The Thief And The Healer

Epilogue

"Leaves from the vine

Falling so slow,

Like fragile tiny shells

Drifting in the foam..."

Zuko's hushed voice lulled in the silence as he watched the tiny eyes of his seven-month-old daughter slowly close. She'd been drifting for the past ten minutes he'd been rocking her, but singing always clinched the deal. He loved staring into her crystal blue eyes, an exact match of her mother's, but both of his ladies would be cranky in the morning if the little one didn't sleep now.

"Little soldier boy

come marching home," he sang.

"Brave soldier boy

comes marching home."

The baby let off a soft sigh as she finally drifted off, her small pudgy fingers still tightly gripping his own.

"Goodnight, my sweet fire lily," he whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. As softly as he could, he laid her amongst the plush blankets of her crib.

"I love it when you sing to her."

Zuko turned to see Katara leaning against the doorway that separated their room from the nursery. The moonlight cast silver highlights in her unbound hair. Her red robe was wrapped tightly around her body against the cold of the evening.

"It's a song Uncle used to sing around the shop," Zuko replied, looking back down upon their daughter. Katara came over to join him and he pulled her in front of him, wrapping both arms around her waist and settling his chin on her shoulder. Together they watched the rise and fall of the young one's resting breaths as she slept under the watchful eyes of her parents.

"She's so beautiful," Katara whispered.

"Like her mother." Zuko pressed a kiss against her cheek that had her leaning further into him.

"Maybe the next one will look more like you," she hummed. He ran a thumb across her stomach beneath the silken robe. It was still early. They were telling Iroh, self-proclaimed 'grandfather' of their children, and the rest of her family in the morning but Zuko already couldn't wait to meet their next child.

A fusion of the two of them, a reminder of what they'd overcome to get here.

"I don't mind if they all look like you." He kissed her again. "Then they are guaranteed to be lovely."

She elbowed him. "They're us, Zuko. Just like little Izumi here."

The child was indeed a mixture. She had Zuko's dark hair and pale complexion, but Katara's large blue eyes and facial features.

"I wouldn't mind if she had my eyes," Zuko consented. "As long as she still has your smile."

Katara rounded on him. "And what makes you think it will be a girl?"

"You think it will be a boy?" he challenged back, still whispering due to the sleeping infant.

"I do." Katara grinned. "And I'll bet you for it."

He sighed. "Katara, the gender of our child is not a game."

Her smile was too similar to Azula's for his liking.

"You're just saying that because you know I'm right," she said.

Zuko's eyes narrowed. "You're on. If it's a girl, we get rid of those hideous curtains in the foyer."