A/N: I wrote a very, very cheesy Ursa/Hakoda one-shot, but you know what? I don't feel bad about the cheesiness. I've been working like crazy the last few weeks—my first book was published this month (more info on that in my profile, if you're interested) and there's been so much to do, between editing, getting the book to print, sorting through marketing, etc. And I've been writing really angsty things in my current novel. I guess my muse figured I needed something very lighthearted.

I don't know where this came from, honestly. I told myself I was not going to write this particular subject with these two characters. –head desk–

This is for my friend Emma, for helping me with so much of my angsty writing lately, and being extraordinarily patient and always awesome.

Disclaimer: Avatar's not mine! :D

"Dear spirits, what are you cooking?"

Hakoda looked up from the fire as Ursa stepped into their igloo. Both gloved hands were pressed over her nose. His eyebrow rose. "Fish soup."

"Are you sure that's all?" Ursa's voice was muffled around her gloves.

Hakoda took a deep sniff of the air. It didn't smell unusual at all to him. "Are you—" He broke off when Ursa promptly turned and hurried out of the igloo. A moment later, the sounds of vomiting came from right outside.

"Ewwww!" the voices of several of the village children playing outside shrieked.

"Ursa, Ursa, are you sick?" one of the little ones asked.

"Did Hakoda burn your dinner and it was so yucky that you threw it up? He said he was gonna make food!"

"Ewwww! Put some snow over it, it looks so gross!"

"It looks like chewed up fish."

There was a huge chorus of "EWWW!" from the children.

By the time Hakoda got out of the tent, though, whatever Ursa had thrown up had been covered by snow (for which he was relieved) and Ursa was sitting in front of their igloo in the snow, her head in her hands.

He sat down beside her and rested a hand on her back. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

Hakoda gave her his best I'm-not-convinced look as she picked up some fresh snow and sucked on it to wash out her mouth. She was still looking rather green. "Maybe you're coming down with something. It wouldn't be the first time you've been sick since moving to the South Pole."

"I'm not sick." Ursa pulled her gloves off of her hands and scrubbed them over her face. She fingered the betrothal necklace she wore for a moment. She wasn't looking at him, but staring out at the village children who were running around and climbing on the ice steps and slides that Pakku had created for them with waterbending.

"Then I guess you threw up because my cooking is just that bad. Makes you sick before you even taste it."

"Your cooking isn't bad."

"It could be—"

"I'm pregnant."

Hakoda stared at her. She clasped her hands in her lap and looked over at him. "Or," he said slowly, "you could be pregnant?" A range of emotions began to creep over him. The first was astonishment. While he and Ursa had been together for several years, they had not planned on having other children. In fact, they had talked about grandchildren, the wedding plans of their grown children, making guesses about who would marry first, about whether they'd have bending grandchildren or non-bending grandchildren.

His eyes darted between Ursa's stomach and face. "You're really…?" And there was the wonder. The same wonder that had come the first time he had found out he was going to be a father. And the second time. It was no less powerful now than it had been so many years earlier, at the realization that there was a new life growing inside of the woman he loved.

Ursa turned her face away, but he could feel her trembling, and he didn't think it was because of the cold.

"Ursa," he began.

"I was going to tell you tonight. I knew. I think…I've known for a couple of days, but I kept telling myself maybe it was something else."

Hakoda reached over and touched her face, gently turning it toward his. "It's unexpected, sure, but some of the best gifts often are."

Ursa searched his eyes, and he could read the fear in them. "I was so young when I had Zuko and Azula."

"It's not exactly like you're old now," he pointed out.

"I don't know how to—how can I do this? How can I…Azula is still in an asylum, Hakoda! She's there, and I'm…I…" She stopped and closed her eyes. He brushed his fingers down her cheek and took her hands in his. When she opened her eyes again, she spoke, her voice calmer. "I'm afraid of failing."

"Isn't every parent?"

"I have no idea. I didn't exactly have a normal parenting experience."

"I know. But just go and ask anyone in this village how much they worry about failing their kids." Hakoda searched her eyes. "You are a wonderful mother, even if you don't always believe that. And things are different now. The war is over. And we're in this together."

Ursa squeezed his hands. "It's just so much to think about."

"And you'll have plenty of time to think about it. We both will. The baby's not coming tomorrow." He frowned in contemplation. "Though I'm going to have to figure out how to air out the igloo before you go back inside. Maybe the neighbors would want some fish soup?"

Ursa let go of Hakoda's hands and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder. "It never ceases to amaze me," she said, "how you can take everything in stride."

He held her tightly and a slow smile spread across his face as it sank in, more and more, that he was going to be a father again. That he was going to get to share this with Ursa. And there was the love and protectiveness, the thrill of new life and the desire to keep it safe. "If we were on a boat in the ocean of life, then it just got rocked a little. We're not going to capsize, okay? We'll just go on an amazing journey."

"I don't know where you come up with all of these ridiculous sayings."

"You love my sayings."

She looked up at him, grinning. "Maybe a little."

He leaned in and kissed her. "Maybe a lot." They were quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "How long do you give it before the village is betting on whether it's a boy or a girl?"

Ursa laughed. "Waterbender or firebender?"

"No bender at all?" Hakoda grinned and Ursa smiled back.

They leaned against each other, watching the village children play, for several minutes, and then Ursa cleared her throat. "So…how do you think our children will take it?"

:-:-:-:-:

"You're what?"

"Someone's sure been busy."

"Hey! This is my mother we're talking about!"

"And my father! I'm going to be a big brother! Again! I can teach it to throw a boomerang!"

"Mom, are you okay? Do you need to rest? I can get pillows. You there! Please bring some pillows for my mother!"

"Zuko, relax, she's not having the baby now. Sheesh."

"How about tea, Mom? Tea is good for everything!"

"Maybe it will be a waterbender! I can teach it if it is, Dad, and no matter what, I'll be there for whatever you need."

"Hey, it could just as easily be a firebender."

Hakoda and Ursa exchanged mirthful glances. He wrapped his arm around her and looked around at their grown children. Their years had been full of hardship and pain, of joy and laughter, and not all of them were completely healed.

But no one could tell what the future held for any of them. Their lives were an ongoing adventure, and Hakoda knew that this new baby would be welcomed into that. It would be a whole new adventure, and he couldn't wait to start it.

"Waterbender."

"Firebender."

"I still vote for boomerang!"