But of course, Ursa wasn't meeting all seventeen girls at once. So, even after Aiga had gotten Katara dressed and put on her makeup and jewelry, there was still a lull in which the girls waited to be summoned. Aiga suggested they go visit Toph, something Katara was very much agreeable to.

Toph's room was near the end of the hall. Katara came to her door and paused, turning to Aiga. "You sure she's in here?" she asked. Toph always answered the door before Katara even got a chance to knock, and she enjoyed yanking the door open and giving Katara a mini heart-attack.

"Oh, for the love of-" Toph growled, throwing open the door. "I hate this."

"Hello to you too, Lady Bei Fong," Aiga said, bowing and attempting to keep her smile from breaking across her face.

"Yeah, yeah. Felicitations, what a fairy-tale day and all that yuck," Toph said, waving her formality away as she encouraged the pair inside.

"What do you hate?" Katara asked, sitting on Toph's bed. It pretty much looked the same in here, except for much of Toph's fabrics and details were in browns and greens whereas Katara's were blue.

"Being on the second floor! Obviously," Toph huffed like it was the clearest thing in the world. She held up her foot, scowling at it like it had betrayed her. "I mean, I can still feel things, but it's like I'm getting it second hand, as though it's a friend of a friend trying to recite shit to me. First chance I get, I'm gunna have words with Sparky."

"Oh, you think he'll just move you down?" Katara crossed her arms.

"It's either that or I tear up this carpet to feel the stones underneath. Or, he brings me slabs of metals and I get to redesign it."

"Zhi would have an aneurysm if you did that."

"Tough nuts," Toph said, flopping face down on her bed.

"Hey," Katara said, standing, "Is this...is this from Sokka?"

Katara had spotted a picture on the wall, an ink drawing so horribly done that it could really only have been made by her brother, bless his heart. And, if she wasn't mistaken, it seemed to be of Toph...except, it was hung upside down.

"Is it supposed to be that way?"

"What way?" Toph turned her head, tilting her ear up to hear Katara's voice better.

"This picture. It's of you, I think, and it's the wrong way," Katara said. Maybe Toph wanted it that way, stylistically. Maybe Sokka had, and it was art 'she just didn't understand', something he'd said to her on more than one occasion.

"It probably is. I tried hanging it. Can't blame a blind girl." She shrugged.

"Why would he make you a painting if you can't see?" Aiga frowned, rubbing her chin.

"Sokka tries to pawn off his drawings on anyone that will take them," Katara replied, for she had a stack of drawings from him she'd taken. In moments when she had missed her family, she'd taken them out.

"Actually, I can feel the raised ink on the paper, so I can sort of feel his drawings," Toph corrected.

"Huh."

"Speaking of your brother, did you see that we have these locked chests for our rooms, with like, super intense locks? I mean, they're metal so I can get into them, but I bet the average lady can't. Might be a good place to...hide something of importance. Something I know a certain Ambassador currently has."

Katara hadn't noticed. "Wait, how do you know Sokka has half of the items?" Toph blinked, and for a second Katara thought maybe she just wasn't going to answer.

"Easy. I can always tell," she said slowly. "Heart-rate. Aiga has the other half," she said breezily, "But the point is, maybe we don't have to do this back and forth thing with them. Maybe we can just...keep them in one place."

"That still seems dangerous." Aiga hushed her tone. "We shouldn't even be talking about this," she added in a near furious reminder.

Toph looked ready to fight her back, but reeled herself in.

"You're right," she agreed, which was the closet Katara had ever heard Toph come to apologizing. "I just want to get rid of it all fast."

Katara didn't answer, but sent a look, something she hoped conveyed 'Toph, we all do.' Then, of course, she realized Toph couldn't see her and said it out loud.

"You know what else sucks about this room?" Toph said after a second, rolling around on her nicely made bed, probably just out of spite.

"What?" Katara deadpanned.

"The rest of y'all only have three other people to a bathroom. I have to share it with four people. What kind of shitty luck is that?" she asked. "I mean, it's me, Saoirse, Ty Lee, Suki, and Yue," she listed, holding out a palm, fingers outstretched to represent five. Frankly, Katara thought, that sounded like a great group.

"Maybe I'll have to kill one off." Toph was still talking. "Ty Lee used to bother me, but she's-" Toph made a weird hand motion where she just waved her hands around in the air, but Katara got the gist. It was meant to represent 'part of the group', "-now, so can't get rid of her. Suki's boss, Yue is nice to everyone and somehow it works for her. So, I guess it's going to have to be Saoirse."

"If someone hears you talking like that, they may think you're serious!" Aiga chastised.

"You hate bathing," Katara also added, "Fine layer of dirt and all?"

"I dislike it due to the principal of it all!" Toph said, which Katara took to mean she was just looking for things to complain about.

"Oh, two of you!" A handmaid that Katara had seen around before - she thought maybe she was Anaselma's - was at the door. "Lady Ursa will see you now. Please, follow me."

The girl nodded to Aiga in the way that two people who were on the same level of importance did, acknowledging the other. Aiga followed respectfully behind. Toph's handmaid was nowhere to be found, but that was hardly surprising. Katara wondered how long it would be until someone got wind of it and told Toph that even if she didn't need a minder, she did need a handmaid. Or, maybe there were just bigger fish to fry than a rebellious competitor.

"Lady Ursa is taking groups of six, but rotating them out," the handmaid explained. "Two by two. She alerts me when it's time to switch, but it seems most girls stay around an hour and a half."

Katara wasn't sure how far Ursa's cunningness went, but if this were Katara and she was thinking about these girls in a very political sense, this was a stroke of genius. She made it seem like the girls were special and loved, but at the same time she could chart how they responded to different girls. Nadhari, for example, was probably pleasant around Mai but couldn't help being nasty to other girls, which she hoped Ursa would see.

The handmaids didn't bring the girls into Ursa's private chambers, as Katara was sure many of the girls were expecting and hoping. None of them had ever actually seen inside the Royal Family's rooms that stood behind the two golden doors. Well, except Katara. She wasn't supposed to have, however, so she wasn't about to offer up what Zuko's room looked like, even if the satisfaction of watching Mai's or Nadhari's face at the news was tantalizing.

Instead, they were brought to some of the many, many fancy rooms of the palace, near where the grand balls were held. When they'd met General Iroh for tea, the room had been a little stiff feeling. She never thought of Iroh as a staunch type of person, but he was a general and the brother of the Fire Lord, talking to a group of young girls, so the slight barrier had felt reasonable. Ursa's tea room was small and comfortable and seemed like something a mother would share with her daughter. It gave the idea that this wasn't Ursa the Mother of Zuko talking with the girls, but Ursa, A Fellow Female.

As they were being shuffled in, Maiha and Jin were being escorted out. They nodded in a friendly way to Katara and Toph, but both were holding onto a sheet of paper and seemed deeply engulfed in whatever it said. This did make Katara wonder where they'd gotten it and what it said.

"You're either very lucky or very unlucky," Anaslema's handmaid prefaced before they entered, as a couple other handmaids came around to clear the previous two girl's places and set fresh tea cups. "For you're the last two. Which means you'll leave with the two that came before you and get less time with Lady Ursa, or you'll get to talk to her alone."

She bowed, slipping inside to speak to Ursa for a moment.

Aiga had become adept at reading Katara's expressions.

"You were probably difficult to find. I do not think it was on purpose," she said, but Katara could never be sure of anything anymore.

"It's no matter to m.," Toph almost wiped the gloss Aiga had convinced her into wearing off, but Aiga grabbed her arm at the last second. "But I do have other things to do today..."

"Like what?" Katara snorted.

"Well," Toph's grin was feral, "Sparky asked me to meet him. Dunno what about...but that's sure interesting, eh?"

Although it did pique Katara's interested what business Zuko had with Toph, she also knew that Zuko saw Toph as nothing more than a sister, so she didn't linger on it, as Toph clearly half-hoped she would. She knew Toph well enough to say that Toph was the sort of person who liked setting fires, sitting back, and watching the world burn. Usually, it wasn't done out of malice, but Toph also wasn't being super careful to not hurt feelings. So, Katara was not going to react.

Instead, she shrugged.

"Have fun I guess?"

Toph almost pouted, but realized Katara wasn't going to play. "If I said that to any other girl, they'd be begging me to tell why and offering their firstborn child or something to change places."

As the door re-opened and Katara caught a glimpse of the other girls sitting around the table, she snickered. "Well, Avizeh is here, so don't let her hear. Or, next thing you know, there will be five witnesses coming forward saying that they heard Prince Zuko announce his undying love for you, two articles in the news, and one ring maker on hold to make the royal engagement ring."

"There might also be a rumor you're pregnant," Aiga added in.

Toph tilted her head. "Maybe I should. Some chaos is always fun."

Before Katara could argue, Ursa was waving them inside.

Both girls bowed before Ursa.

"Princess Katara, Lady Bei Fong, please take a seat," she said. Katara took a set at a rich red cushion, sinking blissfully into the feathers. Toph hadn't moved.

"Aren't you going to help me, or ask handmaid to, Lady Ursa?" Toph asked in a small and helpless voice.

"Lady Bei Fong," Ursa sipped her tea with a sparkle in her eyes, "We both you know are more than capable of finding the place yourself. Your tricks that my brother-in-law finds so hilarious will not slip past me here."

There was a scattering of giggles from the remaining girls. Toph seemed stunned for a moment, a look rarely worn on her face, before she nodded twice.

"Yep, you're just like Sparky," she said, doing away with any sort of formalness and plinking down next to Katara.

The others at the table, besides Avizeh, were On Ji, Besu, and Ty Lee. Katara was sure her sigh of relief to not be seated with Nadhari or Mai was very visible, but she was too relieved to care.

Besu and Toph did a funny movement in which they knocked their fists together in greeting, and Ursa seemed enchanted by it.

"Please, help yourself to the snacks. Attendants will be coming around with my favorite teas, if you so wish to try them," Ursa said.

"No need to tell me twice to eat," Toph said, fingers wiggling as she filled up her plate like this was dinner instead of a mere tea meeting. Katara took some cookies and some spicy looking meat on a stick, finding the spread of food in front of her unusual, but welcome.

"All my favorite snacks as well. I could have gone more traditional, with dainty finger cakes or fruit, but I want to feel comfortable, just as I wish you all to do too," Ursa said. Katara's fingers jerked back to her. She had not expected Ursa to be so perceptive.

Ursa met Katara's eyes with a knowing look, something near a smile, and suddenly Katara was burning to ask her a thousand questions. She hadn't had an opinion, much like Toph, whether they were going to be alone with her or not, but Katara found herself so hoping that she'd even get a moment alone.

"We were just talking with Ursa about her Royal Wedding," On Ji interjected in a dreamy voice. Katara tried not to let her lips pucker. They had Ursa right in front of them, who seemed very willing to answer anything, and they were asking about trivial things like what colors she used in her wedding?

Katara paused before saying something unkind.

These girls had just survived a battle that left people dead. This was more action than they thought they'd ever see here. They were forced out of their rooms, had lost important items and their clothes alike, and were still around. So, for an average girl like On Ji, was it really so bad to talk about things like this? Normal things? Lighthearted, un-scary things?

Katara, and even Toph, decided not. Katara let herself sink into the conversation. She tried to summon the way she talked with the girls back at the start of the competition, but she'd found friends in Toph and Suki quickly, and had mostly talked them. She tried to think back to even the girls on the tundra, but Katara hadn't had many female friends.

So, instead of trying to be someone she wasn't, Katara decided she wouldn't make an overly large effort to join in, but merely listened and sipped on mango-lemon green tea.

"As I was saying, I only had two ladies standing up with me for my vows," Ursa said.

"Can you only have two?" Avizeh sounded a little frazzled. While Katara wasn't up to snuff on Fire Nation wedding customs, she imagined that they were talking about something like a witness or someone to sign a document, like they did in her tribe...or had, when they still had paper.

"Girls and boys often stand by one pair of the intended when they wed, as a symbol that the bride and groom respect what they've done for them to get to that point," Ursa cut in for Katara. "You know, I can't say I know many Southern Water Tribe customs regarding matrimony."

Katara realized that the gaze had turned to her. She was about to decline, until she saw that Ty Lee and On Ji looked actually interested.

"Well, it's not much. It usually begins by the male giving gifts to the female. Then, to prove his worth, he will usually help the bride's father for about a year, doing various things from joining in hunts to building a shelter for himself and his future wife. Then, sometimes couple will just go off and that will be it. I wish that it could be as romantic as this all is, but when you're nearly starving, having lavish ceremony to an event sometimes is unneeded. You make a pact with another person to love them and to care for them and that's how it is. But-" She realized how small and unofficial this all felt. "If someone really wanted to prove to the tribe that they were taking under a true vow of love, there's a small ceremony. We have witnesses for the sides stand up, and the wife will weave a blanket for the pair. A part of that blanket will be wrapped and tied around the couple's hands, to signify an unbreakable bond. To cheat or leave a union after this would be..." Katara shook her head. Luckily, the group seemed to gather the meaning.

Ursa looked thoughtful. She wondered if she was going to tell this information to Zuko, or if she actually was genuinely curious? Maybe both?

"Thank you, Katara. You never have to share if you feel uncomfortable," Ursa reminded, "But to answer your question, no, Lady Avizeh. I only wanted my childhood best friend and my other closest friend that I had made during the competition. I didn't need any more support than that."

"I have so many friends, I don't know who I'd choose," Avizeh whispered in a quiet laugh.

"Some do have many. Nia, may she rest in peace, had twelve girls," she said. Some girls looked confused, but Katara took a guess that it might be Zuko's aunt. The name sounded familiar too, she was nearly sure of it.

"I want a big wedding." On Ji gave a star-eyed smile, setting her elbows on her folded legs. "Can't you imagine?"

"I'd like it to be a big deal too," Besu added with a small smile, and Katara jumped, having rarely heard her talk. "I just...I dunno. Like the idea that so many people would be happy to see it, to be there."

"If my son picks you, your wildest dreams could come true," Ursa said. "No expense will be spared."

"If I get married, I like how Katara's people to it. No fuss, no drama. If you love someone, why do you need all that anyway?"

Ursa laughed. "I'm somewhat inclined to agree. However, it's more for everyone else than it is for you. I think I loved Ozai enough I would have married him in servant's clothes in the desert, if we needed to."

Now this was interesting. That Ursa had even once loved Ozai. She wasn't sure about currently, but even to have once loved that man...now Katara had more questions than ever.

Ty Lee gave a quiet coo, a small 'aww'. Katara had never thought to ask Ty Lee, who saw their domestic life more than Katara did. Maybe she'd have to later.

"What about you, Katara? What sorts of things do you want at your wedding?" Ty Lee said, turning, smiling as she encouraged Katara to add in.

"Uhm," Katara frowned. She'd never really romanticized a possible wedding. "I guess...well, I don't need to do it the whole way my tribe does. I like the betrothal necklace, but that's more something in the North. I guess I'd just really want my family to be there."

"A very sweet thought." Ursa nodded at her.

"I've heard that in some places, like the Earth Kingdom, the father gives the bride away. I guess I really look up to my dad, and I like that. I'd want to know that he approves of the marriage." Katara looked at her hands, saying much more than she had ever intended to.

"I can't imagine your father would ever disapprove. You have a good head on your shoulders, Katara. I can't imagine you would ever pick a future spouse lightly."

Did Ursa know that she'd turned Zuko down? All of a sudden, Katara wasn't sure that she didn't. That she might even...respect Katara's choice to say no? Or, Katara was just reading into it. Damn it, Katara truly couldn't tell.

"Lady Ursa." On Ji suddenly looked very red in the face. "Can I ask...a well, more personal question?"

"My dear, I would never want you to feel uncomfortable to ask me anything."

"I've just heard..." On Ji frowned, swallowing. "It was a myth of sorts in my town. We weren't as big a part of the Fire Nation as other cities, but...well...no, never mind," she squeaked, covering her face, her skin as red as the cushion Katara sat on.

Toph coughed into her tea, trying to hide a laugh. Whatever On Ji was about to ask was apparently setting off Toph's sensors on something.

"Oh," Avizeh realized and grimace, looking at her tea though it displeased her. "I think I know the rumor. On Ji wants to know, and I guess I do too...I hear that on the night of the wedding, there's uh, people watching to be sure the union is...consummated."

Toph burst out laughing, covering it up by shoving more chicken in her mouth.

Katara recoiled back. People watching while you had sex? Spirits, and they called the South archaic!

Ty Lee played with her braided hair, her cheeks a little pink as well, and Besu's eyes just widened to