Author's Note: 'Sup ~Dreamers! So I got struck with the Cupid of Inspiration on Thanksgiving Day, where I returned home fat and happy after having way too much food at my Aunt Nikki's house with my family to write the first three chapters of whatever this fic is.

I have been hit with the Lotidge train, and it only pains me that this OTP is so underrated, and that it has so little (well-written) fanfictions and fanart.

So here you go biotches.

I don't own anything of Avatar the Last Air Bender, The Legend of Korra, or Voltron – cuz I'd be rolling in it!

Enjoy ~Dreamers! And don't forget to tell me what you think by leaving a much-appreciated Review!

When the Snow Finally Melts

-One-

-Katie-

July 2012

Katie Holt was born in the Earth Kingdom, in a flourishing town on the outskirts of the Capitol. Her mother and father were both Geologists, her older brother Matt taking an interest in Astronomy. Although neither of their parents were Benders themselves, both Katie and Matt had developed a strong affinity for Earth Bending.

Things changed not long after Katie's twelfth birthday.

She had been in their back yard with Matt, sparing in a way that only Earth Bending children knew how: by hurdling varying sized rocks and boulders at one another. Matt, being a few years older than her, was faster, stronger, and more agile, his movements more precise and accurate than her own. He had cornered Katie by the stream that ran behind their house, leaving her with no ammo, at least, none that wasn't underwater, the fluid element disrupting her connection to the Earth as is lapped against her heels. There was nothing dry nearby, not even so much as a pebble to chuck at him.

"Give up?" Matt asked triumphantly, levitating two good sized boulders above his head to illustrate exactly how pinned that she was.

"You wish!" Katie smirked back, having sensed something in the stream, hopefully a loose rock. Adjusting her stance, she brought both of her arms back, feeling the familiar tug of matter as she willed her element to do her bidding, and hurl itself at her brother. But instead of chucking a rock or two at Matt, Katie had dowsed them both in water.

Katie looked at Matt, who had dropped both of his boulders in disbelief. Both siblings checked the sky. Not a cloud in sight, and there was no waterfall nearby either.

Holy shit.

Avatar Korra had passed away…around the time that Katie was born. The search for the new Avatar…was over.

Matt had run up to Katie, yelling with excitement and picking his little sister up in his arms, twirling her around proudly. Once the initial shock had passed, Katie found herself smiling, too. Several failed attempts later, and both siblings were soaked to the bone, tearing through their home sopping wet, ignoring their mother's scolding as they brought their parents the news, Katie providing a clumsy demonstration as proof.

Initially, Katie's parents had been so amazed, smiling with pride and awe with what their little girl was capable of. However, once the immediate shock had passed, Matt and Katie's parents turned serious. They warned Katie that there were plenty of people out there who would eagerly seek to use the Avatar for their own means. For political gain. For war. To threaten other citizens to do their bidding, both Benders and Non-Benders alike, with her elemental prowess.

Katie's parents warned her that the members of the White Lotus would likely whisk her away, only to drag her across the world from mentor to mentor, always watched over, but never truly free. As none of these options appealed to them, the Holt family made a unanimous decision to keep Katie's Bending a secret from the world, even pulling her from public school to teach her at home. They were determined to keep Katie's identity a secret from the world for as long as they could, at least until she was old enough to handle the pressure.

Everyone knew the bleakness that had defined Avatar Korra's life. Like Katie, Avatar Korra had debuted into the world at a young age, and both it and she were never the same as a result. She had been so full of hope and innocence, looking at the world through shining, optimistic eyes. And honestly, who could blame her for her naivety?

Others had taken hold of her, broken her mind and her body in every way possible. It was only through her lover Asami that Korra was able to find some semblance of solace, though Korra was possibly only ever able to find true peace after her death in 2000.

Katie remembered watching old footage of Avater Korra in school, as her Social Studies class studied the history of the Avatar, Korra being the only filmed with the invention of the motion picture. Katie had seen the first shots of Lorra, so full of life and energy, all too soon deteriorating into someone for a time rendered incapable of walking or taking care of herself without aid. Every fight, every encounter, every enemy had taken their toll on her, and that didn't even include all of the Spiritual stuff Korra had gone through on her own as the Avatar.

Soon, Katie began to regret discovering that she was the new Avatar.

It was her brother Matt who had kept her going. At night, once the moon had risen to its highest, he would gently nudge Katie awake to practice her Water Bending.

October 2012

It was around this time that Katie had begun to Fire Bend, both she and Matt nearly losing their eyebrows during her first attempt at literally playing with fire. They had experimented with a bonfire they made out back during a cloudless day, the Sun overhead.

April 2014

It was right after Katie had turned fourteen that she first Air Bended. Despite two years attempting to create whirl winds and gusts of air, Katie found that she was unable to Air Bend at all.

Until she fell out of the huge oak tree in their backyard, nearly plummeting four stories to her death.

She had attempted to Water Bend to break her fall, hoping to use the water from the stream in their yard. But her Water Bending was still mediocre at best, the liquid too far away to come to her aid in time. Instead, Katie flapped her arms wildly in terror, somehow creating a small vortex of wind beneath her to cushion her fall.

Matt, who had watched the entire scene play out in horror from their living room window, had dubbed Katie with the nickname Pidge henceforth.

The name stuck.

-Lotor-

January 2014

Lotor was the Prince of the Norther Water Tribe. He was seventeen when his father, Tribe Leader Zarkon, had asked him to kill for the first time.

Lord Zarkon was power hungry in every sense of the word. He was politically ruthless, and cruel in all aspects of life. Zarkon had long been vocal about wanting their Sister Tribe in the South to submit to the North once more. He had been pressuring the Southern Water Tribe with a show of arms for years, never completely dominating the South Pole, instead silencing innocents and individuals unfortunate enough to cross him.

His son, Prince Lotor, cared little for his father's needless conquest for power, seeking instead to form and strengthen alliances with other nations through negotiation wherever possible, blackmail only if he had to. As Prince of the Northern Water Tribe, Lotor had honed his skills training with some of the greatest Water Bending masters in the world. Not only was Lotor skilled with his words, but with his Bending, as well as the sword. No one dared to contend with him on either of those playing fields, both in verbal debates nor in combat of any sort, and expect to walk away unscathed, if Lotor was feeling gracious enough to let them walk away at all.

Lotor was many things, but he was not his father. The Prince had his own plans for the Northern Tribe, as well as for the world. All in good time.

However, things took a turn for the worse after his father challenged Lotor to a duel. The argument had came about as they bickered on how to deal with a certain political figure, one who had been disturbing the black market of the Water Tribe's underworld. Their duel had taken place a night the moon had been at its fullest, Zarkon lying through his teeth as he promised his son a clean match. But Lotor had known better, dreadful of whatever was about to transpire, as he had readied his stance, in attempt to prepare for the unthinkable.

And then Zarkon had Blood Bent him.

Lotor recalled all to vividly the sensation of being choked by his own blood, limbs contorted uselessly at awkward angles as his muscles painfully betrayed him. All the Prince could do was scream in fear and agony, pathetically begging his father for mercy, pride be damned. Lotor remembered the coldness in his father's gaze as he had tortured his son. Unfeeling. Uncaring. Bored, as if he were deciding what animal skin coat he would wear later.

Zarkon's next words were hazy, as Lotor began to lose consciousness, but they had been clear enough.

"I will not tolerate any form of weakness from you, or anyone else. A son who refuses to kill when told to do so is no son of mine. If the underworld boss is not dead by dawn tomorrow, then you will be," Zarkon had warned, before finally, finally, releasing Lotor's abused blood vessels from his influence.

Lotor, who had been suspended helplessly in the air as his father had levitated him by his own blood, had dropped to the ground, gasping. Lotor fought back the bile that had risen in his throat, as the sickening sound of his blood squelching in his vessels reached his ears, heart pounding rapidly, as the muscle fought to return his blood pressure to its natural rhythm.

The next day, Zarkon awoke to the head of the man he had commanded Lotor to kill at his doorstep. From that day onwards, Lotor bent to his father's will, training hard his mind and body day after day, eventually discovering on his own that he, too, was a Blood Bender.

But unlike Zarkon, Lotor did not need a full moon.

Lotor had jumped his father in his sleep, not wanting to kill him, that would have been all too obvious. He did, however cause enough internal damage – particularly to Zarkon's brain – to knock the monster into a deep coma. Lotor ruled the Northern Water Tribe alongside his mother, Haggar, until he was twenty, while the Witch fought to keep her deranged husband with help form some of the best Healers in the Tribe.

September 2016

During his short reign, Lotor surrounded himself with those he could trust, and was able to unite the Northern and Southern Water Tribe once more. He allowed for the Southern Tribe to retain a fair amount of its hard-fought independence, his only requirement being that the two nations coordinate as allies should times of war come knocking at their front doors.

Lotor did not dare tell a soul about practically rendering his father a vegetable, especially not his poor mother, who was already long passed help. Lotor had stayed by her side, consoled her, even as he beauty deteriorated into madness, driven by her incessant need to revive her beloved husband Zarkon and return the tyrant to the throne.

And one fateful day, the Witch had succeeded.

The first thing Zarkon had enacted upon his miraculous, cursed return was attempt to murder Prince Lotor – not because he had remembered that it was his son who had attempted to kill him, but because he was just that bloodthirsty, and Lotor had been standing too close. The only reason Lotor had so mercifully been sentenced to Exile was due to Haggar's influence. Lotor had been sent to the Boiling Rock, the infamous prison no one had broken out of since Fire Lord Zuko's youth.

March 2017

After six long months in Maximum Security, Lotor was released, his Exile kept a secret from the public.

And upon returning home to the Northern Water Tribe, Zarkon had threatened to have Lotor killed. Talk about a warm welcome.

Hoping to regain at least a fraction of his father's trust, at least enough he would stop with the death threats and attempts on his life for a spell, Lotor pleaded with Zarkon, feigning innocence and sincerity, asking how he could earn his father's favor. Luckily for Lotor, the trauma to his father's brain left him with no memory of their little encounter four years prior, else Lotor would doubtfully still be breathing.

Zarkon had laughed menacingly at Lotor's pitiful display, completely fooled by his false display of fear.

"You are a failure to me in every way, Spawn. If you truly seek to please me, then bring me the Avatar," Zarkon had offered seriously.

Lotor's eyes widened in surprise, and he raised his head from his bow, as he tried to appear genuinely respectful of his father.

"But Father! The Avatar has not yet been discovered. If he or she is out there, than they are likely too young to know of their elemental affinities. Forgive me, my Lord, but I fear you ask me for the impossible." Had Zarkon truly lost his mind?

"I was not asking you, Spawn."

Lotor's lips formed a thin line, but her bowed again anyway, fist over his heart, before being dismissed by Haggar.

June 2017

Three months later, his Generals had burst into Lotor's quarters, unannounced. He had been sparring in the large room just off his sleeping chambers, which had been converted into his own personal gym, so that he could train whenever he pleased, without being disrupted.

"Enter," Lotor allowed, finding the disturbance, however unwelcome, more than a little worrying, as each of his Generals knew better than to interrupt his training for any reason short of urgent. Upon questioning them as to the nature of their visit, Axca wordlessly presented Lotor with a tablet. Lotor took the device, eyebrows raised skeptically, as he silently waited for an explanation.

"The video you're about to watch was streamed live just an hour ago," Axca began.

"And what of it?" Lotor asked as he eyed the triangular play icon.

Axca saluted him, a fist over her chest.

"The Avatar, my Lord."