When the girl-child was born, the palace staff cheered. Suffering was in her future, that was for certain, but her birth was worth a celebration. A pig-chicken from the Fire Lord's store was slaughtered and was cooked for the festivities. They bonded like this, Kya realised this as a Fire Nation woman from the harem helped her clean the child and carefully, gently placed the girl into her arms.

"What will you name her?" the Fire Nation concubine queried. Kya gave this some thought before she smiled and whispered the child's name so softly, even she couldn't quite hear herself.

"Katara, welcome to the world little one," she breathed and placed a warm finger on the child's cheek. The child yawned and opened her eyes for the first time. Katara was a beautiful child, with eyes as blue as the sky and lips that resembled Hakoda's.

Kya choked at the thought of her husband. Stolen was the only way to describe how she was taken from her home in the South. Kya stared at the child in her arms, with her pale lips and her brown hair and silently thanked the spirits that this was not a bastard sired by the fire prince.

She pushed the thought out of her mind as she tried to focus on Katara and what lied ahead of them both. Surely this child would be used as a toy for pleasing men of the court like she was, like they all were. Kya closed her eyes. She didn't want to think about this, it was hard enough to know that you had little hope of leaving a place like this but even more difficult to note that there was a child of yours you couldn't keep out of harm's way.

Kya sighed softly and pushed the thoughts from her mind. This was a day of celebration, not mourning and so she passed the child to Qin, the Fire Nation concubine and lifted herself from the bedding. Life was about to become even more difficult.

She was one when she ended up in the kitchen storeroom. She'd been looking for something sweet she could suck on, sugar or candy if she were lucky. When he found her, the Earth Kingdom slave who was in charge of the kitchens, a burly man with a long black beard and dark brown eyes, chastised her for playing with the kitchen's treasured black truffles. She cried then, and in order to silence her, the man gave her sesame twill. Though he didn't know it then, it was the first time she had eaten in three days.

She was three when she wandered into the gardens, bound for the turtle duck pond. Mizu, an elderly gardener from the Southern Fire Nation saw her in the presence of princess Ursa and prince Zuko, and fearing that they would harm her, begged for forgiveness on the child's behalf. Ursa smiled at the old man and stopped him from apologizing. Zuko, age five, having never met another child other than his sister, rushed to the water tribe peasant and pushed her. That was the first time the prince touched the slave.

She was five when she met the young prince again. He was training in the courtyard with his uncle, a round man with a grey beard and kind eyes. She had been sent to pick carnations for the ball, but instead of doing that, the girl-child ventured to the courtyard and watched with fascination the way the two benders bent their element to their will. Zuko, arrogant as he was, played with the fire with far more ferocity and power when he saw the girl.

Katara laughed and clapped and stared. And then she held up her hands to try making her own fire, but failed miserably. When Zuko smirked and moved to walked away however, she surprised herself by bending the water from the pots and freezing him in place. That was the first time both benders truly noticed each other.

She was eight when she played with the prince, in the quiet recesses of moonshine. Hide and seek was their favorite game and when she found him in the broom closet of all places; she smiled and giggled and laughed and cheered because he was always so good at hiding.

"My bones were curling," he told her in a voice which implied he wasn't at all happy.

"What does that mean?" she questioned and he considered this for a moment.

"It means I was being nervous." He finished and she stared at him.

"Curling bones," she tried saying it and it felt right like she was meant to say it all her life.

It was also on that night that the two young benders swore to never let each other go.

A/N: Reviews are appreciated :)