Four-Eyes

"Pretty neat, huh?" Zuko grinned, resting a hand on Izumi's shoulder as they looked out over the ragged valley below, several volcanoes steaming in the distance as the midday sun poured down over them. "Your mom and I used to hike out here when we were dating," he went on, mind suddenly swept back to over a decade earlier. His chest swelled with warmth, smiling at the memories.

"Yeah, it's nice," the eight year-old said absently, sitting down and digging her pinky in the rough dirt along the trail.

Zuko frowned, sitting beside her. "Come on, you have to admit it's a great view," he prodded, pointing out to the skyline. "I mean, you can see Mount Shiomi from here."

Izumi looked up, staring blankly at the landscape. "Mmm, yeah Dad. That's cool."

Zuko frowned, a little disappointed in her lack of enthusiasm. He gazed back out over the valley, eyes picking out the villages spotting the land around the Caldera, acres of farmland sweeping up against the edges of the mountains. "Hey, I think I see your school from here. Look, just south of the watchtower."

Izumi looked up again, seeming more interested than before. "…What watchtower?" she asked, the brightness in her eyes fading quickly.

Zuko furrowed his brows—the watchtower stuck out like a sore thumb in the valley below, in stark contrast to the surrounding greenery. "Right there. It's not too far from us—near the Caldera. Your school's that red-roofed building just past the road behind it."

Izumi followed his hand, squinting her eyes for several long moments before slouching and looking away. "Huh," was all she offered, staring back down at her fingers as they made circular patterns in the dust.

Zuko's eyes narrowed in suspicion. He looked back over the valley, spotting a wide stretch of empty fields, green grass shimmering against the landscape. "Those are some pretty nice houses down there," he fibbed, pointing to the empty field just below them.

She glanced down over the cliff side, squinting again before looking into her lap. "Um, yeah. Pretty nice."

Agni, Zuko thought in shock, heart dropping into his stomach as his suspicions were confirmed. She can't see any of it.


"All right, Princess Izumi, if I could have you look this way," the older healer said gently, moving back towards a large chart across the room and holding out a long pointer. "Just read the character as I point to it. Sound easy enough?"

Izumi nodded, looking at the letter on the top line. Ho, she realized with confidence. Then there was Ko, then—she squeezed her eyes—Yo, then—

"Here's the first one, my dear," Master Osamu said, pointing several lines below the top. Izumi's throat grew dry, squinting her eyes as she let her gaze fall into the fuzzy region where the pointer rested.

"U-um, Tsu?" she guessed. "N-no, I mean…Shi. Then…Mu…or maybe Ma…" She trailed off, feeling her brow start to sweat.

"Mmm, how about here," the man went on gently, lifting the pointer up a few lines.

"So...Chi, no, Nu…"

Osamu moved up again before she could finish, pointing to the two letters beneath the large Ho at the top. She felt the beginnings of tears in her eyes as she read out the letters. "K-Ko…and Yo," she whispered, biting her trembling lip.

She felt hand on her arm. "Sweetie, it's all right," her mother said. "This isn't a test—Master Osamu just needs to know what you can see so he can help you, okay?"

"That's right," the man said, placing the pointer to the side. "And you did wonderfully."

Izumi shook her head. "No I didn't. I can barely read any of it," she said anxiously, squeezing her hands together in her lap.

"That's not your fault," her mother went on, wrapping her arm around her shoulder. "We'll figure this out together, okay?"

The child nodded quietly. "Okay."


"I just…I can't believe I didn't realize this sooner," Zuko said in distress, running a nervous hand through his hair as he paced back and forth in the small healing office. "I mean, we knew she'd been struggling in school, but I never imagined it was just because she couldn't read the board." He sat suddenly, letting his face fall into his hands. "Agni, I'm the worst parent ever," he muttered through his fingers.

"My lord, this is not your fault," Master Osamu said calmly.

Zuko sighed, before looking up. "I knew that girl was bright. I mean, she's always inside reading—" He stopped, bringing a hand to his temple. "Spirits, the way she'd hold her nose so close to the pages—it was so obvious!" he cried, standing and pacing the room again. "And of course she's always been reluctant to play outside—I would be too if I couldn't see a ball coming at my face!"

"Lord Zuko, you are not the first parent not to notice. Many individuals go their entire lives without realizing they are visually impaired," Osamu explained. "Frankly, I believe the schools should be screening for it, but most of my colleagues feel it a waste of resources."

"Waste of—you know what, I'm making that a law in our next council meeting," the Fire Lord grumbled, falling into one of the metal chairs. "Though a lot of good that'll do Izumi now."

"There's no harm done, Lord Zuko. Any longer and it might have been, but right now she's young enough that she should still be able to have normal vision if fitted with spectacles."

Zuko frowned. "She's not going to like that," he said, looking out the window for a long moment before turning back to the old physician. "What about a waterbending healer? Wouldn't that fix it?"

Osamu shook his head. "There's nothing to heal—in fact, her eyes are perfectly healthy. It's the shape that's off. Those far-sighted like Princess Izumi simply have more ovular-shaped eyes, which causes the light refracted through the cornea to converge at the wrong—"

Zuko held up a hand. "I never did do well in physics, Osamu. But I believe you."

The old healer smiled. "Well, I'd suggest you take her to Ba Sing Se. This is still a young field of medicine, but I've heard of an excellent healer who lives in the upper ring—shapes the lenses herself with earthbending."

Zuko smiled. "Well, my Uncle will certainly be happy for the visit."


Izumi gripped her school bag tightly, chewing her lip in excitement as she watched the other girls running in groups of twos and threes through the front gate of the Royal Fire Academy. She reached up, readjusting her glasses as she took in the once-familiar place with new eyes.

"You're going to do great this year," her mother spoke, leaning down to kiss the top of her head.

Izumi nodded, a little embarrassed at the show of affection in front of all her peers but not quite willing to push her mother away. "I'll try."

The school was bustling with excitement at the start of the fall term, and Izumi went mostly unnoticed as she moved into her new classroom. She set her bag neatly next to her desk, pulling herself up into the seat and folding her hands in front of her as she waited for her classmates to fill in the remaining seats.

"Girls! Girls please, it's time to take roll," a tall woman said sternly, tapping her pointer against the desk to get their attention. "I am Sifu Mitsuyo, and will be your morning instructor this term." She turned around, writing out the characters of her name in neat penmanship on the board—characters that Izumi could read with ease. She inhaled quietly, chest filling with a quiet warmth.

Several names into the roll, she heard her own.

"Princess Izumi?" Sifu Mitsuyo asked.

"Here," she said softly, raising a hand as two dozen faces turned to look at her. Curiosity turned to wrinkled noses and hidden smirks as a few of them began to whisper.

"I didn't even recognize her with those things."

"She looks like an old woman!"

"Too bad. She was so pretty before…"

Izumi gripped her hands tightly in her lap, biting down hard as the teacher rebuked them for their chatter and continued with the roll. Once her classmates had turned away, Izumi slowly reached up to her face. The pretty art along the walls, the red leaves on the trees outside the window, Sifu Mitsuyo's writing on the chalkboard—it all disappeared as she carefully slid the frames off her nose and into her lap. Reaching inside her desk, Izumi tucked the spectacles as far back as they would go before pulling her shaking hands back together.

She kept her head ducked until the last drop of moisture dried from her cheeks.


"Hey Mimi, how was school?"

Izumi paused outside her father's office, not turning back to look at him.

"Oh, sorry, Princess Izumi," Zuko teased, staring to push himself up from the desk covered in official parchments.

"It was fine," she called back to him, heading further into the hall before he could take one step away from his chair.

Zuko frowned, sitting back down slowly as her footsteps faded away. He looked back at the charter he'd been working on, brows furrowed as he attempted to finish it.

A minute later, he was striding down the halls, peaking into all of Izumi's normal spots in search for her. His frown grew deeper as he checked her room, the library, the turtle duck pond—all empty. It wasn't until he asked one of the servants who directed him towards the stables that he found her, tucked against Druk's side as the dragon let her run small fingers through the yellow fur behind his horns.

"Hey, buddy."

She glanced over his direction, not meeting his eyes. "Hey, Dad."

Zuko noticed immediately—the spectacles were gone. "Where are you glasses?" he asked anxiously, nervous they'd been broken or lost. It certainly hadn't been convenient or cheap getting her fitted for them in Ba Sing Se.

"I don't need them anymore," she muttered, looking away.

Zuko raised his good brow. "Mimi…I don't have to be Auntie Toph to know you're lying."

Suddenly, it was like the floodgates opened, Zuko immediately regretting his words as giant tears poured from Izumi's eyes.

"Spirits," he gasped, crouching down next to her. "Mimi…w-what happened?"

Izumi only shook her head, burying her face in her hands as her father wrapped an anxious arm around her. At the sound of her crying, one of the stable hands peeked a head around to see what was wrong, but the Fire Lord only waved him off as he pulled his daughter closer.

A couple minutes passed before the princess managed to choke out an explanation. "I—I couldn't make friends before, b-because I was dumb. A-and now…" She sucked in a shaking breath. "Now I can't b-because I'm ugly!"

"What?" Zuko cried. "No you're not!"

"E-everyone at school thinks so," Izumi said quietly. "Th-they said I looked like an old lady when I wore my glasses."

Zuko growled. "They're just jealous because you're ten times prettier than the lot of them," he huffed.

Izumi brushed away a few tears against her sleeve as she looked up at him. "Dad," she sighed, a tiny smile creeping over her lips.

"And more important than that, you're ten times smarter than them." Zuko stopped, grinning. "And your dad's way cooler than theirs."

"D-Dad!" she repeated, laughing as he helped her to her feet.

"Come on…you want to go on a ride?" he asked, an idea forming in his mind.

"Mmhmm," she agreed as Druk nudged her hand in search of more pets.

"It'll be better if you can see, though," he teased lightly. Izumi nodded, chewing the corner of her lip as she pulled the spectacles from the pocket of her vest. "Can we sacrifice the pigtails?" he prodded, and she nodded again before tugging the little ribbons from her hair and handing them over. After a few minutes of knot-tying, the glasses were secured to her head and they were taking off into the sky.

"I look even sillier now than before," she muttered, though the sadness in her voice from earlier had been replaced by warmth.

"It'll be worth it," he told her, Druk's wing's pounding at their sides. The city came into view as they crested the palace walls, and Zuko heard his daughter gasp in front of him.

"I—I can see everything!" she cried. "There's—there's the temple! A-and look at all the houses—and the people! I can see them walking around, from way up here!"

"Just wait," her father said, nudging Druk towards the edge of the Caldera's tall cliff side and into the sunlight the spilled over the valley. Izumi grew quiet as they did, breath catching in the cool breeze. The golden fields below seemed to shine against the low autumn sun, western mountains purple along the horizon.

"I…I can see my school," she breathed at last, staring wide-eyed at the red-bricked roof far below.

Zuko felt his heart swell in his chest as he watched her. "So," he started. "…Worth it?"

She reached up and touched the lenses with care. "Yeah," she smiled. "Worth it."

[end]


A/N – FYI, for the eye chart description I used Japanese Katakana characters. My awesome sister helped me pick out a few that look alike (thanks buddy!). My hubby, an aspiring optometrist, also helped with some of the eyesight explanation stuff (thanks babe!). And personal experience of getting glasses in 3rd grade helped with the rest, lol.