~Part VI~

A New Family

Our Baby Girl

1.Golden

Ty Lee gazes into the eyes of her new baby.

"They're so gold. They're so amazingly fantastically gold!" Ty Lee grins and pokes her daughter's little nose. "I always wanted a baby with golden eyes."

Azula sits down beside Ty Lee. "So did I, when I considered having a baby, which was not often, but I did imagine my baby would have golden eyes."

Ty Lee smiles.

"Because you have amazing golden eyes too, and we're just such a pretty family, because I'm pretty and you're stunning and Izumi is really pretty too." Ty Lee rests her head on Azula's chest.

"The boys will suffer," Azula states and Ty Lee pouts. The princess explains herself after seeing that. "When she is old enough to draw their attention. I will destroy them if they touch her."

Ty Lee absentmindedly smiles to herself and continues staring at Izumi's wide eyes.

.

2.Touch

Azula brushes her hand across Izumi's face. The baby responds, showing more life than she usually does. She always looks alert, but never present. But when Azula touches her, she seems like another human being. A precious child Azula struggled to bring into this world.

She loves the soft skin of her daughter, her eyes, her rosy little lips. The way she looks at Azula like no one ever has before.

Speaking of that, Ty Lee arrives and hugs Azula from behind.

She looks at Azula like no one else does. Ty Lee looks at Azula with reverence, not with pitying eyes as if she is broken.

Azula adores the touch of her daughter and her girlfriend, but she keeps those feelings to herself at all costs.

.

3.Lost

Azula comments one bright, orange morning, lying in bed with Ty Lee while Izumi thankfully sleeps, "I knew you would take me back in an instant that day I showed up pregnant."

Ty Lee adds, "I'd be lost without you. You know I'd be lost without you, right?"

Azula rolls over onto her side. Her eyes catch Ty Lee's and the acrobat's heart shudders.

"Were you lost without me?" Azula asks breathily, locking her gaze onto Ty Lee's whether the former Kyoshi Warrior likes it or not.

"Of course I was," says Ty Lee, squeezing her eyelids shut. "It'd be hard not to be."

"Good," says Azula.

Ty Lee does not have a response to that.

.

4.Legend

"You know," says Zuko as he walks in on his sister, "she can't understand the stories you're telling her. She's a newborn."

Azula glowers at him. He cannot help but slightly recoil, even if he knows he has power over her now. She still manages to strike a bit of fear into his heart.

"I want these legends of powerful Fire Lords to be deeply imprinted in her mind and memory. Is that so much to ask, brother?" Azula keeps her lips twisted and eyes narrowed, a headstrong expression that dares anyone to argue with her logic.

"Tell her legends away." Zuko waves his hand. "It isn't like it effects my life at all."

"No. It does not," says Azula with a sharp point on each enunciated letter. "Only my little girl's."

"Mhm." And Zuko backs out of the room.

.

5.Outlier

"Am I different?" Ty Lee asks.

"You are fairly ordinary as women come," Azula replies.

"But am I different to you? Do you care what happens to me?" Ty Lee asks.

"I am not certain," Azula replies.

"I just wanna be an outlier. I just wanna be the one you love because I just wanna feel special and earning your affection makes somebody special," prattles Ty Lee with pleading eyes that almost break Azula's nonexistent heart.

"You have become surprisingly insightful." Azula says no more.

Ty Lee clings to hope that she could be the one and only in Azula's eyes.

.

6.Knowledge

"Who's her father?" Zuko asks.

"There is no reason you need that knowledge." Azula glares, looking about to spit on him, and then she walks out, baby cradled in her arms.

Zuko cannot help but be puzzled to the core.

.

7.Summit

"Let's climb a mountain sometime," says Ty Lee, batting her eyelashes. She strokes Azula's arm and hopes to be heard.

"I am in no state for that," says Azula, grimacing. She does hate what the child did to her.

"Metaphorical mountains maybe princess please if you want?" Ty Lee begs.

Azula smirks.

"Perhaps metaphorical mountains," she offers.

Ty Lee squeals from excitement.

Azula wants to do something significant with her!