One morning, a few weeks later, wearing nothing but a bedsheet, Toph turned to her lover and said, “I had a very interesting conversation with your Firelord last night.”

Kouji blinked.  “Wait, what?  What about?”

“Mostly, he threatened me with Dire Consequences if I ever broke your heart. Standard Big Brother Talk.”

There was a long silence for a moment, then Kouji announced, “I’m going to kill him.”

“What? Why? I’m probably going to get the same Talk from Ichiro when he finds out we’ve been screwing like rabaroos.”

“Doubtful,” Kouji replied.  “Otherwise Ichiro’d have no voice from delivering the same talk to every man Yui takes to her bed.”

“Yeah, but we’re Committed,” Toph pointed out. “There’s a difference.”

“I really don’t think Ichi-ni will care.  But that’s just me.”

“Well, Sparky obviously cares.”

“Yeah…”

“Just thought you might want to know.”

“Thanks, love.”  He kissed her gently, then sighed.

“…You’re still gonna kill him, aren’t you.”

“Yep.”

“Okay.”

“Dire Consequences?”

Kouji was leaning against the door of Zuko’s office, glaring at him.

“Only if she breaks your heart,” Zuko replied, after taking a minute to try and figure out what he meant. “If you stay together, don’t work out, or you’re the one that does the leaving, the threat doesn’t apply.”

“Zuko, this is kind of a first for both of us!  Don’t you think Dire Consequences is a bit overboard?”

“No, I don’t,” he said, quietly.

“Just… just let us figure it out on our own.”

“You will. And, to be honest, I don’t think I have to worry.” He managed a faint smile. “I’m happy for both of you. And it’s about damn time.”

Kouji flushed.  “What the hell do you mean by that?”

“…Nevermind. Like I said, I don’t think it will be a problem.”

The young bender glared at him for a moment, then suddenly the glare became a happy, goofy grin remniscent of Teo.

The older man smiled back, slightly.

“…I should probably go dunk my sister in the turtleduck pond,” Kouji said after a moment.

“…Why?”

“She’s hitting on Aang.  Like, a lot.”

Zuko stared at him. “She’s… she’s hitting on…”

“Yes.  So I have to either find a bender or dunk her.”

“She’s… hitting on…” Apparently, this concept didn’t quite compute in the Firelord’s brain.

Kouji sighed.  “Yes, Zuko.  She’s Yui.  She hits on everybody, remember?”

He looked completely boggled.

“…what?  What is it?”

“She’s… but he’s… she’s hitting on…”

“…he is twenty-five, you know.”

“But… he’s…”

Oh, great, though Kouji.  I broke the Firelord.

After another minute or two, Zuko seemed to shake himself out of his shocked stupor. “Um. Right. Sorry about that.”

“Yeah.  So.  Pushing sister into turtleduck pond.”

“Right.”

Kouji went off in search of Yui.

Aang spent most of this visit to the Firenation in a mild state of shock. First, of course, there was the news about Zuko’s declining health — but he tried to avoid thinking about that whenever possible.

This wasn’t difficult, due to the equally-shocking attention from Yui. Other than Katara, he’d never really had any experience looking at a woman as a member of a subset of humanity. A subset with breasts and other secret places that most other men seemed to enjoy very much. He’d never even kissed a girl, except for Katara just before the siege — and that had been a little desperate — there had been a strong chance that neither of them would survive that day.

It was, perhaps, inevitable that because of Yui’s near-exclusive attention, Kouji would seek him out.  “Hey, Aang?” he said.  “We need to talk.”

“Right. Okay.” Am I going to get a stinging lecture like Zuko got from Sokka before the wedding?

“Um.  I noticed that Yui’s been… ah, pretty friendly to you this visit.”

Aang went bright red. “Um, yeah, um. About that, um…”

Kouji sighed.  “My twin is very straightforward, Aang.  Quite frankly, she wants to tumble you.”

The Avatar went, if possible, an even brighter shade of red. “T-tumble me?”

“…see, that right there?  That is how I used to feel all the time.”

“O-oh…”

“Yeah.  So.  Uh.”  Kouji coughed.  “Um.  If you want to, I guess, go for it.  She knows what she’s doing.”

Apparently, there were brighter shades of red than those Aang had achieved so far. “O-okay…”

Another sigh.  “And by the way?  You should really go see Teo.”

“I-I know. When I leave here.”

Kouji gripped Aang’s shoulder tightly for a moment — Believe me, I understand how you feel more than you could possibly realise — then left.

After a moment, Aang sought out Yui, hoping his blush had at least somewhat faded.  The buxom woman was, perhaps fortunately, alone after a fashion — she was curled up against Qiang, reading a scroll.

“H-hi, Yui.”

She looked up and smiled at him.  “Aang!  Hi!”

“Um.” Oh, great. Now I don’t know what to say.

“Here,” she said brightly.  “Have a seat.”

“Okay.” He sat.

“Did you need something?” Yui asked after a moment.

“Um. Yeah. Um.”

“What is it, then?”

He was blushing again. “Um. I talked to Kouji earlier.”

“Did you?  What did he say?”

“That you… um…” He went very red here, and sort of mumbled out the rest of it.

“…I didn’t catch that,” she said apologetically.

“He said you… wanted… um…”

“Yes?”

“Wanted to…”

She gave him a warm smile.

He went even more red.

“Wanted to what, Aang?”

“T-tumble me.” He was a fascinatingly bright shade of red never before seen on a human face.

Yui laughed softly.  “Oh, he did, did he?”

Aang nodded, still red.

“Well, he was partly right.”

He looked up at her, confused.

“I want to tumble a lot of people,” Yui explained.  “I’m a bit of a slut.  I like sex.  But I like you too, Aang.”

He went even redder. “Um.”

“Translated from girl-talk, it means that sex isn’t the only thing I want from you,” she added.  “I… well, if you want, I’d like to pursue a relationship with you.”

“Um. Um. I’ve… I’ve never… um…”

“Had one?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Would you like to try?”

“Um. Um. Y-yeah.”

Yui’s grin widened, and she leaned forward and kissed him.  His eyes widened briefly, then fluttered closed, and he hesitantly kissed back.  Carefully, Yui pulled the Avatar closer; she had every intention of taking it slow with him no matter what her reputation might indicate.  He was even more innocent than Kouji had been in some ways.  He followed her lead, a little nervously.

After a long time, she broke the kiss and looked into his eyes.

He looked right back, still blushing.

“You think we can work this out?” she asked him softly.

He nodded.

“Good.”  She kissed him again, a softer kiss this time.  Again, he kissed back.

The palace being what it was, word spread quickly.  There were many disappointed men that night.

All in all, Aang spent two months in the capital — much longer than he’d intended, but he was now seriously considering basing himself there, at least for the next few years.

However, he still had to do a fair amount of travelling, and finally set out, heading first for the Northern Air Temple, just as he’d planned.

The population had increased again, both with new colonists from the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, and even the Water Tribes, and with new children.  Aang was guided in by a bouncy ten-year-old, who led him to a special landing site just for Appa; the boy then brought him to Teo.

“Hi, Teo,” the Avatar said, grinning and hugging his old friend briefly. “How’re things? Toph and Kouji said you wanted me to make sure to stop by…”

“Yeah, I wanted to show you something great.  And you haven’t seen Fēng since he was a baby.”

“No, I haven’t. How’s he doing?”

Teo’s ubiquitous grin widened.  “Come and see.”

“All right, lead the way,” Aang said, with a returning grin.

The inventor led Aang into the temple, where a group of children were working on making kites.  One of them, an adorable brown-haired boy who was the spitting image of his father, came running over.  “Daddydaddydaddydaddy—”  He stopped short at the sight of Aang, a stranger, and became shy.

“Hullo,” Aang said, smiling and waving at the child.

“Hi,” the boy said softly, staring at the ground.

“Fēng, this is Avatar Aang,” Teo introduced them.  “Aang, my son, Fēng.”

Aang bowed. “It’s nice to meet you, Feng.”

“A-and you,” Fēng said, returning the bow, and wobbling.

Teo smiled.  “Why don’t you show Avatar Aang your trick, son?”

The brunet glanced up at his father to make sure it was okay.

“Trick? What trick?” The Avatar, too, looked at Teo. “Teo?”

At Teo’s nod, Fēng bit his lip, closed his eyes, and circled his hands.  A small whirlwind of air appeared.  Aang’s eyes widened, and he stared at the whirlwind for a minute, then he let out a shout of sheer, unrestrained joy and leapt about thirty feet into the air.

Teo laughed, watching the Avatar, and the startled Fēng lost control of his tiny twister.

Upon landing, the Avatar spontaneously hugged Feng. “You’re an airbender! Do you know how absolutely amazingly wonderfully amazing that is? It’s amazing! … I said amazing three times, didn’t I.”

“Yes, you did,” the scientist said, chuckling.  “I knew you’d be happy.”  Fēng had frozen in the Avatar’s hold, but hesitantly hugged him back.

“I don’t know how long I can stay, but I’ll definitely at least be coming here more often, and I won’t leave til he has a good handle on the basics,” he said, talking very, very fast.

“Actually,” said Teo, “I was thinking it might be better if he travelled with you.  In all honesty, there aren’t many people his age here, and I’d rather he see the world and get some good teaching in the meantime.  We talked about it when I realised what he was.”  Fēng nodded.

“…Okay, if you two’re sure about it.”

“I am,” said the younger airbender, peering shyly up at Aang.

He grinned down at the child. “Well, then, we’ll hang out here for a week or two, then get going, off to see the world, okay?”

“Okay!”

Aang spent the rest of that day with Fēng, mostly bouncing around with an almost painful exuberance — but an hour or so before the kid’s bedtime, his mood suddenly dropped.  Teo, noticing this, sent Fēng off to play with the older kids.  “Something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing’s wrong,” Aang lied quickly.

“…in other words, it’s something you can’t tell me.”

“H-he doesn’t want anyone to know.”

“Then I’ll stop asking.”  Teo sighed, then glanced at the sky.  “I hate secrets.”

“…Later?” Aang said. I know he doesn’t want it spread around, but Teo won’t tell anyone, and I need to talk to someone about this…

“Sure thing,” Teo agreed.  “If you need me, I’ll be out night-gliding.  I hardly ever get out anymore.”

“All right.”

Later that night, Aang sat, waiting for him on one of the balconies, staring out at the surrounding landscape.  It didn’t take very long for Teo to come in for a landing, looking even happier if at all possible.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Teo replied.

“Good flight?”

“Yeah.  I miss it sometimes.”

Aang nodded, and stared out some more.

“So, what’s on your mind?”

The younger man was quiet for a long moment. “It’s Zuko.”

“What about him?”

“He’s…” He bit his lip. Saying it would make it real, in a way even seeing and hearing it hadn’t.

Fortunately, Teo caught on quickly.  “…that’s bad.  That’s real bad.”

“Yeah.” Aang made a little twister of his own, watching it dance between his fingers. “We were talking, years ago, just after he took the throne, and he said ‘You and me are gonna babysit the world for a hundred years together.’ Now… they don’t think he’ll even make it through the next ten.”

“Damn,” whispered the other man.

“Yeah…”

“I won’t tell anyone,” he promised, looking out at the sky.

“Thanks. He… doesn’t want anyone to know. I don’t think he even told Katara for a couple months.”

A low whistle.

He sighed. “He’s just… it’s not fair. He’s only thirty. This shouldn’t be happening. Not now. Not like this.”

“I know,” Teo replied sadly.  “I know.”

“So I’m probably gonna spend most of my time there with him over the next few years. When I’m not wandering around and working. Fēng can spend time with the princesses and the other palace kids.”

Teo nodded.  “Good plan.”

“Just thought I should let you know, in case you had a problem with it.” Aang was well aware that, though the war was over, it had been over for less than fifteen years, and a century of wounds didn’t heal that quickly.

“I may have my issues with the Fire Nation military,” Teo replied, “but Zuko saved my life.  So did Li Shang.  It’s a new world.”

The Avatar nodded, relieved. “Right. Just thought I’d check.”

Teo grinned.  “I have more issues with the Dai Li anyway.”

Aang grinned back. “Now if only they could find Long Feng…”

The scientist groaned.  “I don’t know how he’s managed to stay in hiding for thirteen damned years, especially with Toph having looked for him, what, four times?  Five?”

“Sixteen, according to her last count. It’s the only reason she’ll even consider going into Ba Sing Se.”

“Ugh.  Never going back there.  Granted, crashing into the palace probably doesn’t help my feelings for the place.”

“I don’t blame you. I don’t really like going there myself. But Kuei and Song and An Wei make it worth it, at least for a few days.”

Teo snickered.  “Too bad Long Feng wasn’t around when the Earth King announced who he was marrying.  He would’ve died of a heart attack for sure.”

Aang managed a grin. “I dunno. I think he’d’ve liked her. Or at least appreciated the challenge.”

“Oh, she’d be a challenge all right.  Did you see her face when she saw Zuko’s wedding gift?”

“Yep.”

Teo laughed again.  “It really was beautiful.”

“Yes. Yes, it was. I got the feeling she knew him from somewhere, but she wouldn’t tell me, and neither would Zuko when I asked.”

“Pity, that.  I wonder if she retaliated.  She had one of those looks in her eye.”

“She must have.”

“Beautiful.  Monarch prank wars.”

“Best thing about peacetime.”

“Very much so.”  Teo closed his eyes.

“I should probably get some sleep,” Aang said, after another few minutes, standing up and stretching.

“…yeah, me too.”

“See you in the morning, then?”

“Definitely.”

“Night.”

“G’night.”  Teo wheeled off to his room.