INTRODUCTION

Drabbles about Katara, Zuko, Kya, Zuko's daughter, General Iroh, Kya's non-canon daughter, the power of names, and the potential between water and flame.

So basically, Zutara in various forms. The rating may change.

KATARA

Katara knew she wanted to name her future daughter "Kya" after her beloved mother and for a while she knew that she would share that daughter with Aang.

But before Aang proposed to Katara, they spent a considerable time apart. Katara as an emissary of the Southern Water Tribe to the newly formed United Republic of Nations and Aang as the Avatar, traveling the globe to preserve and purvey harmony and bringing converted people to take on the livelihood of the Air Acolytes.

They would be separated for three years.

By the end of the first year, attempts at communication had lessened considerably although their love for each other was strong. Still, when Aang visited after the second, they decided that if they had to be apart then they would be, in order to prevent further and greater heartache.

So for three years, Katara helped establish Republic City and what it stood for and for three years, Katara was confused.

She knew the vision she had of her future with Aang and believed in it, in its diversity, in its truth. But she had considerable doubts.

One night, in a moment of vulnerability, Katara lashed out and Zuko was her target. He visited Republic City to buttress the effort in forming an army for the United Republic of Nations, an effort that she was deeply averse to.

During a meeting with him, Katara let her confusion and the culmination of the stresses in her daily life consume her and in a lapse of judgment and maturity, she raged. She raged like a hurricane and ravaged his office into oblivion but she did regain herself.

She fell into her friend's arms and sobbed into his robes.

Zuko folded his arms around her and softly, quietly, gently, whispered.

He whispered that he knew that she was hurt but reminded her that she was strong and would get through this.

He whispered that Aang loved her more than anything in the world but practicality and reality sometimes drives people apart.

She whispered in return that she knew that he was right and asked how he handled it when Mai left him.

He whispered that he just kept persevering; that focusing on his calling as the Fire Lord and surrounding himself with people he loved and trusted allowed him to find a semblance of peace through his struggles.

She asked if she was one of those people he loved and trusted.

He responded with reminiscing about the time she healed him, when she finally learned to trust him; how she refused to murder her mother's murderer; how from that moment on, he fully and completely respected her, trusted her and yes, loved her.

As a friend.

She healed him and she changed his life forever. He would never forget that.

She smiled.

He diverted the conversation to the issue of the army and how the United Republic of Nations perhaps did not need one since an army implies war, that forces would imply murder.

She commented on how radical pacifism is not what ended the Hundred Year War, that this new nation of an unique ideology would need a force to defend it, that her temper interfered with her acknowledgement of the pragmatic, and that he was right again.

She revealed that although she has the tendency to yell at him, that after he saved her from Azula's attack, she also fully and completely respected him, trusted him and yes, in some ways, loved him.

As a friend too.

They chuckled and then in the sudden moment, shared a chaste kiss.

But water and flame shared no further dance that night. No, that would come another time.

Still, he held her until the dawn.

After that night, Katara remained close to Zuko in a manner she did not think was possible before. But in due course, Aang returned to her and decided that even though he was the Avatar and was devoted to his calling, he wanted to be just as devoted to Katara. So he established an Air Temple in the city and he established a life with her.

And to Katara, that night was soon forgotten.

But whenever she sees her young Kya playing with Zuko's little Izumi in temples during infrequent but needed visits, she closes her eyes.

Then she wonders about what could have been.