Epilogue
When Sokka is closest to Katara, it's because they never let anything come between the bonds of family. They never have.
Yes, they fight, they argue, they quibble and scream. Not a week goes by without some conflict or another. But this is natural. This is life in the Water Tribe, where individuals grow accustomed to life in the cold and proximity to one another. This is life for siblings. This is the nature of water, of violence and peace, push and pull.
But when anything occurs, they were always among each other's first response. When anger, unhappiness, malady or disaster strikes, they were there to help, to watch, to stand by and simply wait for the moment they might help. When joy, surprise, exhilaration was to be had, they would share in it. Joy in the other's happiness. Co-misery in the other's sorrow. Always there, always a part, and never separated for long.
They grew up together. They lived together. They would grow old together. They were family, and nothing would change that.
After the war, Sokka and his sister Katara eventually returned from their journey to the Southern Water Tribe, where they would restore their tribe to its former splendor, at least in between their adventures and journeys elsewhere. But they always returned, and it came as no surprise to anyone when one day Sokka became Chief of the Tribe, perhaps one of the greatest ever remembered… or that Katara not once ever stopped chastising him of every foolish mistake he ever made.