A/N: Whoa! It's not a oneshot! So this is a retelling of the myth of Eros and Psyche, Avatar style. The beginning of this story has appeared in a previous work of mine in a condensed form (part of the Avatar: The Last Writer Competition) but is here expanded and more fleshed out. This is most definitely an AU. Enjoy!


A long time ago, in the time of Avatar Roku, there lived a waterbender - Katara of the Southern Water Tribe. She was so powerful, and so beautiful, that when she grew to be sixteen years of age, people began saying that she must be the spirit of Water itself. The people came from all four nations to watch her bending. Many young men came also, seeking to admire her beauty. Her father, chief of the Southern Water Tribe, expected to receive proposals for her hand the moment she came of age at seventeen, but any man struck by her beauty was too intimidated by her powerful bending to ask for her hand. So Katara stayed with her father and brother, alone.

And so we set our stage…

o0o

Katara lashed out with the water whip, obliterating the target in front of her, then whirled, turning the whip to shards of ice as she did; they flew into another target behind her in a tight cluster.

She pulled the ice shards out of the target and swung around, forming them back into a water whip and sending it toward the last target, slicing it neatly in half.

Her audience broke into spontaneous applause. Katara ignored them, shaking her head slightly. She knew no good would come of people calling her the spirit of water itself, and so she tried her best to dissuade them from such talk. But when her father insisted on her having an audience whenever she practiced, it was hard to seem like she wasn't showing off.

She knew that was what all the other waterbenders of the South called her - a show-off. They hated her with a passion - she could only assume that their envy had gotten the better of them. Even Sokka, her own brother, sometimes got fed up with how big a deal their father made of her bending.

"Master Katara!" She sighed. Great. It was Nanak, her father's steward.

"Yes, Nanak?" she asked, trying to keep her tone polite and cheerful. He was probably going to go tell her to pretty herself up for another banquet with a bunch of ambassadors and generals from the other nations who would be staring at her - covertly or otherwise - through the whole meal.

"Master Katara, your father has instructed me to tell you to prepare for a banquet tonight," the scrawny steward reported, confirming her suspicions.

"Who is it this time?" she asked, resigned. At first, she'd put up heavy resistance to these dinners, but her father had just forced her to go anyway, and she'd long realized it wasn't worth the effort.

"A Fire Nation delegation, my lady," Nanak replied. "The banquet is in two hours."

"I'll be ready," she sighed.

o0o

At least when there was a Fire Nation delegation there was a change in cuisine, she reflected. Her father usually tried to impress the Fire Nation more than the others, seeing as they were the wealthiest of the four nations.

"So this is your daughter," the Fire Nation ambassador was saying, like he didn't already know all about her. "I saw her bending earlier today. She is as powerful as she is beautiful, Chief Hakoda. You should be proud."

Inwardly, Katara rolled her eyes, but she kept a smile on her face.

"Oh, I am, Ambassador Kuzon," her father replied with a smug grin.

"By Agni, I daresay she is the most powerful bender in the world!" the ambassador went on. Katara flinched. She wished he hadn't invoked the name of a spirit - she'd been trying to avoid the attention of the Spirit World. No need for them to hear people calling her the spirit of water! She was fairly certain that wouldn't end well.

o0o

In the Spirit World, Agni, Spirit of Fire, was reading in his palace when he heard his name invoked in the mortal world. Curious, he decided to listen to the rest of the sentence.

"... I daresay she is the most powerful bender in the world!"

Well. This was interesting. Who was the most powerful bender in the world? This, he had to hear. He cocked his head, listening intently now to the conversation.

"Tui and La have outdone themselves - truly, your daughter is blessed."

Agni bit back a snarl. Tui and La - those pathetic excuses for spirits that had given up their spirit forms to be with the mortals - why would any self-respecting Fire Nation man be talking about them?

Wait. "Truly, your daughter is blessed." That was what the man had said. The most powerful bender in the world… was a woman? The mention of Tui and La… she was a waterbender? This was adding insult to injury!

"Zuko!" Agni roared.

His son arrived in the library within seconds. "You called, Father?" he said, bowing.

Agni's fiery eyes glowed with anger. "Have you heard of this upstart waterbender who calls herself the greatest bender in the world and has deceived the rest of the nations into believing it?"

Zuko frowned. "I can't say I have, Father."

"No matter. I want you to go humble her. Understood?"

"Yes, Father," the handsome spirit said. "I understand perfectly."

"Then go," the Spirit of Fire ordered. "I have some business with the Avatar."