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Toph was on the ground before she could even register what had happened.
Everything happened so fast. One minute they were sweeping the building for threats and the next, there was an explosion and everything went to shit.
It took her longer than she had liked to bounce back to try to stand up and assess the damage done to the building and to her team. Her ears were ringing and she was way too off-balance to start counting heads, but she did it anyway.
She noticed that three out of the four people on her squad that day were sprawled next to her, unconscious but alive. Their heartbeats were there—she could feel three distinct ones beating beneath her feet. But the fourth member of her squad was nowhere near her and that was when she began to panic.
Toph instructed the one member she noticed awakening to get themselves together and find a healer, and she set off to survey the area.
“Kanto?” she called, trying to keep her voice controlled yet loud enough for him to hear her wherever he was. “Spirits, you better be knocked out if you’re not responding, Hotshot,” she said to herself.
Stumbling around, Toph yelled out her deputy chief’s name, trying to locate him, but her calls grew more and more frantic with each passing second there was no response.
Their partnership started out rough at first, but it took them both little time to get closer and actually become friends, albeit reluctantly.
They had very similar personalities. They were stubborn and dedicated and would stop at nothing to do what they had to do, and when they met, they kind of clashed. Any time they had to work together, both of them put up a fight, but despite trying to distance themselves from each other, they couldn’t stay away from each other.
Eventually, they cut their crap and actually got to know each other while on the job. They had to stay at work together to deal with a case during a snowstorm, which forced them to shove their issues aside and deal with each other. And surprisingly, within a night, they learned to understand each other, to trust each other. And they ultimately made time for each other outside of work.
Their intention had not been to fall for each other or start anything in the slightest, but they were out drinking one night, they talked and laughed, and the next thing they knew, his lips were on hers and that was that.
Toph had always been a bit against dating coworkers because if things didn’t work out, it could end up affecting the job. Not by any fault of hers because she knew how to separate her work life from her personal life all too well, but she also knew that men were…fragile, and she would much rather avoid having to deal with their feelings post-breakup or whatever it was.
Kanto was different, though, because she knew that he also knew how to strike a line between what was personal and what was professional. That was probably one of the main things that made her want to try things out with him.
And so far, she was enjoying herself and him .
For that same reason, however, it made sense that Toph was on the very brink of hysteria as she grew more and more desperate to find Kanto among the rubble. To find him alive and with a healthily beating heart.
She made quick work of clearing the ground ahead of her with her bending, trying to find some sign of life, and for a while, she began to lose hope. But a few feet away from her, near the very corner of the building, she took notice of a faint heartbeat.
It took her no time to rush over to the source, dizzy and off-balance as she was, and to move the rubble off of his body.
“Shit,” she mumbled at the insentient lump of potatoes, her eyes watering as she gently settled his head onto her lap. “Shit, shit, shit. Kanto?
“Come on. This isn’t funny, Hotshot.”
Toph’s hand hesitantly went to his cheek, and her fingers barely brushed his features, taking him in. Her heartbeat was in her throat, fear beginning to overtake her. She couldn’t lose him. She couldn’t go through something happening to him. She wasn’t built for it.
His heartbeat was there. She was sure of it. She knew that it was a possibility that she was imagining it just because she wanted to make herself believe that he was still with her, but her fingers pressed into the pulse point on his neck, confirming her suspicions. Toph breathed a shaky sigh of relief, letting the tears pooling in her eyes fall in a stream down her cheeks.
“I barely ever ask you for anything, Hotshot,” she told his unconscious form, jabbing her finger into his chest, “so I’m asking you now to wake up. Quit being a drama queen, okay? Because I don’t think I can handle anything happening to you right now.
“If you don’t make it through this, you wouldn’t be the man I fell in love with, and I swear to you that I will find a way to bring you back to life just so I can kill you again. I—I promise I’ll make it painful, too, so I advise you to not be too enticed by that bright shiny light you supposedly see when you’re about to croak.”
Toph furiously wiped at her tears, refusing to believe the worst. He was going to wake up, damn it .
As if on cue, Kanto grunted lowly, squeezing her hand in his, and Toph almost yelped in relief. “Kanto?”
“Hey.”
Toph’s eyes grew misty and she grabbed him by the collar and threw herself onto him, embracing him the way she’d never done before. She buried her face in his neck, which muffled the sound of something between a laugh and a sob. “You’re ali—you’re okay. You’re—you’re fine.”
He pressed his lips to the side of her head before he weakly said, “I’m okay, all right? I’m good. It’s—it’s okay.”
“You can’t scare me like that, baby,” she told him quietly, her fingers brushing his features gently. “That—you— fuck . You just can’t do that again.”
“I’m sorry, baby, I’m sorry. I’ll do my best next time, but you—I couldn’t let anything happen to you or to the team so—”
“I know, but shit , Kanto. You could’ve—”
“But I didn’t.”
“But you could have .”
Kanto was quiet for a moment, allowing her to pull away a bit and run her hands through his hair. He winced a bit, presumably because of the pain he was in. “I heard what you said, you know.”
Leave it up to Kanto to change the subject.
Her brows furrowed in confusion. She said a great many things between the moment she found him and then, and she wasn’t sure she remembered every one of them. “What?”
“You said that you fell in love with me.”
“I don’t recall.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” the smug bastard said. “I recall it just fine. You said—”
Toph interrupted him. “I don’t need to know what I said, but thanks, Hotshot. I see you’re feeling better.”
“ You said that I wouldn’t be the guy you fell in love with if I don’t make it through this.”
He was gloating and she wanted to hate him for it, but she found herself trying to hold back a watery smile. “Where are the damn healers?”
As luck would have it, it was then that the healers made themselves known, rushing toward them and immediately moving Kanto over to a gurney in order to transfer him over to the nearest clinic. They told her to meet them there, but she cursed them all out and accompanied them.
In the ambulance, she held his hand until she felt him go limp, unconscious due to the pain, and even then, she kept her grip on his fingers, not wanting to let him go for a second. Fear still had her in a chokehold, not wanting anything to happen to him, and when they arrived at the clinic, she didn’t leave his side despite healers’ instructions.
“Chief Beifong, we need you to clear the room—”
“For the last time, I’m not leaving him, so you either work with me in the room or I’ll find someone who will.”
That shut them up once and for all.
While they worked on him, all she could think about was his smug ass gloating about what she had let slip. She found herself clutching his hand and trying to keep the smile off her face as the healers finished up with him and finally— finally — left them alone after they told her that we would wake up in a few minutes.
Toph leaned against his cot and raked her fingers through his debris-filled hair. She entertained herself by picking crap out of it until she felt him stir, gently take her hand, and bring it to his mouth to kiss her palm. The gesture made her shiver.
“Hi again,” he said gruffly. “I had a funny dream.”
“Mm, did you?”
“You were there, all worried and saying mushy, gushy stuff. None of it was very Toph Beifong of you.”
Her lips twitched. “I can’t imagine why.”
“You were very worried,” he told her with a tired smile, his lips brushing against her knuckles. The smile on his face dropped, though, when he gently said, “But you don’t have to worry about me, baby.”
She raised a brow at him and pulled her hand away, some of her brashness returning. “Like hell, I don’t.”
“I like that you were worried, though. A crack in that tough exterior of yours for once.”
“I hate you. I hate you so, so much.”
“That’s not what you said earlier.”
Toph shot a glare in his general direction, a smile creeping onto her face despite her trying to will it away.
When she didn’t give him a response, Kanto pulled her down toward him, and against her lips, whispered, “I love you, too, by the way.”