And Other Fairly Stupid Tales

Day 14

Stranger

A part of Zuko had always been a little curious about children. Not that he was planning on having any any time soon–he was only seventeen, and as of three months ago, he was no longer even in a relationship–but the idea of them intrigued him. Maybe it was because his own childhood was so outside the norm, seeing the children of the Southern Water Tribe running around and playing, grinning and giggling, it captivated him.

During the course of his visit to Katara and Sokka's home, Zuko developed a habit of watching the water tribe children when his friends were busy. He would stand at an inconspicuous distance and just observe them as they played in the snow and invented amusing little games. Sometimes he wished he could join them; learn what was so fascinating about pretending to be a mother or a father or a sister or a brother in a make-believe family; make forts and throw snowballs; build lopsided snow-people and pretend to have tea with them.

A few times, he'd caught Katara playing with them. The little boys and girls loved to make her the mother in their families. They would all compete with each other to try and impress her, saying, "Mom loves me more!" and "Nuh uh! Look at this, mom!", and every time, Katara would make a big show of considering who her 'favorite' was, but in the end, she always found a way to choose all of them, taking care to make each child feel special. At first, Zuko thought it was silly; clearly that girl had built a better snow castle than that other girl, but he soon realized that comparing the children wasn't really the point. It wasn't about about being the most talented and winning Katara's love, it was about having fun and trying to impress their role model. In time, it became one of his favorite games to watch.

It was about two weeks into his visit that Zuko finally caved and approached the merry gaggle of youngsters. He picked a little girl building a tiny snowman a small ways from the others and kneeled down next to her. "That's nice," he commented, pointing at the snowman with a gloved hand. The little girl didn't respond, so he tried again. "You're very good at making these," he said, trying to sound as friendly as he could. "Do you build them a lot?"

This time the little girl looked up at him with a frown on her face. "Mommy told me not to talk to strangers," she told him frankly.

Zuko's shoulders drooped at her barefaced dismissal. "Oh," he said a little dejectedly, "I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone."

He stood to go, but he was stopped by a tug at the edge of his parka. He glanced down to see the child's little blue mitten fisted around the material. "What's your name?" she asked.

Zuko was confused. "I thought you couldn't talk to strangers," he reminded her.

The little girl rolled her eyes like he was the one not making sense. "If you introduce yourself, you won't be a stranger anymore, dummy."

He blinked down at her, thrown by both her reasoning and her request of introduction. Sure, she'd probably seen a few Fire Nation visitors since the end of the war, but his scar should make it pretty obvious who he was. He pointed at himself and said, "I'm Fire Lord Zuko, Katara and Sokka's friend."

"Fire Lord? You?" she said, raising an eyebrow at him, "You don't look very Fire Lordy. Where's your crown?"

"My crown?"

The little girl nodded. "You can't be a king if you don't wear a crown."

Zuko touched his unbound hair. He'd seen no reason to keep it in its topknot when he was just hanging out with friends. Plus, the shaggy locks helped keep his ears warm in the frigid climate. "Chief Hakoda doesn't wear a crown," he pointed out.

"That's because he's a Chief. Chiefs don't wear crowns."

Ah, child logic. "Well, Fire Lords don't always wear crowns either," he informed her a tad petulantly. "Anyway, you haven't given me your name."

"I'm Enka," she said, pointing at her chest. "I'm six years old."

Zuko was a bit thrown by this bit of unsolicited information. "Oh, six. That's, uh, a good age."

This seemed to be the right thing to say, as Enka smiled up at him and proceeded to introduce him to all of the other children. Some of them were a bit wary of him at first, since he was very clearly Fire Nation, but hearing that he was a friend of Sokka and Katara's seemed to be enough to endear him to them. They were especially fascinated by his firebending, and they made a game out of building little snowmen and having him destroy them with fireballs. The little boys would make over-the-top exploding noises whenever one of the snowmen was hit and dance around, stomping their feet like little monsters.

"Zuko! There you are," Katara called, jogging over.

Zuko blushed at being caught doing such childish things. "Oh, uh, hey Katara."

"Katara! Katara!" the children exclaimed with joy. "Come play with us!"

Katara laughed. "You don't mind, do you Zuko?"

The young Fire Lord rubbed the back of his head. "Of course not."

The children wasted no time, jumping right into their game. Katara immediately became the "mommy", and they fell all over themselves to please her, like they always did.

"So, you finally decided to step in," Katara commented to him as the kids wrestled around in the snow.

"What do you mean?" he asked, observing the tiny people in their play.

She smiled knowingly. "I've seen you watching them. Have you been struck by baby-fever or something?"

Zuko whipped his head around to look at her, blushing. "Wha-? No!"

Katara smacked his arm affectionately. "I was just kidding. You take everything so seriously."

Zuko looked down at his lap, fiddling with his mittened hands self-consciously. "I was just curious, is all. These kids are very different from how I was when I was growing up. They're so free ...and happy." He sighed. "I guess... Maybe I just want to know what their secret is."

Katara laid a hand on his shoulder and smiled gently. "The secret is a loving family and lots of friends."

"I see." Perhaps that was it. Zuko hadn't had either of those things.

He felt a tug and looked down to find a scruffy-headed little boy attached to the end of his parka. "You're the dad, okay?" the child informed him, his tone suggesting that the decision was final, whether Zuko approved it or not.

Zuko blinked down at him.

"You're the dad, okay?" he repeated, giving Zuko's parka another tug.

"...Okay."

The boy nodded seriously and then grabbed his hand, pulling him over to a vacant section of snow. "Watch me build," he ordered, plopping down onto the ground using his hands to pat the snow into a pile.

Zuko stood over him awkwardly, unsure of what he supposed to do. Was he meant to help the kid? Should he sit down and build something too? Was there something he was supposed to say? He looked to Katara for help, but she just smiled back at him, crossing her arms.

He turned his attention to the dinky snow blob the child was carefully patting with a look of utmost concentration on his little face. "Um, so what are you making?" he asked conversationally.

"I'm making a polar bear dog," the boy answered, his attention not leaving his project.

"Oh," Zuko said, trying to sound supportive, "It looks... very nice."

"It's not nice," the boy declared, frowning at him. "See?" he pointed to a second blob of snow next to it, "It's eating this man. Raaar!" he flung a handful of snow up into the air to accentuate his roar.

Zuko heard Katara laugh behind him.

"Daddy," another voice called, latching onto his hand. This time it was girl. She pulled him over to where a few of the other kids were playing, pointing to a slightly older boy with his hair pulled back in a wolf tail. "Nuka won't marry me," she complained, shooting the boy a glower.

"Why should I?" the boy, Nuka, fired back, crossing his arms, "You're too bossy."

"Am not!"

"Are so!"

The girl turned back to Zuko and jutted out her bottom lip. "I'm not bossy, right?"

Zuko didn't know how to answer that. "Um, well... even if you are, that's not necessarily a bad thing," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Sometimes being bossy just means you care."

The girl smiled at that.

"Well I don't like bossy girls," Nuka stated huffily.

"You'll learn to," Zuko said without thinking. "Uh, I mean, you'll discover a lot of things about girls that you didn't think you'd like."

"Like what?" he asked skeptically. Some of the other boys had gathered around to listen as well.

"Like her temper, her stubbornness, her need to be right all the time, her skin co–" he abruptly stopped himself by clearing his throat. "Er, what I'm saying is, you shouldn't brush someone off right away. You don't have to marry them, but it doesn't hurt to give them a chance."

When he finished, the boys were looking up at him with awe, and the girls with stars in their eyes. Zuko shifted uncomfortably under their gazes and clapped his mittened hands together suddenly, announcing, "Who wants to play tag?"

One of the boys raised his hand and said, "I'll be 'it'!" and then all of them were running off in separate directions, giggling like mad people. Zuko sighed in relief and turned around to go back over to Katara, only to find her standing right behind him.

She smiled sweetly. "You'll be a good father, Zuko," she told him sincerely, then she stood up on her tippy toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Zuko felt his face flush hotly and smiled dopily as he watched her jog off to join the kids in their game.

No, he didn't have baby-fever. But he was beginning to think that having kids of his own wouldn't be such a horrible thing.

oO0Oo

Alright, so this one was more fluffy than humorous, but I was in the mood. Don't judge me!

Body-Swap part four is coming up next. It's already ninety percent finished. Just gotta write the last part and then edit it. It'll probably be up later tonight or tomorrow.

Sorry I took so long to update. I know ZM is long over now. ^^;

I hope you enjoyed your holidays, and I'll see you again here in a little bit.

Ciao!