Chapter 18: A World At Peace

Soft giggles and hushed voices greeted Rinzen when she awoke next, dim pre-dawn light shining in through the window as she kept her eyes shut against it.

"They're so cute all curled up together like that," Suki whispered, a hint of laughter in her voice.

"It's about time they sorted things out," Sokka agreed under his breath before hissing slightly in pain. "Ouch, Katara, be gentle."

"I'm doing my best, you're the one who went and broke your leg," Katara grumbled in response.

"I can't see them, are they adorable?" Toph asked excitedly. "I bet they're adorable."

"Come on, you guys, quit making fun of them," Aang scolded mildly, although he was definitely grinning broadly as he said it, and it was his voice that jolted Rinzen fully awake. If he was here and joking around with everyone, that had to mean that the war was well and truly over.

"Hey, I'm just saying, I called it even back when she was imprisoned in the bunker," Sora chuckled from somewhere near the doorway and Rinzen wondered vaguely if he and Aang had had a chance to meet properly yet.

"You realize we can hear you all, right?" Zuko pointed out dryly over Rinzen's head, his voice thick with sleep. "Keep it down, you're going to wake Rin up."

"Too late, I'm already up," Rinzen mumbled into his shoulder before reluctantly shuffling back and sitting up against the bed's headboard. "So where exactly did you disappear to these past couple days?" she addressed Aang, who was seated beside Toph on the floor against the opposite wall, mirroring her casual pose with his legs stretched out in front of him. He was shirtless, several new burns, cuts, and scrapes littering nearly every inch of his skin that she could see, but there was an odd aura of peace and calmness surrounding him that she had never quite noticed before.

"See, about that." He flushed slightly, the tips of his ears turning a faint pink. "I ended up on the back of a giant lion-turtle."

"A what," Rinzen said, too tired to even try to make it sound like a question.

"Told you she wouldn't believe me," Aang sighed, giving Toph a pointed look.

"I can feel that 'I told you so' look on the side of my head, Twinkletoes," the earthbender grumbled in response, elbowing him harshly and making him wince. "I gave her too much credit, my mistake."

"No, no, give me a few minutes to actually wake up and I might actually process what you said," Rinzen insisted, rubbing her eyes wearily with the heel of her palm. "A lion-turtle?"

"It's okay, it sounds made-up to me, too," Zuko reassured her, shuffling a little closer to nestle his head against the curve of her hip.

"No, lion-turtles are real," she explained, looking back down at him and unable to help a smile at how comfortable he looked beside her. "It's an old story Aang and I were told when we were little. Lion-turtles used to hold all of humanity on their backs and gave them the power to bend the elements only in defense when they ventured out into the Spirit Wilds to hunt. But that was way before the first Avatar came to exist."

Zuko frowned, nonplussed, although she figured it was partly because he still seemed to be half-asleep. "I've never heard any stories like that before."

"Remind me to find a book of legends for you sometime." She ruffled his messy hair affectionately, marveling at how he leaned into her touch instinctively, before glancing up at Aang, who was watching the two of them with a faint smile. "Seriously, though, I thought they went extinct centuries ago."

"Yeah, so did I until I woke up on this one's back. I must've sleepwalked to him in the middle of the night," he answered. "In any case, he led me exactly to where Fire Lord Ozai would arrive and left me to wait for him."

Zuko tensed slightly beside Rinzen and before she could stop him, he was pushing himself upright, leaning heavily against her side as he grimaced briefly in pain. She pressed a hand to the small of his back to support him, but his eyes remained fixed on Aang, whose smile faded at how serious Zuko looked suddenly. "And you're here now," he said slowly. "So that means my father is..."

Aang's expression cleared as he grinned broadly. "Oh, no. He's downstairs in the dungeons along with Azula."

Zuko blinked back at him, taken aback. "What?"

"I didn't kill him. Just like I said I wouldn't." Aang shrugged modestly. "I did take away his bending, though. So he's harmless now. Can't hurt anyone ever again."

"You...took away his bending?" Zuko echoed, bewildered.

"You can just take away somebody's bending now?" Rinzen added, just as confused.

Aang frowned back at her. "Well, it's not like it's an easy process. And I'm not gonna go around taking away the bending of just anybody."

"I know, I trust your judgment," she reassured him.

He relaxed slightly. "The lion-turtle told me that before there was element-bending, people used to bend the energy within themselves. He taught me how to bend the energy of others, as long as my spirit remains uncorrupted in the process." He cast an apologetic look at Zuko. "Your dad is kind of a drooling mess right now, though. Having his bending taken away kind of messed with his head. Sorry. He'll probably get better."

Zuko exhaled heavily, dropping his head against Rinzen's shoulder. "No, it's fine. I'm going to have to see him eventually, though."

"Not until you're allowed off bed-rest," Katara retorted from where she was kneeling beside Sokka, who had one leg stretched out in front of him at an oddly-bent angle as Katara worked on healing it. Suki sat on his other side, her fingers intertwined with his as he squeezed her hand tightly and grimaced with pain.

"On that note, it's a good thing you're awake," Sora spoke at last, drawing Zuko and Rinzen's attention to him leaning on the doorway. "We've got the palace secured and the staff and guards are loyal to you. The Fire Sages are ready to go ahead with the coronation whenever you are. Which I'm gonna assume is only when Katara says so, because she clearly knows best."

"See? Sora gets it," Katara muttered without looking up from Sokka's leg, which made Aang laugh. Rinzen noticed Katara pause for a moment, glancing briefly at Aang with a tender smile before returning to her healing.

"I'd rather not delay the coronation too much," Zuko reasoned as he lifted his head off Rinzen's shoulder again. "It'd only increase the instability in the country the longer we wait."

"At least give it a few weeks or so," Rinzen suggested as she looked up at him. "You took a pretty bad hit, no one's going to think any less of you for taking it a little easy."

"I can take it easy all I want later," he insisted before glancing back at Sora, his expression setting in determination. "Tell the Fire Sages I want to go ahead with the coronation one week from now. In the meantime, gather every leader from the Earth Kingdom and both Water Tribes so we can officially put an end to this war. You'll need to contact my uncle and the Order of the White Lotus in Ba Sing Se, too. And send word to the Boiling Rock to free all prisoners of war. Use our fastest messenger hawks."

Sora pushed himself off the doorway, smiling. "You got it, Fire Lord." He executed a quick bow, making Zuko wrinkle his nose.

"Yeah, no, don't ever do that again." Grinning, Sora mock-saluted him instead before taking off down the hallway.

"Where's Momo?" Rinzen asked suddenly as she turned back to Aang. "He went missing with you, didn't he?"

"He's outside with Appa," Aang reassured her. "They're both a little spooked with everything that's been happening, but they're okay otherwise." She relaxed marginally, having not realized how worried she had been for their animal companions until then.

"Okay, try standing now," Katara encouraged, sitting back slightly, and Sokka pushed himself to his feet, grimacing as he attempted to put weight on his injured leg. Suki got to her feet as well to wrap an arm around Sokka's waist to support him and Katara pursed her lips thoughtfully as she took in the condition of his leg. "Well, you might need a crutch for a couple days, but it'll heal fine otherwise." She glanced around the room as she climbed to her feet. "I think we could all just do with some rest."

"There are plenty of guest rooms down the hall," Zuko offered. "You guys can take your pick."

"Thanks," Aang said, giving him a grateful smile as he climbed to his feet. "We'll figure it out, Zuko, you should get some sleep. You're probably in the worst condition out of all of us."

Zuko leveled him with a mild, offended glare, but Rinzen nudged his side gently with her elbow and he winced. "Okay, point taken," he conceded, shifting to lay down again obediently and pressing his face into her hip.

Aang huffed a chuckle before closing the space between himself and Rinzen, sliding his arms around her shoulders briefly. She leaned into the embrace, squeezing him back gently before reluctantly letting go and then frowning when she realized she had to crane her neck just a little more than usual to look up at him.

"Hey, when did you get so tall? You might actually be taller than me now."

"What?" Aang looked down at himself self-consciously. "Oh. I don't know, I probably just hit a growth spurt or something."

"Great, now Rin's not the taller Twinkletoes anymore," Toph complained as she hopped to her feet to follow everyone out. "I gotta come up with a new nickname for her."

"Nothing mean, please!" Rinzen called as the door closed behind them.

"It's finally over," Zuko said quietly after a moment, his voice half-muffled by Rinzen's hip. She glanced down at him, brushing her fingers through his hair.

"Yeah, looks like it. You okay?"

He exhaled wearily, tilting his head back slightly to look up at her. "I don't know. My father's still alive, which I wasn't expecting. And Azula's not just alive, but dangerously insane. I have to figure out a way to deal with both of them eventually."

"Well, at least your father's firebending is gone," she offered. "So that's one obstacle out of the way."

"I guess." Zuko pressed his head back into Rinzen's hand as he shut his eyes and she ruffled his hair again absently. "That feels pretty nice," he admitted.

"Good, because I'm going to be playing with your hair a lot now that it's long enough and you can't stop me," she teased back, earning a small chuckle from him at last as he reached up and tugged her down until she was nestled at his side again, winding his arms around her to keep her arms pinned down. His hand settled against her back and she could feel the warmth of his palm pressed against the base of her spine.

"I seem to be doing pretty okay at stopping you," he pointed out with a smile.

"No fair, I can't even try to get out of this without hurting you more," she protested, but couldn't stop herself from smiling back as she pressed her cheek against his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this at ease, with no war or looming battles to worry about and everyone she cared about safe and secure for the foreseeable future.

She felt Zuko's fingers brush through her hair slowly and glanced up to find him looking down at her, smiling faintly as his eyes roamed over her face, as if memorizing it.

"What?" she asked, her cheeks flushing self-consciously under his gaze.

"Nothing." He ducked his head to kiss her cheek. "I've just never seen you this happy before."

"Could say the same for you," she pointed out, leaning up just enough to kiss his jaw in return. She didn't think she had ever seen him smiling so much, not even in Ba Sing Se, and it was both jarring and pleasant to see.

"Well, I am happy," he answered with a small shrug and then winced as the motion pulled at the bandages on his chest. She rolled her eyes before pressing a kiss to his chest just above the bandages.

"Don't strain yourself, you've still got a long way to go before you're healed. Get some sleep."

"Bossy," he complained, but obediently shut his eyes and pressed his cheek against the top of her head. She nestled in against him comfortably, closing her eyes as well and focusing on the sensation of his fingers tracing lazy patterns into her back slowly as she drifted into sleep.

The next week was a blur as the whole world seemed to scramble to pick itself up in the aftermath of the war that had raged on for a hundred years. Sora acted as a proxy for Zuko most of the time, rushing back and forth between sending letters and issuing commands on his behalf since Katara had insisted that Zuko remain on bed-rest until the last possible moment before he had to get ready for his coronation.

It didn't stop Zuko from trying to get as much work done as possible by himself, as Rinzen discovered two days after Sozin's Comet had passed when she returned from getting herself measured for new formal Air Nomad robes to find him guiltily shoving sheafs of parchment under his covers to keep her from spotting them.

"You don't have to hide anything from me," she pointed out. "I'm not gonna stop you from working as long as it's not hurting you."

Relieved, he pulled out the sheafs of parchment again, spreading them out in his lap. "Sorry. Katara's already been in here twice today to yell at me for trying to get work done."

"She just worries, she means well. She's been fussing over Sokka, too, if that's any consolation." Rinzen took a seat on the bed beside Zuko, peering at the nearest piece of parchment. "What're you working on?"

"Some plans that I'd like to bring up with the Earth King when we all meet with him in a couple weeks in Ba Sing Se." He nudged the parchment over to her. "I was thinking about removing the colonies in the Earth Kingdom and relocating the people there back to the Fire Nation."

"That's a good start," she agreed, reading through the extensive list of Earth Kingdom town names marked as Fire Nation colonies and recognizing some of them as towns she and the others had passed through during their travels. "Sounds like you'll be pretty busy for a while now on," she added, keeping her eyes fixed on Zuko's neat handwriting on the page to avoid looking at him.

"So will you," he pointed out. "You said you wanted to go to the Air Temples and start restoring them, right?"

She looked back up at him, startled that he had remembered what she had said casually months earlier. "I mean, yeah, I guess. But Aang's probably going to be busy for some time, too, and I'd like to at least get started with him there, so it won't be for a while yet."

Zuko frowned slightly, dropping his gaze to the papers strewn across both of their laps. "We're going to have a lot less time to spend with each other, though."

Rinzen tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach at the thought even as she reassured him, "We'll make it work."

He cracked a tiny smile, nudging his shoulder against hers lightly. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." She nudged him back gingerly to avoid accidentally hurting him. "Don't get me wrong, it's not going to be easy, and we're both going to have to make compromises to make this work. A lot of compromises. But we'll figure it out together."

"I'd like that." He leaned in to press a kiss to her forehead, right against the center of her arrow tattoo, and she felt her cheeks warm slightly. Even after all the times they had kissed before, every single brush of affection still flustered her easily. "Promise you'll visit between restoring the temples?"

"Of course I will." She tilted her head up to steal a kiss to his lips, smiling when she felt his lips curve up in response against hers. "You're not getting rid of me that easily. And don't think you're getting out of coming to see the temples when I'm done with them."

"Yeah, I know. I can't wait to see them." He pecked the corner of her mouth in return. A sudden knock on the door made them jolt apart just in time before Sora poked his head in.

"Got a minute? I got a few responses from some governors in the Earth Kingdom that you'll want to go over."

Rinzen raised an eyebrow at Zuko with a wry smile. "Back to work?"

He grinned wearily back at her. "Back to work," he confirmed, waving Sora in.

The morning of Zuko's coronation dawned, bright and sunny, and Rinzen found herself whisked away with Aang to get ready almost the instant she woke up. Their new formal Air Nomad robes had arrived, twin bundles of orange and yellow fabric accompanied by wooden bead necklaces strung around pendants etched with the Air Nomad symbol, and the first thing Aang did when he saw them was reach for one of the necklaces, his fingers tracing over the carvings slowly.

"You okay?" Rinzen asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He clutched the beads tightly, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. "I just haven't seen one of these pendants in a long time. Not since…" He swallowed, but she knew what he had been about to say.

"I wish Gyatso was here, too," she reassured him. "He'd be really proud of you."

He looked up from the pendant, his eyes misty even as he smiled tentatively. "You think so?"

"I know so." She knocked her shoulder against his gently and his smile widened. "Now go get ready, we don't have much time before the coronation starts."

"Yeah, yeah." He gathered the bundle of robes up before heading across the room to where a folding screen had been set up for him to change behind. He paused abruptly in his tracks, turning back to her. "He'd be proud of you, too, you know."

Rinzen felt her throat tighten, swallowing back the lump in her throat and blinking back the sudden stinging in her eyes. "Thanks." Aang gave her another warm smile before disappearing behind the folding screen. Rinzen followed his lead, grabbing her own set of robes and heading for the folding screen on the other side of the room to change into them.

She felt odd once the last of the robes were wrapped around her and the bead necklace was around her neck, the pendant resting securely against her chest. It was as if she automatically stood straighter the moment she was dressed like the elder monks had once been, and when she came around the folding screen to find Aang studying himself critically in the full-length mirror against the wall, she found him standing a little straighter, too.

He turned when he heard her approaching, smiling broadly. "Hey, you look great."

"So do you." She grinned back at him, his enthusiasm contagious. "You look so grown-up now. Except..." She reached out to straighten his collar for him, adjusting the crooked pendant until it lay against his chest. "Okay, now you look grown-up," she confirmed.

He rolled his eyes. "You're never gonna stop fussing over me no matter how old I am, are you?"

"Not a chance." She tapped her knuckles affectionately against the top of his head, wishing for a moment he had hair that she could mess up.

"You should check in on Zuko, make sure he's ready," Aang suggested even as he ducked away from her, grinning.

"Yeah, I will." Rinzen slipped out of the room, heading back down the hallway to Zuko's room. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Mai leaving his room and shutting the door behind herself. "Oh. You got out of prison, great." She tried to inject some enthusiasm into her voice, but seeing Mai leaving Zuko's room left her feeling far more uncertain and hurt than she should have felt.

"It helps that my uncle's the warden," Mai answered simply with a shrug. "I was just wishing Zuko luck for today." She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at Zuko's door. "And for the future. You'd better treat him right."

Rinzen flushed slightly, embarrassed. "Look, I really am sorry about before, I didn't mean to get between you two-"

Mai raised one hand, cutting her off. "You didn't get between us. And I owe you an apology for everything I said about you before. He chose you even before he realized it himself, I know that now. And for what it's worth, you make him happier than I probably ever could've. So just...be good to him. That's all I ask."

"I will," Rinzen promised and Mai held out her hand. Rinzen reached out, clasping it tightly, and Mai shook it firmly once.

"Good. Because if you don't, then the Avatar's going to end up being the only airbender alive." She tightened her hold marginally on Rinzen's hand. "Am I clear?"

"Crystal," Rinzen answered, doing her best not to let on how painful Mai's grip was.

"Good." Mai released her hand at last. "I think he could use your help getting ready." She nodded to the door. "See you at the coronation." She turned to head down the hall and Rinzen took the opportunity to tap her knuckles on the door briefly before slipping inside to find Zuko struggling to pull on a dark red silk robe embroidered with gold patterns that would go underneath the Fire Lord's ceremonial robes, wincing in pain as the movement tugged at the bandages wrapped tightly around his chest.

"Need some help?" she offered and he looked up, startled and embarrassed.

"A little," he admitted and she closed the space between them to tug the robes over his shoulders for him before cinching the sash around his waist easily. "Thanks." He leaned down to press a brief, grateful kiss to her cheek before pulling back again to admire her new formal robes. "You look beautiful."

She felt heat rush into her face, unprepared for how flustered the compliment had made her. "Oh. Thanks. You, too. I mean, you look handsome. Not beautiful. Well, no, I mean you do, but you get what I mean."

Zuko raised an eyebrow, amused. "Do I? I don't know, I wouldn't mind if you told me I was pretty more often."

"Shut up." She hid her face against his neck, feeling his shoulders trembling with suppressed laughter as he wrapped his arms around her properly to hold her close, pressing a kiss into her hair.

"Sorry. You just make it too easy sometimes."

"Ugh, you're the worst." Rinzen wanted to pinch his side in protest, but stopped herself just in time when she remembered that he was still injured. "Why do I love you again?"

He huffed a chuckle, nestling his chin against the top of her head. "Been asking myself the same question all week."

"I'd give you an actual answer, but we've only got an hour before the coronation and that's not nearly enough time to list all the reasons," she deadpanned, pressing a kiss to his shoulder before pulling back to find him no longer smiling, his expression pensive as he studied her. "What is it?" she asked, startled by the sudden change in his demeanor.

"Things are going to be different after today." He reached up, running his fingers through her hair and tucking the loose strands behind her ear. "The whole world's going to have their eyes on us."

"Pretty sure the whole world's had their eyes on all of us for a while," she pointed out dryly.

"No, I mean us. You and me. People are going to be watching and judging every move we make, everything we say and do now on. Are you sure you're okay with that?"

Rinzen raised her eyebrows. "Zuko, are you trying to talk me out of a relationship with you?"

He flushed, embarrassed. "No, I just - I'd understand if you don't want all the extra baggage that comes with being with me."

"As much as I appreciate you trying to be considerate, extra baggage isn't going to scare me away from you. You're stuck with me for the long haul." She leaned up to kiss him firmly and he relaxed marginally, his hold on her tightening as if he was afraid she would change her mind the moment he let her go.

Even with the large crowd of people from both Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation who had shown up for Zuko's coronation, Rinzen found herself feeling a pang of loneliness, especially when they all grouped together by nation - three distinct seas of blue, red, and green - and she was left standing alone, with no sea of orange behind her. Katara and Sokka - still balancing on a crutch - stood beside her, their father resting his hands on his children's shoulders proudly behind them, and Toph stood on Rinzen's other side with what was left of the Freedom Fighters gathered around her. Still, Rinzen could feel the empty space behind her where her people should have been, celebrating the end of a hundred years of war with the rest of the world.

She felt a tap on her shoulder. "Is this spot taken?" She turned to find Iroh standing there with a warm smile on his face, dressed in dark navy robes with silver embroidering on the edges - the colors of the Order of the White Lotus.

"Iroh!" She threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly, and he chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her to return the embrace.

"I'm sorry we arrived so late. It took much longer than we anticipated to secure Ba Sing Se and return order to the city." He nodded to the crowd of people behind him as he pulled back and Rinzen recognized them as other members of the White Lotus from their navy and silver robes, filling in the empty space where the Air Nomads would have stood.

"Better late than never. Zuko will be glad you made it," she reassured him.

A gong struck nearby and the sudden cheers that erupted around her made her turn around to see Zuko emerging from the red curtain hanging over the doors to the palace, dressed fully in regal crimson and gold robes with his hair pulled back into a topknot. He stood so straight that if Rinzen hadn't known better, she would never have been able to tell he had been struck with lightning only a week earlier.

Zuko raised a hand to silence the crowd. "Please. The real hero is the Avatar." He stepped aside and Aang emerged behind him, standing tall and straight as he took his place at Zuko's side. The crowd began to applaud even louder and Aang flushed at the attention, ducking his head humbly, but Rinzen could see the broad smile spreading across his face.

"I knew Aang could do a lot of things, but I didn't know he could turn into a tomato, too," Sokka whispered and Katara elbowed him.

"Quiet, Sokka," she hissed. "This is supposed to be serious."

"I don't know, he looks more like a strawberry to me," Rinzen added under her breath, grinning when Katara elbowed her as well.

"I can't believe Twinkletoes hasn't melted into the stage with how embarrassed he is," Toph snickered. "I can hear his heart racing even from here."

Katara reached across Rinzen to swat at Toph's shoulder. "Behave, you three."

"Children," Iroh sighed, but he was grinning all the same.

Rinzen knew Zuko couldn't hear them from how far away he was, but knew he had seen Katara admonishing them and put the pieces together when he glanced briefly at Aang's red face and bit his lip hard to stifle a smile as he faced the gathered crowd again.

"Today, this war is over," he said once the applause died down. "I promised my uncle that I would restore the honor of the Fire Nation. And I will." Out of the corner of her eye, Rinzen could see Iroh beaming proudly at his nephew, his eyes suspiciously watery. "The road ahead of us is challenging. A hundred years of fighting has left the world scarred and divided," Zuko continued, "But with the Avatar's help, we can get it back on the right path and begin a new era of love and peace."

He knelt down where he stood and Aang took a few steps aside to let a Fire Sage approach, holding an elaborate gold flame-shaped headpiece that he nestled into Zuko's hair.

"All hail Fire Lord Zuko!" As Zuko rose to his feet again, the crowd exploded into cheers so loud that Rinzen's ears rang. Aang and Zuko exchanged a smile before stepping forward together, facing the cheering masses, and Rinzen felt the last bits of tension left over from their final battle drain out of her. The world had been damaged irreparably, but they would be able to begin fixing what they could together.

"Come on, you guys!" Aang called, winding his way around the stone pillars of the Eastern Air Temple and leaping at least three feet into the air every few steps in his excitement.

"It'd be nice if you actually told us what we're here for," Rinzen pointed out as she and the others followed Aang down the hallway. He had received a note from Guru Pathik not long after Zuko's coronation asking him to come to the Eastern Air Temple as quickly as possible, and since they were all heading to Ba Sing Se - excluding Suki, who had gone back to Kyoshi with the other Kyoshi warriors to continue to rebuild their village - to meet with the Earth King, they decided to stop by the Eastern Air Temple on the way to the city.

"Trust me, it's a surprise," Aang insisted as he turned to face her again. "For you, especially. It's in the courtyard just up ahead."

"Should I be worried?" Rinzen glanced up at Zuko beside her. "Did he tell you anything?"

He shook his head, his hair loose and hanging in his eyes. He had forgone his crown and topknot in favor of leaving his hair down, as he often did whenever he wasn't expected to be the Fire Lord in public. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Rinzen cast a hopeful look at Toph, Katara, and Sokka behind her, but they shook their heads as well. "Ugh, what good are any of you as friends if you can't even ruin surprises for me?" she grumbled goodnaturedly. She had meant it at least half-seriously, but it still made Zuko laugh as he slid his arm around her shoulders, which made her relax a little.

He had rarely so much as smiled in the past few days since being crowned Fire Lord, having been piled with so much paperwork and legislative forms that he had hardly even left his study until Rinzen had had to practically tear him away from his desk so that they could leave for the Eastern Air Temple and Ba Sing Se. Despite her promise to him before the coronation that they would make it work, she was already beginning to feel the pressure straining at their relationship, new as it was.

"Rin, come here!" Aang called again from up ahead and Rinzen rolled her eyes before walking a little faster, rounding the corner and stopping in her tracks when she saw the courtyard of the temple. Zuko stumbled a little beside her, not expecting her to stop so suddenly, but then his mouth fell open as he stared at the scene in front of him.

"Are those…?" he said faintly.

"Yep." Aang turned to face them, beaming.

"No way," Sokka said when he, Katara, and Toph caught up to Rinzen and Zuko, his eyes widening.

"Yes, way." Aang grinned cheekily.

"There are so many!" Katara gasped.

"Sure are," Aang confirmed cheerfully.

"Quit being cryptic, Twinkletoes, you know I can't see what you're talking about," Toph complained.

"They're sky bison." Rinzen's voice cracked as she took in the giant lumbering creatures in the courtyard, contentedly grazing on the grass. "A whole herd of them."

"Yeah." Aang's smile softened as he turned his attention back to Rinzen. "Some locals said they'd spotted them in the area and herded them here to the temple. Guru Pathik's been taking care of them."

"Aang, there are babies." Rinzen pointed at the calves, miniscule balls of fluff that huddled against their mothers' sides, while some slightly-larger balls of fluff rose into the air, wiggling their tiny six legs plaintively as they floated upwards.

"I know, they're adorable." Aang grinned broadly before he took in the expression on Rinzen's face. "Are you crying?"

"Shut up." Rinzen sniffled before she could stop herself, scrubbing at her stinging eyes. "I thought Appa was the only one left and now we've got a whole herd of sky bison here. Has he met them?"

"Sure, he's fitting right in." Aang pointed and sure enough, Rinzen could see their own sky bison nestled in among the herd, his saddle the only distinguishing factor as he lay down and allowed some of the younger calves to clamber onto him and bite his ears with a long-suffering expression on his furry face.

"We should probably rescue him," Katara suggested, frowning as she watched Appa wince when one calf tugged on his ear particularly hard.

"Yeah, I'll go get-" Rinzen broke off when she noticed one of the bison trudging closer, eyeing her warily. "Uh, hi, there?" she offered and the bison only blinked back at her, slow and considering. She seemed to be only a few years younger than Appa, and her horns were just a little smaller than a typical sky bison's horns would have been.

"She doesn't look friendly," Sokka warned when Rinzen took a step closer to the bison.

"She's just nervous, she'll relax once she sees that we're not a threat." Rinzen took another step forward, holding her hand out so that the bison could sniff at her fingers. After a few tentative snuffles, the bison pressed her warm, wet nose into Rinzen's palm, allowing her to rub her muzzle affectionately. "Hi, pretty girl," she crooned and the bison grumbled softly, closing her large brown eyes contentedly.

"I think you just got yourself a sky bison, Rin," Aang said, grinning, and Rinzen glanced over her shoulder at him, alarmed.

"What?" She let go of the bison and took a few steps back, but the bison whined and followed after her. "I can't have a sky bison, the monks said I was too old to bond with one."

"You ever think maybe the monks didn't actually know everything?" Aang pointed out, frowning now. "There's nothing wrong with bonding a little late."

Rinzen tried to take another step back and this time, the bison took the hint, whimpering as she inched backwards again. The sound tore at Rinzen's heart. "I can't have a sky bison," she protested again weakly.

"Why not?" Zuko said suddenly and she looked up to find him studying the bison contemplatively. "We're already building a stable big enough for Appa at the palace. We could add another one for her."

Rinzen swallowed before taking a few steps forward again, resting her hand against the bison's muzzle. "What do you think, girl? You wanna be stuck with me now on?" she murmured and the bison snuffled softly again before licking at her fingers affectionately. Blinking back the tears before they threatened to overwhelm her, she looked back at Zuko, who raised an eyebrow expectantly. "Okay. I'm keeping her."

"You got a name in mind for her?" Aang asked and Rinzen glanced back down at the bison, smiling.

"Yeah. Her name's Lychee." It was what she had always wanted to name a sky bison if she had ever bonded with one, but she had never thought she would get to actually use it.

"She's definitely sweet enough to have earned that name," Katara offered, watching Lychee nuzzle in against Rinzen and nearly knock the airbender off her feet in her eagerness to cuddle. Rinzen buried her face into Lychee's forehead, right against the brown arrow markings, and let the hot tears in her eyes fall into the sky bison's fur, overwhelmed and dizzy with how happy she was.

"Come on, let's go see the babies," Aang said from somewhere behind her, clearly giving her some space as he led Katara, Sokka, and Toph further into the courtyard.

Zuko lingered behind, waiting for Rinzen to pull her face out of Lychee's fur. "You okay?" he offered tentatively, closing the space between them to thumb away a stray tear underneath her eye.

"Yeah. Yeah, I just-" She swallowed back the lump in her throat. "I never thought I'd get to have this." She brushed her fingers affectionately through the fringe of fur hanging over Lychee's eyes. "I was told my whole life that no sky bison would ever bond with me. I was too slow at learning to airbend. Not spiritual enough. But she wants me, anyway."

"Maybe she sees something in you that the monks never did," Zuko suggested and she managed a tentative smile.

"Maybe." She reached out to take his hand, guiding it to Lychee's forehead. "Here, you'd better get her used to you." He hesitated before stroking Lychee's fur slowly as the bison grumbled softly, eyeing him for a moment before nuzzling into his touch. "She likes you," Rinzen said, relieved.

"Of course she does, I'm great with animals." Zuko grinned back at her warmly before leaning in to steal a soft kiss from her. "Are you happy?"

"Unbelievably happy," she confirmed.

"Babies, no, come back!" Aang shouted from the courtyard and Rinzen glanced over, startled, to see him reaching helplessly for the tiny calves floating upwards into the sky, their eyes wide and alarmed as they flailed desperately to try and remain on the ground.

"Should we help them?" Zuko asked, a hint of laughter in his voice.

"Probably," Rinzen agreed, unable to help a grin as she reluctantly released Lychee's muzzle and they both headed further out into the courtyard to help Aang retrieve the frantic baby bison and bring them back down to the earth.

And that concludes Book 2: Rebalance! The first chapter of Book 3: Harmony is in the works and will be out as soon as I finish it up! It'll mainly follow some of the post-show comics (The Promise, The Search, and Smoke and Shadow), but I might add more to the plot based on some of the other comics in the future.

I'll make an update to this story the moment I put up the first chapter of the sequel so that you're all notified. Thanks for sticking around for the ride and I look forward to seeing you guys again in Book 3: Harmony!