This story is something I wanted to do for myself, as just a means to flesh out what I think would have happened after the show's end, as well as for anyone else who is yearning for more of a look into what happened after the war. I will only be restricting myself to what is presented in the shows (TLA and LOK both), as I'm not the biggest fan of some of the things presented in the comics. This story takes place immediately after the show ends. Like, very immediately. Like, after the camera pans up immediately. Enjoy! Oh yeah, I don't own Avatar and no profit is being made off of this.

Chapter 1

Aang's heart was racing; he couldn't believe that this was actually happening. Katara had her arms around his neck, and he had his arms around her waist, and he was kissing her, but far more important than that she was kissing him back. Every other time they had kissed he was left wondering afterwards if she actually felt anything for him, especially after the disaster at the theatre. But this time there was no question, she was the one who kissed him, and it was a kiss like Aang had never experienced, it had already been at least five seconds and Katara was showing no signs of letting up. With anyone else it would have been a slightly awkward kiss, neither of them particularly knew what they were doing, and they held their lips in the same position for most of the time. As Katara loosened her grip around Aang, she tilted her head slightly and pulled away just enough to kiss him softly on the lips once more. Aang took the signal and pulled away as well.

They looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds, still with their arms loosely wrapped around each other. Aang was the one to break the silence. "I've been trying to tell you this since the invasion, but there was just never a good time, with the war and my firebending training…"

"What is it Aang?" asked Katara gently.

"Katara, I- I love you, and not just as a friend. I have for a long time now. I think I knew the moment I woke up in your arms at the South Pole."

Katara smiled. "I love you too. I've watched you grow from the goofy little kid we found in that iceberg into the wise and powerful avatar that you are today. And my love for you transformed as I watched you grow. That's why I was so confused before, I hadn't fully come to terms with the new romantic love that I feel for you, and I was afraid that I was confusing it with the love I had for that little kid. But during Zuko's coronation, when I saw you up there, and you looked so…mature, that's when I was sure that what I feel for you is this kind of love, and that I want nothing more than to be together."

Aang's smile was the purest expression of happiness and contentment Katara had ever seen from him. "So…we are definitely together now? Like, it's official?"

Katara rolled her eyes, but the smile refused to leave her face. "Yes, O wise and powerful Avatar. We're 'official'."

Aang resisted the urge to jump twenty feet in the air and dance through the sky. Instead, he said, "We should probably go back inside." He was still beaming.

They turned and walked back into the tea shop, everybody was just about done taunting Sokka over his painting.

Sokka turned around and saw them coming in. "Hey Aang! You haven't even looked at it! I'm sure you'll appreciate my art."

"I don't think art critique is the first thing on Aang's mind right now," Toph chimed in.

"What do you mean?" replied Sokka and Aang simultaneously, although Sokka's tone had an air of suspicion while Aang's was nervous.

"Well let's just say Twinkle-Toes got a sweet taste of the Sugar Queen, and the vibrations I'm feeling say he liked it."

Sokka stood up. "You tasted my sister?" he yelled.

Aang threw up his hands. "No! We just kissed!"

"You kissed my sister?"

"Sokka calm down," said Suki, resting a hand on his shoulder, "Are you honestly telling me you didn't see this one coming?"

"What do you mean? Not all of us have your magical girly-girl love sense Suki! This came out of nowhere!"

"Well…I saw it coming," said Zuko

"I'm not one for anything with 'girly-girl' in front of it, but this one was pretty obvious," said Toph.

"I even saw it coming, and before last week the only interaction I had with either of them were the times I was trying to capture them," said Mai.

Sokka turned to Iroh, his expression pleading for some backup. Iroh shrugged, "Sorry son. Sometimes what we want to see blinds us to what is actually right in front of our eyes."

"Oh I wish I was blind to those two making ou-"

"Cut it out Sokka!" said Suki. "Leave them alone. Name me one person that you would rather have dating Katara than Aang. You know better than anyone that he would never do anything to hurt her. Plus I think they're cute together." Aang rubbed the back of his neck while Katara blushed.
"I guess you're right Suki. But it's still weird! It's going to take me a while to get used to them being all smoochy-smoochy."

"We're not being smoochy-smoochy!" shouted Katara.

"It seemed pretty smoochy-smoochy to me Katara," said Toph.

Katara let out a groan of exasperation and Aang stood there with an embarrassed smile, still not sure exactly what to say.

"Aang," said Iroh, trying to change the subject, "Would you care to play a friendly game of Pai Sho? I am very interested to see what strategies those crafty air nomads were able to concoct. I hear that they bent not only the air, but the rules as well."

Aang bowed, "I would be honored. But I'll warn you, I learned from the best. I've never played someone who was able to kick my butt quite as consistently as Monk Gyatso."

"That's because you've never played me," replied Iroh.

Aang sat down at the Pai Sho table and looked around at all of his friends, who had mostly moved on from the topic of Aang and Katara's new relationship, except for Sokka who still had a bit of a scowl. Aang realized how grateful he was to Iroh for insisting that they all spend a couple days in his apartment to relax. It felt like even though the war was over, he had been immediately tossed into another war, a diplomatic war. And although in principle he preferred that kind of war, he had to admit the real war was a lot more fun. Sitting in a meeting room trying to find compromise between the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation was not exactly what Aang would call fun. The governors and noblemen of both nations were stubborn as could be and trying to get them to agree to anything tested even the Avatar's patience.

Aang knew it wasn't going to be easy to resolve all of the post-war problems, but he didn't think it would be quite as complicated as it was. The war changed the world, and much of it was irreversible. The Air Nomads were not coming back anytime soon (in fact Aang would have to be the one to repopulate them himself, just the thought of that made his head spin), the fire nation citizens had been subject to the propaganda of their royal family for over one hundred years, and they were not just going to change their way of thinking because their banished prince and the avatar who they were told to hate decided that their Fire Lord was evil and the world will be peaceful now without him.

And the most pressing issue that the two nations have bickered over so much that Aang just wanted to scream every time it was brought up, was what to do with the oldest of fire nation colonies. Many of the colonies were easy to decide, the citizens remember the day the fire nation invaded and in many cases were fighting for their freedom until the end of the war. But in other colonies things were much more complicated. Some of the colonies were established in the time of Fire Lord Sozin, and the people there no longer even remember a time when it was just an Earth Kingdom village. There were Fire Nation families living in these colonies that knew no other home, and would have nowhere to go if they were forced to leave. Not only that, but the Fire Nation homeland didn't have enough space anymore to contain the massive growth of their population since the era of their expansion.

The Earth Kingdom of course, wanted complete liberation of their colonies; they wanted the Earth Kingdom to reach as far as it did before the war, as they reasonably asserted that the Fire Nation wronged them by taking any colonies at all. The Fire Nation on the other hand wanted to maintain some semblance of control over their colonies, and this compromise on their part to only demand some control was heavily influenced by Fire Lord Zuko. There still remained a very large group of those loyal to Ozai, who saw Zuko as a traitor to his people. Some of these radicals, who were calling themselves "The Phoenix Loyalists" held positions of power in the Fire Nation government, and they made themselves very vocal at meetings and drove Aang even crazier than he thought possible.

But he didn't have to worry about any of that right now. Right now all he had to worry about was the girl who had her arms wrapped around his left arm (and the lemur trying to get itself in between said girl's head and said left arm's shoulder), and the Lotus tile gambit (which he really should have seen coming) that he was trying to fend off with his right arm. And those things might just be what keep him sane through all of this.

Well there you go. Just setting the tone and hinting at some plotlines. I'll try to keep up with this as much as I can, but don't expect me to be cranking these out. I have college and stuff. Thanks for reading!