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Standing in her crib, Xue Bao thinks about her plan of escape. She knows that the bars are hard, harder than the floor is, and her arms aren’t strong enough to pull them apart. She knows. She’s tried before. Thinking to herself, she wonders what her Mama would do.
‘Jump,’ she concludes, remembering her Mama and Papa from that afternoon. Papa had pushed his shiny stick towards Mama, and Mama had jumped to avoid it. ‘Mama jump. I jump!’
Decided, the girl squats her little legs, before jumping as high as she can. Grabbing hold of the edge of her crib, she quickly swings her legs up, remembering how her Papa had taught her to climb the tree outside.
Now on the other side of her crib, she carefully slides down one of the iron bars, letting herself hang at the bottom for a moment before dropping to the ground.
‘Free!’ she thinks to herself, grinning.
Now escaped from her tiny prison, the baby continues her mission.
‘Mama. Tur-duck. Pet!’ she thinks as she walks as quickly as her legs can carry her to the doorway of her room. Pushing past the paper screen, Xue Bao makes her way to the entryway of the Fire Lord’s rooms.
From their bed, Zuko looks to Sokka in stunned disbelief, mouth open.
“See!” Sokka whispers to him, pointing at their daughter. “This is what I’ve been telling you! She’s been escaping from her crib! That’s why we’ve been finding her all over our rooms for the past few days!”
Trying desperately to hide his amusement, Zuko giggles quietly, “I can’t believe it.” He hazards a peek at their daughter, who is still trying to figure out the mechanics of the door to their rooms. “What is she even doing?” he wonders, looking at their little girl.
The Alpha hushes him, pulling him back down to the pillows. “I watched her last night, just wait! Once she figures out that she can’t, in fact, open the door, she starts to mutter about what she actually wanted in the first place.”
As if responding to a que, the baby reaches the door, pushing with all of her might. “Tur-duck,” she whispers to herself. “Pet tur-duck with Mama,” she repeats, still trying to open the iron door, unable to reach the handle.
Turning to his husband, Zuko’s heart melts. “Oh,” he starts, looking back at his baby with wet eyes. “That’s adorable,” he whispers to Sokka.
Huffing, Xue Bao falls to the ground, glaring heatedly at the door, which is blocking her path to pet the cute turtle ducks. “Tur-ducks!” she whispers furiously, before rolling over to stand up. “Mama,” she says, decisively, before starting to toddle towards her parents' bed.
Stifling their laughter, Sokka and Zuko quickly pretend to still be sleeping.
Xue Bao, unafraid of the challenge of the tall bed, grabs a firm hold to the bedsheets.
“I climb tree,” she starts to herself, “bed like tree.” Lifting her little leg, she gets a foot onto the bed frame. From there, she pulls herself up onto the mattress, whispering, “Yes!” to herself in success.
Now on the bed, she looks at her parents sleeping forms. “Mama,” she says, crawling to the Omega and putting her hand on his face. “Mama,” she says again, poking at his eyes.
Wincing at the poking, Zuko brings his arms around her, pulling in his daughter and bringing her to his chest.
“Now what is our girl doing up so late?” he asks, turning over and putting her between him and Sokka.
“Tur-ducks, Mama! Want pet tur-ducks!” the girl pouts, crossing her arms.
“All the good little turtle ducks are asleep right now, Xue-bug,” Sokka says, wrapping his arms around his family.
“But,” the girl starts sadly, “tur-ducks soft, I like soft,” she continues.
Zuko, charmed, extracts himself from the bed. “Wait here,” he says, before walking over to a chest of drawers. Pulling out the third drawer, he removes what he was searching for and returns to the bed.
“Here,” he says, offering it to their daughter, “you can pet this for now. In the morning, we’ll go feed the turtle ducks.”
Taking the stuffed toy, Xue Bao gasps in excitement, “Tur-duck!” Petting the soft, plush toy, she looks between her Mama and Papa. “Soft!” she exclaims joyfully.
Looking at the toy, Sokka beams at his mate. “You kept that?” he asks, running his hand over his daughter’s hair.
Blushing, Zuko returns the smile. “Of course I did,” he begins, “you won it for me.”
Pulling his husband in close, Sokka plants a kiss on Zuko’s lips. “I love you,” he says with a smile.
Putting his arms around Sokka, Zuko grins, replying, “I love you too.”
“Shh!” comes from below them, and they both look down at their daughter. “Tur-duck sleeping!” she says, petting her new toy.
“We should all be sleeping,” Zuko starts, getting comfortable and pulling the covers back up over all of them.
“Good night, Xue-bug,” Sokka says, giving the baby a kiss on the cheek.
“Night Papa,” the girl starts, returning the kiss. “Night Mama,” she says, turning to Zuko and doing the same.
“Good night, Xue Bao,” the Omega replies, closing his own eyes to get some rest, happy.