AN: Zutara week, day 6! This is it, folks, the moment I've been building up to all this time!

Affirm

Love me like there ain't another day
Lead with the heart, ain't that the only way?
I keep thinking 'bout how much we changed today
When all of this is over, I . . .

- Dermot Kennedy

Katara is dying.

She knows it, and she suspects that a small part of her always knew it would end this way.

After all, Katara was born into a world at war, and that was the only world she knew for so long. It's fitting that she's now giving her life to help protect the world from another war. As she takes her last breaths, she's grateful to the spirits for one thing.

Zuko is right there beside her.

"Katara," he whispers breathlessly. "It'll be okay. You're going to be okay."

He's holding her in his arms as she bleeds out, and Katara's hazy mind has the strangest feeling that they've been here before—the two of them, in this very moment.

Above them the sky is stormy, in the height of Fire Nation monsoon season.

Katara is glad she can feel the rain one last time before she leaves this world. It feels right, as if even the heavens are crying for everything they've lost. Suki is dead, Sokka and Toph are missing. Aang is still out there, fighting for his life. Zuko is defeated, and Katara is shattered from the inside out. She never thought it would end like this, but now that it is, she thinks it couldn't end any other way.

If her death can forge a path to a better world, she will gladly accept that.

As much as she wants one, her story—the Gaang's story—could never have a happy ending. No, Katara knows that happy is not in the ending, but in the middle. In all the years of peace after the war, in days spent together and seasons shared with friends and family.

Katara coughs up blood. Her vision is swimming, but her focus never leaves his golden eyes.

She smiles up at him. "Zuko. Listen, Zuko. I need you to know—"

"No, don't talk," he whispers. "You need to save your energy. Just hold on."

Katara shakes her head. "No use . . . our time is short."

"What?" Zuko's eyes widen. "Don't say that. Don't you dare say that, Katara!"

Katara tries to laugh. The motion sends a shockwave of pain through her body. "I love you, Zuko." She drinks in the sight of him, battered and bloody but still unbroken. "I hope you know," she murmurs, "that you're the best thing I've ever had in life. Take care . . . of Kya and Izumi."

"Katara!" he rasps, eyes welling with tears. "Don't do this to me! Please."

The bleeding in all her internal organs is drowning her in agony, and it takes her entire willpower to just hold onto her senses. Zuko's bloodstained hands caress her face, his fingers running through her hair. He knows. Katara is sure that he knows how this is going to end.

Lightning arcs through the clouds above, illuminating his glistening eyes.

Katara is glad the rain is hiding her tears.

"Zuko . . ."

"I'm here, Katara. I'm here."

"Do you remember . . ." She coughs again and doubles over in pain.

Zuko pulls her closer to his chest, comforting her. He can do nothing to save her, because she is past healing, but his warmth helps ease the pain. She leans her forehead against his.

Katara smiles. "Do you remember when we—"

She's unable to finish the sentence, because she doesn't know how to.

Katara knows what she wants to say, but she can't find enough words. They've shared so many moments together, and every one of them she treasures. She wants to remember all of them, but her life is fading and there is one moment she must remind him of.

One single moment, the moment that defined them.

Memories sweep her away like a flood.

. . .

Do you remember when we first met?

The ship's black shadow looms over the village, an omen of violence and destruction.

She watches the iron ramp fall, crushing her village's snow walls, and she feels shock and terror and anger all at once as this metal monstrosity invades her home.

Then the soldiers march down the ramp.

In that moment, Katara sees him for the first time. He is everything that she hates, from his red armor to his golden eyes to his cruel fire. He walks arrogantly, looks down on her, threatens her family. In that moment, he becomes her enemy.

But beneath all her tumultuous emotions, beneath the fury and the fear, Katara has the strangest feeling.

She's never met this boy in her life, but Katara knows those eyes.

. . .

Do you remember when we first fought?

"Well, aren't you a big girl now?"

The voice blindsides her.

"No," she whispers.

There's no way he could be here in the Spirit Oasis, there's no way, but he is, and she both fears and respects his tenacity. But she's angry. The last time they met, he had her tied up, and she's still not over that.

Katara meets every fireball he throws with her own waterbending.

They're evenly matched, blow for blow, but she has the slightest advantage at night, and she fights harder because she has someone to protect. Even so, she almost forgets about Aang for a moment. The thrill of the fight overtakes her. When she pins Zuko to the wall with a wave of ice, she wants to walk up to him and grin viciously and ask him how it feels to be the helpless one.

But a moment later daybreak arrives, and Zuko turns the tables on her.

As she falls to a barrage of fire, Katara vows that next time, she won't lose. She can't lose again. Not to him.

"You rise with the moon," he says victoriously. "I rise with the sun."

In that moment, he becomes her motivation.

. . .

Do you remember when we first understood each other?

She's stuck with him, imprisoned under Ba Sing Se. The cold crystal walls and the deafening silence and the fact that she's trapped underground are all getting to her, so she vents her frustration at him.

He barely even turns around.

All the fire is gone from his eyes, as if he's just a fading ember of who he once was.

She doesn't know what she was expecting, but his stillness only angers her further. Katara says everything on her mind, insults him and vilifies him, aims to wound him with her words, to bring back the fiery Zuko she knew. Everything she hates about the Fire Nation, she pins on this arrogant boy.

"You're the Fire Lord's son," she finishes bitterly. "Spreading war and violence and hatred is in your blood."

He turns. "You don't know what you're talking about," rasps Zuko.

That hits a little too close to home.

"How dare you?" she growls. "You have no idea what this war has put me through. Me, personally!" Her voice breaks like glass. "The Fire Nation took my mother away from me."

She can't hold back the tears. Katara buries her face in her knees to hide the fact that she's burning with shame, because she's broken down crying in front of her worst enemy. But in a way, she's glad she's breaking down in front of him and not her friends.

Katara has forgotten how long it's been since she cried for her mother.

"I'm sorry," he whispers. "That's something we have in common."

And then all her tears are gone.

Katara knows that voice. She knows it because she hears it every day, hears the raw pain hidden behind a thin veneer of willpower, hears the lonely nights and the silent sobs and the aching emptiness inside.

For the first time, she thinks maybe they're not so different at all.

Soon there's silence and apologies. She tries to reach out, to explain herself, but she can't seem to find the right words. She only hurts him more. He speaks of scars and curses and destiny, and she tries to think of something, some way to reach him.

All at once it strikes her. The scar.

"Maybe you could be free of it," she murmurs.

They're so close in that moment.

She's close enough to cut through his disbelief and his defeated attitude and all the stone walls he's raised around his soul. Katara leans in. She reaches out and gently touches his scar, and he lets her.

In that moment, just as he gives her a piece of his heart, he takes a piece of hers too.

. . .

Do you remember when we finally became friends?

"Forgiveness is the first step you have to take to begin healing."

She thinks Aang is right, but not in the way he believes.

"But I didn't forgive him," she says.

Healing.

What Yon Rha did to her, that will never heal. There's no way to fix a gaping hole in her heart, so there is no way she can even begin to forgive Yon Rha.

But Zuko . . .

She sees him behind Aang, standing quietly.

His betrayal in Ba Sing Se broke a piece of her, broke her more than she cares to admit. She hated him afterward for that, because she didn't understand how one boy who had been her enemy could make her care so much. But she does still care about him, and now she knows he cares too.

He's shown it in everything he's done.

In all the guidance he gives to Aang. In the brotherly affection he shows Toph. In whatever weird manly moments he shares with Sokka. In the fellowship he and Suki have as warriors. In his strange but adorable friendship with Appa. Whether knowingly or not, Zuko has healed the piece of Katara's heart that he broke, simply by helping her take care of the other pieces.

And finally, he was there for her.

He was there when she needed him the most, not to tell her what path to take, but to walk beside her as she chose her own path. In that, Katara sees a true friend.

She looks to Zuko, and for the first time since Ba Sing Se, she sees him.

"I'll never forgive him." Katara smiles hopefully at Zuko. "But I am ready to forgive you." On impulse, she surges forward and hugs him. Zuko's arms are warm and comforting, and her heart feels full.

Katara thinks she just found something she's been missing in life.

In that moment, he becomes her best friend.

. . .

Do you remember when we saved each other's lives?

"Thank you, Katara."

She holds him close and her eyes fill with tears, because that's a silly thing to say. He's lying on the ground, his chest red and charred, and that's such a silly thing to say.

He took a bolt of lightning for her.

Zuko gave his life to protect hers, and now he's the grateful one? All she did was heal him.

"I think," she whispers with a smile, "I'm the one who should be thanking you."

Katara can still feel the blood pounding in his heart, through his veins. She can feel his pulse in her soul, and she can't stop listening to it. The rhythm sounds strong, reassuring, familiar.

Zuko returns the smile. Katara's own heart trembles.

In that moment, he becomes her world.

. . .

Do you remember when we fell in love?

She's not sure when it happened.

It just added up, in little moments over the years soon after the war.

The days they spent together, the countless moonrises and dawns that they shared. An honest conversation one night in Ba Sing Se. An explosive argument on the eve of the Academy's opening. A year of regret and letters back and forth and constant daydreaming. A reunion over tea, a passionate dance at a wedding, a silly and awkward first kiss. A night of confessions and stargazing on the beach.

Looking back, Katara doesn't know when she fell in love.

It snuck up behind her, took her by surprise, just as Zuko has a habit of doing.

. . .

Do you remember when we—

A thousand other moments cross her mind.

Some moments were shared with others, from quiet evenings over tea with elders, to family meals with their own two daughters, to reunions with their old friends. Trips together across the Fire Nation, or to South Pole City, or across the world for diplomatic summits and birthdays and anniversaries. The moments they shared with others are beautiful, and she holds them close to her heart.

But other moments were just between the two of them.

Those moments are special to her.

Winter mornings spent in combat, summer nights under silk sheets. A million embraces and kisses and gentle touches. Countless arguments and silly conversations and secrets shared under starry skies. Every second they were together, she loved him more.

In all those moments, he became her soul, and she became his.

But none of those moments could define them.

Well, none except one.

. . .

Katara finally finds the right words.

"Do you remember when we made that promise on the beach?"

Zuko laughs despite his tears. "How could I forget it?"

Katara smiles softly.

"I'm going to say it again."

. . .

Do you remember when we made that promise on the beach?

The summer sun bathes Ember Island in gold.

Katara's fingers idly trace characters in the white sand, her eyes watching the sea. The waves kick up the water in a spray, and sometimes the sunlight catches them at just the right angle, and they sparkle like diamonds—exactly as Zuko once told her at the Western Air Temple, long ago.

"Katara," he whispers by her ear.

She turns and rolls her eyes, not even surprised at how he snuck up on her this time.

"Nice try," she drawls.

Zuko chuckles and settles on the sand beside her, handing over a cup of iced lemon tea. His arm settles around her waist and she leans into his shoulder with a lazy smile. They're on their honeymoon, enjoying two sweet weeks of summer and freedom before they have to plunge together into the life of Fire Lord and Fire Lady.

It's nice to be here once again. This beach feels like home. Katara tentatively breaks the silence.

"Zuko," she begins.

"Yeah?"

"I don't like our marriage vows."

"WHAT?" Zuko coughs, nearly choking on his iced tea. "What do you mean? Why not?"

Katara giggles and rubs his back comfortingly. "Not that I don't like them, but they're just . . . kind of bland, you know? I mean, 'Til death do us part? Seriously? Your Fire Nation traditions are so boring!"

Zuko rolls his eyes. "I don't remember the Water Tribe traditions being any more fun."

"Not even the wedding drinking contest between the groom and the father?" she teases. "If I remember correctly, you were out cold for eighteen hours after that."

Zuko pauses. "Okay, that was a fun tradition," he agrees. "Hakoda can really hold his liquor. But the rest of your marriage traditions were just as boring as mine!"

"They were not!" she objects.

"Were too!"

Katara sighs in exasperation, leaning in and kissing him to shut him up. When she pulls away, he's finally quiet and listening, his eyes amused.

"All of that is besides the point," says Katara. "What I was going to say is, I don't like our vows—"

"Yeah, you said that already," he teases.

"—so I made us a new one!"

Zuko blinks. "You what?"

"I was working on it while you got the tea." She grins. "I like this vow better, and I think you will too."

He raises an eyebrow.

Katara's smile softens as she leans down to trace words in the sand.

When she's done, she looks up at Zuko's face nervously. "Well? What do you think?"

Zuko reads and rereads the characters, then gazes at her for a moment, his expression neutral. Katara thinks this isn't fair. She can never tell what he's thinking when he has that expression.

"It's silly, I know," says Katara, blushing. "I just . . . wanted to do it for us. A secret between us, you know? I know it's not—"

He shushes her with a finger to her lips.

"I think," Zuko finally whispers, "that we should say it together." Her heart skips a beat. Katara thinks she's never loved him more than she does right now. Zuko grins, taking both her hands. "You ready?"

"Yeah." Katara takes a deep breath, then smiles. "Okay. I'm ready."

When they speak, they speak with one voice.

"I love you, and I always will. I'll love you for the rest of eternity, and not even death can stop me."

In this moment, they are the happiest they've ever been.

This moment is perfect.

. . .

I'm going to say it again.

Katara gazes up at him and smiles.

"I love you," she affirms, "and I always will. I'll love you . . ."

Zuko leans in and brushes his lips against hers, silencing her. Katara thinks this moment, as sad as it is, feels perfect too, simply because they're together. She doesn't even feel the pain anymore.

He whispers the rest of the vow into the kiss.

"For the rest of eternity," he completes, "and not even death can stop me."

Katara's soul is finally at peace.

. . .