Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Welcome to Pao’s family tea shop, I’m Lee what can I get you?”

“Chaos.”

“Understandable. Sadly that’s not on the menu, would you settle for a cup of Jasmine tea?”

“Sure.”

Toph had gotten annoyed with the fancy house she had been living in with the Gaang and was wandering around the lower levels of Ba Sing Se. She had found this tea shop that seemed pretty popular and decided to go in.

As much as she was disappointed that she couldn’t get the chaos she wanted, she wasn’t expecting to either. She wondered why the server would lie about his name, but his response to her chaos request was good enough for her to forgive him. People have their reasons and she had learned not to question some things over the years.

She sat at one of the shorter chairs so that her feet could still touch the ground and observed her surroundings. Well- felt her surroundings.

Given its popularity, it wasn’t too crowded, most likely because it was getting late. But she could tell that there were a few official Ba Sing Se guards behind her just from their conversation. She would have to be careful, she wouldn’t want to be caught in the outer circle. It was good that she hadn’t worn her normal clothes, otherwise, she would’ve been spotted immediately.

“Here’s your tea Miss.” Tophs thoughts were interrupted by the server.

“Oh, thanks, man.” She reached for the tea, kind of guessing where he was holding it. She must have missed because a second later he was pushing the cup into her hand.

“Oh. Whoops. Thanks for that.”

“No problem…” the server replied, sounding a bit suspicious.

A few minutes passed and Toph was sipping her tea contently. She would have to come back here sometime, the tea really was good. Maybe she should bring Katara…

“Uncle, I can’t do that.” Toph suddenly heard.
That was the server’s voice. Might as well listen in, it wasn’t like anything else interesting was happening.

“If you’re curious just ask her!” replied an older-sounding guy, who she assumed was another worker.

“You can’t just ask people if they’re blind, Uncle, that’s rude.”

Toph chuckled. Ah, so they were talking about her. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, it was actually pretty common. The old guy was actually right, she wouldn’t have minded at all if the server had just straight up asked her, it’s not like she was ashamed or anything.

But then something clicked in her head. Wait…

“Wait I know that voice, and this tea!” Toph suddenly called, standing up. “You’re that old guy I met in the mountains!”

The entire shop went quiet. Toph didn’t have to see to know that all eyes were on her.

She heard a laugh from the old man. “Ah, you must’ve mistaken me for someone else.” He turned to address the shop. “Please everyone, go back to your tea.”

This seemed to work, as voices started to rise from the tables from people starting up their small talk again.

Toph sat back down. She knew the old man was lying, why had he lied? Maybe it was something to do with the guards sitting behind her…

“Sorry about all that,” the old man whispered, sitting down across from her along with the server. “I don’t want to draw too much attention to me and my nephew here. Remind me, where have we met before?”

Ah, that was why. It made sense, considering they were in Ba Sing Se. There were some sketchy things going on around here. But that was a problem for another day.

“We met when I was kind of wandering on my own, I think it was near a rice field or something.”

The old man thought for a moment. “Hm… I’m sorry but I don’t think I remember you. I met a lot of people in my travels and had tea with a lot of them too,” he laughed while the server just face-planted.

The old man stood up, “I’ll go get you some more tea, talk to my nephew! He could use some friends.”

“Uncle, I don’t-”

“Socialize!”

The server groaned. Toph just laughed. “So you said your name was Lee, right?”

“Yeah.”

Another lie. Why would someone need to lie about their name? She assumed it was for the same reason they didn’t want much attention but the question still stood.

“So what’s your name?” Lee asked.

“Toph. Nice to meet ya. Also to answer your question, yes, I am blind.”

“I- what you- what?” Lee stuttered out. She could only imagine the face he was making right now.

“Yeah, I overheard the conversation you and your uncle had earlier. Ya could’ve just asked me, I don’t mind.”

“Oh… so you’re just out here on your own? And you’re blind?”

“Yup! It’s not like I’m helpless though, because I can see! With my feet!” Toph stuck out her foot and pointed to it dramatically.

Lee paused for a moment, “... Feet don’t have eyes though.”

“What- no you idiot, I’m an earth bender. I feel vibrations through the earth and through those I can make out what’s in a room. So really I’m not blind at all!”

“That- that’s a thing that earth benders can do?”

“Yup! Not a lot of people know how though. I only know because I need to.”

“If not a lot of people know how then how did you learn it?”

“Badgermoles taught me.”

Toph could almost hear his confused face. “Badgermoles taught you?”

“Yup.”

Lee scoffed. “What did they raise you to?”

“More than my parents ever did.”

Lee choked on tea that she didn’t even know he was drinking. It took Toph a second to realize that he was laughing and not choking to death.

“What? You think that’s funny?” Toph said through her own giggles.

“I mean- yeah I-” Lee paused as he started to calm down. “No, that- that was funny. That was funny…”

Toph chucked. Maybe this guy wasn’t half bad. “Are your parents shit too?”

Toph suddenly felt his heart rate rise. “I… well I guess- I mean…”

“Ah, touchy subject. It’s all good,” Toph interrupted. She was harsh but she wasn’t gonna make the poor guy talk about his trauma to a stranger. “Your uncle seems really nice though. He really helped me out that one time.”

“Yeah… that sounds like him. I’m lucky to have him.”

“Damn right you are! You know he talked about you a lot that one time we met.”

“He- he did?”

“Yup…” Toph took a sip of tea, remembering that one day. “He really cares about you man, I’m really glad he found you, he seems a lot happier now.”

“Oh…”

The two sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, until the old man came back.

“You know, I’m surprised I don’t remember you,” the old man wondered out loud as he placed down tea for the three of them.

“I kind of am too. I mean, I know you probably met a lot of people, but it’s kinda difficult to forget a little blind girl.”

“A little blind girl I met in the mountains…”

Toph suddenly felt the old man’s heart rate rise by multitudes. What was it with random people stressing over random things today?

“Ah- Lee,” the old man stuttered as he grabbed his nephew by the arm. “I think we should go back to work.”

“But you just brought out tea-”

Lee was interrupted by the door slamming open. And an entirely new voice entered the room.

“I’m tired of waiting…”

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Zuko hadn’t expected to have to actually talk to a person today, yet here he was.

While Toph probably would’ve been his first pick within the shop, given her request for chaos upon entering, it didn’t mean he wanted to talk at all.

But he was pleasantly surprised when she was genuinely nice. Not the fake nice that he had gotten from nobles and servants throughout the years, but actual kindness. She didn’t hold back at all and she had a refreshing kind of edge to her.

It was nice.

Until it wasn’t.

“Ah- Lee. I think we should get back to work.” Zuko cringed at the alias. It was still weird getting called that.

“But you just brought out tea-”

Zuko was promptly interrupted by someone slamming the door open.

“I’m tired of waiting,” the person stated, walking in like he owned the place.

Was that Jet-

“These two men are fire benders!”

Zuko froze where he stood. He really hoped he had heard that wrong.

Jet continued, drawing his weapons. “I know they’re fire benders! I saw the old man heating his tea!”

“He works in a tea shop,” one of the guards commented, very confused.

“He’s a fire bender! I’m telling you!”

The two guards looked at each other before starting to stand. “Drop your swords boy, nice and easy.”

Jet ignored the guard and started approaching Iroh. “You’ll have to defend yourself, then everyone will know. Go ahead, show them what you can do.”

This was the last straw for Zuko. There was no way he could get away with threatening his uncle, friend or not.

But just as he was about to approach Jet, a small hand hit his chest. He looked to see who dared stop him and- It was Toph.

She took a step forward and spoke. “Clearly you need to get your eyes checked.” She pointed at Iroh dramatically. “This man is a water bender.”

Chapter Text

Toph was having one of those rare moments where she had the brain cell the Gaang shared. And boy did she need it at the moment.

She of course had sensed the crazy man about to come in, but she didn’t know that he was gonna accuse the old guy of being a fire bender!
But the weirdest thing was… the crazy guy wasn’t lying. Or at least he wasn’t under the impression he was. Meanwhile, Lee and the old guy’s heart rates were sky high!

Which meant… they actually were fire benders? Was she on cactus juice? Was there cactus juice in that tea?

No, that couldn’t be it. While everyone else around her was panicking Toph was deep in thought.

The way she saw it she had two options. Don’t do anything and let whatever happens happen, or she could meddle.

That old man had been so nice to her, and they hadn’t done anything wrong. If they were fire benders it was obvious they didn’t want anything to do with the fire nation. The old man just wanted a better life for him and his nephew…

Yeah, she was gonna meddle.

“This man is a water bender.”

For the second time that day, Toph felt all eyes on her. She was lucky she stepped in when she did. From the feel of it, Lee was about to go for the guard's sword and have an all-out brawl with the guy.

The crazy guy pointed one of his swords at Toph. “That’s not possible, I saw him heat up his tea!”

“Toph, what are you-” She quickly cut off Lee. Whatever he was about to say wouldn’t have helped the situation.

“I mean, yeah he might have,” Toph continued. “But does that really mean he’s a fire bender?”

“What- what the hell do you mean?” The crazy guy asked.

“I know a water bender actually! She can make ice and turn it back into water at will! Who’s to say they can’t heat up water as well? It’s basically the same thing.”

“I- hey what the hell are you saying? Are you with them?!” In a fit of pure anger, the crazy man came at Toph with his swords. Without a second thought, she summoned a rock and launched him straight out the door. She might have killed him but one could only hope.

Wait. She had just earth-bent.
She wasn’t allowed to do that.

Toph immediately turned to the two guards and went into innocent-monarch-child mode. “I’m sorry I earth bent, I know I’m not allowed to. I was scared… I was only trying to protect the old man…”

She felt the guard's heart rate drop. She smirked internally, the ruse had worked.

“It’s alright kid, you were just protecting yourself,” the guard reassured. “We’ll take care of him from here. Stay safe you two!”

The old man suddenly clapped his hands together and announced: “Yes… I’m sorry to do this but I think we’re going to close a little early today. I think we have some recuperating to do after all this.”

Of course, everyone was understanding and gave encouragement to the old man and his nephew. Toph was about to leave herself when the old man stopped her.

“Wait don’t go yet! We have to thank you for all your help! Things could’ve gotten messy if you hadn’t stepped in.”

“Meh, it’s no problem. All in a day's work. Besides, it gave me an excuse to beat someone up.”

Lee snorted at that.

“Oh also I’m sorry about your floor,” Toph continued, gesturing to where she had summoned a rock earlier.

“It’s fine. There are a lot of certified earth benders around here. We can get it fixed pretty easily.” Lee responded.

“Right then… And… One other thing?” Toph looked up to the two of them, a smirk on her face. “Are you gonna tell me why the crazy dude was right?”

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Zuko thought he would only know fear when he faced Azula.

He was wrong.

He was already panicking and this just sent him over the edge. Out of instinct, Zuko sent a blast of fire at her, which she blocked with a wall of rock.

“Woah, what the fuck dude?! Calm down, I’m not gonna hurt you. And I’m not a snitch either. I just need to know if you’re good or bad people. And I can tell if you're lying, so I will warn you now not to mess with me.”

Zuko hesitated. He responded but he didn’t drop his fighting stance. “And what will you do if you decide we’re bad?”

“Well, I happen to be friends with the avatar. We have our ways of doing things.”

Zuko looked up at Iroh. He mouthed and kind of charaded to him: “You met someone from the avatars group?!”

Iroh mouthed back: “I didn’t know at the time!”

“Well, what do we do now?!”

“Uhg! Stop mouthing things! It’s annoying!” Toph suddenly yelled.

Iroh sighed and signaled for Zuko to drop his fighting stance. “Alright, I understand where you’re coming from. I’ll answer any questions you have if you answer one for me.”

“Uhh, sure. Shoot.”

“How long have you been with the avatars group?”

“Oh, that’s easy! I actually only joined them a few days before I met you!”

“Wait- so…” Zuko interjected. “You really don’t know who I am?”

“No. Why would I?”

Zuko sighed and sat on one of the tables. “We’re fucked. We’re totally fucked.”

Iroh patted his nephew on the back. He started walking towards the stairs in the back room. “Come upstairs with us. We can explain everything there. We don’t want anyone barging in.”

Iroh went on ahead and Zuko and Toph somehow ended up walking up the stairs together.

“Aw come on hot stuff, calm down,” Toph chuckled as she nudged his arm a bit. “I don’t think I would even need my earth bending to tell that you’re nervous right now.”

Zuko sighed. Well, this was disappointing. He had actually kinda liked Toph, but he guessed that was kind of ruined now. He went past Toph without a word, not wanting to make things worse.

------------------------------------------

Toph wasn’t exactly sure what was happening, but boy was she enjoying it. This was the most interesting thing that had happened all month! But she was definitely still missing something. Like why had the old man asked how long she had been with the Gaang? And what was up with Lee? How was he involved in all of this?

Well, whatever it was she sure as hell was about to get an answer.

“Alright,” the old man started as soon as the three of them were seated around a table. “I suppose I should start from the beginning… You said you can tell when I am lying, correct? Through your earth bending?”

“Yup. So don’t try anything funny.”

The old man sighed and started to tell their story. He didn’t get much into why Lee was banished but for some reason, he was sent after the avatar. After getting soundly beaten in the Northern Water Tribe, they started wandering through the Earth Kingdom. After a bit, they split up which was around when Toph met Iroh. After meeting up again that very same day they set out to Ba Sing Se and… “And that’s what led us here now.”

“Wait wait wait wait,” Toph rambled, trying to get her thoughts together. “You said that you two met back up the very same day that me and Iroh met each other.”

“Uh- yeah pretty much,” Iroh replied.

“So that means…” Toph stood up and pointed. “Wait that means you’re Prince Zuko!”

“I- uh- wait I-” Zuko was pretty sure he was gonna die right then and there.

“Yeah! I distinctly remember Katara saying ‘Zuko we can help you’ or something stupid like that. I knew your voice sounded familiar!”

Iroh tried to diffuse the situation. “Toph, slow down for a second-”

“Wait so does that make you General Iroh?”

“What do you- wait, how do you even know that?” Zuko asked.

“I used to be a noble, duh. It’s not like I can write stuff down so I basically have every royal family memorized. There’s no way my parents would let me forget the Fire Nation royal family.”

“I…” Zuko sighed and put his head down on the table. “You can still tell when we’re lying can’t you?”

“Yup. And I know that I’m right.”

“Fuck… So what are you gonna do now?”

“Uh, nothing I guess?”

Zuko’s head shot up. “Wait what?”

“Yeah, I really have no reason to do anything. From what I hear from Aang you were at best a nuisance when you were chasing him. Plus you helped us out in that battle with Azula! So no. I don’t really see a reason to do anything.”

Iroh laughed a bit and stood up. He began to walk off. “Well! This conversation has certainly made a turn for the better. I’ll go make us some tea.”

“Uncle, we just had tea.”

“You can never have too much tea, Prince Zuko! Talk to your new friend while I make this.”

Zuko face-planted again. The two sat in silence for a few moments. Toph was just… observing.

“Hey, hot stuff,” Toph said, kicking him lightly in the shin. “Chill out. You’re gonna have a panic attack the way your heart rate is.”

“Uh- right. Sorry…”

“Don’t apologize dumbass it’s not your fault.” Toph leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. “So, your dad’s the Fire Lord, huh?”

“Unfortunately so.”

“Felt that.”

Zuko finally lifted his head up. “Didn’t you say you used to be a noble?”

“Well technically I still am, but I don’t consider myself to be one. I’m a part of the Beifong family.”

“You’re what?!”

“Yup. Surprising right? They kinda kept me hidden away so not a lot of people even knew I existed.”

Zuko paused for a moment. “... Well that explains your sudden switch in personality with the guards.”

“Hey, you noticed that! I’m impressed.”

“Of course I did. I had to do that shit all the time back then… Wait so are you the avatar’s earth bending teacher?”

“That’s me! He kinda sucks at it though.”

Zuko chuckled. “Your earth bending earlier was pretty impressive. Not to mention your whole foot… seeing… thing.”

“It’s my specialty! Hey, do you know how to fire bend?” Toph suddenly asked, almost too casually.

“Uh- of course, I do? You saw me do it earlier-”

“No, I mean like, actually fire bend. Properly. Like fighting and stuff!”

“Well- yeah. I’ve been learning that stuff since I was a kid…”

Toph’s face lit up. “Dude! You should totally teach Aang how to fire bend!”

Zuko short-circuited. He was almost entirely certain he had heard her wrong because there is no way she just-

“We’ve been having a lot of trouble finding him one but you would be perfect!”

“Uh- Toph I’m not really sure. We’ve tried to kill each other like 15 different times.”

“First of all: I don’t think Twinkle Toes has the guts to try and kill anyone. Second of all: It’s water under the bridge! You’re good now! So don’t worry about it. Plus you get to help take down your shit stain of a dad!”

Zuko thought. On the one hand, it would be wonderful to take down his dad. He’s the one who had banished him, given him his scar, sent his mother away… But there was no way they would ever accept him.

“Toph… I’m sorry but I don’t think I can do that. You didn’t see me like they did, I was malicious. They would never let me into their group.”

Toph sighed. This was gonna be harder than she thought. “Look, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll go to them in the morning and tell them what happened. If they’re not down for this then fine, their loss. I’ll come back here tomorrow at noon to tell you what they said. If you still don’t want to come that’s fine, but I really think you should.”

“I…” Zuko thought. That wasn’t a terrible compromise… “Fine. But even if they say yes, that’s no guarantee that I’ll go.”

“Fine by me.”

The two sat in comfortable silence again, before Toph suddenly shot up in her chair. “Holy shit you were fighting your sister that day.”

“You’re just now realizing this?”

------------------------------------------

“Katara just hear me out-”

“No, there is no way we are letting that scumbag into our group.”

Toph hadn’t expected this to go well but the fact that Katara was yelling was never a good sign.

“Yeah… I’m gonna have to go with Katara on this one,” Aang agreed. “I mean, can we really trust him after all he’s done?”

“He’s changed! Come on he was only trying to kill you because of his daddy issues. We’ve all done stupid shit like that before!”

“Oh yeah we’ve all done stupid shit,” Katara grumbled, getting continuously irritated. “But never to the point of hunting someone down and trying to kill them!”

“Well…” Sokka started, recalling all the times Katara had let her anger get the best of her. “I don’t know I think Toph has a point.”

“See! Sokka gets it.”

“I mean I do need a fire bending teacher…”

“Aang!” Katara yelled angrily. “Don’t get in on this too!”

“Well, maybe he really has changed! He hasn’t really done anything since the Northern Water Tribe, and he even helped us that one time with Azula!”

Toph sighed, getting annoyed with all this arguing. “Look, Katara, I get that you don’t trust him but you have gotta get over yourself.”

Aang briefly considered the possibility that Katara was a fire bender because there was a fire in her eyes. “What the fuck did you just say to me-”

“Ok! That’s enough,” Sokka interjected. “Katara, you need to get your anger under control, and Toph, that was uncalled for. Apologize.”

The two mumbled apologies under their breaths, and Sokka accepted it as it was the best he was gonna get.

Sokka continued. “Alright, Katara? Why don’t we give this a try? Aang really needs a fire bending teacher and I think there’s a really good chance he’s trustworthy now.”

“... Fine. We can let him in. But that doesn’t mean I have to like him.”

“Great!” Toph exclaimed. “I’ll let him know that we’re chill with it. And besides, if he does betray us we can just kill him.”

“Toph please I’m not allowed to kill people-”

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“... Uncle? What do you think I should do?”

“Do whatever you think is right my nephew!”

“No that’s not- uncle please just give me an answer.” Zuko was growing more and more anxious by the minute. It was nearing noon and he still hadn’t made a decision. “I don’t know what’s right in this situation, that’s why I’m asking you. So please just give me a straight answer.”

Iroh sighed. He walked over from the kitchen and sat across from Zuko. “Perhaps thinking about what you should do is the wrong way to go about it… Perhaps you should think about what you want to do.”

“What I- want?”

“Yes! To be completely honest I don’t think either option is wrong in this scenario. So the only thing you should be worrying about is what you want to do. And I hope you know I will support you no matter which path you take.”

Zuko hummed in response and aimlessly stirred at the soup in front of him. “Uncle… What will you do if I go?”

Iroh thought for a moment. “I think… I would have to stay here. As much as I would hate to part from you again, having a tea shop is my dream! And now that I finally have that, I don’t think I can let it go…”

“Then it’s settled. I’m staying,” Zuko replied without hesitation.

“What? No! Don’t let me hold you back.” Iroh grabbed Zuko’s hand. “It won't be like last time. We would be parting because we were heading for better lives for ourselves. Not because of some petty dispute. You will know exactly where I am, and I’ll know that you are out there doing great things. If you leave we will see each other again. I promise you that.”

Zuko thought. Sure he wanted out of this city, but… was it really worth leaving his uncle behind again?

What did he want…

Well…

“Ok. I’ll do it,” Zuko suddenly declared, coming out of his own thoughts. “If they’ll take me… I’ll go with them. I’ll train the avatar in fire bending in order to defeat my father.”

Zuko looked up at Iroh.

“And in order to restore my honor.”

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“You ready for this hot stuff?”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“I will absolutely continue to call you that.”

Zuko sighed. He and Toph were standing right outside the avatar's camp. It was the afternoon now and the sun was setting. It was… nerve-wracking to say the least. Toph had already warned him about Katara, who he was already slightly terrified of due to their battle at the Northern Water Tribe.

At the very least she had said that Sokka was chill with him.

“You scared? I can feel your heart racing.”

“I’m not scared.”

“Yes you are, you stupid head.”

“Dumbass.”

“Fucker.”

“Shorty.”

“Hothead.”

“Ok fine, could you just shut up for two minutes?” Zuko took a deep breath before turning to Toph. “Ok, let's go.”

The two walked in together and all eyes were on them. Sokka and Aang looked at him curiously while Katara just looked irritated. Momo didn’t seem to give two shits about the situation.

Toph elbowed him, encouraging him to say something. Zuko sighed. Thankfully he had thought up what to say to them on the way here…

“Hello, Zuko here…”