There was a collective breath of relief in the air as the enemy ships were lost on the horizon. As the extent of destruction began to sink in, there were tears of grief, tears of anger and tears of overwhelming gratefulness. The damage could have so much worse. Had the Avatar and his sister not been around, the Northern Water tribe would have most likely been razed to the ground. Along with every man, woman and child.

As Sokka looked around, soldiers were pouring into the city in droves to search for their loved ones. He watched mothers embrace their wounded sons, husbands cry out in relief at the sight of their wives, and children wail for the fathers and mothers that would never return.

People began to realise that they were alive. Their families- at least in the case of the many- were still intact. Their homes may be damaged, some beyond repair, but they were replaceable, life wasn't. The noise started out as unidentifiable, almost indistinguishable, a clustered murmur of relief, but soon the sound grew, in strength and in exuberance. It raised itself to the status of a victory cry, people began to chant to the spirits, thumping the floor in a rhythmic, almost tribal beat. The beat increased, until the tension in the air was almost unbearable. Somebody began a cheer that became a roar of success. They had defeated the fire nation. The first people to do so in battle for almost one hundred years.

Sokka, as caught up as he was in the captivating scene unfolding before him, was equally ensnared by the sight of Swift and Aang, still in place, hovering fifty feet in the air and watching the horizon, as if challenging the army to return. Finally, the siblings, looking like spirits incarnate, began to descend to the ground, their glowing tattoos dimming and their expressions slacking, Sokka and Katara rushed to their side.

Katara pulled Aang into her arms, rocking him to her chest. He woke up, dazed, and looked into her eyes as his vision focused. He smiled weakly, and she bent down to kiss him fervently, no regard to what her brother, or anyone thought of their relationship. He returned in kind, and the two lay there for a while, leaning on each other.

Swift lay motionless, though, and when Sokka saw her brother wake up, only to be quickly distracted by his girlfriend, he worried. Shouldn't she have woken up by now? He was kneeling at her side, shaking her softly.

"Swift, Swift wake up." He whispered, not wanting to intrude on his sister's moment, but feeling concern build up in his stomach.

She simply lay still, the panic started then. "Swift." He almost begged, shaking her more "Swift, stop it, wake up!"

Aang and Katara noticed then, but Sokka was far beyond paying attention to anyone else but the lovely young air-bender that was making his heart beat eratically for all the wrong reasons. He looked at her closely, and wasn't sure if he could see the rise and fall of her chest, or if it was just a figment of his hopeful imagination.

Frantically, he checked for her pulse. Eventually he found it, but it was weak.

As if he were hearing it from the other side of a tunnel, he heard Aang's concern, voicing the fact that he often felt weak after he entered the Avatar State, but had grown used to it as he used it more. Swift was hardly used to using it at all, never mind for a battle of such magnitude. Her body simply wasn't used to it. She wasn't built for it like he was. The only reason she could participate in it at all must be the close genetics, he'd never heard of an Avatar who was a twin before, and was unsure of how it might affect her.

Sokka could hardly care less about the why, he was too focused on the what, and the what to do about it. "Come on, Swift, stay with me. Oh, my Swift, stay with me!" Her lifeless body lay still, and by this time he had pulled her into his arms, crying out in panic. Suddenly, he remembered something from his childhood. His Gran Gran reviving a child that had almost drown as he lay as lifeless as Swift on the icy planes of his homeland.

He pulled himself together, placing her flat on the ground and checking her pulse once more. It was even fainter now. He put his ear to her mouth and waited. His heart dropped into his stomach. He couldn't feel her breathing.

He pulled off her robe so that it was only her breast band on her upper torso, and placed the heel of one palm on her sternum, and placed two fingers from the other on to find the right compression depth, and began exerting short bursts of pressure, completing almost two compressions every second for thirty seconds. He wasn't noticing a difference! What else had Gran Gran done? Then he remembered, and hardly had time to blush before he put his mouth on hers, breathing life into her.

Swift felt darkness around her ebbing, changing, and a fuzzy consciousness began to emerge from the depths of her mind. She was suddenly aware of pressure on her, on her body and on her face; her lips, to be precise. She gasped a breath that felt so wonderful for some reason, and it was that pleasure that brought her eyes to open.

A deep, quick laugh of joy was the final pull from her revere, and the pressure removed itself, and she saw striking, shining blue eyes staring into her own. She realised that her face was damp with his rivulets of tears, and she smiled at the sensation lingering on her lips, and hoped she guessed the source correctly.

"Sokka!" Katara gasped, "That was amazing!"

He laughed, a deep, elated laugh from the bottom of his heart. "You're not the only potential healer in the family, little sister." His voice was giddy.

Aang was laughing too, his blood had drained from his face as his sister's life hung in the balance, he was quiet, helpless, thinking about reaching out to the spirit world for potential help, but Sokka had leapt into action before he could do anything. He threw his arms around her and she laughed, still a bit light headed as she sat up. "We make a heck of a team." She croaked. Aang sobbed a laugh in response, his emotions were all over the place, and didn't seem to want to make up their mind.

It had been a few days since the battle, and a festival was being held in it's honour, and a feast in remembrance of those who they'd lost.

Although they'd won the battle, the people finding out about their beloved Princess's fate was a terrible blow. On the one hand, it was a great honour, they literally knew the spirit of the moon, their Yue was now immortal, and shone down on them every night. Yet the loss of her familiar face, beautiful soul and gentle spirit was evident in the faces of people passing by. Her line would live on in her daughter, but the motherless child felt the blow harder than anyone, Expect, perhaps Hahn.

Sokka had dressed in his finest garb for the occasion, but felt sorry for Swift, with only the robes on her back to her name, and even they had been torn and bloodied in the battle. He hadn't seen her since that morning, when she was helping a reconstruction project and talking to a child that seemed to have lost a parent. He watched as the naturally gifted woman turned a boy so morose that he'd forgotten what it was like to smile, into a giggling child again.

He left his apartment, still miraculously intact, but with a good eight other men living there until their homes were pieced back together. The women had a separate accommodation for the time being, while everybody was waiting out the repairs, and so he walked without his sister or Swift to the festivities, to the hum of subdued music and the twinkling candles that reflected in the river and mimicked the sky that danced it's own lights around Yue.

Entering the dedicated area, he smelt before he saw the huge banquet table set out in front. It held every delicacy he could think of from his home in the South Pole, and many more that excited and intrigued him. The was a band playing in the corner, and people danced and sung along, but it didn't have the frenzied air of a normal gathering, there was a respectful, soft atmosphere in the air, as people remembered, and gave thanks.

He was glad he'd dressed up to the nines, because everybody else had, too. Even the children wore formal outfits, though they had loosened collars and spilled lichie juice all over them more often than not. He thought of Swift again, poor woman, they'll have to get her some new clothes before they left. Though he doubted she'd be happy to get out of her robes. But there was no repairing them by now. He caught sight of Aang, who looked every bit of the Avatar. He was wearing his air nomad clothes, but had a golden wrap around, and wore his mala beads with the air-bender totem over it. He stood tall and confident, a five o'clock shadow on his chin, and Sokka was reminded that he wasn't the somewhat gangly kid he'd found in an iceberg so long ago. Katara stood at his side, she'd acquired a pretty dress from another water-bender, but they were both stood in conversation, chatting and laughing quietly and politely. He decided he'd rather find something more entertaining to do.

Unconsciously, a habit he wasn't sure when he picked up, though it was thoroughly engrained in his mind by now, he began scanning the room for Swift. Looking toward the dance floor, he almost looked away, not finding the tell tale robes, but something had caught his eye.

He did a double take, although they were not robes, somebody was wearing distinct orange and yellow in the sea of blue. The woman was facing away from him, and all he saw was two orange draping straps which fell off her slim shoulders to her waist, creating a deep plunged scoop back. A buttercup coloured band pulled in at her waist, and a white chiffon skirt fell to the ground elegantly.

He could see her dancing with an evidently delighted man, and she spun and twirled gracefully, in a way that left in his mind no doubt to her identity. It was so much like her way of flying, light, quick and with an enthralling simplicity.

The song ended and the two bowed to each other, the man eagerly rushing to his friends, gesturing toward the stunning dancer. She turned, still laughing gently. Her hair was curled and pinned up at her head, one twisting strand loosened down the side of her face. Somebody had done her eyes, darkened her lashes and reddened her lips.

She caught sight of him and grinned, oblivious to the deep emotions swirling within the helpless man.

As she approached, he went to meet her half way, struggling not to stammer, "May I have this dance?"

She smiled and nodded, though he thought he saw a flash of pain behind her eyes.

As they danced and conversed, he revelled in the feeling of her warm, smooth body in his arms. Every time she smiled up at him, he almost lost himself in her eyes, though she would often catch herself, and look down, almost ashamed.

"Why don't we get some air?" Sokka asked. Although they were technically outside, the area was crowded with breath, sweat and heat, with conversation filling the air almost as persistently.

"Sure, Sokka." She smiled.

As they exited the fray of people, the air began to get more chilly, the sound became quieter, the streets darker. They did not mind, though, under the light of the moon and the glimmering lanterns, it was still more than enough to see. She sat herself down beside the river, her toes skimming the surface of the water through her sandals.

"So, new dress?" Sokka asked, placing himself next to her.

"My robes were ruined, so I thought I'd at least make something out of them." She flushed in response to something in his tone.

"You made it? It looks stunning." Her blush deepened.

She said nothing, and they sat in silence for a minute, before he spoke, softly. "You don't know how scared I was when you were missing. How mortified I was about the last time we'd spoken. And when I thought you were.." there was a catch in his throat, and he didn't continue

She looked at him, with an expression almost like pity. "It doesn't matter. I know how much you..." She paused a moment, "Loved her. It was good you were there with her when it happened." She looked upset, and almost guilty.

He frowned. It was true, he did love Yue. In the short time they'd been here, she'd become one of his closest friends. But the way Swift said it, it sounded like she meant something more. "Yue was one of the best women I've ever met." He smiled softly, "There are few who could surpass such character." Sokka looked directly at her, momentarily lost in her gentle grey eyes. "She taught me a lot of things. Like not to let anything dissuade you from love."

Her heart twinged, but she'd expected that. She'd learnt that Yue was actually married, with a child, no less. For a moment she'd hoped that might mean nothing was there after all, but she could see now that that was just a naive hope.

"Yes," Swift said, trying to change the subject, "she taught me how to sew, I couldn't have made this dress without her lessons."

Sokka brightened, "Yes. She was amazing at that. In fact... I had a few lessons of my own."

Swift tilted her head, confused. It was not like Sokka to want to fix his own clothes, he usually let his sister do it all, and could be rather sexist about it, while he was at it. "Why did you take lessons? Not that you didn't need them." She laughed.

Sokka turned his body toward her, one leg dangling toward the river, his foot brushing hers. She gasped at the sudden intimacy, his face closer to hers than she'd ever remembered it. His expression was no longer doleful or playful. It had an intense quality to it, and his eyes searched hers, soaking her in, every detail, every perfect detail. He reached into his jacket, pulling out a delicately woven, sapphire blue strip of material. In the centre it held an intricate water-tribe symbol, though when the water lines twisted into waves, the beautiful spirals suddenly coiled into the universal air nomad emblem. "Because of this," he whispered, "she was helping me to make this." He never looked away from her eyes. Almost unconsciously, he gravitated closer toward her, until she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin.

"I... don't understand." She breathed, overwhelmed and anxious, but with an entire swarm of butterfly bees going crazy in her stomach.

"Swift." Her name came off his lips like silk honey, "Will you accept my Promise?"