DISCLAIMER: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender nor any of the characters within.
This is my attempt at writing for Zutara Week 2010. I was reading some of the stories and just got so pumped to try it myself. So please bear with me and enjoy!
Family is ...
Family is ... well ... family.
The word has so many meanings to so many different people. It is nearly impossible to define into a "one size fits all" kinda thing.
For the most part to him family meant nothing good. A collective shame. Dishonor spread out through the generations that will take generations, if ever, to dispelled. Most of all family meant pain.
The pain of loss when he thought of his mother. How he searched and scoured the world to find her after the war ended. The things he was ready to give his father in order to obtain that one hint, that one little tidbit of information that would lead him to her. Alas he never got it. With his dying breath that man refused even the slightest kindness that one would think a father would gift a son, but no. Not this man, if he could have been called that. Whatever he knew he took it with him to hell. Laughing as he did so.
The next pain was shame. Oh he felt it every time someone called to the Fire Nation for the evils of the last hundreds years of death and destruction. Knowing that your lineage was directly responsible for generations of suffering. Both in their cause and the failure to stop it when they had the chance. It was a shame that would haunt him till his dying day. His children and their children and generations of children until Agni knows when will have to carry that shame with them. Perhaps until the end of time itself.
However this was not the shame that consumed him on most nights. No it was knowing that you only sibling was locked away in some tiny prison cell out of her mind and there was not a damn thing anyone could do about it. Part of him said he should let her rot there for all the evils she had inflicted not only on his person, but on more people that probably she knew. It was the other part, the part that remembered a long long ago time when wide eyes and happy smiles was how his sister would great her older brother. Those days , he had to remind himself, were long gone never to return.
These were the things FireLord Zuko mussed upon he walked through the palace halls towards their private chambers. As he neared he could hear the happy voices rise and fall along with the frequent laughter. Two guards stood at attention and open a set of ornate doors revealing the scene within.
His wife's family were gathered around her as she nursed the newest addition to the royal family. Over to his left he greeted his one living relative with a warm smile. The old man paused in his conversation with his White Lotus colleague to smile back. One the right his brother-in-law bounced his going on two year old daughter on one knee and made funny faces to which the girl giggled quietly. No doubt warned by her mother, who was noticeably absent, not to make too much noise in the presence of her latest cousin.
Almost on cue a side door opened and in she walked or waddled was a better description. Poor Suki was eight months along and was having a 'grand time' caring for two children and herself. She complained constantly about her poor aching back and her never ending trips to the restroom. Zuko had offered them all rooms in the palace and an invitation to stay as long as she needed. Here she would have a host of servants at her beck and call. Some of the finest healers, nursemaids, maids, cooks, and the like to attend her every need. The proud warrior politely declined saying she as much as she would love that , she loved her home more. And home is where she would have her second child. Sokka would just have to grow up and help out more.
Sitting next to his wife's bed was her grandmother who was busily sewing baby clothes for her great-grand-son. Assisted by three hand maidens and watched over by a mountain of a man for a body guard she sparred her granddaughter's husband but a fleeting glance, a small nod of approval then went right back to her work. The guard nodded reverently to his sire as he approached. Zuko still did not know how or why she had taken a liking to this particular guard always insisting on his services every thing she visited. Inwardly he shrugged as long as she was happy his wife was happy and the young sovereign had learned early on in marriage a happy wife meant he would be happy as well.
Or at least not in trouble.
Katar's father had not yet arrived. Rough seas had delayed the man and he unfortunately had missed the birth. Disappointing since his wife really wanted him there although Zuko could not phantom why. What was he going to do? Even he, the father, was not allowed anywhere's near the birthing room no matter how much he protested and yelled the he was FireLord and he went wherever he wanted. Apparently his loyal guards were more loyal to his wife. Hence he did not get to go anywhere's he damn well pleased.
Zuko quietly stepped up to their side and sighed happily. He thought her the most beautiful woman ever the day he realized his love for her. That was topped by the day she became his wife. Then that was topped when she first told him of their expected child. From then on she became more beautiful to him as the days passed until that glorious day she gave him his son. Watching the baby nurse as his mother looked on with a contentment that only mothers could ever know or so he was told. She was once again the most beautiful woman in the world.
He leaned over and kissed her with a tenderness that she had become accustomed too. Looking up at him she beamed with pride and happiness. He was going to ask how everything was, but was interrupted when the doors opened and the guard announced new visitors.
In strode the Avatar and the blind Earthbender followed closely by Hakoda. Now the family was complete. Her family. The one she brought him into. Made him apart of with her love. It was warm and happy and joyful and was loving and everything his was not. Nothing like what he knew before. Yet now that he thought about it...
It was his family too.
AN: I cranked this thing out in under and hour. I got so pumped up by reading the other stories I just had to give it a go. Please read and review. Hopefully I'll have the same inspiration and drive come tomorrow. Thanks and take care.