July 147AG

Lin and Tenzin were at the hospital, awaiting the birth of their first child.

"Is my mother going to make it?" she asked him.

He went out of the room to ask her mother. "Is Aunt Toph going to make it?"

Katara shook her head. "I couldn't find her."

Toph had taken to travelling once she decided to retire, "while she was still young," and leave Lin to be Chief. Lin was the second youngest police chief in Republic City history, after her mother of course.

Toph wasn't there and Suyin and Lin were still estranged, leaving Tenzin's family to pick up the slack.

Kya, Bumi, Aang, Sokka, and Suki were all waiting outside the delivery room, anxious to meet their new family member.

"GET IT OUT OF ME!" Lin screeched.

Aang could feel the ground shaking and had to act quickly to counteract her earthbending. "She might break the maternity ward!"

No one could help him as he was the only earthbender among them. "Next time, we find Toph before she gets pregnant!"

90 minutes later, a beautiful baby boy was born.

Katara looked at him. He didn't resemble Lin or Tenzin. "He's a firebender."

"What?" Tenzin called out. He was hoping for an airbender, although eh knew that a waterbender, nonbender and earthbender were all possibilities. "He's a what?"

Lin looked at him. He had Toph's face but gold eyes. "Maybe my dad was a firebender. It's not like mom ever told me either way."

That was the natural reaction, but Tenzin started to panic. He saw the baby, and he just saw Azulon.

Azulon kept flirting with Lin. Of course, Azula named her only son after herself. Lin said he was just enthusiastic about working together, the man had been in Republic City investigating international fraud, but Tenzin thought the man wanted more. Could this be his son?

Bumi excitedly took the boy from Lin. "Oh he's so cute. He has his grandma's nose, and I think that's Toph's angry face!"

Kya peered over his shoulder. "Oh you're right. Aw! I love him!"

"What's his name?" Aang asked Lin.

"How about Azulon," Tenzin muttered.

Lin rolled her eyes. "How about Roku?" He's a descendant of Aang, and he's a firebender, like Roku. It made perfect sense to Lin. Tenzin, of course was skeptical.

Roku Bei Fong it was.

It wasn't until they got home two days later that Tenzin confronted Lin about Azulon. When they came home from the hospital, a present was waiting for them.

"Dear Lin,

I heard your boy was a firebender, and thought you could use this. He won't need it for a few years, but it will help him learn to control his chi.

Congratulations,

Azulon

"Isn't that nice of him?" Lin commented as she put the toy with the baby's other stuff. They had nothing for firebenders. She wouldn't have known to get him something like this.

"I wonder how he learned so quickly," Tenzin said to her.

"He probably ran into Kya or someone. You know she can't shut up about anything." The girl tells everyone everybody else's business.

Before Tenzin could respond their phone rang.

"Hello," he said.

Of course it was Azulon.

"Yes, we got the present. No we hadn't thought about getting flame retardant drapes for his room, but I'm sure we'll look into it. Yeah we have to go, bye!" He hung up instead of offering the phone to Lin.

"That was rude," she told him.

I'm sick of this guy. Can't he leave our family alone? "I wonder why he's so interested in Roku."

"I think he just wanted to be nice."

"Maybe he feels attached to Roku because he was named after the guy's grandfather!"

"What? Roku's name had nothing to do with Azulon. I thought it would be nice to name him after a past avatar, and he is a firebender." All of the names they had come up with sounded too Air Nation for the fiery boy.

Tenzin dropped the subject for now. He hated to admit it, but he was jealous that Azulon had more in common with his own son than he did. What if he ends up being Roku's firebending teacher? What if the kid just wishes Azulon were his dad instead?

Two months after Roku was born, Lin was ready to return to work. They had daycare in the station, so Roku was able to go with her.

He was supposed to stay in daycare, but Lin's underlings kept going to the daycare and bringing him to the office.

"Oh he's so cute!"

Roku was a popular baby. People were always holding him and kissing his forehead.

"What is wrong with all of you people? It's like you've never seen a baby before!"

No one had won the bending pet they had on the baby. The money got saved for the next baby. What are the odds that they have one child of every element?

Lin tried to get her team out of this habit. She tried telling the daycare not to let Roku leave with them. She tried threatening to dock her pay.

Two months later, the same shenanigans were happening.

"What can I say? Roku you are the youngest cop in Republic City history!"

In October, Azulon was back in Republic City. There were allegations that United Republic food was being imported into the Fire Nation and mislabeled, so they wouldn't have to pay the levies.

He came into the police station just as someone was taking Roku from daycare.

"Aw, is this the little Bei Fong. He's so cute."

Azulon was holding the baby. He was playing with his Azulon's nose when Tenzin came into the office to see Lin. The sight made him furious.

"PUT HIM DOWN NOW!"

Azulon looked around. "There's no crib. Where do I put him?"

A rookie came and took the baby.

"How could you take my son out of daycare?"

"I didn't?"

Lin heard the yelling and came outside. "What is going on out here?"

"Why was he with our son?" Tenzin pointed angrily.

"Probably because my rookies never listen and they're always taking him out of daycare." She turned to Azulon. "What did you do to get him so mad?"

"I didn't do anything!"

Lin told Tenzin they would discuss this at home.

When they got there, Tenzin asked her how close she was to Azulon.

"What? We're not that close." He's polite, kind even but they don't write each other or anything. Out of sight out of mind.

Tenzin just had to know. "Is he Roku's father?"

Lin slapped him. "What's wrong with you? How could you think I would cheat on you with anyone, much less a pretty haired boy like him!"

"You don't find it odd that he's a firebender. The gene just popped up out of nowhere?"

"Your mother was a waterbender out of nowhere. Do you think your grandmother was secretly fucking some waterbender behind Hakoda's back?"

Tenzin tried to apologize, but Lin didn't want to hear it. She slept in their bedroom alone. He slept on the couch.

Azulon avoided Lin while he was at work.

She wanted to know why. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, but I don't want to cause any issues with you and your husband."

"He's not my husband. He didn't threaten you did he?"

"No," Azulon almost laughed. "But my presence clearly makes him angry."

"I don't know why. He accused you of being Roku's father."

Azulon started laughing.

She got a bit offended. "I'm not that bad to look at."

He clamped his hand over his mouth. "That's not what I meant. I'm gay."

"You're what?"

"I don't date women, and I certainly don't sleep with them."

Lin started laughing. "That is pretty funny."

When Lin told Tenzin, he was even more embarrassed. "Wow. He wasn't actually trying to sleep with you when he kept complimenting your shoes."

"I think that should have been our first hint he was gay. Straight men don't know designer shoes."

Tenzin snorted.

"Why were you so jealous of him?"

"Look at him! He has that dark luscious hair. He's a firebender like Roku. I thought Roku would like him better than me."

Lin started laughing at him.

"Hey!" It's not every day he shares his insecurities with her.

"I'm sorry, but you're being stupid. Roku isn't going to pick another man just because they have the same hair. Parenting isn't just about bending. If it were, then my mother would have been mother of the year." She still hasn't seen her grandson.

"If you could have subbed out Katara for an airbending woman, would you have?"

"Of course not. She's my mom."

"Exactly, and so you can't teach Roku how to firebend. It doesn't mean you can't teach him some things, like how to shave, how to fly on a sky bison. All boys need their fathers, regardless of what they bend."

"You're right," Tenzin said as he kissed her forehead.

July 148AG

It was Roku's birthday, and to celebrate they had lunch with their family, minus Toph and Suyin, and Roku kept trying to steal taro puffs off the plate.

"There's meat in those," Tenzin told him.

"He doesn't know what being a vegetarian is, Airhead!"

They turned to see Toph.

"Finally!" Lin hugged her mother, and then she smacked her.

"What was that for?"

"Leaving me alone and not being here when your grandson was born."

She picked him up. "He's a firebug! Just like his granddad."

"See, if you had been here, you could have saved us a lot of trouble," Tenzin grumbled.

"What, did you think Linny hear was sleeping around? She's too boring for that!"

"Thanks Mom," Lin snarled.

Toph sat down to eat when another familiar face came, "Azulon?"

"I don't mean to be rude by crashing the party, but I thought you were missing a family member."

"What?" Tenzin questioned.

Behind Azulon was his uncle Zuko.

"What is this about?" Lin questioned.

"When I picked up Roku, I noticed he had a birthmark on his ear. When Iroh was born, he had the same one, and when I mentioned it to my cousin, she said that her father had it too."

"You're my father?" Lin questioned the Fire Lord.

"Possibly. Toph never told me about it."

Everyone turned to her. "Oh don't you start with me," she snapped at him. "You wanted me to leave, and I left."

"What? I woke up and you were gone. I assumed you regretted that night because I didn't see you again for another three years."

Mai had died in childbirth the year before Lin was conceived. Zuko had been struggling to raise Izumi on his own, so his friends took turns coming by to help him. It had been Toph's turn when they fell into bed together. Zuko thought that they might become a family, but then she took off on him.

"Your advisor told me to get out, that girls never stay more than one night."

"What? You were the first woman who had stayed over at all since Mai died. You were also the last." Zuko had put all of his energy into his daughter and the kingdom. His love life had gone on hold.

"If I might interrupt, your advisor was a pathological liar and a racist," Aang pointed out. "He might have told Toph to leave because he didn't want you with her."

They had both thought they had been rejected by the other. Maybe it was just a mistake.

Tenzin handed Roku to his grandfather. "Why don't you both join us?"

They went on with their family lunch. Toph and Zuko couldn't stop staring at each other while everyone else was having conversation and enjoying the food.

"I've never known my mother to leave anything on her plate," Lin commented. "She must be in love."

"Shut up Lin!" Toph snapped at her.

"I guess you can get to know your father another time. I think they'll be busy for a while," Tenzin added with a laugh.

The family split up after the meal, leaving Toph and Zuko to sort things out.

"And to think, Roku really was named after his grandfather," Tenzin pointed out. He wasn't totally crazy for thinking the boy looked like Azulon.

"Oh shut up!"

He grinned as he kissed her. "Let's go home."