AN: Actually, guest, technicality does "mean s***" as you so eloquently put it. Sokka's not a prince, but he is the son of the chief and will therefore be the chief of the Southern Water tribe when he's older. This puts him on political par with Zuko. The only reason people don't see him as royal is because he doesn't act superior and the Southern Water tribe is so small after a hundred years of war, but considering that the war is now over and normal interaction will resume between the tribes, not to mention the fact that there will undoubtedly be immigration from the more oppressive north into the south the water tribe will get steadily bigger and be more of a power than before.

Yes, I do think things out. Yes, the second half is speculation, but it is well-based speculation.

Plus, that was a three line throw-away joke. Get over it.

The rest of you, thanks so much for the support!

Now that I'm done with my rant, here's the chapter!

Zuko was in the middle of a very important meeting.

It was more of a formality than anything, nearly all of the peace talks and political engagements had already been taken care of, but that didn't change the fact that nearly all politically important people from the four nations were there.

Zuko sat at the head of the table, as customary, but had opted not to raise himself above his guests and ignite the enormous flames his father had always sat behind.

He was not his father, and would not act like it.

Plus, the flames had always been a bit too dramatic for him.

Beside him at the head sat Aang. It was politically logical- the head of the aggressor sitting next to the one person most saw as the only possible impartial mediator. He was also, obviously, the only air nomad in attendance. The other Fire nation representative was Iroh. Mai would have been there as well, but she was busy attending an actually important meeting while he was stuck pretending that this one was important. From the Earth nation was Toph, Bumi, and the Earth King, who had apparently been educated during his travels and was less of a figurehead now. From the Southern Water tribe: Katara and Hakoda. The Northern Water tribe had sent Paku, even though he was technically now part of the Southern.

Zuko didn't appreciate the North's hands-off, separatist approach, but the Fire nation was already on thin ice.

Besides, Katara was liable to take anything negative about either tribe as an insult and retaliate accordingly. She had been on edge since her brother disappeared a week ago, and, though they had a better relationship, she was still the most terrifying woman he had ever met.

That included Azula. And Mai.

Well, maybe not Mai. She could be pretty terrifying.

The meeting progressed as could be expected. Political jargon, polite words that barely covered biting ones, and (considering the company) plenty of off-topic tangents.

Zuko thought he did very well at keeping them on topic. But then, as the arbitrary meeting was about halfway through, something uncontrollable happened.

From the darkest corner of the meeting room, though definitely not dark enough to hide a person, Sokka bolted out. He was closest to Zuko and, seeing the Firelord first, flung himself practically onto the other man's lap with a cry of "I'm back!"

For one horrifying moment, after his mind had finally comprehended who had just jumped on him, Zuko entertained the idea that Sokka had been hiding in that corner. All week. Just to ruin this meeting.

Everyone was silent. Some were silent because there was no way Sokka had been standing in that corner before, and some because the the crazy Water Tribe teenager had freaking glomped the Firelord.

"Sokka!" Katara's cry finally broke the stunned silence that had fallen upon the room.

That was when Sokka realized his tunnel vision had stopped him from assessing it the situation, and he promptly noticed that they were in a very important meeting.

That was also when Sokka knew he would never sleep again, because he was now on Zuko's hit list.

Sokka stood up in a stately matter (expertly ignoring Zuko's withering glare but internally promising to get real gifts instead of prank ones for at least the next three occasions that called for offerings) and brushed off the invisible fire-germs that were obviously the cause of the uncontrollable heat in his face.

Sokka couldn't hug Zuko in public! People might think they actually liked each other!

Preserving the last of his dignity, which at this point was practically imaginary, he politely nodded to the other representatives and sat down with his family.

Zuko was willing to let the grievous trespass go, for the sake of this meeting (though the water-boy was so going to get smacked later), except then, the whole meeting turned into the retelling of some crazy cactus-induced story about where Sokka had supposedly been throughout the week, though he insisted the journey had only lasted a day at most.

Pakku was as amused as Zuko was about the whole ordeal.

Katara and Hakoda looked vaguely mortified that their brother and son respectively was telling this story in front of the most important people in the four nations, but Hakoda looked just the slightest bit amused as well.

The Earth King looked well and truly confused.

Toph didn't believe for a second that all that magic stuff was true, but something had definitely happened because she had felt Sokka appear from that corner after he had most certainly not been there before. She also definitely approved of this "Man-Toph" character who could metalbend his own body.

Bumi and Iroh thought the whole ordeal was hilarious, and believed it as well. The Order of the White Lotus was a predominantly spiritual order, after all, and they could accept there being other dimensions.

Aang, having been to the spirit world before, didn't have a hard time believing that there were other dimensions out there.

"So what did you learn?" Iroh prompted when Sokka had fully recounted his tale. He was met with a blank stare.

"What do you mean 'learn'? It was just the spirits being mean."

"No," Aang jumped in with an explanation to his spiritually-inept friend, "usually when someone is sent on a journey like that it's to teach them some sort of lesson. The monks had a few stories about it happening at the air temple, but it was really rare and they all learned something different. So what did you learn?"

Sokka reflected on his travels.

He was sucked into the portal after trying to pettily poke Aang for bragging rights.

Having refused to listen to Aries, he was punched by Loki.

After mildly insulting the cow -Taurus- he'd been dumped into the hands of Lucy.

He got the shock of his life in the guild hall after he had been a cynical brat about going in.

The attack-first-ask-questions-later response to Happy had resulted in Boomerang getting injured.

Scepticism about Horologium caused a tight situation.

After being derisive of Sagittarius', he got totally wiped out by Aquarius.

"...No, I can't think of anything."

AN: THE END!