Azula is having her afternoon tea in her office when her daughter arrives. Azula has never much cared for tea, but in her middle age, she finds that it relaxes her. The first advisor to the Fire Lord is not an easy job. It has never been, but Azula does not have the energy she once did, the energy to train from sunrise until lunch and then attend an all-day war meeting or to make her way across the Earth Kingdom in a matter of days or to stay up half the night when Shinzei was a baby and still do her job. When she began to have stress nightmares every other night after thirteen years of not waking up screaming more than once every few months, Ty Lee had pushed her to step down. Azula had, of course, vehemently refused, and they had compromised. Now Azula has to take a tea break with her wife twice a day and she is not allowed to work before sunrise or after dinner. She is only forty, but sometimes she feels much older.
"Mother," Shinzei is leaning on the door frame. She does not acknowledge Ty Lee's presence, but the retired acrobat takes no offence. That is just how Shinzei is. Polite greetings and pleasantries are utterly lost on her, years of etiquette lessons completely out the window. "I have a question."
"What is it, Shinzei?" Ty Lee asks, even though the statement was not addressed to her. She pats the cushion beside her, and Shinzei sits down. She is taller than Azula was at fifteen, and much less depressed and insane, but otherwise, the resemblance is striking.
She turns her head toward Ty Lee, but does not look at her, focusing instead on the table top. It almost reminds Azula of Zuko and the Avatar's little friend, that dirty little earthbender who heads up Republic City's police force and has two equally dirty earthbender daughters now. "What do you do when you like someone?"
Azula chokes on her tea. This is the last question she expected, and she cannot imagine why her daughter decided to come to her of all people for help in this area. When Shinzei has personal questions, which is rare because she does not often feel the need to talk about her feelings, she almost always brings them to Azula, who almost always redirects her to Ty Lee. She would have thought the girl would have learned that Azula is useless for these things by now. Even Zuko or his emotionally muted wife or equally romantically clueless daughter would have been better choices.
Ty Lee gasps, but she stifles it behind a hand, because Shinzei does not like it when she reacts too strongly. "Who is it?" Azula can hear her smile.
Their daughter's face reddens behind the sleek, black hair she refuses to tie up, no matter how many ribbons and barrettes Ty Lee buys her. Azula can see the corners of Ty Lee's mouth escape from behind her hand. This is the kind of conversation Ty Lee has been watching Mai have with Izumi for years, and though they have both long since resolved to stop comparing their daughter to her cousin or their parenting experience with Mai's, Azula knows that this is a conversation Ty Lee has been dreaming of having since Azula gave birth to a baby girl.
Shinzei's hand clenches and unclenches rapidly in her lap. She does not flap her hands anymore, not since a group of boys, barely into their teens, decided to throw rocks at her on Ember Island four summers ago. Not since she overheard a group of middle aged women whispering about the "mad princess," the "royal head case," how "crazy breeds crazy," on the streets of the Caldera. Zuko's reputation as the kindly Fire Lord has not always been an asset. If it was up to Azula, all of those people would be imprisoned. But it is not up to Azula, and now Shinzei has adapted the hand-flapping into smaller, less noticeable motions.
Their daughter often struggles with words when she is worked up, but she finally manages to open her mouth and make something come out. "It's Kya."
"Aww," Ty Lee sighs. She is smiling unabashedly now, and seems entirely overjoyed by the fact that their daughter has a crush on a waterbender, the daughter of the Avatar of all people. "That's so cute! Isn't it cute, Azula?"
"It is not cute," Sinzei replies angrily. "It's real and it's painful." Every once in a while, Azula does see herself in her, beyond just the appearance.
Ty Lee frowns. "I'm sorry. I just meant the two of you would make a really cute couple," she rephrases. Azula supposes that Shinzei could do worse. At least Aang and Katara have always treated her better than any of the parents of the girls at the Royal Fire Academy, who either talk to her like she is ten years younger than she is or who avoid her like they might spontaneously catch fire if they get too close, and encourage their children to do the same. At least Aang and Katara have never wondered aloud if she was human enough to count as a person before she was even out of earshot. If Azula was Fire Lord, forget imprisonment. All those people would be dead.
And at least they all know that Kya likes girls. Everyone has known that since she was about four years old. That is more than Azula can say for Ty Lee as a child.
"So what do you like about her?" Ty Lee rests her chin on her fists and leans forward in anticipation. Shinzei's face grows even redder. She looks extremely uncomfortable, but Azula supposes that all children have to experience that with their mother at some point. All children who have mothers, that is.
"What do you like about her?" Shinzei repeats. She drops her head and shakes her hair into her face to hide her blush. "I don't know."
"Come on, there have to be reasons," Ty Lee prods. "I know you don't like to talk about this stuff, Shinzei, but I'm your mom and I like to know what's going on with you."
Shinzei shrugs, but then she begins to answer. "She brought me a glass tiger seal from the South Pole last time she came to visit," she explains quietly, "and she's always nice to me, and one time she held my hand and I… liked it."
Azula cannot help but smile because everything about that answer has her daughter's name written all over it. Her daughter who, even when she got older and wanted to make friends, found she could not, her daughter who will sometimes touch other people but can hardly stand it when someone else touches her, and her daughter, who still values her collection more than anything else in the world.
"That… sounds nice, Shinzei," Azula answers, speaking for the first time since her daughter entered the room. She still has not decided if she can bring herself to support this relationship, but she cannot deny that Kya treats Shinzei exactly the way she deserves to be treated.
"But what do I do?" the teenager groans. "Help me, Mother."
And suddenly, Azula knows exactly why Shinzei came to her about this. It is because she has a crush on her friend that she wants to turn into more, and her mothers were once in the same position. It is because she assumed that Azula seduced Ty Lee.
"Tell her that, as Princess of the Fire Nation, you command her to date you at once," she advises. Her wife raises an eyebrow at her. Shinzei merely looks confused.
"Did that really work for you?" she asks.
"No, don't do that," Ty Lee advises her. She rests an arm across her daughter's shoulders, but Shinzei tenses visibly and she pulls away. Ty Lee still struggles with the lack of touching sometimes. She likes to show her affection physically, and Azula knows that it pains her to not be able to give their daughter a hug. "Okay, Shinzei, what I'm telling you might surprise you, but I actually made the first move on your mother."
"What?" Shinzei gasps. Azula cannot believe that Ty Lee has not told her this story at least a dozen times before. Perhaps it is because Shinzei has never shown any interest in romance up until now. Perhaps they both made the mistake of assuming that because she did not talk to them about it, she was not interested. In hindsight, it seems like a ridiculous assumption to have made, given how short the list of things Shinzei does talk about is.
"Mmhm," Ty Lee nods. "I wasn't even sure if she liked me, but I just couldn't hold it in anymore, you know? I had to kiss her. I don't even think we'd ever held hands." She looks to her wife for conformation.
"We hadn't," Azula replies. "I was intent on keeping my feelings to myself. I was preparing to be Fire Lord. I needed to look strong."
"Well, one night when we were in Ba Sing Se during the war, I came to her room after your aunt was asleep and I told her I had to tell her something, and I was going to ask her out, but then I decided it would be faster to just kiss her instead," Ty Lee completes the story all in one breath. It is a little more complicated than that, but Azula does not think that Shinzei is aware of her teenage breakdown and how exceedingly difficult the first few post-comet years were for her, and she would rather keep it that way.
"So I should just kiss her?" Shinzei asks. She is not much more expressive than Mai, but her eyebrows at tilted slightly upward, and Azula can tell that she is confused.
"Only if you think she likes you back," Ty Lee advises. "Do you?"
"I don't know," Shinzei answers hopelessly. Of course she does not.
"I think she likes you back," Ty Lee tells her almost conspiratorially. "Maybe next time she comes to visit you could ask her if she wants to go for a walk in the garden. Maybe you could hold her hand. Who knows what could happen."
"But I don't like the garden," Shinzei argues. "It's outside."
"But it's so romantic." Ty Lee sighs, and then she seems to remember who she is talking to. "Or maybe you might have a better time in the… the library or something."
"The library?" Azula repeats. "Oh yes, that's a prime location for a hot date. I'm shocked I didn't think to take you there in our youth. Honestly, Shinzei, if you really want to date her, all you have to do is let her know that you're open to it. If I know your water peasant friend—and I don't, but I know her parents—she'll have no problem with making the first move."
Ty Lee crosses her arms. "Oh, and I'm guessing you're going to claim that that was your plan all along now? That you somehow manipulated me into kissing you first because you kissing me would have made you look weak?"
Azula does consider insisting that that is exactly what happened, but then she looks at Ty Lee and at their daughter and she decides against it. "Well it would have. What if you hadn't returned my affections. Actually, though, you took me completely by surprise." She picks at her nail. "I didn't want a relationship at all, but you were, hm… persuasive."
Ty Lee smiles and reaches around the corner of the table to rest a hand on her wife's knee. "Just smile at her," she instructs Shinzei. "Try to stand close to her. I bet she'll get the message."
"So, you mean, Izumi was wrong when she said royalty always has to make the first move?" The panic in Shinzei's eyes is dulling. "She said trying to seduce a member of the royal family was a crime punishable by a long term of imprisonment."
Azula scoffs. "You went to my brother's daughter for advice about this?" she asks. "Because she's so romantically adept. She's had what, one courtship? It lasted a week? Two?" She shakes her head. "Think about that for a moment, Shinzei. That would mean your uncle asked out your aunt. Does that seem likely to you?"
Shinzei still looks confused, but Ty Lee smiles and shakes her head. "Shinzei, your cousin know you don't know as much about Fire Nation laws and customs as she does, and she likes to mess with you. No, you definitely don't have to make the first move if you don't want to. I promise you, Kya won't be arrested if she does it instead."
"She won't think I'm pathetic or something if I wait?" she presses.
"Do I look pathetic to you?" Azula mutters under her breath, but Ty Lee ignores her.
"No, Shinzei, it won't," she answers. "But listen, if you're really that worried about it, maybe you could write her a letter. You're such a talented writer. I'm sure you could get your feelings across that way. Your mother would be happy to deliver it for you next time she sees the Avatar."
Shinzei glances sidelong at Azula. "You mean she won't read it?"
"She promises not to read it," Ty Lee replies, shooting her a stern warning look.
Shinzei wrinkles her brow and stares off to the side as she considers it. "Okay," she answers slowly. "Maybe I'll do that."
"Good." Ty Lee beams at her. "Do you want some tea?"
"No," their daughter answers shortly. She stands up and leaves the room without another word, as she often does when she has the information she came for. Ty Lee looks back at Azula and raises her eyebrows.
"Well, that was… something," Azula comments.
"I'm so excited!" Ty Lee squeals. "Azula, if she writes Kya a letter, you are not going to read it. You know how trusting she is."
"I would never use our daughter's condition against her," Azula snaps. It is exactly the kind of callous and manipulative thing her father would do, and she resents that Ty Lee thinks she would stoop to that level. "You're only this invested because she is finally interested in something you want her to be interested in."
"So I'm excited that I have something to talk about with my daughter," Ty Lee fires back. Then she sighs and shakes her head. "We both love her. We both only want what's best for her." She removes her hand from Azula's knee and sips her now room-temperature tea. "It's just hard to know what that is sometimes, and we both think we know, but we can never be sure."
Long gone are the days when they argued about the possibility of another baby. Long gone are the days when they still held expectations about what Shinzei's life would be like. Instead, Azula and Ty Lee have spent years swimming in the dark, raising a child with significantly different needs with no reference point, but, as Azula stares at the doorway through which Shinzei disappeared, she thinks they have done a remarkably decent job, even measured against her own high standards. It is difficult to believe that she will be sixteen next year.
As if she read Azula's mind, Ty Lee speaks again. "She's really growing up, isn't she?" The Princess nods and mumbles an agreement. "Azula, what if we had another one?"
"Haha," the Princess says dryly as Ty Lee falls into a fit of hysterical giggles, sloshing her tea all over her saucer.
A/N: So, I was planning on Shattered Expectations just being a oneshot, but I ended up enjoying writing it, and the response seemed pretty positive overall, so I've decided to expand it into a drabble series, with each story taking place in the same universe. Updates will be rough 1500-3000 words long and they will not be in any kind of chronological order. I'm just going to write about ideas as I get them.
As always, please shoot me a review if you're able to!