Chapter Text
Toph has no idea what she's doing or why she's doing it. Teasing Zuko was fun at first, but now she just likes to see how far she can push him. It's all a game in her head; see what she can do to make him slip up.
The ladies that had been putting her clothes in her closet stopped giving her the normal baggy stuff she wears. Now, its tight, revealing, and slightly uncomfortable, but oh so fun to mess with Zuko.
She's kept her physique kind of hidden since she started developing. People discredit her enough because she's a girl and blind, she doesn't want them ogling at her either. So when these clothes started appearing in her closet, no matter how much bitching she did, Toph didn't have a choice.
Later that day, Zuko spotted her across the garden in one of the outfits and she felt his heartbeat stumble slightly and she couldn't help but smirk. He played everything off, not questioning her new look and continued to speak normally.
When they were in the arena though, feeling him go from form to form, feeling his solid stance and steady heartbeat, she started to feel a little hot. He grunted at one point during a drill and the sound sent a shiver down her spine and she clenched her thighs together.
After a few minutes of this torture, she could barely sit still. Raising her arms over her head, she stretches her muscles a little, releasing a little bit of tension. She feels Zuko stumble slightly and she laughs quietly to herself.
Alright, let's do this shit, she thought to herself.
The night before her mother is to arrive at the palace, Zuko and Toph are eating dinner in the formal sitting room of his bed chambers. Conversation is flowing easily between the two, food is being eaten at a moderately slow pace, and joking firing back and forth at random when Iroh walks in.
Taking a seat next to Toph, he steals a roll off of her plate and leans back into the couch as he listens to the two. Zuko immediately moves to pour him a cup of tea and offers it to him before taking a set directly across from him.
"What's up, Old Man?" Toph asks, propping her arm on the back of the couch and resting her head in her hand. She stares in his general direction with her eyebrow raised. She could feel his hesitation the moment he walked through the door and saw her and Zuko together.
"As you both know, Master Toph's mother is coming tomorrow and she thinks the two of you are in love," he starts slowly, and immediately, Toph knows where this is going. Her hand drops from her cheek and her eyes go wide.
"Iroh..." Toph warns. She feels Zuko shift to look in her direction and she knows the question that is forming on his lips.
"You two have to keep appearances and that means acting like you're in love," Iroh pauses and takes a sip from his tea, letting the sentence sink in. "So, that means that you two need to be seen together in public, interacting romantically, and even kissing some. The two of you need to sell this relationship because Poppy and Lao both have the power to call off this wedding."
Toph can practically hear Zuko's jaw hit the ground and she just closes her eyes. Letting out a loud groan, she flops backwards onto the couch, throwing an arm over her eyes, "Oh, yeah."
"Oh, yeah? You mean you knew about them possibly canceling the wedding if they didn't think we were in love?!" Zuko's voice takes on a harsher tone but she can hear the tremor behind it.
Toph rolls her head towards Zuko and lifts her arm off of her face, "They're not going to, okay? You knew they had the power to cut off the wedding, but we're going to be-"
"Yeah, but I didn't think they would do it just because we're not in love! How do we even-"
"Spirits, we're going to be fine! We kiss once or twice in front of her and you hold my hand every so often, it's going to be easy."
Iroh sets his tea cup down on the table in front of the couch, "Actually, there is something else. Master Toph, you need to sleep in Zuko's room from now on. In the Fire Nation, it is tradition and shows the restraint and honor of the husband to withstand from sexual intercourse while sleeping in the same bed as his betrothed. The only reason you two have been able to sleep apart this long is because of the Earth Kingdom's tradition, but because the wedding is getting closer and being held in the Fire Nation..." he trails off.
Neither Zuko nor Toph know what to say. That is a little more extreme than holding hands and small kisses every so often. They used to share bedrolls and blankets during the war, but they were just kids then and there certainly wasn't any engagements going on between them.
"Well, that certainly makes things a little more... sensitive," Zuko says, his voice low.
Later that night, they move all of Toph's things from her suite over to Zuko's so that there won't be questions from Toph's mother tomorrow. All the while, Iroh trails behind them with an assistant making plans for them to have appearances and outings together so that they can be seen as the future Fire Nation royal couple.
The more time that goes on, the more Aang's feelings start to get the better of him. The wedding date for Toph and Zuko is getting closer and closer with each passing moment and his agitation toward the situation continuously grows.
"What do you think about Toph and Zuko?" he asks randomly one morning.
Katara looks up from the letter she is writing to her brother and gives him a confused look, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, don't you think them getting married is a little... wrong?" he hesitates slightly on the last word. He doesn't want to lead her onto his feelings towards the situation. He sees Katara think for a moment before she shrugs.
"I mean, I definitely didn't see it coming. I didn't even know they were dating, but at the same time, Toph doesn't normally volunteer information about her romantic endeavors and we haven't spoken to Zuko in a while."
"Yeah, maybe," he mumbles under his breath.
"What made you think of that?" Katara asks. Aang's heartbeat immediately picks up and he glances at her to see if she knows something that she shouldn't. But, she has gone back to writing the letter and doesn't seem that involved in the conversation.
"Nothing, just popped into my head."
"Oh!" she jerks her head up to look at him, "We should go see them soon! I would love to help Toph with the wedding plans and help her pick out her dress."
The idea of seeing Toph and Zuko acting like that together, for some reason, makes him feel sick. But, nevertheless, he nods his head and walks out of the kitchen, not wanting his wife to see the frown that is etched deep into his face.
Toph really thinks her ribs are about to be crushed from the force of her mother's hug. She wasn't exactly expecting this sort of reaction when her mother saw her for the first time since she left home. Although she is secretly appreciative of her mothers love, this is a little much. It's almost midnight and her ship had just pulled into the harbor, so Toph's patience for such things is wearing a bit thin.
When Poppy finally pulls away, she looks over at Zuko and Toph can practically hear her mother blushing as she starts to gush, "Oh, Zuko, honey. I'm so pleased to finally meet you. Your pictures really don't do you any justice, you're so handsome!" Toph closes her eyes in embarrassment.
"Mom, why don't we go in? I'm sure you're tired from traveling," she pulls on her mothers arm.
"Yes, I can make us a pot of tea before bed and we can maybe discuss some arrangements that need to be made for the ceremony," Iroh interrupts, thankfully coming to Toph and Zuko's rescue while also committing them to something else. Iroh tucks Poppy's hand into the crook of his elbow and they set off for the palace with the engaged couple trailing behind them.
All the way to the palace, Poppy continues to prattle on about her hopes for Toph and Zuko, how great it'll be to finally have a grandchild, wedding colors, and whatever else seems to flow through her mind. Every so often, she glances behind her to look at the two of them. At one point, Iroh gives a stern pointed look at their hands, trying to convey the message that they have to sell this relationship.
Zuko reaches out and grabs Toph's hand to tuck into the crook of his arm, startling her slightly from the sudden movement. Oh, right. They're supposed to be in love. She drifts closer to him so that they're side by side rather than having a foot of distance between them.
Being this close to him, she can smell the pomegranate soap he uses, and just beneath that, his natural smell of spicy smoke. Something that suits him perfectly. She breathes in deeply, filling her nose with his smell.
"Are you smelling me?" Zuko whispers.
Toph's eyes snap open, she doesn't even realize she had closed them. She feels the way she is leaning into him and immediately straightens back up. "Uh, yeah. You smell like the syrup we had for breakfast, was just trying to place the smell," she says a lot more confidently than she feels.
"Oh, shit. Really?" she hears him sniff, probably smelling his robes, "Fuck, I do smell like syrup. I've been walking around all day smelling like this?"
"Ha. Yeah. Did you forget to eat or something?"
"Well, one would consider myself nervous about meeting the woman who could potentially call our bluff." Toph makes a noise of acknowledgement but doesn't say anything else.
Toph isn't too worried about it honestly. Her mother is so infatuated with Zuko and the future wedding, there is no way her mom will call it off. The only thing that is bothering her is that they're going to have to sleep together tonight. As the minutes tick by, the bigger the boulder in her stomach feels.
Iroh is filling the tea cups and passing them around as he makes pleasant conversation with them all. Toph is forgoing her upbringing and has her arms on the table rather than folded in her lap. She can feel her mothers disapproving glare, but it's late and Toph is tired, her mom can deal with it.
"What do you think, Toph? Should we use red, green, and gold to signify both of our countries or should we go with traditional white?" Poppy asks, trying to include her daughter in the discussions.
"Mom, why are you asking me? They all look the same to me," Toph grumbles out. She can feel her mother's disappointment in trying to encourage her daughter to participate. Zuko gently places his hand on top of her on the table.
"Lady Beifong, I think she would look great in your nation's colors with red accents," he chimes in. "I think Toph is just tired. We should probably head to bed, it's almost one." Zuko squeezes her hand and she knows not to say anything else. Getting out of this situation would be amazing and Zuko is awake and smart enough to think of the escape plan.
"Oh, goodness. I didn't realize how late it is," Poppy exclaims and stands as well, offering a hand to Iroh. "So, General Iroh was telling me that you and Zuko must share a room?"
"Uh, yeah. Fire Nation tradition and stuff," Toph mumbles out, hoping that will be the end of the conversation.
"Oh, well, Tophie, and I guess Zuko. You need to keep in mind her maidenhood..." Toph immediately blocks her mom out when she hears that word. It's definitely not something she wants to think about or talk about, especially with her mother.
Laying side by side in the bed together, the air is tense and horribly awkward. They lay stiff as boards on the bed with as much room between them as they can manage while still staying on the bed. This is where she will be laying for the rest of her life, next to him.
She waits for dread to fill her from this thought, but it doesn't come. Instead, she's filled with calmness and a little bit of excitement.
"So, I think we need to talk about something," she says, her voice breaking through the awkwardness.
Sighing deeply, Zuko retorts, "I already told you, we're not having Earth Rumble XII at the wedding."
"Yes, we are. But, that's not what I wanted to talk about." She sits up in the bed and fiddles with the blanket that pools in her lap. "It has to do with the uh... the maidenhood part of the marriage."
He looks over, his eyebrows furrowed. "What about it? I'm not going to make you do something you don't want to do."
"No, yeah. I know, I just... I feel like I need to tell you this though..." her voice trails off. She feels Zuko sit up beside her and place a hand on her back. "A couple years ago, Teo and I- at one of the End of the War anniversary parties- we uh... we kind of had sex and so..."
Zuko's eyes go wide and his breath gets caught in his throat. Taking his hand off of her back, he runs it through his hair, trying to think of what to say. "Oh," he chokes out. "Well, we were planning on cutting your leg..." he trails off.
"I know. I just... I just felt like you should know. I don't know. I just forgot about that part," she bites at her lip. Why is she telling him this? She didn't forget that they were going to cut her leg, that had been what helped her sleep at night the first week after they announced their engagement. "Okay, well. I guess that's settled then," she lays back down.
"Yeah. So don't..." he cuts himself off for a moment and releases a deep breath. "So, don't worry about it." He lays back down as well and turns onto his side to face away from her.
Crossing her arms over her chest, she feels disappointment settle deep in her chest which confuses her. Why is she upset about the way he reacted?