Disclaimer: It's all Bryke's, except what's not.
A/N: This is a series of chronological, interconnected oneshots, originally for Zutara Week 2013.
calor. Spanish for "heat". (n) the degree of hotness; temperature.
In retrospect, it had been a really stupid idea to go exploring Ember Island's caves in the dark. Stupid, stupid, stupid, Zuko told himself now as he trailed behind Sokka while the two worked their way through the thick undergrowth of the Foggy Swamp.
Granted, the cave exploration had been Sokka's idea, but Zuko hadn't done anything to stop the process. When everyone else had agreed, he'd just gone along with them because Ember Island in the summer was sweltering and the prospect of caves at night seemed so refreshing. But caves hold creatures—he should have known that better than anybody else. He'd grown up spending his summers there, after all.
Why is everything I do either incredibly awkward or incredibly stupid? Zuko griped to himself, swatting away a large glowfly. Incredibly stupid not to have stopped his friends before the six teenagers found themselves in the caves and the rock that Aang stumbled into turned out to be a komododillo (a feisty, biting one, at that), leaving the group with a badly poisoned Avatar on their hands. They'd gotten him back to the beach house where Katara had done her best to heal him, but even after her best efforts, Aang was still unconscious and the ugly red blotches that had swollen around the bite hadn't diminished one bit.
That worried Zuko, because Katara was one of the best healers in the world, and if she couldn't heal Aang, it meant that the boy was in a bad state—and, indirectly, it was Zuko's fault. It would be ironic, after all that had transpired, if he should have a hand in the Avatar's death. Zuko didn't want that, not at all, which was why he was here in the Foggy Swamp with Sokka.
Katara had sent them to the Foggy Swamp because that's where junberries, a powerful antivenin, grew. She said that a poultice made from their leaves would cure Aang.
Which was how Zuko found himself knee deep in brackish swamp water, swatting away bugs and following Sokka as they searched for the junberry plant. (Sokka claimed to know what they looked like, claimed he'd eaten them when the group had been separated in the Swamp before, and that was the only reason Katara hadn't been one of the group to come. That, and she felt like it was her duty to stay and help Aang as much as she could with her healing ability.)
Sokka had used their time together on Appa's back to tell Zuko about what awaited them in one of the few places on earth Zuko hadn't traveled in his search for the Avatar. Zuko had heard all about catgators ("Lizard-fish the size of Appa's head. Whiskers. Huge teeth."), swampbenders ("Former members of the Southern Water Tribe whose time away from civilization left them a bit…primitive, I guess you could say."), and visions ("The swamp is, like, alive. It talks to you through visions. Katara and I saw important people from our past. But Aang saw Toph—and we hadn't met her yet. So I guess you can see the future, too.").
So far, all Zuko had seen was encroaching vegetation and overabundant pests.
And wait, wasn't that a junberry plant?
"Hey, Sokka!" Zuko called ahead, pointing to the spiny-looking shrub. "Isn't that what we're looking for?"
No familiar voice answered him from the humid mist. The heat suddenly seemed even more oppressive as Zuko called out again.
"Sokka?"
Zuko paused, standing still in the wet grass and listening. No answer.
"Sokka?!"
He waited. Still no answer. After a few moments punctuated only by the buzzing of insects around his head, he heard, "Zuko?"
"Sokka!" he shouted, turning toward the voice. "Sokka, where are you?"
"Zuko?" the voice said again. And then Zuko noticed that it didn't sound like Sokka. It sounded like…
"Katara?" Zuko asked, confused. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you with Aang? Where are you?"
Turning some more, he finally pinpointed the figure speaking to him. It looked like Katara, all right. Just…older? And…really exhausted? Katara sat on a tree root, leaning against the tree, looking drained but exuberant. She kept speaking as though she hadn't heard Zuko's questions.
"Come here, Zuko," she said, smiling at him. "Come meet your son."
That was when Zuko saw the swaddled bundle this Katara held in her arms. His…son? And Katara was the mother? A hundred split-second visions of Water Tribe skin against Fire Nation sheets flashed through his mind before he shook his head violently and took a few steps backward, away from the woman holding the baby she claimed was his, nearly falling into a weedy pool of water in the process. He couldn't have a son, he reminded himself. He'd never done anything that could produce offspring, especially not with Katara.
Vaguely, Zuko remembered Sokka telling him about the Swamp inducing visions. Did this mean he was seeing his future? Or a possibility of his future? Or just a figment of his imagination? Because it wasn't like he hadn't thought about Katara in that way from time to time. She was beautiful and spirited and he used to hate her for it because the enemy wasn't supposed to be so attractive.
But then he'd changed and she wasn't the enemy any longer—at least, he didn't think so. She had thought so until recently, until he'd gone with her to avenge her mother's death and, in the process, she'd found pity in her heart for her mother's killer and forgiveness in her heart for him. The moment when she'd left his arms to walk over to Sokka after her hug of forgiveness had been one of the stranger moments of Zuko's life. For someone who had suffered so much loss and betrayal, he shouldn't have felt nearly as empty as he did when the warmth of her body's nearness left his.
It was just a hug between friends. And he had a girlfriend, although he wasn't sure exactly where he stood with Mai after he'd left her at the Boiling Rock. She had saved him from Azula, though, so he thought things probably weren't completely over between them.
Even as Zuko reminded himself that he was, in a way, committed to Mai, Katara's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"He's so beautiful, Zuko," she continued, love and awe evident in her voice as she shifted the newborn slightly in her arms so that the baby's face was visible. "He looks just like you."
Against his better judgment, Zuko found himself examining the phantom baby's face. It was red and squinty and he didn't see how it really looked like anything, much less like him, but Katara sounded very sure of herself. Instinct told him that it was best not to contradict a woman who had just given birth—even if she was just a hallucination or a figment of his imagination or whatever it was that she actually was.
Tentatively, Zuko reached toward the baby's face. When his hand was just about to brush the ruddy, rounded cheek, his vision blurred and both Katara and the baby disappeared. In their place was a large tangle of roots and vines.
Unexpectedly, even as he told himself that this was all a product of swampy heat and his imagination, Zuko found himself disappointed that the vision was gone. The thought of Katara and…their son?…had been terrifying yet comforting in the strangest of ways.
Sighing, Zuko withdrew his hand from the tree root and straightened, about to start looking for Sokka again. Because they were here to help Aang, to help save the world, to defeat his megalomaniac of a father, not to indulge in childish fantasies. Before he could resume his search, however, Zuko heard Katara calling him again.
"Zuko!"
When he spotted her this time, she was farther away, perched on a branch halfway up a tree and looking more unkempt than he'd ever seen her, even after a battle. She was younger this time, closer to her real age. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were disheveled. Zuko found himself doing more than a double take when he realized that her clothing was Fire Nation and of a much better quality than any of the castoff Fire Nation clothing he'd seen her wear since he'd joined the Avatar's group. It looked almost…royal.
"Zuko, stay with me," Katara said, and her tone of voice implied that whatever activity had mussed up her hair was not something that just friends did together. "You're the Fire Lord; you can be a few minutes late for a council meeting."
Zuko was about to protest that, firstly, he was not going to be the Fire Lord: Iroh was, and that, secondly, yes, while the Fire Lord could be late for meetings if he wanted to be, it was, in fact, better that he not be late for anything; it set a bad example for the nobles and the public alike—but then he remembered that, if this vision was anything like the last one, Katara wouldn't be able to hear him.
"The councilors will understand," Katara said, grinning. "After all, we've only been married for a month. Aren't your duties as a husband just as important as your duties as the Fire Lord? They expect you to produce heirs, don't they?"
Zuko groaned. If this was what married life with Katara would be like, he would never get anything productive done, Fire Lord or not. In that case, it was probably in his best interests to stay as far away from Katara as possible. If their ploy against Ozai was successful and the world needed to be rebuilt, he needed to be able to focus on whatever his role was in that process.
"Come with me, Zuko," Katara giggled and jumped off of the branch, running into the undergrowth, and even as Zuko reminded himself that this was all imaginary, that he was dating Mai, and that he wasn't at all interested in marrying Katara, he started running after her. She kept changing location, though, in ways that a real human couldn't, so trailing her was difficult. After he'd tracked her and lost her and found her and repeated the cycle again for what seemed like countless times, she vanished and he found himself standing at the foot of an enormous banyan tree.
"Katara? Katara, where did you go?" he called.
From the dank darkness surrounding him, Zuko heard Sokka saying, "Man, what are you talking about? Katara's not here; she's back on Ember Island with Aang and everybody else. Are you all right?"
Zuko blinked. "Sokka?"
"Yeah, it's me," Sokka said, coming into Zuko's line of vision. Zuko felt the overwhelming urge to hug the younger boy, glad for something real in the midst of this crazy Swamp. For the sake of his pride, though, he was also glad he resisted the urge. Sokka probably thought he was odd enough already, talking to someone who wasn't even there in the middle of the Foggy Swamp.
"I'm fine," Zuko said, looking around him and hoping Sokka wouldn't bring up Katara again. He wasn't sure how he could explain his visions to an overprotective older brother. In light of that, he changed the subject. "Where did you go, though? I found the junberry plant and then when I called for you, you were gone."
Sokka shrugged. "I'm not sure what happened. Maybe I just got too far ahead? I found the swampbenders, though, and Hue gave me all these junberry leaves." He held up a large sack and opened it to show Zuko its contents.
Zuko wrinkled his nose at the smell. "I sure hope those help Aang."
"They will," Sokka said confidently. "Come on, I left Appa with the swampbenders. Let's go get him and go back to Ember Island."
After meeting the swampbenders, who gave them even more junberry leaves as well as some other plants that were useful for healing, and retrieving Appa. who seemed happy to see them again (Sokka had mentioned something about Tho always wanting to eat Appa for dinner, now that Zuko thought of it), the boys headed back to Ember Island.
Partway through their flight, something strange occurred to Zuko. He climbed up to Appa's head, where Sokka was driving, and asked, "Sokka, how did you know where to find me in the Foggy Swamp?"
"That banyan tree is the heart of the swamp," Sokka explained. "When I couldn't find you, the swampbenders said you'd probably be there. People usually have visions on their first visit to the Swamp and the visions always lead them to its heart."
"So…you didn't have any visions this time?" Zuko asked.
"Nope," Sokka said. "I did the first time, though."
"What was your vision of?"
Sokka was quiet for a moment, then said, "My first girlfriend."
It was Zuko's turn to be quiet as he remembered their conversation on the way to Boiling Rock. "I'm sorry, man," he offered.
"It's okay," Sokka said. "It's in the past now."
After a few moments of silence, Sokka asked, "So why were you asking for Katara in the Swamp?"
More than anything at that moment, Zuko wanted to hide his face in his hands. Or run away. Unfortunately, being hundreds of feet in the air on a sky bison prevented that recourse and hiding his face would only cause suspicion.
"Well," he began hesitantly, "My, uh, vision? It was of Katara. She was running through the Swamp and then she just disappeared."
"Oh," Sokka said. "That's weird. Must be because you two just became friends or something."
"Yeah," Zuko said, immensely relieved that Sokka didn't seem to feel a need to pry into the subject. "Must be something like that."
"If you ever even think about touching my little sister, though," Sokka continued, and it was all Zuko could do not to visibly cringe, "I will seriously hurt you. We're friends and all, but that is not okay."
"Don't worry about it, Sokka," Zuko said. "I have a girlfriend, remember?"
"That's true. But you did leave her in prison when we fled the Boiling Rock," his friend pointed out.
"Yeah," Zuko said. "I did. So there's that."
The boys passed the rest of the trip in near silence and Zuko spent his time pondering the logistics of postwar international relationships and allowing himself the luxury of wondering, if he ever did become Fire Lord, whether it would be more fitting for him to take a bride from the Fire Nation (for the sake of national solidarity) or from the Water Tribe (as a show of international goodwill), whether love would play a role at all, and whether his feelings for Mai were as straightforward as he'd once thought they were. After the heat of the Swamp, he didn't feel quite sure of anything anymore.
Zuko and Sokka's return to the beach house was greeted with relief from the girls they'd left behind. Katara set about using the junberry leaves in conjunction with her healing and, before long, Aang's welts had diminished and his breathing was deeper and steadier than it had been before.
When Katara was washing the pots she'd used to prepare the poultice for Aang, Zuko walked over and offered to help her. She seemed surprised but accepted his help gratefully. Using their bending, they washed and dried the dishes rather quickly. When it was over, Katara wiped her hands on her skirt and looked up at Zuko. He wasn't sure, but he thought that the way his pulse sped up when her eyes met his might be a new development.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
He smiled. "You're welcome." With her eyes on his and something other than hatred filling them, he was reminded of how she'd looked in his vision in the swamp, holding their son and smiling so proudly. Before he thought about it, his next words tumbled out of mouth. "You'll be a good mother someday."
Katara's brow wrinkled and he couldn't tell whether the expression on her face meant she wanted to thank him or slap him. "Excuse me?"
"I—I mean," he stammered, trying to come up with a plausible excuse for having said that. "The way you took care of Aang," he said, waving his hands as if they could explain everything he couldn't. "The way you take care of all of us. You're really good at taking care of people. You'll be a good mother someday." That was something girls wanted to hear, right? Maybe?
To his vast relief, Katara didn't slap him, although she still looked confused. "Well…thanks," she said finally. "I hope so."
As Zuko watched her walk away, back toward the house to look after Aang, he thought that maybe he'd been wrong about his complete confusion on the way back from the Foggy Swamp, because he was still quite sure of one thing: everything he did seemed to be either incredibly awkward or incredibly stupid. If he was going to be the Fire Lord someday, after the end of all this chaos—or even if he was just going to be a tea server who wanted a good woman to settle down with for the rest of his life—he was going to have to work on that.
