Challenge #1: Vision
It seemed kind of slow around here, so I felt it was about time I stopped lurking and actually contributed something. And so my first post here brings you a flashback all the way to challenge #1!
Title: The Unmentioned Details
Author: 7_dirty_secrets
Word Count: 282
Warning: Season 3 spoilers, I suppose.
Challenge #1: Vision
Being without eyesight her entire life means that Toph isn't surprised when certain details slip under her radar because others don't bother to mention them. She can hear voices and smell smells, but her sight is limited, because certain facial details just don't seem to compute. She doesn't do a lot of touching either, so when she ends up with her grimy hands accidentally gripping the Fire Prince's cheek and his skin is tough and eerie, she snaps back.
"Describe it to me," she asks later that night, and Katara mentions something about a meteor and a deep, angry red. "I don't know what any of that means."
"A flaming rock."
Three days later, they sit in the dark corner of a quiet room of the beach house and she runs her dirty fingertips over the wrinkled skin. He exhales against her forearm, her hand clenching around his shriveled ear, and she feels tears leaking from his good eye.
"Can you still see?"
She feels his pulse racing.
"Sparky?"
He answers affirmatively, briefly, and the three-foot Earth Rumble Champ feels her shoulders deflating slightly.
"Oh."
He reaches out blindly among the shadows with his own hands and brushes his thumbs over her cheeks, just below her eyes. Her eyelids close, and he touches those next. She tries to duck her head, but he holds her head firmly and then pulls her onto his lap in one of the more awkward hugs she's received in her lifetime. "I'm sorry," he whispers, and she shakes her head.
"Don't be. I was born this way. Nobody did this to me."
He hesitates. "What makes you think--?"
"I know how people get scars," she says, and she thinks of her mother and how her heart hurts.
Title: The Unmentioned Details
Author: 7_dirty_secrets
Word Count: 282
Warning: Season 3 spoilers, I suppose.
Challenge #1: Vision
Being without eyesight her entire life means that Toph isn't surprised when certain details slip under her radar because others don't bother to mention them. She can hear voices and smell smells, but her sight is limited, because certain facial details just don't seem to compute. She doesn't do a lot of touching either, so when she ends up with her grimy hands accidentally gripping the Fire Prince's cheek and his skin is tough and eerie, she snaps back.
"Describe it to me," she asks later that night, and Katara mentions something about a meteor and a deep, angry red. "I don't know what any of that means."
"A flaming rock."
Three days later, they sit in the dark corner of a quiet room of the beach house and she runs her dirty fingertips over the wrinkled skin. He exhales against her forearm, her hand clenching around his shriveled ear, and she feels tears leaking from his good eye.
"Can you still see?"
She feels his pulse racing.
"Sparky?"
He answers affirmatively, briefly, and the three-foot Earth Rumble Champ feels her shoulders deflating slightly.
"Oh."
He reaches out blindly among the shadows with his own hands and brushes his thumbs over her cheeks, just below her eyes. Her eyelids close, and he touches those next. She tries to duck her head, but he holds her head firmly and then pulls her onto his lap in one of the more awkward hugs she's received in her lifetime. "I'm sorry," he whispers, and she shakes her head.
"Don't be. I was born this way. Nobody did this to me."
He hesitates. "What makes you think--?"
"I know how people get scars," she says, and she thinks of her mother and how her heart hurts.