A/N: Enjoy!

They were all sitting around a table discussing where to go from where they were when they heard a knock on the door. They sat in silence, watching as the door was pressed open, surprised to see a young man they recognized step out into the room.

"I can't believe you guys left without me!"

"Zuko!" Katara immediately jumped up and lunged herself towards him, causing him to crash back into the now closed door. She wrapped her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers into his loose hair as she cried into his chest. He crossed his arms over her back, holding her as tightly as he could without crushing her.

"Hey," He greeted softly into her ear as he placed a hand behind her head, tangling his own fingers into her hair. "Hey!" He repeated, louder this time, as he realized just who it was he was finally holding again.

Zuko let out a long sigh of relief, he finally had Katara back into his arms again. After all that stress and turmoil, he was finally with the person he loved and needed the most. He could feel the pressure on his entire being ease away more and more with each passing second that she remained wrapped up in his arms, held closely to him. He would finally be able to get on the right track again, be able to eat and sleep, to be able to live again now that they were reunited. These minuets that he held her were so incredibly wonderful and blissful, he wished he could stay in them forever.

Aang wiped away a tear as he watched Zuko's face fall just before he buried his face into her shoulder to sob along with her. "That's so beautiful." He sniffled, wiping away at the tears that were now racing down his cheeks.

No one dared disrupt the couple and stayed silent as they watched them tremble in each other's arms, only loosening their grip enough to kiss or hold the other in a new way. Zuko let out a long huff of air, trying to recompose himself as he pulled away from her far enough to place his forehead against hers, gazing into her tear filled cerulean eyes. She cupped his cheeks into her palms as she pointed out the fact that he was crying, running her thumbs over his cheeks to wipe away his tears before she pulled him into another kiss.

She broke away to be able to hold him tight again, rubbing her cheek against the silk fabric that covered his chest. Sokka stood, figuring now was a good enough time for him to reunite with Zuko as well, holding his hand out to him. Zuko pulled one arm away from his waterbender to take Sokka by the forearm, giving it a good shake before pulling the warrior towards him, bring him into his own hug as Katara slipped out from under his other arm, making her way back of over to the table, to a specific person that sat at one of the far corners. Aang stood and made his way over to Zuko, holding is arms out for his own hug.

"Toph?" Zuko asked as he held a hand out to her after he and Aang shared their hug.

She huffed and stood. "Alright, alright." She shuffled over to the firebender, lightly wrapping her arms around him. She let out a groan as he suddenly held her tighter, lifting her up off the floor so he didn't have to lean down to hug her. "Okay, sparky, missed you, too." Toph put a hand on his shoulders, trying to push herself out of his grip. "You can put me down now!" He gently placed her back down onto her own two feet as he saw Katara approaching him again, her arms wrapped around the arm of one of the Water Tribe warriors.

"Zuko," She let out a sigh before she sniffed, still recovering from her previous fit of sobs. "This is my dad." She smiled as she shrugged, pushing her father towards him.

They took each other by the forearms as they greeted the other. "Hello, Chief Hakoda. Sokka has told me plenty about you." Zuko smiled and nodded as he shook Hakoda's arm.

"Oh really? He's told me plenty about you, as well, Prince Zuko" Hakoda smirked, seeing the young man's eyes go wide as he tried to keep still instead of flinching back, obviously surprised that Sokka had spoken to him to his father, and probably frightened by what he may be thinking about him, especially since he was obviously seriously courting his daughter.

"All good, I hope."Zuko smiled wide as he tried to keep his composure, hoping the warrior hadn't picked up on his startle.

"Of course." As Hakoda turned back towards the table, Zuko shot a glare towards Sokka. He gave him a cheesy smile and a shrug in response.

"So, what were we talking about?" Sokka asked, taking back his seat around the table. Zuko joined, sitting down next to Katara. Admiral Jee cleared his throat before picking up at where they left off, trying to figure out where they were going to go now that they had the whole Fire Nation searching for them.

"I want one half of the fleet in the oceans surrounding the Western Air Temple, and the other half at the Southern Air Temple." Zuko informed, motioning towards the map that stretched across the table they sat around. "It's close enough to where we can easily meet in the middle for when the comet arrives, but far enough to where we'll be safe."

"Yes, hide between the islands and take refuge in the buildings if needed." Jee agreed, nodding his head as he examined the map. "A couple days before the comet comes, the Western fleet should anchor around Ember Island while the Southern fleet stays around Roku's island. Then, when the comet comes we'll be in perfect position to gather in the middle and try to cut off the airships before they reach Wulong Forest." He suggested this idea as he used his pointer finger to draw invisible lines that drew out the route plans between both the fleets.

"Wait," Sokka spoke out, holding a hand up to pause the conversation. "Airships? Wulong Forest? What's going on?"

Zuko let out a long sigh, lacing his fingers together as he placed his hands onto the table. "When the comet arrives, my father and a fleet of airships are going to head towards the forest, using the power the comet provides to begin burning the Earth Kingdom to the ground."

"What!" Aang gasped, leaving over the table towards Zuko. "You've got to be kidding!"

"I wish I was, Aang." Zuko admitted, sadly looking down at the map that covered the table. "My father's airship will be setting off before the others. You can wait for him at the forest for your battle against him while our Navel fleet holds back his Air fleet. My uncle is meeting with the Order of the White Lotus to liberate Ba Sing Se. I'm going to have to go back to the Fire Nation to overthrow Azula."

"How am I supposed to fight Ozai alone? I haven't even learned firebending yet!"

"Aang," Zuko scoffed, rolling his eyes as he shook his head at the young Avatar. "You're in a fleet of eight large warships filled with firebenders. I think we'll be able to find you a teacher. Once the airships are taken care of you'll have a small army of men there to back you up. Don't worry about it." Zuko waved him off, causally assuring him that everything would be fine.

"I guess that makes me feel a little bit better," Aang mumbled as he buried his face into his palms, trying not to stress himself out too much. "So, what are we supposed to do now?" He asked, lifting his face away from his hand just enough so that his eyes peeped over his finger tips as he looked across the table over to Zuko.

Zuko sighed as he stood up, making his way back towards the door. "I suppose we get comfortable here, seeing as that we'll be on the ships for nearly a month until the comet arrives. An announcement for dinner will sound over the loudspeaker when it's ready." And with that, Zuko opened and slipped through the door, leaving the rest of the group still sitting around the table.

!

Katara sat curled up in Zuko's lap as he lounged on couch in the main sitting room of the ship.

"I miss you too much," He admitted, mumbling against the crook of her neck as he drew invisible circles on the skin of her shoulder. He was fighting a losing battle against sleep and had barely opened his mouth enough for the words to come out coherently.

She hummed against his chest, lazily lacing her fingers with his on his free hand. She was having a hard time fighting sleep as well when she suddenly felt a strong stirring in her stomach. She let out a gasp as she sat up abruptly, startling him out of the slumber he had just managed to fall into.

"What?" He asked, gripping her shoulder.

"Feel!" She ordered, taking the hand she had laced fingers with over to her stomach, placing his palm down against the side of her tummy.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, waiting before he let out his own gasp and sat up straight, pressing his hand against her stomach harder in attempt to get a better feel at what was going on inside. "Whoa!" He exclaimed, feeling little kicks against his hand through her skin.

"He's been doing that a lot lately," She laughed as she ran her hand through his hair, watching as the strands fell back down to cover his forehead. "It won't be much longer, now." She breathed, giving him small, happy smile.

He gulped as he leaned back against the armrest of the couch, running the hand he had previously placed upon her shoulder up and down her back, still keeping his other hand placed firmly against the side of her pregnant belly. "Have you told your father?" He asked softly, his eyes trained on hers.

"No," She shrugged and smiled wider before she leaned down to place her cheek up against his chest again. "Sokka did."

"What?" He gasped, leaning back further into the cushion to be able to look at her.

"Don't worry!" She laughed. "He wasn't mad." She returned her cheek to his chest, snuggling closely to him.

"Really? You're sure? Should I place guards at my door in case he tries to strangle me in my sleep?"

"I'm sure, Zuko!" She whined, ready to get to sleep already. She let out a huff, but continued anyways. "He was at first, but then we sat down and had a long talk. He knows what we've been through and what we mean to each other..." She trailed off, mumbling against him as she slowly slipped into the most peaceful slumber she had in weeks.

!

It was the end of a week into the waiting period of the operation. Aang had began to wake early enough to join the men in what they called 'meditation hour'. It began just before the sun rose and ended as soon as the final curve was above the horizon. They explained to him about how he needed to focus on the energy the sun blessed them with. The way the sun would rise and it's light would begin to fill the land, it's energy would also begin to fill their bodies.

Meditation was easy for him, having plenty of practice from a hundred years ago with the monks and whenever he was able to find the time during his travels. He thought the breathing exercises were pretty ridiculous at first, he had been breathing for years and figured he was pretty good at it, but he soon learned that the breath played a great deal in firebending and began to pay far more attention during his lessons.

He had even begun to play around with the fire from the torches that were placed about the walls of the ships and was getting better at learning how to guide and manipulate it properly. He was able to take the already blazing flames and stretch them out to arms length and shoot them forward towards whoever he had been training with. He was sure that within the next couple of days he was going to be able to produce his own fire and begin really progressing in the skill.

Aang had come to terms with the fact that he was probably not going to be able to master fire by the time the comet arrived, but he was sure he was going to be able to learn plenty enough to be able to use it against Ozai for when they fought. Zuko had taught him the redirection technique and he had even watched him and Saburo practice with their combustion, though Aang he was no where near ready to begin learning how to do that any time soon. He didn't really mind all this, knowing that he had three other mastered elements to use against the Fire Lord.

He sat beside Sokka on one of the many stools they had placed onto the deck of the ship for music night. Aang had just taken a sip of his tea when he heard Sokka begin to choke on some noodles he had just tried to swallow.

"Are you okay?" He asked, patting the warrior on the back.

Sokka coughed and cleared his throat before he pointed toward the front door of the ship. "Look." He croaked, still struggling on the noodles. Aang followed his gaze towards the two men he had pointing at. Zuko had been leaning against the wall that was just beside the door and Hakoda had just approached him after spotting him while he passed through the walkway.

They were sitting far enough from the band that was playing didn't drown out their words, but they were far enough to where their gawking and eavesdropping couldn't be easily detected.

"So, uh, Zuko," They heard Hakoda ask as he crossed his arms over his chest. Zuko turned to face him, greeting him with a 'hey' they saw him say, but couldn't hear. The two boys looked at each other, nodded, and then scooted their stool and upside down bucket closer towards the conversation a bit to be able to hear better. "I've heard you've taken quite a liking to my daughter?"

"Oh!" Zuko pushed himself off the wall and scratched the back of his neck nervously has he turned to face Hakoda. "Uh, yes.., sir. I uh- yes, I have." Zuko swallowed hard, brushing his hair out of his eyes as he stood up as straight as he could. "And uh, about that..." He paused to let out a huff. His nerves were beginning to get the better of him already. He nervously patted his right front pocket, checking to make sure the stone he had on him at all times since he got it was where it should be, along with the ribbon he had recently gotten to go with it.

Zuko hummed as he glanced around his surroundings frantically. The expression Hakoda wore on his face was a blank one and Zuko had no way to tell what he could possibly be thinking. "Uh, I don't know if this is the way I'm supposed to do this, or if this is the way you do it in the Southern Water Tribe," He paused to take in a deep breath as he slowly pulled the necklace from his pocket. "But, uh, you know." He finished weakly, holding the necklace out to Hakoda.

Aang nearly choked on his tea after turning to see the look of pure shock Sokka held on his face.

Hakoda took in a long inhale of air as he slowly took the ends of the ribbon between his fingers, stretching the ribbon out in front of him to get a good look at the fabric and the stone that was secured with a clasp in the middle. He examined it carefully, rubbing the obviously expensive silk fabric between his fingers as he studied the craftsmanship of the carvings in the stone.

Aang's bowl of noodles fell out of his lap as he lunged over to his left to catch Sokka before he fell over faint onto the steel floor of the ship. He was able to catch him by the collar of his shirt and eased him down on the floor onto his side.

"Sokka!" Aang whispered through clinched teeth, using one hand to shake him while he flicked him in the cheek with the other. "Get up, get up, we gotta see what happens!"

"Huh? Wh-what's happening?" Sokka mumbled, rubbing his head as he slowly looked around.

"Get up!" Aang tugged on him hard, pulling him back up onto the upside down bucket he had been using as a chair.

"What's going on...? Oh!" Sokka shifted onto his make-shift seat, getting himself comfortable as he watched everything unfold before him.

Hakoda slowly looked up at the young man before him. Zuko bit his lip and shifted a bit. The way Hakoda was staring at him was making him even more nervous than he already was. If he didn't say or do something soon, Zuko was sure he was going to fall into a terrible fit of shakes from no longer being able to control his nerves. Zuko could feel his stomach in his throat and his heart in his ears. Just before he was sure he was going faint, he saw a smile spread across the Chief's face. Thank Agni!

"I know the both of you make each other very happy," He smiled even wider as he held his hand out to Zuko for him to take. "I'd be so honored and more than happy to call you my future son-in-law." Zuko let out a big sigh of relief as he took Hakoda by the forearm.

"Thank you, sir! -"

"But!" Hakoda suddenly tightened his grip on Zuko's arm. "You have to propose while both Sokka and I are present. I'm sure he'd hate not seeing the expression on her face just as much as I would." He released Zuko's arm and handed him the necklace.

"Of course, sir. Now if I can just muster up the gut to do it." He joked, folding the ribbon around the stone and returning it back to it's place in his pocket.

Hakoda laughed. "You mean she's more intimidating than me?"

"Well, I figured since we're surrounded by the men that are being paid to protect me I'd be okay if something went wrong, I had planned on asking her in private."

"Ah, I see. Well, good luck with that." Hakoda nodded and smiled, patting Zuko on the shoulder as he made he way further onto the deck, into the crowd of soldiers that were enjoying the music night.

!

Another week went by and it was music night again. Zuko spotted Katara sitting at one of the make-shift tables they had on the deck of the ship, sipping some tea after taking a bite out of some seaweed bread. He made his way over to her and held his hand out.

"Come on," He said, motioning for her to come to him. "Dance with me."

"What?" She asked this as if she had just heard startling news, causing him to laugh a little. She glanced around as she sank down, away from him. "I don't know how!" She admitted through a whisper.

"I'll teach you!" He gently took her by the upper arm and tugged her up towards him, insisting that she join him.

"Zuko," She whined, looking back towards where she was just sitting. "I don't know about this."

"It'll be fine." He ran his hand down her arm, taking her hand into his.

He had her face him as he held her right hand in his and had them stand arm lengths away from the other. "This is one of the older dances we do."

He held is free hand out away from him as he turned his right side to her and took a step forward, instructing her to do the same as he turned to the other side to repeat the step with the other foot. Once they were facing each other again he took her other hand and he laced their fingers together, spinning both them around two times before lifting their arms up for them both to spin underneath the arch before he let her left hand go, having her spin out away from him before he tugged on her for her to come back to him.

She let out a small 'ooph' sound as she crashed back into him after losing her footing from spinning so much. "Why does this have so much spinning?" She asked, gripping his shoulders to support herself up.

"It's supposedly inspired by how the dragons would duel up in the air," He informed as he gently placed his hands onto her hips. "They would hook claws and spin around, using their fire when they weren't latched to each other and plummeting to their death in a downwards spiral."

"Oh," She laughed lightly, looking over his shoulder to the open space, imagining the beasts breaking apart just before they crashed into the ocean.

"Would you like to try again?" He asked, lifting his hands to gently take her by the wrists. She hummed and nodded.

As she backed away from him, she looked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't about to run into anyone. Zuko took this moment for his advantage, and motioned for Hakoda and Sokka to come over while she wasn't looking.

They repeated the dance, Katara not crashing into him this time as he placed one hand on her hip while he laced their fingers together with the other. They took a couple, simple steps like this before he told her that when he let her go, she would spin three more times without him before she faced him again and the dance was completed. She nodded before he released her, holding her arms out to her sides a bit as she spun.

When she finally came to halt, she was surprised to see him standing there holding out a necklace to her. Her hand immediately lifted up to her neck, her necklace must have fallen off during all her twirling, but instead of meeting bare skin, her fingertips pressed against the stone that was clasped to the ribbon she always wore. It wasn't her mother's necklace he was holding out to her, it was a new one.

She reached out for it before she suddenly flinched back, her hand covering her mouth as she began to cry. She knew she wouldn't be able to speak through her tears, so she simply nodded her head as she wrapped her free arm around him, placing her forehead against his chest as she cried. Zuko put his arms around her, holding her close to him as he spoke softly into her ear.

"I know your mother's necklace is important to you. You don't have to wear this one if you don't want to." He whispered to her, assuring her that he would understand if she refused to wear the one he had made for her.

She hummed as she backed away from him, slipping the new necklace from his hand to look at it. As looked up to him as she wiped away at her tears with the backside of her arm, surprised to see both her brother and father approaching from not too far away.

"Congratulations!" Sokka exclaimed, throwing his arm over Zuko's shoulders. "Welcome to the family, Zuzu!" He smiled as he patted Zuko hard on the shoulder.

"I'm so happy for you, Katara." Hakoda said softly, pulling her into a hug.

"So, since we're pretty much related now, this means I get a whole wing of the palace to myself, right?" Sokka asked, placing his fists onto his hips.

"A whole wing?" Zuko asked. "How about just one personal room on one of the floors in one of the wings." He made sure to put emphasis on every 'one' in the sentence. Sokka's hands and shoulders fell as he let out a groan of disappointment.

Sokka's eyes flicked over to his left, where Katara was holding out the necklace to their father. "I wanna see!" Sokka said, plucking the necklace from her hand before Hakoda had a chance to take it. "I haven't seen it yet!" He held the ribbon out in front of his face to examine the fabric and the stone. Katara shot him a dirty look before she realized a few people had been missing in action. A couple, to be exact. Two other people who were also very important to her.

"Where are Aang and Toph?" She asked softly, scanning the crowed of people that covered the deck. They shouldn't be that hard to find, being some of the shortest ones, and not covered in Fire Navy armor, but she still had trouble spotting them through the sea soldiers.

"Over there," Zuko nudged her before he pointed out towards the pair. Sokka turned around to the direction Zuko was pointing to as he looked up from the necklace.

Katara aw'd at the sight of Aang trying to teach Toph one of the dances the people used to do a hundred years ago in the ballrooms of Ba Sing Se, only to have Toph shake her head at him, holding a hand up to assure him that she wasn't interested. Instead of leaving, Aang took her by the hand she had raised and pulled her into a dance that looked as though he was making up on the spot for the both of them.

!

The night went on and music night continued into the late hours. The group sat leaning up against the front wall of the superstructure, watching as a group of soldiers performed a dance that went along with an ancient chant of the Fire Nation.

It was surreal, sitting there on that ship while this went on during the night. It was like a celebration on the water, no worries, as if they weren't in the middle of a mission, in the middle of a hundred year war. Watching the men and women do the moves so perfectly as some of the older ones chanted made Zuko feel terribly guilty, but also incredibly hopeful.

It was his great-grandfather's fault that these things no longer happened in the mainland. People used to celebrate like this all the time, whenever they wanted, just because of how blissful and peaceful it was in the land at that time. Sozin had began the war to spread that happiness, but it dwindled as the war continued on. Seeing the people, these soldiers perform the movements that told the founding of the Fire Nation and it's rise to greatness gave Zuko an immense feeling of hope that all of that glory that had been lost could be returned.

He was going to do it, or die trying. He knew it was going to be a terribly difficult task. The Gaang had told him of their journey through the land and how bad it was in some places they visited. He had already been somewhat aware of how bad it was, but after hearing their stories, he learned that it had gotten far worse since his banishment. He pushed these thoughts out of his mind and focused on the celebration before him.

"This is what I want so badly for the Fire Nation again," He admitted softly to Katara, who sat by his side to the right. "I've got my work cut out for me, though."

"We've got our work cut out for us," She corrected, lacing their fingers together as she rested her temple onto his shoulder. "But that's never stopped us before, now has it?" She asked, leaning back to look at him.

"No, I suppose it hasn't." She smiled and placed her cheek onto his shoulder as she shifted closer to him for extra warmth during this chilled night.

She let out a huff as her face and shoulders fell, realizing something. "You're not going to let me help with Azula, are you?"

"Were you really expecting that I would?"

"No," She admitted softly. But she knew she was going to go anyways and stay by Appa, just in case anything terrible did happen she could swoop in and do whatever she needed to taker Azula down.

!

The next day, everyone was sitting around the breakfast table when Katara noticed Sokka's odd mood. He hadn't said or word and very much to her surprise, had barely touched his food.

"Sokka," She called out for him softly. "Is something wrong?"

He let out a huff and poked at piece of his broiled fish with his chopsticks. "I've just... it's just that... after all of this is over, we're all going to be so far apart from each other. Katara and Zuko, you guys are going to be in the Fire Nation, Aang, you'll probably be going around the world for a victory tour, you probably want to return home, Toph, and I'll be out looking for Suki or going back to the South Pole with dad. We're properly hardly ever gunna see each other, if at all..." Sokka's voice faded away softly as he held his head low, hiding his face away from everyone.

"Sokka, don't be silly. We'll see each other plenty!" Aang assured, giving him a big smile even though he wasn't looking.

"How?" He asked, lifting his head to look at him from across the table.

"Well, we never did get to go ride the hopping llama's or the wild hog monkey's, and you guys didn't ride the elephant koi with me. We've still got a few good adventures to go on together!" He exclaimed, smiling wide as held his arms out to his sides. His smile faded and his arms dropped as he noticed the mix of sad and serious looks on everyone's faces.

"But, I guess we do have some more important things to attend to first." He sighed out sadly, knowing that they had a lot of rebuilding to do. The nations and their relationships with the others. "But, we'll do all those things together, too!" He figured, knowing they would all probably end up needing each other's help at some point in time.

"And you'll be the there for the baby's birth, and Zuko and I's wedding, right?" Katara asked, looking for more examples of when they would hopefully see each other again in the future. Sokka nodded. "And there'll be celebrations and birthday's and holiday's and maybe even some get-together's for no reason!" She shrugged.

"I guess so." He huffed, still feeling a bit down.

He was so happy and so relieved that the war was finally coming to an end, but the thought of not having everybody around and not seeing everybody anymore not only saddened him, it scared him as well. He had always had Katara by his side and had spent nearly a year with Aang, Zuko, and Toph. He had even started to begin craving tea from the best brewer on earth, Iroh. He would miss his jokes and good advice, along with all the other good traits everyone else had. It would be a bitter-sweet experience he honestly had some trouble looking forwards to.

A/N: Why do I keep ending on sad note's of Sokka? I promise this isn't foreshadowing! I love him too much. He originally said 'Welcome to the family, big bro' but in the series, when Pakku states that he and Kanna remarried, Sokka says to him, 'Welcome to the family, Grampgramp'. So, I figured Zuzu would be more fitting.

'... plummeting to their death in a downwards spiral,' Oh, how romantic of you, Zubear!