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The birth of the Fire Nation's Crown Princess is a momentous occasion where persons of all elements and creed arrived to bear witness to her first breath, stoking the spark of life held within her tiny chest.
The Southern Water Tribe and the last of the Air Nomads arrive together, intertwined as their bloodlines are through marriage, friendship and shared hardships. Lady Katara led the way with a fretful Avatar Aang dogging her footsteps while fussily inquiring about how she was feeling. No one would dare speak of it where she could hear, but the elders steeped in sacrifice and duty whispered approvingly of the waterbender's urgency to come to their nation's aid, in spite of how heavily pregnant she was.
To them, it was noble. An unexpected mark of an honorable spirit for one whom they once believed heralded from a culture of savagery.
The court ladies cooed behind their long sleeves as a resigned, but joyous Sokka tended to his restless nephew Bumi whose cries for his mother were quieted when presented with a dozen freshly-made firecracker buns by Suki, the Kyoshi Warrior assigned to their security detail by no means of favoritism. It was only efficient. Just as the boy nibbled on the fluffy bread, distracted from the quick kiss shared between the warrior and tactician, a pained grunt echoed off the walls with poison-laced curses.
Members of the court, pacing the halls and lingering with their ears pressed to the walls scattered when the floor beneath their feet began to shake. Suki guided Sokka and little Bumi amidst the fleeing bodies to a remote part of the palace far from the epicenter where the world threatened to teeter off its axis.
Within Firelord Zuko's chambers, the solemn sovereign knelt at the bedside of Toph Beifong, known as the Crown Jewel of the Earth Kingdom, who felt less treasured as she did angry enough to grind a lesser man's bones to dust.The Firelord was ashen-faced, heart wrenching at the swears under her breath and the way her clouded eyes brimmed with tears as she searched the rafters unseeingly. He wished he could take the pain from her even while she swore to bury him should he ever lay hands on her again.
Pleadingly, he turned his eyes to Katara who offered him a pitying but reassuring smile with the promise that this was natural for someone going through the arduous task of bringing life into the world.
It would all be worth it, Katara promised, when they laid eyes on their child.
Zuko hoped so. Toph disagreed.
Aang waited outside, trying to calm the frazzled servants fearful that the very ceiling would come down over their heads.
Sokka whispered to his nephew that he would have another friend to play with soon enough, and Suki squeezed his hand as they crowded together around the child with their heads bent low and hearts beating as once.
And Katara held fast, spoke succinctly to guide Toph through the worst of the pain, and tried to mitigate the shocks as much as she could without disrupting the child's bid for life.
Then, a screeching wail erupted as Toph gave a final heaving breath and the sunlight streaming into the room brightened as if Agni themself wished to look closer at the miracle that'd been born.
"They're a.." Katara started, falling silent abruptly.
Zuko supported Toph with a hand tucked behind her shoulders when she sat up, having a hard time keeping her head from lolling from the relief in her abdomen or herself from sagging back when her strength failed her. The two turned in Katara's direction, sporting similar expressions of concern.
"A what?" Toph asked hoarsely, squeezing Zuko's hand with the silent reprimand that he'd better start talking if Katara didn't soon.
Zuko blinked, watching as thin trails of smoke rose into the air. Its point of origin was the small child cradled in Katara's hands whose very body was steaming.
".. A firebender," Zuko whispered, half-ignoring the dig of Toph's nails against his palm. Her hold loosened shortly after, a pensive expression resting on her face before she huffed.
"Don't care about that, give her to me," Toph stated, holding out her hands with a grabbing motion.
Katara sighed, bundling the child up after running a sluice of water over her delicately. The steam dissipated with a hiss, and soon the child was swaddled within a soft blanket, still radiating heat but only enough to warm. "How did you know that she's a girl before I told you?"
"I see differently than you, remember?" Toph smirked, waiting with her arms held out until Katara approached then laid the infant down in her embrace. No one would dare to speak of what they saw aloud, but to the few souls present in the room, they would never forget it either. The moment the child nestled in her arms, Toph's expression softened. "Besides, not like I wouldn't be able to tell what my own kid is.. and if she changes later, then that's fine too."
Zuko watched reverently. How Toph cradled the child to her chest, shifting the folds of her blanket and tracing her fingers over the infant's cheeks, nose, and- Oh. His heart could have collapsed upon itself from the tenderness of realizing that she was trying to learn and memorize their daughter's face. The look on Toph's face wasn't one he would solely describe as gentle, but contemplative, awe-struck even. Her lips quirked, a half-smile that sent his heart fluttering when she tilted her head toward him.
"She's got your nose. Her eyes aren't open yet, so I can't tell the eyes.." Toph turned her fingers around, brushing the back of them against their daughter's smooth cheek when she began to fuss. "Whines like you too."
"Toph," Zuko and Katara said simultaneously, glancing at one another before the latter covered her mouth with a hand to giggle. He hung his head, peeking up from beneath the fall of his hair at a grinning Toph leant back against the mountainous throne of pillows behind her. She cradled the infant against her chest, stroked her hair and occasionally ran her fingers over her jaw, her cheek, and the shock of fluffy hair atop her head. It was as if she couldn't stop touching her, and Zuko harbored a sneaking suspicion in his chest that he wouldn't be able to hold his daughter until Toph inevitably (hopefully) fell asleep.
Perhaps even then, knowing how the earthbender liked to gravitate toward heat in her slumber.
"We can't thank you enough, Katara," Zuko said as he went to his old friend's side, taking her hand as he helped her to stand. She touched the swell of her belly, smoothing her hand along its curve with a little smile. It almost takes Zuko back, makes him wonder how this sweet-faced woman was also capable of manipulating someone's body by turning their very blood into the strings of a marionette connected to her fingers.
How much strength she possessed, how much power was in her was terrifying to behold. And now she was going to bring new life into the world, yet again. Her blue eyes flicked up and met gold, a quiet understanding passing through them - one of several as if she knew what lingered deep within Zuko's mind and heart. He no longer feared her. She no longer hated him. What existed between them was a friendship deeper than the caverns of Old Ba Sing Se, and the recognition that they were on the same side, hearts beating as one on a similar accord.
Katara, without saying so, added his daughter to the list of people whom she would protect with every ounce of strength she had. And in return, he flicked his eyes down to her stomach then met her gaze with a brief nod. Her child would also be one of the people he would give his very life for.
"It's alright," Katara said, smiling gently as she squeezed his hand, sealing their vow between their palms. "I can't say that this didn't make me excited for my daughter, either.."
Their hands fell away from one another when Toph snorted, teasingly asking, "Oh yeah? How do you know she's a girl?"
"Same as you," Katara's lips quirked in a crooked grin that Zuko noted had to be from the years spent around Aang. He'd taken on some of Toph's mannerisms himself; the fact that he was there during her birth rather than seated elsewhere while waiting for the courtiers to let him know of her state was proof of that. Katara laid a hand on Toph's shoulder, giving a little squeeze and something shifted in her eyes.
She smiled hesitantly, hopefully, "And maybe it's also me hoping our daughters could be friends, like we are."
Toph tilted her head up, and though Zuko knew that her eyes couldn't purposefully meet Katara's, she did turn toward her as if she could. They smiled at one another, water nourishing earth and earth rewarding the waves with promise. She cradled the dozing infant in one arm and reached up with her other hand to squeeze Katara's.
"I'd like that," she said.
Katara's eyes crinkled, and her voice dripped with affection. "Me too," she sniffled, quickly catching herself by thumbing away at her eyes. Toph snickered something about her being so dramatic but welcomed the little brush to her cheek, the way Katara smoothed her fingers over her hair lovingly while bending away the sweat from her skin. "I'll give you both some time alone with her. Aang and I'll handle the gallery."
Zuko jumped to attention at that, watching Katara as she walked carefully from the bed and toward the door. He turned toward her, reaching out with his fingertips grazing her elbow, "Are you sure? We still have a sitting room arranged, maybe you sh-"
"-ould be enjoying your time with Toph and the baby," Katara interjected, leveling him with an unimpressed glance. But there's humor in the curl of her lips, and the twinkle in her eyes. "You were so skittish before she was born. Now, you get to meet her. So go meet her."
Zuko's heart thudded, and he felt it again. The vibration in his skin, the way that his body was torn between one place and the other. He could feel the weight of change at his back, condensed into one small being who radiated enough heat to be considered a little sun. She would change his entire world. She already had changed his world, and he was just putting off the inevitable.
"Get over here, Zuko," Toph called to him, and Katara slipped out of his reach with another knowing smile while he turned woodenly back to the woman that upended his entire world and brought it back all over again - new, shifted just a little, and so precious.
The two of them are a vision. Toph was already a beauty; carved from mutton jade with the precision of a master, condensed with vigor and unyielding durability, yet still soft to the touch when one knew how to hold her. And he beheld her with a heart laden with so much love that he felt dizzied by it. Sunlight enveloped her, tracing around her with a glow as she held their daughter against her chest, stroking her cheek absentmindedly. There was no other call, no need, because he was drawn to them like the flame within the hearth - welcomed, comforted, and safe. He knelt by her bedside but Toph shifted slightly, and he realized what she wanted without saying, crawling into the small space offered.
"What color is her hair?" Toph asked, leaning into him once he settled with his back against the pillows. She rested against him, her head tucked against his shoulder and their daughter dozing with her rosebud mouth half-parted.
"The same as yours," Zuko answered gently.
"And how would I know that?" Toph answered, and he rolled his eyes fondly until she elbowed him lightly, drawing an oof from him as well as a little chuckle buried with a kiss to her hair.
So he explained to her; their daughter's hair was the color of basalt. Dark, glittering with the remnant of the water Katara used to clean her, and gently drying from the steam gently wafting from her pinked skin. It was as if he was looking at lava, rapidly cooling and melding into the shape of a small child. Basalt was hard stone, immovable and found almost everywhere across the Fire Islands. It made up the very bedrock of his homeland. And for a child that already housed such power that he could practically hear the minister's insistence that he begin to make plans for her studies, that he be proud of his blood for it overcame the "impurities" intertwined within, it was fitting.
"It's kind of weird.." Toph whispered, now just letting her fingers rest in the blanket's opening, right over the child's heart.
"What is?" Zuko asked, looking to her.
Toph was silent for a second, her eyes open, resting down where the child was against her skin. "I just met her," she started, then hesitated, searching for the words that Zuko could already feel lingering in the air. "And I already.."
"Love her?" Zuko finished encouragingly, listening to Toph's quiet sigh, feeling her nod.
"Yeah," Toph mumbled, only touching over their daughter's heart with her fore and middle finger. Ah, she was trying to memorize her heartbeat too. "She doesn't even have a name yet and yet.."
Zuko understood. She didn't have a name. Just a moment ago, she didn't even exist. Only an ideal, a possibility of their future, and now she was there. For years, it was only the two of them and now it was three. The rest of the world would exist outside of the doors of his chambers, they would come with obligations, with expectations, for them and the new life in their arms. And he wanted nothing more than to keep them out for awhile longer - to keep Toph and their daughter to himself, to protect them. There would be demands for Toph to be more, to be something that she wasn't and would always refuse to be because of what she was, but he could feel it now.
Something had shifted in the woman he loved, changed so quickly and silently that if he wasn't close enough to see it in her then he wouldn't have known. The way Toph stared at the little girl, her hold on her both loose and firm, spoke of devotion. And Zuko could live with the thought that he had been moved further down his beloved's list of priorities, that this infant had already usurped his position within her heart simply by existing. Because for him, it was the same.
There was nothing that would come before her.
"We've already considered a few, right?" Zuko asked, coaxing the heat from Toph's skin to give her some relief. Her thankful sigh making him smile. "And the Council put forth a couple."
Toph growled, "I'm not letting a bunch of fossils name my kid."
"Our kid?" Zuko suggested, and Toph snorted. He almost laughed at that but decided not to; birth might have made his beloved softer but her punches still hurt. "And it's a form of tradition that isn't too restrictive. My mother offered a name too."
"Oh yeah?" Toph perked up at that, and Zuko's eyebrow raised.
"You don't have any problem with my mom giving suggestions?"
Toph smirked, tilting her head up against his shoulder with her breath fanning against his throat. "Your mom is tough as nails, plus she's given the world a fuck you so many times for you that I've gotta respect the lady."
He almost scolded her for cursing in front of their daughter already, but the sight of her so full of life made him excuse it. Ah, the concessions he made for this woman.
"What's her bid?" Toph asked.
Zuko glanced at the child, and stared at her, really taking her in before the name left his lips. "Izumi."
".. Izumi," Toph whispered, holding up her hand to him. "How's it spelled in Fire Nation Script?"
He drew the elegant lines that made up the characters, and waited until Toph mumbled to him, "Fountain.."
She didn't give much of a reaction to that but closed her hand before opening it again and ordering, "Give me your hand. "
Zuko offered his palm to her and she traced her fingers along his wrist, to his palm, then drew in the Earthen Seals. Oh.
"Spring," Zuko whispered, and it felt as if something clicked into place. He looked at his beloved, then to the girl in her arms, still radiating heat like coal lit within the bed of a brazier. A quiet radiance, a newness to the world, washing away the old and nurturing what would come next, spring. "My mother wanted to pick a name that was both Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation; the traditionalists wouldn't be able to argue, but it would pay respect to both of us."
"Seems fair, since she's half awesome and half sap," Toph teased, grinning with all her teeth when Zuko gave her fingers a squeeze. "But together, huh? Well, there's another way to write this.."
He loosened his hold on her fingers, letting her trace two characters in his palm which tingled long after her fingers raised. They were old, and ones he'd only read upon bamboo and wooden slips within the palace archives. One where his forebearers spoke of enacting a long-lasting change upon the world, one for good, but only the good of one nation. He didn't feel his hand beginning to tremble until Toph closed hers around it, sealing the characters against his skin, and holding him tight as they sought to wrack him to his very core.
"What do you think?" Toph asked, as if she hadn't made up her mind. As if she wouldn't name their child right this instant, and declare it to the world. She wouldn't, there was protocol true, but there was also the spirits to be taken into account. Things far beyond their understanding, ones that would need to be made aware of their child's existence, for the world to truly know that she was there, theirs, and would always be. But Zuko knew in her heart, in their shared hearts, their firstborn could be named nothing else.
Zuko smiled, and looked down at Izumi, joining Toph's hand over her heart to feel its small but powerful thrum. "I love it.."
What goes unsaid is between them. They loved one another, they loved her, and this love - this child - would be theirs for all time.