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Characters: Toph and Temeraire

Location: Their apartment

Rating: PG, tops

Time: Feb. 10, afternoonish

Description: For all that they're partners, the two really don't know that much about each other's lives back home. We're fixing that.

Toph hated stitches. Completely and utterly hated them. They itched and annoyed her and just gah.

To try and keep herself occupied, she was listening to one of the audio books she'd bought, using Tem as a bed. The disc was playing on the fancy CD player, and she didn't have her headphones in since Temeraire liked listening to them almost as much as she did.

The book today was some fictional one, and it involved this guy who wanted to marry a noblewoman (as a side plot. Toph's books were always the action-y type, but sometimes you just couldn't escape the sap).

"'But being noble has got to be better than my life', he said. 'I mean, you get all these...freedoms I don't!' I shook..."

Toph snorted. "Freedoms my eye," she muttered. "I sure as heck didn't get any."

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He liked stories as well as everything that had to do with mathematics and science, but taking a break from that whilst recuperating from the war that had been waged as of late was a good change as well.

However, that comment caught his attention.

"So you were a noble back home, yet you did not feel like you had any freedoms at all? I am quite sure that others would have. I know that the Duke of Wellington was able to do whatever he wanted after attaining his rank. He helped us dragons have our wages and let us spend them as we please..."

At least, that is how he viewed it.

Toph snorted again. "Trust me, you don't. You have to follow all these rules about what's acceptable, you can't have any fun, and everyone's always watching you. Doubly so if your a blind girl who's parents are idiots and think she can't handle herself even when she totally owns half the Earth Rumble line up in less than ten minutes." Old grievance? You could say that.

Oh.

Much like what his mother expected of him whilst he was in China.

"My mother disliked my participation in England's Aerial Corps, and wanted me to be more a scholar as my elder twin, but she never did tell me in such a fashion as you say about your parents.

Perhaps they worried for you needlessly....?"

"I'll say they worried needlessly." Toph started counting off on her hands. "I'm the greatest Earthbender in the world, I helped save the world, I taught the Avatar Earthbending, and you wanna know what they did when I had my friend write them a letter from me?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "Nothing," she finished. "They didn't even send more bounty hunters after me."

This had him confused.

"So it only took your saving the world, and sending word of it to your parents for them to finally let you do as you would please... or is there something else? Did you feel odd about them not caring about your well-being anymore?"

Because he knew that Laurence would feel awful if his mother would do that, for he knew that he cared for her. Perhaps Toph felt something akin to that?

Toph sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, a habit she picked up from Zuko. "Let me start from the beginning. I was born blind. My family's the richest family in the Southern Earth Kingdom. They freaked out when I was born since I was blind. They decided I would never be able to adjust and live normally, even once I learned to see with my feet, so they didn't tell anyone I was born. For the first twelve years of my life? I had no friends. None. Zilch.. With me so far?"

Oh, wow. He thought human parents were supposed to be nurturing, at least from what he had been told by Laurence. But to act as though one's child was never born? Not even his own mother did that, and Dragons are by nature not so... motherly, even though she herself was quite kind and generous toward his person.

"I understand, however I do find that your parents should not have thought less of you simply because you cannot see as they would or I would. They should have treated you properly, and even if you are blind, you adjusted in a different way."

And not having friends... she must have been really lonely. Here, he nudges her shoulder lightly with his snout.

Toph nudged Tem's snout with her shoulder, continuing. "So, Aang and his friends show up because some spiritual mumbo jumbo told him I was supposed to teach him Earthbending." She would skip over her last Rumble. It wasn't important anyway. "Dad gets mad since, hey, his daughter's blind and he's an idiot who can't tell when he's got a prodigy on his hands. I explain all this to Aang while we're walking in the gardens...and then we get kidnapped by some guys who thought we had cheated them out of their money. Dad pays the ransom, I get let go, but Aang doesn't since he's wanted by the Fire Nation for being the Avatar. I kick our kidnapper's butts, confess to Mom and Dad about my double life...and then Dad decides I'm going to be babysat twenty-four seven, since they 'gave me too much freedom'."

She made a noise and scratched at her stitches. "I ran off that night to join Aang and them," she finished. "Dad sent bounty hunters after me to bring me home, but I kicked their butts."

"Too much freedom?"

That rings a bell, especially where the Duke of Wellington was concerned.

"The Duke I told you about was telling us 'to hell' with our rights and freedoms. We wanted dragons in Parliament, he refused us. You were at least able to kick their butts as you said and give yourself your own freedoms. I was unable to get as much for all dragonkind in England. At least wages are given, but that is the only concession we got."

A second or two had passed, when he then adds:

"Though I am glad that you were able to get yourself to live however you chose to live, instead of being restricted as you said you were. Hm... then whether noble or not, no one really has true freedom of anything."

Laurence had somewhat told him so. Now he learned that nobles were also tied down to certain things.

Oh, goodie. Tem was starting on his philosophizing again. He needed to meet Iroh, they'd be great friends.

Toph poked her dragon in the snout. "Don't get all sage-y on me, Tem," she teased. "And never say that around Aang, if he ever gets brought here. Airbending's all about freedom and that crap." She giggled, then shifted a little. "What rights and freedoms do you guys want back home?" And how could someone have the guts to tell a dragon 'no'?

He backed his snout some inches away slightly after she poked him.

"Oh. In that case, I'll be mindful if your friend Aang does come here."

He somewhat hoped he wouldn't, because this is war, and if he came here from around the same time Toph did, then she would be happy, but also sad to know that he was dragged here as well. An unwinnable thing, really, if you wanted them to be better off back in one's own homeworld, but one does feel lonely if you are the only one from your own world...

As he is.

"We are free to be in the covers, and fly between them, but we do not have liberty to go where we please, at least not in England. In China, any dragon is free to go wherever he wants, work in what he pleases, and if they are up to it, take the Imperial exams and carry on duties for the government. If I were to have stayed in China, I would have all the time to study.

Which... is why I went back to England, because they didn't have as many freedoms as Chinese dragons do. They are miltary dragons, and if you do not participate in the military, you are sent to the breeding grounds. There, you can fly and do what you please, tend to your own cave, but you can never go far off, or else you might go hungry if you do not hear the bells for meal time."

"So, lemme get this straight." More counting off on her fingers. "These people think they can control dragons, and the dragons let them?" Toph snorted again. That was happening a lot today. "Why? Can't you guys just...I dunno, make them give you rights?"

"I've tried, believe me, I have. We did not have wages before, and for the humans it seemed to be a great big concession to do so in the first place. I do not see why it is a big deal, when Napoleon himself is able to do as much for the dragons in France, and he is even building larger roads in Paris to accommodate the dragons as it is done in China."

He shook his head.

"As for why..."

He has hit a quandry with this one in how to explain it, but he does know -why- exactly it is that they simply do so. Now, how to explain it as succinctly as is dragonly possible?

"most dragons, like myself, draw really strong bonds with those whom they have as their humans. Even the largest and greatest of us are attached very strongly to a human whom we might consider very, very small when compared to our size, but if they have had us since we came from the egg, it is hard not to feel for someone who has taken care of us since that moment.

Then, our humans are part of the military, and talk of duty, honour, and all the other things I might consider stuff, if only because of the slowness of how things proceed. I would have gotten into Parliament myself to help, but I am quite sure Laurence would not like it, so I did not do so. I talked to Wellington, and because I had some advantage, used it against him and won my small victory of the wages, but nothing more. Oh -- we did each get ranks and epaulettes to show our ranks as well, if that counts? Though I doubt it..."

"You guys are dragons," Toph repeated. This was just astounding her. "I'm not saying go crazy or anything, but you guys probably have enough lizard-power to get whatever you want done if you guys just did it."

This was Toph's Earthbending nature coming through. There was, in her opinion, no reason to dodge around and banter about wages and all that. They had the lizard-power to get it done, so why didn't they?

Colour him surprised, at her emphasis. Surely if all the dragons in England did rise up and demanded their fair rights, Parliament would, especially after making Napoleon leave their shores.

"Aside from what I said... most dragons in England are quite alright with what they have, and do not want to go out of their way to change their lifestyle. As long as they're fed and have a good enough space to sleep, they will not complain.

I seem to be the only 'rabble-rouser' as they've termed it, that actually dared to do anything about it."

And got sent away from England's shores for it as well.

Toph facepalmed. "Buncha lazy bums," she muttered before (lightly) punching Tem's leg. It was how she showed affection, after all. "No offense, but the English sound like the kind of people I can't stand for the most part." She'd love to meet Laurence (even if it meant losing Temeraire as a Weapon, since that would probably happen), but everyone else? Phsaw.

"It is not that they are lazy... it is only that they are just not as ambitious."

They really were an unambitious bunch as far as that was concerned. Also that light punch to his leg was taken in stride, only twitching a little afterward. Hey, he was bruised, it still ached a little.

"And not everyone is disagreeable in England as you would think. A lot of the Captains are really nice, as well as the ground crew. Of course Laurence has also seen how it is like in China, and has been very accommodating when it came to my tastes. He even hired chefs that catered to dragons just so I would be able to have meals that are cooked in the Chinese style.

He is also one that thinks my ideas about dragon rights should be exercised in England."

Laurence said so, and he knew that Laurence would not lie, not to him.

"Also, I am quite sure that you would get along with young Roland. She is around your age, and has been part of my crew ever since I was in Loch Laggan."

"Lock-what now?" Was Tem speaking some funky language again? There was no way that was a real word. None.

"Loch Laggan. It is a place in Scotland where a good number of dragons are hatched, harnessed, and trained.

I was not hatched or initially harnessed there, but I was most certainly trained there.

Why did you ask, Toph?"

"Because it doesn't sound like a real place," she retorted. "Unless it's, like, a locksmith or something." Wherever Tem was from, they had some weird names.

He shook his head, "No, it is a real place. It's just taken from the Scottish. Loch for them is akin to the word Lake for us. I don't know about Laggan's etymology, but I am still sure it is very Scottish."

He closed his eyes, and could just imagine the cold water running off his back after rising up from its depths.

"The water there is pleasantly cold after a tiring day of training. You'd like it there, lots of grass and earth and stones all around. Even the castle is nice, because the courtyard's flagstones are nice and warm even in the winter."

Toph grinned. "Warm rocks under my feet in the winter? Sign me up. Does it snow?" Because snow was bad. Snow could give her frostbite.

He was thinking for a moment.

"I am quite sure it would snow, except in the courtyard, because the flagstones are warm enough to melt them once they land. It does become wet due to that, however."

She made a face. "Snow sucks," she muttered. "It's cold, and wet, and it makes everything all blurry." And she couldn't adapt to it, like sand. Sand was just little earth bits. Snow was water.

"I do agree, it does get cold, and I would rather you stay inside nice and warm inside the castle if it ever snows. If we're ever there."

And that was a big IF.

As in, IF they ever had any mission in Scotland, he'd take a small detour over to the castle, to at least let her see this world's equivalent of it. There are many similarities, and from what he's heard, the England of this world still keeps its old castles very well, or as well as it possibly can.

"But we're not there now, so it is best not to worry about that, Toph."

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