Disclaimer: Don't own.
A/N: Another idea from capslock_atla over on livejournal. This one is for yukinoomoni!
"What are you doing?" Sokka asked his sister.
"Trying to make stewed sea prunes. Can you get Mom for me?" Katara stared at the pot before her. The sea prunes didn't look right or taste right and she was close to tears. All she wanted to do was make some for Bato! He was coming back with the other men from their fishing trip and she wanted to make something special!
"Why are you making sea prunes?" Sokka had a good idea why she was making them, but he always liked making her admit it.
"I know Dad is coming back today, we got the signal this morning. I just wanted to make something for that," Katara fully knew what Sokka was trying to get her to admit but she had learned to dodge his teasing by now.
"Sure, whatever you say. I'm sure Bato will love it."
"I hope he will! I worked so-hey! No fair!" She called after him as he ran out to go find their mother.
Sokka found Kya talking with some of the other women of their village. "Mom," he said in that annoyed voice only children have, "Katara needs your help. She's trying to make stewed sea prunes."
Kya was surprised. She was certain that Katara had never learned how to make sea prunes and that she didn't really know how to use spark rocks. Suddenly images of her daughter on fire flashed through her head. "Is she all right?" She quickly asked Sokka.
"Sure, she's just mad because they don't taste right," Sokka offered. As soon as her heart started beating again Kya followed Sokka to their home.
"Mom," Katara looked close to tears. "I was just trying to make these as a present and they don't taste right or look right and I thought I knew the recipe!"
"Oh sweetie," Kya soothed wrapping her arms around Katara. "You should have asked for help."
"I wanted to do it for myself!"
Kya sighed. This probably had something to do with her puppy-seal crush on Bato. She couldn't wait for her daughter to grow out of it. At the beginning it was cute, now it was bordering on obsessive. She had over heard Katara telling her doll about how she was going to marry Bato when she was sixteen and that her dad would be ok with this because they were best friends.
"Here, lets see what you have and if there is a way to salvage it," Kya offered.
"Ok."
Kya took a spoon full of the mixture (it was thick, how did the girl make it almost like blubber?) and tried very hard not to grimace at the taste. There was, in fact, blubber in there all right and a lot of salt and possibly a sea prune or two. There was absolutely no way that Kya could think of to save this.
"I think," she began knowing this wasn't going to be something the girl wanted to hear, "that maybe you should bring some of the seal jerky you helped make last week. And sometime soon I'm either Gran Gran or I will be able to teach you how to make stewed sea prunes."
Katara's eyes still shined with unshed tears but she muttered "ok" and ran to grab some of the jerky.
"Mom its over half gone already!" Kya knew exactly who had eaten the other half. Sokka was packing away food left and right and she honestly had no idea how the boy was still fitting into his clothes.
Bato disembarked with the rest of the men. He was happy to be back, even more so because they had an excellent catch.
"You're shadow is here," Kato teased as he finished tying off the boat. Bato turned and sure enough Katara was obviously trying not to run up to him with a bag of something in her hands. The girl was his best friend's daughter and all but still, she was beginning to get annoying.
"Hi Katara. What do you have there?" He really, really hoped it was something edible and not like her doll or something.
"I helped Mom make jerky last week. I thought you'd like some!" She beamed at him. He had to admit this whole crush thing was cute and he could hardly say no to her.
"Thank you. Did you bring any for your dad?" Katara's face fell.
"Oh I forgot to bring some for Dad!"
"I'm sure he'll understand. Has Sokka eaten the rest?"
"No. Mom's mad that he already ate half of it though. Daddy!" Katara yelled seeing Hakoda by the ship.
"Oh did you grow while I was gone?" He asked picking Katara up with a happy grunt. Bato watched the two happily interact before making his get away.
"Water work for me!" Katara yelled at the bucket of water she had. Her current attempt to make a frozen heart for Bato looked more like a lumpy ice ball than anything else. Honestly what good was being a waterbender if she couldn't bend a stupid heart!
"Whatcha doing?" Sokka asked chewing on a piece of jerky.
"Playing with magic water," she growled. On that note Sokka left. He usually got soaked when Katara did this and he was very happy to be dry.
Katara threw her hands up in frustration and, without noticing it, created a crack in the side of her house. This brought Hakoda and Kya outside to see what Katara was up to. One blown out wall was enough to warn them than upset or frustrated Katara meant destruction. It was times like these that the couple wished there was another bender in the South Pole so they could know how to help her control this.
"Sweetie what's wrong?" Kya asked.
"It won't work!" Katara pointed to the lump in her hands. The parents looked at it and knew; they knew this was for Bato. They shared a look and decided now was the best time to discuss Katara's insane little crush.
"Katara," Hakoda began, "I think we need to talk about some things. Like how you keep following Bato around." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and began to explain, with Kya's help, that Katara didn't need to be pushing herself at Bato so much and that she was a little too young to even need to worry about who she was marrying. When the time came she would know, they said. They also asked her to practice waterbending a little farther from home.
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