Scene One: Episode 306 "The Avatar and the Fire Lord"
I figured since I was having so much fun reading and reviewing everyone else's stuff, I'd give everyone else the same opportunity. Enjoy!
Summary: After the Gaang leaves Roku's island, Katara says something unthinkable to Aang, which makes him question everything, including his love for her. Kataang.
I DO NOT OWN AVATAR OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS. The story is all mine, though!
The breeze whispered and scraped against the barren volcanic soil of Roku's island. It tugged at the clothes of the four travelers standing on the cliff's edge, familiarly ruffled everyone's hair like it, too, was a friend who belonged in the group.
A friendship, Aang mused, that might have transcended lifetimes and continents to emerge once more from the spirit realm to unite yet again in this world. He could feel Avatar Roku's spirit lingering in the air behind them, as if it was imagining a different set of friends that would've stood there a century before. Aang remembered the wistful, happy look Roku'd had when they had visited all of his old friends, and he remembered the open love and adoration he'd seen on his previous life's face when they had visited his wife. Did Aang look like that whenever he was with Katara? He hoped not. It was too obvious, too open.
And then Roku was gone, and Toph was tugging free of his and Katara's hands and grumbling that all she'd done was ask a silly question, there was no need to turn it into a moment for silliness, Twinkletoes. That set Katara off – "How could you think friends are silly?!" – and Sokka had to drag Toph back to Appa, who was napping on the slope below them, before everyone was calmed down. The moment was gone, though Aang would remember the feeling of their strength and support, the one moment that he had let their love flow free of the barriers that (if he was being honest) he had erected around himself to keep anyone else from getting hurt.
"Aang!" Katara called from Appa's saddle. "Are you coming?"
"Come on, Avatar, let's get a move on!" Sokka interrupted, waving frantically as if Aang hadn't already been looking towards them. He leaned dangerously far over the edge in his attempt to convey the urgency of the situation. The color-coded schedule fluttered and twisted in his hand, and Aang could see from where he was standing on the cliff all the cross-outs and corrections made by Katara whenever Sokka wasn't looking so that they'd have time to rest. "We've gotta make the next island by night fall!" Too bad Katara hadn't made a correction to today's schedule.
Aang grinned and shook his head as Toph dragged Sokka back into the saddle. He airbended a breeze to help him leap across the black ground and sprang lightly onto his air bison's head. Appa growled a greeting and Aang scratched behind the bison's ears. Appa purred with appreciation and Aang grinned. "Missed you, too, buddy," he whispered.
"Aang!" Sokka's wail was pitiful. "We've gotta hurry!"
Aang rolled his eyes but chirped, "Yip yip!"
Appa rose gracefully into the sky, leaving Roku's island behind forever. Aang twisted in his seat to watch the island slowly become swallowed by the blue horizon, and he felt a pang in his heart to know that he was leaving Roku behind.
A graceful brown hand touched Aang's shoulder and broke him from his staring reverie. He looked up into Katara's understanding eyes. "Get some rest, Aang," she said softly. "I'll take care of the cloud cover."
A few thumps and a loud "Ow!" made both children glance over their shoulders to watch as Toph tried to keep Sokka from bouncing around Appa's back. Aang winced in sympathy – he knew from experience just how much that particular jab hurt. "Are you sure?" he asked, anxious about leaving Katara alone to bend and babysit.
Katara rolled her eyes, a habit she'd picked up from Aang. "Just sleep, Aang," she ordered, and then crawled back over the saddle rim.
Aang smiled as the clouds descended and cloaked them in a white haze. "You two shut up or I'll…" he heard Katara say before drifting into the peaceful blank realm of his dreams.
Aang didn't wake up until Appa landed beneath a cliff. The low vibrations shook him gently awake, though Aang didn't get up until he heard Toph and Katara start to squabble over where they were going to set up camp. Sighing, he bended a puff of air to push him upright and slid down to the ground on Appa's silky mane.
Sokka looked up from where he was setting up a ring of stones for the night's campfire. "Hey, Aang, nice to see you up!"
Aang grinned. "Good to be up." He raised one eyebrow as he saw the black-and-blue spots that covered Sokka's bare arm. "Rough day."
Sokka winced and rubbed one particularly nasty bruise absentmindedly. "You could say that."
"Why don't you get Katara to look at those?" Aang asked, curious. It was odd for the waterbender to leave anyone injured for any length of time.
Sokka scowled at his sister's back as he walked towards Aang. Katara continued arguing with Toph, completely ignoring the look if she even saw it. "She says I deserved it for being a noisy, whiney iguana-seal pup." He pulled a long face. "Can you believe that?"
"Yes," Aang replied, straight-faced.
"Everyone's a critic," Sokka muttered. He reached behind Aang to grab the few remaining bags of gear that had been attached to Appa's saddle with leather straps. Aang turned around to help, but then Toph's voice rose to a new pitch of irritation.
"What if it rains? You'll be glad we're under this cliff then," Toph yelled, motioning around them and nearly hitting Katara in the face with her wild gestures.
"I can bend the rain away, remember?" Katara yelled back.
"Oh, in your sleep?" Toph grinned when Katara huffed grumpily. "Yeah, I didn't think so."
"But sleeping by the river will be better! There's fish to catch for supper, and the water's close enough so that we can heat it!"
"Why would we want to do that?"
"Oh, I don't know, Toph," Katara said, her voice simply dripping with sarcasm. "Maybe so we can get clean? Oh, that's right, it's not like you'd care about personal hygiene."
"Ladies!" Aang slid in between the two spitting girls just as Toph was about to make what he was certain was a very unladylike comment. This seemed like a good time to stretch his Avatar duties as peacemaker. "Let's just camp here for the night. Toph's right, Katara, it looks like rain, and you really do need to sleep. Don't waste your energy bending when you don't need to."
"Ha!" Toph's voice was triumphant from behind Aang's back. "Told you!"
Katara stared at Aang in irritation and astonishment. "Who died and made you Avatar?"
Aang's grey eyes grew cold. He knew it was just a saying. He'd heard it often enough in the various towns they'd stopped but to hear it from Katara's lips… It was too personal to let go. "Avatar Roku did, actually."
Aang watched Katara's eyes grow wide at his words and the color leech from her cheeks as his words processed. He didn't wait around to hear what she'd say next. He leapt to the cliff face and raced down to the river, leaving the three children blinking at one another in confusion and shame over Aang's rare display of temper.
Katara walked down to the shore later that night after the others were asleep. Aang expected her to come and was prepared. Or, at least, he'd tried to prepare. He'd spent the majority of the evening meditating, trying to understand and control his emotions. Anger and hurt and betrayal were swirling and mixing in his mind, confusing him. How did Katara see him? As a friend, or as the Avatar, someone to be tolerated just because he was supposed to save the world? Deep down, Aang knew that Katara truly cared about him, but her words had still hit deeply, still created doubts and worries where there had been none before. What had happened to the unified, strong group that had supported him this afternoon? Where had it gone in just a few hours? But that was the problem when you opened yourself up to other people – it was easier to get hurt. He should never have let his walls down, even to his friends. Even to Katara, the girl who after everything, he still loved. It would just hurt him.
When Katara found him on a little grassy knoll looking down on the river, he still wasn't sure exactly how he felt about her, about him, about anything.
"Hi, Aang," Katara said quietly. She motioned at the space beside him. "Can I sit down?"
"If you want to," Aang said coolly. Katara hesitated a bit at his unwelcoming tone, but bravely took her place beside him anyway.
"I'm really sorry about what I said back there," she began. Her words were so soft that Aang wouldn't have been able to hear her if he hadn't bended the air so that her voice sounded like it was in his head.
"I can't believe that I said something so stupid! To you especially," she added, looking at the churning river roaring below them.
Aang couldn't keep quiet any longer. "Why me?" he asked her, finally looking at her for the first time since she'd sat down. "Why 'me especially'? Because I'm your friend? Or because I'm the Avatar?"
Katara looked into his eyes, blue meeting grey, and Aang felt as though he could see the pain and hurt his words were causing behind those deep, watering irises. But he didn't let her go, didn't say that it was okay, that he wasn't mad and that he understood she'd been upset and didn't really mean it. Because it wasn't okay, he was upset and hurt and confused and most of all scared that she was there only so she could make sure he could do his job and save the world, even if it meant he would die.
Katara looked away first. Aang watched the full moon gild her golden skin and highlight her smooth neck and high cheekbones, though it threw her eyes into shadow. "I'm sorry, Aang. So sorry. I didn't mean it. I was just frustrated with Toph, and annoyed at not getting my way and having you support her instead of me." Aang could hear the surprise from that memory. "You've grown up so much since the South Pole, and I guess I was just thrown off balance when I realized that you could take charge, too. You have every right to, and I need to step back and let you. Anyway, I know how hard being the Avatar is on you, and I just had to go and make that worse, and I'm sorry."
"You didn't answer my question." Aang turned away and watched the grass sway in the breeze.
Katara was quiet for a moment. "To you especially," she answered eventually, "because I should've known what I said would cause someone I care about a lot of pain. And I don't like that." She rose from her seat and walked back towards their camp, leaving the Avatar alone with his thoughts.
The Avatar was thinking that those words were the ones he had least expected from the girl. The Avatar thought that he would get a tearful apology, or an enraged scream from an insulted girl. Nothing had prepared him for the thoughtful, emotional response that had emerged from the girl, the one that he loved. A stray thought whispered through his mind that maybe Katara loved him, not him the Avatar, but him the boy, Aang, but he quickly shoved it away. It did him no good to linger on false hopes.
But still, the thought returned and would not be shoved away. What if she really did care about him? Persistence, that was what Roku had told him. Maybe he should pursue her now, get up from his mediation to chase her down and finally confess.
But he was probably imagining things. Besides, right now, he needed all of his friends as just that, friends. He had already opened himself up enough this afternoon. It was going to be hard staying strong if (he steeled himself for the thought) one of them died, just as friends. He wasn't sure if he could handle if one of them died who was something more. Someone more. Someone, like Roku's wife had been to him. A partner, a lover, a complete soul mate.
It would have to wait, then. Wait until after the war was through, after the Fire Lord was defeated, after the dust had settled to reveal who still remained. Then Aang could pursue his friend, make her more than just a friend…
A small pebble glinted in the moonlight on the river side, catching his attention. Getting up from his position, he nearly fell over as the blood rushed to his legs. Staggering to the bank, he picked up the smooth stone and turned it over in his fingers, feeling the groves with his sensitive fingertips. He could feel the beginnings of a wave – or was it a puff of air? Maybe it was both – scratched into the surface of the dark river stone. It was much too early to be thinking about Katara like that – hadn't he just decided to wait? – but Aang felt like Roku was guiding his actions, as if his spirit guide was telling him to do it anyway. Stone was patient. It could wait. It wouldn't matter if he couldn't give it away for a while, years maybe, but Aang felt like he was supposed to make this now.
He spent the rest of the night carving out the little stone, making artful whirls and ridges in the design until even he was astonished at the beauty of his masterpiece. Aang hadn't realized he could carve so well, and he pondered his newfound ability as he carefully whittled a tiny hole at the top of the rock. Aang slipped it onto a rough piece of cord and it hung against his chest, a little wave-wind glinting against the smoothness of the river stone. Aang flew back to camp with the stone thumping against his chest and carefully smoothed out his sleeping bags next to Katara. He knew that she would wake up tomorrow and see him sleeping close to her and she would know that he had forgiven her. They would be strong again, like one, against the forces that threatened to swamp their seemingly small and insignificant quartet. Sokka, Toph, Katara, and Aang would make it through together, survive against all odds. They had to. They demanded nothing less than that.
Aang laid his head on the hard dirt, smiling peacefully. He clutched the betrothal necklace in one hand for the briefest of moments before tucking it away beneath his tunic, a secret to be kept until it was really, truly time to reveal it to the one he loved.