"Happy birthday Katanya!" an ecstatic, Water-Tribe mother named Katara, says to her daughter. "I hope you like your present. It's something I've cherished all of my life." Katara gently passed the rice paper wrapped gift to her daughter as she proudly looked on.
"What is it?" Katanya asked.
"Open it and find out child." Katanya's great-grandmother said. Katanya, carefully opening it, revealed an intricately carved charm attached to a blue ribbon. While it was beautiful, she was a little confused.
"What is this supposed to be?" Katanya asked. "Some cheap last minute gift you found lying around? Gee thanks, Mom," she said, mentally rolling her eyes.
Gran-Gran looked at Katara with an annoyed expression on her face. "I knew she wasn't too bright, but I had no idea she was blind too."
Katara rolled her eyes then looked back at Katanya. "That, sweetheart, is an Official Water-Tribe Kyoto necklace. All Water-Tribe girls, who come of a certain age, are required to wear one. It's been our customs since the world began." With a devious grin on her face, Katara leaned down and whispered, "Legend has it that when you wear it, the spirits will bless you with the love that the mother had received. So there's a pretty good chance that it will make the boys start looking your way."
"And," Gran-Gran decided to add in. "It was also said to have been a powerful artifact if the symbol on the back of the necklace matched a scale on the 'Great Master'."
" The 'Great Master'?" Katanya queried.
Katara assured her daughter that she wouldn't need to know about 'The Great Master' until she was Eighteen. Fortunately, today was her Sixteenth birthday.
In any case, there was only one boy Katanya wanted to look her way. So eagerly, knowing he would be here any minute, she clasped the necklace around her neck then ran to the bathroom mirror to see how it looked on her. "It really is beautiful" she thought to herself. "I wonder if he'd think so too... He probably would..."
Katara walked up behind her to straighten out the necklace. "Do you like it?"
A single tear fell from Katanya's eye before answered in a broken voice. "Yeah mom... I love it."
Katara saw the tear shimmer from the reflection in the mirror. "Darling, what's wrong?"
Katanya's tears started coming down a bit heavier, but she controlled herself. "I... I just wish dad was here... to see this..."
Katara brought her daughter into a semi-tight hug, stroked her hair softly, and spoke in a hushed voice. "I know sweetie... we all miss him... but, he left a grand legacy behind for us to enjoy."
"Your father was a great man Katanya." Gran-Gran said after walking to the bathroom door.
Suddenly, there was a knock at their front door that broke up their 'Mother-Daughter' moment. Katanya thoroughly dried her tears and went to see who was at their door. Looking through the peephole, she saw her best friend, Maylin, standing with her mother, Toph Beifong. Immediately Katanya opened the door and embraced her friend tightly while squealing.
"Oh my god Maylin, Thank you for coming!" Katanya blurted out.
Maylin, who was being hugged to death, had been Katanya's best friend since birth. They would have each others backs through any endeavor. She, similar to her mother, was born blind. However, she is only blind in her left eye and covered said eye with bandages.
"Jeez Katanya, you mind letting me breathe?" Maylin asked jokingly.
"Oh," Katanya said as she let her friend go. "Sorry." She then looked over to Maylin's mother and smiled, cutting an honorable courtesy. "Ms. Beifong, how are you today?"
"I'm fine my dear," Toph said with a smile on her face. "Thank you so much for asking."
Maylin took her mother's hand and led her into the Avatar Family house-hold. From the Foyer leading back to the living space, the halls were decked out in party favors for a small gathering, which was to be Katanya, Maylin, and a few others. Katara replace Maylin's hand with her own, leading Toph into the dining area where respectfully the adults would conglomerate and not intervene with the festivities. She urged Maylin into the living area with Katanya, to which Maylin kindly obliged.
"That's some necklace Kat, another Water Tribe trinket?" Maylin asked her, taking notice of the jewelry around Katanya's neck.
"It isn't just some trinket Maylin... It's super important. It'll bring me luck and protect me.." Kantanya responded, clutching the necklace delicately as she looked her best friend in the eye. "I don't think I should take this present lightly, karma might come back and bite me if I do."
"Always the sensitive one.. Alright Kantanya, I apologize for hurting your necklace's feelings.." Maylin responded, mostly from a place of total sarcasm.
As time flew by, more guests arrived at the party, the pairing of parents and their respective children dispersing in the same fashion every time. Among these guests were the Firelord, Zuko, and his wife and son, Mei & Teshua. Also, Kantanya's Aunt and Uncle Sukki & Sokka along with their fraternal twin children, Mako, which was their son, and Ceréza, their daughter, were also present.
The festivities commenced and everyone present had a grand time. There were a plethora of games, a beautiful selection of music, things could not have ran smoother for another conglomerate of people. Hours go by and party guests begin to leave, all except The Firelord's family, the relatives of Katanya, and the Beifong couplet. While the parents stayed in the dining area trading stories, Kantanya and her friends socialized in the party area.
"Interesting necklace Katanya, is that the birthday present your mother got for you?" Teshua had asked her after returning to his seat from refreshing his drink.
She nodded in response, again clutching it as she became more proud to wear it. It was Teshua she wanted to notice it, and it appeared that the fates conspired to make it so. Either way, she was happy with the result.
"So, how does it feel to be sixteen, Kat?" Mako asked her. "With you being the youngest of all of us, must make ya sorta ecstatic to finally be able to play in the big leagues, figuratively speaking of course."
"Yeah, how does it feel to finally be a woman now?" Ceréza asked her, contributing to Mako's point.
"Candidly, it feels no different than being fifteen. I mean sure, there are things now that I'll be able to do and activities to dabble in... but after all, I am the Avatar's daughter. There's not much of anything that I can do now that I wasn't doing before. So, I guess that I could say that I'm happy to be older, but it's not like much about my daily routine would change much." She said in response, taking a rather long swig from her cup of punch to moisten her mouth.
"Your opinion will change soon, trust me.." Teshua objectively said, setting his drink down. "Even being the Firelord's son had it's perks when I came of age. Just wait, you'll see."
Kantanya nodded and looked over to Maylin. "What about you, Maylin? It must be nice to be the daughter of the wealthiest family in all the Earth Kingdom."
Maylin shrugged, casually leaning back against the small table in the center of the group. "It's alright, boring though. I could have the world if I asked for it, but I want for absolutely nothing. So, in my opinion, I'd actually rather see just how green the grass is on the other side. Seventeen years of being pampered and waited on can drive anyone crazy..." She turned around from her position, looking at everyone in the group. "We should all get away, like, take a vacation. Just us five."
There a was a pause as everyone looked at Maylin, taking in her suggestion.
"Our parents would never go for it. Mom and dad have a hard enough time keeping Mako and I out of trouble. Last thing they would want is for us to go away somewhere and get caught up doing something we have no business doing." Ceréza said, breaking the awkward silence.
"Father would care too much for my absence. He likes for me to be present in all of his political meetings. Not only to mentor me to take the throne one day, but also because he has appointed me as the Royal Vizier." Teshua chimed in as well. "Honestly, however, it would be quite an adventure to do some traveling on our own.."
The others nodded their heads in agreement, jeering in dispersedly.
"See that? Feel that? That longing for something more than what we're used to?" Maylin said, sitting up properly. "We deserve more than just being laid in the lap of luxury, being taken care of well into our adulthood. The summer solstice is mere months away, and we always get split up every year to go on some boring getaway with our respective families. Always staying within the limits of our own nations. With the exclusion of Katanya, we're all confined to the destiny's that our ancestors have laid out for us... I don't know about you guys, but I want something way better than some two thousand year old business plan for a refining plant.."
They were silent and still for quite some time, the only movement and sound coming from Maylin who stood up to refresh her drink. She stayed standing after refilling her glass, allowing for her words to resonate with her friends. They all sat, motionless and nervous to speak against Maylin's words, knowing just how persuading she could be when she had seemed to have her mind made up.
"It's not too terrible an idea actually.." Katanya said, reluctantly agreeing with Maylin's ideal.
"Kat! Are you serious?!" Mako asked, shocked at her words.
"What would aunt Katara say?" Ceréza asked, tapping her fingers lightly on her glass as she glanced at everyone's faces before resting her gaze on Katanya.
"As insane and delusional an idea it is, at the same time, it also wouldn't kill us to go away on a vacation for ourselves.. See the sights, become more cultured and connected with the commoners."
"Now you're talking Katanya!" Maylin exclaimed, walking over and placing Katanya in a play headlock.
"But, I'd feel better about going if we all got our parents' blessings.. And, ONLY if we all got their blessings." Katanya threw in, breaking from the lock as she looked at Maylin sternly.
"That's a comfortable enough compromise." Teshua said, smiling warmly at the lot. "I've always wanting to see Zaofu City, I heard it's beautiful in the summertime." He lifted his glass to his peers, everyone grabbing their drinks and raising them in a roasting fashion as well. "Here's to our friendship everyone, may it live on and prosper forever." Teshua delivered, as everyone came together to clink their glasses and consummate the toast.
The hours passed by, and it was clear that no one was going home. At least, not the children anyways. Their respective parents had gone home, leaving their children in safe hands in the Avatar household. Things wound down as the evening turned to night, the stars shimmering in the sky.
Teshua, finding his way away from the group to venture outside, looked up to gaze at the constellations in the sky. It was breathtaking, almost incomparable. He took in the crisp air of the night, smiling up at the sky as he sat in his night garments. The smile faded quickly as he looked down at the back of his left hand. There was a wide scar that covered most of his skin, darkening his melanin in just that one patch. The memory behind the scar caused him to cringe hard and look away from his body part.
"Enjoying the view?" A voice had asked him from behind his frame. He turned to see it was Katanya, standing in her nightly kimono and smiling down at him.
"I am actually," he responding as he smiled back at her and patted the spot next to him. "Come, enjoy it with me."
She obliged his offer and sat next to him, looking up to the sky again.
"Do you truly want to get away from the life we live Katanya?" He began to ask her, looking over to her after glancing at his hand one last time.
She sighed, bewildered behind the suggestion of her friend. "I'm safe here, that much is true. There's a definite upside to going, as well as a downside to not. It's hard to definitively wrap my head around staying with my mom all summer when I could go off and travel with you all.. What do you think?"
"Whatever we end up doing, I'll be fine as long as we're all okay.." he responded simply. This was Teshua's attitude towards everything, to take the path of least conflict. Everyone always joked about how he should've been born as a water bender, what with his laid back persona. "The last thing we need is to be separated under some form of punishment."
"My thoughts exactly.." Katanya said, leaning over onto Teshua's shoulder gently. There was a secret that she held from everyone, and it was that she had strong feelings for the Firelord's son. It's not that anyone would have a problem with their being together, she simply couldn't bring herself to speak up to Teshua about her feelings.
But, what she didn't know was that her love for him was unrequited, because he was clueless to her strong feelings for him.
He wrapped his arm around her, in a friendly manner and hugged her gently. Their eyes looked up to the stars one last time before they chose to retire to the room where everyone slept.