Katara's Daughter

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or any of the characters.

Author's Note: Alright. 1st chapter occurs between chapter seven and this chapter. I'm terrible at updating, so I'm making no promises, but I do want to finish this fic.

Zoren wasn't mad at Kiela. Okay, maybe he was just a little upset with Kiela. But if there was a chance that he could have saved Grandpa Iroh's life he would have tried much harder than Kiela had. All she did that night was cry. He used to think she was so much braver than he was, but it turns out she was just a big baby.

Zoren was what Grandpa Iroh would have chuckling referred to as acting out. Unfortunately, Grandpa Iroh was no longer around to casually redirect Zoren's bad mood. Instead Zoren vented his anger through misbehavior. He had started the day by pulling Kiela's hair in morning protocol lessons. Neither the instructor nor Kiela found this amusing. One scolded him and sent him to the corner and the other one began to cry which made Zoren feel bad which then made Zoren angry about being made to feel bad.

Kiela cried all of the time lately. She was turning into such a stupid girl.

After nearly an hour of fruitless searching and half-hearted attempts to entertain his self, Zoren finally located his brother in the training room. It seemed to be where Rukon spent all of his free time these days. Rukon sat in the middle of a ring of candles, eyes closed, steadily breathing in and out while controlling the height of the flames.

It was a more difficult exercise than non-firebenders realized. First you had to split your attention between all of the candles. If you focused, too much on one candle it worn burn out before the others defeating the purpose of the exercise. Zoren had yet to burn a set evenly down to the stubs. Zoren steeled himself for meeting his brother. Rukon always tended to be a bit touchy when you interrupted his training. Zoren thought that was a waste of anger considering he was always training, so you were bound to interrupt him and that meant he was constantly irritated. Silly, really.

"Hey Rukon," Zoren plopped down on the other side of the candles from his brother. Rukon's mouth tightened, but otherwise he did not acknowledge his brother. "What you doin'?" Zoren asked. He had begun to draw small patterns in the sandy floor.

"Training," Rukon said flatly. The flames flickered as he lost the pattern of his breath.

"But you trained yesterday. You're always training," he complained.

"And you never train, so it all works itself out. Now go away." Once again the flames flared up suddenly.

Zoren rolled his eyes. This was a familiar conversation. Zoren grinned slyly before crossing his legs into a training position. Zoren began the practice as well, but focusing his concentration on one of Rukon's candles. Rukon quickly sensed the diminishing candle and opened his eyes to glare at his younger brother. "What are you doing?" He asked in a barely controlled voice.

"Practicing" Zoren answered cheekily.

"Why don't you run along and play with Kiela. She's good at pretending and making up those silly games you like to play. I don't need you wasting my time" The candles around him were now burning freely under their own influence.

Zoren was affronted that Rukon thought he only wasted his time. "Well, I figure I'm getting a bit old for that sort of thing." He said in his firmest tone of commitment. "Kiela's still young, and she's a girl. She doesn't really understand what I…" Zoren hesitated. He wasn't exactly sure what Kiela didn't understand, but clearly somewhere there was a lack of understanding. Otherwise things would be different. "She doesn't understand." He finished.

Zoren thought his brother might be about to smile, but then he donned a serious expression. "True. Girls are very different." Zoren nodded in agreement.

"And she's so much younger," Rukon continued. Zoren nodded again. He wasn't sure yet if his brother was teasing him.

"And she's a Water Bender," Rukon added helpfully.

"Well, yes. An outsider," Zoren said more firmly. "So she can't understand right?"

"Not yet at least, but after a few years at the Fire Nations Academy for girls, I'm sure you two will get along much better." Rukon closed his eyes and began breathing in and out steadily. The flames quickly came under his influence.

Zoren drew his eyebrows together and frowned. "But she's not going to the academy. She doesn't want to go."

"Maybe she changed her mind." The flames suddenly leaped upwards.

"What!" Zoren yelped. "Father wouldn't allow it." He thought back to the throne room and the night in Iroh's room. "She's his favorite," he said bitterly.

Rukon opened his eyes again and raised his eyebrows. "So if she asked to go, it would make sense that he wouldn't refuse her."

"But…but she can't go!"

"Well, I suppose Waterbenders aren't normally welcomed, but I doubt the school would refuse her entrance if Father put in the application."

Zoren had stopped listening to his brothers needling and was more caught up in his own thoughts. After seeing Kiela and his father in the throne room he had wished so much for Kiela to just disappear. Now, he suddenly felt as if that might be the worst thing in the world. He jumped up from the sandy ground without another word and rushed out of the training house missing the exasperated sigh of relief from his brother.

Zoren's feet pounded across the ground. He had to find Kiela and discover if she was really leaving. She wouldn't leave him, not with Grandpa Iroh gone. Things were supposed to get better, but they kept getting worse.

He rushed through the halls; ignoring the shouts and scolding to slow down from the various adults he rushed by. He practically flung his body into the doors of her room making the doors slam open against the walls.

She wasn't there, so his dramatic entrance had been slightly wasted. He leaned against the doorway to catch his breath. His hair had loosened from its tie and a few strands had fallen behind his face. He tucked the loose hair behind his ears and began to look around his surroundings. He still needed to find Kiela, but he wasn't sure where she would be. He had lost track of her schedule over the last few weeks. Before they used to spend all of their time together, so he had always known where she was.

He was momentarily distracted when he noticed the wardrobe door was slightly ajar. He walked over to it slowly and opened the door fully. It was strangely empty. The clothes Kiela used to hide behind when they played hide and seek were missing. Cold fear filled his heart. What if she had already left?

He spun around and checked the room for something anything that would say different. There was luggage lying next to her bed and he let out a sigh of relief. She was still here. He calmed down for a minute before realizing that all of this meant she was actually leaving. Her things were packed away and she was going to leave him, and no one had told him. She hadn't told him.

He felt anger and a horrible tightness in his throat. He wouldn't cry, that's what stupid girls did. He rubbed his robe roughly across his eyes, making them sting but keeping the tears at bay. He trudged toward her bed and slumped onto it. He'd wait until she came back. It would be no good trying to look for her. He lay down on his stomach and let the wetness that escaped his eyes be soaked up by her bed covering.

He must have fallen asleep, because he started when someone shook his shoulder. His eyes were sore, his nose was stuffed, and his mouth felt sticky. He looked up to see the concerned face of Kiela. He quickly turned away from her and wiped his face on his sleeve trying to hide any evidence that he may have cried; even if it had only been a little bit, and in a manly way of crying.

"Zoren, are you…are you alright," Kiela asked hesitantly putting a hand on his shoulder. Zoren jerked away from her reach and pushed himself up on the bed. He felt embarrassed and angry.

"When were you going to tell me," he demanded.

"Tell you?" Kiela asked. He noticed her voice went a bit funny. She knew exactly what he was talking about, and it just made him more upset that she was avoiding answering him.

"That you're leaving," he spat at her.

"I didn't think you'd care!" She yelled back at him crossing her small arms over her chest.

His first response was to be 'of course I care' but he pushed that feeling far away. "I don't care," he said instead.

"Then why did you come here?"

To try to stop his best friend from leaving, but apparently she didn't care about him anymore. "Just checking to see if it was true," he explained. "And I'm glad that it is," he stuck on at the end after a moment of hesitation.

Kiela's eyes looked brighter than normal. "Well, I'm glad that you're glad."

"Me too." He huffed. "You can go hang out with other stupid girls now!"

"That's right." She said glaring at him.

"Maybe you'll even find someone that actually likes you."

"Maybe I will," She responded tensely.

"Though I doubt anyone there will want to be friends with a little whiny waterbender." He told her in his snottiest voice.

Kiela let out a frustrated scream before she launched herself at him. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you." She screamed repeatedly as her fists came into contact with any piece of Zoren that they could reach.

"Get off of me you psycho," He pushed her off of him and she tumbled backwards off of the bed and onto the ground with a loud thump. He pushed himself up and off the bed as well. Kiela was still sitting on the ground where she landed and she had started to cry, again.

Zoren looked down on her with anger and disgust. "I hate you too." He walked towards the door leaving her to snivel to herself. "And I hope I never see you again," he screamed at her before he slammed the door shut behind him.

Zoren didn't see her again before she left the palace two days later.

AN: Children are so horrible to each other. Next chapter is Kiela's POV at school.