Chapter Text
A shrill cry echoes through the night, sending a shiver down the spine of the Blue Spirit. He ducks into the shadow of the rooftop, moving swiftly and silently towards the origin of the sound, and peeks over the corner of the building.
The cry turns into pained whimpers and harsh breaths, and Zuko feels a slight relief at the fact that there is no sign of any attacker. He does however, feel a pang of sympathy for the pregnant woman he sees leaning against the side of the wall, grimacing and tense.
He looks left, and right, but the street is just as empty as it should be after Ba Sing Se curfew, ghostly quiet and still. However, as he waits a few moments for anyone to respond to the woman's cries, he comes to the horrible realization that no one is coming.
He once again curses the Dai Li and the cowardice they have instilled into the people.
As she leans into the light, he realizes with a chill that the woman is incredibly young, and incredibly pale. Her hands are shaking, and she looks as though she will collapse at any moment.
Swinging his dao into it's sheath, he slips down the side of the building with barely more than a whisper. As he walks into the light, the woman’s eyes widen, but it seems as though she is in too much pain to fear anything else right now.
"Please...help," she says, but as she speaks she looses her grip on the wall. Zuko manages to catch her, keeping aware of her midsection as he supports her arm over his shoulders. Without him she would surely collapse, but when he notices the blood pooling at their feet, he realizes this is not the time to hope for such things.
Zuko pushes aside his thoughts and acts, lifting her into his arms as she cries out once more. She is startlingly lighter than he expected, but given that she is a refugee it should not be a surprise. However, he still struggles as he attempts to carry the pregnant woman in the direction he hopes the nearest healer is in.
He thinks for a moment that maybe she needs a midwife instead, but as little as he knows about the complications of childbirth, he thinks a healer couldn't hurt when there's this much blood. He figures her pallor and shivers are not a good sign either.
By the time he finally makes it to a healer's house, for which he thanks Agni profusely, he doesn't dare to knock, only hip checks the door with a grunt. He stumbles into the room to the lamp lit faces of the two residents, a man and a woman with their eyes wide in shock as they stare at the strange intruder. But then, something clicks in their expressions and they rush forward to help the new patient in his arms.
As the weight is taken from his aching limbs, he's left in a bit of a daze. By the time he realizes he is being spoken too, they have moved the woman to another room and have called for someone else. The apprentice or helper, he's not quite sure, is asking him questions. What is her name, what are her symptoms, how far along is she...Zuko can only shake his head furiously. He knows nothing about this woman, he's brought her here, done his duty and can't do any more. He doesn't speak.
The woman seems to realize his cluelessness, instead gives him a bow and thanks him for bringing her here before slipping away to get supplies. With his arms now empty, he can't stop himself from slipping into the room where she is laid, intending to escape out the back window.
But her eyes are open again.
He gives her a nod, moving towards the window once more, but she lifts a hand.
"Wait."
He freezes, turns.
"Thank you." She says, in no more than a whisper. "C-come here, please."
He hesitates only for a second, before obeying. He doesn't protest as she grabs his gloved hand, perhaps only out of pity.
"What's your name, Blue Spirit?"
Zuko only shakes his head.
She lets out a hum, eyelids fluttering in exhaustion. "If I cannot know your name, can I be blessed to see the face of my hero?"
Zuko stiffens. He almost turns away, but something in her expression cuts him deep. He is not sure if she will survive the next few hours. Surely he can grant her this one wish, if only to show her how unworthy of being a hero he truly is.
He doesn't show his scar, only slips his mask to the side just enough to reveal his good eye. She gasps, dark green meeting amber, but Zuko cannot tell what she is thinking. He moves his mask back into place and he starts to go. It startles him, when she grips his hand tighter.
"Please, if you are at all able to, help my child." Zuko tries to step back but she holds on tight. "Ensure they go to a good home. They will enter into a world that hates them." She catches her breath. "I only ask this."
Zuko is not sure how to react, and thus he says nothing. He knows some people see him as a watchman over the city, but he is only one man. Does she know what she asks? Yet, he nods, makes a promise he doesn't know how to keep and slips out of her grip, out the window, just before the healers come back into the room.
As he climbs to the roof however, he can't help but pause at the sound of the woman's cries. He crouches above the same window, waiting. Something in him needs to confirm, just needs to stay for a moment to ensure he will not be kept wondering about her fate. The small childish part of him wants her to be okay.
So he keeps waiting, listening. He cannot see anything from his angle but he doesn't need to. The woman's labored breaths continue as he assumes the birthing begins, and he can hardly imagine what it's like too go through such an ordeal. His mother's labor was not something discussed in polite company in the years after Azula was born, and he was too young to remember anything properly from around that time.
The moment he begins to think that it shouldn't be taking this long, he hears a second of silence, before the sharp cry of a baby, and the woman's elation. The tension he didn't know he was holding suddenly releases, and the edge of his lip turned up in a smile beneath his mask.
His actions were not in vain, and with that thought, he hurries off into the dawn.
Zuko's scowl is much stronger than normal the following day, if the disgruntled looks from the tea shop's customers are anything to go by. He stifles a yawn in his sleeve as he goes to pick up the latest tray of tea.
"Are you feeling well nephew?" Uncle Iroh asks with a knowing look in his eye.
"I'm fine." He grunts.
"Perhaps if you were not out gallivanting through the city for so many hours," the last night in his tone didn't need to be said, "It would not be so grueling to make it through the day."
"I've gone without sleep before, Uncle. I'll be fine." Zuko heads off to deliver the corner table their order of tea. He wonders, for a moment, how the young woman from last night is faring, but quickly brushes it away. It's none of his business. He did what he needed to do.
Stuck in his thoughts, Zuko almost bumps into a customer as he brings the empty tray back to the counter.
"Is something on your mind nephew?" Iroh whispers, more concern than chiding this time. It seems his distraction did not go unnoticed.
Zuko doesn't answer, only looks out to see if any new customers have come in. Being barely awake is rough but he'd rather have something to busy his hands than to talk about it.
"The lunch rush is not for an hour or so, so I have plenty of time to wait for your answer."
Zuko rolls his eyes before turning back, but when he met his Uncle's eyes again, his stubbornness manages to wilt away. He leans against the counter, crossing his arms tightly while he stared at the floor.
"There was this woman I found yesterday." He spoke low enough for only his Uncle's ears. "She was with child and needed a healer." He paused for a moment. "It was...bad."
Iroh's frowned. "Is she alright?"
"I..I think so? I waited until I heard the baby cry, but then I left." Zuko suddenly felt a lot more uncertain than he did last night.
Iroh gave a half certain smile. "That is a very valiant thing that you have done, nephew." He said. "But I do know that the danger of childbirth does not disappear once the child is born."
Zuko's face paled. "What?"
Iroh thought for a moment. "Would it make you feel better to check up on her and the child? If you would like, you may take your lunch break early."
Zuko nodded slowly, a little unsure, before nodding firmly. Why the fate of a random earth kingdom refugee was tugging at his heartstrings, he didn't know. But he needed anything to get this worry off of his chest. To get this distraction rid of.
And that is how he found himself back at the same healer's residence, as Lee. No plan, just waltzing right in and asking.
Perhaps he should have prepared himself a bit more.
"Were you well acquainted with the deceased?"
Zuko's nails dug into the counter, as he stared aimlessly at a peculiar knot in the wood.
"...No."
The apprentice's shoulders slumped. "That's too bad. Unfortunately, we've been unable to identify any next of kin, as her child needs a home. It seems she immigrated alone, only in the city for barely a week before last night."
Zuko grunted an affirmation. Alone, in a place far from home. How he knew what that was like.
"May I ask how you knew her?"
Zuko fuddled around for an answer. "Uh...I work at a tea shop, she'd been to. When she didn't come around...and I heard a baby had been born here..."
"Ah, I see." The woman nodded, and Zuko was grateful he didn't have to go on. An awkward silence hung in the air, before Zuko spoke.
"Do you...what will happen with the baby?"
The apprentice sighed, and pursed her brows in a sorrowed look. "Orphanage, although I'd barely call what we have around here a proper orphanage."
"Why?" Zuko's eyes narrowed.
"It's not like whatever you've known out there. The lower ring...there's no family in their right mind that will take another mouth to feed, not when they can barely feed their own. And the orphanages, they do their best, but when it's so crowded...well, it's hard to keep track of children in a city like this."
Zuko's fists clenched. The horrid, horrid things that made up this city. The Fire Nation cares for their orphans, ensures the young can grow strong to support them in the future.
Zuko shook away the thought. He'd seen enough orphans outside the walls begging for food throughout the entirety of the Earth Kingdom. There certainly wouldn't be as many, if there weren't parents dying in war.
And whose fault was that?
"What," Zuko began, interrupting his spiral of thought, "if I looked into it? Found if she had family outside the walls?"
"That...would be incredibly helpful." The woman's eyes lit up. "I doubt you'll find anything, especially with how hard it is to get information around here. But, anything is better than nothing."
"Trust me." Zuko said. "I have my ways."