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Azula had been warned during Katara’s first pregnancy that she should expect some mood swings, but they never really came.
To be fair, it may have been because she was too busy freaking out about every little detail to notice anything like that.
This time around, things were different.
The first was that she refused to go to the Fire Nation to give birth this time, which Azula agreed to rather swiftly.
The next thing was that every little thing seemed to cause an argument, which inevitably led to an extended period of anger.
For that day, the argument was predicated entirely on the pile of dishes that needed to be cleaned.
Azula assured her that she would do them after first helping Sokka with his induction for his new ‘warriors’ and then picking Kya up from her healing lesson, but time simply got away from her.
A few months ago, this wouldn’t have been a problem.
The waterbender would have just reminded her of the task and then moved on with her day.
While in the midst of growing a person, all rationality left her and she exploded the moment that Kya scurried off to her room.
This naturally meant that Azula refused to do the task out of principle.
Now, it was night and Kya was tucked into her side as she just finished reading her favourite story.
The young girl could hardly keep her eyes open as she asked, “is mama still mad at you?”
Azula brought her hand up, ran it through her daughter’s thick hair and shook her head “everything’s fine, don’t worry.”
Kya yawned as her mother dropped a kiss to her forehead and replied, “I can’t wait till the baby’s here…”
Azula extricated herself from her side and said, quietly, “neither can I,” and then, more loudly, “goodnight, Kya.”
”Night mommy.”
Azula took a moment to stare at her daughter, it was an excellent reminder of what all of the mood swings were for before she slipped out of the room.
After a momentary hesitation, she made her way through the igloo until she made it to the room she shared with her wife.
She was not at all surprised to find said wife sat against the headboard with her arms crossed over her chest below her stormy face.
Azula tried to remind herself that she’d faced worse than this as she entered the room further.
“Kya’s asleep,” she announced, beginning the process of removing her furs.
She didn’t get very far though, as Katara asked, “have you done the dishes yet?”
“I’ll do them in the morning, Katara,” Azula sighed.
Katara’s hand snapped down to the other side of the bed.
“That means you’re sleeping in the snow,” Katara replied obstinately.
Azula stepped back, in the hopes of giving her wife the full view of her incredulity as she said, “Katara, I’m not going to sleep in the snow just because you…”
“Asked you to do something that you refuse to do?” Katara shot back.
“Katara, you cannot be serious!”
“You can come back to this bed when the dishes are done,” Katara said.
“And if I refuse, I have to sleep in the snow?” the princess asked.
“Yes, I’m sure you can make yourself a fire,” Katara replied.
Azula stared at her wife, searching for any sign that this was a ridiculous joke, even if there was never any indication that was something that she would find amusing.
That was only proven to be the case as her wife continued to stare her down.
Deciding that there was no way that she would be giving in to such demands, the princess redid the top button on her furs and then grabbed a random book to take with her.
Azula moved quietly through the igloo so as not to wake their daughter but still kept up the indignation that the situation deserved.
She loved Katara with all her heart, which made it impossible to respond the way she would have in her youth.
It didn’t mean that she was going to cave to the woman’s demands though, at least when it came to the dishes.
She knew Katara well enough to know (or hope) that she wouldn’t allow her to stay out in the snow for long, she was determined that the waterbender would break before her.
As much as she hated the cold with her entire being, she figured that she’d lived here long enough to outlast her wife.
Inside the igloo, Katara sat with her arms crossed for another solid five minutes, she let them go and listened out for sounds for the next ten minutes.
She was waiting to hear any sign that her wife had gone to do the task rather than actually sitting outside.
It soon became obvious what option the stubborn woman would take, though.
For the first five minutes, she told herself that it was Azula that was being unreasonable here.
It was a simple task that could have ended this disagreement hours ago.
Once this passed, she realised that it was just that, a simple task.
It wasn’t important and Azula had taken on more responsibility since the discovery that they would be having a second child.
She most definitely did not deserve to be sitting in the snow right now, but it seemed incredibly unlikely that she would break first.
It was even less likely that Azula would go to another igloo for warmth, that would involve admitting that she was not currently allowed in her own bed.
With that in mind, she threw the blanket away from her body and stood with significant difficulty that almost reminded her why she had been in a foul mood.
Still, she pushed through the discomfort and managed to grab one of the many fleeces in the room from the side before she walked quietly through her home.
The waterbender barely flinched when the cold air hit her face but she did feel a burst of guilt as a flurry of snow followed the bitter freeze.
She didn’t dwell on it long as a sizzling had her turning left to find blue flame dispersing quickly through the air and then disappearing.
With her unopened book sunk into the snow, Azula made to release another breath of fire but stopped upon finding that she had an audience for her pathetic circumstances.
“Katara,” she sighed, “I’m not in the mood for another argument and I’m not doing those dishes tonight…”
“That’s not why I’m here,” Katara interrupted and held up the blanket.
Azula briefly narrowed her eyes at the offered item but stood up a second later to accept it.
“Is this your way of apologising?” Azula asked, but still pulled it around herself.
Katara shook her head and placed her hand into her wife’s to pull her inside, very conscious of the continuing shivering even as they passed the threshold, but made an effort to not show it on her face.
She was not entirely certain that she was the irrational one here, after all!
Still, she led Azula to their bedroom and helped her remove the soaked furs before making sure that she got under the duvet.
Azula let out a long, relieved breath as it covered her skin.
Even in furs, it was never a good idea to just sit in the snow, especially at nighttime, but she was still determined not to be the first one to break.
With Katara’s recent moods, she was beginning to think that there was a chance that she could be in that little bank of snow all night.
She got all the proof that she needed that Katara felt as guilty as she normally would as an arm silently circled her waist, pulling her closer.
Katara’s eyes remained obstinately closed as the bump touched Azula’s stomach between their bodies.
Azula couldn’t help but smile at the petulant expression on the supposedly sleeping woman’s face.
She adjusted her position a little to get into an even warmer groove of the bed before she asked, “Are you sure that you don’t want to apologise?”
Silence reigned in the room for a few seconds and Azula almost believed that her wife was sticking with the pretence that she had fallen asleep instantly.
That illusion was broken, though, as Katara replied, “I’ll apologise when you do the dishes.”
Azula allowed her hand to come to rest on Katara’s waist and let out a huff of laughter before finally closing her eyes, deciding that she didn’t want to push her luck here.
The moment they were closed, she felt a kiss placed against her cold forehead.