Disclaimer: Not mine, making no money, blah blah blah.

Summary: See previous chapters

CHAPTER TWO

Hahn wasn't sure whether to be upset or thrilled when the Avatar parted ways with the ship.

On the one hand, Katara giving him a talking-to had made him want to prove that he wasn't an idiot who couldn't be trusted to lead, and he wanted to show her so. He wasn't trying to impress her like he had tried to impress Princess Yue; Hahn just wanted to prove himself. On the other hand, trying to prove himself to Katara only worked if he could actually get near her, and even if Hahn knew that it was just jealousy, having the Avatar glare at him (andSokka finger his boomerang) every time he got within five feet of the girl was not fun.

Even if he hadn't seen the twelve-year-old turn into a giant blue koi of ocean water, Aang could still blow him off the ship, so until he had a bit more backup to keep the Avatar busy while he spoke to Katara, Hahn kept his distance.

Upon reaching the South Pole, Hahn was caught between shocked and horrified. Katara had not been exaggerating, no matter how much Hahn had wished otherwise. There could not have been more than ten houses, all of them simple igloos, and Hahn had seen more people in one neighbourhood in the North Pole than there seemed to be in the entire Southern Water Tribe.

The only protection seemed to be a single ice wall, with the lack of height and slightly crude finish that bespoke the absence of Waterbending help, and six or seven children, the oldest of whom was barely five. If this was all that Sokka had to work with, and very little training of his own, no wonder he had been so inexperienced in actual weapon combat, and Hahn felt slightly guilty for all the times he had taunted the other boy over it.

The Southern Water Tribe came out to meet them, headed by a single elder, whose hair loops and glare suggested that she was Katara's grandmother and Pakku's lost love, Kanna. If she was anything like her grand-daughter, it was probably a bad thing that she didn't look happy to see them.

A bad thing, but also very amusing.

Pakku had stated that they were here to help, though he wondered why the men were not present for that duty, and that he hoped Kanna would have a chance to let him talk to her. Kanna, suddenly not the only one displeased to see them, greeted the Waterbending Master with a slap to the face that knocked him into the snow, demanded to know why they had only come to help thirty years after the Southern Tribe had given up asking, and that he could start on the wall, because she would rather get the facts from Yagoda's second-in-command, who had accompanied them.

Hahn, trying very hard not to laugh, elbowed several of the other Northern Tribesman into helping him unload the supplies they had brought with them. If the Matriarch was like that with a Waterbending Master, it might be a good idea to get on the Southern Tribe's good side before she became angry at them.

Two days after arriving, Hahn found himself cornered by Kanna, who was wearing an expression apparently universal to mothers everywhere: the one that said she knew you were up to something, and he had better make it easier on himself by confessing now. Luckily, before he could panic and say something foolish in regards to her grandchildren, Kanna spoke. "Pakku tells me that you were the one to suggest bringing extra supplies so as not to burden us."

So Pakku had finally managed to get Kanna to at least talk to him. Hahn wondered if the subject of Katara's Waterbending had come up yet. But Kanna was waiting for an answer, and he found himself almost babbling to explain. "I kind of got an earful from Katara when I asked what she would know about Fire Nation raids. She told me about how many times you had been raided, and that you had few hunters. I thought that if we were coming un-announced, we could at least support ourselves if you were having a difficult season.

Kanna looked almost approving, and Hahn firmly reminded himself that warriors did not go weak-kneed with relief, especially when their opponent was a seventy-year-old woman. "Hm, you're definitely an improvement from when I was in the north."

Hahn laughed nervously, speaking before he could stop himself. "Not really. I was an arrogant hot-head, and it took nearly getting killed and Katara yelling at me before I got my act together. Getting into a fight with Sokka didn't do me or him any favours, either."

Kanna's stern face lost some of that approval, but she didn't look angry, either. "Well, at least you admit to being wrong. You're learning."

Hahn relaxed slightly, feeling like he had dodged an ice-dagger, though he lost the relaxation when she continued. "Now, tell me how my grandchildren were when you left."

What was he supposed to say? Ah… that Sokka was an idiot but a brave and competent warrior? That Hahn was impressed by the other boy, but would swallow live coals before he admitted it? That he was more impressed with Katara than he had been with any other girl, including his ex-fiancée, and that she was scary when you got her mad? And that she had clearly inherited that trait from her Grandmother?

Slush.

Katara refused to admit that she wouldn't mind having Hahn around right now. The Northern Water Tribe boy would have agreed with Fong that it would be good for Aang to master the Avatar State (if only to avoid another Possessed-By-The-Ocean-Spirit fiasco), and Aang would have promptly refused, in a textbook case of reverse psychology.

Whether he liked her or not, Hahn also would have been nice enough to not say that he would prefer kissing her to dying! Maybe it was a stupid idea, and maybe most of the boys in the Northern Water Tribe thought her 'unwomanly', but she wasn't that undesirable, was she? It was no use asking Sokka's opinion; he was her brother, and would be happy to have anyone male as far away from her as possible.

It would have been good to have another warrior on their side in Omashu, even if he and Sokka would almost certainly have wound up in a horrible fight over the 'Pentapox Plague' idea, no matter how effective it was. Hahn probably wouldn't have acted like she was an idiot for saying that barely-old-enough-to-walk Tom-Tom was hardly a threat, either.

On the other hand, maybe it was a good thing that he wasn't with them. Hahn shared Sokka's tendency to think after he spoke, and while the Swampbenders were generally good-natured, Hahn probably would have said something regrettable about either them or their style of bending, as he had been around the more refined styles his entire life, while Sokka hadn't really seen much more than Katara's trial-and-error attempts before her formal training.