Part 2 to the last chapter by popular demand!

————————————————————

Suyin Beifong tied her shoelaces in silence, listening to the sounds of her parents fighting in their bedroom. They were fighting about her again, she had once again gotten in trouble in school today.

Su's mother didn't care, in fact she seemed proud of her daughter's unruly behavior. Her father cared very much, and he was furious with his wife for encouraging Su's actions.

Su tried her best to keep their words from registering to her, she didn't want to hear them fighting anymore, she hated it. She hated that her parents hated each other. She wished they'd just get divorced already, it would be better to come from a broken home than to live in one.

Su finished tying her shoes just as her door opened and in walked her sister. "What are you doing?" Lin asked with a frown as she noticed the girls shoes.

"I'm leaving" Su huffed and stood up. She grabbed her backpack and slipped it onto her shoulders. "I'm going to stay with aunt Suki"

"You're grounded" Lin was quick to remind her little sister. She gave the ten year old a small glare. "Sit your butt back in bed. Dad said-"

Su scoffed and grabbed her keys. "Dad? He's not even your dad, he's mine" she glared at her sister. "Stop playing pretend"

Lin's eyes bore into Su's soul and Su instantly knew she had crossed the line. "You know what? Fine, leave" she grabbed the aglet's of Su's shoes with her metal bending and quickly threw the Iittle girl out the window. Su screamed and suddenly found herself in the bushes. She looked up just in time to see her sister closing the window.

"Ow" Su rubbed her arm that she had landed on as she stood up and stretched. She had crossed the line, she deserved the pain. "I'm sorry" she whispered before quickly walking to the sidewalk and proceeding to run in the direction of her Aunt's house.

————————————————————

Toph had left, called into work because of some pressing case. This left (y/n) and Lin home alone, although (y/n) didn't yet know this.

The man of the house cooked dinner in silence, his mind elsewhere as he prepared the food. One more year. One more year until Lin was out of the house. One more year until... until (y/n) finally left Toph. He had tried everything to fix their marriage, but Toph wasn't willing to put in the work. It was the only choice aside from suffer for Su's sake.

Finally the food was finished and (y/n) set the table before walking to the room of his daughters. He knocked on the door. "Girls? Dinner time" he called out to them, sounding much more tired than he had meant to sound.

The door opened a moment later and Lin walked out alone. "Su went to Aunt Suki and Uncle Sokka" she explained simply as she walked past her stepfather.

"She's supposed to be grounded" (y/n) rubbed his aching head and looked into the empty room before following Lin back to the table.

"She was tired of hearing you two fight" Lin defended her sister, despite their earlier disagreement. "It was... louder than usual today" she sat down at the table and started putting food on her plate.

(Y/n) was silent as he sat down. "Fair enough" was all he said when he finally spoke. "How was school?"

"Fine" Lin shrugged as she poked at her meatloaf with her fork. "So who was in the wrong today?"

"Neither of us was in the wrong. We just have different views on parenting" (y/n) shook his head as he started cutting his food.

"So it was mom" Lin chuckled and also began cutting her meat.

(Y/n) shook his head. He tried so hard not to paint Toph as the bad parent, he wanted to tell Lin everything but he held back. He wanted to tell her about all the horrible things about Toph. But he knew child should never be pulled into the issues that the parents were having. "No, like I said we just disagreed on this. Nobody was in the wrong"

"Whatever you say" Lin rolled her eyes and began to eat. "There was a lot of yelling for a simple disagreement"

(Y/n) was silent after that. He took a bite of his meatloaf.

"So what did Su do?" Lin finally changed the subject.

(Y/n) sighed and finished chewing the food in his mouth. "Some boy smacked her friend, so she decided it was appropriate to bite him"

"She bit him?" Lin couldn't hold back a laugh.

"Right in the throat" (y/n) shuddered at the idea. "Even managed to draw a little blood"

"That's horrible" Lin forced her laugh to stop and she tried to keep a straight face.

"Your mother told her to go for a kick to the nuts next time" again he shuddered at the image of that. He hadn't meant to say that, it just slipped out. There was no taking it back now.

Lin frowned, now seeing what the argument had been about. "You thought she should have told her not to do anything like that again?"

"Your mother is the chief of police! She of all people knows what comes from violence" (y/n) stabbed his fork roughly into more of the meatloaf before eating it. He clenched his fists and looked to the window, staring outside as the sun set.

Lin sighed and nodded as she finished chewing another bite. She wanted to say she didn't know why he stayed with Toph, but she did know and she was grateful for it. He had given up the best years of his life to stay in this bad marriage, she just hoped that once it was over he'd be happy again.

————————————————————

It had been dark out for a few hours by the time that Suyin got home. She slipped in the front door and locked it behind her. She turned around and found her father looking at her from the living room couch.  "Oh" she frowned. "Hi"

"How's your aunt?" (Y/n) asked as he motioned for his daughter to sit beside him.

Su frowned, she had expected him to be mad at her for disobeying. She walked over to the couch and spoke as she sat down. "She's fine..."

"Good" (y/n) nodded as he thought of his older sister. "Let's talk"

Su frowned but nodded. "Okay... I don't regret what I did"

(Y/n) was the one who frowned now. "Suyin... violence should never be your first resort"

Su giggled. "You sound like uncle Aang"

"Aang is a very wise man" (y/n) smiled now at the comparison. "I used to think his pacifism was stupid... but as you grow older you start to see the sense and maturity in that sort of life style... I wish I had been that way back during the war"

Su couldn't seem to understand that. "But you got to fight all those bad guys! I want to fight bad guys just like you did"

(Y/n) shook his head and patted Su's head. "I hurt people, we all did. In the moment it was cool, but we were kids back then. I'm just thankful I never killed anyone..."

"Not even one little bad guy?" Su frowned as she thought back to the games they'd play in school, games where she'd be the Avatar and she'd pretend to fight and kill the boys who pretended to be Ozai's forces.

"Not even one" (y/n) put an arm around Su and pulled her into a sideways hug. "Life is sacred, nobody should want to take that from someone"

Su nodded simply, unsure of what to say. She had never given much thought to what her father was now saying. "What does this have to do with what I did? I didn't kill him"

"No you didn't" (y/n) smiled down at his daughter. "I just thought you should know all this" he held her closer. "And besides... hurting people isn't to much different than killing"

Su thought that it was indeed very different, but she didn't say that. "Okay" Su took her Dad's hand in hers. "What should I have done? He hit Kiki"

(Y/n) considered that for a moment. "You could have gotten the teacher"

"Snitch?" The idea disgusted Suyin.

"You could have turned the other cheek, gone to help your friend instead of avenging her"

"But then he'd have gotten away with it!" Su began to protest.

"Maybe" (y/n) shrugged. "But you'd have comforted your friend instead of escalating things. What you did did nothing to help Kiki, you just got yourself in trouble and hurt someone"

Su wanted to protest, to say that maybe Kiki had enjoyed watching her defend her, but she knew that wasn't right. Kiki had never been one for violence.

"...okay" Su leaned into her father's side. "Next time I'll try that"

"Thank you" he leaned over and kissed the top of the girl's head. She closed her eyes and sighed, letting out the stress of the day.

Su stayed there, neither of them spoke now that they had come to an agreement. Finally (y/n) heard Su quietly begin to snore and he smiled. He looked down at the girl and confirmed she was asleep as she leaned against him.

After twenty or so more minutes of the peaceful cuddling he picked up Su before carrying her to her bed. Lin was already asleep so he made sure to be quiet as he entered the room and put Su down. He kissed her gently on the forehead before leaving the room after that, closing the door behind him.

After that (y/n) got ready for the night. He brushed his teeth, got in pajamas, and was quick to get into his bed.

Finally when he closed his eyes and prepared to drift off to sleep he heard the front door open and slam closed. His wife was home. Without even realizing it he inhaled, taking a nervous breath and holding it. He really didn't want to have another fight tonight.

Soon enough Toph opened the door to their room and closed it behind her. (Y/n) could hear as she walked to the bathroom and brushed her own teeth. She then got undressed so she was in just enough not to be naked before jumping into bed, shaking the bed under them both. (Y/n) said nothing and in return Toph said nothing to him.

He felt Toph slip under the covers before placing a couple of pillows between her and her husband. He knew she did that for his benefit, so he didn't have to wake up looking at his wife. They both knew that their marriage was all but over, this was just one of the many signs.

"Goodnight" (y/n) said simply, still not opening his eyes. He hoped he'd drift off to sleep soon enough, but he knew that in all likelihood he'd end up unable to sleep for at least two or three more hours.

"Goodnight" Toph replied tiredly, already beginning to fall asleep with a natural ease. She closed her eyes and her loud snoring began.

————————————————————

Word count: 1900

(Thoughts? Reactions? Criticisms? Requests?)