She had been looking for Zuko all morning and finally Ranku's wife told him they were at their house. Oh, no, she thought. That could only mean one thing.

Bursting into the igloo she hollered above the group of men, hands on her hips, fury plastered on her face. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Katara! What the hell? Don't scare me like that," Ranku yelled back looking up at the angry waterbender quickly before returning to his work, "You could have made me mess up."

Zuko was lying on his belly resting his face in his arms, his bare back exposed to the tribesmen. He tried to look up at her but his position made it all but impossible. Ranku sat above him carefully tapping the ink into the firebenders skin. A parchment sat next to him with the design drawn on it.

"I wanted to surprise you," Zuko gritted his teeth through the pain as he tried to explain to his wife.

"Yeah, well, it worked. I'm definitely surprised," she said with obvious disgust. "Why the hell would you want to ruin your skin like this?"

One of the other tribesmen spoke up, "It's not ruining your skin. It's telling a story on your body."

"And what kind of story are you telling?" She glared down at the design on the parchment and noticed it was the exact same design as was on her betrothal necklace. Whereas her necklace could come off anytime she chose, his never would. She gasped in awe that he would do something like that. Inspecting the work done so far, she noticed the moon was positioned below his neck between his shoulder blades and the dragon's head was on his left shoulder blade and she assumed the tail would be on the right. So far it was actually very beautiful. As much as she hated tattoos, this one meant something, to both of them, and she just couldn't bring herself to hate this one.

Several hours later, when the general design was tattooed into his skin, Katara traced her fingers over it. She wanted to heal it and started to but Ranku warned her, "Let it heal it naturally, Katara or else you'll ruin it," as he rubbed a special lotion over it before covering it gently. "When it heals, we'll add the details."

Zuko had a look of both pride and pain as he cautiously put his shirt on and leaned down to give Katara a kiss. "Surprised?" he asked.

"Very," she replied with a half-smile, "But I like it."

"Happy anniversary," he announced.

"Anniversary?" She looked up at him with curiosity. Their wedding anniversary wasn't for another month and half.

"One year ago today, I came back to you."

OoOoO

At the next full moon celebration, Katara was again in the group of women dancing their seductive dances. This time was different. She felt more empowered yet felt like something was missing. As if her body yearned for something. She had never felt this way before, but then again she had not had a lover the last time she danced this way.

She instantly noticed that several of the men had joined their women, continuing the dance in almost a show of foreplay. She looked beyond the crowd and saw Zuko staring at her, trying to hide the yearning behind a mask of nonchalance. She radiated desire like a sun and being the firebender he was he sensed that heat from her. She gave him a look that beckoned him to join her, to which he zealously did. He wrapped his arms around her as she embraced him as well. Their charged bodies moved in time to the primitive drums as oblivious to the people around them as the other couples were to them. Lips came close to lips but never touched. Breath mingled with breath. Foreheads rested on each other as cobalt eyes met gold.

Being a firebender, full moons did not affect him but tonight, Agni; tonight there was something in the air, something in the beat of the drums, the wail of the flute, the incense that burned. Something in the way that Katara moved next to him, the way she looked, the way she smelled, that made him want to possess her. He felt as though she had sparked something in him that had lain dormant for years. His inner dragon was brought to life in a way that had never been and this waterbender was the only thing to sate the beast.

What had felt like eternity here in the meeting hall amongst all these tribespeople, but was minutes in the real world, she had had enough. She had to get home, get him alone. She felt in her very core compelled to mate. With a silent look, he understood and grabbed her hand bolting from the room.

They practically ran home, stopping every few yards or so to grab onto each other and kiss passionately. As soon as they reached their small igloo and the door sealed with ice, Katara was pushed up against the wall and they both fumbled to rip off each other's heavy water tribe clothing as quickly as they possibly could. But even that was too slow.

"Gods, why are there so many clothes?" Zuko growled between kisses as he peeled off his undershirt, "We're definitely moving from this iceberg as soon as we can."

Katara laughed as she kicked off her boots and untied her dress which Zuko immediately yanked from her body. He pulled at the breast wrappings trying not to light them on fire, though he could have with as heated as he felt, roughly squeezing her breasts and pinching the nipples in the process. She pulled the ties on his pants and underpants instantly dropping from his body dragging her nails across his chest, his arms, to his back and down his butt. "We could go to the Swamp and wear leaves."

He kissed down her chest towards her belly, "Mmm, that sounds better, then I could just burn them off you whenever I want" as he pulled down her leggings and started removing her lower underwrappings kissing her upper thighs as soon as they were exposed and lifting a leg over his shoulder leaving her standing on one leg. He alternated between slowly teasing her nub with the tip of his tongue and dipping into her womanhood.

That was as much foreplay as her eager body could tolerate or wanted. Katara grabbed at his shoulders pulling him up. He kissed his way back to her mouth and moving her leg from his shoulder to his elbow as he plunged deep within her, a satisfied gasp came from both benders. He began roughly thrusting into her as she dug her nails into his shoulders, both benders growling and panting in pleasure. He gripped her hip tightly and tried to hold onto the wall for better leverage but the heat from his body left him with a handful of water instead so he grabbed her butt cheek.

Normally their lovemaking was tender and playful but tonight, it was primal, animalistic. They were two powerful benders under the spell of an ancient act that they had no choice but to obey.

When his legs screamed in protest of this position, he carefully walked them over to the furs that made up their bed and lowered themselves without removing himself from her body. He lay on his back with her straddling him. This was position was new to both of them and felt incredible. She rode him forcefully until she felt the wave of her pleasure wash over her with a scream of ecstasy. He wrapped his arms around her tightly as she fell onto his chest and before she came down all the way from her peak he began pounding into her quickly building her back up. Her body clenched around him the second time in a matter of minutes unleashing his own wave inside her with a bellow of his own.

"I think this is the first time I've ever loved the full moon," he teased tracing imaginary patterns on her back as she lay on top of him.

"Mmm," she agreed. "Ready for more?"

"Bring it on, waterbender."

OoOoO

Katara was in the square gathering supplies for the special dinner she planned for their one year anniversary tonight and needed all the right ingredients. Some she had gotten especially from one of the merchants. She was going to make a nice spicy meal for him then she'd be the spicy dessert. When she got home, she lowered the basket to the ground. As she stood back up, her back tweaked and she could hardly move. She must have filled the basket up too full and overexerted herself. Next time she'd bring Zuko to do her heavy lifting. Rubbing her lower back trying to heal it, unsuccessfully, she waited for Zuko to get home to help. Heating his hands, he placed them on her lower back where she indicated. "What did you do?" he asked, kneading his fingers into her back.

"I don't know. I mean other than bringing home stuff for tonight, but it's been killing me ever since and nothing I do helps," she whined as the heat penetrated the sore muscles. It helped until the heat wore off. It hurt so much that she lay down in bed. "So much for a nice romantic dinner", she grumbled.

"How about I make dinner?" Zuko offered. She looked at him in shock. "But you can't cook?"

"I can try."

"Yeah okay," she relented, "Just bring me some water in case I need to put out the flames."

"Ha ha, Katara. I'm not going to burn dinner."

"Yeah but you might burn down the house. Frankly I don't want to be homeless."

OoOoO

It had been a little over a month since Katara's back had started hurting. It slowly got better but still wasn't 100%. When Katara woke up early that morning she felt a little sick to her stomach. Normally she would wake around the same time Zuko did so she could prepare breakfast while he got ready for the day but today she slept in hoping that she would be feeling a little better with another hour of sleep. When she finally did wake up, she walked into the kitchen seeing Zuko stirring something in the cooking pot.

"Good morning. You weren't up yet, so I made breakfast," he said proudly as he lifted the spoon letting whatever he had made drip back down into the pot. For whatever reason, the sight, sound, and smell made her hand fly to her mouth as she rushed to the bathroom to empty her stomach into the latrine.

Zuko frowned as he looked down into the pot. He lifted the spoon to his mouth taking a small taste of the porridge, "I didn't think I did that bad."

OoOoO

Katara spent the next week's mornings hovering over the toilet as wave after wave of nausea hit her. After the sixth day, Zuko stood outside the curtain finally getting the courage to enter and saw his wife sitting on the floor with her head resting on her hand. "Katara. You need to go see a doctor. This isn't normal."

"I'm fine. It's just a stomach bug. It'll go…erp" throwing up in the toilet before she could finish her sentence. When she was done, Zuko walked over and grabbed a small towel, wetting it before kneeling at her side and gently washing her face.

"I'm no healer, but even I know this isn't right," he said gently.

"Fine. I'll go. But you'll see I'm perfectly fine. It's just a bug."

OoOoO

Later that morning, she found out it wasn't a bug. It was far, far, far from a stomach bug.

In a daze, she walked to the training area where Zuko would be. As she walked in the entry way, a small group of ten-year-old boys ran past her, shouting their hellos to Master Katara. She waved and called a greeting back. She went to the other side where Zuko would be training the young warriors in sword play. She watched for a while as he and one of the older boys sparred. He promptly stopped after a particular move the younger boy made and showed him an alternate version. Before they could begin again someone elbowed Zuko in the ribs pointing out Katara watching them. He smiled at her and turned to say something to the older boy. Zuko trotted over to where Katara stood.

"Did you finally see the doctor?" he asked as she bent the sweat from his forehead. He grabbed the water flask and took a long drink.

"Yeah. She said I was fine. It's perfectly normal."

He looked at her angrily, "What do you mean perfectly normal? How can throwing up for almost a week straight be normal?"

Before Zuko could continue his rant, Katara pressed her finger to his lips. "If you'd let me finish. It's perfectly normal in the first few months."

His eyebrows furrowed together as he took another drink, "First months of what?"

She rolled her eyes at his denseness. At this moment, he was rivaling Sokka's denseness. "For someone who's pregnant, silly."

"Pregnant? But you're not pregnant."

She raised an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms across her chest. She watched the gears turn in his head as the words hit him.

"Are you sure?" he whispered in disbelief.

A huge smile spread across her face as she nodded, placing her hands protectively on her belly. "Two months from what the healer could tell."

"Two mon- wow," he didn't know what else to say. He ran a hand through his hair. She watched as he looked around then turned toward the sun and knelt before it. Several of the other waterbenders looked over at the strange sight and then at Katara. She just shrugged her shoulders. She had no idea what he was doing. Finally he rose from his knees and shouted with as much joy as he could vocalize, "I'm going to be a dad!"

The other men shouted their congratulations and came over and clapped him on the back. Some went to Katara and kissed her on the cheek. After a few minutes, Zuko raced to his wife wrapping his arms around her lifting her into the air and twirled her around, all the time whispering his love for her. He truly felt lucky to be have been born. This is what he wanted and who it wanted it with.

OoOoO

It had been two months since he had found out his wife was pregnant and Zuko couldn't be happier. Katara, too. The news had spread through the village like wild fire, so to speak. She chatted on and on about it to anyone who would listen. And as a family orientated community, that was pretty much everyone. There were some who disapproved of such a child but they respectively kept quiet about it.

Zuko woke up one morning and saw his beautiful wife still sleeping. He kissed her gently on the forehead and rubbed her ever growing belly where their child resided. He went to shave in the bathroom and get ready for the day. When he got out a while later, he saw Katara trying to pull up pants that obviously weren't going to fit.

"I'm getting so fat. Look!" she complained as waved a hand over the traitorous pants that wouldn't go over her belly.

He rolled his eyes, "Katara, you're pregnant. This happens." He came up to her and caressed her cheek before caressing her belly, then kissing her gingerly on the lips. "Besides I think you look beautiful."

And he did. He loved watching her body change as it grew to accommodate their child. He loved how her breasts had gotten larger, her hips wider, her face even got a little fuller. But it was the general aura of her happiness that he loved the most. He never believed in auras, no matter how many times Ty Lee tried to convince him, but his wife's was definitely the pinkest. He was pretty sure his was too. For the first time in a long time for both of them, they were genuinely happy.

"Oh, shut up. You would say that." She scowled as she plopped onto the floor and threw the pants in disgust.

"Do you want me to see if Yukiko has a pair you can borrow until we can replace these ones?" he asked as he squatted in front of her, trying to catch her eyes.

She pouted and turned her head away, "Please," she finally mumbled. He tried not to laugh at her stubbornness. He didn't quite know if he hoped their child had the same stubbornness. If it did, then he was in trouble.