More ATLA fanfic

Katara had delivered enough babies to know. The sudden, sharp, pains in her stomach. The fatigue and odd cravings. But just knowing wasn’t enough. She was scared. She forced her knees not to shake as she pushed open the door to the house and almost stumbled. I am the strongest water-bender in a century. I can handle this. But being the strongest water bender wasn’t going to save her. Suki, Mai, and even Ty lee had had babies before her, but they couldn’t have been worried like this. They had her. But she didn’t. And to tell Aang. She managed to her room and lay down on the bed, her heart beating in her throat.

“Katara?” Aang’s normally cheerful voice was full of worry. “Are you okay?”
Katara sat up and nodded. She had to tell him now, didn’t she? Luckily, Aang delayed the moment by continuing.

“Are you sure? You didn’t want to go to visit Zuko on Mai’s birthday, you didn’t want to ride Appa to the beach, which you always want to do, and you didn’t want to buy a saber tooth lion moose cub, which looking back on it, was probably wise.”

“Aang?”

“Yeah?”

“I… never mind.”

“Okay. I forgot, I’m taking Appa to Toph’s metal bending school to see how she’s doing. I’m guessing you don’t want to come?”
She nodded, and tried again. “Aang, I need to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah?” He said again.

“I’m-I’m-“ And she burst into tears. Aang’s expression quickly turned to one of shock and confusion, and he rushed to her side.

“Katara, I’m so sorry?! What’s wrong?!”

She kept sobbing, unable to keep the horrible feeling that something was wrong away. She managed to calm down enough to talk after five minutes.

“Aang, I’m having a baby.” She pushed herself up on the bed again, watching for his reaction. His face went slack with amazement, and in a minute he started dancing around the room as if he’d never heard better words.

“A baby! A baby, Katara! Can you believe?! Your a mother! And I’m… so happy for you!”

“What about you?! You’re going to be a father.”

“What?!”

Katara winced at his voice. The whole fire nation could probably hear that. Aang sat hard on the floor.

“I’m going to be father?” He whispered hoarsely.

“Well, of course! What did you think we were going to do with a baby?”

“I-I didn’t think…” Then he jumped up and started dancing again, harder than before. Katara vaguely recognized it as the Phoenix flight. “I’m a father! I’m a father! Oh wow! This is soooo weird!!” Then he smacked face first into a wall.

“Aang!” Katara ran to his side, half laughing, half horrified. Aang, however, just sat up, grinned dizzily and said,

“Dad-dad-dad.” Then he fainted.

“Oh!” Katara picked him up with a sigh. With her luck, it would be anything but a concussion.

After Katara had ensured he had no brain damage, Aang hopped on Appa and went to tell everybody. He had almost decided to stay home with Katara, but she had managed to convince him to go, and told him to pick up some sea prunes on the way. She had been craving them ever since last month, but she had just ignored it as a sign of being to spoiled. The house was finally quiet, and she was finally alone. She sat in the middle of the floor, telling herself to try and relax. She had accidentally fallen asleep on the floor. A sudden banging sound and a loud: SURPRISE!!! Woke her. She jumped to her feet, her heart beating wildly. Aang, Toph, Suki, Sokka, Zuko, and all the rest of her friends stood in the doorway, holding a cake, several boxes of mochi, bags of marshmallow pears, and letters piled in their arms.

“You are lucky you have gifts!” Katara screamed. “Otherwise…” She shook her fist. “You almost gave me a heart attack!” Zuko’s shoulders drooped. Sokka blushed. Aang looked horribly disappointed. Way to make her feel guilt.

She ran and hugged them anyway. They perked up and all came inside for tea and marshmallow pears. Iroh arrived later, and gave her lots of good advice. That man seemed to have good advice about everything, though she wasn’t sure how. Maybe Iroh had delivered a baby before? He certainly hadn’t given birth to one.

“What are you going to name it?” Suki asked her. Zuko, Sokka, Toph, Iroh, and Aang were still drinking tea in the living room, but all the girls except Toph had gone out to talk.

“I’m not sure. Honestly, I only figured out a few weeks ago.”
Suki’s eyes widened. “You kept it from Aang that long?”

“Well… I wanted to be sure.”
“I don’t blame you.” Mai said. “I was going to surprise Zuko almost a month after I figured it out. If Azula hadn’t spoiled everything…” She trailed off, looking irritated.

Suki grinned. “I told Sokka right away. But then again, it took me forever to guess. I was almost a month through.”

Then the boys came out and their conversation concluded.

Six months later, Katara was still nervous. Though Zuko and Mai had to go back to the palace for fire nation duties, and Iroh had to run his tea shop, but Suki and Sokka moved in the house temporally, and Toph had built her own house in front and stationed herself as a bodyguard. Katara spent a good part of the day reading scroll after scroll of names. Her friends would give her idea’s, but after Sokka’s “Mizu” meaning “Water”, she had stopped listening to their advice. Nothing seemed to fit. Her mind suddenly flashed back to what the fortune teller said in that village so long ago.

You will die after your four grandchild.

Surely that meant that this child would live. Not many people made it through five children. So at least she was ensured that she would survive this. But would her baby? She had thought about trying to operate on herself, but then figured it would be too dangerous. She could push the baby the wrong way. She would be in a lot of pain and confusion. It just wasn’t worth the risk. She clutched her stomach as the baby kicked again. She had two weeks to go. She was healthy. The baby should come on time. The baby should be safe. Anxiety built as she thought about Suki’s baby, who had arrived a month early. If Katara hadn’t been there… and she wouldn’t be this time. If Suki’s baby had survived because of her, and her baby didn’t. She would die from guilt. She wouldn’t be able to save her baby, but she had saved someone else’s.

I’m a surviver. She said to herself. I can do this.

But two and a half weeks later, she wasn’t so sure.

Katara woke up screaming. The pain in her stomach was almost unbearable. Aang was there in a minute.

“Katara? What’s wrong?”

“What do you think?”
“Oh yeah, sorry!”1

Aang knew nothing about delivering a baby. The water bender they had hired and flew all the way from the North Pole was sleep deprived and worried.

“You’re in breech position already.” He told her. She barely heard him. She was in more pain than she had ever been in her life. And that was saying a lot. But twelve hours later a bloody, screaming baby was in her arms.

It was completely peaceful. The noise of the baby’s wails and Aang hyperventilating were blotted out by pure joy. It was just her and her baby. The water bender and Aang left the room. Then the room was really completely silent. And it lasted for about five minutes. Then she blacked out.

She woke up without her baby. She sat upright in bed, gasping.

“Where is she?! She shouted. She wasn’t even entirely sure it was a girl. But she was sure she wanted her baby back. The water bender jumped. Shet, his name was.

“She getting a bath.”

“I’ll give her a bath! Give me my baby!”
“Okay okay!” He returned five minutes later with a much quieter baby. Katara water bended a cup of water or two on her. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to manage much more.

“Where’s Aang?”

“Right-“

Aang bounced into the room.

“Here.” Shet ended with a sigh.

“Can I… touch it?”
“It has a name, Aang.”

“It does?”

“Well, he’s a boy. And… I thought we could name him after monk Gyatso. I figured you would like that.”
“Oh.” Aang’s reaction sent her stomach to the floor. But then he smiled kind of sadly. “That’s a great name, Katara.”

She sighed, relieved. There was a timid knock on the door.

“Come in.” Aang said. Their friends stood in the door, smiling and holding even more gifts. Thank the spirts, Katara thought. I know that no matter what, there will be people to take care of my baby.