A/N: Hello everyone! Thanks for reading this far with me. Please take a second to review! Any concrit is loved! I really appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Thanks for your patience!

"Sokka," Hakoda said when Sokka entered the overly large igloo. It had been one of Master Pakku and Katara's Southern Water Tribe renovation projects when Katara was well enough to waterbend again. Along with the huge ice structure which was now used as a government building, the two waterbenders had expanded the village and fortified a great wall.

Sokka nodded to his father moved to take a seat. Arranged in a sort of circle was his father, Bato, a few of the other men of the tribe, Master Pakku, and two girls, Katara and Suki. Sokka cricked his neck as he swung his eyes back to Suki. It was the first time he had seen her leave her tent the entire two weeks she had been here.

"Suki! You're – you're wearing three coats?" Sokka frowned as he lowered himself onto some furs.

Suki was so packed stiff with furs that she resembled Appa more than a girl. "I'm not the greatest fan of blizzards," she managed to squeeze out between blue lips. "Not that this isn't a great summer vacation, Sokka."

Bewildered, Sokka glanced out of the entryway of the igloo. "Blizzard? It's only snowing."

That observation did not seem to improve Suki's mood. "N – next time we meet, we – we're going to train on Kyoshi. And – and y-you're wearing the uniform."

"I am not wearing the dress again!"

"Ah, why?" Katara, who seemed to be eavesdropping, said. "It brings out your eyes."

Sokka didn't have time to retort; at that moment Aang came in through the entryway, brushing snow off his shoulders. Katara and Aang's eyes met, and both of them blushed deep red before glancing away.

"Nice blush, Katara," Sokka said. "It brings out your eyes."

"All right, everyone," Hakoda stood up and addressed the group. He was a powerful figure, attractive and strong for his age, and leadership emanated from his mere presence. Sokka could only hope to be half the man his father was someday. "The Avatar has arrived with some important issues to discuss. Aang?"

"Okay," Aang said. He took a deep breath. "As many of you know, the city of Ba Sing Se has fallen again, this time to a rebel group, led by a commoner woman named Chenlu." Aang raised his hand and waited for the murmuring to dispel. "Both your sister tribe and the Fire Nation are against this uprising. Not only are they executing the aristocrats and former government officials, but they're intending to expand their republic to the rest of the Earth Kingdom."

"Why do we care what the Earth Kingdom does?" asked Nuka, one of Hakoda's advisors. "Let them destroy themselves."

"We should care," Master Pakku said. His hand pulled thoughtfully at his mustache. "We care because if they are successful in overthrowing their monarchy, our people will get the same idea. Can you imagine if the Fire Nation overthrew their new Fire Lord? A lot of them supported the war under Fire Lord Ozai. What about our sister tribe in the North? What if Chief Arnook is overthrown by the peasants? No, we cannot let the Earth Kingdom peasants succeed in this, the damage and influence it would fuel would be disastrous. The world would be overtaken by anarchy."

A deep silence settled over the icy room.

"As I said, Chief Arnook and Fire Lord Zuko are against this," Aang said. "But we've run into a problem. The Northern Tribe refuses to work with the Fire Nation."

"Well, of course," Bato said. "People do not forget a hundred years of war and suffering. Even with you acting as an advocate, it is not something our sister tribe can quickly get over. It's not something we can quickly get over either."

Aang's head dropped. "I was afraid you'd say that. The current halt in negotiations is because of your tribe. It has basically come down to your decision."

"What do you mean, Aang?" Hakoda asked. "We haven't heard any of this, and now we are the ones to decide whether the Water Tribes and Fire Nation go to war against the Earth Kingdom?"

"They say it's the cost of your culture, all but one" – his eyes lingered on where Katara sat – "of the Southern Water Tribe waterbenders have been wiped out. An entire part of your culture is gone and thousands of men and women's lives lost. They say they cannot agree to any alliance because of the suffering you have endured."

Katara's hand was gripping her necklace, the last remnant of their mother who had died to protect Katara, the last waterbender of the South Pole. Tears welled up in her eyes, but did not spill over. Even after all these years and even after becoming friends with the current Fire Lord himself, Sokka knew that Katara still could not get past the death of her mother at a firebender's hands. He reached out and took her free hand, and she squeezed it and held on, as if Sokka's hand were the last anchor to her family. In some ways, it was.

"I trust Zuko," Katara said suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her. "The only way for us to move on from this war is to actually move on. We can't keep nursing old wounds and grudges against each other. We have to work together to stop another war. Aang is the Avatar; if he says this is the only way, then I support his decision."

"I agree with Katara. This thing needs to be settled, and settled fast," Sokka said..

"We should send representatives to our sister tribe, to help assist in negotiations," Bato said.

"I agree. There is no reason for the Northern Tribe to make decisions on our behalf without our input," Hakoda said. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Let's break for lunch, and then we will discuss who will go as our representatives, and what the Southern Tribe wants accomplished in these negotiations."

Master Pakku smiled at Katara. "You have grown wise, my once-pupil," he said. Katara blushed and ducked her head at his praise. "Kana has made a vegetarian lunch for the Avatar. Please, invite him. We would be honored to have him."

"Of course." Katara stood up and moved to wait in line to talk to Aang, her face once again a beet-red color.

"Suki, my dear," Master Pakku said. "You must also honor us with lunch. I want to hear more about the Earth Kingdom. Perhaps your wisdom and experience can prove useful to us."

Suki grinned. "Thanks, Master Pakku! I would be greatly honored."

"Oh," Master Pakku said as he stood up. Without glancing at his step-grandson, he stuck a thumb in Sokka's direction. "You can bring him."

"Thanks," Sokka muttered. He steadied Suki's arm when she tripped over her multiple coats. "Seriously, Suki, it's not that cold."

"Speak for yourself. We're standing in an ice building, Sokka, and you don't think it's cold?"

Sokka didn't know how to respond to that one.

Lunch was an awkward event. Aang and Katara didn't talk much, only murmuring red-faced apologies when their elbows or hands brushed against each other. Suki and Master Pakku were having a spirited conversation that involved not involving him, and before long he couldn't take the lovesick sister and boyfriend and pampering from Gran Gran.

"I'm going for a walk," Sokka said.

"Us too," Aang said and pulled up Katara by her hand. "Uh, Katara, will you, uh, show me the wall?"

"Right, the wall. The wall is really interesting. See you, everyone!" she said before whisking Aang off for the private tour of the fascinating ice wall.

Sokka watched as they took off on a walk around the village. The two stopped when they were out of earshot, and they stood facing each other awkwardly. This was too much, Sokka had to know what was going on. He crept up to the couple, careful to hide behind Nuka's tent.

"Did you mean what you said?" Aang asked quietly. "This morning?"

"Of course I did. I mean, unless you don't want me to mean what I said then I won't mean what I meant –"

Aang cut her off with a kiss. "I'm glad."

Sokka rolled his eyes. This was getting boring and they weren't talking about anything.

Aang began a story about his adventures, and the two of them walked off hand-in-hand, apparently really taking a tour of the wall. Sokka watched them go. By the look of Katara's enraptured face, Aang was holding her interest with a thrilling story. He looked like he was coming to the grand climax of the tale, and in an effort to dramatize it further, Aang airbended on top of a snow drift. He vanished into the snow. Apparently the Avatar was not aware that snow drifts were neither firm nor solid.

Even from where Sokka stood he could hear Katara's laugh as Aang struggled to remove himself from the five foot deep pile. Her laughter was stifled when a huge wave of snow crashed over her. Aang was grinning unrepentantly.

What followed was probably the most intense and complicated snowball fight Sokka had ever seen. Katara raised large shields of ice around her and was shooting darts of snow while Aang dived her darts and catapulted bomb-sized snowballs over the top of her shields.

Finally Aang put up two hands in the universal sign of surrender, laughing as Katara surged forward with a giant wall of ice at her back. She dropped her weapon, and yelled like she had been betrayed when Aang waterbended a globe of ice around the two of them. Aang must have thought that the ice globe provided privacy, instead it reflected the silhouette of the two lovers kissing.

"Adorable, aren't they?" Suki said. Sokka whipped around, embarrassed to be caught watching his sister and her boyfriend.

"Oh yeah, real cute." Sokka couldn't help but send a withering glare in Aang's direction.

Suki frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. I mean, they're all lovey-dovey now, but Aang didn't have to deal with the wreck my sister turned into when he was gone for six months, and probably the wreck she'll turn into when he leaves again."

"Oh." Suki pushed her shoulder length hair into her hood and ignored it when it came loose again. "Why wouldn't he take her with him this time?"

"My father has to send his most respected and wisest advisers and ambassadors to the Northern Water Tribe, and Appa can only carry so many people. You haven't been to the Northern Water Tribe, but I'm telling you, my sister can't be one of them. They wouldn't take her seriously as a girl. Taking her would just waste space and time, and Aang has got to realize this. Katara is very capable, yeah, but not in this political scenario."

"So, then who do you think your father will pick?"

"Bato," Sokka said without a moment of hesitation. "Me, probably, as the two representatives. And Master Pakku, with his power and military experience, they're going to need him again. That's four grown men – yes, Suki, I am full grown now – on Appa. It wasn't like before when we were kids and Appa could fit a ton of us on him. Aang has got to realize this. Probably the only one who doesn't is Katara."

At that moment Aang and Katara whizzed by them, Katara laughing in protest. " – Too big to ride the penguins –" Suki and Sokka heard as Aang whisked by them on his air ball, his girlfriend in his arms.

"Poor Katara," Suki said.

Sokka watched Aang and Katara disappear over a snow hill. Indeed, he thought. Poor Katara.