Chapter Text
Azula huffs, skinning a whale is not an easy effort. Their skin is very thick and you need a lot of techniche and strength to do it correctly. She carves the flesh, tearing through the muscle and deposits the meat on a bucket. She deposits the thicker skin of the whale on another bucket, to make clothes against the cold weather.
A blizzard is predicted to come in a few days so she has to prepare the best for her family. She looks at her hand and wills her body temperature to run warmer, the snow really biting into her skin.
When she had first arrived at the Southern Water Tribe there had barely been more than seventy habitants. The cold had not bothered her much and Katara loved the snow since she loathed Caldera’s City weather. She could make herself run really warm but despite that her body caught up with a few colds that the waterbender enjoyed teasing her for it.
She now had been living for enough years that she saw in person how the Northern Water Tribe sent people to live there, and saw the small tribe growing into a beautiful town, buzzing with life and familiarity. When she saw the aurora borealis for the first time with her wife beside her, Azula almost felt inclined to kneel there and pray to all the Water Spirits.
The Southern Water Tribe was beautiful in a way she never found her palace. She had finally found where she belonged.
She sighs, looking at the sky and watching the sun. It was time to pick up Kya from her lessons. She carries the buckets to their place and makes her way to the small school.
Katara is a water bending Sifu to young girls and then does healing sessions. Azula does her chores around the tribe and picks up her daughter, does some other chores and then waits for her wife to come home.
But today is a special day.
“Mummy!” Her daughter rams right into her legs. The impact is a bit strong and her daughter pulls away with teary eyes and shaking lips. Azula, sensing the tantrum, quickly pulls her up and carries her at her hip. Kya’s tears were gone as soon as they arrived.
Azula suppressed the urge to scoff. Katara likes to say she inherited her dramatics.
“Kya, you know you mustn't run like that.”
“Sorry, mommy.”
“Can you walk now?”
Her daughter holds tighter to her robes. “No!”
Azula looks at her golden eyes, so much like hers. Kya had been a mystery, her whole existence was unbelievable. After fifteen years her and Katara decided they could expand their family, and were looking for a little girl to take in. However, there weren't any orphans in the tribe anymore, and they were about to go to the Fire Nation to see if they had more opportunities when Katara’s breasts started to hurt and she started to feel under the weather. Azula postponed the trip, not wanting Katara to go on the exhausting journey if she wasn't feeling well. It went out like this for a few weeks until Toph visited, and slurping down the soup Azula had made with great effort, she suddenly said, “Why do I hear four heartbeats?”
It dawned on Katara, then. One of her apprentices checked her and she confirmed what they did not dare to say out loud. “You are with child.”
Azula’s first thought was that someone had taken advantage of Katara. When she denied this, she ended up in tears, asking if Katara had been unfaithful. It was the hardest day of her life. Katara denied everything so Azula threw herself into research, asking Zuko to send her shippings of books. They went to see fortune tellers and they finally found their answer in a girl with white hair, an earthbender in a small village. During those months, Katara's belly had swelled, she had taken the decision to keep the child no matter what and Azula had supported her. She told them that the spirits knew they longed for a child and blessed them with one of their own. A gift from an old friend called Yue.
And then Kya had been born at the Southern Water Tribe a few months later, a chubby baby that looked like the carbon copy of Katara. (Fair, because she was the one who suffered the pains of pregnancy.) Except one day her eyes turned from gray to golden, the same as Azula’s. Now Kya was a child brimmed with energy, impatient and prone to tantrums and Azula couldn't love her more.
“Remember what I told you we were going to do today, baby?”
“Yes mommy!”
Azula with the help of her wife had built a small pool in an empty igloo.
“We are going to learn how to swim.”
“Yes!” Kya raised her fist.
About six months ago, Azula was fishing and Kya was at her side, trying to eat the worms meant for the fish. She got distracted by the fishes for a second and Kya had toppled over the boat, a flickering in the water had caught her attention in the distance and she had gotten too close to the edge. Azula had jumped immediately after her and pulled them both to safety but obviously the experience had shaken her daughter a lot. She was even too scared for a few weeks to go near the sea. Even a few children had mocked her because what Southern Tribe folk was afraid of the sea?
“I don't want her to feel like I did.” She said to Katara one night.
“She won’t.” Her wife said. “Actually, I have an idea.”
And that’s how they ended up building her the pool.
Katara usually gave waterbending lessons to the young girls. Azula had almost wanted to kick Pakku too when she found out they didn't let women learn to bend for fighting.
Being a healer was a very noble profession but only when you choose it out of passion, not when it was forced on you.
After her lessons, Katara would go to the Healing Center, a small construction Azula had built along with other men, teach her appendices who worshiped the ground Katara walked on. And whom annoyingly sometimes caught feelings for her wife. That’s why Azula visited from time to time, years may have made her gentler but she still could be scary when she wanted. Sometimes Azula would teach young children basic katas. She was basically the person-to-go at the Tribe, Hadoka had pleasantly learnt she could do anything if she was taught properly.. Azula was pretty sure that her being useful was the only reason Hakoda gave her the blessing to marry his daughter.
Kanna had been an entirely different story. She looked at Azula with hostility and she couldn't blame her. When she looked at her, she only looked at the Fire’s Nation's bloodiest crimes. It was only after Azula had burnt the kitchen for the the third time one day trying to make a small cake for Katara, that Kanna took pity on her and started to teach her.
“How are you gonna keep my beloved granddaughter happy if you feed her this?” Kanna had said.”Take the bowl, I'm teaching you how to do it.” She squinted her eyes. “For Katara’s sake.”
“For Katara’s sake.” She had repeated.
So they bonded over, very slowly, over baking. Azula’s cooking was subpar at best and Katara still would try very hard to not wrinkle her nose when she made her soup but she could really bake a mean cake.
Azula just wished Kanna had lived enough to meet Kya.
“We are here.” She announced and put her daughter down. Katara would be joining them shortly.
She put her hands on the water, warming it to an acceptable heat. She hummed, feeling Azul close. Her dragon would come to visit from time to time. Katara would call it the dragon wanting to get belly pats. Each time, Azula would say her dragon is not a dog, thank you. And then she would proceed to rub Azul’s neck.
Kya, for some reason, thought Azul was her older sister. She was totally convinced she would reach an age where she would just shift into a dragon. Azula feeded her delusions a bit, she was only a child after all, and Katara would annoyedly ask, “Why don't you want to be a polar dog?”
Kya would laugh. “That’s ridiculous, Mama.”
She would look at Azula. “We used to be dragons, mommy.” Then she would have melancholy unbecoming of a child. “But you forgot.”
Azula would never know what to reply to.
Kya looked at the water. “I’m afraid, mommy.”
Azula pulled her into her arms. “You don't need to be. I will be with you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Once they undressed enough to get into the water with proper bath wear, she lowered her daughter gently into the water, Kya’s back pressed into her chest.
“Is it warm?”
“Yes, mommy.”
She walks into the pool with Kya like that for a few minutes, making her familiar with her surroundings.
“What scared you when you fell into the sea?”
“I couldn't breathe.”
“It is a scary sensation, isn't it. Firebenders rely heavily on their breath. It’s what helps us regulate our fire. Even now, I’m making my fire heat the water enough to be comfortable for both of us.”
She rubs her daughter’s back. “It was scary because you didn't know how to swim. But it is a very useful skill and we are gonna learn it together.”
Once Kya has relaxed a bit, she teaches her daughter the star pose. First, she has to learn how to float. Kya does it reluctantly, with Azula having her arms hovering behind her.
When she feels unsafe, she goes to her arms and tightens her grip, Azula holds her closely, kisses her head and coaxes her to do the star again. When her daughter manages to make a decent star, Azula teaches her how to make bubbles. Her daughter is more hesitant about that because it means she will go underwater, but Azula reassures her saying they will go down together.
After the fourth time, Kya looks excited about it. The bubbles make her giggle.
Katara joins them, then. “The support has arrived.”
“Mama!” Kya reaches for her but Azula keeps her rooted to her place.
Katara goes into the water, very comfortable in it. She picks Kya up and gives her a loud kiss on the cheek that makes her giggle.
“Look, Kya. I will make you figures and you will try to swim towards them with Mommy alright?”
Their daughter nods her head, excited. Katara does a rough fish with her bending and Kya, on Azula’s arms is reaching for it while Azula walks. The important thing is that their daughter is using her arms more comfortably on the water.
“She will learn.” Katara assuress her. Kya has tired herself out and they are now on the Igloo, tucking their daughter to bed.
“Step by step.” She concedes and Katara curls up against her.
“How did your day go?”
“A sick lady threw up on me.”
“Is that what the smell is?” She wrinkled her nose.
“You are not funny.”
“How was yours?”
“I helped Dina fix the leak on her Igloo.”
Katara huffs, annoyed. “I don't really like when you go to her house alone. That woman is waiting to jump you and for our marriage to fall apart.”
“Come on, it's not true.” She absolutely knew that it was true. That’s why she attended her requests, because it drove Katara insane.
“At least next time take Kya with you.” She grumbled.
“And what would our daughter do?”
“I trained her to be unpleasant when a woman is being flirty towards you.” Katara looks particularly smug about it. It makes sense now that when lady Servikia had squeezed her arm for far too long to be considerate friendly, Kya had accidentally falled over Servikia’s feet. Mhm, she will have to train her to do the same with Katara’s admirators who cross the line.
She smiles, suddenly. Katara looks up at her. “What?”
“I’m just really grateful you came into my life and refused to leave.”
“Well, I can be really stubborn.”
Azula holds her, happy. In peace and in water she found herself.