Happenstance
From the moment they learned Katara was pregnant, they knew that at some point their child would ask to hear the story of how they met and fell in love. Yet, no matter how many times they talked about it, they could never come up with an answer to tell their children. It's not like they could tell a curious toddler that Daddy ran his ship into the wall of Mommy's village, but they couldn't lie either. Eventually, the two shrugged it off, agreeing they would deal with it when the moment arose.
They just didn't expect the moment to arise so quickly. After all, wasn't three too young to be worrying over love anyways? Zuko was about to take a bit of dinner when Kya asked, but instead froze, his chopsticks stopping in midair. Katara glanced sideways at Zuko, knowing how hard it was for him to talk about the mistakes he made when he was a teenager. She sighed to herself, knowing that this would be even worse since they would have to explain everything to their three year old daughter, and she was just too young to know some things. Katara shook her head slightly, turning to met the inquiring, innocent eyes of their child, and decided to try to turn her attention to something else.
"What makes you ask, sweetheart?" Katara asked.
Zuko relaxed slightly in his seat, shooting Katara a grateful look. He wasn't ready to answer all their daughter's questions yet, and he wasn't sure if he ever would be.
"Before Siku, Yiku, Tatkret, Uncle Sokka, and Aunt Suki left, Uncle Sokka talked about how he met Aunt Suki when traveling with Mommy and Uncle Aang," Kya shrugged, "It made me wanna know how you met!"
Katara and Zuko shared another worried look, and both parents put their chopsticks down.
"Is something wrong?" Kya asked, looking between her parents.
"No," Katara answered, "You just asked a complicated question."
"What's compulated mean?" Kya stuttered.
Zuko smiled at her, "Hard or difficult."
"Oh," Kya said, "How is you and Mommy meeting and falling in love compulated?"
Katara sighed slightly, but she was smiling, "A lot happened between your father and I meeting and falling in love."
"Then tell me both!" Kya demanded, bouncing in her seat.
Zuko and Katara chuckled, and then exchanged a long hard look. Kya's head whipped back in forth between them, trying to understand their unspoken conversation. After a long silence, Zuko closed his eyes, sighed, and nodded. Katara smiled at him, and reached for his hand, squeezing it in comfort. Zuko returned his wife's smile, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"Alright," Katara said, "The first time I met your father, he was visiting the South Pole right after Uncle Sokka and I found Uncle Aang. Um- back then none us got along so Uncle Aang agreed to go with Daddy to his ship so they wouldn't be fighting in front of everyone."
"What were they fighting about?" Kya asked, tilting her head slightly to the right.
Katara could feel Zuko's entire body tense through his hand. She rubbed her thumb soothingly along his knuckles, without turning her gaze from their daughter. "At the time, they had different ideas for what was best for the world."
"And it's rude to raise your voice in public so they went to the ship?" Kya said.
"Something like that," Katara smiled, "Anyway, I managed to convince Uncle Sokka that Uncle Aang might need our help dealing with Daddy and on his journey. By the time Uncle Sokka and I got there, Uncle Aang was ready to go so after a bit of waterbending we were on our way."
"Why did you need to waterbend?" Kya asked.
Zuko's hand tensed up again, but Katara just continued rubbing her thumb along his knuckles.
"Aren't you full of questions today," Katara teased, "Daddy was asking for it."
"Waterbending is so pretty!" Kya commented.
"It is," Katara agreed.
"But did you and Daddy even talk?" Kya asked.
"No," Katara shook her head.
"Then that doesn't really count as you meeting," Kya said, matter of factly.
"It doesn't?" Katara asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Nu uh," Kya answered, "You have to tell me the story of when you first talked to each other."
Zuko was resisting the urge of beating his head against the table. When did she start becoming so inquisitive? He sincerely hoped Katara had a good spin on him tying her to a tree.
"You mean the time Daddy saved me from the pirates?" Katara asked, winking at Zuko.
"You saved Mommy from pirates?" Kya exclaimed, looking at Zuko with awe.
"Er- yes," Zuko answered, glancing at Katara.
"How?" Kya asked, fixing her gaze excitedly on her father.
"Um- well, Mommy had an ancient waterbending scroll that the pirates wanted so- um they were looking for her to get the scroll back. They found her alone at night practicing waterbending, and she was trying to get away from them when she ran into me. I told her I'd save her from the pirates, and I threatened to burn the waterbending scroll," Zuko carefully explained.
"Wow," Kya whispered, "That's so romantic."
Zuko blushed slightly, and scratched the back of his head. Katara giggled quietly at her husband. He shot her a glare when Kya wasn't paying attention, only causing Katara to giggle more.
"So when'd you know that you loved her?" Kya asked.
Zuko smiled, "That's easy. We were trying to escape from the soldiers attacking the Western Air Temple. I told everyone that I would hold off the attackers while they escaped. Half of the group escaped through an underground tunnel, while Mommy, Uncle Sokka, Aunt Suki, Uncle Aang, and Aunt Toph were flying away on Appa. I was still fighting the attackers when I fell off one of the airships. Luckily, Appa was passing right beneath me, and your mom was able to reach out and grab my hand. In that moment, she looked so strong and so determined that nothing bad was going to happen to me all that I couldn't help falling in love with her."
Katara smiled widely at him, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek. Kya giggled.
"I think it's your turn," Zuko said, nodding at Katara.
"I think you're right for once," Katara smirked.
Zuko glared at her playfully, and Kya continued to giggle.
"I knew I was in love with you the moment that lightning hit you in the chest," Katara said, looking Zuko straight in the eye.
"What lightning?" Kya demanded, looking between her parents.
After a moment, Katara turned to her, "Another time your father saved me was during an Agni Kai. His opponent sent lightning where I was standing on the sidelines. He jumped in front of the lightning to try and redirect it, but there wasn't enough lightning hit him straight in the chest."
"Where your star is?" Kya asked, looking at her father.
Zuko nodded, and squeezed Katara's hand tightly before she continued.
"Once it did I realized how much I depended on him, and the idea of him not getting up devastated me," Katara continued, "It wasn't until I almost lost him did I realize I loved him."
"You left out that you finished the Agni Kai, and then healed me," Zuko added.
"Wow!" Kya grinned, "I have the world's coolest parents!"
AN: So this is my first attempt in being part of Zutara Week. I just recently watched Avatar and fell in love with this two. Thanks for reading!
