The slightly tanned left hand reached out and stretched. How Katara longed to capture it, to just hold it, if only a little while.
And so she did, she stole the small perfect five fingers lightly in her own. Hers all hers, this little one was, she could tell herself with pride.
Grey-brown eyes looked up into her blue ones with curiosity, confusion and happiness within them.
The little girl sniffed, wiping her nose on the back of her right hand. A small smile played on the waterbender's lips as she watched her daughter.
"'Choo!" The small child jumped at a height far higher than seemingly possible based on certain scientific laws. Katara laughed, as did the girl with her when she landed.
Her little airbender, so like her father. Sometimes however, a little too much like him.
She bit her lip as a sudden dull thud hit her throat. Now she was the last airbender. Just like he had been.
She swallowed.
The three year old, unknowing and thus uncaring of her mother's sudden change in feeling released herself from her grip and rolled around the grassy slope, her arms outstretched as she mimed the flight of the lemur which was over her head. The chips and churrs of the small animal and her laughter were almost drowned by the crashing waves underneath their feet.
Katara felt like catching her, but decided for the moment to leave her be. She was a good distance from the cliff edge of this earth kingdom coast, and not (thank goodness) using the frightening speed her element provided her with for once.
The air, a mixture of the sea- represented her daughter- the mixture of the water and air elements as one- her father and mother as one person- their child.
Their only child.
As awful as it sounded, Katara felt relief that she was an airbender, and not of her own element. What would have happened if Aang had left them with no more airbenders? Would the world have fallen into chaos without such balance? Being a grieving widow entitled her to be selfish and not think of such things, but then Katara was not a selfish person.
She was watertribe. They endured. Even those who had become widows only a month ago. Besides, she had a daughter to be strong for.
She wrinkled her nose. She hated that phrase 'Left them' something only the pathetic too afraid to say 'died' or 'killed' resorted to speaking. It sounded as if Aang had simply decided to leave his family behind while running off with some floosy, when he had in fact died protecting them all.
He'd only been twenty-three. Too young.
Far too young.
That was what her brother had said to them upon her marriage to him. She would have dared him to say it now if she was crueller. In truth she would have hated her brother now, had she listened to his words and never known what it would have been like to be his wife, to be mother to his child.
But she held no malice for her brother, despite his absurd claim those few years ago. They'd been in love after all, and many people married far younger than they had. And his wife was younger than she was.
Sokka loved his niece anyway, it was hard to think of how he'd love any child more, though he'd have to, with a young child of his own on the way. She smiled to herself as she kept her eyes on her daughter, yet also afforded the luxury of slipping ever so slightly into her memories.
That Toph. She'd never known of her crush on her brother until her engagement to Aang. Evidently, being able to tell when people lied meant you were a lot better at telling lies yourself.
"Aiko!" she called "You're getting too close to the edge!"
The dark haired girl turned, and Katara observed with slight amusement the pout on her small face.
"She's going to be a heartbreaker when she gets older" she felt a slight shiver at her dead husbands words ringing in her mind, from a memory collected on the worst day of her life. It was as if his warm seductive breath was upon her neck at that very moment.
She recalled his joke "Any boy that comes two feet of her…" he had said only half in mock jest as he mimed a stab in the air with his staff.
It was if he was still here.
But no, despite as much as she wished it, that was not so. The Avatars spirit had moved on, she knew that now.
She had been told of the new Avatar, a girl born in the swamp, privately told to her by one of the Fire Nation Sages. Specifically by the very fire sage who had helped them all those years ago and had also presented the funeral. He saw her pain, and yet also her need to know and not be shielded constantly from harm.
Her whole family did that already and it irked her.
She was sick of it. Even Toph did not act like herself. She needed to get away from it all…They, in their bid to comfort her, prevented her from getting what she really needed.
She had needed closure. The Sage saw that. True it would hurt, but then the healing could begin. Upon hearing the news of her husband's spirit re-entering the cycle she could move on.
Eventually anyway. Losing the love of your life would hardly be without some scars.
Aiko moved moodily towards her mother at first, with Momo shuffling behind her his own tail dragging in reluctance, disappointed at such an abrupt end to her game.
Suddenly however the grumpy sulk upon her face evaporated into one of pure joy as she ran towards her, in full elemental force. Katara blinked surprised as the girl sped past her instead, jumping, once again with the aid of her premature air bending skills into the neck of a figure behind her.
Katara was just about to cry out in shock and apologise…until she looked upon the face of the man. She tittered.
"Hello Zuko" she said in a faintly amused tone. The Fire Lord looked rather dazed at having two feet of pure airbending power smash into him with such speed. His crown had become completely detached from his hair in the process. He hardly looked as regal nor proud as the painters continually depicted him as, she couldn't help noting.
The girl giggled, continuing to cling even as he righted himself.
"Mommy, Uncle ZuZu is here!"
Katara smiled a little wider at the look of discomfort on the firebender's face, his mouth twitched to the left slightly at his displeasure at the name.
He'd vowed revenge upon Sokka for telling his niece that that was his name when she'd first had trouble saying 'Zuko'. The name stuck. And it probably would forever. He could just see the multiple brood Sokka would probably have calling him that. He liked the man, but he was ever so slightly sadistic too.
But Aiko adored her 'Uncle Zuzu', and Zuko could not resist her charms either. He returned her hug, albeit awkwardly, much to her delight.
He'd been there that day too. The worst day of her life. He, Aang, Katara and their daughter, all together…
He had been there, agreeing and laughing with Aang at his comments about the girl's possible future suitors and the various torturous ways they could deter them, each more disturbing than the last, mere moments before it happened. Katara could recall feeling pity at that moment for the faceless suitors, contending with an overprotective father who was the Avatar would be bad enough- add in an even more unstable Fire Lord, her beloved 'uncle' and she hardly saw a boy coming in within a mile of her.
A mixture of happiness and desperation filled her mind looking back to that day. It had started so well, and yet fate had cruelly decided to take that all away.
Trapped, Zuko had been, with Katara and her daughter in the cave. Aang had both created and stubbornly enclosed them all within it with earthbending, when he had decided to fight those firebenders on his own. The bitter soldiers wishing to kill their so called 'traitorous' ruler visiting Omashu…
"Protect them Zuko" Zuko shuddered as he recalled the tone of desperation "Your nation needs you, but they may harm them too if they somehow get in here…"
Toph had found the three, releasing them, upon hearing of the trouble, having been on the way to collecting them in the first place.
But she had been too late to save Aang.
They had been on the way to celebrate in her own home with Sokka, with the news of her pregnancy.
Instead of celebrating the eventual coming of a new life, they ended up mourning the loss of another.
Zuko gave her a brief smile, but she turned away, though he could catch the tear running down her face in the glint of the sunlight. He felt his own eyes fill, but held back firm, denying their release.
He had not lost a husband as she had done, but he still had lost a dear friend. But his own best friend before him also hurting in a way he couldn't even imagine. He felt unworthy to display his own pain at the loss. It was nothing compared to hers.
He couldn't imagine losing Mai. The mere though made him sick to his stomach. He couldn't, he just could not understand or comprehend Katara's pain, and that terrified him.
But he could do this. He could do the last thing he had promised the Avatar.
He could protect her.
"The ship is ready. Appa is quiet comfortable I think." He said, breaking the silence between them, her back however still turned. "And Kuzon is waiting there." He added referring to his four year old son as he looked down at the little girl who smiled happily and nodded, grabbing his right hand with he left.
"Are you ready Katara?" He asked in a quiet tone.
He stepped up beside her and looked at her, the child still clutching his second and middle fingers tightly. His friend's eyes were closed, her free hair tussling in the breeze. She sighed.
"Yeah. I'm ready Zuko. Thanks."
Sadness was still etched in her features, and yet somehow the smile she gave him was still genuine.
Both holding the child's hand in between them, Zuko to the left, they walked down the opposite side of the rolling green grass to the large collection of ships at the port, multitudes of soldiers being there, that Katara could not yet see, but most certainly hear in the cove. Katara wondered at him, knowing he was damaging is supposedly intimidating persona by doing this simple act in front of his men. Holding the hand of a three year old hardly commanded his subjects to fear him.
However, both he and Aang were more alike than she realised she supposed. She listened to the strange conversation her daughter was currently engaging Zuko in about how much she hated Stewed Sea Prunes and yet loved Ocean Cumquats, repressing a giggle even now with the confused looks he was giving the child.
Both her husband and he knew that only those confident in their own strength could display for full show what was falsely deemed a weakness by others. Kindness, love, friendship. But more than that. There was something about this gesture that tugged at her in another way. It reminded her of something.
She recalled the old memory and briefly found it difficult to breath as she chocked on her realisation. When all of them, battered and weary had traced their steps through the smoke and ash, back at the end of the war, when they were children, it all being finally over, it being difficult to find their way. Katara, Aang and Zuko had held hands through the confusion, the smoke, the sounds of the fallen as they had searched for Sokka, Toph, Mai and Ty Lee. Tightly they had all held on, for fear of losing one another in the insanity.
In the madness, in the storm, they had held hands as if one of the trio would have flown off and disappeared into the air if they hadn't.
Katara saw Zuko grip the young airbenders hand just a little more firmly, who stared up at him concerned.
The young girl seized the two fingers she clasped more tightly, and also gave her mother's fingers a further squeeze, looking up at her in question.
They merely smiled back lightly at her as the three continued their silent descent, only the whirrs and chirrups of Momo, and chatter in the distance of the men in the bay below to be heard.
Zuko breathed out.
'Aang' he thought, his own tears now falling silently, now not caring if anyone saw. 'Why did you let go?'
--
A/N: There you have it. Kataangst with a dash of Maiko and some ZukoKatara friendship. Zutaraians can see it as some implied Zutara if they wish, Zukaang could also be implied now that I think of it. I like all of them so interpret it as you would want. Shipping wars are for suckers :D.
"Aiko" means 'love child' in Japanese- owing to the fact, that although it never made it to this story, the girl was technically conceived a few months before they married ;).
Zuko and Mai's son is actually called Kuzon Aang Iroh Zuko- since kings in our world have four names, I thought- why not fire lords? But everyone calls him by his first name- which also didn't really make it to the oneshot, but in case you are interested...
I hope you liked this oneshot! Perhaps I may continue with it one day... Am unsure of how to though- I think it works okay on its own though...