Chapter 68: Peace

…

Like the changing leaves of fall, the boy is now a man.
-Author Unknown

…

Every day I love you more and more
Seasons may change, winter to spring
But I love you until the end of time
Storm clouds may gather,
And stars may collide
But I love you (I love you)
Until the end of time
-Moulin Rouge, 'Come What May'

…

It's hard to remember how it felt
Before I found the love of my life
Things get more comfortable
Everything is going right
We used to think it was impossible
Now you call me by my new last name
Memories seem like so long ago
Time always kills the pain
Look how all the kids have grown
We have changed but we're still the same
-Gwen Stefani

…

Ember Island, 12 years later.

"Hiromi, could you put the dried cherries on the greens, please?"

"On it! Looks good, Mom."

"Thanks." Nami handed her eldest daughter the jar of cherries as she finished prepping a large bowl of sesame-soy sauce.

"That swimsuit is really cute on you, honey."

"Aunt Azula got it for me," she replied, beaming.

A sturdy little three year-old boy with a mop of black hair and his father's muddy gold eyes ran on his little legs across the hallway and came to a stop in the kitchen. "I wanna help!" exclaimed.

"Zeth, you can help take this out to your mom outside, okay?" Nami said, handing him a bowl of cut fruit.

"Okay!" He grabbed the bowl, but it was heavier than expected and he tipped it briefly, spilling a bit of fruit onto the floor. Unfazed, he set the bowl on the floor, then bent over and began to eat the fruit he had spilled.

"Zeth!" Nami groaned. "Don't eat those off the floor! Reizei, could you grab him?"

"I'm doing the sweet potatoes, Mom, my hands are all—"

"I got it," Hiromi interrupted, wiping her hands on a towel and jogging over to scoop her cousin up from the floor.

"You can't eat these, Zeth, okay? Not from the floor," she said. Zeth squirmed, making a whine of annoyance, and she set him back down. He grabbed the bowl again and took off down the hall toward the porch. Hiromi came back into the kitchen to finish topping the salad, and a minute later Dante, her little brother of four, came streaking like a bullet down the hallway, cackling like mad.

"Wonder what he did now," Reizei chuckled.

"I don't want to know," Nami sighed, cutting a pan of sponge cake into squares. "He's his father's problem at the moment."

"Dad's helping Aunt Azula set up. I think Uncle Jareth—" Reizei stopped as Jareth bolted across the hallway, skidding to a stop when he saw them.

"Which way," he panted, his hands on his knees, "did he go?"

Nami, Reizei, and Hiromi all pointed grinningly toward the hall leading to the porch.

"Right," Jareth huffed and took off again yelling "Dante! When I catch you—!"

"He's never going to catch him," Reizei chuckled, going back to glazing the roasted sweet potatoes .

"Nope." Nami popped her lips on the 'p', smirking, and Hiromi giggled.

"I'm done!" Hiromi announced, stepping back from the counter.

"Looks great, sweetie," Nami replied, smiling. "You can take that on out to the porch."

Hiromi took up the platter but stopped when her father walked in, grinning, Zeth hanging on his arm.

"Guess who's here?" Zuko asked.

"Who?" Nami, Reizei, and Hiromi said at the same time.

"Who, Daddy, who?" Hiromi demanded excitedly.

"The twins!" Zeth cried exultantly, unable to wait for his uncle to say it.

"Aang, Katara, and the twins," Zuko clarified after his daughter and Zeth's running feet and shrieks had faded as they ran to the porch.

"Awesome," Reizei said, grinning and washing his hands. "It's been too long since we've seen them."

"It does seem like it," Zuko replied. He came up beside Nami. "Anything I can help you with?"

"I think we're okay," she replied, smiling at him. "Rei might need help carrying stuff out. Is the stove ready?" Zuko had been spending the last hour building the fire in the outdoor woodfire oven.

"Yup." Zuko took one of the bowls of marinated meat strips his son handed him as Nami took the pan of cakes and the salad bowl and they walked out of the kitchen, through the summer house, and out onto the porch together.

Azula and Toph were finishing up setting up tables and chairs as Jomei set out beach stuff for the kids and Kazlun piled wood in the beach fire pit for a campfire later. Ursa, Roulan, Iroh, and Hiro were sitting on the porch in chairs with chilled teas, collectively gray-haired. Jareth was still trying to catch his nephew, but was being very playful about it. They both ran through the sand, firing light fire blasts at one another and Zeth was, as usual, united with his favorite cousin against his father by helping Dante out with little fire blasts of his own.

The girls were converged around the people walking from the beach to the porch: Aang, Katara, and their twin four year-old girls Kaiya and Kayla, who had their mother's lustrous brown hair and their dad's large grey eyes. The twins were rather an exceptional pair; at the young age of two, Keiya had performed her first airbending, and Kayla her first waterbending. Other than this difference, however, the girls were almost indistinguishable.

Hiromi and Rayne, Azula's six year-old daughter, were laughing and swinging the twins around in their arms. Zuko, Nami, Azula, Toph, Kazlun, and Jomei went to greet Aang and Katara. Nami and Toph embraced Katara warmly, and then Azula hugged her, smiling. Zuko and Aang hugged, slapping each other's backs and grinning. Toph, Kaz, and Jomei hugged them both as well.

"It's great to see you guys!" Jareth called from the midst of his little battle on the beach. "Be there in a sec!" He suddenly dove at Dante, but the four year-old disappeared in a burst of flame and sprinted like a bullet up the beach, sand flying behind him. He zoomed into the circle of people in front of the porch and took up one of both Kaiya and Kayla's hands. He kissed the backs of those hands with a roguish grin.

"Ladies," he greeted, then bolted away as Jareth made it to the group and took a swipe at him, Kaiya and Kayla giggling madly. Everyone laughed and Nami gave her husband a weary look.

"He's going to be such a handful," she sighed.

"Girls everywhere have no idea what they're in for," Zuko chuckled in reply.

"Egad. I don't know where it comes from."

Zuko slipped a strong arm around her and brought her close against his side. "Why, from me, of course!"

"Oh yes, how could I forget?"

"It's good to see you, Baldy," Jareth said to Aang, rubbing Aang's head. Aang rolled his eyes.

"You too, Jareth."

Jareth smirked. He breathed on Aang's head and rubbed it with his wrist as if he were polishing it and then pretended to look at his reflection. "Damn, who is that good lookin' man?"

Aang swatted his hand away, smirking. "Probably not you." He reached to pat Jareth's dark, hairy jaw. He patted such that it was like a smack and it made Jareth wince a bit. "You teachin' Zeth how to be a mountain man?"

"Can it, hippie," Jareth returned, smirking.

"Lumberjack, then?"

Jareth shoved Aang so hard he had to airbend to keep himself from falling onto the sand.

"Yep, just keep irritating the most powerful man in the world," Aang commented dryly when he was upright again.

"Oh, playing the Avatar card, are you?" Jareth teased. "Well, bring it on, cue ball." He backed up, moving his arms in mock karate-like motions. Aang smirked widely and, with a flick of his finger like he were flicking off a bug, bowled Jareth over with a whoosh of gale-force wind.

"You cheat!" Jareth exclaimed as he sat up, spitting the sand from his mouth.

Suddenly Aang was propelled through the air to land in the sand next to Jareth, a block of dirt jutting up where he had been and Kazlun laughing heartily at them.

"Race ya to the water!" Reizei called to his sister, and they both took off for the blue waves at the end of the beach, Reizei throwing off his T-shirt as he went. This set off a mass exodus off kids from the porch to the water, grabbing beach toys as they went.

"Jareth, can you watch them?" Azula asked him.

"Sure thing!" he replied, already grabbing up a toy stick sword and chasing the kids.

"Don't let Zeth get in the water without his floater!" she called after him. Jareth raised his hand in acknowledgment that her heard her.

"Poor kid," Hiro chuckled. "Zeth hates that damn thing."

"He's three and he's not the best swimmer," Azula sighed.

"Jareth'll watch out for him, Zules," Nami assured her. Azula looked unconvinced, and Nami could hardly blame her as she looked toward the water and saw Jareth running around, yelling laughingly, and splashing all the kids with water like the overgrown child he was.

"Alright, there's food on the tables," Azula called to the remaining people, "so help yourselves. Zuko'll put the meat on the grates when they get back from swimming."

Ursa, Iroh, Hiro, and Roulan rose to get some food, and Kazlun, Nami, Zuko, and Jomei joined them as laughter, splashes, and shrieks of playing kids sounded from the water. The protesting yells of "No floatie, no floatie!" from the beach made them all smirk. "Dante got no floatie! Daddy!"

"Look at him wrestle Zeth," Zuko chuckled. "Oh man."

"The boy's going to be a muscle man like his father," Nami replied, watching as well, "but I don't know if he quite has Jareth's wit."

Zuko chuckled. "Nah, that belongs to Rayne. Apple of her father's eye."

Nami smiled. "Has Jareth wrapped completely around her little finger, bless her heart."

Zuko sniggered. "Aang with his little girls is just the same. He'd spoil them rotten if Katara wasn't there to balance things."

Nami giggled. "That makes them the most powerful women in the world."

"Heaven help us all," Zuko chuckled. "You want some of these sweet potatoes?" he asked, piling some onto a plate for himself.

"Actually if you could get me some of that fruit salad?"

"On it." Zuko scooped some fruit onto the other side of his plate and he and his wife went to the rail.

"The food's great, Nami," he complimented, kissing her cheek.

"Thank you," she replied, smiling. "It's so nice to get out of the palace and cook for myself."

"I know. You'd live out here if it was up to you."

Nami shook her head a little, smiling and picking a strawberry off his plate with her chopsticks. "No, I've grown quite fond of the palace, you know I have. But it is nice to get away and be a family together without anyone else."

"Very true." Zuko suddenly burst into laughter and pointed toward the beach. "Your son is stealing Jareth's stick."

"Oh, Dante," Nami giggled, watching the little boy struggle to lift the massive thing onto a shoulder. "And I believe he's your son."

"He can barely lift it," Zuko laughed. "Look!"

Dante was pulling with both hands on the stick on his shoulder, but it dragged in the sand and slowed him down. As he struggled, Jareth saw him with it, and Dante tried to run away as his uncle lunged through the shallows and down the beach after him. Dante screamed as the charging rhinoceros that was his Uncle Jareth tackled him to the sand and easily wrestled his stick from the laughing little boy. Jareth stood with his stick in one hand and the ankle of his nephew in the other and threw the flailing child into the surf.

"Gods, Jareth!" Nami exclaimed.

"Oh, Dante loves it," Zuko replied, grinning. Dante came out of the water spluttering and grinning hugely. He yelled something to Jareth that they couldn't make out, and then Zeth attached himself to Dante's back and Kayla laughingly splashed them with waterbending. Reizei lifted his cousin Rayne up out of the water and put her onto his shoulders; she was shrieking. Dante began to yell indignantly at his older brother, wanting a turn.

The kids played for a while in the waves and the sand, and then when they got hungry, they all began heading back up to the house.

"My cue to get the hot food going," Zuko said, going to the stone woodstove. Azula brought him the platters of meat covered in towels to keep the flies off. Reizei came up to them, shaking the sand out of his black hair.

"Can I help, Dad?" he asked, wrapping his towel around his waist and tucking it.

"Sure," Zuko replied. He gestured to the left side of the stove. "You take that side—use the tongs—only two minutes or so for each batch. You can put em on the plates here."

Reizei nodded, placing strips on the hot grate to sizzle as his father loaded his side. Nami watched her son and husband together and a smile crept to her lips. Reizei reminded her so much of Zuko was he was younger. He had almost the same face, the same eyes, the same unruly raven hair, and the same strength and independence. He had a strong sense of justice, and he and his Grandfather Roulan often talked for hours over politics.

He was a responsible young man already, taking care of his younger siblings. He looked up to and admired his father more than Zuko even realized and it warmed Nami's heart like nothing else.

She walked over to him and pulled his head close to kiss his forehead. "I love you, sweetie."

"Aw, Mom, I'm trying to cook," he muttered. She smirked.

"Azula, if they want the custard cakes, have them get a bun ready and put it over here," Zuko said to his nearby sister.

"My buns are ready!" Dante exclaimed, smirking and slapping both hands to his little butt, his wet swim shorts making the slapping sound loud.

"Dante," Nami scolded. It was half-hearted, though, because she could not quite keep her amusement from her face.

"Dante, is that any way for a prince to speak?" Ursa admonished firmly.

"Sorry, Gran'mamma."

"Yeah, a prince would say 'my royal heinie is prepared,'" Zuko joked under his breath. His wife laughed and his mother gave him a look.

"The rice is in the pot on the table already, and I made it, so you'd better eat it!" Jareth exclaimed as he came up to the porch lifting his son Zeth upside-down as the little boy cackled with laughter.

"Floatie off, Daddy, floatie off!" Zeth exclaimed, giggling, his upside-down nose inches from Jareth's who was holding him up by his legs.

"Yes, yes," Jareth replied, flipping his son right side up and holding him in one arm as he pulled the floater cushion from its straps. "Now, go on." He set the little boy down and Zeth rocketed away from him.

"Dante, those cakes are for later!" exclaimed Azula, watching her nephew disappear under the large table with a handful of sponge cakes. She sighed and waved her hand in weary dismissal. "Oh, what's the point?"

Jomei was sharing a plate of little sandwiches and fruit with little Kayla who was seated on his lap, and Hiromi and Rayne were sitting on a bench together with plates of tofu smothered in sesame sauce. Dante and Zeth were under the main table devouring cakes, and as Kaiya walked in front of them to put some sweet potatoes and rice on her plate, Dante poked her leg and she ducked under the table with them.

"Kaiya's his favorite," Zuko said sideways to Nami as they watched.

"I know," she replied, laughing a little. "I don't know how he tells them apart, but he can. He's so shameless."

Zuko chuckled, adjusting the sizzling meat with his tongs.

"And as for you," Jareth said, grinning and scooping his wife up. He walked with her bridal style and set her on his lap as he sat on a cushioned bench on the porch.

"You've got sand all over your face," Azula said, brushing Jareth's scruffy jaw with her hands.

"Well, get it off of there," he replied, nuzzling his face into hers. Azula scrunched up her nose and pulled away, grinning.

"You didn't get all of it," Jareth said, smirking, and took her face in his wide hands to kiss her. The princess wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. Rayne made a noise of disgust from the food table beside them.

"Mom," she complained. "Gods! Gross!"

"Oh yeah?" Jareth said. "Just for that you get kisses, too."

"No!" Rayne exclaimed as he grabbed her waist and hauled his daughter into his lap. "Daddy!"

Jareth gave her a big raspberry kiss on her cheek as she squirmed. Zeth spilt into cackling laughter and jumped on his mom's lap to raspberry-kiss his sis's other cheek. Rayne sat with her arms crossed, her face the picture of irritated resignation.

Jomei stood up suddenly, lifting Kayla off his lap. "Nuria!" he exclaimed happily, and everyone turned to look at the figure coming around the side of the summer house. His girlfriend of the past few months, Nuria, was a pretty, rather shy teenage non-firebender who lived in the capital with her parents. She was wearing a sun dress over her swimming suit and she had her curly, long, dark-brown hair down. Reizei gawked a little.

"She's too old for you," Zuko leaned in to whisper to him. Nami chuckled.

"Yeah yeah," Reizei muttered back, his face going red. His dad smirked.

"Sorry I'm late," the young woman apologized after Jomei swung her around in his arms and made her blush pink.

"You're just in time, honey," Ursa replied, coming down from the porch slowly to hug her. "Come have some food."

Toph with her hand in Kaz's came up beside Nami and nudged her with her hip absently.

"Hey you," she said, smiling.

"Alright, food's done!" Zuko exclaimed and was converged on by a mob of people. Chopsticks flew.

"Over here, too!" Reizei laughed, and some of the mob moved to him.

Everybody ate and talked and laughed. On the porch, on towels on the beach, and over scorched custard cakes by the driftwood fire that shot blue and green sparks into the evening air. The spicy marinade on the food was hot and delicious.

A servant came once with a scroll Zuko had to reply to, but other than that, Nation politics didn't interrupt their evening, and as the stars came out overhead, Nami lay beside her husband on a wide, warm beach towel behind their children who were busy laughing by the fire.

She turned away from watching the kids as she felt Zuko's gentle fingertips brush her cheek. Her husband tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and leaned in to kiss her forehead. Nami leaned back against his chest and he slid his strong arms around her middle, an embrace that had become part of her. She turned her head to look up at him. As always, that one strand of his black hair had swung down over his eye and she pushed it back, letting her hand caress his skin as she did.

Zuko smiled the crooked smile that was imprinted on her heart and she was taken back through the years to when they were just a couple lost kids falling in love. She marveled for a few heartbeats at how far their lives had come. Zuko was a man. She could not place when that change had occurred. It could have been long ago when he was still a teenager. It could have been when the crown of Fire Lord was placed on his head, or when he held his first child in his arms for the first time. Only maybe it had happened recently, emerging as the years in his eyes and lines on his face had. He was the same young man she had inexplicably and so improbably fallen for as a teenager, and yet he was also entirely new. He was a husband, a father, a ruler of a nation. He had a steadiness to his walk and patience in his gaze.

She had changed as well. She was a wife, a mother, a ruler. She was someone whose lap small children curled up on. Of whom portraits were painted and who sat on the balcony on warm evenings and taught her children the names of the stars turning high above.

Zuko saw the emotion in her eyes and laced their fingers together gently; a warm, intimate touch. Nami smiled gently.

"What?" he murmured, his golden eyes warm.

"Oh," she sighed gently, "I'm just marveling."

"At?"

"At you, and our pasts, and our family, and this place and time."

A soft chuckle shook his broad chest and Nami snuggled her head into the crook of his neck. His arms were her home, and the feeling of security and comfort that warmed her from head to toe when she was wrapped in them never ceased to make her close her eyes with pure contentment.

"This place and this time is perfect," he murmured to her, agreeing.

She lifted her head to look up at him. "I love you," she told him.

"And I love you. Always." He tilted her head toward his to meet his kiss, and their lips met with the completeness of yin and yang making a whole as they always had and always would.

A/N:

"The end" is cliché and "Fin" is pretentious… So, uh… that's all folks, das ende, finis, 終止, finite incantatem, goodnight and good luck.

Thank you for reading and for all your reviews. I love you all & hope you enjoyed the ridiculous ride.

Overwhelmed by the population explosion? Hey, at least none of them are Albus Severus. This may help sort things out…

Iroh—Age: 70s

Hiro—Age: 60s

Ursa & Roulan—Age: 60s; Kids: Kazlun (age 26), Jomei (19)

Namura & Zuko—Age: 30s; Kids: Reizei (12), Hiromi (10), Dante (4, homage to the voice of Zuko: Dante Basco)

Azula & Jareth—Age: late 30s; Kids: Rayne (6, pronounced Rain), Zeth (3)

Katara & Avatar Aang—Age: late 20s; Kids: twins Kaiya and Kayla (4, air and waterbenders respectively, pronounced KYE-ya and KAY-la)

Toph & Kazlun—Age: 20s

Jomei's girlfriend Nuria—Age: 18

…..

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