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Maybe she was just doing it wrong. Maybe if Izumi focused a little more, used a little more…
A little more what ?
Not for the first time tears welled up in Izumi’s bright golden eyes as she continued firebending katas around the old training ring. It was outdated and secluded, overrun by twining vines crawling through the stone opening, so almost no one came there any more. It was perfect for the young firebending princess to practice her forms without prying eyes. And when she finally mastered bending, she could go to her father and show him how good she’d done. So he could be proud of her.
Izumi wiped away her tears quickly and took a calming breath before lashing out with her fists yet again. She worked her way across the floor, movements perfect and impeccable and why wasn’t she making anything?!
A missed step and Izumi slipped onto her bottom, leg bent underneath her. She gasped before jumping up to kick out again with everything she could, only to fall back down again.
A sob ripped itself from Izumi’s chest before she could stop it. She was almost eleven already! She and Bumi had talked over and over about how they should have already bended by now and were both incredibly upset by it. Last time he stayed in Caldera he asked her to throw a candlestick she was trying to light at him because he was sure that he’d be able to airbend it away. It hit him in the face and cut him above the eyebrow. There was so much blood pouring into his eye that Izumi screamed and Bumi started crying. Izumi’s mom and great uncle had to sit with them for hours to calm them down.
“Izzi?”
Izumi gasped and looked up to see her mom walking through the crumbling doorway.
“Oh, thank the spirits. Zuko! She’s over here!”
Another cry escaped Izumi as her mom sped over. Before she could blink Izumi was wrapped soundly in her mother’s arms as the tears increased their flow over her round cheeks.
“You’ve been gone all day!”
Fire Lord Zuko had ran in without Izumi noticing and was now crouched behind his wife and was wiping away tears and snot with his expensive robes.
“Y-your…” Izumi gasped in a shaking breath. “Your robes are all-”
“Nevermind my clothes, Izzi.” Zuko gave a soft smile and the Lady Mai buried a kiss in her daughter’s hair before pulling back enough to look into her eyes.
“Wa-was I really, really gone all day?”
Sure enough, it was now dark outside with the sky dark blue and moon cresting over the buildings.
“S-sorry.”
Zuko gave another smile and pressed Izumi’s hair behind her ear. “We were just worried, dragon. Why are you crying?”
Izumi’s breathing hitched again, only to have her mother hush again and stroke a hand down her spine to calm her down. “It’s okay,” Mai hummed. “It’s okay.”
Spirits, Izumi loved her parents. They both loved her so much.
Deep down, she knew it was stupid to think either of them would love her any less if she wasn’t a bender. Her mom couldn’t bend, and her dad loved her so so much. And he would always love Izumi.
But she still wanted to bend.
“I… I was trying to bend,” she whispered, embarrassed.
“Oh, Izzi.”
Fresh tears broke again and Mai pulled closer to her husband as they both embraced their only child. Zuko’s own eyes watered up as he gazed over Izumi’s shoulder to look towards his wife. Did he put this pressure on her? Agni, was he no better than Ozai ? This was how it started with him. Was-
“Zuko,” Mai murmured across from Izumi, smoothing a few stray hairs away from his face. “I know where you’re going. Calm down.”
Zuko nodded and pulled back a bit as Izumi calmed down. “Izzi, look at me please.”
Izumi nodded frantically and wiped her cheeks before her father began. She sat back in Mai’s lap whilst her mother combed through her dark hair.
“Have I ever made you think you had to be a firebender?”
Izumi looked at her father’s torn expression and thought silently for a few moments. She finally shook her head decisively and twisted her lips. “No. Never ever.”
Zuko nodded and his face relaxed the slightest bit. “Why is this upsetting you so much, then?”
“Because I want to be a firebending Fire Lord, dad! Like you!”
Zuko’s eyebrow pulled in as he reached out to touch Izumi’s shoulder gently. “Izumi, listen to me please. Even without bending, you will make an amazing Fire Lord.”
“Has anyone else made you think you had to be a bender, Izzi?” Mai asked while still combing through her hair.
Izumi sniffed and shrugged. “Sometimes people say stuff,” Izzi said quietly. “Sometimes in Caldera, but more when me an Boom are in Republic, or in Ba Sing Se with Uncle Iroh.”
“Anyone else, baby? Maybe in Caldera?”
Izumi pushed further back into her mother. “Sometimes the tutors,” she said under her breath. “They think that- that it’s bad that I’m the only child. That there shouldn’t be a non-bender on the throne, let alone a girl.”
Zuko’s right eye widened before it narrowed to a slit to match his left. “And they say this to you ?”
Izumi shrugged again before nodding hesitantly and burrowing into Mai’s shoulder. “Sometimes.”
Mai had one hand on Izumi’s back and the other reached out to grip Zuko’s arm. Don’t, she mouthed.
“You know that some people are still so bigoted, Iz. No one is always right.”
“Bi-big-”
“Only believing what they say is right because they think they’re better.”
“Oh.”
Mai smiled and squeezed her husband’s arm gently before he pulled Mai onto his own lap. He had his arms tight around them both. “Later, I want to know exactly who has been saying those things,” he said firmly, only continuing when Izumi nodded her assent. “But right now, I’m going to tell you about how all of that is wrong. Look at your mama.”
Izumi looked at her mother, who was smirking at her father with amusement in her bright golden eyes.
“She’s not a firebender, and yet she’s so smart and strong. I remember when we were younger and she saved my life, stood against more than a dozen men all alone for me.”
Izumi gasped and looked up at her mom. She smiled down at her before looking up at Zuko with a deadpan look so familiar in her eyes. “Exaggeration.”
“Is not.”
“Is so.”
“Is not.”
“I’m not entertaining this any further.”
Izumi giggled and her parents smiled down at her.
“And what about Bumi? If he’s not a bender, does that make him any less than someone who does?”
Izumi stayed quiet as she rolled over the idea. Loud, funny, brave, kind Bumi. She remembered when Quon said that Izzi was too ugly to be a princess and Bumi punched him so hard his nose shattered and he needed bandages even after several sessions with the healers, and that one time he ate so much he walked out of the restaurant only to immediately puke on the sidewalk, making Kya cry and Izumi laugh so hard she peed her pants in the middle of the street. Bumi telling her that beauty wasn’t even something to be on the radar because their souls were brighter than the sun.
“No.”
“That’s more than right, dragon.” Zuko brushed his knuckles against Izumi’s cheek fondly. “You are so amazing, and beautiful, and intelligent, kind, and brave, and so many other things that would take me a week and a half to even begin to describe. Your mother and I love you so much baby girl, and are so indescribably proud of you already. Imagine what we’ll feel years from now when you’ll be able to further your mark on the world as not only the first female Fire Lord, but the first non-bending one at that.”
“A lot?”
Mai gave a wry chuckle and Zuko beamed. “Yeah, baby. More than a lot.”
Izumi beamed back, the same awkward lopsided smile shared between father and daughter lighting up the now almost pitch black training area. The lights from the castle were the only things shining through the high windows, and it was comfortable quiet with only the sound of insects the bubbling water in a nearby fountain.
Soon enough, as Izumi dozed off, Zuko stood and took her from Mai’s arms. They stood close together with Zuko’s free hand on the small of his wife’s back.
“She’ll be fine,” Mai said quietly as they dressed Izumi in her sleeping clothes in the palace.
Zuko smiled when he tucked his daughter into bed where she slept soundly. “I know.”