A/N: I seriously can't believe how fast I came up with this one considering I just posted a story like an hour ago. Oh well, when inspiration strikes, it strikes hard sometimes. This is a sequel to my story "About Last Night"

Hakoda eyes his son from across the garden as he regaled the Princess with the tale of how he once got two fish hooks stuck in his thumb. He was talking animatedly, arms flailing with gestures.

The Princess wasn't even trying to hide her laughter, nearly doubled over and clutching her sides.

"I still don't understand how you got both of them stuck!" she said. "Wasn't one enough?"

"Well I thought I could get the first one out with the second one!" he exclaimed. "It didn't really work all well, though."

"Wow, who would've thought?" the sarcasm practically dripped from her mouth.

"Okay, in my defense, I was like twelve years old. I wasn't all that smart back then."

" 'Back then'?" Azula raised an eyebrow.

Sokka gasped in indignation. "I'll have you know that I'm the second, no, third smartest person in the whole Southern Water Tribe!"

Azula stiffled a giggle. "And that's something to brag about?"

"Well the first is my dad and the second is my sister, so yeah, I think so." He crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out his chin. "It's not like you'd ever claim to be smarter than your dad."

Azula smirked. "You're right, I wouldn't. The Fire Lord's intelligence is beyond compare," she sounded like she was reciting that from a book. "But I'd never claim my brother is smarter than me."

Sokka sighed. "You don't know my sister. As annoying as she can be, she's also pretty great. Although, I suppose, we're both smart in our own ways."

"Wow, look at us," Azula joked. "The second smartest in the Fire Nation and the third smartest in the Southern Water Tribe. What a pair we make. We'll be practically unstoppable."

"Exactly," Sokka agreed. "Just wait. Our kids will take over the world."

Hakoda was startled to hear his son bring up children so casually. And he was even more startled to see the Princess not even bat an eye at it.

Before they'd come to the Fire Nation, everything he'd heard about the Princess made her sound aloof and intimidating. He had been hesitant to force Sokka into an arranged marriage with her, but the aide the Fire Nation was offering to the South was too great to pass by. They would receive help in industrializing and modernizing their tribe while the Fire Nation would receive shares of the oil and ore they'd recently discovered. The political marriage was a way to solidify their agreement permanently.

Sokka had been vehemently against it, as Hakoda had initially suspected. His son believed they were fine on their own, but sometimes he had trouble seeing the bigger picture. He just couldn't see what the South could become with the Fire Nation's help.

As Chief, Hakoda's job was to ensure the wellbeing and protection of his people. And this was the perfect way to raise the standard of living among them. So he did what he had to and negotiated a treaty with Fire Lord Ozai, much to his son's disdain.

The first meeting between the Princess and Sokka had gone much better than he'd anticipated and the following days only served to strengthen that opinion. The two were nearly inseparable and spent almost every minute together, walking the Palace grounds, talking and sharing stories. It almost seemed too good to be true. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop at any moment.

"Those two seem to be getting along rather well, don't you think?"

A voice at his side startled him from his thoughts. He turned to see Fire Lord Ozai approach.

Hakoda cleared his throat and nodded. "Yes, they do. It's almost hard to believe that Sokka was so reluctant to come here."

Ozai hummed in agreement. "Azula was the same way. When I told her of her impending engagement, I thought she'd challenge me to an Agni Kai right then and there. But now she seems rather...infatuated with your son."

The two leaders watched as Sokka held out his thumb to Azula and pointed to the tiny scar. Laughing, Azula grabbed his thumb and brought it to her mouth, placing a light kiss upon it.

"I suppose there's not much more we could've hoped for," Hakoda said. "At the very least, it appears they won't have a loveless marriage."

Still unaware that they were being observed, Sokka placed his finger beneath Azula's chin and kissed her.

Hakoda's eyebrows raised at this son's boldness, but the Princess only seemed to melt into the kiss. It didn't last long, but even from this distance, he could feel the happiness radiating off the both of them.

Next to him, he could see Ozai staring bemusedly at his daughter.

"She's different around him," the Fire Lord remarked. "More...open, emotional. Happy."

"Well as fathers, isn't that what we always dream for our children? To find happiness in whatever form it may come?"

"It's odd. Azula was never one to care about boys or love, but somehow your son's found his way past her defenses." After a moment's pause, Ozai said, "He's good for her."

Hakoda smiled as Azula and Sokka walked away, arm and arm. "They're good for each other. They'll balance each other out."