#anyways I love Azula and I’m glad she wasn’t redeemed. more of this please

[idolomantises]

I just finished rewatching ATLA and I have to say…

Absolutely insane to me that people were insisting that Azula not getting a redemption was “misogynistic” and some kind of writing mistake. The girl told her dad to commit mass genocide.

[secret-kkh-fics]

Set Fire to the Rain  | Chapter 2

Due to this not being posted anywhere else yet, please like but DON’T REBLOG my fics.

Chapter Summary:

Future Dream - You swap places with your future self to a time when you and your soulmate are most content.

Author Note:

I honestly love this AU. It’s really fun to work with and I usually chuck children or pregnancies in there. It was also really fun to come up with what their future world would look like, at least directly within their little circle of the morning.

What the Future Holds 

The driving rain felt like a thousand tiny pinpricks, stabbing at her and stinging her skin. She could barely see as they fell heavily in her eyes, and she was too exhausted to waterbend them away. Not that she would be able to see much anyway, it was late, and the sky was so dark with clouds you couldn't see the moon or the stars. She doubted you'd be able to see far through the rain anyway, but she didn't care, she just kept driving Appa forward, her mind reeling.

"Katara." Zuko's voice sounded like it came from miles away, but his hand coming down on her shoulder grounded her, snapping her back to reality. "Katara, I think it's too dangerous flying in this weather. We don't know where we're going, and neither does Appa. I think we should land." She looked up at him dumbly for a moment, seeing the concern in his molten gold eyes, then nodded. He smiled in relief. "Okay, there's a small island just down there. There's not much, but there might be some shelter, and at any rate, it's somewhere to land and rest until this storm has passed." Again, she nodded, but didn't move from the position she was in. The concern grew in his eyes and he squeezed her shoulder. "Do you want me to fly." She nodded her head numbly, and he sat down beside her, taking the reins from her frozen hands.

She was barely aware as he guided Appa downwards. As he took Appa around the perimeter of the island, looking for some shelter, she replayed the day's events over and over in her head. The look on his face... That face.

She didn't move until Zuko found a cave that was big enough to fit the giant bison and landed as far in as he could. He gently helped her up and guided her off. She was shocked back once more when Appa shook, splattering her with water and she smiled as Zuko groaned in annoyance, holding his arms out at his sides, as if he weren't already wet.

He looked about a bit and sighed before turning back to her. "Do you think you could bend the water out of our clothing? We need to get warm, and there's nothing here I can make a fire with."

"Oh, yeah, sure," she said, before pulling the water from their black clothing and dumping it on the ground. Then she turned to Appa and did the same to him to get the last of the water off his fur. He let out a soft growl, and she could tell he looked much happier.

Zuko smiled in relief, happy to be dry again and went back and sat on Appa's tail. He looked up at her expectantly, and she joined him. Once she was sitting, he created a fireball, large enough to fit in both hands, and placed it on the ground.

"I thought you said you couldn't make a fire here," she said, glad to have the warmth of its glow. It was much easier to see in its light.

"I can't, or at least, not a proper fire. I can keep a fireball lit, so long as I concentrate on it, but it won't last. The moment I stop channelling energy into it, it will disappear."

"Oh, I see."

Zuko seemed to hesitate a moment, his mouth open slightly before he actually managed to get anything out. "Katara, are you alright?"

"I don't know," she answered. "I... I don’t know what I feel. I hate him. I hate him so much, but I just couldn't kill him. But he deserved it. And I just... I don't know if I made the right choice."

"Well, for what it's worth, I'm proud of you," he told her.

Katara scoffed, scowling at the fire. "Why? Because it was right not to kill him?"

"No, because you did what was right for you," he told her gently. "Despite what Aang said, despite what I said, you confronted him, and you chose the path that was right for you."

"I didn't forgive him" she spat. "I could never forgive him."

"I didn't expect you to, and I would never ask you to. This wasn’t about forgiveness, and it wasn’t about revenge either. It was about closure. You never got the chance to confront him when you were younger. You never got the chance to say goodbye to your mother like I sort of did, so all you could do was look her killer in the eye. But you didn’t have the strength or the means, and without that, all you had was anger. But you did it. You faced him, and you made your choice. No one else’s, yours. It's hard to confront those who have wronged you, those who have taken away ones you love, but you did it."

Finally, she looked up at him to see a gentle smile on his face. He sounded as if he were speaking from experience and her head tilted in curiosity.

"Have you ever confronted the person who took your mother from you?" She asked him.

"Yes," he replied. "But that was difficult for a whole other reason. Mostly because I was telling him he was a terrible father and that I was betraying him to join the Avatar. He only told me about what happened to her because he wanted to stall me until the eclipse was over."

Her eyes widened in shock. "Your father made her disappear?!" He nodded solemnly. "I really shouldn't be surprised. What happened?"

Zuko let out a heavy sigh, staring at the fire ball, making his eyes look like flickering flames themselves.

"Years ago," he started, "my Uncle Iroh was leading an assault on Ba Sing Se that lasted 600 days. But then, on the 600th day, his son, Lu Ten, was killed on the front. On that day, Uncle realised that the war was pointless, and called off the siege. With his wife and son gone, he lost all joy for life and ended up going on a journey through the spirit world to find meaning again. Grandfather was angry, but I think he understood. Father and Uncle had a middle brother who died before I was born...

"But because of this, my father thought that Uncle was weak,” he practically spat the statement out, his fits tightening in anger. “One night, after a family gathering, Father stayed behind to talk to Grandfather, and Azula and I hid in the curtains to listen. He told Grandfather that Uncle was not worthy of being Fire Lord. That Uncle's line had ended, while he still had two children. He asked that he be made Fire Lord instead, and Grandfather became angry. He yelled that Father dare betray Iroh, and told him that Iroh had suffered enough, but his suffering had just begun. At that point I got too scared and left, but Azula stayed.

"When she came back, she started teasing... well, tormenting me again, telling me that Grandfather had ordered Father to kill me."

"What?!" Katara gasped in shock.

"I thought she was lying at the time, she did things like that a lot to upset me. But during the eclipse, Father told me it was true. He’d told him to kill me as punishment for trying to usurp Iroh, so that he would know the pain of losing a son."

"That's horrible!" She exclaimed.

"That's my family," he sighed in resignation. "Still, at the time I refused to believe what Azula said and shouted at her. Mum heard the fighting and came to see what was happening. She left, dragging Azula with her. Later that night, she woke me up to... well, to say goodbye, telling me everything she's ever done has been to protect me, and not to forget who I was. I guess I kind of did. I was half asleep and didn't realise what was happening... That was the last time I ever saw my mother. The next morning, I woke up and she was gone, Grandfather was dead, and my father was crowned Fire Lord."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Father told me that after she found out what Grandfather had told him to do, she came to him and begged him to spare me. In the end, they struck up a deal. She killed my grandfather so that my father could become Fire Lord. Probably poisoned him... she had a way with herbs. My father immediately banished her for it. She's alive somewhere, hopefully... I just have no idea where."

Katara placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "You'll find her one day," she told him. "I promise. After this war is over, we can find out everything we can. Find out where she is."

"W-we?" He stuttered, surprised by the word.

"Yes, we. I don't know about the others, but I am going to help you. I will do anything to help you. I won't stop until we find her, Zuko. You will be with your mother again."

Zuko just stared at her with an open mouth, unshed tears glittered in the firelight. And suddenly, he threw himself towards her, wrapping his strong arms around her and enveloping her in a hug. He pressed his face into her shoulder, holding her tightly. After a moment of shock, Katara smiled and hugged him back.

"Thank you," he whispered hoarsely. "You have no idea what that means."

"I think I have a small idea," she told him, stroking his back. She would do anything to have her mother back, and she wouldn't wish what she had upon anyone. She would willingly help anyone if she could help them reunite with their mother. And after hearing just how bad his family was, how they had been all along, she doubted that such an offer was something he was used to.

She suddenly felt guilt wash over her. Zuko had not had an easy life. He had a horrible family who tried to kill him and banished him, and then tried to kill him again. And from what she had seen when he was hunting them down, he always faced constant adversity from both the people of the Earth Kingdom, and his own people. And she had been no better, so angry at him since he had come to help them. He had just been trying to redeem himself. But she was so angry, so scared of being hurt again that she opposed him at every turn.

But that was over now. She was beginning to understand why he did the things he did, even if she didn’t agree with them. She understood his desperation to return home and be accepted by his family for once. And she was beginning to see that he needed a lot of love and care in his life. She was willing to help him with that. From now on, things were going to be different between them.

Zuko finally drew back, sniffing and subtly wiping away a stray tear. "W-we, ah... We should sleep," he said. "We need to rest and wait for the storm to pass..."

She nodded, and Zuko let the flame go out. She heard him lay back and try to get comfortable on Appa's tail and she did the same. Without the flame, it grew cold quickly, with the icy wind still blowing in from the cave entrance. She tried snuggling deeper into Appa's thick fur, but it wasn't long till she was shivering. She found it ridiculous. She was from the South Pole, for crying out loud! She was born on ice, she should be used to this. But still, she shivered and her teeth chattered in the cold wind. Then again, back home they’d had thick furs laid over them, and even on the ice it could get too hot. But here, she had Appa’s fur below her, and the rest of her was entirely exposed. The small cave may be enough to keep them dry, but the bitterly cold wind still whistled in and chilled her to the bone.

"Come here," Zuko said quietly.

"Huh?"

"Snuggle back towards me."

Katara didn't even think before she did it. She knew that body heat would help keep her warm and she quickly moved to the nearest source of heat. Zuko. Only she didn't expect him to be quite so warm and gasped the moment she made contact with his body.

"You're so warm!" She gasped.

He chuckled at her surprise. "Firebender, remember. Fire is internal. I can raise my body temperature when needed."

"That would be really handy back home. Sure, we have furs, but being your own source of heat would be better."

"And yet we live in the hottest part of the world," he chuckled. "Being able to bend water and blow ice would be incredibly wonderful in the Fire Nation, especially in summer."

Katara giggled. "We almost need a swap of powers... Almost. I wouldn't give up my waterbending for anything."

"Neither," he whispered. "You know, I wonder... you can freeze water by lowering its temperature. Can you boil it by heating it up?"

This made her pause. "I don't know... I've never tried it before. I know I can unfreeze ice, so I don’t see why I can’t… I don't know if anyone has tried before. Hard to know when you’re the only waterbender from your tribe."

"You've got a point there... it would be interesting to try, though."

Katara smiled, but ended up shivering again, despite her proximity to the human heat pack, and Zuko frowned in concern. After weighing up how likely she was to punch him and how much she needed to be warm, he slowly reached over and looped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him, so she was flush up against his chest. He felt her stiffen in his arms, and he didn't movie for a moment, the awkwardness of it making him blush. But then she relaxed, snuggling down into him as much as possible, a soft sigh escaping her. Zuko smiled.

Katara tried to hide a smile herself, trying not to let him see just how much it affected her. She tried to quash down the fluttering in her stomach that made her feel as if there were a thousand bumbleflies in there. She tried to ignore how nice it felt to be pressed up against Zuko. And she would deny with her last breath that she ever thought the words 'I could get used to this'.

And so, curled up together in a cave, sheltered from the raging storm outside, the two benders fell asleep.

  When Katara woke, she was nice and warm. A gentle breeze blew across her face, making her smile. She stretched in her half-asleep state, her fingers brushing smooth, silky sheets. Her eyes blinked open in surprise. Silky sheets? She had fallen asleep on Appa. The last time she’d slept on silky sheets had been back in Ba Sing Se.

Surrounding her was so much red that for a moment, she thought she was back in the Fire Nation. She sat up, and looking around she was struck with the strange realisation that the Fire Nation was the only place she could be. Most of the room was decked out in red and gold decorations, with the only exception being items that were clearly from the Southern Water Tribe. Even the wood and marble were red or black in colour. The bed she was in was large and soft, with a giant canopy of sheer red fabric and dragons carved into the wood. Off to the side was a large open door that led out onto a veranda. Sheer red fabric fluttered in where the curtains framed the door. And through the doors she could see a sprawling city of red rooves and past the crest of the rim of the giant crater the city was built within lay the sea sparkling in the distance.

This was the Fire Nation!

She almost thought she was dreaming, but if it was a dream, she felt very awake and very aware.

She jolted up to her knees quickly in alarm and confusion. The light, silky blanket slipped off her, revealing that she was naked under the sheets and... pregnant?! Even more alarmed, a hand flew to her stomach to find that, yes, there really was a baby bump there. She would guess that she was around six or seven months along.

“What the fuck!?”

She jumped from the bed, still staring down at the swell of her stomach in utter shock. She didn’t have long to ponder her odd situation, though, when she heard footsteps coming her way. She instantly took up a defensive stance as a girl around her age came running in. She was dressed in nice, but simple Fire Nation robes, and looked surprised when she saw Katara ready to fight.

“My Lady, are you alright?” she asked in alarm. “What’s wrong? Do I need to call the guards?” She looked at her once more, and seeing no signs of injury, she averted her eyes.

Katara faltered. “N-no, I…”

“Did you have another dream, My Lady?” the girl asked quietly. When she didn’t answer, the girl walked over to the side of the room and opened a large closet. Inside Karara could see many beautiful dresses of different styles. From casual to incredibly fancy, but even the casual clothes seemed nice and high quality. Most interesting was the colours and styles. She could make out a decent blend of reds and golds, but also blues and whites and the occasional bit of fur. The girl grabbed out a two-piece set of blue fabric, then ushered her towards a divider. “How about we get you dressed? Your husband is already at his first meeting, but he wanted me to tell you he wished to have breakfast with you when you woke.”

Katara started when she mentioned ‘her husband’, but said nothing. This was a dream, right? It had to be a dream. That or somehow, she had forgotten a very long amount of time in which a lot of very unlikely circumstances happened.

When the girl handed her the clothing, she slipped into them without question. There was a large sheet of silver backed glass on the wall that served as a mirror and her eyes widened in shock. She was clearly older, at least by five years or more. She was taller and had filled out more, though, it was hard to tell how much considering she was pregnant. She took a moment to study herself, and then her head tilted slightly as she studied the outfit. It was beautiful, made of multiple layers of sheer fabric with gorgeous embroidery. It was set in two parts, a crop top and a long skirt, keeping the roundness of her stomach exposed. Her stomach had patterns stained into the skin and for a moment she thought that she had a tattoo. But the ink wasn’t the black-ish green she had seen members of her tribe with. It was more of a redish-orange and she could see parts that looked more faded than others, like dye being slowly washed away. She remembered seeing something like this while they were at a festival in one of the Fire Nation colonies. It was a herb that was turned into a paste and used to dye the skin. Her stomach was covered in in it, making her look like a work of art. The most curious thing about the garment was that though the colours were clearly Water Tribe, the style was undoubtedly Fire Nation. She also noticed that the skirts were designed in a way that it was easy for her to wrap around her hips, instead of struggling to bend.

Once she was done, she came out from the divider to see the servant girl standing by a chair and a vanity with a carved bone comb in her hand. It didn’t take much for her to know what to do, and she sat in the chair. The girl instantly began to brush her hair and started chattering away about some friends of hers and something silly they had done the night before. She watched the girl work as she quickly and efficiently brushed out all the knots and styled it into a half-up-do with a top knot and her signature ‘loopies’. Then she grabbed a hair piece from a shelf of them and pinned it into the top knot. It was a Fire Nation crown, though more intricate than what she’d seen Azula wear... And instead of gold, it was made from carved bone. Altogether, her look pulled off the perfect blend of Water Tribe and Fire Nation cultures.

“You’re very quiet today, Lady Katara,” the girl suddenly said, looking down at her in concern. “Are you alright? You seem a little out of it.”

“O-oh, yes. Sorry, erm… Thank you. I’m just tired,” she lied.

The girl sighed heavily. “And here we let you sleep in and everything,” she teased. “Let’s get some breakfast in you.”

She helped Katara from the chair and led her from the room. Not knowing where she was going, Katara tried to keep in step with her. Considering the girl was a servant and was calling her ‘Lady Katara’, it probably wouldn’t look right with her following behind. Or at least, she guessed it wouldn’t. The girl was giving her a strange look.

“Katara!” a somewhat familiar, husky voice called out.

She whipped around to see Zuko moving down the hall quickly towards her. He seemed to have just come from one of the rooms that they had just passed by, and she could see people coming out of the room behind him. He looked older, more muscular and broader in the shoulders, his jaw was squarer, and his hair was neat and pulled back off his face in a top knot, and he was also wearing formal robes. Though, the outfit had been modified from the robes she’d seen depictions of his father wearing while they had been in the Fire Nation into something more modern and sleek. It looked a little more like a combat outfit than what she and her brother had once referred to as a ‘night dress’. The outer robe, instead of one long piece to the floor, wrapped across his chest and fell to his knees in three panels, tied with a thick, gold belt. And instead of the wide, stiff and pointy shoulders from the other robes, this outfit had black and gold pauldrons made from soft leather that sloped gently down his shoulders. He looked good, and for a moment she felt her heart stutter in her chest.

However, she didn’t have much time to reflect on that reaction as she was overcome with relief at seeing someone familiar, even if he was very obviously older. His appearance really backed up her idea that she had probably somehow forgotten a good few years. She would have to try and get him alone and ask him what the hell was going on. There had to be some explanation for this insanity. Maybe she’d been in an accident and gotten amnesia, or maybe it had something to do with the spirits and-

Her thoughts were silenced when Zuko reached her, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her into a passionate kiss. Her eyes widened in surprise and her breath caught. The kiss was rather chaste, but it was searing. If she could even think at that moment, all she would probably be able to think would either be ‘Spirits, he’s kissing me!’ or ‘frozen hell, this is the best kiss of my life’.

When he pulled back only a few seconds later, she was left breathless in shock, staring up at him with wide eyes. She barely had time to regain her breath when he looked down at her with a brilliant smile. She had never seen him smile like that before – heck, she wasn’t entirely sure if she had seen him smile before – and it made her knees weak. He had a stunningly beautiful smile. And once again, she found her heart pounding rapidly in her chest. She could imagine that if Toph was here right now, she would be cackling her ass off.

“I have been waiting all morning to do that,” he told her with a grin. “It was not a very fun meeting.” When she didn’t say anything and just continued to stare at him, his brow furrowed, and he cocked his head slightly.

“Ah, Lady Katara has been a little… off this morning. I’m hoping some food will get her back to normal,” the girl said to him holding a hand to the side of her mouth as if that would stop Katara from hearing her.

“Ah, good idea, Azara, food will be exactly what she needs.” His grin was almost cheeky, and he pulled her even closer to him, one hand on her cheek and the other sliding around from her waist to the swell of her stomach, caressing gently at the taut skin. “Is baby brain getting to you again, Kat?”

She let out a nervous laugh, deciding to play along with whatever insanity she had found herself in. “Yeah, must be.”

He chuckled in response. “Right then, shall we? I’m sure everyone else is already there.”

Her eyes widened, worried about who ‘everyone else’ could be, but kept her mouth shut, forced a smile on her face and nodded. He looped his arm through hers with a wide grin and led her through the palace halls until they came out into a sunny garden. It was clearly still inside the palace somewhere, surrounded by high walls, but it was filled with exotic flowers she had never seen before and a sprawling expanse of grass with a pond and some large trees. The trees had some lanterns still hung in them from some other time of celebration, and turtle-ducks swam happily in the pond. On a patch of grass not far from the pond, a small group of people sat around, preparing a light meal. She immediately recognised Zuko’s uncle, General Iroh, who was brewing tea for six. Beside him sat an older man and woman she didn’t recognise, but they were old enough that their hair was beginning to streak with grey. Around them, a young girl of about 10, perhaps a little older, was laughing gleefully as she fed the turtle-ducks.

“Zuko! Katara!” the woman greeted happily when she saw them approaching. “You finally made it!”

“Sorry, Mum. The meeting went a little later than it was supposed to.” He bent down and kissed his mother on the cheek before sitting down, supporting Katara down with him. As he did, a few servants began placing down platters of fruits and bread and cheese. With a thank you, the royal family began to grab the food and begin their breakfast.

“What is so important that those stuffy old men had to keep the Fire Lord from breakfast with his family?” Iroh asked as he began to pass the cups of tea around to everyone.

“Mostly celebration preparation,” he told them, taking a sip from his tea and smiling. “Ah, jasmine tea, thank you, Uncle.”

“Yes, I would imagine that with the 10-year anniversary of Ozai’s defeat, the end of the 100-year war, and your coronation, the celebrations will be quite large this year.”

Zuko nodded. “Since they are both considered important events here, they want to have the main celebrations here in Caldera. The United Nations agree, though it’s been rather hard trying to sway Lady Guan. She’s been arguing that the celebrations should be held in the Earth Kingdom as originally scheduled. Thankfully, Sokka worked out something like a swap to appease her. So, the Earth Kingdom will be hosting next year instead of us. And then the cycle goes back to normal.”

“So then, we can expect the whole gang to come visiting in the next few months?” his mother asked hopefully. “And the rest of Katara’s family?”

“Absolutely. I was thinking Katara and I could send out personal invitations today. Maybe spend a week at Ember Island with everyone before the celebrations commence. Like old times.” He grinned over at her, raising his brows cheekily.

“Does that mean Suki is coming back?!” the young girl cried excitedly, cartwheeling over to them. “And Ty Lee?!”

“Yes, it does, my little Kyoshi warrior!” the man said, grabbing her up in a hug and making her giggle as she tried to squirm away.

“Dad!” she cried, a little annoyed but still giggling. “I can’t be a Kyoshi warrior. I’m a bender! And I’m going to be the best bender, like Zuzu! And then I can teach the little one when they start bending!” She surprised Katara when she rushed over and excitedly placed her hands on her stomach. “Right, baby?!”

Iroh chuckled. “And what if your little niece or nephew turns out to be a waterbender?” he asked her. She pouted as she tried to think that one over, making Zuko laugh as well.

“It’s fine, Kiyi. This one is going to be a firebender and you can teach him as much as you like,” Zuko told her. “It’s Kya who will be the waterbender… third one is still a surprise, though.” Katara stared at him in surprise. He seemed so certain, but it wasn’t possible that he could know that. Yugoda had told her that not even the most experienced and skilled water healers that specialised in being midwives could tell the gender or bending ability of a child before it was born.

“Is Azula coming?” Kiyi asked apprehensively. At her question, everyone in the group grew a little grimmer.

“No, sweetheart,” Zuko’s mother told her gently, reaching out for her. The girl came willingly and sat in her lap. “She has been doing better over the last year, but I don’t think she will want to come to a celebration of the day that she-”

“Of when Katara kicked her ass!!!”

“Kiyi!” she abolished.

“What? She did!”

“Kat’s incredible bending aside, I don’t think she would be particularly happy about the celebration,” Zuko told his sister, his lip quirking up.

“Are you alright, Katara?” Iroh’s soft voice grabbed her attention. “You’ve hardly touched your breakfast.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine!” she said quickly, her voice higher than normal and she grabbed a slice of mango and took a bite. “Just fine! Thank you, Iroh. Just feeling a little…” Confused. Overwhelmed. Lost. Out of her element. Not herself. The words she wanted to say would likely only bring up more questions. And she didn’t want to draw attention to herself and how out of her depth she was. She was hoping that she could make it through this without anyone noticing and just get through… whatever this was. Spirits, she really hoped this was some kind of strange dream and not that she’d somehow forgotten the last ten years.

She looked back up from the piece of fruit she’d been staring at blankly to see everyone looking at her in concern. And, though he was clearly concerned too, Zuko’s eyes were narrowed slightly in a way she knew meant he was suspicious of something.

Quietly, he stood, and panic rose in her once more, terrified of what he was going to do. But all he did was hold his and out to her. When she just stared at his hand uncomprehendingly, he rolled his eyes and jerked his head in a ‘come on’ motion, a soft smile touching his lips. Hesitantly, she placed her hand in his, and he helped her to her feet, then began guiding her off. They moved a little deeper into the garden, but not too far. Just enough that they were out of earshot of everyone else. He took her to a spot on the far side of the pond, just underneath the red leaves of cherry blossom tree. It was beautiful and calming here, but she felt anything but calm as he turned to face her once more.

“You’re acting weird,” he said. She pursed her lips and looked away, unsure how to answer that. Her hands drifted up to tug anxiously at a lock of hair that hung over her shoulder. “Kat, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she finally told him.

He reached up and gently pried the hair from her grasp, pushing the hair over her shoulder, his hand lingering against her skin as he did. Then his hand came up to cup her cheek and found herself leaning into it for comfort. “I know you, Katara. This isn’t just hormones. What’s going on?”

Tears welled in her eyes and her voice shook as she spoke. “I don’t know!” she said honestly. “One- one moment we’re curled up in that cave on Appa’s tail going to sleep, and then I wake up here. And it’s suddenly ten years in the future and everything is different and strange. And I don’t know if I’ve forgotten all that time, or if I’m going insane, or if this is just some crazy dream. But I have no idea how I got here!” Her voice began to rise in pitch with her distress, and she glanced over at the rest of his family, worried that they would overhear. But they were all laughing joyously, and she got the feeling that Iroh was intentionally keeping up a loud, entertaining conversation for their sake.

At first, Zuko looked startled and almost scared by what she’d said, but then a look of realisation came across him, followed by a fond smile. “Ah, so that’s what’s going on,” he said, a slight tone of amusement in his voice. “That would explain it.” He guided her to sit down in the grass with him and she followed him down, sitting awkwardly because of her large stomach. He didn’t let go of her hands, instead holding them between them, his thumb stroking soothingly at the top of her hand. “You’re not going crazy, Kat. I promise. And I don’t think you’ve lost ten years either. At least, you haven’t had any injuries or spirit encounters lately that would justify it.” He shot her a wry grin.

“Then what’s going on?” she said shakily. “I don’t understand.”

“You’re probably right about it being a dream. A special one, gifted to you by the spirits.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because I had one too back when we were young. I went through the same thing, waking up eighteen years in the future and freaking out because I had no idea what was going on. But you – future you – told me it was soulmate dream.”

“A soulmate dream?!” she cried in astonishment.

She’d heard of soulmate dreams, of course. Her grandmother had told her about them. Not everyone would have a soulmate dream in their lifetime, and it was believed that not everyone had a soulmate. But they were common enough that you often heard tell of people marrying their soulmate or mentioning the dreams that the spirits bestowed upon them. It was said that the dreams were given to you the night you first begin to fall in love with your soulmate, and during the dream you would see a day in your future where you and your soulmate are most content and happy. It was even said that the spirits would place your soul in your future self’s body for that time, as there were plenty of stories of people waking up confused about suddenly being in the future, just as she had done.

But, if this was a soulmate dream, then that would mean that she and Zuko were soulmates! She and Zuko! And not only that, the fact that she was having this dream meant that… she was starting to fall for Zuko. But that was ridiculous! She wasn’t even sure if she’d stopped hating him yet!

“Mm-hm.”

She shook her head in bewilderment. “This is…”

“Overwhelming? Confusing? Strange? Terrifying?”

“Yeah.”

“I remember.”

"When did you have yours?" she asked him curiously.

"I had mine back after Ba Sing Se, the not long after the catacombs..." he told her softly.

Katara stiffened and only just stifled a squeak. "So, he already knows?!" she said, her voice high pitched with distress. This seemed to make Zuko chuckle.

"Not a bit," he said. Katara's brow furrowed in confusion. "The night I had my soulmate dream, it was the first night in over three years I had spent at home in my own bed. I had just betrayed my uncle, the man who cared for me more than my own father and saw me as his own, which landed him in prison. I had betrayed and disappointed the nicest girl I know, right after gaining her trust." He looked at her pointedly. "I had just started dating Mai. And as far as I was aware, Azula had just killed the Avatar. In the dream, I woke up in what I knew to be my father's rooms, woken up by two beautiful children calling me dad, next to you. People called me Fire Lord, they spoke of time 'since Ozai's defeat', my uncle joyfully greeted us for tea, and my mother played with her grandchildren by the pond. You figured out that I was having my dream pretty quickly, I guess I probably looked so bewildered. And you tried to tell me that it was a soulmate dream, but I didn't believe you. I still didn't, in your time. Also didn’t help that I didn’t know that soulmate dreams were… well, a thing at all. Since royalty rarely ever marry for love, we’re generally raised not knowing of the existence of them so arranged marriages weren’t ruined by them. I didn't even entertain the idea it could be true till well after we won the war. Not until I had my uncle's forgiveness, a kiss from the prettiest waterbender, my father was behind bars, I was crowned Fire Lord, and my mother found."

"I'm really glad you found her," she said, looking back at the others. “And some others, by the looks of it.”

Zuko looked over the other side of the pond too, smiling fondly at the sight of his sister excitedly telling the adults something with exaggerated gestures. He seemed so content, so comfortable in who he was now. And far more relaxed than she had ever seen him, despite the fact that he was now ruling an entire country. He looked happy. “Best family I could ever wish for,” he said softly. “And I know it’s only going to get better.” He reached out and touched her swollen stomach once more, his warm hand on her bare skin bringing the pregnancy back to the front of her mind.

It was a strange and overwhelming sensation to suddenly be two thirds of the way through a pregnancy when you certainly hadn’t been pregnant when you went to sleep. She’d seen many pregnancies before, and even helped deliver many children. But she’d never experienced it herself. It was bewildering, feeling the movements within her, knowing that there was a small life growing inside her. A life that she and Zuko had created. And that thought, in itself, was completely overwhelming. And came with a whole other realisation she had not been prepared to deal with right now. If she was pregnant, that meant that she and Zuko had had sex. They were married! They’d probably had sex many times!

“I can’t believe that this might all be my life one day!” she cried, burring her face in her hands to hide the rising blush. “It’s just all so insane. Living in a palace, kids, being in love with you! No offence.”

Zuko snorted, but a wide grin remained on his face. “You don’t have much room to talk. You’re the one having this dream right now,” he teased.

“Ugh! Don’t remind me! How embarrassing. And apparently, I become Fire Lady?! How did that even happen? I didn’t think a waterbender could ever be the Fire Lady!”

“Honestly, it almost didn’t happen,” he told her, growing serious for a moment. “It wasn’t easy and took a lot of work. I almost abdicated the throne to Uncle Iroh, but that brought the line of succession into question. If I wasn’t eligible, the only person left was Azula, and very few wanted that. Thankfully, the fact that you’re one of the heroes of the war, your initiates to clean the lakes and rivers of the Fire Nation and installing healing hospitals in all nations, as well as being  a princess of your own nation helped quite a bit in the end. We managed to pose it as an alliance between the Fire Nation and Southern Water Tribe.”

“Ah… I’m not a princess.”

“Your father is a chief, you are equivalently a princess.”

“But we’re not like the Northern Tribe. Chief Arnook is the chief of the entire North Pole, but my father is just one chief of many in the South Pole. He-”

“Was temporarily made head chief during the war, but that is an elective title amongst the chiefs of the South in times of need where the tribes need to band together,” he finished in a bored tone, as if he had heard this all many times before. “I’m well aware. But in your time, your father is currently the head chief of the South. And after the war, you, your brother and your father worked on restoring the South Pole. With input from Master Paku, you did take a lot of Southern influences, though, and the chiefs of the South decided to appoint your father Head Chief permanently. Ergo, you were a princess, and now you are a queen.”

“Okay, okay,” she said, rolling her eyes in fond annoyance. “I get it. You clearly know these things better than me… How many times have we had that argument in the last ten years?”

“Too many times to keep count,” he told her, shaking his head in amusement. “Even now you struggle to accept the mantle of nobility, but you wear it so well. I swear you were born for it. You should see the things you will do, Katara.” He was looking at her with pure admiration, and she almost felt like shyly hiding away from his intense attention. “The things you’ve helped rebuild, or build, the things you’ve done to help people. You’ve achieved such amazing things, you’re a compassionate humanitarian, a wonderful, respected politician, a… Well, I won’t give too much away before you get to it yourself. But you’ve done so much that has earned the love and respect of everyone. Here, back in your home. In every nation. You’re so beloved by the entire world and I’m so glad that I’m the one that gets to keep you.”

“I… I have no idea what to say to that,” she admitted. “This is all so much! Knowing that this will be my future. That I’ll end up here with you and do all these amazing things! I… I’m just a fourteen-year-old girl. I’m still fighting in a war most kids don’t have to join, let alone practically lead the fight! And yesterday I didn’t even know if we would make it out of it alive. But now there’s just this whole other future before me, and I can’t…”

“Katara, this dream can mean whatever you want it to,” he told her, his voice low and serious. He placed his hands on her shoulders, gently running his thumbs over them soothingly. “Just because we’re soulmates, doesn’t mean we have to instantly be in love. Like I said, I didn’t even realise my dream could be true until much later. Not for years after the war. And even though I fell in love with you, I didn’t think you liked me back and kept those feelings hidden. Even from myself, at times. What you see here and now doesn’t have to shape and dictate every moment of your life from then until now. Don’t let it stop you from doing whatever it is that you truly want to do. Look what’s happened in the last year for you, a lot more can happen in ten years… Ugh, I should leave the philosophical stuff to Uncle. I guess what I’m trying to say is… Well, I’d say ‘try not to worry about it too much’… but I know you too well.” He grinned at her, then leaned forwards and placed a kiss on her forehead.

“Thanks, Zuko,” she said, looking up at him, her eyes shining with gratitude and affection.

Suddenly, she felt horribly lightheaded, the world spinning around her and black dots dancing in front of her vision. Her lids grew heavy and she had to grip tightly onto Zuko to remain sitting. She knew that pregnant woman sometimes experienced fainting spells, especially if they sat the wrong way for too long as it blocked the blood vessels. But she’d never experienced it until now.

“Katara! Are you okay?” Zuko said in concern, holding her up with one hand and frantically checking her over with the other. His hand pressed against her forehead and cupped her cheek, his face close to hers, his golden eyes so full of worry her heart truly went out to him for a moment and all she wanted to do was bring back that gorgeous smile he’d been giving her so much in this dream.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” she told him. “I think it’s just… pregnancy… dizzy spells…”

As she spoke, the dizziness returned once more, overcoming her completely and blacking out her vision. Amongst the horrible sensation of vertigo, she was vaguely aware of the sensation of falling forwards into Zuko’s arms before the darkness consumed her completely.

   When Katara’s eyes blinked open, she was met with the hazy, early morning light and an empty spot beside her on Appa’s tail. Her hand went down to her stomach, finding that her stomach was flat and clothed in thick black cloth. A heavy breath of relief escaped her. She was back!

A small part of her was also relieved to see that Zuko wasn’t beside her, mostly because she had no idea how to deal with the dream she’d just had. Especially if he was right there. But the larger part of her was worried by his absence.

Sitting up, it didn’t take long at all to spot him. He was just outside the opening of the small cave, easily within view. The rain had thankfully stopped, though the ground was still wet, and she could see the sun still coming up over the horizon behind him. He had stripped down so he was only wearing the black pants from his outfit, and was going through his bending forms. It was almost a sort of ritual she’d noticed of his. On mornings when she woke up early enough, she was able to catch him at it. One time she’d been woken up at the crack of dawn, hearing him sneak off. She’d been suspicious of him sneaking about so early in the morning and had followed him to make sure he wasn’t getting up to anything devious. Instead, she had seen him sit down at the edge of a secluded section of the temple and mediate as the sun rose before him, then proceeded to practice his forms. She’d caught him doing it several times since, and she soon got used to him rising at dawn to bend. She remembered him once telling her that he rose with the sun, and she imagined that he felt a similar pull to the sun as she did to the moon.

Watching him, the thought crossed her mind about how good he looked. His forms clean and precise. His pale skin covered in a slight sheen of sweat, glowing warmly in the sunlight. His bending magnificent and beautiful. Normally she wouldn’t call firebending beautiful, seeing as she’d had nothing but bad experiences with it. But watching him now, she couldn’t help but think that it was beautiful. He was beautiful. And such a powerful bender.

That thought took her back to a moment months back now, in a small town, sitting with Madam Wu as she told her that she would marry a powerful bender. A blush rose to her cheeks as she thought about it. At the time Sokka referring to Aang with those exact words, she had thought for a moment that perhaps Madam Wu had meant him. A thought that she had thought once more after Aang had kissed her before the siege. But Madam Wu had never specified what kind of powerful bender she would marry. And it seemed like she would end up married to him. It was a strange thought.

He was her soulmate. A fact that he both knew and was ignorant to. A fact that apparently wouldn’t be addressed for years, but one she couldn’t stop thinking about now.

 Shaking herself from her thoughts, she stood and began to stretch, walking out to the mouth of the cave to breathe in the relaxing scent of the sea air. She could hear ottergulls calling out above them, and looked out to see them diving down into the ocean for fish to catch.

After a moment, Zuko seemed to notice her standing there, and brought his practice session to a close, stopping and pushing his hands together and down from his chest to his stomach, as if releasing the energy. Though it was more ridged, and a different sort of action to what she did, she recognised it as the same sort of action she did at the end of practice.

“Morning,” he greeted her.

“Yeah, morning.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you” he said, walking over to where she stood, picking up his shirt from near her feet and pulling it back over his head. “I thought I’d get some katas in while you slept.”

“It’s okay,” she told him. “I know you do this most mornings. You didn’t wake me up this time.” Zuko nodded.

“I have some good news,” he said.

“What’s that?”

“I recognise where we are. We’re on a small uninhabited island in the archipelago. You can see Ember Island from here. It gave me an idea. My family have a holiday home on the beach. No one’s been there since I was a kid. Actually, last time Azula and I were there, we didn’t even stay in the house. We just broke in and burnt a bunch of stuff. It could be a good place to hide. It’s isolated, and most locals don’t know its location so that security didn’t have to be so high while we were on holiday. It’s big and comfortable, and more than enough space to train with all elements. And it’s close enough to the Caldera that we don’t have to travel very far to face my father when the day comes. There’s a market not too far away, so we wouldn’t have to forage for food either.”

Though Katara knew he was pitching the place as a hideout, she couldn’t help but wonder if they had used it other times in the future. She remembered future him saying something about spending a week there with everyone ‘like in the old days’. An isolated beach holiday home sounded like paradise. Had they spent their honeymoon there? Had they taken their kids there to get away from the pressures of ruling a country for a while? Did he take his mother and her husband and Kiyi there? Would Kya enjoy bending the waves at the beach as much as she found she did?

“Katara?” Zuko’s voice snapped her from her thoughts, and she realised she must have been lost in thought too long. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” she assured him. “It sounds like a great idea. We should do that.”

He nodded. “Okay. How about we go there now. We can get changed and grab something to eat. Then, if you want, I could go back and grab the others. That way you don’t have to deal with being stuck in a bison saddle with everyone hounding you for hours. I’d probably be back by the afternoon. Unless, you don’t want to be alone or anything, because if you don’t, you don’t have to stay behind. We could go get the others together.” At first what he’d been saying had almost been posed as a question, but the rest had come out in a nervous rush. Katara just smiled at him gratefully.

“Thanks, Zuko. I’d like that. I could use some time to just…”

“Decompress?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” He gave her a hesitant, gentle smile. It was the first smile she could recall seeing this him give, and it set her heart fluttering. Spirits, maybe she really was starting to fall for him. “Let’s go.”

  A few extra notes about this AU:

🌙     This story is still mostly canon compliant. The rest of the show plays out as shown, with a few more ‘moments’ between Zuko and Katara. But Zuko still ends up with Mai, and because of that, Katara decided to give things with Aang a try, reasoning that she knows Zuko is her soulmate, and she was just going to wait and see how things went, trusting in the dream the spirits had given her.

ƒ     The comics is where it starts diverging from canon. For one thing, I like Katara being happy, so she didn’t miss out on all the projects she wanted to work on. She either convinced Aang to take her, went herself, or the project waited for her. These are things like helping rebuild her home, leading the lakes and river clean-up programme, and beginning on opening hospitals and medical clinics worldwide.

🌙     She does feel a little bit like she’s losing herself, with Aang so insistent on the things he wants to do and his way of live, along with his discovery of the Air Acolytes. She remembers how in the dream, even though she lived in the Fire Nation, everything about her life seemed to be a mix of her own culture and another. Life with Aang is very Air Nomad centric. And knowing where she is going to go in life, it does not seem as worth sticking through the issues. When things aren’t going so well between them, they have a small argument, making her suggest they break up. Aang tries to defend that she is his ‘forever girl’, to which she gently tells him she’s not. She tells him that she had a soulmate dream and knows that it’s only a matter of time before the events of the dream start falling into place. Aang is very upset, and storms off for a bit, but he does understand and eventually agrees that they should split, telling her he’ll always love her anyway. Out of curiosity, he asks who her soulmate is. Because he’s already grudgingly come to accept shew had a soulmate, and knows she is very close with Zuko, he isn’t too upset to find out it’s him.

🌙     When the events of ‘The Search’ happen, Katara is a much more active participant. Having lost her own mother, she knows the pain of being without one and does all she can to help Zuko get her back, especially since she knows that he will find her. The reveal happens a little faster, because when they meet Kiyi, Katara recognises her, and calls her by name before she introduces herself. It startles everyone that she knows the girls name, but Zuko most of all. He didn’t instantly recognise her, because his soulmate dream was set around 8 years after Katara’s, and Kiyi was 19. He thought she looked familiar but didn’t place her until her name was said. (He did, however, recognise Ikem, and was hopeful about following him for this reason). This also brings up questions of how she knew Kiyi’s name, which she brushes off and it gets forgotten in the following revelations about Ursa.

🌙     With Ursa back, and a hint that Katara knows about Kiyi, this is where Zuko finally starts to believe that his soulmate dream could have been just that, instead of a delusion. This is also around the time that things become rocky with Mai again. In the few years they’ve been together, they have always had a bit of an on and off again relationship, since their personalities aren’t exactly the best for each other and clash quite a lot. And realising that Katara might be his soulmate, they agree to break up again.

🌙         This is around the time that Katara starts up the hospital project, as well as the beginning of events of ‘Smoke and Shadow’. So, he invites Katara along with Aang and Suki to help with the New Ozai Society situation. It’s here that he finds out that Aang and Katara have been broken up for a good few months now. There is the addition of an almost successful assassination attempt which she heals for him. And their relationship begins to build from there. Azula is also recaptured at the end of ‘Smoke and Shadow’s events and is receiving psychological therapy.

Author Note:

I would actually be REALLY keen to explore this world more.