Chapter 39: A Silver Angel

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"Ly! For Agni' sake, get down from there!" screamed Azula, trying to get her four year old daughter down from the lamp in the ceiling.

"This is so much fun mom!" cheered her silver-haired troublemaker, the bearer of the white-fire and Princess of the Fire Nation.

"Damn it!" cursed Azula, trying to jump up and catch her daughter to no avail. "Get down!"

"Oh come on mom, you should try it," chuckled Ly.

'Oh Agni!' thought Azula, her daughter was more obnoxious than Ty Lee, Toph and Zhan put together. She was still wondering, how her daughter hadn't fainted from the excess blood-flow to her head or the electric lamp hadn't broken off.

"How are my two girls doing?" asked the voice of her husband and father of her child - now formally know as Prince Zhan. He had grown older and a bit maturer - his hair wasn't a mess anymore, combing it mostly and he was starting to grow some facial hair as well. He was nowadays occupied with his love of creating stuff - technology, that would only be used for the benefit of the world.

"Ly here, won't come down!" replied Azula angry, pointing at her daughter, hanging from the lamp.

"That? Easy!" said Zhan, grabbing Azula and chucking her up.

"Aah!" yelped Azula, going up into the ceiling and managing to grab Ly from there.

"See! All better," he said, catching and putting them down.

"You...young lady..." yelled Azula, holding Ly by her hand. Her voice rising up, until she saw Ly' scared face - that deflated her quickly. "...please be careful...your my little precious angel...you could get hurt."

"Promise to keep out of trouble?" added Zhan.

"I promise..." replied Ly, hugging her mom.

"Okay now. Come on. You've got practice," said Azula, tugging her daughter along.

"...awwwhhh..." moped Ly, resisting. "I hate practice...it's so boring..."

"...but your friends are there..." said Azula.

"Friends?!" asked Ly, her face lighting up.

"Yup - Tenzin, Bumi, Hira, Kya, Lin...even Zina," counted Zhan, as Ly took off, running into the courtyard.

"That girl is a handful..." muttered Azula.

"...that you love with all your heart.." laughed Zhan, putting an arm around her waist.

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Ly ran through the halls as fast as her legs could take her and running straight at her best friend, who was waiting for her.

"Bumi!" cheered Ly, knocking the non-bender off his feet. "Tag! You're it!"

"Not so fast Princess!" chuckled Bumi, chasing after her.

Meanwhile, Azula and Zhan had joined Katara, Mai, Toph and Zuko in the shade as their kids played: Aang' son Tenzin was sitting in a corner, reading a book with Lin nearby eyeing him; Hira, Sokka' and Suki' daughter was playing steam-ball with Kya and Zina, who was Zuko' and Mai' daughter and Bumi, who was off chasing Ly, who used her firebending to keep ahead of him.

"Where's Aang?" asked Azula, joining the four at the table with Zhan.

"Avatar duties as usual," replied Katara.

"That busy?" asked Zhan suprised.

"Yup...Mr. Avatar is always busy..." added Katara. "My brother was occupied at Republic City currently...Suki stayed to help him."

"Yeah right..." waved Toph, now de facto leader of the Republic City Metalbender Police Force. "...I could come and he couldn't...bullcrap..."

"It's...interesting...so many years...and now were...here..." spoke Zuko, looking at her daughter Zina.

"...what did you expect Mr. Fire Lord?" asked Zhan. "Another skirmish with the Earth King?"

"...nope! I'm...content..." replied Zuko.

"He's been occupied with paperwork for seven weeks straight...he is bored," said Mai, laughing along with the group.

"...you tried meditation? I heard it can be relaxing..." teased Toph.

"...Zina takes up most of his leftover time..." said Mai, rubbing Zuko' back.

"Why don't you ask your mother to babysit? She loves to play with Zina and Ly..." asked Zhan. "Or your Uncle Iroh?"

"Yeah! I've left Ly with her many times - she always loves staying with her grandmother...and in the gardens..." said Azula. "...if only I could get her to stay calm after..."

"Don't mope around!" laughed Zhan, patting Azula on the back.

"Yeah...?" asked Azula, pointing at the court-yard, where Ly and Bumi had started to wrestle on the ground. "...so much for royalty..."

"Count yourself lucky, that she got my sense of mischief and not yours," laughed Zhan to which Azula soon joined in. Followed by Katara, Toph, Mai and Zuko finally.

The world was changed and they had changed...and they wouldn't trade it for anything.

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