Work Text:
The room was alive with the breezy mid-day air from the open window. Ruffling scrolls from the wind and the light scratching of charcoal filled Zuko’s ears as he read through his sixth important proposal of the day. Something about more funding for a community home, and he knew his uncle had already read through and approved it so he wasn’t too worried about taking in every word.
On the other side of the desk stuck out the familiar dark brown of his husband’s wolf tail. If he leaned over a little further he would be able to catch a glimpse of the tanned skin that peeked out from his bright blue robes. Zuko heard a soft giggle from beside him, and his fingers pulled away from the scroll easily to focus more.
Sokka had moved more into her space to help her with the paints he had brought in with them. They had shown up not long after lunchtime and Izumi had kindly asked if she could do ‘work’ again with him. Zuko’s heart had tugged in his chest so tight, it was impossible for him to tell her no every time that she asked this question. So instead of saying no, Sokka had helped her move the chairs and the rug out of the way in order to make a clean space on the floor for them to draw on.
It was a miracle that Sokka was still able to sit on the floor, crouched, and drawing with their daughter. He always told Zuko that he had gotten used to it from all the years bent over doing map reading, but Zuko tsked and rubbed his back on nights when it was really bad. The hardest part was his leg as he sat on the floor for so long. Every half hour or so he would get up and make a lap or two around the room to stretch it out, and ask Zuko about whatever official document he was working on at the time.
Sokka was using the front of Zuko’s desk as a place to rest against, working on his drawing again beside their seven-year-old. As much as their friends had teased him as a teenager, Sokka had gotten a knack for drawing over the years. It was the only thing beside training that could calm him down when he got antsy or anxious about things. Zuko had been thrilled when Izumi was old enough to start picking it up from him, and the scene before him now had become a normal one.
“I like that one a whole lot, Princess,” Sokka cooed softly, a grin spread across his freckled face. “Show your father, he’s gonna love it” his voice was quieter like he had just told her a secret between the two of them that was meant to be kept from Zuko.
Izumi giggled again and nodded eagerly. Zuko could now hear her feet on the floor as she jumped up from where she sat in a circle of art supplies she had collected over time. Once their friends caught wind of her interest in art, they started sending her supplies from all of the different nations. Now she had an art set filled with every medium offered in the new world, and it was her most prized possessions.
Her head of black silky hair tied up in two buns popped up over the desk as she stood to look at him, “Do you wanna see, Daddy?”
Zuko sat up straighter, and he reached a hand forward for the scroll, “Of course I do, Zumi. Let’s have a look at this masterpiece, shall we?”
Izumi pushed the drawing onto his desk, on top of his stacks of papers as if they didn’t matter. Honestly, they really didn’t matter more than anything his daughter could ever have to show him. Zuko took her art into his hands, and his smile widened at the sight of it. It was the most chaotic family portrait ever created, by far.
Front and center was the cutest seven-year-old doodle of Izumi’s depiction of her parents. One of the figures wore blue hues, a sword pointed up toward the sky in triumph. The other draped in deep warm tones with long black hair surrounding him, a scroll held in his hand out to the side as if showing it off. Next to what was supposed to be Zuko, was what looked like it could be Mai. The dead giveaway was the tiny gray splotches that resembled throwing knives in her crossed arms, only detectable by someone that knew her mother extremely well. Between them was a smaller person, holding each of their free hands (hands being a very loose description of the circles drawn overlapping between the bodies).
Across the sky was a small red shape, and with a little squinting and using context clues, Zuko realized it was Druk. Fire came from his mouth, toward the sun drawn in the corner of the scroll. The sky was full of yellow hues that dripped and dried around the family drawn in the center. It was perfect, in Zuko’s opinion, and he was the Fire Lord so his opinion was the final say.
Especially when he looked back up to catch his little girl’s expecting eyes. They were dark and full of excitement, tongue poked through her mouth where she had recently lost a tooth. That was a tick she had picked up from her Ataata, and it was one of Zuko’s favorite things that they had in common.
His focus went down beside her to meet his husband's blue gaze and turned the drawing back toward them “Izumi, this is the most beautiful picture I’ve ever seen. Would you allow me to hang this in our room?”
“Yes!” Izumi’s answer came quickly, jumping up and down, tapping coming from her small black shoes on the stone floor. “I wanna go show Mama first!”
“Of course, Princess. Go on, you know where to find her. Take Aunt Suki with you, she’s outside the room” Sokka said, his strong hand gripped onto Zuko’s work desk as he used it to pull himself up.
With a squeal and a careful yank of the art piece off of the desk, Izumi was skipping out of the room, humming whatever song was in her heart that week. The amount of energy that kid had was more than every adult in her life, combined, and doubled. It definitely kept her parents on their collective toes at every moment of the day.
“How’s your leg?” Zuko asked as he stood from his chair now to circle around the furniture to him.
Sokka shrugged, but he leaned heavily into the wood. “I’ll be paying for all this time on the floor tonight, but you know I don’t mind it.”
“Yeah, yeah. You know we own a million chairs. Or you two could get your own desk over there for this since it has turned into a weekly occurrence.” Zuko sighed, his movements into Sokka’s space had not gone without notice.
“I know, but then it feels like she’s too grown-up. On the floor, I can pretend she’s not about to start her school lessons and not asking for help tying her robes anymore.” His tone was more longing than sad.
Zuko dropped his forehead onto Sokka’s broad shoulder with a small groan, “I know… I hate how quickly she’s growing just as much as you do.”
“You think she’s gonna outgrow wanting to spend time with us like this soon?” Sokka’s voice was soft as if speaking the words out into the air would make them come true. His fingers brushed through the slightly knotted hair that hit right in the middle of Zuko’s back.
“No... I think she adores you far too much for that to happen.”
Sokka chuckled, tugging at one of the locks of hair in a teasing way, “She is just as obsessed with you. Lunchtime was as long as I could hold her back from busting in here and disturbing you.”
“Never disturbing me. I would throw it all away for her if she asked,” Zuko mumbled into Sokka’s robes. He knew Zuko was being a hundred percent serious, too. This was a conversation they had many times before and after Izumi had been born, that if it ever got to be too much or too dangerous, they would walk away from the palace and the royal family forever. They had the whole thing planned out down to how long it would take the royal tailor to make Izumi a full Southern Watertribe wardrobe for the quickly growing young girl.
For now, though, there was no running away on anyone's agenda. Just the sound of laughter and playful shouts of help, presumably from being tickled, coming down the hall toward them. For now, they had some tapestry to move around to make room for their new official family portrait on their bedroom wall. That was the only thing they needed to worry about today.