I'll Be Your Family

Siblings pt. 1

They were only a day from Tsu Zin and Toph was starting to get worried.

Sparky had been acting off while they were riding. She could hear him drifting off during their conversations and she swears she heard him drop his reins once or twice. The third time she heard him let go of his reins she had enough.

"Alright, Sparky what's going on?"

He looked back and shrugged, "What do you mean?"

Toph growled, "Don't play with me Sparky, I know something's wrong. Spill it."

He just yawned, "I didn't get a lot of sleep, Toph, that's all"

Toph narrowed her eyes, He doesn't seem to be lying. And I already know he gets nightmares. A lot of them if I'm being honest.

She spoke softly, hoping not to scare him with the question, "Was it the nightmares?"

He flinched, "Yeah."

She just hummed, trying not to look too interested, "Do you want to talk about them?"

Zuko sighed, how was he supposed to tell her that he dreamed of his family every night? That his nightmares were sometime Azula calling him a failure and a traitor for sympathizing with the Earth Kingdom. That sometimes they were of his Father finding out his growing doubts and burning him again for his weakness. That the worst one was him finding out he was wrong his mother holding him, telling him in her soft voice, How could you forget?

Like hell, I'm telling her that. I can manage it just fine.

He shook his head and just said simply, "No thanks Toph, I'll be fine. I'll just need to sleep earlier to make up for it."

Toph sighed in disappointment, "Whatever, you say Sparky."

She knew he was lying, whether it was to her or himself was irrelevant. She had already been aware of his nightmares, the first couple of days they were traveling were the worst of them. They had picked up since they found out about Azula's plan to hunt the Avatar.

He woke up every other night panting and holding his face, silently gasping as he worked himself down from panic. She had asked him about them before but he always dodged the question, so she learned to just let it go.

After all, I can't help him if he doesn't want me to. I can't force him to tell me everything.

She already knew there were some things that he kept to himself. The biggest was why he was banished, but she caught on to the fact that he never called his father by name. He also probably had something wrong with his left eye. She realized while they sparred, that he covered his left side while fighting. She was curious as to what was wrong with it but the only thing he gave her was that he had, 'limited vision.

Tsk! Limited vision my butt. I have no vision and even I can see Sparky's eye is garbage.

She just sighed and listened to Sparky try not to fall asleep on his horse, knowing they would have to stay a night or two Tsu Zin to let him get some actual rest.

This is gonna be a long day

..............

Toph was bored.

Sparky had gone into a daze of not sleeping but not being awake, while she had been stuck on her saddle. She had already read the new scroll that Sparky had made for her, and while she liked it, it wasn't as good as Love Amongst Dragons.

Now that she finished it though, she had nothing to do. She was debating the benefits of throwing something at Sparky to wake him up when she smelled it.