I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long. I have exams coming up and all my teachers thought it'd be a wonderful idea to swamp me with as much work as they possible can. And on top of that (as if things couldn't get any worse than it already is) I have currently been undergoing a near-fatal case of Writer's Block! Whatever I write is crap, crap, CRAP! And I refuse to sacrifice the quality of my chapters simply because I feel like updating my stories. Anyway, I managed to get a good chapter up for you now so hopefully you will accept my oh-so-humble peace offering.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Avatar the Last Airbender in any way, shape or form.

Enjoy!

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"Sho there you have it! Besht healer in da four nations! Am I right or am I wight?" Edka's booming voice, laced with what could only be alcohol, echoed through the inn Iroh and Zuko were staying at. Normally patients would stay at the healer's until they were fully okay'd by the healer, but Kanna didn't have more than her and Rori's bed in her house, which she would absolutely not, never or ever, give to Zuko no matter how much he may have needed it. Not that it would have mattered anyway because Kanna hated people. She hated them coming into her house and messing things up, she hated talking to them, she hated dealing with them and most of all, she absolutely loathed people who came in and told her how do her job.

The village had witnessed one such event when a high-born waterbending healer from the Northern Water Tribe came to observe Kanna do her work. He had deemed her incompetent and tried telling her the proper way to heal a severe cut of the upper arm, (two youngsters working in the fields were having a pretend sword fight with their hoes when one of the tool's head fell off and cut deep into the upper shoulder of the younger boy.) Kanna had kicked the healer out of her house, yelling and screaming obscenities that had mothers covering their children's ears. Of the many, many insults she'd used, 'Unworthy, snot-nosed, slug-eating excuse of a man that still suckled at his mother's breast' was by far the kindest. She had then continued kicking the high-born prick straight out of the village before storming back to her house, slamming the door so hard it almost fell off its hinges. Apparently she'd had to contact the village carpenter to fix her door the day after. Needless to say, she had not been happy to have a stranger in her home.

But it seemed that young Rori was the exception to Kanna's hatred of people. No one quite new why but Kanna tolerated the young, constantly chatting girl to talk to her, walk within a meter of her, hug her, laugh with and at her, all without the constant scowl she usually had when surrounded by people. Rori usually just ended up cleaning the house while Kanna slept but still, it was more positive interaction than the rest of the village got. They had high hopes that Rori would soften the stone-cold heart of the healer so maybe she would open up to the rest of them as well.

Although her hatred for people was strong, the woman never turned the sick or the injured away. She would grumble and complain the whole while but the villagers never seemed to mind. If you came to her with something as minor as a toothache to something as severe as a gaping wound in your side, she would see you, heal you, and then scream at you to never come back after kicking you out.

"Me thinks," Edka burped, swinging his mug of beer around wildly, "Thas just how she shows her affecshion!"

Edka, Iroh and Zuko were currently sitting at a table in his family's inn. One of the neighbors, a genius in his own right, had hammered a pair of make-shift wheels onto a sturdy chair so Iroh could move his nephew around without causing the young man terrible pain. Zuko was drinking water, the only thing Kanna allowed her patients unless otherwise noted. After she'd kicked them out of her house with the orders 'Drink that with water!' Rori came rushing after them and further explained how to consume the powdered medicine. Kanna had given them two small paper packets with the white powder folded up neatly inside each.

"Mix one packet with a glass of water at night before bed and then again with the other in the morning. It'll keep the pain at bay till she sees you again tomorrow. You're so lucky she gave you this! You'll be better in no time at all! Oh, I remember this one time-" And Rori was off on one of her endless, extremely one-sided banter sessions.

Edka had then wheeled Zuko off to set up a room for the night.

So here he was, drinking his medicine, watching a drunk Edka sob onto his uncle's shoulder, weeping about how Kanna didn't love him.

"I-I-I mean I-I don't know what I'm doin' wrong!" he bawled, "I do e-everything f-fer her! And what d'I get? A big, s-stinkin' nuthin'!"

'Yup,' Zuko thought as he sipped his water, 'Definitely drunk.'

Iroh was patting him on the back, trying to comfort the man. He'd known this kind of heartbreak long ago and it pained him to see another man, so young and full of life, go through that.

"You know Edka; I was once in the same predicament as you are now," the older man said. Edka looked up, wiping the snot from his nose pathetically. Zuko wanted to roll his eyes but sipped at his water instead. A man in love was a sad sight indeed.

"R-really?" he sniffed weakly. Iroh smiled sadly.

"Yes I have. I remember her well. Hair as black as a raven's wing, full berry-wine lips and eyes that stared into the depths of your soul," he stared into his own drink sadly, wistfully, almost longingly, "She never saw how much I loved her back then. She was the wilderness in the flesh, as wild and care-free as the Fire-Hawk and just as deadly."

Edka gaped, enthralled in Iroh's story. The old man had a knack for story-telling and his deep voice mimicked his words, making his listeners feel what he was feeling, be it sadness of unimaginable depths, joy to highest peaks of the highest mountains or a feeling so empty there were no words to describe the pure nothingness that could fill one's heart. A rare talent indeed, it was a surprise Iroh didn't become a wandering poet or minstrel, sharing his life of love, loss and adventure through his stories and songs. The only one immune to this talent was Zuko it seemed. Whenever Iroh tried passing on his wisdom to his nephew in the form of riddles or anecdotes meant to make him think, the young man would blow it off as some 'crack-pot non-sense' that Iroh made up on the spot to make the Zuko feel stupid.

"What did you do?" Edka breathed, waiting for the answers Iroh would bestow upon him like food to a starved man. Iroh smiled again, sadly and in longing. By now, even Zuko was listening in. He'd never seen his uncle this sad for this long. And this time he was sure he wasn't the cause of that expression.

"I waited patiently for her to notice me, striking up conversations at every chance and even sent her gifts to show her how much I cared. I gave her everything and received nothing in return. Then one day I found her standing by the pond she'd always feed the turtle-ducks at. She was as gorgeous as the first time I set my eyes on her. She was arguing with a man I recognized who worked at the stables. He was so angry with my dear fire lily, he was red in the face and spitting out the harshest words I've ever heard spoken to a woman."

'My dear fire lily.'

Zuko felt his stomach drop. 'My dear fire lily' was something he'd only ever called his wife, Zuko's aunt before she mysteriously died. He listened in, the stone in his heart growing heavier and heaver with each spoken word. He'd never known his aunt was the wild spirit Iroh described. The woman he'd known was kind-hearted, almost to a fault, and had loved Iroh and their son, Lu Ten with all her heart. Iroh continued his story.

"Just as he raised his hand to strike her I stepped in and took the hit for her. His hand struck me across my cheek before he could comprehend his unknown victim. I could see the recognition flicker in his eyes as he threw himself to the ground, begging for forgiveness. I told him that if there was anyone he should be begging for forgiveness, it was the lady behind me whom he originally intended to strike down like she was beneath him. My dear fire lily stepped out from behind me and shoved the man in the pond, demanding that he parade through the streets in nothing but his loincloth, announcing out loud to the world that he was a woman beater or else," Iroh chuckled at the memory. Zuko struggled to keep his jaw from hanging open. That had been his aunt? He'd heard the stories of a man seen doing just that ages ago but he never would have thought that it had been his sweet-tempered aunt's idea.

"After the fool ran like the coward he was, my fire lily turned to me and thanked me fore protecting her, even though she clearly could have taken care of the spineless bloke herself. Then she asked me if I wanted to treat her to dinner at a place of her choosing. I didn't even mind that she chose the most expensive restaurant in the whole town. After a while we began going steady until one day she pulled me aside, struck me across the cheek and demanded to know how I could be so darn cute and confessed her love to me then and there. And the rest is history," he smiled happily, despite the single stray tear that trailed down his face.

Zuko's heart wrenched for his uncle. He had loved and lost so much. Edka must have thought something along the same lines because he had started a brand new set of tears that gushed from his eyes like twin waterfalls.

"Th-that's such a b-beautiful s-story!" the man practically howled, burying his head in Iroh's shoulder before slumping to the table in a deep, alcohol-induced sleep. Iroh chuckled and called on a waiter, Edka's father, to help his son up the stairs. Edka's dad apologized profusely for his son's behavior saying that the poor lad had been in love with the healer ever since she first came to the village a year or so ago. And she never treated the man as more of an errand boy or maybe a punching bag when she was in a really bad mood. Iroh merely laughed and agreed that while Kanna's behavior was a little….over the top, she was still quite a fetching creature.

By the time Iroh returned to the table, Zuko was deep in conversation with a young woman in a…questionable choice of clothes. Slightly busty, deep chocolate tresses made up in a half-up half-down curly hair-do, with pouty heart-shaped lips, this woman screamed sinful pleasure. But apparently that was not the topic of the conversation. Far from it in fact, as Iroh neared he heard snippets of the conversation the two were having.

"-Yeah of course she could heal your scar. Have you seen the one poor Rori's got? When she first came here, that scar took up most of the side of her face and a good part of her neck. Kanna's been working on it ever since she first saw it, workin' all night during the full moon or whenever she's got nuthin' else to work on," the woman sighed dramatically, resting her head on her hand, sipping her tea. Zuko frowned thinking back to Rori's scar. From her jaw line to the top of her left cheek, the scar was about the size of Zuko's palm. Had it really been bigger before? Did Kanna have the power to rid Zuko of his scar? A sudden thought crossed his line of thinking, the answer hidden, dancing like a shadow on the edge of the darkness.

"Why on the full moon?"

The woman blinked before bursting out laughing. Zuko scowled and would have crossed his arms if one of them wasn't currently broken. He settled with huffing angrily and glaring at the brown-haired beauty. She took in his expression and tried to stifle her laughter and failed wonderfully.

"Oh, I'm sorry, darling. It's nothing you did. I shouldn't be surprised at what Kanna does by now," she stopped laughing and eyed Zuko seriously, "The thing is, Kanna's a waterbender and a damn powerful one at that. Best in the healing arts is what I've heard," she explained, watching in delight as realization dawned on him.

Kanna was a waterbender. Kanna was a powerful waterbending healer who worked miracles on the full moon. She could rid Zuko of the 'gift' his father had bestowed upon him all those years ago and return as a whole person, the Prince of the Fire Nation. His right to the throne would be restored and he would become Fire Lord and he would make his father proud.

"A-are you sure? She can get rid of it?" Zuko didn't even mind the stutter as he asked the question. He was too exited at the thought of having his old face back, not marred, not scarred, just normal, smooth flesh. He vaguely noticed his good hand drift up to his scar, feeling the strange, lumpy flesh that resided there. That could go away! The woman smiled and gently pulled his hand away from his face and held it.

"Yes she can," she whispered softly, dropped his hand and left him alone at the table. He continued to stare after her, lifted his hand and felt his scar again. It could go away!

He heard light chuckling behind and turned in his seat to come face-to-face with his uncle. The old man smiled mischievously.

"Making some new lady friends Zuko? While that's all good, I highly suggest waiting until you're fully healed." The old man winked playfully.

The innuendo was not lost on Zuko as his cheeks flamed a vibrant red.

"Uncle!"

The man laughed loudly clutching his big round belly. Zuko could still feel the burn on his cheeks and willed them away as soon as possible before anyone saw. Iroh wiped away a tear and laid a hand on Zuko's good shoulder.

"Why don't we head to bed. We'll go see Kanna about the extra healing sessions tomorrow alright?"

Zuko wasn't even going to ask how his uncle had picked up on that part of the conversation but didn't bother asking him. He knew he'd probably just get an answer he didn't want to hear.

"Sure," he shrugged nonchalantly with his good shoulder, "I'm getting tired anyway."

Iroh chuckled again and smiled down at his beloved nephew as he steered the wheeled contraption towards their room.

"That's probably just the medicine."

Zuko awoke the next morning to the sun rising in the distance. He couldn't help it, he was a firebender and his element, the sun, called to him somewhere deep in his gut when it rose in the sky. It was a calling he could not refuse even if sleeping in sounded like the most wonderful thing in the world right now.

'Firebenders rise with the sun, huh?' Zuko grumbled to himself and he rubbed his eyes with his good hand and yawned.

"Ah Zuko, you are awake," Iroh called from across the room. Iroh was already stretching and humming something about it being a beautiful day, looking way too lively this early in the morning. Zuko wondered if the pull got weaker after the years or if he'd just get used to it. He had a feeling that if Iroh ever lost his firebending and no longer needed to heed the call of the sun, the old man would still rise at these un-godly hours of the morning out of sheer habit. Zuko quickly scoffed at the mere idea of loosing one's bending. It just simply wasn't possible.

Zuko grumbled heatedly as his uncle helped him out of bed and into the strange wheeled chair that had been made for him yesterday. Together they made their way out of their room to the kitchen area of the inn. Edka was already slumped over the counter holding an ice-pack to his head, most likely nursing a pounding hangover.

He smiled weakly at the approaching men and winced, laying his throbbing head on the cool counter. His mother came by and gave him a glass of water. She asked them what they'd like to eat and they ordered the house special, a thick slice of roasted meat with a side of eggs, bacon and sweet, fluffy bread-like disc that the lady called 'pancakes'.

Zuko found himself highly enjoying the sweet bread–pancake, he corrected himself and asked for more. The lady behind the counter laughed and rushed back into the kitchen to make another batch. Edka smiled, watching his mother rush around happily, taking orders and serving the people who were just waking up and making their way to the dining area.

"I think she was meant for this kind of work," his eyes softened as his mother began chatting cheerfully with one of the customers, before turning to Zuko who was busy trying to cut up his meat so he didn't look like a starved shirshu.

"So I've heard you're goin' to Kanna's today to ask for some extra healing on a certain scar?" he asked, glancing warily at Zuko who'd stopped trying to cut his meat. His uncle gently slid the plate towards himself and began cutting up the meat for his nephew. Zuko didn't explode or fight about being babied, instead thinking about how good it would feel to have his old face back.

"Yeah," Zuko murmured, lost in thought. He took the powdered medicine out of his pocket and asked the lady behind the counter for a glass of water to take it with.

"Well if I were you, I'd wait a couple hours before heading over there. Kanna's a lady who…prefers…to sleep in," Edka sighed dreamily, most likely gone to a magical place where Kanna could actually stand the man. Zuko ignored the man beside him and pulled his plate of now bite-sized chunks of meat towards him and dug in.

After about an hour and a half of finishing his breakfast, his medicine-laced water and talking Edka out of his self-induced dream-land, the scarred and broken boy demanded to be wheeled to Kanna's house for healing on the double. And not the traditional healing mumbo-jumbo with splints, salves and potions. Kanna was going to heal him with her waterbending as soon as physically possible. A laughing Iroh and Edka complied with Zuko's wishes and wheeled the impatient young man to the healer's house.

When they arrived at the healer's house, they found Rori outside sweeping the front porch and cleaning up things from the previous night. Kanna was nowhere to be seen.

"Hiya!" Rori chirped, setting her broom (Edka had replaced the one 'he' broke) to the side and skipping up to them, "Are you here to see Kanna? Are you gonna see her 'bout your scar?" she began happily, taking the wheeled chair from Iroh and pushing Zuko up to the house, chatting up a storm. Iroh smiled as Zuko began arguing with the girl about taking a break from talking for once in her short life. Rori invited them all into the main room, asking them if they'd like any tea or food while they waited. The table Zuko had laid on yesterday was now- thankfully- scrubbed clean of the blood. Rori apparently had been up and about since sun-up, cleaning and working on Kanna's house, making it into a more habitable place for the owner and her patients. The floor had been cleared of obstacles and swept, rugs had been dusted and dishes washed. While Iroh admired the new appearance of Kanna's home (it was almost as if a woman actually lived here, he remarked), Zuko demanded the whereabouts of the healer.

"She's still sleeping at the moment," Rori stated happily as she served Iroh and Edka some pastries she'd bought from the baker that morning. The house's food supply needed to be restocked and Rori would be doing that later that day.

"She's still sleeping in at this hour?" Zuko asked offended at the healer's behavior.

'Kanna's a lady who…prefers…to sleep in,' Edka's voice rang in Zuko's head but he pushed it aside.

"Go get her then!" he commanded the earthbender who looked at him with laughing eyes.

"Ok but it's your head," she chirped and bounced away to the thick curtain hiding Kanna's room from sight.

Zuko, Iroh and Edka sat in the living room and adjoined kitchen waiting for the earthbender to return with the healer. They could hear mumbled complaints and Rori urging the sleepy healer from her bed.

"Lee and Mushi are here. Oh, and Edka too."

At the mere mention of Edka, the grouching grew louder and Zuko thought he caught something like 'that dammed Ed couldn't find water if he fell out of a fuckin' canoe.' Zuko bit back a laugh.

After a few minutes Rori came stumbling out of Kanna's room, followed by the healer herself. She looked the same as yesterday, except her hair seemed determined to defy gravity, sticking out worse than it did yesterday. Kanna yawned, rubbing her eyes and grabbing the mug of steamy coffee handed to her by Rori who darted about preparing the woman's breakfast while humming something to herself. The woman-healer plopped down gracelessly on the cushiony couch and nursed her drink. She sat there silently, not even looking at the men occupying her house. Zuko vaguely wondered if she'd even acknowledged their presence at all. Minutes passed before Zuko broke the uncomfortable silence.

"I hear you're a waterbender," he stated simply. He was never one to dance around a subject and this was important to him. Kanna glanced at him through one eye, the cold, icy depths of it gluing him to his wheeled chair. She sighed and put her coffee down, rubbing her eyes again.

"Who told you?" she asked, maybe a little more irritated than needed. Zuko ignored her question but saw her blue eyes flick over towards Edka accusingly. The man raised his mug of coffee in a silent happy greeting, ignoring the way the healer glared at him.

"Could you heal my…scar?"

Even though he'd been told she was a powerful, waterbending healer who was currently working on Rori's scar; he was unsure. Why he was unsure, he didn't know. Maybe it was because he'd had this scar for so long, been ridiculed because of it for so long, been rejected by everyone because of it; but maybe over time, it had become a part of who he was.

Kanna stared at him with obvious disinterest, probably sizing him up. She sighed and leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees.

"Can I heal your scar? Yes, most likely," she stated plainly, as if commenting on the weather instead of the horrible scar on Zuko's face.

Zuko's heart jumped in his chest. It could happen! He could get rid of it for good!

"Thank you, thank you so much," Zuko bowed his head in respect and gratitude.

"Hold it, boy! Who said I was gonna do it?" Kanna stood, staring down at the broken man before her in disdain. Zuko's head shot up and the woman reached forward grabbing his face between her cool hands. Zuko stared up at her, his eyes flicking back and forth between hers as she inspected the scar. Her eyes were so blue and cold it was like looking into the arctic waters of the Water Tribes' home. Her hands were cool to the touch and Zuko figured it had to do something with being a waterbender. He vaguely remembered the waterbender accompanying the Avatar, Katara was her name if he remembered correctly, was the same way that one time he had tied her to a tree.

"This was never properly taken care of. You're lucky you still have your eye," Kanna's voice brought him out of his reverie, "You didn't see a healer about this 'til the last minute, did you?" Kanna's ice-blue eyes locked with his. He shook his head and Kanna scoffed.

"And the villagers wonder why I hate people," she grumbled under her breath as she continued observing the scar, "Rori! Water, now!" she barked the order and the girl rushed into the kitchen for a basin. Iroh helped the girl carry the heavy basin full of water toward the grumbling healer who was still going on about the pure stupidity of other people.

Zuko and Iroh watched in fascination as Kanna made a glove out of the water and brought it up to his scar. Edka and Rori went about their business as usual; they had seen this countless times. The water felt wonderfully cool against his skin and Zuko fought the urge to lean into it. Kanna closed her eyes, took a deep breath and soon the water began to glow a bright blue.

"The nerve endings are fried, and the damage goes way beyond the epidermis layer," Kanna pushed the water back into the basin and splashed some water in her face, washing the sleep out of her eyes and smoothing some of the more reluctant hair down and out of her face. Zuko stared at her, waiting for whatever 'epidermis' meant. Kanna caught his gaze and grinned evilly. Zuko flinched. He didn't know Kanna that well but from he'd witnessed, that smile could not mean anything good. For him anyway.