Chapter One
Azula and Ty Lee, now 23, were talking. They'd been talking for a while but had come to no solutions that both of them considered ideal.
"We could adopt. I'm sure there are plenty of orphans out there that can Firebend and need a good home." Ty Lee said. Azula sighed. That seemed like it would work.
"There's more to being a member of the Royal Family than just being able to Firebend. Father spoke of disowning Zuko because of his lack of natural talent." Azula said. Ty Lee clicked her tongue.
"You're not your father! You need to stop trying to please him!" Ty Lee said. They'd been married for five years and she hadn't seen her father in almost seven years and Azula still had moments where she valued his opinion over Ty Lee's or her own.
"I know! I'm sorry. I just… Sometimes I worry how Father would look at me if he knew how I was living my life. It's not so easy to just put aside a lifetime of being boxed into being Daddy's perfect girl." Azula said.
Ty Lee hugged Azula, kissing her lovingly. "I know, Zu. I know you're doing your best." Ty Lee said.
"We could talk to Zuko. Maybe he would agree to impregnate me." Ty Lee joked. Azula didn't take it as a joke though. "NO! I wouldn't let him do that!" Azula snapped, slamming her fist on the table.
"Well, it's nice to know that you're as protective of me as I am of you." Ty Lee chuckled.
"Maybe we can talk to Aang." Azula said. "You want him to impregnate one of us? I'm not sure his wives would let him." Ty Lee said. "No, Ty Lee… I mean maybe he can do some spiritual mumbo jumbo to help us have a child." Azula said. Ty Lee chuckled.
"It's worth a try. He does have a direct connection to the Spirit World." Ty Lee said.
Azula nodded, starting to write a letter to Aang. She wasn't sure where he was exactly, but last time she had heard from him, he'd been down at the Southern Water Tribe visiting Katara's father and grandmother and grandfather and introducing them to their children.
"Can hawks withstand cold weather?" Azula asked. Ty Lee shrugged. "I dunno. Can you?" Ty Lee asked. Azula laughed. She hated cold weather and it messed with her firebending. As hot as her fire was, she did poorly in cold weather.
Azula sighed, writing the letter.
Dear Avatar Aang,
Ty Lee and I are looking to have a child of our own. We hope to actually give birth to one but will adopt if there's no other option. Still, we hoped that maybe you would have some Spirit World connections that might help us have a child. Ty Lee jokes that Ty Lee could sleep with Zuko and have a child that way, but I don't want to share Ty Lee with Zuko, even for an evening… Besides, how would Jin feel about that?
Anyway, enough talk. If you're able to come help us, please respond on the back of this letter. If not, we'll figure something out.
With gratitude,
Princess Azula
Azula rolled up the letter and gave it to a hawk, offering it a bit of Aang's clothing for his scent. These hawks had been bred to hunt both by sight and scent and could track someone over long distances as long as they had at one point been nearby.
-0-
It took almost three weeks for the hawk to find Aang in a mountainous area deep in the south of the Earth Kingdom. It landed, nudging Aang, who stopped his training with Toph to take the note. "Oh! Azula and Ty Lee want to have children and are asking me if I have any spiritual methods for them to do it. Aang thought for a long moment. He'd never really thought about it. Airbenders sometimes had children, but usually they were raised as a community. There were definitely gay Airbenders and many were bisexual or pansexual since they tended to not tie themselves down to a single identity.
"I need to go to the Spirit World. Can you and Toph guard me?" Aang asked. It was unlikely that anyone would attack him. Things were much more peaceful now, but there was still always a chance that something would happen.
He sat down and quickly went into a trance, heading into the Spirit World, hoping to find a spirit that could counsel him on aiding a same-sex couple. He thought about his goal and found himself in a glade. Venturing cautiously forward, he found a large spirit that had two heads, one male and one female. "To what do I owe the honor of the Avatar visiting my grove?" The spirit asked. "I'm trying to assist some friends of mine. They're two women and they hope to have a child and I thought that maybe you could help them."
"Hmmm… I have helped couples have children before. Couples that were barren, same-sex couples as you call them. But all who have come before me have offered me something in return. I cannot offer this couple children if they do not offer me something in return and they must come to me themselves, completely open and completely unguarded." The spirit said.
"I will speak to them on that." Aang said. The spirit nodded and Aang disappeared from its presence, waking up.
"We'll need to go to Republic City." Aang said.
-0-
It had been almost two months since Azula had written to Aang and he hadn't written back, so Azula assumed that Aang either couldn't do anything or didn't want to. Either way, she was a little annoyed that he didn't at least write back. Thus, it was a bit surprise when there was a knock on their door. They had been looking at profiles for children that they could adopt. Whether the child was male or female didn't really matter much to them. They were looking for Firebenders or Non-Benders.
So when there was a knock on the door, Azula started and went to get the door.
"Oh… Aang, Katara, Toph… Please come in. I see Sokka, Suki and their kids aren't with you. I'm actually surprised that you haven't settled down yet at the new Air Temple outside of Republic City." Azula said.
"Oh, we have. We're training our twins, Setsin and Mehin in Airbending. They're showing real promise." Aang said.
"Hmm… Good… Do you have any news on whether you can help us have children?" Azula said. "Yes. There's a Spirit who says they can help you, but you need to come into the Spirit World yourself and address them."
"I think I can manage that." Ty Lee said. She'd trained in meditation under Iroh, and while she wasn't reliably able to get into the Spirit World, she had been there at least a few times. Azula was training as well, but she wasn't as good at reaching out spiritually.
"I think both of you will need to go. But I can aid you in bringing you to the Spirit World." Aang said. "This Spirit said that you needed to be completely open and completely unguarded. I've never met this Spirit before, but they probably intend to test you somehow." Aang said as he sat with Ty Lee and Azula, sitting between them.
They each took Aang's hand and then took each other's hand and they closed their eyes, focusing on the Spiritual. Aang guided them in focusing their energy and leaving the physical in exchange for the Spiritual.
-0-
"Wow… This place is gorgeous. Where are we?" Ty Lee asked. "This is the grove of the Spirit I mentioned. Remember, no aggression towards this Spirt. Whatever they do, I will protect you. We have to show them that we come in peace. "Who comes to see me? Avatar… And you have brought two mortals with you. Are these the women that you mentioned?" The Spirit asked.
"My name is Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation." "And I am Ty Lee." Ty Lee said.
"I see. And you wish me to aid you in having a child?" The Spirit asked.
"Yes. Please." Azula said.
"And what do you two offer me in return? Conceiving a child is an exchange. An exchange of energy, an exchange of one's very self. To bring a life into existence, one must offer their life in exchange. So what do you offer me?" The Spirit asked.
Azula gulped. She wasn't sure how to respond to this. She was sure that the offer of a simple trinket wouldn't suffice, no matter how much it was worth in mortal money.
"Are you willing to give up your lives to me in exchange for having a child?" Azula gulped more heavily. "You-you're going to kill us? How will we give birth if we're dead?" Aang didn't seem to be worried though. Maybe he knew something that Azula and Ty Lee didn't.
"Yes. We are willing to offer our lives to you in exchange for a child." Ty Lee said calmly.
"Very well. Then hold still and I will make the exchange." The Spirit said. Azula gasped, feeling an ice-cold sensation as her body seemed to experience a sudden sense of inertia. She felt she was about to fall right before it ended. Just a split second of that painful sensation, and it seemed Ty Lee had experienced it too. The spirit was holding two globes of energy, one colored a fiery blue and the other colored a fluorescent pink.
Suddenly, a shell appeared in Azula's arms, and the spirit channeled the energy into the shell. As it did this, the shell started to pulse and throb, slowly turning soft and warm in Azula's grasp. At first, it was silent, but then it started to cry. "There. You now have a child. But while this child has the spiritual energy to be alive, it is not yet a person. To become a person, you have to invest it with emotional energy. That only comes from a lifetime of interacting with it. I cannot give it that. Only you can." The Spirit said.
"Wait! I thought you said we were giving up our lives for this!" Azula said. "And so you did. You gave up ten years of your life each to invest the child with sufficient energy to become real. But that was a mere catalyst. It will now provide its own life force and grow on its own, for however long a human may live." The Spirit said.
"Now go. I wish to return to my own considerations." Aang bowed and took Azula and Ty Lee and brought them back to the Physical World, where they were greeted by everyone and were holding the child now. "What should we call… Her?" Azula asked, checking which gender they were. Ty Lee thought for a minute. "Leize. I've always liked that name." Ty Lee said.
"Leize it is." Azula said, cuddling with the child. Ty Lee cuddled in with her as well as she yawned and fell asleep. Aang smiled. "Congratulations. I look forward to seeing Leize grow up." Aang said.
"She'll grow up surrounded by love and family." Azula said, promising to love Leize as her father never loved her.
The End