AN: I updated the previous chapter with some more content.

Aang and Katara were the first to get married. They decided on a fall ceremony in her tribe, getting married in September of 105AG.

They were sending the invitations in March so that people would have plenty of time to arrange their schedules. This is when their first wedding problem appeared.

Aang had been double-checking the guest list to make sure that he hadn't forgotten anyone. It was important for him to remember not only his friends, but also his political allies.

He noticed that the Fire Lord was missing as a guest as was Toph.

He told Gran Gran that they had forgotten someone, only to hear from Katara, "no we didn't."

"We don't have Toph or Azula."

"Toph can't see on the ice," Katara told him. She didn't mention Azula.

"She can't see on wood either, but we don't exclude her every time there's a wooden floor. I'm sure she could figure something out."

Katara relented, only to say, "she can't have a plus one."

"Why not?" Everyone else got one.

"I don't want Azula of all people at our wedding, after all that she's done."

"She hasn't done anything in five years."

"You don't consider ousting her brother something!"

"We can't use our wedding invitations to throw petty political insults." Aang didn't want to disrupt the current world stability by maligning the Fire Lord. They just got through the negotiations about Yu Dao and Aang didn't want to risk undoing anything.

"PETTY!"

Aang didn't think their wedding was the time or place to get into it with Azula.

Katara didn't think she deserved to be there.

"Do you think she really wants to come?" Aang questioned. "To her it's a political obligation," and perhaps a personal one if Toph wants to be there.

"If it's just an obligation, why not relieve her of it?"

Aang sighed. He wanted Toph there, and wasn't sure if she would come if Azula couldn't, but he also knew that look in Katara's eyes and wasn't sure how hard he should fight her on this.

He asked the Chieftain for advice only to hear, "I'm not getting into any of the wedding drama." He refused to get in the middle of a slinging match between his daughter and the Avatar.

Reluctantly, he flew to the Fire Nation to talk to Toph.

The earthbending master was beating up some advanced students at the firebending school. "I can't believe they think of this as community service!"

When she got home, after making two students cry, she was surprised to see, "TT, what's going on?"

He explained that he wanted to invite her and Azula to the wedding, but Katara was pretty adamant that she not come.

"I don't want you to be alone, when everyone else will be with his or her significant other."

Also, Toph can't see on the ice, not having her lover would be most inconvenient.

"It's for one night, right."

"I am sorry about this, and I do want you to go."

"Stop getting all wimpy on me," she punched his arm. They were just fine.

September 105AG

Azula sent Toph to the wedding with a guard.

"Really?"

"You can't see on ice, and you have no Earth. If anything happened to you at this snow bank wedding, I wouldn't forgive myself."

"It's almost as if you love me," Toph teased.

"Maybe I do," Azula kissed her lips before she left.

Sokka decided that he was Toph's date for the wedding. "Well, my girlfriend dumped me and who better to get drunk with and make sarcastic remarks than Lady Toph Bei Fong."

"Damn straight Snoozles!"

The two got loaded on sea prune vodka and made all kinds of inappropriate remarks about everything in sight, while the rest of the group tried to offer more decorum.

Toph only laughed when Katara scolded her. "She acts like I'm Fire Lady or something."

Katara walked away in a huff.

"I wasn't sure if you'd come at all under the circumstances," Sokka said.

"I wanted to be here for Aang. I could have skipped it out of principle, but I'd rather be a good friend than someone who militantly enforces etiquette rules.

"Well, if I ever find a woman stupid enough to marry me, you and Azula are both invited."

June 106AG

Zuko and Mai got married next. Mai wanted a private ceremony, but Ursa would not be denied her chance to have a royal wedding to put on. A royal wedding meant the palace, which meant Azula was automatically invited.

"I thought they forgot where the palace was," Azula said dryly, when Zuko and Mai showed up a month before the wedding to make the final arrangements. Zuko mumbled something and ran away. Mai only scoffed.

As the Fire Lord, she was to make sure that security was tight and that there was enough food and drink. Other than that, she didn't care what happened at the party and she told them so. She technically had final say at the guest list, and she added some political contacts who would be expected to be invited to a royal wedding, but other than that, she stayed away from the planning and from Ursa.

The former princess's attempts to reconcile with her daughter were met with sneers. "If you wanted to be in my life, you would have said something when Zuko found you. Don't pretend now just because the world is watching."

Toph similarly rejected any attempts the Bei Fongs made at speaking with their daughter. "You two are dead to me," she bluntly told them. She would never forgive them for what they did to her, and she wasn't about to pretend for anyone else's benefit.

On the day of the wedding, friends, family and politicians from around the world gathered for the occasion.

Mai had Iroh give her away, probably because Mai's father helped depose her husband. He didn't mind the slight. It was well worth being rid of Zuko's rule.

It was the first time that all of Team Avatar had been in one place since Azula ousted her brother nearly three years before.

They pretended that they were all still friends, like nothing was wrong, but they all knew it was a lie. Sure they could share a drink together and reminisce about some greater times, but they knew that they would never all trust each other again.

Every bond between them had been affected by the events in 103AG: Zuko and Mai had almost broken up over it. Aang resented Katara for being so aloof with Toph. He didn't care who Toph fell in love with; she'd always be his friend. Sokka and Suki weren't exactly friends anymore either, but not because of Azula.

When Suki said, "let's go on a break," Sokka thought that she would inform him if she wanted the break to be permanent. Instead, she just started a new relationship with Ty Lee without telling him. He never confronted her about it, but he didn't appreciate being left on hold like he wasn't even worth a Dear Jian letter.

Within the group, they all had their closest friends, and the ones they kept at a distance. The days of the Gaang were over.

May 107AG

Suki and Ty Lee got married on Kyoshi Island. It was a small ceremony. Most of the guests were locals.

Ty Lee's father didn't give her away. He didn't approve of her marriage, so her parents didn't come. Two of her sisters came. The others sent gifts as they were already married and with small children. Attending would have been too much of a hassle, especially when they had hardly seen her in the past eight years.

Aang and Katara were the most prominent guests there other than Zuko and Mai. Toph wasn't invited, which wasn't a surprise to her. She had only befriended Suki because of Sokka and had no interest in her when she and Sokka were over.

The future chief had been invited but he declined. When Katara asked her brother about it, he told her honestly that, "I don't feel close enough to either of them to warrant going to their wedding."

He couldn't say that he and Suki were friends at this point, and he had never been a friend of Ty Lee's, so why go to a private ceremony where he would only know a few people. It hardly seemed worth prying himself from the work he was doing in Republic City.

Now the damage was the visible. Everyone noticed that Sokka wasn't there and although the guests whispered about why, the group never talked about it. His decision not to attend was an announcement. "I'm not going to pretend anymore."

July 108AG

Azula and Toph finally got married, five years after they started dating and almost eight years after the war ended.

The Fire Lord timed the occasion for when the fire lilies were in bloom, not that Toph could see them, but it seemed like something appropriate for a Fire Lord's wedding.

Unlike the others, Azula didn't decline to invite the expected people just because she didn't like them. She sent an invitation to Aang and Katara, to her brother and Mai, but not to Suki and Ty Lee.

They had resigned from the warriors when they married, and Ty Lee had renounced her citizenship to the Fire Nation, deciding to be an Earth Kingdom national instead. Any obligation Azula had to invite them as political figures or as members of the Fire Nation nobility ceased, so she didn't bother to waste the paper.

The hardest decision to make was what to do about their parents. Azula would rather her mother not be there. It's not like Ursa approved of her marrying a woman anyway, but she did not want to be petty. She could stand to be called a lot of things but petty wasn't one of them.

She also was unsure of what to do about the Bei Fongs. They were the kind of political ally that one would invite to a wedding, but given Toph's refusal to engage with them, she was unsure of where to put them. Putting them at her table seemed bizarre under the circumstances, but how would the bride's parents attend and not sit at the table.

"What should I do?" Azula had asked her fiancée as they sat on her balcony.

"You should probably invite them, even though I'd rather not have to deal with them." It didn't seem worth it to risk the economic stability of the nation just because Toph had a fair bit of pride.

Azula sent them invitations and decided to put them away from Toph instead of next to her like parents usually were. It was the best compromise she could reach under the circumstances. Azula also put Sokka at the table, figuring that her wife would be happy to make lewd jokes with him.

It was the first Fire Lord wedding in over sixty years.

They jam packed the seating area as every noble family sent at least someone to represent its clan and many people brought the entire family. Also, every world leader and dignitary arrived.

Katara folded her arms. She did not want to be there, but Aang told her if she didn't come and act cordially, then he would bring Hei Won as his date instead. She glared angrily, but he didn't care. He was going to have a good time.

Zuko had also wanted to skip the event, but Iroh guilt-tripped him into going. The older prince was giving Toph away, and he told his nephew that he expected him to be there, that it was bad enough that his mother was skipping the wedding, and Azula should not be left without her family.

It was a gorgeous summer day. Azula waited for Toph at the end of the altar as Iroh escorted her and the earthbender looked fantastic in her white, lacy dress. It was long enough so that you couldn't see that she was barefoot.

Their vows had not been the sappy promises of endless devotion that one would expect of most couples. They were too cool for that.

"At the end of the day, I like kicking ass and taking names," Toph told her. "It's my natural inclination to fight, so I wouldn't fare well with most people. I'd crush them too early in the relationship to get married.

It makes sense that the best earthbender is marrying the best firebender. I need someone who can keep me on my toes, and it's pretty cool that I found a bender who's almost as good as I am."

The audience was shocked.

Azula only smirked. "Earth and Fire are a dangerous combination. There are many earthbenders and many firebenders, but very few who are good enough to bend lava. Lava is both strong and sizzling hot. One false move and you're done for. But in the right hands, lavabending is absolutely sensational, just like we are.

Together, there is nothing that can get in our way. The Fire Nation has reached new heights. We have a Constitution. We have brought back arts that have been all but lost the world over the past 120 years, and our economy is stronger than ever.

We made these rings ourselves, as a reminder that we are intertwined, but that is something I could never forget. I look forward to every day I spend with you, because I know they will all be awesome, just like we are."

When they kissed, they got a burst of cheers.

There was much more to come: Toph's crowning ceremony, cocktail hour, a massive feast, and a night to remember for the newlyweds. Before all of that, however, the happy couple went out to have a moment to themselves. Toph's fingers traced along Azula's face. "If someone told me we would be here eight years ago, I would have had him committed."

"I think it's the really hard times that show us who we really are," Azula told her, and who their friends really were.

"Is it weird that I still hate my parents for what they did, but I'm glad to have you."

"No," Azula told her after kissing her nose. "There are a lot of things that should have never happened to either of us, but we are to awesome to let bullshit get in our way."

"I knew I married you for a reason."

"Of course, I'm the prettiest world leader by far," Azula teased.

"It's not like I can see you," Toph retorted.

"No, but everyone can see you next to me and go wow, Toph may be cute, but her wife is HOT!"

"You're a conceited bitch, did you know that?"

"I learned from the best," Azula retorted. "I learned from you," she whispered into her wife's ear, tickling it

They never had to have a filter around each other or be guarded for any reason. They refer to marriage as being tied down, but for them, it was the freest moment of their lives. Their real friends understood this and were happy for them. Everyone else, wasn't even worth remembering. Here's to forever starting right now.

The End