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This was all Zuko’s fault.
Sokka had brought him along when he went home for Gran-gran’s 85th birthday, and after the party all the “kids” (Sokka, Zuko, Katara, Aang, and a half dozen similarly aged second and third cousins who had come from up north) were all setting up their sleeping bags in the rumpus room when Zuko spoke.
“Your dad’s boyfriend is really nice.”
“What?” Sokka asked, at the same time Katara said “Who?”
“Bato. Oh, are they married? He didn’t say.”
“No they’re not married!” Katara yelled.
“Who’s not married?” a tall cousin asked.
“Their dad and Bato,” the guy on the closest sleeping bag, who had apparently been eavesdropping, chimed in.
“Bato? The dilf?” All eyes turned on this third cousin, expressions ranging from horror to amusement. She tossed her curls, “what? It’s not my dad he’s doing.”
“HE’S NOT DOING MY DAD!”
“Katara! Don’t shout; you’ll wake Gran-gran!” Sokka was a grown man, he was not going to get told to go to bed by his grandmother.
Katara glowered. “Bato and Dad are just friends.”
Zuko held his hands up in surrender. Once they were sure the excitement was done, the cousins returned to their sleeping bags.
The lights were out and everyone had been quiet for a while when Aang mused “They are really close though.”
“Aang!”
“I know they’re not together, but they’d be a really good match,” Aang insisted.
Sokka wapped him with a pillow, “go to sleep!”
~
The thing was, they couldn’t unsee it.
When they spoke to Hakoda, he’d just been doing something with Bato.
When they reminisced about a childhood memory, it involved Bato.
When Ty Lee looked up everyone’s natal charts because she got a book about matchmaking, Aang pulled up Hakoda’s and Bato’s and they were a 98 out of 100 match. Katara pulled up Kya’s to make a point, but their match was only a 73. (Katara then insisted she didn’t believe in such things, which upset Aang because their match was a 95.)
“I don’t know,” Sokka said after a while, “They are together a lot, and they like it. Dad shares everything with Bato. And Bato never got married, he hardly ever dates, maybe it’s ‘cus he’d rather be with Dad.”
“So you’re saying Dad just married Mom as a cover?” Katara lashed out.
“What? No! He loved Mom! I’m just saying that now he could love someone else. He and Bato, they make each other happy.”
“I guess.”
~
What finally got Katara on board was a video call. Their dad had come down with a nasty flu, and he looked just miserable. While Sokka was asking him if any of the restaurants in town would deliver out where he lived, Katara was frantically looking up last minute flights to go home and take care of him.
Then there were some noises and Hakoda’s face lit up. Bato was there.
He had picked up medicine and groceries. He had brought three types of homemade soup.
When he came in to view, he felt Hakoda’s forehead and wrapped him in a blanket. Bato assured the kids that he would stay and take care of their dad.
He nursed Hakoda for a week and texted them both updates a couple times a day. Then Bato stayed for another week so their dad could take care of him while he had the same flu.
“Fine,” Katara conceded, “dad can date Bato.”