Author's Note: I didn't create this mini-series to screw around with the two TV shows, and I actually do like the canon pairings, but I like experimenting. That, and I also really like Zuko and Katara together outside of the Avatar plotline. So please don't tell me how much you hate this couple, or the other couples I write about. If you don't like the pairing, simply don't read! All the children are mine, everything else belongs to Bryke. Thanks guys, feel free to leave a review.

Zuko and Katara

A baby's shriek echoed off the Fire Palace's copper walls, waking dutifully posted guards from their slumber. Inside the Fire Lord's bedroom came another piercing cry, this time followed by a groan. It was night fifty-two of this constant awakening, and Fire Lord Zuko was reaching his breaking point. Beside him dozed his wife Katara. The gold sheets were twisted around her ankles, exposing the backs of her darker calves, while her head lay half buried under the mountain of pillows the couple insisted on sleeping with.

Zuko gave a sharp tug on the cord, pulling back the patterned curtain that sheltered their bed from the rest of their suite. As his gold eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he read on the grandfather clock it was half past three. He rubbed a hand over his face as his daughter's cries continued. How could Katara sleep through this?

The Fire Lady's back rose and fell, but he knew she would awaken soon. For nine months she slept in the oddest positions, trying to be comfortable with her growing belly, and now that she was free of the constraint, her husband saw her take over most of the bed like usual. At least tonight she wasn't half-buried underneath him. Then again, he wouldn't exactly mind that either.

"Tara, wake up," he muttered. Akiko's wailing had lessened, but by now her father could tell what her cries meant. Well, he could at least guess. Usually all she wanted at this hour was food anyway. Zuko watched and waited, but still Katara didn't move. Finally he rolled over onto his left shoulder and gently shook her shoulder.

"Tara, your daughter is hungry."

That did it. One blue eye opened and stared back at him. His cheeks grew hot. He remembered the first time he realized those eyes were always saying more than her words. He remembered when he realized what exactly they were saying.

He watched her roll onto her back and stretch, the muscles on her stomach contorting. "Why is she always my daughter when she's hungry?" she grumbled.

Zuko hid his smirk. "Unfortunately, I don't come with the proper equipment to take care of that need."

Katara snorted and he knew she was smiling. "I'd be a little concerned if you did." The wide mattress creaked as she sat up. Her thick, dark brown waves rolled down her back until they reached her bottom. He couldn't remember what she went to sleep in, but when she got up, he saw she had on a pair of his training pants with the legs rolled up to her knees. A glimmer of moonlight hit her as she walked from the bed to the cradle and he caught a hint of her bare breasts.

When their courtship became serious, Katara hated the idea of staying in the Fire Nation. The heat was too much for her, or so she claimed. She wore as little as she could during the day, spending most of her time in the shade or around water. He hadn't minded at the time, seeing as he had been the same way in the Southern Water Tribe during his diplomatic visits. Thankfully Katara hadn't made fun of him too much back then.

She got used to it, of course. As she later explained, traveling for a few years made her adjust easily to different areas. It helped that, after their marriage, she had the freedom to lounge around naked, if she so desired. Although her propriety usually kept that pastime located only in the bedroom.

Zuko leaned back against the red, copper, and gold pillows, watching his wife hover over their daughter's cradle. She whispered something to the baby, possibly one of the old Southern lullabies she learned ages ago, he couldn't be sure. He tried to imagine his mother singing lullabies, but the idea didn't fit into his mental picture of his mother.

Katara picked the girl out of the round, plush cradle and began to feed her as she paced. More moonlight came in and speckled his daughter, highlighting her father's thick, black hair and her mother's bright blue eyes. It was too soon to tell of her element, but Zuko suspected water. Whenever the moon was full, she seemed more energetic. She was a night baby, born in the palace courtyard under a full moon. That moment would likely go down in Fire Nation history as one of the most chaotic births ever recorded. Zuko still smiled every time he thought of it though.

There was a celebration going on in the city, and everyone but he and his wife were there. He had been just about to leave when Katara, sitting by the turtleduck pond, screamed. Without a midwife, Zuko panicked the entire time, but Katara, she seemed to know exactly what to do. Just as she did now, he realized. The Fire Lord watched her work her magic and wondered why he waited so long to marry her.

"Do you think she's catching cold?" Katara asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"How could she? You still say the heat here boils the sickness right out of you."

"Zuko, this isn't funny. She's really cranky. Not even the lullabies are helping."

He sighed. "Sorry. Does she have a fever?"

"No, but . . . sometimes you don't need a fever to be sick."

"Well, why not try feeding her again, it could-"

"I have been, but she keeps fussing. I don't know what to do!" she said, her voice cracking.

Zuko paused. Katara was a crier by nature, and when she was pregnant it hadn't been any better, but she didn't tear up unless something was really wrong. The Fire Lord sat up straighter and beckoned her over.

"Let me try something."

Katara stared at him then went over, extending the bundled baby to him. Zuko crossed his legs under the sheet and propped his kicking daughter against his feet. He took a deep breath and exhaled steam from his nostrils. Akiko watched as her father's hands began moving the smoke, creating pictures. Her blue orbs followed her father's pale hands, her little mouth hanging open in awe. When he had her full attention, he switched to flames. At first, he thought things were okay. The girl still seemed interested. Then Zuko created a dragon with the fire and his daughter started to cry.

"Zuko!" Katara scolded. She scooped up their daughter and cradled the girl against her chest. "It's alright Aki, Daddy didn't mean to scare you," she whispered as she glared at Zuko.

He scowled. "I was only trying to help!"

"She's just a baby, you shouldn't be playing with fire around her anyway! It's dangerous."

"It's not that bad, Tara, you're overreacting."

Katara huffed and turned her back to him. Zuko crossed his arms and looked away, glaring at her side of the bed. As Akiko's cries died down, so did Zuko's frustration. Gods help him, he was so tired. How did Aang and Sokka manage to do this with their kids?

Sokka's little boy was only two, but Zuko remembered his brother-in-law's last visit. Botam kept Sokka running around the palace at all hours and Suki could barely keep up with her boys. That had been, what, a year ago, almost? Katara was pregnant then, but not very far along.

"Okay, so maybe I was overreacting, but you just—Zuko this is serious! We're parents now and if we mess up even a little-"

"Tara, we aren't going to mess up," Zuko said, as gently as he could. "Don't you remember what we did when we were kids? That was ten times more dangerous than my fire pictures, and we both survived."

She frowned. "We weren't babies, then. We weren't even children, not really. At least, I didn't feel like a child." Her grip around their quiet daughter tightened. Zuko recalled a conversation they shared after the 100 Years War was over. She had been sitting on the steps of the Fire Nation Palace playing with a water ball. He sat down beside her, and for a while they didn't talk.

"Do you think what we did was right?"

Zuko hadn't understood what she meant then. "We saved the world. Of course it was right," he snorted.

"So many people died, Zuko. How can we—how can I ever repay that debt?"

This topic hadn't been Zuko's forte at the time, actually it still wasn't, and he hadn't been able to answer her back then. They just sat there on the steps until Aang called for Katara and Mai asked Zuko to escort her home. They parted with a hug and for years it was that hug Zuko thought of every night before he went to sleep.

Zuko sighed. "You're right, we weren't. But Akiko is growing up in a safer world than either of us did. She's going to be okay. I don't know everything about being a dad. Frankly, what I learned from mine should mean I should never become a father at all, but do you remember what you told me a month before Akiko was born?"

Katara thought for a minute then nodded. "I told you that our pasts don't dictate our future and that you . . . that we could do this together."

Zuko nodded. "And we will do it together. You just have to, well, relax. We both do. I mean I know I'm not exactly the best at keeping her happy when she cries and gods help me but I don't think no matter how many kids we have I'll ever get the hang of parenting down to an art, but-"

"But I've got you, and you've got me," she smiled, causing Zuko's cheeks to light up again. "I think that was a part of your wedding speech, wasn't it?"

Zuko rubbed the back of his neck as he chuckled. "Might have been. Aang helped get it all down on paper. I was shaking so bad I couldn't write it out."

Katara laughed. "Your hands were so sweaty, I thought it was because of the heat."

"We got married in the Southern Water Tribe!"

She supressed her giggles. "I always say you carry a little flame inside you wherever you go. That's why you're always so warm."

Zuko tried to hide his smile. "Yeah, you could be right about that." He looked over at his wife again and sighed. "I really am sorry about before, with scaring Akiko. I'll be careful, okay?"

Katara nodded. "And I'll be less careful, okay?"

The Fire Lord chuckled. "Sounds fair. Now are you going to come back to bed or do I have to carry you?"

She snorted. "Asif you could catch me."

"Is that a challenge?"

"No, a promise."

Zuko smirked and he tossed the sheet off his legs. Katara tried to muster up a serious glare. "Don't you even think about it Zuzu, it's almost four in the morning!"

The Fire Lord chuckled as he stalked towards her. His long, black hair was loose like his wife's and, oddly enough, he was dressed similarly to her. His one advantage in the chase would be the fact that she held his daughter, but he had a feeling she wouldn't make it easy for him all the same.

"So? The Fire Lord makes his own schedule. I was thinking of taking the day off anyway!"

Katara squeaked as he nearly caught hold of her. She slid Akiko into bed then spun around her husband, grabbing into one of the wooden poles keeping their canopy above the bed. She giggled and leapt to the next one, sticking her tongue out at him. Zuko shook his head and jumped onto the bed.

"That's cheating!" she exclaimed.

"How is this cheating?" he asked as he grabbed her from behind.

"It just is!" she said as she tickled his side. Zuko snorted and released his grip.

"Now that's cheating!"

Katara bounced on the mattress just across from her husband. "All's fair, Zuzu."

"I hate it when you call me that," he chuckled as he tried to grab her arms.

"Why, do I not say it with as much affection as Azula?" she teased.

Zuko groaned. "I told you never to mention her name in the bedroom!"

Katara laughed and dodged his attempts to catch her. "You broke the Sokka rule last week, so I can break the Azula rule!"

He managed to get a hold of her arms and pulled her towards him. Katara had another idea. She leaned back as far as she could, messing with their balance, and toppled them both. They landed in a laughing heap on her side of the mattress, all covered in blankets with the pillows in a disarray around their heads. Zuko smothered his wife's laughter with a kiss, propping himself up above her with an elbow. He could feel her laughter echoing in his head as he drew her closer, keeping one hand against her cool neck.

After a moment, Katara rolled him off her and settled on his hips, her hair fanning out around her. "You know, it was fun travelling all those years, healing people and learning new things, but it would have been a lot more fun with you around."

Zuko rested one hand on her waist as he smiled. "Or I could have been too proper and ruined all the fun," he teased.

Katara smacked his chest lightly. "I wouldn't have let you! I would have made you have fun, like you did when I first came back to the Fire Nation. Remember the park you took me to, with the turtleducks?"

"Of course I remember. I fell in that stupid pond."

She giggled. "I had to save you." She leaned down and pecked his nose. "It was the best first date I ever had."

"That wasn't our first date."

"It was too!"

Zuko shook his head. "Don't you remember the Southern Festival you and Sokka organized before you left? Sokka invited me to cheer me up about Mai, but later spent all his time with Suki, and you got stuck babysitting me."

"You consider that our first date?"

He shrugged. "I won you a flying bison toy, you bought me fried bread, and I wanted to kiss you the whole time I was there."

Katara's cheeks lit up. "Okay, well either way, we've had some pretty amazing dates."

Zuko titled his head up and pecked her lips. "Agreed." From the corner of his eye, he saw the sun starting to rise. Akiko was asleep now, at least for another two hours. He looked up at his wife. "What do you want to do today?"

Katara leaned back on her hands and pursed her lips. "We could take Akiko to the city. There's this place I think she would love. It has lots of turtleducks," she teased.

Zuko chuckled. "Sounds like a good idea. But first," he reached over and tugged on the cord again, "could we get a few more hours of sleep? You tired me out."

She rolled her eyes as she flopped down beside him. "Oh, alright. If you insist."

The Fire Lord laid on his side and wrapped his arms around her waist. His head came to rest on her shoulder where he breathed in her cool, calming scent. She giggled.

"Stop breathing on me!" she lightly elbowed him. "How can I sleep with you tickling me?"

Zuko held her tighter and kissed her shoulder blade. "Awe, just go to sleep Tara."

"You're the worst, Zuzu."

"You love me."

"Uh huh. Somehow."