Chapter Text
It was a beautiful day. The sun was warm against Toph’s skin and the smell of the grass she was picking at filled her nose as she lay on the ground, soaking up the day’s heat. Her eyes fluttered closed as Katara ran a brush through her hair, clearing out the mess of knots in it while simultaneously making her want to succumb to the slumber that was calling her. She hadn’t felt this relaxed in a while and she wasn’t complaining.
After long months of not doing much of anything, trapped in her apartment with paperwork, and getting regular visits from Kanto, who consistently checked up on her – not that she was complaining – she got a letter from Katara and Zuko inviting her and Kanto over to the palace for the weeks leading up to the birth of both of their kids.
She hadn’t declined and was happy to hear that Kanto had been excited about joining her.
Her stomach fluttered a bit indicating movement, the being within her deciding that it was uncomfortable or simply bored. Toph couldn’t resist the small smile that formed on her lips at the feeling. Her body is growing an actual human person; she was doing that.
That was insane if you asked her.
And although the pregnancy had had its ups and downs — such as the fact that she felt like she was stuck inside doing nothing for most of it — she wasn’t miserable, was she? No. Not at all. She had her friends, the people she loved, and they made it better. They always did.
“Hey,” Katara called, making her eyes open up again, bringing her back to reality. “Don’t fall asleep, dummy. Food’s almost ready.”
Toph let out an exaggeratedly long sigh as she rolled herself onto her side and slightly struggled to sit up because of her eight-month-pregnant belly. “I wasn’t falling asleep, mother.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, unconvinced. Toph felt Katara move slightly and put a gentle hand on her own growing belly. “Can I finish your hair? I love when you let me braid it.”
Feeling generous, Toph rolled her eyes and scooted closer to her friend. “Make it quick.”
A scoff. “Yeah? And where do you have to be?”
“You mentioned food, didn’t you?” Toph said, glad that her back was to Katara and that she couldn’t see the faint blush on her cheeks. Then, her hands firmly gripped the hair right at the crown of her head and began to twist. “Well, I’m hungry… so get moving, Fancy Fingers.”
“Mm. Okay. You’re hungry . Got it.”
She scowled and turned her head so Katara could see the glare she’d been working so hard on recently. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing at all,” Katara said smugly, turning Toph’s head around to resume her braiding. “Just… repeating what you said.”
“That’s all, is it?” Toph asked, then slapped the ground with an open palm, making the surface where Katara sat open slightly into a hole. Satisfied when she heard Katara yelp, she said, “Is that really all, Lady Firepants?”
Katara was grumbling when she got her bottom out of the small hole, and bent some of the water in the turtleduck pond into her friend’s back, making her gasp at the sudden contact. But before the two of them — two grown women — could get themselves into an impromptu one-on-one bending match, Toph heard the voices of Zuko and Kanto nearing the pond.
“You got lucky, Sugar Queen,” Toph whispered. “I’d have buried you—”
Katara gave Toph a flick in the head, interrupting her empty threat. “Me and your niece or nephew? Yeah? Is that how you want to start off your journey as a guideparent? Hm?”
Stumped, Toph huffed and sent a small pebble flying at her forehead. “Shut up.”
As Katara let out a quiet “ow,” Zuko and Kanto approached them, the former of which immediately pressed a kiss onto Katara’s lips, whereas the latter awkwardly stood, towering over where Toph sat, shifting from foot to foot.
Toph let out an indiscreet sigh. She knew that Kanto was just around due to circumstance. She knew it or she strongly believed it. Despite them having a whole baby together, they were dancing around their feelings, and so much dancing was making Toph dizzy and squeamish and uncomfortable because she knew how she felt and she had a sneaking suspicion about how he felt, but she couldn’t bring herself to do anything about it. Even before the pregnancy, she knew how she felt, and she never said anything because things with Kanto… they felt different — good kind of different — and she didn’t want to do anything to ruin their dynamic. And their current situation was far too delicate for her to handle the way she would usually— by being brash and direct. So she just… didn’t.
“What were you two up to?” asked Zuko, amusement evident in his tone. “It almost sounded like you were bending. In fact, it looks like you have, too.”
Toph shrugged ironically. “Ah, see, I wouldn’t know, so you’ve got me there.”
“Mm, so there’s no particular reason why you’re drenched, then, huh?” Kanto said this time. “Or why Katara’s sitting next to a gaping hole?”
“No reason in particular, nope,” Katara said. “Toph just decided to take a dip in the pond. No big deal.”
“And the hole?”
Toph scratched at the back of her head with a scowl. “I’m not a suspect here, quit interrogating, will you? Go be productive or something.”
“Productive doing what, Chief? We’re supposed to be on a vacation right now,” Kanto quipped. She could feel him lean against the side of the tree near the pond. “Doing nothing seems nice, actually, so I think I’ll go ahead and stick with doing that.”
Asshole.
Before Toph could tell him as much, Katara sighed and said, “You two should go check in on dinner. We’ll be inside in a second, okay? We actually were being civil, you know. We were having a talk.”
“We were?”
“We were,” Toph assumed Katara shot her a glare before she turned to Zuko and Kanto. “So if you could just– give us a few minutes?”
There was a bit of grumbling, then Toph felt Kanto crouch down next to her. “Can I…?”
Toph softened and felt her face redden. “You don’t need to ask every time you want to, Hotshot.”
“I just– okay,” he said quietly, placing his hands gently upon her belly and running his thumbs against it. She tried to resist the urge she had of covering his hands with hers as he brought his face down to her stomach and whispered, “Hi there, Baby Beifong. I just wanted to say that baba loves you. And so does mama. But… but baba loves you more. That is all.”
With an endearing eye roll, she shoved him away from her playfully, making him fall on his back. “You’re such an ass.”
“I might be, but I’m an ass who loves this little family we’ve got going on, so I’m good on that front,” Kanto said and her stomach fluttered. She wasn’t so sure it had been the baby causing the sensation this time around.
After another exchange between Zuko and Katara, the two men disappeared into the palace, leaving Toph and the fire lady alone once again.
“And then, there were two,” Toph said, throwing her back onto the ground again, her arms behind her head. “They’re such pains in the ass, right?”
There was some silence, and Toph’s eyes once again fluttered shut. The breeze was beginning to cool and she guessed that the sun was setting, too, as she didn’t feel it so intensely upon her skin. But then, Katara spoke up again.
“You really love him, don’t you?”
Her eyes shot open. “Huh?”
“Kanto. You’re… you’re in love with him, aren’t you?”
Toph thought about it for a second – really thought about it. While she knew that she had some kind of feelings for him, she didn’t know if it meant that she was in love with him. Of course she loved him, he would forever be the father of their child, and they’d have this baby in common for the rest of their lives. But in love? The idea, as a whole, scared her, so she just said, “I don’t know,” surprising herself by not telling her to just stay out of her business.
Katara moved over to lay beside Toph, her head inches away from hers, and looked over at her. “Well, if it makes it any easier to determine, he feels the same way about you.”
Despite her rapidly beating heart, Toph tried not to let her emotions manifest on her face. She knew Katara wasn’t lying; she could feel as much. Still, she said, “Interesting.”
“You obviously can’t see it,” she said, making Toph snort quietly, “but he looks at you the way I look at Zuko.”
“I hate to break it to you, Sugar Queen, but that doesn’t really give me too much to go off of.”
Katara huffed out a laugh and propped herself up on her elbow at Toph’s side. “Whenever you talk, he hangs onto your every word, as if everything you say is the most important thing in the world to him.
“When you two are together, like you were earlier when he was talking to the baby, it just– it feels like anyone who is in the space the two of you are in are inexistent. It’s just you and him and everyone else is no longer there.
“I can also tell how much he looks forward to being around you. The first thing he does when enters a room is look for you. He always does this little, visual scan. It never fails. And when his eyes land on you? As much as he tries to keep the smile off his face, he can’t resist it.
“And he always, always , looks you in the eyes when he talks to you. I want to say he gets lost in them, but he doesn’t. He just looks into them because he wants to look into them. Because he wants to find something in them or because he just enjoys looking into them.
“So trust me, Toph. That’s the look of someone who loves you; who’s in love with you. Kanto loves you. And I think you love him, too. That you’re in love with him.”
Not knowing what else to do or say, Toph whistled. “Gee, Katara… you were so bored that you analyzed Hotshot’s every move. I’m going to have to have a talk with Zuko.”
“Be serious, Toph,” Katara said. “For once. Be serious and stop avoiding.”
“I’m not avoiding. I’m pointing out the obvious–”
“And the obvious is that you’re absolutely in love with him, Toph. Anyone can see it. And I think you can, too, but you’re too damn afraid to admit it to yourself.”
Toph turned her head toward Katara. She frankly would have sat up if her belly hadn’t been in the way, so the hopefully menacing glance she was shooting at her sufficed. “So what if I am? It’s not like I can do anything about it because he’s probably just in love with the idea of having me. The idea of a family. I’m having his kid, Katara. He’s probably– he feels– he doesn’t love me, Katara. And I’m okay with that. I just– I want what’s best for my kid. For– for our kid. And me admitting to myself that I’m in love with him won’t do me or him or this badgerfetus any well, either.”
The smile on Katara’s face was undeniable, even to Toph, who very badly wanted to send her flying out of the palace, but didn’t for the sake of her pseudo-niece-or-nephew. “So you do love him.”
“That’s– is that all you got from what I just said?”
“It was all that mattered because– do you want me to be honest?”
“You’re going to be even if I say no, so why should I bother answering?”
“It’s all that mattered,” Katara said, disregarding what Toph had just muttered, “because all I’m hearing is that you’re afraid of letting yourself fall. He’s– he won’t hurt you, Toph. He’s much too involved to hurt you intentionally. And he’s so willing to be this baby’s father that he hasn’t let himself give in to, well, you . He hasn’t given in to what he feels for you for fear of losing both you and the baby.”
Toph was silent, processing what Katara had just told her, so the latter took this as an opportunity to finish talking. “Look, I’m not trying to tell you what to do here–”
“Of course not.”
Katara sighed. “I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but I am trying to get you to understand that you’re not the only one keeping their feelings below the surface to avoid getting hurt or worse. I really just– I want to see you happy, Toph, and you have been, especially since you got close to Kanto and you ended up in your situation. So if you ask me–”
“I’m not asking you, though.”
“ Toph .”
“Fine.”
“So if you ask me, you should let yourself be happy. And if you don’t do it for yourself,” Katara said, reaching over to give Toph’s belly a rub, “do it for your baby.”
Reflexively, Toph’s hand covered Katara’s. “Your unsolicited advice is appreciated.”
“Are you… planning on taking it at all?”
Just as Toph was opening her mouth to respond affirmatively, she felt Kanto and Zuko’s footsteps approaching them once again.
“It’s been way longer than what we thought you’d take,” Kanto said, plopping himself on the ground next to Toph as Zuko did the same at Katara’s side. “What the hell are you two talking about, huh?”
“Why would you just flat-out ask them?”
“Because they’re not going to tell us anyhow. I might as well.”
Toph grinned. “You’re absolutely right about that.”
“Is he, though?” Katara said into her ear. She grunted a bit as she shifted and had Zuko stand to help her to her feet. “Zuko and I are going to get a head start to the dining room. You two take your time… maybe talk about what we were talking about, Toph.”
Oh. Oh . Toph promised herself at that moment that as soon as they gave birth and were at their full faculties – and had no concerns over small humans getting hurt or being in jeopardy – she would eject her into the next century for setting her up like this. “How convenient.”
Kanto laughed. “Don’t start on the food without us, you two. I’m starving.”
“Then, go eat,” Toph quipped, feeling Zuko and Katara begin to walk away from the pond. “No one’s stopping you.”
“No one is, no,” he agreed, laying back on the ground, his arms behind his head like Toph’s were. “But food can wait.”
She scoffed, propping herself onto her elbows. “No, it can’t. I’m hungry, and I’m eating for two, so help me up.”
“No, no, not so fast,” Kanto said, holding her wrist gently, without moving out of his position. “I want you to tell me what you and Katara were talking about.”
“Not a chance, Hotshot. It’s none of your business.”
“Katara seemed intent on you telling me what you talked about, so much so that she left us alone here. So you have to tell me. She went through all that trouble getting up and everything.”
Turning her red face away from him, she said, “Again, it’s none of your business.”
“Come on, Chief,” he said, nudging her ribs with his elbow. “Spit it out. You know you want to.”
Now or never, right?
“You.”
“Wait, what?”
“You wanted to know what we were talking about,” she said, rolling onto her side and sitting up. “We were talking about you.”
“Me?” he asked, following her lead and sitting up too. “What… what about me?”
“Just you… about how you’re in love with me, apparently.”
He fell silent and she had the urge to make a hole in the ground to bury herself in, so before he could respond – if he was going to – she said, “Stupid, right?”
There was some more silence, so she pushed herself onto her feet with the help of the tree trunk next to them as best as she could without much ceremony and was about to walk off, but she was stopped by Kanto’s voice.
“Not stupid at all.”
Had she not been next to the trunk, she would have been on the ground again because her knees buckled a bit at his words. “What?”
“It’s… not stupid, and Katara wasn’t wrong,” he said, standing up and walking up to her. He stopped a foot or two in front of her. “Not by a longshot.”
“Kanto–”
“I’ve just been trying to keep my distance because I… I didn’t know how you feel or if you even want a relationship with me because we’re going to have a kid and we work together and I just didn’t want to fuck anything up… We’re comfortable the way we are now, right? I didn’t want to take the risk without knowing how you feel, but I guess the cat’s out of the bag, huh? I’ll have to admit that it feels good to have out in the open–”
She couldn’t resist it anymore. So long, she’d dreamed about kissing him just for the hell of it, not because she wanted to indulge in a fantasy the way she had when they’d fallen into bed together and created what was bringing them together now. And now, the dream was no longer that. One of her hands was cradling his scruffy jaw and the other was gripping his shoulders to keep her steady as their lips moved against each other, the sensation unlike any she’d ever felt.
He had been stunned, at first, she noticed. It took him a moment to melt into the kiss and wrap his arms around her waist, not at all bothered by her huge belly between them. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she could feel his doing the same through the ground. She could feel her knees growing weak and was thankful for the fact that he was holding her steady. She could always count on him for that.
When they were both breathless, they parted, their foreheads pressed against each other. “Tell me how you really feel, why don’t you?”
She couldn’t help the laugh she let out at the comment. “Shut up.”
Kanto pressed a few more kisses to her lips, her head, her cheeks – just about anywhere his lips could reach. “So what you’re saying here is that you love me.”
“I believe you said that, actually,” she said teasingly, pushing herself away from him. “Never came out of my mouth.”
“Good thing it doesn’t have to for me to know you do.”