It was late night, early morning, when the entire group was reunited again. Everyone was exhausted but genuine smiles were all around. Katara and Aang embraced tightly, longer than platonic friends usually did, but Sokka quickly called her attention away to help with his broken leg. The teenagers all hugged and some cried happy tears. They generally were just happy it was all over and everyone was alive and well.

Everything happened quickly after that. Ozai was imprisoned and Azula was institutionalized. Zuko knew he couldn't ascend to the throne without there being some protests, but he was able to control the people and get his message out with a little guidance from Iroh. The whole group was staying in the palace at least until after his coronation, it seemed simpler that way. Suki and Sokka were busy organizing the release of the Kyoshi Warriors, Water Tribe Warriors, and other prisoners of war. Katara spent most of her time at the makeshift hospitals, healing soldiers from all sides. Toph expressed a desire to sit around and do nothing, but was found more often than not helping the rebuilding of destroyed areas. And then Aang, of course, was nearly always at Zuko's side.

It was their job to usher in the era of peace and love together, plus it was a lot harder for people to continually hate on Zuko when the Avatar stuck with him. He knew this was one of the reasons Aang accompanied him everywhere, but he didn't really mind. He'd already spent too much of his life alone. So they went on a quick good-will tour of the Fire Nation the week before his coronation, building up a healthy relationship with the people and assuring them that their situations will be better soon. It all went fantastically, and sort of surprisingly, well. So it wasn't until the tour was almost over that Aang bothered to have any sort of heart-to-heart.

They were sitting on their beds relaxing at the little B&B they had booked that night. Zuko was sifting through some official documents when he lifted his head at Aang's question.

"Do you know what Sokka did that night?" the airbender asked before clarifying, "the night of Sozin's Comet?"

Zuko raised an eyebrow in confusion and slowly put the papers down.

"No," he answered, "What are you talking about?"

Aang looked nervous, the kind of crazy super-obvious nervous the kid got like sometimes. He clearly wanted to spit something out but was unsure about whether he should.

"Sokka punched Ozai!" he finally blurted out, eyes wide.

Zuko squinted, opened his mouth, and then closed it. That was weird. Not that Sokka didn't have his own personal reasons for hurting the guy, but it just didn't seem like something he would do. Katara, yes, but not Sokka.

"Is that what the black eye was from?" he inquired, allowing the tiniest of smiles.

"Yeah, it was a hard hit," Aang told him animatedly.

"Huh," he let out, "well, it's not a big deal. Sokka lost a lot because of my family. I understand why he did it."

"No, no, that's not it," the airbender disputed, "He did it for you."

"What?" Zuko instantly responded, "That's crazy."

"Really, I'm telling the truth," he said, waving his arms dramatically, "Sokka literally said "that's for Zuko.""

He didn't know how to react to this. It was unreal.

"I… I don't get it."

Aang just smiled sadly and shrugged.

"I think he just cares about you. We all do," he supplied, "I figure there must be a reason you were obsessed with chasing me around the world, and then were running from your own sister, and then left your father again after it was all you wanted. There must be a story behind your scar. It's not really my business, but Sokka doesn't have the kind of self-restraint I do."

"Oh," was all Zuko could say.

"I just thought you should know, is all."

And because the Avatar was an affectionate guy, he walked over and pulled him into a hug. It was nice, even though he was still kind of in shock. Then the conversation ended there. They awoke the next morning and finished up the tour, arriving back at the palace in the late evening. Aang rushed to go see Katara while Zuko was determined to talk with somebody else. He knocked politely on Sokka's bedroom door and didn't have to wait long for an answer.

"Hey, you're back!" the warrior greeted with a grin, "Suki's out with Toph so she's not here. How'd it go?"

"Great, I think," he replied, "Now we just have to wait for something terrible to happen."

Sokka laughed and clapped him on the back.

"Good to have you back, buddy," he smiled, "but why'd you come here right away? What's up?"

"Uh," Zuko began awkwardly, walking into the room as Sokka shut the door, "Aang told me what you did, how you punched my father… for me."

There was a pause.

"Oh, right," Sokka replied, "I did do that. I could never regret it though."

Hating to stand with his crutches, the warrior sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at him with a crooked smile.

"I guess I just wanted to say thanks," Zuko told him hesitantly.

"Yeah," he brushed off, "And I meant what I said too. You're a thousand times the man your jackass father is."

"You said that?" he questioned, startled again.

"Of course I did!" Sokka confirmed proudly, "That guy had to be put in his place. And don't you forget it, Zuko."

It was hard to process these things.

"Why did you do it at all though?" he asked, "It's over, he's gonna be locked away forever. It didn't really matter."

"Wow, that's harsh," Sokka stated, mockingly offended, "It mattered to me."

"But why?"

"Because believe it or not, idiot, you're one of my best friends," the warrior said firmly, "and nobody hurts my best friend and gets away with it."

The amount of affection Zuko was feeling was off-the-charts.

"Well, thanks," he stuttered.

Sokka narrowed his eyes and then threw his arms out dramatically.

"Come here," he ordered.

"What?" Zuko responded.

"I'm too lazy to get up and hug you myself."

"Sokka," he said dryly.

"You're gonna make a crippled man stand up and walk over to you?" the warrior cried incredulously.

Zuko allowed it. He's been doing that a lot lately, and he realized there was a good reason for that. Now, for the first time in a long time, he had a lot more people to do it for.