Archive of Our Own ^beta

Zuko rushes out of the doors the second that the meeting ended and down the corridors of the palace. Toph was visiting for the first time in years and Zuko had missed her dearly.

To be fair, they had seen each other during the last solstice in republic city, as the gang had made it tradition to meet for every solstice. But still that was months ago, and Zuko so enjoyed their time together at the palace. 

At first it was mainly pranks and shenanigans that his counselors abhorred and called unprofessional. But those moments were sometimes the only moments in months that he still felt like a kid. Now that both of them are much older, in their mid-twenties, pranks occur more rarely, but Toph still knows how to bring a life to the palace that is often missing.

Zuko has just barely stepped through the front doors of the palace when Toph bursts out of the ground in front of him. Clearly having traveled underground again to avoid the guards. Zuko smiles once the shock wears down. The guards at his side still held their spears up high before realizing that it was the Fire Lord’s guest.

Zuko is glad that she’s begun remembering to not appear inside the palace and begin looking for him on her own as that has caused quite the chaos before amongst his guards and servants. 

He runs towards her with his arms open. Toph laughs imitating him, and they immediately fall into each other’s arms. For a moment, Toph lifts Zuko up, just because she can, and Zuko chuckles at the familiar gesture.

“How’ve you been, hotpants?” she asks, punching his arm.

“Better than you’ll ever be, blind bandit,” he responds jokingly. Ever since he joined the avatar all those years ago he had to get more used to joking around with other, and jokingly insulting and making fun of people. He’s never known that before, every insult ever directed at him before was meant to hurt, so he retaliated in kind. And while he thinks he’s gotten more comfortable with the concept in general, he has never had any hesitations about joking like that with Toph.

She punches him again at his response and then proceeds to hold his arm as he leads them inside. They talk about what they’ve been up to for the last few months. Zuko relaying mainly boring legislature that has been passed or stories of Caldera that his wife had told him. Toph in return told him of republic city, in which she’s spent most of her time in these last few months, other than when she began traveling to arrive here. 

They reach Toph's chambers, that were always ready and prepped for her arrival. As were the rooms for everyone else. Zuko leads them inside, as the guards wait at the door. She throws herself on the bed. “Ahh so comfy” she sighs, Zuko notices the dirty soles of her feet and his face scrunches in disgust.

Toph hadn’t brought a bag or any belongings, Zuko always offered everyone who visited the palace that he could provide custom made clothing or anything else, yet no one had ever taken him up on that offer other than Toph. 

When he first became Firelord, that was one of the only ways he felt he could repay his friends for everything they’ve done for him, how he could show them how much he cared about them, by providing for them. It’s been years since and he’s learned more, but he still always offers.

Toph's closet already contained all of her clothes from her previous visits as she never took those with her. Many of those garments are now much too small. They remind Zuko of how young the earthbender truly was during the end of the war. It encourages him to do better, for his people and for the world. So that no child would have to be a soldier again.

Zuko offers Toph to sit in on the rest of his meetings that he had today, which were only two, before they head to dinner. Toph enthusiastically agrees, she always enjoyed intimidating and annoying his counselors, especially the ones who had been extra cruel to Zuko at the beginning of his reign. Now that Zuko has been Firelord for more than a decade, most of his opposing counselors had mellowed out, but Toph still bothered them for retribution.

Zuko and Toph laugh as they head out of the last meeting, recalling the reaction of one of his counselors when Toph had put her dirty feet onto the meeting table, right in front of his nose. Zuko holds the door open for Toph, and she mock bows as thanks. They chuckle as they enter the dining room, sitting closely next to each other at the huge table, in a relaxed seiza. Servants take their cue as both sit down and bring the ready made food to the table, laying it out for easy access for the both rather than spreading it out as is customary. 

Once all the food was placed, the servants bow and leave the room for the privacy of the fire lord and his guest.

Toph loved this, she was raised rich after all, growing up she always had servants at her whim, which was something she left behind when she left her parents all those years ago and never picked back up. Truly if the servants weren’t also tasked with taking care of her and shielding her from the world rather than just serving her she might’ve been more open to them.

Zuko reaches for the wine and moves to pour into her cup as a good host should. 

“Ah, no thanks, but I’m gonna stick to water tonight,” she says.

“Oh?” He responds, surprised. Ever since Toph first tasted alcohol it was basically all she drank. Especially when dining.

“Isn’t your wife going to join us?” Toph asks quickly. Almost, as if to change the subject, he thinks.

“No, she wanted to allow us some time together, said she had work to do anyways,” he responds mildly, ignoring his friends strange demeanor for now in favor of his meal.

Toph nods her head in response and begins eating herself.

After a few minutes Toph was half heartedly picking at her food, when normally she does not even swallow fully before stuffing the next thing into her mouth.  Zuko puts down his chopsticks, deciding that Toph might need a little encouragement to talk about whatever is bothering her.

“Everything okay” he asks, building up the real question.

Toph sighs and puts down her utensils with which she was pushing her food around, “Actually, I gotta tell you something…” she breaks off.

Zuko waits, letting her gather her mind and speak.

“I’m pregnant,” she says, letting it all out in one breath, but Zuko still heard it clearly.

“Oh…”

“Yeah…” she only lets that linger for a moment before going back to her meal with renewed vigor now that her secret was out.

“Well I guess congratulations are in order” he finally says.

Toph puts down the dumpling that she was holding in front of her open mouth, and looks at the far wall. Well she can’t actually look at the wall but she was definitely distracted from the conversation, Zuko figures, thinking about something heavily.

“Or maybe not…” he finished, unsure now.

“I just,” she sounds insecure, something that Zuko had never heard before, “I don’t really know,”.

Zuko waits for her to elaborate, she knows this, she typically doesn’t need any help to speak her mind, but she truly doesn’t know where to start.

“Who’s the father?” Zuko asks, understanding her dilemma.

“Do you know the guy I said I was talking to the last time we met?”

“Yeah, Kanto, right?”

“Yeah, that’s him. It was...only two months ago, but we’re already not together anymore.”

“Oh?”

“He was...He was my first,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“Oh!”

“I didn’t think I’d get pregnant on my first time,” she sniffles, wiping her running nose on her sleeve.

“Oh…” Zuko says comfortingly.

Toph snorts at his response. Twenty-something years old, the leader of a whole nation, and he is still so awkward, she thinks.

Zuko misunderstands Toph’s snort as a sob, and immediately rushes to hold Toph close, “If...if you don’t want to keep it you don’t have to,” he says, “We can find a nice family to take the baby in, don't worry,” he tries to reassure her.

“But the thing is… I think I do want to keep it...But I don't know what else to do…” she says into his shoulder.

“We’ll figure it out,” Zuko responds, patting her back awkwardly, “I’ll help you, and Aang, and Katara, and Suki and Sokka. We’re all here for you, you’re not alone in this.”

She says nothing but burrows deeper into his chest and clenches onto his robes.

“You can spend your pregnancy here, in the palace. You’ll be treated like a queen, of course. You can stay for as long as you’d like, and I’ll always help you no matter what;” He repeats himself, at a loss of more comforting words.

“Thanks hotpants,” she says finally, leaning out of his embrace, wiping her eyes, they look at each other for a bit before she punches him in the arm.

“Ow,” he says, rubbing his sore arm. He sits back down in front of his meal and they continue eating. At one point they discuss baby names, though Zuko puts a firm stop to the discussion once Toph starts getting into food names.

After dinner Zuko helps Toph write letters to the rest of the gaang, informing them of the news.

All four showed up together during the last month of Toph's pregnancy. Katara working as the healer, while Toph crushed the bones in Sokka’s and Zuko’s hands into powder. His wife, Suki, and Aang waiting together at Toph’s side. Katara lifts the baby up and cuts its cord, cleaning it up with her waterbending as she hands it to Toph, “It’s a girl,” Katara tells her. Toph and her friends smile at the crying girl in her lap, happy to finally have that over with.

Months later Toph leaves for Republic city, saying she had been away long enough, and had recovered enough to be able to travel back home on her own. Zuko offered to come with her, or to send some guards with her for protection and aid but she scoffed at the idea. She had said that she was going to stop by Gaoling to show her parents, their grandchild. Zuko is sad to see her go, having gotten used to have her with him during the last year, but he’s excited for the future and solemnly waves to her as she leaves, holding his pregnant wife around the waist.