Notes: Not mine, never will be. This is a sequel to my other shortfic series, "The Enigma Challenge", focusing on the concept of Mommy!Zuko. It was too cute of an idea to pass up.
Zuko didn't know the first thing about being a mom. For one thing, he wasn't a female, and for another, he had never owned a pet before and this realization made him wonder if he even had a single nurturing bone in his body.
Still, he thought, as he looked behind to watch the little turtle-duckling as it waddled determinedly behind him, It's not like I'm about to get rid of it anytime soon. I guess I should find out if it's a boy or a girl.
So that's how the formerly exiled/now reinstated (under much protestation) Prince of the Fire Nation wound up at the door of the Royal Veterinarian. To say that the older man was surprised to see the scarred youth standing at his door cradling a turtle-duckling in one arm would be like saying porcupine-boar's spines can be extremely painful to sit upon, but court politics and manners kicked in swiftly and he ushered the prince in with a slight bow.
Zuko stared at all the wall art depicting the anatomy of different domesticated animals while the vet looked over the turtle-duckling, and he tried to ignore the distressed sounding noises the tiny baby was making while being examined. He would later claim that that was the reason why he failed to hear his uncle when he walked up behind him, curious about what his nephew was doing talking to the vet.
When the vet straightened and announced that the turtle-duckling was a girl, Zuko nearly expired from heart failure then and there. Not because the great mystery of the turtle-duckling's sex was solved, but because his uncle's overly cheerful and all too loud voice said right next to his ear, "Congratulations! You have a daughter!".