuck her hand inside and grabbed what was there.
dynamite
“We're going to blow up the ship?!” Toph asked, smile on her face
“Its the fastest and most efficient way of getting them to leave,” Was all that Sparky responded with.
“Do we bomb the ship or the port?”
“Both, i guess”
As the two of them sneakily walked down to the port, hiding in the trees or behind bushes, Lee had already put on his ‘blue spirit costume’ and had forced Toph to wear a thin piece of cloth over her eyes, just so that she couldn't be easily recognized.
They made their way at a small hiding place, right next to the docks, and Lee suddenly lit a bunch of the dynamite and gave many of them to Toph
“Two minute timer, go crazy, don't die,” He told her without waiting for an answer, and started running off, creating a distraction for her. Wow, this was definitely going to be fun.
Toph waited a bit before leaving her hiding spot, making sure as many guards were distracted by Lee, BANG, went of the first stick of dynamite, one that Sparky probably had thrown at the guards running after him. Toph grabbed all the lit up sticks of dynamite next to hear and earthbent herself a continuous platform to the metal ship, where she then created a flat piece of earth across the entire floor, allowing her to see. Their guards were going to be in a lot of trouble if they tried to stop her now.
Toph laughed like a maniac as she ran away, stopping once or twice to earth bent a pillar of earth underneath the guards, sending them flying if they came to close. Her ears were still ringing from when the dynamite exploded the first time, sure it made it slightly harder to hear where people were, but what was a little challenge.
She went back into the tunnel, she wasn't sure where Sparky was, but she wasn't too worried. As she entered deep enough she blocked off the tunnel, making a big wall with her earth bending, stopping anyone from following her. Toph just stood there for a moment regaining her breath, it had been such an adrenaline rush, she can still hear the odd dynamite explode on the other side of the cave, she wasn't sure on how damaged the boat was, but she could say for certain that the port was no longer there.
Toph sucked in a deep breath before deciding to focus on her surroundings, she waited and looked until she found the fast heartbeat she was looking for. The fast-paced heart-beat was running up the mountain above her, and toph could hear a couple of other heartbeats, probably guards, chasing him. Toph stomped her foot into the ground, creating a long slide he could go down to reach her, opening it up right in front of him. She could feel him looking around, shocked at the new pit in the ground that appeared in front of him, but only wasted a second to jump down, Toph closed up the slide after him, and made sure he had a soft landing, just so that he wouldn't break a bone.
Sparky slid down, tumbled and ended up flat on his stomach a couple of meters away from Toph, and dragged out an overly dramatic groan as he just laid there.
“Oh come on, you're not that hurt” Toph yanked off the cloth from over her eyes and walked over to his lying body.
“Get up” she kicked him hard as she said that, it'll probably leave a bruise if she was honest.
Sparky groaned again, but eventually got up, his hand trying to rub out the pain for a moment before giving up, and put his mask onto his forehead. “what was that for?” he asked, Toph assumed he meant the kick, so she just shrugged
“You didn't get up”
He didn't answer her, instead he looked around and asked a different question “Where's my bag..?”
Toph stomped her leg into the ground again, the bag falling from above them from a hole Toph created, it made a loud smack sound due to the coins and other hard objects in it. hopefully nothing broke
“Oh, thanks”
“No problem,”
they slowly walked out of the tunnel together now, they were quiet, Lee was probably thinking about his own thing, but Toph was ecstatic. The adrenaline was oddly reminiscent of the Earth Rumble last year, when she fought all the contestants. Toph smiled wider at the memory of absolutely destroying it, winning the entire thing.
On the way back from the hour long track to Gaoling, Toph found something out real quick. Sparky was not good at conversations, like at all.
“What are you going to be doing when we're back?”
“Probably find somewhere to sleep”
…silence
It was driving Toph mad, she had had actual conversations with this guy, so why were their conversations so…Plain!?
Toph let another five minutes of silence go by before she had enough of it. ‘it might just be because the topics they're talking about are kinda lacking" Toph thought, and so she made a new internal plan. What are some things they could both talk about. Toph didn't have too many points of topics she could share her opinion on that weren't just war gossip, there was that fire nation prince a year or so ago, but Toph didn't really think he’d take it well. Other than that she didn't have much else, she had about how much noble life sucked and… oh right!
“Have you heard of Earth Rumble before?”
“Huh? oh uh, yeah, you mentioned it a bit when we first met” Oh, right, when she first met him and immediately jumped to conclusions and attacked him. She felt a pool of guilt form in her stomach, but she swallowed, ignored it and carried on.
“so what have you heard of it?”
“Not much, its like uh, a fighting ring underground i think”
“Eh, close enough, its basically that but there are multiple contestants who fight to win this huge sum of coins and you're looking at the last years winner baby!”
“i can believe that” he said “Is that why you mentioned your brand and fans earlier?”
“Yep! People won't recognize me as the Blind bandit otherwise, seeing people are kinda dumb in that regard”
Sparky silently laughed on her comment about the seeing people, he must relate to her on that regard.
“The blind bandit? That’s your stage name?”He asked
“Yeah, quite fitting if you ask me”
“and they let you fight even though your blind?”
“ i don't think they cared much on that part alone, they were more worried about the small, helples,s blind girl getting hurt and then running back to her parents” Toph spat out the last part with anger
“But fuck them, i won in the end, so all well that ends well”
Toph could feel him nod at her statement before talking again.
“Its once a year right? Earth Rumble 5 is this year right?”
“Spot on Sparky! Its in eleven days and im definitely winning this year too”
“You earth-bend better and in a whole different way from any other earth bender I’ve seen, id be more shocked if you didn't win this year too”
“Perfect! Ill need all the extra practice then, i better see you tomorrow at the cave then”
“i doubt you need it, especially after blowing up an entire fire nation ship”
“Don’t remove yourself from the credit Sparky, i saw you push multiple guards down that well, that was sick. Also i don't need the practice, not really, i just tell you to spar with me for fun”
“Stop bragging, i get it, you're the best earthbender” he joked sarcastically
“And you know it!” Toph replied, hopefully he wouldn't mind the gambling aspect of Earth Rumble, he doesn't seem like he would, hopefully shes reading that part right, maybe she can get him to gamble on her after all.
Toph smiled widely on their way back to Gaoling, telling Sparky about the tournament last year, earning her a couple of sarcastic replies.