fluffy fic where toph thinks shes going crazy cuz she swears she hears a second heartbeat when shes with reader
turns out reader is just pregnant with su lmao
also bonus if we get to see little lins reaction to becoming a big sister 😽
The Best Kimd of Surprise
Toph Beifong x Pregnant Reader
WC: 3.8k
Synopsis: Toph hears another heartbeat in the home and swears she's going crazy.
Content/Warnings: Fluff and little lin!
Warm water sloshed in the sink as you rinsed the last of the dinner plates. Beside you, little Lin balanced carefully on the stool you'd dragged over from the breakfast bar, her dark hair slightly mussed from bath time. Both of her tiny hands were buried up to the wrists in the soapy water.
“Look!” She announced proudly.
She lifted her hands, and a mountain of bubbles clung to her fingers. The suds slid down her bare arms, making her giggle. “My bubbles are bigger than yours, Mommy.”
You glanced over, feigning shock. “I don't know about that. Those are pretty impressive, though.”
To demonstrate just how large her bubbles were, she leaned further over the sink so she could collect as many bubbles in her arms as possible just to lift up all the water and the soap and show you. Water was everywhere, dripping all over the counter and ruining the pajamas you had just changed her into.
You laughed, shaking your head as your hand rested on her shoulder to halt her movements. “Easy there, pebble. The kitchen's already clean.”
“But I gotta wash the dishes.” She frowned at you as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. “I'm helping.”
Your smile softened, you pinched her cheek and she beamed up at you, her eyes wide with a childlike happiness you'd never get tired of seeing. “You are helping baby.”
Satisfied with that answer, she rubbed her palms together again, creating even more foam. Once it was large enough for her liking she held up another handful of bubbles. “These ones look like clouds.”
Your own eyes widened as you matched her excitement. “They do.”
She studied them carefully. “I think if I blew on them hard enough, they'd fly away.”
“Probably. And then we'd have bubble clouds all over the house.” You tell her.
Lin gasped, delighted by the idea. “Can we keep them?”
You laughed again, reaching over to wipe a bit of soap from the tip of her nose. “I don't think bubbles make very good pets sweetheart.”
She seemed to think about it, her brows knitting together in deep concentration. “They're better than a turtle.”
“Oh?” This was news to you since Lin already had a pet turtle in her room. “Since when?”
“Since today.”
The door opened before you could respond as Toph's metal boots crossed the entryway. Neither of you stopped what you were doing. Lin was too busy making another mountain of bubbles, and you were watching her face scrunch in concentration.
“I made even more,” She declared proudly.
“You might hold the world record at this point.” You replied, drying your own hands off now that you were finished.
She smiled up at you, her cheeks dimpling and you couldn't help it. You bent down and gave her a kiss on the cheek which made her giggle more.
Fresh off work, Toph stood in the threshold between the entryway and kitchen, one hand still wrapped around the strap of her satchel. The exhaustion of the day lingered in her posture, but she didn't move another inch. Her ears perked at the sound of your laughter and Lin's excited chatter, quietly taking in the scene before her.
Lin suddenly gasped. “Mama!”
Being the little earthbender she was, she felt Toph's footsteps through the floor and immediately twisted around on the stool. She nearly scrambled down in her hurry, her small feet pattering against the tile as she bolted across the kitchen. Toph barely had time to brace herself before Lin collided with her legs.
A grin spread across her face, replacing the previous exhaustion. “Pebble!!”
She bent down, scooped Lin up with practiced ease, and swung her onto her hip. Lin squealed happily, wrapping her wet arms around Toph's neck but she didn't seem to mind.
“How are my favorite girls?” Toph asked, her voice warm despite the long day she'd had.
“Mommy let me help wash dishes!” Lin said proudly.
“Did she now?" Toph asked, amusement shining in her voice. “Is this why you're all wet?”
Lin nodded excitedly, shaking her entire body in response. With Lin balanced on her hip, she crossed the kitchen and stopped in front of you. She leaned down and stole a quick kiss, her lips soft against yours as the tension of the police station began to melt away.
“Eww,” Lin complained, burying her face in Toph's shoulder. “Too mushy.”
You laughed softly, your hand coming up to gently rest against Toph's arm. You were about to ask her how her day was when Toph froze, she could hear a tiny, rapid heartbeat coming from somewhere in the home. It was so faint she almost missed it.
Her smile disappeared completely, her lips parting as her head tilted just a fraction of an inch so she could confirm what she was hearing was true.
“Mama?” Lin asked, picking up on the sudden, change in her posture.
Toph didn't answer. Her blind eyes were blank, completely dialed into the vibrations running up through the floorboards.
There it was again.
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
Her brows knit together, a deep furrow appearing between her eyes.
“Is there someone else here?” She asked slowly, her tone shifting from domestic warmth to the sharp, commanding edge of a protective wife who was anticipating a fight.
Your heart jumped violently in your chest, a frantic thudding that you knew she could feel. You gripped the edge of the counter behind you, the porcelain cold against your palms. “What? No. It's just us.”
Toph frowned, her jaw tightening as the heartbeat came again.
“Lin, down.” She ordered quietly, carefully setting her daughter on her feet.
“Mama?” Lin repeated, her small face beginning to scrunch with worry as she looked between the two of you.
Toph was already moving. Her bare feet slapped firmly against the floorboards as she launched into motion. She checked the living room first, sending a heavy pulse of seismic energy radiating out from her heels.
She yanked open the hall closet and then the bathroom door, finding nothing but empty space. Her movement grew more frantic as she strode down the hallway to the guest room and then the master bedroom, her calloused hands briefly skimming the doorframes as if physical touch could help her make sense of the auditory chaos.
With every single step she took, Toph sent subtle, hyper-focused vibrations through the floorboards, mapping the entire layout of the house in her mind with precision; she had built this house after all. Every piece of furniture, the wooden studs inside the walls, and every empty corner was laid completely bare to her seismic sense.
Yet, despite her thorough search, there were no extra footsteps echoing through the house or someone hiding in the shadows. She even checked under the beds to make sure and found nothing which only perplexed her more.
The only anomaly in the entire structure was that same phantom rhythm echoing back to her. The persistence of the sound made Toph stop dead in the middle of the hallway, her mouth tightening into a hard, deeply frustrated line as her brain scrambled to reconcile what she was feeling with what she knew to be true.
You remained rooted in the kitchen, gripping the edge of the counter so hard your knuckles were beginning to ache. Your pulse was a chaotic mess, a dead giveaway of your panic, but you desperately hoped she would just think you were terrified of a potential home intruder.
“Mama?” Lin called again, padding after her on small, hesitant feet. “What's wrong?”
Toph whirled around and strode back into the kitchen, yanking open the pantry door with a sharp click. Nothing but sacks of rice and tea leaves greeted her as well as some snacks and canned food. She snapped it shut with a frustrated sound.
Toph turned in a slow circle right in front of the stove, her toes flexing against the tile. No, that wasn't possible. She'd never misheard a heartbeat before. She could tell a liar by a skip in their pulse from twenty paces away. Hell, she has tracked an escaping thief through three feet of solid stone on multiple occasions.
Had she finally lost her touch?
She pressed her bare feet more firmly against the floor, closing her eyes to shut out the rest of the world and still heard it mocking her.
Toph exhaled a heavy, ragged breath through her nose. She laughed once, the sound was short, disbelieving and borderline hysterical. “You've gotta be kidding me.”
You swallowed hard, the sound incredibly loud in your own ears. “Toph, what's wrong?”
Lin blinked up at her mother, concern evident in her voice. “Mama? Is a bad guy hiding?”
Toph rubbed a hand over her face, running her fingers over her eyes with a groan. “I think.” She frowned, looking genuinely distressed for a fraction of a second before her usual stubbornness took over. “I think I've finally lost it. The stress from the precinct is finally frying my brain.”
“What?” You asked, perhaps a little too quickly, your voice raising several octaves as it became increasingly harder to hide your alarm. “Why would you say that?”
She gestured vaguely around the room with both hands, looking utterly perplexed. “I keep hearing– Actually, I don't know what I'm hearing. It’s like a ghost is playing tiny drums in our house.”
Her expression twisted with pure irritation. "There's another heartbeat in this house, but there's nobody here. Unless someone figured out how to turn invisible and hide in our walls, I'm going senile.”
Your pulse hammered against your ribs like a trapped spirit. Lin looked bewildered, turning her head left and right as if trying to see what her Mama was feeling. “Another person? Like a tiny person?”
“I don't know, Pebble.” Toph sighed, throwing her hands up in the air and sounding more exhausted than alarmed now. “Maybe I need a vacation or I'm hallucinating from lack of sleep.”
She sent another massive pulse through the kitchen floor, making the sudsy water in the sink ripple. Just as she suspected, the tiny pulse remained, ticking away like a miniature clock.
Toph stood there for several long seconds, her shoulders dropping. She muttered to herself, “I guess I'm getting old. Is this what thirty feels like? Your ears just start making up background music?”
“Mama, you're not old,” Lin said, stepping forward to pat Toph’s knee in a sweet attempt at reassurance.
That earned the faintest huff of amusement from your wife. “Thanks, kid. Good to know my fan club is still loyal.”
But her attention drifted again. The irritation on her face softened, replaced by a sudden, intense curiosity. Slowly, almost unconsciously, her head turned toward you.
You hadn't moved or spoken. You had barely breathed, holding the air tightly in your lungs as if that could somehow stop the biological reality of what was happening inside you.
The tiny heartbeat fluttered once more, feeling your panic. Toph frowned, because for some reason it seemed to be perfectly tethered to you.
She took a slow, deliberate step forward, her bare soles sliding across the kitchen tile. She stopped just two inches away from you, her head tilting downward. She didn't look at your face; her sightless gaze was fixed entirely on your midsection.
“Hold on a second,” Toph whispered, her voice dropping as realization seemed to finally dawn on her.
She reached out, her rough, calloused hand hovering just an inch away from your stomach, lingering there with a rare, fragile hesitation before she finally pressed her palm gently against your apron.
“Toph..” Your breath hitched instantly, your mind racing a mile a minute for an excuse, a playful joke, or any kind of distraction that could buy you just a few more days before the romantic reveal you had planned.
But Toph didn't answer your silent plea; she stood perfectly still, her entire being dialed into the minuscule vibrations radiating right beneath her fingertips.
Suddenly, her hand jerked back slightly as if she had touched a blazing stove, her brows furrowing in deep, stubborn denial.
“No,” She muttered under her breath as she pressed her palm right back against the fabric, enduring a tense pocket of silence before that same tiny, rapid flutter brushed against her senses once more.
Toph’s breathing stopped completely, the abrupt quiet of her lungs making your own pounding pulse feel deafeningly loud in your throat.
“Mama?” Lin looked between the two of you, her face full of confusion as she called out to her mother, but Toph was unresponsive.
Her hand slowly lifted from your stomach only to return a second later, her fingers spreading wide against your apron as she caught another unmistakable flutter, leaving her looking baffled.
“That's..” She stopped, her throat bobbing as she found herself unable to finish the sentence, while you stood before her entirely speechbound.
She pulled her hand away and took a small step back, her sightless eyes wide and staring up at your face as she shook her head once in a desperate attempt to convince herself of the impossible.
“No,” She said again, her quiet and unsteady voice practically pleading for reassurance. “No, because that doesn't make sense.”
“Baby,” You started again, your voice cracking.
“Because I would've known,” She spoke over you, her words tumbling out quickly now as she looked at your face as though the answer might be written there. “Right? I mean, I'm me. I feel everything. I would've known.”
You swallowed hard, giving her nothing as you struggled to keep your composure. Toph blinked, a secondary wave of realization crashing over her as her clouded eyes widened. Very slowly, she looked back down at your stomach as if she could see the baby growing there.
Lin gently tugged on her pant leg, looking up with big, worried eyes. “Mama, why are you looking at Mommy funny?”
Toph didn't answer, standing there looking lost for the first time in a very long time. You looked down at her, your own heart pounding.
“I think Mama is in shock, sweetheart,” You said softly, reaching down to gently stroke Lin's dark hair.
Lin's eyes widened, her tiny brows knitting together in immediate concern as she looked back up at Toph's frozen posture. “Like when I fell out of the tree?”
A startled laugh escaped you, the absurdity of the comparison breaking through the thick layer of tension in the kitchen. “No, baby. Not that kind of shock.”
“Oh,” Lin murmured, looking thoroughly relieved but still fascinated by the strange atmosphere.
You looked back at Toph. She still hadn't moved. One hand remained pressed against your stomach, while the other hung uselessly at her side. Her feet were rooted in place, her spine rigid as if even breathing too hard might somehow shatter the moment and make this reality disappear.
Your expression softened, the panic washing away only to leave an overwhelming tenderness. Closing the remaining distance between you, you stepped closer into her space and reached up, cupping her face in both of your hands.
Her skin was still cool from the brisk evening air outside, a stark contrast to the radiating warmth of your own palms. Slowly, gently, you guided her forward until her forehead rested securely against yours, coaxing her stunned mind back to the present.
Toph sucked in a small, sharp breath at the contact, her eyelids fluttering as she leaned into your warmth.
“I didn't want you to find out like this,” You whispered into the quiet space between your lips, your voice thick with emotion. “I had a whole plan.”
For a long moment, she didn't say a single word. You felt her exhale against your face, followed quickly by another as she tried to process the weight of your admission. Down below, her hand was still resting flat against your stomach, still feeling that miniature rhythm, making sure with every passing second that it was actually real.
“You had a plan?" She asked quietly, her rough voice cracking slightly on the words.
Despite the gravity of everything, a laugh escaping you. “I did.”
Toph’s brow shifted slightly against yours. “What kind of plan?”
You squeezed her cheeks gently, a playful smile finally breaking through. “I can't tell you now. It'd ruin it.”
A choked sound left her throat, something caught between a breathless laugh and disbelief. “You are unbelievable, I can't believe you hid this from me.”
You pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “I know.”
The tiny heartbeat fluttered again beneath Toph's palm, a rapid reminder of the life growing inside you. “There's really another heartbeat in there.”
You felt your eyes sting with happy tears, your vision blurring as you looked up at her.
“Yeah.” You whispered back, the word barely escaping your throat.
Toph swallowed hard, the reality of it finally washing over her in full. She lifted her free hand from her side and placed it tenderly over yours where it rested against her cheek, leaning her head into your touch. For the first time since she had walked through the front door, Toph allowed herself to finally relax.
“We're having another baby.” She rasps, the words sounding sacred on her tongue.
Right beside you, the quiet atmosphere was instantly shattered as Lin gasped loudly, her eyes going wide. She looked down at Toph's hand on your apron, then up at both of your faces, her jaw practically hitting the floorboards.
“There's a baby in there?” Lin shouted, her voice echoing off the kitchen tiles as she pointed her bubble-sticky finger directly at your stomach.
You lowered your hand from Toohs face, still chuckling as you stepped around the kitchen counter to get down to her level. “Yes, sweetie, there really is. But it’s very small right now.”
Lin glanced down at your stomach, squinting her eyes as if she could see through the fabric if she stared hard enough.
“But you didn't eat a baby," Lin stated firmly, her eyes turning serious. “I watched you eat dinner. You ate rice.”
Toph let out a loud snort from where she was standing behind you, her awkward panic melting back into her signature, cackling laugh. “Yeah, explain that one sweetheart. How'd the rice turn into a baby?”
“Toph, you're not helping.” You warned playfully, tossing the dish towel that was hanging over your shoulder in her general direction.
She caught it out of the air without even turning her head, a smug smirk returning to her face as she shrugged. “What? I'm curious now.”
You shook your head, smiling at her antics, but Lin looked genuinely concerned by the lack of clear answers. She glanced between the two of you, her lips pursing in a thin line. It was moments like these where she reminded you of Toph the most. “So, where did the baby come from?”
Toph went quiet, her smug grin vanishing into a mask of pure awkwardness. You stared at her, waiting for a savior, but she turned her face away to stare blankly at the kitchen cabinets.
“Really?” You said, already laughing at her cowardice.
“Nope, I'm not doing it.” Toph muttered, refusing to look in your general direction.
“You made the rice joke,” You pointed out, crossing your arms.
“And I regret everything,” She grumbled, her cheeks turning a light pink.
You laughed harder, which only made Lin frown in deep irritation. “Why are you guys being weird?”
“We're not being weird.” Toph answered a little too quickly, already getting defensive.
“You are.” Lin insisted, not backing down. “You made your voice funny.”
She opened her mouth to argue, ready to defend her honor to a five-year-old, then stopped as she realized she was losing the battle. “You're too smart for your own good.”
You bit back another laugh, decided it was finally time to rescue your wife, and gently took one of Lin's hands in yours. “The baby came from Mommy and Mama deciding we wanted our family to get a little bigger.”
Lin considered that, her eyes darting between you both as she processed the concept. “So you made one at the store?”
“In a way, yes.” You answered gently.
Her mouth formed a tiny 'o' as it all began to make sense now. She looked down at your flat stomach again, curiosity getting the better of her as she slowly reached out and pressed her palm flat against it. When nothing happened, she pulled her hand back, looking disappointed. “Why can't I feel it?”
“Because the baby's still tiny,” You explained, smoothing down her hair. “Too tiny to kick or move around yet.”
Lin pouted, her bottom lip jutting out. “But Mama heard it.”
“Yeah,” Toph stated in a far off tone like she was still processing the simple fact. “I did.”
Lin looked up at her, captivated. “Can you hear it right now?”
Toph's hand found your stomach again, moving entirely on instinct. She didn't even seem to realize she was doing it, her calloused fingers spreading gently across your waist. Her face grew soft and distant as she dialed into the vibrations beneath her palm, a small smile breaking across her lips. “Yeah. Still there.”
Lin's own excitement shown in her eyes. “What's it doing?”
Toph laughed softly through her nose, her shoulders relaxing completely. “Honestly? Going really, really fast.”
“Why?” Lin asked curiously, she was taking this better than you had expected.
“No clue.”
You smiled, leaning your weight into Toph’s side. “Because tiny babies have fast heartbeats, sweetie.”
Lin nodded solemnly, treating this as the most reasonable piece of information she had heard all evening. Then, she looked up at you with a fleeting trace of worry. “Is it staying?”
You blinked, caught off guard. “The baby?”
She nodded quickly. “Or does it go back where it came from?”
Your heart warmed at the innocence of the question. “No, sweetheart, the baby's staying. It's a permanent addition to our family.”
Lin thought about that for a long moment, her brain calculating the vastness of the future. “So, I'm gonna be a big sister forever?”
The sweetness of it made both you and Toph melt. “Yeah,” You whispered, your chest aching with affection. “You are.”
She let out a loud, ecstatic squeal that echoed off the walls. Before either of you could brace yourselves, she launched forward, throwing her small arms around your middle as carefully as her tiny body could manage. “I'm gonna teach the baby everything! How to wash dishes and make bubbles and stack rocks and draw badger-moles!”
Toph made a small, strangled noise in the back of her throat, her free hand coming up to gently ruffle Lin's dark hair. Her own hand remained rested on your lower back, her smile impossibly soft as she held you both close.
“I think,” She said, her voice thick with emotion and amusement all at once, “the kid already has the big sister thing figured out.”
You could already feel tears prickling your eyes because she really did.
