Please read, enjoy, and review!

Author's note and disclaimer: I do not own anything belonging to Avatar: the Last Airbender. This story takes place after the very end, and now it is the beginning of a new era.

It all began when Aang walked out onto the balcony. Katara came up and smiled at him. He smiled back. The world was finally in peace with the Fire Nation for the first time in a hundred years. They watched the beautiful golden sunset and the pink clouds in the sky sailing slowly through the air in the warm summer evening.

They looked into each other's sparkling eyes and gave a long hug. Katara leaned in and so did Aang. Then they kissed and it seemed to last forever. He rapped his arms around her, and she rapped hers around him.

Zuko, Mai, Suki, Toph, and Iroh all stood together around Sokka watching them from the table in the Jasmine Dragon. Sokka had just finished painting his portrait of the whole gang, Iroh began playing his tsungi horn again, and Toph felt sick to her stomach because of all the mushy emotion going around.

"I love you," Aang whispered in Katara's ear.

"I love you too," Katara whispered back. Aang smiled and then they continued with another long kiss.

Back inside the teashop, Sokka had just finished signing his painting of the whole gang. Katara and Aang both came back inside and were happy to see everyone in peace now.

"Wow, it's so smooth," Toph said Earthbending the coal that Sokka gave her back in book 2.

"Why thank you Toph," Sokka said flattered. "I'm glad you-"

"I was talking about the rock," Toph interrupted as she twirled the coal around between her fingers.

"Oh," Sokka said. "Of course I already knew that."

Aang and Katara were holding hands when they came in, and when Sokka saw them together like this, his eyes squinted.

"Hey! Have you been hitting on my sister again!" he jumped at Aang.

"Depends," Aang replied dreamily.

"ON LIKE WHAT?" Sokka exclaimed.

"Do you mean fighting or flirting?" Aang asked making Katara giggle.

"BOTH," Sokka answered crossing his arms.

"Hey, he can do anything he likes with me," Katara said.

"Anything but kissing," Toph put it. "According to Sokka, kissing is forbidden."

"Oh really? I've seen him kiss lots of girls before," Katara scoffed arching her eyebrows and putting her hands on her hips.

"OKAY THAT'S IT! GIVE ME BACK MY SPACE ROCK!"

"Space rock, Sokka? Really?" Katara said rolling her eyes.

"Hey! It's a cool name," Sokka said.

"What did you name your sword? Space knife?" Toph laughed.

"NO!" Sokka said crossing his arms. "It's called space sword!"

"Then I guess I'll just start calling you Spacey," Toph laughed.

Aang shook his head at them and walked over to Zuko and Mai, who were sitting together with a cup of jasmine tea.

"So, what's up Aang?" Zuko asked as he and Katara walked up.

"I don't know. What will we do now that the war is finally over?" Aang asked curiously.

"Well, there will be new war meetings later this week. Might as well go since I've got nothing else to do," Zuko replied.

"Ugh, the ones before were so boring. I can't imagine how amusing this one will be," Mai sighed as Zuko hugged her a little tighter.

"I guess we'll see Dad again soon, huh?" Katara wondered, looking forward to seeing Hakoda soon, their father and leader of the Southern Water Tribe. He had gone ahead and left for the Southern Water Tribe after Zuko's coronation, and they hadn't heard anything from him for a while.

"Um, there have been recent changes since today," Zuko said.

"What do you mean?" Katara wondered.

"Well, he's . . . not going to be . . ."

"What? He's not going to be what?" Katara asked a little surprised.

"What about Dad?" Sokka asked when he heard those words.

"Your father isn't going to be here for the war meeting this month," Iroh explained.

"Why not?" Sokka wondered.

"I just received a letter from him today, and I wanted to wait to give it to you at just the right time," Iroh finished. He slipped a piece of parchment out from inside his sleeve, and Sokka eagerly snatched it from him and quickly untied the string wrapped around it.

"Hey, speaking of letters, remember Hawky?" Sokka wondered while still trying to untie the little tiny knot he had formed. "I wonder where he is. I haven't seen him ever since that time you and Toph-"

"Just read the letter already!" Katara sighed impatiently as Sokka finally finished untying the knot and unrolled the parchment.

Dear Sokka and Katara, my beloved son and daughter:

I am going to the Southern Water Tribe to help rebuild a new city there. Master Pakku and many of his students have offered to help us construct a new watchtower and a new school building as well. I miss you two so much and I wish I could be there for the upcoming war meetings, but I have so many things to attend to back home. I hope you'll both be good for me while I'm gone, and now I am giving you, Sokka, the presentation speech for the first war meeting this week. I hope you will take it into serious consideration. Good luck to you both, Sokka and Katara! I can't wait to see you again! P.S. Gran Gran says hi as well as Master Pakku!

Your father,

Hakoda

When Sokka finished reading the letter out loud to everyone, a tear started forming in his eye. He closed the letter and looked down at it, reading it several times over.

"I guess it'll be a while before we see him then," Katara sighed, still looking forward to seeing him again.

"It took about a week for that letter to get here," Iroh said. "I don't know what we would ever do without messenger hawks. They can carry mail so much faster than a mail carrier," Iroh laughed to himself, but Sokka was the only one who got the joke.

"Oooohhhh I've gonna remember that one," he laughed. And speaking of messenger hawks, when did-"

"Hey, if it took only a week to arrive, then do you think my parents got the letter that I sent by now?" Toph wondered.

"That's a good question," Katara thought.

"AND SPEAKING of messenger hawks," Sokka tried to finish, "how did you get Hawky to-"

"Hey guys, what say we go grab a bite to eat?" Aang suggested.

"Good idea," Sokka said. "But why didn't you ask me before sending-"

"Hey, can you tell us when we get there Sokka," Aang said.

"UGGHH!" Sokka grumbled. "DOESN'T ANYONE EVER LET ME FINISH MY-"

"Bye Uncle!" Zuko called back as the rest of the gang disappeared out the door.

And with that, everyone got ready to leave for dinner at another restaurant in Ba Sing Se. You might think it strange that they would leave the Jasmine Dragon tea shop to eat at another restaurant, but Sokka insisted that they all went to a bigger one because "Come on everybody, remember the biggest ones ALWAYS serve the most MEAT!"

When they all found a large restaurant, Sokka was the first to RUN in. Zuko and Mai followed behind, and then Katara, Momo, Aang, and Toph. There were a few lanterns hanging from the ceiling and a candle on each white-covered table. This restaurant was called the Chongji Restaurant. At night after dark, all the lanterns and candles would be lit by the waiters. Since the war was over and the four nations lived at peace now, a number of Firebenders or Fire Nation refugees were allowed to live in Ba Sing Se. Sometimes they would even light the candles or lanterns when time.

"Hey Suki, let's sit here," Sokka offered pulling out a chair for her.

"Um . . . Sokka?" Suki giggled.

"What's wrong?"

"This is a table for two."

"Oh, well here," Sokka said scooting a few tables over to combine them into one big table for the whole gang to sit at.

"How sweet of you," Suki smiled as he pulled a chair out for her.

After everyone had taken their seats and their orders, they all finally had a chance to just sit and talk together. Aang and Katara enjoyed the sunset together and Momo was enjoying the little nuts Aang had brought for him to munch on. They all sat in this order (the table was a bit rectangular, so the guys sat across the girls): Zuko across Mai, Aang across Katara, Sokka across Suki, and Momo across Toph.

"So what's going to happen besides war meetings and restaurants?" Katara asked.

"Well, Zuko and I are going to try to rebuild the world together," Aang said shrugging.

"Aww together, that's so sweet," Toph said in a dreamy way.

"..." said Aang.

"Um, he didn't mean it that way," Zuko chuckled nervously.

Everybody started laughing at this, leaving Aang completely lost and Zuko blushing a little. Momo looked around at everyone and thought they were all laughing at him, so he quickly jumped down under the table and crawled up into Aang's lap.

"Actually, I meant we're going to-"

"Don't say it Aang!" Zuko interrupted. "Um, so what have you decided about your dad's speech Sokka?"

"Ha ha, way to change the subject Sifu Hot man," Toph laughed out loud.

Zuko did a face-palm when he realized that Sokka was busy kissing Suki the whole time, then he blushed bright red at the fact that everyone at their table was laughing at him now.

"Sokka have you-" Zuko repeated.

"Wow you've got good lips!" Sokka said after finishing his long kiss with Suki.

Then everybody burst out laughing at Sokka's response. After a few more minutes of laughter, everything eventually settled down again and the food arrived just in time.

"What did you ask me Zuko?" Sokka wondered.

"Uggghh I asked what did you decide about giving your father's speech for the war meeting," Zuko said for the third time now.

"Oh that. I don't really know. I guess I'll have to," Sokka shrugged.

"That means I'm the only representative of my people," Aang said. "Do I get a speech form or anything?"

"Sh-nope," Zuko replied while slurping a long noodle from his bowl.

"That's what chopsticks are for," Toph laughed flicking a pair of them over to Zuko.

"Chopsticks?" Aang wondered. "You mean I have to use chopsticks?"

"Most people do," Toph said.

"Oh," Aang laughed when he realized that Toph was talking about Zuko.

"Write something up and then tell me when you're done so I can judge you, Sokka."

"Toph, they're not going to grade you on your presentation," Mai sighed. "This isn't school."

"Yeah I guess you're right," Toph shrugged as she finished slurping the last noodle from her bowl.

"Thank you Mai," Sokka said. "See Toph?"

"He doesn't need a judge to tell him that he's a failure at public speaking," Toph laughed, pushing her bowl forward and relaxing in the chair.

"Must you torture me with sarcasm?" Sokka wailed discouraged.