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Zuko stands in the centre of the grand hall, and his hands are shaking inside his robe. “I wasn’t this nervous when I married Katara,” he mutters to Sokka on his left.
“You were pretty nervous,” Sokka recalls with a grin. “Wasn’t he, dad?” Hakoda, silver-haired and stately at sixty, is kindly pretending not to listen by gazing at the ceiling. It’s this kind of diplomacy that has got the Southern Water Tribe so far in the world, Zuko thinks. That, and the fact that Katara is a formidable Fire Lady.
Oh, no, now he’s rambling inside his own head. Thank goodness that they decided to seat the rest of his children with all their cousins, and Aang’s children who count as cousins, or they’d be noticing just how undignified their dad looks right now.
“Hey. Are you okay?” Sokka asks, more quietly this time. He’s learned some discretion over the years, at least.
Hakoda discreetly turns to Kuei and asks him a question about breeding bears, and Bosco’s incredible longevity. The Earth King responds with great enthusiasm.
“I’m marrying off my eldest daughter, of course I’m not okay,” Zuko snaps, and then realises he sounds like an overwrought mother hen and he will probably never live this down. “And also, I think they’re running late.”
In the Southern Water Tribe, it transpires, it’s traditional for a bride to be accompanied by her mother – especially if it’s a love match. And so here they are, all in a line, waiting for the bridal party to arrive.
Kuei’s younger son stands next to his father, looking almost as stressed as Zuko feels. Zuko feels sorry for him - it can’t be easy to be the groom, and therefore the focus of all the guests’ gazes. He catches sight of Zuko looking at him and goes pale. Zuko winks at him before he turns back to his friends.
“They’ll get here,” Sokka soothes. “Suki’s very good at getting people places on time.”
“She’d have to be, with your kids,” Aang chuckles from Zuko’s right.
Even Zuko joins in the laughter at that. “Oh, and yours are silent mice, Avatar Aang? Sometimes entire days pass without their feet touching the ground.”
“Heads in the sky the whole time,” Sokka adds, with a grin.
“What can I say? I’m a great influence,” Aang winks. Then he nudges Zuko. “Hey. How does it feel to be old enough to have a daughter who’s getting married?”
“I’m not even forty yet, how dare you,” Zuko glares at him – and then he hears the music start from the back of the hall. He stands straight and waits for his wife to bring his daughter forward to be married.
Katara, after eighteen years of marriage and six children, is still the most beautiful woman he’s ever laid eyes on. But it’s the radiant face of his eldest child walking toward her intended husband that brings tears to his eyes today.
“Don’t cry, dad,” she scolds as she arrives at the dais. “This is a happy day.”
“I am happy,” he rasps at her, and then discreetly clears his throat.
Katara just glances at her fondly, and looks up at him, and smiles. Zuko’s heart settles in his chest: yes, he’s happy.
Aang steps forward to give the Avatar’s blessing on this union of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, and the wedding ceremony begins.