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.”