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零
Married life was exactly what Toph thought it’d crack up to be. It was precisely one of the reasons why she’d been so against it, to begin with. But it wasn’t like she had a choice in the issue because no matter how hard she pushed back, she still had to go through with it. They’d been promised to each other since before she could remember and betrothed from the moment it was acceptable. There wasn’t much she could do.
It wasn’t as though she hated him. Kanto was a great guy. He had good values, he had a sense of humor, and he was neither a pushover nor an ass. They struck a friendship early on by their own choice and she had to admit that she was quite fond of him. He was, by all accounts, good. And she figured that he would stay good throughout their lives together. She liked him, and something in her chest told her continually that the like could only grow; that she could eventually love him.
She never really expected things to become romantic—her parents had prepared her for as much. When it came to an arranged marriage, there was usually no room for romance. But Toph wasn’t opposed to anything happening between her and Kanto beyond what was expected. Nine times out of ten, however, fixed marriages were more amicable than anything—if it ever even came to that. Some couples lived separate lives, only to come together when they had to for public appearances or to have sex every odd day in order to sire an heir.
That was her case. That was the life she had to live. It was the life that was chosen for her and she just had to be okay with it.
Well, it’d been nearly a year since they married and three months since she was told that she was pregnant, and she was more than fed up with the way that her supposed husband was acting.
The man barely said a word to her, and he was around her much less than that. Public events at his side were all fake smiles and niceties. All of his appearances were seemingly out of obligation.
Toph by no means needed him to endure her pregnancy and have their child, especially not under those conditions, but she was also not going to let him run while she did all the work that mattered.
The day she found out about her pregnancy was the same day she told him she needed time away from him, meaning no sex dates or awkward dinners or forced meetups. He accepted easily with no ifs, ands, or buts. Toph wasn’t exactly sure if she was supposed to be hurt by that, but a small part of her was.
From the moment they wed, she knew that there was something he was hiding. He was ridiculously standoffish and he avoided being entirely alone with her at all costs. And Kanto was under no obligation to tell her what was going on, but she thought that it was the least he could do if they had to spend the rest of their lives together. It was surely going to make things easier if they at least lived under the same roof and could raise their kid together.
Toph was also convinced that she could get to the bottom of whatever was going on with Kanto. She didn’t want to admit that she cared about him, but she did. So if he didn’t tell her what the deal was, she was going to make it her business to find out if it was the last thing she did.
一
It was high time that Toph not-so-subtly broke the news to Kanto about her pregnancy after three months of not talking. He hadn’t been around since she told him she needed time and he hadn’t made a single effort other than sending pathetic little letters—that went unanswered by her—asking if she was doing well.
Over ninety days, husband and wife knew nothing of each other.
But enough was enough; she was fed up. She’d told Katara about her plan, and her best friend thought that another course of action would be more appropriate, such as a quiet chat with a spiritual healer present. Toph blatantly disagreed. Her way was better.
So she had her servants prepare a carriage to cross town in order for her to barge in unannounced. Toph was never one to care for decorum anyway. There wasn’t a reason for her to inform anyone in his living quarters of her arrival. She was Toph Beifong, and that was reason enough.
The carriage came to a stop after nearly twenty minutes, and motion-sick as she was, she stepped out of the gig, swatting away the hands of the footmen who accompanied her. They were hesitant, but after she managed to pin them down with a sightless gaze, they relented and left.
Toph stomped up to the front door and pounded, surely startling every soul inside the residence. She continued rapping until she felt the footsteps of Kanto’s own footman approaching.
“Where is he?” she demanded before the man could get a word out.
“Out back, ma’am,” said Goro, the footman, level-headedly. “Would you like me to fetch him for you?”
“Won’t be necessary.”
Turning on her heel, she didn’t wait for Goro to say anything for her to pursue Kanto. She knew exactly where he was, so she went to the greenhouse some paces away from the main house. If there was something about Kanto that was ingrained in her brain it was that he was very into botany. In the case the man ever went missing, she knew to first begin her search anywhere there was a garden.
The closer she got to the greenhouse, the more sharply she felt his heartbeat beneath her feet. It brought her some warped sense of relief to feel him so close to her after so long. But she had to stop in her tracks to remind herself why she was there. She had no explanation from him as to why he was acting the way he was. Perhaps he didn’t want to marry, but neither did she. In fact, she abhorred the idea of it because she was brought up to become a wife. It was a less-than-desired fate.
With a renewed sense of resentment, Toph continued her enraged tread in his direction and burst into the greenhouse with no prior warning. His surprise was evident in the rate of his heartbeat and in his tiny, sharp intake of breath.
“Toph—”
She lifted her hand to get him to stop talking, which he did. Smart man. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I don’t know what you mean—”
“Cut the crap, Kanto,” Toph told him harshly. She walked up to where he was standing, tending to what she could tell were peonies judging by their smell, and jabbed her finger into his chest. She was quietly satisfied when she felt him wince. “Answer the question.”
He shook his head and defeatedly leaned back against his workbench. “I—there’s—it has nothing to do with you. I swear. I just—what we’ve been doing has worked out fine up until now; up until you decided to take your break. Things are fine as they are.”
His response took her by surprise, and the instability of his voice does something funny to her chest. She mentally shook herself off. “That’s bullshit,” she spat. “I need to know what’s going on because it’s not just about us anymore.”
“What? I—what does that—”
“I’m pregnant,” she said, her voice loud and unrelenting. “I am pregnant. And you don’t get to sit back and hide away. I didn’t particularly want this to happen either, yet I’m the only one who gives a single fuck.”
Kanto was quiet and if Toph didn’t know any better, she would’ve expected him to have a heart attack right then and there. For a moment, she felt bad—the man was just told that he was going to be a father in the coldest way possible. But the feeling was quickly replaced by her previous anger when he spoke again.
His voice quiet, Kanto said, “I’m—Toph, I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
“Bullshit,” she repeated, her index finger jabbing into his shoulder. “You will be here for this child, and you will be returning to our residence we as a unit were meant to inhabit, or so help me, Kanto, I will make your life as utterly miserable as you’ve made mine.”
When she received no response from him other than his continued and rapidly increasing heart rate beneath the soles of her feet, she added, “I expect you to be at the house and moved-in by dinner tonight.”
Toph turned on her heel and made her exit.
二
From the moment he moved in, it was almost as though nothing had changed. It simply felt as though he wasn’t there.
And when he did decide to make his presence known—such as at some dinners because he would manage to slip away to his own quarters or back to his own residence when he thought she didn’t notice—Toph would curse at him and disappear into one of the many rooms in the house. She would usually seek solitude on the balcony outside of the nursery. It brought her some sense of peace being alone with her belly. She and her baby have become very well acquainted, especially in Kanto’s absence.
It wasn’t all bad, however. There were some moments that made her feel as though they were going somewhere, some moments in which they felt tethered to each other. Her heart would race when their hands accidentally grazed; her palms would clam up when he said her name with some glint of happiness; her stomach would flutter whenever he asked if he could touch her belly and have a quick talk with their baby…
The more she got to know him and they opened up to each other, the more she felt herself falling, and she was terrified.
And spirits. She couldn’t help the way she’d begun to feel about him. Even despite his absences and his skittishness, she still yearned for him, she still wished for his company. She wished for him to be the person she woke up to. What she felt, however, must’ve been akin to some form of masochism because why would she choose to get hurt by someone who clearly didn’t care for her the way she did him?
But all of this only served to aggravate her more because it was going nowhere and she was miserable. She was sick of it and she would stay sick of it until he got his act together. He was either going to be in their lives or not at all and their marriage would be only in name. She would make sure that he made a decision.
One night—after she was forced to take dinner in the company of only her footmen and her growing belly for the umpteenth night since Kanto moved into the house three and a half months ago—Toph got her things together and made for his hideout with a vengeance.
Toph went directly for the greenhouse in the backyard, not bothering to stop at the main house to ask his footman after Kanto’s whereabouts. And unlike last time, along with her anger, she felt trepidation, she felt an acute sense of anxiety, both of which she was unfamiliar with.
Before barging into the greenhouse, Toph hesitated. She suspected that there was a reason why he was acting the way he was, but what was plaguing him so much that he would rather be alone than with the person who was meant to be his partner in life?
Often, she wondered why it was that she cared so much when he didn’t. This wasn’t the way she did things. She didn’t put more effort into something than what was given to her. But there she was, after a man who clearly was in his own world.
But there had to be a reason.
That was when she jostled into the conservatory, humidity hitting her like a Komodo rhino. Toph felt him startle upon her entry.
“Toph, hello,” he said quietly, settling down his tools and grabbing a rag off his bench. “I wasn’t—I didn’t think you were coming tonight. I planned on going back to the house in a few hours… I just had some stuff to do…”
There was some truth in what he told her, but there were also falsehoods. It was notable not only in his heartbeat but in his wavering voice as he spoke.
“Why do you insist on staying away from me?” she asked him, disregarding his explanation. “From our family? It can’t be that bad.” I can’t be that bad.
“It’s not you—”
“Damn right, it’s not me,” Toph told him bitingly. “And since it’s not, I need to know what it is.”
Kanto shook his head, facing away from her. His tone was gravelly when he next spoke. “I want you to leave. Go home.”
It surprised her to note that what he was saying was a lie. Had his goal not been to isolate her as much as possible? To push her away, to make it evident to her that he didn’t want her company or her, in general? Wherever he was hiding from her, he was hiding because he felt like he had to. But what?
For a split second, she softened and considered changing her approach to him, but she dismissed the thought. She had never gotten anywhere with anyone being soft, and that wasn’t going to change then.
So she stepped up to him and was dumbfounded when he took the same amount of paces in retreat. She exhaled sharply. “I’m not leaving until you talk to me, until you tell me why you want to be so miserable—”
“No!” his voice boomed, echoing around the greenhouse. She’d never heard him raise his voice. “You need to leave. I don’t want you here.” A pause. “I don’t want you.”
His words hurt, she had to admit. But that was before she realized what a big fat fib they were. And then it occurred to her—he was trying to protect her from something if he was pushing her away so insistently.
Instead of acting hurt and withdrawing as he probably expected her to, Toph scoffed at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you really trying to lie to me right now?”
“That is—”
“You can’t lie to me, Kanto, so you better fess up now.” She squared up to him. “I’m not budging like you claim you want me to until you do.”
When he wordlessly and nervously stepped away from her again, Toph walked up to him, not taking any pity on whatever he was feeling. Then, she cocked her head and conversationally said, “You know, you’ve pushed me away, you’ve told me how you don’t want me to be here, that you don’t want to see me, but what I haven’t heard, alternatively, is that you don’t love me.
“I’ve been dealing with my pregnancy alone, dealing with this new marital status of mine alone, and it’s not that I can’t do it, it’s just—why would I have to do it alone in the first place when you’re there. Or are supposed to be, anyway.
“I thought that it was me. Or that you resented me for the life that was chosen for you. For a while, I did until this very moment because now, I’m convinced that you’re trying to keep me away because you want to protect me.” Then, she brought her hand to her belly and dropped the bomb on him. “Because you love me.”
At that, Kanto tensed and turned away from her, throwing tools and gardening pots around, acting as if she wasn’t there.
Toph pursed her lips and pushed further. “Do you love me?”
Kanto stammered, “I—Toph—”
She walked up closer to him, their faces only inches apart and her belly brushing against his stomach. “The question is not that difficult to answer, Hotshot. It can’t be more difficult than the shit you’ve been putting me through.
“I am willing to move mountains for you, and I thought I’d made that clear time and time again when I listened to you talk to me about what hurts you, or when we sat and spoke about what we wanted but were never able to accomplish, or even now, as I put myself through this bullcrap with you.
“I have proven to you that I am here and that—and that I love you, Kanto,” she told him, without having even known that this was how she felt. But the words were out there and they were true. That simple. And she wasn’t going to stop the truth-telling then—she was going to air out all of her suspicions to him, too, and she was going to make him tell her his truth.
She continued, miraculously keeping her voice even, “I’ve—I’ve shown you that I do, and I won’t stand here and pretend that I don’t know that you love me, too, that you aren’t doing this, putting me through all of this, because you’re not trying to protect me from something—from you.
“But let me tell you something, buddy—I don’t need anyone to protect me. I’ve been doing that just fine on my own, and I don’t need you making calls on what I can and can’t handle. I’m not here because I feel like I need you, I’m here because I love you. And all you have to do to get me to disappear is convince me that you don’t love me. We can live our separate lives, we can know nothing of each other, but you have to tell me you don’t and mean it.
“So,” she took one final, cramped step toward him. “I ask you again—Do. You. Love. Me?”
“It’s really not that simple—”
“Do you love me?”
“You don’t want to be with me, Toph, I’m doing you a favor—”
“Do you love me?” she asked again, loudly and angrily, interrupting him for the umpteenth time that night.
“Yes!” Kanto exclaimed in bursts of the most emotion she’d ever received from him. He walked a few paces away from her. “I love you! From—from the moment I met you, from the moment I first saw you trying to earthbend yourself out of meeting me all those years ago. Not being with you, not being able to lay with you when I want, not being able to show you just how much I love you is debilitating.”
Toph felt a perverse sense of satisfaction amid the mess of emotions swirling in her chest and pooling in her eyes (damned hormones), though she still bitterly scoffed and back-handed him in the chest, eliciting an equally satisfying groan from him. “You have a damn funny way of showing it.”
As if she hadn’t spoken or physically assaulted him, Kanto ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry that I haven’t—that I haven’t been showing it, or showing up for you and for our—our baby… I just—there’s a lot—I don’t want to hurt you. Either of you.”
“What,” she said, gently settling her palms on his chest after walking up to him again, “did I just tell you? And badgerfutus down here is just fine, too. I can take care of myself and our kid. ”
“You shouldn’t have to alone. I’m here.”
“Then be here, Kanto.” Her hands went up to his face and she found his cheeks wet with freshly shed tears. Broken, she wiped them away as best as she could, then hesitantly brought herself to her toes and kissed him right on his lips.
She felt the heat radiating from his body, reflecting the humidity inside the conservatory. The scent of him entered her nose like smoke, intoxicating her and leaving her nearly bereft of breath.
This had been the first kiss that she felt to her core, and she hated it so much that she was deprived of ever feeling it before this.
When they parted, he rested his forehead against hers and breathed out shakily. “Please be patient with me. I don’t think you know what you’re getting into by asking me to stay. I can’t live with the idea of hurting you.”
“You won’t, you better not,” Toph told him, her voice just as quiet as his had just been. Her hands trailed his face, happy that she could do so unashamedly. “And whatever it is, you need to talk to me. Whenever you’re ready.
“We can get through this. It’s you and me, got it?”
Kanto kissed her again, taking her breath away. He pulled her into him, then retreated, his hands moving to her belly. Crouching, he kissed her swell and whispered sweet nothings to the life growing in Toph’s womb. She could feel his tears wetting the fabric of her shirt and her heart broke for him again.
He was scared. She could tell from the minute she stepped into his greenhouse that he was absolutely terrified of whatever it was that he hid from her.
And by the spirits, she was going to get it all out of him.
三
Pain radiated from one side of her back to the other for most of the evening and she really did try to tough it out, but it was clear that sleeping was not going to come quickly to her.
At some point in the middle of the night, there was some thrashing on the other side of the bed, and with slight difficulty, Toph turned on her back and propped herself up on her elbows, her leftmost hand reaching for Kanto beside her.
Thrashing was an understatement for what he was doing. He was moving so convulsively that she thought for a moment that she might have had to call for a healer in the middle of the night. The sound of his breathing startled her, but the grunting and the groaning and his sudden screams frightened her to her core. Not because she was scared but because she didn’t know what was going on or how to help him.
Still, she inhaled sharply, doing her mightiest to ignore the pain in her lower back and the violent kicking-ball match between her organs and the baby inside her, and sat up.
Kanto continued to thrash, and his shouts were becoming increasingly louder, the names of people she could not identify. The last thing she wanted was to alert the house staff of whatever was going on—it was better that they handled this between them—so she centered herself and focused on waking him.
“Hotshot,” she started, her hand flat on his chest. She rubbed gently as he continued to shout in his sleep. “Hey, come on, it’s me. Wake up.”
Nothing. He was still in a state. Whatever he was dreaming about was scaring him to no end and she gave herself a second to wonder if this was what he had been hiding from her. A wave of understanding overtook her before she shifted and grabbed his face in her hands as he began to hyperventilate and tremble.
“Kanto, it’s me. It’s Toph. I’m here, I’m here, alright?”
He panted, his violent movements becoming smaller and less raucous at the sound of her voice, prompting her to continue. She settled his hand on her belly. “Open your eyes, okay? That’s all there is to it. Please wake up.”
“Toph?” Her name sounded like an exhale when he said it as he tried to get his breathing under control. Then, her name was said with a sob. “Toph?”
“It’s me, yeah.” She pushed his damp hair, away from his forehead, then caressed his cheek. “It’s just me and our little freeloader.”
His breathing was labored, so much that it was still concerning to her despite her having been able to wake him. She heard him swallow as he slowly sat up, resting his elbows on his knees and taking long deep breaths to calm himself. “You okay?”
“You’re asking if I’m okay?” Toph shook her head, taking his hand. “Are you okay?”
Kanto nodded, squeezing her fingers with his own. “I—I think—yes. I think so.”
“You don’t have to be,” she assured. “Not around me.”
At that, his grip on her hand loosened as he sat up and he just broke down in her arms. His sobs were muffled into her neck and she did her best to comfort him. He seemed panicked and his exhaustion wasn’t helping matters.
She continued to hold him. “That’s it. Breathe. You’re okay now. I’m here.”
“I hate this,” he whispered into her skin as he cried. “I want to live my life but I just keep—I can’t take it anymore.”
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“I just want to feel okay again,” he replied after a while. Then, after taking a few breaths, “I—maybe not now. Is—is that alright?”
Toph leaned into him and kissed his neck. “You asked me for patience when we decided to do this the right way, right?”
With a long, shaky sigh of relief, Kanto lifted his arm and threw it around her shoulders, laying down and bringing her with him. His free hand found her belly and the very moment his palm rested on her stomach, their baby ceased kicking and the pain that was still everpresent in her lower back melted away.
Kanto whispered that he loved her against her hair before his still-labored breathing indicated that he’d fallen back to sleep, even though his heart was going a mile a minute. She was glad he’d found slumber again, but it took her hours to find her own. It was hard for her to sleep after what had just happened, and she felt the need to stay up and make sure that he was okay.
The next thing she knew, however, her eyes were fluttering open. Her hand flew to the other side of the bed, finding it empty. With some difficulty, Toph sat up before kicking out of the blanket, making a pitstop at the bathroom, and going in pursuit of her husband.
It didn’t take her long to find him on the porch, the scent of tea entering her nose as soon as she joined him.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked before lowering herself into the seat beside him and serving her own cup of tea.
He took her hand. “I couldn’t sleep after a while, so, uh… here I am.”
“So you didn’t leave because of what happened?”
There was some silence before he slipped his hand out of hers to run it down his face. “I might have.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” he responded quickly, honestly. “But I should.”
Toph sucked in a breath and nodded at him encouragingly, letting him know that she was listening to him.
His voice shaky, he said, “My parents died when I was young, you know this. But I—I had a really hard time with the way they died, the fact that I was left alone… It was just really hard for me. And, I guess, after their death, I started—I would have these horrible night terrors, and I dealt with it. I saw healers and got sleeping teas that helped keep me in a deep sleep for a few hours.
“But then, the night terrors started bleeding into reality a couple of years ago. I—panic attacks are what they’re calling them? And the smallest of stressors trigger my attacks, which—”
“Is one of the reasons why you were so adamant on staying away.”
Kanto nodded timidly. “Yes. And of course, being in my own residence was easier than having to explain to you why I’m shaking like a leaf when I have paperwork to tend to or why you hear screams in the middle of the night. I—I should’ve told you, but I didn’t think you would understand and I know that it was stupid to assume that now. I just—it was hard.”
Toph could hear the pain and the same in his voice. Her pushing likely didn’t help his situation, especially now that she knew what he’d been going through before she got through to him.
She took his hand again and leaned in to kiss him. “Listen. I’m not going anywhere. Your panic attacks, your night terrors, they don’t scare me—what scares me is that you don’t feel like you can open up to me. You can, and I hope you know that now.”
“I do,” he said quickly, releasing her hand in favor of her face. She leaned into his touch as he continued, “I love you so much. And I—I trust you more than anyone, Toph.”
Another kiss, this one longer and more tender, ensued. “We’ll be okay. Whatever happens, it’s you and me, right?”
“You and me.”
四
“You’re going to regret ever doing that,” Toph threatened, ready to kick Kanto from where she lay. “I swear I’ll make it so you can never use your hands again. Keep it up.”
He grabbed her ankles and dragged her down to the edge of the bed to poke her ribs, his face close to hers, and said, “You’re telling me that a little tickle is all it would take to bring you down?”
“No. I am telling you that I will remove every single one of your phalanges and shove them up your—”
“Hey, no. That is no way to be speaking around Badgerfetus.”
“And you should know better than to test me, Hotshot, because you’re not going to be successful.”
He brushed her lips with his own, his warm, minty breath hitting her face. “That so?”
Closing the distance between them, Toph kissed him deeply. Her chest swirled, but before anything escalated, she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him onto the bed with her. The startled gasp he released was enough to make her cackle.
Their relationship had strengthened in the past few months, and Kanto’s panic attacks were becoming less frequent and less intense, which brought her a monumental amount of relief. He was happy, by all accounts, and so was she. They were finally happy.
Toph rolled over as best and as fast as she could, then buried her elbow into his thigh, causing him to yelp. With a grin, she laid right back down, her fingers lacing over her belly.
And that was when she felt it. In the middle of her bout of laughter, she felt the first contraction. The first real one anyway.
Since the morning, just a bit after breakfast, Toph was feeling more tired and her back pain was sharper than usual. Then, throughout the rest of the morning into the afternoon, there were abrupt pangs in her abdomen and lower back.
Suddenly, Toph was scared shitless.
“Beifong,” Kanto said, worry evident. “What just happened?”
“Baby.”
“Yes, yes, I’m here.”
She wanted to smack him. “No, you idiot. Baby.”
Some silence ensued and then, it was as though something clicked right into place for him because he was on his feet in a second flat. “Baby! Oh—uh—now?”
“No. I’m testing your reaction time,” Toph said in a monotone. Then, she snapped, “Yes, now!”
“Right, I—uh—”
“Call a healer, Kanto,” she told him, waving him away as she tried to keep the pain out of her mind. “Get Katara here now.”
Immediately, he sprinted out of the bedroom, but before he got too far down the hall, he returned to press a quick kiss to her forehead, then ran off again to alert what seemed like the entire household of her labor.
After what felt like hours, Katara arrived and started to work on her. It was meant to be a bit before she was given clearance to push, so little could be done to ease her discomfort.
What upset her the most was that Kanto was nowhere to be found. She’d already been in the room for a while and he still hadn’t stepped foot inside.
Toph became anxiety-ridden for a reason other than the impending delivery. Had something happened? Had he suddenly reverted to his old ways and run off? Was he already kneedeep in work in his greenhouse? She didn’t need this.
Before she could continue thinking the worst of him, the door busted open, and in came a stomping Kanto. Relief washed over her along with a sense of shame for ever doubting him.
“We need to hire new staff,” he said bluntly, taking her hand. “At least a couple of footmen.”
“Wh—”
“Two of our footmen—former footmen, now—were refusing to let me in here. Said that it was inappropriate for a husband to be in the labor room with his wife. I called it bullshit and sent them packing.”
“You should be glad you married him,” Katara spoke, a smile in her voice. “I know a lot of men who avoid this room at all costs.”
“Well. Those men are cowards because I—”
At that very moment, Toph let out a loud, animalistic groan as she squeezed Kanto’s fingers in her hand to the point of breaking them. She tried to sit up and shift into a more comfortable position but she couldn’t muster the strength.
“She’s crowning,” Katara told her two-person team of healers, who each took their place on either side of her. “Push on my count, sweetheart.”
Through gritted teeth, she told him, “Still up for the challenge, Hotshot?”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
And he didn’t.
五
The sound of her husband’s laughter filled her ears from where she sat a few feet away from him and she smiled. As much as he’d insisted that he didn’t want a birthday get-together, he sure seemed to enjoy it.
It was the first function they were hosting in their household as a married couple, and according to her mother, it was a Big Deal. It did feel that way for Toph, but not for the same reason as her mother.
So much had happened since she and Kanto wed. They endured so much heartache and pain but they also found love in each other. She didn’t know it would be possible, but the doubt felt like another life.
The arrival of their daughter Lin strengthened their relationship just as much as it tested it. Because of the fear that parenthood brought on, the very same that Toph had become quite familiar with, Kanto had a hard time with his episodes. He came close to self-isolating again, which caused many an argument, but ultimately, he remained by their side.
Toph understood. But she needed him to know that he no longer had to run, and she was so happy when she finally got through to him.
With a sigh, she finished off her beverage and set the cup aside in favor of plucking a pork bun from her plate. It was then that she felt her husband approaching her.
“Someone wants to join the party,” Kanto said from behind her. She could sense her daughter in his arms and the fact alone brought a smile to her face.
She took Lin from him. “Well this someone should be asleep and not being woken up by their birthday-boy baba.”
“I promise I didn’t wake her. I went inside for a second and heard her crying, so you know, I did what I had to do for my baobei.”
“Of course.” Toph snorted. She knew he was telling the truth, but the man was always tempted to wake Lin up from her naps, so she couldn’t put the thought past him. “What was I thinking?”
His love for Lin melted her heart into a puddle.
Kanto leaned down to kiss their daughter’s chubby cheeks. “I don’t know. Mama must finally be losing it, right, baby?”
Lin cooed in response, and Kanto said, “Hear that? She agrees.”
Before Toph could quip back at him, Katara walked up to them and immediately extracted Lin from Toph’s arms. “Come on, kiddo. Let’s mingle while Mama and Baba do what mamas and babas do.”
Toph and Kanto only had time to give their daughter one quick kiss on either cheek before Katara patted her best friend’s arm and took off in the opposite direction. The couple stood for a few beats of silence, then laughed as they walked off in the direction of their porch.
Then, the man disappeared with no warning, leaving Toph with a frown settled on her face for about a minute. When he returned, he came bearing gifts.
“Have a drink with me,” he told her, nudging her with a glass of what could only be plum wine, judging by the distinct smell of it. “Let’s celebrate the right way.”
“Yikes, sorry,” she said with an overexaggerated wince, “I can’t.”
He deflated. “Come on! I just want a drink with my wife. Is that too much to ask?”
Toph shrugged, struggling to keep the smile off her face. “It is if I’m trying to protect a new life. It’ll be on you if I fail to do so, Hotshot.”
It took him a few seconds to understand what she meant, considering how he was silent for a good few seconds until he took a few steps toward her, setting the drinks aside. “You’re—really?”
“Judging by the extra heartbeat and Katara’s assurance, yes.”
There was no hesitation when he laughed, gathered her into his arms, and lifted her off the ground. Toph giggled—a true rarity—and wrapped her legs around his waist while making a show of telling him to let her down. After a while, he finally did but his excitement didn’t cease.
Resting his forehead against hers and cupping her face, he whispered, “We’re having another baby.”
“In about seven months, yeah,” she said laughingly, caressing his face. “Congrats, Baba.”
Kanto chuckled, mumbled a declaration of love against her lips, and kissed her. Everything around them melted away at that instant—the loud chatter, the music, the abundance of heartbeats beneath her feet.
It was just them. Him and her.
Toph turned around in his arms, back against his chest, and shut her eyes, for once, entirely content.