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"Welcome to the Jasmine Dragon, I'm Lee, what can I get for you today."
There is a lot to unpack in that clusterfuck of a sentence. First of all, it really shouldn't be one sentence. It's like this guy thinks the faster he speaks, the sooner he'll be out of his obligation in the customer service exchange. Second, was that even a question? The delivery was so monotonous, she wouldn't have registered the question if she wasn't expecting it. And third—
"What was your name again?"
"Uh. Lee?"
Third. That is not the right name.
"Do you always go by Lee?"
"What? Yes. What are you talking about?"
"Even in private?"
The—boy? Girl? Person? The server huffs sharply, frame tense. "Are you going to order anything or not?"
Toph's about to huff back, just on instinct, but stops short. If she's right, and "Lee" isn't really "Lee," then "Lee" clearly isn't public about it. She's heard how some people react to stuff like this, felt her own parents' nervous shuffling when she talked about—really anything to do with girls and boys, if it was a criticism. Heard their silence when she asked why someone might change their name. Heard the scoffs when she asked if she could do that, someday, if she wanted to. Felt the increase in guards, felt their suspicion.
She had to skip out on the next Earth Rumble just to lay low.
Anyway, the point is, she gets the caution. She really does.
"Just give me whatever's popular."
The tea she gets two minutes later is unreasonably good, and somehow familiar.
Toph, as she is prone to doing, makes a menace of herself.
"You know, I had a friend who used to go by a different name. They changed it to Ping. Just felt better."
"...Okay?"
"It didn't change anything. I still beat them into the ground."
"...Is that a threat?"
"Lee," Toph concludes, is an idiot.
"Y'know my friend, the one with the name, they liked tea too."
"Good...?"
"Yeah. They really liked oolong."
"Do you want oolong?"
Toph resists the urge to bury her head in her hands. The oolong is very good though.
"If you were to pick a nickname—"
"I wouldn't."
"Okay, but if you had to."
"I don't have to."
"I could change that."
"Are you getting tea, or are you leaving?"
"Language is pretty weird, huh?"
"...Excuse me?"
...Yeah, that one was kind of a stretch.
"Can you— Can you stop asking about names? I'm just trying to survive here, okay? Like everyone else."
Toph pauses, a half grin frozen on her lips. It's stuck, even though her mirth is gone. "Yeah," she says, more confident than she feels. "Sounds good, Lee."
Everything falls apart under the palace of the Earth King, and Toph doesn't think about "Lee" for a long time.
Until she does.
"Hello, Zuko here."
Later, she'll realize what happened here. That her earth sense isn't perfect, and that something about facing down his potential demise by three bending prodigies and a boomerang has Zuko's heart doing somersaults. It takes her a while to get used to that rabbit-quick pounding, and by the time she's figured out what's a lie and what's the truth, she's forgotten all about how it did or didn't flutter under "Zuko."
In the present, she hears the name, feels the stuttering beat, and thinks, "They really need to settle on a name."
"Actually, they weren't lying."
"Oh, hooray! In a lifetime of evil, at least he didn't add animal cruelty to the list!"
"I'm just saying that considering their messed up family and how they were raised, they could have turned out a lot worse."
Toph is adamant about using the right words, even if it isn't really the biggest concern at the moment.
Aang catches on quickly. By the end of their debate, he's already switched up his language. The siblings aren't so quick about it, but there's time.
"Did you ever think of a nickname?"
"What? I mean— No?"
"Right. Well, if you haven't figured it out yet, it's my turn. I'll give you two vetoes, but that's it, Sparky."
"Sparky?"
"Is that a veto?"
"...No."
Good thing, too, cuz the next two options were "Flameo" and "Hotman."
Sparky seems to like the new name, if their heartbeat is anything to go by. The others talk about "Zuko," and their heartrate kicks up into a nervous stutter. Toph mentions "Sparky," and all she feels is a momentary skip.
New name butterflies, she figures.
(She isn't wrong. Not entirely. Zuko's hardly calm when the people he's hunted address him, guilt hammering away at his chest. Toph is easier. She was quick to forgive him for burning her feet, and there's no history between them. Still, that doesn't seem to account for the butterflies.
Maybe he's just not used to nicknames that aren't used to mock. That's all it is.)
"Zuko showed me how to do fire whips today!"
Ever since visiting the Sun Warrior ruins, Aang has been bringing updates about his firebending practice to dinner every evening. Tonight is no exception.
"It was so cool! But we lost some climbing ivy to that practice." He says it joyously, but even that doesn't calm Katara's grudge.
"Maybe Zuko should be a little more careful," she grumbles.
"Oh, they are! I'm the one who set it on fire."
"Okay, what is this?" Sokka cuts in. He's been unnervingly quiet throughout dinner. "The 'they' stuff."
Sparky's already nervous from the name being thrown around, so when their heart picks up even more under this line of questioning, Toph springs to their defense.
"You got a problem with it?"
"No!" At least Sokka sounds offended by the implication. "I just don't know where it came from!"
"Does it matter?"
"No," he insists again. "But when did he tell you? I mean, them! When did them— fuck. "
"It really doesn't matter," Sparky tries, like they're trying to ease Sokka's distress.
But unfortunately for them, (it's starting to matter,) and Toph notices. She also notices that this conversation might be the gateway into a heart attack if it goes on much longer.
"Okay, everyone go away."
Katara lets out an indignant squawk. "You can't kick us out of the campfire circle!"
"I can when your brother is being a dick."
"I wasn't trying to be!" is Sokka's whined defense.
"You really don't have to—"
"Can it, Sparky."
"Okay, okay," Aang cuts in, jumping to his feet and sweeping up all the dishes he can carry. "We'll just go wash up!"
There's a few beats of silence, which Toph imagines is filled with all that nonverbal begging that Aang is somehow able to radiate at his chosen targets, before Katara huffs. Toph can barely wait for them to clear out before she's speaking. Sparky's heartbeat is getting to her.
"You know they'd be okay with it, right?"
"I don't..."
They wouldn't know, would they? They've never been on friendly terms with any of the gaang before.
"Because they would. You just have to tell them—"
"I don't know if I'm okay with it."
That's... not a lie, and now Toph is really confused.
"Wait, do you still use 'he,' then?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Yeah, Sparky, you do."
Sparky falls silent at that, and Toph is left to puzzle out her confusion on her own. It's like they— he— It's like Sparky really hadn't thought about it before, which just makes Toph wonder what on earth she felt back in Ba Sing Se.
"But then why did you—"
Oh. Oh. Of fucking course Lee wasn't Sparky's real name. Toph doesn't even think about stopping the cackle that tears from her throat.
"What?" Sparky has jumped from confusion to full blown concern.
"I'm a dumbass," she wheezes.
"So, what now? You're just Zuko the dude?"
"I guess."
"...You are not making this easy on me. What does 'I guess' mean?"
"...I just never thought about it."
"And now that you have?"
"I don't know."
Toph heaves a sigh, long and dramatic. "You've kinda gotta make a choice here."
All she gets in response is silence and an uncomfortably fast heartbeat.
"...Then how 'bout this: we keep trying the new stuff out. If you don't like it, just tell someone, and we'll switch back."
Finally, she gets a response that doesn't sound like it's physically painful to say.
"Okay."
Sparky never does ask to switch back.