Disclaimer: I own nothing here that anyone can recognise from their tv screens.

Notes: This is shorter than I'd originally planned, but you've all been so wonderful at not sending me mean comments about my lateness, that I thought I'd best post something. So, here you are.

Katara hurried to Yue's rooms, following the detailed directions Prince Zuko had given her. He seemed like a nice enough person, so she had hope that his cousin Lu Ten would have been equally as decent for Yue.

She arrived at the door to find two Fire Nation soldiers and two Water Tribesmen glaring at each other. Katara tried to slip around them and through the door, but one blue-clad hand and one red-clad grabbed her at the same time. "Who are you and why are you trying to get into the Princess' rooms?" demanded the tribesman.

"It's me, Aruak," Katara said with rolled eyes. "Remember me? Katara? You once said you'd marry me out of pity because you thought my father would get you-"

A muffled snort of laughter from the Fire Nation soldier interrupted her. "You tried to get a girl to marry you by telling her it was out of pity?"

"I didn't!" yelped that lying liar.

The door opened, and Yue said, "I was there, Aruak," she said. "You told Katara that she was too manly to bear, but that you'd be willing to do it for her father's influence."

The second Fire soldier looked her up and down, looking confused, and said, "Manly?"

Toltak, the second of the Tribesmen, sighed and said, "No wonder you're still single Aruak. If you'd just lied and told her she was pretty and you were in love with her, you might have gotten somewhere."

That kind of statement, the open admission that she wasn't womanly enough, was just something Katara was used to by this point. Yue was bristling in her own quiet way, however. Before she could say anything, the first soldier peered at Katara and repeated, "Manly?" He said, "If a girl with curves like that is manly, I think I'd better move to the North Pole. Girls there've gotta be hot."

The leer he and his counterpart aimed at her were disturbing and skeevy and yet some small part of Katara preened, because he thought she was . . . hot. The boys at home never leered at her and thought she was attractive. It actually felt kind of nice.

Yue glared around impartially, and said, "Gentlemen, if you're all here to guard me, then you can all stand guard together. I don't want to hear anything more from any of you." She pulled Katara into the room. "Where have you been?"

"I had to ride up with the baggage, then Princess Azula got me distracted and I missed the cart leaving and had to walk all the way up," Katara explained. "I was lucky I ran into Prince Zuko on the way." Then she asked the question that had been worrying her the most ever since she'd heard her friend was marrying some Fire Nation prince she'd never met before. "What's your prince like?"

"He seems nice," she said, considering. "He did seem terribly interested in meeting the White Terror," added the princess. "That's-"

"What they call me here," Katara said with a sigh. "I heard from Zuko. He seemed pretty interested too," she added wryly.

"Well," Yue said, "Lu Ten said he wanted to meet the man who almost killed him."

"What?" Katara gasped.

Yue nodded. "Apparently, you had nearly killed him right when the call went out to withdraw," she explained. "You know, when news of the treaty arrived."

Katara recalled that last battle. She'd been in a fight with a firebender, one of the best she'd ever faced. The fight had gone on so long she had felt nothing but relief when she'd gotten him to his knees and been about to strike the killing blow. She'd been too tired then to feel anything else. When the retreat had sounded, she'd been confused and then doubly relieved she wouldn't have to kill anyone else that day.

"That was Prince Lu Ten?" she asked, gaping. "I nearly killed the crown prince?"

Yue patted her hand. "Well, you didn't, it's fine, and we need to get ready for dinner."

Katara immediately stood, saying, "You need to get ready for dinner. I'm just a maid, remember."

"Right," Yue said, taking a deep breath. "So, I was thinking of the new gown, the one with the beading on the dress hem."

Katara nodded, and the both distracted themselves with discussions of small inane things, like which hair ornaments to wear with the dress. Then Yue left and Katara poked her head out to ask the guards where she could get some dinner.

Zuko found himself sitting next to Princess Yue at the head table for the feast in honour of Lu Ten's future wife. She was very polite and her conversation was unexceptionable and a little dull. Then the conversation turned to the White Terror.

"Perhaps," his uncle suggested, "You might consider bringing the warrior we know here as the White Terror to the Fire Nation, Chief Arnook. I had been toying with the notion of a bending competition including all three nations. It would be excellent auspices for such an endeavour if we were to include him."

Princess Yue tensed up. In fact, Zuko realised the entire Water Tribe delegation had tensed up. "I do not believe that would be possible." Chief Arnook sent the most insincere smile Zuko had ever seen at the Fire Lord. "You see, the . . . warrior in question has chosen to give up all bending of an aggressive nature."

If he hadn't been sitting next to Yue, if he hadn't already been aware there was something about the White Terror that was concerning to Yue's maid, he might not have caught it. But the princess picked up her cup, and under cover of the motion sent a look that could only be anger toward her father. Then she leaned around Zuko a little, and pretended to ignore the political manoeuvring going on amongst the leaders. "Princess Azula, my maid informs me that you had asked her to spar with you. I take it that means you have learnt to bend as a fighting form."

Wondering if he was the only one who noticed the abrasive undertone to Yue's voice, Zuko barely caught the answer. "Of course," Azula said. "It's my best skill."

"I assume you do well against other benders in matches then," Yue said inquiringly.

"I can beat Zuzu . . . I mean, Zuko," his sister started with her usual condescending smile, "Every time."

He chose not to rise to the bait. He'd given up on trying to convince people that Azula was expressing her belief that he was a stupid, sub-par human and not worthy to be related to her when she called him that. No one believed him and he was tired of being told he was oversensitive.

Not that any forbearance helped when he was faced with the sneers on the faces of the Water Tribesmen.

Lu Ten chose to take pity on him. "Zuko may not be a bending prodigy as my cousin Azula is, but the master of the blades in the palace has long since declared him to be a prodigy of the blade. I know of no one who has yet bested Zuko in a match with his swords." He smiled around, amicably. "In fact, I know that he is the one who primarily trains the soldiers in bladework every week's end."

"Truly?" one of the Water Tribesmen spoke up. "Perhaps he might be interested in working with some of my men."

Arnook looked uncomfortable. "That wouldn't-"

A mischievous smile on her face, Yue interrupted her father and said, "I think that would be a very interesting exercise. Hakoda, when did you get here?"

"I docked a few hours after you did," the man replied. "It was that or stay home and help drive off the penguins. They've invaded, to the joy of the children."

"Penguins?" inquired Iroh mildly. "I thought those only existed at the South Pole."

The man, Hakoda, shrugged. "Now that the war is over, I've been able to bring my people home," he said. "I decided I'd best be along while I could to see what the situation with the Fire Nation truly was."

"I'm sorry?"

The look on Arnook's face, what Katara had said before, it came together in Zuko's head. "Then we should welcome you, Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe." The flummoxed looks on everyone's faces except Yue and Hakoda's made a grin stretch Zuko's lips. "I would be most honoured to spar with your warriors."

His mother looked a little stricken. "Pardon me," she said hastily. "I am remiss in my duties as hostess." She was already signalling to the servants, clearly attempting to deal with the tremendous faux pas of sitting a foreign leader with the mere aides.

"It's no trouble," Hakoda said with a smile. "We of the Southern Tribe are a great deal less formal than the North. I'd much rather sit with my men and talk without worry about court games, than sit up there and play politics."

He didn't even realise he was speaking until the words were already coming out of his mouth. "Perhaps then, mother, I'll go and join Hakoda and his warriors, to ensure they have not been ignored." He smiled, "After all, it would be rather churlish of us to pull him away from his meal now that he's settled."

With the barest of acceptances from his mother, Zuko left his place of honour near the head of the table and fled with some relief to the far end where Hakoda sat, trailed by anxious servants carrying his plate, utensils and cups. As he settled into the place that had been opened up next to the chief of the Southern Tribe, he sighed and relaxed. "That bad up there?" Hakoda asked him.

Zuko made a face. "I'm the son of the disgraced younger brother of the Fire Lord," Zuko said. "On top of that, I'm the worst bender in the family. So no one really cares anything about me when they've got Lu Ten the Crown Prince and Azula, my sister, who's a bending prodigy and also a little crazy." He shrugged. "If you're down here not to play politics, but to eat and talk about things that aren't manipulating foreigners to best advantage or putting down the corrupt nobles without anyone noticing, I'd just as soon be here."

The chief laughed. "That's why I have Arnook up there negotiating. He can do all the heavy lifting, and I'll throw in a word or two about agreements my tribe can't live up to." He shot a considering look at Zuko. "Still, you train the soldiers in swordwork? How is this a . . . bad thing?"

"A bender should neither have nor need any weapon but himself," Zuko quoted with a sigh.

Hakoda stared at him. "That's the reason for rampant Fire Nation stupidity?" he asked in disbelief. "Your people have become so convinced of your superiority you think benders are invulnerable to swords?" The gape changed to a frown. "They look down on you because you have cultivated your strengths?"

But the question cut too close to home, and Zuko gracelessly changed the subject. "I don't have much to do to fill my time," he said. "Perhaps I could spar with some of your men tomorrow?"

"That would be agreeable," Hakoda said with a nod, allowing Zuko to steer away from the painful topic of his family's benign and accidental neglect.

After a few minutes of discussion they picked a time to meet on the drilling grounds for the palace guards. It was about at that moment, the soft conversation at the head table erupted. Arnook stood and shouted at Zuko's uncle, "I have said that the," his voice changed to inject sarcasm into the word, "Warrior, who you all call the White Terror will not be seen or paraded in front of the Fire Nation!"

Then the man was storming out and Princess Yue was making surprisingly adept apologies on his behalf. Zuko shot a look at Hakoda. "Is there something we should be aware of about the . . . uh . . . White Terror?"

"That . . . warrior, is being kept a secret for a variety of reasons," Hakoda said, a little darkly. "I have my own for allowing the concealment to continue, which is the only reason I'm allowing Arnook to get away with this minimisation of h . . . their role."

Several thoughts flashed through Zuko's mind, Katara's statements that women weren't to be trained in combat bending, and the interchange Yue had started. He said in an undertone to Hakoda, "The White Terror is a woman." At the man's sharp look, Zuko continued, "Arnook is hiding this for some reason that I can't quite fathom. That's why Princess Yue and her maid Katara are so . . . uncomfortable about the topic."

The look on Hakoda's face was unfathomable as he said, "Yes, her . . . maid." Then he shook his head. "The roles of the sexes are very defined in the Northern Tribes. Arnook does not wish to have his weakness in relying on a woman bandied about."

Zuko narrowed his eyes. "You don't have similar reservations?"

"There are too many women in the Fire Nation's armies and navy for me to feel that her sex would alter the opinion of the Fire Nation in any significant way, but Arnook and his seconds feel their reliance on her made them effeminate."

Processing this, Zuko said, "You have other reasons for hiding her."

"I do," Hakoda said. "And you will not be speaking of this to anyone," he added. The dark look on his face made Zuko nod and change the topic to comparative weaponry and whether polearms were better than weapons for close fighting and the advantages and disadvantages to the two. The rest of the evening passed with relative pleasantness, and Zuko enjoyed the chatter of Hakoda's warriors, who were rather like the soldiers in the barracks, in that no one talking had an agenda, which meant that it didn't matter what he said to whom as long as he wasn't being insulting.

He went to bed that night, thinking about how nice it might be to live somewhere that, not only could he succeed on his own merits, but that no one would play stupid games just because they could.