Zhu felt that the week had flown by in a haze after that. She had spent her time pouring over books from the library about the Fire Nation, striking the names of a few off the list Baki had given her. Iroh and Kazuki had made her meditate and practise breathing while they weren't working on her katas. Ursa had tried to teach her how to throw shuriken stars and senbon needles, much to their grammai's delight. Zhu's father had gone hysterical and said that she wasn't allowed near weapons until she turned twenty.

"She can't practise with weapons but she can produce fire out of thin air that can accidentally burn her?" Ursa had countered but Kasai wouldn't hear of it.

After he had stormed off, Ursa whispered to Zhu and told her that they could practise in secret. "And grammai will help train you too!" the older girl added in excitement, "How do you think I learnt?"

Zhu accompanied her grandfather to Druk's den that had been built in one corner of the palace. The dragon had been resting when she had visited first, raising his head out of curiosity. Though Zhu wasn't very enthusiastic about flying, she had grown awfully fond of the creature and he of her. Zuko had taught her how to care for and groom the dragon.

Lady Chiaki had shown her face twice, both when Zhu was alone. And both times, the woman had nearly reduced Zhu to tears. The servants still whispered behind her back and she tried her hardest to not let it get to her.

So much for 'don't take any crap'.

But the one week she spent with her father's side of the family made a huge impact on her. A part of her had felt empowered as she discovered the things she was capable of. It made her feel braver.

Baki had been the one to send the servants scurrying away when they had pushed Zhu to the ground while walking past her. The large man had simply glared at the two young women which reduced them to tears. The servants bowed shakily and apologized to Zhu, who wanted to make herself feel invisible.

"Isn't your mother Lin Beifong?" Baki had asked, after the servants had left. "Doesn't that also make you a part of the Noble House of Beifong?"

"What does that mean for me?" Zhu frowned. Did her last name mean that much?

The tutor scoffed in disbelief, "Girl, the Beifongs were one of the most powerful families in the Earth Kingdom. Not to mention you're related to Toph Beifong herself." He crossed his arms, "On top of that, you are the High Prince's daughter. Yet you let yourself be treated like this?"

"But…" The five year old looked at her feet.

"What do you have to be so scared of?" Baki might have sounded intimidating but Zhu knew better, "Not many kids have as much power as just your name does. Own it. Use it. Next time, someone ill-treats you, tell them to get lost. Don't let them treat you like a lesser person."

So when she came across Taeha lurking in the corridors, spying on her, Zhu confronted her.

"I'm making sure you don't steal anything, you little rat." The servant had hissed back.

"You sure have a lot of time." Zhu had retorted, surprising the servant. I will not be bullied.

"Listen he-"

"Shut up." I will never be bullied again. "Or do you want me to tell my aunt that you prefer to stalk little girls?

Taeha had recoiled as if someone had slapped her across the face. The satisfaction that Zhu had felt was wonderful. Having power was wonderful. Watching the servant stutter and stumble over words, with wide eyes, Zhu couldn't help but look smug.

Never again.

Zhu and Kazuki had sat with their grandmother for hours, listening to her stories about her and her friends, about Avatar Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph. Mai had shared some embarrassing ones about Zuko as well.

"Your grandfather," She sighed fondly, "was an idiot. Handsome, but an idiot. He was so obsessed with honour." Mai placed her palm over her left eye, leaving some space for her eye, " 'I must regain my honour, uncle. My honour is the only thing that matters. If I find the Avatar, only then will my honour be restored, uncle.'"

"Very funny, dear." Mai covered her giggles by cupping her hands over her mouth as Zuko observed the scene before him, "Your humour knows no bounds."

Kazuki had snorted at his grandmother's acting while Zhu was hiccuping because of laughing so much. Both the kids observed their grandparents. It was like watching two teenagers in love.

"Gross," Kazuki planted himself between his grandparents, "Step away from my grammai, old man."

"She's my wife, Kazu."

"And I'm here favourite man."

The palace felt like home. And she would miss it when she went back home today.

Her aunty Izumi had bid her farewell along with her grandmother. They both expressed their regret of not being able to see her off at the port. Izumi had some urgent business to attend to and grammai was feeling too sick. Zhu had pressed a kiss of her grammai's cheek and promised to write letters and call her often. Her aunt had discreetly slipped her a jar of konpeito, telling her to keep it a secret between them.

Since flying was out of option for her, she'd take the morning's fastest ship back to Yue Bay. Baki would be accompanying her since his husband worked in Republic City as a professor in one of the universities.

Ursa and Iroh had embraced her tightly, the latter making her promise that she'd practise her bending forms harder. Zuko lifted her and spun her once, making her laugh with joy.

"I shall miss you, little one." He said, endearingly.

"I'll miss you too, grandad."

Prince Kasai was on the verge of tears. He had grown awfully attached to his daughter and now he didn't know when he would see her again. Kasai had knelt down and hugged her close, trying hard not to sob.

"Don't cry, papa." Zhu had patted him comfortingly, "I'll come back to visit soon. I have much to learn from you."

This made him cry harder.

Kazuki, with a blank face, had ruffled her hair until Zhu swatted his hands away. "Good riddance."

"We both know you don't mean that."

"Come back so that I can beat you at Pai-Sho."

"You can't beat me at Pai-Sho, Kazu."

"We'll see when you come back."

Lord Zuko watched the exchange with much amusement, while Kasai sniffled in the background. Zhu slowly wrapped her arms around her brother, taking him by surprise. Hesitantly, Kazuki hugged her back.

"Yes, yes. Now stop wiping your snot on my clothes."

"I'm not!"

Zhu waved at her family one last time before turning away. Kazuki bit his lip before yelling at her to wait. He ran towards her when she turned around.

"How about…" Kazuki looked sideways, fidgeting, "how about...you visit once a month? Or like...stay for a week here every month? Obviously, you don't have to. I won't care either way."

Ursa jumped up excitedly, "Oh, that's a great idea! Can she, gramps? Can she?"

"I don't see why not." The old man smiled but it dropped once he turned to his son, who was still wiping his eyes, "Oh for the love of - Pull yourself together, Kasai!"

Zhu boarded the ship with Baki, who despite her protests had carried her bag for her. She stood on the deck as the vessel left the port and waved at her cousins and father and grandfather until they looked like ants.

Baki then declared that since they had ample of time before they reach Republic City, they could go over the history and the evolution of Fire Nation's culture over the years.

"Not to worry," He had pulled out a humongous book from his stachel, "It's just leisurely studying."

"You must be a lot of fun at parties." Zhu warily eyed the book.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Why don't you tell me about your husband?"

"Why you cheek little - You seem to have grown bolder since I gave you that talk."

Baki's affections for his husband, Guo, had not lessened one bit even after them being together for over twenty years and that made Zhu giggle. The royal tutor acted all stern and scary but he was actually a softie. One could see hearts in his eyes once he started talking about his spouse. Guo and he were childhood friends who began dating at the end of their schooling years. Guo had the most 'enchanting blue eyes that reminds me of the ocean on a bright, sunny day', Baki had sighed dreamily. Zhu covered up her snort with a cough into her fist.

Zhu indulged in the konpeito her aunt had given her as she listened to her teacher go on and on. Frankly, this was much more interesting than the Era of Industrialization after the end of the Hundred-Year-War. After he had finished talking about 'the man of his dreams' and their plans to 'adopt a child but Guo still doubts his ability to be a father even though I think he'd be wonderful', Baki deviated by talking about marine life.

Her teacher sure did know a lot.

Baki pointed out the flying dolphins and fishapotamus in the ocean, casually mentioning that he and Guo had ridden them a long time ago on one of their anniversaries. The unagi, which had been hunted into extinction ("Though people of Kyoshi Island firmly believe that there is one living in hiding near the bay"). Zhu had leaned over the railing and gestured at the shadows under the water, beside the ship.

"What's that?"

"First of all, don't lean like that. You'll fall and get eaten by the shadow and then I'll have to answer to your mother and your father and your grandfather and your brother. Second, that's a harmless cat-eel. Now, some sailors claim that they've seen large spirits under the water at night. But of course, it cannot be true. The current world has drifted away from the spiritual world."

They reached Yue Bay at around sundown and Zhu could not be more happy as she had been feeling a little queasy because of the wobbling of the ship. She deboarded quickly, holding herself back from kissing the ground. Dodging the passengers who had gotten off with her, while gripping Baki's sleeve, Zhu looked for her mother. Her dad did tell her that he had radioed Lin.

Her mother was waiting further away from the crowd, with her arms crossed. Lin wore her Chief's uniform and her dark hair had a few stray strands sticking out. The moment Zhu saw her, she let go of her hold on Baki and ran as fast as she could towards her.

"Mother!" She exclaimed in delight as the woman knelt down, opening her arms. Zhu had all but thrown herself in the embrace. Her heart ached to see her mother after a week and she could not control her tears and sobs, "I -" hiccup, "-missed you."

"It was just a week, Zhu. Stop crying." Lin patted the back of her head and let her go, standing up, "And who are you?"

Baki had hurriedly followed Zhu and had breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she had run to her mother. "I am the Royal Tutor, Baki. I have been assigned the duty to teach Lord Zuko's grandchildren. Pleased to meet you, Chief Beifong." He bowed his head a little.

"Tutor?" Lin looked at Zhu, who was sniffling and rubbing her red nose, "Just what did you do there?"

"Your daughter," Baki continued, catching the duo's attention again, "is highly observant and quite smart. However, she is easily frustrated if she doesn't understand something at once. Nevertheless she has been a good student so far."

"I see." Lin nodded, "Thank you for taking care of her."

"Then, I shall take your leave. Goodbye, Chief Beifong. Zhu, you better finish those books I told you to read. You'll be tested on them." Baki's eyes kept flickering past Lin's shoulders.

Zhu groaned and twisted her body, flailing her arms and stomped her feet, "No fair. I don't want to. You can't make me." She whined, surprising Lin immensely with the childish behaviour.

"Oh, you will." The huge man glowered, "and I can."

Without another word, he hurried past them. Zhu turned around to look at his back and stuck out her tongue at him. Lin wordlessly swatted the back of her head, making Zhu hiss in pain. She was going to complain again but stopped once she saw Baki approach a really, really pale, slender and elegant looking man. He was quite shorter than Baki.

"Guo! The love of my life!" Baki lifted his husband off the ground and hugged him as the man adjusted his thin-framed glasses.

"You're late, dear."

"Forgive me, my moonshine."

"...Did you just call me an alcohol, darling?"

"Erm...sorry, I meant moonlight."

Zhu's eye twitched at the exchange, "They are so weird. I can't wait to tell Kazu." And yet, a part of her was gushing at how cute her teacher acted.

Her mother had already started walking away when she called, "Let's go home, kid."

"Can we have ramen, today?" Zhu trailed after her mother, trying to catch up with her long strides.

"Sure."

"Will you go to work tomorrow?"

"I go to work every day."

"Yeah, but tomorrow's a weekend. Will you stay at home?"

"..."

"Pleeeeease?"

It was very comforting for Zhu to go back home and sleep in her own bed, sensing the familiar warmth in the room down the hall. The next day, she shadowed her mother everywhere she went in the house, talking nineteen to a dozen about everything she did there.

" - Ursa made Kazuki stand with an apple on his head and she stood faaaaar away and threw a knife and the knife splitted the apple in two -"

"Split, not splitted."

" - and Druk lets me sleep on him and pet him. I didn't fly on him again because heights make my stomach hurt. Grandad allowed me to visit Druk when he's not around. Grammai taught me how to stare at someone so that they're scared of you." And to demonstrate, Zhu straightened her backbone, wobbling a little and narrowed her eyes at her mother.

Lin raised her eyebrows in amusement as her daughter pointed her chin at her to look threatening but ended up squinting.

"Terrifying."

"I know right!" The five year old continued with excitement, "The staircase in front of the palace door is huuuuge. And the palace has so many rooms. I played Pai-Sho went aunty in one of them. She taught me. It was nice. Aunty Izumi also gave me konpeito as punishment but it wasn't really punishment because candy was better than washing dishes and...oops." Zhu held the tip of her fingers over her mouth, covering it.

Her mother whirled around, "What punishment?" She demanded.

"Nothing." Zhu looked at her bare feet, bringing her hands behind her back.

"Don't lie, Zhu. What punishment?" Lin had a very stern look on her face.

Wiggling her toes, the girl finally told her about Lady Chiaki and how she punished her for disrespecting someone of a higher status. Zhu narrated everything she had heard from the servants and how they had gossiped and called her names.

Lin clenched her fists and grit her teeth. Behind her, cracks formed on the earthen walls of their home. Zhu hurriedly tried to calm her mother down.

"Aunty Izumi took me away, mother, don't be angry. Like I said...she took me to one of her rooms and we drank tea and played Pai-Sho. Aunty said I didn't deserve to be punished. Please, don't be angry. I won't let them treat me like that again. I promise! You said take crap, right? I won't anymore. Don't be angry. You'll-you'll bring the house down." She mumbled the last part.

With a movement of her hand, Lin filled in the cracks in the wall with stone and hardened it. The woman dropped down on the couch and sighed. Zhu hurried and sat next to her, on the cushioned sofa, with knees folded against her chest.

"And you still want to go back?" Lin rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Even though that creeping slime of a woman is there?"

Zhu nodded, "One week a month, mother. And papa keeps Lady Chiaki away from me -"

Lin scoffed under her breath "Papa, it seems."

" - Kazuki, Ursa and Iroh really like me even though I fight with Kazuki a lot. Iroh said he'll teach me how to bend lightning. I have my own room there and they bought me clothes. Grammai said she'll take me around the Capital when she feels better. And - " Zhu leaned forward, cupping her mouth with one hand, as if telling a secret, "Ursa said she and grammai'll teach me how to throw senbon needles."

"What in the world is a grammai?"

"It's Grandma and Mai mixed!" Zhu repeated what Ursa had told her when she had asked her. "Grandma Mai. Grammai."

"Needles, you say?"

"And knives and daggers and shuriken and stilettos."

"Those are a lot of weapons."

"Yes."

"Well, as long as you don't end up dying." Lin shrugged and smiled fondly as Zhu whooped and punched the air in celebration.

She couldn't help but appreciate the change in her daughter that she had observed. Zhu seemed more sure of herself, more outspoken. She hadn't been this...warmer a week ago. Lin knew that Lord Zuko had raised his children to love each other unconditionally, given what he himself had gone through. Kasai would be the ideal person to raise Zhu. Who knew the potential the tiny girl had.

And yet, Lin wanted to hold on to her daughter even if she was doing a mediocre job at raising her. Zhu made her feel less lonely than she had felt in years. She brought colour into her life. It seemed she would have to adjust to the one week of silence from now on.

So much for maternal instincts.

SIDE STORY:

It wasn't the crowd that was the problem. It was how the people in the crowd stared at Zhu as if she were some abomination. Illegitimate children weren't unheard of in the Upper Class of the Fire Nation. However, giving them this sort of attention was.

It was the annual Fire Festival and after roaming around the Capital with her siblings, Zhu decided to finally accompany Iroh and Ursa to the evening gala. After all, Lady Chiaki had made it quite clear that Zhu was not to be seen anywhere around her son.

Zhu had clutched Iroh's hand as they looked at the ice sculptures near the entrance of the hall. The hall was huge and the girl couldn't tell how high the ceiling was. A jazz band was playing in a corner. Zhu decided she liked the music. Jovial laughter and chatter filled the air along with the instruments. It was nothing like Zhu had ever seen before. And she had been coming and going from the Capital for the past one year.

Iroh and Ursa nodded, bowed, waved and made small talk with people that the youngest firebender did not recognize. They introduced her as their cousin and the daughter of High Prince Kasai. Zhu would greet them and watch their eyes widen and jaws drop. The urge to bury herself became stronger with each person who gaped at her. By tomorrow, the entire continent will know of her existence and Prince Kasai's unfaithfulness to his wife.

Unable to shake off the stares on her back, Zhu whispered to Ursa that she needed to go to the washroom, slipping her hand out of Iroh's grasp. She did head to the restrooms, only to find her brother hiding behind one of the wooden screens, staring at the jazz band and jerking his shoulders to the rhythm they were playing. Kazuki seemed to be singing along with the lead singer as well.

"No one else it seems,

Ever shared my dreams,

Without you I don't know what I'd do."

Her jaw dropped. She couldn't believe her ears. Her brother had a beautiful voice! Zhu continued to listen to him sing until she was discovered. Kazuki froze when he made eye contact with her, cleared his throat and walked past her as if nothing had happened. His ears were glowing red from embarrassment and were steaming.

Still in a daze from what she had witnessed, Zhu snuck out to the public gardens. The breeze made her shiver a little. She made her way to the cherry blossom trees only to find someone already sitting there. At the sound of her footsteps, the person jumped off the stone bench and turned around.

The girl in front of Zhu wore an expensive looking maroon frock with a black bow on her waist. Her hair was pinned back. Awkwardly, Zhu stammered a 'hello'.

"Hi." The girl smiled back, green eyes shining at her, "You can sit if you want to. I came here to run away from the people inside."

"So did I." Zhu took a seat next to the girl, "I didn't like the way they looked at me. Like I was some wild animal from the zoo."

"I've never seen you at the gala before." She placed her hands on her lap, "And I've been coming here since I was born. My mother loves the festival."

Zhu shifted to face her, "This is my first time! There aren't many festivals like this back home. But it was fun. Did you visit the stalls?"

They talked for a very long time until the fireworks started. The girls stared at the sky in awe as a myriad of colours exploded in flower-like shapes. The show went on for a few more minutes and then silence fell. Faint applause was heard from the hall behind them.

"I think we should get back," The girl said, "My parents will be looking for me." She got to her feet and Zhu followed suit. "It was nice meeting you."

"You too!" The firebender smiled, "I should've said this before but...my name's Zhu. What's yours?"

She smiled back.

"Nice to meet you, Zhu. My name is Asami Sato. I hope we get to see each other again."

Zhu didn't know that this would be Asami's last Fire Festival for a long time. And that she would see her again, years later, when she befriends the Avatar.

I am quite excited for the next chapter, y'all. Can't wait for you guys to react to it. I wanted to know whether you'd like this to be a slow burn romance. Because honestly, I wanted to focus on characters as individuals for the time being. I'd like to know whether you want me to include Korra and Mako's relationship in the second book or do you want me to scrap it altogether.

Honestly, I don't want this to be a purely romance fic. I already have several ideas as to how to develop the story and the characters and their relationships further. I just wanted to know your thoughts on the slowburn part. Or feel free to comment on anything ya'll want to talk about.

See you guys next week! Stay healthy! :3