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“So then I said ‘Leaf me alone, I’m bushed!’” Sokka said, finishing his story and laughing at his own joke while everyone else at the table groaned.
“It really is better when Gramps tells it,” Toph muttered.
On the upper level of the Jasmine Dragon in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, a collection of some of the world’s most powerful leaders and most decorated war heroes were gathered in a private event room. They were not there to discuss politics, to reminisce over battles fought and won, no, they were there to talk about everything but that. Every year, the group would make sure to set time aside from their busy schedules for one day to travel to Ba Sing Se and catch up, talk about all the minutia of their lives, forget for just a moment the weight on their shoulders and just be young people in a tea shop.
“Aw, come on!” Sokka said, “give me a bark! Get it? Like tree bark?”
The group booed again. “Someone change the subject, quick,” Toph said, throwing some of the fireflakes Iroh had provided in Sokka’s general direction.
“Oh, Katara!” Suki said cheerily, patting her husband’s arm in consolation. “How goes the wedding planning?”
Katara groaned and dropped her head on the table. “Sokka, tell another joke,” she said, her voice muffled against the polished wood.
“Yeesh,” Aang said from across the table. “That bad?”
Ignoring Sokka’s indignant cry, Katara picked her head back up and leveled her tired gaze at the Avatar. “You try planning not one, but two weddings, in two completely different cultural styles, only one of which you’re familiar with, trying to coordinate everything for one halfway across the globe, so all communication has to be done via letter, which can be up to a two week roundtrip if the weather is bad, trying to coordinate both weddings with two entirely different cosmic calendars’ significant dates, and each wedding has to accommodate essentially an entire nation’s worth of people plus foreign dignitaries! And on top of all of that, you still have to perform the day-to-day operations of running a country. Yes, it’s that bad.” Katara dropped her head back against the table. Next to her, her fiancé, Fire Lord Zuko, rubbed her back, very used to Katara’s rants. Limply, Katara picked herself back up and leaned against Zuko’s side, his arm sliding to rest around her shoulders.
“Feel better?” He asked. Katara silently held up her hand, her thumb and first finger held less than an inch apart. He chuckled and dropped a kiss on the crown of her head. “But, yes,” Zuko looked up and addressed the group, “it’s … not fun.”
“What was that about cosmic calendars?” Suki asked.
“We had to pick dates that were significant, but not too significant,” Katara said, “so we didn’t overlap with important celebrations or festivals. So immediately the solstices and equinoxes were out, along with the first full moon of any season, for the Southern Water Tribe, the first rain of the wet season in the Fire Nation, and the New Year for either of them. But we couldn’t just pick any old random day because this is a momentous occasion,” Katara put on a snooty accent as she said that. “The elders want the Southern Water Tribe wedding to be in winter, since the nights are longer and the moon is out more, and the Fire Sages want the wedding to be in summer for the same but opposite reason, but,” Katara held up a finger in Aang’s direction as she saw him open his mouth, “because the Fire Nation is so much further north, summer in the Fire Nation is winter in the Southern Water Tribe, so the weddings have to be close together to accommodate that, but not too close together so people have time to travel from one to the other and go back to their normal lives in between.”
“Remind me why the two weddings in the first place?” Toph asked.
“Because,” Katara sighed, exhausted, “if we only had one, then whichever country we snubbed,” Katara made air quotes around the word “snubbed,” not that Toph could tell, “by not having the wedding there, or in their cultural style, would be pissed, and that’s just one international crisis we’d like to avoid. There was already a huge argument over which wedding would be first. Both countries wanted to be first and I almost strangled Pakku and Councilman Seki because they just couldn’t understand that someone had to be first! That’s just how time works! It’s not an indictment against whichever country went second, it’s literally just how time works!”
“Why don’t you combine elements from both cultures into one wedding?” Aang suggested. “You’re combining cultures by getting married in the first place, so why not start with the wedding?”
“We were thinking about it, for a while,” Zuko said. “But when we floated that idea, just as a suggestion, it was … not well received, to say the least. I think Councilman Hoshi almost had a heart attack.”
“Which wouldn’t have been the worst thing,” Katara muttered, “because then we could finally pass the bill for public education funding in the outer islands…”
“Hey, no work talk!” Sokka grabbed the bowl of fireflakes and threw a handful at Katara. “That violates the rules of Gaang Hangout Day! And no magic water either!” He quickly cried, seeing her bend the tea out of his cup and towards him. Katara laughed and obligingly put the tea back in the cup.
“Plus,” she continued, “Dad and the tribe elders weren’t super jazzed about the idea either. I mean, Dad tried to hide it, but I could tell he was disappointed. So, no go on a hybrid wedding.”
The six friends were quiet for a moment, the only sounds being Sokka’s chewing as he dug into the pastries Iroh had brought up earlier.
“It’s really not bad,” Katara admitted, sitting up straight. “I mean, growing up, whenever I imagined getting married, I pictured a Southern Water Tribe style wedding, obviously. And Mai and Ty Lee’s wedding last year was beautiful, so I’m excited to get a Fire Nation wedding, too. It’s just a lot. Sometimes I wish we could just skip the wedding bit and just be married already. Because I just know that no matter how much we plan and prepare for everything, something is going to go wrong, at both weddings, and that’s stressing me out. Like, if we prepare for an attack or a protest by boosting security, then something is going to go wrong with the catering. And if we make sure the catering is okay, then something is going to be wrong with our clothes. Or some of the guests are going to get in a fight for no reason. And even if nothing goes wrong with the weddings themselves, I know for a fact that after the Water Tribe wedding, Zuko is going to get sick.”
“I’m not going to get sick!” Zuko said, exasperated.
“You’re going to get sick!”
“I’m not gonna get sick!” The other friends watched the couple bicker, amused at what was clearly a long-running discussion between the two.
“Zuko.” Katara leveled her fiancé with a stare and tone that left no room for argument. “You are a furnace on a good day. You will be wearing a parka and furlined trousers, both adorned with intricate beading, which means more weight, which means more heat being trapped. We will be bundled under a thick ceremonial blanket together, so we’ll be sharing body heat, for the majority of the elder’s blessing. And speaking of body heat, we’ll be in the new community building, which is insulated, along with at least seventy other people, each giving off their own body heat. And on top of all of that, we will be kneeling in front of a large burning braiser the entire time. That room is going to be the warmest place in the South Pole, you are going to overheat, and you are going to get sick afterwards.”
Zuko held her gaze, unflinching. “Okay,” he said, a hint of challenge in his tone, “fine. If I’m going to get sick after the Southern Water Tribe wedding, you are going to get sick during the Fire Nation wedding.”
“Wh- I’m not going to get sick during the Fire Nation wedding!”
“You’re going to get sick!”
“I’m not-!”
“You hate sake.”
Katara pinched her lips together, sensing defeat coming. “... I do, I do hate sake,” she conceded.
“You hate sake,” Zuko continued, “and when we have to drink it during the ceremony in front of the Fire Sage, you’re going to throw up.”
“I’m not-!” Katara cut herself off at Zuko’s incredulous look and took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully. “I … will do my level best to not make a face when we drink the sake. And I will probably fail. But!” She pointed her finger in Zuko’s face before he could say anything. “I absolutely will not throw up.”
Zuko gave his fiancée a bemused grin and brushed a lock of her long brown hair behind her ear. “Yes, dear.” Katara smiled and quickly pecked his cheek.
“Speaking of throwing up!” Toph interjected, then leaned over and began loudly retching. “You two are so sweet, the only reason I’m not actually barfing is because I respect Uncle’s tea too much.” Everyone laughed, and Toph threw up her hands. “Seriously, all this wedding shit sounds like way more trouble than it’s worth.”
“Aw, come on, Toph,” Aang said, “it’s a sacred union of two souls blessed by the spirits!”
“You guys are really lucky I respect this tea,” Toph rolled her eyes and retched again.
“Aang’s right,” Suki defended. “I don’t know about the rest of the Earth Kingdom, but on Kyoshi, weddings are beautiful. The couple go to Avatar Kyoshi’s shrine and Oyaji will ask Her to bless the couple on behalf of the spirits. Then the couple exchange their vows, and there’s a banquet, either with just their families, or as many people as they can feed.”
“Vows?” Zuko asked.
“Yeah, vows,” Suki said. “It’s promises the couple makes to each other for the marriage. They can be as sincere and heartfelt, or as lighthearted and funny as the couple wants. Like, ‘I vow to be faithful,’ ‘I vow to protect you until my last breath,’ or ‘I promise to always laugh at your corny jokes, even when no one else will.’” Suki nudged Sokka with her shoulder and smiled fondly at him. Sokka was doing his best to act as if he wasn’t incredibly smitten by her words.
“That sounds nice,” Zuko remarked. “I wouldn’t want to do that at either of our weddings, where basically the whole world is watching, but in concept, it sounds nice.” Katara, who was so used to Zuko’s mannerisms and knew that that was the equivalent of him shouting from the rooftops begging for them to do it, was already mentally trying to find a time when she and Zuko could do something like that, privately. Maybe on one or both of their wedding nights? But if they did it after both, would they need two sets of vows? And if it’s only one, which one? She internally groaned — two weddings was one too many.
“Eh, Earth Kingdom weddings have that too, but strike the ‘heartfelt’ and ‘funny’ part,” Toph said. “Granted, I’ve pretty much only been to snooty rich people weddings, and let me tell you, those are boring as shit. No one’s happy to be there, least of all the couple getting married, since nine times out of ten the marriage was arranged by their parents with the goal of getting even more money and status than they already had. And since the couple aren’t actually into it, the vows are just rote, ‘I vow to honor and cherish you,’ ‘I vow to care for you in sickness and in health,’ ‘I vow to keep my affairs at least somewhat hidden,’ ‘I vow to stay with you as long as you’re rich,’” Toph put on a high, nasally voice when imitating the vows. She huffed out an annoyed breath and went back to her regular voice, “Plus there are just so many ceremonies. There’s a tea ceremony, and a procession to get the bride, and someone has to decorate the marriage bed with fruit, which just seems unsanitary, and coming from me, that’s saying something.
“The only ceremony I’ve ever actually been present for,” she continued, “was this hair combing thing. So, like a year before I met you guys, my cousin was getting married, and her mom had passed away a couple of years before that, so she asked my mom to fill in for her, and since I was obviously incapable of being left alone for more than ten seconds at a time, Mom dragged me along with her for some of the shit she had to do. The hair combing thing, my mom literally just combed my cousin’s hair, said some well wishes, then the two of them cried and hugged and all I was thinking about was that I was missing Rumble-Mania.” Toph crossed her arms and huffed again. “Whatever.”
Perhaps sensing the tension that came whenever Toph discussed her parents, Aang jumped in quickly. “Air Nomads didn’t get married often. It was seen as a roadblock to enlightenment. You were choosing attachment over spiritual freedom. But I did go to one wedding, once. Monk Gyatso took me,” Aang got a soft, faraway look in his eyes as he reminisced about his people. “It was a big celebration, with tons of music and dancing. This was at the Western Air Temple, so one of the nuns there officiated the ceremony. The nun and couple all prayed to the spirits, then the couple did the handbinding ritual.” Seeing the confused looks on his friends’ faces, he elaborated. “So, since you’re binding your soul to another, rather than keeping it free to reach enlightenment, the couple would show that symbolically by taking a piece of cloth or rope, holding hands, and having the officiant wrap the rope around their hands and wrists. The nun had a whole speech she said as she did it. And the rope was really pretty, it was a couple of small ropes braided together in an intricate pattern, and dyed bright yellow and orange, but it could have been whatever colors the couple wanted.”
“That sounds beautiful,” Katara said, reaching across the table to squeeze Aang’s hand.
“Weddings are weird,” Sokka declared after eating another pastry. “Not any of the traditions, just they’re all so different across the world, but they’re all ways to get married. Like, if you get married in the Earth Kingdom, you’re still married if you go to the Fire Nation, even though you didn’t do the drinking thing, or have a Fire Sage present. Really, the only things they have in common are being blessed by the spirits, and a gathering of family and friends. Hell, by that standard, this could be a wedding! We even have the Avatar here to bless it! Quick, Aang, marry these two and put them out of their misery!”
The group laughed. “Yeah,” Katara sighed, “I wish we could just get married like this. No stress about dates, or ceremonies, just friends and family and us.” She leaned against Zuko’s side again, and he murmured his agreement.
“Why don’t you guys just elope?” Toph said, taking a sip of her tea.
Everyone looked at her blankly. “What’s that?” Aang asked.
“You know. Eloping.”
More blank looks that Toph wasn’t privy to. She seemed to interpret their silence as confusion and continued. “So, a couple of years back, one of the guys from Earth Rumble was dating this girl, and her parents didn’t approve and told her to break it off, but they didn’t want to, so one night they went to a city official and asked him to marry them. It was pretty much the bare bones of a wedding, the guy just said a few words, had them sign a piece of paper, they kissed, and boom, they were married and there was nothing her parents could do about it. Then we all got drunk in the Rumble Arena, and Fire Nation Man tried to light his burps on fire. Fun night.”
“Honestly that doesn’t sound half bad. Not the burp thing,” Zuko clarified, “but eloping. I wish we could do that.”
Sokka rubbed his chin. “If you guys were going to elope,” he said slowly with the same glint in his eye he got when he was inventing, “what would you want to do? If you could do anything at all, no rules, any possible tradition from any culture up for grabs.”
Katara hummed thoughtfully. “I’d like to do the handbinding, and the vows.”
“Me too,” Zuko said. “And I’d want all of us there, and Uncle.”
“Plus Dad and Gran Gran. And, if there’s no rules, then we could have it anywhere in the world,” Katara pointed out. “I’d want to get married somewhere romantic. Like, the Cave of Two Lovers in Omashu.”
“Uh, you mean the tomb only accessible through the dangerous, shifting tunnels? The place that has at least two dead bodies in it, probably more, on account of the aforementioned tunnels? That Cave of Two Lovers?” Sokka asked skeptically.
“It’s a powerful and moving story about star-crossed lovers torn apart by war and still finding a way to be together! It’s about love being stronger than hate, strong enough to reshape an entire mountain and bring peace!”
“It’s still a tomb.”
Katara huffed in frustration. “Zuko!” she turned to her fiancé for support.
Zuko took her hand in his and entwined their fingers. “I would marry you anywhere,” he said, staring into her deep blue eyes. He gave her a small teasing grin, “But, maybe not in a crypt?”
With her temper soothed and her cheeks warmed, Katara grinned back. “Okay then, Mr. Romantic, where would you want to get married?”
Zuko was quiet for a moment, giving the question the same serious thought he gives to policy proposals. “The dock,” he finally said, softly, “at the house on Ember Island.”
Katara felt her heart fill almost to bursting. She remembered the first time she went to that dock, staring at the sparkling ocean with the sun setting below it. She remembered standing up and hugging Zuko, his shaggy hair brushing her cheek, looking up at him and truly forgiving him. That moment was the beginning of their whole lives together, even if they didn’t know it yet.
“Yeah,” Katara smiled softly. “That would be perfect.”
The group was quiet for a moment, even Toph, letting the young couple have their moment.
“You know,” Sokka broke the silence, looking out the window, “if we left now and headed east, we could probably reach Ember Island by nightfall.”
Everyone turned and looked at Sokka. “What do you mean?” Suki asked.
“I mean, we can go to Ember Island and you guys can elope!” Sokka said like it was obvious, gesturing at Zuko and Katara.
“Sokka,” Katara admonished, “we can’t-!”
“Why not?”
“Because we’re already getting married! Twice!”
“Exactly!” Sokka’s eyes were alight with excitement. “You’re already getting married twice, so what’s a third time? It’s not like the Water Tribe wedding is gonna cancel out the Fire Nation wedding, or the other way around, so clearly getting married twice isn’t a problem with the spirits, so what’s the problem with getting married three times?
“Look,” Sokka brought his tone down, seeing the dubious looks Katara and Zuko were exchanging, “You guys are already getting all the traditions and ceremonies from Water Tribe weddings and Fire Nation weddings, so you’re not missing out on anything there. No worrying about protestors, or picking the right date, or placating elders and councilors, or getting sick. Getting married without whole countries watching, just friends and family, on Ember Island, doing whatever traditions you want.”
Aang, Suki, and Toph all looked at Katara and Zuko. “Appa would definitely be up for the flight,” Aang offered.
“Me, too!” Toph jumped in. “Come on, Sugar Queen, live a little!”
Katara worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “We really shouldn’t…” she trailed off, her brow furrowing.
Zuko gently turned Katara’s face towards his. “Do you want to?” He asked, his voice low. He knew his fiancée well enough to tell when she wanted something, but thought that she shouldn’t, and he could see the want written all over her face. Katara opened her mouth but Zuko spoke first, “Forget about ‘should.’ Do you want to get married, tonight?”
Katara looked into Zuko’s golden eyes and put her hand against his cheek, her fingers brushing the angry red skin of his scar. “I would marry you a thousand times,” she said, her voice soft, but strong with conviction.
Zuko grinned. Katara beamed back. “Okay,” she said.
“Okay?”
“Okay!” Sokka whooped and clapped his hands. “Let’s go get you two married!”
In the main dining room of the Jasmine Dragon, General Iroh, the Dragon of the West, carried a tray with empty tea cups back towards the kitchen. He smiled at his employees as he passed them and hummed a light tune, content with his peaceful retirement. Just as he entered the kitchen, he heard feet clambering down the stairs loudly and jumped as his nephew came running around the corner. “Nephew!” he exclaimed, taking in the Fire Lord’s disheveled appearance. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing’s wrong, Uncle,” Zuko said in a rush. His cheeks were slightly flushed and he had a large grin on his face. “Everything is great, wonderful- ah, hello, Jin,” Zuko greeted Iroh’s longest held employee.
“Hello, Lee,” the young woman teased.
“Jin, would you mind terribly if I stole my uncle away for a few hours?”
“A few hours?” Iroh said, surprised. Sometimes during the group’s annual gathering, Iroh would come up for a few moments to say hello and catch up, but never for so long. “Nephew, I can’t, the-”
“Please, take him,” Jin waved dismissively, her tone light. “I keep telling him he shouldn’t work so much, but he doesn’t listen to me.”
“But what about the lunch rush?” Iroh exclaimed.
“Iroh, please, we’ve been dead all day, we can manage just fine without you for a bit,” she smiled and took the tray out of his hands, leaving no room for argument.
“Well- I suppose-” Zuko began ushering Iroh towards the back of the establishment where the stairs were. “Just, remember there’s a reservation for six coming in the afternoon! And don’t let Binh burn the oolong!” the older man called over his shoulder.
“Goodbye, Iroh! Goodbye, Lee,” Jin yelled after the two retreating figures and chuckled fondly.
“Actually, we’re not going upstairs, Uncle,” Zuko pulled his uncle away from the stairs and steered him towards the back door instead.
“Where are we going then?” Iroh asked. Zuko pushed open the door and led Iroh to the small garden behind the Jasmine Dragon. In the garden, Iroh saw the Avatar bouncing in his seat atop his sky bison’s head, a set of hastily bended stone steps leading to the bison’s saddle, where the rest of Zuko’s friends and his fiancée sat, laughing and waving frantically to the two Fire Nation natives.
“To my wedding,” Zuko said, laughing breathlessly.
“Come on!” Toph yelled from Appa’s saddle. She was the only one who couldn’t see the expression on Iroh’s face, but based on the laughter around her, she imagined it was amazing. “Quick, before Sweetness changes her mind!”
“This is crazy, this is insane! I can’t believe we’re doing this!” Katara laughed hysterically.
“You’re getting married!” Suki squealed and hugged Katara tightly.
“I’m getting married!”
Zuko helped Iroh up and into Appa’s saddle, filling him in on their plans along the way.
“We probably can’t get Dad and Gran Gran,” Sokka said, looking at the position of the sun. “To go from here to Wolf Cove to Ember Island, and back would take too long.”
“That’s okay,” Katara said quickly, disengaging from her sister-in-law. “They’ll be at the Water Tribe wedding, and it’ll probably mean more to them than this.”
“Everyone ready?” Aang looked back over his shoulder to check if all his passengers were settled. Upon getting affirmations from the saddle, Aang faced forward and snapped Appa’s reigns. “Then away we go! Appa, yip yip!”
The group cheered as the bison lifted into the air and with that, the impromptu wedding procession was off.
The group was giddy the entire flight to Ember Island, laughing and joking, hugging and leaning on each other, drunk on love and happiness and the thrill of doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing. Iroh, ever the sentimental type, would periodically sniffle and proclaim his joy to the young couple. “There were times I wasn’t sure I would ever see my beloved nephew get married,” he said, wiping away a tear, “now I get to see it three times!” And the group burst into laughter.
“I want to write vows!” Katara declared when they were halfway across the ocean. “Shoo! You can’t hear them until the wedding!” She banished Zuko to the far side of the saddle. He obliged, but not before kissing her once, twice, three times, smiling through them all and not stopping until she physically pushed him away, giggling like a young girl the whole time. There was no parchment or ink to write the vows down on, so Katara spent the rest of the flight whispering her ideas for vows to Toph and Suki, and Zuko to Sokka and Iroh.
Just as the sun was beginning to dip low in the sky, Ember Island came into view and Aang began their descent to the beach. As soon as they touched down, Toph made a slide out of the sand for everyone to get down from Appa. Everyone except Aang, who jumped straight down from the bison’s head and raced ahead to the dock, yelling that he had to set something up.
“I can’t believe we’re really doing this!” Katara said for what must have been the millionth time. “I’m getting married in casual clothes, and my hair is probably a mess from flying- oh Suki, could you help me touch it up?”
The men continued on ahead as the ladies lagged behind for Suki to begin working on Katara’s hair. She had just tamed some of the wispy baby hairs that had gone wild during the flight when suddenly Toph said, “Wait! Take your hair down.” Katara and Suki looked at her in confusion, and though she couldn’t see it, she felt the weight of their stares. “Just, just take it down, for a second.”
“Okay,” Katara obliged and took down the bun her braids connected to. Toph made a fist and jerked her arm, sending a small chunk of stone into her hand from the large boulders that bordered the beach. Toph began manipulating the stone, smoothing it, shaping it into a vaguely rectangular shape, carving long thin teeth into it.
“Look, this isn’t exactly right because it’s supposed to be a wooden comb, and it’s supposed to be done indoors with you facing a window or mirror and something, and it’s really supposed to be a mom, or some kind of established woman which I absolutely am not, but just- look, just take your hair down and turn around,” Toph rambled as she finished her work on the makeshift comb. Katara felt tears prick at her eyes, understanding what Toph was doing, and turned around so her back faced the shorter woman. Toph carefully reached her hand forward, finding her way to the top of Katara’s head. With one hand holding a section of Katara’s thick hair, the other one carefully dragged the comb through her hair four times. On each passthrough, Katara heard Toph quietly mutter a wish, or blessing. Toph kept her voice low, but Katara heard “... long-lasting union … harmonious union … descendants … prosperity and longevity.”
When she was done, Katara turned around, fully choked up and touched by Toph sharing that tradition with her. Toph punched Katara in the arm, hard. “Like I said, there’s more to it than that, but we’re doing all this improv style, so it’ll have to do,” Toph shrugged nonchalantly. Katara swept her into a crushing hug.
“Thank you,” she whispered, and felt the younger woman hug her back briefly.
“Alright, alright, enough sappy shit. Fangirl, fix her hair, even I can see how messy it is,” Toph pushed back from Katara and let Suki resume her work.
Finally, once Katara’s hair was sufficiently fixed, the girls made their way to the dock. Zuko was embracing Iroh at the foot of the dock and Katara saw a small smile on her soon-to-be-husband’s face. Katara gasped as she saw what Aang had been up to. He had made a stone arch to frame the end of the dock and had gathered some moss and flowers from the shore to add color to the structure. “Aang, it’s beautiful!” she gushed. She ran up to her friend and pulled him into a hug. Unlike Toph, Aang hugged her back freely.
“I’m so happy for you, Katara,” he whispered.
“Thank you,” she whispered back and kissed his cheek. It had taken them a while to reach this level of truly platonic friendship after their breakup, but Katara was so happy they did. She couldn’t imagine her wedding day without Aang there to support her.
“Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” Sokka clapped his hands and ushered everyone onto the dock. “We’re losing daylight!”
Katara quickly hugged her brother, despite his protests of cooties, and whispered a brief, “Thank you so much for this.” If Sokka hadn’t suggested it, this elopement wouldn’t have happened.
Sokka squeezed her back. “Love you, sis,” he said.
Aang led the procession, taking his spot as officiant at the very end of the dock, facing his friends. After him, Zuko took Katara’s hand, the two beaming at each other, and walked to the end of the dock in front of Aang and facing each other. The rest of the group filed in after them, just a small mass of people, no distinction between the bride’s side or groom’s.
Katara looked up at Zuko. The orange light from the setting sun softened his sharp features. She took both his hands in hers. Her heart was fluttering, not from anxiety, but from excitement. When she looked into his golden eyes, all she saw was love reflecting back to her.
“You ready?” Katara asked, unable to keep a smile off her lips.
“You have no idea,” Zuko said, a similar expression on his face.
“Friends, loved ones,” Aang began his speech, “we are gathered here today to witness the marriage of Katara and Zuko.” Aang paused and smiled at them both with misty eyes. “When I think about everything you two have been through… If this was fifteen years in the past, this marriage wouldn’t be happening. Heck, even ten years ago, things were dicey.” The congregation chuckled. “You began on opposite sides of a horrible war, a war fueled by derision and hate. And now, we are gathered to witness your union of love and harmony. The path to this day has not been easy. But it is the most difficult journeys that are the most worth taking. Your love for each other will serve as the foundation for your future. The support you give each other will carry you through your travels through life. Know, that even in the darkest of times, from this day forth, you will always have each other.” Aang began to get choked up. He wasn’t the only one — Katara and Zuko were both beginning to tear up, and Sokka was openly weeping and leaning on Suki for support.
Aang cleared his throat. “I, uh, I think this is a good time for vows,” he said, surreptitiously wiping his eyes. “Who wants to go first?”
Katara and Zuko both began to speak at the same time, stopped themselves, and laughed. They tried again, both spoke at the same time again, and laughed again.
“You go first,” Zuko finally said, briefly squeezing Katara’s hands.
“Okay,” Katara took a deep breath. "Zuko. I vow to be faithful. I vow to be honest to you, even when you don’t want me to be.” She smiled hearing him laugh. “I vow to take care of you when you’re sick or injured. I vow to not say ‘I told you so,’ so much, even when I did tell you so.” More laughter and she squeezed his hands where they were joined. “I vow that if I ever see you turning down a dark path — which I truly doubt you ever will, but if, then I will be there to pull you back.” Zuko squeezed her hands back, appreciatively. “I vow to support you, to honor you, to cherish you, every day, and if I ever fail in that, I vow to do better. I vow to love you until my dying day.” Katara stopped as tears fell down her cheeks in earnest. “Okay, you go now before I completely fall apart,” she said, looking up to try and stop crying.
“Oh I’m not gonna be much better,” Zuko said, his voice shaking. He swallowed thickly and took a deep breath. “Katara. I vow to protect you, even though I know you can protect yourself just fine.” Katara let out a watery laugh. “I vow to stand with you on your darkest day, and still love you just as much as on your brightest. There is no one I trust more in my life, and I vow to be the same to you. I vow to be a man you can be proud to call your husband, and I vow to make sure you know how much you are loved, every day. I vow,” Zuko cleared his throat and blinked hard, a few tears escaping, “I vow to love any and all children we may have, unconditionally. I vow to be the best father I can be.” Katara was crying openly, feeling so much love in her heart she could barely stand it.
“You’re going to be an amazing dad,” she whispered, unable to talk louder for fear of a full meltdown. Zuko gave her a shaky smile and squeezed her hands again.
“And I vow to always save you from pirates,” he finished. Katara laughed at what had become their inside joke and she shook her head fondly.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too.”
“And now,” Aang said, sounding only slightly more stable than the couple in front of him, “by the power-”
“Wait,” Suki said. For the first time since the ceremony began, Katara and Zuko turned to face their friends and family. There wasn’t a dry eye in sight. “Didn’t you say you wanted to do the hand-tying thing?”
“Oh, right, handbinding, yeah!” Aang said, and began patting his pockets. “Does anyone have a rope? Or a strip of cloth, or something to tie with?”
Everyone searched their persons for a moment. Katara let go of Zuko’s hands and touched her mother’s necklace where it hung around her neck. “Would this work?” she asked, already fiddling with the clasp. Aang nodded, and Katara removed her necklace, carefully handing it to him.
“May the couple please hold hands?” Aang asked. Katara and Zuko joined hands again, and Aang repositioned their hands to be more closely resembling a handshake. Carefully, with reverence for what the necklace represented, Aang draped the simple leather cord over their joined hands. It wasn’t long enough for more than one loop, certainly not long enough for the intricate patterns Aang had described in the Jasmine Dragon, so Aang resecured the clasp. The pendant laid against the back of Katara’s hand, catching the dwindling sunlight.
“Let this necklace serve as a physical symbol, that through this union, you tether your souls together. No matter what way the wind may blow, may you two be bound together for eternity, never lost, for you may always find your way back to each other through this tie.” Aang bowed his head and said a prayer in what sounded like an old Air Nomad dialect, a language that hadn’t been spoken for over a hundred years now served as a part of a wedding ceremony for a couple that would usher in a new era of peace and unity, the Air Nomads’ ideals.
Aang raised his head once the prayer was finished. “Anything else we wanna fit in?” Everyone looked at each other but no one spoke. “Alright then. By the powers vested in me as Avatar, on behalf of the spirit world and all who inhabit it, I hereby pronounce you, husband and wife! You may kiss the bride!” Aang had barely said the word ‘kiss’ before Katara was surging upwards, careful not to dislodge the necklace from their joined hands, throwing her other arm around Zuko’s neck while he wrapped his around her waist, and kissing him deeply. She was dimly aware of her friends and family cheering and clapping around her, but the only thing she was focused on was her husband. Her husband. Finally.
Months later, when Zuko did indeed get sick after the Southern Water Tribe wedding, and Katara sat by his bedside spooning soup into his mouth whilst pointedly not saying she told him so — when Katara sipped the sake during the Fire Nation wedding and made such a disgusted face that Zuko couldn’t help but snort — when catering was late, when protesters came in droves, when King Kuei got too drunk and made a fool of himself, none of that mattered to Katara and Zuko. Because they already had their perfect wedding. And as the years passed, as they built a family and rebuilt a nation, as their hair became gray and their skin became wrinkled, every year they celebrated their anniversary, not on the day of the Southern Water Tribe Wedding, not on the day of the Fire Nation wedding, but on the anniversary of the day they stood on the dock of the house on Ember Island, in front of their closest friends and family, where they said vows and wrapped their hands in Katara’s mother’s necklace. That was the day they were married, as far as the spirits were concerned.
✿
Post credit scene:
The impromptu wedding party walked down the dock, laughing the whole way.
“I’m gonna have to rank all your weddings now!” Toph exclaimed from her position holding Iroh’s arm. “Two was fine, but three? I gotta make an official best, worst, middle now.”
“I think it was lovely!” Iroh said, patting the young girl’s hand as they stepped down onto the sand. “The ceremony was so beautiful, it’s almost as if I can hear music!”
Aang laughed, then paused and tilted his head. “Hey, wait … I think I can hear music, too.”
Everyone stopped and strained their ears. Coming down the beach they could just barely hear the sound of a string instrument, and voices singing a familiar tune.
“Oh no,” Sokka muttered, his face ashen.
“Two lovers! Forbidden from one another! A war divides their people,” a group of nomads emerged from around a boulder, the same nomads Katara, Sokka, and Aang met outside of Omashu years ago. “And a mountain divides them apart. Oh, hey guys, look!” The man who had been singing pointed at Sokka. “It’s the Avatar!”
Sokka groaned and smacked his forehead.