I always thought Zuko was way too serious. :p This was to note that. Thanks for all the reviews, follows and favourites! Keep reading and supporting, you guys! :D
I don't own ATLA. Just sayin'.
A Father's Worries
15th November 2012
"Ouch." Katara winced slightly but a smile pulled her lips upwards as she ran her hand over her extremely swollen belly. "Oh, she's really kicking today."
Zuko could not stop the purely male self satisfied grin that broke over his face at the sight of his wife, heavily pregnant with his child. The doctors of the Fire Nation court estimated that Katara was barely two months away from her due date and both of them, though slightly nervous, couldn't wait.
Pulling her closer, he placed his own, much larger hand over hers. "How do you know it's a girl?" he asked, resuming an argument they had been having for several weeks now. "It's probably a boy."
"It's a girl," insisted Katara. "Mother's intuition."
"You weren't the only one in that bed," he reminded her. "I helped make him too. And I'm positive it's a boy. Only a boy would kick as much."
Katara rolled her eyes. "It's a girl. Only a girl would actually respond to our voices the way the baby does. A boy would be too absorbed in showing off all his male strength."
"Hence the kicking!" Zuko said triumphantly. When Katara only rolled her eyes, he dropped the playfulness and turned serious. "But there's been something that's been bothering me for awhile now."
"What?" Katara turned to look at him, concern sparkling in her eyes.
Zuko was deadly serious when he asked, "What if they don't like me?"
At another time, this sort of comment would have drawn out Katara's maternal side where she would vehemently insist that no matter what happened, their kids would love him. That he would never turn into Ozai – his worst fear – and practically abandon his kids the way Ozai did. That he would be an incredibly loving father who their kids would adore and respect and worship.
This time, Katara went "Oh" with this relieved sigh as if she had thought of something much worse, turned back to her belly and basically just acted as if he had mentioned something about the weather which, by the way, was as hot and balmy as always.
"Look at it this way, Zuko," she said cheerfully. "The kids have to love at least one parent. On the off chance they don't absolutely, one hundred percent fall in love with me, you still have a chance of them liking you. At least a little."
Zuko just looked at her for a few moments, struck utterly speechless and missing the teasing smile her lips had curled up into. He was actually trying to imagine the picture her words painted, missing the fact that she was joking.
"Katara?"
"Mm-hmm?"
In all seriousness, he asked, "Am I really that bad?"
He couldn't understand why she laughed as hard as she did.
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x Kasainoai