AN: Thanks again for the follows, favorites, reviews, and being patient. :)

She shaved the grass down with a slice of water. The bits fell from the air and settled to the ground. It was a technique she'd been practicing for the past three weeks. Everyday, she made herself cut the grass down five times. She had to make sure that none of the gardeners were around, otherwise they would yell at her and ban her from the gardens.

With little else to do, her free time returned to bending. She woke up, ate, sewed, ate, sewed some more, trained, ate, and went to sleep. There was nothing new Iza wanted to teach her, who said she would have plenty of time to work on more difficult fabrics and stitches. It didn't bother her, but she needed some way to distract herself, and she wasn't ready to take on the art of Fire Nation cuisine.

"You're training again, I see."

She turned around to Iroh. "Yeah. There wasn't anything else I wanted to do. I already know this, so..." As she trailed off, she shrugged.

He smiled warmly. "Mastering a skill is a great feat, but learning something new is important as well. Would you teach me about waterbending? I can teach you a skill that is very important in my culture in return."

Kanna looked at him warily. "What would that be?"

"It can be solitary, or bring people together. It nourishes the soul and the body. It's the art of tea!"

"Tea?" she said, dumbfounded.

"Of course! You can drink it by yourself, or with another person, a small group, a large group, as intimate or celebratory as you like. It soothes your body, thus calming your mind, which is something I greatly need at the moment." He laughed.

She regarded him quietly, conceded. There was nothing else to do, and he was innocent and kind enough. "Alright, let's go."

The girl and old man sat at a table in his reception room. In front of her was a pot of boiled water, a teapot, and the leaves. He nodded for her to go ahead. She reached out and added some leaves into the teapot, then poured the water into the pot, and covered it with the lid, looked up at him expectantly.

"Do you prefer your tea strong?" she asked.

"I'll have it however you would like to make it."

She sat back and looked at her hands in her lap, picking at hangnails and ripping them off when she could get ahold of them. They tended to get infected, leaving her grandmother to cluck her tongue and say "I told you so." Here in the Fire Nation, she had to remove the puss herself. She'd tried to use her bending, but in the end only a needle would work.

"Kanna," he started.

"Ah!" She had jumped at the name and pulled a hangnail, blood pooling.

"Are you alright?" He stood and walked to her, kneeled to inspect her hand, but she wouldn't let him see, pulled her hand to herself.

She shook her head. "It's fine."

At length, he said, "Alright," and sat down across from her again. He cleared his throat. "Kanna, I can't pretend that I know what sort of person you were before you came here, but the changes I have seen over these months worry me. You fought against the poor treatment you received, stood up for your home and family, but now, you seem to have given up that passion..."

He continued talking, but she tuned out. That passion hadn't been given up, it was only dormant, hiding deep in the cave of her soul. It would come out again. He would see it, and know it had still been there. Iroh truly did not know what sort of person she had been before.

"Lady Kanna?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and looked up at him. "Oh, the tea." The pot in her hands, she poured tea into the cups, one, two...three? She looked back to Iroh, confused. There had only been two.

"Come on, Water Tribe, pour me my tea."

She turned to see Princess Azula sitting by Iroh. Kanna stood and bowed to her, murmuring an apology for not noticing her, but the princess just rolled her eyes.

"Just gimme the tea and consider it over."

Kanna sat and served her the tea, then sat back, her hands under her legs, anxious.

The princess downed the tea, not bothering to taste it to her uncle's disapproval. "Ahh," she breathed, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "Great stuff, Water Tribe. Tell the princess up there I'm a fan of your kind."

Fear shot through her body like lightning. Your kind. The phrase felt familiar, but she couldn't place it. All she knew was she didn't like the way it sounded.

"I am actually from the Southern Tribe, Princess Azula."

"Is that so? So who's the princess there?"

As the royal family from the most powerful country, Kanna assumed they would know something of the peoples beyond their borders, but apparently it was the same with prince and princess. "We have no royalty, Your Highness. We have a chief, chosen by the tribe."

"Hmm, interesting. But the chief would have a family, would they not?" She began breaking the skin of an orange with her thumbnail, sliding it with gentle but forceful pressure. The scent burst from the fruit and filled the room.

Iroh coughed and took a sip of tea, looked to Kanna.

"Yes," she answered. "They are not treated in the same manner as royalty, Your Highness. Elders are held to higher authority than the chief and their family."

She raised an eyebrow, still working slowly at the orange, her eyes never wavering from it. "It really is a different culture. According to that logic, shouldn't you show more respect to Father and Uncle, even my brother?"

A silence settled over the trio, save for the scratching of the princess' ceaseless nail. Kanna didn't know what she should say, but she knew what she was going to say.

She remained calm as she spoke, surprising herself. "This country is not mine; I don't believe I should pretend to act like a citizen, nor force the standards of my culture upon your people. I will show respect where respect is due, Princess."

The princess looked up from the orange, nodded slowly, looked Kanna in the eyes. "And yet you call me by my title. Are you sure you aren't mixing the rules, picking and choosing which you like to use?"

Iroh spoke up. "Azula, you do not know what Kanna has gone through, and I hope you never do. It is not your place to judge."

The princess leaned back with a pout. "Very well. Water Tribe, Uncle." She stood and left, leaving the half peeled orange behind.

Kanna let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding in, picked up her tea, drank without tasting. She had thought that the prince was bad, but the princess appeared to be more dangerous now. The princess was cunning, ready to find all the holes and see where they led, while the prince simply ordered people around and made gloomy expressions. She wasn't sure what the princess would do with the information she'd given her, but know she was prepared to be on alert around her.

Eyes closed, she held the cup tightly in her hands, letting the warmth fill them. She missed sitting around a fire, hearing it crackle as her grandmother and mother spoke in the old tongue, quietly, as if the language itself were a secret. Kanna knew it, could speak it, but hadn't since that fateful day. Shensha. She'd cried it as the soldiers carried her away. As far as she could tell, it was probably the last word in the old tongue that she would ever speak.

Footsteps sounded through the hall, quick, the pace of a jog. She looked up to see the prince come to the door and stop short when he saw her. Kanna stood and bowed, stepped back and made to leave.

"No, it's alright, Kala, you can stay," he said, holding a hand at her to emphasize the point.

"Kala?" Iroh stared up at his nephew. "You think her name is Kala?"

The prince looked to her, confusion plastered across his face. "That isn't your name?"

She shook her head. "No, Your Highness."

"Well, what is it?"

"Kanna, Your Highness."

"Oh." He stood silently, while Kanna stood silently, while Iroh looked up at the two of them, confused.

"Nephew, was there something you wanted to tell me?" the old man asked.

"I just saw Azula, and she said you needed to see me about something."

Iroh grimaced, tried to hide it with a smile. "I just wondered if you would like to join us for tea!"

A voice called from the hall. "Zuko?" The tall girl from the party entered, looking at the occupants of the room, then fixed her eyes on him. "I thought we were going to go out."

He looked from his uncle to her. "Yeah, of course, I needed to speak to my uncle before we left."

"Lady Mai, why don't you join us for tea before you go? Lady Kanna was going to teach me about waterbending, and I'm sure it will be interesting."

"Okay," she agreed with a shrug, moving toward the table. The girl didn't seem to care either way, as long as she was beside the prince.

Kanna bowed again. "I don't want to intrude. Please enjoy yourselves."

"Nonsense! Sit down Kanna."

Overwhelmed and unable to get out, she took her place again, and poured two fresh cups. They drank in tense silence, until Iroh prompted Kanna about bending. She told what she knew about history and legend, which fit in the span of maybe five minutes, and was left to tell only of her experiences of bending, which felt strange, because it was so vague, only sensation and emotion. How was she supposed to describe something to people that never had, never would experience it?

The heat from the tea, stuck in her throat and belly, and she struggled to breathe.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm not feeling well. Please excuse me."

As she stood, Iroh said, "Zuko, help Lady Kanna to her room."

She refused. "No, please I'm fine, just overtired, I think."

The prince was standing, stuck between his Uncle's request and her wishes. "It won't take long." It was a simple, true statement, enough for Kanna to accept begrudgingly.

"Feel better, Lady Kanna."

Mai held up a hand in parting, looking more than a little disappointed.

She nodded to them and headed out, the prince behind her. Being with him only increased the tension. Her main goal the last months had been to avoid him, especially since that hallway incident, and it had gone well. She had seen him maybe once a week in passing, though she doubted he had seen her even half those times. It all worked out better when royalty was far off and out of sight.

He walked beside her at a slow pace, though she pushed it, hoping to be away from him sooner than soon. She felt something snake around her wrist and she jumped, breaking away from him with wild eyes.

"Sorry. I was going to say you shouldn't push yourself if you don't feel well." He held his hands up by his head.

She let out a sigh, exasperated. "You can go back to Lady Mai, Your Highness, I'll be fine."

"You don't seem fine."

"You startled me."

"You shouldn't be walking so quickly if you don't feel well."

"Well, you don't have to walk me."

"I know."

Kanna stared at him, looked away to stare at a wall.

"What if you fainted?"

She looked back to him. "I'm sure someone would inform Iza, Your Highness."

"Will you let me walk you back if I promise not to touch you again?"

Kanna surveyed him, weighed her options, marveled at the thought that she had more than one. She nodded.

They walked again, in between the paces they each had set. Most of the way back they didn't speak, but on the steps Kanna asked a question.

"Why are you so adamant about walking me back, Your Highness?"

He shrugged. "My uncle said I should. I mean, treat a woman like a woman, and all that. And you're the same age as my sister, so I guess..." He trailed off.

"You think of me like your sister, Your Highness?"

The prince seemed shocked at this. "No! I just. You seem like you're-nevermind, just forget it."

She bit her lip to hold back a laugh. Was he more sensitive than he let on? Had his uncle's beliefs influenced him so much? "Yes, Your Highness."

She thought he would leave her at the door, but he opened it and walked in, letting Iza know that she'd been feeling unwell and to watch out for fevers or chills. It was a warm winter, but winter the same, and illnesses were going around like always. He made her sit down and left before they could say anything else.

The women looked at the empty space he had occupied, speechless.

"What's gotten into him?"

Kanna shrugged. "Maybe he realized servants are human."

A few days later, Iroh and the prince visited the sewing room to ask after Kanna's health. She was sewing, bored, lazy, mostly looking out the window and trying not to sigh, thinking of freedom. Iza had gone off to meet with more merchants for cloth. By this point, they were sewing uniforms for the soldiers, had been for weeks. But only those in the highest command, so that they received the most attention and care. Otherwise they would have needed an army themselves.

There was a knock on the door, three quick raps.

"Coming," she called.

She opened it, surprised, and took a step back. "Oh," she breathed, bowed to them. "Please come in."

"Lady Kanna, I'm glad to see you up. Are you feeling much better?" He stepped into the room, followed by the prince, who remained silent, his face solemn and stoic.

"Yes, thank you. I think I was just dehydrated. Would you like tea?"

The prince said, "That won't be necessary," the same time Iroh exclaimed, "Of course!"

She stood frozen, her lips parted, unsure. The prince was acting strange. He never seemed like the same person to her; each time he was someone new. The first time they met, he was a hateful aristocrat, then an unwilling combatant at the celebration. In the hall he was a frustrated lord, and then the other day a determined gentleman. Now he was...well, he was acting like an asshole like the first time. Maybe it was the room. Maybe he had bad memories of it. Who knew.

With most everyone here, they were the same most of the time, or at least you could figure out a pattern for their moods. Iza was happiest when no one was controlling her, when she could do any frivolous thing she wanted to do, when no one asked her hard questions. The guards were easiest to deal with when no one did anything out of line, so they wouldn't have to do any more work, or possibly get in trouble for not doing something properly. The Fire Lord and princess seemed to like the same thing: total control over those before them, and watching them squirm. If that was in question, they flew apart into a thousand pieces. She'd never seen Iroh angry before; sad, disappointed, but never mad. The prince was someone who defied patterns, whose mood changed as quickly as time.

Why did he even come here if he just wanted to leave? Iroh, of course. The old man would want him to treat her accordingly. He'd walked her back, now he had to check in on her.

"Um," she bit her lip.

Iroh rolled his eyes. "Pay him no mind. My nephew is just anxious to see his girlfriend."

"Uncle!" The prince's face turned bright red, though he turned away from them. She saw the blush spread down his neck.

He only laughed, clapped him on the back. "Don't worry, I'm sure Lady Kanna has had similar conversations about her boyfriends, am I right?" He looked to her, waiting for an affirmative.

By this point, she'd also learned the art of lying to save face. "Yes, of course. It's nothing to be embarrassed about, Your Highness."

"I'd read that in the Water Tribes, there aren't boyfriends or girlfriends, that there is minimal courting. They go directly from tribesmen to husband and wife."

She stared at him, caught in the lie. It was a strange feeling, new to her, uncomfortable, like she'd eaten live worms, and they still moved in her stomach. Wasn't he supposed to accept the lie? Isn't that how they preferred things here?

"You still haven't learned how to live in this society."

Her brows pulled together and down. "Then maybe you should teach me." Her hands became clammy, and she strangled the fabric in them. What right did he have? What made his culture so much better and more important than her own? They had a ridged hierarchy and a distrust and hatred for anything different. She remembered her grandmother telling stories her grandmother had told her, about when the Fire Nation soldiers would visit, and they would trade goods, when they sat together around the same fire and ate the same foods, when they exchanged tales and laughed together. Maybe it was because they were lower in rank, because there hadn't been a war. But the Firelords had changed it all.

"Now, now, let's have none of that. This is a friendly visit. Nephew," he said, turning to the prince, "Help Lady Kanna with the tea."

The prince's expression was a cross between frustration and deadpan disbelief.

At that, Iroh gave him a grin and nudged him on.

Kanna walked away and into the kitchen area. She was only going to hear the prince sigh in exasperation and finally give in to his uncle's wishes; there was no need for her to be there. This way she would have to spend less time with the prince. Really, she wondered why Iroh cared about her.

He cared about everyone, it seemed. The rest of the Fire Nation people she'd interacted with were decidedly more selfish than Iroh. His selfishness was tied to selflessness somehow. He wanted people to get along, to be well. It was as if he were the unspoken moral leader of the palace.

She pushed the sheet out of the way and entered the pantry. The selection was scant, and after a second of deliberation, she selected the chamomile blend. She let a breath out and moved to the doorway, where she stumbled into a pair of arms.

"Excuse me, Lady Kanna! Are you alright?"

She righted herself and stood up, straightening her clothes. "Yes, I was just surprised," she said with a nervous laugh. Looking from the tea in her hands to Iroh, she asked, "Is chamomile alright?"

He gave her a kind smile and replied that of course it was alright. "I am sorry about my nephew. He is..." He paused, choosing his words. "Having trouble readjusting to living in the Fire Nation after being away for so long."

Kanna suppressed the urge to tell him not to apologize for his rude, hardhearted, childish nephew. He was older than her, sure he was. He seemed as petty and little-minded as his father. She only nodded in response.

"Another reason I came to visit is I wanted to continue our conversation before Azula came in."

She busied herself with collecting the tea pot and preparing the water. This wasn't something she wanted to talk about, not now, not later. It wasn't important anymore. Who she was, or rather, who she had been was dead and buried. Now she was only a shadow. Her burn had scarred over, her own heart had hardened to the resoluteness of the palace. Nothing was to be done but wait, until what she wasn't sure. Escape, freedom, death, anything that would mean she no longer saw this place.

A hand pulled the pot of water out of her hands and she turned to her right, seeing the prince produce a single blaze of fire from one hand, boiling the water instantly.

The girl strangled a cry in her throat, but pushed aside him nonetheless, spilling some of the water onto herself. "What's wrong with you?" he yelled after her. She ran into the back, hiding in her room, where she pulled her dress off and buried her face in the blankets, whispering to herself, crying.

Most people seemed to think she had no emotions, but the truth was she had felt so much that she was too exhausted to feel anymore. Then events would culminate, and build, and build. And then anything could set her off. Once she had spilled a glass of water, and she ended up on the floor crying for half an hour. Another day she sewed an extra button on a uniform, and Iza said they would have to throw it out. The Fire Nation army expected perfection in their uniforms. Kanna ripped the jacket to shreds, cutting the sleeves haphazardly, and ended up on the floor, hiding beneath it.

Nothing she did was right. Even if she pushed herself it was hard to do anything. Bending took more effort than she had; fifteen minutes left her winded. She slept for hours and hours on her day off, and woke up more tired than before she had gone to sleep.

Her body hurt. It was that dull, all-over pain before a flu, but the flu never came.

There was nothing she wanted more than an end to this suffering, and she was getting desperate. She was too weak to escape, so that really only left her with one choice. It was looked down upon in her culture, but she knew the Fire Nation didn't care. They wouldn't cast her into the sea, as was custom in her home, but bury her in the cold earth. That was what kept her from it. That, and the slightest chance that she might return home one day.

She began to wail, clutching the blankets. She was falling, and they were the only thing keeping her here. Everything hurt, nothing was right. Whenever she heard the echo of a single pair of footsteps, all she could hear was die, die, die, die. She heard them now, but that was the least of her worries. If she died, she wouldn't have to worry about falling. It would all be over.

So she sat up and looked to the door. It wasn't death. And it wasn't Iroh. The scarred prince looked down at her, then at the floor. She continued to look at him, calm now, her face tear-stained, snot on her upper lip. He looked back at her, and she looked at his hands, held back a sob.

"What do you want?" she managed to get out.

He let out a heavy breath through his nose. No steam today. "I-I frightened you. And I yelled at you. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. Can I do anything to help?"

She stared straight ahead, her eyes unfocused. "Did Iroh tell you to apologize?"

The prince hesitated.

"If he told you to apologize, I don't want to hear it. You shouldn't need someone to tell you how to act. You're an adult, aren't you?"

"Who do you think you are?" He stared at her, angry and confused. They went together well, those feelings.

She looked up to him, stood from the pile of blankets and walked toward him. He looked away and his face turned red. As he continued to not look at her, she poked him in the chest.

"I don't think I am anyone, because I know that here, I am no one. Here, I have nothing but needles and thread. I'm supposed to make something out of them, uniforms and your family's luxurious leisure clothes. But I feel like I'm sewing my own shroud. Everyday I work on it, and even when I'm finished, I still have more to do."

She began crying again, yelling. "I sew clothes for the people that destroyed my home, murdered my family, kidnapped me! You think you're better than me? You have no idea what it's like to lose everything! I have nothing. Every hope I ever had for my life is ruined. I wanted to find a master, I wanted to teach children how to bend, I wanted a family!

"And now I can't have any of it. I'll die here without knowing if my brother and father are alive or not. I can never go home. I can never find a master so I can never teach children. I'll never have a husband or children of my own. Because your people decided our small tribe was worth wiping out. Because they were looking for me, because my mother was burned to death and I can't get the image out of my head, and every time I see fire I hear her screaming and screaming and screaming.

"I can't sleep anymore but I'm so tired. I'm so tired." She hunched over and wailed, holding herself around the middle. "My name isn't even what I said it is. I don't feel like I'm anyone anymore. I'm homeless and alone and I just want to die."

He touched her arm timidly, and it was all she needed. She fell into his arms, sobbing against his chest and shaking uncontrollably, her hands holding tight to his tunic. The prince kept one hand where her wrappings covered the middle of her back, while the other held the back of her head, stroking her hair lightly.

They stayed like that for awhile, even after the tears had stopped, as she began to settle down. Her teeth shook and her eyes ached from crying. She turned away from him and looked out her window. In a low voice, she said, "I'm sorry. You can leave."

"What do I call you now?"

"Kanna, Kala, Girl, it makes no difference. Your sister prefers to call me Water Tribe."

He said nothing. She heard him turn and take a step toward the door, but then he turned back. "When we first met, I got mad at you because I was banished. That's why I was gone. I thought you knew who I was, that you were making fun of me, of my honor, my scar."

"It was your father, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

She was silent. It was what she'd expected, and sadly, it didn't shock her. "I'm sorry."

"Me too."

She turned to face him.

The prince's expression changed. "The water. Didn't it burn you?"

The girl looked at her arm, saw it was pink, and felt the pain flare up. It was only a first degree burn. She sighed. "Well, at least I don't have to worry about a suitor rejecting me for burns and scars."

"They do that?"

"We haven't strayed much from our sister tribe. Women are supposed to do work, but burns and scars that aren't on our hands are frowned upon. It shows that we've worked hard, that the men in our families couldn't provide for us. I guess it doesn't matter much anyway. The men are either ten years younger or twenty years older. I probably wouldn't have married even if this all hadn't happened."

He looked down at that, then back to her. "Can I help treat it?"

She looked at him, perplexed. "Sure."

They went into the sewing room, where she pulled out some spare cloth and a pair of scissors. The prince brought in a bowl of water for her and set it on the table. She bent some of it around her hand and focused on her shoulder, closing her eyes and trying not to flinch.

"There's an ointment we use for burns. I'll go get it."

"Mm," she grunted in agreement.

She heard him go.

The next thing she remembered was the prince standing over her, shaking her lightly and calling a name that was not hers. She tried to sit up, but he pushed her back down. "You fainted. Stay still. Uncle is getting a doctor."

"Was he here when you left? I don't remember." Her words were garbled and came out awkwardly.

"Yeah, I ran into him outside. Just stay still," he repeated.

They were silent for a moment, looked away from each other.

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for helping me."

"Yeah."