Fire and Water (A Zutara Fanfiction)

Metal Bending

It was late afternoon and Toph was almost done her metal bending lesson with the local earth bending kids. They were lined up in pairs, each person facing their partner from about fifty feet away, with a small round ball of metal in the middle.

"What the heck are you doing?" Toph demanded of one of the kids, her eyes narrowing at him.

"Uh, metal bending." the boy quailed under her intense look, even though her eyes were locked on his forehead. "Am I doing it wrong?"

"Your right foot has to go forward, sideways and bent a little at the knee, like I demonstrated ten times for you already today. Remember that?"

Even though she was a good two feet smaller than him, he still trembled under her tone. "Yes ma'am."

"Wonderful. And please don't call me ma'am. Makes me feel like a lady." Toph waved her hand at him and walked on, blowing her jagged black bangs out of her pale eyes. The girl next to the boy started shaking so badly she accidentally sent a nearby rock hurting at the her partner, who ducked to the ground at the last moment so that the rock went crashing through the roof of a house behind him.

"I hope she didn't see that." the girl fretted quietly. But when she turned around, Toph was standing directly behind her with her arms folded and her foot tapping.

"Wow! Good job!" Toph said, smiling.

"Really?" the girl asked hopefully.

"Yes. If this lesson had been about turning rocks into projectiles," Toph folded her arms behind her back. "You are supposed to be sending this piece of metal to your partner, gently and in control."

"I can't metal bend!" The girl cried. Toph's eyes narrowed, "Not with that attitude you won't. Metal bending has a lot to do with believing you can do it. Everyone thought it was impossible so no one ever tried it. It's not going to be easy, but with time, practice and confidence you'll get it eventually."

The girl smiled as Toph stalked off. Despite their initial impression of their metal bending teacher, they grew to learn that Toph could be nice if she wanted to be, and she seemed to know which students needed to be pushed and which ones needed understanding and gentle guidance.

Just then, a young boy clad in a dark green tunic and baggy black pants came running up to her.

"Miss Beifong!" Toph turned, her eyes following his movements as if she could actually see him.

"I have something for you." he handed her a note, which she took.

"Wow," Toph said, squinting. "I can't wait to read this."

"It's urgent." the kid replied.

"I'm sure it is. I'll get right on it." she said, flipping the note over so that she was staring at the blank side.

"I'm supposed to tell you that you need to burn it after you read it." the boy said seriously.

"Sure thing." Toph folded the note and put it into her pocket.

"You read it already?" the boy asked. "And you're not worried?"

"I've read plenty of notes like that," Toph nodded. "But what worries me is that I have been your teacher for over three months and you still forgot that I'm completely blind."

The boy laughed nervously, "oh, I'm sorry. Do you know sign language?"

Toph shook her head. "I worry about you sometimes." and she turned and began to walk away.

"Fine! Avatar Aang says to come to the palace immediately, and he told me that no one else can know so I should find a way to tell you secretly, like write it down." the boy called after her. Heads turned to him and he blushed. "I was going to draw a picture, but I didn't have enough time."

Toph raised an eyebrow, "and you couldn't have asked to see me privately?"

The boy's blush deepened. "Oh right. I guess I could have done that."

____

Toph and Aang sat cross legged at either side of a long table.

"I assume that you got the message?" Aang asked, his eyes closed as he meditated. He liked to do that when people came to see him, he said it made him look more powerful and mysterious.

"Yup," Toph dug her fingernail into the wood of the table. "And I must say, it's starting to get annoying that you keep forgetting."

Aang opened one eye and squinted at her. "Forget what?"

"That I am blind?" She rolled her eyes and passed a hand in front of her face to mime blindness.

"Oh. Right." Aang blushed and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"What was so urgent?" Toph asked.

"Oh, nothing anymore. I thought that Momo might be dyslexic, but then Katara reminded me that lemurs can't read." Aang said. "He just seems so smart!"

Toph smirked, "Well...compared to you..."

Aang frowned. "Hey!"

A\N I know this isn't Zutara, but I got the idea and I thought it would be fun to put in here anyway. Maybe I'll write some more Zutara soon, and maybe I won't. Either way, glad you read this short story that I hope was as funny as it sounded in my brain at 3am.