Chapter Four

Azula sits with Ty Lee on the floor of their room in the guest house. The wind blows fiercely against the wooden walls of the Versailles of the Rockies. They set up the stockings of their little girl and do their last minute wrapping.

They have not removed the hidden Xbox One, but Azula carelessly chews the gumballs from their box. Bunny will not miss them.

Ty Lee looks up from the final gift she tapes up.

Azula remarks, "I just chewed so much Dubble Bubble that I feel like I made out with a xenomorph."

From behind them, Bunny inquires, "What's a xenomorph?"

Azula casually explains, "It is an animal that comes from an egg the queen lays, and it latches onto the face of the host in its first life stage, then lays another egg… I think, and then in the next stage of its metamorphosis, it bursts out of your chest as you scream, then goes through another metamorphosis to become a large monster with fangs on its tongue and acid for blood."

Bunny blanches. Her elbows dig into her body as she feels a rush of fear. Ty Lee sighs and shakes her head.

"Where does it live?" Bunny whispers, brown eyes wide.

"In your closet. Now go back to bed or Santa won't come," says Azula. Ty Lee laughs.

Bunny scowls. "Santa isn't real."

"Who told you that?" demands Ty Lee, angrily standing up.

"Grandma Ilah," replies her daughter.

"When?" Ty Lee demands.

"Today."

"Well," huffily says Azula, "Grandma Ilah is a liar. She is far more artificial than Santa."

"Grandma Mai says that you're a liar and so you're the more artificial person," snaps Bunny, struggling with the larger words despite her age. Ty Lee laughs again.

"She has a point," says Ty Lee, her lips twitching with a smile.

Bunny explains further, "Grandma Ilah told me that it was my turn to be Santa Clause."

Ty Lee cocks an eyebrow. "What?"

"Ugh," says Azula. "It is this story about two parents struggling to tell their child Santa isn't real and they tell the child that he's old enough to become a Santa Clause and asks him to get a gift for some mean neighbor bitch and he does and maybe it would warm my heart if I had one."

Bunny softly insists, "You have a heart."

Azula rolls her eyes. "If I had a heart, I would not be eating all of the gumballs from my child's Christmas stocking."

Bunny glowers. "I don't even like bubblegum. Can you just put money in there?"

"Go the fuck to sleep, Bunny," orders Ty Lee.

Her little girl obeys.

[X]

Ty Lee shivers as they walk into the guest house living room. Katara has opened a window and the windchill has rendered the room freezing. Azula wraps an arm around Ty Lee to keep her warm. Zuko tries to hide his shivering on the sofa.

Azula walks forward and slams the window shut.

"Katara, you need to understand that you are on the bottom of the pecking order and cannot open or close any windows or doors," purrs Azula, guiding her wife to an armchair. Ty Lee sits on her lap.

Katara coldly says, "Every holiday that passes with me drowning you in a bathtub is a miracle."

Azula just smirks.

Mai enters the room just as Azula and Ty Lee get settled. She crosses her arms and sits down.

"Are you impatient for morning?" Azula inquires, studying her stepmother.

"I'm just so bored. It isn't like Valerie will even remember this holiday," says Mai, sighing. "I don't really care about Christmas morning anymore. I'm old. It's sad."

A surprising voice speaks up. Ilah.

"Well, perhaps you're mature like your much older husband claims you are," Ilah mocks, leaning against the once-open window. "His fiftieth birthday is coming up, and you are not yet thirty."

"How is he almost fifty?" Ty Lee asks, her eyes bulging. She is old.

Ilah laughs. "I can tell you exactly how it happened fifty years ago in great detail."

Azula gags. Ty Lee hits her knee. Everyone attempts to laugh.

"Katara," says Ilah, "you seem to know all about it, don't you?"

"I apologize for that comment. I was agitated from a long car ride with Kya and I've already received a lot of criticism for being an unwed mother with Zuko," states Katara. Her words are rehearsed, but she knows she must say them.

Ilah waves a hand. "You all are far too nervous about my husband's opinion. I assure you that he doesn't care, and he just likes to watch you all frantically try to get on his good side."

Ty Lee kisses Azula's cheek and whispers in her ear, "See. Do you still hate me?"

Azula whispers back, "Yes," but her blush betrays her lie.

[X]

Bunny jumps on Azula and Ty Lee's bed at four AM.

"It's Christmas! It's Christmas! It's Christmas!"

Azula groans into her pillow. "Five more minutes."

"I want my Xbox!" Bunny eagerly shrieks, lying down between her mothers. "Let's go! Kya is up! We both woke up!"

The girls did share a room. Azula sits up and Ty Lee follows suit.

[X]

Bunny cradles her Xbox in her arms like a newborn baby. Azula is pleased with the gift she gave. Kya opens her presents. Katara steals Valerie—earning a fierce glare from her father-in-law—and helps her play with her gift as she kneels on the floor.

Everyone else keeps drinking cowboy coffee and sitting on the expensive furniture.

Ty Lee opens gorgeous jewelry and kisses Azula. "You're the One, aren't you?"

"Of course I am. We decided that last Christmas when you proposed to me," says Azula, the fond memory warming her skin. She tries to hide it, but Ty Lee feels the rush.

"That was pleasant," says Azulon. He glances up at Ty Lee. "I have a gift for you as well. I'm not writing you out of the will, because you're very good for my favorite grandchild."

Zuko clenches his jaw, but ignores the comment.

"The best Christmas gift," Azula says. "Thank you."

Ty Lee squints. "Better than our engagement rings."

Azula pats Ty Lee's hand. "Yes. Much better than our engagement rings."

Well, Ty Lee is lucky to have found the One, even if she is owned by her grandfather.

Across the room, Ilah opens a present from Zuko's new wife.

"It's horse oil. I got it from Korea," Katara says, smiling. It is an awkward gift from a vegetarian to a horse lover.

"Horse oil?" asks Ilah, cocking an eyebrow.

Ty Lee, aghast, asks Azula, "It comes from their fur, right?"

Azula laughs and smirks. "Of course it does, my love. It comes from their fur."

"Good."

Ty Lee grins, the presents continue being opened, the holiday is not half-bad.

THE END