Title: The Proposed Results
Author: SCWLC
Disclaimer: I have cookies. Not much else though. Certainly not Avatar: Last Airbender.
Summary: Katara and Zuko are getting married. Royal weddings can be a lot of fuss. Number ten in the Proposal series.
Author's Notes: Wowsers. I've been doing this for something like five hours solid. Just so you know. Firstly, I totally ripped off huge chunks from the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project web site. I'd give you the url, but y'know, I don't want to have to struggle with the whole not letting people put up urls thing. After that, I just made stuff up like whoah, because I figured that if you're doing a royal wedding and crowning someone while you're at it, there's going to be another layer of ritual, and a royal wedding period will need extra tradition. So most of what follows is invented variation on Chinese wedding traditions. Second, Katara's finale at the end of this is totally ripped off of a far better fic than the one I'm writing here, Fandomme's "Stormbenders". The specific incident can be found in chapter 14.
Kanna shook her head in amazement over the complexity that was the wedding traditions of the nobles in the Fire Nation. So far Katara had had to spend a week on a special fasting diet of rice, water, broth, and a few vegetables to purify her for the ceremony. Zuko had spent that week in a kind of crazy self-one-upsmanship, where day after day he'd showed up at the special house on the far side of the city Kanna had to be housed in to stand in for the family home. He'd get there bearing strange gifts which she could only assume to have some ritual significance, like really ugly tiny statues made from expensive materials. It seemed like a waste of perfectly good jade to her, but she shrugged, and double checked that it wouldn't be considered rude or bad luck and promptly sold them to the nearest pawn shop for a nice fee.
When he wasn't wasting tremendous amounts of time doing excessive bending displays, the likes of which she hadn't seen since Pakku was trying to impress her back when they were both teenagers in the North Pole, he was apparently in the palace having to scarf down enough meat to make even Sokka quail. Actually, she had it from Suki that Zuko had taken to just tossing out anyone who would give him away and handing the plate over to Sokka to dispose of everything the Fire Lord couldn't finish. It was some silly tradition about giving him foods to strengthen him and his male potency or some such for the wedding night. Kanna decided it wasn't worth asking about.
She also decided not to ask about what had happened with the Avatar and some sort of fight between him and Sokka that had occurred on the palace grounds. Rumours had briefly abounded that the Avatar was going to challenge the Fire Lord for Katara, or that Sokka was blaming the Avatar for some sort of injury to Katara or slight on her honour, the rumours were too numerous to be clear. Zuko had put out an official announcement about Sokka and Aang and himself, some blather about friendship and promises to allow courting that Kanna had ignored because she'd found it was safer in the snake's nest that was Fire Nation politics to just not know.
Katara had asked for and received permission to have her 'good luck' woman be the mother of her waterbending student and ladies' maid, Shui. The maid's mother, a lovely woman named Maya, had spent literally hours muttering good luck verses as she dressed Katara's hair into a complex arrangement Kanna wasn't entirely certain they'd ever get it out of again without taking scissors to her granddaughter's hair. There were red ribbons and pink ribbons and gold ones and black, all twisted into complex braids and loops affixed into place with gold and silver pins. There were cherry blossoms every which way and roses over her ears, and although it was very beautiful, Kanna had to wonder when Katara had agreed to turn herself into a public garden.
She was now sitting in the entrance hall, in front of an altar of red and gold candles, awaiting Zuko's arrival. The dress she wore was very beautiful, Kanna had to admit. It was a brilliant scarlet colour with golden edging and the royal dragons embroidered into the silk. The top clung tightly to her figure, with a high collar, while the sleeves swelled away from her arms, long and decorative, becoming positively enormous by the wrist end. The skirt swelled out again, forming a massive train in the back, and over it all was a red and black silk robe, and a delicate veil over Katara's face.
Under it were brand new, but traditional, Water Tribe bindings. The women had generally agreed that there was no point in making her be even more uncomfortable in the Fire Nation clothing than she had to be. So the bindings were new, of a delicate linen that Katara had privately told her felt so luxurious as to be almost indecent.
Even though she'd been told what to expect, the ridiculous racket the Fire Lord's train made with his approach to the house made Kanna roll her eyes. She was gratified to catch Katara doing the same in a reflection on the altar.
He knocked on the door, and Kanna nodded at Sokka to open it. She was the matriarch of the family, and unlike in her home in the arctic, here she was in charge. There was a huge crowd outside, as Zuko stood, flanked by his uncle and mother, with a batch of his royal advisors and court hangers-on behind, including Ty Lee, watching Zuko's youngest sister Malai. Behind them were the marching band, benders to do displays, the servants with the fireworks, more servants bearing even more useless and ugly knick-knacks that Kanna intended to sell (except for the jewelled monkey – she planned to send that to Hakoda and make him leave it in a place of prominence in his home because it was a gift from the Fire Lord, since it was a special kind of butt-ugly), and behind that was a crowd of random people come to watch the show.
"Fire Lord Zuko," she said, starting the traditional speech she'd memorised for the occasion. "Why are you here?" Under her breath she added, "As though there's any doubt with all this hoo-ha."
Zuko and Iroh winced, while Kanna heard two snorts simultaneously from her granddaughter and from Dowager Fire Lady Ursa, who looked like she wanted very much to laugh but was refraining because of the delicate sensibilities of her son. Said son gave his mother a pained look and replied, "I have come, Lady Kanna, to request your granddaughter's hand in marriage and to join me as my consort and Fire Lady."
"How will you prove your worthiness to take this daughter of my house from us?" Kanna demanded. And couldn't help adding, "The junk had better be less ugly, I can't get a good price for ugly statues in the pawn shop, you know."
Only the royal family were close enough to hear, which was the reason why Kanna was going off script. Ursa muttered back, "I told Zuko not to listen to his uncle. Can you believe the monkey?"
"Mother!" Came Zuko's agonised hiss. He cleared his throat and went on. "I come bearing gifts of value to beautify the home-" There were three delicate female snorts in unison, and Malai, with the ingenuousness of a ten-year-old said loudly enough to be heard by most people nearby, "Ty Lee, why does Zuko think the monkey's beautiful?"
Kanna felt the air behind her displace a little and saw Suki out of the corner of her eye, peering over her shoulder for a moment before giggling and starting a whispered conversation with Shui and her mother.
Zuko flushed and Ursa closed her eyes for a moment, clearly reaching for a semblance of serenity. He grimly continued, ". . . and personal gifts for the members of your family." He handed over the gifts one by one. Spiced jerky for Sokka, a set of knives that used many of the same fighting techniques as the fans of the Kyoshi warrior for Suki, lovely Fire Nation styled robes for Kanna in shades of Water Tribe blues, a carefully replicated Air Nomad glider for Aang, and beautifully designed staff for Toph made of metal and stone, to allow her to use it to see from the vibrations she could pick up from it when she was not standing on earth or stone. Toph delightedly whacked a few things (and Zuko's shins, with great deliberation) testing out how it worked and declaring it the best gift she'd ever gotten.
For Hakoda, Zuko rather dryly handed Kanna a puppet, designed to look like Katara, and told her, "To remind him of the daughter he no doubt wishes he still had home with him." Kanna gave him another mental point. It was a wonderfully backhanded insult – implying Hakoda saw Katara as nothing more than a toy. It was a beautiful piece of work, looking just like her granddaughter, down the to her old betrothal necklace.
Zuko had refused to replace the necklace, instead arranging to have a second pendant glued to the back of the old one. Thus, the back of the pendant now carried a flat, carved, red stone with a picture of the Fire Nation symbol and the Water Tribe symbol entwined.
"I accept these gifts, Fire Lord," Kanna announced to the masses outside. "I grant my permission for you to take my granddaughter to your home, to become your wife, your consort and your Fire Lady."
While they'd been going over the personal gifts, the other expensive trash Zuko had brought was being carried in and placed on every available surface. Throughout the whole process, the youngsters had muttered among themselves about what each item was, whether it had a practical use, or if it was supposed to incapacitate a burglar by making them either so horrified they couldn't move until someone called the city guard to arrest them, or if they were supposed to make a burglar laugh so hard they knocked themselves out.
The crowning grace was as they walked out the door, Kanna distinctly heard Aang ask, "Wasn't there a monkey like that on the pirate ship?"
Zuko muttered back, "If you can tell me how I could possibly have stopped uncle from buying that thing, I'll get you a dozen of those gliders."
At which point Katara put in quietly, "You mean to say you're getting rid of the junk Iroh bought by foisting it off on Gran-gran? Zuko!"
"I'm sorry-"
"She's selling it to pawn shops. He's just going to find it all again by the end of the week. You have to do better than that."
Kanna couldn't keep from laughing, but she managed to say to Ursa as they started down the street amidst the noise, "I admire your stoicism. How are you not laughing?"
"It's that or laugh until I can't breathe," the other woman told her. "I'm going to be giggling for weeks over this."
On reaching the palace, after processing through the whole damn city for hours, Kanna was never so grateful for the propensity for carriages and palanquins in the Fire Nation as during that lengthy parade. They reached the main gate, where Zuko went in, Katara got out of the palanquin and waited for the next stage of ritual. Ursa and Iroh now made their way to the gates to the palace complex and stood before them.
"Fire Lord Zuko has petitioned your family to let him take you into his own," Iroh said. "But you must prove that you are worthy to be a wife. How do you do this?"
"I offer my strength to add to his own, my ears to listen to his troubles, my hands to help his work and my body to bear his children," Katara said. Reciting from memory.
A line of fire erupted along the ground, very low, in the gateway to the palace complex. Katara gathered up her skirts, a process which took a very long time since there was so much to gather, and finally managed to keep them clear of the fire as she stepped over it. It immediately vanished and everyone piled into the courtyard that could fit, as they made their way to the main palace building.
At the door, Ursa spoke, "You have proved yourself worthy to be a wife," she said, "But are you worthy to marry the Fire Lord?"
Kanna rolled her eyes. This was getting ridiculous. It sounded ridiculous when Ursa and Iroh had explained the whole process to her, but it had been morning when they started, and it was afternoon, and Sokka had eaten the jerky Zuko gave him in lieu of lunch. She suddenly narrowed her eyes at the Fire Lord who was standing to the side, watching the proceedings, muttering to him, "Did you give Sokka jerky as a gift because no one's getting to eat until dinner?"
"Yes. Suki and Katara suggested it," he murmured back.
Meanwhile, Katara was answering, "I bring my position as the daughter of the leader of the Southern Water Tribe, my honour as the waterbending master of the Avatar and my title as a Lady of Graces."
"Really?" Zuko and Aang chorused, forgetting themselves. Zuko immediately looked hideously embarrassed, but Aang just stayed impressed.
"What does that mean?" Sokka asked.
"Basically," Aang said, "If a Fire Nation woman achieves a very high degree of proficiency in calligraphy, painting, a musical instrument, learning court etiquette, dancing, poetry in both the current tongue and Ancient Fire Nation, in two weapons and in a few more academic subjects like history and . . . I can't recall everything – it's a lot – she is given the title Lady of Graces. It's very rare for anyone who hasn't been in training like a noblewoman has for her whole life to achieve it."
"So that's why she wanted to learn to use my fans," Suki said.
"Bending counts as a weapon," Aang added. "So that's those two things. I don't know how she picked everything else up."
Katara had crossed a second line of fire and they made their way to the throne room, leaving behind most of the people who'd been in the courtyard. On reaching the doors to the throne room, Iroh and Ursa chorused, "You have proven yourself worthy of being the consort to the Fire Lord. Are you worthy to be his Fire Lady, his balance and his equal?"
For a moment, Katara seemed to freeze. Everyone held their breath. Then the steel came back into her spine, and the soon-to-be Fire Lady stepped forward. "I bring the strength I gained from a life of hardship unknown to the Fire Lord."
"Because you had to live in the refugee circle at Ba Sing Se," Zuko muttered. Suki rapped him sharply on the rear with one of her fans, in a move invisible to all but those closest to him. "I'll get you for that," he told her.
"Quiet and face forward, Sparky," Toph said.
"I bring the wisdom gained from travel with the Avatar."
Sokka blinked. "Always clean between Appa's toes?"
"Never let Sokka shop for supplies?" Aang offered.
Toph's contribution was, "Never look to see what Suki's up to if she's near Sokka's tent?"
"Don't let Momo near the moon peaches," Zuko added glumly.
Suki said, "Zuko takes longer to bathe than any girl ever could."
Then Zuko, Sokka and Aang chorused, "Stealing is wrong, except from pirates."
"I'm good with that," Toph said after due consideration.
Suki nodded. "Me too."
"So much for dignity," Zuko said with a sigh.
"Are you all quite finished?" Katara demanded. The group shuffled a little, looking much as though they had been scolded by their mother.
"This is much more fun than my wedding to Ozai," commented Ursa quietly enough not to be heard by the people clustered further away.
Katara firmly dragged things back on track. "I bring my mastery of water, the opposing element to his fire." This time, instead of stepping over the fire, Katara drew water out of the air and put out the fire on the ground, and calmly crossed the no longer flaming patch of floor into the throne room. Finally, they were just down to family and a fire sage.
Sokka and Kanna, standing in for Katara's parents, and Ursa with Iroh standing in for Ozai walked to the table before the altar that had been set up before the Fire Lord's throne. The bride and groom knelt before the table, saying prayers to their ancestors, before Zuko reached out and bent the candles before him to light. Katara reached out, taking a taper to light the ones in front of her.
Before the fire sage could reach for the water to fill the kettle, Katara bent water directly out of the air in a graceful and showy spiral into the container. Zuko leaned over and heated the water in the kettle. He poured the water carefully over the tea leaves in the small pot on the bride's family's side of the table. Then Katara did the same on the groom's side. They each waited, carefully poured the tea into two cups, handing the first to Kanna and Ursa respectively, then to Sokka and Iroh.
Iroh sipped delicately, smiled, and nodded to Katara. Ursa drank hers down directly. Kanna took a sip, blinked, swallowed, and then firmly put the half-full cup down, while Sokka swallowed, making a tremendous face, and put the cup down, starting to paw at his tongue. Kanna hit him, while Katara just stifled laughter.
"It's just wet leaf juice," Zuko muttered. "I don't get it."
"You try so hard to teach them the right way," Iroh said.
They all stood, and Zuko took the very small comb Iroh handed him, and carefully placed it into the one cleared place in Katara's complex hairdo. "With this symbol of my love and trust, I take you to wife," he said and smiled. Katara carefully added a second comb to Zuko's after Kanna handed it to her, designed to fit into the Fire Lord's flame crown, into place. "With this symbol of my love and trust, I agree to be your wife."
"You are now husband and wife," the sage said.
Kanna felt relieved, then realised it still wasn't over. "Will this never end?" moaned Sokka, putting Kanna's feelings into words.
"Just a little longer, and then we can go to the feast, Sokka," Zuko said.
"Yes!"
They made their way out to a balcony overlooking the city. There was another courtyard below, filled with nobles, and beyond that a crowd of the ordinary citizenry, watching through the gates and the fencing designed with the purposed of allowing the commoners to watch.
Katara and Zuko, with the sage between them, walked forward. "I have witnessed the wedding of the Fire Lord Zuko to Lady Katara, Master Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe and Teacher to the Avatar Aang!"
The crowd cheered. Kanna sighed.
"She has proven her worth to be the Consort to the Fire Lord by her background and her achievements as a Lady of Graces, bending Master and her position within her own people!"
That was the cue for Zuko to take a second flame-shaped comb and fit it in behind the first. The crowd roared. Toph and Sokka yawned. Aang looked embarrassed and Suki hit Sokka with her fan. Katara looked overwhelmed and Kanna saw Zuko lean over to say something to her. She smiled a little in approval as her granddaughter straightened up and looked much less pale a moment later.
"Lady Katara has shown her respect for our traditions and will balance our lord in a way only one from another land could achieve! She will be the yin to his yang, the moon to his sun, the ice to his fire!"
Zuko placed the third tier to her crown into place, making Katara now the Fire Lady. Then he stepped forward, and shouted, "I give you Fire Lady Katara!" With that he threw his arms out, in a grand gesture, creating a burst of flame that flew out over the city in an exultant display of bending power.
Katara shot him a look, stepped forward herself and suddenly, the roaring crowd was silent as water erupted from the canals, wells and ponds on and around the palace grounds. It hurtled up into the air, spinning around until it formed a disc overhead. With a few sharp motions, Katara turned the water to ice, and then the ice into snow, sending it out to blanket the watching crowd, most of whom had never left the tropical islands where they lived, and who had never seen snow.
As it gently fell, a silence fell over the people with it. Nervous looks were exchanged on the balcony, and then a new roar erupted from the people who started chanting Katara's name.
Sokka broke the moment, saying in a baffled tone of voice. "But it's just snow."
And with that, Katara and Zuko waved a few more times before heading inside to the banquet to be held in honour of their wedding, everyone trailing behind Sokka, who was determinedly towing Suki toward the food. Ursa and Iroh were smilingly watching the newlyweds as they walked, hand in hand, toward the hall. Aang was animatedly telling Toph everything she'd missed seeing, while Toph practiced using her new seeing stick on everything within reach, including Zuko, who was doing an admirable job of fending it off. He would be doing better if Malai hadn't been deliberately conspiring with Toph to distract him, but he was taking it in good part.
Kanna smiled to herself. Nothing was perfect, but for the moment, everything was just fine.