Duty

Honor and duty were two of the Fire Nation's most revered virtues. Family was also pretty high up on the list…though these values could hardly be attributed to the royal family.

Still, because she was a member of the Water Tribe and had a strong sense of family, Katara found herself playing the "good daughter" to her in-laws. Her pregnancy was an initiation of a kind, the proverbial trial by fire to assure Ozai and Ursa that she was a worthy woman to carry on the royal line.

Not that she actually needed their approval. But some tiny modicum of her pride required it. Katara wasn't used to people disliking her, after all.

"More tea, Mother?"

Ursa nodded and allowed Zuko's wife to pour a perfect cup in exactly the way a lady of the Fire Nation should. Iroh's hand had probably figured in that.

"We have servants to do that kind of thing, you know," Ozai sneered. "You don't need to bring yourself to the level of a servant. You are the Fire Lady after all." Ridicule and scorn underscored his words.

But Ursa, because she liked to remind her errant husband of his place, argued, "I think it's sweet of Katara to be performing this simple pleasure for us, Ozai. After all, Azula never poured tea for us."

Ozai uttered something unintelligible under his breath.

"What was that, dear?"

"Nuthin'." He pouted.

Ursa ignored him. "We really haven't had much time to get to know one another, have we, Katara?"

The Waterbender smiled faintly. "I guess not." And she'd been quite satisfied, too. What newlywed woman wanted her mother-in-law hanging around the house?

"Tell me," Ursa sat back, inspecting her nails—a mannerism only Azula could have pulled off with the same disquieting effectiveness, "how are your sexual relations with my son?"

Ozai spit his tea out across the room in a fine spray.

"Um, excuse me?"

"Relations." Ursa's auric eyes snapped to her face. "The sex."

"Not listening," Ozai said, and promptly covered his ears. "La, la, la, la…"

Katara felt her cheeks burning. "Uh…they're…fine?"

"I ask because…well, I had the most wretched time when I was carrying Zuko," Ursa reminisced. "The hormones had me hotter than a moose-lioness in heat. And, being in the Fire Nation, I don't think I need to tell you just how hot it can get."

"Uh…you don't?"

"My poor Ozai nearly broke his hips trying to satisfy me. I was ravenous." She beamed at the man in question.

"I know you're talking about me, but I'm still not listening…" Ozai sang, eyes squeezed shut, hands still over his ears as he paced the far end of the room.

Zuko's mother stroked her chin. "Perhaps, being of the Water Tribe, you don't feel your…urges…as keenly." She smiled indulgently. "Though from what I hear, you're a wild child in bed. I wouldn't be surprised if you broke Zuko—he always was a little delicate." An envious look slid silkily toward Katara. "I suppose being a Waterbending helps curb some of that pent-up lust. I have a good imagination for what you can do with ice cubes and water jets…."

As her mother-in-law went embarrassingly on, it was Katara's turn to wish for an Earthbending talent—all she wanted was to crawl under a rock and die.