Author's Note: Mai/Zuko, Katara/Aang, Sokka/Suki, single!Toph. Oh! and also; implied!Zuko/Katara, but only through squinting. Blink and you miss it. Plus! surprise pairing at the end?
Summary: Zuko's son has a little thing for Katara. Post-canon series/Pre-Legend of Korra
Disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender and Avatar: Legend of Korra are hereby disclaimed and belong to their respectful owners.
Kato of the Fire Nation
When Kato listens to his father's war stories, he listens with great rapture. He especially enjoys hearing tales of the master waterbender his father travelled with. He enjoys listening to how his father fought against the waterbender and fought with the waterbender. How her fluid movements seem the mimic the currents of rivers and streams. How her blue eyes seem to make the ocean's color pale in comparison.
At night, Kato dreams of the river's course and the bluest eyes he has ever seen.
There is a festival in the Fire Nation and on the first day his father's companions arrive. The first to appear is his warrior friend and his wife - "Your Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki," his father introduces. Kato decides that his warrior uncle is rather goofy looking, but smart when the time calls for it and his aunt is polite-looking and polite-speaking. The second to appear is his father's earthbending friend - the one that was offered the title of Earthbending Queen - why anyone would turn down a ruling position confused Kato, but he likes her more than his warrior uncle. "Ya runt," she calls him. "I'm your Auntie Toph." The last to arrive is the Avatar and his partner.
Kato's breath gets caught in his throat when he sees her step off the large bison. She is even prettier than he imagined. Her long, curled hair seems to float wonderfully around her. Her smile could even make the coldest man in the Fire Nation (in his mind that was his dead grandfather) melt at even the thought of it. And her eyes - if there was ever such a name to describe the color...
As she steps closer to the pavilion, he hides behind his mother's long skirt. His Auntie Toph snickers, his father looks at him confusedly, and his mother only pats his head gently.
The Avatar greets his father first, then his mother, smiles at him, then goes on to greet his warrior uncle and earthbending aunt. When his goddess steps foot into the pavilion, she breaks into a quick jog and engulfs his father in a hug, politely smiles and kisses his mother on the cheek, hugs his warrior uncle, and hugs his earthbending aunt. She doesn't notice him from behind his mother's clothing until his father calls out his name.
Timidly, he moves away from his mother, but clasps her hand, and formally greets everyone - his eyes lingering on his goddess before earning a proud nod from his father. To his surprise, his goddess moves towards him and introduces herself.
"Hello, prince," she smiles. "I'm your Auntie Katara. It's nice to meet you."
Kato blushes at how close she is and how ill-prepared he is at her arrival. "I - I am P-Prince Kato."
Her smile is wider and he finds himself drawn in by her radiance. "You are very handsome, Prince Kato."
The prince's whole face turns red and his Auntie Toph loudly laughs.
By the third and last day of the festival, his father's comrades pack up their belongings and are ready to leave. His earthbending aunt is the first to go - "Gotta make sure things don't go out of order," - she ruffles his hair before she leaves and says - "Don't get too carried away now." His warrior uncle and wife (who was also a warrior - how could this piece of information escape him?) leaves via airship for Kyoshi Island. And at last, his goddess takes her leave along with her Avatar partner.
Her last goodbye is with him, right after her father, and she tells him - "I'll come back to visit soon, so hopefully I'll get to know you better," - she looks at him - "Is that alright?" Kato nods enthusiastically, though not showing the emotion on his face, she somehow knew. His goddess, Katara - he breathes her name like a holy mantra - smiles and makes him pinky-promise.
Kato watches her go, ascend into the sky on her large bison and fervently wishes her return will be quick.
At night when his father tells him one of his war stories, Kato requests to hear one about his goddess. His father complies and tells him a story of her, and a tree, and of pirates. "When I was still chasing the Avatar and his friends, I caught her once..."
The next time Kato sees his goddess, she arrives on a ship and slowly comes down the plank. She is...larger than he remembers and notices her flat middle has now become round. His father congratulates her on becoming this round - why he does, Kato doesn't know - and his mother gingerly rubs her protruding belly.
During lunch, her belly is hidden by the table but Kato steals furtive glances at her. His father notices and asks, "Is something wrong, Kato?" He shakes his head, but his gaze is focused on his goddess. She giggles and points to her middle, "Are you wondering about this?" Kato doesn't answer, but lightly blushes. His father chuckles and he hears the hitching in his mother's breath that indicates her own amusement to her son's curiosity.
She smiles at him and says, "I'm having a baby." Without thinking, he blurts out, "Is it father's?"
The look on her face is indescribable, his mother's face is unreadable, and his father spits out his tea. Then the whole dining room is filled with her laughter and his father's sputtering. "Katara - I don't know - - Kato doesn't even learn these things - " His goddess waves her hand at his father, as if she understands his nonsense and her laughing dies down to soft hiccups. "No," she answers him. "This is the Avatar's."
Kato faintly frowns and his lunch no longer seems appetizing.
She stays during the monsoon season - the season he hates the most because the rainstorms always frighten him. It begins to rain one week, then the next, and the next, and the next, and soon almost half a moon cycle is finished and it is still raining. On one night, he is awakened by the sound of raindrops pelting the palace ceiling. He hates the sound and the noise the wind makes. In a flash, Kato jumps out of bed and makes his way towards his parent's bedroom.
It is by chance, he sees her in the Royal Gardens - using her element. He watches her arms move above her head in an almost swaying motion. Then he notices, the pitter-patter of raindrops lessens and the rain seems to move away. 'She's moving the rain - she's waterbending,' he thinks in awe. She moves the rain clouds over the palace in the direction of the ocean where they will disperse.
When she turns around, she catches his eye and smiles. "This baby doesn't like the rain," she answers as she pats her belly.
"How do you know?" his own voice surprises him when he asks that question.
"The little one wouldn't allow me to sleep."
Kato frowns and silently admonishes the 'little one' for preventing his goddess' required rest.
"This one...will not be a waterbender," he almost hears the sadness in her voice as she looks down on her stomach. But she smiles and looks at him, extending her hand.
"Would you like for me to tell you a story?"
Kato reaches out hesitantly - as if his touch would taint his goddess - and nods.
That night he dreams of ice and snow, of otter-penguins, of igloos, of the ocean's waves, of stewed sea prunes, and of the boy she found in ice.
The next morning, the monsoon season is over and his father comments, "The season was a little short this year," and gives a little look to his goddess. She shrugs and continues to eat and his mother announces her annual trip to Kyoshi Island - what she does there, he doesn't know but she always comes back with more knives for her keeping.
Before the lunch hour, his mother leaves and Kato is left with his father and his waterbending goddess.
His father and his goddess go into the Royal Gardens and immediately begin to talk of things he doesn't know; the snow fall in the Water Tribe, the conditions of the Air Temples, the season's ocean patterns. Kato is by the turtleduck pond when he hears his father's voice carry.
"I'm a little worried about Kato."
His goddess giggles. "You're such a worrywart."
"No, I mean...I think he's attached to you."
"Oh, please Zuko. It's just a little crush. Remember that thing Sokka's daughter had on you?" Her voice mimics a young girl's. "It's Uncle Zuko!"
His father groans. "Don't remind me. Is that why Sokka didn't bring his girls?"
"That and they're all going through Kyoshi Warrior Training."
Kato doesn't know what a 'crush' is, but he plucks a flower from the nearby pond garden and brings it over to his goddess.
They stop talking once he makes himself known in their personal circle. Shyly, he brings the flower out from his back and hands it to her. It is red and gold, with specks of black on its petals - the most gorgeous flower in the Fire Nation, second to only the Fire Lily.
"Is this for me?" she breathes out and he bashfully nods. Her hands take it from his - 'Soft,' he notices - and holds it to her chest. "Thank you very much, Prince Kato."
Nodding, he runs away to the pond and he can hear his father say, "See? Told you so."
She leaves before her little one is born and before his mother makes it back from her Kyoshi Island trip. Kato is in his father's arms when they see her off. Before she leaves, she gives her father a hug and soft kiss to his scarred cheek, then she takes Kato from his father and for a moment he almost believes she will be taking him with her - wherever she goes.
She hugs him as tightly as she can with her round belly - it has grown during her stay - and tells him, "I will see you again."
He nods, hugging her back and she puts him back into his father's arms. They both watch her leave, until the ship is no longer visible - even when they climb atop the highest point in the Royal Palace.
His father leaves one day for an important matter. He hears her name - Katara - whispered among his parents when he listens to them speak outside their bedroom door. When he sees his father, Kato looks up expectantly, but he only pats him on the head and tells him to behave while he's away. "I will send for you and your mother, if she so wishes, when the time is ready."
His father leaves by himself with only an airship.
Two weeks go by and a message arrives from him. His mother tells him the baby Katara has been carrying is now born, and if he wishes, he can join his father at the Western Air Temple. Kato is hesitant to leave his mother - as she clearly does not want to travel - but she sees the want in his eyes and arranges for him to leave in two days.
In two days an old man shows up. "Granduncle Iroh!", Kato happily yells as he is scooped up by him.
"Kato, my boy," Iroh hugs him. "Lady Mai," he nods towards his mother. His granduncle gives gifts of tea to his mother and she fixes her son's appearance before they go off into the air.
"This is your first time in an airship, is it not?" his granduncle asks. Kato nods in answer. Iroh smiles. "Come, this trip will take long. Would you like to hear a story?"
When he naps on his granduncle's lap, Kato dreams of water whips, and fire blasts, and of the fabled crystal catacombs of the city of Old Ba Sing Se.
When they arrive at the temple, Kato is immediately greeted by upside down temples and the only thought in his mind is, 'Is everything here upside down?' Iroh hops off the airship with him in tow and greets his warrior uncle, with his wife and his earthbending aunt.
His eyes are searching for his father, to which his Auntie Toph answers, "He's in the room with Sugar Queen."
"And of Aang? And the child?" Iroh asks. His Uncle Sokka takes his granduncle by the arm and brings them to a separate room where the Avatar is seated with a bundle in his arms and four girls surrounding him.
"Girls," his uncle claps his hands and they instantly line up.
"Iroh!" the Avatar beams. "And Little Kato!" He brings himself up and shows them his newborn son. Kato looks up and sees the skin of his goddess, with the face of the Avatar. But he hopes for something more - the color of his eyes; blue, grey, or - he secretly wishes - gold.
"Oh," his granduncle coos and holds out his arms to hold the baby. "How precious."
By this time, the girls by his uncle's side are staring at him and he quietly slips away out of the room. The Air Temple is big from his perspective, but he somehow manages to find his father and his goddess.
He peeks through the tiny crack in the door to see his goddess laying on her side, facing the wall while his father is on the side of the bed with his hands on her back. "Does it still hurt?" his father asks. She answers no, but to please continue the warmth coming from his hands because it feels very, very nice. His father chuckles and replies, "As the princess so desires."
Kato leaves the two alone and is quietly pleased - as is his Auntie Toph when she catches him coming from the direction of his goddess' bedroom.
"Ya know, runt, I have a real funny story to tell ya. Wanna hear it?"
Kato spends the rest of the day running from the his uncle's daughters. He tries hiding behind his Auntie Toph, hiding behind the Avatar, behind his granduncle, but he finds his haven in his goddess' room. His father is still in her room, this time on the bed facing her and she is still on the bed, sitting up with the baby in her arms.
"Kato? Is something wrong?" his father asks.
Kato pants. "Girls are weird."
Katara laughs, his father chuckles, and she pats the space beside her. "Come here, Prince Kato." He complies and gently goes upon the bed. He peers down at the baby, now with eyes wide open, and he sees - with some disappointment - that they are grey.
"What will you name him?" his father asks softy.
"I think Aang wanted to name him Tenzin," she answers with equal softness.
"Ten...zin?" Kato tries out the name on his tongue.
His goddess turns to him with a smile on her face - she's tired, he knows it, but her radiance beats out the drained look from her. "I hope you two will become the best of friends."
He nods. "I - I will take care of him!" he eagerly replies, in turn his father and goddess laugh and she gives him a soft rub of his head.
When they leave (his father left his airship in the care of his Uncle Sokka), Kato sits in his granduncle's lap. It has been almost a week since they left the Fire Nation. But his mind is not focused on his homeland or his mother, but on the story his aunt had told him.
So he turns to his granduncle and asks, "What is destiny, Granduncle Iroh?"
A cross between a chuckle and a strangled noise comes from his father, but his granduncle laughs. "Kato, destiny is a funny thing."
His goddess does not come as often as he would like, but when she does she is usually by herself. He learns that Tenzin is studying with his father on his natural bending ability - air.
"Just like you when you were beginning to learn firebending," she says to him.
She often stays when his father coops himself up in his study and she coaxes him out by shouldering whatever his burden may be. Kato personally loves it when she comes, even if it is only for her father. She often brings him out into the market and together they browse the stalls, she buys him what he wants while she listens to the problems of the people. He doesn't know it, but later he learns this is her way of helping the citizens (and it is the first thing he remembers when the crown is placed upon his head).
There is one incident he will never forget. A loose dragon moose was running rampant throughout the marketplace and he was caught in its line of vision. Katara had not been close, but she was quick. The top off her water skin was flicked off with nimble fingers and water was at her command in an instant.
She created a shield of ice that stopped the animal in its tracks. When the dragon moose was in a daze, she moved in closer - pushed him behind her - and froze the animal, left its head free of ice, until its owner came and retrieved it. When the whole ordeal was over, he looked up at her with wide eyes and she brought a finger to her lips. "We'll keep this our little secret."
She never stays for long and leaves when whatever the problem his father was facing is solved.
They meet again at his Granduncle Iroh's funeral (her tears are something he doesn't want to see - and he sees her continuing to grieve after the ceremony with his father). Tenzin is an active child, but Kato knows the gravity of this situation and he ushers him away into the Royal Gardens ("See? You feed turtleducks like this.").
And again when she gives birth again, this time at the Southern Water Tribe - 'Kyrah,' she calls her daughter; in honor of his late granduncle. The cold is biting and the snow is unbearable, but he puts up a strong front just for her.
She is also there when his mother gives birth, also a girl ('Yuzuki', his father names her). Kato also notices that his father doesn't warm his mother's back after she gives birth. Rather, she recuperates in her bedroom while his father sits by her side. His goddess takes care of his newborn sister while his mother is recovering and leaves once she gets better.
She is there when he's growing from a small boy into a young man. When Tenzin is away training with his father, when Yuzuki is training with their father, and when Kyrah isn't training with his goddess, she is there gently coaching him into the role of a good prince. ("Now, Prince Kato, when those advisors are getting up your polar seal lion hide you could always, and I mean always, do that little fire whip trick I taught you. What? Your father told you not to do that - Oh, please. I'd whoop your father's backside into the next moon cycle. And you tell him I said that.")
She has seen him grow from a young boy into young adult and he has seen her; from her adulthood into her elderly phase of life ("I have aged beautifully!" she states when his father teases her about the wrinkles on her face). The last time he hugs her, fear pierces his heart. She is thin underneath her heavy parka and he is afraid that one day she will leave him and join those in the afterlife.
It is spring in the Fire Nation when his father receives the scroll from his Uncle Sokka. He is in the middle of his lessons when his father comes into the room and immediately halts his session and orders for him to pack lightly.
She is the third to go; the first being his mother and the second being the Avatar. It is her death that has him controlling the sobs that shake his body. In her country, on that little land of ice she had called home, they lay her in a fishing boat, dressed in her finest parka, adorned with the red and gold and black-speckled flowers he brought from the Royal Gardens. She looks peaceful and all he wants is for her to open her eyes.
His goddess is surrounded by her people, her children, his father, his sister, her brother, his aunt, her nieces, her sister-in-law - everyone whom she had considered family were gathered at her funeral. After all, it wasn't only him mesmerized by her brilliance.
Her brother and his father are given the honors of pushing her out to the sea. As they gently push her boat out, his Auntie Toph puts her small hand on his back and gently rubs it in small circles.
"I know, runt. Go ahead and let it all out."
He cries. He is on his knees - melted snow seeps into his winter pants as his temperature rises - a cry somewhere between raging yell and a child's wail escapes him. His sobbing is no longer under his control; in front of her, he is no longer the prince his appearance had previously displayed.
Kato is soon joined by the tears of his aunt, the bawling of Kyrah, the sniveling of Tenzin, and the weeping of his sister. Her people hum together and begin a song as the ocean's current take her farther from her home. His Uncle Sokka soon joins them all the while, sniffling and hiccuping as he stumbles over the words. His father is the only one unable to shed tears, instead he turns when she is no longer visible to their eyes and softly lays his old calloused hand on his shoulder.
"I loved her too," is all he says before walking off into her little hut.
He is ruling the country now. After the death of his goddess, his Auntie Toph followed, his Aunt Suki next, Uncle Sokka then, and his father last. Before his father passed, he left him one piece of advice.
"Your Granduncle Iroh told me this once, 'Many things will catch your eyes, but follow the one that captures your heart.' I didn't follow through with that, but I want you to. I know you will make the right choice. I just want you to follow through with it."
"But father, you have done many wondrous things for our country -"
"Son, what I speak of does not pertain to the Fire Nation, but to yourself."
Tenzin comes and visits often. True to his word, Kato has taken care of his goddess' son and they have become the best friends that they could be.
The next time Tenzin comes to visit, he brings news of the new Avatar.
"She is of the Southern Water Tribe!" he exclaims and the Fire Lord's interested is already piqued.
When she comes for training, he almost stumbles in surprise. 'They share the same blue eyes.' She is only a girl of sixteen, but a girl that carries a lot of spunk. ("You think you can get me with that fire whip? Oh, please.")
But what surprises him (and pleases him) is their dynamic - even his father's elderly counselors notice; it is reminiscent of his goddess and her father. ("Don't get huffy with me Fire Lord, cool yourself before I freeze you. It's already hot enough in the Fire Nation.")
She stays during the monsoon season (she has no choice, she tells him, it's training). And she lets him watch her while she waterbends the rain. He is reminded of his goddess, but wholly interested iher/i style of waterbending. She brings in the fighting style of the jian and it puts her bending on a whole other level. He, on the other hand, is itching to get a flicker of flame in so he sends one out (a rather ilong/i flicker of flame), startling her and their sparring begins.
She masters fire after the rainy season and it is almost time for her to set off to learn the final element - air. Before she leaves, he takes her into his bedroom, though it takes plenty of coaxing on his part ("Put that water whip away! I'm not going to do anything!"). He gives her one of his most prized possessions.
"This was given to me by my father who received it from his...waterbending friend."
"This...this is a betrothal necklace."
"Not that I'm looking for that now but, I'd like for you to...keep it. As...as a token for masting firebending."
The breath he is holding is finally let out when she nods and allows him to clasp it around her wrist. He swears she is blushing when she speaks to him.
"Thank you, Fire Lord Kato."
He nods with a shy smile. "You are most welcome."
When he sees her off (he wishes he could travel with her), he is very certain they will see each other again.
Author's Note: So, when I think about this...wouldn't it be kind of weird if Korra liked the Fire Lord? I mean..technically speaking, Aang would have known the Fire Lord since he was a kid and the new Avatar liking the Fire Lord would be...freaky? Somewhere on the level of Korra liking Tenzin, but not quite there (there's fanart of it, I saw it, and it. is. hilarious.). Naw meanin'? Anyway, I'm kind-of-not/kind-of-yes looking forward to the new season and while thinking about it, I thought of this.
Word Count: 4255