The Fall Of A Princess.

13

"Firelord Zuko! We've located Princess Azula as instructed... but her husband... refused to relinquish her... and what's more... in the time since your father banished them, she seems to have bore a son."

A fire nation messenger informed the brooding young ruler.

Zuko's amber eyes narrowed, anger simmering beneath the surface.

"A son?"

He muttered, clenching his hands into fists.

"That changes things... I need more information. What is the child's name? How old is he... who even is his father? I was not aware my sister had taken a husband."

"According to word around the palace... it was back when the avatar had been first discovered. Your father had forced Princess Azula into an arranged marriage, hoping to subdue her into a more docile princess... but when she'd actually fallen in love with the outlandish man, Ozai banished them both. Especially when he found out she was carrying a child for her husband."

"Love?"

Zuko scoffed, pacing back and forth.

"Azula, in love? That's laughable. She's more likely to love power than any man. And father never told me about this... arranged marriage, a child? This is valuable information he kept from me."

The messenger bowed his head solemnly.

"We have the Air Temple surrounded, where they've settled... it seems they'd made a home out of the abandoned temple itself, seems like it was a Northernmost forgotten minor branch of the four major air temples. Sire... would it be wise to antagonize her when she clearly wants nothing from you?"

"Wise?"

Zuko echoed, his expression darkening.

"No, probably not. But necessary? Yes. I must know what she's planning, what resources she has... and whether or not she intends to challenge my rule. Besides, it's not like I'm going to harm her or the child..."

~

Princess Azula's expression softens slightly as she thinks of her family, lost in thought.

'Yes, Yuo and our children. They are my weakness, my one vulnerability. I would do anything to protect them, to ensure their happiness and safety.'

Azula thought to herself, laying awake in bed as the moonlight trickled through the air temple open window.

"Can you not sleep?"

Yuo whispers, nuzzling closely to her, placing a hand over her rounded belly gently. They'd been living in a state of constant weariness ever since fire nation soldiers had surrounded their temple island and home many months ago.

Azula turns to face Yuo, her amber eyes reflecting the moonlight.

"I am merely thinking, my love. Worrying even, perhaps."

She sighs softly, her hand covering his much larger one on her belly.

"The soldiers... they grow bolder by the day. Soon, they will make their move. I do not know what Zuko sees to gain by surrounding us like this..."

"His rule must feel threatened... as you have an heir before him... another on the way as well?"

Yuo's blue eyes travel down to his wife's belly and he shifts down under the warm blankets, peeling her sleep blouse back to reveal the stretched mass of her beautiful bump. His lips ghost over the flesh lovingly in a light kiss.

Azula's breath hitches at the gentle touch, her body relaxing into his embrace.

"Yes, perhaps. But Kuzon is just a child, and this one..."