Chapter Text
Leaving the house was always easy.
Okay? Sue her, but she was just being honest. All the guards absolutely sucked at their jobs and never even noticed the underground tunnel Toph made years ago, but she wasn’t shocked, if she were the best earthbender, then of course, people less capable than her wouldn’t notice it.
It felt thrilling just running underground, she could feel the walls and all the other smaller tunnels made by other animals near her. She could feel the heartbeat and slight movement in the feet of the guard walking above her, with no clue that she could sense them.
She was wearing her blind bandit costume, she always did when she left the beifong estate, just a single smudge of dirt on her fancy clothes would lead to her mother fussing over her and lead to more babysitters watching her to make sure she wouldn’t trip and fall again
It was irritating, but it’s fine. Toph always made sure that her outfit was decently clean enough for when Earth Rumble arrived. Nearing the exit of the tunnel she made, she could start to feel the cold air of the night slowly become more apparent, it was usually annoying in the beginning, but training would always warm her up enough.
Leaving the tunnel, she could start to hear the sound of nature a bit more clearly. She was currently near a mountain, not too far off from the estate. It was close enough for her to be back there within a couple of minutes, but far away enough for no one to hear the sound of earth bending. The cave she had found many months ago was naturally made and hidden in the mountain, the perfect place for some secret training.
There went that many trees from what toph could make out, so the lack of bird sounds wasn’t too shocking, and most of the ground in the area was made of rocks, allowing toph to sense if anyone was sneaking up to the cave. The moment her feet left the grass and touched the rock surrounding the cave, Toph felt it. It was a quick passing heartbeat, inside the cave.
Was…it an animal? Toph thought, as she got closer, maybe it was some type of bear? From what Toph understood, there were a bunch of platypus-bears in the area, so it might be that, but it was still strange. The platypus-bear spent most of its time near water…not some random cave in the mountains.
The second strange thing was the absolute warmth that was in the cave. Toph had barely entered the cave when she felt it, and it felt like she was under multiple blankets, despite the cold air.
Okay, what was actually going on now? First, there’s someone in the cave she frequents, and now there’s a fire hot enough in there to be counted as a second summer? Toph thought through the possibilities, okay it could just be some random animal, but that’s unlikely with the heat that’s in there. Maybe someone had figured out this was where she was training and wanted to use the opportunity to kidnap her and use her as a way to gain money from her parents? Likely, if she was going to be honest. Maybe…just maybe, it’s a fire bender out to get her as the blind bandit, the fire nation realizing she was too strong.
Toph immediately crossed off the first and third possibilities, no way there was an animal in there, and as much as Toph prides herself on being the greatest earthbender in the world, the fire nation probably doesn’t even know her, as much as it’s a bummer.
With only one possibility left, Toph properly entered the cave with a steady stance and shot up some earth from under the person’s feet, trying to sink them into the ground up til their knees. She didn’t want to kill the other person.
Instead of sinking, the kidnapper jumped up and yelled out, “Hey!” Their voice was slightly raspy and… young-sounding. Wow, did someone really hire a 15-year-old to kidnap an 11-year-old girl? The other boy landed in his own stance, a few meters away from where he originally was. It would have been honestly impressive if he wasn’t, you know, here to kidnap her.
“Cut the chit-chat buster! We both know why you’re here!” Toph yelled and threw a wall of earth at the other guy. She had to be careful too. The feeling of warmth probably meant there’s a fire pit somewhere, and her inability to feel twigs or even fire on that meant that there was a chance that she would just straight up walk into it. So toph stood steady near the entrance, flinging rock on the target that was slowly making his way to where she stood.
“What are you even talking about?!” yelled the boy as he successfully dodged another wall. He was really light on his feet, it was hard to predict where he was going, it was getting kinda frustrating.
“You know what I’m talking about! Now stop moving so that I can get you!” Toph yelled out in response, sending a huge wall of rock that knocked him over, but the other boy was quickly on his feet and started charging for her. Toph dodged out of the way as she assumed he tried to punch her, but Toph could feel the slight dirt in the air, he was probably using a sword.
Just as Toph moved out of the way, she sent a tall pillar of rocks, aiming at the perpetrator’s jaw while also trying to send him flying back. Which it did, but instead of ending the fight from the pain in the jaw, the sound of a wood being hit was replaced with the sound of what was supposed to be a yelp of pain.
Entering deeper into the cave to have more distance, Toph felt the boy pick himself up and started walking towards her again “What are you—” the boy lunged at her again as he talked, forcing Toph deeper into the cave “—talking about?!”He continued, the sound of metal swinging caught Toph’s ear, at least she knew what she was working with now.
Toph grunted and surrounded her own hands with stone to start punching. She was better at fighting at a distance, but this works fine. “You know what I’m talking about you idiot! Don’t play dumb with me!” She threw the stone hand at the boy, but he easily dodged it. Toph could feel the slight hesitance in the boy’s footing as if unsure.
Did he really already forget what he was supposed to be doing? How in the world did he get hired?? Toph thought to herself, the slight hesitation would already allow Toph to sink him into the ground, but she wondered what he’d do if he remembered his job again.
“You’re here to kidnap me? Hellllooo?? Daughter of the beifong family and also last year’s Earth Rumble champion, standing right here?” Toph exaggerated her words and got herself in a stance, ready to drop the kid in a pit. Telling someone what they already knew would hurt either.
“What are you talking about?—” the boy threw out his arms, slightly letting go of his fighting stance, “—I’m not here to kidnap you” He said in a tone of disbelief.
Truth
TRUTH???? His heart beat was fast, but it didn’t either slow down or speed up as he said that. Toph let slightly go of her stance “You’re not?” she asked, no absolute way did she just tell some random kid that she was both the blind bandit and also from the beifong family, no way did she just—
“No…? Do you want me too…?”
She was going to jump off the mountain, no absolute way did she just assume the first person she felt in the cave was someone with malicious intent, when instead, it was some kid. A kid that was probably multiple years older than her and also had these sick sword moves, but still, a kid.
Toph took a deep breath before answering, “No, it’s fine… I’ll just go jump off the cliff or something now, see ya” and promptly beelined for the cave entrance/exit. It wasn't until she was about to properly leave the cave that she heard the muffled mumbling including the word beifong, right, of course he didn’t forget that.
Toph promptly stomped the ground, causing the other boy to sink into the ground until his thighs, and Toph quickly made her way back to him again.
Toph put on her best scary voice and face before saying, “Tell me you won’t tell anyone about what I’ve said today, if you do ill make sure no one finds your body as i burry you alive.”
“Yeah, fine, just let me go,” The boy quickly spat out, and with no sign of a lie, Toph freed him from the ground. Toph took a few small steps back as the boy stayed on the ground, clearly not planning on properly standing up anytime soon.
The air was hung with awkward silence as Toph just stood there in front of the boy. She wasn’t exactly sure what to say, so she just didn’t, the boy didn’t seem to mind either as he just sat there, from what Toph could tell, he was massaging his legs. Yeah, alright, that makes sense, it probably hurt when she sunk him into the ground. Dammit! Now she felt even worse for the boy, this was probably going to gnaw on her conscience for the next few days. Oh well, might as well try and lessen the damage now.
“You fought well with your…swords?” Toph told him, listen, she might not know if he was using swords or not, but he was good at it.
“Uhm, thanks” He replied, and the silence started stretching out again, wow they were both awful at keeping the conversation afloat.
“Listen,” Toph started, she might as well just apologize out front “I’m sorry for randomly attacking you like that or whatever, yeah? Let’s just put this behind us and just forget this ever happened”
“Yeah fine, consider it forgotten” the boy replied, quite plainly honestly, like he wanted the conversation to end.
“Well?” He started talking again, “aren’t you going to leave?” he asked her.
“What?! No! Aren’t you going to leave?” Toph asked back defensively
“Why would I leave? I was here first!”
“Yeah!? Well, this is my training cave so-” Ugh, Toph hated the fact that the other boy had a good point.
“-Ughh, fine, tell me where your fire is and just stay in a corner somewhere, that way we can both be here” Toph turned around and dismissively waved a hand at him.
“What fire?” The boy asked, as if there wasn’t a fire somewhere in the cave currently, oh spirits she might actually chuck a rock at him if he’s actually this stupid.
“Your five pit! This entire cave wouldn’t be this warm if there wasn’t an active fire going on!” Toph turned around and shifted her body in the boy’s general direction, waving both her hands around.
“Are you blind or something? There’s not a single fire pit in here!”
“As a matter of fact i am blind!—” Toph waved a hand in front of her eyes, “—So I need you to explain to me why this cave is so warm compared to the outside if there’s no fire in here!” Toph responded, feeling slightly giddy over the fact that he hadnt know that she was blind.
“I just uh- no wait what? Youre blind?” Yeah smart move, changing the topic.
“Yeah, and if you think that makes me weak or frail youre dead wrong, so don’t even try fussing over me, I do what I want”
“No no thats not-” He stopped, Toph could feel him taking something of his face, probably that wooden mask. “-that’s really impresive actually, how did you figure out that I was here?”
Toph pushed down the part of her that started giggling at the sound of the compliment and forced herself to have a neutral expression. “ like im telling you! We are still strangers after all”
“Oh yeah, that’s fair I guess”
…
..
.
“So there actually isn’t any fire in here?”
“No, there isn’t”
“Good, now just stay here or something, i dont really care, I’m going to train now”
“Okay”
And so that was the start of a beautiful friendship, if Toph could say that herself. They never really talked whenever they were in the cave together, the cave would always be as warm as a fireplace whenever the boy was there before her, and whenever she would leave she could feel him doing fancy footwork with his swords. As limited as their friendship was, it was the closest thing to it Toph has ever had, there’s no way she was going to let go of it.
Their friendship hadn't been that bad, though, she learned that the fancy swords he used were called dao swords (swords from the Fire Nation) and that he used a pair instead of just one. She learned that his favorite snacks were fire flakes (fire nation food) and that he hadn't had them in a while. In turn, he had been given the pleasure of listening to anything and everything that had made Toph mad that day.
Have they traded names? Spirits no, they had only known each other for about a week now, their friendship wasnt that good yet.
And listen, Toph was blind, not stupid, she could figure out all the signs herself. All the things she knew about him pointed to the fire nation, him being a fire bender certainly would explain why the cave always seemed so warm whenever he was there, he was probably using the same cave to train. And yes, Toph was aware of the concept of good firebenders, but with how they were talked about within Gaoling, Toph would have just assumed they were a myth. She still does if shes honest, which is exactly why shes going to try and find him outside of the cave.
She still needed to make sure that the entire place was safe after all, what good would she be if she as the best earthbender and just let a possibly dangerous fire nation spy into one of the few places untouched by war? She has seen him train before, he could be a genuine threat if he decided to do anything, not that it seemed like he would. He seemed more awkward than anything, but better safe than sorry.
(besides, Toph did want to get to know him better, fire nation or not)
So, by telling the servants earlier that she wanted to go to bed and to not be disturbed til morning, she had full access to run into town with a simple disguise. Walking into town with her Blind bandit outfit would definitely send fans her way. Not that she didt’t love them, just that she needed to keep an eye on someone without someone watcher her in turn.
Toph walked down the streets of Gaoling in what she assumed was a plain robe with puffy pants, but with the lack of heads turning her way, she could only assume the disguise was a success. Toph listened to the vibration of a heartbeat within the area. From what she knew of the other boy, it was that he had a distinct heartbeat that went fast enough to challenge an ostrich-horse. As she got further and further away from the estate, she started being able to hear the heartbeat of the person she was looking for. He seemed to be looking at some wares from a shop, innocently shopping.
She walked up to his left side and said, “Hi sharps, whacha doing?” Toph could feel the flinch as he moved his entire body to look at her “What— how did you find me?!” he asked “Also whos sharps?!” His tone was slightly angry, but it was mostly filled with disbelief.
“Relaxs buddy, you’re Sharps, I don’t exactly know your name, and with the amount of time you spend making sure your swords are always sharp, I feel like the nickname makes sense for you!”
Toph could feel the glare he gave her way before he spoke again, “Yeah, alright, that still doesn’t explain how you found me, you’re blind” Toph could feel him bring up a hand to point at her.
“I’ll tell you if you promise me to answer truthfully to one of my questions.” A secret for a secret, one could say, actually, wait, now Toph was curious about this
“Wait, why do you want to know how I can see? This isn’t the question, by the way, I just want to know”
Toph could feel the other boy looking around very subtly, as if to make sure no one was listening, which was odd, but hey, do what you need to do.
“Ive got this scar—” his voice was low, super low, toph nearly being able to hear it above the sounds of the bustling market. “its uhm, on my face, around my eye, and so I don’t really see out of it anymore, I don’t really hear either, but that’s besides the point—”
Toph could feel him slowly reaching up for the left side of his face, before he quickly pulled it down. “So I was just wondering how you were able to, continue seeing? I guess? ugh this is stupid” Toph could feel him bring up his hand again, but this time to hide his face, probably from emberasment
“You know what, forget it, forget I ever said anything.” He said as he removed his hand and started walking away.
“Hey, wait up!” Toph yelled and made her way to walk next to him, making sure she was on his right side now.
“You didt’t tell me you were blind!? Or well, more like half blind, but still, we would have been friends waaayyy quicker if you just told me that!” Toph exaggerated her words as she spoke.
“Well, it’s different, you were born blind, I wasn’t, okay? leave me alone now”
“No way! Youre like, the first kid i’ve ever talked to! And you’re half blind, this is like a bonding moment for me!” Toph stated, mind set, okay, mayybeee it was time to learn his name now
“Fine, just don’t fuck shit up for me, I’ve actually got a job to do” And he swears? Yeah, Toph was never going to let him go, fire nation or not
“Well, okay then, person whose name I don’t know, when do you leave your job for the day?”
Toph could hear him grumble slightly before he spoke again, “The names, uh, Lee—”
Lie
“And I actually just left my job, so I need to buy dinner for myself now, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be doing that now.”
“Ooo, could you get me some too? The food at the estate never tastes good anyways”
“You live in the biggest building in the entirety of Gaoling, get your own food!”
Lee ended up buying her food anyway. They had gone up to a vendor and with enough pestering on the way there, he ended up buying toph the same plate as him.
Five dumplings on each wooden plate, with honestly amazing seasoned meat filling, Toph had no idea they could even sell spice like that in the Earth Kingdom
“dude, this stuff tastes so good—” Toph stuffed another dumpling into her mouth. “How did you even know they sold things like this?” Toph asked with food still in her mouth, her parents would probably faint at the sight, but honestly, toph didt care too much, they weren’t here right now anyways.
“If you know where to look, you’ll find it” was all that Lee responded with. They were currently in a small alleyway that Toph could only assume was lit up by a lamp due to the warmth coming from above. It was decently private, not a single person would glance their way whenever they walked past. It felt nice.
Toph set aside the wooden plate as she put the last dumpling in her mouth. They were sitting on opposite sides of the alleyway, with Lee sitting on an actual bench while Toph decided to sit on top of a couple of stacked haybales, her toes just able to touch the ground.
Toph patted her stomach as she swallowed the last dumpling, before promptly burping, Toph smiled to herself, man, she really had to get out more.
“Okay! time for proper introduction now—” toph started “Im toph, and I’m the best earth bender you’ll ever live to see!” Toph remembered something about how first impressions matter most, she decided to bring it into Earth Rumble last year, but this probably, maybe also could be counted as a first introduction too, despite having vaguely said hello and goodbye to each other for a few days in that cave.
“Oh i’m uh, Lee, and I’m the uh, most mediocre-bender you’ll probably see, I guess.” He shrugged before taking a bite out of a dumpling he still had.
“Youre a bender?” Toph asked, she figured this could go two ways now either he admits he’s a fire bender or he backtracks and says he’s a non-bender, which would still give Toph her answer. And with how the boy’s heartbeat decided it wanted to compete in a competition the moment she said that, she had a feeling he knew his choices too.
“Uhmm..” He trailed off, “Yes...?”
“I didn’t know you were an earthbender, how come you didt’t use it when we fought the first time we met?”
“Uhm…” He trailed off. Okay, Toph was getting a little scared now, not for her own safety but instead for his, because it sounded like his heart might explode any second now.
“Okay, listen, I know your little secret, with the fire and all that, just calm down, jeez, your heart sounds like it’s about to have a heartattack”
“How do you know how fast my heart is going?!” His voice was a whisper-yell fusion, clearly not wanting anyone else to hear him.
“I’ll tell you if you tell me the stone cold truth about your bending, okay?” Toph answered bluntly as she put her hands up to show that she wasn't going to attack, which is kinda stupid as she could just use her feet for that anyways.
It was quiet for a bit, he was clearly thinking through his options, Toph was honestly not sure what other options he had right now, she hadn't really thought this through. Oh well, worst comes to worst she’ll just burry him underground.
The boy sighed out as he decided to respond, “fine, i’m a fire-bender, what are you doing to do about it?” He asked defensively, which was fair.
“Don’t worry sparky im not going to do anything about it—” Toph could feel his heart beat slightly faster on the new nickname, but it went down to normal pace after a second.”—but now that I know your secret, you get to know mine!” Toph told him earnestly
“I didt really get to tell you, but fine” he mumbled.
“Do you want me to tell you how I see?” Toph asked in return, and with only silence in response, Toph continued talking in a more quiet tone.
“ I see with my earth bending,—” She whispered, she could feel him shifting to hear her better, “—I can feel the walls to that house over there because it’s made out of stones,—” Toph pointed at the wall behind Lee, “—I can feel the vibration of someone to see how they’ll move, or what pose their in, I can feel everything, to the small grains of sand at the end of the alleyway to the heartbeat of someone at the other side of this streat” Toph ended
“All that with just your earth bending?” He asked, voice just as quiet as Toph’s.
Toph nodded as she sat back, feet now above the ground but her back was against the stone wall behind her.
“Thats,..that’s fucking amazing! How did you even figure out you could do that?!” He was somehow able to contain his excitement in a whisper, witch was good, Toph didt want any competition in Earth rumble to know her secret.
“I know i’m amazing! That’s just how I am sparky, and I learned from the original earth bending masters, the badger-moles, their blind too”
“So it only works with earth bending?”
“Uhmmmm,” Toph thought, she hadn't really thought of it before. “Maybe? If i’m honest I don’t know,” It got quiet again as Sparky didn’t respond again.
“Want to test out your fire bending against my earth bending abilities?”
“I am not throwing fire at a 10 year old”
“But you will swear like it’s the last day of your life around a 10 year old?”
“…fine, let’s go back to that cave, but don’t start blaming me if you get hurt”
The first thing Toph got him to do in the cave was to cup a small flame within his hands, or well, not really, the first thing that happened was Sparky asking her if she could feel this, as he cupped his hands infront of her.
“No…? Wait, is it fire? Ooo can I touch it?”
“What do you think dumbass? Is fire!”
Toph could feel him just stand there for a few seconds before he decided to sit cross legged on the ground in the middle of the cave.
“Okay, now you can touch it,”. His hand was still cupped, but his arms were stretched forward, so if Toph decided to sit down, she could put her hands around what Toph assumed was a fire. Which was exactly what Toph did.
It felt weird as Toph wiggled her fingers, the fire was barely hot, feeling just as warm as a summer night, it was oddly nice. It also felt like she was touching water as she tried to grab it, but it kept on moving out of her hand every time she tried to grab it.
“Woah..” was the only thing Toph could think of saying as she continued to play with it as if it was clay, “could you put it on the ground? I want to see if I can feel it” Toph asked, whith was stupid, because she has never been able to feel fire before, but you’ll never know if you don’t practice.
“Oh, sure” Sparky moved his hand away from Tophs, before using a finger to draw out a circle on the ground as Toph could only assume he put the fire in the middle of it.
Which was oddly considerate, actually.
Toph continued putting her hand through the small pit of fire, she wasn't exactly able to sense the fire through her bending yet, whitch would be a problem if she wanted to spar with a fire bender
“Are you able to like, fire bend without having things catch on fire? I think my parents maids would actually kill me if I got these robes destroyed”
“It’s fire?! How am I supposed to not burn something?!” Sparky said in response, but he continued his sentence, “My uncle probably would be able to do that…”
“Oh, sorry”
“Sorry for what?” He asked, confused.
“For bringing him up..?”
“Oh, no, he’s— He’s not dead, we just got separated, i’m supposed to meet him here, in Gaoling” He shrugged, oh thank the spirits, Toph was not good at comforting people.
“Wait, separated? What happened?”
“Uhm, okay, so you know now about how i’m a fire bender, right? I also look very stereotypical fire nation based on my eye and hair, so we sometimes get chased out of villages…”
Oh wow, that sounds, that sounds like it absolutely sucks if Toph was going to be honest, She wasn't exactly sure what 'stereotypical fire nation’ looked like, but just immediately judging based on looks? She would never.
“…anyway, just tell me where the badgermoles are and i’ll leave”
“I’m not showing you where the badgermoles live, first of all, their like, ten meters tall, second of all, they will eat you. Probably.—”
“Probably?” He asked, Toph just shrugged in response. “Third of all, i’m not giving up an opportunity to spar with someone without needing to worry about my identity, and also you being a fire bender, that also is a part of it” Toph smiled as she said the last part.
“Now!—” Toph exclaimed, “—Make this fire hotter, I need to figure this out.” Toph could hear the other boy mutter something under his breath, before she felt him do a movement and the circle in front of her became warmer, but this time, when Toph went to touch it, it hurt.
“Ow!! I told you to make it hotter! Not to make it hurt!!”
“It’s fire! If it’s hot, it’s going to hurt?? I didt’t think you would just put your entire hand in it??”
Toph stuck out her tongue at that, she might be the world’s best earthbender, but she’s also eleven, so Toph thinks she’s justified when the other boy in turn tells her to “fuck off” in response.