1. Calor

Katara would have given anything during the coldest winters in the South Pole for a little heat. She heard stories of blistering summers in the Fire Nation, with hot winds and showers that only made the intensity worse. But she did not care at the time, huddling next to her parents and brother for warmth under several bundles of fur and trying to remember what warmth felt like as her feet grew numb.

As Fire Lady, however, she found it nothing short of ironic that she wanted the exact opposite. She did not mind the monsoon season, but the heat, the heat! Autumn carried the hint of the record summers, spring was warm enough that she never put on a long-sleeved robe, and winter—when it should be cool—was merely temperate. Oh, it did snow, but in the northernmost climates, and it did rain and mist a bit in the coastal towns—but at the heart of the Capital, in the middle of a dormant volcano? It was almost an insult to her childhood of quilted snow and howling winds.

Fire Nation summers were the worst and forever changing—scorching so much that she felt as if she were slowly turning on a spit over the hottest part of the fire, the sun glaring down at a constant temperature so that everything baked and cooked, steamy and stifling like the large sauna she and Toph visited in the Fancy Lady Day Spa, oh La! Nothing escaped the heat, and it made everyone in the Palace temperamental, when the Fire Nation was already arguably the most so of the four nations. Katara saw the noblewomen being followed by the steady steam of sweating servants keeping up a shaking but steady breeze with large fans, dressing as lightly as they could in thin silks without straying from Court protocol. The noblemen fumed in their heavy robes and groaned and complained, sipping cool cups of wine as they sprawled listlessly in meetings and dinners.

Katara thanked the spirits that she was a Waterbender. She thanked the spirits that her husband undertook each of her concern with firm devotion, as if planning a battle, showing her the cool storerooms underneath the kitchens, placing cool drinks within her reach during meetings, redirecting a bit of heat from her body, and taking her for a week to the South Pole or Ember Island, depending on their duties. She also thanked the spirits she had a little boy in the winter so she did not labor in sweat and agony as many Fire Nation women did in high summer. She loved his dark curls and gold eyes and his sweet and inquistive nature, but realized soon enough he'd inherited both her brother's wild spirit and her husband's love for warmth, the sun.

The boy loved to run, tearing off in the heat, and Katara would sigh, reluctantly drawing herself out of the shade, and follow him to make sure he didn't get into any mischief. She tried to get him to play in the fountains or sit with her near the turtleduck pond, but to no avail. He raced with himself into the blazing sunlight to the training grounds, watching guards and sometimes his father spar with an open mouth and clumsy mimicry, or sneak down to the stifling pastry kitchens, heated with the cloying smell of glaze and syrup, to beg for a treat before dinner. His favorite season was summer, and he seemed to develop new bursts of energy when the time came, jumping out of bed at dawn and avoiding going to sleep in his candle-lit bedroom until Katara, Zuko, and as few guards, including a swearing Jee, had chased him around the palace.

"He's certainly your son," she remarked to her husband with joking annoyance when he came back from another meeting, watching with amusement as she hauled him from the Fire Nation Royal Sauna, where he had discovered he could sit in a whole room of steam and dash through rising mists, pretending he was one of the dragons the Avatar and the Fire Lord told stories about. Her hair had strayed from her crown with sticky strands pasted onto her sweaty face, the rest forming puffs of curls to her thick hair. Zuko had laughed and patted her hair until she drenched him from head-to-toe with the heated steam from the sauna.

"He has Sokka's...personality," he replied with a short chuckle. "The guards and nurses tell me he's always trying to take the hot air balloons out for a ride or climb some tree to reach an egg tart cooling on a windowsill."

She groaned. "He's going to be a handful when he gets older."

"He is already two handfuls. And we love him."

"Yes," she admitted softly, stroking back his hair from his forehead. "He's always in the heat—I bet I know what sort of bender he's going to be."

Katara and Zuko were strolling in one of the sprawling gardens as they talked, though one broke away from their handhold every few minutes to chase after the rambunctious child when something caught his eye. They followed him to the turtleduck pond, where Katara playfully tackled him onto the soft, mercifully cool grass, right near the quacking creatures.

"Shade!" She sighed, pushing up her long sleeves up and nuzzling him, nose to nose. "Can you stay here, my love?"

"No, no, no!" the boy howled with laughter as his mother tickled his tummy, and his father plopped onto the grass on his knees, tweaking his nose.

"Oh, sweetheart, it's too hot to go tearing around like some runaway carriage—" he squirmed as Katara, in vain, tried to pull him to her lap. "Come on, please."

"Have mercy on your poor mother." Zuko smiled wryly as their son began kicking furiously at the ground, grass and loose clods of dirt nearly splattering his face. "She's insufferable when she's hot—"

Katara struggled to elbow him, while trying to keep a hold on her struggling child. "You're not helping, Zuko."

The boy whimpered impatiently. He didn't understand why his father was still talking, his mother still restraining him—he wanted to be free! He wanted to be warm! Swinging his arms, stamping his feet, working up a scream—

The pond exploded, the turtleducks quacking in distress and taking flight, and a large wave crashed down on Katara's head, causing her to let go of her son in shock. Zuko had dove in front of them both belatedly, his own robes drenched and clinging to the skin, but he had no care for that just then.

They watched their son rush away gleefully, fully unaware of what he had just done.

"Well," Katara managed to say as she began to rise with wobbling knees and shaking fingers. "At least that cooled me down."

Welcome to Zutara Week 2013! If you want the list of prompts, they are:

1. Calor (Spanish word for "heat")

2. Euphoria

3. Voices

4. Gravity

5. Bound

6. Soothe

7. Spark

Zutara Week is from July 14-20, so let's see some fingers on the keyboards and words on the screen!