Chapter Text
“I can’t believe you’ve been cheating on us,” Sokka said, leaning dramatically against Suki.
“I- that- I’m not-” Zuko sputtered. “That is NOT what’s happening!”
“Technically, he’s cheating on his fiance with us,” Suki said. “How heartbroken must she be to find out this way!”
Zuko rolled his eyes, and continued to pack his bags. A good mix of regal and casual. Tensions between countries had died down a little, but it was probably not a good idea to go gallivanting around the Earth Kingdom announcing his status. Actually maybe he should buy something in green if he really wanted to lay low.
“Jokes aside,” Sokka said. “Are you sure this is real? Not some weird fake… underhanded nonsense?”
“I doubt it’s fake,” Zuko said. “If it was something my father had done, I’d question it. But grandfather… I can’t say he was always the nicest person. Especially toward his enemies. But he was open and honest about what he was doing.”
“Still,” Suki said. “Why would he make a contract with an Earth Kingdom noble in the middle of a war?”
That was…. Well. Zuko knew the answer. It just wasn’t exactly one they’d like to hear.
“Fire Lord Azulon was confident the War would end soon,” Zuko said. “The contract’s date is right in the middle of the Siege of Ba Sing Sae. If we had managed to take the capitol city and usurp the Earth King, it wouldn’t take long to subjugate the rest of the country.”
“But that didn’t happen,” Suki said. “At least not then. And when Azula did it, we still won.”
“We won because we had Aang,” Sokka mused. “But back then….”
“Back then, the Avatar was presumed dead,” Zuko said. “And the Siege, though long and exhausting, was seen as an inevitable victory. It was time to think about the aftermath. Smoothing over relations between countries to make sure that our systems are tied together.”
“That makes plenty of sense,” he said. “Because clearly the only reason a Royal would ever hook up with someone from a country they were previously at war with is to ‘smooth over relations’.”
Zuko paused at that, turning to face him fully and raising an eyebrow. Sokka decided to look anywhere other than his face.
“Okay so there may have been…” Sokka said. “There was a guy back home who said something or other about ‘winning the war via literally seducing you to the good side’. And that may have resulted in a fistfight.”
“Is that the guy Katara was chasing through the street last time we were in the South?” Suki asked.
“Yes,” he said. “But that was less because of what he said about me, but more because he said it was a ‘waste’ to use me as the seductress and that she should’ve done it because ‘what else is a woman good for’? And at that point dad was like ‘not even the Spirits can save you, because they favor these kids’.”
“Now I almost regret not joining her in chasing him down,” she said.
Having been on the receiving end of Katara’s wrath, Zuko almost pitied the man. Almost.
“Hate to agree, but that is the point of the contract,” Zuko said. “Once we won the war, a quick way to smooth things over would be an alliance through marriage like this. Ideally, it would be between the Heirs of both countries, but high-ranking nobility would work too. I’m not sure if there weren’t any noblewomen Lu Ten’s age or if there was a reason grandfather chose the Beifongs. Not to mention how or why they agreed to that contract because it wasn’t just drafted, it was signed and sealed. The strange thing is that Toph’s father hasn’t brought it up since they’ve reconnected. And it could turn into a lot of trouble if her parents tried to enforce the contract.”
“Which is why you’re going on an adventure to figure it out?” Suki asked, gesturing to the suitcase.
“We want answers, and apparently I ‘owe her a life-changing field trip’,” he said.
“I was wondering when she was going to play that card,” Sokka laughed.
“You know, technically I didn’t get a field trip,” Suki said. “You picked me up on Sokka’s but I didn’t get one for myself.”
“Let me settle this then give me a few weeks to get some work out of the way,” Zuko said. “Pick a place and we can go. I don’t know if you have any existential things to figure out, but knowing how this thing works I’m sure we’ll run into something.”
“You say that like this is an actual Thing™,” Sokka said. “Like I know Toph jokes about this and we did have field trips but they’re not magical.”
“You think there’s no supernatural nonsense happening?” he asked. “You’ve seen the Avatar and all the weird powers and occasional Possession he deals with. You got dragged into the Spirit World on a few occasions, seduced the Moon, watched a man get his Bending taken away, met Spirits that can change faces and alter memories. All of that, and you’re questioning the idea of a ‘life-changing field trip’?”
“Yeah, well, that-,” he pouted. “Well you can just go fuck yourself then.”
“Fuck him yourself, you coward,” Suki suggested.
“Tempting as that is,” Zuko sighed. “I have to actually be up in the morning. And I’m not sure what’s worse, Toph coming to look for me and walking in on something, or Azula doing it. They both are more of a ‘kick down the door’ person.”
“Azula’s going with you?” Sokka asked. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“She’s chill now,” he reminded.
“We know,” Suki said. “But you’re heading on a field trip with an unstoppable force and an immovable object.”
Zuko felt exhausted at the idea. Exhausted enough to let them convince him to come to bed.
He did not, in fact, wake up on time.
Azula has dealt with bad living situations before. Warships. Traveling undercover. Living on the run with nothing but things she’d managed to steal or scrape up from wherever she was. She knew Zuko and Toph had too. And that, if needed, none of them would have really objected to less than optimal conditions.
Still. It was nice to have the money and power of the Fire Lord on your side. A pleasure craft and a warship will both work well enough as seafaring vessels, but she appreciated the one that came with more plush and private bedrooms rather than loud crewmen who hadn’t properly socialized in years.
That said.
“You sure are cozying up to someone you insist you’re not marrying,” Azula said.
“Shut up,” Toph responded.
Azula continued to stare at the two. They’d clung together since they got on the ship. Currently cuddled together on a chaise lounge. Zuko had fallen asleep, but Toph still had her arms wrapped around him.
“I don’t… like boats,” Toph admitted.
“Why not?” Azula asked.
For a girl who had previously said ‘I’d spill my secrets because I know I can take her’, Toph was quiet now. But Azula was patient. Stay silent and people beg to fill the void.
“I can’t feel the ground,” Toph admitted. “I can feel the boat, I’m not lost here. But the water… I have no idea if the water is fifty feet deep or fifty thousand feet deep. And if I fell in, I wouldn’t know what direction to swim to get help.”
“If it makes you feel better,” Azula said. “This far out in the ocean, even if you could see you’d probably die anyway.”
“Somehow it doesn’t,” she said.
Oh.
Perhaps a subject change then?
“So, your parents,” Azula said. “Things are… bad? With them?”
You know what? Just kill her now actually. Azula could not stand the swing between small talk and trauma dumping. At least Toph looked almost guilty.
“It feels ridiculous to complain to you, given your family,” Toph admitted.
“What was it you said?” Azula asked in return. “Fifty feet deep or fifty thousand feet, if you fall overboard you still drown?”
“I think it was you who said it,” she said. “But… I guess.”
The girl was quiet again for a moment. Azula once more employed the tactic of staying quiet. Pretending to be comfortable in the silence.
“They don’t think I’m capable of anything,” Toph admitted. “I’m blind, so I must be helpless. Either them or the staff were always trying to help me with anything and everything. Walking around the estate, getting dressed, eating dinner, everything.”
“Sounds annoying,” Azula said.
“It was,” she said. “And it’s not even just- I know I can ‘see’ better than most blind people because of my Earthbending. But even without it I can do more than they think. And I have tested that! Not on purpose, but sparring with Ty Lee….”
“Chi blocking is annoying,” she said. “There’s a reason I liked having her as an ally more than an enemy.”
“Yeah exactly!” she said. “But even as it is? They didn’t acknowledge the things I do. At twelve I was champion of the Earth Rumble! They watched me fight half a dozen grown men at once who weren’t even able to land a hit on me! The Avatar himself shows up saying he’s been getting weird ass Spirit visions telling him that I’m supposed to teach him Earthbending! I invented Metalbending! And yet they think I need to be locked up and protected like some fragile little doll!”
The idea is so….. Strange.
Not just the idea of Toph being helpless, that in itself was a ridiculous notion.
But.
The idea of anyone’s parents thinking they were helpless.
Azula was very aware that her upbringing was not normal. But it still sometimes boggled the mind that someone could live so differently. One person was expected to be hypercompetent in every department, the other expected to be nothing but a pretty face to drag around.
“My dad’s gotten better,” Toph said. “It was rough, but he couldn’t deny reality forever. And he’s…. It’s not perfect. But even then, most of the time when he acts like I’m not capable it feels less like because I’m blind and more… like with Katara and Sokka and their dad. That ‘you’re a kid’ thing that adults can’t get over no matter how much you've saved the world.”
Do adults do that? Azula wasn’t sure. She tried to remember the last time an adult treated her like a child.
“So like if you two did go down with the ship, who becomes Fire Lord?” Toph asked.
“Trading one morbid question for another?” Azula asked, thankful for the subject change.
“Yep!” she grinned. “And Uncle doesn’t count in this answer because that’s the obvious one so assume all three of you just disappear in the night.”
Azula rolled her eyes. This girl was strange. In a good way, of course. She liked the honesty. Too many years of lies, half truths, manipulations. She just straight up asks.
“What in the fuck?” Zuko muttered.
“Oh you’re awake,” Azula said.
“I heard murder talk and that tends to get my attention,” he said, yawning lightly but not bothering to push Toph off of him.
“We’re wondering what happens if we all drown,” Toph said.
“Do you want the technically legal answer or what would most likely happen?” he wondered
“Both,” Toph said. “Just for curiosity’s sake!”
“Legally that’d be…. Xiaolong?” Azula said.
“Xiaolong,” Zuko confirmed. “She’s a distant cousin, but legally we can trace her line back to Fire Lord Taiso.”
“That’s…. A lot of generations back,” Toph said.
“No one’s closer,” Azula said. “There’s father and Uncle which….”
Azula did not want to mention Lu Ten. She didn’t know if Toph knew about him, and that wasn’t something she wanted to open up about right now.
“Grandfather had a brother too, but he died without children,” Zuko took over for her. “Sozin had a sister, Zeisan, but she opposed him in the war and ran off with the Airbenders that survived the Comet. Assuming her line survived somehow, they’ve been disinherited and I’d need to find them to put them back into the inheritance before they could have a claim to the throne.”
“Which leaves Taiso’s brother,” Azula said. “He survived and had living children who became nobility and then further continued the line. Xiaolong is the most likely option.”
“She’s a grown adult with a career in politics and already married with children that would inherit after her,” he elaborated. “She has a brother, but he’s more of a…. Party boy bachelor type. I don’t think the country would bet on him stepping up and being responsible if needed.”
“Huh,” Toph said. “And the ‘most likely’ option?”
“The nobility descend into a civil war,” Azula said. “Xiaolong might be the most direct blood relative, but there’s a few from older branches who would try to claim the throne. Not to mention people claiming to be bastard children of royal blood..”
“Or actual bastard children,” Zuko frowned. “I never really paid attention to what father got up to but there’s a possibility he had a mistress or two.”
“Morally, I wouldn’t put it past him,” she said. “Practically…. I don’t recall him having much of a love life. Not that I paid attention, but I remember more public fawning rather than private-”
“Do not finish that sentence,” he cringed.
“Still,” she said. “I know a few women who would have jumped at the chance. A few men too. I don’t think he swung that way, but there was that one guy who was promoted to Admiral suspiciously quickly.”
“Maybe you two can have a field trip to find yet another sibling,” Toph said.
“I sure fucking hope not,” Zuko deadpanned.