It had been three months. Three months since the fall of the Phoenix King; three months since Sozin's Comet; three months since the final battle of the Great War.

And in these three months, many things had changed.

The Water Tribes were able to reinstate the New Moon Gathering, meeting once a month for three nights to discuss important business and to encourage interaction and relationships between the sister tribes. Many from the North had moved down South, and many Waterbenders that went down South were assisting with the rebuilding, enlarging the Southern Tribe to a size that greatly rivaled the North. This of course lead to a need for a proper Tribe Cheif, and there was no question that it should be Hakoda. The Southern Water Tribe was now an official world political power.

The Earth Kingdom, more specifically BaSingSe, was unable to find the now-nomadic King Kuei, so the Council of Five had been meeting with delegates and representatives from across their nation, in an attempt to discuss what should happen. So far, they had dwindled down to two plans: Either set up a temporary leader until special agents were able to locate Kuei, or find a new ruler to take the throne permanently. So far, the decision was split even.

The Fire Nation Colonies in the Earth Kingdom were abolished, but many citizens stayed behind. Acceptance did not come easily, but it wasn't completely absent. Even small gestures, like allowing children to play together despite international hostilities, were openly welcome. However, there were obvious larger problems that could not be settled so easily, and required the intervention of a higher authority.

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Fire Lord Zuko paced back and forth in his private study, his hands behind his back, his eyes focused on nothing in particular. His brain was racked with problems at the moment, both domestic and international. In the next month, he was expected by his Council to find a suitable bride, and go help settle issues with the citizens of the Earth Kingdom. Meanwhile, Mai had been little more than a distracting thought recently, and he still hadn't made any more moves to find his mother!

"Zuko?" came Mai's voice from the doorway. Zuko didn't hear her, however, being too deep in thought, and he continued his pacing. "Zuko!"

The young Fire Lord snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to find his aggrivated-looking girlfriend staring him down from halfway across the room.

"What is it, Mai? I'm a little busy right now."

"Exactly! You're always too busy!" Mai replied, walking towards her boyfriend and placing a hand on his shoulder. "You need to relax. Come out to the garden with me; maybe we can have a picnic or something." Zuko merely shrugged her hand off and looked away.

"You know how busy I am; I don't have time right now. I need to keep working to fix what my family has destroyed!"

"When will you have time, Zuko? You know this isn't good for you, all this stress. You need to leave this stuffy old room for once and relax! You need to spend time with me!" Zuko opened his eyes in anger at this little outburst.

"You think this about you? You don't get it! If I don't get through everything I'm handed, the Fire Nation will entirely fall apart, and I refuse to go down in history as the Fire Lord who let this nation destroy itself, especially after the last century of war and despair!"

"So you're saying you care more about the Fire Nation than you do about me? Fine! I'm leaving, and don't expect me to come back anytime soon!" Mai turned and left, easily slamming the heavy metal door behind her, the sound resonating for several moments. Inside, Zuko sat down at his desk and let his head fall into his hands in despair.

'Great,' he thought. 'Now I don't even have any support...or do I?'

Zuko pulled a new scroll and a brush-and-ink set from under his desk and began writing, choosing and marking each word with careful precision. When it was finished, he took it to the aviary himself, all the way across the Palace. He slid it into the pouch of his most trusted dragon-hawk, Sora, and shooed the messenger bird off through the open window, knowing that he should have some help in no less than a few weeks...

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Several days later...
On Kyoshi Island, Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe was waking from another deep sleep, only about an hour or so from mid-day...as usual. He stumbled out of bed and headed down to the kitchen for his morning tea. He sat down at the table, cup of steaming brew in hand, and started shifting through the morning mail, delivered earlier.

Though the war ended months prior, Sokka, Suki, and everyone else from the old team still recieved more fan letters from across the world than they knew what to do with. Suki insisted they show respect and respond to each one, usually just with a generic thank-you-plus-encouragement response.

Sokka usually ignored the larger sets, but recently, the piles had been thinning down to small stacks; in fact, today only offered a dozen letters. After reading through the first half, Sokka found a particularly large scroll, folded several times. He unfolded it and found it to be a large protrait of the family of a young Fire Nation girl whose father had been able to come home thanks to the end of The War. Accompanied was a letter, thanking Sokka for his courage and strength (and for letting Daddy come home). Sokka guessed that the girl's mother helped her write the letter, because she couldn't have been any more than four, judging by the picture. As he closed his eyes and sighed with contentment, he decided he would find a special place for the picture later. He expected that Suki wouldn't mind.

What he didn't expect was to see a dragon-hawk sitting on the table behind the picture, staring him in the face.

"Aaahhhh!!!" Sokka screamed, stumbling back and falling over, his tea spilling on his head. The messenger bird jumped towards him slightly, the way a sparrow-keet would, bowing down so that even from his angle on the floor, Sokka could pull the communique free.

As Sokka unrolled the scroll, the dragon-hawk turned its head around, searching the room in curiosity. Almost instantly, it spotted Sokka's own messenger, Hawky, on his perch and glided over, nuzzling against the male bird.

"Guess you're a girl-bird, huh?" Sokka asked Sora, expecting the non-existent answer she offered. "Well, let's see whose bird you are..."

Sokka,

I figured since we're friends, we could skip any formalities.

Mai walked out on me, and I need someone to accompany me to the Earth Kingdom conference I'm going to later this month. No, I'm not asking for you or Suki. I want-- I need you to contact Aang and Katara for me. Some familiar faces will help settle my nerves.

Thanks,

Zuko

"Whoa! Hawky, buddy, sorry to cut you short on your royal bird-cuddles, but I need you to take something to Aang and Katara for me."