Arctic Flower

The End

"There's an old woman to see you, My Lord," Lieutenant Jee said. He trembled in the doorway of Zuko's study, terrified of incurring Zuko's wrath. Zuko had ordered that no one should disturb him while in there. He had enough problems without people barging in on his peace and solitude.
Everything was going to shit all at once.
On Zuko's desk every day, there were reports of the Northern Armada sailing closer and closer, the Southern Tribes preparing to aid their distant kin, the crew of Zhao's former ship having a mutiny, and insurrections back home in the Fire Nation.
The first few months of Zuko's reign were an unprecedented failure. Zuko might as well fall on his sword and spill out his entrails. Do it, the voice of Zuko's father said, You've already disgraced yourself enough for one life. Why add more dishonor to your name?

Zuko looked up from the half-empty bottle of sake he'd been tossing back and forth from one hand to the other. "An old woman?"
"We're not sure how she got on the ship." Jee stared down at his feet. "But we couldn't get rid of her. She called us a lot of things I don't want to repeat when we tried to get her to leave."
Zuko sighed. The old woman must be Lady Kanna. Waltzing onto a Fire Nation ship and demanding to see the Fire Lord was in keeping with what Katara had told Zuko about her imperious grandmother.
"Send her in," Zuko said.
Lady Kanna strode into Zuko's study as if she had every right to be there, back straight and chin held high. Underneath the grey hair and the wrinkles of creases of age, you could see that she had been a beautiful woman. She must have looked like how her lovely granddaughter, Katara, did now.
Zuko rose and bowed. "You were bold to come here, My Lady," he said.
"At my age, boy..." Lady Kanna took Zuko's seat before Zuko had the chance to get her one of her own. "You find that very little scares you anymore."
Zuko picked up another seating cushion and placed it by the hearth next to Lady Kanna. He then picked up a kettle of water and it over the fire. Then, with one of his flames, Zuko stoked the coals back to blazing. "How did you get here?"
How had a frail-looking old woman managed to get past an enemy blockade and all its patrol boats?
"The Icicle and the Circus Monkey helped me." Lady Kanna's eyes crinkled when she smiled the same way Uncle's did.
The Icicle and the Circus Monkey... Mai and Ty Lee. "Oh." Ty Lee was too scared of getting in trouble to break the rules very often. Mai hardly ever exerted herself unless it was worth her while. There must have been a good reason for them to sneak someone through the blockade a second time.
When the water boiled, Zuko removed the kettle and started preparing the tea. "I'm surprized your grandson let you come here."
Lady Kanna snorted. "As if that young pup has any say in what I do." She accepted the teacup Zuko handed to her. "I'm sure you'd like to know why I'm here."
"That would be nice," Zuko said.
"I'll get around to it when I feel like it, boy." Lady Kanna took a sip of her tea. Zuko couldn't help but shake his head.
For Agni's sake, he was the Fire Lord. The son of the man who had authorized the raids that killed her daughter-in-law. The leader of the country that had terrorized her home for generations. Yet she'd barged right into his study and talked to him as if he were her grandson. This old woman really was something else.
Zuko sipped his tea. "How is Katara?"
If Katara was well and happy, then all wasn't helpless.
"In a lot of trouble because of you." Lady Kanna furrowed her brow.
Zuko missed her meaning at first, but then it hit him. Whenever a girl was spoken of as being in trouble, there was usually one meaning. "Oh."
"That's why I came to see you," Lady Kanna said.
"Is Katara happy about this?" How did she feel about this baby? What did he think about it?
So far, siring an heir was the only thing Zuko had done right as Fire Lord. But, being with Katara was the only good thing he'd done as a person and maybe would ever do?
"Katara and Yue, Sokka's new wife, who's also expecting, are like two mother birds building their nest," Lady Kanna said. "When I left them, they were both at the loom, weaving blankets for their little chicks."
It was a bittersweet scene: two mothers-to-be weaving baby blankets as if the fathers of their unborn children weren't on opposite sides of a war that they might not even survive.
Zuko squeezed the old woman's hand. "You didn't go to all this trouble just to bring news of Katara?" You only risked your life by sneaking behind enemy lines when you had an important favor to ask.
"I want you to do the honorable thing, boy, and take Katara back with you when you leave."
Was that all? Zuko was already planning to do that once things were safe. "I promise," Zuko said. Katara would return with him as his beloved and honored wife. Their child would be his heir. Both Katara and the baby would never want for anything.
Lady Kanna threw her arms around Zuko and pulled him to her ample bosom.  "Old as I am," she said. "I've never lived in a world without this war. I'd like to live long enough to see peace."
Zuko sighed. "I'm tired. I just want to go home. When the Northern Armada gets here, I'm going to sue for peace."
Being sick of this war and wanting it to end were sentiments most of the world could understand. But Zuko was in the rare position of being able to do something about it. So Zuko swore that he would do all he could to set things to right.
An urgent knocking at the door disturbed the pregnant silence that had fallen between Zuko and Lady Kanna.
"What is it?" Zuko said. He rose to see what was the matter.
Jee's frantic breathing was audible from the other side of the door. "It's the Northern Armada."

Yue had gone for a stroll to get some fresh air, leaving Katara alone to weave by the fire.
"Be back soon," Katara said. Night had fallen, and it was now dark.
The heartburn was returning. The same heartburn that had made it difficult for Katara to sleep the past few weeks. Katara focused on her weaving to take her mind off her illness and her restlessness.
The blanket she was making for the baby featured the ubiquitous shades of Water Tribe blue with some subtle touches of red as a nod to the baby's Fire Nation heritage.
Katara took the heartburn as a sign that her child would be a fire bender like its father. The symptoms a woman experienced during pregnancy were said to predict something about the infant she will have.  Katara's mother had a hard time holding her bladder while Katara was in her womb and suffered so terribly from chills that she had to spend the entire night months wrapped up in furs.  Because of this, Chieftess Kya knew almost from the beginning that her unborn daughter would be a water bender. The mothers of earth benders were moody during their pregnancies and had awful bouts of diarrhea. Expectant Air Nomad women had such horrible flatulence that their husbands made them sleep in separate tents.
A little heartburn didn't seem so bad in comparison.
When Yue returned, she appeared in the entranceway, flushed and breathless. "The Northern Armada had arrived," she said. "Sokka and your grandmother have gone to meet with the commander."
Katara's heart skipped a beat. Was there going to be a battle? "What about Zuko?" she said.
"Zuko's the one who called the meeting. The word is that he's going to sue for peace."
Katara blinked.  It all felt too unreal. This war had been going on since before anyone alive could remember. Was it really so close to being over?

Katara's heartburn was the least of the reasons why she couldn't sleep. A thousand possibilities, ranging from everything she loved going up in flames or sinking beneath the waves to a triumphant arrival in the Fire Nation as Zuko's wife and Fire Lady, flashed through her mind. She tossed and turned until she finally gave up on sleep and sat up in her cubby. Staring into the darkness, her eyes grew heavy but refused to stay shut, despite lulling from Yue's gentle snoring in the cubby next to her.
An eternity passed as Katara pondered what her fate might be. A tragic widow, a despised traitor, or a young woman whose life was cut short by childbirth? The consort of a respected leader, the mother of a beloved heir, or a romantic heroine?
Sokka's heavy boots stomping around in the mudroom took Katara out of her trance.
"I'm back," he said when he stuck his head through the entranceway.
Katara reached over to the sleeping cubby next to her and shook Yue awake. "It's Sokka."
"It's all over." Sokka came over and kissed Yue's hair. "Our kid will grow up in a world at peace." He then crushed Katara in a bear hug. "And I made it abundantly clear to Fire Lord Hot-Head that he'll have another war on his hand if he doesn't treat my little sister like a queen."
Katara sighed. Her brother meant every word of this.