Disclaimer: I own nothing you might recognise from the series.

Notes: Yunuen is a name I found on the very useful Behindthename website. "Possibly means "half moon" in Mayan," it says. I went for Mayan on the name because I thought Central and South American cultures might have some applicability when you consider that the Sun Warriors' aesthetic is based on Aztek artefacts.

This is the last instalment to the Airbender's Child collection, which I am adding to create a sort of finality for this series which I started an eternity ago. Those of you who requested steambabies, you know who you are, and you are many. Thanks to everyone who read, who commented, who made requests and who have stuck around to the end. This is short, but I'm hoping it implies all the things people had been hoping for in the end.

Gale Dancer's head snapped up as he heard the high-pitched sound. He was still a calf, but he was the biggest calf of the litter, and that he felt responsible for his litter-mates. Of course he knew his mother and father would protect them, but someday he might have to be the one doing the protecting. So, it was very important to look into anything that might be a threat.

Well, he also wanted to know what the noise was. It was different from any noises he'd heard before. There were all the humans that made those strange, fiddly noises that were so very complicated. His mother was teaching them all human noises, so they could understand, but it was boring and he wasn't sure why they had to know, since it was easy to tell what the humans were feeling and wanted without understanding fiddly sounds.

But this was a different sound. Not a bird, not a squeaky bison-barn door, not an ostrich horse or one of those scary giant lizard things either.

He followed the noise to a very small human, curled up in a ball on a bale of hay. The little human, and he hadn't know they could be so small, either, was making the noises. Gale Dancer thought a minute, then realised the human was making sad sounds. tail-stepped-on sounds. Had someone stepped on it somehow? He rumbled a greeting and was rewarded by the little human's head coming up and its eyes going wide.

"Hello," it made a fiddly noise, and Gale Dancer suddenly realised that he didn't know for sure if this human was scared or sad right then. But it smelled a little familiar, so he nudged closer.

The human reached out with a paw and rubbed Gale Dancer's head. It was a nice touch. He moved a little closer and a new noise came from the human. It was a nice sort of noise, this one. Not a fiddly noise, but not the tail-stepped-on noise, either. He was startled when the human got onto his back, but then the scratch-grooming started. It was not as good as the scratch-grooming that he got from his mother and father, or from his mother's human herdmate, or from Blue Water, the herdmate's mate (his parents had told him her human fiddly noise name, but he couldn't remember right then). Still, it was good, and he thought maybe the little human was a calf too.

The scratch-grooming was very soothing, and Gale Dancer began to doze in spite of his intentions to practice protecting his siblings. The grooming stopped, but the warm weight of the little human on his back was also soothing, and he fell asleep with the little human resting on top of him.

When a panicked Katara and Zuko raced into the bison barn, they both heaved a sigh of relief upon finding their daughter Yunuen asleep on top of one of Shuga's calves. "Is she alright?" Katara asked as they softly approached the pair.

"She's fine," Zuko assured her. "I'm going to fire that nurse, however. How could she not have been watching long enough for Yunuen to get all the way down here?" When he picked the little girl up she snapped awake, eyes wide and looking around until she spotted the bison.

"Ah!" the toddler shouted, chubby little arms reaching for the furry animal she'd been using as a bed.

That woke the little bison, only about six years old himself, and he hastily scrambled up to Zuko, looking with adorable big eyes at the little girl. "I'll bring her to see you," Zuko promised him, giving the animal a scratch on the head.

Yunuen was inconsolable until the little bison started following them. Then she cooed and said the three words she knew, "Water! Idiot no! Water! No no nonononononono!" She struggled in her father's arms, trying to reach for the bison.

"That's what we get for letting Sokka babysit," Katara said dryly.

As they headed toward the palace, Shuga ambled up to them, rumbling at her calf. The calf rumbled back, seemingly defiant.

Shuga made a sharp-sounding sort of noise, chivvying her calf off to join the rest of the family.

Yunuen was not happy and made this very much known. She didn't subside until she was cuddled in with her mother, who told her the story of the polar bear-dog pup who rescued the moon from the trickster mink snake.

That night, however, she determinedly climbed out of her crib, planning to find The Nice Furry Thing. It was like Daddy's Nice Furry Thing, only small enough for her. She was startled to see Daddy's Nice Furry Thing outside her window, carrying the little girl's in her mouth. The smaller one was pushed into the room, and Yunuen squealed in delight, wrapping her arms around the Yunuen-sized Nice Furry Thing. She grabbed her favourite blanket and climbed on top of the him at once, happily riding around on his back as he curiously explored her room. Eventually he stopped looking around and she set to scritching him like Daddy did to his. Since he did it a lot, Yunuen knew it must be important, so she enthusiastically set to scritching.

Her Nice Furry Thing made happy noises, but eventually her arms got tired and she got tired. So she cuddled into his back and fell asleep, smiling.

They were both woken the next morning by the sound of an exasperated Zuko. "Shuga! I know you want your calf to be friends with my daughter, but could you not have a bison in the bedroom? It's not like Katara and I are horrible like my parents . . . stop looking at me like that. Katara! Did you have to teach Shuga to make goat puppy eyes at me?"

As her parents rattled on about things she couldn't quite understand, Yunuen giggled, then ignored them. She had a Nice Furry Thing all her own and they were going to be together forever. She babbled at him, and he licked her in agreement.

It was settled then, and she hugged him back.