So here's Chapter 10. I'll try to keep weekly updates, but summer school is going to be alot more work than i thought. SO enjoy while you can...as far as the 100TC...i'll try to write a few a post them...i've got a lot to do this weekend.

Disclaimer:I own nothing but the OCs and the Zutaraness that led to the OCs...

Firefly Chapter 10:

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered"- Nelson Mandela

As they sailed into the harbor, Kana looked over the side to see two familiar figures standing on the dock. She squealed out loud, causing some of the crew to look strangely at her after all her nearly silent days at sea. She grabbed Tau, stuffed him into his bag and took off running toward the dock.

"Firefly!" her father called as she ran and jumped into his arms. She felt his arms come around her and hold her tight.

"I missed you, Daddy." Kana told her father quietly. She savored the feeling of his hands on her shoulders, his smell, and the feel of his robes under her cheek. Kana would never, ever forget this day.

"I missed you too, Firefly." He whispered back.

"Kana..." there was the serene voice of her mother and Kana looked up to see Katara standing there, arms outstretched. Kana was like a child again and she ran to her mother as well.

"My goodness, look at you. All grown up." Katara told Kana and pulled back to see her daughter. "Seventeen...I can't believe it."

Kana realized as she looked at both of her parents, just how...much older they looked to her. She noticed for the first time, the few fine strands of gray in her father's neat top knot, the crow's feet around her mother's blue eyes. And all of a sudden, it made her a little sad.

"What's wrong, dearest?" Kana's mother asked her.

"Nothing..." She assured her mother with a smile. "I think I just missed you more than I thought I would, that's all."

"Well, come on," Zuko took one of his daughter's hands. "Iroh is waiting to see you, too. And I promised that he would before the party tonight."

"The engagement party is tonight?" Kana asked as they made their way up to the Palace. She did a few calculations on her fingers. "Wait...how long was I at sea?"

"It's not a party for Iroh," Katara began gently.

"Then who's is it?"

"You remember Lady Mai's oldest son, Jiro? He's just announced his engagement to Lady Kiku, the daughter of Admiral Anwar." Zuko told her with a grimace. "I think you two were play-mates for a while, you're about the same age."

Kana nodded. "I remember." She remembered Admiral's daughter, a little dense, but otherwise a sweet girl. But Jiro...engaged? Kana realized that she shouldn't have been so upset about it, but she couldn't help herself. She held back her tears as Iroh and Sayuri spotted them.

"Little Sister!" they chorused as Iroh swept Kana up in a tight embrace. She returned his enthusiasm as much as she could, but the news of Jiro's engagement was weighing her down a little. Well, maybe more than a little. "Aren't you going to congratulate us?" Iroh asked her.

"Congratulations, both of you." Kana smiled.

"Are you all right, Kana?" Sayuri asked her. "You look sad."

Kana shook her head. "I'm just tired from traveling, I think. I should probably take a nap before the party tonight."

"So, you know about that, then?" Iroh asked carefully as he looked from his mother to his father.

Kana nodded. "Yeah, Dad told me on the way up."

"Oh..."

Kana knew what they were all thinking and she couldn't hold it together any longer. "I'll just head to bed," she told her family and wandered off toward her room.

When she finally reached her destination, she shut the door quietly behind her, let Tau out of his bag and collapsed on the bed without taking off her traveling clothes. Kana lay there a moment, realizing that she had been in this exact same position only about a year ago, about to sob her guts out over Jiro. The aching feeling was back in her chest, and then the room blurred before her eyes.

Dressed in her best crimson sleeveless kimono, Kana wandered through the party for her brother and soon to be sister-in-law. She had pulled the top half of her hair up and secured it with a few pins and put her diadem in. Kana looked long and hard at herself in the mirror at her vanity; somehow the face staring back at her wasn't the same one that left a year ago. She was trying to be the happy carefree princess she had once been but she couldn't. She kept feeling the stone tiger-seal in her pocket and she knew things could never be the same.

She felt someone or something brush against her arm and she looked into Jiro's beautiful serene face, the face that charmed her out of her childhood. "Can we talk, privately, Princess? I wanted to talk to you last night but you weren't there."

Kana actually considered what she might say or so if she and Jiro spoke again. She had actually missed his party last night. She was so sound asleep that not even Tau yanking on her hair had woken her. She had a million things to say but all that came out was "yes". They moved off into a more deserted part of the courtyard.

"Kana," he began, then stopped as he looked at her. "...you look beautiful..."

Kana crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn't going to let sweet words sway her. "I believe you wanted to say something...I don't have all night, you know."

He seemed slightly taken aback by her abruptness."I just...I know that I should have told you-"

"Why? You never made any promises to me! You never even said good bye to me, so you don't have to say anything." She started to turn away but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Kana, will you just hear me out?!"

Kana ripped her wrist out of his grasp. "Why now? After a year? You never even said goodbye! You didn't write or even attempt to write! Nothing, a year goes by and I come home and you're engaged! To someone else! This hurts! This hurts standing here talking to you! Why can't you see that?!"

"The world isn't black and white! We aren't kids anymore, Kana! What I feel towards you is complicated and I have all of these...obligations to think about."

"And I don't fit, do I?"

"It's not that, it's just-"

"I want the truth! Did I mean so little to you that you couldn't even be bothered to say good bye? Was I just one of the many? If you would have asked me to marry you, I would have said yes, no questions asked. I was willing to fight my entire family on it-"

"But you went along with it! You left!"



"I can't do this." Kana backed away. "I have to be happy for Iroh and Sayuri right now and you are making it really hard on me."
"Kana..."

"Don't!" She snapped. "Just don't!" She turned and walked away.

An hour later, her mother found her throwing stale bread to the turtle-ducks in the private garden's pond. "We were wondering where you'd run off to." Katara sat down next to her daughter.

"I'm sorry," She looked up at her mother. "I just couldn't..."

"I saw you talking to Jiro." There was an accusatory tone in her mother's voice.

"It's nothing," Kana felt the defensive wall come up and along with it was Kali's accusation and the grief in Llyr's eyes.

"Kana, he's engaged...you can't do this anymore."

"That's what I told him!" Kana snarled, standing. "I told him, I couldn't do this anymore! It hurts too much!" She curled her hand into a fist. "I can't do it..."

"Kana...I didn't know..." Katara stood and tried to put an arm around Kana's shoulder.

But Kana would have no part in it; she pulled away. "No, you don't know! You have this perfect life! You have Dad and Iroh and Roku and Ty Lee and all these people who worship at your feet! You turned your back on your people!" Much to Kana's disgust, she found herself flinging the same insults Kali had hurled at her only a year ago. "You...let Song die..."

"How did you know about Song?" Katara wondered softly, honestly curious. "It was years ago. Before you were born."

"I know her children. They're water benders who train under Master Shiro." Kana replied quietly. "K-"

"Kali and Llyr." Katara whispered, her eyes sorrowful. "I didn't even think...Kana, sit down. I think we need to have a talk."

Kana sat on the stone bench next to her mother. And she saw her mother in a whole new light. Fire Lady Katara was always smiling, serene, a perfect opposite to her husband. But now Kana saw the confused and sad girl that Katara had been. "Mama..."

"I know that a lot of people think I abandoned my people when I married your father-"

"Didn't you?"

Katara smiled sadly and cupped Kana's cheek. "I made a choice, Kana. We all made choices. I love your father more than anything and I made the hardest decision of my life; to live without him or live far away from my family. I may be a water bender from the Southern Water tribe, but my heart belongs here, with your father."
"But you still abandoned Grandfather and Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki...you chose Dad over them."

"I stay in contact and I do what I can to help...but my place is here."

"Still, you're such a great healer; why couldn't you save Song?"

Katara sighed. "Song couldn't have been saved, Kana. It was very difficult for her to get pregnant in the first place and when I learned she was having twins, I was on a boat the next day and I sailed away from Roku and Iroh to help her."

"That must have been hard. Roku must have been only a year...?"

Her mother nodded. "It was, but she was an old friend of your father's and Bato's adopted daughter, how could I turn my back on her?"

"You couldn't...wait, she knew Dad? How?"

"They met a long time ago, during the war, apparently. Only once."

"Oh."

"Anyway, when I got to the South Pole, Song was huge and so excited. The labor began normally, but it took much longer than it should have. Song wasn't strong enough and she faded not long after she delivered twins." Katara made no excuse for the tears she wiped away. "I've lost patients before, mothers and children, but this was so hard, Kana, they were so small and so alone."

"They miss her still, you know."

"How could they not? She was a lovely woman; warm, compassionate, sweet, so giving. Are they like her?"

"Llyr is. He's so nice and sweet. He's my best friend." Kana pulled the tiger-seal out of her pocket. "He made this for me, for my birthday."

"You sure about that?" Katara asked with narrowed eyes.

"Why? Should I doubt it?"

"Pretty girl like you...I don't know..." Katara shrugged.

"How did you know you loved Dad? And you were willing to give up all of it up to be with him?" Kana asked suddenly.

Katara smiled at her daughter and ran a hand over Kana's hair. "I think I might have been when he was trying to reconcile your uncle and I." She smiled even wider at the memories. "It was supposed to have been a secret, but your Grandmother Ursa didn't know and accidently told me and I almost killed your father, right then and there."

"But you didn't?"

"No," Katara smiled. "I came very, very close. But he told me that brothers and sisters shouldn't fight like that. And he was right."

"Well, how did you know he was the right one?" Kana asked, still confused.

"He wanted to make me happy; he cared enough about me to try anything to make me happy." Katara sighed. "Besides, he was so cute-"

"Mom!" Kana pretended to gag. "Please, I know we're bonding here but...no telling me how cute Dad was when he was young, I don't think I can take it."

"Fair enough," Katara shrugged. "Why don't we go back to the party? Hhmm? I bet Iroh and your father will be missing you."

"All right," they started to get up and Kana grabbed her mother's hand. "Mom..."

"Yes, dear?"

"I'm sorry. About what I said before." Kana hung her head slightly.

"I understand." Katara's smile was resplendent in its forgiveness.

"But do you think you can do me a favor?"

"What kind of favor?"

"Do you think you could write to Kali and Llyr? Tell them about their mom?"

"I think I can."

"Thanks, Mom."

When mother and daughter had returned to the party, Katara dropped Kana off with Iroh and Sayuri and drifted over to her husband. She laced her fingers through his as he bid farewell to some members of his council. When they'd gone, he turned to her. "Found Kana all right then? You two were gone for a long time."

"We had a little chat, that's all."

"About what?"

"She asked about Song and what happened to her."

"Oh. What did you tell her?"

"The truth. She asked if I would write to the twins, but I think it would mean more if you wrote it. You knew her better than I did."

He slipped one arm around her slender waist and pulled her close. "I think I will. But you should write one too."

They watched Kana laugh and joke with her soon to be sister for a moment, then turn to Iroh and swat him playfully on the arm. While her smile was radiant, it was still somewhat forced. "Is she going to be all right?"

Katara nodded. "I think so. She's your daughter after all."

Zuko leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "That she is."

Honestly, that's not exactly the scene i planned with Katara and Kana, but i think it worked. Tell me what you think!! much love!!