Hey everyone!
I'm sorry for being late. Now there's no place on this planet in which it is still the 29th. But I had a terrible headache yesterday and couldn't even look at a computer screen.
The following is set in the Miraculous inspired AU to come back to what I wrote on the first day of Zutara Month.
I hope you'll enjoy reading!
I do not own Avatar The Last Airbender, nor Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir.
Day 29: Crown
"Stop right there!" Katara hears Zuko shouting behind her.
Bewildered, she turns around to see him standing at the edge of the playground at the foot of a large oak, his head in his neck and staring up into the tree branches.
Katara follows his gaze and sees Ryuto climbing high up in the tree. She grimaces and looks back at the twins in distress. Does Zuko need help or does he have Ryuto under control?
She rolls her eyes. Zuko rarely has Ryuto under control, and it's mostly up to her to solve the problem. It's not easy to bring Ryuto to the playground when they're all going, since the girls are still a little bit too young to climb and slide in Zuko's opinion. Katara thinks sliding would be okay, if one of them would wait at the end, but Zuko is worried the girls might just fall down from above.
"Ryuto!" she hears Zuko snarling now. "I'm counting to three!"
This never works. Ryuto is in this phase in which everything the parents are doing and saying needs to be tested. Zuko is always too soft with Ryuto, but Katara understands why that is so. After everything what Ozai did to Zuko, he doesn't want to make the same mistakes with his children, and is very careful. Katara often tells Zuko not to worry, because he would never do anything to hurt his children, and they were more important to him than anything else.
After having Ryuto, Katara had confessed to Zuko that she would always put their children before him, but that it doesn't mean she doesn't love him. She loves their children because of him, too. But Zuko actually smiled broadly and said he only loved her more for putting their children before him. And he confessed he felt the same way, which only made her love him more. Katara felt more confused in the end, just as Zuko, too. Being parents was so confusing in the beginning.
Sometimes she couldn't really grasp that she was married to the boy she crushed on when she was fourteen, fell in love with when she was fifteen (but she hadn't known it was him, because he had only approached her in his Blue Spirit form), again when she was sixteen (this time as Zuko), and hadn't ever stopped loving him since.
Their time together was rough and difficult. Others had loved one of them, and sometimes Katara hadn't been quite sure if she really belonged to Zuko. He can be a pain in the ass, after all.
She smiles, as she watches Zuko shouting "Two!" up the tree. Ryuto won't climb back down, even if Zuko would yell "Three hundred!".
Well, but Zuko is her pain in the ass, and she wouldn't trade him for anyone else.
Sighing, she looks at Kya and Izumi, who slurp their fruit juice. They are peaceful, and Zuko can handle them better.
"Zuko! Trade!" Katara turns around and shouts at her husband.
Some parents turn around to stare at her.
Zuko frowns at her. "No!" he hisses. "I'm very close to get him to listen to me." He holds his fingers apart from each other in a tiny distance.
Katara scoffs. "Yeah, sure. Come on, you can tickle the girls a bit. They'd love to see your stupid faces. Let me handle Ryuto!"
Zuko's eyes narrow at her, and she sighs. She really shouldn't have said this.
"Thank you, but I can handle our son just as fine as you, thank you very much!" He turns around pointedly, but scratches his hair, and Katara knows that he has no idea what to do next.
Katara throws a glance back at Izumi and Kya, then walks closer to Zuko, when he suddenly turns around, his gaze sheepish. "Could you watch all three for a few minutes, please?" he asks.
Katara frowns. "What? Where are you going?"
"Just getting something that will help me getting Ryuto off the tree," he replies and already walks backwards.
"Zuko, this better not be some attempt at getting away from Ryuto," she warns.
He looks very offended at the pure suggestion he would go away from a challenge. "Do you even know me, wife?" he asks, then turns around and jogs away.
Katara sighs. This better doesn't take long or it will be up to her to get Ryuto down from the tree crown.
"Oi, Ryuto!" she yells up at him.
"Hey, Mama! You're so tiny from up here!" her life-endangered son shouts back.
She stems her hands on her hips and quickly glances over her shoulder to look at Izumi and Kya. They are still sitting on the blanket in the sand, but started getting the colouring books out of the blue bag. They will be occupied with this for a while. They like to compete in who does the best colouring.
Frowning, she looks back at Ryuto who is really high up in the tree. Maybe it was okay for Zuko to get so worked up. She always tries to stay calm so that Zuko won't do something overly dramatic, but of course she really worries for Ryuto, too.
This isn't even the first time they get into a situation like this with Ryuto. He's always reckless, searches danger, never knows when something is enough. He's very like his father, which is probably why Zuko has such a problem getting through to the boy.
"Ryuuto, if you don't come back down here in thirty seconds, Izumi will have your sandwich! She already asked for seconds!" she shouts, just when a figure from the edge of the playground jumps in a frightening speed high up into the tree. Katara's eyes widen. What the blizzard?
The figure lands in the tree, and Katara can see clearly one extremity too many. Something sticks out of the shoulders next to the head. Katara narrows her eyes, and sees that this "extremity" is a sheath for swords. She sighs, when she recognises the white hair and dark blue, almost black clothes.
So Zuko transformed into Blue Spirit to get their son down to the ground. He normally wouldn't transform for something like this, but Katara feels a little thankful about it, because who knows what could happen to Ryuto if he tries to climb down all on his own.
"Isn't that Blue Spirit?" a woman behind Katara shouts, pointing at the tree crown.
Katara scowls. Great. Now everyone noticed him and a video about Blue Spirit saving a child will get viral.
More parents and children come running in Katara's direction, staring up at the branches.
Zuko is now close to Ryuto and seems to talk to him.
The kids don't know about Zuko's and Katara's other identities. They are still too young to grasp it and definitely too young to keep quiet about it.
Zuko seems to grab Ryuto, who holds onto him, as Zuko jumps down onto another branch, and then uses his swords as propeller to slowly soar to the ground.
Katara runs towards them.
"Mama, look! Blue Spirit!" Ryuto shouts, cheeks red from excitement. He still clings to his father who sheathes his swords. "Dad knows him!"
Katara raises her eyebrows and pulls Ryuto away from Zuko. "Oh, really?"
Zuko cocks his head to the side. "You're his mum?"
Katara tries not to grin. "Yes, why?"
"It's just that you're very hot for a mum," he says, grinning to show his fangs.
Katara frowns. "I'm married, idiot!"
Zuko chuckles. "I love this answer."
Katara takes a deep breath to stop herself from reaching for him. She wishes she could kiss him right now.
He seems to know what she's thinking, because his gaze drops to her lips. He reaches out in her direction, and Katara can't do anything to stop him. But he only ruffles Ryuto's hair, who grins up to him. Katara adjusts Ryuto's weight on her hip.
"Stay out of dangerous situations, alright? And listen to your father next time, hm?" Zuko asks.
Ryuto grins and nods enthusiastically. "Okay."
Zuko takes a step back, now smiling in a satisfied way.
Katara raises an eyebrow at him. That's also a way to get Ryuto to do what he wants. The only people Ryuto adores just as much as his family are Blue Spirit and Painted Lady. He loves superheroes in general.
The people behind Katara come closer, lots of them filming now and asking loud questions.
Zuko grimaces at Katara in an apologetic way, before he turns around and leaves the playground.
Katara sighs, before she quickly fights her way through the crowd to get to Kya and Izumi. The girls didn't even notice the commotion and are still happily lying on the blanket and drawing.
Kya looks up at Katara and smiles. "Hey, Mama!"
Izumi isn't looking up from her drawing, her eyebrows are contorted in concentration. "Hi," she mutters.
Katara smiles and sits down with Ryuto. "Wanna have your sandwich now?" she asks.
He nods, glaring at Izumi, obviously not having forgotten Katara's threat from earlier.
Ryuto munches on his sandwich and Katara peels a mango, when Zuko finally returns. A stupid smile is plastered on his face, and Katara wonders how she could have ever considered him cool. Zuko is a lot of great things, but there are very little things about his civilian life which are cool.
She loves his awkward, dorky, serious, and sweet self even more.
"Dad!" Ryuto stands up and runs towards his father. "Dad, Dad, Dad! You know Blue Spirit!" Ryuto collides with Zuko's legs and looks up at him.
Zuko grins a little. "Yep. He… saved my life once. And he was very close to your mother."
Katara rolls her eyes.
"Really?" gasps Ryuto.
Zuko picks him up and takes him back to the blanket to sit down. He leans over to give Katara a kiss. "So you fought off Blue Spirit, I heard?" he murmurs.
Katara lays a hand on Zuko's leg. "Yep. There were people watching."
Zuko chuckles in an amused way, and Katara gives him a kiss.
Their children don't pay attention to them, still focused on drawing and sandwiches.
"What if there wouldn't have been people?" Zuko whispers into her ear.
"Then I would have still fought him off," Katara answers, then glances towards him and cracks a grin. "But not for long."
So that's it! Zutara Month 2020 is over and with it my first Zutara Month! I hope you all enjoyed and liked what I wrote! Thank you all for reading and thanks to Guest and FictionallyFun for reviewing!
Til next time! :D