Chapter 3

The kitchen woman's name was Chen. She made sure Katara was fed with a hearty bowl of vegetable soup and white rice before putting her to work in the enormous kitchen.

The place was bustling; men and women raced to and fro, chopping herbs, feeding fires, mixing, marinating, and mashing things for all the days' meals. Large platters of meat, bread, and fruit were being loaded onto numerous large dumbwaiters around the vast room, each labeled with numbers and letters indicating levels and rooms. Other platters disappeared through the doors. Six chefs stood at twelve small cooking hearths. Another dozen prep staff worked behind them, each apparently apprenticed under a single cook. Upon closer inspection, Katara realized some of the chefs were Firebenders who could control the cooking fires to their liking. It immediately put her on edge, but their easy-going manners, dedication to their culinary art, and decidedly un-warlike attitudes quickly made Katara forget they were anything but cooks.

Chen was apparently the kitchen captain, charged with making sure all the food going in and out of the great swinging double doors was delivered fast and hot (or cold) as was strictly ordered and generally keeping the great machine that was the kitchen operating. She worked efficiently, flitting about as if on wings, tasting, talking, and ordering people around, and all the staff obeyed her smilingly.

Katara was set before a great pile of vegetables and instructed to clean and skin them. The water girl took on the task of washing the potatoes, carrots, melons, and other assorted unidentifiable legumes with great relish. It became monotonous quickly, so to keep it interesting, she used Waterbending to get the food squeaky clean, running long snakes of water from the tub around eggplants and encasing tomatoes in globules of spinning water.

Nothing escaped Chen's notice.

"You're a Waterbender? Why didn't you tell me so?" She exclaimed, wiping her hands on her apron.

"I'm not really that good," Katara blushed. "I'm actually on my way to the North Pole to find a master."

"What I just saw is all I need to know you're good enough. One day, you'll be great. But if you want to put some of those skills to use and get a little practice in, I have some more interesting tasks for you than peeling vegetables."

Chen led her out to the scullery. Katara stopped, gaping. Columns of plates caked with multicoloured leftovers were stacked as tall she; a basin in one corner was overflowing with hundreds of tiny sake cups. Pots and pans were abuzz with hungry flies, and a veritable forest of used cutlery sprang up from numerous trays and basins.

"The water pump is over there," Chen pointed outside. "Now normally this would be a tremendously horrible job, but I think as a Waterbender, you could do this quickly and could even have some fun with it." The captain flitted away. "Good luck! I'll come back to check up on you later."

Katara shut her gaping mouth for fear of swallowing a bug and looked over her task. She gingerly inspected the piles, trying to figure out where she should begin.

Use Waterbending to clean dishes? Well, it shouldn't be any different from the vegetables. She instinctively reached out and drew a snake of water from the nozzle of the pump, but held it in mid air, trying to decide how to go about the enormous mess.

She had an idea.

She began by clearing out the sink basin – she would need the space to wash, after all. She filled the tub with water from the pump, and began producing swirling motions within the murky pool, gently scrubbing the sake cups with a miniature whirlpool. When she was satisfied these were clean, she moved them outside to dry in the sun.

She attacked the plates next. Grabbing another snake of water, Katara looped the liquid around one neatly stacked column of plates and froze it, encasing it in ice. She bent the column and moved it altogether to the sink, straining at the weight of the ice and porcelain. Fortunately, she didn't break a single dish – only the ice chipped when it landed in the tub. Melting the ice, she began her gentle whirlpool scrubbing, working at the more stubborn bits of food with a brush, until she was once again satisfied they were all clean. She froze the plates altogether once more and moved them outside to dry in the sun.

She continued this process for what felt like eternity, frequently changing the dirty dishwater and gradually wearing down the pile of dishes. Chen came in to check on her in the afternoon and was shocked by how quickly she was getting through the work.

"I'm doubling your pay," She said decisively. "Tell me, you wouldn't think about staying on full time, would you? I promise the pay is good and you'll be kept very well fed."

Katara laughed. "Thanks, but I'm traveling with friends and I promised to go with them to the North Pole. And really, I want to learn how to fight."

Chen looked crestfallen. "Don't be too eager to jump into the war now, you hear? Maybe you've noticed, but the people on our staff come from all over the world. This is one of the few places where the war doesn't touch us, where being from the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom or the Water Tribe doesn't matter. We don't have sides here, you know." The rotund woman smiled sadly. "No death. No killing."

Katara nodded in understanding. It was a little odd, she supposed, to see Firebenders working and laughing alongside people from the Earth Kingdom. But what was so odd about it, really? When she thought about it, a world where everyone could co-exist was exactly what was meant to be – what Aang was striving for. This place was a start… or maybe it was a hold out from what used to be a hundred years ago.

"Chen, what is this place, exactly?" Katara asked. "Is it like an inn, or a bath house?"

"Oh!" Chen exclaimed. "You don't know? Of course, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. This is Madame Mai's Court of Joy."

Katara looked puzzled. "So it's a restaurant?"

Chen's lips pursed into a smile. "Well, by the amount we cook regularly, you'd think we were!" She laughed, almost a little too forcefully. "An inn. Yes, I suppose you could call it that. It might be easier to explain if you went on a tour. Would you like that? It might convince you that this is a great place to work."

Katara shrugged. "Sure? Why not?"

Chen smiled. "How about you finish up here, and then get yourself cleaned up – there's a small bathhouse for the servants to use just around the back where you can wipe yourself down. I don't imagine you'll be very clean after all those dishes," Chen laughed as Katara looked down at her food-bespeckled robes, grimacing. "Have a rest and get yourself a bite to eat – you did good work today. I'll come back in a bit for you."

The Waterbender nodded and rushed to put the dishes away and get cleaned up.

Zuko absently stared at his tea cup, listening to the old people chatter over the susurrations of the wind through the trees. His eyes flitted here and there, catching the movement of people walking through the garden, and couples kissing by the koi ponds. He did everything in his power not to look at the pretty water girl sitting directly across from him, but he knew she was staring at him from beneath her long, dark lashes.

"So what do you think, Zuko?" Iroh chimed in suddenly. The prince snapped his attention up.

"What?"

"I said, what do you think about staying the night? Madame Mai is having the kitchen prepare us a wonderful dinner, and she's having special entertainment brought from within the city."

Zuko frowned. "Uncle, I have to get back to the ship—"

"Nonsense!" Iroh waved off. "Besides, you wouldn't be able to go anywhere – I told the crew to take some shore leave while we were away."

"You WHAT?"

"They needed a break. What better time to stop than your birthday?"

"And WHEN were you planning to tell me this?"

"Never, actually," the old general pooh-poohed. "The next morning if necessary."

Zuko made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. He caught the girl, Sienna, hiding a smile behind her delicate hands. Gods above, if it weren't for the fact that she looked so much like Katara, and that he kept thinking the Waterbender was sitting right there, the prince would have stomped out a long time ago. He should have. Could have. But he just couldn't muster up the nerve to dash out of there. Again.

"You won't regret spending the night," Mai said, setting her teacup down smilingly. "Our services are extensive. We don't just provide food and drink and good company..."

"I don't want to hear about the services you have to offer," Zuko scowled. "I know what kind of place this is."

"Be polite, nephew." Iroh said in warning.

Zuko bit back a hot retort, but his eye caught the dark-skinned Sienna looking away, a little shamefaced. His heart skipped for the hundredth time that afternoon as he thought about Katara, her profile mirrored in Sienna's. He immediately regretted opening his mouth.

"I… I'm sorry." He said, more to the girl than to his elders. "I don't mean to be rude."

"Could have fooled me," Iroh snorted. "So what do you say about tonight? Will you stay? You don't have to do anything you don't want to, of course."

His uncle's hopeful tone told Zuko that he would, in fact, have to do a lot of things he didn't want to. But even on his seventeenth birthday, the prince could not deny his esteemed relative any small pleasures. And Iroh really wanted him to stay.

He sighed. "All right uncle. I'll stay."

Sienna broke into a wide smile and looked happily from the prince to her employer. Zuko looked guiltily into her face and returned the meekest of smiles.

He felt like such an idiot.

Ever have one of those birthdays where nothing is fun? Yeah, well Zuko probably has those. Every. Year.