"A sleepover?"
Izumi gave him her best puppy-rabbit eyes. "Yes! Kimiko invited all of us! Can I go, please? Please, please, please?"
Zuko looked at Mai over the table, pleading with her to interject. She gave him a small shrug, the look in her eyes saying, 'All you, Fire Lord.'
"As in, you'll be staying the night?"
The princess rolled her eyes, her sass reminded him of a young Azula sometimes. "Yes, Daddy, that's what a sleepover is."
He tries thinking of a way to break it to her gently that there was no way he was letting her stay over at some stranger's house. He's sure that Kimiko's parents are very nice, and nothing bad would happen but it's not a risk he's willing to take with his six-year-old daughter.
"Let me and your mom talk about it and we'll let you know, alright." He gave her a smile.
"That just means I'm never going. It's not fair! I never get to do fun things with them!"
"That's not true, they're always welcome to come over to the palace, and you have fun in school together, and you always go to their parties when they invite you." Zuko bargained. "But I just don't think that a sleep over is very good idea. I'd prefer if you slept here, at home, where Mama and I are."
"But I stay over at Bumi and Kya's house without you guys all the time!"
"That's because I know and trust Aang and Katara with my life. We don't really know Kimiko's parents."
"This isn't fair." Izumi crossed her arms. "All my normal friends are going. I hate being a princess."
"Izumi." Mai warned. "Stop whining. You need to listen to your father. He and I know what's best for you."
"But Mama, Aunty Lee said that you, Aunt Zuza, and her used to have sleepovers all the time when you were my age." Izumi pleaded with her mother. "Why can't I do it?
Mai sighed, "Those were different times Izumi."
Zuko held back a scoff. Yeah and Ozai didn't give a rat's ass about his family's whereabouts. Azula and him could've been missing from the palace for weeks and he wouldn't care as long as they showed up to do his bidding.
"How about this? You can go to Kimiko's house and play with your friends and then we'll pick you up to come sleep at home, ok?" Mai offered.
The princess looked like she was about to object but then mumbled out "Fine." And pouted for the rest of dinner.
Zuko felt bad. He wanted to let his daughter do everything her friends did but being in the Royal Family just didn't allow for certain normalcies. Of course, he tried his hardest to give Izumi a 'normal' childhood. He enrolled her into the Royal Academy so she could make her own friends. It was hard for her at first, they had to encourage her to be more social, but now she loves her school friends. It reminded him of Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee when they were young, although, in a fonder way.
He would find a way to make it up to her somehow.
It wasn't until weeks later that Mai came up with the idea. He was completely on board and when they asked Izumi if she wanted to do it, she squealed and jumped for joy, thanking her parents.
If Izumi couldn't sleep over her friend's house, then they would just have to invite her friends to sleep over at the palace. She didn't hesitate to invite all her friends from school, and they all accepted.
The problems started when Mai received a call that Aunt Mura broke her leg going downstairs and her mother needed help caring for her. That meant that she wouldn't be here for the slumber party. Zuko started to worry. Mai had asked him if he preferred to reschedule the sleepover to another day, but he couldn't get Izumi's hopes up just to dash them again. He told her he could handle it by himself.
The night started off fairly well. When the first couple of girls had arrived, they were calmly talking and playing in Izumi's room. He left them to it, telling them he would be just in the other room if they needed him. As more girls trickled in the noises from her bedroom gradually got louder and louder. Now there was shrieking, laughing, yelling, and who knows what else going on in there. Zuko sighed as he set down his cup of tea, deciding that it was time to intervene.
What he saw inside was complete chaos. Chairs, pillows, and toys were strewn about everywhere. Some girls were jumping on Izumi's bed hitting each other with pillows while others were jumping off the bed to attack other girls on the floor. One girl was on top of the canopy and was flapping her arms with makeshift wings made from Izumi's bedsheets. And it seemed that Izumi and another girl were in a heated argument over a stuffed animal that's head was completely ripped off.
"Woah, woah, woah! What is going on here?" Zuko yelled out. All the girls stopped what they were doing and looked to the Fire Lord. He rushed over to the kid currently scaling the top of Izumi's bed. "How on earth did you get up there? Please come down." He grabbed her under her arms and gently set her on the floor. Once he was sure that everyone was safe, he put his Dad face on.
"Izumi." He said sternly with his hands on his hips. "Explain. Now."
"Well, we were playing pretend dragons and Hayami was the dragon, so she had to climb up and defend the mountain." She pointed at her bed. "And we had to protect the mountain from the evil spirit people who wanted to steal the dragon but then we wanted to use my stuffed Appa to fly in and save her but we couldn't decide who was going to fly Appa and then Kimiko and Rini fought over him and they broke him! So, I got mad at Rini who was being really mean and telling Kimi it was her fault when it was actually Rini's and now my stuffed Appa is dead and I don't have another Appa!" The princess finally took a breath.
"Nah-uh! It wasn't my fault! It was Kimiko's" Rini yelled out and pointed out the culprit.
"No! You're such a liar! You we're the one who took him from me!" Kimiko yelled. The girls started arguing again, their voices shrill and exasperating.
"Girls! Girls! Please stop arguing!" He wished Mai was here. "As interesting as all that sounds, someone could have gotten seriously hurt, you cannot climb or jump on the bed, does everyone understand?"
All the girls chimed out, "Yes, Fire Lord Zuko."
"And as for you two, we need to learn to share, alright ladies?" He knelt down at Rini and Kimiko's level. "Can you please apologize and play nicely?"
Both girls begrudgingly mumbled an apology to each other and made up. Izumi was still distraught over her ripped Appa plushie, but he had bigger fish to fry. These girls were insane. How they managed to completely trash Izumi's room such a short period of time was beyond him. Even the frames on the wall were crooked.
"Alright! Let's play a different game now. It's called the clean-up game."
All the girls whined and groaned. "That's not a game!"
"Well, whoever helps me clean up wins a prize!"
"What do we win, Fire Lord Zuko?" One of the girls asked with her finger in her mouth.
"Um… you win…" He thought for a second. "A firebending show!"
"A firebending show?" Another girl said indifferently. "That's not a prize, we see firebending all the time." None of the kids were impressed with his offer. He couldn't blame them, they lived in the fire nation where there were fire benders literally everywhere.
"Yes, but have you ever seen one with a real dragon?" He hated using Druk as a party trick, but he would do anything to convince these girls to listen to him. "How does that sound?"
All of the girls jumped up and down in excitement. They quickly got to work reorganizing the mess. Zuko helped pick up the furniture that was tossed on the floor and redress the bed. It took a lot longer than it should have since some girls started playing or fighting over the toys strewn about but by the time they were finished the room didn't look half bad.
"Great job!" He beamed, he finally felt like he was in control of the situation. "Thank you all for your help!"
"Excuse me Mr. Fire Lord but who won the clean-up game? Did I win?" Rini raised her hand.
"Well since you all helped, I think you all get to see the show. Sounds good?" They all cheered.
Zuko led the girls to the courtyard, while they chanted "Dragon! Dragon!" over and over. He got them to settle down and instructed them to sit together.
"And please, do not stand up until the show is over, alright?" All the girls agreed in unison.
"Great. Izumi, can you come up here and help me demonstrate the dancing dragon for everyone?" His daughter beamed and ran up next to him, eager to show off her favorite fire bending moves.
"Where's the dragon?" Kimiko asked.
"Just wait." Zuko reassured her. "You'll see him soon enough."
Zuko took a deep breath and began the Dancing Dragon with Izumi. Once they got to the last move, Druk flew up from over the palace roof and blew a stream of rainbow-colored fire for all the girls to see. They all clapped and cheered at the display, oohing and awing at the dragon. Druk puffed out his chest confidently when he was done, letting out a wisp of smoke from his mouth. He seemed to like all the attention he was getting. He let the girls come over and pet Druk one by one. Some of them kept asking to ride him, which was a little annoying after the tenth time, but otherwise they all behaved pretty well.
"Alright girls, I think it's time we take the party back inside. Everyone say 'goodbye Druk'."
"Goodbye Druk!" All the girls yelled, waving goodbye at the dragon.
The girls chatted animatedly about how much they loved Druk and how cool Fire Lord Zuko is. Zuko trailed behind them with a smile on his face. He felt someone tug at his hand and looked down at Izumi who was smiling at him.
"Thanks Daddy! That was awesome!"
"No problem, Turtleduck."
Izumi blushed bright red at his embarrassing nickname. "Daaad, not in front of my friends."
"Oh, my apologies, Princess." He playfully bowed to her. Izumi stuck out her tongue at him and ran ahead to catch up with everyone else.
Back in the bedroom the girls begged Zuko to show them more awesome things he knew how to do. He was speechless and a little touched, no one's ever thought he was this cool before. He briefly considered bringing out the Dao swords for a demonstration but quickly decided not to. The last thing he needed was for nine six-year-olds begging him to teach them the sword.
They spent the rest of the night reenacting the play 'Love Amongst the Dragons'. The girls loved it and got really into dressing up for their roles. Izumi took over as the director and kept telling them when they did a scene wrong, even correcting Zuko on his lines a couple times. It amused him deeply. She would have no problem ruling when the time came.
Slowly, the girls started dropping like moth-flies, falling asleep in their makeshift costumes and 'stage' makeup. Zuko carefully went around and tucked each girl into their sleeping bag, making sure to wipe off any leftover makeup on their faces. When he got to Izumi, he tucked her into bed, kissing her on the forehead. "Goodnight little Turtleduck."
The Fire Lord yawned as he entered his room. He was exhausted. After a whole day of working and a whole night of wrangling those girls he was ready to sleep for days. He was about to crawl into bed before he thought to call Mai. Zuko groaned as he turned around to go back to his office.
"Hello?"
"Hey Mai, it's me. How's Aunt Mura?"
Mai sighed. "She's fine. My mother and I are taking turns staying up with her in case she needs anything, but the doctor said she'll make a full recovery."
"Good, good."
"How are the girls? Are they all asleep?"
Zuko scrubbed a hand over his face. "Yes, thank Agni. I thought they were going to tear the entire palace down at one point." He chuckled for a second. "But you know, in the end, it wasn't so bad. I think they actually really like me."
He could hear Mai's smile in her voice. "That's great. I'm sorry I missed it. Maybe we should do it again sometime soon."
"Yeah, next time you can be the one playing dress up and demonstrating knife throwing for them."
Mai laughed. "Get some rest, Fire Lord. You'll need it in the morning."
"Goodnight Mai, I love you."
"I love you, too."
She was right. He needed all the sleep he could get when he woke up to the sound of Izumi's wardrobe crashing on the floor and ten little girls screaming the next morning.