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Her name is Toph, and she’s a menace.
That’s the only word Zuko can find to describe her.
She sits at the counter and takes people’s money. She doesn’t do much work—she’s typically too busy bending tiny pebbles in the direction of Zuko’s head. Where she’s even getting them in the first place, Zuko doesn’t know. Is she bringing them from outside?
Zuko doesn’t find her annoying. Not at all.
Zuko doesn’t find her annoying, his name is actually Lee, and he’s a refugee from a small town in the Earth Kingdom. Three lies that are now truths for the sake of survival.
After their initial meeting, Zuko had stormed out of the Jasmine Dragon, and didn’t return home to their apartment until well after sundown.
In whispered shouts, he argued with Uncle about the absolute total betrayal it was to hire one of the Avatar’s companions. Uncle hummed and drank his tea and put on his harmless old man act—an act that Zuko knew him too well to believe.
When it became clear that Zuko would get no good answer as to why Uncle had decided to completely lose his mind, nor would he be able to get him to fire the girl, Zuko stormed into his room, leaving an uncomfortable, all too familiar silence to fester between the two.
That silence was still going strong.
If Uncle wanted to pretend that everything was fine—that they weren’t fraternizing with the enemy , that they weren’t traitors for giving up on their, well Zuko’s , mission and hiding in the Earth Kingdom—well, then, Zuko would do everything in his power to make that difficult for him.
And that includes the cold shoulder. Nevermind that it’s been two days and it’s accomplished nothing—the girl is still at her stupid post behind the counter, chucking her stupid stones at Zuko’s head when he’s trying to do his fucking job . Nevermind any of that, because Zuko is pissed , and he sees no reason to interact with Uncle until he gets, at the very least, a fucking apology.
And no, he does not miss Uncle’s tea jokes and weird proverbs. Not even a little bit. So shut up about it.
Zuko’s taken to ignoring the girl, as well. It’s easier said than done, however, what with the incessant pebble throwing and non-stop comments coming his way.
Between cold-shouldering Uncle and ignoring Toph, it’s probably the quietest Zuko has been, well, ever. Definitely since he’s been banished.
And it gives him a lot of time to think. Too much.
Zuko hadn’t even known that the Avatar and his friends were in Ba Sing Se, and now he’s working with one of them. What’s her motivation, really ? Sure, she’d claimed that she owed people money, but how could that possibly be true? Was Zuko expected to believe that this young blind girl was gambling in her free time? How stupid did they all think he was?
No—this had to be something more. For some reason, the Avatar was targeting him, surveilling him. But why? Zuko hadn’t bothered them in months, having not seen them since Uncle was injured by Azula. Uncle and him had gone to Ba Sing Se, and somewhere between the Lower and Upper Ring, Zuko realized he couldn’t take this fragile peace away from Uncle. At least not without good reason. Not without a solid chance that he could get them home .
Truthfully, he hadn’t seen the point of even trying to find the Avatar once they’d settled in the Upper Ring and opened the Jasmine Dragon. How could he ask Uncle to leave the walled-in safety of Ba Sing Se, if he didn’t even have any leads on where the Avatar could be?
It killed him, to resign himself like that—he dulled the anguish by asserting to himself that this was only temporary. He wouldn’t actively search for the Avatar in Ba Sing Se; he wouldn’t risk Uncle’s life like that. For now.
But now, the Universe had practically served him to Zuko on a platter. And that certainly changed things. Except that, well, the Universe had made it very clear that it hated Zuko, and nothing could ever be this easy. Which is why this whole thing has to somehow be a trap.
“Hey, Sparky!” the girl calls, and Zuko feels the bitterly familiar sensation of a pebble hitting the back of his head.
“Don’t call me that!” He snaps, already forgetting his previously avowed silence. He turns to face her from where he’s been standing, forgotten mop in hand.
“I can hear you thinking from all the way over here.” She’s got her bare feet propped up on the counter. Disgusting.
“We’re closed. Why are you even still here?”
“I still have four pebbles left.”
“Ugh!” Zuko growls, throwing the mop down and storming over to her. He slams his hands on the counter. “That’s it! Tell me why you’re really here!”
No one has ever been less phased by Zuko’s yelling. Well no one except Uncle, but he doesn’t count. Uncle isn’t the type to be intimidated.
“I told you already,” she sighs, like she’s the one who’s horribly inconvenienced, and not the other way around. “I owe some powerful people some big bucks.”
“I’m not stupid!”
“Not even gonna comment on that one, Sparky.”
“You seriously need to stop calling me that. Especially around customers.”
“If anyone ever asks, I’ll tell them you got that nickname because one time you burnt your eyebrows off trying to use spark rocks.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
“Anytime, Sparky.”
“Listen. I don’t know what you and the Avatar are planning, but I’m going to find out. If you think I’m just going to sit here and let you—let you watch me—”
“Now that’s just uncalled for.” She waves her hand in front of her eyes. “I can’t exactly watch anything, now can I?”
“Oh—I—sorry! I didn’t mean it like—”
Zuko’s cut off by the sounds of her maniacal cackling. “That was too easy,” she gasps between laughs.
“Stop it!” Zuko shouts, his temper returning like a fire only half put out. “I’m going to find out what you’re really doing here, mark my words.”
“Like I keep telling you, I need money!”
“Prove it, then.”
“Fine!” She says, finally removing her feet from the counter and heading towards the front door. “Tomorrow night. Meet me at the fountain near the East market of the Lower Ring. I’ll show you.”
Zuko really debates not showing up. There’s so many reasons not to. This is probably some elaborate trap designed by the Avatar and his Water Tribe companions. And even if it turns out not to be, he’ll still be stuck spending the night with Toph, who’s seemingly made it her mission to annoy Zuko as much as possible.
Really, he shouldn’t be going.
So, naturally, he is.
(He’s just so bored . And he’s still not talking to Uncle. And there’s only so many times you can steal from the rich to give to the poor before it becomes mundane. Even the Blue Spirit gets lonely sometimes.)
Zuko finds the fountain just as the last rays of sun are setting beyond the massive, imposing walls of the Lower Ring. It’s the same fountain that Jin took him to, Zuko realizes. The memory flushes his cheeks with embarrassment. He told her that he was in the circus. That he juggled . A toddler wouldn’t believe that lie. And then, to cap it all off with even more idiocy, he bent fire to light the torches surrounding the fountain. (Girls like torches, right?)
What the fuck was wrong with him?
Stuck wallowing in complete mortification, Zuko is easily startled when Toph shows up a few minutes later.
“Sparky!” she shouts from behind him, approaching from his left. “You actually showed!”
He turns to face her, not wanting her on his vulnerable side for too long. He crosses his arms, suddenly feeling defensive. “Yeah, I did. Tell me I didn’t come all this way for some stupid fountain.”
“Wow, and I thought my manners were bad. The others weren’t wrong when they called you an angry jerk. Though they did also say you have a ponytail—”
“Ugh!”
“—which, I guess, there’s really no way for me to confirm that—”
“This is ridiculous. I’m going home—”
“I mean, you could just tell me, I don’t get what the big deal is—”
“I don’t!”
“You don’t what?”
“I don’t have a ponytail! ” Zuko wants to rip out what little hair he does have.
“Oh, good. I mean, I can’t see you or anything, but I just have a feeling that wouldn’t be a good look for you.”
Zuko wants to light her on fire. Instead, he closes his eyes and takes several long, deep breaths.
“You okay over there, Sparky? Your heart is beating like crazy fast.”
“I’m fine.” He’s shaking with rage, but that’s nothing new. “Wait, you can feel my heartbeat?”
“Yup. With my earthbending! It’s how I see. My feet feel everything for me.”
That would explain the constant lack of shoes.
“Wow, that’s...uh—”
“Pretty badass.” Toph smirks.
“Yeah,” he replies, and he means it. He’s overcome with a sudden urge to tell her that he’s blind too, on his left side. The words bubble up, but he stops himself, swallowing them down. How foolish would that have been, divulging a weakness like that to an enemy ?
“You good, Sparky?”
“I’m fine,” he snaps. “Now where are we going?”
Zuko follows Toph in silence as she leads him through the seedy streets of the Lower Ring. After about a half hour, Toph turns into an alleyway and stops in front of a sewage cover.
“Well. This is it.”
She can’t be serious.
“The underground pai sho ring is literally underground? ”
“Yep.”
Zuko groans. “Fine. Let’s go.”
While Toph keeps an eye out—a foot out?—for any passersby or the Dai Li, Zuko lifts the heavy metal plate. He climbs down first, descending the narrow, metal rungs until his feet hit ground.
He can’t see anything; it’s pitch dark down here, and he has to stop himself from instinctively lighting a flame in his palm.
And the smell , Agni, the smell. It’s nearly unbearable—Zuko’s eyes are watering, and he has to cover his nose with the back of his sleeve to keep from gagging. He wonders, not for the first time, if this is just some elaborate joke Toph’s playing on him.
But then he hears her climbing down the ladder and landing gracefully next to him, so he figures she wasn’t planning to just lead him here, drop him down into a smelly, dark shithole, and leave him there.
Wordlessly, she grabs his arm and starts pulling him next to her. He hates this, being completely vulnerable, unable to see where he is, relying on Toph to guide him, knowing very well that she could be leading him to the Dai Li, or to some other kind of trap set up by the Avatar. But he lets himself be dragged along because he’s an idiot who has a special talent for getting himself into stupid situations, and because, honestly, at this point, he really doesn’t have any other options.
She stops after a few minutes. “Okay. Here it is.”
“...Here what is?”
“The door, dum dum.”
And no, Zuko does not feel some odd pull on his heartstrings because Azula used to always call him dum dum. He doesn’t. And even if he did, he certainly wouldn’t tell you .
He hears the sound of scraping metal, like the door’s got some large lever or gear that needs to be turned in order to be opened, and then suddenly, his eyes are flooded with light. He blinks several times at the brightness, still unable to fully open his eyes as Toph pulls him through the door and shuts it behind them.
As his eyes adjust, he takes a look around: it’s a large room with several tables set up throughout. There’s got to be at least ten different games going on, with at least double the amount of spectators. There’s girls walking around serving drinks, and a few others sauntering around, taking bets.
“What the fuck, Toph.”
“Believe me now, Sparky?” She goads, smiling wide and punching him in the arm.
“Ow.”
“Don’t be such a baby.”
Zuko groans. It’s like a reflex these days.
“So this is where you…”
“Hustled these guys out of their money and then ran away when they got pissed at me? Yeah.”
“Great.”
“Pai sho’s really easy when you can feel your opponent’s heartbeat. And also when said opponent thinks you’re just a dumb, defenseless blind girl.”
Zuko understands being underestimated, and he has to give her some credit for using it to her advantage.
“If you’re so good at pai sho, why don’t you just play them again, win the money you owe them and then… quit your job at the Jasmine Dragon and leave me alone forever?”
“One, rude. Two, none of these guys will play me anymore. They know I don’t have the money to back up my bet, and they also know I’ll wipe the floor with their asses.”
“Hey!” Zuko turns to see someone stalking towards them. He’s tall and slender, with chestnut brown hair and delicate features that are pulled into a scowl. He’s wearing a ridiculously huge purple coat, the collar popped high and the bottom flaring out like it’s some kind of dress.
He’s... hot , Zuko realizes, as he marches closer and closer. Shit. What is it with boys in Ba Sing Se?
“You owe me money,” he growls, pointing at Toph.
“Seto, this is Lee. Lee, this is Seto. His big bad ego is wounded because a little girl beat him at his own game.”
“You cheated!” Seto shouts, and somehow his coat seems to flare out when he speaks, like some kind of autonomic dramatic flourish. “Where’s my money?”
“How ‘bout we play again. Double or nothing. If I win, you forgive my debt. If you win, I owe you twice what I already do.”
“Yeah, right. I’m not about to let you cheat me out of double my gold.”
“I’ll play you for it.” Zuko’s not quite sure what makes him speak up. Maybe it’s because the guy’s kind of an asshole, and for some reason that makes him even hotter to Zuko (and that is totally not something Zuko would like to psychoanalyze right now). Or maybe it’s because he really wants to get Toph out of his hair. Either way, it was pretty stupid—Zuko couldn’t beat a five year old at pai sho.
“ You? Play me ? HA HA HA!” Seto throws his head back, dramatically fake-laughing.
“That’s a fake laugh,” Zuko mutters, a little sheepish.
“It’s real!”
Zuko rolls his eyes. “So, are you going to play me or not?”
“Fine. If you dweebs really think you can beat me, the greatest pai sho player in the world, then I welcome you to try. Tomorrow, at sundown. And if I win, you’re both paying up.” Seto turns and saunters away, his coat theatrically swishing with each step.
“Sparky.”
“Rocky.”
“Please tell me you’re better at pai sho than you are at making tea.”
“Uncle. I need you to teach me how to play pai sho.”
Uncle looks up from his book, some trashy romance series he’s been obsessed with lately, a puzzled expression on his face.
“While I am thrilled that we once again seem to be on speaking terms, nephew, I must ask: why the sudden interest in a game you once dubbed ‘a stupid game for stupid old farts’ ?”
Zuko coughs awkwardly, a little chagrined. “I, uh. I just thought. Because you like pai sho. We could. Play together. Sometime.”
Uncle narrows his eyes. And maybe Zuko feels a little guilty about ignoring him the past few days, and now for very transparently lying about wanting to spend time with him. He’s a jerk. He knows.
But Uncle must decide to keep his suspicions to himself, because he puts his book down (after folding the corner to keep his page, like a monster ), sighs, and stands up. Zuko follows him over to the table that sits under the window.
Uncle takes the board out, and begins laying out the pieces. Zuko sits across from him, impatiently tapping his foot as he watches him set up.
“Now, as you may know, I typically favor the White Lotus gambit.” Zuko fights the urge to roll his eyes, remembering the hours they wasted searching for Uncle’s lotus tile when it was in his pocket the whole. damn. time.
“There are, however, many valuable strategies when it comes to pai sho, and you will do well to search for the one that best fits you,” Uncle continues. “But truly, the most important thing that I must teach you, nephew, is about the heart of the tiles.”
“The heart of the tiles ?” Zuko scoffs.
“Yes,” Uncle answers, unnervingly patient.
“Is that—is this one of your metaphors or something?”
“No, nephew. It is real. If you believe in the heart of the tiles, you cannot fail.”
Zuko blinks several times. “What do you even mean?” His voice raises without him even meaning to, and he purposefully takes a few breaths to quell his frustration.
“Once you select your tiles and the strategy you will be using, you must have faith in your tiles. You must trust that they will lead you to victory.”
“...I have to trust...my tiles?” He’s supposed to have faith...in little wooden tiles ?
“No, Zuko. You have to trust the heart of your tiles.”
When Zuko just stares at him, dumbstruck, Uncle suggests they play a practice game.
Uncle beats him in record time. Zuko slumps forward, resting his head on the board, too defeated to care about the way the tiles press uncomfortably into his forehead and cheek.
Uncle pats the top of his head lightly. “Don’t be so discouraged, nephew. Only after the butterfly-swan has emerged from its cocoon does it truly recognize its beauty.”
“Uncle,” Zuko whines, the smell of cedar settling in his nostrils as he continues to sulk atop the board. “I’m begging you. Please speak like a human being.”
Uncle merely chuckles jovially, and pointedly does not explain what he meant.
“You nervous or something, Sparky?”
They’re standing in the alleyway. Well, Toph is standing, Zuko is more anxiously shifting his weight from foot to foot.
“No,” he spits, because he’d rather die than appear vulnerable to a twelve year old earthbending gremlin.
“Liar,” she laughs. “Didn’t I tell you I know when people are lying?”
“Is that another one of your weird…”
“Feet things? Yeah.”
“That’s…”
“Cool?”
“I was going to say deeply unsettling, but sure. We can go with cool.”
The truth is, he is nervous. Uncle and him had played several more games the rest of the afternoon, Zuko losing miserably each time. Despite that, Uncle had claimed he’d learned a lot, and that his progress was “admirable.” Which, yeah, he was probably just saying that to be nice, but the praise still made something stupid swell in Zuko’s chest.
Toph sniffs. “Are you wearing cologne ?”
Zuko blushes. “No!” He shouts, and when Toph just waggles her eyebrows at him, because fuck , he can’t lie around her, he yells at her to shut up and proceeds to climb down the manhole because that’s his current closest alternative to burying himself alive.
Toph’s not far behind him. He follows her over to the door, once again hating the feeling of being completely reliant on someone else, and nearly passing out from the overwhelming aroma of sewage.
When the door swings open and Zuko’s eyes adjust, he’s startled by the sight that he sees. He knew Seto was a dramatic asshole, but this just seems over the top.
All the other tables have been cleared out so there’s only one remaining in the center of the room. The torches have been moved, too, so that most of the light settles around the table and the corners of the room are dimmed in contrast. There’s a huge crowd of people circled around the table, some of them even holding signs that have Seto’s face painted on them.
Zuko’s life has reached a whole new level of ridiculous.
“Wow,” Toph says, under her breath, and yeah, this might be the first time Zuko agrees with her on something.
“I was beginning to think you’d be too scared to show up,” Seto calls as he swaggers over to them. Trailing behind him and his large coat is a small child with the strangest hairstyle Zuko’s ever seen, including his own after he’d cut off his phoenix tail.
Zuko crosses his arms, mirroring Seto, and scowls. “We’re here. It’s sundown.” Might as well get this over with.
Seto smirks. “In a hurry, are we? Mokuba, hand me my tiles.” The child pokes his head out from behind the coat and reaches around to hand Seto a pouch. Seto takes it, a smug look on his face, and crosses over to the table where he takes a seat.
Zuko follows, sitting down across from him and trying to remember if Uncle had said to start with the river tile or the mountain tile first.
Mokuba stands behind Seto to the right, and Toph mirrors him behind Zuko. The crowd, once full of activity and raucous laughter, quiets, and it feels like they’re all leaning in, everyone holding a collective breath.
Seto pulls out his first tile, and his stupid attractive face splits into a huge grin. His tongue darts out and licks his bottom lip, and Zuko finds himself suddenly imagining that tongue in… other contexts, like— shit, Zuko! Focus!
He watches as Seto places his first tile on the board. “Ha! The blue dragon tile. The most powerful tile in the game!”
Zuko’s palms are sweating. He’s never even seen the blue dragon tile before, and he’s been an unwilling witness to plenty of Uncle’s pai sho matches over the years.
Don’t panic , he thinks, though he definitely is panicking a little. It doesn’t help that Seto’s blue eyes are boring into him, making him feel both uncomfortable and a little turned on.
Remember what Uncle said. Trust in the heart of the tiles .
And Agni, does he feel stupid, but he does it anyway. Takes a deep breath. Places his hand into his pouch without even looking at his tiles. Heart of the tiles, guide me , he thinks, and he pulls out—
The fucking koala-sheep tile. A tile so weak Zuko wonders why it’s even in the game.
Seto can barely hold back his triumphant cackle as Zuko begrudgingly places down his tile. “You disappoint me, Lee. I don’t know why, but I actually thought you’d put up at least a little bit of a fight.”
He moves his blue dragon tile swiftly past Zuko’s pathetic koala-sheep. The game very quickly goes downhill after that, and after only a few more moves, Seto’s beaten Zuko.
“Nice one, Seto!” Mokuba cheers, and the crowd surrounding them joins in.
Seto uses two fingers to push himself up from the table. “Alright, dweeb. Though I enjoyed thoroughly kicking your ass, Lee, it’s time that you pay up.”
Zuko sends a nervous glance in Toph’s direction, but she’s gone .
Great.
Seto steps around the table and reaches down to pull Zuko up by his collar.
“You do have my money, don’t you Lee?” He sniffs. “And are you wearing cologne ?”
Zuko gulps.
Somehow, he hadn’t planned for something like this, even though he realistically knew he had very little chance of winning the game. Uncle always was saying he never thinks things through.
He hadn’t brought his swords, like an idiot, and it’s not like he can bend. There’s still a good chance he can kick Seto’s ass—the guy is pretty gangly—but he has a nasty feeling it could turn into an all out brawl down here, and there’s no way he could fight off this entire crowd, not on his own.
“I, uh—”
“Sparky! Over here!”
He turns to find Toph on the other side of the room, where she’s blown a huge hole in the stone wall. Zuko, thrumming with adrenaline, pushes forward and slams his lips into Seto’s. Seto gasps, lips still pressed against Zuko’s and hands still gripping his collar, clearly very surprised. Zuko uses his distraction to his advantage, and pushes hard against Seto, enough to send him staggering backwards, shocked. He sprints over towards Toph, and as soon as he’s stepped through the hole in the wall, she closes it back up.
“Come on, I’m sure at least some of them are earthbenders,” she says, grabbing his arm and dragging him behind her as she runs.
Zuko’s not sure how long they run for, but it’s long enough that when they do stop, Toph having found another ladder for them to climb back up to the street with, they’re both panting and gasping for breath.
“Thanks,” Zuko grits out between breaths, because she really did save him back there, and it’s easier to be grateful in the pitch dark.
“No problem, Sparky. I was the one who got you into this mess, anyway. And I knew there was no way you were going to beat him.”
“Hey!”
“Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while.” Zuko can hear the evil smile in her voice.
And yeah. It looks like he is.
“Soooo… are we going to talk about that kiss?”
“Shut up!”