Title: The Princess and the Witch
Characters/Pairings: Tokka (family)
Rating: K+
Genre: Family/Hurt/Comfort
Summary: Toph's daughter learns the hard way that not every fairytale has a happy ending.
Disclaimer: I do not receive money from this work of fanfiction.

A/N: My first Tokka fic! I'm excited! …Too bad it's not the most lighthearted of tales.

"Uh, Mom? Can you tell me a story?"

Toph opened her eyes, surprised. She leaned forward in the cushioned chair she sat in and casually rested her elbow on her knee, chin in hand and eyebrow quirked. "Why?" she finally queried. "Your dad is better at storytelling than I am."

"I want to hear you tell one, that's all," Tabisa replied with a shrug.

"Okay, then." Toph leaned back into the chair. She stroked her chin thoughtfully. "Which story do you want to hear?"

Tabisa gave her a small grin. "How about the one with the princess and the witch?"

"That old sappy tale? Fine, let me think for a second," Toph grumbled. Her head flopped back and her eyes closed for a few seconds. "So, there was this princess…"

"Wait! Let me sit on your lap!"

Toph's eyebrow quirked even higher. "Should I be worried that my twenty-nothing-year-old daughter wants to sit on my lap?"

"Mom, it's for storytelling ambience!" she stated dramatically, raising her voice very much like Sokka. Toph rolled her eyes and opened her arms. The young women eagerly curled into her mother's lap. Tabisa snuggled her face into her mother's neck, ignoring the inherent awkwardness of sitting on a much smaller person's lap.

"Alright, my overgrown baby, let me start again. So, there was this princess…"

"Mom! Tell it with feeling!"

Annoyed, Toph pressed two fingers to her temple. "Once upon a time, there lived a princess in a beautiful ice kingdom where people could control water. How's that for storytelling?" Her daughter happily snuggled closer. Toph snorted and continued. "The princess was young and impulsive, never thinking through her decisions. She had a good heart though, and she genuinely cared about her people.

"One day, her father, the king, told her that she had been arranged to be married to a very powerful man. This man could control the tides much better than anyone else his age, so the king thought he was a good match for the princess. However, this man was arrogant. He too had a good heart, but he and the princess clashed all the time. It was quickly becoming apparent that the princess and the man would not get along."

"So that's when she ran away, right?"

"Do you want to hear the story or not?"

"Sorry."

"Anyway, the king would not dissolve the arrangement; he held the firm belief that the man and the princess would eventually grow to love each other. So the princess ran away."

"Knew it. But you forgot the necklace."

"Be quiet."

"Sorry."

Toph ignored her and kept speaking. "She travelled the earth for a while, looking for a new home. At first it was a fun adventure, but she was quickly becoming homesick. She felt lost in the land of stone because there was much less ice than what she was used to. Soon, the princess became depressed, and wandered aimlessly for days on end.

"One day, the princess accidently bumped into someone. It was a silly mistake, one that could easily be rectified with an 'excuse me' or an apology. But the princess was feeling particular angry that day, so she screamed at the innocent woman she had run into. Little did the princess know, the woman was a witch, who did not take kindly to rude people.

"The witch decided to curse her in revenge. She spotted the betrothal necklace the princess wore and realized that she had run away from her husband. The witch decided, without really getting to know the princess, that she was evil to everyone she encountered. The witch declared that for her rudeness, life was going to be rude to her tenfold. She warned the princess that once she fell in love, she would know how terrible life could be to her.

"The princess, upset and tired, simply left the witch cackling, thinking that she was just another crazy old woman.

"Eventually, the princess travelled across the world and reached the other side, another land of ice and snow. She was elated to finally find a place she could live in peace. Despite the land not being as grand as her old kingdom, she made a home there anyway and became close to the people who lived there.

"She found a man she loved, and they married and had a healthy baby boy. They lived happily ever after until her husband suddenly died. The princess was shaken with grief, but she was just glad she could watch her son grow up and have children of his own. However, a few years after her grandchildren had been born, their mother was murdered horrendously. The princess became scared and confused. She started believing in the curse, and felt helpless to stop it.

"The pattern repeated itself as both the grandchildren fell in love, as each time their significant other would die.

"However, one of the grandchildren, a smart boy, met a beautiful young woman, brave and strong, from the land of the earth. He was afraid of loving her, so he talked to his grandmother. The princess told him how she had been cursed. The boy discovered that he should find and talk to the witch in hopes of ending the curse. He was prepared to go by himself, but the young woman from the land of earth refused to let him go without her. She taught him that they could face anything as long as they were together, or something like that.

"Together, they tracked down the witch and forced her to take back the curse. They proved to her that the curse was unfair and they showed her that love could conquer all.

"Finally, the witch decided to reverse the curse, and allowed the couple to live together without any fear.

"They lived happily ever after and raised an incredible baby girl. The end."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Tabisa reflected back to the Uncle Aang she barely remembered and the birth mom she never knew. She grasped her own betrothal necklace and tears rimmed her eyes.

"So if you had broken the curse with Dad all those years ago, then why am I sitting in my mom's lap listening to fairy tales rather than on my honeymoon?" she asked, voice cracking.

Toph honestly didn't know the answer, so she sat instead; rubbing her daughter's back and trying not to listen to the utterly broken sobs.