No Time To...

Brothers competition

"Pops pour me a cold one," Ren jumped up on a stool as Zuko was cleaning the bar with a rag over his shoulder and cleaning a glass.

"What's your pour?" Zuko raised a brow at his four year old.

"Juice, on the rocks," he nodded covering his face tiredly. It brought a smile to the man's face at his little one and set the clean glass on the counter, putting some ice in and grabbed a mango juice from under.

"What's on your mind Ren?" Zuko asked his son as he put a little syrup to make it pretty for the kid, and a cut ip strawberry to give it some pazaz.

"Don't wanna talk about it," he mumbled. Zuko slid the drink to him and set a straw in it.

"Frustrated?" Zuko asked going back to work so he can be done with the pub for the day.

"Papa, you're ancient right?" Ren asked swirling the syrup in the juice and watched it swirl.

"I'm 24 so yes, why?" He chuckled a little putting away glasses in a cabinet behind him.

"So you've been sad before too? You've had a lot of feelings?" Ren gulped a little but didn't drink the juice.

"Yea, I've been sad, but there's a lot of different kinds of sads, I get sad when you or your brother are sad," Zuko pursed his lips and Ren nodded.

"I think I'm sad, or maybe confused?" Ren didn't know what his heart was trying to tell him.

"Why? What made you sad buddy?" Zuko set the rag on the counter and leaned against it to pay attention to what his son would say.

"I don't think I'll be a cool bender, I don't know if I'm smart like you and Aito to be a bender," Ren finally sipped the drink.

"I can just feel it that I'm going to be a non bender," he mumbled.

Zuko sighed and left behind the bar to sit in the stool next to the twin and touched his back gently.

"You know there's nothing wrong with not being a bender, if you don't end up being one that's just who you are and there is nothing wrong with that, and If you want to learn how to fight, your dads a pretty good swordsman too, either way your still strong," Zuko rubbed his shoulder gently as Ren drank more.

"And I think the word for your kind of sad is called disappointment, that's a pretty big feeling and a big word for someone your age to know, I think that's super smart," he smiled gently.

Ren smiled a little at that and leaned against his father as Zuko held him tightly. He kissed the top of his head and hugged his son closer.

"When did you find out you could fire bend?" Ren asked hugging him back.

"I was actually really late to that, most kids find out when their four or five, I was six so I wasn't a good bender for a long time, my little sister was four when she found out so she was a prodigy," he explained but couldn't kept but squeeze his son more at the thought of his and azulas childhood.

They were set up to fail themselves since the moment they could walk. To compete against each other. To hate themselves if they failed or weren't strong enough. His sister was strong but her mind was chaos, their father pushed her to hate everything including herself. He was like that too but he found peace and acceptance. He was able to see the kindness and the love in the world. He found himself able to love again, his uncle, his friends, and now he had children that meant more than anything to him.

And if they didn't want to fight that was okay, if his boys wanted to just be kids that was okay, he just wanted them to not be like his family. He wanted to stop what his father, his grandfather, his great grandfather has caused in the world. He wanted his children to trust him, to know they're loved no matter who they become.

"I love you Ren, you're perfect just the way you are," Zuko whispered and Ren smiled.

"I love you too papa," he giggled when Zuko picked him up and held him on his hip.

"Want to help me finish closing? We can go get aito and go down to the river," Zuko looked at him and Ren nodded excited.

"I'll get the broom!" He jumped down and ran to the closet as Zuko grabbed his rag again to get the sticky dried liquids off the wood.

His family wouldn't feel afraid of their father. His sons wouldn't look at him the way he would look at Ozai.

Four Dai lee agents struggled as they dragged in a body that was kicking and trying to get out of their grasps. They had his wrists trapped behind his back with the strong rock bended together, clasping a hand on the back of the head and forced to walk with their head down.

The doors flung open to blue flames scattered around the earth kingdoms throne. Azula sitting with one of her legs up and resting her arm on her knee and the other holding under her chin. Her long hair had different pieces chopped out as well as bangs that hung past her eyes.

"It's been a long time, didn't think I'd see a dead man today," Azula narrowed her eyes as the body was shoved on his knees and shoulders hunched over.

"What brings my big brother to visit?" She grinned with cruelty as Zuko glared up at her.