namesake

ooh SaL Life for the WIP ask game!! love Sleeping at Last i'm so curious

You spoil me. Thank you. <3

I'm going to try and not spoil the whole fic in this ask. ETA: I realised after posting that I just had real delusions of grandeur. Like the handful of people who follow me would count spoilers for a fic that may never be written as an actual thing. So. I added a lot of detail to the end of the original answer lol.

One day, I was innocently listening to Life while... cleaning, I think. Anyway, for some reason, on that particular day, the lines "I saw the future unfold like silver and gold and I'm already proud" slapped even harder than usual. My brain went, 'gold, like Fire Nation eyes. Silver, like Water Tribe clothes and jewellery.' And, before I knew it, a whole fic had spawned.

It should really be called Momtara and Dadko: the fanfic because it... really is just them being parents.

So the teaser is this: the Gaang loses the war. The Earth Kingdom isn't decimated, but everything else just doesn't go their way. Everybody has to go and hide so Ozai and Azula don't find them. Katara takes an injured-because-he-took-lightning-for-her Zuko to the closest colony they can reach before she can't Waterbend them any further (Appa flew away to find Aang when the Spiritbending lights went wonky in the sky. He just... knew something was up.) They get only one hawk from the White Lotus: stay hidden. Do what you can for the war where you are but stay hidden.

And no other communication comes. They try to send out encoded messages in so many ways, but there's just... radio silence. They don't know where people are, who is still alive... Randomly moving around is too dangerous for either of them, even in disguise, because the FN has air patrols everywhere and navy patrols and they aren't letting up. And so Katara, who is very practical about knowing when a fight isn't worth it, convinces reckless Zuko to just stay put. For now. They settle down on the colony island, and do what they can. Stop crime. Open a healer hut. Zuko teaches basic defence and helps out with construction and farming. (He's... very good with the animals.)

And, before they know it... Well. They don't forget about the war, of course, but... life goes on. They stop waiting quite so tensely for the Order or the Gaang to show up and give them instructions. Work instead on their own underground movement that spreads through the colonies. Zuko starts teaching night classes in secret about the Fire Nation's real history. With Katara's help, he starts exposing the propaganda. And people listen. And people spread it. And the masses start thinking.

Before they know it, eight years have passed. They've made a life for themselves. Never forgetting the war but... life goes on, you know? Even in the midst of war, life just... finds ways to carry on.

One day, Katara is at the market grabbing some bandages when somebody touches her elbow and it's Sokka. She hugs him, cries, and then starts yelling. He apologises, explains that they only just realised they had a traitor in the mix stopping their communication and he's so, so sorry. Turns out they're all there - Hakoda, Suki, Toph, Iroh, Pakku, Piandao, Bato, Aang. Aang and Toph are twenty. It's... so weird. But so good to see them. Katara can see that Aang has only just started to get over the guilt of failing. It's there in his eyes.

Pakku says they shouldn't linger on the street, because anybody could report them, Katara invites them back to her clinic and then says, "But there are some important things you need to know, up front." Pakku says not now, not now and Katara gets irritated at him and says fine. Find out in the worst ways, then.

The rest all sit in the clinic's waiting room, introduced to the other two staff members as special medical cases Katara will deal with after closing. There's a cute little girl who goes around the waiting room very solemnly asking how people are, and if she can get them a glass of water or a blanket or something. Iroh, especially, is charmed by her. She reaches the Gaang and goes through her spiel, gold eyes very earnest in her tanned face, and Iroh offers her candy. She says she can't eat candy without asking her mom, first, and then yells across the room at Katara, just finished with her third-last patient, asking permission. Katara distractedly gives it and, while the Gaang are already reeling, proudly introduces herself: "I'm Kya. I'm four."

Everybody thus has to quickly come to terms with the fact that Zuko and Katara are married. And had a kid. And they missed it. And then we have these two as parents helping to end the war by still being very good parents. Kya does not end up the only kid in this fic, is the only thing I'll say about that. :P

Two things I obsessively think about often:

- Kya having nightmares and her 'safe space' to go back to sleep being on Zuko. Whether he's asleep, or still awake. So one of the reoccurring scenes is Zuko working on something and Kya being asleep on his lap. Or Zuko meditating early in the morning and Kya wanting to do the same and then falling asleep on his lap. xD Nothing profound. I'm just a sap.

- Kya being a Firebender. I realise this is super contentious, and I'm hoping I can handle this as delicately as possible. I've just spoken to so many inter-racial or inter-tribal couples who have said the same thing: without wanting to put this huge pressure on their kids for being metaphors of the change!!!! they have seen how much healing happens in families (and even in the parents themselves) when a """mixed kid"""" is born and shows attributes of both cultures. They've been super interesting conversations like you won't believe. Full of recounts of so much pain. And so much love and hope, even in the continuous bitterness of how reality can be. And I just... there's something in me that can't let go of Katara and Zuko seeing that "making a difference in the world" is sometimes a "small thing". I have this half-formed line of, "We're not the Avatar. But we can all bring balance in our own way." And just Kya asking her mother whether Gran-Gran Kya would be sad that her namesake is a Firebender when bad Firebenders took her away. And Katara kissing her daughter all over and reminding her that there can be good Firebenders, too. And Kya is one of them. And her mom would probably have been proud that her name was given to one of the people reversing the cycle of Fire only destroying and taking away. Zuko needs to see that he can give life. And, thanks to LOK, we know that Firebending healers exist so...

Yeah. As I said. A sticky line to walk. But, if this fic comes to be, I wanna walk it, maybe.

(ALSO the lines: "as she drew her first breath, I learned what love meant. And my heart reconciled all the darkness and light inside my chest" for both Zuko and Katara is so, so, so, so, so powerful. I'm going to have to go listen to the song again now.)