The proposal plan
'Cause we were just kids when we fell in love
Not knowing what it was
I will not give you up this time
But darling, just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own
And in your eyes, you're holding mine
Baby, I'm dancing in the dark with you between my arms
Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favourite song
When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath
But you heard it, darling, you look perfect tonight
Eight years had passed since the end of the war. Eight years since Avatar Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai. Eight years since peace was restored in the world.
The new Fire Lord Zuko had been working harder than ever to fix each and every problem his predecessors had caused to the other nations. Of course, he wasn’t alone in his quest: he had many allies, but the closest were the members of the Ambassador Council, each representing a region of the world. Out of all of them, there was one of his dearest friends, Ambassador Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, one of the very first members of the famous Team Avatar.
Aang himself was now busy travelling around the world in order to mantain peace with his inseparable flying bison Appa, his lemur Momo and, of course, his soul mate, the waterbending master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe.
Right now they were on their way back from the city of Omashu, when Aang bursted: “WAIT A MINUTE! Before we go to Ba Sing Se, we could pay a visit to Toph!"
“Great idea! It’s been way too long since we last saw Sifu Beifong!” the last words being highly emphasized.
Toph earned that title four years ago, when she opened the very first metalbending academy, and spent her days teaching boys and girls of every age.
She was making her students repeat a difficult form for the hundred and thirty-fourth time when she felt new vibrations in the ground.
“COME ON EVERYBODY, I SAW MORE ENERGY IN- Wait… EVERYBODY STOP!”
There was a moment of silence. Toph kneeled and touched the ground. She got up immediatly screaming: “SPIRITS! TWINKLE TOES AND HIS GIRLFRIEND ARE HERE!”
Everybody turned to face the big entrance and saw a bald guy and a brunette girl walking towards their teacher with smiles on their faces. With a closer look they recognised the arrow on the guy’s head. He was the avatar… And their teacher just called him twinkle toes. The kids shared confused looks, but they were suddenly scolded.
“EVERYONE KEEP PRACTICING ‘TIL I SAY STOP… AND NO CHEATING!”
“Well, you certainly haven’t lost your rough ways…” said Katara smiling fondly.
“Look sweetheart, Aang had a limited time to learn earthbending and was eager to do it. These kids?” she pointed at them: “They take it way too easy: they need a tough teacher, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do a n y t h i n g.” she explained.
“It’s always good to see you, Toph!” said Aang before embracing both girls in a group hug. When they parted,Toph asked: “So… how’s maintaining the world’s peace going on?”
“Well, a little harder than we thought…” said Katara.
“… But nothing is impossible when you have true love on your side!” concluded Aang, looking fondly at his girlfriend.
“Oh, come now Aang: you’ll make me blush!”
“Spirits help me! I forgot how cheesy you two were together… Oh, right! I almost forgot about another thing… There’s a surprise in the backyard: follow me!” she turned around and started walking away: “YOU LAZYBONES KEEP PRACTICING UNTIL I COME BACK, THEN THE LESSON’S OVER, YOU HEAR ME?”
“Yes, sifu Beifong” the kids answered in chorus.
Aang and Katara followed the blind girl into the small backyard, which, for contrast, was very quiet… Until they saw a familiar silhouette practicing with a sword.
“Snoozleees… We have some gueeests!”
The young man turned and yelled: “KATARA!”
“SOKKA!”
They ran towards each other until Katara freezed.
“Stop right there!”
She moved her hands and made all his sweat float and then fall to the ground. Aang immediatly created a blast of air to make the stink go away.
“Who needs a bath when I have you? Man, I missed you two lovebirds!”
The Water Tribe siblings hugged each other tightly.
“Is Aang treating you well?”
“As if I’m not even here!” commented the airbender: “And if you really want to know, Katara and I-”
“… Aaand I’m gonna stop you right there!” Sokka said when he and Katara parted: “I’m sorry I worry about my sister, but I don’t wanna know the details of your love life!” said while going to hug Aang. “And by the way, how did you get this tall? Is it the vegetables? I don’t understand…”
“Gee, it feels like the old times…” commented Toph “Alright, look, it’s getting late: Sokka lead them to the other guest room… I’ll meet you at dinner so we can catch up properly!”
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The dinner went really great. They hadn’t had this much fun together since a very long time. Katara and Aang talked about their last travels and the shenanigans with the new king of Omashu, which was… Different, very different from Bumi, who was now living his best life away from politics and all sorts of that boring stuff. Toph updated them on how her students have been getting better, while Sokka told them about the life in the capital of the Fire Nation and his last visit to Kyoshi Island.
It had been three years now since he and Suki broke up. It wasn’t anything tragic, they just had too different lives and it was getting way too complicated mantaining a long distance relationship; so, they eventually decided it would be better to just stay friends. Luckily for her, she already found love in what could be considered their former enemy, Ty Lee, whose knowledge on chi blocking made the Kyoshi warriors even more dangerous to their enemies. Sokka, on the other hand, was stuck in a weird situation with his current love interest. He wanted to talk about this to his sister, but he couldn’t find the courage to do it, especially since Katara was all “Aang did this and Aang did that…” and of course Aang was like “you know, Katara also did this and that, she’s so perfect, and I’m so lucky to have her, ...” and so on. Sokka was happy for his sister, truly, but for now, Toph and Toph only was his confidant on love matters.
Later they went to sleep in their rooms, too tired to stay awake all night talking like they used to do when they were younger. Sokka was fast asleep, and snoring loudly when someone whispered in his ear: “Sokka… Sokka…”
“Mmm… Zuko, stop worrying about the fucking speech, nobody’s gonna pay attention anyway…”
“… Sokka…”
“Come on, man, let me sleep…”
“… Sokka!”
“WHOAREYOUWHATDOYOUWANTFROMME” he screamed, while he got his sword from under the pillow and agitated in the air.
“Sokka, stop screaming: it’s me, Aang!”
“Oh… Morning Aang! Is it morning yet?”
“Yue is still up there…” he said pointing at the moon out of the window.
“Hey, Yue” he said still half-asleep.
“Listen man, I need your help…”
“… And I thought that coming here would let me be able to finally sleep through a whole night…” he said while throwing himself back on his bed.
Without even listening to what his friend was saying, Aang laid down next to him.
“Well, this isn’t exactly how I imagined it would be but… I’m planning to ask Katara.”
“Ask what?”
“Uhm… If she wants to marry me?”
“YOU WHAT?!” Sokka immediatly got up, definetly awake, followed by Aang.
“I mean, I thought it was kinda obvious… Have you heard how I talked about-”
He was interrupted by the other young man hugging him tighter than ever.
“Tui and La, you can’t even imagine how happy I am for you…”
“… Are you crying?”
“No…” he snuffled: “… Maybe… I mean, I was there from the very beginning of everything, of course I’m crying, I have feelings! And she’s my little sister, and you’re my best friend, and you’re so perfect together, and you complete each other, and you deserve all the good in the world, and-”
“Sokka, please stop or I’ll start crying and we’ll wake everybody” tried to joke Aang: “I came here because I need your help. I wanted to make it a surprise for Katara, but I don’t know where to start… Usually you’re The Man With A Plan…”
“… Aaand you came to the right person!” he fixed himself on the bed with a grin on his face: “The tradition back home is for the person who wants to propose to create a betrothal necklace theirself with their own hands, to show the love and dedication they have for the other person…”
“… Oh, that won’t be a problem, I love making necklaces!” the airbender said enthusiastically.
“You need to hunt an animal and carve a pendant out of its bones.”
“What? No! Nuh huh! I’m not going to kill an animal just to show my love for Katara!”
“It’s the tradition, but fine… We’ll figure out something…”
“Thank you, Sokka… Still, I don’t know how or when to do it…”
“I may be starting to make a plan in my mind… Give me a minute”
Aang looked at him with a hopeful look.
“Ok, here it goes: next month my dad and Bato will celebrate their eighth anniversary. Katara and I will be there a week earlier for all the preparations. You’ll say that you can’t make it because of ‘avatar stuff’, but you’ll promise to be there for the party. Instead, you’ll stay at the Southern Air Temple making the best betrothal necklace ever made in the history of betrothal necklaces! If you need anything, we’ll meet at halfway. Then,” he added dramatically: “The night of the celebration, near the end, you know, when everybody is drunk and starts to sing old songs or tell old stories, you’ll find an excuse to sneak out with Katara: I’ll make sure you’ll find a little boat, and with a clean sky filled with stars and a beautiful moon – as always, my dear –” he winked outside the window: “You find a quiet spot… And boom! You pop the question!”
Aang was ecstatic: “Sokka! You’re a genius!”
“Thanks, I know... Now can I please go to sleep? Yue is starting to set!”
“Oh, sure!” his friend got up walked towards the door: “Thanks again and sweet dreams!”
Aang walked to his and Katara’s bedroom and decided to freshen up, change into his abitual clothes and go meditating in the backyard. He entered in the room to see Katara still asleep and decided not to wake her. The weird thing was, while he was in their private bathroom, he could have swore he heard the door open and close, and when he came out, Katara wasn’t in their bed anymore. He thought she probably went to ask Toph about breakfast, although she didn’t say good morning to him, as she always did… He was overthinking, he needed a little meditation to clear his mind, especially after talking to Sokka.
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Later that morning, Sokka was running through the academy training field, knowing Toph would be there.
“TOPH! Toph! I need to tell this to someone and I don’t have Zuko here to talk about gossip: you’re not gonna believe it!”