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Fresh from the forge, a dozen hooks bound for a customer in New Zealand. It never ceases to amaze me when my work gets to travel all the way across the world. Not a day goes by that I don’t ponder on that, wondering what my ironwork is experiencing.
Strive with all your might to make each piece right. This is your legacy. The Iron Abides.
five times kissed!
send for five times our muses kissed! || not accepting
one.
“ Ok, give me one more, Toph. Big push! ”
The walls shook as Toph swore, riding the wave of a contraction before bearing down with a guttural moan. It tore out of her throat, low and feral, followed by the sharp snap of splitting metal. One moment her body was a tightly coiled spring, a ball of gristle and bone rallied against the pain, and the next she wilted, the pressure suddenly released. The tremors stopped as quickly as they started, and without missing a beat came the indignant, barking cry of the newborn in Katara’s hands.
“ I’ve got her! ” she heard Katara exclaim, and it was all Toph could do not to burst with the joy of it. “ You have a beautiful little girl. And listen to those lungs! Wonder where she gets it from. ”
Toph huffed a laugh, a proud smile on her face as she settled into the pillows, spent. Her chest was heaving, and her head rested against the headboard behind her, its surface still sporting an almighty split down the side.
“ A girl, ” she marveled, forgetting the pain of the last sixteen hours. She could hear her friend clean up the fussing baby - her baby- and immediately reached her hands out in a grabbing motion, impatient. “ Give her here. ”
She was placed in Toph’s arms, mostly dry but still covered in birth gunk and drawing wet little breaths like she’d start up crying again soon. Her tiny body was wrinkled and warm, oddly limp and sturdy at the same time. But damn, if it wasn’t the most beautiful feeling in the world. Toph took a shuddering breath, like it was the first she’d ever taken, and let the sensation wash over her.
“ Well? ” she prompted, suddenly nervous. “ Can she-? ” There was no need to finish. In the moment it took for Katara to answer, Toph braced herself, expecting the worst.
“ Yes, Toph. She can see. She’s looking at you right now, actually. ”
“ Good. ” Tears spilled over her cheeks in a torrent then, but she didn’t care. The baby leaned into her mother’s warmth as Toph’s callused fingers gently -ever so gently- ghosted over her tiny features.
Toph swallowed the frog in her throat then, the weight of doing this alone -of being solely responsible for the new and terrifyingly fragile life in her arms- falling heavy on her shoulders. She held her daughter close, voice thick. “ Hey, baby girl. I’m your mom, ” she started a little breathlessly. The baby quieted, and Toph softened further.
“ Your dad’s not in the picture, so it’s just you and me. But don’t sweat it, we Beifongs are made of the toughest stuff around, and I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me for life, kiddo. ”
With that, she placed a tender kiss on Lin’s forehead, another tear squeezing its way out as she did so.
two.
“ Mama! ”
It was the sweetest sound in the world. Toph heard the slap of little feet on the floor and fell to her knees just in time for Lin to slam into her, little arms closing around her neck in a tight embrace. Normally she’d joke about not being able to breathe, but not today. Today she held Lin with everything she had, curled around her and squeezed like her life depended on it. The bone-deep soreness hit her like a ton of bricks, and her muscles screamed at the contact, but Toph didn’t care.
“ Hey, Linny. Where’s your sister? ”
“ Sleeping. You’re late. ” Lin groused into her neck. Toph’s eyes stung as she chuckled, cracking a smile so wide it hurt. Hell, everything hurt; but she’d live.
“ Well I’m here now, aren’t I? ”
“ Kya said you got hurt. She said Yakone - ”
“ Hush, baby. I’m fine, okay? Look at my face, ” she gently pushed Lin away, holding her chubby face in her hands, thumbs brushing back the hair at her daughter’s temples.
“ You looking? ” When she felt the nod, she continued. “ Your mom’s the greatest earthbender in the world. It’ll take a lot more than that to keep me from my girls. ” With that, she drew her daughter in for another hug, this time planting a kiss on her cheek.
As if on cue, Katara came in then, a groggy Suyin in her arms. Toph was told to rest on the couch while she got checked over, and for once she didn’t argue. With Lin under one arm and baby Su curled on her chest, nothing else mattered.
three.
The house still rang with the thunderous clap of slamming doors, the echoes of the fight she’d had with Lin impossibly louder than the pregnant silence of early morning. Toph hadn’t slept, not really. The events of the last day repeated over and over in her head, as if instant-replaying the moment her life decided to spin out of control would take it all back somehow.
She swirled the amber liquid in her glass, red-rimmed eyes hard as stone.
How had this happened? Well, she knew how it happened, but still. What Su did, running with those idiots, was one thing. Hell, Toph had figured that those boys weren’t exactly a model crowd to begin with, but she couldn’t have imagined this.
Katara told her that Lin was lucky. Scarred for life, but at least she still had her eye.
Suyin was incredibly stupid to do what she did, but that’s all it was: dumb, reckless antics. It was the kind of crap Toph would have pulled if not for the influence of her friends. Su was no criminal, however foolish she’d been in her choice of company. Of that Toph was convinced.
She took a sip.
And what about Lin? Toph suddenly had a bad taste in her mouth, and it wasn’t the cheap whiskey. The thought of throwing her youngest in a jail cell was enough to churn her stomach, and for a moment Toph’s mind went to the brief stint she’d spent in that metal box all those years ago. That her eldest would be so adamant about locking up her own sister made her head spin. Unbelievable.
Another swig.
Lin had always seen things her own way, though. It boggled the mind, really, how she could value the letter of the law above even her own family. She’d always been a mystery to Toph, even as a kid. Always such a stickler for details, always so serious. But this really took the cake.
Toph snorted mirthlessly, breaking the silence just as it threatened to crush her.
Of course, this was just the latest and greatest in a series of epic disasters lately. All having to do with work. The job had already taken enough, now it wanted her family too? With that lovely thought, she finished off her drink and lumbered over to the kitchen to leave the empty glass on the counter.
For the first time in too long, Toph was out of ideas. For hours she’d been thinking on it, and no other acceptable alternative came up. Suyin had to leave the city, get away from those chumps she called friends, and -of all people- her sister. There was just no reasoning with those two! Some time apart might cool their heels.
Lin would just have to deal with it, plain and simple.
Toph wasn’t heartless, though. However right she felt in her decision, it still hurt, remembering the stunned disappointment in her daughter’s voice, the devastated sound that tore itself from Lin’s throat once the door to her room had been slammed in Toph’s face. (She knew the kid had looked up to her, and truth be told she’d let herself indulge in the feeling, even took it for granted. Who didn’t like being their kid’s hero? But now… )
They’d fought before, but this… it felt different, more permanent.
The thought sent her padding, almost tentatively, over to Lin’s door. She grabbed the knob and hesitated, expecting resistance from the lock, but found none. As she peeked in, the steady puff of Lin’s breaths took her back to when the girl was little and Toph would sit by her bedside, just listening.
Drunk and somber, she stewed in the memory. Before she knew it, she was at Lin’s bedside. As if experiencing it from outside herself, she leaned over, planting a soft kiss over her daughter’s hair. For a moment it was as if the clock had turned back, but then Lin hiccuped in her sleep, shattering the illusion.
Wiping at her eyes, Toph backed off and slunk out, letting the door close behind her with a click.
four.
If she hadn’t had a foot planted on the ground, she might have missed it, it was so subtle. Toph was seated at the couch, a steaming cup of tea in hand and a blanket over her shoulders. It was a much-needed cool night, so she left the windows open while she listened to her radio shows.
A toddling Lin was left largely to her own devices, allowed to roam the main living area of the house under Toph’s watchful…er, foot. The familiar vibrations were a comfort as she tracked her daughter’s movements around the house. Her baby girl’s uneven footsteps stopped with a soft thump, and for a moment Toph braced herself for the waterworks. Then Lin’s high-pitched giggle echoed from the hallway and she smiled. Her kid bounced back quick.
Lin proceeded to babble happily, toddling her way back into the living room. Hearing the music track accompanying the dialogue over the radio, she started to wiggle and squat in place. Her approximation of dancing. Toph barked out a laugh as she put down her cup, and Lin squealed in delight, clapping and stomping hard in her excitement.
And that’s when Toph noticed it, her seismic sight alerting her to the change.
She slid her sole on the ground to get a better look, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head. Right there, in her stone floor, was a soft little foot-shaped divot.
“ Lin’s an earthbender,” she gasped, a smile starting to split her face in two. She shot up and pumped her fists in the air, whooping for all the world to hear. “ FUCK YEAH! My baby’s an earthbender! ”
Lin shrieked with her before hopping up too, copying her mother and giggling all the while. Toph’s eyes stung as she crouched to her daughter’s level, pointing to the perfect little imprint in the ground.
“ You did it, baby girl! ” she praised a little breathlessly, running a finger lovingly over the indentation. Lin patted the indent too, and Toph had to blink away tears.
With that, she took her child in her arms and planted a kiss on her pudgy cheek. “ You’re gonna move mountains. Just you wait, kiddo.”
his footsteps are virtually silent as he nears the other ; after all, he always has been known to be light on his feet. just as noiselessly, the avatar takes a seat beside the child. though his movements might be silent, the same can hardly be said for his emotions. when making those known, he spares no expense. in fact, his current concern practically radiates from his form. ❛ you know, your mom means well. she just has a funny way of showing her affection. ❜ ❨ @ironlegacy ;; call. ❩
ironlegacy replied to your post:
SUCCUMBS TO DEMENTIA IN HER OLD AGE I AM SCREAMING THAT C OMIC
I KNOOOOW I’M STILL NOT OVER IT
🍒 cue lin covering her ears
let’s get dirty! || accepting
🍒-When and how did they lose their v.irgin.ity, if they have?
ah, fun. well obviously Toph’s been around. let’s clear this up right here and now, mama’s got quite a few notches on her bedpost. she had her first se.xual experience at the ripe old age of 17.
honestly, she partly did it just to get it over with, and partly as a big ol’ “fuck you” to her parents after they started dropping heavy hints about matchmaking and arranging suitors. the lucky guy was a sweet -if forgettable- armorer’s apprentice named Guo. they did it in the empty workshop a few times over the course of Toph’s visit to Gaoling. then he went and said he loved her or something, and ruined it.
ironlegacy replied to your post:
lin voice : gROSS MOM WHEN DID U SHOWER LAST
toph: h ere * comes at her with her armpit exposed* wHY DON’T YOU SNIFF AND FIND OUT
legacyofsteel replied to your post:
lin : lights like 10 candles every time toph makes her angry as a teenager
toph: tells everyone that lin keeps so many candles around the house to cover up the smell after she farts
‘ poor girl can’t help it. digestive issues, y’know?’
