Chapter Text
The first time Toph kissed you, neither of you had planned for it to happen.
Maybe, that was why it happened in the first place. There had never been much planning between the two of you, after all.
You had started as one of her students at the Metalbending Academy, back when your relationship with Toph had been considerably simpler. She had been your teacher, and you had been one of the many people stubborn, or perhaps foolish, enough to believe that you could keep up with her.
Toph had liked that about you. She had liked that you didn't complain when she pushed you harder than the others; she had liked that you didn't wilt when she barked corrections at you, and that you occasionally had the nerve to argue when you thought she was wrong. At first, you amused her; then, you allured her.
The academy was constantly alive with noise: the clang of metal, the rumble of earth, shouted instructions, footsteps pounding across stone. And Toph was always somewhere in the middle of it. Sleeves rolled up and a smirk on her lips. She had that almost unnerving way of knowing exactly where everyone was; every footstep, every shift of weight, every nervous breath of a new student, every vibration traveling through the ground belonged to her.
And, eventually, Toph learned the shape of your steps and the rhythm of your heartbeat.
Far too well.
You couldn't pinpoint exactly when her attention toward you had changed. Maybe it had been a gradual thing, growing in stolen moments neither of you were quite willing to acknowledge.
Maybe it had been the day Toph started correcting your stance during training by placing her hands on your shoulders instead of simply barking instructions. She'd click her tongue, walking up behind you with deliberate slowness until she could place her hands on your arms, your waist, and turn you exactly how she wanted to.
Maybe it had been when she started saving you the more difficult exercises, just because she knew you could handle them. And she would have that excited, almost breathless grin on her lips each time you managed to keep up with her pace, each time your sparring match ended in a draw.
Maybe it had been when you were injured during training, and Toph had become considerably more concerned than she wanted anyone to notice. She'd sought you out at the end of that particular day, letting herself into your room even if you were shirtless and had a startled yelp falling past your lips at the sight of her just standing there; she'd smirked, of course, it's not like she could actually see you. But in the privacy of your room, Toph had walked up to you until her hand could settle over the curve of your naked waist, over the bandages there. And you were left to watch, oh so close, how her jaw tightened, and her brows furrowed with something akin to worry.
Whatever it was, the distance between teacher and student had slowly dissolved into nothingness.
The day it happened was an ordinary one. A late evening, when everyone else had left the courtyard, and Toph teased you about something you'd done earlier in the day. Under a sky full of stars, you'd teased her back, and Toph had stepped right into your personal space in the same breath.
You had forgotten what you were saying. And she had just… kissed you.
It had been quick, almost experimental. She'd held your chin with one hand and squished your cheeks just enough to shape your lips for her. It was the kind of kiss someone could pretend hadn't meant anything afterward. And Toph had apparently decided that was a convenient option.
So naturally, she had spent the next several weeks proving the exact opposite.
Because once she'd discovered what it felt like to kiss you, Toph had developed a rather serious problem with stopping.
The two of you had never actually defined what you were. That was the one rule; at least, it was Toph's rule. There were no declarations, no labels, and no conversations about feelings.
There was only whatever happened when you were alone together. And the strange, almost magnetic way the two of you always seemed to find your way back to one another.
Toph insisted it didn't mean anything. You had learned not to believe her.
Because Toph could say she didn't care, she could say you were just having fun, she could insist that neither of you owed the other anything. But her hands always told another story entirely, and so did the way she kissed you.
Just. Like. This.
You were tucked into a narrow corner behind one of the academy's larger buildings, with its curved roof shielding you from the bright sunlight, and safely out of the immediate path of the students moving through the courtyard.
You could still hear the commotion as a not-so-distant background rumble. Metal rang somewhere beyond the wall; someone laughed loudly; another group of students argued over an exercise. The academy carried on only a few steps away, blissfully unaware of you.
Toph seemed to enjoy that; perhaps because she liked the danger of it. Perhaps because she liked having you somewhere that belonged only to the two of you, just around the corner from the rest of the world.
Or perhaps because, for someone who claimed not to care, she seemed to enjoy having you entirely to herself.
Her hands settled firmly around your waist, fingers sneaking underneath your shirt and lightly clawing at the skin there. Her lips traced a sloppy path along your jaw until they found yours again, sucking and nibbling like she was trying to make a point. Her breath fell in warm puffs over your mouth, with the shape of a grin that never quite went away.
There was nothing tentative about Toph when she kissed you; there was a confidence there that bordered on stubbornness. Her hands tightened possessively around your waist, drawing further up the skin of your back until her fingers pressed against your spine.
You could feel the strength in her arms even through the fabric of her clothes. You could feel the warmth of her body as it caged you between herself and the wall. Your own hands had found their place on her jaw, curling around the shape of her neck and tangling with her hair there.
She was overwhelming in a way that only Toph could be—addictive and leaving you craving more.
A low grunt rumbled from the back of her throat when you tugged at her hair. She chuckled against your mouth, her smile half-breaking the kiss for only a moment before she chased you again. She buried her nose right under your ear, breathed you in, kissed your neck.
Toph had never admitted she was just as addicted to you; maybe never would. But she showed it to you, more than words ever could.
Beneath everything else, she could feel the faint vibrations of the academy through the stone beneath her feet; wind ruffling the large trees around the buildings, stone being bent and broken, people wondering where Master Toph was.
Her world was always speaking to her. Yet right now, she seemed interested only in you. She nibbled at your neck, and you couldn't bite back the gasp that escaped you.
The shape of her smile caressed your skin. You could practically feel the smugness.
"You know," you whispered, a breathless thing while you still had one hand buried in her dark hair, "Your students are probably wondering where you are."
Toph hummed; she didn't bother to pull away. "Let them wonder." Her muscular arms closed fully around your waist while her lips grazed over your collarbone in something hungry.
"Toph…" You groaned, urging your eyes open and blinking at the sunlight, dappled between trees. "You're supposed to be training them."
At last, Toph gave you the courtesy of stopping her teasing. She raised her head from your neck just enough for you to see her. "Can't you hear? They are training." Her voice fell like a purr, one that probably didn't belong outside the four walls of a bedroom.
The sight of her didn't help with your composure. Toph's hair was askew and out of place, with some long strands pulled free of her bun; her cheeks were flushed and her lips swollen and red around a smirk; the lashes shaping her pale eyes kissed the corners of her cheeks in something pretty. It got you almost forgetting you were supposed to be the responsible one here.
"Without you?" The words stumbled out of your mouth. Your fingers pushed her hair away, just an excuse to touch her again.
"They'll survive." Toph shrugged softly, before immediately capturing your lips with hers again. It was almost as though she had decided that every time you tried to interrupt her, she would simply answer by pulling you closer.
Your hands found her shoulders. Her hair brushed against your cheek. For a few more seconds, neither of you said anything. You simply stayed there, wrapped up in each other, until you reluctantly pushed her back.
"Toph…"
She made a dissatisfied noise, nails carving half moons into the curve of your hips.
You pressed your thumb over her bottom lip before she could lean in again. "Your students."
She took hold of your hand, guiding your fingers along the outline of her own lips, as if to show you exactly what you were denying. "Yeah, I heard ya the first time." She whispered in a breath.
"And?" You half-gasped.
"And," she grinned, knowing you could feel it, "I don't care."
"And," you clicked your tongue, holding her chin between your fingers and meeting her where she stood, "We should go."
Toph tightened her hold on your waist, biting her lip at your attitude as if all it had done was urge her to kiss you more. "You're annoying." But alas, with a reluctance that almost didn't feel like hers, she slowly pulled away.
You tried not to think about how immediately you missed her warmth, instead trying to straighten your clothes, and you raised a brow at her, even if she couldn't see it. "You like me."
"I tolerate you," Toph argued back halfheartedly. She pulled her hair free of its messy bun in order to pull it up neatly again.
A short laugh escaped you, and your cheeks warmed as if she hadn't just kissed you breathless. And Toph's mouth twitched into an adoring smile, the kind she never quite admitted to having.
Slowly, the expected distance settled between you like the warm afternoon breeze that danced between the trees. The stone grounds of the metalbending academy shifted with dust beneath sunlight, and a secret was wrapped in a careful bow once again.
Once you were both presentable again, Toph took hold of your shirt's collar, careful not to mess it up. She pecked your lips, lingering there for a second too little. "Wait here for a bit, yeah?" Her voice was quiet, laced with a steadiness you couldn't decipher.
You frowned, lips still tingling with the ghost of her touch. "Why?"
"Don't play coy." Toph took a single step away, with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. When you remained silent, she ran her tongue over her swollen lips and relented. "Because if we walk out together, they might make assumptions."
You crossed your arms over your chest, angling your head away from her with the certainty that Toph had her sharp senses tuned to you. You understood. Still, something in you sank at the instruction, as it always did. "Sure," you murmured.
Toph might not have been able to see the expression on your face, but she could feel the subtle shift in your breathing, the movement of your weight against the stone floor. "I know you got that look."
"What look?" You grumbled.
"The one where you're pretending you're not annoyed." Toph quipped back, shifting to tap your forearm with the back of her hand.
You tried swatting away her touch. "I'm not annoyed."
But Toph was persistent; she turned back to you with a quick shift of her bare feet. One hand grasped yours, while the other settled beside your neck, her thumb pressing against the line of your jaw with the familiarity of someone who belonged there.
"I can sense the skipping of your little heart, sweetness." She whispered, and you felt the shape of her words like a breath against your cheek.
You sighed, leaning away from Toph's touch and tightening your voice to something detached. "I just don't love feeling like I'm some kind of secret."
For once, Toph didn't have a quick answer or witty comeback ready on her tongue. Her expression softened to something too complicated to read. She let go of you, flexed her hands at her sides, and turned her head away.
"You're cute when you're grumpy." Her voice didn't quite have the confidence it needed for those words.
You regarded her for a long beat before asking, "That's supposed to make me feel better?"
"Not really." And then she was gone.
You watched Toph disappear around the corner, listening as her footsteps joined the countless others moving across the academy grounds.
You waited for a little while, running a hand over your warm face and asking yourself what you were getting your poor heart into. Then you stepped out.
You were barely three steps into the commotion of the main training grounds of the academy when he found you. With one hand covering his eyes from the sunlight, he fell into step beside you almost naturally. "Hey, done hiding already?"
His name was Renji, if your memory served you right. One of the older students, tall and broad-shouldered from years of training, with sun-browned skin, dark hair tied back from his face, and an easy smile that made him seem more approachable than intimidating. He wasn't an unpleasant guy. In fact, he was easy enough to talk to, and you had spoken several times before; halfhearted conversations in between Toph's lessons, mostly about bending techniques, even if lately he's been trying to learn more about you outside of rocks and metal.
You smiled, something bittersweet as your mind drifted back to something he had no idea about. You stuffed your hands in the pockets of your pants as you walked over the dust-covered stone path. "Apparently so."
He chuckled, if a little awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. "So, I've actually been looking for you."
You glanced at him from the corner of your eye. "Have you now?"
He paused in his steps, expecting you to follow. When you did and looked up at him, he spoke again, "Was hoping you'd have lunch with me tomorrow." The invite was smooth enough; he reached out as if to touch you, stopping just short of grazing your arm. "We could hang out after."
You chewed at the inside of your cheek, thinking about a certain earthbending master who stood in the middle of the training grounds, a mere few steps over. You thought about her grip on your waist, her lips on your skin, and her insistence on keeping you a secret. Eventually, you just nodded weakly. "I wouldn't mind that."
Renji smiled at you, and there was something increasingly obvious about that smile. You noticed it, and how he kept leaning closer to you as you continued walking and talking; you just chose not to think much of it. You laughed loudly at something he said as he followed you into one of the storage rooms. And because you were comfortable with him, you didn't immediately move away when he stepped into your space as if he belonged there.
You were already too far to notice how Toph turned sharply in the direction you'd disappeared into, her brows furrowed and her fists clenched, causing the metal plate she'd been using to make a point just a moment earlier to bend into a crooked shape.
Toph had followed the rhythm of your heartbeat since you stepped into the training grounds, always tuned in to you even against her own better judgment. And she'd been irrationally bothered when the thudding of heavy steps had come close enough to you to jumble her senses. And Toph had heard that guy's voice when you passed close; she had sensed the subtle shift in his footsteps as he moved closer to you. And then she heard him say something that made you laugh; a real, genuine laugh, the kind that got Toph's insides feeling like blown dandelions.
Something ugly and bitter twisted inside her stomach. Toph's jaw tightened, and she told herself it was irritation. That guy was too loud, too confident; Toph reasoned in her own mind that she could remember not liking him since the first time he set foot in her academy.
But the thunderous expression on her face and the anger in her sightless eyes told a different story. Because he was also walking too damn close to you.
Toph crossed her arms over her chest tightly enough that a muscle twitched. "Get over yourself," she muttered under her breath.
One of her students, the one who had let out a yelp when Toph's anger twisted a clean piece of metal, glanced toward her in hesitant confusion. "Master Toph?"
"What?" She snapped back at him, her hair catching on her eyelashes as she turned sharply to him.
The student immediately looked away, muttering apologies.
Toph waved a hand, smoothing out the metal plate and instructing him to start again, with a poorly hidden growl in her tone.
She was not jealous. Toph did not get jealous, and you were not even hers in the first place. She simply didn't like that guy; that was all.
And if he kept flirting with you… Well, that was your problem to deal with.