[Fic] Tide and Time

[beckyh2112]

Title: Tide and Time
Characters: Water Tribe ensemble, Song, Zhao
Word Count: 11,000+
Rating: PG-13
Summary: During the hundredth year of the Water Tribe Conquest, Hahn of the Northern Tribe and Prince Sokka of the Southern Tribe struggle to make a unique betrothal necklace and bring it back to Princess Yue before her fifteenth birthday.
Author's Notes: Krisuk and Tian belong to dark_puck and are used with her permission and assistance.

A Water-Tribe-as-aggressors AU I've been working on. Arbitrary other changes: Arnook and Yue are waterbenders. Plenty more of this universe planned for the future, when I get around to when Zuko and Azula find Aang, and we launch into the series proper.

---

"-I don't think I should be using your pattern." Sokka scowled down at the scrap-turquoise he was mauling. "Seeing as I'm not actually related to you and all."

"Your family has no pattern of its own, Southern boy," Master Pakku said. The old man sat across from the one-eyed prince, a bowl of water in one hand. He spent more time focusing on it and drawing droplets of water out than watching Sokka, for which the prince was honestly thankful. "Since you carelessly lost my necklace, you will need to make a new one."

"I didn't lose it!" Sokka snapped.

The old man gave him a sidelong glance. "Gave it to a woman then?"

The Southern Water Tribe didn't use betrothal necklaces. Gran-Gran's necklace had just been a pretty to Sokka's mother, something her husband-to-be had gifted her with to show his wealth. Afterwards, Kya had given it to her son, and Gran-Gran had told him to give it to the woman he intended to marry.

Except he'd given it to Katara when their mother died. After all, it was only important if he meant to marry a woman from the Northern Water Tribe, and why would he do that?

He'd been a fool. In a lot of ways.

"... I lost it," Sokka muttered, bending back over the turquoise. Delicate carving, like using his boomerang, had become a lot harder since he lost his left eye.

Master Pakku snorted, and Sokka knew the old bastard knew he was lying. But the waterbending master didn't call him on it.

Sokka worked the file over the turquoise stone, visualizing the pattern on Katara's necklace. He had to get this perfect. Anything less than perfection, and Chief Arnook would reject his offer for Yue out-of-hand. The Northern Water Chief did not like that the Southern Water Chief and his heir could not waterbend, or that Katara rivaled Yue in waterbending power and fought like a man.

Arnook was the reason Sokka hadn't merely lost his left eye but also gained a massive frostbite scar across half his face.

"Tell me about Yue?" Sokka asked softly.

"You know more than I do about her. Stop fretting and carve the necklace."

Sokka looked up, a smirk curving his lips. "Fine. Tell me how much Arnook is going to hate it when I marry his daughter and take both of the tribes."

***

"No! I won't allow it!" Katara swung her arms as she yelled, and fractures appeared in the ice throughout the throneroom. "She can't have him!"

Her father stared down at her, the Chief of the Southern Water Tribes lounging on his throne in a deceptively casual posture. He could leap up and kill a man in a matter of moments, she knew. She'd seen him do it.

"Katara," he said softly, "Your brother is a man grown. He may court whoever he wishes."

"Not her," Katara said in a hard voice, raising ice-spikes all around herself. Not that white-haired bitch. The moon-touched whore couldn't have her Sokka. She couldn't!

"Why?" Her father looked at her, blue eyes merely curious. "Because she's as powerful as you are?"

A soft inrush of air passed through the ceremonial guards in the throneroom. Even Bato drew back slightly from where he stood on the step below Hakoda's throne.

Katara lowered her arms to prevent herself from 'bending. She closed her eyes briefly, and let her anger flow through her. It existed, and it was part of her, but it did not control her. She opened her eyes, gestured with her hands to smooth the ice and reseal the cracks. "She is not as powerful as I am, Dad."

"Is that so?"

She nodded. "Without the Moon Spirit, she would be dead. I was born alive, and my power comes from my blood and my people."

Her father smiled at her. "So it does," he said, his tone approving. "Just like your brother's power comes from his blood and his people. But the Northern Water Tribe doesn't respect our power, Katara."

Bato nodded in agreement. "They hide it, but they think we're barbarians just as much as the Earthfolk do."

Katara considered that, mulling over the way Yue had treated her when they met, the way Chief Arnook had only acknowledged her father's chieftain status at the end of a spear, over the way the Northern Water Tribe boys had mocked her brother for wanting to be a great warrior rather than a waterbender. "Then why allow them to exist? We could destroy them utterly."

"They have the moon and the ocean," her father replied. "We're not going to endanger the most important spirits of our people because the Northern Water Tribe is too prideful."

He stood and stretched, and Bato slammed the Fire Nation pike he used as his staff of office down against the ice. "Court is finished! Meet us at the bar or come back tomorrow!"

Hakoda grinned at his old friend, then stepped down to cup Katara's chin. "All he has to do is stay married to her long enough for Arnook to die and Yue to bear him a son. After that..."

Katara smiled up at her father. "After that," she agreed.

***

"Two weeks," Hahn growled. "Two weeks!"

Krisuk watched his friend pace back and forth across the cabin. He shook his head and reached out to freeze over the basin of water, then sculpted it into a map of the island coast. Villages they'd already raided were clearly indicated. "Chill, Hahn. Two weeks is more than enough time to get the necklace made."

"Sokka's going to be there. He's going to bring her something rare and exotic, and she's going to throw herself at him. Because she likes him!"

Krisuk was of the opinion that Yue disliked Hahn more than she liked Sokka. Not that he was going to tell the other man that. "So get her something rare and exotic yourself. We're in the middle of the Fire Nation, for crying out loud."

Hahn made an annoyed sound and threw himself onto the white-and-black bear fur he'd claimed as hunt-spoils when they first set out in the world. "Show me a map of the entire archipelago."

With a wave of his hand, Krisuk smoothed the ice and reformed it to show the island chain of the Fire Nation.

Hahn studied the map, then pointed at one of the oldest and quietest volcanos in the entire chain. "So, Krisuk, want to hunt a dragon?"

"...A challenge!"

***

"It's not terrible," Pakku said as he turned over the pendant for Sokka's betrothal necklace. It really was rather nice, though he still thought the bright turquoise was too gaudy. They'd never find a blue to complement it.

Sokka rolled his eye. "Yeah, I know it's not as pretty and smooth as it would be if I'd water-carved it, but hey, not a waterbender."

With a negligent hand-wave, Pakku smacked the boy's head with the contents of one of his water-flasks. Before leaving the poles to travel with the boy, Pakku had created two water-flasks and three liquor-flasks to carry water to bend with for emergencies. After all, the rest of the world did not conveniently make itself out of ice.

He'd found his efforts well-rewarded over the last two years. Especially when Sokka was being an idiot.

The boy shot him an annoyed look, then reached for the pendant. "Great, it's acceptable. Now I need something to put it on."

"Sealskin is traditional."

"We're not doing this traditionally, Master Pakku." Sokka studied the pendant then slipped it into his clothes. "Turquoise from the Sun Warriors is a quarter of a world away from traditional, so we might as well get some Earth Kingdom silk to put it half the world away from the Northern Water Tribe's traditions."

Pakku hit the boy again on general principles. "Combining the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom does not make it Southern Water Tribe."

"No," Sokka agreed, starting to smirk. "It coming from me makes it Southern Water Tribe."

***

"A week and a half," Hahn muttered as he slogged up the side of the volcano. "A week and a half until Yue starts accepting offers."

He glanced over his shoulder to the beach below. Krisuk waited by the ocean, having convinced him they'd kill a dragon a lot more easily if they fought one near the water.

So all Hahn had to do was lure one down from the volcano to the beach, then help Krisuk kill it. Easy.

He was already planning what sort of ribbon he'd use to hold up the dragon-scale pendant.

***

"We seem to be pulling up to a dock. Again."

Sokka glanced at where Master Pakku stood off to the right and grinned. "Yep! One of the merchants at the last town mentioned this place had some really fancy silks, all kinds of rare colors. So I thought hey, we've still got a week and a half until Princess Yue's fifteenth birthday, that's plenty of time to get from here to the Northern Water Tribe, we can afford to spend half a day on land doing some shopping."

The old man gave him a disgusted look. "The only part of that you actually thought was 'do some shopping'."

Sokka chuckled and vaulted over the side of their ship onto the pier. "You coming or not?"

The Earth Kingdom dockworkers shied back in fear as an arc of water rose from the ocean and solidified as ice. Master Pakku walked down it as easily as if it were rough stone. "Someone has to make sure you actually get what you came for."

***

Madame Cixi froze in the process of helping Song fill her basket with the bandages she'd bought. "Water Tribe," the old woman said softly. "Damn them, what are they doing here?"

Song turned to look as she continued to quietly pack her basket. There, walking through the market square were a pair of men in blue. The old man looked distinctly bored, following in the wake of the other Water Tribesman.

The younger man, though... He was hardly more than Song's age, and the upper left side of his face was black with frostbite. A puckered white scar ran through the middle of it, slashing across his left eye. And, she realized with some nausea, someone had sewn that eye shut.

Yet for all of that, he still darted about the market with obvious cheer and excitement. He was happy to be here. And that happiness took away from the horror of his face, making him oddly handsome.

Currently he stood in front of the Master Yan's apprentice, a Fire Nation girl named Tian. She had a basket of sweet rolls under one arm, still steaming softly as she'd just stepped out of the bakery. Master Yan hovered in the doorway, glaring at the Water Tribesmen and trying to look fierce.

The young man ignored him, continuing to speak and smile at Tian in a way Song clearly read as 'flirtatious'.

"Thank you, Madame Cixi," Song murmured as she gathered up her own basket and drifted closer to the two Water Tribesmen. It wouldn't hurt to make sure the young man was being as flirtatiously friendly as he seemed to think he was.

The old man gestured suddenly, and water spun out of a flask riding on his hip and struck the young man across the back of his head hard enough for Song to hear it. "Stop flirting and buy the rolls, Sokka."

Tian startled back, fear in her eyes. Song hoped she didn't have the same expression on her face, but- Waterbender. Black tendrils of frostbite curled all up and down her own leg because of a waterbender. And the Water Tribe had done its best to devastate the Fire Nation, leaving them a broken and scattered people.

"Hey, no need to punish me just because you didn't want another woman after Gran-Gran left," Sokka said, grinning. He ducked under another stream of water, then held out some money to Tian.

The old man drew the water back to his flask, and Song could have sworn she caught a flash of a smile on his face.

Tian took Sokka's money and picked out a handful of sticky buns for him. The young man happily took them off her hands, splitting them between himself and the old waterbender. They both tore into the sweet buns like they rarely had bread to eat. Which, Song realized, had to be the truth of the matter - what could grow at the Poles?

"Ooh, check out the pottery," Sokka said, his eye lighting up as he spotted Hiko's stall and the horsehair pottery on display there.

"Silk. You're here for silk," the waterbender said, licking the lingering sticky off his fingers.

"Shopping. I'm here to shop."

"For silk."

"... It's really nice pottery."

"Find the clothier and buy the silk you want before I drag you back to the ship."

Song smiled softly and shifted to go back to her own shopping. She needed to stock up on tea and other useful herbs for her clinic. Best to keep her eye on the Water Tribesmen, though, in case she needed to pull out one of her needles.

Which was why she didn't flinch when the young Water Tribesman sidled up to her and grinned. "Hey there, pretty lady."

She turned to look at him, momentarily struck by the sight of his unscarred side alone. He was very handsome. Not classically pretty, like the Fire Nationals preferred, nor the muscular handsomeness of an Earth Kingdom man. But definitely handsome.

She flushed as she realized he'd noticed her looking and was subtly preening. "Can I help you?"

"In a lot of ways." He leaned a bit closer to her, his one blue eye bright. "You could tell me where the clothier is around here."

"I could," Song agreed. "I might, even. If you ask nicely."

"What if I ask naughtily?"

Song shifted, her hanbok rustling against her legs. A smile curled her lips as she studied the scarred Water Tribesman before answering. "Well, I make it a policy not to give wicked men what they want."

His smile grew infinitely more flirtatious. "Do you give them what they deserve-?"

Then a blast of water hit him in the back of the head. "Silk, Sokka. In ribbons, not the dress she's wearing."

Sokka rolled his eye. "You are killing my fun, Master Pakku."

Song flinched slightly and shot the old man a wary look. The only people in the Water Tribe who earned the honorific of 'Master' were master waterbenders. She was no earthbender - the only way she'd be able to stop him if he lost his temper was if she could stay close to him. Well, 'closer to danger, farther from harm' as the old wives said.

Sokka turned back to her. "Would you please tell me how to find the clothier in this town, loveliest of radiant jewels?"

Pakku snorted. "Laying it on a bit thick."

"Are you saying she's ugly?" Sokka replied, mischief in his voice.

The old man looked her over, and Song struggled not to shift uncomfortably under his scrutiny. Then his gaze slid back to Sokka, and Song tried not to visibly relax. Of course with Sokka watching Pakku, the waterbender would be the only one to notice her discomfort. The young man kept shifting to bring her back into view, but having to turn around to talk to Pakku had put Song on his blind-side.

"She's pretty enough," the old man answered after a moment.

Pretty enough for what? Oh no, please don't let this turn into a raid-

"But not what we came for," he finished.

Song dipped into a slight curtsey towards the Water Tribesmen. "I can show you to the cloth merchant's shop. If you'll follow me-?"

She turned and walked down the street, shifting her basket to rest on her hip more comfortably. Sokka fell into step beside her on her left, while the waterbender fell in on her right. It was slightly uncomfortable to be between the two of them, but as long as they focused on her, they weren't focusing on anyone else.

Master Jian was the cloth merchant in town, and he kept an organized shop. Bolts of cloth ran from floor to ceiling, on racks and tables and shelves, going from brown near the doorway through a rainbow of colors and patterns to meet at the crisp black and whites just behind his counter.

The young man clapped with sheer delight as he stepped into the shop, his expression lighting up. "Look at this! Ohhhh, Katara would love that blue! And Suki would look so pretty in those greens!"

"Suki?" the waterbender asked, sounding amused. "The Kyoshi warrior?"

"Yeah, her."

"The one who put you in a dress and makeup?"

"It was warpaint!"

"Of course it was," the old man said indulgently.

Song peeked at him while she did some browsing of her own. Pakku stood in the doorway, looking uninterested in the brilliance of cloth and patterns all around him. Sokka, on the other hand, seemed to be having a hard time choosing between blues and greens in cotton, linen, silk, and ramie.

One of Jian's daughters tentatively approached Sokka to see what he wanted. He held out an armful of blue at her. "Help me pick out which would look best on my sister."

Song was not at all surprised this time when a water-whip struck Sokka in the back of the head. The young man turned to glare at Pakku, then dropped the blue cloth on a table of yellows.

"Or you could show me your silk ribbons," he said.

The shop-girl nodded and drew back behind the counter to pull out a tome of carefully pressed ribbon samples. Sokka followed up after her, and Song found herself drifting to join him. He pulled out a disk of a bright blue-green stone flecked with black and carved with three cresting waves, which he held against various blue ribbons.

"P-perhaps black?" The shop-girl suggested quietly as the Water Tribesman became increasingly frustrated with the blues.

"Black might work," he said. Then the shop-girl flipped through the tome to the black silks, and Sokka laid his disk next to a smooth, plain black. He smiled. "Yeah. This is exactly what I've been looking for."

***

Katara stood in the prow of the wooden ship, listening to the ocean they sailed over. In a week, they would reach the North Pole. The waterbenders kept the ship gliding on its 'foils, slicing over the waves far faster than anyone other than the Water Tribes could manage.

They were Southern Water Tribe. They did not rely on waterbenders to live, but they did not live as barbarians.

A week to get there, then three days of enduring that moon-haired bitch and Arnook. She would have to guard her emotions, become less like the ocean. Yue would not affect her.

"Copper for your thoughts, princess?"

Katara turned to her father, smiling. "Just thinking about the upcoming celebration, Dad."

Chief Hakoda smiled down at her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sure the Northern Water Tribe will put on quite an event for their princess. We'll have to top it for your fifteenth birthday."

"We don't need to," Katara said, curling closer to her father. "I'm not going to accept anyone's offer."

"Katara..." Her father said warningly. She recognized the tone. It was the same one he'd used when Sokka refused to fight him in the ring.

She wasn't her brother, though. They both loved their father more than they feared him, but she loved Sokka more than she loved Hakoda. If it came to the choice between them, she knew exactly which would die.

"The only man I'm going to marry is the Avatar," she declared.

Her father's arm tightened around her, and he tipped her chin up so they could look each other in the eyes. His sky-blue eyes held her ocean-blue ones, and his tone was the same stern one he used when he took Sokka's eye. "You will marry, Katara. I will allow you any man in all the world, but you will marry."

"You know who I want." She reached up to touch her necklace.

"You can't have him. You will choose another when the time comes."

"I have chosen another. I chose the Avatar."

"Someone alive." His fingers tightened on her jaw. "If you do not choose, I will choose for you."

Katara scowled up at her father, feeling the water all around them. She didn't have to take this. She could do whatever she wanted. She was a waterbender.

The chief before Hakoda had been a waterbender, too, and her father had killed him in a challenge-duel. He'd won the chieftainship with strength of arms and will against a master waterbender.

She dropped her eyes. "Someone else," she said softly, "But there's no one in either tribe who suits me."

Her father smiled at her. "You have two years until you're even old enough to marry. We will let men offer, but you do not have to accept anyone immediately. Just so long as there is someone before you turn twenty."

Katara nodded. "Six years is a long time to find a man. Perhaps there is someone out there in the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom who will suit me."

"Perhaps an Air Nomad will," Hakoda said cheerfully.

She glanced up at him, and neither of them could keep a straight face for long. An Air Nomad! No pacifist airbender would ever suit a princess of the Water Tribes!

***

Katara was coming.

Yue smoothed the frown from her face before it could transform into a scowl. She had to maintain a serene expression while she sat at her father's left hand. Distant and calm, that was what she needed to be. It was the only way she would survive the other girl without the ice turning red.

Ocean-eyed bitch.

Yue smoothed her parka and closed her eyes. She mustn't think of the girl. Enduring her for three days would be bad enough.

- Could she really endure Katara and her hate for the rest of her life?

She murmured an apology to her father and rose gracefully from her seat. She dipped in a curtsey to him and the waterbending teacher he spoke with, then left through one of the side-entrances to the great hall.

Chulyin met her at the doorway, the hunter falling into step beside her without question. The other woman was her dearest friend for all of her powerful pride. Her father was dead, though, and there were no brothers to care for her and her mother. Rather than live off of charity, Chulyin had learned to hunt like a man.

"Sokka will be here in a week," Yue said softly.

"So he will."

"So will Hahn."

"Mm."

Yue glanced sidelong at Chulyin, once again marveling at the raven-black hair the other woman had. If her eyes had been another color... But no, they were as blue as the storm-dark ocean. "They are both worthy men," Yue said carefully. "It will be a difficult choice."

Chulyin glanced at her. "I don't think, princess, that the difficulty lies in just choosing between the two men."

"I love Sokka." Yue inhaled sharply after she said it. She'd never said that before, it would be used like a weapon-

Chulyin made a quiet sound and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Calm, princess. Calm. Sokka's a good man. He'll do right by you. Better than Hahn will."

"But what will Katara do?" Yue asked softly. "I can't have my prince without the ocean-eyed slut."

Chulyin had no answer to that.

***

Dead dragons smelled.

That was Hahn's main thought. Mostly because he was trying not to think about the heavy burns across his chest and arms. Though, he could say with some pride that there were none on his back. He hadn't tried to run away.

Of course, his hair was a total loss. "We're going to have to cut it off," he said mournfully.

"Your arm? Hardly." Krisuk was lifting water out of the ocean for some reason. The waterbender looked pretty scorched himself, though not nearly as badly as Hahn was. He'd been staying back and using his abilities from range, while Hahn had gotten up close and personal with the dragon.

"My hair," Hahn said with some annoyance. "It's crisped."

Krisuk gave his own long, dark hair a toss. His was untouched, the bastard. "So you need the ends trimmed. You'll be fine. Now hold still while I heal you."

"You can heal?" Hahn grinned up at his friend. "You're such a girl, Krisuk."

"You know, I could just leave the burns alone and let you suffer."

"... You are very manly, and I am sure women find you very handsome."

"Better." The waterbender spread the glowing water over Hahn's chest and arms, eyes half-lidding as he concentrated. "Flirted this out of some of the girls. Had a lot of fun practicing it on them."

"Uh-huh." Hahn grinned. Yeah, he bet his friend had a lot of fun 'practicing'. "So we've got ourselves a dragon. Besides a scale for my necklace, do you want anything from it?"

Krisuk nodded. "I want to make a pair of dragonscale bracers." He grinned. "So everyone knows to call me the Dragon of the North."

Hahn laughed. "If you're getting bracers, I want a hauberk."

The waterbender drew back, letting the water he'd used fall to the ground as ice and melt onto the sand. He rubbed his hands together and studied Hahn's chest and arms. "I think I healed everything I can manage."

Hahn stretched, wincing at the ache in his muscles. It felt like he'd been riding rough seas on a whale-hunt for a week without rest, and then there was still the phantom-burning sensation across his body. "Yeah, feels like. Get yourself before you drop."

"Yeah, I will." Krisuk glanced over at their dead dragon briefly, then turned his attention back to raising the water to heal himself. "Do you think the scales are immune to flames? We ought to find out. Just in case."

"How?" Hahn wandered over to dig his club out of the corpse. Man, the edge was a complete wreck. He might as well make a new one, except this one was special - Fire Nation ship-steel reworked. Fire Nation ships like that were all but impossible to find anymore. "Go yell at some firebenders?"

"Later. First test is trying to set them on fire."

"... Or we could do that."

Krisuk drew more water out of the ocean and applied it to his own burns. "Have to take it in stages, Hahn. If it won't stand up to a single flame, what's the point in making it into armor?" He looked thoughtful, staring past Hahn at the body. "Do we have any firebending prisoners? I can't remember."

"On our ship? The annoying old guy with the sideburns." Hahn checked the edge of the club and grumbled. Maybe he could find a smithy to smelt it down and remake it in.

"They all have sideburns," Krisuk said with some irritation.

"The annoying one with the sideburns. Choi." Or something like that. Hahn didn't pay close attention to their names.

Krisuk strode over and smacked him in the back of the head. "Zhao. His name is Zhao."

Hahn gave his friend a dirty look. "Yeah, him."

"You really ought to get his name right. You piss off enough people as it is." Krisuk said that a lot, really. Hahn accepted that his friend thought he ought to be more tolerant of everyone else's general suckitude. Frankly, Krisuk had no place saying it given how much he thought everyone else sucked just as much.

"Like I care about his name." No, reforging would weaken the metal too much. This club was a total loss. He'd need a new one for certain.

"Politeness will get you far in life."

"Marrying Yue will get me farther."

"She does have to actually accept your offer, you know."

Hahn glanced at his friend, who seemed to be checking his various flasks. "The only rival I've got is Sokka, and not even he can come up with something as great as a dragonscale."

"Yue, however, likes him better. Which would be my point. Ah." Krisuk held up one of his hip-flasks. "I'm going go talk to Zhao. Try not to do anything stupid while I'm gone."

"I never do anything stupid." Hahn grinned. "Hey, you think you can carve dragonbone?"

"Listing points to refute that will take until midnight, so I won't bother." Krisuk waved a hand in his direction. "I'm going to signal the ship. Tell me what you're planning later."

***

The Water Tribe ship didn't keep a lot of Fire Nation prisoners. In fact, most of them would probably be dropped in one of the Fire Nation ports somewhere between here and the North Pole. Neither Krisuk nor Hahn actually wanted to haul them around.

The firebender was a different story. That one they kept in the lowest, wettest, darkest part of the ship. With a pair of guards on him at all times. So far the man hadn't set the silver ship on fire, which was the only reason Krisuk had been able to keep Hahn from slitting his throat the last time the young captain had to deal with Zhao.

"Hello," Krisuk said softly, after sending the two guards to stand at the other end of the corridor.

Zhao opened his eyes. The man sat on a small bench, arms crossed, ankle resting against the opposite knee. His amber eyes always seemed startlingly bright in the dimness, but Krisuk knew that was just his mind playing tricks on him. Dressed in the homespun blue prisoner rags, the Fire Nation man looked more like a Water Tribesman with his eyes closed. Krisuk expected blue, and the amber always seemed too bright.

"Hello, waterbender," the man drawled. "What brings you down here?"

Krisuk held up one of his hip-flasks, the one that actually had looted sake in it rather than water. "I'll give you booze if you set some things on fire for me."

A smirk curved Zhao's mouth. "Now this I have to hear."

Krisuk reached into his tunic and pulled out a handful of blue-purple scales. He held them through the bars of the cell. "Here are some scales. Varying degrees of strength on them, please. Set me on fire, and you won't like what happens."

"Don't tempt me." The man rose from his seat and strode forward to take the scales from Krisuk. His fingers barely touched the waterbender's hands, and he certainly wasn't firebending, but he radiated heat like he had a fever.

It was disconcerting. Krisuk tried to ignore it as he stepped back. "You won't get any booze, either."

"Mm." Zhao's hands glowed with heat, a gentle fire rising from his palms. "A campfire would be about this hot."

The fire vanished, and Krisuk stepped forward to reclaim the scales. He studied them carefully, looking for any signs of heat-damage but could find none. "These seem fine," he murmurred as he tucked them away. He poured a measure of sake from his hip-flask into a small cup and passed it to the firebender.

Zhao drained the booze slowly, then passed the cup back to Krisuk. "Another set?"

He nodded and held out the next set.

"A house-fire would be this strong," the firebender said as fire blazed in his hands. When it died away, he handed the scales back to Krisuk, who examined them and then gave Zhao more of his sake.

They repeated the routine several times, moving up to flames as hot as the firebender could create. Krisuk limited how much he gave the man to keep Zhao this side of sober.

But when not a single scale was damaged by any heat the firebender could create, he handed the man the remainder of his flask.

As he left the firebender in the brig, Krisuk couldn't shake a niggling worry that Zhao hadn't been quite that controlled with his flames when they'd captured him. Was he getting better?

Surely not. Who could improve by sitting in a dank cell?

***

A full moon hung over the grand city of the Northern Water Tribe. Chief Arnook stood on a smaller balcony of his palace, looking out over the sea. A cold wind swirled around him, slicing like knives against his exposed flesh.

He should go inside. He considered it and discarded the idea. He needed the cold right now, so he could clear his mind and think of the next steps the Water Tribes would need to take. Not merely consider what they would need to do, but consider how to coax Hakoda into going along with his plans. The warrior had an irritating tendency to ignore the commands of his betters.

Much like the rest of the Southern Water Tribe.

Sooner or later, however, the Southern Tribe would weaken, and the Northern Tribe would be there to step in and finish them. Destroy their heretical culture and bring them back to the true way of their people.

Until then, however, they would have to be tolerated.

The Fire Nation was broken, scattered. Some of them still fought - Ozai was a thorn in their sides. But Ozai, unlike his children and his brother, did not firebend. He could rally his people in their exile all he wanted, but he would never be a true threat to the Water Tribes.

Firelord Iroh might. But his hunters were close to finding the man.

The Air Nomads were ignorable. They would defend themselves, but as long as the Water Tribes lifted no hand against them, they would do nothing while the ocean and the moon swept over the rest of the world.

So. The Earth Kingdom. That would be difficult.

He raised his eyes to the moon. Difficult, but not impossible. Just as the sea wore away at the cliffs, so too could the Water Tribes wear away at the Earth Kingdom.

Until it was time for a tsunami.

***

Hakoda ambled down the gangplank of ice Katara had raised. She followed closely at his heels, dressed as befitted a princess of the Southern Tribe. Clothing of scraped tigerseal skin, dyed blue, and lined with penguin down - it seemed almost plain next to Yue's finery.

Of course, Hakoda himself seemed plain next to Arnook. The other chief wore a long turtleseal parka lined with brilliant ruffs of molebear fur and a necklace of molebear teeth. Hakoda wore simple clothing thick enough and sturdy enough to keep out the cold and take a few spear-strikes. Arctic bobfox fur lined his parka to give him the traditional white. A choker of carved walrus-shark tusk protected his throat.

If the time ever came, Hakoda didn't think he'd have much problem with Arnook.

The Northern Chief held out his hand as Hakoda stepped onto the ice of the Northern Water City. He reached out and gripped Arnook's forearm, the pair of them clasping as the chiefs of the sister-tribes had since time immemorial.

"Welcome to my home, Chief Hakoda."

"Thank you for your hospitality, Chief Arnook."

***

Krisuk sat on the deck, making the most of the afternoon sunlight while he shaped his bracers. He'd already finished one, binding the blue-purple dragonscales to cowhippo leather and hand-sewing it with seal sinew. He planned to add more decorations when they reached the North Pole, and he could get at more of the materials he knew how to work. Cowhippo leather felt weird and heavy compared to the turtleseal leather his people used, but he'd wanted the bracers wearable before the ceremony.

After all, he was the Dragon of the North.

Krisuk glanced up at Hahn. The other man sat across from him, using the sharp edge of his ruined Fire Nation weapon to carve a dragonbone club. Hahn had been working on it for days, almost forgetting to eat and captain the ship while he focused on it.

He couldn't really fault Hahn, though. Sure, Hahn could use just about any weapon he got handed, but he preferred the Water Tribe club. Losing the first one he'd made had to hurt.

"Nice design," he said.

"Thanks." Hahn scraped the dragonbone again, wearing away more of it.

Krisuk decided not to mention that he'd seen Chief Hakoda carrying a weapon exactly like that. "We'll be at the North Pole tomorrow."

"Cutting it close."

"Well, we might have gotten there faster if you'd actually charted a course so we didn't need to detour to get rid of the Firefolk," Krisuk snapped. He'd had to order the ship to anchor off one of the Fire Nation islands so they could get rid of their non-firebending prisoners before they turned their prow to the North Pole, because Hahn had been too busy working on his weapon.

Hahn shrugged.

"Speaking of Firefolk, our firebender is having problems."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I think he might freeze to death before we get to the city."

Hahn looked up at that, worried. "Dead firebenders make bad trophies, Krisuk. We're going to have to put him in some real clothes."

"Just a little bit," Krisuk agreed. "I can't keep giving him all my coffee to keep him warm."

"Right. Make it so." Hahn bent over his weapon again, studying the bone intently before using the ruined Fire Nation steel to carve off another thin slice. He was in the final stages of shaping, and nothing short of an Earth Kingdom catapult volley seemed like it would distract him.

Krisuk grumbled and went to take care of the damn firebender.

***

Sokka spun the obsidian knife in his hand, enjoying the feel of it against his skin. Big difference between him holding it, and the Sun Warrior priest trying to gouge out his heart with it. Totally different mood.

Still, the whole 'I almost got sacrificed to the sun-spirit' would make an impressive story for when he actually got someplace where people hadn't been involved in the whole mess and hadn't heard him practice telling it repeatedly.

He stood near the prow of the ship, watching the river-mouth approach at a steady rate. Soon they'd be out on the open ocean again, and then his ship could really show her speed on the hydrofoils. They'd reach the North Pole in a day and a half, with half a day to spare for recuperation before Yue's fifteenth birthday. No big deal.

... Something wasn't right.

He shifted his grip on the knife, readying himself to fight with it out of habit. In the dim light of the dawn, he could pick out too-regular shapes across the mouth of the river. They almost blended in with the darkness. Heck, maybe they did to eyes not used to nights that lasted for months.

Ironclads.

Sokka looked over his shoulder at the crewman behind him. "Get Master Pakku. Fast and quiet as you can."

The man nodded and moved off, leaving Sokka to study the problem of the blockade across the river-mouth.

***

Pakku leaned against the rail, eyeing the ironclads across the river-mouth. Not quite across the river-mouth, actually, though at the rate of movement, they soon would be. "They're farther out than you think, boy."

"Yeah?" Sokka called down from the mast. "Far enough for us to sail between them?"

"No."

The boy made an annoyed sound. "So we're sticking with the plan. When they're as far apart as you can manage-"

"I heard you explain it the first time." Pakku stepped away from the rail and stretched. The stretch shifted into a waterbending form as he reached out with his power to touch the swirl of freshwater into salt at the river-mouth. He saw the ironclads moving to bar their way, felt them as disturbances in the water.

They were still too far apart. "Closer," he demanded.

Behind him, the two lesser waterbenders pushed the river-water over the 'foils, and the ship picked up speed.

"Aw, crap," Sokka said and dropped down to the deck. "Brace yourselves! Incoming rock volley!"

Launched from the nearest three ironclads were small boulders. Pakku watched their arcs and gave a slight shake of his head. All three would fall short. Considerably so.

"Ranging shot," Sokka said. "Of course, we are moving closer to them. Can you-?"

"Not yet."

The boy made an annoyed sound. "Of course this had to happen today. The last six months, the seas around the Fire Nation are deserted, and the inner sea of the Earth Kingdom only has merchants, but when we actually need to get somewhere, suddenly there's ironclads. And it's still too dark to see whose flag they're flying."

Pakku ignored the boy's complaining as he slipped more and more into the water of the river-mouth. The weight of the ironclads pressed down, and they weren't- Ah. Yes, they were.

He smirked.

With one fluid motion, ice rose up around each ironclad, raising them out of the water and trapping them so they could not follow. Sliding through another form, Pakku set a coldness in the hearts of each iceberg, a coldness that would resist the sun.

"Aw, yeah," Sokka said happily. "That's perfect, Master Pakku."

Another, larger volley of stones rose from the trapped ironclads.

"Of course," the boy remarked, "the catapults still work. Brace!"

***

"Katara, take that off."

Yue paused in the hallway as she heard Chief Hakoda's voice up ahead. She couldn't see him and his daughter; they must be around the corner.

"It's mine," Katara hissed. "Sokka gave it to me."

"This is not the South Pole, Katara. Take it off."

A long pause, then Hakoda spoke in a low voice that Yue had to strain to hear.

"That is a betrothal necklace up here, and I won't have you ruining your brother's chances with the princess. Take it off and hide it until we leave. If Arnook spots it, he'll never allow Sokka to offer."

"Fine!"

Feeling faintly ill, Yue turned and padded back up the hall. Katara had a betrothal necklace. From Sokka. Her brother.

Why?

***

The silver ship pulled up alongside a pier, and Hahn watched Krisuk raise a ramp out of the water. The crew soon departed, happy to stretch their legs and get back to their families. They'd come back in a couple of hours for their share of the loot, of course.

Hahn rubbed his gloved fingers over the dragonbone club, polishing it. The firebender sat on the deck next to him, bundled up in two layers more than Hahn wore. And he was still shivering.

Maybe firebenders were just broken.

"Up," he said, nudging the firebender with his boot. What was the guy's name? Choi? Jou? Something like that.

The firebender struggled to his feet, arms wrapped tightly around himself. His weird eyes were mostly closed, and he'd turned half his face into the inside of his parka hood.

It really, really wasn't that cold.

Captain was the last one off the ship, traditionally, and as the ship's lead waterbender, Krisuk had to stick with the Fire Nation prisoner until they turned the guy over to the jailer. Of course, said jailer would probably complain like a wounded monkeyrat over bringing a firebender to the North Pole. But the long night was two months behind them, so they had almost a whole year to decide what to do with him.

Hahn all but trod on the firebender's heels to keep the man moving out onto the pier.

Krisuk rolled his eyes at him, then pulled out his coffee-flask and handed it to the firebender. "Drink this and walk. It'll get better."

"You're going to run out," Hahn commented.

"I can get more."

The firebender ignored them and focused on the apparently insanely tricky task of opening the flask. He stopped outright in the middle of the pier, instead of keeping walking like he should have.

Hahn sighed. Firebenders. How did anyone think they were the least bit dangerous?

A woman came walking down the pier towards them, moving with a steady stride. She dressed like a warrior with a quiver of arrows at her hip and an unstrung bow across her back. Yue's friend, the one who didn't have a father. Shulian, he was pretty sure.

"Hey, Shulian," he called out, raising his hand in greeting.

Krisuk hit him in the back of the head. "Chulyin."

"Chulyin," Hahn repeated so Krisuk wouldn't hit him again.

The woman shook her head as she joined them. "Still can't be bothered with names, can you, Hahn?"

"That's not it at all," Hahn protested. He couldn't really explain what it was, exactly, because even though Krisuk was his best friend, it had taken him three years to get the other man's name right all the time. Names were just weird.

She rolled her eyes briefly, then took an interest in their firebender. "Nice... What's he do?"

"Drinks Krisuk's coffee."

Krisuk hit him again. "He's a firebender, Chulyin. A powerful one."

"Hm." The woman studied the firebender, who offered her a smile and a small salute of his flask. She smiled back, and while neither smile showed any teeth, Hahn recognized threats when he saw them.

"Time to get a move on," he said. "We've got to get rid of this guy and get the rest of the ship taken care of before nightfall. Nice seeing you, Chaleyn. Hope Yue's doing fine."

"Chulyin," Krisuk said wearily.

"Chulyin, right."

"A pretty name," the firebender drawled.

Hahn was aware of the way both he and Krisuk tensed. Never a good sign when the firebenders talked. Especially not this one.

She lifted her chin and studied the firebender. "And what's your name, Fire Nation? Is it half so pretty as mine?"

"I wouldn't say so. Zhao."

Hahn glanced over at their ship briefly. Well, he'd gotten the firebender's name mostly right.

"Never heard of you," the woman said.

"I would be worried if you had," the firebender said in an amused voice. "I'd hate to think I'd forgotten any notoriety I might have earned with the Water Tribe."

"Well, that's lovely," Krisuk interrupted, shifting just slightly to be in front of the firebender. Hahn half-wondered why before dismissing it as unimportant and likely uninteresting. "But we've got to get this guy to the prison. We'll see you later, Chulyin. Maybe catch up on things."

"Hm." The woman glanced past Krisuk at the firebender, then turned her attention back to Krisuk. "In a few days. I'm doing Yue a favor right now."

"Yeah?" Hahn suddenly found the conversation a lot more interesting.

"Yes. I'm waiting for Prince Sokka to arrive."

Krisuk got that look on his face that meant he was trying and mostly succeeding in keeping the laughter inside his own head. Hahn considered hitting him, but no, didn't want to deal with getting whalloped into the canal.

"Ah," Hahn said, then shrugged. "Well, hey, if he wants to cut things this close, who am I to complain?"

Maybe he'd get lucky, and Sokka wouldn't show up at all.

***

"Well?" Sokka leaned over the side to stare at the front 'foil. Well, where the front 'foil was supposed to be. A flaming rock had torn it off and bashed the hull of the ship.

The ironclads had been from the Earth Kingdom, but even a simpleton could tell they'd used the Fire Nation designs. The way they fought was pure Fire Nation Navy from the bad old days - Earthfolk couldn't come up with naval tactics to save their lives. They'd even scrounged up a few firebenders. If he didn't need to be at the North Pole tomorrow, Sokka would turn around and put every last person on those ships to the sword.

"I can't replace the 'foil in the middle of the ocean," the ship's carpenter said. The older man gestured out at the ocean. "I can't repair this without beaching the ship. Unless we turn back to the coast, the 'foil stays like it is. If we do turn back now, it'll only take a day and a half to get there and complete the repairs."

Sokka groaned. This- this- He did not need this!

"We're going to be late!" He half-wailed. Flat sailing would take two weeks!

"Probably," the carpenter agreed.

"ARGH!"

After Sokka calmed down, he went back to where Master Pakku sat on the deck. The old waterbender had his eyes closed, and the other waterbenders worked around him rather than asking him to move. The one flask he didn't 'bend with rested in his hand, and Sokka could just detect the coppery smell of turtleseal blood.

His dad was going to kill him for asking this. Metaphorically.

"Master Pakku," he began, waiting for the old man to crack open his eyes before continuing, "The 'foil's irreparable unless we go back to the Earth Kingdom. We're not going to make it to the North Pole in time on sailpower alone. So." He took a deep breath and hoped he didn't sound like he was begging. "Would you be willing to use your waterbending to help? Please? Raise the ship up so the carpenters can work out here?"

A small smile quirked Master Pakku's mouth. "You didn't have to ask, boy."

***

Krisuk shifted uncomfortably next to Hahn, betrothal necklace in his hand. His dragonscale bracers kept getting admiring glances, and as soon as the presentation ceremony was over, he planned to find some girls who'd love to hear the story of how he got them.

First, though, he had to get through the ceremony. The very, very long ceremony, because it was an insult to Chief Arnook if every eligible man in the tribe didn't offer for Princess Yue. Waste of time, if you asked him, since everyone knew there were only two real contenders.

Hahn seemed relaxed, but Krisuk could read the tension in his shoulders. Of course, the way his friend kept focusing more on the door of the great hall than on Princess Yue was a good clue, too.

Everyone was, really. Chulyin and Princess Katara had been watching the door since the beginning of the ceremony, and both Chief Hakoda and Chief Arnook were starting to pay more attention to it as the day wore on. The whole gathering grew more intense with the weight of expectation - where was Prince Sokka? He would never miss this, not with the chance to spit in Chief Arnook's eye by winning Princess Yue.

Traditionally, men had from dawn until the moonrise of a woman's fifteenth birthday to make a marriage offer without brideprice or father's permission. Exactly the thing a man who the Chief had punished for disrepect needed.

The man ahead of him offered and was duly rejected, and Krisuk found himself face-to-face with Princess Yue. The princess smiled at him, and he mustered up a smile back. She really was beautiful, he thought, and Hahn would never, ever forgive him if he became interested in her.

Krisuk knelt and offered his betrothal necklace, a lapis-lazuli disk carved with the two fish attached to a deep blue ribbon.

Instead of shaking her head, Yue reached and took the necklace from his hand. A murmur ran through the crowd, and Krisuk suddenly found his heart in his throat. Hahn had to be looking at him with absolute hate. He could just picture his friend's expression, and- Yue couldn't accept him! He was just an orphan with nothing for him but strength in waterbending!

Yue turned his necklace over in her hands. "Hmm."

-Dead. He was so very, very dead. If Hahn didn't kill him, Sokka would. And if Sokka didn't, Chief Arnook would after he sired a son on Yue.

Yue gave a slight shake of her head and laid his necklace back across his hand. Krisuk hoped he wasn't looking as pathetically grateful as he felt. He stood and bowed, stepping out of the way to let Hahn come forward.

Hahn stepped up but he did not kneel. Instead he studied Princess Yue, ice-blue eyes intense with an emotion Krisuk couldn't quite imagine was love. One corner of his mouth turned down, and Yue's eyes hardened. The ice all around suddenly felt oppressive, and Krisuk saw he wasn't the only waterbender rolling their shoulders as power stirred.

It would be really inappropriate to hit Hahn for being an idiot, Krisuk decided.

His friend knelt with the easy, hunter's grace he always had. The power in the ice faded as Hahn offered his betrothal necklace. The blue-purple dragonscale shimmered in the light, scrimshawed with frozen ripples flanked on either side by the moon.

Princess Yue did not smile at him. But glittering droplets of water rolled out from underneath her hand on the arm of the throne. With her other hand, she plucked the necklace from Hahn's hand, her touch leaving frost on his glove.

That was not a side-effect of dislike, as Krisuk well knew. Or rather it was - if Princess Yue wasn't so divided in both disliking and, well, not-disliking Hahn, she wouldn't lose control of her waterbending in those tiny ways around him.

And if all Hahn felt for Princess Yue was her value in power, then he wouldn't get so damn intense.

"I will consider your offer," Princess Yue said as she laid Hahn's necklace across her lap.

Thank you. Say thank you, Hahn. Krisuk glared at his friend, trying to will the other man to say those two simple words.

Hahn stood and bowed. "Thank you."

Well. Krisuk blinked. That was a miracle.

The next man stepped up to offer, and Krisuk touched Hahn's shoulder to get his friend's attention. They looked at each other, and then both glanced at the door. Again.

"Where the hell is he?" Hahn said quietly.

Movement caught Krisuk's attention, and he glanced over to see Princess Katara rise from her place at her father's left hand and walk out of the hall. Chulyin started after her, then froze, looking back towards Yue before resuming her place next to the male cousin who had brought her as a guest.

"You're not the only one wondering," Krisuk muttered.

***

The great ice wall across the harbor loomed ahead, the familiar moon-and-ocean symbol of the Water Tribe almost blinding-bright in the early evening sun. The sight of the wall cheered everyone on the ship, even Master Pakku, though Sokka thought it'd kill the old man to admit it. But it would be good to be back among the Water Tribe, even if it was the wrong tribe for most of the crew.

Sokka stood in the ship's prow, planning how he'd get from the dock to the palace as quickly as possible. If he shortcut through the-

His eye narrowed as something registered. "The waterbenders should have opened a tunnel already." He paused, then turned to yell back across the ship. "Master Pakku!"

The old man looked forward, meeting Sokka's eyes briefly then looking past him to the ice wall. His eyes narrowed, then Master Pakku shifted to a different waterbending stance and gestured.

The ice groaned like it was dying but did not open.

An incensed expression crossed Master Pakku's face, and cracks exploded in the ice. Great crevasses exploded in the wall, gushing water in roaring falls. Vast chunks of ice tumbled out in the torrent, pouring into the ocean.

Sokka stared, eye wide and his other eyelid straining at the stitches holding it shut. Holy-! Master Pakku was tearing down the wall.

The tunnel blossomed in the wall, large enough for two ships to sail through side-by-side. For a moment, ice and water still jetted out into the ocean, then water began to freeze. It left long trails of ice running down the wall from gouged open chunks, scarring it like no conventional weapons ever had.

Sokka stared at it, feeling something in him harden. Master Pakku had not opened that tunnel. Someone else had. Which meant someone else had been holding it closed when Master Pakku tried to open it. Multiple someone elses, because the only person who could resist alone wouldn't have.

He turned and strode to the mid-deck, pausing next to one of the crewmen he'd grown up with. "When we dock, I want you to find out who the waterbenders on the wall were." At the man's inquiring look, Sokka added, "We're going to need to know. For later."

The man nodded, and Sokka stepped away to stand beside the mastpole. His betrothal necklace felt blazingly hot in the pouch where he'd tucked it against his skin. The frostbite scarring his face, where he should feel nothing at all, prickled with cold.

His ship glided through the tunnel and up to one of the piers. No one waited for them. Sokka was glad of that.

He vaulted from railing to dock before they finished pulling up, glanced back at his ship. "Master Pakku is in charge."

Then he took off at a run.

A quarter of the way there, someone fell in step beside him on his right. He glanced over and smiled to see his little sister.

"You're late," Katara snapped.

"Ran into trouble. You know how it is. I'll tell you about it later."

"You'd better." She waved her hands, and the piece of street they were on abrubtly rose up and skimmed along the surface of the street. Sokka had to flail not to lose his balance on the makeshift sled. "She said she'd consider Hahn's offer."

Sokka reached back to touch his boomerang case. "Consider isn't the same as accept."

Katara didn't answer that, only pushed their sled to go even faster through the streets.

***

He wasn't coming.

Yue sat on the throne, one necklace laid across her lap. She couldn't bear to watch the door any longer. Sokka wasn't coming. Perhaps something had happened to him out there in the world, and they would never see him sail home again.

Perhaps he didn't want her.

It didn't matter. Hahn would be a good husband. He was a skilled hunter and warrior, and his friend Krisuk was an astute judge of people. And Hahn warmed her in the most peculiar ways when he looked at her.

She could live with him.

Yue picked up Hahn's betrothal necklace, ready to name her choice and end the day.

Ice crackled, and the door at the far end of the great hall swung open. Her heart leapt in her throat as Sokka strode in, hair pulled back in his Southern Tribe wolf's tail and betrothal necklace in one hand.

But it wasn't Master Pakku who walked in with him. The ocean-eyed bitch walked beside him.

Sokka smiled at her, his whole face lighting up. Yue felt herself respond, beaming down at him as he walked the length of the hall. Some part of her chided herself for showing so much partiality, but this was Sokka.

He knelt before her and offered his betrothal necklace. Yue took it from him, lips parting to announce her choice-

As she raised her eyes to look at the crowd, she caught Katara's gaze. The Southern princess twisted her mouth with a smile and pulled down her collar just enough for Yue to see the silvery disk of a betrothal necklace.

Yue's smile faded. "I- will consider your offer, Prince Sokka."

Sokka looked up at her in confusion, and she hardened her heart not to answer him. Loving him wasn't enough. She had to consider whether she could live with the consequences of marrying him. Her gaze flicked from Sokka to Katara to Chief Hakoda, then to her father. He met her eyes with a slight tilt of his head - what did she want to do?

She picked up Hahn's necklace with her other hand and stood. "This is a difficult choice between two fine men. I will have an answer tomorrow."

***

One moment, he'd been sure the last two days had been worth it, because Yue was smiling. Then her smile vanished, and Sokka found himself scrambling to keep up.

Well. Nothing he could do about this. He stood and stretched, then got caught in a surprise bear-hug from someone coming up on his blind side. His dad's powerful arms wrapped around him, threatening to make his ribs creak.

"Hey."

"Hey, Dad." Sokka tilted his head up to look at his father. "So. Any luck with finding the Firelord?"

"No." His dad scowled. "I'd say he's dead, but Ozai's grief over that would lead to him doing something staggeringly obvious."

Sokka nodded, wrapping his arms around his father in turn and just holding on. He'd hardly gotten to see the man in the last three years. Too busy sailing from one end of the world to the other, protecting Southern Tribe territories like Kyoshi Island, hunting the elusive Fire Nation miltiary, and raiding Earth Kingdom villages.

"When Ozai's wife died..." Hakoda shook his head, and Sokka flinched slightly.

Every Water Tribesmen knew the month the Dragon of the West lost his wife, because in their mad grief, the Firelord and Ozai broke the siege of Ba Sing Se. A handful of ships and a few dozen Tribesmen floated away from that massacre.

"We need to get rid of the Fire Nation," Sokka decided. "They're too destructive."

"Yes." His dad drew back and looked at him. "I need to speak to your sister, and it looks like Master Pakku has arrived. Let's get past this night first, then we'll figure out how to deal with them."

Sokka nodded and let his dad go. He watched him set his hand on Katara's shoulder, saw the way she tensed. Vaguely, Sokka wondered what she'd done now. She'd tell him later, though.

He scanned over the gathered crowd, looking for familiar faces. There, the long-haired waterbender smacked Hahn in the back of the head in a gesture that Sokka found oddly familiar. He mulled it over, watching the other man thread his way through the crowd towards the back of the hall. Krisuk, that was his name. A student Master Pakku mentioned every now and then.

Speak of the devil, Krisuk approached the old waterbender and bowed respectfully. Master Pakku acknowledged him, and they soon began to talk, the young man showing off the blue-purple bracers he wore.

Sokka turned away and met Hahn's eyes from across the hall. The other man tilted his head slightly, and Sokka lifted his shoulder in response. Then he sauntered over to meet Hahn halfway.

"So," he said.

"So," Hahn agreed. He glanced over at where his friend was rubbing his head in pain. "I know where the looted sake is stored."

"... I like this plan."

***

Princess Yue looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. She seemed wan, only the sharp contrast of her snow-white hair giving her face any color.

Krisuk didn't think that was a good sign. He wasn't sure which man he hoped she would choose - friendship dictated he throw in with Hahn, but anyone could see how Prince Sokka and Princess Yue lit up around each other.

He sat next to his friend on the floor, their knees touching. Hahn looked a touch bleary, and loud noises made him scowl. Krisuk had scolded him for drinking so much with Sokka, though he'd snuck a bit of water to ease some of Hahn's pain. Whatever choice Yue wound up making, Hahn shouldn't have to deal with it while hung over.

Sokka, irritatingly enough, didn't seem to suffer from hangovers.

Princess Yue held a betrothal necklace in each hand, black ribbon spilling out of her right and blue ribbon out of her left. Her father stood behind her, expression patient and calm as it so often was. Several times, Yue opened her mouth as if to speak before fading and needing to regather herself.

Krisuk stared at her, shifting closer to Hahn. She didn't like the choice she'd made, that much was obvious to him. Please have chosen Sokka, he hoped. Please be unhappy because your father will disapprove.

Please don't hurt Hahn by choosing him when you don't really want him.

"Prince Sokka," she finally said. The one-eyed prince brightened, smiling, and Hahn slumped closer to Krisuk.

Then Yue continued, "I do not accept you."

Krisuk stole a look at Sokka. The other man looked puzzled and hurt, not understanding why Yue would reject him. Not that anyone else seemed to, either.

Her voice hardened. "Another woman wears a betrothal necklace with this symbol, and I know Master Pakku has no sons."

A ripple of surprise ran through the gathered crowd, and Sokka looked like he'd been punched in the gut. Then he rose slowly, every movement restrained by a sense of controlled violence. He extended his hand to Yue, and she stepped forward to drop the betrothal necklace there.

His fingers closed around the blue disc, then he turned and strode from the hall. Krisuk's eyes widened at the disrespect - Sokka had lost his eye for far less.

Neither Chief Arnook nor Chief Hakoda seemed inclined to correct him, however. Both wore closed expressions, their gazes turned towards the man Yue had not yet rejected. Everyone was, Krisuk realized slowly. Everyone was looking at Hahn.

And Hahn was looking at Yue.

She stepped towards him and held out his betrothal necklace. He stood easily and accepted it from her, tilting his head slightly. Her slim hands reached back and lifted up her hair, an acceptance that needed no words.

Hahn stepped forward and wrapped his necklace around her throat, speaking the Old Ice words to seal the engagement in a low murmur.

Krisuk closed his eyes and mustered up a smile for his friend. For Hahn's sake, he hoped that the other man's odd way of thinking and the emotions he felt for Yue would blind him to whatever the real reason might be that Yue had chosen him. Then he stood and reached out to clasp Hahn's forearm, congratulations on his lips.

The End