Nervously, Sokka goes through the bags of supplies that Team Avatar had gotten on their journey to the north pole. Most of the valuable things that Momo had stolen were sold in the surrounding towns but luckily for him there are a few trinkets left over that he can use. Today is the day that he is going to propose to Princess Yue, and tonight they're going to get married. Part of the traditions revolving around marriage and courtship in the water tribes is the trading of gifts, taking the bride to be on a hunting venture and tying a physical knot over their hands as a sign of their union. The affair is private, just between the immediate family and inner circle of those to get married and there are gifts from the family and friends given to the bride and groom. The gifts Sokka is eagerly looking for are going to Yue's family as a part of the tradition and something of equal value will be gifted back to him in exchange. Zuko watches Sokka tear around the room looking for the different odds and ends in the random bags.

"So, what exactly are you looking for?" Zuko asks as Sokka empties another bag before sorting through its contents. "There a reason why you're tearing through our stuff like Aang creating a tornado in here?"

"It's a tradition thing Zuko, I have to give Chief Arnook a gift before proposing to Yue. I'm sure the firenation has traditions that have to do with marriage. It's kind of the biggest deal I've ever had in my entire life. So I'm a bit stressed." Sokka snaps back as he continues to sift through their belongings.

"And it has to be something valuable too, right? Since she's royalty it's gonna be expected." Zuko says now understanding the depth of Sokka's situation. "Well, we still have some fairly valuable things from the whole cleptomania Momo incident when you and Katara were sick. Would any of that work?"

"Honestly, I was thinking of giving them all of it."

"That might be a bit over the top. Do we still have that crown?" Zuko asks, "The one with the two dragons on it that Katara was wearing after I got back." Sokka stares at Zuko for a moment then immediately runs to the other side of the room grabbing the gold and jade crown from the chest in the corner.

"Zuko you're a genius, thanks bro that's more than enough!" Sokka shouts as he runs out of their little longhouse leaving the door open on the way out. Zuko just shrugs seeing Sokka's departure then goes back to steeping his tea.

Excitedly, Sokka rushes along the icy path towards the chief's long house to uphold his part of the tradition. It's only been a few days since Chief Arnook had announced Yue's disengagement to Hahn and the new arrangement to Sokka and today they're finally going to get everything finished so their wedding can begin. Yesterday, Sokka and Pakku finished the engagement necklace that Sokka is going to give Yue, almost being an exact replica of the original one that he gave back to Katara through Aang. This caused Katara to blush but when she saw her brother laughing at this innocent gesture from Aang, who had no idea what it meant, she wasn't too pleased. Just in front of the chief's palace, Pakku is training his morning class of students with Princess Yue and Katara sparring with each other off to the side of the rest of the group. As Katara returns a large ball of water back to Yue, the appearance of her brother heading up the stairs catches her eye. Noticing this from her sparring partner, Yue turns and watches Sokka head up the stairs and into the main palace itself.

"Looks like todays the day." Katara says, causing Yue to stare up at the palace where Sokka had walked in, she blushes slightly knowing that before long the two are going to be together. "Do I have to call you big sister Yue now?"

"If you want to." Yue responds as both girls start laughing to themselves, but quickly stop when Pakku sends a scowl their way.

As Sokka enters the chief's long house, Arnook himself is standing in the forefront waiting for his arrival. "Morning Sokka, I'm glad you've gotten here early today. We have a lot to discuss." Arnook begins as Sokka approaches the taller man. "What do you have here?" he asks, seeing the crown held in Sokka's hands.

"It's a gift, for the engagement tradition." Sokka explains nervously.

"Ah, it almost slipped my mind. Truth be told, I was going to consider the strengthened bond between our tribes the gift from your family to ours. Where did you find this? It looks like it's from the earth kingdom." Arnook asks, as he inspects the golden and jade crown Sokka has given him.

"We made a stop in Pauhai stronghold in the earth kingdom after we got caught in a typhoon, I ended up getting sick after the storm and Aang had to take care of us. While he was exploring the ruins, he found it and brought it back. It's the best gift I could give the family of Princess Yue." Sokka explains, his nervousness goes away when Arnook smiles at the gesture accepting the gift from him.

"I believe Yue will be very happy with you my boy, to be honest i've been second guessing my decisions recently. Though, after the incident with Hahn showing his true colors, and Prince Zuko opening my eyes to the truth of why we've been losing this war... I feel like this decision has been the only one I've made that I have confidence with. I give you my blessing to marry my daughter, and I'll ask the two of you when you want the ceremony to be held but that can wait until you two get back. Remember it's your job to provide the best catch for your wedding celebration." Arnook pats a hand on Sokka's back, "I'll think of something to give to Katara and your friends in return for your gift. And I look forward to the feast my boy."

With a wide smile on his face, Sokka nods to Chief Arnook then immediately runs off to find his bride. The chieftain smiles to himself as he watches the young man run off before going over the crown once again. Sokka's excitement practically radiates off of him as he rushes down the stairs towards Pakku's training ground; the waterbending master had just finished his morning class. Katara and Yue stand off to the side talking with each other which is perfect for Sokka as Yue is standing with her back to him. Katara sees her brother approach but with a gesture telling her to stay quiet from Sokka, she doesn't acknowledge his approach. In the same manner that Zuko accidentally proposed to Katara trying to return her necklace, Sokka sneaks up behind Yue wrapping his arms around her as he rests the necklace gently on her neck.

"Sokka!" Yue shouts in surprise seeing the necklace he's holding. "You scared me." She says as she turns to look at the southerner. "Is this you asking to marry me?" Yue asks as she raises a hand to press the permafrost medallion to her chest allowing him to tie it behind her neck. "If so then yes."

"Sorry for scaring you Yue, it's kind of a tradition back home. I don't know how it's done here so this is all I thought to do." Sokka explains as he finishes the knot. "I hope you don't mind me taking Yue away from your classes for a few days. Chief Arnook said that the next part of our engagement is to go hunt down what we're gonna eat at the celebration."

"She's already ahead of the rest of the jellyfish that call themselves waterbenders I've had to teach. Her and Katara are at the top of my class." Pakku says as he walks over to inspect the necklace around Yue's neck. "It's good to see my necklace finally doing what it was supposed to."

"Thanks for the help with it," Sokka says, causing the old master to nod to the young man. "Ready to go hunting?"

"Already? Aren't you excited to get the snowball rolling.~" Yue coos causing Sokka to blush slightly. "I'll get some things to get ready for the trip and I'll meet you back here after lunch or do you want to come with me?"

"Yes please." Sokka says.

"Alright, well hopefully we find a nice fat emperor seal or a walrus yak." She says as she grabs Sokka's hand before leading the two back up the staircase that Sokka just walked down.

"How's prince Zuko's progression with healing?" Pakku asks now that Sokka and Yue have left. "More importantly, how is his vision in that eye now that it's been healed?"

"He says his vision is perfect, Aang even came up with the idea to test it and have him read a scroll as Aang got further and further away. He could read it until Aang got to about 25 ft away from him which is really good with how small the characters looked." Katara explains, "I think he's done with the lesson for today if you want to teach him."

"That would be best, since his vision and hearing is back he can get back to learning everything else when it comes to waterbending aside from just to heal his scar." Pakku says, prompting Katara to run off to go and find Zuko.

Sokka ties the last of the packs of supplies to the sled, with pelts, dried food, whalebone tools, his knife, fat for starting a fire, water skins and extra warm clothing has been packed into the various bags. In front of him, Yue checks up on the polar bear dog Taoko making sure he is harnessed into their dog sled as well as making sure none of the straps around the large canine aren't causing him any discomfort. While normally they'd pack a tent for a hunting expedition like this, because Yue is a waterbender one of the first things that Pakku had taught her is how to create an igloo. Being this far north, the first thing anyone is taught how to do is create a shelter and a fire. With everything tied down and ready, Yue gets onto the sled first with Sokka standing on the foot boards behind her. "Mush!" Sokka declares, causing Taoko to turn and start a slow walk away from the stables heading towards the glacier above. The couple won't return until they've gotten enough food to be the main course for their wedding banquet.

Taoko brings them a couple miles away from the water tribe city, out on the frigid ice fields below the arctic circle. They're too far north for any large trees to grow but the hunting grounds they're heading to are regularly frequented by emperor seals and walrus yaks. With day light beginning to dip below the horizon, Sokka halts the massive polar bear dog allowing for him and Yue to get off the sled. "Have you ever gone hunting before Yue?" Sokka asks as he walks around the sled to grab a stake to drive into the ice to halter Taoko to. "No this is the first time, usually the men go hunting to provide food for everyone. Though with my waterbending it shouldnt be too difficult." She says as she steps off the footboards and into the snow. The large snowshoes attached to her feet compressed down slightly. "I'll get the igloo made, you can get a fire started and make sure Taoko is fed."

"Way ahead of you babe." Sokka says causing Yue to blush at the new pet name.

Through the few days that she's been actively learning waterbending it's become abundantly clear that she has almost as much talent for it as Katara or even Zuko for that matter. Once everything clicked for the firebender, his control over waterbending was second only to master Pakku. Both Katara and Yue are partially jealous of the fact that the avatar born in the nation of fire and volcanoes is a better waterbender than the two of them but that tends to happen when you have thousands of years of bending experience behind you. Yue arguably has more of an affinity for waterbending than even Katara does, taking a matter of moments to create a dome of water out of the surrounding snow then freeze it to the shape of an igloo. She liquifies a small portion so that the two can crawl inside before extending it out so that it creates a barrier to the harsh winds. Sokka stares flabbergasted at how quickly she had erected their home for the next couple days, so much so that he hadnt even struck the sparking rocks on the meager kindling he set up in the whale fat to start their fire. "Woah,"

"Katara said you never really liked her waterbending when you two were growing up." Yue says as she walks towards Sokka, "What about mine?" She asks.

"Y-yeah, I really like yours but as for Kataras... every time she used it back home I'd always end up getting wet. Hell even the day we met Aang and Zuko it happened, we were out fishing and she caught a fish using her bending when I was trying to spear one in the water. I reached back with the spear, poked the bubble of water she was holding up and splash. I got a sudden bath." Yue laughs at this retelling as Sokka mimics the gestures from that day. "Let's get inside and out of this blizzard and I'll tell you some more stories."

"Just some stories? We're all alone out here so we can have a little fun." Yue coos as she coyly trails a finger along the side of Sokka's chin. "But yeah, we need to get out of the cold."

"I'll grab the heavier stuff and get the fire started then." He says quickly responding to Yue's coaxing and incentive. The knots he tied all over their supplies were done in the same way his father had taught him so the entire pack comes off at once and is able to be pulled by the draw strings.

Yue made her way first into the igloo and Sokka hears her waterbend for a moment before hearing the water freeze again. She pops her head out from under the entrance to the igloo and gestures for him to follow her inside. Sokka crawls under the small doorway into the igloo noticing that it's pitch black inside. After pulling the rest of the supplies into the igloo, he grabs the bag of firewood and his kindling before dusting off some of the snow from the ground. He sets everything down on a few rocks beneath the snow before sparking the kindling and fat. With the small fire started, he layers a couple of larger sticks around it in a teepee style before finally the larger logs along the edge. Now with light in the room Sokka sees that Yue has created a small ledge in the igloo for them to lie and sleep on as well as a lower outcropping to act as a chair. She even had made a small vent hole in the top of the igloo so the smoke could escape through the top of the igloo. He unravels the pack with the pelts and sleeping bags before layering the pelts on the ice to help insulate them from the cold. "So, when did you and Zuko become friends? From what Katara said you two didn't exactly get along towards the start of your journey." Yue asks, as she takes off her parka and climbs into the sleeping bag with Sokka.

"It took a while but the thing that started it was us fighting a firenation admiral by the name of Zhao. We were trying to get to crescent island where Avatar Roku's temple is so he and Zuko could talk. I don't know the specifics since it's a lot of Avatar mumbo jumbo." Sokka responds as he wraps his arms around Yue with the two staring off into the fire. "We stowed away on his old ship with the help of his Uncle Iroh. We got to a blockade and Zuko came up with the idea to pretend to be firenation soldiers."

"That must have been weird, how did you get away with it?" Yue asks, nuzzling her head into Sokka's chest.

"We didn't mostly, Zhao did a surprise inspection of Zuko's old crew and while he didn't recognise me, he did recognize Zuko after he removed his helmet. Then Zuko slammed his helmet over Zhao's head backwards then airbended him off the ship. I had to fight a couple guys as well but we managed to run through the blockade and get away." Sokka explains, "After that we started to work together a bit more, but we didn't really become friends until a run in with a kid named Jet. The guy's a madman thinking he's doing good through being just as cruel as the firenation. He tried to flood an entire village just to kill a few soldiers, and according to Zuko the swords he uses are meant to inflict as much pain as possible and cripple the victim for life."

"That's terrible." Yue says in disgust. "What swords do that?"

"Hook swords from what Zuko said. Jet even fooled Katara, Zuko and Aang into filling the same reservoir that he was gonna use to kill all those people." Sokka continues, "He's done alot for me and Katara and the world to be honest. I don't know word of what he's done has gotten this far north, but in the earth kingdom he's known as The Good Firebender." Sokka says, "What about you? What's it like growing up at the north pole?"

"It's a beautiful place, for several months out of the year we don't have sunlight or full night. We're at the only part of the year where the days are normal. To be honest, I thought you'd ask about my hair." Yue responds.

"I was thinking about it, I just thought you ate too much snow as a kid." Sokka responds, causing her to laugh again.

"They have those stories down at the south pole too?" She asks between bouts of laughter. "No no, it's for a different reason. When I was born I was born sick, and I was born silent. Babies usually cry when they're born but I didn't. Madam Yagoda said it was like I was born when I was asleep. She and the rest of the healers tried to cure whatever sickness I had but nothing worked. My father prayed to the ocean and moon spirits and was given a vision. The vision told him to put me into the spirit oasis and when he did my hair turned as white as the moon and I began to cry." Yue explains as Sokka shimmies his hand so that it's behind her so he can run his fingers through her hair.

"It's beautiful." He says as he gently passes his fingers through her soft locks of hair. "Just like you." Yue smiles hearing him compliment her resting her forehead against his.

"Thank you Sokka, this means more to me than you could ever know." Yue says before kissing him softly. "I love you Sokka."

"I love you too, Yue." He responds before returning the kiss. The howling winds outside could never chill the warmth of the lover's embrace.

After four days, Sokka and Yue would return to the northern watertribe. Their sled was packed with two walrus yaks and another sled made from ice topped with an emperor seal. After they arrived back to the city, Arnook invited the members of team avatar to the palace where he, Master Pakku, Yue's mother Yumi, and other members of her family were gathered. "Sokka, Yue, stand in the center of the room and hold each other's hands." Yagoda instructs the two to clasp their lover's hands. "The knots we tie over your hands bind your hearts and your souls together. Should death sever these bonds, may you meet again in the next life if the great spirits permit. If anyone disagrees with this union, speak or forever be silent." and the room stayed silent as Yagoda wraps a piece of blue silk over Sokka and Yue's hands tying its end together tightly. "And with your union, our tribes will be tied closer together as well." Arnook states as he ties the next knot over their hands.

"You're a tenacious warrior, a good leader and friend." Zuko says as he ties the red ribbon that used to tie back his pony tail over their hands. His short hair coming to a slight point just in front of his forehead.

"Even though you're a pain in the ass and your jokes aren't funny, I wouldn't want anyone else to be my brother." Katara says as she ties another blue ribbon over their hands.

"You still have to go penguin sledding with me, Sokka." Aang reminds him, causing the newly wed couple to laugh at the young airbender's request. "You can come too, Princess Yue." He says with his usual dopey smile on his face. The ribbon Aang attempts to tie is bright orange like his airbender attire but he gets a little help from Pakku tying the knot into place.

"If Hakota could be here, I'm sure he would be a proud man. I may not be your grandfather but I am just as proud. The great grandson of my master, and daughter of my chief are now bound in matrimony." Pakku says as he draws water up from the icy floor then soaks the series of tied ribbons over their hands making the knots tighter. "May it be long, and may the next generation be as strong as their ancestors. I now pronounce you man and wife." Sokka pulls Yue close with their hands still tied together and embraces his wife for the first time, sealing the beginning of their marriage with a kiss.