Katara sought out Suki the next afternoon (Sokka was still collapsing with laughter every time he saw her) for a chat. Suki began to apologize, but Katara raised a hand to stop her.
"Look, I understand that you two love each other for who the both of you are, and it's not logical for me to expect that to change you into totally different people." They sounded a bit like Aang's words, but Suki wasn't going to object. "I mean, I guess I hoped that deciding to... I don't know, whatever it was that you decided with that thing," she said, pointing at Suki's necklace, "meant that you were both ready to grow up." That sounded more like Katara.
"That's sweet to assume we could, Katara," Suki smiled. She'd debated apologizing for preying on Katara's naivete, but wisely figured that might be taken the wrong way. She knew the course she had to take. "Okay, Katara... I haven't talked about this with anyone else, really..."
Katara narrowed her eyes.
"I don't know where Sokka and I are going. We might wind up with your happy ending and rainbows and bunnicorns, or we might never settle down anywhere... or we could fall into a volcano by accident. I don't know. We just know we want to be together. And that's something we knew before he gave me this necklace. This is just a nice little reminder that also kind of brings out my eyes." Suki smiled.
Katara seemed unconvinced, certain Suki was holding out on her, that the real relationship was still hiding behind jokes. Suki debated telling Katara what she wanted to hear, because that would be so much easier than trying for actual understanding, but ultimately a step in the wrong direction.
Suki frowned. She didn't like having to bring this up, but it seemed the only way. "I'm not Yue, Katara."
"What? I know that."
"I'm not sure you do, really. I'm not you, I'm not Mai, and I'm really not Yue. I don't see marriage as a goal, a necessity, or a duty. And I don't want to. That's not me."
"I don't... that's... " Katara bit her lip. "Okay."
"It's just... I know you saw Sokka with Yue, and it's understandable that you'd compare us and expect me to be like her, at least a little. And that you'd expect Sokka and I to act like that, too. And when you don't see that on the surface, you think we're just hiding all the serious stuff from you."
Katara's silence was a hint that Suki was on the right track.
"I'm afraid we're just not that complicated, Katara."
Katara frowned. "But you guys have to be serious sometimes, right? You can't expect me to believe you just climb rocks and steal boats and smile all the time."
Suki had the eerie feeling Katara may have spied on them more than a few times. "We've had our moments. They're even less frequent than your brother's usual spurts of seriousness, though. But, I mean... I did ask, and he did tell me all about Yue, for example."
"And?"
"And other things. You really are like a sister to me, Katara, and I would love to have your approval, but I won't share everything to get it. You're just gonna have to trust that while we do squeeze in the necessary relationship stuff, Sokka and I are just..." It seemed so easy to understand, but she faltered trying to find the word for it.
"I guess so." It seemed like Katara had gotten the gist of it. She sighed, then continued, "Just promise me you'll try to quit being so incredibly reckless."
Suki agreed, but mostly because she felt recklessness was just something that happened. Instead, the promise just meant she would continue to not tell Katara everything.
It took a little more work, particularly in getting Sokka to keep a straight face so Katara would talk to him, but Suki was able to convince him that "Mission: Get Katara's Forgiveness and Approval" had top priority. Eventually, after shooting down some of his worse ideas ("Can't we just promise the daughter thing, but for real?"), Sokka was able to muster enough seriousness to take Katara aside and have a talk. Suki had been horribly tempted to eavesdrop, but managed to resist, figuring that Sokka logic against Katara would most likely just make her laugh and give herself away.
Katara found Suki not too long after, and looking a little weepy, gave her a big hug.
"Oh, please tell me he didn't go ahead and promise that we'd have a daughter and name her after you for real this time."
Katara shook her head, and composed herself. She explained that Sokka had said a lot of the same things Suki had, but as kind of a bonus peace offering, had shared a little more. Suki was worried for a minute that he had just gone and made things up again, but then Katara elaborated.
Suki was still smiling when she found Sokka working on the boat; he and his father had been devising a slightly more seaworthy vessel that he and Suki could handle.
"You like me." She just grinned wider. "I talked to Katara."
He blushed. "That was... well, I had to tell her something... you know."
"You like me. A lot."
"Don't gloat."
"How come you never told me all of that?"
"Clearly, I knew it would just go to your head."
Suki tried to be gracious, but couldn't help it. "But... You really love me."
"Yeah, I know that."
He was still blushing. Suki figured it was only fair that she pay him back. "That first time you took me down, my heart was beating so hard, I swore you could hear it. And that next time I saw you, at the ferry? When you recognized me, the way you smiled, I just... And when you finally kissed me? Somewhere in all of there, I figured out I really liked you, too."
"Was that all? Just 'really like'? Hmph."
"Well, I had to leave somewhere to go when you showed up at the prison, didn't I?"
"I'm just saying, I knew I loved you before that, and that was when I had someone to get over first."
"Really? I'm supposed to give you extra points for finding some moon princess while you still had me on the line?" She was unable to stop smiling while she spoke. Even Sokka could not be expected to think her indignation was genuine. "And since when was it a race, anyway?"
"I'm just saying." He was trying to pout and grin at the same time, with goofy yet charming results. "If it was a race, I totally beat you. By a lot."
"So you didn't like me any better when, say, I rescued you from certain death?"
"Which time?"
"Pick one."
"Nope. I liked you plenty by then."
"So this is it, then? Nowhere to go from here but down?"
Sokka contemplated this. "I see your point. Okay, I take it back. I love you, but I don't really love you. You'll have to earn that."
"Nope. Can't do that. I earned it already."
"Now you're just cheating."
"I'm the cheater? Come here..."
Suki was shoving a handful of snow in Sokka's face when they heard Katara scoff at them from behind a snow drift.
"You two.... are IMPOSSIBLE."
They watched her storm off, and managed to wait until she was probably out of earshot before they succumbed to a laughing fit.
Suki flopped on top of Sokka when she had caught her breath, and brushed some snow off his face. She contemplated him for a minute. "I really love you."
"Ha! I knew it."
Katara seemed to have begrudgingly accepted that no matter how she tried to meddle, Suki and Sokka would never be the sickeningly sweet and terribly adult couple she still seemed to want them to be, but the two of them were somehow happy anyway. Further, though she treated it like a huge sacrifice on her part, she seemed to have realized that the chances of her brother becoming a mature and upstanding gentleman under Suki's influence were small at best, and there was certainly no hope for Suki at all, no matter what kind of necklace she was wearing.
"So Aang and I need to go back to the Fire Nation," Katara informed them, Aang by her side, watching her close.
"Avatar things?" Sokka asked.
"Avatar things," Aang confirmed, smiling.
Katara sighed. "I don't suppose I can possibly hope that you two will stay here and keep yourselves out of trouble?"
"Well, you can, but that would be freakishly optimistic, even for you."
"We're doing our best to avoid another catastrophe," Suki admitted.
"Well, another similar catastrophe. I make no promises that we won't run into entirely new ones."
Aang put a hand on Katara's shoulder, and she took a deep breath. Likely due to his influence, she was keeping her nerves under admirable control. "Right. And there's no chance I could persuade you to just come with us on Appa?"
"Again, freakishly optimistic."
Katara nodded. "Okay. Just... write. Please. Or leave a trail. Something. And try to not... you know... die."
"Thanks, Katara," Suki grinned, and hugged her.
Sokka opened his arms, and after glaring at him a moment, Katara hugged him as well. Then, sighing again, she retreated.
"This is largely your fault, you know," Suki told Aang.
"Me? I'm doing everything I can to try and keep her calm!"
"You treat her too darn well. Gives her totally unrealistic expectations for the rest of us," Sokka said, shaking his head.
Aang grinned.
"As long as you keep that up, there's no way she's actually going to believe we really like each other at all," Suki scolded.
"And the maturity? The responsibility? I mean, I know you're way older than you look, but tone it down a little, huh?"
"Bye, you guys." Aang hugged them both before adding, "Seriously, though, try to stay out of too much trouble."
"How much is too much?" Sokka asked. "Just so we know where that line is."
"I'll settle for both of you not getting yourselves killed," Aang grinned.
"Well, we had all these plans... but for you, sure."
Aang waved at them both before chasing after Katara.
It was midnight, and it was cold, and Suki was on deck, stowing the rest of the supplies. Sokka and his father had finished working on the boat, and were now on the shore, saying goodbye. It was quiet and still enough over the water that Suki could hear everything, but she could muster the grace to pretend that wasn't the case.
"Keep it on course, and keep an eye on the skies. It shouldn't go the way of your last one, but..."
"I'll be careful."
"I know. She really is... some girl, Sokka."
"I know."
"Keep her safe."
"Eh, I'll try. She got mad at me the last time I did that."
"Ha... of course she did. What did she do when you nearly got the both of you killed?"
Suki blushed as Sokka stammered.
"You hold on to her."
"I will, Dad."
"I'm really proud of you, Sokka. You two have fun."
"I'm all done here!" Suki called, joining them, pulling a blanket a little tighter around her shoulders against the bite of the outside air. Hakoda looked significantly at his son until Sokka got the hint and put his arm around Suki's shoulder.
"Now if Katara asks where you're going, I can tell her, right?"
"Please do, or she'll kill us all," Suki said, laughing and only half kidding.
"And that wouldn't be half as interesting as the ways we would come up with otherwise," Sokka added. His father caught his eye and he continued, "I'm kidding. I won't get us killed on purpose or accidentally if I can help it."
"That's right. I don't want to take the fall for helping you if things go south."
"Relax, things couldn't go any more south if they tried. Right? Because we're at the South Pole? Oh, I kill me."
"Now that we have a co-conspirator, we'll try to be much more careful," Suki assured him.
"It has been nice having you around. I hope you'll come back someday."
"We..." Sokka looked at Suki, "will? Right?"
"We will." Suki smiled.
Hakoda embraced them both and helped them launch the boat, then waited on the shore until they were lost in the darkness.
"So where are we going, anyway?" Suki asked. "I'd thought it was my turn to pick, by the way."
"Technicality."
"Sure. So where are we going?"
"It's a surprise this time."
Suki contemplated that a minute. "Bet you we won't be halfway there before I figure it out."
"You're on."
