Title- Winter Again
Rating- K+
Characters/Pairings- Kataang
Genre(s)- PURE FLUFF
Summary- Aang and Katara take a walk.

A/N- Prompt response for callmeelphie, who wanted Kataang's first winter together and got something else entirely.

Katara shivered. After a year spent traveling the world and a summer spent mostly in the Fire Nation, she had somehow forgotten just how bitterly cold Water Tribe winters could be… and worse, she seemed to have lost her tolerance for it. She felt a bit ridiculous, to be honest. Here she was, a Water Tribe girl born and raised, barely able to tolerate the early days of a South Pole winter! It was embarrassing. Being dragged from her family's new house and out into the cold outside was not helping in the slightest.

As happy as she was to be back home visiting her family, she was beginning to regret insisting to Aang that they visit at this particular time of year.

At thoughts of her boyfriend, Katara's lips turned up in a little smile despite her discomfort. It had only been a few months since they had sealed their new relationship with a passionate kiss, but those few months had easily been some of the happiest of her life. As complicated as the process of falling for him had been, their romantic relationship was as effortless as their friendship had ever been… maybe more so. The close bond of friendship they shared was something precious and important to Katara, but being with him like they were now… it felt right. It felt as fundamental as if it were one of the laws of nature. The sun shines, rivers flow downhill, Katara loves Aang.

Simple.

And speaking of Aang…

"Where are we going?" she asked for probably the tenth time since he had pulled her to her feet and coaxed her out of the house.

He turned laughing eyes back to her, still tugging her forward by the hand. "You'll see!" he said, trying so hard not to break out into the widest smile and failing profoundly. "We're almost there!"

And indeed they were. Unfortunately, Katara wasn't totally sure where "there" was, exactly. When Aang stopped and spread his arms with a dramatic flourish, a huge grin on his face, all Katara could do was stare around the ice shelf they had stopped on that looked exactly like every other patch of ground they'd covered on their long (cold) walk.

"Um, Aang… not to be dense, but… where exactly are we?"

"You mean you don't remember? Katara, I'm hurt!" He tried very hard to force his face into a wounded expression, but he was beaming too hard to make it work. The result was a failed attempt at a pout that Katara found completely adorable.

"Seriously," she said, nudging him in the side playfully, "Why did you bring me out here?"

"You really haven't figured it out?" he teased, but his expression had gone soft and his previous huge grin had faded into a small, tender smile. "A year ago today, we met right here." He pointed out across the open water before them. "The iceberg's gone now, but… this is the place."

Katara's stomach filled with butterflies and she turned to gaze at him in wonderment. "Really?"

He nodded, still regarding her with that warm, loving look.

She glanced away, looking over the ocean to the very spot where his iceberg had emerged from the depths in a burst of light. "It doesn't feel like it's only been a year, does it?" she wondered aloud. "It seems like I've known you my whole life." If they had been a little older, their relationship a little longer, she might have said what was in her heart at that moment: that sometimes it felt as though her life hadn't truly begun until she'd met him. But they were young, and they had only been together a few months, and as true as it was she didn't feel quite brave enough to voice it out loud.

Somehow, though, she suspected that Aang might guess that it was true anyway.

"I wanted to come back here today because… well, meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wanted to celebrate that."

He turned a little pink, clearly hearing how cheesy his words sounded, but Katara thought it might be the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her. She threw her arms around his neck in a hug, all her complaints about the cold forgotten as she snuggled against his warm body. Aang hugged her back, his arms circling her waist and pulling her closer.

"Hey Aang?" she whispered in his ear.

"Hm?"

"Will you go penguin sledding with me?"