When We Were Young

Chapter 3

The first few days after the army left felt like decades. Azula spent all of her time, except for a few hours of sleep every day, flipping through book after book of Fire Nation history, firebending origins and masters' handbooks. Zari and Zuko aided her as much as they could, while Su helped by radioing libraries all over the world, asking about their knowledge on the subject. Still with all their effort, the firebending style displayed by their enemies appeared to be a completely new thing.

Zari was furious about the lack of results and proclaimed he needed a break from it all sometime around day three. Zuko tried to be helpful, but in reality he only wanted his wife to wake up. He realized he let the burden of getting their throne back fall completely onto his little sister, but he felt like there was nothing they could do from where they were. He hated feeling so powerless to help his nation and he hated feeling so powerless to help his wife.

Three days after the army left Mai finally opened her eyes and the first thing she saw after her vision cleared was Azula sitting at her bedside, reading.

"Iz-Izumi..." Mai was still a bit out of it.

"She's fine. Iroh and the Fire Lord too." Azula closed her book and brought Mai a glass of water. The fact that Mai could already sit up surprised both of them.

"I can call Zuzu over if you'd like." Azula started again, "Although, he finally decided to get some rest after days here next to you."

"Don't wake him, then." Mai sipped and then looked around, "We're at Air Temple Island, right? Does that mean we lost?"

"We're still fighting actually. But we have no idea who those people are or how they do what they do. How are you feeling?"

"Tired. Cold."

At that last word, Azula put out one of her hands, lighting a small flame and placing it close to her friend.

"What's wrong?" Azula asked seeing Mai frown.

"I can't move my hand." Mai looked to her right side, but her hand remained still.

"Katara said that could happen. I'm sure it will pass." Azula realized her words weren't coming through to her since she just remained fixated on her hand.

"Mom?" Izumi peeked through the door holding little Iroh, "Thank the Spirits!"

Azula stood up to take the baby off her niece's hands so she could hug her mother.

"I'm sorry about Rei, Izumi. I had no idea they could-" Mai used her healthy hand to stroke her daughter's hair.

"It's alright, Mom. I'm just glad you're back."

Mai looked into her daughter's eyes to find solace, to remind herself all was not lost, but seeing Izumi's tears had the opposite effect. Having spent a few whole days with Iroh and his constant, deafening crying made Izumi a bit on edge. She had to face the reality of sucking at being a mother.

"How's my grandson?"

"He's been a bit fussy since we've come here."

After Izumi said that they both looked over to Azula as they could hear Iroh laughing hysterically.

"What? Infants are easy enough to entertain." Azula smiled back at Iroh, "You know who's really been fussy lately? My baby."

oooooooooo

Even though Oogi was Tenzin's bison, what most didn't know was that his next favorite person in the world was Lin. Since she spent most of her time free from work with Tenzin, she was inadvertently spending a lot of it with Oogi too. And the animal grew to like her a lot. That's why Tenzin felt comfortable allowing Bumi and Lin fly to Ba Sing Se on his bison while he traveled with the United Forces.