Title: Wedding Proper

Author: SCWLC

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story.

Rating: PG

Summary: AU - Hakoda gets a shock when he meets up with his kids again.

Notes: So, there's a couple things in this fic. First, pretend that each season was a year, so that by the time this happens in the third season, Katara's sixteen-going-on-seventeen and Zuko is eighteen-to-nineteen-ish. Second, I'm pretending that Zuko joined up with them pretty much right after Ba Sing Se fell. I don't really have a plot there. This is ZWP. Zutara-Without-Plot. As to the supposed Water Tribe two-part wedding, it's pretty much just a cheap trick so I can have Hakoda try to keep them away from each other.

Notes 2: No, really, this is a one-shot. I hope you enjoy it.

Hakoda grinned happily as the giant six-legged creature landed in front of him. He'd worried ever since Bato had caught up with him and told him that his two children were travelling with the Avatar, who was a twelve-year-old boy. That had been two and a half years ago, and all the Water tribesmen had heard tales of the Avatar's waterbending master, of Sokka's bravery and brilliance and the Avatar's powers.

There had been other tales too, as time passed. Stories about the Avatar's earthbending master and, most recently, about the banished prince of the Fire Nation. He was eager to see Katara and Sokka again, and he was just as eager to meet the Avatar and the others. Sokka had gotten a message hawk from somewhere, and they'd recently been corresponding with it. He'd mentioned various things in his letters, hinted at others and outright said that there was news he had to share in person.

Finally the children were climbing down and Hakoda got a somewhat shocked look at them. Sokka had somehow changed from the gangling boy he recalled into a young man with broad shoulders and a purposeful walk. He would be very proud to let this man have a position of leadership in the tribe. The Avatar, whom Bato had described as a cheerful child, was a teenager, all legs and arms. There was a young woman with them, her easy bearing and confidence belied how young she was, but he had no idea who she was, and a quick glance behind him at the rest of the warriors and soldiers there to welcome them showed him no one else did either. Sokka introduced her as Suki, the leader of the warrior women of Kyoshi Island.

Ultimately, however, he didn't know who to be more shocked by of the last three descending from the bison. The Fire Nation prince, who was a handsome young man with his face scarred by fire, had a humble bearing and carried twin blades that he wore as an extension of himself. There was none of the arrogance Hakoda had come to associate with the Fire Nation, and Zuko's skill with the blades belied the traditions of his people that a firebender needed no weapon but his bending. It was one of the few major advantages over the Fire Nation they had in the war.

The earthbending master was a girl, younger than his own daughter, blind, built with a delicacy that showed her aristocratic background. Within moments of getting off the bison, she had ingratiated herself to half the warriors by joining them in some of the filthiest jokes he'd ever heard, and had cheerfully bullied anyone who'd let her by a combination of sheer force of personality and earthbending that was so finessed and powerful, she could do it with barely a twitch of a finger.

Finally, there was Katara. She had climbed down, all grace and calm, easily controlling the others in the group with a few words. The baby fat that had rounded her face was gone, whether from maturity or hardship, it didn't matter. It made her look far older than her seventeen years. She was wearing her hair in a complex bun, held in place with an elegant comb and Hakoda barely recognised her.

They all greeted one another, and Hakoda grinned happily as he had both his children in his arms, for however briefly it would be. Then they broke apart, everyone chattering and telling each other their news.

Later that night, Hakoda noticed the children putting up tents and caught sight of Suki delivering her things into Sokka's tent. He'd been talking to Katara, and she didn't seem even slightly surprised, so he asked her, "Katara, is there a reason Suki is putting her bedroll into your brother's tent?"

Katara glanced at him and smiled. "Didn't Sokka tell you? It's just like him to forget. He and Suki are together now."

"But they're sharing a tent?" Hakoda asked, worried. "What if-" he stopped and looked at his daughter. "You do know what happens when a man and woman uh . . ."

She raised an eyebrow at him when he trailed off. "Yes, Dad. Who do you think helped Gran-gran deliver the babies at home after you left?"

"You?" he was shocked. "But I thought Sakaya-"

"Sakaya faints at the sight of blood," Katara told him dismissively. "Anyhow, I'm not eleven any more, you know. Even if I hadn't found out from Gran-gran, and when I was trained as a healer with the Northern tribe, or any of the other times it's come up while we were travelling, I'd've found out from Sokka and Suki." She made a face.

Hakoda looked at the girl before him with her slender body, womanly shape and unfamiliar hairstyle. "No, I suppose you're not."

The rest of the evening he watched her as she took care of her friends, broke up arguments, raised spirits, cooked, mended and effectively cared for the small group the way Kanna cared for their tribe as their matriarch. Hakoda felt a pang as he realised that his little girl was almost gone.

Later that evening, he went to her tent. He wanted to speak with her alone, away from prying eyes and ears. He'd managed to corner Sokka earlier, and had given a tentative blessing for his son's choice in the Kyoshi warrior. Expecting that there would be only the girl, Toph, in there with his daughter, Hakoda nearly had a heart attack when he walked in to see Katara, down to partially unravelled bindings, lying underneath Zuko, who was wearing nothing but his pants.

With a roar of fury, Hakoda reacted on a combination of instinct and denial, assuming the Fire Nation boy was raping his daughter, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and tossed him out of the tent.

"Wha-" he started, but Hakoda was on top of him, trying to beat the boy within an inch of his life.

"Dad!" Katara shouted, but the red haze of fury in his mind meant he paid her no mind. He had a firebender to beat.

Quite suddenly, Hakoda found himself up to his neck in the ground, and saw Katara run, not to him, but to Zuko, whom she started healing with her waterbending. "What were you doing? What were you thinking?" she demanded of Hakoda, even as she gently smoothed a glowing water-gloved hand over the boy's bruised face.

Hakoda shook his head. "I was coming to talk to you, and then I saw him . . . on top of you . . . I thought he was forcing himself on you." The significance of her actions suddenly penetrated his mind. "But he wasn't. You were with him willingly. Katara! How could you . . . not even married . . ." he trailed off sputtering in anger. He couldn't believe the girl he'd raised would be so brazen.

She paused, staring at him, then whipped around, shouting, "Sokka!"

Hakoda, up to his neck in dirt just stared, dismayed. Now what? Surely her brother hadn't condoned this? "What?" came Sokka's irritated voice. When his son came into his somewhat limited view, he stopped, and asked, "Why did Toph bury Dad?"

"Because he was trying to beat Zuko up," Katara snapped. "I thought you said you'd told him."

By now, they'd gathered quite a crowd, and the Avatar, arriving on the scene, took it in in a moment and said, rather thoughtfully, "Actually, I think Sokka said that he was handling it."

Katara turned to glare at her brother. "You didn't actually tell him, did you?"

"Um . . ." Sokka looked embarrassed. "I sort of forgot."

"You forgot?" Zuko said from where he'd joined Katara. "You forgot to mention that Katara and I were married?"

Sokka winced. "I was waiting to tell him until we were actually face to face," he protested. "I can't put something like that in a letter!"

"Well, you talked to him face to face hours ago," Katara said. "In fact, you both went off alone for a very long time. You could have told him then." She fixed a glare on her brother that was echoed to various degrees by the rest of the group, Hakoda included.

"I sort of . . . forgot?" Sokka said.

"Forgot?" Hakoda asked in disbelief. He turned to Toph. "Will you let me go, please?" She scrutinised him for a moment, those oddly blank eyes concentrating on something only she could sense, then nodded. Abruptly Hakoda was free. He immediately turned to Sokka. "How could you forget that your sister was married?"

Sokka looked a little nervous as he said, "Well, they were pretending to be married for so long, it kind of didn't register when it actually happened."

"What?" said a baffled Hakoda.

Katara sighed. "It was easier, a lot of times, for me and Zuko to pretend to be a married couple travelling to a new home. Fire Nation soldiers weren't looking for an Earth Kingdom boy and a Water Tribe girl who had gotten married and were heading for his home village." She shrugged. "We were picking up supplies one time and someone mistook us for husband and wife."

"You certainly argued like it," Aang put in good-naturedly.

Toph added, "Yeah, Katara's the mom and Sparky's the group dad."

Katara snorted. "Yeah. Right." Suddenly she whipped around, fixed a look on Toph and said, "I saw that, don't you bend that rock at Aang. I know perfectly well you're overdue a bath." Her tone was a perfect imitation of her grandmother at her most motherly. Toph nodded, looking smug. "Stop doing that!" Katara told her irritably.

"Anyhow," Zuko said, taking up the thread of the narrative, "We just decided to keep doing it, since Sokka can't be trusted to buy food and Aang and Toph tend to be too . . . memorable. It made shopping less dangerous." He smiled at Katara. "We got so used to playing at being in love it just . . . stuck."

"Just stuck?" Hakoda asked.

Katara smiled at Zuko. "We were having to pretend one day that we were married and . . . we just didn't stop."

"I called them on it," Sokka groused.

"No," Toph corrected. "You found them alone together by the lake kissing and you had a fit we could all hear for miles."

Zuko looked earnestly at Hakoda. "Sir, I understand if you feel cheated of your daughter's wedding. We just . . . with the war, we didn't want to wait."

Hakoda could understand that feeling well. He'd married Kya younger than their families would have liked for the same reason. He heaved a sigh. "Well, what's done is done." He turned to Katara. "We will talk about this."

She nodded. "Of course. I was really surprised when you didn't before, but . . ." she trailed off shooting a look at her brother.

"I just hope you are keeping up with contraceptive herbs," Hakoda told her. "The middle of a war zone is no place for a pregnant woman."

Then Katara said something that made Hakoda's day. "Oh, we haven't . . . um . . . consummated yet," she told him, flushing. "We didn't want to take the risk."

"Really?" Hakoda asked, feeling a sudden upsurge of happiness.

Zuko, looking very embarrassed at the turn the discussion had made, said, "Really."

"Then you're not going to until Katara brings you home with her and the both of you finish getting married properly," Hakoda told him.

Aang spoke before Zuko could ask. "I don't understand. What does that have to do with them having a Water Tribe ceremony?"

Katara sighed. "In the Tribes, a couple isn't considered fully married until after they've . . . consummated." She shot a look at her father. "Most of the time, once a couple is engaged, they feel free to sleep together since they're as good as married at that point, so it's not an issue."

Hakoda nodded solemnly, knowing he still had time to either break up the relationship, or at least get used to the fact that his daughter was marrying the Prince of the Fire Nation. "There are two parts to the Water Tribe ceremony. The first is the union before witnesses, after that, is the acknowledgement of the union. The second can only happen after the marriage is properly consummated."

Zuko stared. "You're saying that you don't consider us properly married yet?"

"Precisely," Hakoda said. "And I would appreciate it if you both stayed that way until Katara's grandmother can oversee the acknowledgement."

The firebender turned to Katara and demanded, "Is there some reason you didn't mention this?"

She looked at him with the big, innocent eyes Hakoda was well aware she'd used as a child to get her brother to take the blame for her shenanigans. It also worked far more than it ought to. "You were so happy to be properly married, I didn't want to ruin that. And," she added, "We really can't afford to wind up with children right now, so since I wouldn't really feel right about it otherwise . . ." Katara trailed off.

"So what you're saying is that, according to your tribe, we're not married" Zuko said flatly. "You realise your dad's trying to use this as an excuse to separate us."

She nodded. "I know." Then she turned the full power of those limpid, sad, blue pools on him. Hakoda felt himself melting and tried to firm up his spine. Then she asked, her lip trembling, "You'd really ask me to stay away from my husband, Dad?"

"I . . ." Hakoda shot a look at Sokka who shrugged helplessly at him.

"After everything you told us growing up about how you and Mom didn't wait because of the war, you want me to risk being apart from the man I've chosen to marry when we're both risking death at every turn?" Her whole face was sad, tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, and Hakoda could clearly recall how he'd felt at her age when older heads had counselled waiting to marry Kya. He'd been right in the end too. If they'd waited he'd've had far less time with her.

"Well . . ." Hakoda's resolve was evaporating. "If you promise to let your grandmother have a proper acknowledgement, I suppose I'll trust you to do the right thing."

She smiled tremulously. "Really?" The open joy on her face was too much for Hakoda.

He sighed a little. "Really."

"Thank you Dad!" she flung herself at him in a hug.

Sokka, off to the side said, "Wait for it . . ."

Hakoda shot his son an annoyed look. "You think I don't know what she just did?"

"Oh, I know," Sokka said. "I'm warning Zuko."

Zuko, looking quite baffled, said, "Warning me about what?"

Toph's voice rang out. "Why the hell can't you lie like that when we're on the road Sugar Queen?"

Katara replied, "That wasn't lying. That was just . . . stretching the truth a little. It's all in the eyes."

"Wha . . .?" Zuko said.

Hakoda grinned and clapped him on the back. "I don't know if she's done it to you yet, but Katara's got a gift."

"She was faking?" Zuko asked, stunned. "Then when she asked . . . and I . . ."

Hakoda watched as the young man who was effectively his new son-in-law went to confront Katara. Within moments, Katara had turned those eyes onto Zuko, who shot a pleading look at Sokka. "She asked him to marry her, didn't she?" Hakoda murmured.

"Yup," said Sokka. "I knew when she aimed The Eyes at him that there was nothing I could do."

Hakoda shook his head and decided to head back to his tent for some sleep. He'd need it to deal with everything tomorrow morning.