Title: Proposed Solutions

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: If I own this, then I am also clearly Mistress of the Universe and you should be bringing me cookies. As no one is bringing me cookies, I must conclude, I don't own anything.

Summary: Fire Lord Zuko, Leader of the Fire Nation, Master Firebender, swordmaster and Nephew to the Dragon of the West meets with Kanna, Gran-gran to Katara. Third in my Proposal series.

Author's Notes: Okay, this is starting to get lighter. The humour and fluff factor will appear more and more over the course of the series. I can't really maintain dark for too long, and one of the things I like most in any tv show is a sense of humour. Actually, I have a deep love of crackfics and badfics, so there are going to be some things that take a turn for the ridiculous. I don't plan to have Katara miraculously recover from the abuse she's suffered, but life goes on and people make jokes and do funny things. So expect that sometimes there are going to be some openly humorous incidents.

I hope you all like what I've done with Kanna here, but I figured that any woman travelling alone across a war zone, from one end of the earth to the opposite end, intent on escaping from an engagement she doesn't want has to be pretty darned awesome. I just tried to capture some of that.

Kanna stood on the deck of the Fire Nation vessel, looking around in surprised appreciation. It was nothing like the warships that had attacked her home over the years. The hull was a pale silver, and instead of the Fire Nation emblem on the boat, there two simple, broad stripes running the length of the hull, one in red and one in black.

They had been expecting the Fire Lord to arrive in his ship to carry his new bride home with him, but no one had expected this. The gangplank was lowered, and the young man who had some down the ramp was a far cry from the angry soldier who had threatened them if they didn't hand over the Avatar. For one thing, he had hair.

More than that, however, he was wearing something that bore a startling resemblance to the formal wear of the water tribes, only the decorative detailing was utterly of the Fire Nation. Fire Lord Zuko looked relaxed and handsome, the terrible scarring on his face adding character, rather than detracting from his attractiveness as it had the first time Kanna saw him.

She had glanced at her granddaughter, hoping to see something n her face. Some spark of life, interest, anger . . . anything. Katara simply stood there, empty-eyed and blank faced.

Accompanying the man was a small collection of soldiers, bodyguards, Kanna presumed. When they got closer, she heard a muttering from the men. A small smile found its way onto Kanna's face. The four bodyguards were all women, as was the other person with the Fire Lord. There had been a small uproar, as the tribesmen tried not to show how insulted they were that the Fire Lord would come to them with inferior female bodyguards.

He had made excuses, but Kanna knew what it was. If everything Sokka had told her about this man was true, it was a statement on his part in solidarity with her granddaughter.

Katara was now having some final traditions dealt with before leaving to go with the man who would be her husband. A Water Tribe wedding ceremony, particularly in the much less formal South, was a simple affair of exchanged words in front of witnesses, requiring little or no preparation. That ceremony was done, and Katara was married again in the eyes of the tribe.

Kanna, Sokka and Suki were coming to the Fire Nation to represent Katara's family in the much more elaborate Fire Nation ceremony.

Kanna, who knew she couldn't help Katara through the mess that was the final farewells to single life in the tribe, was lying in wait for the Fire Lord on his ship. So far, he'd lived up to the expectations Sokka had of him. If it weren't for her grandson's high opinion of this man, she might well have kidnapped Katara and run off with her herself, too old for adventures be damned. But she needed to know for herself.

So she waited.

Finally, he emerged from the office of the ship's captain, a lovely woman named Kim. The staff on the ship seemed equally divided between male and female, which Kanna suspected had been done deliberately. He spotted her and headed her way, walking smoothly over the slight rocking motion of the ship.

"Fire Lord," Kanna said. She pasted her sternest expression onto her face. The one that said she knew you were up to mischief and was going to wrangle every detail out of her victim before laying down the law.

If she hadn't been watching closely, she might have missed the nervous motion of his throat as he swallowed. "Lady Kanna."

"Interesting ship you have here," she commented.

His eyebrow twitched slightly upward, the only hint of the quizzical expression that would have crossed his face otherwise. "It is a luxury vessel," he told her. "Designed for the wealthy who wish to travel by sea in comfort. The only military presence on this ship is the few bodyguards I have brought with me. The captain and crew are all civilians, and we have a full complement of servants on board."

"Interesting," Kanna repeated. It actually was interesting, and suggested that he had been listening to Suki's suggestions about spoiling Katara.

Having lulled the young man into some degree of complacency, Kanna struck. With the speed of a striking cobra-hawk, her hand shot out, grabbed his good ear, and dragged his head down. "Sokka told me that you agreed to this to help Katara, and that's good to hear. What are your real intentions for my granddaughter?"

He squawked in surprise, letting out a pained gasp as her fingers pinched the cartilage of his ear, and said, "Exactly what Sokka told you! He said it was the only way to help Katara, and I trust him to be right!"

One of the bodyguards reacted to the apparent threat, and Kanna snapped around, the walking stick she had recently gotten snapping down over the knuckles of the woman's hands before she could do anything, tripping her over it, and then planting it back on the deck as though nothing had happened.

"Hold!" shouted the Fire Lord from his rather awkward position of doubled over and leaning sideways to try to ease the pain of Kanna's pinching fingers on his ear. The bodyguards who had been about to defend their lord stood down.

She shot them a look. "Really, do you think one little old lady could be any threat to a strapping young firebender like this?" She turned slightly and started towing him toward the door that would lead her to her quarters for the trip. "Let's go, young man."

"I- ow! I see where Katar- ah!- gets it from," the Fire Lord commented as he followed her down the hall. He seemed to wave vaguely in the direction of a good-looking older gentleman with a beard and topknot, who was emerging from a doorway as they passed, "Uncle, would you make sure Katara's grandmother and I aren't- ah! Disturbed?" Kanna had him through the door to her quarters before the man could reply.

The door shut firmly behind them, Kanna abruptly let go of his ear, sending the young man sprawling across the floor. She sat herself down in one of the two chairs and gestured with her chin at the other. He obediently sat down. "Now," Kanna said, "I need to know what you have planned. My grandson has told me that you are an honourable man and you will do your best to help Katara become the person she should be, not the puppet her father thinks he wants her to be. I want to know how, and I expect you to answer me."

He looked a little frightened of her, and Kanna felt some satisfaction. She'd always been able to terrify the men of her tribe with little effort. It was good to know that crossed boundaries to elsewhere. "I don't . . . quite know yet," he admitted. "I know that Suki thinks that Katara needs to be spoiled and shown that she's special, which is why I commissioned this ship." He gestured around him. "It's designed to be a floating palace, and the suite I've set aside for her is as luxurious as I thought was tasteful."

Kanna didn't give an inch, keeping her facial expression level. He swallowed nervously and continued when she made a circular hand gesture indicating he should. "I've also told the servants to treat her the way they would the most spoiled ladies of the court. I hand picked the ladies-in-waiting with the help of an old . . . friend that I trust with that kind of thing."

"And in the longer term?" Kanna asked.

He leaned forward, getting into the topic a little more. Kanna noted his enthusiasm and added an extra point for that. "I've ordered a couple new bending arenas for the palace grounds," he told her. "One is specifically a waterbending-focussed area, fountains at either end, and a running stream circling around the duelling area, and I added a second one which is designed as a place where any bender can practice, with a floor made to match the ones in earthbender competition venues, as well as water sources."

He looked at Kanna eagerly, "I know that she'll want to see some of the other friends she made while travelling with A- the Avatar," she noticed he almost used the familiar name of the Avatar, but seemed to be clinging to some semblance of formality with her. "So I thought a place where she and Toph could train with each other, as well as with me, or the Avatar or anyone else would be welcome."

A few more points in his favour, Kanna thought. He was simply assuming that Katara would want to have equal bending opportunities as he would, and was making sure they were there. Still, "You're going to a lot of trouble, given that my granddaughter may feel she doesn't need special treatment."

With that, he looked affronted. "The Fire Lady is always granted full opportunity to perform whatever skills she deems necessary to develop. The Fire Lady Tien, wife of Fire Lord Sozin was known to be a great musician, and a music hall was added to the palace for her. Fire Lady Ilah, wife to Fire Lord Azulon was a scholar in her own right and the library was expanded in order to assist in her researches. The first arena on the current palace grounds for firebending was built more than 600 years ago for the purposes of Fire Lady Yen's bending training." He glared at Kanna, "It would dishonour me to do less for Katara. She will be the Fire Lady, and I will not treat her with any less privilege than others of the past."

That was news to Kanna. "You train your women benders the same as the men?" she asked. "Your sister was not an exception?"

"No," Zuko said, "She was not." He glanced away, "At least, not as far as the opportunity to train her bending was concerned."

"What role will she have in governing your nation?" Kanna demanded, after an uncomfortable pause. The young man was a little untried, a little rough around the edges and Kanna could see that it was costing him a little to remain open with her, rather than playing the cagey games she was sure he had to in his court. But he was being open, and everything he said was giving Kanna more hope that the kind of life she'd wanted for Katara, who would never be happy in the limited world of the Water Tribes, would be possible.

"As the Fire Lord, I am, ultimately the final word on the laws and policies of the Fire Nation," he told Kanna, "But traditionally, the Fire Lady administers to the schools, hospitals, orphanages, museums and artistic institutions of the Fire Nation with little or no input from the Fire Lord beyond knowing the limits of the national funds she has available for those projects." He looked at her, "Schooling does include the bending schools."

"Does she have any chance to speak on other issues?" Kanna demanded, "Or is she to be kept limited to those?"

"She is the ruler in my stead if at any time I am unable to act as Fire Lord," he snapped. "That means that she will have to know everything I know about the governance of the country. I wouldn't expect any less."

It was everything Kanna could have dreamed of for her granddaughter. A place where she could openly do whatever it was she needed or wanted to do. A place where she would be treated as the intelligent and strong woman she was. The only question left now, was, "And how do you plan to help her regain enough of herself to do these things?"

He crumpled, looking at her with the same desperation Kanna had seen in Sokka's eyes when her grandson had come to her, begging her to make Katara right again. "I don't know. All I know is to treat her the way I always have," he said, softly. "I owe her . . . so much. I owe her for my honour, and my sanity and my life." He looked at Kanna, pleading, "I don't know what to do. Sokka told me she was . . . but I didn't know it was so bad. She's just . . ."

"Broken," Kanna said, softly. She knew everything she needed to know now. "I don't know either. If I did, I would have done it." The young man might not succeed at helping Katara, but he would try, and it would get her granddaughter away from the Tribes. What else could they do? "I warn you though," she told him, "If you make her worse, I'm taking her off, heading for the Earth Kingdom, and none of you are going to see her again."

"Of course, Lady Kanna," he said submissively. A small smile played about his lips.

"Is something funny, young man?"

His smile widened. "You are definitely Katara's family," he said. "You're just as frightening, Lady Kanna."

"You remember that," she snapped, repressing a smile for a moment, before letting it out. "Now, since you're going to be family, you can just stop calling me Lady. You're my new grandson-in-law, you can call me Gran-gran, just like Katara, Sokka and Suki."

"I . . . uh . . ." he looked a little frightened at the prospect.

"Don't be shy," she said. "Now, who was that appealing man you called 'Uncle' earlier?" she asked him.

He blinked, rapidly, "My Uncle, Iroh."

The door swung open immediately, "Did you call me, nephew?" came a cheerful voice. Kanna turned to see the smiling man standing in the doorway. "And who is this lovely lady?"

"Katara's grandmother, Lady Kanna," Zuko told his uncle.

"Ah!" said Iroh, "I am Iroh, Lord Zuko's uncle," he informed her. "Would you care to join me for tea?" His smile widened. "I can see the resemblance between you and your granddaughter. Clearly beauty runs in your family."

It had been a very long time since a handsome man had flirted with her, and Kanna flushed. "I would be delighted, Lord Iroh."

"Excellent! But you must call me Iroh," the man said, "I would hate to lost the opportunity to further our acquaintance." He winked at his nephew. "And I have a lovely rose and jasmine tea, that is reputed to help with . . . romantic endeavours. I would enjoy testing it out myself before making it a gift to Zuko on his wedding night."

"Uncle!" came the outraged wail of an adolescent boy.

Kanna grinned and happily left with Iroh. Things really were looking up. "You must call me Kanna then," she told him. "I would love to try your tea. The men of the Southern Tribe rarely understand the complexities of . . . tea."

The Fire Lord trailed after them, muttering about old people, tea and not wanting to hear about it.