The strong smell coming from the kitchen actually relieved her, at least the congestion had started to clear. But the relief was pushed aside for worry as Katara made her way to the kitchen, as far as she knew she was alone and she hadn't left anything on the stove. Could it be an intruder?
Grabbing her water skin just in case, she slowly opened the door only sigh with relief again when she noticed Aang standing by the stove, looking panicked and embarrassed. At least it wasn't an intruder, she thought.
"Um...hi, Katara! Shouldn't you be upstairs resting?" he said, tugging his collar like he always did when he was nervous.
"I was when the smell woke me up," Katara said. "Aang, what are you doing here?"
"Sokka sent me over," Aang said, and she frowned.
"It's only a cold, I don't need someone to check my pulse every hour or something."
"Yeah, well...he was worried, and to tell you the truth so was I." Aang ladled something into a bowl and offered it to her. "I uh...made you some soup. Stewed sea prune, I remembered that was your favorite," he said. "At least that's what it's supposed to be anyway...I'm not the greatest cook so I probably screwed up."
He sure had, she noticed as she looked around the kitchen. The wood stove was a mess, he'd spilled water everywhere and had wasted a lot of sea prunes in the failed endeavor. The pot could be salvaged, but it would take a lot of scrubbing to get the mess off.
But despite that, she couldn't be upset with him. His efforts touched her more than the messy kitchen bothered her, and she remembered why she'd fallen in love with him in the first place.
"You tried," she said, leaning forward to kiss him...then promptly turned her head away to sneeze. "Ugh, sorry..." Aang smiled and led her back to her room.
"Just rest," he said. "I'll get you something else...unless you want to take a chance on the soup? It might still be edible."
She took the bowl from his hands and sniffed it. It could have been worse, she decided.
"I'll try it and if it's really that bad I'll send you out to the market," she teased. "But seriously...thanks for going to the trouble." Aang laughed and leaned over to kiss the top of her head.
"Anytime, Katara."