Chapter Text
There is a child in the Palace
Yuka knows this because she'd once seen a shadow haunting the gardens. It had been late at night, and looking back, she’s not entirely sure where she got her confidence from before she marched towards it and demanded to know what it wanted.
A small face with big eyes had greeted her, and she wondered if one of the servants had brought one of their children with them to work, but all of that nonsense is stored away when the girl suddenly seems frightened. Like she’s done something terribly wrong and was terribly sorry. “I just wanted to see the turtle ducks.” The girl had eventually admitted, albeit her words were small and had Yuka not been standing so close she wouldn’t have heard her at all.
Feeling a little bad, (because she hadn’t meant to scare the kid) she puts on her warmest smile and bends down to her level. “Well you saw them, what do you think of them?”
She thinks maybe she should be asking something else instead. Perhaps along the lines of where her parents were and what she was doing in the royal gardens but she can’t find it in herself to care. The girl shrugs and looks a little over this whole affair.
“I think they are very stupid.” Yuka blinks, taken aback. “But…mother likes them and so does Zuzu so I thought there might be something more to it.” Yuka listens carefully and makes sure to catch every word coming from the person in front of her.
She’s never met her before but she was sensing that this moment was special. Like the girl was sharing some part of herself no one else has seen. It was only then she realizes the nightgown the girls wearing.
It’s not as though it’s freezing. It never was in the Fire Nation. Let alone the caldera which was literally in the middle of a volcano crate. But it was the dead of winter night, and though this may feel like the hottest summer day to any other person, the Fire nation were sensitive to the cold.
She’s gives the girl another smile which makes the crease in her eyebrow deepen. “Come along then. Shall I escort you to where you need to go?”
She waits a moment before a small hand rest in hers and she’s on her way back inside. Later, she’ll realize she didn’t even question if when the girl led her to the royal quarters and stopped in front a room as if it was her own. (Later she’ll realize Zuzu is Prince Zuko).
“It doesn’t matter if they are stupid.” She blurts out a moment before the door can shut in her face. “People find pleasure in the small things. Be it hideous or stupid, they will spin it into something worth cherishing.” The girl seems to contemplate this before nodding once and closing the door.
It is only once she us halfway to her own quarters does she start to process the interaction.
There is a child in the palace.
She is the Princess of The Fire Nation.