A/N: Sorry to take so long between updates! I'm now a college graduate, though, so expect more frequent chapters :)
As the group rides in the royal carriage on the way to the botanical garden, Sokka has his head stuck out of the window and is waving to those watching the carriage roll by. Suki sits next to him, rolling her eyes at her husband.
"Sokka, these people don't know who you are," Suki says as she nudges his side, "you're not exactly royalty."
Sokka whips his head back inside the carriage to glare at her. "Yeah, but I'm riding in the royal carriage, so they know I'm an important person."
"Except that you're not," Katara chuckles, garnering an offended gasp from Sokka.
"I am too!" Sokka exclaims, jabbing a thumb into his own sternum, "Are you forgetting that our father is the chief of the Southern Water Tribe? I'm be leading a whole civilization of people one day!"
"Yeah, one day," Katara teases with a wink. Sokka's retort is only interrupted by Suki laughing and grabbing his arm, dragging him down so she can nuzzle into his neck and make him forget what he was even angry about. Katara notices that his face flushes, and it makes her smile. Despite all their years together, they are so incredibly happy. Is that how people saw her and Aang? The perfect couple, surviving a war together before settling down in each other's arms. She sighs. She and Aang had years of happy memories together, but ultimately the toxicity of their romantic relationship was just too much to bear. Maybe, once Aang moves on, they can begin again? Pick back up with the friendship they left behind all those years ago?
Katara's barrage of wistful thoughts stops when she feels a warm, familiar hand grab her own. She looks over and sees a glowing, amber eye shining through the bright red scar, with a comforting smile directed right at her. She knows he's concerned for her, that he wants to help, but instead of forcing her to talk he just stays by her side. And honestly, that's exactly what she needs. Not someone to tell her how to fix this mess she put herself in, but to hold her hand when she gets overwhelmed and give her the strength to keep pushing forward. He squeezes gently, which solicits a smile back from Katara, and she leans in to plant a sweet kiss on his cheek.
Toph sulks in the corner with her arms crossed. "Gotta love being the 5th wheel," she drawls.
"Aw, come on, Toph! You'll find someone someday!" Sokka reassures her, "What ever happened to that boulder guy?"
"Wait, you seriously think I would date him? He's like a literal rock, no brain in that thick skull of his."
"Well, I figured two strong earthbenders would just naturally gravitate to each other," Sokka says with a scratch of the head.
"What, so just because he's an earthbender you think we would be perfect together?"
"Oh, I don't know! I guess I've only seen benders date people from their nation, that's all."
"And what about you and Suki? She's earth nation."
"That's why I said benders."
Toph flicks her arm forward to gesture to Zuko and Katara. "Sokka, you're sitting across from a firebender and waterbender who happen to be engaged, and you're saying that benders only date people that can move the same stuff with their mind? Just because someone can throw a rock across a room doesn't mean I'm going to swoon at their feet."
Katara listens to the argument between Toph and Sokka as it continues throughout the rest of the carriage ride. Although Sokka is sometimes a thick-headed idiot, his assumption wasn't without merit. Because of the war and its polarization of the nations, it makes sense that no one would have seen a mixed-nation couple just walking around in the past hundred years. Things have obviously changed, especially since there's now a world capital that gives people easy-access across nations in terms of dating options. Now that Katara thinks about it, if two benders have a child, what kind of bending would they get? Were certain elements dominant over another, like skin tone or eye color? Or maybe they would get both elements, like a partial Avatar? Katara knows that bending can skip a generation or two, proven by the fact that both her mom and dad were non-benders, but what if two earthbenders had a firebending child, all because one grandparent was a firebender? Agni, this is confusing.
Before she knows it, the carriages halts as the coachman announces that they have arrived at the gardens. Toph leaps out of the carriage and instinctively digs her bare feet into the earth beneath her. The rest follow suit, stepping out of the carriage and looking upon the large building ahead of them. The botanical gardens consists of a large, grandiose building with towering columns and a sloped glass ceiling for the sunlight to shine through. In the foyer, there's a map of the building engraved into the stone directory sitting in the center of the round room. The building is laid out like a large ring, with an expansive outdoor exhibit within the center of the looping hallway. Around the outside wall of the hallway is a series of room, each tailored to a specific type of flora. Some rooms have an exterior wall of entirely glass to allow maximum sunlight, some have artificial lighting to give the botanists the utmost control over a sensitive plant's light exposure, similar to that of a nursery. Katara eyes the location of the air nomad room and leads the way, memorizing the map almost instantly.
The entrance to this particular exhibit is not a closed door, but rather an open archway that extend all the way to the elevated ceiling and is lined with a crawling vine hosting small, puffy white flowers that resemble miniature clouds. They peruse around the exhibit, taking in the foreign flowers and bushes of fruits no one has seen in a generation. Katara, entranced by the beauty of the pearlized hydrangeas, almost fails to notice Sokka attempting to pluck a golden boysenberry from its branch, and she is quick to slap his wrist away from the plant.
"Sokka!" She exclaims.
"What? It looks delicious!" Sokka says frankly.
"That's an endangered species. You can't just go eating it!"
"Maybe if it didn't look so appetizing it wouldn't be endangered," he shrugs, either oblivious to his ignorance or just plain apathetic about its rarity. Suki, picking up quickly on Katara's frustration, tugs Sokka toward the next plant, pointing excitedly to the tree full of budding aerated apples. Her arm is wrapped around Sokka's elbow and her shoulder is propped against his upper arm, eliminating the distance between them. Katara wishes she could do the same to Zuko; he looks especially handsome in the dazzling natural light beaming through the crystal glass ceiling. As Fire Lord, however, she's sure he would need to make a public announcement, and with all eyes on him during every public outing it's most likely not a wise move to engage in any PDA. She settles for just appreciating the view, exploring his frame with her eyes and picturing what she already knows is underneath. Zuko catches her glancing southward and smirks knowingly before he continues examining the bismarckia ahead of him.
"I've never seen such an interesting palm tree," Zuko comments, "Who knew there was such a thing as pure white leaves?"
"I don't think anybody knew. Aang told me that they found a seed reserve in the depths of the Western Air Temple. I'm guessing it was used for agricultural research. The female air nomads were known for their dedication to the flora of their temples." Katara reaches forward to stroke one of the immature palm leaves. For as young as the tree is, it's already grown to shoulder-level and will most likely surpass the height of the large palms along the forested coast of Yue Bay.
There's an awkward silence as Zuko shifts his weight in place. "Speaking of the air nomads…"
Katara's hand pauses and the palm leaf slips out from between her fingertips, sending it snapping back into its earlier position close to the tree trunk.
"You still haven't told me how your conversation with Aang went."
"I didn't think I had to," Katara mumbles, "his absence makes it pretty obvious."
"Well, yes, but I want to hear it from you. I thought you may stop by my chambers last night with an update. How are you feeling about all of this?"
"Honestly, Zuko, I'm pretty overwhelmed. I went to see him in the hopes that we could make amends and move on as friends. But it turns out he had no idea I had even broken up with him, just thought I needed a break from the world or something. It was like ending things with him all over again. And then he…" Her voice trails off, stopping before she brings up a crucial part of the night she has yet to mention.
"Then… what?" Zuko inquires, noticing the way Katara retreated into herself just then. "Did something happen? Did he hurt you?"
"No," she says calmly as she rubs her arm anxiously, "No, he's not capable of doing that."
"Then what is it that's bothering you?"
Before she can say anything, they're interrupted by Toph physical nudging her way between them, waving her hands in front of their faces.
"Hello? Did either of you hear me?"
"I'm sorry?" Zuko stammers.
"I said that I'm headed out. God, you two, so in your own little world that you're practically deaf."
"What? Where could you possibly be going?" Katara asks.
"While the two sets of lovebirds have been off galavanting together, leaving me in the dust, I made a friend. She's going to take me to some cool places in town. No offense, Zuko, but going anywhere with you can feel a little suffocating. Don't you get weirded out by all the people staring?"
"Yeah, I do," Zuko says with a chuckle. "Alright, that's fine. I'll let the palace guards know that they should expect you back later than the rest of us."
"If by 'later' you mean tomorrow, then yeah, go ahead and do that," Toph adds, "I think I'm gonna be spending the night."
While Zuko stares with a confused expression, Katara crosses her arms with a grin. "Well, well, this isn't just a normal friend, now is it?" It isn't news to Katara that Toph swings both ways. A while back, Toph announced that she was casually seeing a nice Earth Nation girl, catching most of the gang off guard. She had been one of Toph's students that, once she realized metalbending wasn't exactly within her skillset, stuck around if only to keep seeing her mentor. The fling lasted a season and ended mutually once Toph got bored, quickly moving on to one of the local fruit stand boys. Since that part of Toph's life opened up, she's been having a great time with herself, truly embracing the free love movement that Katara first witnessed in the Earth Kingdom nomads so long ago.
"Maybe," Toph says smugly, "Sorry to abandon you guys, but it's been a while."
"Just be safe and make good choices," Katara teases before Toph turns away from them, a slightly blush showing between her bangs. Katara looks back at Zuko, who's still putting the pieces together in his head. She laughs when his face changes to that of surprised realization and he makes a double take between her and Toph's retreating frame.
"She's…?" Zuko attempts to form words but is left with a gaping mouth instead. Katara pats his cheek playfully and before walking away, searching for Sokka and Suki amongst the sparse crowd in the exhibit and hoping to make plans for lunch in the city.