A/N: I'm doing a 100 Themes challenge on DA and I decided to try to do all of them as Avatar-related ficlets and drabbles. This is the first one I have written. Theme #22- Mother

Hakoda draped his arm across his best friend's waist, burying his face into his sleeping companion's neck. Now that the war was over, he was hoping to be more open about his choice in partner. He wasn't worried about what his tribe would say about the same-sex relationship, as the Southern Water tribe was generally quite liberal concerning such things; in fact, the relationship might not even come as a surprise to most of the villagers. Many of them had long questioned the closeness of the two men. What Hakoda was worried about was what his children would think.

Sokka would most likely accept the relationship considering that he was now engaged to the current firelord, Zuko. That and Sokka had always considered Bato as a part of their family. The teenager would probably be happy for them and wish them the best... But Katara was a different story.

Bato had once admitted to Hakoda that he didn't want Katara to feel that he was replacing Kya, that that was far from his intention. But with Katara's love for her mother, she might have a fit at learning her father was in a relationship again, despite the number of years it had been. Hakoda rolled over onto his back and sighed deeply, trying to figure out how he would handle it if Katara went off the handle.

"Hakoda..." At some point in his thoughts, Bato had rolled over and was staring at him, still half-asleep. "You need to get to sleep. Otherwise, you'll be exhausted when we meet with the children later."

Hakoda gave his friend a weak smile and planted a light kiss on his forehead. A thought suddenly occured to him and he let out a chuckle, causing Bato to raise an eyebrow at him curiously. Hakoda smirked as he hugged his lover close to him, the amusement obvious in his tone of voice. "If it doesn't bother Katara, I think the kids should call you mom..."

"Don't even begin to joke like that." Came the slightly annoyed response.