"A daughter?"

"Yes, Zuko..." Silence surrounds their private chambers and he heaves a sigh. She wasn't expecting this reaction.

"We'll have two daughters and they'll be perfect." Toph tried to remedy her husband's exasperated groans but was met with his back, no longer being embraced, her heart throbbed silently.

"We need to talk about something." Zuko starts but after a few minutes he gives up and gets up from the lush bed. His blind wife silently searches for his warmth but is met with sheets and pillows covered in his scent. She pulls herself in the vanishing heat and clutches a pillow that is covered with Zuko's familiar scent of musk and burnt wood.

"The elders want me to take a concubine." He can't even look at her. He's ashamed of just how far he's gone this time. He can't watch as the last remains of her wall break away. "They deem you unworthy to bear children. They have strong feelings that the throne is at stake."

"No! No!" Toph starts to panic and covers her head with the crimson sheets, her womanly emotions were starting to bubble from the hormones and stress. "You can't agree to this! I'm your wife! Why do they care if I birth fifty girls and not a boy? Your sister took the throne and why can't our daughters?"

The air was thick with heat and emotions, Toph trembled at the thought of him answering her greatest fear. Now she was crying. She knew why their daughters couldn't be able to take the throne. She knew and it was the cruelest realization to ever hit her.

"Because you're an Earth bender, Toph. And I've already kicked tradition in the crotch by marrying you." He meant the words to come out as an achievement and privilege they had together. It was suppose to be a light hearted statement but it wasn't. His 'light hearted' statement made Toph stiffen.

"We're still young, Zuko. We'll have a thousand children and they'll be boys and girls." Toph said brokenly, she prayed that he wouldn't snuff out their newly found love. They had sacrificed a lot to be in this state but it seemed that it wasn't enough. Her hand instantly went to her stomach and Toph knew... That underneath her silk robes and flesh... her daughter was crying for her parents.

"Toph, I've already said yes."