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"Have you ever witnessed such an enchanting sight before, my lord?"
For the better part of their stroll, Zuko half-listened to his chamberlain's poetic ramblings about palace architecture and history. Zuko sighed inwardly, and imagined his hopes dashed across jagged rocks like a ship run aground. He hadn't a moment of silence, and the pressure of enduring another word beat against the walls of his mind like an off-key tsungi horn.
So once the question reached his ears, Zuko answered in the manner befitting of a monarch, ".. Huh?"
An embarrassing long silence settled between them as the word, and his lack of attentiveness became painfully known. The chamberlain's mouth fell open, then snapped shut as a concerning wrinkle found home between his brows. And as if to drive shame deeper into Zuko's gut, he shook his head with a sigh.
"The Royal Gardens, Lord Zuko," he eventually said, and rolled his wrist in the direction ahead of them with a head tilt.
Zuko ignored the unspoken admonishment, and looked. His eyes widened.
The Royal Gardens were the same as always.He was used to the sight. However the one tucked within the swaths of green, almost hidden with how well blended they were, struck him with a force strong enough to wind. Apologies pushed to the reaches of Zuko's mind for disregarding the chamberlain's attempt at bonding. How could he divert attention to a sight he knew since boyhood when another that would arrest him for the rest of his life was right there?
Toph.
Agni spilled gentle sunlight into the courtyard. Rivulets trickled through the canopy of a tree she lounged under with her hands folded atop her stomach, and cheek pressed against a slackened shoulder. She was the picture of serenity. No one would suspect the same woman had given his council hell hours earlier for calling a meeting while he was scheduled to take breakfast with her. Zuko's lips twitched upward, but he forced himself not to smile.
Instead, he admired.
The light illuminated Toph from the small hairs that'd escaped her bun to the dirt-streaked soles of her feet, as if wishing to warm her in place of a proper bed and blankets. Perhaps Agni was unsure of what to do with her or sought to admire her as well. Her bangs curtained her face and Zuko clenched his hands at his back to stave off the desire to walk over. He imagined tucking her hair behind her ear. It didn't obscure her sight in any way, couldn't have, so the excuse would have been a poor one. It always was when she asked him why he did it.
The better answer would be that he adored her eyes. Toph didn't think much of them, ("They're practically useless ornaments, Sparky," he could hear her say), but they were worth all the gold in his coffers. Her eyes were a jade sea, and only one well-versed in traversing the tides of her heart, subtly hidden beneath crested waves of indifference could understand their true beauty. It was difficult, trying to ascertain the meaning depths of Toph's heart. Whenever Zuko was certain he discovered one cavern, another laid right out of his reach.
Zuko didn't mind. A long journey searching for a fabled being was what started him on the path to finding himself, after all. He would gladly give Toph Beifong his undivided attention for days, weeks, months, his entire lifetime to know her.
He traced the softness of her cheek with his eyes, down to where the proud expanse of her throat disappeared into her tunic. While she undoubtedly grew taller over the years, what impressed him most was her strength. The grubby, square-shouldered girl of his youth grew into a stocky woman. Still grubby, but the dirt layer she wore as a second skin was never truly unappealing. Zuko's eyes trailed lower to the broad shoulders, and the relaxed hills of toned muscles prepared to swell into mountains at beckon. Toph once mentioned strength was necessary to bend the earth; it was too stubborn to move otherwise. Too proud because it knew how strong it was, and wouldn't yield to someone weaker.
Just like Toph herself. She was a beauty, and worse, knew it. And to his absolute dismay, so did the rest of the world. Short, thick-bodied, and sculpted from white mutton jade by the Earth Mother herself. Toph Beifong was a jewel that would never exist upon someone's arm, or in the palm of their hand. She was one with the Earth, and refused to temper herself under its pressure. It made sense that she blended into the greenery around her, and Zuko's heart softened as he drank in the sight.
To know she could find peace in his home was nothing short of humbling.
"Hey Firedork, get over here."
Zuko inhaled sharply, and caught his chamberlain's eye from his periphery. He had been staring, yes, but the chamberlain hadn't noticed Toph at all and seemed to scramble for a proper greeting. An understanding lanced through Zuko's mind. He curtly nodded to his chamberlain, then stepped from beneath the shaded walkway to where Toph sat beneath the tree. When he moved to lean against the trunk, the earth shifted beneath his feet and twisted like a cork being pulled into a bottle rather than out.
He stumbled, catching himself on the ground beside her in a kneel with his face hovering dangerously close to hers. Up close, her still face was as mesmerizing as it was terrifying, especially when the placidness cracked as her lips curled into a pearly grin and her eyes fluttered open. He swallowed the steam curled in his throat before it could spill from his mouth when she tipped her chin up to him, shaded by his body.
"You owe me one."
Zuko's heart betrayed him, and Toph's grin widened.
And belatedly, he realized his answer to his chamberlain's question. No sight would ever be as enchanting as her.