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“Come pick me up, let’s go to the store,” is the first thing Toph says when Zuko picks up the phone. He scrambles to pause the video he’s watching on his laptop to hear her better.
“Have you noticed that it’s one in the morning?” Zuko inquires.
“Yes, and I happen to know for a fact that your bedtime has been five a.m. for the past month.” She states, matter of factly.
And well, she’s not exactly wrong about that. Zuko sighs. He had really wanted to curl up in bed and maybe find a new show to watch or ask Sokka and Suki to play some video games with him, but it’s not like he actually has something better to do. It’s summer break, and he’s home from university, so he has nothing but free time.
“Alright, I’ll pick you up in fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll wait for you outside,” Toph replies and ends the call. No hello and no goodbyes, as is their way.
Zuko groans and rubs his eyes, before getting up and checking out his outfit in the mirror. He’s wearing his pajamas, which consist of blue shorts that definitely used to belong to Sokka at some point, and a black t-shirt. Good enough for going to the store. He puts his glasses on and grabs his wallet and car keys before rushing down the stairs as quietly as possible. He thinks of writing a note for Uncle in case he wakes up, but decides against it. He can always text if something comes up.
The night breeze is playing with his hair, and he rolls the window down as soon as he gets in the car. They’re in the middle of a heat wave, so it’s still really warm outside, even though the sun went down hours ago. It’s even hotter in the car, since it has been boiling in direct sunlight all day.
He connects the aux cord to his phone, and presses play on whatever song comes up before getting on the road. He knows for a fact that Toph is going to complain about him taking his sweet time no matter how fast he gets there, so he’s speeding a little bit. It’s not like there are lots of people on the road at this hour.
Zuko stops in front of Toph’s house approximately twelve minutes later. She lives in the rich part of the city, where the houses are fenced in and the driveways are way longer than necessary and every other house has a pool in the backyard. Or at least a hot tub. The neighborhoods feel cold and lifeless even in the middle of summer, but as far as he’s concerned, that seems to be a year-round thing around here. Her house is not far from where Zuko used to live before moving in with Uncle, so he doesn’t exactly have pleasant feelings or memories about the area.
Toph is waiting in front of the gate with her cane, wearing the exact same outfit Zuko is, except for her shorts, which are mint green instead of blue. They’re both wearing the exact same Converse too. No wonder people often ask if they are siblings or not. They literally look like they’re twins who have been dressed by a parent trying to make sure they can tell them apart.
Zuko sticks his head out the car window. “Get in loser, we’re going shopping,” he calls out to get her attention. Toph smiles as she recognizes his voice and rounds the car to get in the passenger seat.
“Took you long enough,” she states as she sits down, immediately picking up Zuko’s phone from the seat and holding it out to him, which he has learned means ‘put on the music I want’.
”Yep. Still haven’t learned how to teleport with the car.” He deadpans and grabs his phone from her. “What do you want?”
“Just in, just out.” She announces. It’s the name of their Justin Bieber playlist, which only includes songs from 2015 and before. In other words, certified bangers, even though they do skip half the songs most of the time. The playlist is reserved for late night drives only, and it's a hilarious contrast to the pop punk and emo that Zuko usually listens to, and the metal music that Toph likes to listen to. There’s just a certain vibe to 2000s pop music that requires it to be listened to in the car with friends, regardless of music taste.
“So, what’s up? What are we getting?” Zuko asks as he starts driving again, and Love Yourself starts blasting from the speakers. There’s only one 24-hour superstore in the city, so he knows where they’re headed.
“Hair clippers. I want to shave my head.”
“Uh huh, and I assume I’m gonna be the one to do it?”
“Yep, you got it.” She smirks. “You should shave yours too so we can match.”
“I think I’ll pass. We’re already wearing almost the same outfit, we can’t have matching haircuts as well or people will think we’re in like a cult. I can dye mine at some point though."
“That’s less fun but I’ll take it.”
They don’t talk for the rest of the drive, and sing along to the music instead. Well, scream along would probably be more accurate. One could call it the performance of the century, but many would disagree. These types of late night drives are always his favorite. He’s tempted to take the longer route to the store just to make the moment last a little bit longer.
Zuko gets the feeling that there’s definitely an underlying reason behind Toph’s sudden need for a haircut in the middle of the night, but he doesn’t pry. Toph will tell him about it if she wants to, and since it doesn’t seem like she’s actively having a breakdown or something, he doesn’t see a reason to talk her out of doing it either. If anyone has made rash decisions regarding their hair, it’s definitely Zuko himself, so he's really not one to talk.
“Why are there so many people here? Go home,” Zuko grumbles as they pull up to the parking lot. It’s not like there are a lot of cars, but definitely more than necessary for half past one in the morning on a Wednesday. Toph chuckles at him. If she could see the mean looking group of teenagers hanging around a car near where they park, she would not be laughing, that’s for sure. Yes, you could in fact say that teenagers scare the living shit out of him, thank you very much.
“So, electronics aisle?” Zuko asks as they walk into the store. The bright overhead lights are making him squint, a harsh difference to the darkness outside.
“You tell me Sparky. Only one of us has seen a store before.”
Zuko rolls his eyes at the nickname. It had originally been a comment about Zuko’s “sparkling personality” as Toph had described it when they first met seven years ago, and through many iterations of Twilight Sparkle and Sparkly and the occasional Spock it had morphed into Sparky, which seems to be the one that’s stuck for good. Much to his annoyance.
Toph is holding onto the hem of his shirt, having opted to leave her cane in the car. She claims that she can feel the pitying looks the other customers give her, so she prefers to go without it whenever she’s with someone. Zuko doesn't mind, even though there’s really no one around to look at her at this hour. There’s one employee stocking the shelves, who looks like they’re dying of boredom, and actively avoiding eye contact with the customers at all costs. Zuko definitely doesn’t mind that. He doesn’t like the pitying looks either, not to mention the people who openly stare at his scar like they’ve never seen a person before.
They head towards the right side of the store, and pass through the home goods aisle without stopping to sniff the scented candles, which might genuinely be a first in Toph and Zuko midnight outing- history. There really isn’t much to do in their city at night besides staying at home, drinking yourself to an early grave in some shitty overpriced bar with weird middle aged men, or drinking yourself to an early grave at home, so they always end up at the same store just to have something to do. Their record for longest time spent aimlessly wandering around the place is over two hours. Today they are on a mission though.
Once they get to the electronics, they are met with entirely too many options for hair clippers. Like seriously, who the hell is buying all of these?
“Do you want the cheapest one, the one that cuts hair two times faster, the one with multiple speeds, the one that resists heat, the one with a memory function, the one with Japanese blades, whatever that means or does, or the one with 28 different attachments?” Zuko lists as he reads through the features on the boxes. They all look basically the same.
“Shit, are they going to fuck my wife too? As long as they cut hair I’m fine with anything.” She deadpans, which explodes a laugh out of Zuko. Toph thinks for a second. “Actually, two times faster sounds like it’s the most fun so let’s go with that one.”
“I don’t think that sounds fun at all,” Zuko mutters, but picks up the box anyway. He hands it to Toph, who grins at him in response.
“Now, we need to get snacks.” Toph states and starts pulling Zuko towards the other end of the store, where the edible stuff is. Zuko rolls his eyes. So much for never seeing the store before.
They try their best to enter the house quietly. Emphasis on try. Zuko trips over the threshold, and Toph hits the door with her shoe while kicking them off, but they eventually make it to the downstairs bathroom without turning the entire house upside down, or running into anything. Zuko is glad the bathroom is on the complete opposite side of the house from the bedrooms upstairs, so the chances of Uncle waking up are pretty slim. That, and the fact that his uncle could probably sleep through an earthquake, so there’s no real concern of their shenanigans waking him up.
Toph immediately sits on the toilet lid and pulls a bag of candy out of her pocket, while Zuko fiddles with the box of hair clippers. She’s quieter than usual, and it’s throwing him off. The silence is so different from their usual banter and bickering, and something seems to be bothering her.
“Do you want to save your hair? I can cut it off in like a whole ponytail.”
Toph’s face lights up. “That’s a great idea! I’m going to gift it to my mom.” Definitely sounds like there is more to it than just her wanting a haircut.
“Give me your hair tie then. And wait, let me get you a chair so this is easier.” He says and goes to pick up a stool from the kitchen. When he gets back to the bathroom, Toph has taken down the bun she always wears, and her long black hair is cascading down her back. It reaches all the way down to her lower back, which surprises Zuko every time he sees Toph with her hair down. She’s holding out the hair tie for Zuko.
Zuko grabs the hair tie and puts her hair in a low ponytail. He makes sure to secure the elastic tightly, so that it will hold the hair even after it’s been cut. As Toph moves to sit on the stool, Zuko rifles through all of the bathroom drawers to find scissors that are bigger than the nail scissors he uses to trim his own hair.
“Okay, are you one hundred percent sure about this?” He asks while holding the hair between the scissors, ready to cut.
“Absolutely. I’ve wanted to do this for years.”
He cuts off the ponytail in one (mostly) straight line above the hair tie. It’s all getting shaved off anyway, so the way he cuts it doesn’t really matter. It feels oddly familiar, like he’s fourteen again and each strand he cuts is getting cut off of his own head. Even though it’s not actually his hair, it still feels extremely satisfying. He’s definitely rethinking that matching haircut idea right about now.
He hands the whole ponytail to Toph, who thoughtfully runs her hand through it a couple times, before she busts out laughing. It’s one of those laughs that’s just a little too loud, where it’s kind of unclear whether the person finds something absolutely hilarious or is trying to cover up the fact that they’re about to start crying. Zuko silently reaches for the clippers, and attaches the longest guard that came with it.
“Are you ready?” Zuko asks, and Toph nods vigorously, the now jaw-length hair bouncing along. Zuko turns the clippers on and starts with a clean stripe down the middle of her head, just like he had done with his own hair years ago. There's no going back at this point.
With the first hairs falling to the floor, Toph starts talking. “My parents believe that it’s disrespectful to cut your hair, since it’s been given to you by your parents and all that. But well… they haven’t exactly been respecting me for the past eighteen years of my life, so I don’t really care about what they have to say anymore. That and the long hair just doesn’t feel like me. I’m sick of feeling like I'm somebody else. Somebody they have created and forced on me.”
Zuko feels a pang in his chest. It’s a feeling he knows all too well. “I know what you mean. My father was weird about hair, so as soon as they discharged me from the hospital after the incident, i shaved off what was left of my hair. It felt really good.”
”Weird how?” Toph questions.
“To him, long hair was a symbol of belonging to the family. I guess because that was the only thing we had in common besides a last name. None of us were allowed to cut our hair, not even my mother.” He sighs. “So that kind of weird. My hair was about the same length as yours before shaving it, funnily enough.”
“Seems like I chose the right person for this then.” Toph jokes, but it falls a little flat. She takes a shuddering breath. “I guess I’m just- I'm so fucking sick and tired of not being in control of anything in my own fucking life. My parents don’t want me to come on the road trip, and now they apparently aren’t letting me do any higher education either because they think I’ll die the second I’m not locked in my room, and I thought this could’ve finally been my opportunity to get out of here. And I- I just don’t know what else I can do to prove to them that I’m like an actual fucking person with my own agency and not just a decoration in their house.” It all just spills out of her mouth, like she’s been holding onto it for way too long and can’t physically hold it in anymore.
Which, knowing her, is most likely the case.
“So that’s why you wanted to do this.” Zuko observes. Just as he thought. Toph’s parents have always been weird about her blindness, thinking that she’s somehow weak or incapable of things, so he’s not exactly surprised about this. Being correct would feel way better if his friend wasn’t clearly distraught over it though.
“I know, I know. It’s not going to accomplish anything and I’m just going to make things worse...” Toph sighs.
Zuko can’t help but chuckle a little. “Not at all what I was going to say, what idiot told you that? They’re crazy to think you can’t take care of yourself and even if it comes from a place of caring, they have been really shitty to you for years. Them being your parents doesn’t excuse any of it, and it doesn’t mean you owe them anything either. Do you want one of us to talk to them about the road trip? Would that help if they know who you’re going with?”
“Aang already tried and it didn’t go that well. And don’t take this disrespectfully, but I don’t think someone who is my height at your big age is going to convince them of anything either.” Ouch. She’s not wrong though.
“Bold words to say to someone who is holding clippers in your hair right now. It would be a shame if my hand slipped and you ended up with a little coin slot in the back of your head…”
“Don’t you dare.”
He truly doesn’t. “No but to be serious, I don’t think shaving your head is going to fix things with your parents, definitely not, but I get why you’re doing it. And for what it’s worth, I think it’s going to look cool as fuck.”
Toph chuckles. “Thanks. I’ve been going crazy over all of this for weeks, I just had to do something. Something that they would notice.”
“Right. You feel out of control, so you want to feel like you’re in control of something, anything.” Zuko agrees.
“Yeah, exactly. You put it into words.”
It’s rare for her tough and sarcastic exterior to slip, and for her to be this vulnerable in front of anyone. Zuko is honored that she has specifically chosen him to open up to. He's far from being the best at giving advice or emotional support in their little friend group, so this is definitely unusual.
But then again, he’s the only one with a similar family experience, so it does make sense. He doubts Sokka and Katara, whose relationship with their father is something Zuko can only be envious of, or Aang who has the world’s loveliest person as his adoptive father, or Suki who has been best friends with her mom her entire life could relate to what she’s going through at all. He’s proud of her for reaching out to talk about it, not that he would ever tell her that.
As the last longer strands of hair fall to the bathroom floor, he can see the corners of her mouth curl upwards. Zuko turns the clippers off. “You can touch it now. We can also still cut it shorter, if you want to.”
Toph sits there with her hands in her hair for a long while. Her expression is unreadable. It seems like despite what she said about not caring, she still has a lot of mixed feelings about the whole thing. Zuko leans on the wall waiting for the final verdict, and checks his phone for the time. It’s nearing three in the morning at this point, and he’s still not tired in the slightest.
“I think this is good. Thank you, Zuko.” He can’t remember the last time she actually called him by his name, so this feels like a special occasion. She also sounds extremely sincere, to the point that Zuko thinks she’s thanking him for more than just the haircut. He refuses to ruin the rare moment of actual sincerity between them, so he doesn’t comment on any of it.
”You’re welcome. Does it feel better?” He’s not sure if he’s asking about the hair or something else. Maybe everything at once. Does anything feel better at all?
”Yes and no. The feelings didn’t magically go anywhere, but I think I feel lighter somehow. Like I can breathe again. Thanks for going along with my stupid idea.”
“No problem, I'm always just a call away if you ever need my haircutting services." Zuko states. It’s not true, his university is two hours away by car, but he hopes she gets what he actually means. He's always just a call away if she ever needs a friend to talk to. "Now move, I’m going to clean this up.” He says and repeatedly pokes Toph in the armpit to get her to move.
Toph elbows him in the stomach in retaliation, before moving to sit on the toilet lid again. She’s still combing her fingers through the long ponytail on her lap, but there’s no hint of sadness in her expression anymore. Zuko considers it a win.
Zuko gathers up the hair on the floor and throws what he can grab into the trash can. He’s going to vacuum the rest in the morning. He goes to the kitchen to get a plastic bag for Toph to put her hair in, and also grabs the two ice creams they bought earlier from the freezer while he’s at it.
“Catch,” he says as he enters the bathroom again, and throws the other ice cream towards Toph, who catches it in the air perfectly. If Zuko didn’t know better, he would suspect she wasn’t actually blind. If that was the case, Suki would have recruited her as the goalie for her football team ages ago with a catch like that.
“Are you throwing things at a poor little blind girl?” Toph asks like she’s absolutely scandalized by the action.
“You throw things at me all the time!” Zuko protests. Toph cackles and as if to prove his point, throws her ice cream wrapper at him, which hits Zuko square in the face, because of course it does, before falling to the floor. She seems to be back to her usual self again.
Zuko rolls his eyes, but there’s still an affectionate smile on his face as he drops to sit down on the floor.
This is definitely not how he thought the night would turn out, but he’s sort of glad it did. They don’t have moments like this often.
They eat their ice creams in silence. It’s not the same kind of tense silence they had earlier, where it’s clear something is up, but a comfortable one between two people who are content just existing in the same space. If he had to describe their entire friendship in one sentence, that would be his answer. Two people content just existing together.
It’s exactly why he likes hanging out with Toph. There’s no need to pretend to be anything. No need to pretend to be talkative or energetic or overly polite and focused on his tone. Over the years the two of them have created a space where they can both just exist and be themselves, a complete opposite of both of their families. Maybe that’s why it’s such an important connection to him. Zuko is happy to note that it seems to be important for Toph too. She is deep in thought, absentmindedly fiddling with the handles of the plastic bag her hair is in.
Zuko eventually breaks the silence. “I’m not saying you should necessarily do this, but if you ever need to get out of your house, my room is empty for most of the year you know, and I’m sure Uncle would love having you here. He knows a thing or two about runaway children.” He’s been thinking about it for a while. Toph already goes over for tea every Sunday even when Zuko isn't there, so it’s not that crazy of a leap to make.
There’s a shift in Toph’s expression. She seems touched by the sentiment, clearly fighting back a smile. Zuko wonders if she knows he can see the journey of emotions on her face clear as day, before she settles for nonchalance.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You should also keep in mind that if you steal my uncle from me while I’m gone, I’m going to kill you.” He jokingly adds. They’ve had enough mushy talk for the night. Probably for the next year.
“I make no promises Sparky.”