Zutara- Father :One Shot:

Father

Zuko waited anxiously in the waiting room of the health center in his palace for his wife to give birth to his heir, his child. He could never stay still for too long though, he got up and started pacing the floor, a frown on his brow. Why is it taking so long? Surely it shouldn't have taken this long? I wonder if something happened to the baby.  The young Fire Lord thought.

Just then a nurse came out of the room. She had a smile on her face but there was sadness in her eyes. Zuko stopped pacing and straightened to his full height.

"It's a healthy girl." The old nurse told him.

Zuko's face brightened and he smiled. But something was wrong. Why did the nurse look so upset? He cleared his throat.

The nurse dabbed a napkin to her misty eyes. "I'm sorry Fire Lord, but I'm afraid the Fire Lady is fading fast. I don't think she's going to make it."

It felt like Zuko's very blood froze inside him and his heart stopped beating. He was in shock. This couldn't be happening to him.

"She wishes to see you." The old nurse continued.

Zuko pushed passed her into the room. And numbly walked up to his wife's bed and dropped to his knees. He took her hand in his and pressed his forehead into it.

"Oh Katara, my Katara, my love." He kept repeating over and over until Katara shushed him.

With her other hand she caressed his cheek and made him look up at her. Her normally beautiful brown skin was deathly pale but her brilliant blue eyes still shined as bright as he remembered. She was smiling at him, but he could not manage to smile back. Her always cold hand still caressed his scarred cheek as she gently stroked it with her thumb.

"You can't leave me Katara. I love you." He pleaded with her.

"And I love you too, Zuko. And I always will, forever and ever." She replied her voice growing weaker.

Tears started to flow out of Zuko's eyes uncontrollably.  And Katara's eyes brightened with tears also.

"Zuko I want you to take care of our daughter, no one else. Don't give her to the nurses to care for. I want it to be you, promise me Zuko." Katara suddenly said with new determination in her voice, her hand squeezing his.

Zuko blinked at her. "Katara, I don't think I can. I don't- I don't know how to be a father. How can I possibly be a father for our daughter when I never had a father of my own?"

Katara smiled at him. "Zuko, I know you. And I know you will be a great father. Please, just do this one last thing, for me."

Tears ran down Zuko's cheeks. "Katara you can't leave me alone. I can't live without you. I promised I would protect you since the day Azula shot lightning at you during Sozin's Comet." He begged with her.

"And you have protected me Zuko. But now you have to promise to protect our daughter. Promise Zuko, please." Katara couldn't speak above a whisper now.

"I promise you Katara, I will take care of our daughter and protect her from any harm." He managed to say between shaking breaths. Katara smiled at this and closed her eyes.

"Katara don't go!" Zuko yelled in panic.

"Stay with me tonight Zuko." She asked and with her best effort scooted over for Zuko. He got up and lay next to her on the small bed. Katara snuggled right up to his side, where she fit perfectly, like they were always meant to be that way.

"I love how you are always so warm." She whispered into his chest.

Zuko wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her chestnut brown head.

"She looks just like you." Katara said happily.

"What's her name?" Zuko asked her.

"I thought we could name her after our mothers. Kya Ursa." She told him, as she looked up to gaze into his golden eyes.

Zuko looked down at his beautiful wife and smiled. "It sounds beautiful."

Katara put her head back down onto her husband's firm chest. "It is, after all, something we have in common." She said as she remembered her first alone time with Zuko, trapped in the cave of Ba Sing Se. How young she had been then and little did she know that she would fall in love with this handsome Fire Prince and become his Fire Lady one day.

She could feel her life fading away slowly but she held on a little longer just to be with Zuko. She could feel the full moon giving her strength, but barely. And she held onto whatever strength it was giving her for dear life as she felt herself slipping away from Zuko. Tears slipped out of her eyes and stained Zuko's robes. But she knew he wouldn't care.

Zuko held on as long as he could to her. She had gotten too weak to speak sometime in the night so they just lay there, in their own special embrace. She would go in and out of sleep but whenever her eyes would close he could see her force them open again. Zuko told her to sleep and finally she had to give in. She was getting too weak to keep her eyes open any longer. But Zuko stayed awake the whole night and watched her drift off peacefully on his chest and listened to her shallow breaths. And finally when the moon started to go down and the sun came up he felt her take a deep breath.

And without opening her eyes, she whispered, "I rise with the moon. You rise with the sun."

Zuko smiled. "We will meet again. I will find you, in the Spirit World. Even if it takes an eternity, I will find you and we can then be together again, forever and ever."

Zuko then felt her heart give one last slow beat and she was gone.

Zuko clutched onto Katara and sobbed harder then he has ever sobbed. He cradled her to his chest and rocked her back and forth, quietly calling her name.

He didn't move for hours and wouldn't let anyone take her. He wanted to stay like this forever. He didn't know how to live without Katara. He thought about just leaving this world to go join Katara. But he suddenly heard a baby cry and it snapped him out of his daze.

He kissed Katara on the lips one last time while he whispered into them, "I promised you, and so I will keep my promise."

He laid her gently onto the bed as he stood up and let the nurses take her. He then went and sat down in a chair and buried his face in his hands.

"Fire Lord?" he heard the nurse say.

He looked up and saw that she was holding a tiny baby, his baby girl. She lowered the baby down into his arms and he took her gently.

He looked at his baby in awe. But he was a little disappointed. She looked just like him when he was a baby. She had his black hair and pale skin. He wished she would've looked more like her mother, beautiful. But the little baby opened her eyes and Zuko was shocked.

She had the same ocean blue eyes as her mother, as Katara. Zuko smiled down at his baby.

"Kya." He said in disbelief. And she smiled at the sound of his voice and Zuko couldn't help but smile back. She was beautiful. And even though it felt like his heart had been broken beyond repair after Katara's death, he could already feel little Kya mending it for him.
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Zuko grew to love Kya more and more every day.  And he kept his promise to Katara and watched over her and took care of her instead of giving her to the nurses.

If you would ask anybody in the palace they would tell you that their Fire Lord Zuko was the most kindest and gentlest fathers you would've ever saw. He was always patient and never raised his voice or a hand to her. So much unlike the last Fire Lord to his first born, some of them would say. And Zuko taught her well. She was very smart and listened to her father attentively and obeyed every word he said. They were the world for each other.

Not only did Kya have her father's features but she also turned out to be a very powerful firebender just like her father. And she was able to conjure the blue flames at a very young age (younger than Azula) that matched her blue eyes.

Everyone in the palace adored Kya, for she had a kind heart and a nurturing soul just like their Fire Lady but she was also very stubborn, impatient, and sometimes hot-headed and arrogant like her father. And she grew up to become a beautiful young woman and eventually a great Fire Lord.
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Zuko died of old age and was remembered by his daughter Kya, his son-in-law, a powerful Fire Nobleman and his grandchildren.
***
He wandered the Spirit World alone and not afraid. He looked down at his hands and saw that they were young and strong again. He called out his long lost loves name and searched and searched for her. Never tiring and never giving up. He searched without stopping and searched diligently. He swore to her that he wouldn't stop searching until he found her and they could be together again.

Finally he saw a figure standing in a beam of white light wearing nothing but a plain white dress. Her brown hair was loose and blowing slightly around her face. And she was young and beautiful just like he remembered. Her beautiful blue eyes, so much like his daughters, were filled with tears and they started running down her face but her face was lit up with a breathtaking smile.

The man slowly came to a stop before her. He felt his cheek and felt the tears also running down his own face. But he noticed something else, his scar was gone, and there was just smooth perfect skin now. The beautiful lady could not stay still any longer and she ran and jumped into the man's arms, her true loves arms, at last, after all these long years of waiting, they were together again.
They were both crying as he pulled her into a passionate kiss that he waited so long for. When they finally broke apart the woman laughed.

"What took you so long?"

The man smiled at her. "I was just keeping my promise to you love." And he pulled her into another kiss.

And they stayed together, forever and ever.