Despite misfortune and circumstance, destiny is flexible, was the first line of a very boring book Princess Azula once read.

She recalled nothing of the rest of the textbook, although her tutor told her to take a break after every single chapter to reflect upon the wisdom. That break was usually spent thinking about anything but what she had forgotten immediately after reading. She did, however, always remember that one opening line, since it made the book seem like it was going to be much more interesting than it was.

Azula was years away from that small girl frustrated by her royal lessons. Now she was a small woman frustrated by her life lessons. Despite all of that, she was slumped in the same chair, in the same dusty and rarely attended-to library in the palace.

It had been nearing fourteen years since she had been home, and at the precipice of twenty-eight, she was now wondering what her life would have been like if she had stayed. The palace smelled wrong, it felt different, her brother was married to her ex-girlfriend and she was treated like a ghost or walking corpse.

They did declare her legally dead, after all, but really...

She was looking for something suitable to read to an eight year old, and while Azula at that age read philosophers, works of generals and dull history books, she did not think that it would be the most appealing to a child she was trying to win over.

What book said cool aunt? Azula never had one of those, but she knew of their existence.

Agni, she should have bought that candy she decided against.

She heard footsteps behind her and clenched her jaw. The inhabitants of the palace acted as if Azula was unaware that eyes were perpetually on her. It was not cute for a second.

"Are you reading?" Zuko asked openly and Azula rolled her eyes.

"No. I'm just holding open this book to shield my knees from the ceiling's inevitable attack." Azula did not know what she had gotten herself into this time.

Zuko did not seem to take offense, as she had hoped, but he still cleared his throat and justified his statement. "Well, you're kind of just staring at it blankly."

Azula slammed it shut and forced herself not to audibly choke on the dust that burst from it.

"It's boring and I hate it. I'm going to find another. We must have some with pictures, right? You can only read books with pictures, I'm sure..." Azula said thoughtfully, tossing the book down and listening to the feeble, unsatisfying thud.

She went to the shelves to select a more child friendly book as Zuko watched his new houseguest warily.

Eight years before the resurrected Princess Azula was coughing on dust in the palace library, Ty Lee's life decided to take an abrupt turn for the complicated.

Now, if Ty Lee did not have the evidence of how she went from a careless warrior with delayed adolescence to a mother and exposed possible-traitor-is-she-treasonous-or-just-stupid-probably-stupid, no one would have believed her. In fact, she probably would not have believed herself.

It was not incredulous due to the fact that Azula had been deemed dead for about four to five years, or the fact that she wasn't dead, which was not much of a shocker given the nature of Princess Azula; it was the fact that Ty Lee was the one who knew, and that Ty Lee ─ who could not keep a secret to save her life ─ had kept this concealed for nearly three years.

She had been receiving a series of notes, Ty Lee was forced to explain. They began as cryptic and frustrating clues, but soon just became hidden meeting places. Well, yes, she could have so easily been murdered, her body never found, but, the truth was, it felt like a bandage on the wounds Azula left.

These meet-ups, solely fixated on the physical, made it all forgettable.

Made any feelings easy to neglect, and emotional carnage swept aside as they remedied distance by brief, feverish closeness.

It was a game to Azula, and one that Ty Lee secretly enjoyed playing. There was no explanation other than some kind of weird, sick and treasonous pleasure they both had.

And it did spark the question of who was really crazy. The one who fled an asylum or the one who fucks her in secret? The one who hallucinates or the one who contentedly chases her abusive ex-girlfriend? It was pretty clear, but not to Ty Lee at the time.

The first note was one that definitely should have been ignored or presented to the authorities. Ty Lee found it while out on one of the trillion Kyoshi Warrior patrols (she asked to go on every single one, due to a painful amount of boredom).

It was passages from an old Fire Nation story, that was certain, and from a torn out book of aged parchment. Ty Lee knew it was ridiculous to follow it, but she was intrigued, and was not as dumb as she liked to look. They progressively became more and more clear as she followed them on the most absurd, sexual and risky scavenger hunt in history.

She definitely should have stopped when she reached the last one, which was tucked into the weathered box of maps outside of a hiking trail near an Earth Kingdom mountain ridge. It had the instructions: Meet me in the middle of the forest off of the secondary path where no one can see us.

Only a total idiot would follow it, but while the other clues had not been quite clear, and Ty Lee had several friends and enemies dancing in her mind, she heard this one clearly and crisply in one voice. Despite her anger and hurt, no one could blame her for wanting to investigate. For wanting to catch a glimpse or see if it was true.

Azula was there, and nobody died, even though there was definitely some shouting and confusion, and then some sex and more anger and shouting and confusion, and there was really not much talking about their problems, as Ty Lee had been planning as she walked to her destination.

They parted ways without even a thank you. And Ty Lee was grateful for that.

Then it repeated. Ty Lee was aggravated, yet excited and she could not kid herself into pretending that illicit, sexy notes were not fun. And she was getting very good at swallowing any emotional carnage and letting it be almost without strings attached.

Maybe it was a fantasy of some perverse kind. Ty Lee probably should have told someone, and Azula probably should not have gotten progressively more reckless in how obvious her notes were. Maybe she wanted to get caught. Maybe Ty Lee did too.

All the same, they said nothing of their past, did not think of their future, and just acted on impulse.

It was the sixth note that changed all of that.

Ty Lee had, at this point, set up an actual life for herself. That wanderlust and endless juvenescence came to an end, she left being a warrior, neglected staying on the island, and decided to make a life of her own in the Earth Kingdom, very far away from any life she had ever known. She settled in the sleepiest, most untouched by the outside world town she could find, and was content there.

Until the sixth note came.

That sixth note was the one that ended with Ty Lee staring at a baby in a makeshift cradle consisting of a yanked out dresser drawer. Azula was still in her house, and there was no physical portion of the tryst. Just awkward, stilted conversation and not nearly enough explanation.

There was no trust in their relationship. It was one of Azula's many twisted games that Ty Lee had to pretend she did not enjoy playing.

Games were not supposed to end with newborn babies in your kimono drawer.

"A-Azula," Ty Lee at last stammered out, knowing she was perfectly fine with Azula going to sleep in her room, given the fact she showed up with a baby, but that baby was beginning to make noises and wake up. "Azula!"

Ty Lee thought for a moment that the princess actually was dead, and so she sprung up despite the baby now definitely with its golden eyes open. She threw open the door to her own bedroom, and of course, of course, and Ty Lee could have laughed.

Classic her.

Surprisingly, for the first time in her entire affair with a war criminal and horrid ex-girlfriend, she felt ridiculous. Of course, the window was open, and Azula was gone, without saying goodbye or giving instructions or even telling Ty Lee what the baby's name was. Or where it came from!

It was clearly not stolen or purchased, judging by the very distinct royal features. And it was a girl, and it was not wailing hysterically yet, so Ty Lee thought she had a decent amount of time before it began to die for some reason.

Oh, yes, let me completely just give my baby to my enemy-with-benefits. How logical!

Ty Lee rubbed her neck and tried to figure out what was supposed to happen next. She did not know much about babies, to be perfectly honest. It was not ever her area of her expertise, and she did not think that it ever would be.

And so, Ty Lee quickly left her house in her sleepy village, before doubling back inside and realizing she forgot the baby. Okay, and so, Ty Lee grabbed the baby ─ her baby, at this point ─ and walked as quickly as she could over to her neighbor's house.

Song was the town healer, and had four children of her own. And, being a healer, she took care of the majority of the babies born here. Ty Lee knocked on the door, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night and she was not at all sure how she was supposed to explain this.

It took a few breathless minutes, but, at last, Song opened the door, rubbing one of her dark eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asked at first, sniffing and clearing her throat. Then she glanced down, exactly how Ty Lee did when she realized what Azula was carrying, and made a very strange face. "Is that...?"

Song clearly decided not to ask, which Ty Lee was grateful for.

Ty Lee instantly began wailing out her question without a second thought. "I don't know what to do. I've never even done more than held a baby for a couple of minutes! I don't even know anyone with babies," Ty Lee said, tripping over her own words as Song tried to get her to come inside.

"It's okay," slowly said the healer, although her eyes had a nervous glint. "I'll help you."

And a good deal of help Ty Lee needed.

The first week was the most difficult, and Ty Lee had an uncomfortable amount of help from nosy women in her village. They always did murmur about her in their sewing circles, because she was that strange soldier girl who showed up and had the menagerie of famous friends.

But now they had plenty more to talk about. Like her having hid a pregnancy, or those odd golden eyes. If she had a beaux or was a mistress of some Fire Nation ex-general. Ty Lee allowed them to talk, because they preferred their own assumptions and stories over the truth.

The truth that could get Ty Lee put on trial for treason, or at least being an accomplice to Azula, even if she would never be sentenced to anything.

"I don't know what to name her," Ty Lee asked Song as she stared at the baby. It was cute, when it was not crying constantly. Ty Lee looked horrible and had been wearing the same braid since they day she got her doorstep baby. "It's not easy, huh?"

"You really have nothing in mind?" Song asked before her lips formed a small 'O' in apology. "Well, how about give her a nickname for now?"

Ty Lee bit her lip, and it suddenly came in a very convenient manner that was stranger than fiction.

Only two things silenced and calmed the baby girl. Being held over open flames ─ which Ty Lee could not bring herself to do very easily ─ and the singing of one of Song's songbirds. Her sparrowkeet, to be specific.

"Sparrowkeet is cute." Ty Lee grinned for the first time in a week.

Song could not hide her cringe, but Ty Lee got used to it and refused to back down.

As soon as the panic settled and Ty Lee got the hang of making sure a small, dependent human did not die in her care, she knew some form of step had to be taken. And that step was evident, despite how it made her chest constrict and her head hurt.

It was after that decision was made that she was in Caldera again after a long time apart. She felt like she was coming home, even if she had a lot of happy places to live over the past decade. The baby attracted tons of attention and even though it was positive, Ty Lee only felt more and more dread building up inside of her as she walked to the palace and was invited inside.

"Fire Lord Zuko is expecting you," said a guard Ty Lee did not recognize.

Before she could thank him, he was gone, and Ty Lee was abandoned to try to find her way.

She walked for a while, struck again and again by memories of this place like a barrage of arrows piercing her skin. At last, she managed to find her way to Zuko. He was sitting with the sun shining on him a he examined the brunch he had set up.

Ty Lee frowned faintly. He must be pretty lonely, stuck here.

"I'm so glad to see you," Ty Lee blurted out, even thought it was only half true.

He stared at her for a moment, seeming uncertain what to do, but then he saw what she was holding.

"Oh, you, had a..." He looked disappointed, and Ty Lee was not sure why.

"I didn't, actually..." Ty Lee's cheeks were bright pink as she walked towards him. The little baby was only two months old, a girl, that Ty Lee still was very uncertain and afraid of. "Do you want to hold her?"

"Yeah," Zuko said without hesitation. He reached out and Ty Lee hoped for the best and expected the worst. When the little girl rested in his arms, he thought she was very cute as he touched her palm and her fingers wrapped around him.

Then her eyes opened and Ty Lee grimaced. "It's not..."

"Is she mine?" was Zuko's first, gasped question.

"No. Why would I have your baby...?" Ty Lee asked and Zuko did slowly nod. Maybe he was not as lonely as she thought. "I need you to give her back to me while I tell you this."

She extended her arms, feeling a little less awkward about holding her, even though that did not help much. Zuko handed the cute little girl over, his expression still one of shock and fear.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story, and it starts with a note I found stuck to a wall of all things..."

Zuko sat there in utter silence after Ty Lee finished speaking. She did not blame him for that, of course.

"I don't..." Of course he did not know what to say to that; Ty Lee never expected him to. "It's a girl?"

"Yes," Ty Lee said with a sharp nod.

"And it's, she, sorry, is not yours."

"Yes."

"And she, sorry, is the current heir to the Fire Nation," Zuko slowly said and Ty Lee nodded. "Huh."

Ty Lee could have gotten a worse answer, she supposed. "I thought I should probably bring her here."

"Huh. I... yes. Probably." Zuko shrugged. "I don't know the protocol for this." He hesitated as Ty Lee saw a thought suddenly come over him. "Where is she? Do you know?"

And Ty Lee shook her head. "I told you that she just left through the window."

Zuko sighed. "I wish I could say that I didn't believe you. But that sounds like classic her."

"That's exactly what I thought!" Ty Lee shouted and then Sparrowkeet rustled in her arms. "What if she starts crying?"

It was then that Zuko saw the panic in her eyes, and knew Ty Lee did not come here out of duty to her nation, or respect for him or Azula, or just to be honest; she came here because she was terrified and had no idea what she was doing.

"What's her name?" Zuko asked, hoping to stem the tears Ty Lee was about to share with the baby.

"Well, Azula didn't tell me her name, but I've been calling her Sparrowkeet because while my singing did not soothe her, my friend's sparrowkeet's singing did. I mean, we could just name her that." Ty Lee shrugged and futilely attempted to smile.

Zuko groaned. "You are not naming the potential heir to the Fire Nation Sparrowkeet, Ty Lee. For the love of Agni."

"Nah, but Princess Sparrowkeet sounds so cute. We could name her after her mother." Ty Lee shrugged, hating that she agreed with him.

Fire Lord Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose to try to quell the headache he felt coming over him. "She's cute and a baby now, but she won't be eventually. And there is no way I'm naming her Azula II."

Ty Lee taps her finger on her lips, deep in thought. "Some kind of something cute, you know, like maybe some kind of, oh, oh, Fen. That's cutish... and..."

"I know she's technically yours, but I'm thinking letting you name her is a bad idea." Zuko was already beginning to think this was a bad idea.

"Fine. What's your fancy royal name then, huh?" Ty Lee scoffed at him as Sparrowkeet quieted again.

Zuko sighed. "... I don't actually know. I haven't exactly been thinking about my future children. We could go look at the portraits and find one you like. How's that?"

"Ugh. You win."

Ty Lee was bored, Sparrowkeet was frustrated, and Zuko's headache was an unstoppable force of pain. The names were impossible to agree on, no matter how far back they went along the portraits. He thought that maybe if he just tired her out she would settle, but he was the one getting tired out.

"Close your eyes and point at one," Zuko suggested and Ty Lee shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess. The name Zuko sucks anyway," Ty Lee said and he did not bother to be offended as she squeezed her eyes shut and pointed.

Zuko rubbed the dust from the tarnished placard and, "Izumi," was declared.