#fire flake

Everyone stood as the Fire Lord entered the room. He wasn't the tallest or strongest in attendance, but one could look at him and know, and tell that he was the one in change. He flashed them all a soft smile, nodding his chin down ever so lightly as he made his way to the head of the table.

It was then than the young general say the small human tottering after the Fire Lord, her dark hair pulled back into a tight bun, a green dress covering her and a stack of papers being held close to her chest. 

The young general went to speak out, to question the attendance of the little girl who looked to be around 5, but didn't have the time. Fire Lord Zuko sat at the head of his table, the girl sitting next to him. As all the men in attendance sat down, he pulled out a small stack of coloring crayons from his pocket and placed them next to her. She then gave him some of the papers that she had been carrying, him thanking her silently. 

The meeting started, with seemingly no mention of the little girl. She sat by The Fire Lord, colorining happy as the meeting was conducted,  listening as she did. No one seemed to notice it, or even talk about it. Even the Fire Lord seemed unfazed by it. He would occasionally lean over and speak to the girl or make a mark on her paper with one of the colorful wax crayons. 

Once the meeting was done the men in attendance got up, but seemed to meander around the room. The little girl jumped off her small chair, papers in hand as she walked to the men in the room. She handed them each a picture that she had colored, offering a short explanation to each of them on what it was. They took the paper happily, thanking her and leaving once they got it. 

Mak and the young general were last, the little girl approaching them with a large smile. 

"You look very pretty today, Princess Ki." Mak smiled down at her. 

"Thank you." She beamed, offering him up a piece of paper, "I drew this for you." 

Mak took the piece of paper, inspecting it carefully for a long moment. "I see..." He finally said, kneeling down next to her, "What is it?" 

Ki let go a slightly annoyed sigh, pointing to the figure in the center, "That's you." She motioned to the squiggly shapes all around him. "And those are all the flowers. You are dancing the flower dance." 

"Oh..." Mak looked at her with a smile, "My dress is pretty." 

"I knooooow!!" She giggling. 

"I love it, sweetie." 

Ki smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, him hugging her back quickly. He stood up once she pulled away, her attention turned to the new general. 

"I don't know you, so I didn't know what to draw you." She chirped before offering him a piece of paper. "It's a picture of you playing with our puppy." Ki explained as he took the picture. 

"Well..." He finally croaked, noticing that she wasn't the only one looking at him in that moment. General Mak and Fire Lord were also looking at him with anxious eyes. "I like puppies." 

"Good!" She smiled wide, walking back to her father who was still sitting at the table. 

"Thank you both." Fire Lord Zuko nodded, smiling ever so lightly. 

"Our pleasure you're majesty." Mak smiled, him and the young general leaving the room as the Fire Lord and the Princess started talking. 

"That was weird." The young general sighed, folding up his piece of paper and stuff it in his pocket. 

"You don't have kids, do you?" Mak asked, gently putting the picture in with his other papers as they walked away from the meeting hall. 

"No, why do you ask?" 

He started to wiggle his way out, moving only inches at a time so as not to disturb the girls. As he moved Ki seemed to take his place, placing herself in the ridge her father had made in the bed, her face going into his big pillow. 

The movement on the bed woke up the puppy, it's little face turning to the Fire Lord. Minx wined a bit, standing up on his small legs. He looked at the puppy as his feet made contact with the floor, rolling his eyes a bit. He walked to the side of the bed, reaching down and picking up the mewling, one eyed, puppy. 

He took Minx out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him. "'I'll take care of him daddy.' Yeah right." He mumbled to himself, sitting the puppy down on the ground. He started walking down the hall, motioning for the puppy to follow. "Come on then."

Minx planted his butt on the ground, lifting his head up in a small howl. 

The Fire Lord, standing in his pajamas in the middle of the hall, rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Damn it." He walked back to Minx, scooping him up into his arms and carrying him down the hall and outside. 

-----

"Good Morning, your Majesty." 

Zuko perked up from the bench he was sitting on, a smile on his face as he saw his wife walking to him, two cups of tea in her hands. 

"I'm so very happy to see you." He smiled as she was seated next to him, giving one of the cups to him. "How did you sleep?" 

Suki chuckled, shaking her head a bit. "I suppose one day they will grow out of it." 

"Hopefully." He looked back out of Minx who was chasing a cave hopper across the courtyard. "It would be nice if she took care of it." 

"I think that's why she sleeps with us, really." Suki laid her head on her strong shoulder, "We should start locking the door." 

"We need lovins' too." He took his free hand and started to tickle her waist. Suki giggled, squirming in place. They were pulled away from one another by a small yelping from their feet. They both looked down to see Minx backing away from them, yelping again. 

"You done?" Suki asked, which Minx replied with few yelps. 

"Come on." Zuko stood, "Let's get you back inside." 

---

Zuko sat the puppy down on the creme silk sheets of the large bed, Ki giggling and crawling under the sheets and to the puppy. The small animal wiggled all over, licking at her little hands. 

"Did he potty?" Zarra asked her father. 

"I think so." Zuko yawned, flopping back down on the bed with his girls. Zarra laid down next to her sister, petting her dog with a smile. Zuko watched them both with a smile. He wasn't a huge fan of the dog, but he loved that they loved it. 

"What's he doing?" Ki asked, pulling Zuko out of his thoughts and back to the dog. Minx was standing with his legs spread, hips squatting as he peed on the bed. 

The Fire Lord saw red, "Oh for fucks sake!" 

"Zuko!" 

Minx jumped at the noise, rushing to Zarra's arms. Zi yelped and crawled out from under the bed, running from the room. 

"I'm sorry, daddy." Zarra cried, "He'd been doing so well and hasn't had an accident in days." 

"Don't worry about it, baby." Suki cooed, going to take the sheets off the bed once Zuko and Zarra were off. "Take him outside." Suki told her daughter, "He might still need to go." Zarra nodded and quickly left, leaving her parents alone in the room. 

"What ever you're going to say, don't." Suki sighed, placing the sheets in a pile by the door. 

"I told you the dog was a bad ide-"

"A PUPPY!?!!?" Ki's little hands clenched, shaking a bit in excitement. 

"We can't get a puppy." The Fire Lord told both his daughters, setting his chop sticks down by his bowl. Ki's face fell, her small eyes looking down at her bowl. 

"Why not? We have the room." 

Suki looked at her daughter, "There is more to having a puppy than just having the room. You have to take care of it. It's a lot of work." 

"So? I'll do it." 

"YEAH!!!" Ki yelled, getting excited again. 

"No Zee." Zuko sighed a bit, "The nanny is tasked enough as is with the two of you, adding on a dog would just make things worse." 

"But I would take care of it!" The princess insisted, "I've thought about this a lot and I think I can do it." 

Ki nodded quickly, eyes daring between her parents. 

Suki and Zuko looked at one another, her eyebrows raising a bit. 

"We will talk about it." 

Zarra giggled a bit, a large smile on her face. Ki clenched her fists again, eyes wide with excitement. 

----

By the time her parents had agreed to the dog she already had a name picked out: Minx. She had gotten a bed, leash and bowls for her birthday. The only thing she needed now was the dog itself. 

"I wonder if it will have big ears." Ki held her cupped hands atop her head, rotating them as she moved her head. 

"The breed I selected has small ears, but they are floppy and soft." 

Ki adjusted her hands accordingly, finger tips resting atop of her scalp. She snarled her small nose, growling a biting at her sister. 

Zarra rolled her eyes, scooting away from the little girl. 

The breeder arrived with the dogs, a litter of what he said was his best puppies yet. They were small, even for puppies, with soft short hair, flopped ever years, scrunched up faces and wrinkled skin on their backs and legs, a short curled tails on their bottoms. Ki sat in the middle of the floor, letting the puppies swarm over her as she giggled like mad. 

Zarra was a bit more careful with her observation of the puppies. She was checking their ears and feet, all the things that she had read about in her research. She had one picked out, having determined that this was the perfect puppy. 

"Is he the one?" Suki had asked, motioning to the dog in Zarra's hands. 

"I think so." Zarra looked at the puppy. 

"A fine choice." The breeder smiled, "He's the best I have." The breeder then turned back to the crate in which he had brought the puppies in. It was then that Zarra noticed the puppy there, the one that had been held back from the rest of the litter. The small puppy sat in the crate sadly, watching its siblings play. 

"What's that one?" The eldest princess asked, pointing to the remaining puppy. 

"Oh, you wound't be interested in that one." He motioned to the one in her hand, "You have the best one."

"But what about that other one?"

"Well...." The breeder went to the crate, opening it and pulling out the puppy. It seemed happy to be included, his little but wiggling it's tail in excitement. "He was the runt and came out with a birth defect." 

Zarra sat the puppy she had in her arms down, her attention totally on the dog the man was holding out. She knew exactly what she was going to do the moment she saw that puppy.

"He's the one." She insisted, taking him into her arms, placing a kiss on the puppy's forehead. 

Suki looked at the dog, an eye brows raising. "Are you sure?" 

Zarra nodded, looking up at her mother with a smile, "I'm sure." 

----- 

"So let's see the new member of the family." 

Suki and the two girls were sitting on the rug, all three of them looking up at the man who had just walked into the living room.

"He's perfect!" Ki chimed in, a large smile on her face. 

Zarra nodded in agreement, her hands traveling over the back up her new puppy, of her new best friend. 

Zuko sat down next to Suki, his lips curling into a little bit of a smile. "He seems kinda cute." He reached down and picked it up, looking into it's wrinkled face. He blinked in surprise. "What?" 

"He only has one eye." Zarra explained, sitting up and kneeling by her father, "Born that way. The breeder said he'll grow up to be a good dog, he just only has one eye." She wrapped her little arms around his neck. 

"And you're ok with that?" Zuko breathed, looking at his princess. 

"Like Ki said," She grinned, "He's perfect." 

The Fire Lord looked from his eldest to the papers in his hands before letting them all through his fingers. "Where are you getting this from?" He spun around in his chair, facing Zarra who was standing next to him at the desk. "Did someone say something?" 

She shook her head, watching her small finger tracing a nonexistent shape on her father's large desk. "No..." 

"Come mer'." He reached out, scooping the girl into his arms and placing her on his lap. She cuddled against him almost instinctively, her face laying against his chest. "You know mommy loves you." He cooed, strong calloused fingers running through her auburn hair. "Just like I do." 

"But it's different." She mumbled into the fabric of his robe, "We're both Fire Benders. Mommy isn't and neither is Ki." 

"And yet you still love them, right?" 

She nodded.

"And you know that both mommy and Ki love you." Another nod from her. "And mommy loves me, and I'm a fire bender."

"That's different." She pulled away from him, looking up at him with tears in her little cheeks. "Mommy has a little girl who can be a non bender warrior like her. She doesn't want a Fire Bender for a little girl." 

Zuko sighed when he saw the girl's distraught face, running a strong finger over her small cheek. "I was so sad the day that you puffed fire for the first time."

Zarra blinked, looking at her father with hurt eyes, "W-w-what?" 

"I wanted a non-bender. I wanted that for your mother. I knew that she hated being surrounded by people who were so unlike her all day and I wanted her to have something that was her own. I hoped so much that you would be a non-bender." 

Her bottom lip shook, tears welling up in her eyes. 

"You're mother however, wanted a Fire Bender from the day that we found out we were going to have a baby. She wanted nothing more than to have a true Fire Princess. And that day we found out, well I've never seen her so happy.

"And I was happy too. I was happy that I had a pretty little girl that would be a Fire Bender like me. Our little fire flake." 

Her frown had been replaced with a large smile, her eyes lit up. 

"So see... we both love the fact that you're a bender, and we would not change it for anything. Just like we're both happy Ki ins't a bender. We love you both just the way you are. Believe me?" 

Zarra nodded slowly. 

"Something else?" 

"Why is she named after mommy and I'm not?" 

Zuko could not help but chuckle, "You were too young to remember but it was your idea." 

"It was?" 

Zuko nodded, tucking some hair behind her small ear, "We were talking about baby names and you said that you wanted the baby to be named after mommy so she could grow up to be like her." 

Zarra giggled a bit, hands going to either side of her head, "I did?" 

"You did. So yes. Ki is named after mommy, just like you wanted. So see? Nothing to worry about honey." He kissed the side of her head lovingly. 

Zarra wrapped her arms around her father's neck, a smile on her face, "I love you, daddy."