After being banished from the Fire Nation with no way to return, Zuko does the best he can to survive in hostile enemy territory, which leads him to some... questionable decisions. Caught trying to steal food from a noble Earth Kingdom family, his life takes a bizarre twist when they end up hiring him instead. His job? Watch over their blind daughter, Toph.
Kintsugi is a For Want Of A Nail Series Fic by discordiansamba
in which, instead of being ordered to find the Avatar, Prince Zuko is left for dead in the Earth Kingdom after the Agni Kai and ends up finding himself working for the Beifong family. It can be found on Archive of Our Own and FanFiction.Net.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Lao and Poppy Beifong don't mean to hurt their daughter — it's actually their worst fear. But in order to protect her, they basically isolate and smother her, with Toph bitterly complaining they only see her as a doll and not a human being.
- After learning Zuko was disfigured by his own father, Toph muses her parents do love her, even in an unhealthy way. Fire Lord Ozai doesn't even bother with that.
- Xia-Su's father was an alcoholic who used to beat her, and only got worse after he was removed from the Earth Kingdom army. When the Fire Nation came to her village and she tried to run away, he used his earthbending to trap her, which broke her leg. She still walks with a limp.
- Awesome by Analysis: Toph is quickly able to figure out that Zuko is a noble simply by the way he acts. Xia-Su also realizes it, since no one could be that bad at doing basic chores otherwise.
- Big "WHAT?!": This is Zuko's reaction when Toph states that he will be her new sparring partner.
- Birthday Episode: The sixth story of the series, two birthdays in the earth kingdom, is about Toph and Zuko celebrating their birthdays. For Toph, most of her day was taken by the frustrating and boring party her parents threw, which was more about rubbing elbows with other nobles and introducing her to potential suitors. It wasn't until the end of the day when Zuko shows her his gift for her, regaining his firebending, that she feels truly happy. For Zuko, he spent most of his day bedridden with a bad fever (actually a firebender-specific illness), until Yun and Xia-Su surprise him at the end of the day with a gift, a teacup he had liked when they went to the market, and scold him for not telling them about his birthday.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Toph's and Zuko's argument when it comes to his refusal to firebend. On one hand, Toph is right when she says that fire doesn't have to just mean destruction, and that a bender refusing to use their element will have serious reprecussions for them in the long run. On the other hand, it wasn't fair of her to push Zuko to firebend before he was ready, and thinking a person could just push through their own trauma would have caused harm too. In the end they both agree that Zuko shouldn't run from his problems and refuse to firebend, but he has to heal at his own pace.
- Brought Down to Badass: Zuko when he loses his firebending is still able to put up a decent fight against Toph using only his swords.
- Commonality Connection: Toph and Zuko are both noble-born children with Abusive Parents who don't see their worth, and have grown up without any real friends because of their status. It's why they understand each other and get along so well.
- Xia-Su figures out that Zuko was abused by his father, who used his bending to cause permanent damage, because she went through the same thing.
- Cool Old Guy: Yun, the tea server of the Beifong family, is this. While he's no Iroh, he is a wise and kind leader to the rest of the servants. That being said, he has his own silly moments, like when he tried to buy Toph alcohol for her tenth birthday.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Fire Nation soldiers who came to conquer Xia-Su's village were actually the ones who took her to a healer after her father broke her leg, and they arrested him for the act.
- Family of Choice:
- Toph and Zuko see each as siblings rather master and servant. They even say as much.
- The servants of the Beifong family are this. They form a tight bond and care for one another.
- Foil: Toph and Azula are both Child Prodigies and powerful benders who have Abusive Parents (although in different ways), and a relationship with Zuko. Azula's father pushes her to be perfect and encourages her ruthless behavior, while Toph's parents don't see her skill at all and try to protect her from everything. While Azula's prowess and her father's encouragement turned her arrogant and strained her relationship with her brother, Toph's loneliness and her genuine kindness hidden under all her abrasiveness deepens her relationship with Zuko, to the point where he considers her as more of his little sister than Azula.
- For Want Of A Nail: The whole premise of the story is that Zuko was never given the order to find the Avatar and left for dead in the Earth Kingdom.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Yang may be an ass, but he isn't wrong that Zuko, who everyone else thinks is just a starving street urchin, has skills far beyond that and has Fire Nation features.
- Logical Weakness: Toph's tremorsense makes it impossible for people to sneak up on her on the ground. However anyone can bypass it if they stay off the ground, as Zuko shows when he tracks her through the trees.
- Lonely Rich Kid:
- Toph is so isolated she needs to throw a tantrum to retain Zuko as her servant, and since he's officially lower-ranked in status she cannot be openly his friend.
- Except for Mai and Ty Lee — both more of his sister's friends — Zuko remembers being surrounded with lickspittles and courtiers.
- Lower-Deck Episode: Chapter 4 switches focus from Toph and Zuko's growing friendship to back to the Fire Nation to see how Mai, Iroh, and Azula are dealing with Zuko's banishment.
- Meaningful Name: The story is called Kintsugi, which is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The story is about the bond between Toph and Zuko and how the two of them repair their broken lives and help each other get better.
- Open-Minded Parent: Downplayed with Poppy Beifong, as she's still My Beloved Smother to Toph. Nonetheless, she's this compared to her husband, as she decides retaining "Li" as Toph's bodyguard is a good thing and later pushes for her daughter to visit Ba Sing Se and leave Gaoling for once.
- Secret-Keeper: Toph becomes one for Zuko, hiding his firebending and that he was a former Fire Nation noble.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Lao Beifong is this. While he may be unnecessarily overprotective of his daughter, he treats his servants well and offers Zuko, who has just robbed him out of sheer desperation, a job.
- Underestimating Badassery: When Toph joins Earth Rumble Five, everyone dismisses her as just a blind little girl. She quickly shows them why that kind of thinking is wrong.
- Uriah Gambit: Iroh all but says that Ozai banishing Zuko in the Earth Kingdom is a death sentance.
