Chapter 29
Yue loved being back in Cape Kuruk. It wasn't often that they came to visit so far North during the summer months, instead preferring to vacation somewhere warmer. It had been many years since their last summer visit, which had happened way back when Kanna and the old family dog, Naga, were still with them. Because of how much time had passed since their last summer visit, everything felt new to Yue, even if a lot of things at the Enuaraq household remained the same.
In anticipation of their lengthier stay of five weeks, with Katara's permission, Hakoda had replaced her old bed with a larger one that was perfectly comfortable for the three of them. Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the size of Katara's room, and with the new bed now taking up so much space, there wasn't even enough room for their suitcases. The throuple ended up storing most of their stuff in Sokka's room across the hallway, safe in the knowledge that Sokka wasn't about to one day just show up on the doorstep for a surprise visit.
Eska and Desna had grown up considerably over the past six months and were by now proper yard dogs. Yue and her wives spent at least an hour every day playing with the dogs, managing to also get Azula involved despite her initial apprehension. After all, it was impossible to resist the adorable St. Bernard's.
Hakoda Enuaraq was going as strong as ever, keeping himself active and busy. Cape Kuruk had never been a popular tourist attraction, mostly because the small coastal village had never marketed itself as one and didn't have enough specific facilities to accommodate for many visitors, but even so the village was definitely far busier than it had been during the height of winter. Plenty of people were interested in visiting the national park and Hakoda had to work long hours to keep all the trails maintained in proper shape. He seemed happy with his job, however, so even Katara wasn't too concerned about her dad possibly overworking himself.
Yue had expected Azula to intensify their Pai Sho prep the very day they arrived in Cape Kuruk. Fortunately, after a few days had passed, it didn't seem as if that was Azula's plan. They were certainly practicing more than back in Ba Sing Se, but Yue considered the two hours before lunch and three hours in the evening a relatively light schedule, a far cry from their ten-hour exhausting sessions of their teenage years.
In addition to more intense Pai Sho practice, Azula and Katara were making sure that they got plenty of physical activities in the form of longer walks. This surprised Yue somewhat because Azula was generally not a big fan of outdoorsy physical activities. They'd gone on a lengthy coastal walk, which had been Katara's idea. Katara had been relieved to see that there was no longer any visible damage from the oil spill as a result of Sozin's Comet ramming the drilling platform. They were all pleased to see that the ugly oil drilling platform was no longer looming in the distance and ruining the pristine view. Certainly, the local economy had been adversely affected by the loss of so many jobs, and it had caused some families to move further inland, decreasing the already shrinking population of Cape Kuruk. On the upside, now that the drilling platform was gone, the tiny settlement was enjoying some success reorienting itself towards attracting more tourists.
The day before, the trio had gone for a long walk along the nature trails of the national park, with Hakoda playing a guide for them. It had been a wonderful if slightly exhausting walk. Yue had been a little surprised about Azula asking Hakoda a lot of questions, for some reason trying to learn as much as possible about all the various nature trails. The answer for Azula's interest was revealed the next day, when after their morning Pai Sho practice, Azula and Katara presented Yue with a suspicious looking cardboard box. Yue couldn't help hiding her surprise when she opened the box to discover a pair of brand-new running shoes.
"What's this all about?" Yue faced her wives with an uncertain stare. "What are you giving me these for? I mean, they look nice and comfortable, but-"
"I'll leave it for you to explain, Zula," Katara grinned. "After all, this whole prep schedule is mostly your idea."
"Thank you," Azula rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you both know that the world Pai Sho championship final is an absolute marathon of six grueling weeks. It's physically exhausting for everyone. I remember that you and Katara were starting to tire when you were in your early twenties during the final. You're going to turn thirty-two during the tournament. We can't neglect your physical endurance. Your fitness levels need to be way up from where they are right now."
"You're making me feel like a frail old lady," Yue scowled. "But I also fear that you're being serious about this."
"I'm being dead serious," Azula nodded. "This is happening. Your running gear has been prepared for you, darling. It's time to get changed and hit the trails."
"So that's what you were talking with Hakoda about," Yue sighed. "Getting the lay of the land and planning a route for me? Sneaky, very sneaky."
"You know the amount of detail Azula pays attention to," Katara smiled. "She's being frighteningly thorough with this."
"And you seriously expect me to go out there and start jogging?" Yue asked again, just to be sure. Azula nodded insistently. "I'm sorry, but it just seems a little ridiculous to me. I've always hated jogging. Can't I just… I don't know, go for swimming instead?"
"You know perfectly well that the water here rarely gets warm enough for swimming," Katara reminded her.
"Indeed, so you better discover fondness for jogging and you better do so quickly, because like I said, this is definitely happening," Azula said. She mustn't have liked the expression on Yue's face because when Azula spoke up again, she sounded very stern. "Are we going to have a problem over this? You agreed that you'll comply with everything I ask of you as your coach and you agreed to follow my schedule. If you're going to start questioning it now, then we might as well stop with this entire arrangement."
"No, it's not that, I understand the rationale behind it," Yue spoke up hastily. If there was one thing that she didn't want to do, then it was to offend Azula over her precious schedule. "It just feels a tiny bit excessive?" she tried instead.
"I was inspired by a book I read recently," Azula replied. "It made a lot of convincing points about how mental and physical fitness went hand in hand. I want to prevent you from having any mental lapses because you were feeling physically worn down. I'm trying to eliminate any weaknesses you may have, and don't try to tell me that's not important!"
"I really think it's a good idea, Yue," Katara smiled. "It's also my opinion as a medical professional. This will do you a lot of good."
"Ugh, fine," Yue sighed. "Just out of curiosity, what are you two going to do while I make myself ill on the tracks? Are you going to just idly stand around and watch?"
"We're going to act like timekeepers and monitor your progress," Azula replied confidently.
"Really," Yue rolled her eyes. "You just did such a wonderful job trying to sell jogging to me as something absolutely amazing, right?" Azula and Katara exchanged uncertain stares, both of them nodding. "You know what's going to inspire me to go along with this? Seeing you take your own medicine. If I'm going to push myself on those nature trails, then I'm only doing it alongside you two. Either we suffer together, or not at all."
Azula let out a heavy sigh as she pulled out a wallet from the back pocket of her jeans, retrieved what looked like a hundred-yuan bill and passed the money over to a grinning Katara. "You were right," she admitted reluctantly.
"What are you two on about?" Yue demanded.
"Oh, just a little bet," Katara grinned. "Azula didn't believe you'd think to press us into jogging with you, but I knew you'd insist on it. That's why I bought running shoes for Azula and myself at the same time. So, I guess let's all go and change for our first session of suffering."
"Hey, it's only fair," Yue smiled at the still pouting Azula. "Knowing that we'll be doing this together immediately makes me look forward to it so much more."
Even if introducing On Ji to his foster father Gyatso had gone well, following their return to the hotel in the Air Nation capital, Aang couldn't help but feel troubled. It had nothing to do with the meeting itself. Gyatso had gotten on very well with Mai, appreciating her dry wit and healthy sarcasm. His foster father had been very disappointed to hear about their separation, but had become far more understanding after Aang had explained the reasons behind their divorce. Aang felt as if Gyatso had been a little less impressed with On Ji, but he hadn't appeared disapproving. Perhaps some of his foster father's attitude could be written down to his age and declining health, Gyatso suffering more and more from acute arthritis.
Aang also wasn't too worried because On Ji was struggling to embrace the Air Nomad culture. It wasn't as if On Ji had grown up in exquisite luxury, but still, finding herself in this isolated mountain region where basic Fire Nation amenities were considered luxuries was a bit of a culture shock for Aang's new girlfriend. The Air Nation had made some progress over the past few years, largely due to Aang's innovations improving the country's power grid and making them far less reliant on the Earth Kingdom coal plants down on the plains. This had freed up plenty of resources that the leadership council of the Air Nation could invest into infrastructure and urban development. Aang often thought that this progress should have been swifter, but he could do little about any potential corruption infecting the government and leading to the misuse of some of the available funds.
Aang's worry stemmed more from an exchange between Gyatso and On Ji, something he had decided not to comment upon at the time, unwilling to start an argument. Now, when they were back at the hotel and On Ji was busy setting up the Pai Sho board for their daily sparring practice, Aang's mind kept going back to that conversation and making sure that he wouldn't be able to focus on their Pai Sho prep session.
On Ji knew that the main reason behind Aang's separation from Mai was their different attitudes towards having children. Aang wanted kids and Mai did not want to bear children, it was as simple as that. Aang had been clear and upfront with On Ji about his feelings on the matter from the very start, and On Ji had been receptive, claiming that she would be interested in having kids with the right guy. But when Gyatso had probed On Ji with some leading questions regarding potential grandchildren, Aang had been very surprised to see On Ji becoming very evasive, waffling and not giving a straight answer. It was all messing with Aang's head and making him worried that perhaps something had changed and On Ji no longer considered him the right guy to have kids with.
"So, are we going to do this or not?" On Ji sounded a little impatient as she looked at Aang. She had finished setting up the board and yet Aang still hadn't moved.
"Oh, sure, sure," Aang replied quickly, sitting down with his girlfriend at the board. It took Aang only a few moves to reaffirm what he already knew, namely that right now his mind wasn't on Pai Sho. "Listen, On Ji… I need to ask you something," he spoke up eventually. His relationship with Mai had been mired in communication challenges, and he was still busy processing that it didn't have to be the same way with On Ji, someone far more willing to open up than Mai.
"What is it?" On Ji asked, giving him a curious stare.
"It's about something that Gyatso asked you about. Something we've both talked about in the past," Aang began awkwardly.
"Uh, we talked about plenty of things with your dad. And we've talked about even more things with you, so you'll have to be far more specific, honey bear," On Ji said, appearing genuinely curious.
"Well, I was just thinking that after the finals it could be a good time to start a proper family," Aang continued. "When we spoke before, you seemed open to the idea of having children, and I thought-"
"Oh," was all that On Ji could manage, looking surprised. "Oh, I… I mean, I guess, but… I don't know about that being a good time?"
"What do you mean?" Aang asked. The feeling of some serious miscommunication was creeping up on him, but he still couldn't pinpoint what the exact issue was. "Why wouldn't it be a good time?"
"Well, if we decided to have a child right after the finals, then it would arrive right in the middle of the next qualifying cycle?" On Ji explained carefully. "That would mean I would have no chance to make it through to the finals in two years' time. I've made so much progress lately. It would be really disappointing if it was all for naught."
"I… see," was all Aang could say. He felt a little bit stunned.
"What?" On Ji asked. She looked slightly nervous now. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, I just… had assumed that when you said you'd be happy to have children, it meant that you would be happy to take some time off from Pai Sho," Aang explained, equally nervously.
"Well, I… I guess I'm not," On Ji sighed. "At least not at this point. You know that I've defied the will of my parents in order to pursue my Pai Sho career, even if my first results at the pro level were pathetic. I'm finally starting to turn the page and prove my parents wrong. I really don't want to lose the next two-year cycle to instead have a child. You're not going to be mad at me for making that choice, are you?"
"I'm not mad, I just… may have made the wrong assumptions about how you felt," Aang admitted. "You know that having kids is important to me. And we're not getting any younger-"
"Nice, making me feel like an old crone, good job," On Ji sighed. She had turned thirty a couple of months ago, while Aang's thirtieth birthday was coming up only next year. "Look, I meant what I said about wanting children. I want us to have kids, Aang. But I can't place that above everything else."
"And I'm trying to respect that, but-"
"But what? Why is there even a but?" On Ji demanded. She was starting to look a little frustrated.
"Alright, fine, there shouldn't be a but, I need to respect your choices," Aang admitted. An idea suddenly came to him. "Listen, maybe we can compromise somehow?"
"I'm all about compromising," On Ji said, sounding hopeful. "It's the only way to make a relationship work. What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking about the five-month gap between the final tournament of the cycle and the finals," Aang said. "Basically, all this time we have for prep right now. If we timed it right-"
"It's a nice idea, but in case I make it to the finals, that would mean that my prep time will align with the final months before giving birth and then looking after a newly born," On Ji argued, immediately making Aang realize that his plan was very naïve and overly optimistic. "That's no way to prepare for the finals."
"True," Aang sighed. "Well, that was my idea of a compromise, but I guess it was a pretty terrible one. You're right, it would disrupt your final preparations too much."
"Of course, if it looked like I had no chance of making it into the finals, we could try for it," On Ji smiled encouragingly. "But I really want to give it my best shot in the next cycle, you know? I feel like I'm coming into my prime. If I'm ever going to achieve anything at the Pai Sho board, then it's going to be now. And I so badly want to prove everyone who dismissed me wrong, especially my parents."
"I understand that," Aang nodded. Their stay with On Ji's family in the outer archipelago of the Fire Isles had been a little tense. Even with On Ji's improving results at the Pai Sho board, her parents continued to behave as if they expected their daughter to come to her senses and eventually pick up a more respectable career path. They hadn't been very kind to Aang, either, although perhaps less hostile than Mai's parents had been at first. On Ji's parents saw Aang as someone who anchored their daughter even more tightly to the world of Pai Sho and prevented her from making a break with it, so obviously, Aang hadn't become their favorite person. He'd also been a witness to several shouting matches between On Ji and her parents. He could very well understand her wanting to stick it to them.
"Why don't we agree on a much simpler compromise?" On Ji smiled at him. "You let me show what I can really do in the next cycle, and you support me from start to finish. And once the next cycle is over, regardless of the results, we're going to try for a baby. How about that?"
Aang smiled right back at her, his chest bursting with relief. "That sounds… pretty good, actually," he nodded at his girlfriend. "I think we can make it work," he added, feeling happy. Sure, he'd have to wait a few more years for something he'd been wanting for so long, but at the same time, Aang felt like the wait would be worth it.
Toph Beifong stared at the Pai Sho board in front of her. The frown on her face deepened as she continued the examination of the position on the board. It was from one of Yue's games at the Kyoshi Island tournament and Toph found herself struggling to make heads or tails of Yue's tactics. It was clear that Yue had experimented wildly during that tournament, because in some of her games, Yue's playstyle resembled more like that of Katara, while in some of her other games she was almost copying Azula's style. Yue's versatility was becoming a highly vexing challenge because Toph was not at all sure what tactics Yue would adopt for the finals.
Her own preparations in Gaoling were going reasonably well. Teo was as helpful as always during the prep sessions, but by now Toph felt like she was no longer getting much out of their sparring sessions. Toph simply knew the playstyle of her husband too well. In the past, her father would have paid extraordinary sums of money to some of the more skilled Earth Kingdom masters to travel to Gaoling and offer themselves as sparring partners, or more like punching bags for his daughter. Unfortunately, with the fortunes of Beifong family on the decline, Lao Beifong no longer had the necessary funds to hire the best sparring partners for his daughter. The local Gaoling masters might have been interested to spar with her for free, but the lack of challenge would mean that Toph once again gained little from it.
Toph shook her head, trying to dismiss her frustrations. Perhaps none of this would matter. She'd just push Zuko, Aang and perhaps even On Ji into some extra sparring back in Ba Sing Se. On Ji was actually starting to become useful in this. Not only was she a good player who was quickly catch up with them, but Toph also wasn't as familiar with her style as she was with Zuko and Aang.
Feeling good about her new plan, Toph tried to refocus her attention on the situation on the board. She knew that she was doing the right thing in focusing on Yue in particular. Yue had only placed fifth in her last tournament, so it would have been easy to assume that her form was dipping, but Toph was too smart to make such assumptions. She made sure to look deeper into Yue's experimental playstyle and she didn't like what she was seeing. Toph had always believed that as long as she stuck to her guns as a strong defensive player, Yue stood little chance against her. But in many of her games at the Kyoshi tournament, Toph saw signs of Yue becoming way more comfortable in embracing Azula's attacking mindset, to the point where she could pose serious danger to Toph's defensive style. Similarly, Yue appeared equally capable of embracing Katara's fluid, dynamic defensive game which could easily counter Zuko's offense. It was becoming very clear that Yue was going to be a source of many headaches for them in Yu Dao.
Toph was still desperately trying to identify some kind of weakness in Yue's move selection, when her focus was broken by the voices in the hallway just outside her study. She couldn't make out the exact words spoken, but she could hear the voice of her father, far louder than Teo's voice, her husband apparently trying to hush her father. While an annoying distraction, Toph was not alarmed by the exchange. Her parents had accepted Teo as a part of her life years ago and that wasn't going to change. Their current conversation sounded more like a result of her father getting too carried away with his sherry bottle, something that was becoming a too common occurrence.
The commotion outside finally seemed to die down and soon enough Teo opened the doors to enter the study. Lao Beifong was still around, however, and his next words made Toph shiver nervously. "I hope she understands that without the prize money from winning the tournament, we'll be forced to sell," her father spoke, his voice sounding slightly slurred.
Teo entered the study and closed the doors behind him as swiftly as he could in his wheelchair. He looked up at his wife with a slightly guilty stare. "Don't suppose there's any chance you didn't hear that," he sighed.
"Don't worry about it," Toph shrugged, trying to appear like she wasn't bothered by her father's drunken moment of honesty. "I knew the situation was dire even if my parents had never put it into words quite like that."
"It's not up to you to fix it," Teo said softly.
"I guess," Toph sighed. It was true that her parents could sell the estate, buy a perfectly serviceable house and live out the rest of their lives in relative comfort. Still, the estate was her inheritance. It meant something to her and she didn't want to lose it. "I just know that my parents will never come up with serviceable solutions to deal with this issue. It really is on me."
"I don't want you to think that way, though," Teo frowned. "You don't need that extra pressure going into the finals."
"Eh, it's just one more reason to win the damned thing," Toph shrugged flippantly. Teo probably saw through her, though, aware that her cavalier attitude was just for show. Their relationship may not have been physical, but on an emotional level Teo had learned to read her like an open book. "Maybe there's a way to raise the funds some other way. Maybe I could actually start making use of my education," Toph snorted.
"Monetizing your love of rocks?" Teo chuckled. "I suppose you can always write a book."
"Yes, a book titled 'I Love Big Rocks and I Can't Lie'," Toph laughed. "No, let's be serious, there's not much money in geology. I have another idea, though."
"What is it?" Teo asked.
"You know how those men's magazines did sexy photo shoots of both On Ji and Kori?" Toph continued. "I think it's frankly insulting that they haven't made me an offer. Maybe I could threaten and shame them about that, and they would make me a very lucrative offer as well. I think we have a winning idea here."
"Umm, as long as you're sure about that," Teo said, looking a tiny bit conflicted.
"What, you don't think I have what it takes?" Toph huffed. "I'm sure the only reason why I haven't been asked is their fear of violence."
"I suspect that's the actual reason. I don't think they could find a photographer brave enough to do a shoot with you, love," Teo chuckled.
"Fair enough," Toph joined her husband in amused laughter. "Anyway, I was only joking, if that wasn't clear already. I don't really want to do anything like that. But I would like to win the title of a world champion, so get over here and help me figure out how to deal with Yue's bag of tricks, come the fall…"
It was a quiet evening at the Enuaraq household on the third week of Azula, Katara and Yue's Cape Kuruk Pai Sho prep camp. The Pai Sho practice for the day was behind them, and the throuple were lounging on the downstairs sofa in front of the TV. With Hakoda having retired upstairs with one of his books, Azula was lying down with her legs spread across Yue and Katara's laps, watching the TV screen with interest and laughing aloud at this new sitcom, Blackadder. It was rare to hear Azula laughing at sitcoms, but there was something about this alternate history comedy that appealed to her, probably because of her cynical sense of humor and deep knowledge of history. Azula was in a particularly good mood tonight and seemed happy to explain some of the jokes that required knowledge of historic references to Katara and Yue. Katara immediately saw how that knowledge immediately made the show that much funnier for her.
Katara loved her time in Cape Kuruk and plans were already forming in her head about a possible return in the coming years. Certainly, a summer beach vacation was one of their traditions and they all loved their usual Ember or Kyoshi Island escapes, but Katara was starting to remember that summers this far up north had a rugged, wild beauty about them that she didn't realize she had been missing all this time. She knew that it would be easy to convince Yue to return here next summer. Azula would be harder to win over, but she seemed to have already developed a lot of fondness for Caper Kuruk summers.
They had been keeping very busy throughout their stay, which suited Katara just fine. The Pai Sho practice sessions were progressing well and did not feel too exhausting as long as they observed the limit of five hours per day at most. The first week and a half of jogging had been nightmarish, with all of them struggling. Katara had always taken pride in her endurance, developed over countless long shifts at the hospital, but since she hadn't been working for almost two years, her endurance wasn't what it had once been. Azula was the lightest of them, she paid a lot of attention to her diet and kept herself busy, but Azula was also more known for her dexterity, not for her endurance. Still, Yue was struggling the most, because she was quite simply the least fit of the three. Yue was a couple of inches taller than both Azula and Katara, and when they had last weighed themselves back in Ba Sing Se, Yue had been seven pounds heavier than Katara and more than ten pounds heavier than Azula. It wasn't much, but while jogging on a nature trail that went up and down all the time, these extra few pounds actually mattered, making Yue struggle way more than Azula and Katara. Still, during the third week of increasingly harder nature trails, they were finally starting to show some progress.
Aside from working on both Pai Sho and their physical fitness, Katara also spent a lot of time in the kitchen, sometimes assisted by Yue, and occasionally, but very rarely, Azula. Cape Kuruk didn't have anything that would count as a proper classy restaurant. They had a couple of greasy spoons like Wang Fire's Spicy Chicken, and also a café that didn't serve any main courses, so most of the time the throuple ended up cooking for themselves. It didn't feel like a chore since Katara enjoyed cooking a great deal, and on this occasion, she was doing it not only for her wives, but also for her dad, which was a new experience for her. Hakoda was clearly delighted about this unexpected treat, stating after every meal how much he would miss the girls when they went back to Ba Sing Se.
"Well, that was fun, but maybe we should consider retiring," Yue said, yawning as they watched the credits roll following yet another unsuccessful attempt of a coup by Edmund, Lord Blackadder.
"I think there should be one more episode," Azula replied.
"And I think it's funny that whenever it's staying up for something that you consider entertaining, you seem to forget all those sermons about how important it is to get plenty of sleep," Yue chuckled, moving to tickle the sole of Azula's right foot. It wasn't the most well thought out plan because Azula was ridiculously ticklish and she immediately began to flail wildly with her legs, kicking the unsuspecting Katara in the shoulder and narrowly missing her jaw.
"Hey, watch it!" Katara exclaimed, leaning backwards to evade the random kicking.
"Sorry, sorry," Azula quickly apologized, having calmed down. "It was Yue's fault, anyway. She knows not to tickle me unexpectedly."
"Always my fault, I get it," Yue sighed. She then pointed at the TV screen. "And it was the last episode, anyway. See, it's time for boring news."
"Oh," Azula blinked. "Well, in that case I suppose we can turn in." She rose from the sofa, pausing and listening intently. "As long as the dogs decide to keep it down, but apparently this is the time of day to go insane."
"That's odd," Katara said, trying to listen in, but with the news anchor blabbering in the background it was hard to make anything out. Katara rose to quickly switch off the TV after which she was able to overhear the unmistakable sounds of dogs barking and howling in the yard.
"St. Bernard's usually don't bark like that, do they?" Yue asked worriedly. "What's gotten into them?"
"No idea, but perhaps we should check it out," Katara said, heading towards the front door. She became even more concerned when the howling of the dogs turned into whimpering and desperate scratching at the front door. Katara hurried up to open the doors, almost getting bowled over as Eska and Desna zoomed past her, disappearing into the kitchen to hide there.
"Crazy mutts," Azula snorted, walking up to Katara as they stepped out onto the porch, with Yue right behind them, looking over Katara's shoulder. Azula then began to laugh when the porch lights revealed the terrible threat to Eska and Desna, a tiny pitch-black kitten sitting at the base of the porch steps and looking up at them, appearing unimpressed.
"This must be the terrifying beast frightening the poor dogs," Yue chuckled.
"Looks like it," Katara said, kneeling to take a closer look at the kitten. The tiny fuzzball did not have a collar and appeared a little bit unkempt, but it did not seem to be malnourished. "I guess it could be a stray?" Katara ventured.
"Only a stray would challenge two large dogs," Azula nodded confidently, kneeling next to her. She reached out to try and pet the kitten. Katara hoped that Azula would be careful and wouldn't scare the kitten, but once again, the fuzzball didn't appear at all intimidated. The black kitten didn't seem to be a huge fan of petting because when Azula tried again, it ducked out of the way and then retaliated by biting Azula's finger, causing Yue and Katara to giggle. "This actually feels familiar," Azula said, giving the furry creature chewing on her finger a fond stare. "This one reminds me of the cat Zuko and I had before our family unit imploded. Druk also wasn't a big fan of getting petted, at least until he got used to it. And he also liked to bite us."
"Well, this one is very cute," Yue grinned, kneeling between Azula and Katara. "Should we take the little guy inside for the night? We can take him… or her to the shelter tomorrow."
"Erm, I don't even know where the nearest shelter is these days, Yue," Katara sighed. "It could be twenty miles away for all I know."
"In that case, maybe we should just keep the little fella," Yue smiled, watching the kitten finally release Azula's finger.
"He could belong to someone," Katara replied. "Before we even start thinking about that, we need to do everything we can to make sure someone isn't looking for a lost kitten. I'll call the local paper tomorrow."
"I'm starting to hope that nobody responds," Azula said, finally picking the kitten up. It made a big show of hissing for a good while before relaxing and starting to purr as Azula held and petted it. "You know that Ran and Shaw won't be with us for much longer. Maybe this is a sign that we should get a new cat. A sort of generational change."
"That's very true," Katara admitted, warming up to the idea. "But we still need to make sure nobody is missing this little mouser," she said, insisting on doing the right thing.
"Agreed, I don't want to feel guilty about some child missing their kitten. We definitely need to try and find the actual owner, as long as there is one," Yue nodded. "But on the off chance that nobody steps forward, I would love to keep him… or her. Also, what would we call the fuzzball? If they don't have a name already."
"Azula said it reminded her of the cat she had as a child. Maybe we could call them Druk Jr.," Katara suggested, happy to see Azula smiling at the idea. It was clear that if nobody stepped forward to claim the supposed stray, their new cat would be indeed affectionally dubbed Druk Jr.