Flint and Spark [3/??]

[gaisce]

Title: Flint and Spark
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Content tags: Azula/Toph Beifong, post-series, slowburn (emphasis on burn), bonding through property damage
Summary: Five years after Sozin’s Comet, a tenuous balance is on the brink of collapse. A Southern Water Tribe diplomatic envoy disappears in the middle of negotiations with the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom. Each side blames the other, ready to send the nations back to war. Toph can stop the conspiracy, but with her only help being the manipulative exile, Princess Azula, her enemies may not be the biggest problem.

Or, Toph and Azula go on a Life Changing Field Trip.

Toph woke up to the sound of Azula’s slow, methodical movements. The earthbender’s enhanced senses alerted her the instant the other girl got out of her bedroll; but her other senses, the ones that warned of sleep deprivation and sore limbs, told her it was too early to follow suit. From the temperature of the ground, she knew it had to be just before dawn, so unless Azula was immediately barreling down on her and looking for a fight, Toph wasn’t going to get up. Unfortunately, the steps continued to drag new noises into their campsite, the clatter of their supply sack being rifled through, the scraping of brush being swept away, and none of them hinting at being finished any time soon.

“Go back to bed,” Toph grumbled from beneath the darkness of her stone tent, mentally cursing all firebenders and their weird dedication for fixing their waking hours to a big ball of light hovering in the sky.

“So you are awake,” Azula’s voice came from their camp’s newly christened center. She had stopped moving around and seemed to be in a horse stance, subtly shifting her weight from one foot to another, which made Toph assume she was going through bending forms.

“Only because somebody keeps interrupting my sleep by banging around like a den of badger moles.”

The posture shifted again and Toph could hear the silence of Azula’s breathing dropping down to imperceptible levels. It was a familiar morning ritual back when she was travelling with Aang, when he would get up early to meditate as part of his Air Nomad heritage, focusing on detaching himself from the turmoil so he could greet the day with his usual brand of Twinkletoes optimism. But the very idea of destructive and vicious Azula acting in any way like Aang, even superficially, seemed unbelievable.

“What are you doing?” Toph called out.

“I can hunt for breakfast,” the older girl offered in a tone that lacked condescension or backhanded sarcasm, which was immediately suspicious. Just as suspicious as not directly answering her question. “It would be stupid to use up all the dry rations at once.”

“Uh-huh. You’re not going to ‘accidentally’ get lost in the woods while you’re gone.”

“Not with the ‘world’s greatest earthbender’ to look out for me,” Azula said, mimicking the sarcasm in Toph’s voice. “I feel completely safe knowing the minute I step in a direction you don’t like you’ll come and dump me in a hole up to my knees.”

“Elbows, Princess. I remember what you can do when your hands are free,” Toph said with a grunt as she sat up, twisting her neck from shoulder to shoulder until she heard the satisfying pop of her joints. The morning stretches made a good distraction while she wordlessly surveyed any changes Azula made to their campsite and the surrounding area. They were on the last stretch of the chaparral land that grew around the outskirts of the southwestern Earth Kingdom. Getting to their next stop, Omashu, meant going through a lot of level barren ground and dry forests that would take at least two days to cross before they reached the Kolau mountain range. Two days that could seem like forever given the present conditions and company.

“If you’ve declined my generous offer, I assume it means we’re starving together or hunting in tandem.”

Toph groaned, her stomach growling in time with her protest. If she was going to be on guard the whole time she might as well eat a full breakfast beforehand. “You got a point about the food, but I don’t think you have to worry about the big, scary berry bushes attacking us.”

“Do you have to share the Avatar’s silly notion of not eating animals as well?” Azula asked, slowly extending her arm into another stance as if pushing against an invisible force with her palm, holding the form as if it was a simple matter of patience that could reignite her firebending.

“Who says I do? It’s practical. Berries and nuts are easier to forage here than going for something that makes you chase after it. And I don’t know about you, but all that effort will eat into our traveling time before we even get a bite.”

Azula rolled her eyes at the earthbender's sense of humor and withdrew her hands into her sleeves. “That’s because you have to work to get your fires started.”

“And I know rabbiroos are hard to skin. We’ll gather what we can and move on,” Toph said with the firmness of someone who was not going to argue further, but it didn’t stop her from pushing back.

And she wanted to push, with words at least, since she was technically supposed to avoid punching a prisoner, but also because this argument felt like it was about more than just food. Toph suspected that Azula was testing her about the rations to get a bearing on how far they needed to travel to their next destination. Based on the ration size Toph allowed them to eat, Azula could suspect they were close, and she could become more unpredictable with the chance of reaching their destination. Or she could be waiting for some kind of distraction like, say, near starvation and use that to exploit a moment of weakness, like that time before in the garden.

Toph ground her teeth at the memory and the self-recriminations of letting her defenses down when she was practically rubbing elbows with a sworn enemy. No matter what happened, she wouldn’t make that mistake of letting her emotions distract her again. Whatever Azula said would be designed to provoke her into giving an unguarded response, so she would have to be constantly alert to keep from giving away any pertinent information. Which meant going off to forage for resupplies would better to keep her from guessing how far they’d have to travel.

Which meant getting up.

She rubbed her temples in frustration. “Ugh, it’s way too early for this.”

“Dawn is the perfect time,” Azula said, setting her hands to her stomach and then extending them as she exhaled slowly. After a second, she stood up straight and turned to her companion, signaling the end of her breathing exercises. “After all, the early bird catches their prey unawares and lays waste to their sleeping enemies.”

Not for the first time, Toph wondered how Zuko could be related to her; moreover, how he survived being related to her. Azula might be a morning person, but it didn’t soften her natural “charming” personality.

“Yeah, okay. We’ll go find something and you can sneak up on every enemy shrub you want.”

---

The galvanizing irritation that had gotten Toph out of her tent had long since worn off, and she found herself trudging along in a sleep-deprived daze, reminiscing about better times as they searched the forest for anything edible. Back when she was journeying with Aang and the others, Toph did the work of finding roots and tubers but left the rest of the food preparation to her friends. Aang’s monkish upbringing and his travels through the other nations meant he could identify which plants were edible. Katara’s waterbending was as much an advantage to cleaning and cooking as Toph’s earthbending was to foraging. Sokka’s hunting trips were inconsistently successful, but he was always the first to try something new and had a surprisingly good palette for fixing dishes that tasted off. And when others joined them, like Suki and Zuko, they each found ways to contribute their talents into the daily tasks to lessen the burden and shared in the bounty together when they ate.

The meals in her solitary travels had never tasted as good.

She sighed, attention focusing back on her companion. Azula could make a fire, but the idea of removing the chi blocking pressure points hidden within her manacles seemed recklessly stupid for that minor convenience. Especially since the two hours of searching had only resulted in a handful of mushrooms and a collection of berries that didn’t fill half of the sack she carried. Oh, and the part where Azula was more likely to flame broil Toph than cook breakfast.

For all her talk of hunting, the firebender did not use it as a pretense to ask for Toph to remove her restraints or request any weapons, seemingly content to move about without chains. But she seemed equally uninterested in foraging. Her meager contributions were whatever berries happened to be in her way, dropping them near Toph’s sack without concern if they made it in or not. The one instance of genuine effort seemed to be when she went to break a bunch of prickle plantains from a low hanging branch, unripened and likely sour. Toph was convinced she bothered to pick them just for the excuse to throw them and see how the blind girl’s reaction time fared to an object being lobbed at her face. She caught it, although not with the preternatural grace she had when it was rocks being thrown at her, and made sure to return salvo by chucking semi-rotten berries at the princess’s feet. Admittedly, that may have been another reason why their food stores were only half full, but the trip hadn’t descended into a fruit flinging skirmish, because Azula either didn’t notice or chose not to acknowledge the petty retaliation.

In fact, Azula barely talked the whole time they were foraging. Even her footsteps were quieter, a difference that suggested she was intentionally stomping around back at their campsite to wake Toph up, or this was a demonstration of her hunting abilities, stalking her prey with a patience that would outlast even the most guarded quarry. Neither reason made Toph feel better, but it was interesting to observe the firebender’s stealthy movements when she was not the target of them. It was the only sign that Azula might be taking the hunting thing seriously, as she ignored any startled birds and seemed unconcerned with the lack of animals crossing their path.

Toph had stopped to plow the ground with her heel, upending another supply of mushrooms and moss into her foraging sack, when she felt the other girl suddenly stop. Azula had spent most of her time subtly pushing ahead by threading through the spaces left between branches and clambering over hills easy enough to go around, but carefully staying within their unspoken boundaries. Now she was standing on the edge of a copse where the trees and bushes grew thick together, her body turned to face the narrow pathway and coiled in readiness to meet whatever lay beyond it.

In spite of everything, Toph stopped as well. She couldn’t sense anything from the ground, but whatever it was seemed to catch the firebender off guard, and drawing attention to them by asking her why would be a stupid move. Azula seemed too genuinely taken aback for it to be a trick, but as the moment dragged on and she felt the way the firebender tensed, her feet imperceptibly shifting in preparation for a lunge, Toph realized she had misjudged. The danger was coming from manacled firebender all along, and nowhere else.

Her mouth opened to call her back, Toph breathing in just as the other girl exhaled. Then Azula dove through the thicket.

“Hey!” Toph hissed, swinging the sack over her shoulder as she gave chase.

A one second headstart wasn’t much, but Azula had picked the best moment to exploit her advantage. Toph was restricted by how dense the foliage was as she followed after her in the circuitous, narrow trail. And while she could earthbend all of it out of her way, wrecking dozens of trees and overturning boulders in the process, she decided to keep her destructive tendencies to a minimum. Then she could expound it all on Azula once she caught her. Although, the more trouble the forest gave her, the more her restraint eroded as she considered just bringing up an earth barricade and slamming it through like a battering ram until it hit the escaping exile.

Azula nimbly darted through branches that snagged against her sleeves but did nothing to slow her down as she deflected them with the grace of a trained hand-to-hand fighter. At her heels, Toph felt them whip back at her bare forearms and shins, and she had to keep her arms up to block the twigs that were easy enough to break when walking but could bite and sting when recoiling back into her face.

After a clump of leaves smacked Toph upside the head her patience ran out. She raised one knee up and the level ground ahead of them turned into a steep incline. Undaunted, Azula kicked against the rock and sprang off its surface like they were goat dogs playing a game, deflecting to another open exit and turning her head to look back at Toph as if taunting her to follow. But the forest was working against her now, with branches giving way to close seeded trees and a flat terrain now filled with roots and rocks. Toph seized her chance, jumping on the mossy cover of the roots and using their network to earthbend a small amount of soil beneath them, tripping the firebender who was expecting sinkholes and rock slates, but not a simple tree root to catch her ankle.

All her graceful pursuit ruined, Azula rolled from her fall into a crouch, wheezing indignantly. “What did you do that for?”

“Uh, you bolted?” Toph said, taking a triumphant step toward her quarry only to feel a faint, prickling sensation on the soles of her feet. Not the kind a firebender was capable of, but something warm trying to stab past her defenses of dirt and calluses.

Azula managed to right herself into a proper sitting position, shrugging as if she always intended to be sitting on the ground. “I was chasing a squirrel frog.”

“There wasn’t a squirrel frog.”

“It certainly looked like one to me,” Azula retorted, and if it were anyone else Toph might believe them, but Azula was an immaculate liar and could say she was running after a winged platypus bear with the same assurances. “It was gliding on the branches.”

The prickling became more insistent, and Toph had to resist the urge to scratch between her toes. “Why don’t you say it was using an airbending glider while you’re at it. We both know you’re lying, just tell me why you were running.”

“I wasn’t running,” she insisted, finally starting to get to her feet. “I already told you, I’m not interested in escape. I was engaging in a little exercise.”

“You know, I could put your chains back on and let you run around the camp on a leash.”

“Not that kind of exercise,” Azula said, an edge of satisfaction creeping into her voice. “How are your feet, by the way?”

“That’s...” Toph stopped, her mind replaying the chase. She had stepped exactly where Azula stepped, foolishly thinking she was on guard. But the other girl had boots on and Toph had her bare feet. The itching became more persistent now that she had time to devote her attention to it. Why would Azula need to bother setting traps when she could simply use the landscape’s poisonous bounty and Toph’s own headstrong eagerness to her advantage? She was so fixated on catching up to her that she didn’t even notice the warning stings of pain until now.

Azula dusted the dirt from her tunic’s sleeves, shaking her legs a little so the metal cuffs of her ankles rustled. “Well, if this little detour is finished—”

“Oh we are just getting started, Princess Psycho,” Toph growled, reaching out to grab Azula by the collar. She could have easily used her earthbending to drag her forward, but this had become personal, and Toph wanted to personally introduce Azula’s face to her foot and see if she could transfer some of the poison through secondary contact.

Azula shrugged against Toph’s knuckles. “Honestly, I thought there was a squirrel frog. I was so focused on watching it from the trees, I must have missed the fire ivy on the ground.”

“I oughtta—”

“What?” interrupted Azula, and there was a truculent challenge in her voice. “Strike me? Bury me into the ground? Make me regret I was ever born?”

Toph, who was tempted to do any and all of those things, found herself hesitating. Azula seemed to be baiting her into a fight, but wasn’t displaying any of the posturing that would come with defending herself. If anything, she was making it harder to put herself on guard, leaving her center open and leaning forward too much, her jaw practically touching Toph’s fist in anticipation. First, running away, and now recklessly daring her to attack?

It took all of her restraint, but the Blind Bandit forced her voice to become even. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Don’t know why you want me to throw the first punch. It’s not like you’re too good to take cheap shots at people who aren’t attacking you.”

“It’s not like you had to chase after me.”

“Of course I did! Keeping you out of trouble is the reason I’m here!” Toph snarled, then stopped. The fire ivy poison must be interfering with her senses, or Toph would have realized there was someone walking around sooner than when they were a stone’s throw away from their quarrel, and possibly within earshot.

“What is it?” Azula asked, noticing Toph’s sudden shift in attention. It was infuriating how easily she could go from arguing to this, like they were suddenly allies when not two seconds before she was goading her into a fistfight.

Toph cursed under her breath, trying to sense more from the person’s movements. The third person was alone, and not walking with a particular direction in mind, although that changed with the reverberations as footsteps came closer. It was hard to tell exactly with her feet buzzing in irritation, but their intruder was no more than a half-minute’s walk from them.

“There’s someone else here.”

With a flick of her fingers she brought up a column of earth to sit on, then repeated the gesture under Azula, knocking the legs out from under the exiled princess and making her sit on the stone seat prepared for her with an awkward thud. Then Toph chucked their supply bag at her to further unbalance her.

“Act like everything’s normal,” Toph warned, swinging one leg over her knee. “You so much as breathe wrong in front of them and I’ll give you that fight you were looking for.” There was iron in her voice, something stronger than her casual warnings, made more serious by how nonchalant she was currently behaving.

Azula straightened her posture in response, adjusting the pack as if it were a trophy to be kept in her care and not a projectile thrown at her a moment before. “Fine. I’ll be the most normal, boring Earth Kingdom peasant you can imagine.”

“Hello? Is everything alright?” came a voice from beyond the thicket.

Toph rounded on Azula, her sightless eyes still glaring a dire warning into the firebender. as she shouted in the friendliest voice she could muster, “Yep, everything’s fine!”

“Are you trying to sound more suspicious?” Azula asked in a low whisper.

“No!” Toph snarled in a hushed tone. “I’m trying to sound like I don’t want to throttle you!”

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to deter the person whose voice was only getting closer and more curious. “Are you sure? I heard shouting.”

Azula stared Toph in the face for a moment, silently trying to convey something before she turned to call out in a friendly voice, “Really, it was a minor accident. The only casualty was my friend’s dignity.”

A young woman, likely not much older than they were, clambered over the rocks. She was sure footed and used the branches to keep her balance as she descended, giving the appearance that she was familiar with these woods. Once on level ground, she wiped her hands on the side of her chima and bowed in introduction. “What happened? I’m a healer. Maybe I can help?”

“We were foraging when I stumbled over these tree roots,” Azula began explaining before Toph could say anything, “and she ran to help me up. It all happened so fast, I wasn’t able to warn her about the fire ivy growing over the ground.”

Toph grit her teeth. “Yeah, normally you’re so good at telling me to watch out.”

“Oh dear, and you’re an earthbender?” the woman asked, glancing at Toph’s uncovered feet.

Realizing there was no point in hiding it, Toph said, “I am. But that’s why it’s not a big deal. I’m thick skinned and I can earthbend my way around no problem.”

“I’m such a clumsy oaf. This is all my fault,” Azula said to Toph, her cloyingly concern turning the truest statement she ever spoke to her into an enraging falsehood.

“What’s important is you weren’t hurt too,” Toph said, matching her tone. “It would be really terrible if that happened.”

Azula gave a curt nod, as if to acknowledge what Toph was really conveying, before she turned her attention to the newcomer. “Oh, how rude of me to not introduce myself. I’ve been so preoccupied with my friend’s injury that I forgot my manners. I’m Mei Li,” Azula said, turning her nod into a slight bow. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, and as if she were introducing herself to the Earth Kingdom woman and not alerting Toph to her alias.

“I’m Song,” the healer offered in turn before returning her attention to Toph’s injury. “And I’m sure you’re very capable, but fire ivy inflammation can create other infections. I would feel much better if you came back to the village so I could treat you. We have a clinic, it’s not far.”

“Look, I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want to be a burden.”

Toph didn’t want to admit it, but she was beginning to feel the effects of the fire ivy. The burning sensation across the soles of her feet was limiting her connection to the earth, which meant her balance and spatial perception were getting harder to judge with each passing second. If she was alone—and she fought against the sensation her mind supplied her with, stumbling around injured in the middle of nowhere—she would manage this passing injury. But with Azula and this unaware Earth Kingdom girl, the danger increased the more vulnerable she became.

Song edged forward, tentatively touching Toph’s shoulder with her hand. “Please…” Toph blinked, suddenly realizing that she was not pleading with her directly but with Azula. She was begging Azula for help. “Your friend might get worse if we don’t treat her soon.”

“And what kind of friend would I be to let her suffer this way?” Azula said in a voice that was laced with sarcasm, but returned to some semblance of concern when she addressed Toph directly. “You’re not in a state to push yourself. I know how much you hate to be a burden, but perhaps we should take advantage of this young woman’s kindness...”

Toph wanted to point out how much Azula loved taking advantage, the unstated sneering that must be hiding behind those words because she crafted them so carefully, but it was getting harder to keep herself steady. And what about this meddling healer? How could she get them away without arousing her suspicions, someone whose only fault was being kind to strange travelers? Toph could have ground slate into dust between her teeth when she muttered, “...alright, fine.”

“Then it’s settled,” Azula said, a pleased hum in her voice. So convincing, Toph thought, she almost sounded like she genuinely cared.

With no other choice, Toph shuffled forward to follow, but Song held her back, warning, “You shouldn’t walk while your feet are like that.”

Toph shrugged and turned to Azula. “I guess you’ll have to carry me. You know, like you did back when we were kids.”

The pause was only the space of a breath. A breath Azula let out with deliberate slowness. “…how could I forget?”

With their complicit lie agreed upon, Azula bent one knee and pressed her fist to the ground, the way soldiers swore fealty instead of the way friends offered help. She knelt awkwardly, as if her body rejected the very notion of such acquiescence, before allowing the earthbender to clamber up on her back.

Toph resisted the urge to give her a swift kick before she settled against Azula’s waist, mostly because she decided that it would hurt her feet more than it would hurt Azula’s sides, which felt gaunt and wiry beneath the heavy Earth Kingdom robes. The other reason being that, for once, the princess seemed content to play at the ruse of a concerned childhood friend, which meant their new travel companion was safe from the truth of Azula’s true identity. Even if it meant Toph had to spend the trip cozying up to her.

“Thanks, buddy,” Toph cooed in Azula’s ear, sickly sweet. It seemed easier to remind Azula of their predicament by wrapping her arms around her neck and pressing close, almost a role reversal from yesterday in the garden. This way Song would see the close affection of her new companions, and Toph could make sure to crush Azula’s windpipe if she dared spoil the illusion.

“Don’t,” Azula cleared her throat with a growl, “mention it.”

---

“This may sting a bit,” warned the healer as she uncapped a small bottle and poured it against the bandages. She had introduced herself as Song, and the name was fitting as she hummed soothingly under her breath, not intended to be heard, but Toph appreciated the small thrum of her vibration as she pressed the tincture against the sole of her foot.

The earthbender didn’t flinch, but scrunched up her nose at the strong smell. “What’s in this?”

Lingering off to the side, Azula picked up one of the glass jars to examine the contents. “Vinegar, at least. I can smell it from here.”

Song reached out to lightly bat Azula’s hand away before turning her attention back to her patient. Toph wasn’t sure to laugh or brace herself to the former princess’s reaction as Azula stood stock still, her inaction suggesting she had not yet comprehended that she was just treated like a misbehaving cat.

“That and some other ingredients. Aloe from plants to soothe the irritation, bacui berries are to ease the inflammation, the vinegar is to clean out the irritants.”

“Does it work on different kinds of irritants?” Toph looked over Song’s shoulder to give Azula a meaningful, mocking stare, and was grateful to note that she didn’t seem ready to retaliate for being scolded. But still refused to move away from Song’s medical supplies, albeit with her hands clasped behind her back.

“Oh, lots of things, like stains…” Song started to say then trailed off as she began the final wrapping of bandages and her focus went to making sure they were just tight enough to hold but not to chafe. “Is that too tight?”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Toph replied, flexing her toes. And she found she meant it, more than just the usual brush off whenever anyone asked her how she was doing. “Still not a fan of things on my feet, but this is better than going around in some medicine cream filled shoes.”

“Now that’s done,” Song sat back and began wiping her hands with a cloth. “There’s something I’ve wanted to ask you since we met, but I wasn’t sure how to bring it up...”

There was something anticipatory and nervous in how the healer seemed to approach her question. It was noticeable enough that both firebender and earthbender paused, waiting to see if their ruse had been discovered. Toph and Azula, or “Mei Li” as they were calling her, had politely answered the few questions they were asked during their journey to the clinic, developing a system of signals and non-verbal cues so they didn’t contradict each other, which usually involved putting enough warning pressure on some body part to let them cede the conversation. They were childhood friends, reconnecting after years spent apart with a camping trip, which is how Song came upon them. And, even though they had managed to fabricate a backstory without gainsaying the other, if their deception was threatened, they would have to come up with a coordinated denial, because their true purpose was something they would never admit.

Song put the cloth aside. “But are you...the Avatar’s earthbending teacher, Toph Beifong?”

“Uh, yeah.” Toph said, realizing as she said it that it was the right move. She could have lied and come up with a convincing story, but Song was a kind hearted person, whose generosity deserved honesty in return. And, just as a matter of practicality, how many other blind, earthbending teenage girls were there wandering around? “That’s me.”

Offering to corroborate, Azula said, “Normally she loves to brag about it, but you caught us at an awkward moment.”

“What’s he like?” Song asked, her eagerness ignoring everything else. The focused precision of a healer and her patient seemed to give way to a barely contained reverence for Song and her newly discovered hero. “You hear so many stories, and some of it sounds too incredible to be true! Did he really mend the rift between the Zhang and Gan Jin tribes by calling forth their ancestors’ spirits and telling them to make up? Did he single handedly wipe out a Fire Nation armada with a sneeze?”

“We took out plenty of Fire Nation forces, but I think it was the regular way. Airbender sneezes tend to wipe him out rather than the other way around. But he’s powerful enough that most of the stories could be true. I’ll say he’s probably the second or third strongest earthbender I know, not as good as me, except maybe sandbending…” Toph said simply, tilting her head to determine if that satisfied Song, then continuing, “But what he’s like as a person? Twinkletoes is a guy who wants to help people. Like, yeah, he’s the Avatar but he doesn’t make a big deal out of it. Unless he needs to.”

“Twinkletoes?” Song asked.

“My nickname for him. I do that with friends. Aang is Twinkletoes, Katara is Sugar Queen, Zuko is Sparky...”

“Do you have a nickname, Mei Li?” Song asked, belatedly trying to bring her back into their discussion now that her farflung suspicions had been confirmed.

Having inspected all of the clinic’s medicine bottles, Azula opened up their foraging sack, looking for something to feign interest in instead of eavesdropping. “I wasn’t part of their little group when the war was going on.”

“She does,” Toph interrupted. “It’s ‘Princess’ because she never liked to get dirty. Probably why we weren’t very successful in gathering food.”

“We still had food at the campsite, I don’t see the necessity to search for more food on an empty stomach,” Azula retorted, examining their stock. They had been up for hours now and hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday. It would be easy to blame their irritability on their hunger and not that they were enemies in a tenuous alliance.

“Hey, Mei Li, Song said she used bacui berries in my medicine. Didn’t we pick some? They’re about this big and round,” she said, holding her fingers a centimeter apart, as wide as the grin she was giving Azula.

Azula, rising to the unspoken challenge, tried to rummage through the sack, gingerly pushing aside the prickle plantains before she pulled her hand out to display a palm’s worth of small red berries. “Do you mean these?”

“Stop!” cried Song. “Those aren’t bacui berries, they’re maka'ole berries!”

“So? What’s the difference?”

“They’re poisonous and can cause sudden blindness!”

Azula froze immediately, her hand opening and letting the berries fall back into the bag.

Toph waved a hand in front of her milky, unfocused eyes. “Really? That sounds terrible. Good thing it doesn’t apply to me!”

Azula cast the earthbender a withering glance. “How did you survive this long?”

“Because I was counting on your helpful guidance, buddy,” Toph replied, leaning over and playfully jabbing the other girl with her elbow. She then started idly wiping the firebender of whatever traces of dirt and berry juice, leaving her hand near the iron braces in case Azula tried to throttle her.

“It’s still poisonous , you know,” her whisper was as toxic as the berries threatened to be.

“Even after the blindness? Wow, I’m getting a crash course on all sorts of influences that are bad for me.”

“That’s the only side effect, but it’s still very dangerous to eat,” Song continued explaining the diagnosis, her concern making her oblivious to the subtly hostile undercurrent. “I think you were very lucky we crossed paths when we did, between the fire ivy and the maka’ole berries, I don’t think you’d have a pleasant camping experience.”

Azula and Toph exchanged an awareness that the other felt the need to restrain themselves from laughing at how much of an understatement Song was making even without knowing the whole truth.

Toph sighed. “So much for trading our food for your doctoring.”

“It’s really okay, I didn’t do this for payment. But, if you like, I could still use the berries,” Song said, gingerly taking the bag from Azula, who was only too eager to relinquish it. “Sometimes a cure is just a poison fixed in the right manner.”

“Do you happen to have a fix for an empty stomach?” Toph asked, her stomach grumbling again now.

“Maybe it would be a good idea if you came to my home and had a meal there. One—” she tried to stifle a laugh, and it was gentle enough that even though it was directed at them it wasn’t hurtful, “one not from your supplies, I’m sorry to say.”

Azula pulled away from Toph slightly and crossed her now empty arms. “That sounds like a better alternative. What do you say, Toph?”

Toph, who had still kept her mistrust of Azula as a constant thought in the back of her mind, just as the incessant itching of her feet was a constant reminder for just how important it was to stay on guard, tried to understand why Azula asked her so directly. If she wanted to, she could manipulate Song into insisting on helping them, casting Toph as the recalcitrant friend to her eager to please Mei Li. Perhaps she knew Song would be persuasive enough without the help, or perhaps she was willing to see which inconvenience Toph chose.

She felt more than heard Azula’s stomach give a small rumble of protest, and experienced a sympathetic pang in her own gut. Maybe this was all some scheme, or maybe she was also starving and Song’s offer was the easiest guarantee of food.

“If you don’t mind, we’d appreciate it,” Toph said, adding 'not starving' to 'not being ambushed' on the short list of things she and Azula managed to agree upon.