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Izumi is seven years old when her mother dies.
She remembers very little of the wake and funeral, her mother’s body ceremonially burning by the Fire Sages is the only thing that stood out during a period where every adult around her is sad and gloomy. She does not understand why her mother is gone, even after months of illness. She thought everything wrong with the body could be fixed. She does not like that already, women of the court are disparaging Lady Mai for not being strong enough to bear another child, a bending child, as in their eyes this is where Izumi has failed. She does not care about these women. She only cares that her mother is gone.
Aunt Katara had promised Izumi that her mother would be well again, if it was within her power. Her father had begged Katara to help him find any cure that might bring the Firelady back to health, and so the master waterbender did what she did best, and set out on an epic journey based on her knowledge and Zuko’s willpower. Now Katara was back in the Fire Nation, successful in finding the cure, but too late for Mai.
Izumi watches out the palace window as Katara speaks with the guards at the entrance. She can tell when she learns of the news of Lady Mai’s death, seeing her head bend down in anguish. Katara thanks the guards for the information, bows formally, and enters the palace. Izumi leaps from the window and runs out of her room in order to greet her. Hopefully she will get to see Katara before her father does, in order to find some comfort in the woman who is almost like a second mother to her. Izumi misses her mother so much. Maybe Katara can make some of that hurt go away.
She runs and turns the corner of the hallway, only to see Katara making her way to Zuko’s study. He had holed himself up there after his wife’s death, only speaking to his daughter in the evenings before bedtime. Both of them are very quiet these days, even after the funeral. Izumi shakes her head of these thoughts and runs towards the waterbender.
“Aunt Katara!”
Katara startles when she sees Izumi. Her face crumples in grief (and quite a bit of guilt) as the child comes towards her. She sinks to the floor and holds Izumi in a fierce hug, rocking her back and forth as they both start to cry.
“Izumi, love, I am so sorry. I am so sorry I couldn’t get to your mother in time. I’m here now. I’m here for you and for your father.” Katara strokes Izumi’s face as tears continue to slip down her small cheeks. Katara has always been such a source of comfort to her. She was the first one to teach her so many things. She was the person who saved her from drowning when she was four and then taught her how to respect but not fear the water while she learned how to properly swim. She was the first person outside of her family, alongside Uncle Sokka, to tell her that being a nonbender was okay. Maybe Katara being here will make everything better again, or as better as they can be with her mom gone.
Katara stands up, her hands still on Izumi’s shoulders. “I’m going to go talk to your dad. Have you eaten, love?”
“Yeah, I did. Auntie Katara, Dad is sad. I’m sad too so I don’t know how to make him less sad!”
“I know, sweetheart. It’s--” here Katara stops, a lump in her throat. “It’s very difficult, but I’ll see what I can do, to make both you and your dad feel better.”
“Okay…Goodnight Katara.”
“Goodnight, Izumi. I’ll see you in the morning, love.”
Izumi yawns, allowing herself to be led off by some of the palace servants that liked to tuck her in when her dad couldn’t. After a few hours however, she gets scared and lonely. Her mother is gone. Her mother is gone.
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She remembers that her dad is probably still talking to Katara about the funeral and the quest to find the waterbending technique that would save Mai. She decides that they’re the best people to tuck her back in tonight. She creeps down the torch-lit hallways from her room to find out where her father is. She stops in her tracks when she hears their voices coming from a door that is not the Fire Lord’s study, but his room. She turns around to go back to her room but curiosity gets the better of her when she hears her dad say her name.
“I’m worried about Izumi. I don’t know what any of us are going to do. And she’s so young, and there’s just no way I’m going to be able to give her the same things that Mai was able to. She was a good mother, up until her last breath and I’m just so confused and there’s so much to do and the Fire Nation expects answers about why their Fire Lady is gone and I’m--”
Katara cuts in gently, as if she’s holding her father’s grief in her hands. Maybe she is.
“Zuko. Give yourself time. Izumi is such a strong little girl, and there are people here and all over the world who love her. You know that I would do anything for your daughter. She won’t be alone. And neither will you. I am so sorry that I didn’t come in time, I was so close-”
“Katara, leave it. You tried so hard and I will always be in your debt for that.”
“Not hard enough, I can’t-”
“Katara,” Zuko says gently, “What you have done and continue to do for my family is more than I can thank you for. Please don’t blame yourself for Mai’s death. She was so sick. The miracle was such a long shot. It just all feels...I don’t know. Empty.”
“I know. Zuko, we’re all going to be here for Izumi, but you know we’re all going to be here for you too.”
“That’s a kind gesture, Katara, but I know everyone has duties. Sokka’s still in the South helping your father right? And Suki is with him, I know. And Toph is doing so well with her school and Aang was here for the funeral but now he has to go chase something down, something about an evil mushroom? And-”
“Zuko, please breathe.” Katara says, glancing worried towards the increasingly agitated Fire Lord. “We’re all going to be here for you, even if some of us can’t physically be here. And besides that, you’re a wonderful father to her. This is hard, and it’s going to keep being hard, I know. But you’re not alone.”
“Will you--ah, nevermind,” Zuko sighs, like he wants to be swallowed up into the floor.
“Zuko, you know you can ask me anything,” Katara coaxes, knowing so many things are on his mind.
“Will you stay? In the Fire Nation, please, will you stay? It’s just that, Izumi’s lost her mother so young, and I know you know how that is and she really looks up to you and-” Zuko stops, assured that he’s put his foot in his mouth by begging her to stay and bringing up her mother so ineloquently. He opens his mouth to apologize when Katara steps closer to where he’s sitting and sits next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder for comfort.
“I will. I want to help support you, Zuko. I want to help Izumi manage her grief. And I’d like to pay my respects to Mai. I know how much you loved her Zuko,” Katara says sadly, thinking about how strong the late Fire Lady was, even in the last stages of her illness. This loss was just another that Zuko did not deserve. Izumi being around the age that she lost her own mother made her want to stay even more, just to be sure the little girl had everything she needed during such a horrible time. Katara wanted her to have the outlets she herself never had. Mostly, Katara just loved this little family enough to offer as much support as she could during such a tragedy.
“Thank you, Katara, again for everything, I-” Zuko cuts off with a choked sob, his grief palpable. Katara moves her hands from his shoulders to his cheeks, cradling him forehead to forehead as he cries for his wife, one of his oldest friends. Through it all, Katara holds him together. She had grown to care for Mai as a dear friend as well, and he knows that she took her death as a personal failing, regardless of what Zuko told her. So Katara holds Zuko as he pours out his grief and worry to her. He cherishes her for being here in one of his darkest hours.
“I will always be here for you, Zuko,” Katara says once his breathing evens out. “I will stay for as long as you need me.” In that moment, face to face, eyes closed, breaths together, Zuko felt peace for the first time in days.
Izumi quietly crept away from her father’s door, unable to eavesdrop on Zuko and Katara’s reunion any longer. Little tears streamed down her face, crying for her father, her mother, and for herself. She climbed into bed, happy that at least Aunt Katara was staying.
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And stay she did. The horrible winter that stole Mai’s life from her finally subsided, and the rain in the Fire Nation gave way to a hopeful spring. The leaders of the other nations of the world continued to send their condolences to the Fire Lord, and Zuko responded with reserved grace. Izumi continued her lessons, and in-between them Katara would take her walking in the gardens and in the city to talk about whatever she needed to say. Izumi also observed her father and Katara grow even closer than before. While they had always been good friends, Izumi saw Zuko pour out everything to Katara, as well as give her responsibilities that she asked for in order to help ease the burden of ruling an entire nation after such a loss. They would give each other looks of great warmth when they thought Izumi couldn’t see, but of course she saw much more than they thought.
Izumi wasn’t stupid. She knew that Katara and her father cared for each other very much. After a few years, with Katara staying in the Fire Nation as an official Southern Water Tribe diplomat and continued to be an advisor and friend to Zuko, she realized that her father was very much in love with the woman who had given them so much hope in a time of hopelessness. While she didn’t think anyone could really replace Mai as her mother (and she knew Katara wouldn’t want to), she also knew that Katara was closer to her than any of her dad’s other friends. So maybe she was okay with her dad being in love with her. She was just glad to see him happy again.
---------------------------------------------------
“Izumi? Where are you?”
“Coming dad!”
“You’re going to be late you know, and it really is a big day.” Zuko ruffles his daughter’s hair, and then laughs heartily when she scowls at him for doing so.
“Dad! It took me two hours to do that! And you’re going to be late too, isn’t it a lot more important that you show up on time?” Izumi gripes, disgruntled with her father’s indecency towards her hair.
“It looks great, Izumi. And I don’t think that the Fire Lord can be late to these things, really, regardless of what Katara says,” Zuko laughs.
Izumi sticks out her tongue at her father. “Come on, let’s go! We’ve been waiting on this day for months! We have to meet Katara once she gets off the Water Tribe boat!”
“Alright, alright! Let’s go meet her and the rest of the delegation, come on,” Zuko leads his daughter out of the royal wing of the palace down to the outside, ready to meet Katara and the rest of her family on this most special of days. Finally after a journey of several months time in the South Pole to prepare for this day, Katara would be back in the Fire Nation. Zuko was more than ready.
Izumi is ten years old when Katara becomes her stepmother.