They get married exactly one year after the Comet passes.

The wedding is on Kyoshi Island, because if Suki is going to move to the South Pole and freeze her toes off, then she's sure as Shu going to leave her hometown in style—at least, this is how she puts it to Sokka, and he's not going to argue, because he's getting married and it's going to be so awesome.

The venue preparations start four months in advance: Suki commissions Xiao Huzi, the engineering/construction firm that Teo, Haru, and their fathers have started together, to build the pavilion, while Ty Lee immediately appoints herself the Official Kyoshi Chair of Wedding Décor and General Accoutrements—and she does a great job, although she needs to be talked down from a certain level of pink.

Everyone arrives a few days in advance. Katara and Aang come especially early to help set up, drifting in on Appa to the delight of all the villagers who remember their last visit (although there are a bunch of younger girls who are not so pleased to see the Avatar hand-in-hand with his waterbending teacher). Zuko makes a subtle entrance, steaming into port on a small tugboat without any royal hullaballoo, laden with I'm-Sorry-I-Burned-Your-Village-Down presents and accompanied by a beaming Uncle Iroh, whose tea and comfort skills go much farther towards restoring Zuko's reputation in the village than do the large jade sculptures of badger-frogs. Toph just appears out of a hole in the ground one day, scaring the bejesus out of a poor young man who gets so upset that he starts foaming at the mouth and has to be dunked in the bay. And finally, Hakoda and Gran-Gran, accompanied by as many Southern Water Tribe warriors as could be spared, dock the longboats and disembark, their familiar faces a relief in the midst of all the hustling and bustling and which flowers go where and who wears which face paint and which kid has to be corralled by whom.

Sokka has to admit, he's almost as excited for the night before the wedding as the wedding itself. He's seen it happen—or rather, heard it happen—many times as a boy: the raucous partying in the men's hut as evening falls, the whooping and singing, the smell of bitter kelp liquor, burnt, savory meat, and rank sweat…and then, after the party peaks, the traditional "kidnapping" of the bride, when the groom sneaks into the bride's lodging and carries her off to consummate the marriage in preparation for the official ceremony that will join them together in the eyes of the community come daylight…

Yeah, it's true, he and Suki aren't exactly new to the whole consummation thing. But it's one thing to roll around in a tent on some random Fire Nation hillside, or to be irritatingly quiet in the back quarters of your father's house at the South Pole, and another thing to make love the night before you marry a wonderful woman. And Sokka is not going to waste the opportunity to make this occasion special. Oh yeah: he's got confetti.

But first there's some partying to do. Before the sun has even started to set, Sokka is down at the beach, a bottle of hai-dai liquor at his lips, eyes watering as Zuko and Haru shout "Chug! Chug! Chug!" Aang, standing a little farther back with a glass of watermelon juice, looks queasy.

"Ah!" Sokka gasps, finally drawing a breath as he swallows one last mouthful. "Beat that, Sparky!"

Zuko whoops and wraps an arm around Sokka's neck, squeezing his throat in a vice-grip while grabbing the bottle and taking a gulp of his own. Excluding Aang, the scruffy bunch on the beach—Haru, Pipsqueak, a bunch of Water Tribe Warriors, and Sokka's dad—are all nursing their own liquor or passing bottles back and forth; sometimes one of them will spit a mouthful into the flames of the small bonfire and laugh wildly as the cloud of vapor bursts into greenish sparks.

"Hey, Sokka," slurs Kannik, a Water Tribe man only a few years older than him, "did you build a house yet?"

"Nnnn—nnnn—Zzzkkk, nnnn!"

"What? Oh, woops," Zuko apologizes, removing his arm and saving Sokka from a slow and accidental death by asphyxiation. Sokka shakes his head to clear away the dancing spots of light and steals back his bottle of liquor, gulping down another draught.

"Yeah, I built a house. I mean, I built it out of snow, so it was snow problem!" Sokka is laughing now, because he knows he sounds like an idiot, and it's hilarious that he does, and also Momo just flew into the circle and sat on Aang's head, which is awesome.

"We built it together," says Hakoda, drinking from his own small bottle. "Sokka's got an imaginative way with architecture."

"It fell on you, didn't it?" asks Zuko, clapping him on the back. Sokka rolls his eyes and shoves Zuko away.

"Can it, Zuko. We just barely got everything fixed up from your last visit." Zuko coughs and takes a swig of liquor, which makes Sokka happy inside of himself. " 'Member that? You were all, 'gimme the Avatar!' and I was all 'BOOMERANG' and you were all 'bwuuuuuuuuuh' and Aang was like 'penguin-slice!' and then—"

"We don't have to go over this, Sokka," Aang breaks in, glancing at Zuko. Sokka snorts and waves a finger at Aang.

"Nope! Only people who drink get to contribute to the conversation, Wind-Boy!"

"I'm drinking!"

"Real drinking! Not little-kid stuff! Here," he says, shoving the bottle of hai-dai into Aang's hand. "I don't care if you're a monk or a polar-bear-badger-monkey or what, I'm getting married tomorrow!"

"No thanks, Sokka," Aang says politely, handing the bottle to Bato beside him. "I'll just celebrate with you spiritually."

"Boooooooooooo," Pipsqueak calls placidly from across the circle. In retaliation, Momo throws a nut at his face.

Hours later, the village is pitch-black, and Sokka can barely stand. The world is spinning around him, and images float past his eyes like dust motes through a ray of sunlight: his father and Bato singing boisterously by the glowing embers, Zuko throwing tiny fireballs through the air for Momo to chase, Kannik and Haru doing…something over on the dune, something that looks a lot like wrestling but sounds kind of moany…that reminds him…

"Suki…I haveta…kinnap her…fer wedding…"

"Sorry, Sokka, I don't think that's gonna happen," comes Aang's gentle voice, floating out of the darkness, and Sokka feels the airbender's wiry shoulders rise up underneath his arm and a wave of warm, almost solid air lift his sluggish body off the ground and onto unsteady feet.

"But…noooooo…"

"Don't worry, I think she'll understand," he hears, and Aang laughs quietly beside him as they begin walking up the beach. "Katara came by a little earlier, she said Suki and Toph got into some kind of contest over the wine-tarts…"

"Mmmm…tarts…"

The night of the wedding is clear, with a full moon (as requested by Katara) and only a few wispy clouds streaking through a star-sprinkled night sky. Lanterns burning seal oil loop blue-and-pink around the wide stone pavilion, over which a low terrace is lit by more lanterns and several hundred red candles supplied by Zuko. Fireflies blink in and out over the island's hillside, and the village itself is covered top to bottom in flowers, garlands, long strips of green and blue cloth with pink accents.

Is Sokka hungover? Yes. Is he disappointed that he did not get to have his special kidnapping night with Suki, including confetti and noisemakers and the special mask? Yes. Could his last night as an unwed man have worked out better? Possibly.

Once his father and Katara bring Suki out from inside her parents' house, her hair held up in graceful knots at the back of her neck, a golden headdress sitting low on her forehead, the traditional Kyoshi warrior paint as stark and strong as her robe is soft and flowing, does he care in the slightest?

It isn't even a question.

During the ceremony, his ears are ringing in the same way they do when Katara heals a wound on his body. His father, face thickly layered with white, grey, and black facepaint, draws symbols on his and Suki's forehead, singing deep in his throat and keeping his tears to only a faint glimmer in the corners of his eyes. Suki's mother cries in full as her husband presents Sokka with a small embroidered pouch full of carved beads—the gifts they will receive as a married couple—and ribbons woven into patterns—the different vows that he and Suki will uphold in their marriage. Katara, standing in for his mother, lets her hand linger on his lips a moment longer than necessary as she blesses his mouth, then Suki's, so that their children will receive the best of their people's history and culture from their teachings.

Something is changing in him; something is turning over.

Finally, Aang—in lieu of a priest—presents Suki with the necklace that Sokka has carved for her. He sees her eyes wrinkle in the corners as she looks at it—"It's a tree, okay?" he whispers, and she crooks an eyebrow—and as he fastens it around her neck, a wisp of cloud melts away and moonlight, much stronger and brighter than it should, bursts over the whole wedding pavilion like a warm breath of mist over an icy slick.

That's when he cries.

The dancing last until morning. Sokka and Suki sing the first song, which starts slow and becomes faster, and faster, until Aang is whirling Katara around on an air scooter, until Zuko and Iroh are panting and laughing as they match each other's sharp kicks, until Ty Lee grabs a blushing Toph and dips her all the way down to the ground before she can stop her, until Hakoda roars with laughter and spins on the spot, until the both of them are smiling too hard to get through the words.

You are my husband, you are my wife

My feet shall run because of you

My feet dance because of you

My heart shall beat because of you

My eyes see because of you

My mind thinks because of you

And I shall love because of you