Before getting into the final installment here, I need to take the time to thank all the wonderful people who reviewed as this story was going on, especially badadder1, fire1, Calindy, cherokee96, hdutch, Procrastinator123, "Nice Guest", "iPod reader", K-the-Queen-of-Typos, hvitserk, and fireandwaterr. I read every single review, and yours all made my writer's heart dance. Thank you thank you thank you. This epilogue is dedicated to all of you!

55~

At first, she was "Ambassador Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe," which meant sharing an office with Ambassador Kada from the Northern Tribe. Fortunately they got along very well. She dug into the job with gusto and within two years had gotten all kinds of projects going. She finally helped Zuko establish that hospital and taught chi-tracing techniques to whoever would learn them. She also started an educational exchange program for university students to go abroad to different Nations to learn about those cultures and it turned into a raging success. She stubbornly maintained her habit of going off to small towns, and sometimes even other islands and healing anyone who needed it and solving whatever disputes she came across, and in this way became extremely popular with the commoners.

Eventually, this caught the attention of several of the stuffiest old courtiers who went to Zuko to complain that she was taking on far too many responsibilities for a mere Ambassador, and he agreed, to their minor surprise and deep satisfaction. The satisfaction lived a short life however, since he immediately followed that up with, "How about we promote her to Advisor?" Later, when Katara teasingly suggested he was being mean to them, he shrugged. "They need shaking up."

She went on many crusades in her capacity as Advisor, and the political battles she fought on behalf of the common folk became legend. On one especially contentious occasion having to do with a new environmental protection movement, the other Advisors brought Zuko in to explain to his exotic little pet why what she was asking for wasn't feasible, but he only asked, in a voice as dry as ash, that they please tell him the Waterbender wasn't the only one with the Fire Nation's best interests at heart.

But she wasn't an Advisor long either. After not quite a year of that position, she and Zuko decided that enough was enough and announced they had been secretly engaged for the last three years. The common folk were overjoyed to hear this, and the court disgruntled. "I had honestly expected a bigger reaction from the Advisors, at least," Katara confessed that evening over a hot cup of tea. Druk strutted across the floor, about the size of an eel-hound puppy but with wings and much shorter legs. Zuko gave him his evening biscuit when prompted by a hard headbutt from the young dragon.

"Don't worry," he said as Druk chomped. "I heard Advisor Yao call you a Water Tribe witch."

"Well Advisor Yao is a… a Fire Nation chucklehead."

Zuko looked at her affectionately. "You're going to have to ramp up your insults before you go toe-to-toe with him, you know."

"Hm," Katara murmured. "How are Druk's fire-breathing skills these days?"

Their wedding, held on the Spring Solstice after Katara's 26th birthday and before Zuko's 28th, was the most diversely attended function since the celebration of the Eastern Air Temple. She met the new Earth Queen, who seemed like a practical, capable woman, the only sort of person Kuei ever should have married anyway. They had also located many other old friends from their adventures through the years, everyone from Haru and his father and several Freedom Fighters to Sen and Yuriko, whose woodworking business was booming, and the magistrate of the town where Katara had dealt with Nairu. From Republic City came Sokka and Suki, along with the other three members of the Council and several noteables and public figures. With them came Toph, and with her came Kanto, the young man from Gaoling whom Katara had healed of the plague several years back. And with Aang and Lea came very nearly half of all the Airbenders in the world, even cantankerous old Malu who used to give Katara such grief on Air Temple Island, who was now actually very pleasant to Katara, which Katara found amusing. The new Chief of the Northern Water Tribe and his wife and young son, as well as Arnook, Yugoda, and many other old friends were in attendance, along with Gran-Gran, Pakku, her dad, and most of the rest of the Southern Water Tribe, and they all had a grand time alarming the Fire Nation courtiers. There were a lot of ceremonies in Water Tribe weddings that Katara had insisted on, to the Advisors' outrage. In the Water Tribes weddings went on for five days sometimes, but they had condensed everything down to two, so including the Fire Nation formalities, the celebrations lasted for three and a half days. "A blended wedding ceremony?" Advisor Yao was heard to exclaim a number of times as everything was being planned, often in Katara's hearing. "For our Fire Lord? I've never heard of such a thing! It's outrageous!" Katara would simply smile into the distance and condense a small water whip out of the humid air. So all in all, the wedding went off with lots of grumbling from the Advisors, but the pure joy and merriment of everyone else more than drowned them out. Druk and Appa made friends, and Sokka and Suki announced they were engaged on the last day of the festivities, just before Toph and Quool got in an argument over something or other and Toph tore up half of the eastern courtyard in the ensuing bending battle, so basically it was everything Katara and Zuko had expected. They were deliriously happy the whole time.

Despite the court's expectation, Katara did not stop traveling to other islands or Nations simply because she was married. On the contrary, she took up an unprecedented degree of authority and power where it came to Fire Nation relations to the other countries of the world, while Zuko largely took care of internal Fire Nation affairs. The arrangement suited their personalities perfectly, and it was just a perk that it gave the Advisors a collective conniption.

Of course their lives weren't perfect. Like all couples, they did sometimes fight. They disagreed on matters of policy from time to time, and it quickly became a truism around the Palace that when the Fire Lord and Lady argued, no one was to disturb them for fear of being dragged into it and forced to take sides. But they always made up and went on to fight a hundred times as hard to pass the compromised policies they had spent their passion forging. The creation of the United Forces, which involved a lengthy international debate over how much of the former Fire Nation Navy ought to be donated to the cause, or even if any should at all, coincided with the arrival of Sokka and Suki's first baby, a healthy boy they named Tuluk. The sight of her newborn nephew contentedly nursing turned Katara into a sloppy, tearful mess for a while, but fortunately Sokka was just the same and they got through it. Back in the Fire Nation, Druk was doing his best to fly and breathe fire at the same time, with predictable results, and Katara, as the most effective fire-put-outer, was designated his babysitter till he got the whole thing figured out. Fortunately it didn't take long. The first time Zuko successfully rode Druk, the whole capital city declared an impromptu holiday, and the news quickly spread throughout the Nation. The first time they took a joint tour of the Fire Nation, eighteen months after the wedding, they were met everywhere they went with adoration and joy, which shocked and pleased both of them, accustomed as they were to the court's sour disapproval. The first time she ever complained of being cold in the Fire Nation, she spent a solid minute standing stock-still, looking appalled, and then declared she was going to stay in the South Pole for a while. This she did, and had a grand old time with her father and grandparents, helping at the healing center and bending arena, and getting to know little baby Katara, who was no longer little nor baby, but 8 years old with a big personality. She was having a grand old time, that is, before she realized she was pregnant. Then she still had a grand old time, but also spent a lot of time freaking out.

Their first child was born shortly after her return to the Fire Nation. Their son was a small copy of Zuko, from the ebony hair to the amber eyes, and his skin only a touch darker than his father's. They named him Iroh and the whole court seemed to breathe a sigh of relief: finally, the Water Tribe witch has done something right. There would be a Fire Lord Iroh just as there was always meant to be, and history would get back on track. "Maybe everyone will send their eligible daughters home now," Zuko said hopefully, cradling his tiny son after all the midwives and doctors had left the little family alone. Katara managed an exhausted chuckle. "Not a chance. I'm sure Yao thinks you secretly like his daughter. What's her name again?"

"I don't care."

Katara smiled blissfully and passed out.

Little Iroh, much like his namesake, was outgoing and cheerful almost to a fault, and quickly won the whole Palace over. Katara stayed home for quite a while after his birth and the servants and guards and the rest of the staff noticed a strange transformation coming over the ancestral seat of the Fire Nation royal family: it was becoming a home. Katara would often pop down to the kitchens and ask what she could do or suggest a Water Tribe dish or two, or go find a gardener and ask what they were doing and if they had heard of the Ba Sing Se water lily, or the Patola Mountain manzanita. The residents of the Palace (aside from the Advisors, still) came to like her very much, for her humility and kindness and patience and sometimes even her temper.

Eventually she did take up traveling again, and scandalized the Advisors by packing Iroh up in a baby sack and bringing him with. By then the rest of the court just smiled and rolled their eyes, having become used to her unorthodox ways.

A couple of years after Iroh's birth, Katara was pregnant once again, and she and Zuko were both in session with the Advisors and several Ambassadors. It had been a long day full of headaches for everyone and backaches for Katara from sitting on the hard ground when the door suddenly crashed open and toddler Iroh dashed in as fast as his short chubby legs would carry him. One of his nurses followed closely behind, but he seemed to have had a head start. "MAMA!" he screamed. "DADA! MAMA!"

Zuko had leapt to his feet, Katara unable to follow as quickly because of her belly. "What's wrong?" Zuko demanded of the frantic nurse. "What happened?"

"I'm so sorry Lord Zuko, Lady Katara," she gabbled, trying to restrain the eager child. "He wouldn't take no for an answer! He said he has to show you right now!"

"Show us?" Zuko frowned.

"Show us what?" Katara asked. She had managed to stand as well, and was holding Zuko's arm.

The nurse hesitated, but Iroh took that opportunity to jerk away from her restraining hand and shouted, "I show!" The nurse, after another nervous glance towards Katara and Zuko, reluctantly stepped back. Iroh hustled over to one of the several small fountains Katara had had installed in the meeting hall. Katara, Zuko, and all the Advisors and Ambassadors watched him with intent curiosity. Katara noticed that the nurse looked strangely resigned.

Then Iroh took a stance she couldn't help but recognize and her heart jumped up to her throat. When he waved his little arms and the water unmistakably followed his movement, she was elated, not shocked, as Zuko and the rest of the room were. Just like the rest of them, Katara had assumed Iroh would be a Firebender because of his resemblance to Zuko. She was delighted to find otherwise.

Iroh turned to his parents with his chest puffed out proudly. "See Mama? Bended!"

Katara shook herself and rushed to him, and Zuko was only a step behind. "Darling, that's wonderful!" She scooped him up for an enthusiastic hug. "We're so proud of you!"

"You sure did surprise us," Zuko added, sounding a little dazed.

Noticing the muttering and grumbling starting up from the Advisors, Katara started for the door, Zuko quickly following and putting a supporting arm around her waist. "Time for your first lesson, my little Waterbender," she said happily. "Daddy and I are so pleased!"

Her son Iroh, a Waterbender!

She noticed that the Advisors paid much greater attention to her pregnancy for its remaining month after that, but she and Zuko were careful to keep Iroh sheltered from any negativity about his new ability. She was unreservedly ecstatic about it, and made sure Iroh knew it, and Zuko was excited too, though a little forlorn because he had expected to share his element with his son, his Uncle's namesake. Sympathetically, she understood he had looked forward to teaching his son Iroh Firebending, just as his Uncle Iroh had taught him.

The birth of their second child complicated matters still further. Kya was Katara's spitting image, born with wide blue eyes and thin curls of brown hair. But the Advisors looked between her and her brother, the golden-eyed Waterbender, and frowned suspiciously. Katara smiled to herself every time she saw them do this and categorically denied that she was enjoying turning the Fire Nation court on its head whenever a snide Advisor asked her.

Kya was obstreperous and opinionated and single-minded from her first day in the world and Iroh loved her completely. He called her 'my baby' and 'my Kya' and when it came time for Katara to travel again she had to bring both of them because Iroh would not hear of letting his sister go without him. Slowly, on trips throughout the Earth Kingdom, United Republic, Water Tribes, and Air Nomad centers, the mixed royal family became familiar to the world, and then accepted, and then loved.

One time when Kya was just over three, she and Katara were visiting the Eastern Air Temple. Iroh had deigned to be left home for this trip, finally old enough to understand that his mother and sister would in fact return to him and Daddy. Besides, Zuko had promised to take him flying on Druk. Katara was too nervous about the idea to want to be there the first time it happened, though she knew it was going to happen anyway. Kya was disappointed that Uncle Aang wasn't at the Temple to play with her, but he had been summoned away on Avatar business to Ba Sing Se just before their arrival. Lea was there though, and radiant in the fifth month of her first pregnancy. They were sitting out on one of the wide pavilions, enjoying the afternoon sun and sharing a pitcher of persimmon-pear juice, watching Kya and several young Airbenders tumble before them. Lea had asked Katara all kinds of questions about pregnancy and birthing and babies, eager for the knowledge she had from experience. Katara, though she said nothing of it, was also feeling familiar changes coming over her body, and was idly wondering what a third child would mean for the Fire Nation. Would it be a boy or a girl? A Fire- or Waterbender? Certain combinations would be more complicated than others, but she was certain that whatever happened, they would deal with it and things would turn out fine.

"We're just so excited." Lea was bubbling with new mother's joy, a feeling Katara remembered fondly. "If it's a boy we're thinking of naming him after Aang's old teacher Gyatso. He'll be a wonderful Airbender. The first son of the Avatar! Just think of it."

"The first son of the Avatar and you," Katara reminded her mildly.

Lea smiled at her warmly. "Yes, I know."

Just then there was a shriek from the children that brought Katara to her feet, Lea slightly slower to follow her. A flock of yellow-clad Airbender children came charging towards her and Lea, leaving Kya standing alone near the edge of the pavilion. "What happened?" Lea asked one of the older children.

Katara was already moving towards her daughter when the child replied shrilly, "She did fire!" She nearly snapped her neck looking back at the young Air Nomad, then back towards her little girl, who was wide-eyed and starting to look teary because of the other kids' reactions. Katara hurried and knelt before Kya.

"Honey, did you make fire? Like Daddy does?"

Kya nodded haltingly. "Yes Mama, but they screamed and they ran away from me! They showed me Airbending so I tried but it was fire and they ran away! Did I scare them? Was it bad?"

"No, no, honey, it was very good! Would you show me?" Her heart was beating loudly. "Just a little bit, in your hands like this." She cupped them to show what she meant.

Kya mimicked her, and a small flame bloomed between her palms, the light flickering across her dark Water Tribe skin and blue Water Tribe eyes. Katara grinned. "Good, honey, that's wonderful!" The flame vanished and Kya's look of concentration melted into a grin identical to her mother's.

"I did it Mama!"

"You did!" Katara cheered. "I'm so happy! And Daddy will be so excited!"

They packed hurriedly, Katara marveling the whole time at the sense of irony fate must have to put her, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, in the position of being the mother of a Fire Nation Princess named after her Water Tribe mother who had been killed in a Fire Nation raid, and seeing that Princess discover she was a Firebender at one of the ancient Air Temples, the one hit hardest by the War she had helped to end. It was like Zuko always said: destiny was a funny thing.

Zuko was ecstatic, of course. Before Kya had even finished saying the word 'Firebender' he was already showing her breathing techniques and promising that she would get to join him at his dawn meditation. Smiling, Katara wondered how long that would last.

As they trooped back into the Palace, the children capering along before their parents, Katara leaned close to Zuko and murmured, "I think they're going to outnumber us soon."

The joy on his face when he looked at her made her fall in love with him all over again.

Their third child was born in the middle of a monsoon, and was the most difficult of the three births for Katara, but both of them got through it safely. They named her Kanna. She was a balance between her parents in terms of appearance: sapphire blue eyes, light brown skin, and wisps of jet black hair (when she finally did grow hair: she was bald as an Airbender until she was nearly a year old). She was quieter and more introspective and watchful than her siblings, who loved her with a completeness that brought Katara close to tears almost daily.

The time passed as uneventfully as it possibly could for the ruling family of one of the great Nations of the world. Katara still traveled a lot, taking whichever of her children asked to go. The most frequent of her travel companions turned out to be Kanna, when she became old enough to ask to go. She visited Republic City and the Southern Water Tribe more frequently than diplomacy required, to see her family. Sokka and Suki had another son when Kanna was about 1, and named him Suda. Less than a year after that, Toph shocked them all by having a child, a healthy girl who she named Lin. But only weeks before Lin's birth, Kanto left her and no matter how Katara asked, Toph would not tell her if she knew why. Katara helped with Lin's birth and then stayed on with her friend and new honorary niece for several weeks, but finally had to go home to her own kids and husband.

Weeks and months passed, and before she could turn around, it seemed, years had gone by. About a month after her 39th birthday, she and Zuko were working in their study after dinner, silently reading their own reports while Druk snored noisily out on the veranda. She was about to tell Zuko about a conference Kuei had proposed in Ba Sing Se the following month that she thought she should attend, when Kanna marched in, five years old and commanding with her advanced age.

"Mommy, Daddy," she declared, "I'm not a bender."

Katara and Zuko looked first at her, then at each other, then back at her. They had been wondering the same thing between themselves, since she was so much older than Iroh or Kya had been when they started bending, but they hadn't wanted to make any comment about it and accidentally make her feel less than her siblings. But here she was, bringing it up first.

"Are you okay with that, sweetheart?" Katara asked cautiously.

"Yes," Kanna replied blandly, walking over to look at the scroll Katara held. "I'm going to be a historian instead." Her parents blinked at each other over her head.

"You have to be smart and patient to be a good historian," Zuko told her evenly. "Which means you'll be a great one." Katara beamed at him. How in the world had she gotten so lucky?

Before they could ask any more about their younger daughter's plans, their elder children hustled in, wide-eyed and anxious. "Did she tell you?" Iroh asked, eleven now and more like his father than ever. She sometimes saw Zuko watching him with awe, even when he was only telling someone a joke, or frowning at some lesson from his tutors, or playing with his sisters. Her own little Fire Nation Waterbender. She often wondered what his future would hold, but she'd done her best to pass on Aunt Wu's final lesson: live your life only according to what will make you happiest. She knew her children might have to compromise on that because of their station, but she hoped they would find more happiness in life than compromise. Be people as well as political figures.

"She told us first, but she said she had to tell you too," Kya explained, nine years old and still plump with childhood, as Katara had been at her age. The red tunic and leggings she habitually wore still jarred Katara, even after this long. She herself still wore mostly blue, sometimes with red underskirts or embroidery, but she had refused to relinquish that part of her heritage. She worried most for her older daughter, for the politics she would someday have to navigate and, hopefully, best. She would be Fire Lord after Zuko: it had not been declared, or even agreed upon by anyone in court, but as their oldest (and now, apparently, only) Firebending child, she was set on that path despite her appearance, and would have to do her best with it.

"I had to tell them I'm not a bender just like you had to tell them you are," Kanna said to her brother and sister, perfectly logical, climbing up on the sofa beside Katara, and the other two followed suit. At a glance from Katara, Zuko came out from behind his desk and joined them as well.

"I'm not surprised about Kanna," Kya announced.

"Yeah, me neither," Iroh agreed hurriedly.

"Why not?" Zuko's voice was curious.

"Well, it's like she's purple."

"Purple?" Iroh repeated, asking Katara's exact question.

"Yeah. Because Mommy's blue and Daddy's red, and you and me are blue and red," she pointed between herself and her brother. "But Kanna's the perfect mix of all of us, so she's purple." Kya sounded like she was feeling the idea out as she spoke, but Katara was breathless with its precision.

"Yeah!" Iroh agreed eagerly. "She looks like all of us, a little bit, but she can't be both kinds of bender, so she has to be neither!"

"I'm going to be a historian instead," Kanna told her siblings comfortably. Apparently this information had not been part of her initial announcement to them.

"That'll be so cool!" Iroh, enthusiastic about everything, sounded especially so for his younger sister's chosen career path. "You'll get to write about Mom and Dad and how they ended the War!"

Kya looked at her parents narrowly. "I thought Uncle Aang ended the War?"

"We all did," Katara corrected, just as Zuko said, "No, it was the two of us," and Katara had to laugh. "We all helped end the War," she said firmly, smiling at Zuko. "Me, your dad, Uncle Aang, Aunt Toph, Uncle Sokka, and Aunt Suki, and the Order of the White Lotus."

"How did you do it?" Iroh insisted.

Katara and Zuko smiled at each other. "Well, it all started when your Uncle Sokka and I got in a big argument back in the South Pole…"

A/N

Wait, I think I just wrote a 55 chapter fic where the endgame couple didn't kiss once. Isn't that a violation of a natural law or something?

Again, if you have made it this far with me, I cannot say a big enough THANK YOU! I never expected this fic to get the attention it has. I wrote this story without a real plan or outline, just sort of a "start here, end here" mentality, and if I had to do it again there are a few things I would do differently, like setting up the Suki-Sokka-Toph triangle a little better in the beginning and figuring out what Azula would be up to. Ah well, hindsight's 20/20! I'm glad you all liked it anyway!

I actually have Iroh, Kya, and Kanna's lives mapped out pretty well, so if enough people are interested I might start a drabble series about them... But I shouldn't make promises, I'm way too busy to do anything reliably these days. XP

The next project I'm posting is going to be a long, multi-chapter Harry Potter AU fic, so if that sounds fun then put me on follow and wait until the 30th! Curious? I answer PMs!

All characters are owned by Bryke, Nick, and Viacom

E.I. signing out