A/N: In which I attempt to write something kind of fluffy, and Kya attempts to explain institutionalized sexism to a five-year-old.

.i.

"You'll be a great warrior when you're all grown up," Kya says, tickling Sokka under the chin- she's met with delighted squeals. "Look at you, always practicing with that boomerang! Soon you'll be defending the tribe just like Daddy!"

"What about me?" Katara eagerly demands.

"Well-" and here her cheerful expression begins to falter. "You're going to wed a tribesman once you're older, sweetie, and keep his house nice for him. He'll take care of you in return."

Katara thinks of the boys her age- loud, messy, prone to making trouble. Does she really have to have one of them for a husband?

.ii.

Aunt Wu grasps her palm, delicately traces the longest crease. "Are you sure you want to know, my dear? Most girls would rather have it stay a pleasant surprise..."

"I'm sure." Surprises, she thinks, are almost never pleasant. Besides, she can't deny that the more frivolous part of her brain is curious as to what the answer may be- it's not as clear-cut as it was back when she was a young girl, before all the men of the tribe sailed off with war ballads and desperation ringing in their ears.

The fortuneteller looks closely, brow etched with concentration. "I feel a great romance for you. The man you are going to marry."

"Tell me more!"

"I can see that he's a very powerful bender," she declares, and in spite of herself, Katara is disappointed. She's met precious few benders, and very powerful ones must be even rarer.

But, still, at least the pool is narrowed now. "So... how many children?"

.iii.

It's utterly quiet in the Fire Lord's bedchamber, but Katara welcomes stillness after the formal hubbub that had been her wedding. Incense, banquets, vows- what do they all matter? She loves Zuko and wants to be his lady- why does she have to take part in an enormous ceremony to prove that to a bunch of old ministers?

He isn't, she muses, a respectable tribesman, and certainly doesn't expect her to do nothing but keep house and pop out babies. Nor is he a bending prodigy (though he's worked and worked to get as far as he has.) Out of all of the potential husbands she could have had, she doesn't think anyone, not her mother or Aunt Wu or even Aang, would have guessed him.

She drapes an arm over Zuko's torso and smiles into the hazy darkness.