Chapter Text
When Toph and Kanto finally decided that it was high time to join Zuko and Katara for dinner, it took all they had within them to get up and leave the warmth of each other’s embrace, but they handled it as much as it pained them. If it had been up to them, they never would have left the comfort of the palace’s gardens, but Toph was starving and as much as Kanto whined about it, he couldn’t argue with the fact that she was, indeed, eating for two.
Plus, she could smell the food from where they were and she couldn’t take it anymore. Her stomach was on the brink of digesting itself, truthfully.
They were, however, delayed for a few more minutes as they made their way over to the dining room. While they were walking, Kanto abruptly pulled her aside once they entered the main corridor of the palace and his hands cupped her face tenderly. His thumb ran across her bottom lip just before he pressed a kiss to her lips that made her feel all kinds of things.
The fact that he could just do that whenever he wanted was making her weak at the knees, though this was something Toph would never openly admit to him or anyone.
Too soon, he pulled away from her, but his forehead rested on hers. “I love you.”
Toph bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling too widely; she didn’t think she would ever tire of hearing those words come out of his mouth. She let a hand rest on his chest. “Right back at ya, Hotshot.”
“Really?” Kanto comically deflated, sighing directly into her face making her shove him away from her playfully. “That’s all you’re going to give me?”
“Mhm. That’s all you’re getting until I get some food in me,” she replied, crossing her arms over her belly. To her, it was funny how her arms could just rest there — as though on top of her own personal table. “My love for you rests upon my tummy and Baby Beifong’s tummy being full of whatever Fire Nation delicacies are being served tonight” — a pause to sniff around — “and it seems to me that it’s something related to red meat.”
“That is actually not fair.”
“The red meat? Don’t tell me you’ve gone vegetarian on me or this just won’t work out between us.”
He shook his head, crossing his own arms over his chest to mimic her stance, shaking his head in mock dismay. “You don’t make anything easy, you know that?”
She raised her hands above her head as she waddled off in the direction of the dining room. There was the faintest pain in her gut, but she disregarded it. “Hey now, I don’t make the rules. Don’t hate the player, Hotshot. Hate the game.”
At the sound of Kanto’s laugh behind her, she allowed herself to grin.
There was something about finally having come clean about her feelings for Kanto that was so liberating for Toph. From the moment they spoke in the gardens, when they let everything they were feeling for each other out, she felt light. It was as though the weight of the world was lifted off her shoulders and that everything was the way it was supposed to be — as corny as that sounded.
He jogged up behind her and caught her hand in his, bringing it up to his lips to press a kiss onto her knuckles. It felt natural, as though it was something he had been doing forever, and it felt so good to be so openly affectionate toward each other after holding back for so long.
Toph’s denial of her feelings was largely due to not wanting to deal with her thoughts and feelings toward Kanto. Not only that but she also had a whole human to worry about, one that would be dependent on their parents for a large portion of their life. The last thing she would have wanted was for her kid to have to deal with parents who hated each other or couldn’t stand the sight of each other.
She wanted her kid to be happy — raised around love and whatever — and that wasn’t going to happen with discontent people. It just wasn’t. So she was sure glad that Kanto was on the same page.
Finally having arrived at the dining room, Toph noticed that something was amiss right away. Katara’s heartbeat was slower than what Toph was used to feeling from her and she could hear her panting as Zuko rubbed circles on her back in an attempt to help soothe whatever was happening.
Toph worriedly walked up to the table, one hand tightly clutching Kanto’s and the other on her lower back, and asked, “What’s wrong with her?”
Katara tried to talk but ended up groaning instead, and Zuko said, “I think she’s in labor and she doesn’t want to admit it.”
“Katara—”
“I’m fine ; just a false alarm” Katara huffed, readjusting herself where she sat as if nothing was wrong. Then, she turned to Kanto and Toph, paused for a moment, and pointed at their hands. “What’s this? What’s going on here? Did you finally get your shit together?”
Despite herself, Toph let go of Kanto’s hand. “Is labor finally making your balls drop, Sugar Queen?”
“I’m not in labor!” Katara groaned loudly and painfully, throwing her head back as she hissed. There were tears slipping down her face. “I can’t be in labor. It’s— it’s too early and—”
Trying to remain calm at the sight of his wife’s discomfort, Zuko took her hand and said, “You yourself have said that these things can happen, that we need to expect the unexpected and—”
“I know what I said! Screw what I said, ah !”
“Okay,” Zuko stood up, pulling Katara to her feet and holding her steady. He looked toward one of his footmen and said, “I need you to get the healers because it looks like we’re having our baby today.”
As his aids scurried off to inform the healers in the palace about the impromptu birth, Katara grunted, walking away from her husband, saying, “ We ? We’re having this baby? That’s interesting considering how I’m the one in excruciating pain right now!”
Though they tried hard to not laugh, Toph and Kanto, who had not yet even sat down, could not quite help themselves as they let out a snort at Katara’s jab. Meanwhile, Zuko shot them both a glare as he grabbed hold of Katara’s waist and hand in an effort to help her out of the dining room and to wherever it was the healers were waiting for Katara.
Kanto brought his arms around Toph’s torso, his hands flattening over her belly, and laid his chin atop her head. “That was something.”
“It was… something,” Toph replied, laying her head back against his chest and suddenly feeling strange. Before she could properly assess what she was feeling, she felt sharper pain than what she had abode earlier, and a warmth trickle down her legs and splash onto the ground. Her eyes widened as she stepped out of the comfort and warmth of Kanto’s arms. “So was that .”
Toph’s hands went to her stomach and her chest began to heave while aches began to radiate from her lower back and down her legs. She wasn’t ready for this yet. She had just settled and figured things out with her baby’s father. It was too soon. She was starting to feel stronger and more constant pain in her abdomen and she balled her hands into fists.
Kanto was once again at her side in seconds and she couldn’t even focus on the nerves evident in his heartbeat, she was in so much pain. “Is it time? Are you—”
“I don’t know. I— this is. It’s too soon, right? Eight months is— it’s too soon.”
“Eight and a half months, actually.”
She huffed and gave him her best glare. Was he really going to fight her on specifics now? “What?”
Some of Zuko’s other aids rushed over to her as soon as they entered the room and made to guide her and Kanto to another room, presumably to deliver the baby. Kanto did not let go of her hand once. “Eight and a half months and then some is the amount of time you’ve been pregnant. So, I don’t know. I don’t— I don’t think it’s too early.”
It took them what felt like forever to get to the end of the corridor and swing a right to finally find the damn room. As she was helped onto the bed — an action that made Toph yell “I’ve fucking got it!” at all those who were coddling her — she could faintly hear Katara’s screams in the room beside them.
The screams didn’t sound particularly serene and Toph wasn’t very consoled by them.
Her pain was becoming more and more consistent by the second and she was certain that it was a kind of pain that she did not want to endure more than once in her life. All she wanted was for it to stop, but it was un- fucking -relenting.
Toph’s hand was tightly squeezing Kanto’s to the point where his fingers were all sandwiched together, but he wasn’t complaining. Instead, he was gently telling her that the pain would be over soon while he rubbed her belly and wiped the sweat off her forehead every once in a while.
For forty-five minutes she was in pain, and those forty-five minutes felt like hours after she was finally examined by one of the three healers in the room for the umpteenth and, thankfully, final time. The healer mumbled something about being fully dilated and Toph could not have been happier despite her discomfort.
Spirits, she hadn’t even realized that she’d lost her pants until that very point.
“She’s eager,” said a healer, sitting down in front of Toph’s center. “You can get to pushing now.”
Regardless of the immense amount of pain she was in, Toph froze and tears flooded her eyes. She wasn’t ready for this — for motherhood. She didn’t feel like she was and the last thing she wanted was to be a shit mother to her kid. The baby could wait, Toph decided, it could worm its way back into her uterus and stay there. It seemed doable, reasonable.
Kanto, likely noticing the look on her face, grabbed it in his hands, his thumbs caressing her cheeks. “Whatever you’re thinking, I want you to forget it. You’re fine, the baby’s fine. You’re going to be an amazing mother, Toph. I know it.”
“Kanto—”
“No. I know you’re not about to give me some crap about how you can’t do this,” he said, taking her hand and squeezing; she squeezed back as her chin trembled. “You’re strong as hell, and I know you’re going to get through this. We will. I’ll be here every step of the way.”
Her breaths were labored and the pain she was experiencing was astronomical, but she hung onto his every word and she nodded. It was all she could do as he let her hand go and climbed up on the bed behind her.
“What’s— what are you doing?”
“I’m going to be here for you,” Kanto said into her ear, pulling her into his chest and holding onto both of her hands, his legs at either side of her. “And you’re going to lean on me, okay?”
Again, all she could do was nod and do as he told her, feeling an immense and painful pressure as the baby crowned at her opening. It felt like she was on fire as she pushed.
And then nothing but a hollow pain in her lower belly.
There should have been crying, she collapsed into Kanto’s chest after pushing out the afterbirth. The baby should have been wailing after she was born, but there was nothing but silence for an excruciatingly long time.
Just as she was about to question it, she heard the most blissful sound of her child crying.
“You did so good, Toph,” Kanto said, emotion evident in his voice as he kissed her neck. “You did it and she’s so beautiful.”
The tears running down her cheeks felt warm as a healer brought her bundled baby over and laid her in her arms. Her first instinct was to gently brush her fingers over her small features and a watery smile settled on Toph’s face.
Not even two minutes old, Toph loved this creature with everything she had, everything she was.
A day later, when both Toph and Katara were feeling a bit better to move about the confines of the palace, they shared a laugh. What were the odds that the two of them ended up giving birth within minutes of each other?
“I’m still bitter that you ended up birthing Lin first,” Katara had said while they shared a meal in her room; Katara holding Lin and Toph holding Kya. “ I went into labor before you did.”
Toph had shrugged comically, pressing a kiss to Kya’s forehead. “What can I say? I’m always victorious.”
That evening, the men decided to take a drink or ten while the women caught up. They seemed as though they needed it, being new fathers and all. Apparently, Zuko had been a hair away from fainting during the birth and Toph promised Katara that she would not let him live it down.
Katara had begun to laugh inexplicably after they had gone silent for a few moments, both too wrapped in baby bliss to utter a word, making Toph turn to her with a baffled look on her face.
“What’s with you?”
“Oh, nothing,” Katara responded as she held a sleeping Lin to her chest. That baby was dead asleep and Toph could not have been happier. “I just love being right.”
Already knowing that this was coming, Toph rolled her eyes and turned her head down toward Kya. “Your mama is a pain in my ass.”
“Toph!”
“I’m not saying anything that isn’t true. Besides, she won’t even remember this conversation, so quit whining.”
Katara rolled her eyes and nudged Toph’s leg with her foot. The two were laying right next to each other on Katara’s bed in her room. “I’m just saying — you and Kanto seemed awfully cozy yesterday.”
“What would you know? You were too busy not being in labor.”
“Toph, please—”
She snorted. “Fine. Continue, I guess.”
“You’re both so perfect for each other,” Katara gushed, attempting to keep her voice low and leveled so as to not wake Lin. “Some of Zuko’s healers came to visit me today and they were talking about you and Kanto in the delivery room. And, of course, I heard about everything — how he talked you down a ledge, how he crawled into bed with you… Mhm.”
Toph had never wanted to kick someone’s ass more than she had at that moment. Maybe she would find the physical strength to walk over to the healers and tell them off for being monumental gossips.
Still, she remained quiet after Katara’s revelation, her cheeks warm as she gave a dozing Kya her index finger. She thought about how, with Kanto, things did feel as perfect as they could be as horribly corny as that sounded.
It was the truth.
“I just want you to know,” Katara continued, “that I want to be matron of honor at your wedding.”
“Hold your ostrich-horses there, Sugar Queen. We’re not there yet,” Toph replied with an eye roll. But seconds later, she sighed and said, “You’d be the only one up for the job, anyway, so I don’t know what you’re on about.”
It was safe to say that Katara woke Lin up with her squeals.
That same night, in the quiet of her room in the palace and after Toph had gotten Lin down again, Toph and Kanto lay in each other’s embrace. Lazy kisses were being pressed around her face, down her neck, on the inside of her wrist… and as much as she was desirous of saying that she detested it — the mushiness and the closeness and the downright cheesiness of it all — she couldn’t.
Because she loved it. And him.
Admitting such a fact was something that brought some fear to her, but one that came with even more anticipation. Toph had loved before, but never the way she loved him. It was likely the reason why it had been so difficult for her to actually realize that she did, in fact, love him — because she had never known love so fierce. It was all so new to her and she was still trying to get used to it after they finally came together.
But then came Lin, and she fell in love all over again.
The newborn was laying just beside them on the bed they were laying on and Toph could not stop smelling her or touching her, and she didn’t ever want to stop.
Spirits. That baby was perfect and she couldn’t have asked for anything better.
As Kanto buried his face into her neck, Toph smiled at the thought of her first time holding Lin. There was something about a fresh baby in her arms — crying and cooing and wiggling — that made her feel an overwhelming, and even uncomfortable, feeling of adoration and devotion that she had never felt for anyone.
It was so strange, she thought. Just after the healer — who she finally learned was named Ong following her time spent practically holed up in Toph’s nether regions — gently placed a quiet bundle into her arms only a day prior, Toph felt extraordinary love for someone who she had never even met before that very moment. But she supposed that, considering how her baby’s home had been her belly for eight and a half months, it made a speck of sense.
Toph’s hands went to her baby’s face, her fingers gently grazing every single feature on the newborn’s frail, little face. Tears, much to her own dismay, pooled her eyes and cascaded down her face. This baby was hers and she was made from what was now identified as love .
For a few moments only, Toph had forgotten that Kanto was beside her then, his own share of tears falling from his eyes. It wasn’t until he spoke that she remembered he was there.
“She looks like you,” he said, his voice laced with emotion.
“I can sense a little bit of you in her, too,” Toph replied just above a whisper. She sat up, brought Lin up to her chest, and breathed in. Her scent was unmatched and Toph decided that it would remain that way forever. Nothing would beat the Newborn Lin smell for as long as she lived. Her index finger brushed over the baby’s nose. “Did I tell you that she’s got your nose?”
Kanto let out a tearful chuckle as he nodded, his hand gently caressing Lin’s head. “Is it weird that I love her already?”
“If it is, I could give two craps,” she said earnestly, pressing her lips to Lin’s forehead. It was true — she felt such an overwhelming sense of adoration for her child that she didn’t care about what was proper and what wasn’t.
All she knew was that she was going to love the living shit out of her daughter.
“And,” he spoke again, moving his head down to lay on her leg, “is it a bad time to tell you that I love you ?”
Toph snorted, her hand coming up to touch his face, to look at him. “I love you, too, Hotshot.”