Avatar the Last Airbender - Playing With Fire (1)

ðHgeocities.com/crystalangel0105//pwf1.htmgeocities.com/crystalangel0105_/pwf1.htm.delayedx²WÕJÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÈð1Y OKtext/htmlïºLÜY ÿÿÿÿb‰.HTue, 14 Aug 2007 22:39:53 GMT·Mozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98)en, *²WÕJY Avatar the Last Airbender - Playing With Fire (1) Title: Playing With Fire
Summary: AU; Firebender!Toph
Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, I’d eat my own hat in excitement. But I don’t even have a hat. How sad.

No one quite knows how the bending ability is passed on. Most assume it’s some sort of gene that’s passed on, something to do with the lineage. People take it for granted that the earthbenders will have babies that will grow up to throw rocks at other people and the waterbenders with produce little water flinging children. Of course, then you have the children of benders that can’t bend and the children of the nonbenders that can, but no one really makes a big fuss. It’s all well and good and life goes on.

Only, people tend to forget that life rather enjoys fuss. Predictable things are dull and just so… predictable, really. It was no fun when people got content. They needed a little mixing up once in a while.

And so, one day, a young, rich Earth Kingdom merchant couple celebrated the birth of their beautiful baby daughter. So cute, they cooed, So perfect, I can’t believe she’s ours! They giggled to each other in the lovesick way that only the most sickeningly in love people do and cooed (in unison too, in a way that would make people gag) at their little miracle.

It was almost sad to see their faces the day the baby child opened her eyes and they discovered, to their horror, that the pupils were not a warm, gentle brown like her father’s or a piercing, beautiful green like her mother’s but a pale, milky green with a white sheen glazed over.

My child! the mother sobbed, She’s blind! My beautiful, wonderful child! Her head dropped into delicate, white, pampered hands and she wailed. The baby, sensing her mother’s distress began to wail as well, and to everyone’s shock, the thick, hand-woven, silk curtains burst into flame.

Everyone in the room, including the heart-broken couple stopped to gape stupidly at them before there was a sudden mad rush.

Water! Someone screamed as someone else attempted to beat the flames with a chair. The mother erupted into another series of horrified sobs, and the father stood, feeling useless and numb, staring at the wide, unseeing eyes of the innocent babe.

A firebender, he thought, feeling cold. How could he have a firebender for a child? He was Earth Kingdom, through and through and so was his wife.

They couldn’t keep her, he realized, feeling his heart break again. Even if they could somehow live with her blindness, one of the most prominent and rich families of the Earth Kingdom could not have a child who could bend fire. He glanced at his wife, who watched him with grief stricken, trembling eyes and knew she understood this as well. He turned away from her tears, and instead focused on his daughter and hoped that one day, she would understand as well.

~*~*~

The tall man stared imposingly down at the dark hair of the bowed head. “And why,” he rumbled, “pray tell, should I harbor this child?” Fire Lord Azulon was slightly mollified when the shoulders shook slightly in fear. He’d been surprised when he was told that an Earth Kingdom man was asking for his audience – didn’t the man know what was going on?

He’d been even more surprised at the request. Why would this Earth Kingdom man want to give his child to the enemy? “What would I get out of this?” he demanded.

The man quavered, but raised his head to meet the Fire Lord’s eyes. Azulon was rather impressed. He could have the man incinerated with a snap of his fingers, and yet he managed to meet his eyes. His opinion of the man raised a touch.

“You would have the support of the Bei Fong family,” the man said and Azulon’s interest was piqued. Even he knew of the influential Bei Fong family. Their support would mean a lot, and from the look on the man’s face, he knew it.

Azulon leaned forward in his seat and placed his propped his chin up in one hand, eyes gleaming. “And what do you want in return? Just care for your child? I assume with your family’s prosperity, you would be able to do that on your own.”

The man was silent for a second. “My daughter,” he said lowly, “is a firebender.” Azulon’s eyebrows shot up. A firebender? Born into an Earth Kingdom home? “Please. All I wish is for you to take her in and treat her as your own. Raise her and teach her as you will – my only request is that no harm come to her, and the Bei Fong family will provide you with fiscal support.”

“I see,” Azulon mused. The Fire Nation funds were getting dangerously low. The support of the Bei Fong family would help quite a bit.

The man waited patiently. Azulon smiled dangerously at him and said, “I accept. Is your daughter here now?”

Relieved, the man nodded. “She is here. My wife is with her.”

“Go retrieve her,” Azulon ordered, straightening up in his chair and settling back comfortably, “A room will be prepared for her, and she will have a place among my family. You will be escorted home tomorrow if you wish to stay the night.”

The man nodded again, and turned to leave.

“Wait.” He paused and turned to face the Fire Lord at the command. “You will not speak of this arrangement to anybody. The Bei Fong family is well known for its honor – if it is known that you are collaborating with the Fire Nation, trade could lull and you and your daughter will become useless to me. Do you understand?” He nodded. “Good. Dismissed.”

~*~*~

Ursa stroked the face of the child softly, and smiled at the mother. Pity rose to the surface of her feelings at the forlorn and tragically loving look at the fellow mother cast upon her sleeping baby before slowly and carefully placing her into Ursa’s arms. The baby grunted at the movement, and then buried its face in Ursa’s chest.

Fresh tears gathered in the other woman’s eyes, and Ursa felt her heart go out to her. “What’s her name?” she asked gently, rocking the baby.

The younger woman let out a single broken sob before attempting a twisted smile and moving away, though her eyes stayed on her baby. “Toph,” she whispered, “Her name is Toph.”

“Toph,” Ursa murmured, and the baby reached up in its sleep to grasp a handful of Ursa’s hair and tugged. She winced, and then a fond smile crossed her face. “That’s a good name.”

The woman nodded and her hand raised as if to touch her child once again before it dropped. “Please take care of her,” she whispered urgently, and fled.

Ursa watched her sadly, and turned back to the child. “Come now,” she told the baby, “There’s no point in standing around out here.” She walked back into the castle, humming quietly.

The next morning, Prince Zuko would find that he had another female in his life and Toph Bei Fong would never be.

NEXT

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