Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA or its characters.

52

She quite literally took his breath away. When she glided from the bathroom, sheathed in a form-fitting black skirt that hugged her curves in all the right places and a cropped tank, he thought his heart would stop. Her skin was dewy, almost glowing. In short, she was flawless, and he knew he paled in comparison.

"Spirits," Sokka breathed in appreciation. Her scent floated through the air to him, a softly spiced aroma that made him think all sorts of wicked thoughts, as if she were a witch and she had a beguiled him.

Suki gave him a wink with a toss of her brown hair. "It's nice to be appreciated. You don't look too bad, yourself."

He gave her a warm smile. "I try. Shall we?"

"We shall."

"This restaurant's almost as nice as the hotel room," Suki whispered. She was in awe, and that made her quiet for some reason. It was a reaction she didn't expect from herself, since wealth and opulence had never been particularly impressive or enviable to her in the past, but even now, with her outfit and make-up and skin glowing from the facial Katara had suggested she get, she felt out of place.

She could tell that Sokka felt similarly as he tugged on the collar of his shirt. "Yea," he grunted. "Do you maybe get the feeling that we don't belong here?"

"Nonsense," she flared, though she absolutely did get that feeling. "We're paying customers."

He chuckled. "Are we paying customers, or am I a paying customer?"

"We are. I'll split with you."

"Deal."

Their meal, when it arrived, was extravagant, and paired exquisitely with the wine that was complimentary with their meal. The taste of the wine gave Suki a little tremor of pleasure from her head to her toes, and she looked at the bottle's label. "Maybe we can pick up a bottle or two of this for home," she mused.

Sokka eyed it. "It is good- and I normally don't like wine. What's the name?"

"'The Baron of Gaoling'."

"I'll look up the price," he suggested. "I don't want any surprises when we check out."

Suki laughed. "It would be so much easier if they left a menu, but I guess this place is too fancy for menus."

"Oh, of course not," Sokka said, adopting a condescending air and straightening in his chair. "Menus are for the dirty little bastard children of the proletariat... far too pedestrian for the likes of us." His thumb swept across his phone screen as he continued his internet search for the wine.

"Of course," Suki replied, adopting the same air as she tossed her hair. "Don't they know we're staying at a presidential suite at 'The Empress'? Complimentary, of course, because of our prestige."

"The hotel concierge was absolutely blown away by the sight of our grandeur," he added. "Particularly when we pulled those vouchers out of our pocket."

Suki dropped her act, hooting with laughter. "I thought his face was going to turn inside out, he was scowling so hard. He did not like the fact that we won these in a bar game."

"He doesn't have to like it. He just has to comp it. Ah, found it." Sokka's face paled suddenly. "Holy fuck," he whispered.

"What is it?"

"I don't think we'll be taking a bottle home with us," he said. "That is, unless you want to go into debt."

"Pass. How much is it?"

He told her, and she let out a little whistle of appreciation.

Shaking her head, Suki sighed. "How the other half lives."

They tumbled into the bed together, a pleasant warmth emanating from their bellies, full with exquisite food and delicious wine.

"Help me out of this crop top," Suki asked. "It's digging into my rib cage."

"Well, we can't have that."

Relief came moments later as she heard the light buzz of the zipper, and the top came free. She flung it into the corner of the room, sighing with relief, and slid her skirt down her legs to follow the crop top in its descent to the floor. Stretching langorously, she reveled in the freedom that came after removing restricting garments. "This was fun," she said after a moment. "Did you have a good time?"

There was no response, and after a moment she lifted her head up. Sokka was staring with a sort of hopeless adoration at her, eyes openly drinking in the bared skin that lay just within his reach. She smirked at him. "'Like what you see'?" she quoted, a joke from early in their friendship.

"Let me guess... you're not a piece of meat?" Sokka said, chuckling, but the look in his eyes was made her a little nervous. If she were standing, her knees would be shaking.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she blurted.

"How am I looking at you?"

"Like that."

He huffed a frustrated sort of laugh. "Could you elaborate, please?"

"Like I'm... I don't know, like I'm some great Spirit or royalty or something."

He looked away quickly, but she caught a blush spreading across his cheeks. "I was just... thinking about you. How I feel about you." He shrugged. "That's all."

Suki sat up, drawing her legs to herself and resting her chin on her knees. This was the kind of conversation that made her throat dry and set her heart fluttering weakly in her chest. She had never been good at this kind of thing. It was so much easier to give other people advice, and so much harder to take your own. Her heart and her mind were so evenly split; her heart wanted him to continue, and her mind wanted to change the subject. Most of her young adult life had been spent listening to her mind, so tonight, she threw her caution to the wind. "And how do you feel about me?" she almost whispered.

His eyes darted back to her sharply, and his mouth opened and then closed, as if he were afraid to speak. "Are you sure you want to hear that?" he asked.

Mutely, she nodded, before she could change her mind.

"Okay, then," he said, drawing in a deep breath. "I love you."

She looked down at her toes. Every pulse screamed in her ears. Why was this so hard to say? "I think- I think I love you, too."

When she looked back up at him, he was grinning, a smile that stretched from ear to ear that made her feel as though the sun were coming out, despite the darkness beyond the windows. "You 'think'?" he laughed. "Well, what an enthusiastic answer."

She swatted him, but he caught her hand, pulling her into him in a rough embrace, as if his ability to be gentle was lost in his excitement. His lips were in her hair, and her cheek was pressed against the muscles of his chest, and above her, she could hear him whispering, "I love you, I love you, I love you."

A/N: its important to me that some of you understand that this story isn't just about the romantic relationships, but the friendships, too. Including Zuko and Katara's friendship, which I found sweet and endearing in the show and I will write it that way here, too. I've been clear in A/Ns before that I hate love triangles so I would never write them. But prepare yourselves, Zutara haters, for the fact that Zuko and Katara are going to interact again because they will be friends. I'm sorry you were disappointed, guest, and I hope I haven't lost your readership, but I wanted to address both your concern and mine.