#zk week

[beealexageek]

Zutara Week 2023

Day 7

Prompt: Flow

(3/3)

“Tui and La... have always circled each other in an eternal dance.”

This is the little bastard of these two:

ZK Week 2020 Day 7: Rebirth ZK Mini Bang 2021: Never too late to fall in love (again) 

Aaaaand... that’s it.

That was my contribution to this year's Zutara Week. I feel like there were little things I improved on and I'm happy with that.

@zutaraweek

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[zutaraweek]

Announcement going forward: Due to DeviantArt’s loud stance on Generative AI and general mismanagement as an artistic community over the past decade, Zutara Week will no longer be hosted on their platform.

The continuation of our yearly tradition will still take place on our main socials here on X, Instagram, and Tumblr—but we are currently in the process of creating our own space to serve as an archive of all past works.

This is in hopes of having one central Zutara Week resource that the community can access without having to log in to our various socials!

Stay tuned for future announcements regarding this, and the upcoming Zutara Week dates for 2024!

Thank you all for sticking around!

[ro994art]

🌊 Katara and Zuko 🔥

For Zutara Week 2023 (Prompts: "Union" and "Flow")

I had originally sketched/planned this for my 4 Ship Challenge, but ultimately swapped these two for, funnily enough, another Water/Fire ship, Wade and Ember xD But I decided to save it for a special occassion, and what occassion more special than the 15th Zutara Week! (Not to mention the trailer for the live-action remake made me had these two in mind again, so, great timing all around x3)

This is my second ever contribution to a Zutara Week, but hopefully it won't be the last, because I really love these two.

I'm really proud of how this turned out, especially the water ^_^

[pineapple-frenzy]

Ahaha I missed zutara week again this year :'> I was way busier this week than I thought I would be. Thank god my prof moved the deadline cause ain't no way can I finish an animation by tonight ajskaidlsk anyways, since the deadline got moved I decided to take a break from it and draw some zk :>> happy zutara week!!

[termaitz]

Day 6 of Zutara Week (@zutaraweek) 2022: Closeness

i present to you... Katara healing Zuko post-Agni Kai amidst a light drizzle of ash.

find more of my art on instagram and twitter!

[burst-of-iridescent]

Hi, I’m new to the zutara fandom. Why does it seem like every month is a zutara month or every week zutara week? What does it mean?

don’t worry anon, there’s only one actual zutara month and zutara week! but the fandom is so creative and cool that we’re constantly having zutara events of some kind, which is why it can seem like there’s always something going on haha.

but you know, in the immortal words of mae whitman, katara’s voice actress:

[fabdante]

some zk week wips of this years chief kya au comic, mainly because i love suki and yue being here for gossip and drama

[the-badger-mole]

Magic Mirror Part 2

After a while, Zuko gave up calling for help. Some time after that, he quit pacing and thought. He couldn't get out the way he came in. That didn't mean there was no other way out. Zuko held his hand out and called up a flame, and sighed with relief when fire licked his fingertips. The darkness wasn't dispelled far, but he could now see a few feet ahead of him, and he realized that he was standing on a dark marble floor. He followed it cautiously, wary of what might be waiting outside his bubble of light. After a while of walking, his fire glinted off of something. He paused and stared the circular hole. His fire was reflecting back at him. Hesitating just a moment, he put it out and found himself looking out into a darkened room. A room he recognized. He was in one of the empty bedrooms in the summer palace. His father's if he recalled correctly. Zuko surged forward, pressing on the glass, but it didn't budge. He was in the summer palace, or at least in the mirrors. That was something. Zuko picked up running along the corridor again, stopping an looking out of different mirrors in the hallways, the bathrooms, the foyer. Finally, he came upon an occupied room.

Katara sat in the library, relishing in a rare moment alone. She'd found an old romance novel and was idly skimming it when the door opened. Zuko watched in horror as he walked in. What would this doppelganger do to her? He beat his fist on the glass and screamed Katara's name. He needed to get out of this prison! How could he make himself heard?

"Katara!" Zuko screamed. She frowned, and started to turn. She had heard him! Zuko doubled his efforts, screaming and banging his fists on the glass until he was certain it would break. But the other Zuko slipped between Katara and the mirror, and smooth as a serpent, sat down beside her. He sat down right beside her. Katara's attention was drawn away from looking for the source of the sound and was now nervously focused on the boy beside her.

The mirror creature was murmuring something to her. Zuko pressed himself against the glass, trying to hear what was going on, but the sounds were muffled and both Katara and the creature were speaking too low. Zuko watched in growing horror as the Mirror Zuko leaned closer to Katara and began playing idly with the end of her hair. Katara's face had gone red, and her eyes were wide with surprise, but she made no attempts to move away. Not even a few moments later when he got even closer, until their noses were almost touching. Katara's eyes fluttered, her lids lowering until they were almost shut. Zuko stopped breathing as the mirror creature leaned in to close the last little bit of space...

Katara's eyes flew wide open and she gasped. A moment later, the door of the library burst open, and suddenly Katara was on her feet with the sofa between her and the boy still leaning forward for a kiss. Sokka rushed in, shouting excitedly about his success in mastering a sword fighting technique. He wanted to show them in the courtyard, and asked Zuko to spar with him to show it off. Katara nearly ran after her brother, casting one last pondering glance at Zuko. The mirror creature waited until they were gone before his pleasant smile twisted into a dark scowl.

Zuko banged on the glass of his prison again, shouting for the creature's attention. At first, Zuko thought it couldn't hear him, but then it smirked, turning it's head slightly in Zuko's direction, but not looking directly at him.

"I can see why you like her," it said, it's voice muffled as if it were speaking through a closed window. "I think I will, too."

"You stay away from her!" Zuko shouted, pummeling the glass again. "You stay away from all of them!" The creature just chuckled and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Zuko ran down the dark corridor, frantically looking through mirrors for a glimpse of his friends. They must have been outside, because he couldn't find them in any of the rooms. His throat was growing sore from screaming for anyone who could hear him, and his body was sore from sprinting the hall and beating on the glass. He slumped against a wall, allowing exhaustion to catch up with him. Despair, he thought, would come any minute, but to his distant surprise, it hadn't. After all, this was par for the course for him. Perhaps he never considered his fate might be exactly this- trapped in some horrible mirror world while he watched his doppelganger take his place among his new friends, and make moves on the girl he...- it was still not surprising to him that just when he thought his life had taken a turn for the better, something terrible would happen. At least he wouldn't have to wait long for death, he reasoned. He was already hungry and thirsty. He figured dehydration would kill him a few days. He just hoped he would have a chance to warn his friends about the imposter before he went.

"You won't die here."

Adrenaline surged through Zuko's body like a bolt of his sister's lightning. Every hair on his body was standing on end, and he instinctively fell into a defensive crouch, facing the direction the voice had come from. At first, he saw nothing, but he expansive darkness, but then he noticed a figure- tall and pale- approaching him from the pitch dark. He was glowing, Zuko realized with a start. The man had long white hair and a carefully sculpted beard. His hair had been pulled into a top knot with a small flame securing it. Through the shrouding of ethereal light, Zuko recognized that he wore the formal robes of Fire Nation nobility.

"It is so good to meet you, my grandson," the man said smiling. "I am Avatar Roku." Zuko gasped and stumbled backwards. He saw the resemblance now. Roku had the same nose as his granddaughter Ursa. The same mouth. The same slant to his eyes. The features Zuko had inherited. He could only gape at the older man- no, the spirit.

"A-am I dead?" he asked. Roku chuckled and shook his head.

"Thankfully, no," he said. "And you won't die here. It'll be uncomfortable for you, but you're essentially immortal here, although you'll still feel hunger and thirst and such. But none of that matters, because we are going to get you out of here."

"What is this place?" Zuko asked.

"You're in..." Roku paused and looked around thoughtfully. "Let's call it an annex of the spirit world. You see mirrors can serve as a sort of gateway, if you know how to use them. "

"How do I get out?" Zuko "I'm not even sure how I got in!"

"You got caught by a lesser spirit," Roku explained. "Some of them are nasty buggers, but mostly harmless. Unfortunately, your grandfather, Azulon was attempting to recruit spirits to fight for him, and foolishly didn't see to it that all the portals he tried to open were sealed."

"Of course," Zuko groaned, rolling his eyes. "It's not enough that I pay for my own sins, I still have to deal with my family's, too?"

"That is, unfortunately, what comes with the territory," Roku sighed sadly. "You will one day be the Fire Lord, and it will be your duty to make amends for the sins of your forebearers. But compared to untangling the mess of the spirit world, that'll be a cake-walk. Especially, if you keep the right people by your sides." Zuko stared at Roku, mystified.

"Are you sure you're related to me on my mother's side?" he asked. "Because you sound just like my uncle." Roku chuckled and shook his head.

"I know of your uncle Iroh, and I respect him a great deal," he said. "I'd be happy to claim him as a grandson, but no. The only connection I have to that side of your family was my friendship with your great-great-grandfather. Now, to get you out of here."

Zuko was waiting once night fell and everyone began to turn in for the night. Roku had gone some time ago, wishing his grandson luck, and Zuko was alone. Finally, the door to the bedroom swung open and Katara entered. He waited until she had shut the door and lit her lamp to begin banging on the mirror and shouting her name. This time, Katara heard him immediately. She looked over at the mirror in confusion and gasped.

"Zuko?" Her mouth hung open in shock.

"Please! Don't freak out," Zuko begged her. Katara stood rooted to the spot, gaping at him. She looked over her shoulder, towards where she had just said good night to her friends, Zuko among them. Then back towards her mirror in confusion.

"What?" she whispered, taking a cautious step forward. Zuko slumped against the glass in relief.

"It's me Katara," Zuko told her.

"Zuko?" She got closer, inspecting the mirror. She looked behind it to see if there was a door or something she hadn't noticed before, but the mirror was attached to the dressing table, leaving a gap of several inches between the back of the mirror and the wall. She moved in front of the mirror and frowned when she saw her reflection in front of Zuko. "How are you doing this?"

"I'm trapped!" Zuko told her. "That-that thing out there, it isn't me. I was in the woods, and there was this huge mirror, and when I looked into it, that thing grabbed me and trapped me in here. You have to believe me! That isn't me out there!" Katara stared at him for a long moment before shutting her eyes and taking a deep, shaky breath.

"I believe you," she said. Zuko hadn't been expecting that. He had planned a whole list of proof of what he was saying, but it all flew out of his head.

"You do?"

"I knew something was off when he came back," Katara explained. "He was acting weird, and he didn't know where the dining room was. And then later he almost...I saw him close up and I realized his scar was on the wrong side."

"What?" Zuko gasped. He hadn't noticed. He hadn't even paid attention to that.

"I thought I was crazy," Katara said. "No one else said anything, so I thought maybe I was wrong, but..." Her eyes swept over his face and she nodded slightly. "I was right."

"Thank Agni," Zuko sighed. He leaned forward, resting his forehead against the glass. His throat closed around a sob and he thought for a moment he would weep with relief.

"How do we get you out?" Katara asked, pulling Zuko's focus back.

"He needs to look in a mirror," Zuko explained quickly. "He's part of this world- the spirit world- so any mirror will do to bring him back in." Zuko was glad when Roku told him that although the spirit needed Zuko to look in that specific mirror in the woods, he didn't need the spirit to go back there. He didn't think he could guide any of his friends to the right spot, let alone trick a spirit who had no inclination to go back there.

"I don't know how to get him to look, though," Zuko said. "He purposely avoided looking in the one in the library.

"Y-you were in the library?" Katara's face went suddenly red, and then Zuko's face flushed, too.

"I-I was just looking for a way out," he said. "I wasn't spying." Katara dropped her gaze and shifted on her feet.

"It's..." she huffed and shook her head. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. I have an idea. Just wait here for me. Don't move, okay?"

"Alright," Zuko said. Then Katara grabbed one of the tarps that had been covering the furniture when they arrived, and threw it over the dressing table. Zuko was plunged into darkness. His pulse quickened, but he swallowed hard and forced himself not to panic. He could trust Katara.

A few minutes later, he heard the door open again. There were low voices and some giggling that sounded like Katara.

"We have to be quiet," Katara was saying. "If my brother catches you in here, he'll kill you."

"Oh?" Zuko heard his doppelganger chuckle. "Don't worry, love, I can keep a secret." They stopped talking for a long, uncomfortable stretch. Zuko tried to peer through the tarp, but it was too thick. He heard footsteps stumbling across the room.

"No," Katara said sharply. "Not the bed. We're not quite there yet."

"Whatever the lady wishes," the mirror creature purred. There was another stretch of quiet. The footsteps stumbled closer and Zuko heard them bump against the dressing table. Then suddenly the tarp fell away and Zuko saw himself and Katara locked in a passionate embrace for a split second before the mirror creature glanced up and found himself staring into Zuko's scowling face. He only had moments to act. Zuko felt the moment he connected with the spirit, and he reached through the mirror- now as liquid as when he was pulled through- and grabbed the creature's throat with both hands. Then the yanked him forward and pulled him through.

On this side of the mirror, the creature no longer looked like him. It was a small, shadowy figure cowering before Zuko. Remembering Roku's instructions, Zuko didn't hesitate. He called up a ball of fire a hot as he could manage and incinerated the creature. It wasn't dead, Roku had warned him, but it would be a long while before it would be able to pull itself together. That done, Zuko launched himself at the glass, landing in a heap at Katara's feet. She reached down and hauled him to his feet, studying his face carefully.

"It's you, right?" she said.

"It's me," Zuko assured her. Katara still looked dubious.

"What did I offer you in the caverns beneath Ba Sing Se?" she asked. Zuko winced, remembering that day.

"To heal my scar with the spirit water," he replied. Katara melted in relief.

"I mentioned that day to the mirror thing," she said. "And he had no idea what I was talking about. He thought we'd had some kind of tryst. I figured it was as good a reason as any to get him into my room."

"Smart," Zuko mumbled. He looked down at his feet, trying to let go of the sudden pang of anger in his stomach.

"I'm glad you're okay," Katara said, hugging Zuko. He relaxed into her embrace. But gradually, as the fear from his ordeal receded, a new realization dawned on him. Katara hadn't known the mirror creature had taken his place in the library, and she hadn't been opposed to a kiss from him. That thought chased away what lingered of his jealousy, and hope sprang up in it's place. Maybe, he chuckled to himself, the mirror creature had done him a favor after all.

The next day, he would take his friends and destroy his grandfather's spirit portal. Then he would find the pond he'd been looking for and take Katara there. It would be the perfect spot to confess his feelings.

Part 1

@zkmythicalcreaturesweek

Prompt Day 3: Cure

[lifewtr]

and the difference is this | M+ | 1/7

After a horrible moment that leaves her befuddled, Katara seeks out the most undesirable route to her problem. For Zutara Week 2023 (@zutaraweek), Day 5 + 6: Respite, Forge.

Katara stares at the envelope in her lap. Sighs. The bleak scent of antiseptic clean burns its way up her nose and stings at the back of her eyes, pricking harshly at her tear ducts. 72 hours in this hospital bed, and you’d think she’d be used to the smell of 99.99% nothing by now.

“..checked for underlying abnormalities, of course. There were none,” her doctor, an older woman with a shock of long, white hair, continues explaining details that flow through one ear and out of the other. Katara understands innately, by the tone of the doctor’s voice, that the woman is only trying to do her job in reassuring her that everything is going to be fine; at least, as fine as can be considering the circumstances, but...

‘But,’ Katara thinks as she stares, unseeing, at the corners of the paper, ‘it seems the shock has finally caught up with me.’

Just yesterday—no. Three days ago, Katara had landed in Yu Dao with nary a thought to her wellbeing aside from, maybe, the headache she would surely acquire from the week of back to back meetings that had awaited her. Always the prepared one—always mindful of her blood and the disdain the rest of the world tended to dish at those like her because of it—she had carefully and meticulously planned her trip in order to encounter the least amount of resistance possible. Her cycle was on track. The usual scent and pheromone suppressants necessary to navigate life outside of the South Pole were introduced into her system normally, just two weeks prior. She had even gone out of her way to get well and thoroughly debauched the night before her morning flight—just in case.

Imagine her surprise when, only a few short hours after checking into the lodging at the Embassy and venturing out for something to eat, she’d nearly fainted with the dizzying onset symptoms of pre-heat.

She hadn't been able to get to the nearest emergency clinic fast enough. In hindsight she discerned that returning to the Embassy was the smarter thing to do, but in her bit of panic, in her bit of pre-heat, the only thing that had been on her mind was making it fucking stop.

The emergency clinic staff had gotten one whiff of her—one look at the wad of cash she’d dug out of her purse—and then promptly stuck her in an empty room in an unoccupied wing. Three cups of ice chips and a hefty injection of the fastest-acting heat inhibitor on hand later, Katara remembered who she was, where she was, why, and did not stay for paperwork or questions.

Thank La for money.

Frazzled, upset at her body’s strange bout of betrayal, and undeniably starving after the brief stint of overtime her immune system had just pulled, Katara ordered delivery on her walk back to the Embassy in the hopes that it would arrive before she did. ‘The most random thing just happened,’ she’d texted Suki the details, not one to alarm the entirety of her family if it wasn’t bad-bad, and left a shorter, though similar voicemail for her primary care physician back home. The instant relief of the heat inhibitor and the late-summer air of the evening on her walk back to her lodging had calmed her into concluding that it really was a freak occurrence—it wasn’t her first time in Yu Dao, but she did used to get ill when hopping from country to country as a kid. She’d concluded, with the distant mind of someone used to compartmentalizing their immediate issues in the face of tasks-needing-to-be-completed, that the incident was similar. She took a plane into the city this time around, and maybe she should just stick to boats.

The food she’d ordered had indeed been waiting for her by the time she’d flashed her badge at the guards posted at the Embassy’s western entrance, and then again at the receptionists desk where she gleefully collected it from. ‘See? Everything is fine,’ she’d told herself while swiping the keycard to her suite. She felt good, considering, and then even better once she’d tucked into her steaming plate of korma-smothered komodo chicken. She reviewed a few notes on her tablet while she sipped away at her rose-milk, as she definitely would be at that meeting first thing in the morning, and did not resist when fatigue finally poked at her.

‘Fine,’ she remembers thinking after she had finally showered; after she had taken an actual, no-nonsense moment to observe her physical state with the glow of her own hands. Clean, lotioned, and not at all freaking out anymore, Katara had set out her clothes and gone to bed.

Three hours later she woke up shaking. Burning. Covered in icy sweat and so nauseous that her vision dotted black in her efforts to roll over and flick the bedside lamp on.

“Oh,” she remembers gasping out, guttural and disgustingly sick with the scent of her own over-ripeness; with the aching, pulsating flare of painful need that had suddenly wracked through her womb, “what the fuck.”

read AND THE DIFFERENCE IS THIS in full on AO3! ↬

[jasmine-tea-latte]

When the ZK antis are trying to spread their toxicity yet again but you're too busy living your best life shipping ZUTARA and having ✨FUN✨ unlike those lame haters:

So the next time you hear "iT's NoT cAnOn" just tell them to SMILE and thank them for letting us live in their minds rent free for 15+ years 💜

(and yes, I redid the gif from the OG post because that's been bugging me all this time ahahahaha)

[beealexageek]

Zutara Week 2023

Day 1

Prompt: Home

(1/3)

[ID: This situation could have happened before or after they started their relationship… or both, you decide. Personally, I like to think that before starting their relationship, Zuko screamed internally like a fangirl when he had the slightest physical contact with Katara, even if she only praised him. Because obviously he was the one who fell in love first. I have no proof but no doubt either.]

@zutaraweek

🧡 Become a Patreon!

❤️ You can also support me on ☕ Ko-fi

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[zutaraweek]

;) Save the dates!

[stardust948]

In celebration of ZK Mythical Creature week countdown, here are some concept sketches for the 2022 prompts.

[perfectlypanda]

Important ZK Week 2022 Update!

The original mod for @zutaraweek​ has resurfaced on Twitter to confirm that they are running the even this year! Yay!

I had shared the dates and prompts we have come up with them, but I have no idea if they’ll want to adopt them or not. If you had started planning based on them, I’d suggest pausing (unless you just want to continue just because you were inspired by a prompt, then go for it!). I’ll be adding a disclaimer to those posts to make sure people are aware that they’re no longer official. 

Thanks to everyone who was supportive as we tried to get backup plans made, and I’m very excited that we can look forward to @zutaraweek​’s 15th anniversary!

[pineapple-frenzy]

Kith for u~

[burst-of-iridescent]

the official atla youtube channel taking every chance to shit on their own endgame couple is so fucking funny LMFAOOO i’m crying