7 - Dawn and Dusk
Zai's birth was easy, as these things go. Katara's contractions started in the small hours of the morning, and exactly at dawn on the spring equinox, Zai arrived, screeching fit to bust a lung and ravenous. Katara laughed and cried as she held him for the first time, and Zuko looked on with the deepest reverence and joy he had ever felt in his life.
Omika proved more stubborn, as would become a theme as she grew up. Despite laboring the whole day, nothing could convince their girl to come before she was ready, and she decided she was ready just at dusk, as the moon peeked above the horizon. She was less demanding than her brother, but cuddled up in the arms of whoever held her as though she had every intention of staying forever.
Zuko and Katara looked at each other over the heads of their twins, exhausted and proud and happier than they had ever been.
"Well, I think we can safely bet which of them will bend which element," Zuko chuckled. Katara rolled her eyes, and smiled.
And then it turned out he was wrong anyway.
A/N
I realized as I was writing this that I accidentally named their son almost after Ozai. Just, uh, pretend I didn't do that please, lol.
E.I. signing out