I do not, nor have, nor ever had, anything to do with AtLA or Nickelodeon

Chapter 123

"Good morning My Little Princess!" Zuko said as he got his daughter up for their special day together. This was their first day in the great city. After all they went through, he made a promise to himself that no matter what happens his Little Princess would always come first. Katara had healed his physical wounds, but he was still healing from the emotional damage that Mai had caused. He loved her, but what hurt him most was how she carried a child for nine months, cared for the child for two years then said 'How could I love an assignment? I was assigned to you.' As cold and heartless as she ever was.

"Hi, Daddy!" She said to him as he picked her up and hugged her, he placed a kiss on her cheek, and she returned the kiss on his scar.

"Today is going to be a fun day for us!" He told her as they sat down to breakfast.

"Fun!" she giggled.

"First we are going to see Uncle Iroh at the Jasmine Dragon."

"Tea and goodies!" Ursa said as she clapped her hands happily.

"Then we are going to go buy you a brand new beautiful doll."

"Yay! New dolly!" Ursa bounced in her chair.

"Next will be a train ride to the inner wall, and finally the ..." He was cut off by the most beautiful smile and a happy squeal.

"ZOO!" She said bouncing on her breakfast chair. On the trip to Ba Sing Se Zuko had talked to her about all the great things they were going to do during their vacation in the walled city.

"Yes My Little Princess, we are going to the Zoo, just like I promised." Zuko laughed, he loved this little girl more than anything else in the world. She had his golden eyes and jet-black hair.

After breakfast he got her ready for their special day together in Ba Sing Se, he didn't want any special attention or to draw crowds, he chose to dress as Lee, and put Ursa in simple non-royal clothes. Zuko was still slowly learning how to be a hair dresser, normally brushing hair and pulling it up into a ponytail was not difficult, but when you put in the factor of a two and a half year old, impatience and wiggling constantly it was not easy. Katara had showed him how to braid Ursa's hair; she made it look so easy... needless to say it was NOT as easy as she made it look. After half an hour of "Please sit still" and "You are making this so hard for me", he finally was able to give her two fairly even, slightly lopsided braids.

"Thank you, Daddy" she said as she looked at herself in the mirror. "So pretty"

He had adapted to taking care of her on his own, but he was still learning all kinds of stuff he never knew about before though. After packing a bag with things they needed, including a change of clothes just in case, they left their Ba Sing Se home and, after placing Ursa on his shoulder he walked to the Jasmine Dragon.

"Uncle!" She called out, and Zuko had to put her on the floor before she fell off of him.

"So much wiggling! You're going to fall!" He laughed as he set her down. As soon as her feet touched the ground she ran to Iroh and gave him a great big hug.

Iroh didn't know Zuko and Ursa were visiting Ba Sing Se, so as soon as the little girl called out to him he smiled so big and put down everything to pick her up and hug her. "Hello Princess! I am so happy to see you!"

"I want tea please!" The little girl told him as he set her back down. "And goodies."

"Okay, let me set you up with a booster seat... Only my best tea and goodies for the little princess!" Iroh said as he directed them to his best table. Once Ursa was seated in a booster seat Iroh walked to the kitchen, Zuko followed but stayed where he could see his daughter.

"Zuko, I can't believe she was a spy. I never even suspected it. I'm so sorry." Iroh shook his head slowly. "She actually said she was going to slit your throat in the middle of the night."

"She snuck back into the palace, I found her in Ursa's room... she even had a knife in her hand. I told Ursa to hide, Mai... She got angry and came at me with the knife... Uncle, I had to protect Ursa, I had to protect my Little Princess." At that moment, Zuko was on the verge of tears.

"Nephew, you did what you had to, that little girl is alive because of you... Don't let Mai's death weight your heart down, let Ursa lift your heart up." Iroh said trying to comfort him as he and Zuko walked to the table where Ursa was sitting at.

"Uncle... She said she never loved either of us, that we were just an assignment." Zuko's heart still hurt, every woman he had loved has caused him pain, in one way or another... He wasn't going to let it happen again. "Ursa won't even remember her. We will manage uncle."

"What are you going to tell her when she gets older and asks you about her mother?" Iroh asked him seriously.

"I was going to tell her the truth, that the palace was attacked and that her mother died." Zuko told his uncle.

As they walked back to the table, Ursa clapped her little hands and squeaked "Tea and Yummies!"

"Only the best for the Little Princess!" Iroh said as he placed the tray on their table.

"Anyways Uncle, can I work with you here, you know, while we are here? I don't want to even think about The Fire Nation for a little while." Zuko asked his uncle.

"It would be an honor to have you working by my side in this little tea shop, like the old days." Iroh answered.

"Thank you Uncle." Zuko said with a smile.

"You are very welcome." The old man told him as he poured their tea. Ursa was munching away on a biscuit smothered in butter and berry jam; she even had jam on her face. "So what are your plans for today?"

"We are going to visit here, and then I promised Ursa I was going to buy her a new doll. Then we are going to go walk around the..." Zuko was cut off by his happy daughter.

"ZOO!" Ursa said with a mouth full of chewed biscuit. Both Zuko and his uncle began to laugh at the little girl's excitement about going to the zoo.

Iroh bent over, bringing his face to the same level as hers. "Did you know that Avatar Aang made the zoo all by himself?" Iroh asked her.

"Abtar?" Ursa was really confused, she had no clue what or who was the 'Abtar' was.

"Watch this." Zuko told his uncle "Gyatso's Daddy made the zoo." He told her.

"Gyatso! I like Gyatso!" The little girl said, just the mention of his name completely diverted her mind, she didn't even care that her Daddy said the word 'zoo'.

After they finished their tea and goodies they said their goodbyes. Zuko put their bag over his shoulder then placed his daughter on his shoulders too.

They walked down the cobblestone roads to the grand marketplace in the middle ring. Ursa looked at doll after doll after doll, trying to decide which one she wanted. Her Daddy told her she could choose whichever doll she wanted, she tried to get him to buy her three dolls, but he told her only one today, that they would be in Ba Sing Se for a couple months and had plenty of time to buy her more dolls. In the end, she settled on a beautifully dressed doll in a formal Earth Kingdom dress.

...

Ursa stood on her Daddy's lap staring out the window watching everything as the train took them through the lower ring and stopped at the entrance to the Zoo.

Riding on her Daddy's shoulders, Ursa was excited about all the different kinds of animals that were in the Zoo. There were animals from all over the world, almost every kind there could be.

"Daddy, I'm hungry." His Little Princess told him after a couple hours of wondering around.

"Okay, there is a fruit on a stick cart right there, we can get a snack." Zuko told her.

"I love fruit!" Ursa said as she bounced herself on his shoulders. He bought each of them a nice long skewer with melon, and berries, and tropical fruits. They ate as they wandered some more looking into all the pits and enclosures, spending a few minutes at each, and then moving to the next.

"Uuummm, excuse me Sir, she dropped this and, well I... I wanted to return it to you."A beautiful young woman with emerald green eyes and chocolate brown hair said as she held out Ursa's new doll he had just bought just her.

"Oh, uuuuhhhh... Thank you so much." He said as he accepted the doll and gave it to Ursa. "You dropped your doll."

"Uh, oh. Sorry Daddy." The little girl said shyly.

"She's beautiful." The young woman said to him smiling broadly.

"She picked the doll out, you should complement her." Zuko said awkwardly.

"No" The young woman smiled as she shook her head. "Your daughter is beautiful."

"Oh! Thank you! I'm... uuummm... I'm Lee, and this beautiful girl is my daughter Ursa, my Little Princess." Zuko said.

"It's nice to meet you Lee, and it's nice to meet you Princess Ursa. I'm Taryn." She said bowing as she addressed 'Princess Ursa'

"Hi!" Ursa says.

"You and her mother must be every proud." Taryn told him.

"Yeah... uuummm... Her mother is no longer with us." Zuko said sadly. Her betrayal hurt but the hatred for her own daughter was inhuman.

"Oh, that's terrible! I'm really sorry. So it's just you and Ursa?"

"Yeah, it's just us, but we are very happy together." Zuko told her.

"Do you live in Ba Sing Se?" Taryn asked.

"Not really, we are just visiting some family that lives here." Zuko told her

"That's... that's nice." She awkwardly said.

"Yeah... uummm... I kinda work at the Jasmine Dragon right now... ya'know... If... if you ever want to stop in. I think I might be able to get you some free tea and snacks as a thank you for returning her brand new doll... Or whatever... It's not an obligation or anything." Zuko had a hard time keeping eye contact, he felt really nervous.

She laughed at his awkwardness, her laugh was choppy but he thought it was cute, it made him smile. She put her hand over her mouth and her pale cheeks turned pink, then red, she thought she had such a dorky laugh that she tried not to laugh too much. She took a few deep breaths to cool down her hot cheeks.

"That was adorable!" He said, which just made her cheeks repeat the cycle again, this time they went from pink to red to blood-red.

He couldn't hold back his smile anymore, and then he started to laugh more.

Zuko stopped laughing then he felt something wet and kind of sticky land on the top of his head. Ursa had accidently droped a piece of fruit on top of his head. "Uh, oh, Sorry Daddy."

"Let me get that for you." Taryn said as she went up on her toes and picked the fruit out of his hair, and then she tossed it into the Rabbiroo enclosure.

Zuko's eyes were still looking up; as if he could actually see the spot that her finger tips had touched the top of his head leaving a tingle followed by a wave of goose bumps that made his hair stand on end.

"Uuuuhhhhhhh... Ummmm... Thanks." He coughed a couple times to cover up his awkwardness "Thank you again... for the doll... well not just the doll, for taking the head off of my fruit." His hand came up as he smacked himself in the forehead, hoping it would help him think better. "I mean for taking the fruit off of my head." Now he was almost blood-red in the face.

"Well... Uuummmm, I need to go now, my group kind of moved off without me." She told him.

"Okay... Jasmine Dragon, I work there... to thank you." Zuko called to her as she trotted off.

She stopped and turned back to them, with a huge smile on her face she called to them. "Goodbye Lee, goodbye Princess Ursa!"

...

After Zuko put Ursa to bed, hugging her new doll, he went into the kitchen and started a pot of tea. His thoughts were filled with the young woman he had met at the zoo. He wasn't sure why he kept thinking about her. Her emerald green eyes and chocolate brown hair haunted his thoughts. Her choppy laugh echoed in his head, he smiled as it played over and over, she was obviously embarrassed about it but he thought it was a very cute laugh. The water in the pot began to boil over, causing the fire to sizzle and sputter and jolting him; he hadn't realized the water had already heated up.

He made a pot of tea and went into his room. Where, he planned to start reading a book, so he took a seat in a high back chair and settled the tea tray on the table next to the chair. Zuko took a deep breath and blew it out, he then picked up the book and began to read.

He went to refill his little tea cup and found the pot empty. He looked back down at the book in his hands, it was on page five. How could he have finished the whole pot of tea but only be on page five?

"Oh, Spirits she was beautiful." He said, then got frustrated with himself and started to reprimand himself aloud as he paced his bedroom.

"Why couldn't I think straight?"

"Why am I always so stupid?"

"I shouldn't have laughed at her laugh."

"I'll probably never see her again. She's never going to come to The Jasmin Dragon."

He got himself ready for bed as he continued is self reprimand

"Why can't I get her out of my head!"

"Shut-up, she probably has a boyfriend in her group!"

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" He collapsed onto the bed and put out the lamp.

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