Good Dad Ozai AU

My brain decided to come out with another AU & I like how the extract I wrote came out.

This is kinda a combination of @fire-lady-ilah‘s ‘Good Dad Ozai’ AU, & a fic I read recently (can’t remember who by) where Zuko was an only child because Ursa had died in childbirth. IDK if I’ll even end up doing anything with this but here ya go anyway.

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He should hate this child. This sickly little thing that had killed his wife & ensured he would have no further heirs until father saw fit to allow him to marry again (which Ozai doubted he would - this would be seen as Ozai's failure & punished accordingly). A worthless son.

He picked it up, ready to cast it out the window there & then, not even waiting for the dawn.

The child opened its eyes. Ozai's eyes. His mother's eyes. 'You got your eyes from your mother. And your name.' A small hand reached out from the blanket & gripped one of his fingers with a surprising strength.

Something uncoiled within him & roared, 'Mine!'.

He did not throw the child. He did not put it back in the crib, either. Instead he sat in a chair in the corner, holding the small bundle in his arms as they both waited to see if Azulon's prediction that it would not survive the night would come to pass.

A slight lightening of the sky through the east-facing window told him the sun was about to rise, & he took his son outside to see his first dawn. He warmed the air around them to ensure it would not be his last.

He felt the dawn as much as he saw it, his inner flame responding to Agni's light. And, in the child, a small spark flickered to life. Faint, as easily snuffed out as the child itself, but nonetheless there.

"We shall prove ourselves to my father together," he crooned to his son.