Katara

"Hold still!" I chastise Aang as I he squirms in pain.

"It hurts! You didn't need to whip me that hard!" Aang says.

"That's what she said!" Toph quips.

I glare at her as Aang, Sokka, and even Zuko try to stifle their laughter. They aren't very successful at it, though. I just roll my eyes and thank the spirits that I can filter the salt out of the water so I can heal Aang easier. I thought it to be too time consuming to try to get rain water, even though I can bend it, so I just decide to make frequent trips to the water and bring back water and dump it in a large cooking bowl I found in the kitchen. Right now, Aang is lying on his back on the hardwood floor with his head and neck on my lap.

"Just hold still, and Toph, keep your mouth shut," I say, focusing on the task at hand and not looking at the irritating earthbender.

My face scrunches in concentration as I run my hands all over Aang's torso in an attempt to heal him. I ask him every so often is the pain is better wherever my hands come to rest. If it is, I move on. I do his forehead last, though; that looking to be the quickest to take care of.

"Thanks, Katara," Aang says as he gets up off the floor.

"It's all I can do after whooping your butt today," I say with a smirk.

He puts on his shirt, and then sits back down on the floor as I go and cuddle up to Zuko. Startled at the sudden contact he's receiving, my husband tenses and pulls away a little before realizing it's me and relaxing, pulling me into a chaste position on his lap.

"So what should we do now?" Aang asks. "Appa won't fly in the rain, and it doesn't show signs of stopping."

"We don't have to leave right now," Sokka says.

"He meant stopping any time before tomorrow, you moron," Toph says. "I swear, Sokka, I'm starting to fear your stupidity may become contagious. In fact, I'm pretty sure it already has considering Aang over there thought it would be a wise choice to fight a master waterbender."

I smile, still feeling smug about my victory as Aang blushes and smiles guiltily. Sokka begins to sulk, but a quick kiss on the lips from his fiancée makes it so that his rotten mood doesn't last too long.

"She's only kidding, Sokka," she says, comforting the clumsy warrior I call a brother.

Sokka sighs, but then his stomach rumbles. "I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Aang says.

"It's not only him," Zuko says, speaking up for the first time since before I began healing Aang. "I'm hungry, too."

"So what are we going to do about food? Considering I'm hungry. And I wouldn't be surprised if Twinkle Toes, Suki, and Sugar Queen are, too," Toph asks.

I notice that she still has yet to come up with a nickname for Suki, but I dismiss the thought and focus on the task at hand.

"Why don't I start dinner?" Suki asks.

"No," I say. "Let me. It's been awhile since I've cooked. For anybody."

"Thanks, Katara," Suki says. "You sure I can't help?"

"No. I'm fine. Thanks," I tell the former Kyoshi Warrior.

"I appreciate the gesture, Katara. And I made sure shortly before we came here that it was stocked with enough food to last for a while," Zuko says with a warm smile at me.

I return the smile and give him my thanks before making my way to the kitchen.

Zuko

It only takes a good two minutes before conversation starts again. I listen, and contribute to the various topics from time to time, but mostly I just let my mind wander. As usual, it goes to Katara; just as it has practically since I joined the group in the first place.

I think about how she really is the mothering one of the group, even though Suki and I are the oldest. Suki tries, but she doesn't have the same tolerance for obnoxiousness that Katara does. But who could blame her? A sky-high tolerance for stupidity, obnoxiousness, crudeness, and many other things I wish didn't plague our ragtag gang of friends and loved ones as much is necessary to be able to love and care for every member of the group.

God knows Toph doesn't have a nurturing, compassionate bone in her body, that she lets us see, anyway. Though Aang probably sees it from time to time. I mean, he has to have seen it. How else could he have fallen in love with such a brash young woman?

I find my thoughts going back to Katara. But even weirder is that I am soon excusing myself from the group, giving some lousy excuse that may or may not be believed by everyone. I go to the kitchen and wrap my arms around Katara's waist from behind and put my chin on her shoulder. The brushing of the soft, blue fabric of the dress she's wearing feeling nice against my partially exposed torso. Surprised, she gasps and looks back at me. I smile at her and she instantly relaxes.

"Smells good," I tell her with a sigh.

"Thank you. It's just vegetable and rice soup," she says. "Not that complicated."

"But completely delicious, nonetheless."

"How do you know? The last time I made this, it was just Aang, Sokka, Toph and I," she says as she stirs the enticing concoction of various vegetables and spices.

"I don't," I reply simply. "I just know you and your cooking well enough to know that everything you make tastes good."

She salts the mixture. "Thank you. Maybe somehow I can convince the cooks to let me make something for you sometime."

"Doubt they'll let you," I say.

"You're not feeling very optimistic today, are you?" Katara asks with a small chuckle.

"Half and half," I say with a shrug, my arms still wrapped around my wife. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

She dishes out the food into six bowls. "You can help give all this out."

"Not a problem," I say.

"But be careful. They're hot," Katara warns as she puts a spoon in each of the bowls.

"I'm a firebender," I tell her as I pull away and arrange four of the bowls of soup on various places on my forearms and hands. "I'm used to heat."

Katara doesn't fight me about me carrying most of the meals, thankfully. We make our way out of the kitchen and deliver dinner to our ragtag gang, carefully balancing the dinners in the process.

"Oh thank the spirits above! You're back!" Suki exclaims. "The sanity has returned!"

"I told you, Aang, you should grow a beard!" Sokka exclaims.

"Not gonna do it!" Aang protests.

"No. He's not!" Suki exclaims.

Toph is lying on the floor, propped up by her elbows with her hands behind her head as she listens to the argument with a smirk.

"I'm seventeen!" Aang shouts. "Beards are for old people! If you're so keen on growing a damn beard, you grow one, Sokka!"

"It would look cooler on you!" Sokka retorts.

"He's right. It would," Suki says.

I chuckle. "Here's your dinner, Suki. Would you mind helping Katara and I hand these out?"

She puts the bowl down close by where she was sitting originally, and helps distribute the meals amongst us, the previous argument forgotten. We've barely begun to eat before Aang starts talking, but with a little more sanity and happiness in his voice.

"I propose a toast!" he says, holding up his bowl. "To Katara, for her coronation, and for her marriage to Zuko, and for Suki and Sokka's engagement! But most importantly, to us, and saving the world!"

We hold up our bowls with happy smiles on our faces. "Here, here!"

I kiss Katara, seeing as Sokka is kissing Suki, and we begin playful discussion and banter with one another. We talk way past nightfall. We laugh, cry, and reminisce at the good and bad memories we've shared together, and since we've been apart from one another.

"It's getting late," Aang says with a yawn. "And it doesn't look like the rain's going to let up."

"Crap!" I exclaim, slapping the heal of my hand to my forehead, leaving a red mark in the process as I remember a likely reason for the rain.

"What?" Katara asks with a mild amount of alarm and panic in her voice.

"It's monsoon season!" I say. "I should've known so we could've planned this a bit differently!"

"So what does this mean, Sparky?" Toph asks.

"It means we're stuck here for a while," I say with a sigh. "I'll send word out to my uncle. There's a mailing system if we go into the small town about a mile from here so I can do that."

"Well this is just great," Toph says. "Twinkle Toes and I are wanted back in the Earth Kingdom soon. How long do you think we'll be here?"

"Last year, it rained for a few days, let up for a day or two, then rained for a week. From what I heard, that's been the pattern for some time now," I say.

Toph, exasperated, flops back down on her back with a loud thump and sighs; her frustration and irritation at my forgetfulness and the situation itself quite evident.

"Well, there's no use complaining about it," Suki says. "Because there's nothing we can do now."

"Yeah," Katara says. "We're stuck here until the rain stops, or until we can find another way off of Ember Island."

At least the majority of the women are on my side, I think to myself, smiling inwardly. Having one of them against me can't be so bad. Then again, it's Toph; the girl who at twelve invented a way to bend metal. I make a mental note not to get on her bad side very much while we're here, or to let her know I'm intimidated by her. Then she'd really make my life a living hell.

"Well, I guess we should enjoy it," Aang says. "I mean, who knows? This may be the last adventure we have together for years."

"Agreed," Sokka says. "Katara and Zuko are married, Suki and I are going to be married, and Toph and Aang show no signs of splitting up. You'd think we would all be happy. But we aren't. At least I'm not. I'm going to miss my little sister when I go back to the Southern Water Tribe with Suki, and she will and does miss her fellow Kyoshi warriors. Aang is busy doing Avatar business while Toph tags along, and Katara and Zuko both have a country to run. It would be almost impossible for us to be together as a whole very soon after this. It may be years before we're reunited and celebrating like this again."

Katara nods in agreement with what her brother just said, ignoring the fact that that's one of the only times where he's been truly wise. "It saddens me to think so, but he's right. We have a few more days together before we have to go back to our busy, stressful lives."

"So let's stop talking about it and enjoy it!" Toph exclaims. "Let's do something!"

"What are we going to do?" I ask.

"I've got a crazy idea, and I think it would be fun to try," Suki says.

"What is it? Hopefully nothing too embarrassing," Aang says.

"It depends on how you look at it," Suki says with a shrug. "I thought we could try to play truth or dare. The other Kyoshi warriors and I used to play all the time. We had some pretty good fun. And with guys here, things should get a bit more interesting."

"I'm in," Aang says. "What about the rest of you?"

He gets an excited "sure" from Katara, a nonchalant "sounds good to me" from Sokka, and a "What the hell?" from Toph and I.

Thirty Minutes Later

Katara

We are all laughing as Zuko sings a song he was told to improvise. I'm almost in tears and my whole torso is sore from laughing so hard. He finishes the song when Sokka, the person who dared him to do that, says he can stop.

"You owe me for that, Sokka," he says, but not without an amused smile at my brother.

"Consider it payback," Sokka says.

"For what?" Zuko asks.

"For marrying my sister and taking away the Southern Water Tribe's best healer," Sokka says.

"Sokka, relax," I say with a chuckle. "I've trained the other waterbenders that have immigrated there to heal."

"Alright, let's continue with the game. No talking about the outside world while we're here together," Suki says. "Zuko, it's your turn. And remember, no picking the person who just dared you."

"I know," Zuko says. "Aang, Truth or dare?"

"Truth," the young Avatar says.

Zuko grins at me devilishly before asking a question that shocked all of us.

"Have you ever fantasized about Katara naked?" he asks.

Aang looks at me with a regretful look in his eyes before averting them answering the question he was asked. "Yes."

I blush furiously and look away. I look at Zuko, expecting him to be angry. I'm surprised when I see he just looks amused.

"Wait… you're not mad?" Aang asks.

"No. I already figured as such," Zuko says with a shrug. "I just wanted the rest of us to know what you do in your spare time."

"I don't do it anymore! Toph! I'm sorry!" Aang stumbles to find the right words to say.

I glare at Zuko, and the jerk is still smiling. I'm about to yell at him when I hear the unmistakable laughter of Toph.

"Chill out, Twinkle Toes," she says. "I don't care. As long as you aren't doing it now."

Aang breathes a sigh of relief. "Thanks. And sorry, Katara."

"Aang, it's not a problem," I tell him with a chuckle. "I mean, who can resist this?" I ask the group jokingly, gesturing to my body.

They laugh, and Aang dives right into his turn. "Katara, truth or dare?"

"Dare," I say.

Toph whispers something in his ear, and he smiles devilishly at me. "I dare you to make out with Zuko. Right in front of us."

"What? No!" I say.

I actually kind of like the idea of showing everyone I'm as fierce in the bedroom as I am on the battlefield, but I don't want Zuko to know that.

"Hey, I'm not complaining," Zuko says.

At that, I look at him, and I know my eyes are darkening with lust. "Shut up and kiss me."

I take his shirt collar and press my lips to his forcefully. Moaning into his mouth, I move to straddle him. I can hear our friends, save for Sokka, cheering me on and laughing.

"That's it! Mount him!" I hear Suki shout as I crawl on top of a cross-legged Zuko.

"Suki!" Sokka exclaims. "Why would you tell her that?!"

I don't hear her response because I'm too enveloped in the feel of Zuko's lips and tongue pressed against mine.

"Alright that's enough," Aang says, still laughing, after a bit of time.

I open my eyes, and they widen, as I crawl off of Zuko. I blush furiously and he adjusts so the arousal I felt against me was hidden better. We continue the game, a couple of hours later deciding that it was time for us to get some shuteye. Zuko and I bid goodnight to our friends before we retreat into the master bedroom. I've barely shut the door behind me before Zuko is pressing his lips to mine in a passionate, forceful kiss.

Zuko

I press Katara into the door as she responds eagerly to my hungry, needy kiss. I need to give her gift to her, I nag myself. But when I hear her moan, I hoist her onto my hips and decide to procrastinate for a bit longer. She wraps her legs around me and hooks her ankles together; trapping me in the wonderful space between her legs.

Come on, Zuko, you've had your fun. Now give her the damn gift, I tell myself. I sigh internally, knowing my inner monologue is right.

"Wait," I whisper against her lips.

She wears a look of disappointment and pouts at me. I pretend not to see it as I take her hand and lead her to the bed, making her sit down.

"Why did you make us stop?" Katara asks, placing her hands in her lap.

"Because I have something for you," I tell her. "I wanted to give you something representing engagement and marriage from both of our traditions. So I made something for you myself."

I reach into my pocket for what I'd worked on for so long. I keep it in a tight hold in my fist, and make sure that no part of it is visible. I slowly open up my hand, and the red silk of the necklace unfurls, revealing a necklace of similar build to the one she still wears to remember her mother. This one, though, represents both of our nations in the red silk, and the red Fire Nation insignia on it. The insignia is then surrounded by a heart with the detailing of the water tribe within it. Save for the Fire Nation insignia and silk, the rest of the necklace is blue.

Katara gasps, and tears form in her eyes. "It's beautiful, Zuko. I love it."

"May I?" I ask.

"Of course," she says, reaching back to remove her mother's necklace.

She turns around once the necklace that previously occupied her neck is off, and I sit down to put the one I made her around her neck. She touches the stone of the necklace that falls in the direct center of her collarbone. But then she looks down at the necklace she was wearing before. Her mother's necklace.

"So which one will you wear?" I ask her.

"Yours," she says. "I'll keep this one safe, though, and maybe someday give it to a daughter of our own to wear, should we have one."

"That sounds nice," I murmur against her neck.

"What sounds nice?" Katara asks, though I have a feeling she already knows.

"A child of our own," I admit to her, putting my chin on her exposed shoulder. "We can wait as long as you would like to, though. In fact, I'd like to wait a year or so."

"That sounds good. I'm nineteen, so I'm still a teenager, technically," she says.

"But I'm not," I say devilishly as I gently push her down onto the bed and crawl on top of her. "I'm twenty one. I think that stands for something."

She leans up and kisses me tenderly before lying back down. "I think it does, too."

"What does it, then?" I ask her.

"Why don't we find out?" she says in the sultriest voice I've ever heard her use.

I lean down and kiss her passionately, leading up to the inevitable lovemaking that lasted blissfully throughout the night.