AN: I wasn't sure how to begin or end this, so the Iroh parts might seem sort of out-of-place. I'm not sure the Sokka part fits in too well, either... but the rest of it I'm happy with. :) So, enjoy!
Children of War, Children of Peace
In the Fire Nation capital, an elderly man is pouring himself a cup of tea and mulling over his thoughts. It has been years now, since the war ended. The great Fire Nation, who dominated the world for over a century, fell at the hands of a rag-tag team of children. Then, the children were rebuilding everything that had been destroyed. For years, everything was working backwards. The children ruled over adults and people were being freed from prisons rather than put in them, and things were getting increasingly happier instead of increasingly worse. And then, quite suddenly, those children of war were no longer children at all. They were respected young adults now, who had given up their childhoods and, consequently, their lives for the sake of peace and balance throughout the world. The man sips his tea slowly as he muses, I think the time has come for them to take their lives back.
--
Prince Zuko has been a permanent attachment to the side of his uncle, Fire Lord Iroh, since the fall of Ozai. He studies laws and politics and attends all the peacemaking meetings he can—one day he will be on the throne, and he is preparing himself for the job to the best of his ability. He and his uncle have earned the acceptance of the other countries—didn't you hear that they were refugees in Ba Sing Se? They worked in that tea shop, you know the one, and the Fire Lord made the best tea in the city! Then he held off the Dai Li and fought his own niece to let the Avatar and Lady Katara escape. Months before that, he saved the moon spirit at the North Pole from Admiral Zhao. Iroh was a strong, compassionate man, who knew how to respect other cultures and keep balance, and was an easy man for the world to accept. Prince Zuko had to struggle—as, it seems, he has had to do with most things in his life. He defied his father to join the Avatar as a firebending teacher, this is true, but his moment of truth was when he struck down his own little sister. To murder one's own sister, no matter how ruthlessly evil she may be, for the sake of the common good… the world could not begrudge him after that. He works hardest to win back the people of his own country—in their eyes, he was the one who ruined their chance at greatness. Marrying a respected Fire Nation nobleman's daughter would win his people over quicker, but he studiously ignores any mention of his former teenage relationship with noblewoman Mai, as well as the woman herself. Instead, between negotiating war reparations and cleaning his ancestor's messes, he thinks of the strong Water Tribe girl who has never failed to be there for him.
Lady Katara of the Southern Water Tribe hates being called "Lady". It makes her feel old and snooty, of which she is neither. But to do her job, she puts up with it. She travels across the world still, on missions of diplomacy or a journey to help a village plagued by sickness, always running in a never-ending race, never stopping to settle for longer than necessary. She is ecstatic when her duty calls her to Toph Bei Fong, or back to her home tribe, or to wherever her brother and father are on missions of their own, or to Kyoshi Island, or to the Fire Nation's royal city to visit the Fire Lord and, especially ('I don't know what you're talking about,' she blushes furiously, though she knows it's not so secret anymore), his nephew. But when she runs into the Avatar, her best friend, it's all averted glances and awkward conversations, avoidances and "I've got to be some place by some time that is too soon" excuses. Because she knows how he feels, and she knows that she doesn't feel the same. He loves her in an always-and-forever, marriage kind of way. But she loves him as if she were the mother he never had, and no matter how hard she tries (and oh, has she tried), it will never be any different, and she is no Jocasta.
Avatar Aang has lived, in one way or another, for one hundred and eighteen years. But some days (most days), it seems like only the last six have mattered. From the moment he fell out of that iceberg, his thoughts have been consumed by a certain girl with pretty blue eyes. But after the war has ended and they are forced to go their separate ways, thoughts of her become gradually more and more painful. For the longest time he manages to convince himself that she really is just busy, and she's too preoccupied to get involved that way right now. Those rare but sweet kisses did mean something to her. They must have. Slowly he begins to realize that yes, they did mean something, but not nearly as much as they did to him, and not in the right way. Lately he finds himself surrounded by hordes of people, but he has never felt more alone. A part of him wishes the war had never ended, so he and the only family he's ever known could be together, always, in a perfect Neverland, with no adult responsibilities and no worries but preparing for a far-off battle that will never come. That irrational, crazy part of him grows bigger every day, until one night, his world comes crashing down around him. After a long, tedious meeting between the three remaining nations, he's walking to his room, coming back from feeding Appa, when he hears a familiar feminine laugh coming from the courtyard. And there's the only girl he's ever loved with the first enemy he'd ever known, sitting too close together by the pond with the turtle ducks, fingers entwined and heads resting against each other, and then his lips are lowering to hers and Aang runs as fast as he can, unable to see more. In the safety of his room, he cries for the first time in years until there are no more tears left. As his cheeks dry, he realizes this is the way it had to be, all along, and he should have just done what the damn guru said all those years ago and spared himself the pain. He is the Avatar and that means the world comes first, and what he wants for himself comes either last, or never.
Toph Bei Fong, the greatest earthbender the world has ever known, is also—unfortunately, in her mind—the wealthiest heiress the world has ever known. Going back to the oppressive, upper-class way of life after living in the dirt for a year (and loving it) is possibly the worst transition she's ever had in her young life. But life is not so bad, after she has a very nice, civil talk with her parents. ("You are going to let me be me and accept it, or I'm going back to Aang and never talking to either of you again, and you know there is nothing you can do to stop me!" She blows a gaping hole through a thick steel gong decorating a corner—with just a tiny pinky finger, for effect.) So she'll go to post-war meetings and dinner parties in nice, pretty dresses, but if anyone expects her to be ladylike, are they in for a surprise. She is Toph the metalbender, the most badass twelve-year-old (and thirteen-year-old, and fourteen, and so forth) in history, and she is making damn sure everyone knows it. But like all teenagers, she has never been quite so sure of herself on the inside. When Sokka never notices her that way and instead focuses on the Kyoshi warrior, she's pretty sure she's never felt more worthless in her life. Eventually she notices her affections redirecting to Aang, after they'd been traveling together in the Earth Kingdom on their own for a while. His thoughts are still with the Sugar Queen—even though she knows that he knows that she loves the Fire Prince—but she is confident that with time his heart will heal. She will listen to him pour out his emotions and she will wait for him to overcome this and notice her, because dammit, she is Toph Bei Fong, and she was meant for him, because she is the one who waits and listens.
Senator Sokka is done playing the fool. For years he was the kid no one took seriously, and now he is the man everyone does take seriously. (But he's still the same ol' Sokka, he says confidently. His jokes are still the best, as are his ideas—it just took everyone else longer to realize it.) When the war had ended and knowledge spread around that it was his invasion plans that brought back the peace, "Well," he says, "the whole world finally noticed how amazing I am!" He runs his fingers through his "it's a Warrior's Wolf-Tail!" with a smug expression on his face. When the World Senate was formed, he was a shoe-in for a representative of the Southern Water Tribe, along with Bato and his father—though Hakoda stayed back at the South Pole fairly often to serve his position as Chief. Which was just as well, Sokka thought—it gave him more alone time with his new wife. He snakes an arm around her sleeping form and gently kisses her forehead, now wiped free of her usual white greasepaint. He thanks the spirits every night that he saved her in time. He'd lost his mother, he'd lost Yue, he was not going to lose another woman he loved to that war. If he lost Suki, he wasn't sure he could hold on. A small part of his mind thinks that he might have eventually given in to Toph (yes, he knew about that, he wasn't as stupid as he seemed—he was just good at pretending he was), but he knows better. He could never be right for Toph when his thoughts would still be with the two girls he'd loved and lost before her, and she deserved better than that. And it's really worked out for the best (as all of his plans do), he thinks, since his sister fell for Angry Hothead Jerkface (he's still not completely okay with that), leaving Aang officially open for business, and he knows Toph loves Aang. He tells her so, flat-out, one afternoon, and almost gets a boulder to the face. She asks if it's really that obvious, and he says, well, no, not really. Which is true—he just knows because he's seen her this way before, not that he'd ever admit it. Suki moves closer to him in her sleep, tucking herself against him, and he thinks it's about time he got the two of them together. He drifts back to sleep smiling, because he's the great and awesome Sokka, and his plans are always the best.
--
Iroh finishes his cup of tea as a knock is heard at his door. "Come in," he says quietly in a voice that shakes more than it used to. The door slowly creaks open and a pair of piercing blue eyes appears in the doorway.
"Uncle, Aang and Toph have just arrived. Would you like to head over to the hall now?"
"Of course," he says, slowly standing. He notices a dull ache beginning in his back, but ignores it. "I wouldn't miss my nephew's engagement party for the world." He slowly makes his way over to the door and takes his future niece's arm. "You look absolutely beautiful tonight." She laughs and thanks him, and as they make their way through the palace he smiles to himself. They've worked on making the world happy for so long, it's about time they all find happiness for themselves. That night, as he's dancing with his nephew's mother, he observes the couples around him: fire and water, air and earth, earth and water; and he has never felt so at peace.