Zuko and Katara were laying on the bed, bodies against each other, both of them covered in sweat. Katara traces the scar on Zuko's stomach, thinking back to the day that he saved her from Azula. She smiles thinking back on the memories.
"When did you start falling in love with me?" Katara asked, looking up at her husband with a small smile on her face.
Zuko ran his fingers through Katara's hair and smiled. "Haven't I already told you this?"
"Only, like, seven times" Katara kisses his jaw and giggles. "I just love hearing you say it, and you'll have to get good at telling this story for when Zara is old enough to understand you"
Zuko smiles, thinking of their daughter, "It was when we were at the North Pole. I had captured the Avatar and we were in the cave and I started thinking about our fight. No one had ever stood up to me like you had before. You were an amazing bender and you put up an amazing fight. You were incredible, so in touch with your element. The fact that we were on a glacier, surrounded by ice, snow, and water didn't really help me much." Zuko looks at his wife and kisses her forehead. "I knew then never to underestimate you again and I knew then that you were an incredible bender and incredible woman. That's when I started falling in love with you."
"I've always been such a badass, haven't I?" Katara said, smiling.
"When did you start falling in love with me, then?" He says, pulling her closer to him and kissing her neck. "You've never told me the story of how you fell in love with me."
Katara closes her eyes and bites her lip.
"It was when we were in the crystal catacombs, underneath Ba Sing Se. Remember that?" She said, straddling him, running her hands up and down his chest.
He nodded, "How could I forget? You were the first person I had ever let touch my scar."
Katara looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "I was the first? Really? You never told me that."
"Guess I never thought it was important to bring up" he said, shrugging. "Anyway, continue with how you fell so hopelessly in love with me."
Katara rolled her eyes and smiled. "You told me how you lost your mother. My heart ached for you, I realized that we were very similar people, just on different paths. It hurt so much when you turned against me. I understand why you did it now but it still felt like getting punched in the heart. That was the first time I ever got to see the real you, not the person that your father wants you to be, not the person Azula wants you to be, but you, just you. You let yourself be vulnerable around me and that what made me start falling in love with you."
Zuko sat up and wrapped his arms around Katara's waist, pulled her closer to him and kissed her forehead, then her cheek, then her nose, and then the rest of her face. He kissed all ten of her fingers then both her palms, her forearms, inner elbows, shoulders, putting as much love, care, and tenderness into each one of the kisses.
"I love you so much." He says, kissing her collarbone.
"I love you, too" she says, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around his neck. Letting herself feel blissfully happy, being in her husband's arms. They laid back down holding each other close, happy to be in each other's arms. They both fell asleep tangled in each other, and all was well.