Gosh, more new readers? I'm so amazed that people still find this, read through my awful writing and enjoy it! I thank you all very much! You give me the drive to write! (I'd apologize for the lateness on this chapter, but it seems I'm always doing that. You guys probably don't even remember what's happening...oh...go back a chapter and read the last half. I'm sorry.) I tried to make this one longer than usual...ANYWAY, more at the bottom! And since a couple of you have pointed out I've forgotten disclaimers, which I totally forgot about...

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Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar, if I did, WE WOULDN'T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL 2012 FOR KORRA.

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Katara and Aang looked warily at each other as they observed the rowdy room of tipsy sailors who had offered dinner.

"So we may have acted like we hate the Fire Nation—"

"And we do!"

"But you can't hate their Fire Whiskey!"

The room exploded in cheers.

"Spirits, Aang! They are drunk!" Katara gasped with a giggle as a couple of the men fell over.

"I mean, seriously, they're on official business and they're down here getting drunk…" Aang sighed with a slight disapproving look. "I wonder if the trade officials know what really go on onboard these trade ships."

"How 'bout it?" a sailor offered some to the two.

"You can't seriously be offering hard liquor to a fourteen year old? Much less the Avatar?" Katara chided the sailor. The sailor furrowed his brows at the scolding teenager.

"Okay, if he can't drink how about you join us?" the sailor pushed the bottle towards Katara.

"If he's underage, then obviously I am too!" Katara exclaimed.

"Oh, I thought you had to at least be eighteen…and…ready for a good time! I mean if you have to be the Avatar's babysitter…you gotta be…!" the sailor drunkenly giggled, stumbling back to the group sailors. Aang grabbed her arm protectively and led her back up on deck. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Those pigs." Katara spat. Aang nodded silently in agreement. She rubbed her head as she looked out over the ocean. Aang put his arms around her middle and rested his head on her shoulder. "I can't believe they'd think that I—and you!" Katara continued angrily.

"Katara, relax." Aang sighed burying his face in her dark hair.

"Aang, you have to be more upset about these things!" Katara tensely replied.

"I am upset…I'm outraged to think they'd think those things about you. But I can't do anything about it. They're doing their job by delivering those cabbages and I won't let them touch you. I doubt they'd try with me around. Being the Avatar and all…I hope they've heard what I did to the previous Fire Lord." Aang tried to persuade Katara out of her rage.

"Ughh, Aang sometimes I hate your calm, love-the-world monk ways. Sometimes you just have to get angry!" Katara clenched her fists.

"And sometimes you have to calm down, Katara! You've been on edge all day! You nearly exploded at the dock workers." Aang tried to talk some sense into her.

"Do you think they would have done anything if you calmly stated the facts?" Katara argued.

"They would have seen my side, I'm sure." Aang tried to rebuke. "I'm sure you'll calm down by the time we get home. I get that you're stressed…and I guess that's what grounds my airheaded ways." Aang grinned, squeezing her. Katara rolled her eyes with a smirk.

"You idiot, I love you." Katara turned around and put her arms around his neck. They heard a ruckus break out below ship.

"I love you too…but I'll feel a lot safer if we're on Appa and off this ship." Aang muttered, kissing her nose.

"Me, too." Katara grimaced. Aang pulled Appa closed and jumped onto the bison's head. He then helped Katara on and pulled the bison away from the ships rail.

"Hopefully these guys will make it to the Fire Nation. To be honest I'm not so sure I can trust putting my Avatar duty in the hands of a bunch of drunk men." Aang rolled his eyes.

"That is sort of what it comes down to isn't it?" Katara giggled as her head settled on his shoulder.

"We never ate anything." Aang suddenly stated feeling his stomach protested.

"They did pull us away before we touched our feast of nuts." Katara sighed as she felt her stomach gnawing at her insides with hunger. Aang went back to the bag that he had left on Appa's saddle. They ate their meal in silence, mostly because they were hungry and they were concentrating on eating their meal. Aang stared at the ocean as he ate. He loved finding peace in his natural surroundings and the ocean was perfectly calm. It was almost hypnotizing as he sat and ate staring at the lulling motions of the waves. By the time Aang had finished his share of nuts he realized Katara had been rocked to sleep by the waves. He grinned as he brushed off the shells and crumbs that had fallen on her and put the rest of their food away. He pulled a blanket down from the saddle, trying not to disturb Katara. After settling down for the night, he was asleep within a matter of minutes.

x

Katara woke as the sun was rising over the cerulean blue ocean. The last thing she remembered was eating dinner…Aang was cuddled close next to her. He must have put everything away…Katara didn't even remember finishing her meal. She smiled as she shifted head a little. Aang began to stir as he felt her shift.

"Mmm…sorry…" Katara mumbled pushing her face into Aang's shoulder.

"S'okay…" Aang blinked a couple times and yawned. "I hope we get there soon…"

"We would have been there already if we could have flown…" Katara growled almost bitterly.

"I know…" Aang kissed her forehead. "You are the one who agreed to come," he chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah." Katara shifted again, sitting up. "Better than being apart from you." She pushed herself upwards to kiss Aang. He smiled and welcomed the kiss. When they broke, Aang sighed.

"I'm going to go talk to the captain, I'll see how close we are." Aang pulled his glider out from where he left it among the cabbages on the saddle. Appa had drifted from the boat a little ways so Aang used his glider to propel him from the bison's head to the boat's deck. Katara pulled the blanket around her as she watched him go.

Aang lightly landed on the boats deck. He curiously looked around until he found the captain in the control room of the ship.

"Hello! Avatar Aang here!" Aang announced his presence. The captain turned away from several charts he was looking at. Aang didn't recognize the captain's face from among those who were drinking the night before. It was good to know that at least someone on the ship was responsible.

"Y-Yes? What is it?" the captain looked nervous at the Avatar's company. Although he was young, the captain had heard stories of the Avatar's Fire Nation defeat. He was certainly one that was intimidated.

"I was just wondering how much further it was to the Fire Nation." Aang gave a friendly smile.

"Oh…we should be arriving…" the captain gave another glance to his charts. "Around late afternoon if we continue the pace we're going."

"Still that far away, huh?" Aang sighed disappointedly. The captain nodded pointing at the maps in front of him. It was marked in several places.

"We should be here…if I've done my calculations correctly that's what I believe." The captain nodded, consulting with Aang over his maps of the oceans. Aang shrugged.

"Sorry, my friend's the good one with maps. I'm not quite as good. I'll leave that up to you." Aang grinned. "Thanks." He turned to leave. "Oh and you may want to keep a tighter leash on your crew. They were acting kind of inappropriate last night."

"I never work with these sailors, but thank you. I shall have a word with them when we pull into port." The ship's captain bowed to Aang out of respect. Aang awkwardly nodded back and quickly left the room. Aang ran back out onto deck and flipped his glider out. He lifted off and flew back over to Appa, nearly colliding into Katara.

"Spirits, Aang," she clutched him for support trying not to fall off of the bison. Aang grinned. "So how much longer?"

"He said by this afternoon we should be there." Aang shrugged.

"Ugh…it'd be okay if we had interesting views to look at." Katara sighed.

"How about counting the birds we see in the sky?" Aang suggested.

"No…" Katara groaned.

"There's so much water…how about a Waterbending contest of sorts?" Aang laughed.

"No way…you're the Avatar you'd beat me in a sec—wait, Aang that's it! Waterbending!" Katara exclaimed. Aang furrowed his brows in confusion.

"What?"

"We're Waterbenders! Can't we bend the currents to make the boat go faster?" Katara exclaimed.

"Sounds easy enough in practice, but are we going to bend the water for the next couple hours until we get to the Fire Nation?" Aang shrugged. "It's not practical."

"Hmm…what if we did it in shifts?" Katara suggested. Aang shrugged.

"I suppose…but I still don't want to mess with the currents to much. The captain already has the route marked out using the already established currents." Aang smiled.

"We're not messing with them, we're making them go faster." Katara retorted.

"You're too impatient sometimes. Are you saying you don't want to spend time with me?" Aang laughed. "Enjoy the journey."

"No, I didn't mean it like that." Katara sighed. "You and your philosophical ways." Katara smirked.

x

The rest of the journey was boring and even Aang was wanting to speed things up a little after a couple hours. They arrived at the Fire Nation Royal Port by mid-afternoon. The sailors stepped to their posts even though half of them looked severely hung over; if it affected their job they tried not to show it. When the ship docked at port Aang positioned Appa the best he could in the crowded port. He grabbed his glider and flew over to one of the docks to find some one notify that the cabbages had arrived. The workers were already heading towards the ship to figure out what it was doing there.

"Hey, we have the cabbages Zuko asked for!" Aang called to a couple workers. "We just need people to unload them…or however that works. Oh and my bison too!" Aang exclaimed. They nodded and motioned for Appa to pull into one of the empty docks. Aang waved to Katara telling her to pull Appa fully into the port. Katara easily guided the bison into dock at the port as the dockworkers began unloading the bison without a question.

"Better keep an eye on those Earth Kingdom sailors to make sure they don't cause any trouble with the Fire Nation workers." Katara muttered to Aang as they watched the process of the goods being unloaded onto trade carts and palettes to be taken away to markets within the Fire Nation.

"Right…" Aang nodded. They were both anxious to get out of the sight of the water and to the palace; however, they couldn't leave until Appa was completely unloaded.

"We'll be done in a little while. You're bison is almost done and we've sent a hawk up to the palace to alert the Fire Lord of your arrival," an official on the docks found the Avatar and bowed. Aang bowed his head in return.

"Thank you. We'll leave for the palace as soon as Appa is done being unloaded." Aang smiled. They watched as the cabbage on Appa's back was unloaded. It was only a little while longer before the last batch of cabbage was removed from the bison's saddle. Aang grinned as he hurried to his sky bison and hopped up, checking to make sure they had gotten everything. He helped Katara up and Aang took off from the port with a, 'Yip, yip!'.

After only a few moments the Royal Palace was in their sights. Aang landed Appa at the stables and one of the stable boys was immediately out to tend to them.

"Appa's probably exhausted, treat him well!" Aang smiled to the young boy as Katara and Aang started up the path to the palace. A servant met them as the path converged with the palace's inner grounds.

"We saw the sky bison approach. I expect all your endeavors went accordingly?" he asked, bowing. Aang returned the bow.

"Yep! We got all the cabbage here!" Aang grinned.

"Wonderful, please follow me."

It was a quiet walk to the palace. But soon they were upon the grand entrance to the impressive mansion of the Fire Lord. Aang smiled, happy to be back to the home of one the greatest allies he had during the war and now one of his greatest friends. They were led through chambers and hallways until they found themselves in an open parlor. The Fire Lord was standing and looking out of one of the large windows overlooking the city. He was chatting to another woman who was sitting on one of the chaises with dark hair that was loosely tied behind her head.

"Sir, the Avatar has returned." Zuko and Mai turned their heads to greet their guests.

"So you did bring Katara back?" Zuko smiled at Aang's companion as he moved further into the room. Katara smirked as she and Aang entered the room fully. Mai lifted herself off the lounge.

"Why, you disappointed he brought me along, or what?" Katara teased.

"No, it's good to see you again." Zuko chuckled at the Waterbender who had moved forward to give Zuko a hug. "I trust you have been well since the last time I've seen you? How are your brother and Toph?" Zuko asked Katara. She shrugged with a smile.

"We're just fine." Katara grinned. "You seem to be doing well, yourself. Getting married?" Katara shifted her gaze to Mai. Mai stepped forward with a smile.

"Yeah. The advisors figured it be best if we did it sooner than later." Mai rolled her eyes. Though her tone was as dry as ever, a small smile crept to her face along with a slight blush. "More stability or something ridiculous."

"You'll be able to make it though, right?" Zuko anxiously asked, turning towards Aang and Katara.

"Of course!" Aang grinned. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Oh, thank goodness. You should see the guest list. It's filled with dignitaries and governors and upper-level nobles from the Earth Kingdom and—and every important person in the world I'm pretty sure. I'd kill myself if I had to sit through my entire wedding ceremony without a single friend there." Zuko complained. Aang smiled as Zuko used the term 'friend' to describe their relationship.

"Zuko, we'll be fine." Mai tried to calm her husband-to-be. "You've been a fantastic Fire Lord, so far. A wedding shouldn't be something to upset your balance."

"It's just that! I don't need an entire wedding ceremony to plan on top of keeping order of my Nation after the Hundred Year War." Zuko muttered. He had begun to pace, as if it would help soothe his nerves. "Speaking of Fire Lord duties…you wouldn't mind staying a couple days after the wedding, do you?" Zuko asked as he stopped pacing and turned towards Aang.

"N-no," Aang was startled by the abrupt invitation. "What for?"

"I have something to discuss with you, but not now. It isn't ready yet." Zuko looked back to the floor and began pacing again. Mai sighed, watching Zuko, obviously concerned for his mental health. All the stress didn't sit well with him and they could all tell.

"Anyway, you've traveled a great distance in a short amount of time." Mai looked back to Aang. "Would you like to rest here for tonight? You may stay a couple days if you wish." Mai bowed her head.

"Tonight would be fantastic." Aang nodded. "And if it isn't too much to ask, a proper meal? It's been far too long since I've eaten properly." Aang sheepishly nodded. He thought back to his feast at Omashu, but it seemed like that it had been weeks since he had eaten the delicious Earth Kingdom's food.

"Of course, I'll make sure your rooms are prepared for tonight—" Mai started.

"Room." Aang interrupted. "Just one." Zuko gave Aang a sly grin and Aang went a bright red.

"We aren't doing anything!" he interjected. "Not until we're married! We just share a room."

"And a bed? The advisors won't even allow Mai and I in the same part of the palace at night until we're married." Zuko folded his arms.

"It is a slight disappointment." Mai dryly commented.

"W-Well, you know…" Aang stuttered. "How about that meal?" Aang desperately tried to change the subject.

x

Within the hour they were sitting down to a private full course meal. Aang immediately piled his plate high with noodles, rice and steamed vegetables.

"This is fantastic," Aang grinned with his mouth half fully. Katara nudged him.

"Not with your mouth full, Aang!" Katara hissed. Zuko snickered at her consistent mother like tendencies. "Anyway, I was going to say…it's odd to be here. We haven't been here since the end of the war. It's still odd to me to be sitting in the Fire Lord's palace after working for so long to…well…you know with the Fire Nation as our enemy." Katara nervously shrugged as she turned back to her own plate of food.

"It's been weird for myself as well. This place hasn't been home since I was thirteen." Zuko shrugged. "Even then…well, it's better now than it was then." Zuko's gaze drifted over to Mai as he gave her a light smile.

"How goes the search for your mother?" Katara lightly approached the subject. She knew his 'mommy issues' had slightly subdued since the war had ended, however he was still on the search for his missing mother.

"No, luck yet." Zuko shrugged. "I've pressed my father for information…well, even if he did know, who knows if she would have stayed in place for too long? Being the lost Fire Lady can't be easy." Zuko sighed.

"Yeah…" Aang quietly agreed.

"Well, hopefully something will turn up. You'd think she would show up soon enough, after hearing the news of your fathers defeat." Katara shrugged.

"Who knows?" Zuko sighed. Mai sensed how depressed Zuko was getting and quickly changed the subject.

"So what have you been up to since you've returned to the Temple?" Mai asked in attempt to make friendly conversation.

"We've cleaned the temple…well at least the main living spaces. Sokka went to live with Suki on Kyoshi Island…and Toph bounces between us." Aang shrugged.

"Ah, sounds nice." Mai smiled.

"Isn't it…a little odd living in the huge temple by yourself?" Zuko awkwardly posed the question.

"No…I'm just glad to be taking care of it once again. I'd hate to see it fall to ruin. And even though it is a bit painful, it still is filled with memories from my childhood." Aang smiled pushing a couple noodles back and forth on his plate. "Sometimes it gets a little lonely when it's just Katara and I. But we enjoy it most of the time." Aang grinned.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Zuko chuckled.

"Again, I don't mean it like that!" Aang defended himself.

"No, I know. I just think it must be nice. I've been swamped with work since the end of the war. There are always advisors and governors pulling me this way or that." Zuko shrugged, looking around in case any of the advisors decided to bombard his dinner with the Avatar.

"I'm beginning to think I need to leave the temple for a while and do more Avatar-like duties. I mean I've always known my job wasn't over when the war was. But, it was just so nice to have a break after a year of trying to solve the world's problems." Aang explained as he began to scoop the noodles in his mouth.

"I suppose you can't hide forever. It is your job." Zuko agreed.

"Until the day I die." Aang agreed, almost grudgingly.

"I know, but the world doesn't just go back to normal after a war ends." Mai sighed. Aang slowly nodded.

"Hey, it means the reunion of Team Avatar, right? Toph will definitely come with us. And there's no way Sokka can stay away for too long." Katara pushed her optimism into the conversation. Aang's face seemed to brighten a little more.

"Yeah! The nomadic part of me is itching to get out a little more." Aang nodded. "Maybe we could go back to the other temples…"

"Yeah, that'd be nice." Katara agreed. As the main course finished the desert course was brought out. It was a tart pie that was made with cherries. Aang grinned as he began eating his. He began to tell stories of when he and Kuzon would eat fruit tarts during the Fire Days Festivals and their other adventures.

"Did I tell you about the one time we almost got killed by a dragon?" Aang asked excitedly looking between Katara and Zuko.

"No! Aang you were so reckless!" Katara scolded him.

"Sounds like a good time," Zuko thoughtfully sipped his tea.

"Kuzon had this map of where the dragons lived so I wanted to go see! But there were these poachers…and we stopped them! But then the dragon thought we were going to steal the egg." Aang chewed his lip as he recalled the story.

"Impressive," Zuko nodded.

"Wow, what it'd be like to see a real dragon…" Katara pondered. Zuko and Aang glanced at each other for a moment trying to conceal their smirks.

"Didn't your uncle kill the last one?" Mai quietly asked Zuko.

"Oh, uh, yeah." Zuko nodded, hating the fact that everyone knew the wrong story about his uncle.

"We don't have to talk about that. Your uncle was a great man," Mai tried to console him.

"I know," Zuko snapped irritably.

"Where is General Iroh?" Aang asked, sad to not see the energetic tea-loving older man around.

"He's went back to Ba Sing Se to tend to his tea shop." Zuko shrugged. "I wish he'd come back and visit more."

"I'm sure he's just busy with his tea…" Aang chuckled. "He'll be here for the wedding, right?"

"Of course! It wouldn't be a party without Uncle Iroh!" Zuko nodded with a smile. "So, uh…done?" Zuko looked back to his guests.

"Yes, I've had too much." Katara pushed her plate of mostly finished pie away from her.

"We can go out into the gardens, unless you'd really like to get some rest." Zuko stood from the table.

"If that's okay, I'd rather get some sleep." Aang replied with as he stretched his arms upwards. Zuko nodded. I'll have someone shown to your rooms. Ah, I mean room." Zuko teased the two.

"Thanks, Zuko." Aang yawned, shrugging off the mocking tone Zuko had used. It had been a long couple of days.

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I like me some Aang/Zuko bestbrosforever moments. So kill me. And I actually do like Zuko/Katara in a friendship kind of a way. That's just how I do things...Wow I realized how many posts made up the past like three days (storywise)? Two? I'm too lazy to count. ANYWAY, I'VE FINALLY DUG MYSELF OUT OF THIS CABBAGE ARC...we can continue with our lives now! I'm definitely going to continue this story using the details we've learned about Korra so far. So I'll be continuing this as long as I keep my motivation up.

Again, I have to thank all you astounding reviewers. Without you this story would not be here. Now that I have some new material to go on, I should be able to easily continue. Or rather I'll be pointed on the right path. So like I think, airbender AAng mentioned the bison and the flying lemurs will be there. Obviously the moment the war ends there isn't going to be an overflow of new bison and lemurs. They'll have to search. But they'll show up here eventually. And I was so worried what was going to happen after Momo and Appa were gone. Thank goodness their species are making a comeback. And of course Tenzin. Hopefully by the time I get anywhere near the two of them starting their family we'll have more information about the kids. When I first planned this fic I had my OC children planned for use. But there were more than just the three and I really want to use canon characters when I can.

Wow, I don't know if anyone read all that. BUT ANYWAY. Thank you so much for your reviews. Have I mentioned that? Okay.

Uhm, any other reviews I need to address?

joeri747, thank you so much for that long review! And thanks so much for picking up the story! It means a great deal to me :D And that goes to all new readers. (I've repeated that too much, but I really do appreciate it.)

Viv, BFFs FOREVER. (That's repetitive isn't it?) WE CAN BE INTERNET BFFS. -high fives-

Singer of Time, thank you so much! I'm glad you like the fluffiness! At first I was worried no one would like it since I had basically no plot and all fluff. But I'm glad people still enjoy it. It seems my fluff writing skills have weakened over time, but I'll try to keep it up!

randomperson, I'm glad I got that awkward 'We're going to have kids, right?' conversation down. I was worried it was going to be too awkward. Of course they'll have kids, but when you tell a fourteen year old you want to have his babies...probably not going to get the right response. We'll have to wait several more years. :3

DEAR LORD I LOVE YOU ALL. I'll try to be faster next time.