Once again, Suki stood on the forecastle of a ship, flying proudly the colours of the Earth Kingdom, as it scythed through the waves on their way back to the Fire Nation.

There were a few major differences though. The ship wasn't the Kyoshi, it was the newly liberated flagship of Firelord Zuko's fleet, that Azula had been using as her own flagship until her sudden downfall. Flying proudly beside the green colours of the Earth Navy were the blues and whites of the standard of the Southern Water Tribe, and with her on the deck were Sokka, Katara and Toph.

On the Firelord Zuko's port side cruised the Tui, and on the starboard side the Kyoshi sailed in perfect formation. Both ships were dwarfed by Azula's former ship, and were operated by skeleton crews under the command of specially picked officers, because most of the crews were needed on board the Fire Navy ship to crew it and guard the prisoners, including Azula herself. Azula was at that moment locked in the thickest metal box they could possibly find, because otherwise she could potentially burn the ship down, and that would not be fun. Suki was taking absolutely no chances.

They had set sail the previous day, with initially no idea where they were or where they were supposed to be going. It was only after the coming of night, when the navigators got a good look at the stars and were able to compare them to their charts and instruments, that they had some idea that they should sail north- west. They had maintained that course ever since.

"It feels good to be back on the open sea again," Sokka sighed, closing his eyes and inhaling the sea air happily.

"Yeah, speak for yourself," Toph grumbled. "I may have hated every second of being on that island, but at least it was dry land."

"If it was dry land you wanted, then why did you join the navy?" Katara asked, baffled.

"Don't start," Suki warned. "I've had this conversation before."

"I'll tell you what I told her- I know her and she doesn't make me do stuff I don't want to do."

"Oh, why's that? This is the navy, surely everyone has to pull their weight." Katara asked curiously.

Suki panicked, still not wanting to reveal the true reason, and looked around for any way to end this conversation. Fortunately, she spotted it over the side- an enormous shoal of fish, swimming underneath them.

"Katara, I don't suppose you could catch those fish for us, could you?" The waterbender looked as if she wanted to argue, but nodded, and moved away from them to have some space.

"Toph, you should go with her."

"Why do I have to go with her?"

"Please? I never ask you to do anything."

"Fine. But only because you have such a winning smile." Toph followed Katara away.

Sokka looked confused. "But she's-"

"-Blind, Sokka, I know."

Sokka looked like he also wanted to argue for a second, but dropped it.

"I just realised I never actually thanked you," he said, instead.

"For what?"

"For jumping in front of Azula's lightning bolt to push us out of the way. She would have killed us both had you not done that."

"You're welcome. It was all in a day's work."

"No, it wasn't. It was really dangerous, and you did it for two people you had orders to bring in."

"Exactly," Suki joked. "I wasn't going to let Azula stop me from carrying out my orders."

Sokka laughed. "Of course. Wouldn't want to get in the way of your orders."

He suddenly became serious again.

"Seriously though, is there no way I can repay you? You earned that much. Don't ask me to hand myself in though. I'll do anything for you, but I won't do that."

At these words, feelings that Suki had been repressing for weeks, always telling herself that it wasn't the right time or she shouldn't be feeling them, broke through.

Sokka looked at her intently, and Suki returned his gaze. She looked into his eyes, and spoke.

"You know when I told Ty Lee that we were friends?" She began.

Sokka nodded to show that he remembered all too clearly.

"That was a lie."

"Oh?" Sokka now just looked confused. "Like, a good lie, or a bad lie?"

He was interrupted by Suki's lips on his. His eyes widened, and then closed as he leaned into the kiss.

"You talk too much," she said, when she had broken away.

"Yeah, you're not the first to tell me," he replied, in a daze, looking at her with new eyes.

"How long?" he asked.

"It's been building up over time. I just didn't want to act on it because first we were enemies, and then we were in prison and needed to focus on escaping."

"Well, we've escaped now," Sokka said in a low voice, drawing closer again. They kissed, and their second kiss was much longer and more passionate than the first.

They were just about to come up for air when they heard cheers. They broke apart to find that they were being watched by pretty much everyone on deck, and they were all expressing their approval loudly and vocally.

At least, almost all of them were. Katara and Toph alone remained unmoved. Toph just looked confused about what the fuss was about and Katara looked disgusted at what she had just had to witness, which given Sokka was her brother was understandable.

Suki watched Toph ask Katara what had happened, and once Katara had told her, she too joined in with the cheering. Katara shook her head and walked away.

Suki felt herself blushing. "They all saw us?"

"You kissed me in one of the most visible spots of the ship, in front of everyone. What did you expect?" Sokka asked, and Suki knew he had a point.

"Still, it doesn't matter. They're cheering, look! They approve! And even if they didn't, then it wouldn't matter."

"They might lock us up if they didn't approve, for treason," Suki pointed out, "but yes, on a personal level their approval doesn't matter. They are my crew though, so it's nice to have."

"I thought we already established they wouldn't do that?"

Suki decided not to argue any more. She just nodded, as the first cries that land had been spotted came from the top of the mast.

"Excellent, we're nearly there." Sokka said.

Suki had an idea.

"Why don't we put on a show for them?"

"I like the way you think."

It must have been a magnificent sight to anyone who saw it. As the three ships entered Himiko harbour, their masts were adorned with as many brightly coloured flags as their crews could fit. They had taken absolutely no care with the order the signal flags went on the masts, they weren't trying to convey any message beyond a general message of happiness after all, and so anyone who could understand signal flags would be able to read total nonsense displayed all across the ship. The Kyoshi had displayed about 15 "A" flags, all in a line on one of the masts, for instance.

Around the flags, men and women clung on to the rigging, the bows that they normally wielded nowhere to be seen. Instead, they waved their helmets in the air and cheered, while below them on the decks men danced around, singing at the tops of their voices. Some of them played musical instruments too. Above it all, Sokka and Suki surveyed the scene on the decks, and saw crowds begin to gather, attracted by the shouting and the music. She saw them pointing, presumably recognising the ship, and at the front of the crowds were fire nation officials, who looked like they didn't know how to react to any of this.

Suki ran over to the side of the deck as the Firelord Zuko began to manoeuvre in to dock, heavily assisted by Katara's waterbending.

"Hey!" She shouted, to get the attention of one of the officials. He looked astonished as he gestured that he had heard her.

"Send a messenger hawk to Firelord Zuko!" Suki shouted. "Tell him we have his flagship back and have dealt with his pirate problem!"

Normally, Suki supposed, a Fire Nation bureaucrat wouldn't have been so quick to take the orders of someone from the Earth Kingdom. Under these circumstances, though, the man could only nod and hurry away.