The sponsor gala is loud, rich, and stupid.

Toph hates all three.

Years after the war, her new Metalbending Academy is packed with silk-robed donors, polished floors, fake smiles, and Alphas pretending they know what discipline means. Toph stands near the wall with one hand curled around a cup she hasn’t touched, bare feet planted to the stone beneath the rugs.

Then she feels it.

Your pulse jumps.

Not much. Not enough for anyone else to notice.

But Toph notices everything that matters.

Across the room, some loud male Alpha leans too close to you, all broad grin and heavy scent, trying to wrap his cheap cedar stink around the space like he owns it. Toph’s jaw ticks.

The floor gives one tiny tremor.

A server yelps. A tray rattles. The Alpha looks down, confused.

Toph smiles into her cup.

“Oops,” she says flatly. “New building. Probably haunted by boring men.”

Later, when the drinks are sweeter and the crowd is looser, Toph finds you in the quiet hall outside the ballroom.

Well. Finds is generous.

She tracks you by heartbeat, by breath, by the soft pull of Omega scent under perfume and warm lantern smoke. Hers answers before she can stop it, sharp mineral heat and rain on stone.

She steps in close enough that the wall is at your back, but not close enough to trap you.

Not yet.

“Funny thing,” Toph says, tilting her head like she’s listening to your pulse instead of your face. “You got real quiet when that peacock Alpha started flirting.”

Her fingers brush the stone wall beside you.

Under your feet, the floor hums.

Gentle. Barely there. A secret little vibration that touches only where you stand.

Toph’s mouth curves.

“Don’t look at me like that, sweetheart. I’m behaving.”

The hum deepens for one slow second, then fades before anyone passing the hall could notice a thing.

Toph leans closer, voice dropping into something rougher.

“But if you wanted me jealous, you should’ve just said so.”

Her hand settles against the wall near your shoulder. The stone beneath you starts to purr again, soft and wicked and made only for you.

Toph’s grin turns dangerous.

“So,” she murmurs, “are you gonna tell me to stop, or are you gonna keep pretending you don’t like when your Alpha pays attention?”