The Jasmine Dragon

15 Upper Bing Street

Zuko crept into the room, a frown on his face as he saw the large engagement ring sitting on the bedside table, a sign that today he was single. He sighed a bit, attention turning to the mound of blankets on the bed.

"You asleep?" He knew she wasn't, but still thought it nice to ask.

"No." She said from under the blankets, moving a bit.

He took the edge of the blanket at the head of the bed into his hands, pulling it back. Her feet, punctuated by painted green toe nails, withdrew in the cold air, trying to find their way back under covers with a soft groan. He placed the blanket back over her feet, pulling back the blankets from the other side of the bed.

Suki reached out and tried to grab the blanket back, her long auburn wild around her head. "Nooo..."

"Nice to see you too." He laughed, leaning down and pressing a quick kiss on her lips.

She reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck, locking him in place as she opened her lips, sliding her tongue into his mouth.

He jumped a bit, eyes snapping open as she pulled him down onto the bed with her, wiggling him in under the covers next to her.

On instinct his arms went around her waist, finding that she was naked, as usual these days. She always was like this, always wanting sex, like she did now. It was evident as her hands went to his belt, undoing it quickly. Zuko supposed it was a way to cope, to deal with the new situation they were facing.

They were technically homeless: homeless and unemployed.

Zuko had lost his job shortly after their vacation. His boss cited the downturn in the economy; that it wasn't personal.

A week later Suki was attacked and assaulted by a regular customer as she left work. She never went back to the diner.

They couldn't afford the apartment anymore. Azula had offered to help pay for the place, much like they had for her and Sokka, but Zuko declined. Once their lease was up, Azula and Sokka got their own place, Zuko and Suki moving back into the apartment above the Tea shop, the same one that Zuko had lived in as a teenager. Zuko was working for Iroh again, free room and board as long as he served in the tea shop, keeping his tips.

Suki hadn't left the property in over a month. She mostly stayed in bed or laid around the apartment. That, and she wanted sex. It was up to four times a day, sometimes texting him while he was working and demanding that he come upstairs for it. He never said no, even when he wasn't in the mood. He wanted to help her after all, to make her feel better and be ok with the new situation. He didn't know what else to do.

The sex wasn't even that great. The passion, playfulness and love that had once been so important to them was all but gone. Sex had become just physical just a way for her to feel something, anything.

They hardly even kissed during it, foreplay was non existent and afterwards they they hardly even touched.

Now their shoulders were connected by only a bit of skin, both laying on their backs and looking at the ceiling. He was trying to ignore the pulling feeling in his lower stomach, the feeling of guilt and pain crippling him. He was with Suki, the love of his life, but he felt horribly and totally alone.

"Feel better?" He mumbled, looking over at her.

"I guess." Suki replied, shrugging her shoulders a bit.

Zuko sighed, looking back up to the ceiling, "I love you too."

She rolled her eyes pulling her teal blanket up to cover her bare chest, rolling away from him.

Zuko closed his eyes, hands folded together and resting on his stomach. He missed her so much and just wanted things to go back to normal.

Azula and Sokka Kimura

8752 West 72nd Ave, Apartment 837

"Let's do something silly and reckless and totally sexy..."

Six months ago his mind would have exploded in thought, his every synapse firing at the idea and thought of being able to do something that met the aforementioned requirements. He should be thinking about these things now. He should be planning on what he and his better half should be doing, about what they could be doing.

His initial thought was quite different.

"Let's post-date a check!"

Azula's face fell, her shoulders slouching. "That's exciting?"

"Well..." He lifted his strong finger to his lips, tapping them twice, "It's kinda illegal."

"It's dumb." She snapped. Azula ran her fingers through her hair, a frown on her face. She took a moment and looked down at herself, noting her appearance. She had taken off her black and red suit and covered her body with basic sweats and one of Sokka's old shirts. "This is dumb." She mumbled.

He noted her expression, how she looked at herself. "What's dumb?"

"This!" She sighed. "We're..."

"Boring?"

"Yes!" She sighed heavily, arms relaxing in exasperation at her sides. "We've only been on our own for five months and we're already a 40 year old married couple."

He looked over at her, noting the defeated look on her face. He felt a little pinching at his heart as the amount of snark and strain that she had put on the word 'married'. They were married after all. He had asked after she got her job at a Children's Book Publisher, and they had been married at Kenton and Lu Ten's house only a week later.

"But… we are a married couple, and that's kinda cool, don't you think?"

"You know it's cool we're married." She snapped, "It's the coolest thing ever and we're so sexy it's not even funny."

"Then why don't we just have sex again?"

"Because we're in sweats and thus no longer sexy!"

Sokka laughed a bit at this, rolling his eyes. She always looked sexy to him, she always had and she knew that. His status as her big strong buck had changed a bit, but not diminished in the least. He had gotten the promotion, but instead of simply moving up in the factory he'd moved into the corporate office, working with big wigs to make the factories better. He'd traded in his stained, tight work shirts for fitted button downs and black slacks. She found this so much more agreeable that he'd had to learn real quick how to sew the buttons she'd popped back onto the shirts.

"Well I still think you're sexy." He insisted with a soft smile, "So much so that we could have sex right now and I wouldn't even need much coaxing." He shifted his hips outward, motioning to the obvious tent in his pants.

Azula looked down down at the presentation between her husband's legs, rolling her eyes with a sneer. "The mood is ruined."

"Since when do we care about mood?" He groaned.

"Since I said we do!" She groaned, eyes rolling heavily as she got up from chocolate brown sofa. "I'll go light some candles or something!" She huffed as she left the room, going towards the bedroom.

"Candles?" Sokka mumbled, not really sure how to react to her idea, or to this new attitude that she had, that they had. He took a quick survey of the living room and couldn't help but frown. He had never even plugged in the X-Box, and there were actually some coffee table books on the coffee table. If he thought about it hard enough he could actually smell the air freshener, summer wind, filling the air.

His biggest fear had been realized, the same fear that she'd likely had for a while.

"My god…" He turned around in his chair, yelling back into the bedroom, "We're your parents!"

Lu Ten Kasai and Kenton LaMarche

268 South Haverhill

"Hello my lovely…"

Her small clenched fist came up to her eye, rubbing her right eye as she yawned. It made Lu Ten laugh to see her like that, her little face scrunched up in annoyance from being woken from her nap.

"Aw, come on." He clicked, hands going under Lily's small body as he lifted her up into his arms. She whined a bit as her head fell on his shoulder, little arms wrapping around his neck. He balanced her with one hand, the other grabbing her blanket and stuffed bear.

"Sweepy…" She sighed as he made his way from her room and downstairs.

"I know, but it's play time." He cooed in her ear, kissing the side of her head. "How's a tea party sound?"

Lily nodded her head, looking at her father through her long dark bangs. She gave him the faintest of smiles, her dark eyes shining. "I wuv you, daddy."

He couldn't help but smile, leaning in and kissing the side of her head again, "I love you too, sweetie."

Lu Ten settled down with her on the sofa, the two of them giggling together as Lily slowly woke up. She was a beautiful and pleasant child, always happy. In the seven months since they'd had her, Lu Ten and Kenton had grown to hold a profound attachment towards the girl, and both of them couldn't imagine their life without her. Lu Ten stayed home most of the time with her, making sure that her every need was attended to. Kenton still worked full time at his clinic, but coming home was all the more sweet now that he had her to come home to.

"Kiss, Kiss?"

"Kiss, Kiss." He pressed his lip to her cheek, placing sucking kisses on her full cheek.

He was pulled away from his little girl by the ringing telephone. He reached around her and took the phone off the small table next to the sofa, Lily wiggling away from him and going towards the Castle Tent that was in the living room. He smiled, answering the phone:

"Hello?"

He could tell that someone was on the other end. He could hear them breathing, and the faint sound of a bird chattering the the background.

"Hello?"

Then there was a loud click, a bit of a rumble as the phone at the other end seemed to be placed on a receiver. Lu Ten rolled his eyes, sitting the phone back on the table as he slid off the sofa and crawled towards Lily playing. She giggled at her father, offering him one of her dollies.

He played with his daughter, but couldn't help think about his newest nuisance. It had been happening once or twice a week for the past few months. He tried not to pay too much attention to it, but it still left a bit of a lingering feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Aang and Katara Avary

29047 North Madison

"MOOOOMMMMYYYY!"

Katara jumped, dropping the dish that was in her hand onto the ground.

Kya just giggled at the shattering sound as it echoed in the kitchen, her small hands going to her face as she laughed. Katara sighed a bit, looking over her shoulder at her daughter dressed in her little blue dress.

"That wasn't nice." She insisted, looking down at the shards of glass around her bare feet.

Kya held her hands to her eyes, the bottom of her eyes filling up as a high pitched whine filled the kitchen. Katara rolled her eyes, sighing a bit, "It's ok, sweetie." She sighed. Kya started to walk to her mother, arms out reaching for her mother. "NO!" She yelled, "Don't come closer!" She was thinking about the broken glass all around her feet, the thought of the bottom of her daughter's small feet cut and bloody making her cringe.

Kya cried harder at the rejection, tears rolling down her cheeks now.

Almost on cue the front door popped open, a kind voice rolling through the home, "I'm home!"

"Thank the spirits." She mumbled, Kya running from the kitchen and towards the voice.

Katara took the time without her daughter to clean up the broken plate. She grabbed the dust pan and broom, stepping on a microscopic shard of glass in the process. Aang stood in the doorway of the kitchen, consoling the mewling two year old as her mother cursed under her breath.

"Bad day?"

"Yeah…" Katara growled, picking up the pieces of glass and putting it in the dust pan. "Would just like to have a day off."

Aang frowned a bit, rubbing Kya's back a little bit, "I know, sweetie. I told you we could get a nanny sometimes."

"I told you." She stood up, going throw the bits of glass away, "I don't want someone else raising my kids."

"They won't be raising them, just giving you a day off sometimes?"

She sighed a bit, one hip popping out as she looked at her husband. "It's not that I can't do this…"

"No one said that." Avatar Aang walked over to his wife, daughter on his hip. "You're super mom, but even super mom needs time off once in a while." He leaned in and kissed her quickly. Katara finally cracked a smile, her cheeks taking on a slight tint.

"Okay…" She whispered, "We can look into it."

"Perfect."