Chapter Text
Currently, his hands are busy with reconstruction and adaptation plans that his new role as ambassador has provided him. Leaving the skin tents for heated houses doesn't please everyone, but families with young children find it comfortable, and teenagers are encouraged by the idea of having more space for themselves, so little by little, more and more families from the tribes have been joining the new developments. The houses are built on firmer foundations, and Sokka has become more of an architect/inventor than a military strategist because the war has waned.
And now he is engaged to Zuko, the Fire Lord. If someone told his teenage self that he would marry the crazy kid who chased them all over the world and who was actually an omega, Sokka would have looked at them and told them they needed to go to a healer to get their heads checked.
Anyway, Sokka has been working not only on projects but also on his own ability to say "no" and to delegate work. He has begun developing the idea of a workshop to teach what he knows about engineering. He believes that once he gets married, he can begin construction as proof that he plans to settle in Caldera.
"EVERYONE ON DECK! HOLD THE MAINSAIL!" his father shouted as Sokka ran from one end of the ship to the other, holding the moorings that were coming loose due to the raging storm.
It was terrible, the biggest storm he had faced since he could remember. Nevertheless, neither the movement of the waves nor the raindrops dazed him enough not to see the other ship just a couple of kilometers away.
"What the hell?" he asked just in time as a huge wave practically rose out of nowhere, almost capsizing his ship as if it were a damn paper boat.
The sound of his men shouting made him turn his attention to the opposite end, where another Earth Kingdom ship of considerably smaller structure was shattered in the water, with some of the men who worked there trying to cling to the floating wood.
"HELP THE SHIPWRECKED!" he ordered, throwing out some floaties they had made from tiger seal leather.
When he looked back to where the ghost ship had been, he only found remnants of a storm that seemed considerably smaller than the one they had faced just moments earlier.
What the hell had happened? He thought, confused and suspicious, as he helped the Earth Kingdom soldiers onto the deck.
"They were pirates," one of the completely drenched men began.
"Pirates?" asked Sokka with a hint of disbelief.
It wasn't nonsense; every experienced sailor knows that pirates exist, but they are rare. It's almost like seeing an airbender: legends that every now and then (like now) you remember are real.
"What do you know about them?" asked his father, as the man shuddered.
He began telling them about their modus operandi, how they had several waterbenders and a few earthbenders. Sokka was skeptical about this, considering that an earthbender on the high seas can be like a kitten, unless you're a blind, completely crazy earthbender who developed a new technique called metalbending. The man almost fell out of his seat, assuring him it was true, that the group calls themselves the Fifth Nation and claim they answer to no one but themselves and their pockets. Sokka snorted, murmuring that that's something a villain would say.
He wasn't wrong. The poor beta narrated how they murdered several of his friends on the deck while others were simply thrown overboard. He explains that the waterbenders are in charge of the storm, as one of them has developed the ability to concentrate water from the sky to create clouds, and the others simply handle the currents and waves. Honestly, that's alarming: moving water is one thing, messing with the weather is quite another, reminding him strongly of how that horrible guy who was an airbender but really wasn't had taught Aang to do something similar with the weather.
Yes, sometimes he thinks life would be better without so much elemental manipulation, although considering humanity, not even that would stop them from creating weapons to attack each other.
Taking out a map and stretching it on the deck, he asks the men to mark their routes and the points where they know certain attacks have occurred. Leaving everything in his father's command, he goes into his room and begins to write a message.
To my charming fiancé,
Zuko:
Something has come up in the Earth Kingdom sea. We have had to face a storm that we suspect is not natural. I confirmed this when we came across the remains of a merchant vessel torn to pieces. Its crew members (those who survived) have informed us of the presence of pirates in the area, who call themselves "The Fifth Nation" (clearly they're a bunch of weirdos). Anyway, my trip has been delayed, and I wonder if perhaps you could honor me with your beautiful presence.
Didn't your uncle once say some strange phrase about a mountain? Was it something like "if the mountain won't go to the monk, the monk goes to the mountain"? I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm also writing to the rest of the team, since according to what we've been told, we might be facing a new group of weirdos.
I miss the days when we were the only group of weirdos. Everyone else is just copycats.
Hugs and kisses, your fiery alpha fiancé,
Sokka.
Once the sky no longer looks threatening, they dock at the first Earth Kingdom port they see. Luckily, it turns out to be the Kingdom of Bumi. So everyone gets a warm bed, and Sokka can send his letter via premium mail to the Fire Nation, while also sending other versions to Toph and his sister.
As expected, Toph is the first to arrive. She takes care of reinforcing certain aspects of the ship with pieces of metal while Sokka hurries to his bunk, almost bumping into his father, who tells him with a smile to be careful. He looks for the route map to start asking Toph.
There, they compare the maps his father had and the routes that the sailors who were victims of the pirates have identified. The entire afternoon passes in that back-and-forth between fixing the ship's bow, cleaning off the mollusks, replacing some moorings, informing Pakku that his itinerary is delayed, and finally, the arrival of Aang and his sister is enough to motivate him to run to them and hug them.
"Katara! What are you doing here?! You should be resting! This is dangerous!" he affirmed, seeing his sister with a belly of eight and a half months, who frowns back at him.
Aang murmurs behind Sokka that he tried to stop her, but he quickly falls silent when the waterbender fixes her eyes on the young alpha.
Yes, Sokka has a lot of sympathy for poor Aang.
"I came because my brother and my father were attacked. Besides, I'm the only one who can theoretically heal them properly in case of any injury," she informs, as Sokka's lips press together.
Thank the spirits, his father appears looking just as surprised to see Katara (practically telling her the same thing as Sokka) only to receive a similar response (including the look). Everyone grimaces as they are scolded, with Katara demanding that they bring her up to speed on any new information they have.
"The Fifth Nation?" asks Aang, confused, to which Toph chimes in, telling them that she had already heard of this group.
"They covered it in history, but we thought they had gone extinct. You know? It was back in Avatar Kyoshi's time," she informed, with everyone looking expectantly at Aang.
Surprised, the airbender affirmed that he had no knowledge of it, but that he would try to speak with Kyoshi to see what useful information she could give them to face this new threat, just as a hawk screeches over their heads.
It's Sally, Zuko's hawk.
Waving his arms, he grimaced when the wild animal simply dove as if it wanted to eat him, with Sokka raising his arm in reflex, where Sally dug in her claws and stopped.
"You're as wild as your owner," he murmured to her, a bit traumatized, getting a screech right in his ear.
Anyway, the important thing was that Zuko had written to him. Leaving Sally with Aang, who took to stroking her feathers, Sokka unwrapped the small scroll that was tied to one of her legs.
Dear Sokka:
Given that my nation loves formal paperwork, I find it necessary to delay my arrival (if we still plan to have a wedding in winter) for a couple more days. I will reach you with my airship wherever you are. Send me your navigation route so I can track you properly.
Regards,
Zuko
"So cold!" he complains to Aang, who shrugs, amused.
Deciding then that they couldn't wait any longer, everyone boarded their ship and weighed anchor to head in search of the famous Fifth Nation. Not really knowing what awaited them, but knowing that he had on his side the best waterbender (pregnant, so she must count for two), the best earthbender (who isn't very useful in the middle of the sea), and the Avatar (Sokka omits comments), he could embark on this adventure calmly, hoping they wouldn't go crazy in the process.
The following days would prove him very, very wrong and that he should not underestimate his bad luck.
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Katara rubbed her huge belly with the special oils that Pakku sent her every month. Since the war ended, her grandmother and he had reestablished contact to the point that he had proposed marriage in just a few months, assuring her that although he couldn't go live with her in the South, he would be willing to travel constantly and take care of her entire family.
The news of her acceptance had excited Katara. Her great-great-grandmother deserved to be happy, to move on after all the horrors and sorrows she had been through, marrying in a private and quiet ceremony just a year after the war had finally ended.
Since then, Sokka and she had become "the grandchildren" of the waterbending master, who constantly sent her samples of medicinal herbs, especially now that she was pregnant, and to Sokka his support to establish his position as ambassador.
Life has been wonderful.
"You will arrive in a beautiful world," she said, talking to the baby, feeling him move inside her.
She felt so excited, not only to have her own children but also for the hope they symbolized for Aang. It's not that she wouldn't want her children to be waterbenders or that she would love them less if they were "normal" —her brother had no element and was one of the best alphas she had ever known— but rather that grain of hope that perhaps, if Katara was lucky, this baby could be a new airbender.
Hearing the knocks on the door of the room designated for her and Aang, she says "Come in" to see Sokka enter.
Her brother looks at her for a moment and then sighs defeated.
"Katara, what are you doing here? What if you go into labor? I can build buildings, but there's no way I'm going to deliver a baby. I have my limits and I'm working on them," he stated with a definitive gesture of his hand.
Katara snorted.
"Relax, we still have three weeks left, right, honey?" she asks, with Sokka looking at her as if she had lost her mind.
Telling her not to look at him like that, since in the future he might be going through the same thing, Sokka shook his head, announcing that knowing Zuko, he would sooner talk to a turtle duck than to a possible baby, also assuring that he couldn't just get on a ship unless he wanted Iroh to declare war on him.
"Why would Zuko's uncle declare war?" she asked, confused, receiving a vague answer about marriage and succession conditions that left her blinking.
Her father and Sokka had told her a little about the procedure of asking for the hand of someone as important as the Fire Lord, but they had never explained things of that sort to her. Patting the mattress beside her, she ignored Sokka's snort and watched him sit down, demanding that he explain everything to her, with her brother sighing in affirmation.
In general, the relationship between Zuko and Sokka surprised her and at the same time didn't. Her brother had always been a man who fell in love easily; he just needed a pretty omega with defined priorities for him to fall to his knees. Zuko was not the epitome of the "pretty omega" that Sokka was perhaps used to, but somehow the current Fire Lord had captured her brother's attention.
She really didn't know how it had happened.
At the beginning, the only one relatively happy about Zuko's inclusion (knowing his past) was Aang. Sokka and she couldn't stop suspecting him and his intentions, nor could they simply forget the past that united and condemned that present. Nevertheless, things changed. After that mission to free their father from the fire prison, the two of them became a little more united.
Zuko was the oldest of the group. He began, almost naturally, to share certain responsibilities with Sokka and then helped her identify the soldier who murdered her mother.
Things then changed too quickly.
She discovered that the clumsy, angry kid was actually an omega. Something that seemed unreal to her because Katara had interacted with omegas: many girls, few boys, and of all the male omegas (who were rare to begin with), they tended to be completely opposite to Zuko.
Calm, sweet, shy, connected to their own physicality and sensitivity, while Zuko's language in the following weeks consisted of pushing Aang to his limit and throwing Sokka onto his back on the ground in their private fencing lessons.
Asking him with a conspiratorial smile if he felt nervous about the wedding, her brother let out a "meh" in his typical legs-spread, arms-crossed posture, affirming that with Zuko and his uncle handling things, he really wasn't worried. The engagement braid stands out in his wolf tail because of the red cord wrapped around it, and Katara jokes by giving it a little tug, earning an indignant sound.
Announcing that he had to go check that everything was in order, as well as ask his father for the defined route to send a message to Zuko, Sokka said goodbye to her with a kiss on the cheek and pointed at her from the door with a "Don't explode."
Katara rolled her eyes in his direction, watching him close the door before returning to rub her belly.
"Did you hear that, baby? That was your irritating uncle," she informed sweetly.