"She ain't been doin' nothin' Uncle..." You confided in him a few weeks after your arrival. Zuko traveled between Ba Sing Se and Yu Dao; meaning there were a few nights when you didn't see him. And when you could confide your deepest worries to the wise old man. "No bendin' at all."

"YN. The way bending works isn't known to us. Sometimes, a bender and a non-bender will make all benders. Or no benders. Or some benders. As we've just begun to see, there is no preference between types of bending. A fire and earth bender could have either a fire or earth bender." He began to comfort you as the tiny infant slept on his big chest.

"But she ain't doin' no bendin' at all! No signs!" You got worked up. From the exhaustion of being a new mother. From the frustration. From the fear.

"Sometimes." He placed a heavy hand on your shoulder. "Two benders create a beautiful child with no bending at all."

Your eyes widened.

"You ain't think it would just be late, right?" You asked.

"I would give it a few more months. Normally, we would know by the eight month mark. When they crawl, they bend." He nodded. "But she isn't showing any of the signs before that stage... So my dearest... You may have just given birth to the next Fire Lord."

You stroked her tiny head.

"Good thing we ain't name her Fei. Kinda weird ta have a swamp name and run the Fire Nation." You chuckled.

"Izumi is a wonderful, strong name. Just like her and her mother and her father. And no matter if or whatever type of bender she becomes, she will always have us." Iroh nodded, comforting you enough to finally relax.

Meanwhile, Zuko was at his own mind-numbing lecture in Yu Dao.

"Blah, blah, blah," The lecture went on for ages. "Blah, blah, family, blah."

Zuko's ears perked up.

"Professor, can you repeat that last part?" Zuko asked.

The professor sighed.

"A teenagers is a teenager apparently, even if he's a head of state." But he did continue. "I was explaining, Fire Lord Zuko, an ancient Earth Kingdom philosophy: Family is in essence a small nation and the nation a large family. Do you understand? In treating his own family with dignity, a ruler learns to govern his nation with dignity."

Zuko's entire face fell. He though he might throw up.

"Are you alright, Zuko?" Aang asked.

"Have you been listening to him?" Zuko asked.

"I've been trying but all I'm getting is 'blah blah blah'." Aang admitted.

"I put my father in a prison and my sister in an institution. My mother's been banished for years and I've hidden away my child and the mother of my child out of shame and fear. What does that mean for my nation?"

"Zuko, that's not what--"

"The guy's a blowhard!" Sokka interrupted, "Only people like Katara are taking him seriously."

That earned him snow in the face for definitely not the first time this evening.

"I'm going back to the Fire Nation. I'm going to announce my daughter; regardless of her bending." Zuko decided. "And then, I'm going to work on the rest of my family."