Thanks for your reviews!

I have 7 other books in this series planned out so far, but I'm missing some titles for those books and the last one, I'm still taking into consideration on which person I should do.

If you want to contribute, go to my profile, scroll down until you see my Story Previews and To-Do list, and look at all of the books I have planned. If you have an idea about a title or person for one of them, send me a PM and I'll reply.

Promise.

On with the story!

Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, I would air flashbacks of people and they would be like what I wanted.


Courtship

Year of the Koi-Year of the Heron


The seasons passed and I watched my father's birthday, my sister's birthday, and my 14th birthday, all before and on the 5th of the 7th month (A/N: I still use the normal 12 month calendar on this) come and pass without any regard whatsoever.

I guessed that no one bothered to celebrate my birthday since no one wanted to have a 'Firebender' in their presence and to see my disgrace of powers.

Life continued for the Northern Water Tribe after my hair was colored. It marked me down as a so-called traitor and told people to keep away from me.

In time, my brown hair had begun to grow back and the blue part was pushed downward; like the tips of my hair were colored instead of my entire head.

Despite everything, Yugoda was still by my side; comforting me and befriending me in public. But I knew, behind her smiling face and comforting words, they were all false.

Yugodaa had liked Pakku for many years and, after I yelled at her, our friendship was damaged; some of it beyond repair, but this time, I knew it had ended by her terms. First, Naiya took him as a betrothed and now me. She must have thought that I was a backstabber; just like the Fire Nation.

Possibly, the only reason she was my friend was because I had no other and she knew it. It was common pity. I didn't want her pity. I didn't want any of it. I wanted to tell her off, to say that the silent slander against me was not true. I was still native to the Water Tribes and, despite my powers, I would never become one of the Fire Nation people.

But it seemed no good; no one would ever think of me as Kana, younger sister of Naiya, the ill-favored child, friend of Yugoda, the daughter of a Waterbender and Healer, again.

I had become Kana the traitor, Kana the Firebender, Kana the outcast, Kana the irreversible, Kana standing alone.

I remember a day in the year of the Koi. I'd been in my home, since my parents thought that I was too much of a shame on their family, my family, name and had resorted to hiding me, and sitting in the inner room; sitting on a small pile of worn furs when I heard footsteps from the other room.

I knew not who it was and at the time, did not truly care because of my humiliation. As I heard people sit down and voices come from the next room, I couldn't help but hear my name trickle through a stranger's lips.

Mounting a fur on my shoulders and crawling towards the wall, I used my Firebending, for the first time since I'd discovered it when attacking my sister, to create small hole in the somewhat thin ice wall of my home and peered through it with one eye.

It was Pakku. What was he doing here?

Most likely, I'd thought, to reject me for marriage and try to get Naiya as his betrothal again. It was always the same anyways; the whore over the outcast.

"What do we owe this honor to?" my father asked.

"I came to talk about Kana." Pakku replied calmly.

I saw both my father and mother tense as my sister leaned back with that irritating smirk on her face that silently indicated that she'd thought she was victorious. At that time, I thought she'd won as well; she'd have a betrothed, I'd have nothing.

My father started up very quickly. "If it was about what happened outside that day, I can take it back and give you N—!" he began, obviously worried that I would still be a burden to the family name, but Pakku stopped him.

"It's not Naiya I want." He stated calmly.

That startled my sister. I suppressed a laugh at her sudden stiffening and nearly throwing herself off of the chair.

"You don't?" my mother asked softly.

"No one wants a whore." Pakku said, and I could have sworn, directly to my sister's face.

"You want to break off the betrothal?" My father asked slowly.

The small victory I had in the moment disappeared. If Pakku didn't come to talk about taking back the betrothal and taking Naiya instead, did he want to take another bride?

Secretly, I prayed that if Pakku was to take on another bride, that it would be Yugoda; she was such a kind woman, and deserved happiness.

Despite our argument and exiling the other from our lives, I still valued her friendship and hoped that Pakku saw her crush on him and decided to take her as a bride instead.

After all, who wanted a girl who was the younger sister of a whore, possessed powers of a traitor, and had nothing to offer a man?

"No. I came to see her." Pakku said casually.

I choked on my breath. Was this some kind of joke?

You could obviously see the surprise in my family's eyes and bodies when he said those words.

"She is right here." My mother said; rising up.

Knowing that it was my cue to go, I scurried back with the fur to my original resting place; next to a small open window where I wrapped myself in the furs and looked outside at the calm sky.

The Ice door opened and I, pretending to be calm, glanced at them with the most tranquil face I could muster.

"Kana, Pakku is here to see you." Naiya said abruptly to me as if she was addressing a servant.

I looked up at Pakku; my hair still somewhat covering a part of my face and nodded to him as I turned back outside the window.

A calm, cold breeze was pushing through and I, breathing it in, sighed and felt my hair being tossed around me. The cold felt good against my hot skin. The door slammed and I was started back to the direction of the doorway; seeing it closed and my family along with Pakku at my side.

Within a few days, he would turn 22. He knelt down next to me; looking at me with his own eyes.

"Kana." He said simply.

I vaguely wondered if he was going to break into some speech about a woman's role in his life and how we'll be married, and what kind of child he wanted, what was the right time for breeding, et cetera, in front of my family. It would have certainly given my family a good topic to talk about with me even if I didn't want it to come up.

"Yes, my future husband?" I replied calmly.

Inwardly, I felt like gagging and throwing up on him, but there were 3 malfunctions: one was I hadn't eaten anything and therefore had nothing TO vomit on him, a second was because my family was there and I couldn't afford to make a fool of myself in front of them, and the final aspect was that Pakku didn't seem to hypocritical right now, so why spoil a so-called moment?

He seemingly smiled at me and took a small chunk of my blue hair in his fingers; toying with the strands.

"You may call me Pakku if you want." He said politely.

Maybe I did eat something after all, for right then I felt my stomach give a huge lurch and bile within the back of my throat.

"Yes, Pakku?" I asked in a neutral tone; deftly aware of my family around me.

"Though we are to be married soon, there is something I wish to give you." He said to me and reached into the pocket of his parka.

I hadn't noticed it before but there was a definite large bulge within the right side. I wondered what it was, for when my powers were discovered, I'd received small 'gifts' symbolizing hate and shame.

He drew from his pocket what seemed to be a wrapped object tied with string made from twisting strips of fur.

Sweeping back the fur that shielded my arm from the cold to take the box, I felt my fingers overlap his and a strange stiffening in his limbs as I did so.

He must have been afraid to be burnt, I thought, and I took the box and undid the string and paper, revealing one carved with wood; a very rare resource at the time.

I glanced at him; silently asking him for a clue.

"It belonged to my great-grandmother." He vaguely explained.

Opening the box, I couldn't withhold a gasp.

Inside, there was a beautiful comb made of silver with small blue stones lining the spine of the silver designs. The silver had obviously been hand-crafted and made with care. 'Gods,' I thought.

"Do you not like it?" Pakku asked me suddenly.

Turning back to him, startled, I flushed; heat creeping up my cheeks.

"Forgive me, but I've never received a present after…" I trailed off.

His face suddenly relaxed. I wanted to gawk in wonder; relieved that I liked a present?

He must have fallen into the ocean, or had been hit on the head. Surely, those were the only reasons why he would be acting that way.

I was the ill-favored child; the girl who possessed Firebending powers.

He took the comb into his hands and my hair into the other.

"Well, we can change that." He said; twisting my hair into a bun and, after tying it with a length of fabric, pressed the comb into the base of the bun and leaned back.

I felt somewhat like royalty then, with all eyes on me.

"Well, isn't that just charming?" the obnoxious voice of my sister interrupted.

She bent down and stroked my hair or, more than likely, the comb.

"You're finally getting a present, little one." She said sweetly to me and kissed me on the forehead.

It was cold and dry and I would've deeply preferred no kiss at all from her.

I turned back to Pakku and, on a small impulse, shifted my hand to his chin; lightly lifting it up to meet my eyes.

"Thank you." I said honestly and, after adjusting to the feeling of the light stubble on his chin on my fingers, dropped my hand and turned away; staring out the window again in silence.


Instantly, nearly everything changed for me; especially with the subject of courtship.

I found that despite my powers, or perhaps because of them, I had attracted many admirers.

Handsome (and some not so handsome), young (and some not so young), men who had originally come to the door of my home to ask for the presence of Naiya came to me.

Most of them came from a wealthy or high-ranked family and I would sometimes accept their company; talking to them with remarks that seemed to captivate them and when they left, almost none of them failed to pay a compliment to me.

Because of courtship rules in the Water Tribe, I received many gifts from those men.

A small trinket, articles of clothing, and once, even a new pair of gloves made of the smooth skin of the tiger seal and lined with what seemed to be fur of the Koala Seal.

I did not want to keep them since I was already betrothed, so I thanked the men sincerely, but returned them and told them to give it to their own fiancés.

If any man dare approached me, I would draw an arm's length at them and point out that I was to be married.

I found the presence of Pakku neutral.

Sometimes, I was happy to be with him, and other times I wanted to scream at him. More commonly, however, was that I felt as if I wanted him to be somewhat bolder.

When he would visit me, we would always sit and talk about things that were strictly in the Water Tribes. Reports of the war and gossip about the world would come through our ice barriers and I longed to hear more and knew that Pakku heard more than I did and wished dearly that he would tell me.

I didn't know that later, I would not only witness history before my own eyes, but I would make history within the Fire Nation.

But other than that, I seemed to enjoy his company and presence. He sometimes made me laugh and smile while he told me mishaps he had during his life and sometimes emotionally touched me with tales of his hardships and how the society here had broken his heart many times.

I never knew that the Pakku inside was so different from, well, the person I'd seen more or less in my early life of when my sister was still engaged to him.

I felt that I could marry him after finding out this much about him; he seemed like someone I would love.

But 'could' and 'would' are not the same as 'will'.


It was the 16th day of the 1st month in the year of the Heron.

I was walking through the streets, ignoring the venomous glances of girls and women who the men courting me, they wanted the men for their own husbands.

Shockingly, a few of the men who courted me were already married or engaged.

Did someone say that I was replacing my sister, Naiya, as the Northern Water Tribe prostitute?

With all of the other rumors and slander from women flying around the tribe right then, I wouldn't have been too surprised if another one similar to my theory joined them.

As I was rounding the corner, my blue hair settling from my side, I saw the sight that changed everything.

On the streets, in broad daylight, was my sister kissing a man.

That man, who was all over her; his hands underneath the hem of her parka and pulling her flush against him, was not her supposed lover Meinan, but Pakku.

My betrothed was kissing my sister for the entire world to see.

I felt anger, I felt betrayed, but mostly I felt heartbreak. Balling up my fists and turning around, I ran away. I could run away from Pakku and Naiya all I wanted within the only limit of ice to move on, but I couldn't run away from my emotions or from the tears coming from my eyes.

I cursed myself for letting affection bringing me this low so that I was crying over a kiss from a man whom I was engaged to, but it didn't necessarily mean that we were married and he was bound to me, and therefore could see other women for the while.

My heart, which had once opened, quickly shut again and I vowed that nothing and no one here would open it again.

Reaching my house, I opened the door and settled myself into my sleeping bag; burying my face into the fabric and silently crying.

It was then, that my hand brushed against an object.

Pulling it out of a pocket I'd sewn in, I saw that it was the comb Pakku had given me merely 5 months ago as a small sign of his so called devotion and, what I once thought, happiness we might share in the future.

Now, it was only a symbol of devotion to the traditional rules of our tribe and happiness that he alone would possess when he had me as a wife and my sister as his mistress.

It was all a lie.

Pakku was all a lie.

The only truth in this was the statement I had made earlier; It was always the whore over the outcast.

Taking the box with the comb in it with me as I redressed and walked out, I made a straight path for his home.

I'd known where it was for years; ever since my sister had taken up the habit of visiting him after dark and I was sometimes forced to go with her and wait outside in the snow as she and Pakku spent nearly all night in his family's house.

My sadness had been pushed over by fury and by the time I reached the door, it took all of my restraint to not just melt it on the spot.

Politely, I knocked on the door until it opened.

It was Pakku's mother, Akkanka.

"Oh. It's you." She addressed me; not bothering to hide her spite at her would-have-been future daughter-in-law.

"What do you want?"

I shoved the box into her hands; observing her shocked expression and how she nearly dropped it.

"Just returning something." I said shortly and, turning on my heel, left for the direction of my house.

On the way, Pakku came in my direction and saw me.

"Good afternoon, Kana." He said warmly to me, as if nothing was wrong nor had happened, and made the motion to embrace me.

I remembered the kiss.

I remembered his words.

I did not hate him, but I hated and rejected all of the love and happiness I'd once had in my heart for him. If someone else saw, this would've gotten out before sunset and I would be the laughingstock of my tribe! Love had truly brought me this low so that I would've cried in front of my entire tribe because of that kiss.

Not anymore. My heart was sealed away now and he would never find it again.

Lightly, I pushed him away and stood a distance from him.

"Good afternoon." I said simply and kept walking.

Despite it all, I couldn't change anything; I was still betrothed to him.

Ironic how trust took me only a few months to build, but only a single glance to break, isn't it?

My life was at wit's end and a single action provoked me to finally go; to go to the heavens where my family before me has all gone.

But to provoke a Firebender lands the provoker to an irreversible inferno of hell.


R 'n' R, please.

Wait until you read the next part...