Hello! Usually I do an author's note at the end of the chapter, but I felt I should let you guys know that I added a couple of OCs and changed the ages of one or two canon characters for the sake of the story. It's going to be a little slow paced in the beginning so bear with me.
There will be trigger warnings in the future for violence, gore etc., but it's nothing too excessive as far as I've written.
Let me know what ya'll think!
At 5 years old, Zhu knew that her mother didn't, in fact, know how to be a mother. The older woman just knew how to be the Chief of the Metalbending Police Force. Sometimes it felt as if she didn't even try to play her role.
Why else would she leave a child alone in a big house for a week?
"Why can't I come with you?" Zhu's untamable hair was sticking out in every possible direction as she stared, half-asleep, at her mother who was putting her uniform on.
With a swing of her arms, Lin's metal armour uniform was wrapped around her, "You're not needed there." She should have left when Zhu was still asleep.
"What will I do here alone?"
"You will go to school like you always do."
"I can't stay in school for the whole day."
"Obviously. You will practise your katas as well as your reading."
"What about food?"
"I left some in the fridge. If you run out, I've left some money for groceries. Or go to Ran's."
"What if I get kidnapped?"
"There are traps around the house."
"What if they get past the traps."
"They won't."
"Take me with you."
Lin let out a heavy sigh and turned to her daughter. Zhu pouted, with her fingers stuck in her disastrous hair.
"I won't be long, Zhu. Three days at most."
"But...where are you going? Why are you going?" The little girl clung to her mother's knee, "I'll come too. You won't even know I'm there! Please, Chief? Pleeeease?"
This wasn't the first time Lin had left Zhu alone at home. On multiple occasions, she had stayed back at the Headquarters working on a case. In the back of her mind, Zhu knew that if she ever ran into trouble, she'd head straight to the HQ. This time, however, her mother was leaving Republic City.
"I'm going South." Her mother finally revealed, "They found the new Avatar."
Zhu frowned, "You mean they found your uncle Aang?"
Lin sighed in exasperation for the millionth time that morning, "No. It is Aang but he reincarnated. I told you about it before."
"Re - what?"
"He's born as someone else now."
"How does that work?" Zhu followed Lin out into the hall, "You forgot your suitcase."
She watched in awe as her mom swung her arms in a different way than earlier and a small suitcase flew into her hand.
"I'll see you in three days, Zhu." Lin looked over her shoulder while turning the doorknob, "Don't get into trouble. Don't miss school. Don't accidentally kill yourself."
The 5 year old trailed after her mom till the door, "Okay. Be careful."
Lin stood still for a second before turning to look at Zhu. Taking two long strides, she reached her palm out and hesitantly patted the girl's head. Zhu, in turn, clasped her mother's hand.
"You'll come back, right?" Worried golden eyes peered up.
The older woman quirked her brow, "It's my home as well, Zhu. Where else would I go?"
The day Lin was supposed to be back, Zhu had a visitor.
She had come back from school, swinging her bag to find an old man in red robes standing at the door of her house. Zhu froze as she made eye contact with him. Unless she was mistaken, he was from the higher ranks of Fire Nation nobility. She tried not to stare at the burn scar that spanned over his left eye.
Awkwardly, she shuffled her feet, not knowing what to say.
"Is this Lin Beifong's home?" His voice sounded kind as his gaze on her softened.
Zhu wordlessly nodded.
"And you would be her daughter?"
"May I know who you are, sir?" The girl requested, not unkindly.
The old man chuckled, "Ah, yes. Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Zuko."
The name sparked a memory of Lin telling her a handful of stories her own mother had told her. "Sifu Hotman?" Zhu covered her mouth with both her hands the moment she blurt out the title.
However, instead of being furious, the old man let out a jolly laugh, "It's been a long time since anyone has called me that."
Five minutes later found them sitting across each other in Zhu's living room. She had introduced herself timidly, still in awe of the old man's presence. Pouring the freshly brewed oolong tea into a cup, she gingerly offered it to him. Judging the girl's nervousness, Zuko regulated the temperature around him and immediately, Zhu's shoulders relaxed in the comfortable atmosphere.
"Chief won't be back till later, sir." Zhu straightened her spine as much as she could to avoid appearing impolite in front of the previous Fire Lord, holding her own tea cup "She went to visit Avatar Aang because she said he was born again as someone else."
He let out a heart laugh before sipping the surprisingly well made tea, "I did run into Lin when I went there myself. Although she wasn't too happy to see me, I suppose." He sighed and turned to his tea, "This is delicious. You made it yourself?"
Zhu nodded, "I really like tea though mother doesn't like it. She drinks litres of coffee instead because of her job. Or that gross smelling juice that she has when she's really tired." Oh dear, she was rambling again.
But Lord Zuko didn't mind the little girl's talking. He listened to her talk about her and her mother and how strict of a teacher the older woman was but was silly enough to fall asleep on her desk in the middle of the day. There was a subtle hint of maturity in Zhu's eyes but she spoke with so much innocence that the Fire Lord couldn't bring himself to interrupt her.
In the middle of her tales, Zhu suddenly realized, "But, Lord Zuko, if you already met mother, why are you here?"
He smiled, "I was hoping to find you, little one."
Zhu blinked, "Me? But why?"
The man readjusted himself as he spoke carefully, yet gently, "Has your mother ever told you who your father is?"
She bit the corner of her lip and shook her head, "I haven't asked her a lot about my father. But she doesn't seem to like him. She has called him a few bad words and usually calls him 'Hog-monkey'."
"Well…" Lord Zuko coughed awkwardly into his fist, "I can understand why."
"Do you...know who my father is, sir?" Zhu hesitantly asked.
"Have you perhaps heard of my son, Fire Prince Kasai?"
The girl in front of him blinked and suddenly hiccuped, startling the older man. She hiccuped again, "I'm -" hiccup "- a Pr -" hiccup "- Prince's dau-" hiccup "- ter?"
"I...yes." The man looked at her, concerned, as she puffed her cheeks and held her breath "Are you alright, my dear?"
Exhaling loudly from her mouth, "I tend to hiccup a lot when I'm surprised or when I laugh a lot." Zhu laughed awkwardly before hiccuping again, "A-anyway…"
Neither of them how to further address the issue. Zuko felt that Zhu was too young to understand the situation. Zhu, on the other hand, wanted to ask why Lord Zuko was the one visiting her instead of her father. Also, she wanted to cry. She felt if she said anything right now, she might burst into tears.
"I understand that you might not know how to feel at the moment," The old man began, "And I believe you have a lot of questions. I shall answer them to the best of my ability. And as truthfully as I can."
"Oh…okay." Zhu placed one hand on top of the other, on her lap, "Why...why hasn't he come with you? To see me?"
Of course he had expected this question to arise, but he didn't know it would be the very first one. Zuko didn't know how to answer it. No amount of training had prepared him for this. How was he to tell his granddaughter that the reason her father didn't visit her was because of his demon of a wife to whom he had been married to well before Zhu was born? How was he to tell her all that without hurting her? His heart ached at the sight of her already crestfallen face.
"Oh…" Realization dawned on Zhu's face, "He..doesn't want me?"
"No, no!" Oh, Agni. This was not how the conversation played out in his mind, "he's just...very...preoccupied. His wife and son -"
"He has a wife and a son!?"
Panic seized Zuko at the sight of the girl, who was on the verge of tears but was trying very hard to keep it together. "What I meant to say...was that-" He tried to explain, raising his arms slightly but Zhu interrupted him.
"Ahaha, it's alright." She chuckled awkwardly, keeping the tears at bay, "I understand. He has a family of his own. I mean...I'm happy living with mother. I've never felt the absence of a father. But of course, I still don't know what it's like to have one in the first place so no idea what I'm missing out on," Another awkward laugh, "So...um. So the son. How - how old is he?"
"Se...ven." Even after all this time, had he still not learned the art of diplomacy? He felt his life draining out of him the moment he uttered the number.
Zhu's eyebrows had shot up. Way up. She didn't realize that her eyes had already started watering, "Oh. Seven. That's ni - nice." Hiccup. "I'm - I'm five years old. I - I guess that makes him my - my older brother."
The girl placed her bare feet on the cold, earthen floor and she suddenly felt a very familiar warmth outside her home. She shot up, off the sofa, startling the old man in front of her for the hundredth time. Lord Zuko himself got up out of curiosity. A part of him felt he might have scared her.
"Zhu, dear, are you - "
She tripped over her own feet and fell to the floor on her knees. Tears streaming down her face, she stared at her (newly discovered) grandfather, who looked horrified. The old man made a move to pull her up but froze when Zhu started crying loudly.
Footsteps sounded by the door and they stopped near the duo.
Zhu could barely make out the form of her mother through the tears as she hiccuped and sobbed and wailed.
Lin Beifong, with her metal suitcase in her hands, stared coldly at the scene in front of her. Her eyes swept over her crying daughter to the terrified ex-Fire Lord crouched next to the child. The latter slowly turned around to make eye-contact with the police woman.
Lin narrowed her eyes at him as he gulped. She was, at the end of the day, the daughter of Toph Beifong who herself was still (fucking) terrifying.
Still maintaining her gaze on the Fire Lord, Lin crushed the suitcase in her hand as if it were clay.