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“Sokka,” Toph calls out urgently as she waddles from their bedroom to their kitchen, her hand supporting her lower back. “Sokka.”
She hears him nonchalantly humming as he prepares the snack that they were due to enjoy soon—fruit and nuts with a side of pickle juice. The combo has become a pregnancy staple in the Beifong household and she looks forward to indulging in this unique kind of disgustingness every single day. She forces Sokka to join her each time, despite his whining.
His humming abruptly halts. “Yes?”
“It’s time.”
“Time…” he trails off, setting a bowl atop the kitchen counter. “Time for what?”
“The baby—it’s—now. It’s time.”
Whatever utensil he’s holding clatters to the ground before he races toward her, immediately holding her belly in both his hands. “The—the baby? W—now?”
“No, tomorrow; I’m just giving you a head start,” Toph replies sarcastically, annoyance evident in her tone as she rubs circles on her belly. “Yes, now, Sokka. What the fuck?”
“Oh—oh, shit, okay.” He starts pacing before turning to her and saying, “Breathe, breathe, breathe! Are you—are you breathing?”
“We’d have a bit of a problem if I wasn’t.”
Sokka’s heart is going a mile a minute as he mumbles for the love of Oma and Shu before rushing around their house, trying to gather their things for their trip to Katara’s clinic a few blocks away.
He runs to and fro, grabbing random items and shoving them into a bag, verbally checking each thing off a mental list. She feels a gust of air each time he rushes past her before he makes a halt in front of her and, panicked, says, “How are we getting you over there?”
She grunts, whipping her hand out to grab the wall beside her. “Hell if I know, but you’re going to have to figure it out real quick because I— shit— ”
“What? What happened?”
“Um. Contraction. Lots of—lots of pain… Ouch .”
A string of curses leaves his mouth before he halts again and makes a eureka! sound. “I got it. I’ve—come on.” And before she knows it, she’s in his arms being rushed out of their apartment.
Toph gasps, not having anticipated the sudden gesture, and clutches his shoulders. “What the—what are you doing ?”
“I’m carrying you to the clinic,” Sokka replies breathlessly. “What does it look like?”
“No—Sokka, you can’t carry me to the clinic.”
“Yes, I can!” he protests, panting a bit as he speed-walks toward their destination. “And I will because you’re having a baby.”
Heaving a sigh, Toph nods at the ground, making a bundle of earth pop out of the sidewalk and hold her boyfriend’s feet in place. “Actually, I’m not.”
Sokka struggles against the rock trapping him for a few seconds before he processes what Toph had just told him. He lets her down gently, then tells her, “You’re not.”
A smirk on her face, she crosses her arms and lays them on her swollen belly. “I’m not.”
“You—I—” he stammers, then paces up and down the sidewalk before stopping right in front of her with his hands on his hips. “Why? Why would you try to kill me on this fine day?”
She shrugs. “I was bored.”
And it was true. Toph Beifong has never been as bored as she is today. She’s convinced.
Pregnancy has its perks as she’s learned—like getting people to do things for you, getting to eat for two, or even increased sex drive, making nights with Sokka a wonder in bed.
But while it does have its fruitful advantages, Toph thinks that there are a shit ton of pitfalls as well, the biggest offender being absolute, unrelenting, psychosis-inducing boredom.
For the weeks leading up to her due date, Toph was told to not involve herself in strenuous or stressful activities, which means that she’s unable to work or bend or do anything worth getting out of bed for until she’s given the all-clear by Katara, who’s overseeing her pregnancy.
“We have to be cautious is all,” Katara had told Toph when she’d broken the news two weeks or so ago. “I know you—you’ll do anything to not relax, which is why I let you do your thing until now. But from here on out, you have to take it easy. Plus, this is a geriatric pregnancy—”
“Geriatric?” Toph squints her eyes at her friend. “I’m thirty-eight and you’re making it sound like I have a foot in my grave.”
Katara huffed, tossing an apple at her, which she easily caught from her desk. “High-risk, then. Is that satisfactory?”
“Very. Thank you.”
“Point is, Toph, that you need to take it easy.”
“I take it easy. Most of the shit I’ve done while pregnant has been easy, so I think I’ll be fine going into the office to get rid of some paperwork and kicking it with some trainees. It’s not a big deal.”
“It is a big deal if you’re endangering your baby, which I know isn’t what you want.” Katara had raised an eyebrow. Toph deflated at that because her friend was right—the last thing she wanted was to hurt her baby.
When Toph said nothing, Katara took this as her chance to continue. “You need to rest up. I mean it. I don’t care how bored you get—find something not-unsafe to do for a few weeks. It can’t be that hard.”
Oh, Sugar Queen, Toph thought. You don’t know me if you think that’s a possibility.
All this, however, to say that she was bored. She needed something to do or she was absolutely sure that she was going to combust.
So, after days and days of thinking and plotting and scheming on her own, Toph decided to fake labor to see her boyfriend’s reaction time for when the time of the birth really came. And, of course, as soon as Sokka got home today, she struck.
“You were bored,” he parrots. “So you just decided to nearly give me a heart attack.”
“Pretty much, but the heart attack wasn’t part of the plan. Who would carry me to the clinic as you so wisely chose to do if you had a heart attack? I’d have some trouble finding a ride.”
Sokka runs a hand down his face, then through his loose head of hair before huffing and leaning in to kiss her. “I hate that you got me. I should’ve known better.”
Toph laughs, chasing his lips with hers as he pulls away and successfully captures them again with a quick peck. Against his mouth, she said, “You’re a gullible guy. It was a given you would.”
“Gee, babe, thanks.”
“I’m glad you fell for it, though. It sated my boredom a little.”
“Ah.” He holds her hips, keeping her in place a belly’s distance away from him. “Of course. Any time.”
“Mhm. Can’t keep me and Baby Beifong contained, Snoozles.”
“I wouldn’t want either of you to be,” he replies, resting his forehead on hers. Then, he chuckles sinisterly. “And why would you have to be?”
She raises a curious eyebrow, straightening herself out, a mischievous smile forming on her face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“How far are you willing to take this, Beifong?”
“Well, I have to pick Lin up from aftercare soon, but…” As she trails off, for some reason, Toph already knows what’s about to come out of his mouth after she asks, “What do you have in mind?”
As it stands, Sokka, Lin, Toph, and her freeloader are due at Air Temple Island for their weekly Friday night dinner and drinks with their friends. It was a habit they’d all gotten into when they realized that their work and responsibilities were keeping them apart, something that none of them wanted to stand for.
Toph enjoys their get-togethers and the fact that they all like each other enough to want to be around each other. She never had that as a child, only with them, and she finds that she wouldn’t want it any other way. And the thought that Lin would have this with her pseudo-cousins and aunts and uncles as she grows up brings Toph solace that she didn’t know she needed.
Currently, the three of them—Toph, Lin, and Sokka—are on the ferry that leads them to the island, much to Toph’s dismay. She feels as though her head is going to explode, her stomach is in knots, she’s in the slightest bit of pain, and it’s not helping that Badgerfetus is having some sort of pro-bending match in her womb.
The hand that isn’t holding onto Lin’s flies out to grip a fistful of Sokka’s pants as she tries to hold back her sick. Knowing as much, he rubs soothing circles into her back and has her lean against the railing they’re seated in front of. Her eyes flutter shut and she imagines she’s on solid land. And before long, they dock.
Toph feels a bit dizzy when she steps foot onto land, and Sokka’s arm is securely around her waist already as if anticipating this, Lin riding his shoulders like an ostrich horse.
“Still feeling up to the task tonight?” he asks her, squeezing her hip as they walk. “Dinner and the other thing?”
“I’m fine, Meathead,” she replies, reaching up to caress Lin’s hand. “Nothing’s going to stop me from both chowing down and scaring the shit out of several people at once.”
“You said a bad word, Ma,” Lin scolded. “You owe me five yuans.”
Toph snorts, playfully pinching her daughter’s left calf, which is hanging off Sokka’s shoulder, before reaching into her breast to fetch the money for her. “I never should’ve set that rule.”
“Yeah,” Sokka tells her laughingly as they approach Aang’s home, his fist raised to knock on the large double doors. “She’ll be rich by the time she’s eighteen.”
“Rich sounds nice,” Lin says thoughtfully as she pockets the cash, earning her a bunch of tickles from her mother.
Before Lin forgets how to breathe amid her fit of giggles from how much Toph is tickling her, one of Aang’s acolytes greets them at the door with an annoyingly chipper voice. “Hello, Chief Beifong, Councilman Sokka, Miss Lin. The Avatar has been expecting you.”
The young man gives them an about-face before they could respond, and Toph rolls her eyes. “Do they have to be so… happy?”
“With a boss like Aang?” Sokka says as he lets Lin down and allows her and Toph to go inside ahead of him, “Of course.”
They walk in and Toph has to stop for a moment to get herself together. A very familiar, very unwanted at the moment stab of pain shoots through her back and abdomen. Before Sokka or Lin could notice anything is wrong, Toph physically shakes herself off and continues the short walk from the foyer into the large air temple sitting room.
Immediately, they find their friends chatting away and their children laughing. The sounds bring an involuntary smile to Toph’s face.
Sokka lets Lin, who is excitedly kicking her legs at the sight of her cousins, down and she runs in their direction while sending a half-hearted word of greeting to everyone else. His hand finds Toph’s and gives it a longer-than-necessary squeeze as if to ask You ready? She squeezes back to reassure him that she is, keeping her face as neutral as possible.
“Finally!” Katara exclaims as soon as she lays eyes on them. She scurries up to Toph to give her a tight hug, then bends down to kiss her belly before turning to her brother and pulling him into an embrace. “We’ve been waiting a while.”
“I’m lugging around a few extra pounds, so I think it’s excusable.”
That earns her a scoff before Katara loops her arm around Toph’s and pulls her to a couch. “Speaking of, how are you feeling?”
She’s about to answer when Zuko walks up to her and drops a kiss on the crown of her head in greeting before walking off in a different direction with his sister, who lands a playful flick on Toph’s temple. She rolls her eyes at the siblings before shrugging at Katara.
“I’m good, I guess. Bit of pain here and there. You know how it is.”
“I know you don’t love being pregnant,” Katara told her, letting a gentle hand fall on the huge swell of Toph’s abdomen, “but you have just a bit more to go. No sweat. I’ve seen you deal with worse.”
“Yeah, yeah. Thanks,” Toph replies, then furrows her brows as the night’s scheme comes to mind. Katara is the one overseeing the pregnancy, and she deals with deliveries daily—she’ll know something’s up. She takes the opportunity to lean over to Katara and whisper, “If something… out of the ordinary happens before or during dinner, just go with it, okay?”
Aang walks in before Katara can ask her what she means, plopping down next to her and greeting her belly before Toph herself.
“How’s baby today?” he asks her, giving her stomach a rub.
“Definitely active,” Toph replied. “And making themselves at home on my bladder, which reminds me that I should probably use your crapper if you don’t want me peeing on your couch.”
“Good call.” Her friend snorts, attempting to support her as she stands. “You know where it is.”
She swats his hands away and uses an earthbending assist to help her to her feet. “I should certainly hope so.”
“Shit,” Toph curses from the hallway as she makes her way into the dining room, where everyone else is already sitting. “Damnit.”
“Toph—?”
“I’m about to have this baby, Sugar Queen, so you either save the questions or you get a move on.”
At her words, everyone around the table springs up and lets out exclamations, Sokka coming to her side and Zuko corralling the kids, who even at their own table heard the news. Toph could tell that her first daughter is a bouncing mess, despite knowing that this is a ruse.
“It’ll be fine, start your meal. You haven’t even touched it and it’s pretty good,” Azula interjects, not moving from where she’s sat as she eats. “Just clamp your knees together.”
That stops Toph in her tracks as Katara approaches her and holds her free hand. “Clamp my knees together?”
“Like you should’ve eight and a half months ago.”
Toph blinks before pursing her lips to keep from laughing. Her friend isn’t wrong. “You’ve got a point.”
Azula smirks and arches a brow. “I’m aware.”
Katara stammers for a second at the exchange before jumping into action and walking Toph over to the sitting room. Toph walks with a bit of ease, causing Katara to furrow her brows and allow a wave of realization to wash over her. Her friend’s hands come up to her mouth to keep herself from laughing before going along with the act.
“Can you walk?” Katara asks. “We can always just have you deliver in the sitting room.”
“Deliver in the sitting room?” Aang echoes, mortified. “You—we have rooms. A lot of them for your, uh, delivering… pleasures.”
Toph grunts and grinds out, just to irk Aang further, “I’m fine here.”
Katara glances at Sokka as they help her onto the couch. “I need, uh, supplies. Can someone—Aang!”
“What? Yes? What is it?”
“I need you to not pass out right now and get me some towels and warm water—get Zuko to help you with that,” Katara instructs. “Sokka, get the kids into the playroom.”
Aang pauses as Sokka rushes to follow his sister’s command. “I can warm the water myself, thank you very much.”
“I don’t think anyone trusts you to use your firebending when you’re a few seconds away from passing out,” Azula adds, still unmoving from her place at the dining table.
“I’m not going to pass out,” Aang says with annoyance. “That was one time.”
“During the birth of our first child,” his wife replies. “Need I go on?”
“At least I didn’t pass out twice after seeing Lin being born.”
Sokka’s jaw drops. “We’re not talking about me right now, buster.”
Muttering something under his breath, Aang fills a bucket with water and irritatedly hands it over to Zuko to warm up.
Toph, meanwhile, has her feet propped up on Aang’s coffee table and her legs spread out like an eagle hawk as she waits several minutes for her friends to get the supplies they need to quote-unquote help Toph quote-unquote deliver her baby.
As she had initially suspected, their response time sucks.
Katara is sitting between Toph’s lifted legs, shaking her head, and Sokka, who returned seconds ago, is pacing back and forth until he gets fed up enough and takes the words right out of Toph’s mouth.
“If this were a real scenario, Toph probably would’ve had to push out our baby without any aid from the two of you, thank you very much.”
Both Aang and Zuko stop their scrambling just as Toph sits up to set her feet on the ground to get a view of what’s happening. The fire lord and the avatar turn to look at each other, then at Sokka, then at Toph, and the first to speak is Zuko.
“I’m sorry—if this were real ?”
“As opposed to what?” Aang asks, leaning against the countertop.
Azula finally stands up from her place at the dining table and crosses her arms over her chest. “Well, she clearly isn’t going to give birth right now, you nitwits.”
Silence follows Azula’s declaration, then a snort from Sokka and a string of laughs from Katara later, everyone’s in a fit of laughter, clutching their sides and wiping away tears. Toph’s sure that this is the most she’s laughed in a while.
Once everyone’s laughs settle down, Sokka helps Toph to her feet and guides her over to the dining room again, but as she walks, something stops her—a sharp, very familiar pain in her lower abdomen. She clutches Sokka’s bicep in her hand.
He turns to look at her, alarmed, then his eyes widen. “No.”
Toph nods and swallows thickly as she continues to her destination, again stopped by the pang in her lower back and belly. She takes a deep breath as Sokka slips an arm around her waist.
“Ah, haha, guys?” Toph laughs ironically as she leans against the Sokka for support. “I know we’re all having a grand ole time right now, but I think it’s time. Like, actually time.”
She’s welcomed to silence until Azula scoffs, throwing her head back against her chair’s backrest. “Not this again. You’ve fooled them all already, and while I’m sure it’ll happen again, I’m sure you’ve had your fun for the day. I, for one, am exhausted.” She angles her head toward her brother, who seems to have gone through the wringer after the stunt Toph pulled. “It’s like The Boy Who Cried Wolfbat with this one.”
“Okay, I get that, Princess, but I’m not fucking with you people now. I’m serious.”
As if the universe wants to prove her point for once, her water breaks, amniotic fluid splashing down onto the limestone floors in Aang’s household. Toph suppresses a groan that she wants to let out by squeezing Sokka’s arm for dear life. The pain she’s experiencing is no joke, radiating from her midsection down to her legs. These contractions are probably worse than the ones she had before Lin was born—these are debilitating.
She gets additional support from Zuko, who materializes on her other side and helps Sokka guide her over to one of Aang’s healing rooms.
From the moment she’s lowered onto the bed, Katara gets to work, and the next hour is something of a blur for Toph. She records little moments, like Sokka wiping away her sweat and telling her that he loves her, Katara telling her to push, and finally, the sound of her baby’s cries.
There are tears in her eyes when Katara places a warm, squirming little bundle on Toph’s chest. “Congrats on another baby girl, sweetheart.”
Toph cradles her newborn baby girl close, running her finger down her chubby little cheek. She presses a long kiss to the little one’s forehead, then she asks to no one in particular, “Is she—”
“She’s got all her fingers and toes,” Sokka tells her tearfully, and Katara adds, “And she’s responding to light. She’s great, Toph.”
With that, Toph, Sokka, and their newborn are left alone while Katara fetches Lin for them. They take this moment to enjoy the quiet with their baby.
“I didn’t pass out this time,” Sokka whispers jokingly. “You proud?”
Toph snorts, wiping the tears off her cheeks and inhaling the smell of her baby. “Surprised, more like. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
He laughs and leans his forehead against hers. “You did so good, T. I’m so, so proud of you, and so happy I’m doing this with you.”
“Don’t get all mushy on me, Snoozles. Can’t have you keep taking advantage of these hormones.”
Sokka kisses her before Lin barges into the room excitedly. She jumps into Toph’s bed and cuddles into her side as she takes a look at the tiny bundle in her mother’s arms.
“Is that her?” Lin asks.
Toph shakes her head. “No. Your sister’s not here yet—I’m just keeping this baby warm in the meantime.”
“Ma.” Lin giggles, stretching a bit more to get a better view of her new sister. “She’s so small.”
“You were that small once, you know,” Sokka tells her, poking her cheek.
“How do you know? Mama says you were sleeping when I was born.”
Sokka stammers before he says, “I was not. I just—it—it was a crazy day, okay?”
The three of them laugh, enjoying their first moments together with the newest member of their family. They chat and they try to come up with names—Lin and Toph Junior among the suggestions—to no avail. That is until Lin lets out an overly-dramatic gasp, runs out of the room, and returns with a stack of books.
“Your Sunset Chronicles series?” Sokka questions, flipping through the children’s book with care. “What about it? Plan on naming your sister Sunset? Mama’s going to love that.”
“No,” Lin replies with a giggle. “Be serious, Sokka. This is serious.”
“Yeah, Snoozles. Serious. Listen to the kid, for spirits’ sake.”
He raises his hands over his head. “I’m listening, I’m listening.”
Lin snatches one of the books out of Sokka’s hands, thumbs through it, and squeals when she finds what she wanted. “Princess Suyin.”
“Suyin…” Toph echoes. “Suyin. That’s a good name, Badgermole.”
In all seriousness, it is a beautiful name. One that Toph herself wouldn’t have come up with herself if she tried. And the name Suyin Beifong has a nice ring to it, even though it’s being shoplifted from a children’s book.
Toph reaches for Sokka’s hand. “Suyin Beifong. How ‘bout it?”
He presses a kiss to her knuckles, one on Lin’s cheek, then leans down to lay one on their daughter’s tiny forehead. “Welcome to the world, Suyin Beifong.”