I Can Hear the Bells

Narritive

"Talking"

Thinking

M.I.A. or Missing in Action: a status assigned to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. People who are declared M.I.A. are usually assumed to be dead or prisoners of war, but I swear the next time I see him he'll wish he was one of those things!

I felt like fool for standing there and waiting for him, for my deserter. The people around me muttered and murmured voicing their doubts while trying to keep me in the dark. Yet as I stood in front of the altar in my mother's dress I knew he wasn't coming. It was supposed to be a special day, a day of celebrations and new beginnings. It was supposed to be my day, our day, yet all it had brought was pain. My chest seemed to be numb and ache at the same time and my anger was slowly smothered the cold feeling of rejection. I knew what it was like to be turned down but this was different. I had thought he was different.

We hadn't known each other for very long by some people's accounts, though the year and a half had seemed like forever to me. Looking back on it, I couldn't help but find the fact of how much I used to hate him funny. If anyone had told me then that one day I would be in love with the arrogant pig, I'd have called him or her crazy. He had been a brash young man then, a young man who's every move was ruled by his anger. I loathed him, he despised me and that was the end of it. Or so I thought until Toph met his uncle and decided to make it her duty to integrate the man into our group of friends.

From that point on he was always around. If my friends and I wanted to go the movies, there he was being dragged along by the short girl. The worst part was he hated the fact that Toph took him under her wing. He didn't even have the decency to fake some gratitude towards us for dealing with him. And he always, always, picked fights with me and we would end up arguing for hours. However, in a sense those times were the beginnings of my end.

The more we fought, the more I got to know about him. Before I knew it our bickering had turned to bantering and our arguments to teases. We had formed a connection through our mutual use of each other for stress relief and again I thought that would be the end of our relationship. Except once more Toph had a brilliant idea; to force us to play 7 Minutes in Heaven in a closet that could close but not open. For three hours we sat in a tiny room and talked about everything from our mothers to our favorite foods and when we finally got out, I somehow new things wouldn't be the same between us. A month later he asked me if I would go to the movies with him and after almost a year to the day he left me at the altar.

I can't believe I actually thought he changed. I could feel tears running down my cheeks and most likely ruining Gran-Gran's makeup job, but at the time I didn't care. All I wanted to do was leave that wretched place and never look back. I started towards the side of the church when a voice stopped me.

"Katara, I'm so sorry."

I silently wished he was the one speaking but I would only be fooling myself. The speaker was the pastor of the church and someone who I knew very well. Growing up I always believed he would be the one I'd meet at the altar, but somewhere that all changed. It changed with my deserter.

"It's okay, Aang," I lied, knowing full well he didn't buy it. "I'm fine."

Aang's eyes shone with an emotion I despised; pity and that sparked my anger to life. How dare he do this to me? He could have at least told me it was over to my face!

In my rage I remained oblivious to the sudden silence that spread over the room like a fog. Nor did I notice the chill that seeped in through the now open doors along with a panting man.

"Katara…" Aang began before fading out. I was about to snap at him for delaying my escape even more when I finally realized the change in the room's atmosphere and where my friend was looking. And that's when I saw him.

He sprinted down the long aisle in a way that seemed to almost mock my role in the wedding. His hair was a mess with half of it slicked down and the other following its normal style and his tux was crumpled and wet. Yet despite his disheveled appearance, I couldn't help but think he looked handsome.

"You just had to have the wedding in the middle of winter," he wheezed when he reached me. "And the day after a blizzard no less! It just couldn't be in the summer like I wanted." I might have believed his complaining if his smirk hadn't given him away. He thought it was alright for him to be hours late! Before I could say a word he made an attempt to straiten himself up and took my hands. "Sorry I was late. The car was stuck under a pile of snow and I had to dig it out."

Horrible couldn't describe how I felt at that moment. I had doubted him and been wrong, but I knew I could save the apologies for another time. As everyone knows the show must go on. "Ten minutes," I stated as I lightly took my hands back and pushed him towards the groom's men.

"What?" He was confused and adorable and I loved it. But soon I'd have a lifetime to love him, all of him.

"You have ten minutes, Zuko. If you're not ready to go by then we won't have time to get to our flight and then there will be no honeymoon."

"Wait, what?" Zuko was even more perplexed. "That's it? No yelling…? No hitting…? Usually you'd be trying to beat my head into the floor by now."

"Nine minutes," I informed him with a glare. I may have loved him but that wouldn't stop me from causing physical pain.

"Okay, okay!" He took a fearful step back before trying again. "But really, what's up?"

"It because you're M.I.A."

"M.I.A.?" I could feel a soft smile form on my lips as stepped forward lightly kissed him. He may have been an arrogant, pompous, angry, closed up, infuriating man but I knew he was mine.

"Yeah, M.I.A.: My Idiotic Agni."

A.N.: Okay, before anything else I want to explain what this oneshot is apart of. On DeviantArt there is a club called Zutara Eternity ( http:// zutara- eternity. deviantart. com/ ) and the club posts a prompt for artists and writers every week. This story is for the second prompt. I was going to do them in chronological order, but the story for the first one, Hello, is causing me problems. So now I'm just going to write stories for the prompts that I have ideas for. If you're interested I encourage you to check it out. I would join the club, but I'm not apart of DeviantArt.

Now with that out of the way, here are some explanations. The title of this future collection of oneshots is from a song by Frank Sinatra that I like and I think kind of fits the couple. The summery is from a song by the Jonas Brothers that I found by Googleing 'Eternity'. Also every chapter will have a title and the prompt will be in the select chapter box thing. Um, that's all I can think of. Please review and feel free to ask any questions.

Disclaimer: I'm a Zutarian. Do you really think I would let the show end the way it did if I owned it?