Love Across Lifetimes

Yue didn't know what that metal thing was, or why it was chasing them, but it really needed to learn when to quit.

But no matter where they went or how they tried to hide, the metal monstrosity still dogged their every step, especially with the scary young girl with blue flames that would occasionally pop out of it to start fighting them along with a small army.

It didn't help that tempers were flaring from lack of sleep. It didn't help that Toph had stormed off after an argument with Katara (Yue had tried to mediate it, but the younger girls were Just. So. Tired!). And it didn't help that Appa was shedding and leaving a clear trail for the people chasing them to find them.

It was decided they would split up. Yue and Sokka would take Appa and fly in one direction, and Aang would take a sack full of hair in a different direction to try and throw off whoever was chasing them. And Mai with TomTom on her back (the toddler being the only one who'd managed to sleep through this entire mess) would take Katara to try to find Toph so Mai could give them her piercing stare of disappointment until they both apologized. Once they'd thrown their pursuers off their trail they would meet up and finally sleep.

Yue would admit, she was more than a little glad for them splitting up. Their younger members' crankiness was getting a bit much, even for her endless patience, and she felt a bit bad the lack of sleep wasn't affecting her as much as it was them thanks to their cultivation.

Ever since they had remembered how to do it, she, Sokka, and Mai had begun cultivating again. It seemed the return of their past memories had given them a boost in that aspect, as despite them all being too old to begin cultivating, they'd all had no trouble starting their foundation. It was still slow going, and all of them were still in the beginning phase, but Yue was certain that eventually Mai and Sokka would be as strong in their Golden Cores as they had been before. And Yue, with her connection to the Moon Spirit, had a chance to be stronger than she had in her last life.

But that was a good ways off. For now, just having that little bit of extra energy to stay awake was enough, but it wouldn't last forever.

"Do you think you should have gone with Mai to find Toph?" Sokka asked as Appa drowsily flew through the sky. "Not that I'm not happy to go on another romantic flight with you, but I don't really recall Lan Wangji having the best mediation skills. But I know you do."

"Well, given she said Lan Wangji died of old age and raised a son and taught several students in that lifetime, I'm sure Mai's gotten better at handling moody teenagers," Yue said.

Sokka's expression dimmed at that. "Yeah, including ours," he said. "Mai said TomTom was good friends with A-Ling and two others. Though, that's all she mentioned. She still isn't much of a conversationalist."

At the mention of their son, Yue's face fell as well. Happy as she was for this second chance, she missed her baby like an ever-present ache. But if she found him again, would he even be hers? Or would he be reborn to some other mother instead?

"I think I heard him in the swamp," she confessed. "It sounded like all the people I loved were calling me, but one was a voice I didn't recognize. He called me A-Niang."

Sokka was quiet for a long moment. "... I saw him there."

Yue's head snapped towards him. "You did?" she asked, leaning in to listen.

Sokka nodded. "At least, I think so. It was so weird, I might have just hallucinated it."

Yue gave him a stern look. "Sokka, you heard Huu. What's seen in the swamp is more than just in our heads. We all saw someone."

"Yeah, but, this is just really, really weird," Sokka protested.

"Weirder than Aang seeing Toph in fine clothing and playing with a flying boar?" asked Yue. That would be a bit tough to beat. Yue didn't even count her own vision of her mother in a bolt of lightning as strange. To see Yu Ziyuan surrounded by lightning was just expected.

"Much weirder," Sokka insisted. "I saw our son sitting in the lap of the Ghost General while crying and getting comforted by the general, and the general being climbed all over by three other toddlers like Momo does to me when I don't share my snacks."

Yue had to cover her mouth to muffle her giggles as she pictured that scene.

"I think the other babies were A-Ling's friends," Sokka continued with a slight smile at the sight of her mirth. "One might have been TomTom, I saw one dressed like a Lan. Though there was also a Wen and an Ouyang."

Yue's giggles stopped, and she looked delighted. "Oh, the Wen child survived. That's good."

"You knew that kid?" asked Sokka.

"I knew of him," Yue said. "A-Cheng saw him when A-Xian first settled in the Burial Mounds, and Wen-gongzi said he was saving some soup I brought for him when I visited."

Sokka realized that meant the child had been in the Jin prison camp, and if there were children there, then Wei Wuxian killing the guards and freeing the prisoners suddenly made a lot more sense. Why couldn't he have heard these things in that life instead of this one?

He ruefully put the thought aside as he still had something important to tell Yue.

"Back to A-Ling," Sokka said, getting back on track. "I saw him again after that, but older, and… that time he told me something."

"What did he say?" asked Yue, her eyes shining eagerly.

"Please don't wait too long to have me in this life, A-Die. I don't want to be that much younger than all my friends," Sokka recited. The request had been sitting in his brain since the moment he heard it, and if it meant what he thought it did…

Yue gasped and clutched at her stomach. "Then… that means… he'll be…?"

"He'll be ours again," Sokka said, taking one of her hands off her stomach and just holding it. "And we'll be there to raise him this time."

Yue beamed and threw her arms around Sokka. "Marry me," she said breathlessly.

Sokka hugged her back, and said with a laugh, "I thought we were still married, or at least already engaged again."

"I'm just so happy I could burst! I want to marry you again right now!" Yue said, hugging him tighter.

Sokka smiled into her hair, but said, "As happy as I would be to just land and give three bows to Appa, we can't. If we pull this off, then Aang will stop the Fire Lord by the end of this summer. I want A-Ling to be reborn in a world of peace, and we need that to be our priority. After that, you and I can get married as many times as you want."

Yue sighed in disappointment, but gave him one last squeeze and said, "Mark your words, my love."

Despite the lack of sleep, this was the best day of Yue's life.

Which is, of course, when Appa fell asleep while flying and began listing downwards, and several Fire Nation soldiers on mongoose-lizards caught up to them and began throwing fireballs.

Sokka immediately braced himself on the edge of the saddle, threw his boomerang at one, and pulled out a bow and arrows to begin sniping the rest.

Yue did her best to rouse Appa, but there was little she could do as the flying bison finally crashed on the opposite side of a river from the attacking soldiers.

After making sure Appa was alright (thankfully he was just sleeping), Sokka caught his returning boomerang and notched another arrow to his bow, ready to take down any soldiers that tried to cross the river after them.

The soldiers Sokka hadn't shot down hadn't yet broken the treeline, making the couple tense in anticipation.

Then, oddly, there was a burst of fire amongst the trees. Then several more, like the soldiers were fighting something over there that they couldn't see.

Finally, there was a last decisive flash of flame and the forest went still.

Then, to Sokka and Yue's utter shock, Zuko strode out of the woods, looking a bit scuffed but ultimately alright and rather different than they'd last seen. His hair was shaggy and still growing and he was wearing worn Earth Kingdom greens. "Nice flying, Peacock!" he called across the river to them.

Sokka's eyebrow twitched. "You try getting a ten-ton magical monster to fly straight when he's gone over twenty-four hours with no sleep!" he yelled back.

"Zuko!" Yue called her brother. "You found us! But we still haven't found A-Xian!"

Zuko's face took on a proud smirk. "That's because I did!" he said and nodded in the direction of the woods.

Stepping out from between the trees was a figure dressed in a practical but feminine black outfit, and a long white ribbon tied in her braid. Yue was momentarily surprised to see a girl in the place of her brother, but her wide sunny smile was unmistakable.

"Hi Shijie!" the girl said, waving her arms energetically. "I'm Ty Lee now, but for you, XianXian is still three!"

This really was the best day of Yue's life.

Crying and laughing in equal measure, Yue dove into the river to swim across to her family.

The two rushed to meet her in the shallows of the other side, and Yue threw herself into their arms so they all collapsed in a hugging wet heap in the water.

For a moment everything fell away. They forgot both wars. Forgot Zuko, Yue, and Ty Lee. Forgot everything except the warm sunny days at Lotus Pier when the three were thick as thieves, and everything could be solved with playful banter and a hot bowl of soup.

They had finally found each other at last.

There was still so much to be said. So many apologies to give, but they had a chance now. A new start they hadn't had before.

And this time not one of them was letting go.

Basking in their reunion didn't last quite as long as they'd wished, as the second Sokka and Yue described the girl with blue flames, Zuko and Ty Lee had paled.

"Azula," they said in unison and insisted they find Aang as soon as possible or else she would fry him.

The explanation as to how they knew the scary blue fire girl would have to come later.

They arrived at a nearby ghost town only to realize they'd missed the fight and Iroh (who had been giving Toph a pep talk when Mai and Katara found them) had been injured, but thanks to Mai's quick intervention it was just a graze to his arm.

Zuko was furious about that, and the only reason he didn't go racing off after his crazy sister was a few very important questions. "Are you Lan Wangji?" he asked, ignoring the way Ty Lee sucked in her breath behind him at his words. If Mai was here, it seemed her hypothesis was correct.

"Yes," Mai said bluntly, not noticing Ty Lee yet.

"Did you talk to Azula?" Zuko asked seriously.

"Kinda hard not to," said Mai dryly. "She wasn't happy I'm now a traitor."

"And did that trigger anything?" asked Zuko, sounding afraid of the answer.

Mai frowned in confusion, before seeming to realize why he was asking. "I did not get any reaction," she said. "She's not a reincarnation."

Zuko sighed heavily in relief.

Katara, who was using her bending to heal Iroh, looked up in confusion. "Wait, did you think she'd be someone?"

"I really hoped she wasn't," Zuko said, not saying who he thought she'd be if she was, but Mai and Ty Lee knew Azula and knew exactly who he worried she'd be.

Mai looked like she would say something else, but finally noticed Ty Lee's presence.

With her eyes on her, Ty Lee slowly stepped forward. "Lan Zhan?" she asked in a wobbly little voice, too overwhelmed to say anything else.

Mai looked back at her intensely. "Wei Ying," she said knowingly.

Ty Lee let out a strangled sound in the back of her throat and launched herself at Mai. "YOU'RE REALLY GREAT!" she shouted earnestly, determined to repeat Wei Wuxian's love confession. "I Like you! I fancy you!-"

"-I love you," Mai continued more quietly, but no less reverently as she caught the other girl and hugged her back. "I want you. I can't leave you.-"

"-I whatever you!" Ty Lee said, so happy she could cry. "I want to be with you for the rest of my life!"

"And can't forget our every day," Mai finished.

Ty Lee pulled back slightly to laugh. "No, you'd never let me forget that," she said before leaning in to kiss Mai.

Even as just Mai and Ty Lee, this had been brewing between them for years, but neither had been willing to jeopardize their friendship (or risk Azula's ire and threats) to pursue it. Now, they had the memories of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, who wasted nearly two decades on misunderstandings before finally admitting their feelings to each other. This time, they weren't going to wait another second.

Everyone else stared at them in shock, except for Zuko, who was the only one to have seen this coming. He hadn't had time to mention their relationship to Sokka and Yue, and Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli had died before the Wangxian romance had come to fruition.

"And so it begins," Zuko grumbled, slapping a hand over Aang and Toph's eyes.

Neither of them were happy about it.

"What? Hey!"

"I'm blind, you clod!"

Zuko ignored their protests and steered all of them as far away from the two girls as possible. "Come on," he said in a resigned tone. "Let's get out of here while they still have clothes on."

That got everyone to beat a confused but hasty retreat (Mai only surfacing for air long enough to pass TomTom to Yue) as the loving couple reacquainted themselves with each other.

Ty Lee and Mai returned much later looking rumpled and a lot happier despite the fact no one could look them in the eye.

A/N Finally!