Lee's Got Strange Friends

Chapter 3 Earth

It was a quiet day in the tea shop when a tiny girl rushed in and immediately tackled Lee.

"Sparky! Damn I missed you." she said, hugging Zuko way too tight.

"Dear Agni! Toph?! I can't breathe!"

"Oh hehe oops! Better?"

"Much."

Jin at this point was just staring stunned as her brain tried to catch up to what just happened.

"Earth to Jin! I hope you're not in the spirit world!" Lee said bring her back into the moment.

"Uh sorry about that!" She shook her head in an attempt to clear it "Hi, I'm Jin!"

"Toph Bei Fong, but you can just call me Toph." she introduced.

"Bei Fong? As in that Bei Fong?!"

"Yup!"

"Want something? It's on the house." Lee said.

"Sure, whaddya' got?"

"Would you like a menu?" Jin offered.

"Is it brail?"

"Huh? Oh my spirits you're blind! Sorry I didn't notice."

"It's fine, I get that a lot. It's at least better than underestimating me." she grinned.

"Huh I didn't know the Bei Fongs' had a daughter."

"Yeah, they don't talk about me. They wanted me to live a squishy, clean, danger free life just because I'm blind."

"And yet they let you travel with the Avatar and end a 100 year war?"

"Oh they didn't let me do anything! I ran away."

"You did?!"

She nodded "They tried to bring me back a few times, but they finally got the message when I decided to break reality rather than go back."

"Bre...huh? How did yo-?!"

"I invented metal bending."

"What the- holy fuck!" It was obvious already that Toph was bad for her health. At this rate it would be a competition to see if she would cause an aneurysm or heart attack first.

Jin laughed a bit desperately

"Toph, stop acting like you don't already know you want chamomile! You good over there Jin? That laugh was a bit...strained."

"Perfectly." she muttered weakly. Strained? More like borderline hysterical

"Aww, you're no fun Sparky! So she's the sister you adopted? The one Twinkletoes told me about?"

"Yeah. So your parents finally stopped bothering you?"

"Well we've come to a understanding of sorts."

Lee looked up from his table wiping with a raised eyebrow "Explain."

"So they finally realized they could either let me do my shit or lose their only daughter. They don't try to stifle me and I spend some time with them."

"Good I'm glad they weren't like my father." Lee said with a weak laugh.

Toph on the other hand didn't laugh. "Nothing can be as bad as your father."

Jin watched quietly as she absorbed information. Lee lived with Mushi in Ba Sing Se even during the war despite the fact that he apparently had family in the Caldera. The war had caused a lot of odd family situations so she hadn't questioned it too much before but it was a little odd.