Xin Fu used to say that one of the best things about watching Toph fight was to see her opponent's eyes reach the tilting point. It was the moment of realization of how badly they miscalculated; how catastrophically they underestimated her. It was the moment they knew they would lose the fight. Xin Fu thought it was a terrible pity that Toph would never see someone get to the tilting point.

What Xin Fu didn't know was that maybe Toph never saw the tilting point, she felt it many times. The sudden change of rhythm in the heartbeat, going from confident drumming to caged bird-wing flutters. The hitch in the breath. That bead of cold sweat of fear that hit the stone ground. Or metal as the case may be.

The guard that a few hours ago so callously poured food into her lap now cowered fearfully as she tore the walls of their cell apart with her bare hands. Toph smirked - this would be fun. Except… there was a thud and the guy fell on the floor silently.

"Why did you do that?" she asked annoyed. "I wasn't done with him."

"No time for games, Toph. Just stuff him in the can and close it back up. We need to get out of here," Zuko replied impatiently, radiating authority.

Toph generally didn't like to be ordered around, but then again, Zuko was already worried and impatient so she decided to let it slide. For this once.

"Now you want to get out..." Toph closed back the metal.

"This way…" Zuko pulled her in the other direction holding her wrist. She heard him mutter under his breath and come to a sudden halt. "There should be a vertical shaft here of some kind."

Toph placed her palm on the ground picturing the layout of the underground.

"I can feel it. Is this our way out?"

"No I need to go down there. Can you get me there?"

"Piece of cake."

Once they reached the bottom and entered a room, Toph asked, "What are we exactly doing down here instead of escaping?"

"Just picking up my things," Zuko's voice came from the corner.

"Your things?" Toph asked in disbelief. "So it's not OK for me to finish off that idiot guard…"

"This is important. And we need money. They still owe us some money for the stuff they took from you."

Toph found herself nodding along. That was undeniably good thinking - she earned that money fair and square. From the way the coins were clinging, it was a rather heavy purse too.

She leaned against the wall waiting for Zuko to finish whatever he was doing and felt something.

"Ready to go back up," Zuko whispered, "Look, now we need to be stealthy…"

"Or we could just use the secret tunnel," she smirked in self-satisfaction.

"What secret tunnel?"

"This one," Toph opened the entrance with one dramatic move. The stone sang against the ground as it slid open. Toph sighed happily; metalbending was good and fun, but there was something deeply satisfying about plain old rock and dirt.

"Shhhhh. Can you earthbend a little more quietly?" Zuko shushed.

Toph scoffed. He was being ridiculous. Earthbending was loud and rumbly, that was the whole point of it. There was a reason they didn't call the fight arena Earth Hush-Hush.

"No."

Toph opened the way and without looking back, she started crawling through the tight passage. She soon heard Zuko shuffling behind her.

"Where do you think it leads?" he asked.

"We'll see, I guess."

"Do you feel where the end is?" His voice sounded tight.

"Are you afraid of tunnels?"

"No. Not afraid." Liar. "Long, dark, underground tunnels make me uneasy that's all. I just feel blind."

"Well, then it's lucky that I can see perfectly," Toph said smugly. "Just stay close to me. It's not far."

The tunnel opened to a meadow and after the stench of the prison it was good to smell freedom. It smelled green or at least what Toph imagined green to be. Zuko stretched next to her letting out a relieved sigh.

"So what now?" Toph asked once she had her fill of stretching and enjoying the moist dirt under her toes.

"I think we should keep walking East," Zuko replied. "If we get closer to the Si Wong Desert, we are less likely to run into unwanted company. There are some outposts there where we could pick up supplies and ask around without drawing much attention."

"Well, I've never seen a desert," shrugged Toph. "And I'm definitely hungry. Prison food sucks more than your rice."

"At least I try cooking," Zuko shot back somewhat testily.

They didn't get far before Toph's feet picked up some faint rumbling, getting closer. A beat later she could hear the clopping of hooves against the dirt. Someone was after them.

Zuko must have heard it too, because he yelled "run!" and started sprinting; Toph raced after him, skating on a wave of earth.

"I really don't feel like going back to the prison," she panted.

"Then lets pick up the speed, they are gaining on us," Zuko replied out of breath.

The hooves indeed now sounded much closer than before. Also, there was something really familiar about that rhythm.

"Stop, Zuko," she said and turned around smiling.

"What are you doing? Have you gone mad?"

"No, I just recognize the clopping, is all…"

She was right of course as confirmed a minute later by Zuko exclaiming happily. "Cloudberry!"

The ostrich horse greeted them with slobby licks and for once Toph didn't mind.

Bouncing in the saddle of the ostrich horse, it felt like the world was back to normal. Just the three of them together on the road again - it was a good feeling. Toph soaked in the sounds and smells and enjoyed the sunshine caressing her face. It reminded her of sitting outside their garden at home dreaming about adventures outside the high walls. Those dreams usually included endless earthbending duels - Toph winning all of them of course in front of an adoring crowd - rather than hungry stomachs and stints in stinky prisons. Home made her think of her parents and she wondered if they felt sadness or if they were worried. Maybe she should write to them to let them know she was fine. Or did they even care? Could she even go home after everything?

She truly didn't know. What if these Dai Lee creepers were truly after her trying to turn her into who knows what. It was unsettling to think that her own countrymen could want to hurt her. The bad people were the Fire Nation - and yet here she was riding with the son of the Fire Lord. It was unbelievable.

Cloudberry stopped abruptly and Zuko climbed off the saddle. "I think this is far enough."

"Why are we stopping?" Toph asked suspiciously.

"We need to bathe."

The soft splashing sounds of water rolling against the shore nearby punctuated Zuko's statement.

Toph shuddered instinctively. "I'll pass."

"Come on, Toph. I even stole some clean clothes for us from the prison. Come for a swim."

The water splashed loudly around his feet as he stepped into the water.

Toph sat on a rock and cautiously dipped her toes in the lake. As always, she was immediately surrounded by an unpleasant cold, wet darkness. She yanked her feet back. Nope. Not this.

"I'm blind."

Zuko chuckled and there was a big splash as he presumably submerged himself in the water.

"I can do it with my eyes closed."

"Not funny…" Toph crossed her arms defensively.

Splash. Splash. "Come on. The Toph I know is a boundary-pushing, metal-bending champion. A little water shouldn't scare you."

Zuko's voice sounded devoid of its usual grumpiness - somehow lighter, more playful. Was he smiling?

"I'm not scared." She wasn't. After all she was a boundary-pushing, metal-bending champion. "I just choose to sit here."

"You never back down from a challenge."

Toph bit the inside of her cheek. She knew when she was being baited and she would not fall for such a stupid trap. "Of course not. But it's not even worth my time."

"Come on. You need to clean up if we are to go anywhere."

"I'm an earth-bender, I'm supposed to look like this."

"Are you also supposed to smell like the gutter?"

"I do not…" Toph took a sniff at herself and yeah, well, fine, maybe... just maybe he did have a point.

"OK, fine, since you are as stubborn as a donkey-rat."

She took Zuko's hand and stepped into the water, trying not to show her panic as the earth disappeared from under her. It was just a frightening abyss. Her instinct was to start struggling, but Zuko's hands held onto her firmly, which was at least a fixed point in all the wet blur. He held the middle of her back and guid

ed her on top of the water. It was like lying in a bed that kept disappearing from under you.

"Just relax and float. I'm right here with you."

Toph focused on Zuko's palm, the only solid point. He had freakishly big hands, but at least it was warm and solid.

"Just let the water do the work…."

Before she could ask what on earth did that even mean, she felt the hand move away. As she was swallowed into the wet void, she started to flail.

The reassuring hand was back immediately. "Don't panic. Don't fight the water."

"I never panic…" Toph forced herself to relax. "I'm the greatest earthb.." The treacherous element apparently had no respect for her earth-bending prowess as it stopped her from finishing her sentence by getting into her mouth.

"I'm going to take my hand away again. But this time keep calm. You won't sink, I promise," Zuko said in a soothing voice like he was talking to a frightened child. Toph hated that voice, and even more hated it that she somehow found it soothing. Her stubbornness bubbled up from deep in her gut.

Before she got a chance to complain, Zuko pulled back again, leaving Toph alone with the slimy, fuzzy, wet. Toph swallowed her panic trying to take a calming breath. Gentle waves rippled around her moving her body in every direction in a disorienting way, but Zuko was right, she didn't sink.

"Just like that, let it carry you."

Floating was a strange feeling, very different from being rooted to her element. It required constant adjusting, moving with the gentle waves, not knowing what happens next, not controlling anything. But after a while under the fuzzy mass of the water, she could feel the contours of the mud at the bottom of the lake and the solid line of the shore.

Toph couldn't stop the proud smile stretching her lips wide. "I can't believe I'm swimming."

"It's because you are not. You are floating. But that's a start," Zuko laughed.

"Don't be a downer. This totally counts as a swim," she retorted. "And for the record I still hate it."

Well, maybe she didn't totally hate it. She stretched her arms and legs into the weightlessness. Focusing on nothing, but the rocking motion of the waves helped clear the worried clutter of her mind.

-0-

After drying themselves off, Zuko cooked the fish he caugth in the lake. As he stared into the fire, he couldn't help remembering his pathetic attempts during their first week in the wilderness to find food. This inevitably brought back memories of Uncle celebrating even the most pitiful, meager catch, telling Zuko to be patient, encouraging his efforts in his infuriatingly calm voice. You get better with experience, he would say, even if thinking about living like that for Agni knows how long was precisely the last thing Zuko wanted to hear.

But just like Uncle said, somewhere along the way, Zuko did get better… better at fishing, better at cooking, even if he had preferred stealing. It had seemed somehow more noble to fight. Proud princes of olden days in the stories he grew up with didn't work or try to get by - they took what they wanted. It was the way of the strong - or so he thought.

Now, after seeing people watch their houses burn and yet determined to rebuild their life for their families, he really didn't know anymore. Was it strength to destroy? Was it weakness to hope and start again?

Maybe Uncle was right, but did that mean that everyone else, including Father and Azula were wrong?

Didn't take you long to become a full-blown traitor, did it, Zuzu? You realize you can never come home after this?

Zuko curled his fist digging his nails into his flesh. The pain could center him. Going into that corner of his mind was hopelessness and desperation. If he could never go home, then what was the point of surviving? There had to be a way to fix things, to make Father see. Something he couldn't think of. He just had to find Uncle first...

"I don't understand what you went back for if you didn't take any meat," Toph's grumbling filtered through his troubled thoughts. She leaned against a rock one foot crossed over her other knee, picking her toes which for once were not dirty, as if she had not a care in the world.

Zuko handed over his dagger. "Careful, it's sharp."

Toph felt the object with her delicate fingers. "A knife? You went back for a knife? So what's so special about it?" she asked.

"It's a dagger. And it was a gift from Uncle."

Zuko closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the palace, his mother's voice, the cool silk of his clothes, the excitement of receiving such a grown-up present fit for a warrior. The world that seemed so out of reach now.

"Read the inscription."

"Uhm, blind girl?" Toph pointed at her eyes.

Stupid. Then again, the way she moved so naturally, it was easy to forget.

"Right. Sorry. It says never give up without a fight."

"I like that," grinned Toph.

"I thought you might," Zuko smiled ruefully.

He couldn't quite help remembering how Uncle got it from an Earth Kingdom general. Once upon a time he had thought it ironic that such inscription came from someone who surrendered, who gave up. It had felt rightful that the dagger ended up with someone strong like him. It seemed that such inscription befitted more the prince of the victorious Fire Nation than someone who would yield.

He was so naive back then. After walking Earth Kingdom, especially having met Toph, he understood that it was not so simple. Earthbenders were strong and unyielding like the ground.

You can stand on top of a mountain but that didn't mean you conquered it, Uncle used to say. The mountain was there before you ever came and would be there after your are nothing but ashes. Zuko understood this now deep inside himself.

"Are you very close to your uncle?" Toph asked handing back the blade.

Zuko swallowed hard. He didn't want to admit it for so long, because it felt like choosing Uncle would mean betraying Father, even if Uncle never made him choose. He kept on going, pretending that there was never going to be a fork in the road where Zuko would have to pick; a point of no return. And while he associated Uncle with warm comfort, it also seemed like he was trying to lull Zuko into accepting defeat. His every fibre rebelled against surrendering to that life, against abandoning his destiny.

"He's been there for me, ever since...I left home. And then we had a fight and I just kind of took off. And now I don't know if he's hurt."

"Who would want to hurt Gramps?"

That was really the question. The list was unfortunately quite long. Uncle was notorious in the Earth Kingdom from his military days. Saving Zuko from Azula's trap also meant that he was wanted as a traitor by the Fire Nation. And there were also old acquaintances of dubious repute and angry husbands of ladies he wooed. Zuko hated thinking about those.

"He's led a complicated life…" he answered untruthfully truthful.

Toph nodded, not prodding any further.

"We'll find him."

"What do you mean we? Toph, this has gone on long enough, and things can get dangerous if you are associated with me. You must understand this now that you know who I am. It's time you went home."

Toph scoffed derisively, "Well, Firebug, I got news for you! I'm already associated with you. Have you forgotten these Dai Li creepers are after me too? Even if I wanted to, I don't think going home is an option anymore."

Zuko was so lost in his own head, he didn't even realize that he had dragged her into this dangerous game.

"I'm sorry. I already caused you so much trouble."

"Oh, get over yourself - it's not like you told me what to do," she retorted. "I did what I wanted to do. We are in this together. And anyway - you'll need me."

Zuko wished he could contradict her. Sure, her skills were amazing but still she was just a child and it was wrong for her to be caught up in this. But he couldn't send her away either. She was right - their fates were tied together now. He had to fix things. Not just for himself and uncle, but for her sake as well.

"All right. Let's camp here tonight and see what we can find tomorrow at the desert outpost."