Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender. I am merely just using them for my own entertainment.
Summary: "Stop. Don't move. I want to remember this moment forever." Zutara. Rated T for Toph's sexual comments.
Connection.
Part One.
Themes 1 - 10
"I feel that I have always walked alone... but now that you're here with me, there will always be - a place where I can go."
- Azn Dreamers.
Bed.
Zuko, for as long as he could remember, has always preferred his bed to be warm. Something about a warm bed and the warmth of the sheets would bring him back to his former childhood glory where his loving mother's warm hand would rock him to sleep.
Katara, on the other hand, has always preferred a colder bed and cool sheets, an environment that she was so adapted to from growing up in the Southern Water Temples. She loved it when the coolness of the sheets against her tanned skin would make her feel alive and rejuvenated in the morning.
Because of this difference, people wonder how was it possible for the two to be able to sleep in the same bed together.
Losing.
Zuko hates losing.
However, within the presence of his adoring, yet equally stubborn wife, he keeps finding himself losing every time.
Somewhere in the palace, Toph elbows Katara - a bit too hard, the waterbender groaned inwardly - admirably, "Way to show him who's boss, Sugar Queen!"
Moment.
Zuko loves how the sun would shine onto his wife's skin, making her glow beautifully as her hair blew gently along with the late afternoon breeze. Adoringly, he watches Katara as she sits near the edge of the palace's lake, hands outstretched with breadcrumbs to feed the baby turtleducks happily swimming her way. Katara giggles as their soft beaks picks at the food in her hands.
"Beautiful."
The water maiden turned her head to the familiar voice, her gentle features breaking out into a large smile when her eyes landed on him. Hastily, she dusts the crumbs from her hands and rises to her feet to greet-
"Stop."
She eyes him wearily, slowly lowering herself to the ground once again in confusion, "Zuko?"
"Don't move."
Crystal-blue eyes furrowed suspiciously, "Why?"
Zuko shrugged.
"Because I want to remember this moment forever."
Clouds.
Katara pointed up to the sky, "That one looks like a turtleduck!"
"Where?" Zuko asked, looking up from where the couple laid in the warm sand on the beach.
"That one! See it?"
"...it looks more like Azula going crazy and trying to take over the world again with a cabbage in her hand."
"..."
"..."
"Oh, hey, it does."
Father.
"If you hurt her-"
"I would never hurt Katara," Zuko heatedly intervened. "I. Love. Her."
"That's good to hear," Hakoda grinned, patting the Fire Lord on the back, "I wouldn't want to drag your carcass to the city's capital and castrate you in front of all your followers with a toothpick."
Zuko's eyes widened considerably, "W-wha-?"
Hakoda chuckled, "Watertribe tradition, son."
Zuko gulped.
"No one hurts my baby girl."
Rubbing.
"All men," Katara ranted from her bed, angrily, "ALL MEN are NOTHING but egotistical, sexist, stubborn, idiotic, clueless, pathetic-waste-of-air --"
"Are you talking about Sparky?" Toph intercepted lazily from the floor, idly picking dirt from in between her toes.
"Who ELSE would I be talking about?"
The master earthbender groaned, "Listen here, Sugar Queen, because you need to hear this. I swear, you and Sparky here are the two most stubborn and pig-headed people I've ever--"
"I'm not stubborn!" Katara hissed. "Or pig-headed! It's that... that - little boy who is!"
"Oh yes, you are," came the sassy reply, "You just won't admit it. Neither of you will. You both are like two huge penises--"
"Toph!"
"...constantly butting heads together-"
"Toph!!"
"...putting pressure on the other-"
"TO-PH!"
"...and do you KNOW what happened when two big penises keep rubbing against each other, Sugar Queen?" came the blunt remark.
"Toph, don't you DARE--"
"...they EXPLO-"
A loud shriek was heard through all of the palace. Instantly, Aang, Zuko and Sokka burst into Katara's and Toph's room, only to see said Waterbender trying to suffocate said earthbender with Sokka's stuffed animal penguin.
"Ahhh!" came Sokka's dramatic scream, "Katara, what are you doing to Dumplings?!"
Babies.
A five year-old child walks into his father's officer.
"Daddy?"
"Yes, what is it, Hakoda?" Zuko asked from his desk, where he had been skimming through massive piles of economic papers.
"Where do babies come from?"
Instantly, Zuko's face froze, his mouth partially opened from mild shocked at his son's queston as a small stack of papers that he had been previously holding in his hands promptly dropped and scattered all over the floor. His face tensed up underneath his five year-old son's innocent face. He opened his mouth.
No words came out.
What are you doing, Zuko? the Fire Lord chaste himself, you are the leader of this nation! You helped restored peace and harmony to the world! You helped defeated Azula and bring down Ozai! Now stop being a wuss and be a man! Just tell him the truth, he's old enough to know...
Zuko cleared his throat.
"...from...fat...people?" came Zuko's pathetic reply.
Little Hakoda's face lit up, "Oh! Okay!"
Zuko let out a huge sigh of relief at the child's naive nature, "Yes, now go, run along and play, Hakoda."
"Yes, Father."
Hakoda ran towards to door before stopping, his little fingers tapping his little mouth in thought before turning towards his father, who had resume doing paper work, once again.
"Father?"
Zuko turned his attention to his son once again, "What is it, Hakoda?"
Big, innocent gold eyes blinked at him, "Does this mean Great-Uncle Iroh's going to have a baby?"
At that, Zuko face-faulted onto the marble floor.
Title.
"Will you take it?" Zuko asked the woman in his arms, where they were currently watching the sunset from the palace balcony.
Katara turned her body slightly in order to look at the man's face, "take what?"
"My title," came the short reply.
Katara's brows furrowed in confusion, "Your title?"
Fire Lord Zuko of the Fire Nation?
Fire Lord Zuko-Katara of the Fire Nation?
Fire Lord Katara of the Fire Nation?
Fire Lady Katara of the Fire Nation?
Suddenly, Katara froze in his arms.
"Will you take it?"
"Zuko," the master waterbender gasped, suddenly at a lost of breath, "...are you... are you asking me to marry you?"
"Oh no," came the sarcastic reply, "I'm merely practice for the day when I can asked Appa for his paw in marriage."
Pride.
"So you're going to name your first son after me, huh, boy?" the watertribe leader boosted, proudly. "Good taste in names you have there."
Zuko shrugged, "It was either that, or 'Ozai.'"
Gentle.
Zuko was surprised at how gentle Katara's hands were when she has first healed on. From that point on, he decided that he didn't mind another person's touch - as long as it's hers.
Katara was surprised at how gentle Zuko's lips were when he had first kissed her. From that point on, she decided that she would never want to kiss, or be kissed, by anyone else but him.
Of course, Zuko joked, Katara has her tough side, "remember that time you stole that waterbending scroll and ran away from those pirates?"
"Oh," Katara laughed bitterly, "you mean that time you tied me up to that tree?"
"You were an easy target."
"You stole my mother's necklace," she shot back indignantly.
Zuko gave her a small smile as he pushed her long strains of chocolate-brown her and tucked them behind her ear, leaning towards the shell of her ear, and whispered, "You stole my heart."
Katara smiled.
"And you ain't ever getting it back."
Themes 1-10, completed.
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