Disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender belongs to Mike, Brian, Nick, and Viacom. I'm just playing with their toys when they're not looking...

A/N: This idea hit me over the head a while ago and wouldn't go away, so I finally sat down and typed out the first part. Hopefully, I'll get back to it soon, but if not, this one stands fairly well on its own.

"Child of Fire"
by Jezunya

Part 1 - Water

It was said that the earlier a child manifested abilities to bend an element, the more powerful a bender they were destined to be. Fire Lord Zuko knew this – he had grown up with this fact hovering over his head for as long as he could remember. He himself had manifested at the fairly average age of three years old. His sister, the princess Azula, had begun throwing fireballs with her first tantrum when she was under a year old and had been heralded as a prodigy. This led to many bitter years of confusion and self-hatred, right up until he won the one hundred years long war, took his place on the throne of the Fire Nation, and married the princess of one of their newly-established ally countries. At this point, it didn't seem to matter that he had not begun bending at a spectacularly early age – he was the Fire Lord, leader of the most power nation in the world, husband to a woman he never would have imagined he could love as he did, nephew to one of the greatest firebenders in history, and one of the most powerful benders in the world in his own right.

None of this, however, prepared him for the storm of bending that erupted when his newborn son took his first breath and began to cry.

The child was undoubtedly a great bender, perhaps more powerful than had ever been seen in the Fire Nation. Zuko could accept that. He could be proud of that. He had forced himself long ago to learn from his father's mistakes – and his uncle's wisdom – and had determined before he was even married that he would never, ever, choose favorites among his children or begrudge them whatever skills or talents they possessed – or didn't possess.

Zuko, however, was also an oldest child. Like him, this child, his son, was destined to someday take the throne and lead their nation. It was his right, his duty, his responsibility. Zuko had lived the nightmare of every nobleman and royal – that of being denied what was rightfully his to inherit. He would have been hard-pressed to think of a person he would wish such despair on, even among the bickering councilors and nobles of his court. A new part of him that had slowly been awakening over the last nine months finally took full form within him and he found he wanted nothing more than to protect this tiny, brilliant new life from the heartache, fear, and despair he had had to wade through nearly all of his young life.

And so, even as he stood in awe of the sheer power emanating from the tiny bundle currently being soothed in his wife's arms, something deep within him cried out and broke.

For his son was a waterbender, and so could never be Fire Lord.

Part 2 - Air coming soon (hopefully!)