Katara had helped her Gran Gran deliver dozens of babies at the water tribe, but going through the process herself was a different experience entirely.
Her back ached like nothing she had ever felt before, the cramping sensation reaching all the way down to her toes. She tightened her grip on hand in hers and ground her teeth.
The nurse signaled for her to push, and she did. After a few more, the baby had been born. Katara collapsed against her pillows, sweat plastering her hair to her forehead and trickling coldly down her back. She was exhausted, but when the nurse offered her the infant, she greedily took it in her arms.
It was a girl, with hair as black as night and skin pale like the morning sky. Her face was familiar, much like Katara's, but it was the eyes that caught her off guard. They shone like two lamps, bold and amber, flecked with brown and yellow, looking up into her mother's face curiously. As Katara looked into those eyes, her heart melted just like it when she had looked into the father's.
At her side, the said father stood and squeezed Katara's hand. "She's beautiful," he said softly.
"She has your eyes," Katara murmured with a smile.
His hand tentatively reached down and touched the infant's face. "What will we call her?"
Katara studied the baby. "After our mothers, I think." She looked up from one pair of golden eyes to the matching pair.
"Ursa Kya…. Or Kya Ursa?"
"Ursa Kya has a nice ring to it." Katara reached up and grabbed his hand, giving him a tearful smile.
Entwining his fingers with hers, Zuko returned it.