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Zuko may be half blind and half deaf, but that doesn't keep him from watching Chief Hakoda like an owl hawk. He knows exactly what fathers can do to children and Zuko may not be well liked by Aang's group (why would he be, Zuko has never been liked at all by the majority of people) but he'd pitch himself off the edge with the Chief if that man tried anything. He was solidly built and had hands that Zuko could all too easily imagine leaving bruises and broken bones in their wake. Sokka and Katara adored their father but he himself had in his own way loved and trusted his father even after the man had burned half his face. He watched at dinner time, from where he sat with Toph perched right beside him because she had just up and decided they were friends and he wasn't going to fight the absolute force of nature that is Toph. He darted his eye towards Sokka and Katara, who were chattering with affectionate voices towards their father, who kept laughing and smiling. That made Zuko even more nervous, because the dam could break any moment and the facade could crumble like sand in the wind. He couldn't keep staring at them if he didn't want Chief Hakoda to catch onto Zuko and moved on to the others. Suki and Chit Sang had gone to sleep early, and Toph was right beside him. The warmth radiating off her was somewhat comforting, knowing that she was close enough that he didn't have to even spare a thought to trying to protect her and she could very well crush everybody here with a flick of her fingers anyways. The Duke had taken to sitting on Teo's lap in the wheelchair for the night, and Haru was perched right beside the two, their conversation easy and light. He knew that Haru was an earthbender, and was far enough from Hakoda that they weren't immediate targets and Haru could use his bending well enough to protect himself and the other two. That also helped settle his nerves. Even still, the threat of danger hummed in his veins and bubbled in his stomach. Grownups (grown men, fathers) were dangerous.
"Hey, Sparky?"
"Yeah, Toph?"
"Your heart is fucking insane. You good, Fire Fingers?"
It was late, late enough that everybody besides them were deep, deep asleep. Toph had told him, when this had first happened, that the surrounding heartbeats were sometimes overwhelming. Too much for her to sleep as she usually did and she would stay up until sometimes sunrise, when tiredness would finally come and knock her out for a long while. He didn't sleep well, not since he'd had a whole face and his mother had still been there to kiss his forehead and the corners of his eyes goodnight. He blanched when Toph's harsh whisper came, rough with thinly veiled concern (and maybe affection?) He couldn't even try to lie to her, not that seismic sense was needed to detect his crappy lies. "Shitty parent issues." She let him leave it at that with a noncommittal hum. He tapped a little rhythm on the ground beside them. She nodded and tapped the rhythm back. He tapped out the twin dragon constellation on her forearm. She traced it back on his knee. He wrote three words on the back of her hand with his fingers and quietly cried when she copied them back on his shoulder.
Zuko, when not training Aang under Katara's careful watch or practicing his swordplay with Suki and Sokka, quietly scampered along the cliffside and scoured tiny footholds in random places. The ledges were just enough to hold him and he really should thank Azula and Ty Lee. Ty Lee for showing him those acrobatics in secret and Azula for giving him chances to practice scaling walls and pillars and rooftops. The wind was much better to put up with than vibrant blue fireballs that singed his skin and he would rather the wind try and pull him off the cliffsides than Azula snatch at his ankles and legs with fiery hands. Burning hands that used to be little hands that he had one placed pretty little glass bead necklaces in and little hands that would hold his own when they were still siblings that loved each other. Sometimes he would hear things from his hidden ledges, see things from his secret perches. Sometimes he would hear Teo tell The Duke about his own air temple home and the way that he would fly with his own glider. He would tell the same things to Haru, except with Haru, he shared things about his own father. His father that loved him and wanted the best for him, and Haru would talk about his father and they usually just sat together in silence at the end of it all. Zuko would sometimes imagine a father like that and would only end up thinking of Uncle and the wind would whip away his tears as soon as they welled up in his eyes. He wished that the wind would carry him off too when this happened. Sometimes Suki would just sit there and talk to the supposedly empty void but he thought that maybe she knew he was there and would never fault her for missing her home and her girls and even the elephant koi and the Unagi. Zuko really thinks that Suki knows he's there but he never confirms it with her.
Zuko wishes he could throw himself over the edge when Chief Hakoda finds the particular courtyard that they like to use for training. Still, he's glad that he's decidedly set his eyes on Suki and him rather than The Duke, who is napping in the sunshine, having fallen asleep watching Suki and Zuko. Suki partially distracts him from the looming presence of Chief Hakoda, but not totally. It wouldn't matter because even if he was not half distracted, she would still thoroughly beat his ass at hand-to-hand combat. And that is exactly what she does. "I'm gonna go take this little monster somewhere he can sleep without getting stepped on." Suki picked The Duke up almost like a sack of rice she wanted to be especially affectionate to, and left Zuko alone with Chief Hakoda. The constant ringing sense of 'dangerdangerdanger' rose to a bone shaking screeching. "I wanna talk to you, kid. Is that ok?" The man was so tall and he could so easily hurt Zuko. His body felt like the coiled string of a Yu Yan Archer's bow. He nodded anyways. Chief Hakoda approached carefully and his face looked so kind that Zuko almost screamed. The chief was a good actor, his gentle expression looked so real that Zuko almost believed that it was. The railing that surrounded the courtyard was pressed against Zuko's back and the sole comfort he allowed himself was the fact there was a series of ledges that Zuko knew how to stalk along by heart. "I can tell you've been watching me, kid. If I did something to you, you can tell me. Is that ok?" His hand was raised and Zuko could smell burning flash again and hear his own screams and he wasn't ever going to have that happen at the hands of a man who didn't even know him. He was over the railing within the blinking of an eye and already on the fourth foothold when he heard the distressed, panicked yelling.
Hakoda notices, not immediately, but pretty early on still. The prince is strangely quiet and most definitely awkward beyond belief and apparently, this isn't totally abnormal behavior. Chit Sang receives a lot of the same wariness that Hakoda does, but Chit sang isn't under the constant and consistent gaze of vivid, fearful eyes. The prince is tense around him in a way he can tell that he isn't when he's alone or with the most fearsome 12 year old girl he has ever known. He also notices that Prince Zuko's nervousness increases when he is close to one of the other kids. And that included Hakoda's own children. It sets off warning bells that tell Hakoda that Prince Zuko is afraid of him for no reason he can come up with and it makes Hakoda worry. And when the prince pitches himself over the railings, over the side of a spirits damn cliffside, Hakoda had never seen a child's eyes so afraid and he screams as the last bit of red fabric and pale skin disappear.
"PRINCE ZUKO JUMPED OFF THE CLIFFSIDE!"
"HE FUCKING WHAT?"
Hakoda hadn't run so fast in his entire life and was doubled over by the time he managed to find the other kids. Toph had already sunk his feet solidly into the ground and he would bet evey last coin he had that this girl could make the Fire Lord cower at her feet with her fierce, pale glare that she's fixed on him. "Dad, what do you mean Zuko jumped off the cliffside?" Sokka's voice was barely veiled panic and Aang's face had gone entirely blank. Katara looked like she was ready to pass out because she may have regarded Zuko so coldly but, sweet La, she would never celebrate something like this ever. "I asked to talk with him. Dammit, I should've brought someone with me, one of you. I talked with him alone and spirits, I'm a fool. I reached for him, just to comfort him as I would have with any of you. And then he pitched himself over the damn sides." Hakoda dragged his hands over his face and through his hair. Toph allowed the ground to release his feet and Hakoda stumbled as she sprinted off towards the courtyard. "Sweet fucking spirits." Hakoda couldn't help but agree with his daughter's entire whispered statement. "He...he's fine. He is totally fine, Zuko wouldn't do that. Oh! The ledges!" Aang was babbling. "There's tons of ledges on the cliffside! Zuko's super light on his feet, he can run on walls! Did I ever tell you guys what he did at the Sun Warriors' temple? It was so cool..." Aang kept twisting his fingers anxiously around his shirt while he let his mouth run away, as if just talking was keeping him off the edge of panic. For all Hakoda knew, it was.
Toph couldn't find him. Zuko was probably still hanging along the edges of the cliff but he could also be crawling in the rafters of the temple. This did let her plan her next course of action for when she did find him. First, she would talk him down from the panic he had most likely spiralled into. Then, once he was calm, she'd punch the fuck out of his arm. She was just a little pissed off at him, but only because he made her almost lose her shit. Anyways, that was a secondhand matter. She still had to find this dumbass (her favourite dumbass, but she'd sooner become an airbender than admit that) and make sure he wasn't sending himself into a heart attack. The stone under her feet was cooling by the time she did find him, reclused in a shadowy corner and still breathing hard. She could smell smoke everytime he exhaled, but couldn't feel the warmth of any flames. "Hey, Sparky? It's Toph. Can I get close to you, Smokey?" She sat a good few feet away from him, far enough that he didn't feel like she was going to invade his space bubble. "Yeah." His voice was quiet and shaky and she was livid. Not at Hakoda and most certainly not at Zuko, but at whoever plagued his nightmares and made him afraid enough that he trusted an ancient cliffside to not crumble under him more than he trusted an adult to not hurt him. She curled up right at his side because she knew that touch for him had to be all or nothing, and let her head press against his chest, right over his heart. "Is it shitty parent problems?"
"Yeah."
"Wanna talk it out?"
"Nope."
"Want me to tap?"
"Please?"
Three taps on his hand and three taps on her knee. Four on his elbow and four on her wrist. Five to his shoulder and five to her cheek. She wrote three words she only liked to tell him on his left cheek and his warm, calloused fingers wrote them back on her the palm of her right hand. Toph pressed her right hand over her heart before lightly (as light as she can do anyways) punching his shoulder. They didn't go to the others until the next morning.
When Prince Zuko was there the next morning, Hakoda felt like the claw that had grabbed a hold of his lungs and heart was pried off and he could breathe again. He still gave Hakoda a wary glance from his right eye but wasn't looking like he was going to throw himself off the side. Toph had a grip on his left hand and he could see her pointer finger tapping on his knuckles. "Prince Zuko, I would like to apologize for anything I have done. I don't know what has happened to make you fear me, but I swear on every spirit that I will not hurt you." The prince looked so painfully young, the same age as Hakoda's own son and Hakoda realized that he was. He was young and his scar was years old and Hakoda could think of less than three people who had the power and cruelty to harm a child. Hakoda kept his arms to his side this time when he kneeled down to the prince's eye level. "I don't care about that. Tell me instead that you've never hurt Katara and Sokka and you won't hurt any kid here." The prince's voice was shaking and so were his hands and Toph just kept tapping at his skin with the most gentle face he had ever seen her wear. "Kid, I never have hurt and never will hurt a child. Nobody ever should. Anybody who has should feel that child's pain tenfold." Zuko nodded and let Hakoda take his right hand. And Hakoda quietly promised that whoever did this to this child he would show them what true pain was. But for now, he was content to keep this kid away from cliffsides and watch Toph tap-tap-tap his hand and Zuko tap-tap-tap right back.