Chapter Text
Toph had missed them so much it was embarrassing.
She was already grinning while halfway through the palace gates. She had done four months of Earth Kingdom diplomacy garbage that she only put up with to help Zuko and Aang out. Old politicians talked too much, they got on her nerves so much that she couldn’t even hide her facial expressions. Despite this, she had done a good job, like everything she gets herself to do–duh.
Toph had gotten used to spending a lot of time in the Firelord’s Palace, and most importantly, she got used to eating delicious food on a daily basis, which she missed dearly while away. She also missed Sokka’s pacing while thinking, his dumb jokes, Zuko’s chuckles while pretending to stay serious. But she was never going to admit that part. She couldn’t get that soft.
The guards announced her arrival, and somewhere inside the palace she heard fast footsteps immediately change direction towards her.
“Is she back already?” Sokka shouted from down the hall; Toph could almost hear his grin. “I thought she was giving us a longer break from torment,” he joked.
Tpph barked out a laugh. “Oh, missed you too!” She followed the vibrations easily. “You love my torment!”
Boots thudded confidently against the polished palace stone. Servants moved out of her way, as they were used to doing. It was familiar, in a weird wealthy, aristocratic sort of way that only Zuko and her could relate to each other without sounding like assholes.
Finally she fully felt them. Two sets of footsteps hurried towards her, both completely distinguishable from each other.
Sokka first, with his light, slightly uneven but energetic walking.
And Zuko–
Toph slowed automatically. Something didn’t feel right.
Something was–wrong?
She scrunched up her eyebrows, concentrating. No, it was not wrong.
Something just felt different.
Zuko stopped in front of her and Toph could feel his usual heat radiating off him, it was steady and under his skin like fire benders were.
“Toph,” Zuko said, sounding openly happy. “You are back.”
“There she is,” Sokka said, while squeezing her in a hug that she didn’t return. He then grabbed her shoulders. “Did you bring me anything expensive? It’s been months, you gotta–”
“Shut up,” she muttered softly, still processing what she was feeling. “I brought my presence, and you should be grateful for it.
“Ugh, return it,” Sokka said in fake annoyance.
Toph snorted, then reached forward to shove-greet Zuko lightly in the arm like usual, but she froze mid-way
Everything inside her went completely still.
She even stopped breathing.
Because, either her bending was failing her, or beneath the rhythm of Zuko’s heartbeat…there was another one.
A tiny one. Fast. Fluttering.
Toph’s hand stayed suspended against Zuko’s sleeve.
No. Fucking. Way.
She focused harder automatically, her earthsense reaching through the floor with utmost concentration. Reaching through bodies, through bone and blood and movement.
Zuko shifted his weight awkwardly, Sokka’s heartbeat changed slightly in concern.
Toph barely realized she looked frozen in time, but all she could focus on was the little vibrations–coming from Zuko.
A second heartbeat. Inside her friend.
Inside the Firelord–mind you.
Toph’s brain short-circuited.
She jerked back from the light shove she was initially going to give Zuko. Wait, was she hallucinating? Could earthbending even hallucinate? What was going on?
Maybe she had forgotten how Zuko’s heartbeat felt like after going away for a long time? Could it be that it was Zuko’s heart acting up again?
After the Agni Kai with Azula, Zuko’s heart was never the same. Toph had sensed irregular heartbeat, weird thumps, and his heart skipping beats way too many times for her liking. Those months after Zuko’s coronations were hard for Zuko in every sense of the word, but with his heart getting such damage it was even harder for him.
His heart was stable now though, it had been stable–thanks to Katara’s magic hands.
Maybe his heart illness came back? Maybe–
No. It was unmistakable. It wasn’t his heart making her trip, it was a baby.
Firelord Zuko was pregnant.
Toph’s mouth opened, hanging. Then closed, and opened again.
“Uh,” Sokka was getting nervous. “Toph?”
She didn’t answer.
“What’s wrong?” Zuko sounded alarmed now. “Is everyone okay? Did something happen?”
Toph could hear both heartbeats speed up. She focused on it again.
Tiny heartbeat. Yup, definitely inside him.
Her own pulse started racing so hard she could feel it in her ears. “Oh, spirits,” she whispered.
“Toph, what is it?” Zuko touched her shoulder.
“You are acting weird,” Sokka added, his voice getting slightly higher. “Did something happen? Is someone dead? Is–”
“No!” she spat. “Shut up!” She snapped automatically. No death talk, please.
She immediately lowered her voice because servants were nearby, and she knew how much they loved to gossip.
“Not here,” she hissed.
Now both of them were fully panicking.
“Not here?” They uttered at the same time. “Toph, what does that mean?!” Sokka added.
“Just come with me.” Toph grabbed both their sleeves and hauled them down the hallway at high speed.
“Toph–”
“Why are we whispering–”
“Toph!”
“Can you both shut up for a second?!”
Toph’s mind was spinning so hard she almost walked into a wall, which only made Zuko and Sokka even more concerned. Once inside, she slammed the door shut behind them.
“Yeah, you are freaking me out. You need to speak now.”
Toph turned slowly. She rubbed both hands over her face with too much force. “Okay. Okay, okay, okay."
“Toph.”
“You guys cannot yell.” She then pointed at Sokka. “You specifically.”
“TOPH.”
She took a deep breathe, leaned forward, and whispered frantically when she felt them lean forward as well.
“Zuko, you are pregnant.”
Only silence surrounded them. Just silence.
Then, “...what?”
Toph winced then pointed aggressively at Zuko’s middle, as if that somehow helped the situation. “You are pregnant, you literally are. There’s literally a tiny, tiny, human inside you right now.”
Sokka made a strangled noise, covering his mouth with his hand.
Zuko didn’t make a noise at all. Toph could feel his entire body go completely rigid.
“I can hear the heartbeat,” she shrugged, aggressively whispering. “I thought I was losing my mind, or–but I, I checked, I’m sure. So unless there’s a tiny person hiding inside your robes to prank me–
“Toph,” Zuko said faintly.
“--you are absolutely pregnant.”
Sokka sat down so abruptly he almost missed the chair and injured his bum.
“What?”
Toph started pacing, running her hands on her hair and messing it up. “I didn’t know how to say it! What was I supposed to do? Say nothing? Scream congratulations on baby sparky from the hallway?!”
Zuko still hadn’t moved. His heartbeat had gone completely haywire now. It was fast, sharp. Panicked in a way that Toph hated to feel.
“Oh my spirits,” Sokka turned to look between Toph and Zuko. “Oh my spirits. Zuko!” Sokka grabbed both of Zuko’s arms. “What?!”
“I know,” Zuko whispered, frozen in place.
Sokka kept moving around, switching between holding Zuko, hugging him, then slightly shaking him. Zuko remained shell-shocked.
Toph stayed listening to the tiny heartbeat. It was so real, and so unsettling.
“How far long is he?”
Toph made a face and threw her hands up. “I don’t know! I’m not some pregnancy expert, how could I know?!”
Zuko sat on the closest couch. Toph tilted her head.
“You okay?” Something made her rush to Zuko’s side. Something was growing stronger and stronger each second. It was decided at that moment that she would always keep that little life safe.
“Yeah, just–” Zuko whispered.
“You really didn’t know?” Toph crouched in front of her friend, feeling an unsettling wave of affection towards him. Her hand hovered awkwardly, then landed on Zuko’s arm.
“No.”
Toph took a deep breath.
“You’ve looked tired,” Sokka sat impossibly closer to Zuko. “Exhausted even. I thought it was stress.”
“I thought I was stressed too,” Zuko answered.
Toph's heart tightened unexpectedly. Zuko always felt tired, like the boy who grew up with too much to carry. And the boy that carried an entire nation on his shoulders every waking second. The young adult that worked through everything, through pain, through sickness, through enormous, suffocating pressure.
Of course Zuko thought it was stress.
Toph pointed accusingly at Zuko, then turned her head towards Sokka. “He is not allowed to overwork himself until I figure out how fragile this whole tiny-human situation is.”
That seemed to make Zuko snap out of his trance. “I am not fragile.”
“Oh, but she is right, you are not overworking yourself anymore.” Sokka gently grabbed Zuko’s face and planted a deep kiss, then kissed all over his face. “We need to plan right? Oh my God, Katara needs to know. We need to–”
While Sokka went on and on sharing his thoughts outloud, Toph grabbed Zuko’s warm hand for a second. She squeezed it tightly, hoping it felt reassuring. Zuko squeezed back.
She then crossed her arms tightly, leaning back “this is the weirdest day of my life.”