Author's Note, Part 1: This is actually one entire chapter broken into two parts, because it was turning out unbelievably long. This is the first part. I'll be uploading the next part real soon. Also, these two parts are a bit different from the other chapters, in the sense that I shift POVs more often here. It was a judgment call I had to make, and Ihope it doesn't jar you guys too much.

Again, thank you so much for still reading this. And thank you so very, very much to you guys who reviewed: HisElement, Melospiza, darktank (it's okay, take your time, ), Scorpiored112 (hehe, thanks, just a little more patience, the dinner party's next), BN, XxSilverMoonFrostxX, Nakira Ayame Outsuno, N1cindyfan, Liselle129 (all hail no-traditional authors), frozenheat, Niana Kuonji (sparklies galore, coming up), me-obviously, and shinjae (the fantabulous).

So, anyway, here's part 1 of the chapter I would have titled "The Party" if I hadn't been using roman numerals to title chapters.

VI

PART 1

As Katara and Li Mei vanished behind the door, the sound of their voices fading away in the distance, Aang felt as though some of the light had left the room as well. He stared down at the tabletop and drummed his fingers on his knees, feeling antsy and restless without Katara's presence to anchor him, and was about to make some sort of excuse to get out of the house when a hand shot out and slapped him on the arm.

"You see that? That's exactly what I was talking about," Sokka grumbled, his features settling into the scowl of the cynical proven right. "Not half a day passes and she's already skipping around town babbling about dresses and jewelry and stuff. I'm telling you, this place is just one big excuse for her to go all girly on us."

Aang's eyes grew unfocused, seeing once again the way Katara looked with that silver tiara on her head. "I don't know, Sokka. She looked like she was having a good time. Maybe giving her a chance to do all this girly stuff won't be such a bad idea."

Sokka snorted. "So says the guy who's never had to hang around a bunch of giddy females. Trust me, Aang, the next few days are not going to be fun."

Aang shrugged, not really seeing what the problem was. So what if Katara wanted to talk about stuff only another girl could understand? It seemed to make her happy, and he would gladly sit through a boring discussion about dresses and lotions if it would make her smile like that again.

Okay, maybe gladly was pushing it, but he would do it. At least, he was pretty sure he would.

He stood up, stretched and reached for the glider staff that was leaning against the wall. "I'm going to have a look around outside, okay?"

Sokka was already striding purposefully toward the door before he'd even finished talking. "I'm coming with you. I'm going to look for Appa and get our sleeping bags down. No way am I sleeping anywhere near that—that thing in the corner."

"Why not?" Aang asked, genuinely baffled. "You said it was comfy, although I'm not sure if it'll be comfy enough for Grandfather Wang and Grandma Sorab. I mean, they'll have to kneel down to reach it and the floor's kind of hard—"

"Aang! Do you mind?" Sokka yelled, his face taking on a vaguely greenish tinge. "I'd like to enjoy this feast I nearly starved to death for, and that means I'd have to be able to eat!"

With that, he stomped off, nearly shoving the door right off its groove. Aang followed him, not sure if he wanted to know what exactly the older boy had gotten so worked up about. Outside, the sun floated above the hills like a benevolent eye peeking through a veil of clouds, and the sky had taken on a pale golden hue that would soon deepen to fiery orange and crimson. Aang took a deep breath, savoring the fragrances wafting in from the garden and mingling with the homey smell of boiling rice as families began to settle in. As he stepped out into the street, a familiar chittering noise made him look up, and with a smile of greeting he held out his arm for Momo to perch on. The lemur wrapped his tail around Aang's neck and belched, and Aang could smell the nuts, fruits and sweetmeats he had been stuffing himself with. "Gee, Momo, if you keep this up we'll have to roll you around on the ground by the time we leave this place."

Momo blinked, clearly unconcerned about the fate in store for him. Aang headed toward the gardens, thinking to follow Sokka to the grove Appa had turned into a den, but he hadn't gotten far when he felt something tugging at his pants. A little girl of around three stood gazing up at him adoringly. He smiled down at her. "Hi there. Are you looking for someone?"

The little girl gestured for him to come closer, then whispered: "I really like you." Before he could react, she threw herself at him, winding her arms around his neck. Aang choked and stumbled back, but when he tried to pry the little girl off of him in order to breathe, she only giggled and tightened her hold even more.

Help arrived in the form of the boy he had seen earlier in the crowd, the one who seemed to be the oldest male in the whole town who wasn't above the age of fifty. "Mari, let him go! The Avatar isn't your pet!" the boy shouted as he ran toward them, followed by a troop of younger children. He grabbed the little girl and pulled and pulled until she released her death-grip around Aang's neck. Abruptly freed, Aang staggered and fell on his behind, and soon found himself surrounded by a ring of children.

The boy who now held the squirming child under one arm like a bag of potatoes looked at him nervously, as though waiting for some kind of explosion. So Aang did the only thing he could: he laughed. "Thanks for getting her off me. You're Kenji, right?"

"Uh, that's right, Avatar. I'm Grandma Sorab's grandson. One of a hundred, I think," Kenji said with a roll of his eyes. "This little pest is my sister, Mari. And these are Hiro, Jin, Ayu, Shoko, Parma and Yan-Yan." He nodded his head to indicate the other children.

"Nice to meet you guys. And you don't have to keep calling me Avatar. My name is Aang." Aang airlifted himself upright, causing the children to gasp in awe.

Kenji gaped. "Wow, you really are an airbender, aren't you?"

"Yup," Aang replied.

"Can you do any airbending tricks?" another child piped up.

Aang grinned. "Well, there is this trick I know."

When Sokka came back, it was to find Aang zipping through the streets and alleys, up walls and across rooftops on his air scooter while several laughing children chased after him. The water-tribe warrior adjusted his grip around the sleeping bags and gave the young Avatar an exasperated look. "Why am I not surprised to find you goofing around again?" he muttered.

"Hey, Sokka. Wanna join us?" Aang jumped, spun in mid-air and landed gracefully in front of Sokka, only to have the effect ruined when a pile of shrieking children fell on top of him.

Sokka eyed the heap of flailing arms and legs. "No thanks. I've got some redecorating to do."

"'Redecorating'?" Kenji echoed. "Is he talking about the honeymoon house?"

With a gentle blast of air, Aang lifted the children off him—with the exception of Mari who had attached herself to his leg like a leech—and stood up. "Yeah. I don't know why, but I think the house is making him feel jittery."

Kenji snickered. "No surprise there. That place is packed with fire agates, green beryl and rhodochrosite. Those stones are supposed to have this interesting effect on couples in love, but I guess everybody feels the energies one way or another."

Aang's ears pricked. "Really?" he said casually. "You mean those crystals in the pots, right? What exactly do those things do, anyway?"

Kenji shrugged. "Dunno. I've bended some of those crystals before and I definitely felt something but I couldn't make sense out of it. Old Uncle Ton said it had something to do with being emotionally attuned or some other mumbo-jumbo, but I think he was just messing with me."

"It does sound weird," Aang agreed, making a mental note to check those crystals out as soon as possible. Maybe Li Mei could explain it better.

Kenji shrugged again, losing interest in the subject. "That air scooter thing was pretty neat. You're lucky, you know. You get to do all sorts of useful things with your bending. What's more, you're the Avatar. You get to have these terrific adventures and fight the Fire Nation and all."

"It's not all that great," Aang said quietly, truth ringing in every word.

"Maybe, but it's better than being stuck here." Kenji kicked at a pebble while the children played tag with Momo all around them. "My brothers, my cousins, my uncles—they've all left to join the war. My dad left before Mari was born. One day when I'm old enough, I'm leaving to join my brother in the resistance. The last thing I want is to spend the rest of my life here twiddling my thumbs while everyone else is fighting in the war. There's just one problem, though."

"What's that?" Aang asked, absently working to loosen Mari's grip around his leg.

"This." Kenji raised his hands, making the clear crystal pendant hanging around his neck float upward until the leather cord was stretched taut. He closed his eyes and for a moment the crystal glowed white, filling the air with a subtle power. When he lowered his hands, the crystal dropped back and the light faded away. "That's all I can do with my bending," he confessed. "Just cut and charge gemstones. I can't throw rocks, I can't set off landslides, I can't even make mud. My brother wrote to us about the awful time he had re-learning earthbending just so the other fighters wouldn't laugh at him. I guess I know what I can look forward to when I get out of here."

Aang stared at the other boy, wondering at the way two people could look at the same thing and yet feel so differently about it. Before he could form a reply, Momo came hurtling out of nowhere and dove down to his shoulder. The lemur's pursuer, the boy named Hiro, skidded to a stop, took one look at them and groaned. "Oh no, Kenji's been whining about how he's dying to leave town again, ain't he? You don't have to listen to him," he told Aang. "He does this to everyone, only you're too polite to run away."

Kenji glared at him. "Shut up, Hiro."

"Hey, hey! Check me out!"

They turned toward another boy—Jin, if Aang remembered correctly—who had gotten his hands on the glider staff and was swinging it wildly, calling out loud "hahs!" with each swing. The other children had backed away from him but he was too absorbed in playing warrior to notice their nervousness. Aang quickly stepped up behind him and caught the staff as it flew through the air. "Careful. You could hit someone with that."

With his weapon facing confiscation by its real owner, Jin let go of the staff and sniffed scornfully. "Whatever. It's not even a real weapon anyway. Not like a sword or a spear."

Grinning, Aang spun the staff from hand to hand. "You're right. It's not a real weapon. This staff is for airbending." He snapped the glider staff open, threw it in the air, and leaped after it. The chorus of delighted cries from the children floated up to him, and he waved at them as he circled higher and higher over the rooftops. On one of his passes, he noticed two familiar figures walking back to town coming from the mountain path. They crossed the bridge just behind the honeymoon house then turned toward another street. "Katara!" Aang cried happily, uncaring of the fact that he was too far away for her to hear him.

He swooped down and landed lightly on the roof of the house beside the street where Katara and Li Mei were walking. They both had their hair pulled up in a damp bun on the top of their heads and were each carrying a wooden bucket containing a few bottles and jars. They had obviously just come from the hot springs. He opened his mouth and was about to call out to her when some of their conversation drifted toward him.

"—found him in the iceberg," Katara was saying. "We've been together ever since."

They're talking about me! Aang realized, eyes going wide. Li Mei said something that seemed to startle Katara. Her back went stiff and she shook her head quickly, and Aang wished he could see her expression. He leaned as far over the roof's edge as he dared, trying to catch sight of more than just an ear and the nape of her neck, but froze when he heard her next words.

"Aang is—he's a good friend. Oh, don't get me wrong. He's friendly and sweet and a lot of fun to be with. He's also the bravest person I know, and an incredibly powerful bender besides. I used to get so jealous over how naturally gifted he is at bending," Katara admitted with a rueful laugh. "But really, he's just a sweet little guy and a good friend of mine, that's all," she finished in a voice that he could barely hear now.

The two girls turned at the corner and vanished from sight. Aang sat back on the roof, feeling cold and dispirited as Katara's words ran through his mind again and again. Just a good friend, huh? he thought, his heart sinking to the pit of his stomach. He didn't know why the news that Katara saw him as just a goofy kid and a good buddy of hers should make him feel so dejected. It wasn't as if he didn't know about it. Katara herself had told him pretty much the same thing once before. It was just that, after what happened back in the cave, he'd begun to think…no, he'd begun to hope that something had changed between them. That maybe, just maybe, Katara had begun to see him a little differently. As somebody who could be…something more to her than just this goofy kid who'd go to ridiculous lengths to get her to notice him.

Maybe he'd been wrong about this all along. After all, he didn't know how she felt about what happened in the cave. All he knew was that when she'd hesitantly suggested that kissing might somehow show them the way out, he'd been so dazed and nervous and desperate not to appear, well, desperate that he'd ended up making a muck of things. And later, with only the dying torch light and the sound of each other's quiet breathing to guide them, she'd placed her hand on his and leaned toward him, and he'd closed his eyes and met her halfway. When he felt the brush of her lips against his, as fleeting as the touch of a butterfly's wing, it was as though his entire being had been struck by lightning. In fact, when the crystals embedded on the ceiling of the cave began to glow, it took him a few seconds to realize that the light wasn't coming from him.

And that somehow, without their knowing it, her fingers had become entangled with his.

It was a moment he treasured, something he clung to like a talisman whenever he would simply stare at her, certain that she didn't know he was watching her. He'd never worked up the nerve to ask her what she thought of it, though. He tried once but she acted as though nothing had happened, and he'd been content not to mention it again. He'd even felt a secret thrill at the thought of sharing something unspoken and meaningful with her. Now, it turned out that the reason she hadn't treated him any differently after the kiss was because it hadn't mattered enough for her to do so. It was just a way for them to get out of a stupid cave.

He buried his head in his arms, trying to get his shuddering breaths under control. A weight settled upon his shoulder and chittered softly at him, and he lifted his head and smiled weakly at the lemur. "Guess what, Momo. I'm making progress with Katara. At least she didn't compare me to you this time."

"Aang!"

He found Kenji waving at him from the street while Mari hopped up and down, chanting "AangAangAangAang" in a singsong voice. "I've been looking all over for you," Kenji complained. "I'm supposed to bring you over so you can get cleaned up for tonight."

"Cleaned up?"

"Yeah, for the feast. You know, the one to be held in honor of the Avatar?"

Aang blinked. He'd forgotten all about the feast. Truth to tell, all he wanted to do right now was find a hole to hide in and lick his wounds, but it looked like he was up for an evening of smiling politely and making chit-chat and generally being the gracious Avatar he was supposed to be. He sighed and hopped off the roof, and with a squeal Mari launched herself at him, only to have her brother seize her in mid-launch by the scruff of her neck.

"Your friend Sokka's already being brought to Grandfather Wang's house," Kenji continued as though he wasn't being pummeled by the furious little girl he held clamped underneath one arm. "Li Mei and your other friend are probably there, too. Ow! Mari, will you knock it off?"

Fully expecting Kenji to turn at the same corner Katara and Li Mei had disappeared round, Aang was surprised when the other boy continued straight on toward the center of the town. "Hey, I thought we were going to Grandfather Wang's house."

Kenji gave him a smug look. "Nope. I'm taking you to Grandma's house. You've been chosen to be her model tonight. Which reminds me." He stopped, placed a hand on Aang's shoulder and looked him solemnly in the eye. "If it weren't for you, Aang, I'd be the one Grandma and the others would be bullying tonight into wearing an outfit she picked out. So thanks. I owe you one."

"Uh, sure. No problem," Aang said for lack of anything better to say.

"But don't worry about it!" Kenji cried jovially in an abrupt turnaround. "Grandma's got a good eye for design, one of the best in town, in fact. You're in capable hands, my friend."

Before Aang could flatly point out how unconvincing Kenji was, Mari wriggled free from her brother's grip and latched onto Aang's leg with a contented sigh. It took the two boys a few minutes and some vigorous yanking to separate the little girl from Aang's right calf. "Yeesh, sorry about this," Kenji apologized as he hefted his sister onto his shoulder. "Three years old and already she gets these crazy crushes."

"It's okay. It's kind of cute, I guess." Aang ruffled Mari's hair, and she instantly stopped pouting and giggled instead. He sighed inwardly. What with Meng, Koko and the girls on Kyoshi Island and now Mari, it was pretty safe to say that girls younger than he was, years younger even, found him reasonably attractive. If only he could say the same about girls older than him. Two years older, to be precise.

He became aware that Kenji was still talking, describing in great detail the feasts and parties the townsfolk of Tai Shen would seemingly hold at the drop of a hat. "So you guys do this a lot, huh?" he finally asked, intrigued despite himself.

Kenji considered it for a total of two seconds. "Yeah, pretty much. People in Tai Shen are really peacocks disguised as humans, and they'd welcome any excuse to get all dolled up and strut their stuff. We're holding this feast in your honor, but we'd probably have held a feast to welcome Grandfather Wang and Li Mei back anyway. 'Course, you guys being here make it so much grander. Honestly, we should put up a road sign that says, 'Welcome to Tai Shen: We Make A Big Deal Out of Nothing'. Uh, no offence meant," he added quickly.

Aang stared glumly at the ground. "Looks like I'm going to fit in real well, then."

o – o – o – o – o

Aang stood in the middle of one of the most elegant, most understatedly feminine rooms he had ever seen. Everything was red, gold and dark, burnished wood. Golden rugs with ornate red designs covered half of the floor. A red lacquered cabinet sat in one corner, while several altar tables stood against the walls. Atop of these tables was an array of ornaments—a porcelain vase, a china bowl with red peonies floating inside, and countless figurines carved from clear yellow gemstones. There were several chairs and in one corner, partly hidden behind a screen, a couch-bed with several red cushions. Thin gray lines of smoke curled upward from several sticks of incense burning upon a squat incense table, and Aang's nose twitched at the heavily floral scent.

He rubbed his nose and shifted from foot to foot, wondering where everybody was and where Kenji had disappeared to. The boy had led him into this room, then left after telling him to "enjoy the peace while you can." That cryptic remark did nothing to relieve Aang's unease. He picked up one of the figurines and examined it, his thoughts turning toward Katara and Sokka and what they were doing over at Grandfather Wang's place. Probably having fun getting all dressed up. An image of a smiling, excited Katara flashed through his mind, accompanied by a wave of longing so intense it took him by surprise. Shaking his head at his own mawkishness, he replaced the figurine, rubbed his nose again, then with a sweep of his arm sent an air current across the room to blow the streams of smoke toward the doorway.

And right into Grandma Sorab's face.

"Uh, sorry. I didn't see you there," Aang said, hastily redirecting the smoke back into the room.

Grandma Sorab smiled benignly. "It's all right, although I see that orange blossom incense is not to your liking." She picked up the brass tray that held the incense and handed it to one of several women who had entered the room in her wake. "Take this to another room before it gives our young Avatar the sniffles."

As the woman bowed and left, Grandma Sorab moved to sit on one of the chairs. "My goodness, but these old bones are certainly not what they used to be," she said lightly, her regal, straight-backed posture belying her words. "Forgive me, Aang. I would ask you to sit but these ladies wanted to have a look at you."

Aang, who now stood in the middle of a ring of females who were eyeing him speculatively and smiling behind the sleeves of their robes, swallowed and said: "I can tell."

"I must thank you for allowing me to have you fitted out for tonight."

He thought about reminding her that he hadn't exactly been given much choice in the matter, but decided against it when he realized how much it would make him sound like Sokka. "Uh, actually, I should be the one thanking you for letting me borrow something to wear tonight. We weren't exactly prepared for a party."

Grandma Sorab smiled again. "Oh, it is my pleasure. As you can see, I rarely get a chance to see my creations worn by a handsome young male, ever since my grandson Kenji decided he didn't need his old grandma's help dressing himself up. Has a mind of his own, our Kenji," she added affectionately.

"Um," Aang offered.

"Oh, forgive this old woman for rambling. Now before we get on with business, I would like to present to you my daughters and granddaughters, who will be assisting you tonight."

Several feminine voices murmured greetings, to which he responded with a nervous grin. One of the women sighed. "Oh Grandma, you're right. He's perfect!"

Another woman broke from the ring and circled him, her hands darting out to touch his shoulders and arms, tugging at his red-orange cape here and there. "The pattern will flow here and here and—ooh, ladies, he's definitely got the build for it!" she announced excitedly.

"I don't remember Kenji looking like that at his age, do you? And those tattoos! How exotic! He's going to be a dream to work with."

"Oh, absolutely! The ensemble's going to look marvelous on him."

"Oooh, I can't wait. Let's get started!"

The women advanced upon him, their eyes aglow with the fires of conquest. Spurred by a deep-seated, previously untapped instinct for self-preservation, Aang backed away from the horde until he was pressed flat against the lacquered cabinet. He brought his staff up and was about to catapult himself over their heads and make a break for the doorway when Grandma Sorab calmly stepped between him and the women, her girth as implacable as a fortress wall.

"Now, ladies. I know how eager you are but let's show a bit of restraint, shall we?" she said placidly. "Don't forget, this is Avatar Aang you're working with, not Kenji. He's not used to being treated as a model."

Chastised, the women moved back to give Aang some breathing space. He unglued himself from the cabinet and sighed. "Thanks for the save," he said to Grandma Sorab.

"It's quite all right." Grandma Sorab turned toward the women. "You may bring the bath in now. And the bathing robes, if you please."

"Bath?" Aang said blankly.

Grandma Sorab positively beamed. "Why, yes. We always begin with a bath, of course, to cleanse both body and spirit. Ah, here it comes."

Two women came in carrying a wooden bath tub, followed by several more bearing buckets of steaming water, soaps, scrubbing brushes, robes and some suspicious-looking clay pots the contents of which he honestly did not want to find out. A couple of women came in last, carrying a set of clothes, shoes and a flat velvet case. Aang stared with rising dread at the room, which was looking more and more like a torture chamber to him.

Grandma Sorab nodded approvingly. "All right then. It's time for you to undress."

"What?" Aang, who ordinarily had no compunctions at all about stripping down to the bare essentials whenever the chance for a quick dip presented itself, suddenly found himself deeply reluctant to shed a single piece of clothing in front of so many avidly watching females. "Could I at least have a bit of privacy?" he muttered, a part of him unable to believe what he'd just said.

The women exchanged glances and giggled, and Aang caught a murmured, "Aw, isn't that cute? He's shy!" At Grandma Sorab's gesture, two women dragged the screen over. "Here you are, young Avatar," one of the women said cheerfully. "After all, we're here to make things easier for you. All you have to do is relax!"

As Aang resigned himself to the questionable safety of the thin paper screen, his thoughts drifted once again to Katara and Sokka and the fun they must be having at Grandfather Wang's house. One thing for sure: There was no way their situation could be worse than his.

o – o – o – o – o

"What are you, crazy? No!"

"Aw, quit your whining. It ain't going to kill you."

"No way! I am not putting on that fancy gown and that sloppy goop—"

"That ain't a gown, you idiot, that's a brocade robe and this is, er, some sort of cream to get rid of your stink, it's made from herbs and all—"

"—and those silly, shiny doodads. I happen to be a warrior of the Water Tribe and—stink? Are you saying I smell?"

"What, you think you smell like a basket o'roses? And just whose doodads are you calling silly?"

The shouting went on for some time, making the thin walls vibrate despite the fact that the combatants were located at the opposite wing of the admittedly not very large house. Katara, who was sitting on the edge of Li Mei's bed, closed her eyes and pictured Sokka quietly behaving himself in the vain hope that her brother could read her mind across the distance and shut his mouth. When a loud crash and what sounded like a bucket of water being kicked across the floor punctuated the din, she willed herself to look at Li Mei, her mouth already forming the words of an apology.

Li Mei held her head to one side and was smiling contentedly, as though she was listening to sweet sitar music instead of two people about to cross the generation gap with weapons drawn. "I'm so glad," she sighed. "Grandfather likes your brother."

"He'd like my brother to be tied up and gagged, maybe."

"No, really, he does. You see, Grandfather knows he can be a bit cranky and temperamental, so he likes people who can stand up to him."

Katara groaned. "Great. Then that racket is turning out to be a duel between two masters."

"Furthermore, no way am I wearing a robe that shade of red. Red just isn't my color, and looking like a tomato that's been run over by a cart isn't my idea of manly elegance either."

"Oh, shut up and get in the blasted tub. I'm going to my workshop where it's nice and quiet, and you can just holler when you're done. Damned persnickety customers..."

The noise dwindled down to the sloshing of water against wood and some occasional grumbling. Katara shrugged, deciding that it wouldn't hurt to abandon Sokka to his fate just this once. "I hope Aang's okay," she murmured for the third time in less than an hour.

"Oh, I'm sure he's all right," Li Mei replied as she rifled though an upright cabinet full of clothes and fabrics. "Grandma Sorab and the girls are probably giving him the royal treatment."

"The girls," Katara knew, meant Grandma Sorab's army of daughters and granddaughters. Somehow, the idea of leaving Aang in the hands of so many females was making her feel a bit unsettled. Ever since they left the South Pole, the three of them had rarely been separated, and those times when they were separated always meant bad news one way or another. It was only natural for her to feel concerned when Aang wasn't around. But Li Mei was right; Aang was probably having a good time wherever he was. It was practically a talent of his, anyway.

Yes, he was fine. Perfectly all right.

So why did she feel as though her stomach was slowly coiling itself up into a tight, little ball?

It was just nerves, she thought. After all, it wasn't everyday she got to wear a beautiful gown and jewelry to match in order to attend a fancy dinner held in their honor. Well, there had been that banquet hosted by Chief Arnook back in the Northern Water Tribe, but that had been, at least up until Master Pakku began waxing obnoxious about his chauvinistic traditions, almost like being home again and so it probably didn't count as a real formal event despite the presence of a princess. It wasn't as if Katara'd looked any different then; all she did was keep her usual arctic furs on and show up. But this…

Tonight was going to be special, she just knew it. And apparently, her twisting guts knew it, too.

"Here it is. The gown I was telling you about." Li Mei straightened and carefully unfolded the garment, which seemed to consist of rippling lengths of deep blue silk and silver gauze. Katara gasped and stood up for a closer look, then watched in stupefied silence as Li Mei laid the gown out on the bed along with the silver jewelry that would go with it. "There. That's how it's all going to look. Of course, you can only appreciate the total effect when you're wearing it."

"Oh Li Mei, it's gorgeous," Katara said in a hushed voice. "I—I can't possibly wear that. I won't be able to pull it off. What if I spill something on it? Or what if I trip and something gets caught on something else?"

Li Mei blinked at her, then sighed. "Okay, Katara. If you feel so strongly about this, I can find you something else to wear in the chest in the other room." Caught off guard by Li Mei's easy capitulation, Katara could only stare dumbly as the other girl headed toward the door. She paused in the doorway just long enough to say, in a timid voice: "This might take a while. I haven't gotten around to sorting out the clothes in the chest yet. If you want to, you can try out that gown for a bit while you wait. It can't hurt to see how you might have looked in it, right?"

"Uh, sure," Katara said, nonplussed. As soon as Li Mei slid the door closed, she glanced around furtively, then pulled her water-tribe robes off and picked up the gown. The silk flowed over her arm in a caress of pure temptation. She worked the tiny frog buttons open in the back, then after a moment of hesitation stepped into the gown, almost sighing at the feel of the fabric gliding over her skin. She opened the cabinet to reveal the mirror hanging on the inside of one door and stared in astonished wonder at the vision in blue and silver before her.

"Oh wow," she said dazedly, her hands reaching up to pat herself. The vision in the mirror imitated her actions, removing all doubt as to its identity. She turned this way and that, admiring the way the gown molded itself to her form. She could just imagine the expressions on her companions' faces when they saw her in this. No more ordinary little Katara, peasant girl from the backwater village of the Southern Water-Tribe. She was a princess—no, a queen. Maybe even the spirit of a star who had chosen to incarnate into the mortal realm—

Okay, Sokka would probably be rolling his eyes by now and telling her to get the clouds out of her head, it's only a dress, for crying out loud. But maybe Aang would like it…

She remembered the way he looked at her when she tried out the tiara, and her heart did a funny little flutter.

Yes, Aang would definitely like it.

She closed her eyes and pressed the heel of her palm against her forehead as though she could physically stop that train of thought from going any further. She thought she'd done a fairly good job of distracting herself with viewing the modest house Grandfather Wang and Li Mei lived in and taking a dip the hot springs and talking Li Mei into sharing bits of the long version of her story with her. It had worked, too, for a while, until Li Mei began asking her about her story and how they'd ended up as the Avatar's companions in his quest to save the world. That had been okay, too. Nothing she hadn't dealt with a hundred times before during their travels.

But then out of the blue, Li Mei had said: "I know this is going to sound intrusive of me, but I just have to know: what is he to you, exactly?"

The question tripped her up, and after one distressing moment of complete and utter blankness, her brain managed to scrape together an answer that sounded reassuringly convincing. Afterward, she steered the conversation away by asking about gemstones and, like a kitten faced with a ball of yarn, Li Mei happily obliged.

The damage was done, though, and now Katara could still hear the soft, hesitant voice asking her a question she had been sure she knew the answer to, only to find a sea of doubt and confusion gradually wearing down her certainties. It had shaken her far more than she cared to admit.

She shook her head sharply, pushing back the thought of Li Mei's question and all that it implied back into the deep, dark corner where they belonged. From now on, she was going to keep their mission foremost in her mind and ground herself firmly in the here and now. It just so happened that "here" and "now" meant standing in Li Mei's room wearing a gown that could only be described as divine and looking at an image of her that she only saw before in her daydreams.

She narrowed her eyes at her reflection. Oh, why not? Here was a chance for her to make a fantasy come true, and she wasn't about to waste it by worrying about what-ifs. She suddenly smiled, remembering her very first lesson in bending.

If you want to be a bender, you have to let go of fear.

There was a quiet sound, and Katara met Li Mei's amber eyes in the mirror. "It's this or nothing."

Li Mei smiled serenely. "Let me help you with those buttons."

o – o – o – o – o

Aang was getting desperate. He wasn't sure how long it had been but it felt longer than his stay in the iceberg. It was probably less than an hour, but it was an hour he'd spent being scrubbed and rubbed and covered with all sorts of odorous gunk and poked and prodded and pushed and pulled to within an inch of his life. He had to get out of there before he went completely nuts.

The problem was, these women were worse than Master Pakku, Master Jeong-Jeong and all those sour-faced senior monks at the Southern Air Temple combined. He stood with his arms held out at his sides while the women did mysterious and, he suspected, pointless things with needles and thread and bits of his clothing, and if he tried to lower his arms even an inch, they would cluck their tongues and give him the look. Aang may have been raised by monks on a mountaintop, but genetics was a powerful force and something bone-deep inside him reverted to hangdog docility in response to the what-did-I-just-tell-you expression on a maternal face. That kind of underhanded tactic was hard to fight against.

So when Kenji sauntered into the room, Aang couldn't quite keep from sounding pathetically hopeful. "Hey, Kenji. Good to see you again."

The other boy took in the scene and winced in sympathy. "Hi, Aang. Uh, hi aunties, cousins. Lovely evening tonight."

The women looked less than pleased to see him. "Kenji, what are you doing here?" one of them demanded.

"Nothing. Just checking how things are going. Hmm." He surveyed Aang with a professional eye. "Not bad. Looks like they really did a number—I mean, they really did a good job on you, Aang."

Aang tried lowering his arms again and got a finger jabbed into his side. "Yeah," he said unenthusiastically. "They sure did."

Ignoring the warning stares the women were giving him, Kenji sidled over to Aang and whispered loudly: "Listen, Aang, you know your pet lemur? What's his name, Popo?"

Aang gave him a strange look. "You mean Momo? What about him?"

"We-eell, he kinda got into the kitchen downstairs. The pantry's a mess and the cook's just about lost it."

"What? That's awful!"

"Yeah, it is. And you know that big, fluffy thing you guys rode on when you came here?"

"Don't tell me Appa got himself in trouble, too!"

"He did. Gobbled up all of Grandma's rose bushes. It'll break her heart when she sees the state her garden's in. The thing is, there isn't anyone who can stop Appa from starting in on the chrysanthemum patches."

"Appa and Momo'll listen to me." Aang swept his staff up and bowed to the frowning women. "Thanks, ladies, but I really have to go. See you later!"

He and Kenji had gotten as far as the doorway when Grandma Sorab materialized right in front of them. They were walked back into the room as the old lady advanced, her eyes glinting ominously. "What's this about the kitchen and my rose bushes, grandson of mine?"

Kenji's face had taken on the color of stale porridge. "Uh, hi Grandma. What a surprise to see you here. What was that? Oh, right. The kitchen and the, um, rosebushes. Uh, yeah. They're, ah, well, it could have happened and, uh, you know, better safe than sorry, right, and, uh—"

Aang stared at the other boy in disbelief. Apparently, Kenji's mouth operated independently of his brain. With a sigh, he stepped forward and put himself between Grandma Sorab and her babbling grandson. "Sorry, Grandma Sorab. This is my fault. I, uh, left my pets alone and Kenji was worried they'd get into trouble."

She turned to him, and he willed himself to meet the bladed hazel gaze. Suddenly, she threw her head back and laughed. "Oh my. Serves me right for trying to keep an impatient, easily bored young boy shut up in a room full of fussy women. I do apologize, Aang, and I commend you for enduring what must have been an ordeal for you with far more grace than my grandson here."

"Hey!" Kenji cried indignantly.

Aang rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I've had practice. The monks who trained me made me go through worse stuff than this," he said, lying through his teeth.

"Did they? How fortunate for us, then. And how fortunate for you that it's almost over."

"Great!" Aang exclaimed. "So what's left?"

With a smile, Grandma Sorab held her hand out for the velvet case. Inside lay a pendant made from a clear, golden gemstone cut into a rectangular shape as long as Aang's thumb. The gemstone was mounted upon an S-shaped bar of silver. Light sparkled off a hundred facets, so much so that the stone seemed to glow with a light of its own. Aang felt his jaw drop. If sunlight could be collected and condensed into solid form, he had no doubt it would look like this.

Grandma Sorab lifted the silver chain from which the pendant hung. The gemstone swung gently in the air, throwing off tiny shards of light. "Here we are. The final touch."

"Wow." Kenji gaped as Grandma Sorab slipped the chain over Aang's head, letting the pendant rest upon his chest. "You're letting him wear the imperial topaz? Aang, you lucky kid. Grandma's been working on that for weeks."

Aang fingered the pendant, feeling both honored and slightly leery of having such an exquisite object anywhere near his person. "It's beautiful. I didn't know you could cut stones this long. I thought they always had to be, you know, diamond-shaped."

"Oh yes, you can. If you know how to listen, the stone itself will guide you as you facet and polish it," Grandma Sorab said. "Topaz is a hard gemstone, harder than quartz. The ancients believed the imperial topaz to be the stone of the sun god, and wearing it grants one the protection and self-confidence of the sun itself. Among its other virtues, topaz is known as the stone of fidelity and draws love and friendship to its wearer. It is also known as the stone of hope."

Aang looked at her sharply but Grandma Sorab's smile gave nothing away. "Uh, that's nice," he muttered, peering down suspiciously at the pendant.

"Now, would you like to see how it all looks?"

At her gesture, two of the women brought out a large mirror. Aang turned and blinked, then blinked again as the boy in the mirror stared wide-eyed back at him. "Is that really me?"

The women giggled. "It's definitely you, Aang," Kenji answered. "I did say you were in good hands. Now let's get out of here. See you in a while, Grandma, aunties and cousins."

He was out the door in a flash, but Aang hesitated. He glanced again at his reflection before turning toward Grandma Sorab and her troop of workers. The grand old lady was beaming at him, and Aang suddenly remembered her walking around the room, pausing once to pick up a figurine and turn it over thoughtfully in her hands. His eyes flickered toward the figurine—the same one he had held earlier—then back toward Grandma Sorab. Smiling, he clasped his hands and bowed. "Thank you for all your help," he said, meaning every word.

"It was our pleasure, young Avatar," Grandma Sorab replied warmly. "Now go, before you force my grandson to skulk back in here for you."

Kenji and the other children were waiting outside with some ostrich-horses. As he stepped into the street, Momo dropped down onto his shoulder, and Aang reached up to scratch the lemur behind the ears. "Careful with the clothes, Momo. I have to return these tomorrow."

"So, I guess Operation: Rescue the Avatar worked, huh?" Hiro asked.

Kenji sighed. "Well, not exactly."

"Sure it did," Aang said kindly as he took the offered reins from Jin. "Although I thought that thing about Appa was overdoing it a bit."

"Yeah," Kenji said, laughing. "I kinda made that one up on the spot."

"Made 'that one' up?" Aang raised an eyebrow. Before Kenji could reply, Momo belched again, right into Aang's face. The lemur's breath had taken on a distinctly smorgasbord quality. At the same moment, Aang became aware of a complicated noise coming from inside the house, a noise that might have been made by a furious cook trying to repair the damage done to the pantry while screaming her head off.

Kenji shrugged. "You didn't think I made everything up, did you?"

There was a crash, followed by a shrill demand for someone to "find the critter what ate all the pili nuts." Aang gulped and hastily mounted. "Come on, let's get out of here."

o – o – o – o – o

Katara sat on the porch overlooking a tiny garden and sighed. The cup of tea she held very carefully in her hands had already cooled, but there was still no sign that the riveting discussion being carried out on one end of the house would be letting up soon.

"Definitely not this one. The color's all wrong and would you look at the size of that pattern? It'd dominate the entire outfit, not to mention make me look like a walking mosaic."

"Hmm, you have a point there, although I'll have you know that that color is rare. The dye is made by boiling a bug that feeds on this rare bush and—yeah, it's butt-ugly. What about this?"

"Oh, that one looks good. Really good. Check out those lines and—"

"Hah! You're slipping up, boy! Those lines are completely off-kilter."

"Hey, you were the one who was going on and on about asymmetrical balance a while ago."

"I said if it was done properly. I don't gener'ly hold with this new asymmetry craze, because most of 'em who claim their work is properly balanced are just a bunch of blind idiots. Besides, you ain't going to wear that either. This is what you're going to wear."

"Huh? Then why did I just spend the last twenty minutes looking over an entire wardrobe?"

"You tell me. You were the one who started in on the nit-picking, remember?"

"I was the one who—aaargh! I don't believe this!"

Katara sighed again and tuned out the noise. The door slid quietly behind her, and she turned to see Li Mei standing there dressed in a pale pink gown with long, trumpet-shaped sleeves. She had opted to wear her long black hair loose and without adornments, but hanging from her neck was a double-strand of blue azurite beads interspersed with polished amethysts, with matching strands around her wrist and ankle. "Wow," Katara exclaimed. "You look great, Li Mei."

Li Mei smiled gratefully. "Thank you. You look lovely yourself, Katara."

"Thanks. You already told me that."

"Oh, but this time, I'm complimenting you, not my work," Li Mei retorted impishly.

Surprised, Katara burst out laughing. She put the tea cup down, gathered the semi-transparent veil into her arms and stood. "How much longer are those two going to stay in there?" she wondered.

"Oh, not very long now, I'm sure." The two girls stared at each other as the voices in the other room crowded out the silence. "Ah, maybe I should go check to see how they're getting on," Li Mei mumbled, before dashing off.

Barely five minutes had passed before a sound made Katara turn. What met her was a sight people back in their village would have paid good money to see. "Sokka, you look fantastic!"

Sokka grinned, the light glinting off his teeth with a faint ting. "I do, don't I? I gotta admit, the old man really knows his stuff. Not only does this outfit look great, it feels great, too."

The outfit was a simple, high-collared sleeveless shirt made of rich, cream-colored silk and loose pants a darker shade of brown. Black frog buttons held the shirt together in front, and a black sash was tied around his waist. Completing the outfit was a choker of white, marbled beads with a gleaming black stone in the center, which peeked out from the gap of his collar, and a pair of wide, similar-looking bracelets on both wrists. Still, some things never change, and Katara grinned when she saw her brother's trademark ponytail and his boomerang strapped to his back.

Sokka noticed the direction of her gaze and shrugged. "It's a warrior's outfit. What can I say?"

"Well, you look great," Katara declared, giving her brother a hug.

"Thanks," he returned, hugging her back. "You don't look half-bad yourself. Who'd have thought you'd clean up so well?"

She pulled away to give him a dry look. "Gosh, how flattering."

Sokka chuckled then reached out to squeeze her shoulders. "Seriously, you look gorgeous, Katara. You look so much like Mom it's unbelievable."

She smiled, tears stinging her eyes. It was the sweetest thing her brother had ever said to her. "Thanks, Sokka."

His grin suddenly widened. "Man, I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees you in this."

"Who?"

"Who what?"

"Who's 'he'?"

"He who?"

Katara narrowed her eyes. "Who's this 'he' you're talking about, Sokka?"

"I don't know, Katara. Who are you talking about?" Sokka lifted his hands, looking so guileless she almost believed him.

She opened her mouth, ready to yell at him for being deliberately obtuse and praying that doing so would keep him from noticing how red her face was. Before she could make a peep, Li Mei and Grandfather Wang appeared beside them, the old man spiffily dressed in gleaming emerald robes and half-a-dozen strands of multicolored beads hanging around his neck. Nothing could be done to tame his bushy pyramid of hair, although Katara couldn't help noticing that the outlying strands had been strung with tiny, colored beads.

The old man glowered at them. "What are you two dawdling around here for? Can't you see we're already late?"

Sokka lifted an accusing finger, and Katara quickly trod on his instep to prevent them from getting into yet another protracted debate. Li Mei smothered a giggle. "Let me go hitch Killer and then we can leave."

"Oh no you don't, missy." Grandfather Wang's hand shot out and snagged Li Mei's sleeve. "We've got a big, tough warrior with us. Can't be having with well-dressed maidens and old men hitching rickshaws, these warrior-types," he said slyly.

Sokka balked. "You want me to go hook a cart onto that smelly, overgrown feather-duster in the stable? In my brand new outfit?" Three heads nodded expectantly, and he sagged. "Oh, all right."

Some minutes later, they were clattering down the street in a wobbly rickshaw, with Sokka riding on Killer's back and whining about how the old-bird smell was going to stick to his clothes. Shifting in her seat beside Li Mei, Katara gazed up into the star-dusted sky and drank in the moonlight, feeling her blood stir with anticipation—and some indefinable emotion that was almost like magic. She wasn't sure if what she was feeling was within the bounds of reason…no, she knew it wasn't and that she would have to pay for this indulgence later, but just this once, she wasn't going to care. Just this once, she was going to live in the here and now. After all, how many peasant girls found themselves dressed like princesses and going to a party in a carriage, never mind that said carriage was dangerously close to falling apart and that she was squeezed in beside two other people, one of whom had a hairdo that could poke someone's eye out? Maybe some fairytales began like that, she thought with a surge of wry humor. Really, all she needed now was a prince.

A pair of wide gray eyes and a warm smile flashed through her mind. Tonight was going to be special, she just knew it.

(To Be Continued…)