AN: Good reviews make me so happy I can cry. See what happens when you review? (Chapters come out on time that's what) So we're back to third person, and just a chapter away from the big day!

Chapter Nine: Of Age

They weren't going to make it. Already a week behind schedule, and her birthday was tomorrow. It wasn't as if it would be the first birthday they had missed. She could think of countless times she had been expecting her family and had received an apology letter and an heartfelt gift instead. But she had been in the Fire Nation for three months now, and she was desperate to see a face from home.

"I win again." Katara said, following the placement of her last chip. General Iroh had been right, Zuko was a terrible Pai Sho player.

"Katara how long are we going to play this stupid game for?" They had been playing for hours, since before the sun had set, and his eyelids were becoming too heavy for him to hold up.

"Jee Zuko, and here I thought you enjoyed my company." She giggled at his flustering facial expression.

"I do, I just don't see why we have to play this game."

"Because, it's good for us. It'll keep us sharp, and keep us from falling asleep." Zuko snorted.

"Katara this game is putting me to sleep."

"Fine grumpy, what do you suggest we do." She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. What did he want to do? He stared at Katara, who was staring back at him with her big blue eyes and her puffy pink lips. Her hair was down, cascading down her shoulders and over her big, round- well, he could think of one he'd like to be doing right now.

"Zuko?" Dammit. He was doing it again. Over the past week he had gotten into the unfortunate habit of ogling her with less than pure intentions. Not that he would ever act on it, not without her initiating it. Which he didn't see happening anytime in the near future.

"Zuko you're doing it again?" That was the worst part. Every time it happened, she caught him. He turned beat red.

"Sorry, I was just thinking that it's been awhile since sparred." Nice save Zuko. He sarcastically thought to himself.

"You want to fight? Right now?" Katara could think of two reasons why she didn't want to do that. For one, she hadn't fought him since before she started learning with Aang. She liked to think that she was getting good, and didn't want being beat by Zuko to ruin that pride. But mostly, she was still holding out for her family to get here, and she didn't want to miss their arrival because she was sparing.

"Or not" Zuko said, noticing her disinterest. "Maybe we should just go to bed." He realized how she could interpret that. "Uh, I mean, go we could go to sleep. Like alone. In our own rooms. Separately." Katara raised an eyebrow at him.

"Was that clarification really necessary?"

"I just mean maybe you should get some rest. Your father will be here when you wake up. You shouldn't stay up all night waiting for him." Katara sighed, he was right. A servant rounded the corner and stopped at the table in front of them.

"Prince Zuko, Princess Katara, I have been sent to inform you that Chief Hakoda has arrived and your presence has been requested." Katara nearly jumped out of her seat.

"My father's here? Zuko come on. I told you we should wait for them." Katara didn't wait to see if he was following her, she practically ran to the front of the palace.

Chief Hakoda scanned the hall of the large palace. Everything was very dark and unsettling. He had never been particularly in favor of Arnook's plan, but now that he was seeing the place where his daughter was resigned to live out her days, he was wondering if this treaty was really worth it. He had dropped the rest of his crew off at what had looked like a upperclass inn before he and Sokka had been escorted to the palace. He was glad at least, that the Fire Lord had offered to foot the bill for him and his crew's stay. But he would have been more comfortable if he was staying with his men, rather than in this stuffy palace.

"Dad!" Katara rounded the corner and practically launched at the chief, who caught her in an embrace. She let go of him and turned towards Sokka, who had been looking generally uncomfortable since he had stepped foot on Fire Nation soil.

"Hey sis, miss me?" He asked as he was pulled into a hug by his sister.

"What is on your face?" Her face scrunched together at the sight of the small goatee her brother had begun to grow.

"What? It's manly." Sokka insisted. Katara rolled her eyes.

"I didn't think you guys would make it." She beamed.

"Sorry we're a little late, we've had one hellova trip, there were storms all along the Western Sea so we had to go east, and then one of our masts got damaged so we had to stop in the Earth Kingdom and apparently they have some kind of trade freeze going on so it took us a week to get the ship prepared AND THEN one of the men bought some bad crab puffs and like half the crew got sick and- hey Katara who's that lurkey dude standing in the corner?" Despite her telling him to, Zuko hadn't actually been sure whether or not he should follow Katara. By the time he caught up to her, she had already been reunited with her family and he didn't want to interrupt, so he stayed back, being "lurkey".

"Zuko what are you doing back there?" She bobbed her head, gesturing him to come to her.

"Zuko this is my father, Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, dad, this is Prince Zuko." Zuko bowed.

"Chief Hakoda it is an honor to meet you, Katara has told me so much about you." Katara was thankful that despite his normally rude demeanor, Zuko knew how to follow formalities.

"Likewise, I trust you've been taking good care of my daughter Prince Zuko."

"Um Ahem!" Sokka interrupted, glaring at his sister, who had neglected to introduce him.

"Oh right, Zuko, this is Sokka, Sokka, Zuko." Sokka glared between the two of them.

"So this is the guy who thinks he's good enough to marry my sister?" Zuko's mouth gaped, trying to decide how to respond.

"Yes, Sokka, this is the guy Chief Arnook and our father decided I would marry." Zuko wasn't sure if he should be insulted by that comment.

"Riiight, so tell me, exactly Prince Zuko what are your intentions with my sister?" Sokka took a step towards Zuko. Despite being shorter, he still fully intended to prove himself to be intimidating.

"Well, uh, my intention is to marry her." Katara snorted loudly, stifling a full blown laugh.

"Well, Sokka and I have both had a long few weeks and it's pretty late. I think we both could use some rest and we can continue this reunion in the morning." Hakoda put his hand on Sokka's shoulder.

"Of course, I'll have a guard show you to your rooms."

Ursa had gone all out for Katara's birthday. Or her "Coming of Age Ceremony" as it was being called. Katara had hardly had so much as a birthday party. Usually all she got was a special dinner and a few presents, which she was more than happy with. She didn't see why Ursa felt the need to make it a city-wide affair. When Yue had come of age, the Northern Water Tribe had a large feast, but she hadn't remembered it being as big of a deal as this. Ursa had even wanted Katara to take off her bending lessons in order to start the celebration early, but Katara had insisted of training that morning.

"That was perfect Katara!." Aang sat on the ground as Katara worked through the new technique he had taught her. He hopped to his feet.

"I believe you're ready."

"Ready for what?"

"To fight the Avatar." Katara looked at him, confused. She and Aang had sparred plenty of times. "All four elements at once." Aang began to pull the rocks beneath them up to the surface and Katara's eyes widened. She had no time to question him, water rose from the barrels and shot towards her. She gained control of the water, twisting it around and shooting it back at Aang, who quickly dispelled it with his air. She blocked the rocks with a wall of water, freezing it around the boulders and slamming them into the ground. She created two long water whips on her arms, and lunged toward Aang, but the ground betrayed her, wrapping around her feet and tripping her to the ground.

By the time she was back on her feet Aang had jumped into the air, creating a vortex that held him above ground. Katara charged him, creating stairs of ice, when she reached the top of the vortex she brought a wave from behind her and crashed it onto Aang, dispelling the air tornado. Both of them were back on the ground, waiting for the other to strike. Katara shot him with a repetition of ice daggers, all which were blocked by blasts of air. Katara pooled the water low to the ground, whipping it at Aang's feet, and yanking him off them. As he fell backwards he sent out a blast of fire from his hands and feet, heading full speed at Katara. The flames flashed in her eyes as she crouched with her hands over her face, pulling a wave of water to protect her. As the fire hit her wall of water, it knocked her off her feet and as she landed she was greeted with a blast of water that crashed on top of her.

Katara breathed heavy as she lie on the ground, trying to build the energy to get back on her feet. The Avatar appeared in front of her, and reached his hand out, which she gladly took.

"I don't think I was ready." She panted, clutching her knees.

"Are you kidding? That was great! You lasted almost a whole minute!" Katara glared at Aang who just laughed.

"Oh my young student, I am nearly a century older than you, you didn't actually expect to beat me did you?" No she didn't, which is why she was confused as to why she would even try.

"Then why?"

"Because Katara, if you can hold off against me for even a few minutes, you will be able to hold off against a regular bender long enough that you will be able to defeat them."

"Now, I think that's enough for today, I don't want you to train so hard that you won't be able to enjoy your birthday celebration." She didn't feel like arguing with that.

"Speaking of your birthday, I have a gift for you Katara." Aang pulled out a tattered old book from inside his cloak pocket.

"This journal was written by my waterbending master, and best friend, Atto. He used it took keep track of his bending progress, and I believe it is one of the few artifacts left which documents Southern Waterbending. I thought it only fitting that you had it."

Katara examined the old book, the binding was falling apart and it looked like it had been completely submerged in water at least a dozen times. She opened it up and began to flip through the pages. It was written in tuila, the traditional Water Tribe language. Even though everyone spoke the common tongue now, she was still taught to read tuila as a child. Along with the notes there were tons of drawings and diagrams, it was clear that the writer had put a lot of detail into his notes.

"Wow this is amazing. Thank you."

"I've kept that since the Ten Year War, I'd hoped one day I'd be able to return it to someone who could carry on the traditions and now I have." Katara tried to fight the tears that were welling in her eyes.

"Thank you Aang, you have given me so much more than I could have ever asked for in a master." She closed the book and wrapped her arms around the Avatar.

"No more tears young pupil, you have a party to get ready for." Aang beamed, directing her to leave the arena.

"Wow, so that's the Avatar?" Sokka's presence caused Katara to jump in the air.

"Sokka! How long have you been standing here?"

"A while." He shrugged, "Dad sent me to come get you. For someone so old, he really kicked your ass." Katara glowered at him. In truth, Sokka had been amazed at the fight he had witnessed. Last time he had seen Katara she was struggling to control the water in her stew, and now she was facing off against the Avatar. If nothing else good came of this treaty at least he would know that his sister finally got the one thing she wanted.

"Funny, for some reason I thought I'd missed you." She punched his arm.

"Oh how could you not miss me? I'm the greatest!"

"Uh- huh, just keep telling yourself that Sokka. After all, no one else is going to." She laughed, she had missed him.

They walked back to Katara's room, Sokka gawked at the size of the room, which was nearly double the size of the one that he and his father had been given to share. Katara changed into a red and gold dress that had been sitting in her closet unused since her arrival. She took her hair out of the long braid, brushing out the dust from her fight.

They still had plenty of time before her celebration so Katara decided to give him a proper tour of the palace. She started with the kitchen and they made their way through an array of closed doors that they couldn't enter. She showed him the library where she and Ursa had their lessons, and the arena where she and Zuko used to spar. Sokka made a point to mention how nearly everything in the palace was a variant shade of red. Eventually they made their way to the garden.

"Wow, it almost looks normal out here, there's hardly any red." Katara walked over to the pond, crouching down.

"Sokka come look at the turtle-ducks." He moved away from the tree he had been inspecting and crouched next to his sister. One of the creatures hopped up onto her extended palm.

"Aren't they cute." Katara cooed.

"Sure Katara." She frowned at her brother's lack of enthusiasm.

"Zuko loves them." She stroked the top of the creature's head. Sokka looked at his sister, who was entranced by the little animal. She was the same as he remembered her, but different. He couldn't explain it. She was more refined maybe, but that had been set in motion since the day she left for the North. Maybe she was just more grown up. An ironic concept considering she was currently fawning over a furry animal.

"Katara, are you going to be okay here? Really. And don't give me any of the bs about being 'happy to do your duty'." Katara let placed the turtleduck back into the pond.

"I think so. It was hard at first, but things have gotten better. Aang being here makes it better."

"But he won't be here forever, what about when he leaves? Is this Zuko guy going to make you happy?" Katara thought about that, not for the first time. Was Zuko going to make her happy?

"I hope so. I think I can make him happy too, if he lets me."

"What's he like?"

"He's… rough around the edges. A total hot head. Too cynical for his own good, kind of like you. I think you two could actually be good friends under the right circumstances."

"Doubt it." Sokka mumbled.

"He's not so bad Sokka. Spirits, he got the Avatar to come train me. He's got a lot of good in him. Sometimes he just needs a little bit of a nudge to let it out."

"Plus it probably doesn't hurt that he's tall and pretty." Sokka mocked. Katara laughed. No, it didn't hurt that Zuko was exceptionally handsome, but that wasn't something she felt like admitting to her brother.

They left the garden, Katara leading them to the ballroom where her party was being held. Apparently, they were the last ones to arrive. Katara quickly spotted her father and the other Water Tribe members.

"There's the birthday girl! Katara, you remember Bato." Katara of course remembered her father's best friend.

"Of course! It's so good to see you again." She hugged him.

"Katara! Last time I saw you, you were a foot shorter." Bato went on to introduce her to the other men who were with them. Many of them she remembered from her father's visits to the North, but some of them were very young, and this had been their first voyage away from home.

"Katara, do you remember me?" One of the men, or rather boys, asked Katara. She stared at him blankly, before coming to to a realization.

"Tanok? Spirits is that you? Last time I saw you, you were still in diapers!" Katara said a little too loud and the boy turned bright crimson. He must've only been thirteen years old and yet he was towering over her.

"You're sure growing em' big back home." She laughed.

Not long after, the room was hushed by Ursa, who stood at the head of the room.

"Welcome family and friends. Thank you all for coming out today to celebrate the sixteenth birthday of my future daughter in law Katara. Since her arrival, Katara has proved to be a ray of light in our palace and I am honored to announce her coming of marrying age. Katara, dear, would you mind joining me." Katara made her way to Ursa, praying that she wouldn't be forced to address the crowd of strangers.

"Katara, on behalf of the royal family, I would like to present you with your birthday gift. While we are all so glad that you have made a home in the Fire Nation, we hope that your life is full of many journeys, and so I'm proud to present you with HFL Boki, one of the finest royal barge's in our royal fleet." Katara blinked, not sure if she had understood right. Had Princess Ursa just given her a boat?

"Of course, as a member of the royal family, you will have access to all our naval ships, but the Boki will be set aside for your personal use only, and under your strict command." Ursa looked at Katara with needy eyes. As if to say 'do you like it?"

"Ursa, wow, this is too much. I ca-" She could see the disappointment in Ursa's eyes, "can't ever thank you enough for all you have given me. Thank you." Ursa smiled softly at her, then turned back to the crowd, announcing that the feast would begin.

"happy birthday Sister." Azula smiled, sitting next to Katara. She had gotten into the habit of referring to Katara as "sister," a notion that made Katara more than a little unsettled.

"Thanks Azula."

"That was some gift, wouldn't you say?"

"Did you know?"

"About the boat? No, I can't say that I did. Which is unfortunate because now I feel like my gift is a bit upstaged." Azula sighed.

"Azula, you didn't have to get me anything."

"Well of course I did, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't get you something." Azula changed to a hushed whisper.

"But I have to be discrete about it, I'm afraid what I found for you is not exactly lady like." Azula revealed a skinny velvet bag from under the table. From it, she pulled a large, silver dagger. Katara's eyes widened.

"Azula!" Katara tried to keep her voice down.

"What? Us high born girls need protection. The sheath has straps so that you can hide it under your dress." Katara looked from Azula, to the knife, to Azula again. And then, she broke out into a fit of laughter.

"Azula has anyone ever told you that you're a very dangerous person."

"Maybe once or twice." Azula smirked and leaned back in her seat.

During the evening, a string of people came to give Katara gifts. Some of them were familiar to her. But many of them were high ranking Fire Nation people that Katara had never heard of. She received more jewels and gowns than she had ever owned in her entire life. Many of them told her how glad they were that she would be uniting their people, but she could tell that a lot of them thought differently. She didn't mind their bigotry so much, but the feigned kindness left a bitter taste in her mouth.

She kept missing Zuko. Every time they locked eyes and made the effort to reach each other, one of them was swept away by a noble or family member. Eventually, she spotted him with her brother. Fear filled her mind at the thought of Sokka trying to intimidate Zuko.

"So what do you think of the Fire Nation so far?" Zuko asked, feeling painfully uncomfortable.

"It's hot." Sokka replied.

"Right, yeah. I've heard that."

"Would you stop that." Sokka yelled, to Zuko's surprise, who looked at him dumbfounded.

"Stop ogling my sister like she's a piece of meat. She's not." Sokka didn't know what it was about the guy, but he didn't like him. Maybe it was because he was because he was Fire Nation. Or maybe it was because he kept gazing at his baby sister like he wanted to rip her dress off. It was probably the last thing.

"I wasn't-" Zuko tried to defend. Sure he had been looking for Katara, and sure when he found her he happened to notice how beautiful she looked in her crimson silk gown, but he certainly wasn't ogling her.

Okay maybe he was.

He should have accepted defeat. Owned up to being in the wrong, and apologized to Katara's brother, who looked like he had half a mind to put a fist through Zuko's face. But of course Zuko didn't do that.

"Last time I checked, I'm allowed to look at my future wife." How dare this guy? Sokka thought.

"She deserves way better than you." Sokka fumed.

"I know." Sokka hadn't expected him to say that. Well at least he wasn't completely delusional. Then again, maybe he was just trying to be agreeable.

"Do you? Because since I've met you, you walk around like you own her. Well news flash bud! Ya don't. She's not doing this for you, she's doing it for her people. She never would have chosen this for herself. So stop acting so smug like you've won some sort of prize. Because in her eyes, you'll never be anything more than a ruthless scorcher." Scorcher, it had been an unfortunate nickname that Fire Bender's had earned themselves during the Ten Year war.

Sokka stomped off. Maybe he had been a bit dramatic. It's not as if Katara had actually said any of those things about Zuko. But what he said was true. Katara did deserve better. She deserved to be with her own people, with her family. She deserved to be with a guy who wasn't only good "deep down."

The party continued well into the night, and eventually, after spending a good hour mentally kicking himself for the interaction with her brother, Zuko found himself next to Katara.

"Fun party?" The room was full of chatting Fire Nation higher ups, most who didn't even know Katara's name. Katara rolled her eyes. It wasn't that she was having a bad time. But it was becoming clear that the party wasn't exactly for her.

"It's been a blast. Did you see what your sister got me?" Katara pulled up the side of her dress to reveal the large blade Azula had gifted her.

"Well that's comforting" At least Azula was looking out for her safety, Zuko thought.

"It's exactly what I'd expect of her." Katara laughed.

"Well I just got a twenty minute lecture by some old croon, telling me how brave I was for picking a Water Tribe girl as my bride." Zuko laughed.

"Well it's not exactly like we chose each other" Katara laughed. Zuko thought back to what Sokka had told him. That she would never had chose this life for herself.

"Right, you're only marrying me because you have to, not because you actually like me."

"Zuko, that's not what I meant." She sighed.

"But it's true isn't it. You don't think I'm good enough for you. Me or the Fire Nation. To you we're all a bunch of heartless killers and you'll never see past that." the cynicism dripped from his voice.

"That's not true." Spirits, where was this coming from? She wondered.

"It's not, look how fast you were ready to leave when I told you that stuff about my father. You were so quick to group me in with him. You act like you're making some big sacrifice by marrying me, the least you could do is pretend like you want to marry me." Katara's face grew red and hot.

"You're such a hypocrite! For the first month that I knew you all you talked about was how awful it was that you were being forced to marry me. You acted like you wanted to be anywhere else but with me. I'm sorry I'm not Mai. And I'm sorry if it upsets you that maybe I had a different idea for how my life was going to go that didn't include being shipped off to the Fire Nation just so I could have the honor of marrying YOU." Katara looked around, realizing that the people around her were staring.

"I need some air." She announced. Walking out to the balcony. She thought they were past this. Apparently she was wrong. It wasn't until she looked down at the courtyard and saw that it was blurry that she realized she was crying.

Meanwhile, Zuko was standing in the middle of the party, mentally kicking himself. Why did he always have to go and start fights?

"Was that my daughter I just saw running out of here." Great. He didn't need the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe yelling at him too.

"Yeah, I think I ruined everything."

"Seems a bit dramatic wouldn't you agree? Look, in my experience, you're going to say a lot of the stupid things to her. The important thing is what you do after. So I suggest, whatever it is, you go apologize for it." Zuko doubted she wanted to hear it.

"Or you could stay here and listen to me tell you all the different ways I know to kill a person." Zuko jumped, apologizing it was.

"Katara!" Zuko called her name, she turned around, he looked out of breath, like he had been running.

"Here to yell at me some more?" She leaned back against the balcony. Zuko looked at her, noticing the wetness in her eyes. Dammit, he scolded himself, he hated that he made her cry.

"No. I'm sorry for what I said. It wasn't fair. I guess, I just saw you talking to your parents and all those Water Tribe men and I-"

"What? Were you jealous?" What a ridiculous notion, she thought, thinking back to the water tribe "men" who were nothing more than children.

"What no! It's not that. It's just, seeing you with them, it reminded me of how happy you could have been with your own people, if you didn't have to marry me. I just wish I could make you that happy."

"Zuko, I was happy because I got to see my people again, people I haven't seen since I was a little girl. If it wasn't for this marriage I would still be in the North, I'd still be away from my family, but I wouldn't have you, I wouldn't have my bending. Zuko you gave me my bending back. Without you I'd still be trying to master shakey water whips."

"That wasn't me, that was the Avatar." He shifted his eyes away, too ashamed to look at her.

"The Avatar you brought to me." She grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to look at her. He was amazed by her. She had a tendency to always know how to make him feel better.

"Yeah… I'm sorry I acted like an idiot."

"Yeah you did. Maybe one day I'll forgive you." Zuko caught a glimpse of her smile.

"I uh- actually I have something for you." Zuko reached into his pocket, looking for the small trinket that had been living there for the past few weeks, as he had tried to muster up the courage to give it to her.

He pulled out the gold pendant, which hung on a crimson ribbon. After giving up on stone carving he decided to forge it out of gold.

"Zuko is that?"

"Yeah, I know it's a Northern tradition anyway and you have your mother's, so you don't have to wear it if you don't want to. But I wanted to make it for you." Katara examined the necklace. Carved into the golden pendant was a delicate design, simple, but graceful.

"It's supposed to be the sun and the moon." Zuko said, blushing at Katara's examination of his craftsmanship.

"For our two nations." The moon, cradling the sun, and the sun, with it's long rays of light, twisting out to caress the moon.

"Yeah. Katara, you're my best friend. And you're beautiful and amazing and I want to marry you. I just thought I should let you know." He blushed.

"You know, traditionally, betrothal necklaces are presented before the engagement, not five days before the wedding."

"Yeah… I know."

"Will you help me?" Katara asked, reaching behind her neck and pulling her hair out of the way, she turned around and he untied her mother's necklace, replacing it with the new one. When she turned around she found herself sandwiched between him and the rail of the balcony. He was so close.

She had only kissed him once before. On a drunken spurr that she barely could remember. It was the only time she had kissed anyone. But she was not drunk this time. Her mind was completely clear and absolutely certain. She reached up the slightest bit, squeezed her eyes shut, and kissed him.

And thank the spirits he kissed her back.

AN: So I'm done with the next chapter, but I want to get a few chapters ahead because I'm going to be going out of the country and then back to school, so I want to get a solid months worth of writing done before then. But at the very least, the next chapter will be up next monday.