Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA or its characters.

85

Aang reached for the garment bag hanging tantalizingly in Katara's closet. As his fingers closed over the zipper, she slapped his hand away.

"No peeking," she said with a grin. "I told you, I want it to be a surprise."

"Katara, this is torture," he whined. "My brain is running through a thousand different dresses, and peeling you out of all of them."

She smirked. "I like that idea."

"I don't even get to go to this party thing with you," Aang complained. "So, why don't you just show me? Or else, I'm going to spend the next three days in agony."

"Suffer, then," Katara laughed. "I want you to get the full effect of me with my hair and make-up and dress. Not some dress on a hanger."

Aang sighed. "You always look flawless, Katara, make-up or no. I can guarantee you that my heart is not going to be able to handle it, even if you wear a trash bag." He pulled her close, his hands circling her waist as he hauled her against him. "Please?" he begged, giving her his best 'puppy-dog' eyes.

She laughed again. "No! Absolutely not."

"If you're going to torture me, I'm going to torture you," he threatened teasingly.

"With what? No sex until you see me in the dress?"

"What, are you insane?" he asked, shaking his head. "That would be punishment for me, not for you. There's no way I could make it three days without having sex with you."

Katara stepped out of his arms, sitting down on the bed. "Well, it's been two days since our last time. We must be getting close to your expiration date."

"We are," he agreed. "Dangerously close."

"Better take care of that," she suggested.

Aang couldn't agree more. He practically pounced on her, smiling at the way her laughter vibrated into him. Framing her face with his hands, he pressed her into the bed, kissing her with every emotion he had, pouring all of it into her, and sighing with relief when her legs wrapped around him. "Imagine if I had moved away, and we could only do this once every couple weeks," he breathed into her ear, before biting her neck gently.

"I'm glad I don't have to imagine that," she gasped. But, a worried look flashed across her face. "Well, mostly."

"If we were in a long-distance relationship, I couldn't do this."

She cried out. "I like when you do that."

"It's a good thing we're together, then," he murmured, tugging his shirt over his head. "So I can do it whenever you want."

Her lips moved over his almost frantically as she ran her fingers through his hair, and Zuko was in heaven.

Heaven, and hell. He pulled away when the intrusive thought tugged at him again, the fiftieth time in a week. "What are we doing?" he asked breathlessly.

Mai gave him a pointed look. "Whatever we want."

"Yea, you said that already," Zuko said irritably. "But, what does that even mean?"

"It means I want to kiss you, so I'm going to." She pulled his face to hers, and they were off again, his thought tossed into the wind as his hands traced the lean length of her waist, trailing down over her long legs.

He would have sworn to the Spirits that her legs went for miles, and he was going to trace every inch of them with his hands, then his lips, until he heard a throat clearing behind him. Pulling away frantically, he looked toward the door of the break room, where Katara was blushing to the very roots of her hair.

"Uh, excuse me," she said with a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of her head with one hand the way Zuko had seen Aang do countless times. "I needed some coffee stirrers, and they're in the supply closet-"

"Oh, I'll get them for you," Mai said, completely unaffected. There wasn't so much as a hint of rosiness on her pale cheeks, and Zuko didn't know if he was awed or terrified of that fact.

"Okay, I'm just going to... I'll just be out there," Katara answered hastily, practically sprinting from the room without so much as a backwards glance.

"Great," Zuko muttered darkly as Mai snickered. "That looked professional."

Mai strode over to the supply closet, easily reaching for the box of coffee stirrers that rested on the top shelf. "She's not upset. She's happy for us."

"Why?" Zuko asked. "Because we're making out at work like a couple of horny teenagers?"

"Maybe the teenagers have it all figured out. Why worry about anyone else?"

"Because we're at work," Zuko explained with exaggerated patience. "And because we have to actually work." He gave her a sidelong glance. "When are we going to move this outside of the workplace?"

The look on Mai's face was amused, as if she were laughing internally at some private joke. "You can come to my house, and we can continue this interlude there," she said, shrugging. "It'd probably be more comfortable than the supply closet, anyway."

"I'd like to take you on an actual date, if it's all the same to you."

"It's not all the same to me," Mai said, frowning.

Zuko blinked. "Why not? I thought you said you liked me."

"I do like you."

"I like you, too. So, what's the problem?"

Mai frowned. "I don't, like, date. Historically speaking, it's been really shitty for me. My partners always get super possessive, and frankly, it's boring. And gross. So I don't really do that anymore."

"Well, I'm not going to get possessive," Zuko said.

"You have 'possessive' written all over you," she drawled.

"It's not that," he protested. "I just don't want to sleep with you without dating you."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "What an antique mindset."

"It's not antique," he defended himself. "I like you. I don't want anyone else."

"I don't want anyone else, either."

Zuko shrugged. "Then we're dating. So, let's go on a date."

"We're not dating."

"What is this?" he asked in confusion. "You don't want to put 'labels' on it, is that it? You don't want to be tied down?"

Mai eyed him darkly, and he was reminded of a predatory cat. She stepped toward him intimidatingly, and he was immediately both frightened and aroused. "I love being tied down," she purred.

"Okay," he stammered. "Then let's do that."

"Great."

He nodded weakly. "Great."

"Your apartment," she said. "Tomorrow night."

"I remember what I double-booked myself for!" Song shrieked in a panic.

Suki blanched, pulling the phone away from her as Song's shrill voice echoed painfully into her ear canal. "Spirits, what?"

"The Botanical Gardens got an opening- someone dropped out. I'm supposed to go put down my deposit," she said in a rush, "but I have an exam in thirty minutes and the appointment is in an hour."

Suki scrolled through her phone. "I don't have anything in my calendar-"

"I know, I know, I forgot to mention it to you."

"See, Song, this is why you have to tell me these things-"

"For fuck's sake, Suki, don't be such a weenie," Song screeched. "Can you go to the appointment, or do I have to call someone else?"

Suki pouted at the word 'weenie',' but sighed in acquiescence. "Fine. Yea, I'll go."

Sokka had never been to the Botanical Gardens before. They were incredible. Greens of every hue leapt at him, soothing to the eyes. Splashes of color, arranged in perfect harmony, punctuated the green like fireworks in the night sky. He was literally breathless. And he wasn't even a 'flowers' guy.

"So, this is where the ceremony would take place," their guide said officiously, walking down the aisle, a wide strip of soft moss lined with rose bushes. "We put out seating here and here, and then we put a trellis over here where the bride and groom stand."

Suki took another picture on her phone. "Oh my goodness. This is incredible."

Sokka agreed wholeheartedly. This place was beyond stunning, it was magic. It wasn't hard to imagine Suki as she walked slowly down the aisle, clad in white and eyeing him demurely through the soft shroud of a veil. He hastily shoved the thought away.

"This is the solarium where the reception is held," the guide continued, walking over to the massive glass building. "We open the top windows to get good airflow. It actually gets a little cooler in here in the evening; we always recommend that guests bring jackets or sweaters or something like that." She laughed. "And, they always forget, so we end up having to close the windows. Oh, well. We put the tables over here, and servers come through there. No candles, though," she added sharply. "I'm sure you can understand why. But, we always have brides asking for tea candles on the tables."

"That makes sense," Suki replied earnestly. "Do you do fake candles?"

"Oh, yea, that's fine," the guide replied.

An image of Suki, bathed in the soft, warm glow of a little fake tea candle floated to the surface of Sokka's mind, but this one was harder to shove away. She was leaning toward him, pressing the softest kiss against his cheek, murmuring that she loved him into the shell of his ear.

He heard the guide speaking from further away, and realized that the guide and Suki had moved on, and hastily followed them.

"And finally, here is where we take pictures after the ceremony, and during the reception, guests are allowed to wander," the guide said, sweeping her arm over the massive tiered garden, punctuated with flowing pools surrounded by gently waving lilies. Bees flew from flower to flower, and birds sang in the eaves.

"How is this place so affordable?" Sokka asked in shock.

"We have a wealthy benefactor," the guide explained. "He wanted this place to be used for things like this; he's a huge garden enthusiast. As a result, we're typically booked years out, but we had a last minute drop-out, fortunately for you. Your friend was the first on the call list."

"How lucky," Sokka murmured.

The guide gave Sokka a knowing look, smiling warmly at him. "Well, I'll let you two have a look around. Come back to the admin desk when you're finished, and let me know if your friend is interested."

"Oh, she's interested," Suki chuckled. "She fell in love when she toured it a few months ago. She's beside herself that you guys have an opening."

"How wonderful," the guide replied. "Well, look around. Get a good idea of what you want; caterers, how many guests, where she'll want pictures, et cetera." She smiled warmly again before turning away.

Sokka was frozen in place at the sight of the pools, of the little corners hidden away between large bushes of peonies and camellias. In the back of the long terrace, he could see thick vines of wisteria dropping soft purple petals like snow. He wandered that way, pausing as Suki stopped here and there to breathe in the soft scent of sweet peas or exclaim in delight at the perfection of a particular blossom.

When they finally reached the wisteria vines, wrapped like great tendrils around a sturdy iron trellis, he peered over at Suki. Her face was lifted upward, smiling softly as flower petals floated around her, weightless. She reached out to catch one in her open palm.

All he could see was her, here, in a white dress, on a day they would share between themselves, between everyone else they loved. He pulled her to him, kissing her gently at first, then harder as he guided them slowly into a nook hidden by the thick trunk of a wisteria vine. His hands caressed her cheeks, sliding down her shoulders, before finally pulling her against him, just as her back met the cold iron of the trellis.

But she pulled away. "What are you doing?" she asked nervously.

"Kissing you," he replied, leaning in again.

She turned her face away. "I don't mind a little PDA, but this isn't you," she said. "This is different."

"What do you mean?"

"You're- I mean, I saw your face," Suki explained. "I know what you're doing."

His hands fell away. "What am I doing?"

"You're imagining it. Imagining us." She gestured around the garden. "Here."

"We are here," he deflected. "I don't have to imagine it. I love you, so I'm kissing you."

Suki pushed him away gently. "I love you, too, but this is something else. I can see it in your eyes, Sokka. I can see what you're thinking about."

"Okay," he admitted forcefully, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, yea, I'm thinking about it. Spirits, Suki, how could I not?"

"I knew you shouldn't have come with me," she murmured to herself. "I knew it as soon as Song suggested it."

He glared at her. "I came here on Haru's behalf."

"Yea, well, now you're not even thinking about him!" Suki snapped. "You're thinking about us here, and that makes me nervous."

"Everything makes you nervous," he shot back. "I look into your eyes for a moment too long; you're nervous. I kiss you a just a little too intensely; you're nervous. I help our friends with their wedding; fucking nervous."

"That's not fair!" she protested.

Sokka threw his hands into the air. "None of this is fair, Suki. None of it." He turned away. "Come on, let's go. We have to put down this fucking deposit."

"We don't have to, if you need space," Suki said. "If it'll be hard for you, I can do it."

"Fine." He strode away quickly, his heart breaking further with every step. "I'll meet you at home."

"But we rode here together-"

He didn't even stop. "I'll get a fucking cab."

A/N: the longer chaps at last. we're approaching the endgame. I pledge a happy ending for all.