Disclaimer: I do not own ATLA or its characters.

99

Katara was all smiles as they pulled into the parking lot in front of Toph's dingy apartment complex. "Toph!" she called jovially, leaning out of the car's open window.

Aang smirked. "Don't overdo it. If you act too nice, you'll ruin it. She'll be suspicious."

"I'm not good at practical jokes," Katara grumbled quietly. "I get too excited."

He chuckled, grabbing her hand in his and squeezing it tightly as the door opened and Toph slid unceremoniously into the back seat of Aang's car.

"What's up, losers?" Toph asked diffidently. "Thanks for the weird invite."

Aang frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Katara left me a voice mail that said we should meet up for 'a super fun and super productive day', and then she fucking giggled into the phone like a lunatic."

In the seat beside him, Katara was burning a bright pink, sinking deeper into her seat and mumbling something about "not being good at this sort of thing".

"So," Toph continued. "What are we doing, exactly?"

"Nothing, really," Aang said, almost offhandedly. "We have to stop by the cafe real quick."

Toph let out an audible groan. "You picked me up from my comatose state to drag me to your work?"

"You said you weren't doing anything!" he defended.

"No," Toph snapped, "I said I was doing nothing. Learn the difference."

Katara straightened in her seat. "Aang and I just have to stop by really quick to drop something off."

Another long-suffering groan. "Fine."

For the brief drive into their apartment complex's parking lot, Toph complained happily about her work, her school, her parents, and her friends, waxing eloquent on the failings of each topic. Aang and Katara made sympathetic noises, 'ooh'-ing and 'aah'-ing at all the right times, right up until the moment they pulled into one of the cafe parking spots. Aang turned in his seat to face Toph. "Why don't you come in with us?" he asked innocently. "It'll be quick, and maybe you could get a treat or something."

Toph's face reflected her suspicion. "Okay," she said slowly, eyes narrowed, but she followed Aang and Katara out of the car as they walked hand in hand into the building.

Iroh was waiting, leaning casually against an empty table as they waltzed in. At the sight of them, he leapt up, striding over with a huge grin to shake Toph's hand vigorously. Katara bit down on the knuckle of one fist to keep herself in check, but Aang was openly grinning. "Toph," he said officiously, "this is Iroh, and he'd like to formally welcome you to the cafe."

"Formally, but warmly," Iroh corrected, holding up one finger. "We're so excited to have you here. We're a tight-knit little team, and new team-mates are a big deal around here."

Toph's mouth dropped. "What? I- what?"

Katara's hand fell away from her mouth and she practically burst into a prepared speech. "Toph, you've done so much for Aang and I. You were part of the reason we're starting this new chapter in our lives. If it weren't for you getting me that job at Kuzon's gym, none of this would be possible. I didn't want you to think we weren't appreciative, so when Iroh and Zuko asked if we knew of anyone who might be able to help fill the positions we're vacating. We knew you would be such a great fit."

"Fuck off," Toph said in disbelief.

Iroh blinked in surprise, but recovered smoothly. "We're very excited for you to join." He reached for hand to place an apron into her upturned palm. "Put this on, and let's get to work! Mai is going to training you." With that, he turned on one heel and scurried back to the back room.

From the behind the counter, Mai let out a monotone, "Hello."

Toph snapped her head to Aang and Katara. "You fuckers. You planned this."

"Katara did, actually," Aang said. "As repayment for you getting her a job, she got you one."

"I already have a job," Toph snapped.

Katara snorted. "At 'The Panda Lily Express'? You literally told us on the way here that it was a capitalist hellscape from which death is the only release. Your exact words."

Toph chuckled a little at the memory, then tilted her ear to listen in the ambient sounds of the cafe. "You liked it here?"

Aang and Katara shared a look. "We loved it," Aang said firmly.

Toph smiled. "Can't be worse than a capitalist hellscape from which death is the only release."

"It really can't."

Mai cut in once again from the background. "This is all very touching, but can we get to work? I have, like, seventeen things I have to train her to do and I can literally feel my life draining out of me."

The knock on the door broke Zuko out of his state of deep relaxation. He had one day off of work a week- and still got calls- and he just wanted the quiet peace of oblivion, the silent, temporary joy of being forgotten.

Not possible today, it would seem. He groaned before getting to his feet, shuffling to the front door and pulling it open. "Who is it-" he began.

It was Mai- fresh from her shift, and she pressed her body against him, her narrow frame dwarfed by his when he wrapped his arms around her. "You made me do mini-golf," she said between kisses, "and I think that's bullshit."

He half-dragged her into his apartment, kicking the door shut behind him before turning back to kiss her deeply. "I've never seen anyone so happy and so angry at the same time."

"That had nothing to do with mini-golf," she said. "That's just you."

"I make you angry?" he laughed.

"Desperately."

He gave her a smirk before leaning in to nip gently at her lower lip. "But, I also make you happy?"

She smiled. "Desperately." She stepped away, and grabbed his hand in hers to guide him to his bedroom, clothing falling away with each step, and yet, somehow, still graceful. When they reached the darkness of his room, she stood before him in nothing but a black bra and black underwear, her chin lifted almost in defiance. "Now that I'm your girlfriend, I think it's high time I experience some of the perks that come with dating you."

He pulled his shirt off, too, and grinned, drinking in the pale glow of her body, starkly contrasted in the darkness of his room. "I think that's a great idea."

She stepped closer to him. "Then, let's do it."

"Let's."

When they fell into the bed, the rest of the world fell away. When her head pressed back into the pillow, when he groaned in her ear, when she sighed his name, it sounded like something new. Something good.

Sokka peered around the doorway. His sister sat on her knees on the floor of her empty room, checking through her duffel bag one final time. Kuzon had regaled her and Aang of horror stories of long shipment times for household goods during a video chat the week before, and Katara had gone into an absolute panic about being certain they packed essentials into their checked luggage. "We might have to live out of these duffel bags for weeks," she'd reminded Aang, every time he told her not to worry.

So, of course, she was sitting on the floor, taking her fifth inventory in as many days of the things that she would have until her shipment arrived. The thought of how he'd get to make fun of her about it brought a grin to Sokka's lips, but it was followed immediately by a pang of sadness. He wouldn't get to make fun of her at all; she wouldn't be here.

She was leaving for good, tomorrow morning. His little sister, off to bigger and better things.

Sokka wrapped on the wooden frame with his knuckles. "Can I come in?" he asked when she turned to him. Her blue eyes were shining, like they were wet. When he sat down next to her, he saw a line of red around the rims of her eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked, putting an involuntary hand on her arm. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes," she sniffed. She shrugged, letting out a little laugh. "And, no."

"What's wrong?" he repeated.

Katara gestured around the room. "Its... this. It's empty in here." She lifted her duffel bag off the floor for a moment. "This is all I'm going to have until my household goods arrive. This, and Aang, and..." She looked down at her hands. "And not my brother."

"Katara," he began, but for some reason, the words stuck in his throat. He tried again. "Katara, I won't be there with you, that's true. But I'll always be there. You'll always have me. If anything goes wrong- I mean anything- I will drop everything and come for you. Okay? You'll always have me."

Tears were falling in earnest now, and she swept at them with the back of her hand. "Then, where have you been?" she asked with a hearty sniffle.

Sokka could have been obtuse. He could have acted innocent, shrugged and asked her what she meant. But he knew. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "I'm so happy for you and Aang, Katara. I really am. And I'm kind of ashamed that I waited until the last minute. I didn't want to ruin your move, your big day and the big, exciting new things that are happening in your life... It's just-"

"You think I'm leaving you behind," she guessed, wiping at her cheeks again.

"What?" he said, stunned. "No! Spirits, no, Katara. I could never think that. I'm just... sad, I guess. You've always been there. Even when I moved to Ba Sing Se, you were still at home with Dad, and I knew you were coming here. I've been out here, doing my best to take life one step at a time, and you've always been right behind me whenever I turned around. I guess... I guess I'm afraid of turning around and not finding you there, anymore."

Katara didn't say a word. She reached for him, instead, pulling him into a tight hug that he returned with equal intensity. They held each other for a long moment, and when they let go, they both chuckled with awkward laughter. Katara smiled at him through tears, a little trail of snot creeping out of her nose.

"Gross," Sokka said, but there was nothing except affection in a tone that was meant to be teasing.

"It's not my fault," Katara said, laughing and crying at the same time. "The movers packed all my tissues."

He shrugged. "You could use your shirt sleeve."

"Just because I'm living without amenities doesn't mean I can just leave the bounds of normal, hygienic behavior behind, Sokka," she said haughtily. How she managed to look both disheveled and haughty was beyond Sokka, but he loved her for it. She looked up at with a smile, but this one felt different. Not teasing. Sad happy, affectionate and exasperated, closer than ever before, but somehow, farther than she ever had been. She reached out with one hand to scratch at the scruff on his cheek, something she'd done ever since he'd been able to grow facial hair, and his heart caught in his throat. "You'll always have me, too," she promised.

He grabbed onto her hand, pulling it from where it still tickled at his cheek, and squeezed it tightly. "I know. Love you."

"I love you, too."

"Call us as soon as you get to your new place," Suki demanded, her arms still wrapped around Aang and Katara. She had tears in her eyes when she let them go. "And let us know if anything goes wrong. We'll do whatever we-"

Sokka dropped an arm around her shoulder. "They'll be okay," he murmured, his eyes on his sister. He smiled at her. "Safe travels, you guys. You'll be missed."

"More than we can say," Suki added.

Sokka pulled his arm away from Suki to give Aang a firm handshake- one that quickly turned into a hug, both of them patting each other on the back with loud clapping sounds that made Katara and Suki roll their tear-filled eyes. "I'm proud of you," Sokka said to Aang. "Take care of my sister."

"I will."

With that, Sokka pulled Katara into one last hug. She clung onto him just as tightly, ready to move forward, but not ready to let go. They stayed that way for a moment before Suki and Aang joined them, one big bear hug in the middle of an airport, a place, Sokka thought, that really brought honesty into love.

As their airplane ascended, rising with buffeting gusts of wind above the sprawled city, Aang thought he could just make out their old apartment building. "Right there," he murmured to Katara, his fingertip pressed against the window.

She nodded, her lips clamped shut as if she were afraid to speak. He pulled her close to him, pressing a soft kiss to her lips, and pulling away with a smile.

"I love you," she said to him.

"I love you, too."

They leaned back into their seats, and Aang closed his eyes, still smiling. "Now," he said. "On to the next thing."

It was weirdly silent, Suki thought. Even with Sokka watching a survival documentary on TV, even with the dishwasher running. A byproduct of living with two other people, another couple, was laughter and music and the clanking of dishes in the sink, the sound of footsteps on the hard floor. Never a moment to yourself, and when those people leave, the silence is deafening. She wandered over to snuggle up to Sokka on the couch, who bore the silence with a heavy stoicism.

"It's weird, isn't it?" she asked quietly.

He lowered the volume on the TV before leaning back with her, pulling her back against his chest and sharing his warmth with her. "It is a bit weird," he agreed. "I keep thinking I'm going to see Aang come out of the kitchen, or Katara glaring at me from the room for not doing my dishes."

"Don't worry," Suki soothed him, "I'll glare at you for not doing your dishes."

"That makes me feel way better," he quipped.

"Glad I could help."

He pulled her closer, snuggling into her. "It is weird, and yet..."

"What?"

Sokka leaned over her, one hand sliding down to the curve of her waist. "This is how it was when you first came, remember? When we were sitting on camp chairs."

"And the relief of finally purchasing a couch," she sighed almost dreamily.

"I remember you made me move it a hundred times before you finally settled on the first spot I put it in."

Suki laughed. "I had to see all my options."

"You couldn't have moved it yourself?"

"Well," Suki explained with a grin, "I would have helped, but when you push the couch around, you lean down to get some ass into it, and, well... I liked watching."

Sokka stilled. "I knew it." He shook his head, laughing. "I'm not a piece of meat, Suki."

"Yes, you are."

They chuckled together, settling back down to watch the survival documentary. His hand traced the curves and edges of her waist and hip, and after a while, that trail deviated, fingertips gliding over her stomach, her legs, the gentle swell of one breast. "You know," he murmured into her ear, "there is one benefit to not having any roommates."

She rolled into him, sliding one hand under his shirt. "Then we should probably make the most of it."

And in the end, somehow, it reminded her of her first visit there, her head tilted back as he hovered above her, and she could see the shafts of sunlight illuminating dust motes that twirled over her head, and she could marvel at the man above her, just as awestruck as the first day she met him. Her eyes squeezed shut, and he gasped into her ear. Just the two of them.

And maybe that wasn't so bad, after all.

A/N: ch 100 will be epilogue. We're so close, y'all. Thank you for staying with me this long.