It Was in Me

family/gyatso

2. family/gyatso - live like there's no tomorrow ('cause all we have is here, right now) / love like it's all that we know (the only chance that we ever found)

"Hey, Zuko," Katara said as she gently pushed Mai's bangs out of her sweat-ridden forehead, "can you step outside with Izumi for a moment? I'm going to heal Mai up a bit, but I'll need it as quiet as possible to concentrate."

Zuko nodded, panicked tears of relief still trickling down his face. "Right. Yes. I can - I can do that."

Katara showed Zuko how to cradle the baby, shooting Aang a look over the firebender's shoulder that said keep him distracted while she did so. Aang gave her a discreet nod before following Zuko out the room. He snagged a tissue from a table on his way - Aang had no doubt his friend would need it.

Mai's labor had been unexpected. Early.

Dangerous.

It was sheer luck he and Katara were still in the Fire Nation. They were supposed to have left earlier that day - well, yesterday at this point - but had ultimately chosen to stay another night because of a bad thunderstorm rolling in. He and his wife were master waterbenders, yes, but that didn't mean Aang would feel right forcing Appa to fly through such miserable, risky weather. So they'd stayed, and it was a good thing they had.

Without Katara's healing abilities...

Aang didn't want to think about what might have happened to the new mother and child if Katara hadn't been there. He couldn't begin to imagine how Zuko was feeling.

Aang closed the door behind him, joining his friend on a small, gold-adorned bench not far from the room they exited from. He left about a foot of space between them when he sat, and he watched Zuko cradle Izumi ever closer to his chest. The baby appeared so tiny and fragile and even sickly, yet all the same...

"She's beautiful," Aang murmured. He smiled down at Izumi, who was now sound asleep. Her first cry had been loud and healthy, much to everyone's relief. Not all premature babies were so lucky. "She's going to look so much like Mai, isn't she?"

Zuko laughed, though the sound was still wet with tears. "Tell me about it." He took a shuddering breath, and Aang offered him the tissue. Zuko accepted it, wiping his face before returning his hand beneath Izumi to support the newborn with both arms once more. "Better than her looking like me."

Aang frowned, unsure what had provoked that particular line of thought from his friend. "What do you mean?"

Zuko shrugged, careful not to disturb Izumi. "My family's genes are all but cursed." He brushed his daughter's dark hair out of her face. "Better for her not to bear that burden."

Aang stared at his friend, probably more flabbergasted than he needed to be. He supposed his reaction could be attributed to the early hours of the morning. That and the fragile, weary relief still hanging over all four - five - of them. "Are you kidding me right now?" he at last managed to say.

Zuko gave him a dubious look, which was at least better than the terror that had been so prominent in his eyes only minutes earlier. "Aang. You know my family's history." He laughed. Tired. Bitter. "Can you blame me for wanting to spare her that?"

Aang hesitated. "Zuko... that's not your legacy." Confusion permeated his voice. "I mean, it's part of it, yes, but... but that's it. A part. Part of your family. Part of your history. Not the whole." He paused before adding, "You... know there's more to you and your decisions and - and what you leave behind than the choices your blood relatives made."

Didn't he?

Zuko frowned, carefully shifting Izumi in his arms. "The percentage doesn't matter. They're still my family and my mistakes to own."

Aang pursed his lips. Zuko wasn't wrong, per se, but... He was missing something. Even after so many years, he was still missing it. In all fairness to his friend, Aang supposed old, indoctrinated mentalities could be difficult to revise. "Zuko," he continued after a beat had passed between them, "how do you define a family?"

Zuko raised an eyebrow at him. "Is this a trick question?"

It seemed Aang was transparent. He shrugged. "Maybe. But I won't judge you when you get it wrong."

Zuko snorted. "'When.' Your faith in me is comforting." He slowly rocked Izumi. "Parents, I guess. Children. Grandparents. Aunts and uncles. Siblings."

Not wrong. But not fully right, either. As expected.

Aang chuckled. "Then I guess I didn't have a family." He held up a hand before Zuko could speak, the panic written across his friend's face causing him to bite back a louder laugh. "I didn't live with my parents. If I had siblings, I didn't know who they were." He shrugged. "Guess my childhood was miserable and lonely."

Zuko sighed, rolling his eyes. "Alright. I can tell you're readying up some Avatar wisdom. Hit me with it. End my suffering."

Aang laughed again. "Not Avatar wisdom, actually." He reached across to adjust the crimson blanket Izumi was swaddled in before smiling at Zuko. Perhaps his expression was tinged with sorrow. "Air Nomad."

Zuko's eyes widened, but his gaze soon softened. "Of course." He offered Aang a sorrowful smile of his own. "Even better for me to learn from."

"You're not wrong, per se, about what a family is," Aang began. He noticed how Zuko's hair hung limp across his shoulders, remnants of anxious sweat causing it to stick to the sides of his face. "Families do involve your parents and your ancestors." He stood, moving around the bench to stand behind Zuko. "Ozai. Sozin." Aang pulled his friend's hair back from his face, gently combing through tangles with his fingers. "Roku, too."

Zuko relaxed into Aang's touch, though he kept his daughter cradled firmly to his chest. "Are you trying to remind me that not everyone I'm descended from did horrible things?"

"Mm, you can draw your own conclusions there." Aang's nails lightly scraped Zuko's scalp, and his friend shivered. "But like I said - that's only part of what a family is. The rest of it?" A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "They're whoever you choose to welcome into your life."

Zuko snorted. "I don't think it's that easy."

"No?" Aang began coalescing Zuko's hair into a low braid. "Monk Gyatso didn't have to be related to me for him to be my family. I didn't have to marry Katara for Sokka to start feeling like my brother." He chuckled. "We had that relationship long before Katara and I were even dating."

Aang finished his friend's braid, tying it off with a ribbon he usually reserved for his wife. He spared Izumi another awestruck glance before sitting down next to Zuko once more. "And Iroh didn't have to be your father to feel like your dad, did he?"

It was a question that required no answer. Zuko didn't provide one, and Aang didn't press him to, either.

"You're not bound by the mistakes of your ancestors," Aang continued, his voice soft, "and neither will your daughter be. Because family is everything more than the people you share a name with." He hesitated. "Does that... make sense?"

There was a pause. Then Zuko exhaled slowly. "Yeah. It does." He pressed a gentle kiss to Izumi's forehead before offering his daughter to Aang. "Do you want to hold her?" A small smirk tugged at the corners of his lips. "Since you're her family, too."

"I suppose I am her great-great-grandfather," Aang mused as he accepted the precious cargo, cradling her to his chest the way Katara had instructed Zuko.

"You know that's not what I meant."

Aang laughed, though he never took his eyes off the delicate new life in his arms. "Yeah. I know."

~*~

aang with kids makes me SOFT. i hope to see you for day 3 - avatar state/cycle! thank you for reading!