Child's Play ➳ Azula

beginning.

Princess Suzume had wrapped her arms tightly around her mother's neck as she was carried everywhere. Suzume was a socially adept child for the most part and that eased Azula's mind wonders. The child didn't seem to have any interest in fire bending as of yet but she was incredibly smart, if the child would show that she could fire bend, they would consider her a child-prodigy, just like her mother.

It had been three years since Suzume was born and although Azula made sure to still be headstrong and stubborn when Suzume wasn't around, when Suzume was around, everybody was amazed with just how patient Azula had become, considering the well-known fact that she had been the nation's most feared tyrant eight years ago, she had made notable progress on her sanity.

"Turtle-ducks, Mommy! Turtle-ducks," The young child cried as Azula carried her around the garden, Suzume had spotted the pond with the turtle-ducks. Suzume loved the turtle-ducks just like Zuko had. Azula secretly wondered if Zuko had taken her to the pond one day and fed them together but she wasn't going to say a thing. Azula had caved like always; stopped in her tracks and took her tiny child to see the turtle-ducks. The turtle ducks still seemed weary of Azula but they loved Suzume.

Azula let the tot down but held her child close to her as she would point at the turtle-ducks, telling Suzume little facts about them and what-not. Suzume was enthralled with all of the information her mother had on these delicate creatures, she would gasp in excitement when Azula would tell her what specific colours were on each turtle-duck as they inspected them, or giggle in glee when Azula told her funny stories about turtle-ducks.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Both Azula and Suzume looked up to see a woman in her forties, still just as beautiful as she was when she was twenty-one and had become married to a prince; it was Azula's mother and Suzume's grandmother, Ursa.

"Grandmother!" Suzume excitedly yelled, leaving Azula's side to hug her grandmother. Azula still did not have a great relationship with her mother. She didn't particularly like to even see the woman who had plagued her mind for nearly five years, however, she wasn't going to have her child not see her grandmother just because she didn't want her to. Having Suzume not see Ursa would go against what Azula was trying to teach the child, as much as she didn't like it, Azula knew it was for the best that the child had a half-decent relationship with her family members.

"We were just looking at the turtle-ducks, weren't we, Suzume?" Azula asked the child, to which the child simply nodded while still in her grandmother's embrace. Suzume loved her grandmother nearly as much as she loved her mother. This child, unlike her mother, had two women whom loved her and spent as much time with her as they could. Suzume had only been alive for merely three years but she had been shown endless amounts of love by everyone, something Azula did not expect.

"We were! Mommy was just going over colours with me and telling me funny stories about her and Uncle Zuzu!" The toddler smiled away and seemed so content. While she looked nearly identical to Azula, her personality couldn't have been any different from her mother's. While Azula had just begun to learn the very basics of politics and war strategies at the age of three, Suzume was learning everything but politics and war.

"Funny stories about her and Uncle Zuzu?" Ursa emphasized Zuko's name, giving Azula a raised eyebrow in response, Azula simply shrugged her shoulders. Zuko had been trying to get Suzume to say his name for weeks, months even, but the moment that Azula had addressed Zuko as Zuzu in front of her daughter, that was it, Zuko was known as 'Uncle Zuzu'.

"Yeah! Mommy told me that the turtle-ducks would bite both of them, I'm glad that the turtle-ducks don't bite me," Ursa looked over to Azula once more, giving her another raised eyebrow. Azula obviously wasn't going into full detail about why the turtle-ducks didn't like her, but none of that really mattered to Suzume and both Azula and Ursa knew that well.