The Story May Resume
DISCLAIMER: I've said it time and again, Avatar: the Last Airbender is no possession of mine. So this is merely my humble tribute to it.
As mentioned in "The First Trial", this is the second Zutara one-shot that I'm posting today, to make up for the lack of Zutara posts and to respond to the poll on the profile that has a high demand for Zutara.
This is a post-series AU one-shot because I am determined to bring Zuko and Katara together no matter what. I will not attempt to follow the "Legend of Korra" time line because it won't make this story work. But I am keeping the name Tenzin for Aang and Katara's son. I'm really bad at original character names so I take the easy way, as you will soon see.
This story may have the potential to be longer and more fleshed out but personally, I prefer to keep it compact and concise, a one-shot. I do not have the time or energy to develop it into something longer and I still have so many other stories planned. This is a simple, short family portrait so not much politics and only a little implied action.
But I hope you enjoy another fruit of my madness.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
My name is Lu Ten, son of Fire Lord Zuko and Fire Lady Mai, now passed.
This is not so much my story as it is the story of my family, and how we came together through many difficulties and trials. In particular, I want to relate how my father endured immense loss and suffering only to gain a happiness he had never expected.
We are no strangers to bereavement. I had my first taste of the pain of separation when my mother died. I was only five years old at the time so I had few clear memories of her. She was to me a vision of beauty and love and also the cause of my first heartbreak.
I was told that she died of a strange disease that no physician in the world could cure. Even Aunt Katara, whose healing prowess was legend, had been unable to help my mother. The most my aunt could do was ease my mother's pain in the latter's last days. So she passed quietly, with little suffering, and my father mourned her deeply.
But what got us through this first tragedy was the love and support from the Avatar or Uncle Aang as he always wanted us to call him. Though we were not related by blood, my father and I were considered family by Uncle Aang, Aunt Katara, and their son, Tenzin who was two years my junior. Uncle Sokka and his family were never too far away as well, so father and I never felt alone.
I did not long feel the loss of a mother because Aunt Katara practically took over the responsibility of looking after me and showering me with all the motherly affection she could spare from her own son. Tenzin and I grew up together, almost like true brothers, and Uncle Aang near spoiled me as my father would never have done.
It was through their support and love that father and I easily recovered from our grief. I must confess that I felt more a part of Uncle Aang and Aunt Katara's family than of my own. Aside from father, great-uncle Iroh, and grandmother Ursa, I have not really experienced a complete family. I never met my father's only sister or my grandfather, though father visited Aunt Azula occasionally.
In time, I grew accustomed to our unique set up and I had no complaints about how things were. We were happy, and that was all that really mattered.
But we had hardly settled into this comfortable state of affairs when a greater tragedy struck.
Two years after my mother's death, father and Uncle Aang were involved in a terrible accident. I do not wish to dwell on the details of that horrible event for I have tried to forget it as best as I could.
All that must be said is that father and Uncle Aang had gone on a mission to some remote area in the Fire Nation. There had been an explosion and they had tried to stop the fire from spreading and causing damage to the people in the surrounding areas.
At one point, my father tried to shield Uncle Aang from the impact of something but this left them both severely wounded. They were brought home at once and Aunt Katara naturally tended to her husband while the palace physicians tried to take care of father.
I had knelt by my father's bedside, weeping uncontrollably and clinging on to his hand. He was barely conscious and I saw that he was in great pain. I spoke to him, urged him to be strong and to hold on. I could not bear to think of losing another parent so soon.
But try as they might, the doctors could do nothing to properly tend to my father's injuries. With every moment, his life force grew weaker and I grew more frantic and frightened.
It was clear that there was only one person who could help my father at that moment, but word had come that Uncle Aang had passed away and no one dared disturb Aunt Katara in her grief.
I was devastated by the loss of a dear uncle (and the savior of the world), but I was even more afraid of losing the only true family I had left. I sat there in tears, holding on to my father's hand as tightly as I could.
At length, it was Tenzin who coaxed his mother out of her sorrow and led her to my father's bedside. I looked at my friend gratefully and he nodded to me. I could not believe it. I knew the depth of his despair and yet he was willing to come and save me from mine. It was then that I understood that his father's wisdom and his mother's kindness had indeed been passed on to him.
Aunt Katara seemed to have snapped out of her stupor the moment she laid eyes on my dying father. She immediately knelt down and placed her hands, glowing with healing water on his chest. I do not remember it well since I was weeping at the time but I was under the impression that her tears seemed to mingle with the glowing water she used to heal his wounds.
"Hold on, Zuko," she whispered to him desperately, "please, I can't lose you too."
And I knew at that moment that they needed each other more than just to ease their grief. Tenzin saw it too but said nothing. Years later when we discussed it amongst ourselves, we agreed that though their powerful bond had been clear to us then, my father and Tenzin's mother had not realized it until much later.
After a few more agonizing moments, my father opened his eyes. Seeing the tearful face of Aunt Katara before him, he immediately asked after Uncle Aang. Aunt Katara shook her head, trembling as she did so. Father's eyes had widened and tears began to flow down his cheeks. He took Aunt Katara gently into his arms and she wept uncontrollably on his shoulder.
Though he still had her in his embrace, my father's eyes darted to me and I saw the relief and joy in his eyes, which he undoubtedly saw in mine as well. He gave me a grave smile and I knew that all would be well.
All mourned the passing of the Avatar, Uncle Aang, who had returned to end the century-long war and who had united the Four Nations after decades of struggle. But the peace that he and my father had worked so hard to attain was long lasting. There were no signs of conflict or suffering in the world.
I suppose Uncle Aang left us because his mission was finally fulfilled. And he had had the chance to live a happy life of his own before he was absorbed once again in the eternal cycle.
After a search in both Water Tribes, a young baby girl named Korra was discovered to be the next Avatar. It was decided that Tenzin would teach her airbending when she came of age. For though my brother-friend was still very young, he was already a master at airbending, an inherited talent from his father.
Three years passed and life went on for all of us. Our families grew closer together, united in the sense of loss, I suppose, and also because it seemed so easy and simple to find strength in each other. Tenzin and I became as brothers, laughing and bickering together just as naturally as brothers did.
But we were also very observant. As time passed, it became clearer to us that the only thing that would complete our happiness was to see our respective parents happy as well. And after watching them carefully, we could see that they knew the answer to their sense of loneliness, but they were reluctant to admit it.
We weren't surprised by the development though. After all, father and Aunt Katara had known each other long and had been through many trials together before the war was finally ended. Though enemies at first, I knew that once Aunt Katara had overcome her grudge against my father, they had grown to be great friends. And Tenzin and I are fairly certain that if our parents had not already been involved, father and Aunt Katara would have gotten together.
It was strange to imagine a set of circumstances that would have effectively cancelled out both our existences, but Tenzin and I were amused by such thoughts. And seeing how happy our parents were when they were together, we had no hard feelings. In fact, at one point we were tempted to urge them to marry but we were just not sure how to approach the whole affair.
What was more frustrating was their refusal to do anything about the feelings which were growing more and more evident.
I suppose it must have been the lingering fidelity to their deceased spouses that kept them from openly admitting what they had long felt for each other. Some part of them felt like they were betraying my mother and Uncle Aang.
But when I thought about it, I doubt that either of those two would have minded. I'm sure my mother and Uncle Aang would have wanted their loved ones to be happy.
For all that they had been through; father and Aunt Katara were still young, with many years of life ahead of them. Tenzin and I did not want to see them languishing in loneliness and sorrow.
The court advisers urged my father to re-marry, though thankfully there was already an heir to the throne. Nevertheless, they expected him to have a Fire Lady who would be like the mother to her people. And naturally, a political alliance through marriage was always a desirable thing.
But though he pretended to consider it, I knew that there was only one woman in the world whom my father truly wanted to marry. And he was too shy and afraid to even raise the subject with her.
Out of respect for our parents, Tenzin and I said nothing to them about this but we were getting more and more frustrated with them.
They had been mourning their spouses more than enough and it was high time for them to be happy again. Luckily, fate moved to our favor one day in Ba Sing Se.
It was great-uncle Iroh who told us about this, because it had all taken place in his beloved tea shop in the center of the walled city. Great-uncle Iroh had also been one of our staunchest allies when it came to bringing father and Aunt Katara together and we could always rely on him for effective strategies.
But this time, he had needed none.
Aunt Katara had arrived in the shop first, looking very distressed and confused. He gave her a cup of tea and asked her to tell him her problem.
"I'm not sure what I want to do now," she had said, "it all happened so fast, the dream, and I feel so relieved and yet nervous."
"Well, tell me about it if you want to," great-uncle Iroh had asked gently.
"It's not my call," she had replied, "I know what I want, I finally understand my heart, and yet, so much still depends on him."
Great-uncle Iroh had not even bothered to ask. He had already known.
But before Aunt Katara could say anything further, who else burst through the doors of the tea shop but my father himself, in the same state of distress and confusion. He had clearly come to speak to his uncle so he looked surprised upon seeing Aunt Katara there as well.
They gazed at each other intently for a few moments. Then, my father plucked up enough courage and strode to where Aunt Katara was and immediately swept her up in a tight embrace.
"I've been so blind," he had whispered to her, "all this time, you were right in front of me, and I did nothing. I was afraid."
"So was I," she had replied, "I was ashamed that I seem to have recovered so quickly from Aang's death. I felt so guilty about loving you."
"So did I, even if I could never love anyone else this much,"
he had told her, "but it's all right now, isn't it?"
"Yes," she had whispered with relief, "he came to me in a dream, smiling as he always did. He gave us his blessing. He practically ordered me to be happy."
"I dreamed of Mai, as well," father had explained, "she doesn't blame me at all."
"I would have you both smiling again," Uncle Aang had told them in these strange dreams, "no one is more deserving of happiness than you. Our story need not stop here. It may resume. You are free to love again."
"Katara," my father then asked, taking Aunt Katara's hand in his, "will you spend the rest of your life with me?"
She then smiled at him as she had not done in a long time.
"I think you already know the answer to that," she said, taking his face in her hands and touching his lips with hers.
And so, as you may well guess, they were married and now, Tenzin and I are officially brothers.
We were overjoyed to hear the news and our parents had been surprised at our enthusiasm. Imagine their greater shock when we told them that we had known about it all along.
Today, we are one big, happy family, and we're about to welcome some new additions. Mother, as I now call Aunt Katara, is expecting twins. Tenzin and I are thrilled, and father could not be any happier.
This is my family's story, and it is far from over. Though we've had our fair share of trials, our happy memories outweigh the sad ones.
After every tragedy, we all manage to bounce back, stronger than before.