Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Toph made stairs for herself out of the mountainside, and put everything back to normal behind her as she passed. Finally, she reached the Northern Air Temple atop the mountain. It was enormous. She could feel a few sets of footsteps nearby and someone leaning against a wall, but not the person she was looking for. As several people turned toward her, she knelt and put a hand to the temple floor.

Her hands could feel fainter vibrations from farther away than her feet, but even so, she couldn’t find Teo.

Someone greeted her.

“Hey,” she said. “Have you seen Teo around?”

“He’s right over there,” said the helpful stranger, pointing almost but not quite at the kid shifting from foot to foot just in front of the edge of the temple.

“Where? In the air?” She meant it sarcastically, but actually, that had to be it.

“Well, I told you, but you didn’t even look,” said the one who’d pointed.

“I’m blind,” she said, walking toward the ledge. “Thanks, though.” When she was close enough, she started shouting. “Hey, Teo! Get down here! I want to talk to you!”

A few moments passed and Toph wondered whether he’d heard, or whether he was even in earshot. Then she felt him hit the ground rolling and come to a stop just beside her.

“Hey, there, Toph,” he said. She still wasn’t used to interpreting his movements when they were filtered through his chair. “What brings you here?”

“People being stupid,” she said. “I thought it was bad back when it was just my parents and Master Yu, but now it’s everyone. They won’t let me join the police force because you have to be able to ‘visually identify targets’. They think I can’t tell a criminal from some random civilian and they won’t listen when I try to tell them I can! I tried to bribe them into letting me in, but it’s really my parents who are the rich ones, and of course they wouldn’t help. They want me to stay home and be their little doll instead.”

“So you wanted to be with friends who know you’re not helpless?” asked Teo.

Toph shook her head. “Not really. See, I thought I’d go wandering and maybe challenge some people to some fights, but while I was on the road I heard about Zuko and the Earth King trying to set up some kind of international city in Yu Dao. I figured I’d have better luck there, since Zuko and the Earth King both know me. And then... well, I thought of you. I bet you have the same problems, right?”

“Not as much as you,” said Teo. “Still, you should’ve heard some of the things Hakoda and the other warriors said when they found out I was going to be part of the invasion.”

“So I thought... um... something.” She knew what she meant, sort of. “I’m not sure if this makes any sense, but who came up with writing? And why does ink always use organic pigments? It could use earth-based pigments just as easily, or it could have been something totally different, like knots in string, so everyone could feel it.” And somehow, that related to starting over, and how Teo didn’t walk, and... now that Toph tried to explain it out loud, it was all a jumbled mess.

“I think I see what you’re saying,” said Teo. “I’ve noticed something similar. The Air Nomads who built this place can’t have been immune to getting injured. I bet I’m not the first person to live here who had trouble walking. So why is it that my dad’s renovations are so much easier for me to get around in than the original construction? It’s like when the temple was designed, they just... forgot about us.”

“Exactly! And since Republic City is new, if we help build it, maybe it doesn’t have to be like everywhere else.” She’d come to Teo thinking that maybe Teo would want to the same things she did.

“Sounds like fun,” he said. “Count me in.”

***

On the second day of Toph’s visit, Teo had to give some of the kids flying lessons. Halfway through, he noticed Toph waiting for him on the ground. He almost waved at her before he remembered.

He talked the kids through a pass over the temple floor and called out a greeting to Toph as he flew by. He thought he saw her roll her eyes. He grinned at her, but of course she wasn’t watching.

Back to his lesson plan, Teo taught the kids how to pull out of a dive and how to gain altitude. A girl stalled and started falling and he swooped in to grab her glider and straighten her out until the wind buoyed her again. After that, he had them go through something easy but not too easy, to make sure everyone’s last memory of the day’s flight was of something successful, and then ended the lesson. It was hard to believe that before he’d met Aang, flying had been the most exciting thing he’d ever done. Now that he was home, nothing seemed half as exciting as it used to.

He hit the ground smoothly and wheeled over to Toph.

“Did you have fun buzzing around like mosquitoes?” she asked.

“Yeah,” said one of the kids, before Teo could answer. “Flying is awesome!”

“Great. Well, playtime’s over, Teo and I have work to do,” said Toph, as Teo reached up to unfasten the glider from his chair’s backrest. “I came up with a list of things that bug me.” She started counting them off on her fingers as she talked. “Really thick carpets, wooden floors, writing, people who tell me to ‘look for the one with the red door’ when I ask for directions, people who treat me like I’m helpless, and that stupid theater on Ember Island where I can’t see the stage.” She screwed up her face like she was trying to remember something. “I’m missing one. That’s only six things and I thought I had seven.”

“It’s a good list,” said Teo, scooting further forward in his chair to reach the spot where the glider fastened to his footrest. “I haven’t really been around enough to make a list like that, but I’m sure there are things I’ll notice once we’re on our way. Does this mean you’re ready to go? I can be packed to leave by tomorrow”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” said Toph.

“I’ll get packed and tell my dad I’m leaving,” said Teo, “but I think there’s someone you should meet before we go.”

**

As soon as they had a timeframe, Teo went to see his father. The Mechanist had just finished oiling the pulleys when Teo found him.

“Toph and I are leaving tomorrow,” Teo said. “We’re going to Yu Dao.”

His dad blinked and spent a moment processing that. “That’s all the way on the west coast,” he said. “It’s a very long trip and not everywhere is as safe as we are here.”

“Toph and I can watch each other’s backs,” said Teo. “She’s a great earthbender.”

“Exactly,” his dad said, holding up one finger as if he were about to start a lecture. “Wherever you go, make sure you have a way to get back home without asking Toph. I suppose now that you’ve been all the way to the Fire Nation to fight a war, I can’t very well stop you from going on a trip with your friend.”

**

That evening, Toph met an old woman who tapped the ground in front of her with a light, rigid stick when she walked. It made her steps really distinctive, and Toph liked that.

“Toph, this is Ying,” said Teo. “Ying, this is Toph.”

“Teo tells me you’ve been blind since birth,” said Ying. Toph heard the emphasis on since birth. That and the careful way Ying walked told Toph why they were being introduced.

“Yup, sure have. And you’ve been blind since, what, yesterday?”

“Since the Fire Nation’s last attack,” said Ying. “I was injured. I’m too old to join you and Teo, but I’m glad you’re going to do something. Too many blind people end up begging.”

“Hmph.” It was their own fault if they did. If Toph could win the Earth Rumble and train the Avatar, then other blind people could at least get a lousy job. “Blind people are just as capable as anybody else.”

“You really think so?” asked Ying. It was painful how much she was hanging on Toph’s words.

“Well, duh. Don’t ever listen to anyone who tells you blind people can’t do stuff.” Seeing people believed all kinds of ridiculous things about blindness. And, sure, Toph had wondered how they’d react if they found out what it was really like, but up till right then, she’d never realized that happened all the time. “So... what’s it like to go blind?”

“You would know better than I would,” said Ying. She believed what she was saying, but she was still wrong.

“Not really. I was born blind. You used to be able to see.” People treated Toph like she was so different... what was it like for someone they treated normally to stop being so normal? Toph couldn’t even begin to wrap her mind around what that change meant.

“Well... when the Fire Nation came and I decided to fight, I accepted that I might die, so at first I just felt lucky to be alive. Now that I’ve had time to think about what happens next, I feel very uncertain. Maybe you have some wisdom to share, since you’ve been blind longer than I have...”

Teo had gone very still listening to them. Toph guessed the conversation wasn’t totally alien to him.

“A little,” said Toph. “Can you earthbend?”

“No. I don’t have any bending,” said Ying. The first part was true; the rest wasn’t.

“Really?” asked Toph. “Because I pegged you for the bender type.”

“I don’t have any bending,” Ying said, lying again. “Even if I did, I’m too old to learn now.” She believed that last part. Toph thought she was wrong, but at least she wasn’t lying.

“Well, I use my earthbending to feel what’s around me. There’s not a lot I can teach you if you’re not a bender, but I’ll keep my eyes open for someone who can teach you while I’m traveling,” Toph promised. “Oh, and by the way, you’re not secretly a firebender, are you?”

“No, of course not,” said Ying.

Toph smiled. “Great. Glad to hear it.”

***

When they left the Northern Air Temple, they used Teo’s glider to get down the mountain. He couldn’t really fly with a passenger, but he could glide down safely.

They landed in the northern Earth Kingdom and Toph jumped off even before Teo came to a stop. That was fine with Teo; Toph might be light even for a girl, but she was still a heavy weight on his legs, and now they were aching.

“We should start by heading southeast,” he said once Toph was done kissing the ground.

“I’m so glad we’re not flying anymore,” said Toph.

“Well, the fastest way to Yu Dao will take us across the sea,” said Teo. The two of them set off, keeping the sun behind them over their left shoulders.

“As long as it’s on a metal ship,” said Toph. “There should be plenty of those, right?”

“Definitely,” Teo agreed. “What else is the Fire Navy going to do now that the war is over?”

And that was their plan, for about a day.

***

Toph was the one who suggested a change of plans. She was leaning against a tree in the center of a northern port town, while Teo watched the people go by.

“I was thinking,” she said, “it might be more fun to go through the Earth Kingdom on foot and fix all the places that don’t work for us while we’re on our way.”

“It’ll be a longer trip than we planned,” said Teo, “but as long as we have enough supplies, then sure.”

Chapter Text

In a valley in the northern Earth Kingdom, the land had been burned barren. When Toph spotted the village, Teo told her it was a ghost town, most of the houses burned anyway and all the people gone. She shook her head and kept walking toward the ruins.

They passed between the burned-out houses in silence, until Toph stopped in what might have been the town square. She stomped on the ground and opened a hole in it.

“Hey!” she called down. “I know you’re hiding! Come on up, we’re not the Fire Nation army!”

Toph sat down to wait until people started emerging from within the burned-out houses.

An old man and three women came out to face them.

“The kids are still hiding,” Toph whispered to Teo. “Plus about... four more adults, I think.”

“Who are you?” asked the old man. He looked wary and held himself like he was expecting a fight.

“I’m Teo and this is Toph,” said Teo. “We’re not here to hurt you. In fact, we helped win the war.”

“Then the war is over?” asked one of the women.

“Well, duh, Teo just said that,” said Toph. “We won. It’s over.”

There was silence for a moment.

“That’s... great,” said one of the women.

“So it’s safe to travel to Ba Sing Se,” said the man. He didn’t sound happy about it.

“Pfft, nah,” said Toph. “Sure, the Fire Nation army won’t attack you on the way, but you’ll still end up in Ba Sing Se, and who wants that? I hate Ba Sing Se!”

“What’s wrong with Ba Sing Se?” asked the man. “We heard it was safe.”

“Safe from the Fire Nation, maybe,” said Toph. “It’s still the worst city in the Earth Kingdom. You’d even be better off rebuilding here.”

“That’s impossible,” said one of the women. She advanced on Toph and bent down to look closely at her. “I guess you can’t see that this place was burned. My house is to your right. The roof is mostly gone and what’s left has fallen in. Three of the walls need to be rebuilt from the ground up. It’s the same with all the other buildings. Our crops were burned, too. The land is lying fallow. We’re hungry. We’re running out of stored food and we can’t survive on that long enough to sow and reap another harvest, and that’s if we had anything to sow, which we don’t. What could possibly be worse?”

Toph shrugged. “Well, I thought the secret police that kidnapped people and brainwashed them in a secret prison under the lake were pretty bad. I didn’t mind as much that they stole our bison, since I don’t like flying anyway, but that really bothered the Avatar.”

There were looks exchanged between the villagers.

“And I can rebuild this place,” said Toph. “I’m an earthbender. It shouldn’t take too long.”

“You’d do that?” asked the old man.

“What’s the catch?” asked one of the women, not the one who had described the ruin of their home.

“Nothing,” said Toph. It didn’t seem like the right answer. The villagers were clearly suspicious of too generous an offer. “Actually, there is one thing. Make sure my friend here could get into whatever new construction you add on later. That’s what we’re out here for anyway.”

The old man bowed to her. “We would be most grateful,” he said. “We need homes for six families, with a total of eighteen people.”

Toph’s grin only broadened. “Anything you want to save from those houses?”

The old man shook his head. Then he looked as if he’d suddenly remembered something, and said aloud, “No, nothing.”

Toph swept the houses away, clearing space for herself to work. A couple of the villagers gasped. Toph raised the walls of each house, one by one, twice as many as they needed, and gave each a slanted roof to keep the snow from piling up on top. Once the stone dropped away from the doorways, Teo could see that they weren’t flush with the ground, but Toph raised smooth ramps from the ground outside. She stopped for a moment, then made windows in each house.

She went through a few earthbending forms that didn’t seem to have much effect besides clearing away rubble, then turned to the old man. “Need any other buildings?” she asked.

“We used to have... never mind what we used to have. We’ll need barns to store food,” he said.

Toph raised a barn beside each house.

“I made some furniture, but it’s all stone. You have your work cut out for you,” said Toph. “Oh, and I figured you’d want some secret entrances to your secret bunker. I linked them to the tunnels you already had.”

The old man bowed to her again, and this time he was joined by the three women who had so far dared to come up and see who was in the village. “Thank you,” he said.

“No, thank you for the chance to show off what a great earthbender I am,” said Toph. “Hey, Teo, I need a favor. Can you write my name in the dirt?”

“I can’t lean over that far,” said Teo. “I’d need something to write with...”

Toph bent a stiff stone rod into existence and tossed it to him.

“Scratch a little deeper,” said Toph as he made the first stroke. Teo carved each character into the ground as neatly as he could.

Toph squatted down by the writing when he was done. “So this, this and this are the characters?” she asked, pointing them out.

“Yeah.”

Toph stood and stomped on the ground. She raised a pillar with her name on it. “Perfect,” she said.

There was a round of applause from the villagers. The woman who’d been wary at first still seemed wary now, but it was a good sign.

“So,” Toph said to the villagers, “as you can see, I’m blind and my friend can’t walk. We’re also lost. I’d pay pretty well for an escort to the nearest town.”

Teo could see the wheels turning in the old man’s mind. He smiled. “Baobao, why don’t you go with them?” he suggested.

The woman who had described their village to Toph answered. “Very well.” She walked up to Toph. “I’m pleased to meet you, Miss...” She glanced at the pillar with Toph’s name on it. “...Toph Beifong?”

“Nice to meet you too.” Toph extended a hand and Baobao shook it. “Now get packing so we can leave.”

Toph was full of her success, and Teo didn’t burst her bubble by pointing out that at the rate they were going, it would take them over five centuries to fix the whole Earth Kingdom.

Chapter Text

Two major roads cut smoothly through the land. Around their crossing, a town had been built up, still around and still thriving. Toph could feel the beat of countless footsteps coming from that direction, and the steady rolling of wheeled things being pulled along, not quite the same as the rhythm of Teo’s movements.

“We should be getting close,” said Baobao. Toph didn’t mention that she’d known exactly where the town was since they were about a mile away from the village. Let the charity seem less like charity.

They came up over a rise.

“I can see it now,” said Teo.

Toph had been wondering how long that was going to take. She’d thought they had a clear line of sight at one point, but no one else said anything about it then.

Now, finally, it was a quick walk into town.

“This place lives off of trade,” said Baobao. “Peace should be good for them. If traders ever stopped coming by, this place would wither away.”

Trade wasn’t going to stop any time soon. As they entered the town, its vibrations surrounded Toph. She could feel the way things echoed through buildings and the dead spots where soft walls or ground refused to carry vibrations. She started by looking for all the buildings with stairs, and all the wooden or partly-wooden buildings. They weren’t hard to find. Then, going as much by the smell of baked goods and what she could make out of the jumble of overheard conversations, she found the right direction to point Baobao in.

She dug in her pockets and pulled out several coins. “Thanks for helping us,” she said, handing them over. “Teo and I can find our own way now. You might want to try looking over there, by the way.” She gestured toward the market. “See you!”

She felt Teo follow her as she set off toward the closest problem building, but realized halfway there that it was probably a private residence. She should have realized that sooner, and would have if her feet hadn’t been scarred. She didn’t think she could just earthbend someone’s house without asking. And besides, it wasn’t like either of them would ever visit these people anyway.

She heard the creak of the door opening and felt the steps of a woman leaving the house. The woman stopped walking and stood still, facing Teo.

After a beat, Teo shifted. “Hey, there,” he said.

“Oh, um, hi,” said the woman. She leaned in a little. “I was wondering... what is that thing?” She gestured at Teo.

“It’s my wheelchair,” he said. Toph wished she could feel what the woman was thinking; Teo sounded like he was happy to answer, though. “I use it because I can’t walk very well.”

“My husband lost his leg in the war. It’s been so hard for him. Were you injured in the war, too?” she asked. So that was why she cared.

“No, I was caught in a flood,” said Teo. Toph caught something wistful, or maybe just solemn, in his answer. “I did fight the Fire Nation, though.”

“Can you help my husband?” asked the woman. “Should he use a chair like yours?”

Toph was finally able to recognize the feel of Teo shrugging, even with the vibrations carried through his chair.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” he said.

“He’s been using a pair of crutches, but it seems like he’s having a hard time of it,” she said. “I bet it would help him so much to talk to you.”

Helping people was why they were there, and even if Toph didn’t think it sounded helpful, the woman was sincere when she said it.

“Sure,” said Teo. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Wonderful. Is now a good time? Come in...” She stopped talking. Toph felt her glance back over her shoulder at her porch, and then face Teo again.

“Mind if I earthbend your porch?” asked Toph. “I just need to make a ramp for my friend.”

As soon as the woman assented, Toph bent the porch into a ramp. This time she got the grade right on her first try.

“Thank you so much for this,” the woman said as Teo wheeled up the ramp. She and Toph followed him up. “He’s up in his room. Up the stairs, second door on your right.”

Besides the porch, the whole house was wooden. “Give me a minute,” said Toph. If she’d been with anyone else, she would have followed them in and learned the house’s layout bit by bit. Since she had to earthbend Teo up the stairs, though, she started by taking some stone from the porch and spreading it through the house until she found the stairs, then tracing over them step by step until she found the upstairs hallway. She pulled the stone back down to the porch. Then she encased Teo’s wheels and seat in stone and lifted him up the stairs. She climbed up herself and released Teo’s wheels.

She followed the sound of him rolling over the wooden floor. The door was almost silent when he opened it, but she still caught the soft noise that let her enter the room. Their hostess stood in the doorway behind her.

“I’m Teo,” he said. They were-- not surprisingly-- not in a big echoey room like the Earth King’s throne room, and Toph tried to use the volume of Teo’s voice to judge how far they were from the veteran they were there to see. “And you are?”

“Kai,” he said. It gave Toph a good idea of where he was. “Let me guess, you’re here to induct me into some kind of cripple club?”

Toph couldn’t keep from laughing.

“I thought he could help you, since he seemed to be getting around so well,” said the woman.

Kai made a derisive noise. “What’s he supposed to do, grow my leg back?”

“No, but maybe I can do something,” said Teo. “It looks like you’ve been using those crutches to get around.” So there were crutches in the room, probably resting in easy reach. “How is that working out for you?”

“How do you think they’re working out? They’re horrible, of course. They’re so-- we have a little girl here, don’t we? They’re uncomfortable,” he said, stressing the word as if it hadn’t been his first choice. Toph had probably heard anything Kai might have wanted to say. “They hurt my armpits.”

“My dad is an inventor,” said Teo, “and we’ve worked on crutch designs before. If you want, my friend Toph and I can make you a pair that will work better than these.”

“Yeah, we’re kind of on a mission to help... um...” Toph knew what she meant, but she didn’t know how to put it. “People like us.” What kind of people were they, anyway? People who couldn’t do things? People the world wasn’t built for? There was something that made blindness like not being able to walk, but the only other time anyone had lumped them in together in Toph’s hearing had been someone giving a speech about defectives weighing down society, and that wasn’t quite what Toph had in mind.

“You kids can go ahead and try,” Kai said. He didn’t sound excited. “If it gives you something to do with yourselves, I’m all for it.”

Something to do with themselves, as if they were little kids who needed to be entertained, instead of veterans with plenty of marketable skills.

**

As Teo went off to look for supplies for Kai’s crutches, Toph had something else to look for. She needed a teacher for Ying.

She was still hoping, and not just for their own sake, that most of the other blind people out there weren’t hidden away like she had been, but so far she hadn’t found any. Maybe it was just because blind people weren’t that common anyway.

Giving up on finding anyone by chance, she stopped a random stranger and asked if he’d seen any blind people around. For a moment he just stood there, as if he didn’t know what to make of the question. Toph looked up at him and brushed the hair out of her eyes, in case he would give a better answer if he knew her reasons for asking.

“Well, I saw a beggar with a sign saying he was blind last week, but last week I was in Ba Sing Se. Maybe you should ask a local,” he said.

“Thanks anyway,” said Toph. She was walking away when he stopped her.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “There’s a deaf guy selling fruit not too far from here.”

“Is he blind?” she asked, knowing the answer already.

“No, but it’s kind of the same thing, right?” He sounded uncomfortable. “Never mind. I just thought... never mind.”

Toph set off again. Maybe the deaf fruit-seller might have a lead after all, if he’d ever tried to ask after other deaf people and run into the same kind of idiot Toph had just talked to. She might find him if she got completely desperate. For now, she stood off to the side of the street, out of the way of people walking by. She kept quiet and listened to what she felt through her feet. It was harder now, with her scars, but she could still feel a lot of what was around. She wasn’t totally sure what she was looking for. Someone who tapped the ground like Ying? Someone who... what? Stood like an earthbender? That was the problem: Toph could act perfectly normal.

She could feel where people sat around waiting for charity, but they didn’t count, even if some of them were blind.

She started walking again, paying careful attention to what she could feel. She could feel someone limping using a cane, but that wasn’t what she was looking for. She felt a kid taking a couple of tentative steps that reminded her of Ying, but then the kid started running. Of course, he might still be blind, but so could anyone else around her.

She walked by a man who asked for spare change, and turned to face him. “I’ll give you a copper piece to tell me where I can find blind people.”

“You mean besides me?” he asked. “There are a couple of blind girls working as whores at Shuran’s. And there was another beggar, but he died a couple of days ago. Lessee... I heard there was a blind girl traveling with the Avatar, but it’s not like either of us is ever going to meet someone like that. Lao Zhang came back from the war blind, but he killed himself. Hmm. You know, if I were you, I’d look in the gutters. That’s where most of us are.”

What a depressing thought. He was telling the truth, too. “Why?” asked Toph. “Why can’t you get a job?”

“Even if there were a job I could do, who would hire me?”

He believed that. That was the kind of nonsense seeing people had always said to each other about Toph: that she would be useless to everyone, that it was so sad how she couldn’t be a real earthbender or learn to manage a household so she could get married. But she’d thought only seeing people were that stupid.

“I’m blind and I was the Earth Rumble champion back in Gaoling,” she said. “That pays pretty well. I bet you could support yourself doing that.”

“I’m not an earthbender,” he said. “And if I were, who would teach a blind man?”

That cut too close to home for Toph. If she hadn’t happened to find the badgermoles... whatever might have happened wouldn’t have been good. Master Yu never taught her anything, and her own experimentation didn’t start getting results until she had the basics.

“I would,” she said. “If you ever meet a blind person with a talent for earthbending and no teacher, send them to Toph Beifong in Gaoling.” She took a copper coin from her pocket and dropped it in the beggar’s upturned hat. “Thanks for the tip.”

She set off to find Shuran’s.

***

Teo returned to Kai’s house to find Kai sitting on the porch with his crutches beside him.

“Hey,” said Kai. “I came out here to sit on the steps, but it looks like that won’t work.”

Teo laughed and wheeled himself up the ramp to sit beside Kai. “I found everything, but I need Toph to metalbend some of the parts.” He had a solid hunk of the new, ultralight metal they were calling aluminum. It should be enough material for what he had in mind.

“Your friend doesn’t look like a smith,” said Kai.

“She’s not. She’s an earthbender who figured out how to actually bend metal. She’s made my dad and me obsolete.” Teo laughed about it, because he had to. He couldn’t blame Toph for how powerful her bending was or ask her to pretend she’d never discovered it.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Kai. The two of them sat in silence for a while, waiting. “You know, some days I still wake up and expect that I’ll spend the day hiding in the wilderness looking for Fire Nation supply lines to harry. Even now, and I’ve been home since just after Ba Sing Se fell.”

“I can understand that,” said Teo.

Kai shook his head, but didn’t say anything else for a while. Finally, he broke the silence again. “I almost managed to capture the Dragon of the West. He got away, though. He and his nephew are creative, I have to hand it to them. Of course, you don’t need me to tell you that. Just look at their politics. I would never have thought of joining the Avatar, but it clearly worked.”

“I know Zuko,” said Teo. “I was camped out in the Western Air Temple with the Avatar when he joined up.”

“Really,” said Kai, sounding interested. “What were you doing with the Avatar?”

Running away and wishing he could have protected his dad. “I was part of the team for a while after the invasion on the Day of Black Sun,” he said. “When he was putting together his team, Sokka asked for me personally.”

Teo could tell Kai was looking him over and re-evaluating him.

“I’d already been injured then or I would’ve gone with you,” said Kai. “If I’d been there, maybe we would’ve won the war sooner.”

“We lost because the Fire Nation heard about our plans,” said Teo. “There was nothing we could do.” They had all tried, and then there had been that desperate moment when they realized they’d lost the subs and they were surrounded by Fire Nation troops. Teo still wished he could have kept his dad from being imprisoned, and told himself without believing it that it wasn’t his fault.

“I hate it when that happens.”

“Hate it when what happens?” Toph asked, coming toward them with a girl about Teo’s age in tow. “What are we talking about?”

“War,” said Kai. “It wouldn’t interest you.”

“Uh-huh... well, anyway, I found a teacher for Ying,” said Toph. The young woman with her stepped forward. “This is Chenli. Chenli, this is Teo, my friend, and Kai, the sulky man with one leg.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Chenli. She managed to keep a straight face, to her credit.

“It feels like you’re holding something. Does that mean you’ve got what we need to make Kai a better pair of crutches?” asked Toph. She walked up the ramp and Chenli followed.

Teo handed the metal to Toph and explained the design he had in mind. Toph pulled the metal apart into two pieces and shaped each one into a design a lot like the pair Teo had used several years ago. They were shorter than normal, designed with handles but nothing to rest in the user’s armpits. The shafts bent at the handles and the tips were made rough with grooves to give them better tread.

Watching Toph work, Kai’s eyes had gone round as dinner plates. Teo had to admit, it was pretty cool to be friends with the inventor of metalbending.

Toph held them out to Kai to try. He stood and took a few steps around the porch. “They’re better than the others, but these handles won’t work,” he said. Toph took them back and reshaped them, then handed them back for Kai to try again.

“I’ll want to cover some of the metal parts,” he said, but he was starting to smile. “You should teach metalbending, you know.”

The idea that Toph might not think of teaching-- that metalbending would die with her, and the next generation of earthbenders would be no more powerful than the one before-- was an idea Teo had entertained. But Toph would have thought of it at some point. She loved telling people what to do.

“Yeah, I know,” she said. “If this thing in Yu Dao doesn’t work out, I’m going back to Gaoling and starting the Beifong Metalbending Academy.” Toph might not even have intended the weight her words had, but to mention her last name like that changed the way Kai saw her. Teo wasn’t sure if it changed Chenli’s view of her; did Chenli know who the Beifongs were? Teo would have to find out what Chenli already knew of the world. Now that things were settled with Kai, she was their next priority.

Chapter Text

Of course, since neither of them wanted to turn back, and since Chenli couldn’t find her way to the Northern Air Temple alone, they ran into a problem immediately.

“You know, Aang will probably want to visit Yu Dao, and I bet we could ask him to fly Chenli to the Northern Air Temple,” said Teo. “The trip is a lot shorter on Appa.”

“Will your friend agree to that?” asked Chenli.

“Probably,” said Teo. “If not, you can go with me when I’m done in Yu Dao.”

“Yeah, and Aang totally owes me anyway,” said Toph. Not that she was keeping score, exactly. She was just keeping track of who had done more. Just to make sure she never ended up in debt to anyone who was keeping score.

They left the town by the road going south. If Toph were to press her palms to the ground, and if something were to make a nice big thump, she might just be able to feel the way the outer wall of Ba Sing Se shaped the echoes. Maybe.

“If we want to keep going over land for as long as possible, we’ll have to take the Serpent’s Pass,” said Toph. “It should be a lot safer without the Fire Nation patrolling the bay, and... well, I kind of want a rematch.” She’d spent days thinking of things she could have done differently. Anything would have been better than freezing up like she did, but if she’d just kept her cool, she could have single-handedly gotten everyone across safely. She could have raised walls all around them or carried everyone on top of a flying boulder. Even once she was stuck on that little island, she could have earthbent a path, instead of freaking out about walking on ice.

She really needed a rematch, just to prove she wasn’t an idiot.

“Sokka told me about that place,” said Teo. “Wouldn’t it be easier to take a ferry across the bay instead?”

“What’s the Serpent’s Pass?” asked Chenli.

“It’s a narrow strip of land connecting the two halves of the Earth Kingdom,” said Teo. “Sokka told me there’s a sea monster that lives nearby.”

“Yeah, a big one. I can handle it, though,” she said, with the confidence she thought she should probably feel.

“Is there a problem with the ferries?” asked Teo. “Are they made of wood or something?”

Toph shrugged. She didn’t remember whether she’d ever known what the ferries were made of. All she remembered from Full Moon Bay was the ticket lady. “All I’m saying is, I want a rematch against the sea monster.”

“I’m going to take a ferry,” said Teo. “You can come with me if you want.”

“You’d need a passport,” said Toph.

“Is that why you took the Serpent’s Pass last time?” Teo asked.

“Naw, the ticket lady would do anything for a Beifong,” said Toph, grinning.

“Then you need to cross the bay with us,” said Teo.

Us? Toph had forgotten they had Chenli with them. She’d gotten quiet. “Maybe it’ll be someone else this time. Maybe whoever it is won’t be such a suck-up.”

“We can at least try,” said Teo.

There was nothing Toph could say to convince him to follow her while she risked everyone’s lives for personal reasons. She felt like her insides were squirming uncomfortably. “Look who thinks he’s in charge,” she grumbled. “Who died and made you king?” Great, now she’d snapped at him in front of Chenli. Just the impression she wanted to make.

“All I’m saying is that we should take the safe route to Yu Dao. It’s not like we have to hide from the Fire Nation anymore,” said Teo. “We can travel openly.”

“The Serpent’s Pass is faster anyway,” said Toph, which wasn’t quite a blatant lie, but it was an argument that would have carried a lot more weight if she hadn’t already suggested taking the long way once on this trip. “Whatever, we’ll do it your way.”

She’d have her rematch later. And why hadn’t she thought of that five minutes ago? It was the same mistake as before.

**

They made camp that evening in the desolation left by the Fire Nation. If there were any hidden villages, Toph didn’t mention them. She was sulking, and Teo had no idea why. Everything was going exactly like Toph wanted.

Chenli was quiet so far. As long as they were going to be traveling together, Teo thought it might be a good idea to get to know her, so he took the opportunity to start talking to her while they were camped.

“So, Chenli, what do you like to do?” he asked, which was safer than asking about her family or her past.

“I like Pai Sho,” she said shyly. “I carved a set of tiles shaped like the flowers, so everyone could play.”

“I never thought of that,” said Toph. “I’m glad no one else I knew did, either, or I would’ve had to play.”

So she could get over it that easily. Good, Teo thought. Whatever got them past their arguments and on to Yu Dao.

“Pai Sho’s not that bad,” said Teo.

“Yeah, it’s not just for snooty rich people,” said Chenli.

“Good,” said Toph, “because I hate snooty rich people.”

Chenli giggled.

“If you show me your set, I could bend a few more,” said Toph. “We could sell them to blind people who like Pai Sho.”

“I bet if you painted them, the tiles would look beautiful,” said Teo, hoping painting stayed something done without bending.

“Who cares how it looks?” said Toph. “They’re for blind people, duh.”

“I can see well enough to appreciate color,” Chenli said diplomatically. “I’m sure there are a lot of people who can recognize colors without being able to get around by sight.”

“Yeah, and if you ever learn, I’ll play Pai Sho with you, Toph,” said Teo. As long as there was something for non-benders to do.

They spent the rest of the evening talking about Pai Sho.

**

They crossed Full Moon Bay and after days of walking came to the Great Divide.

“Whoa,” said Toph, when she got close and stopped to press her hands to the ground to get a better view. “That is cool.”

Traveling over the firm, level ground, Teo could get up to the canyon easily. After that...

“I’ve got this,” said Toph. She raised a stone bridge across the canyon wide enough for Teo and Chenli to follow her safely across. Once everyone was on the other side, Toph brought the bridge down and left the canyon as they found it. Teo looked back over his shoulder at the Great Divide. His dad wouldn’t be happy, but what was he supposed to do, ask Toph to leave her mark on a famous geological feature just in case he chickened out?

Put that way, Toph might have agreed, but Teo didn’t ask.

Chapter Text

Past two rivers and a village destroyed in a flood, they came to Pohuai Stronghold, now under Earth Kingdom control and staffed by Earth Kingdom soldiers, one of Firelord Zuko’s first concessions to the Earth King.

Some of the soldiers recognized Toph and, at her request, opened the gates to let her and her companions in. The sun was sinking low-- within the stronghold, it had already set behind the walls-- and the surrounding area was mostly boggy and not the best place to find a campsite. Katara had once mentioned a sheltered place in the ruins nearby, but Pohuai Stronghold was more obvious, full of marching feet and rising high enough for Teo to see the towers from as far away as Toph felt it.

Within the stronghold, the earthbender in command of the place offered Toph and her friends a place to stay. Toph accepted, reassuring herself that this probably counted as repayment for saving the nation.

“So, what brings you here?” the commander asked conversationally.

Toph explained her mission, and heard a few of the other soldiers make approving noises.

“That’s admirable of you,” said the commander.

“I can help you make some renovations while I’m here,” she offered.

“That won’t be necessary,” said the commander. “This is a military outpost. There aren’t any cripples in the military.”

Toph was about to start shouting when Teo put a hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” he told the commander. The interruption gave Toph time to think of better ideas than shouting.

**

Late that night, Toph wandered the stronghold. The guards on duty noticed her, acknowledged her, and let her be. It was different being a hero, especially compared to being a fugitive.

The bottom floor of the stronghold was okay. Toph told herself she’d figure out the long flights of steps later. They were way too steep to just flatten into a ramp, but she’d think of something. Or Teo would think of something.

She left the building and went for a walk up on the wall instead. If anyone like Teo were to work here, they’d probably be up patrolling the walls with a bow and arrow. That or doing the cooking and the laundry, unless the soldiers did that for themselves; Toph didn’t know.

The top of the wall was broad and smooth and mostly level, but there were steps in a few places.

She nodded politely to a sentry as she passed. He stopped and turned to watch her for a moment, then continued on away from her. She knelt at the foot of the short flight of steps. A year ago, her metalbending would have been too rough and too loud for this, but she’d been practicing. She pulled at the steps and smoothed them down into a ramp. She wasn’t sure what to do with the extra material, so she left it by the side of the walkway, where she could hope that no one would trip over it in the dark.

She felt another sentry’s footsteps moving toward her. Now what? She had thought she’d just fix everything first and let everyone else ask questions later, but if the sentry asked her what she was doing or why the stairs were gone, what was she supposed to say?

“Miss Beifong,” the sentry greeted her. “Out stargazing, I take it?” His footsteps stopped.

“Yeah, exactly. That one there looks like Appa,” she said, pointing in the general direction of the horizon.

“Um...” He started to walk closer to her, then stopped when his foot found the ramp. “What the...? What happened to the stairs?”

Toph shrugged. “I dunno.”

“You can bend metal,” he said.

“Yeah,” Toph said innocently. “What about it?”

“Is this so your friend can come up here with you? Just warn people so nobody falls and breaks their neck,” said the sentry, “and put it back when you’re done.”

“Of course,” Toph lied. She smiled and waved goodbye to the guard and hurried on.

The rest of the stairs on the wall were easy to fix, and she finished and went back to bed, intending to talk to Teo about the stairs within the stronghold in the morning.

**

Morning came and Toph and Teo found the stairs immediately after waking up and getting dressed.

“That’s way too steep,” said Teo. “Maybe we could put in a steam-powered lift. Considering where we are, that would mean either coal or firebending, since they don’t have the same geothermal heat here as we do back home. I’m not even sure it’s possible. If you get me the blueprints and ask the commander whether they can maintain it and keep it running if we do install one, then I can tell you whether it’s possible.”

“What do you need blueprints for? You’ve got me, remember?” Toph could feel the shape of the entire building. She described to Teo the rooms above and below them, and the rooms on the other side of the wall.

“That won’t work,” said Teo. “But maybe on the outside of the building... oh, but that won’t work, either.”

“Why not?”

“You can’t just add another door to a place like this,” said Teo. “It’s one more entrance you have to defend. And if it’s on the outside, it’s a weak point that an enemy could attack and keep troops from getting up or down.”

“Well... then what are we supposed to do? Give up?” The entire reason they were traveling was to fix things like that. “We could rebuild this entire place from the ground up.”

“I’m not sure you want to do that,” said Teo. “The commander won’t be happy.”

“Hmph.” Toph folded her arms. “What do I care if he’s happy or not?”

“You’re the one who wants to get involved in politics. What you want to do in Yu Dao will be easier if you don’t get on powerful people’s bad sides,” said Teo.

“Maybe,” she allowed, but Toph thought she might be on the commander’s bad side already after remodeling the top of the wall.

She felt Chenli’s footsteps and those of a soldier coming toward them. Well before either of them said anything, Toph turned toward them.

“Hey,” she said.

“Good morning, Miss Beifong. Your friend here got a bit lost,” said the soldier. Chenli looked down. “I’ll leave her with you. By the way, the commander is hoping you’ll remember to fix the wall before you leave. It’s very important to our defenses.”

Toph thought that was bull, but she smiled and nodded anyway. “Of course. I’ll remember.”

She could just leave the ramps in place like she had in the northern port town, so she didn’t worry about that. It was Chenli getting lost that worried her. Toph resolved to test her more carefully after they left Pohuai, because she’d be worthless as a teacher if she couldn’t get around on her own.

**

The commander was there to “remind” Toph about the ramps before the gate was opened, so she had to undo all her hard work before she could leave with Teo and Chenli. Their visit to Pohuai was completely useless and Toph seethed about it as they left.

“Chenli,” she said once they were a ways away from the stronghold, “which way to Yu Dao?”

“I don’t know,” Chenli admitted. “East?”

“Yep, east. How about you take the lead today?” said Toph. She slowed her pace. Beside her, Teo slowed his. Chenli blazed the trail ahead of them, with cautious steps. They were out amid wetlands and fallen plant detritus that crinkled and collapsed underfoot, deadening Toph’s sense of vibrations.

Chenli reached out to touch a tree she’d seemed like she was going to walk into, and went around it. For a moment, Toph wondered how she’d done it without earthbending. Then she noticed the shade. Chenli was just lucky the sun was out.

She led them east, out of the forest and past wetlands and sometimes through wetlands, getting everyone muddy. At one point, Toph had to push Teo through the mud, even as he protested that it would be possible to go around it.

When it felt like it was almost noon, and Chenli hadn’t done any worse than a couple of close calls on uneven ground, Toph decided she’d seen enough.

“You’ve gotten us pretty far from Pohuai,” she said. “How did you manage to get lost earlier?”

Chenli stopped walking. “You believed that? That was a lie I told when that man caught me sneaking around.”

It wasn’t an answer Toph had expected at all. “What were you sneaking around for? I could feel the whole building!”

There was a pause before Chenli answered. “I prefer to see things for myself.”

“Glad we’ve got that straightened out,” said Toph. She started walking again, past Chenli, to take the lead. “Now let’s try to pick up the pace, slowpokes.”

**

Teo’s wheels were covered in drying mud, like his hands. He told himself that getting angry never solved anything. Really. That was why he was the kind of guy who just let things like this roll right off his back, instead of wanting to shout at Toph that she should have asked that question first and maybe they wouldn’t have had to go through the bog.

“Toph, can you ask that a little sooner next time?” Teo said once he trusted himself to be polite. “It’s not good for my chair to roll through mud like that.”

“It’s just mud,” said Toph. “Don’t be such a baby.”

“Getting mud in my wheels makes it harder for me to get around,” he said. Just a statement of fact, not blaming her. It was getting in between the wheels and the axles, and Teo was going to hate cleaning that out whenever Toph decided they could stop for the day.

Wordlessly, Toph bent the mud away from his chair. Then she kept walking. Walking and scowling.

“Hey, Toph, are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she said, too fast and too brightly. “Why wouldn’t I be?” She picked up her pace and Teo and Chenli both had to speed up to keep from being left behind. “Besides you two being so slow, everything’s peachy.”

Teo pushed a little harder, a little faster. Just fast enough to get ahead of Toph, who immediately sped up. So Teo sped up a little more.

“Don’t tell me you’re still upset about not being able to do anything at Pohuai Stronghold,” he said.

“I’m not upset,” Toph lied.

“Have it your way.” Toph was almost running. Then Teo inched out ahead of her again and suddenly the earth was shifting under Toph’s feet, propelling her way faster than Teo could have gone.

Without thinking, he went all-out, trying to catch her. She just kept widening the gap, and Teo brought himself to a stop. He could go faster than that in the air, but he was on land where Toph had the advantage.

Chenli came running after him and stopped, panting, doubled over. “What-- just happened?” she panted.

Teo shrugged. Then he remembered to answer out loud. “I don’t know, I think Toph is angry at us.” He stared off after her. The way she was using her earthbending looked almost as awesome as flying. He wished he could show her that his flying was even better, but Toph would never be able to see it, and she’d never believe him if he told her.

“Is she coming back?” asked Chenli.

He didn’t know. “Let’s just try following her,” he said, and set off at a pace he thought he and Chenli could both keep up.

***

When Toph finally stopped to rest, it was getting cold. She didn’t know what she’d done wrong, but everything was falling apart between her and Teo. Now that whatever they’d had going was completely ruined, what was she supposed to do? Keep heading for Yu Dao?

Instead of making camp, she started practicing her earthbending. She still couldn’t feel what she was doing as clearly as before Zuko had burned her, but she was getting there, and it felt good to focus on the earth. There was just the rock, and the act of bending it to her will.

And wheels coming toward her. They were way off in the distance. Toph turned toward the vibrations, shifting her feet to get a better feel for how far away they were.

Now what? She could start running again and maybe get away. But why was Teo following her anyway? She’d botched that friendship. It was too bad. She might as well leave before they had a big fight.

She raised a stone tent for herself and crawled inside. She’d just pretend to be sleeping when Teo and Chenli caught up with her.

**

They followed Toph by the trail of loose earth and half-buried bits of turf. That and the fact that she was running in a straight line. After a while, Teo settled into a rhythm, broken only by the times when the ground rose and fell and he had to push harder to get over a hill, or when he let himself coast down. Chenli jogged directly behind him, treading over the places Teo had already chosen as the firmest and most even.

By the time dusk had fallen, Teo had half forgotten why he was running (he thought of it as running). He started laughing at the speed he could get coasting down a hill. The wind would whip his hair and clothes like it did when he was flying. There hadn’t exactly been any hills back home, just flat stone and staircases.

With any luck, a break from the group would have helped Toph’s mood as much as Teo’s.

By the time Teo spotted a rock formation at the end of the trail that looked decidedly unnatural, he was out of breath and his arms ached. Chenli caught up from some ways back, panting and sweaty. She looked about ready to fall over.

Teo stopped right in front of Toph’s rock tent. “Toph’s right there,” he told Chenli. “It looks like she’s asleep.”

He rolled just slightly closer. “Hey, Toph, wake up,” he said.

Chenli walked over to her, knelt and was about to touch her when Toph pushed herself up.

“I’m awake,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“You’re the one who earthbends us a shelter every night,” said Teo. Did it matter if he let his smile disappear remembering that? If Toph knew how uneasy he felt, suddenly realizing that he might not be able to get home without her... then what? “Besides, what if you run into a tigerwolf without me?”

“I can take care of myself,” said Toph. “You’re the one with no bending.”

“I’m teasing you,” said Teo. “It’s a joke. I know you can take care of yourself. I’ve seen you fight, Toph, remember?”

“Yeah, okay,” she said, still not sounding happy. “So then why’d you come? Just because you can’t get anywhere without me?”

That was just close enough to true to make Teo feel like a block of ice had dropped into his stomach. But he was with Toph because he wanted the adventure and because the world needed to be fixed, because he believed in what they were doing and because it was too late to turn back now.

“We’re going to design Republic City together,” he said. “We’re fixing things. And we’re doing great! I should be asking you why you ran off like that.”

“We’re not doing great! We were, but now we’re not. We haven’t fixed anything since Full Moon Bay,” said Toph. “The further we go, the more hopeless it seems. So what if we fixed a couple of buildings? The entire world is full of-- of-- barriers! And people being stupid! You know how many people we’ve helped so far? Three! And we’ve been traveling for weeks! And I’m not even sure why you’re still with me. I know I’m getting on your nerves even more than I usually do.”

“Well, yeah, you are acting immature,” Teo said, and Toph scowled at him, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t still work together. You and Katara managed to work together for months, and I know you two were at each other’s throats for a while.”

“I’m not acting immature,” Toph said. After a moment, she added, “Well, anyway, how are we supposed to fix something so big? At this rate, we’ll die of old age before we’ve even made a dent.”

Teo considered that for a moment. “Ideas,” he said. “Next time, instead of just fixing the problems, we’ll talk about why we’re doing it. Then, when we’re gone, the whole village will work together to continue our work.”

Toph nodded. “I like it. But... why are we doing this?”

“I thought you knew,” said Teo, helplessly. The main idea was something about designing for everyone, and something about helping people get around and do things...

“Your idea is that we’re being wasted,” Chenli said. “We could do more if they would only let us.”

“Yeah,” said Toph. “They think we can’t do anything.”

“Or they just forget about us.” It was coming together now. Teo knew what to tell the next village.