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Blood welled up the nail fold of her pointer finger. Toph's mouth quirked up into a smirk, pressing right beside the wound. Blood spilled into the cuticle, ringing her nail in red.
Her feet were as tough as the earth she walked. Hard calluses, protecting her, enabling her to show everyone what a blind noble girl could do. her hands however, that's what the important people at parties would see. It's what her parents could see. So they filed off any calluses, made sure her nails were perfectly rounded off, lathered her skin in oils until the skin was so soft she thought it might break.
Toph reached down, scooping up a handful of earth. She hesitated for only a moment before savagely rubbing the dirt and rocks in between her hands. Layers of skin peeled off, mixing with the dirt. Her palms buzzed with a stinging warmth, bringing an almost feral joy to the surface of her being. The rocks abraded the back of her hands, hands on her forcing her to stop.
“What are you doing Toph? Stop that” Sparky's voice cut through her bloody frenzy like the sun splitting the sky after night. His hands started to brush the dirt off of her hands, accidentally brushing a deeper cut. She reflexively pulled her hands away, getting up and turned her face away from him.
“None of your business” she started to walk away, almost bumping into Zuko as he zipped infront of her.
“It is my business when you’re shredding your hands”
“Not. Your. Business” a flick of her foot and the new fire lord was moved out of her way. He was however incorrigible and moved to block her again. She was losing her patience, the adrenaline was draining away leaving her hands feeling puffy, raw, hot, and the hundreds of small wounds littered on her hands were pulsating.
“Look, you don’t need to explain. I promise no one else has to know, but please just let me or someone else, it doesn't have to be me, but someone has to clean and bandage your hands so they don’t get infected… please?”
To anyone else, this scene would have looked pathetic. The fire lord begging a little girl to let him help, but Zuko didn't care. He couldn’t care, not if his friend needed help.
Zuko set two bowls of medicated water on the table in between them, taking her hands and submerging them in one bowl. He saw her hands tensing, about to flinch out of the bowl, but his hands got there first. He gently but firmly held her hands in the herbal water.
“Oh- God damn you sparky, ah fucking… damn it”
“Okay, now comes the fun part” he said extraordinarily lacklustre, using a fluffy towel to pat her hands dry ish
“Mhm…ow what-?”
“I told you this would be fun” he once again deadpanned, tweezers deftly plucking bits of rock and dirt out of her hands. He kept going, his heart flinching in tandem with Toph, eyebrow furrows getting deeper every time Toph squeaked and whimpered. Finally when the wounds were clean to his satisfaction, he submerged her hands in the second bowl, giving the wounds one last flush.
“Wait here” the words gave no room for push back, much to Toph’s displeasure. His footsteps reappeared shortly, muslin gloves in hand.
“Whatcha got sparky?” He was briefly confused, and then remembered that she was in fact blind.
“Muslin gloves and salve. I’m going to put the salve on you hands and then you’re going to wear these gloves for at least a day to help healing”
“But-”
“Nope, this is happening”
“ugh”