My very first Avatar fic! Hope you enjoy! I don't own the characters!
Five years is a very long time to be away from someone you love. A very long time indeed. People are apt to change quite a bit in that amount of time, and not just mentally and emotionally, either. This thought has sent Katara into a panic. Aang isn't a prepubescent, skinny, doe-eyed little boy any more. When she greets him tomorrow morning after not having seen him for five years, he will be a man. And if what Suki says is true, a very attractive man.
She flops back onto her bed of pelts, groaning. How could she do this to herself? Why did she let him leave for so long? Yes, she knows that he had to travel the entire globe, spreading the good news that the Fire Lord had been defeated, blah, blah, blah. But that doesn't mean she couldn't have visited him if she had really put her mind to it! She could have borrowed a boat and met him at the Southern Air Temple or something!
She sighs. She knows she's being too hard on herself, and in reality, there's no way Aang could have left his duties just to see his girlfriend. He's the Avatar, for spirit's sake! But still, the fact that he's coming to visit the South Pole tomorrow scares her to death. What if he doesn't like her anymore? What if he's met someone better than her? She knows that there's bound to be someone better looking than her, and of course Aang has met this unknown floozy! He's met everyone in the world by now!
Katara covers her face with her hands. She has to stop thinking like this. Suki came back from her visit on Kyoshi Island last year with only good things to say about the last airbender; she had run into him on her way back. Apparently, all he could talk about was the fact that he only had six months left of his journey, and he could be back in Katara's arms. Suki didn't leave out a single detail of their encounter, and Katara was grateful. But that was six months ago. A lot can change.
The moonlight streams in through the small, window-like hole in her igloo. Only eight hours until morning. Eight hours until she greets the man that she loves. The man that she loves that she hasn't seen in five years. The man that she loves that she hasn't seen in five years, since he was just a boy. She groans again. Sleep will not be coming easily tonight.
88888888888888888888
Aang is freaking out. Plain and simple, this is probably the worst thing he has ever faced. Bigger than trying to escape Zuko all that time, bigger than facing the Fire Lord, and even bigger than finally showing Katara how he feels, which was probably the most scary of all. He's going to die before he ever reaches the South Pole, he just knows it. There's no way he can survive all of this worry.
He strokes Appa's fur absentmindedly. Only eight more hours of continuous flight, and he'll either be running into Katara's arms, or awkwardly saying something along the lines of "Hey. Haven't seen you in a while... How's life?" He thinks he'll die of mortification.
Sighing in frustration, he urges Appa to fly a little faster. The sooner they get there, the sooner he can get this stupid reunion over with. It's not like he's not excited to see her, or anything, though. She is his forever girl after all. He's just worried that maybe she doesn't know that. Maybe she's moved on. It has been five years; she'll be nineteen, and that's way past the typical age for marriage in the water tribe. He sighs again, and runs a hand through his dark hair. He had grown it out in a vain attempt to please Katara... she had said that she liked it at one point. As he urges Appa even faster, he hopes that this is still true.
