Prompt: Hands

"Where Do I Put These"

Summery: Aang figured out how to use his hands expertly to control the four elements, but he never knew the effects of his hands had over the girl that he loved. Fluffy piece that reflects back around the time of TCoTL.

The monks always taught me that the hands are said to be the most intimate way that we interacted with the world. One always had to be conscious where your hands were when doing any activity. In bending, a flick of the wrist could change the direction of air currents, which meant the difference between winning and losing on the airball court. In meditation, I had to keep your hands still and comfortable, which proved to be really difficult at the time. When feeding flying bison the monks warned me to keep my hands away from their mouths, sure, the bison were careful, but small hands were hard to see in a mountain of hay. When investigating the wonders of nature, the monks reminded me to not squish even the tiniest spider-fly. I thought I knew everything there was to know about using my hands, where to put them and where not to put them. Only the spirits knew how wrong I was.

When I met Katara, let's just say my life flipped upside down in more ways than one. In addition to defeating the Fire Lord, mastering new styles of bending and flying across the world several times I had to figure out how to interact with a girl I really really liked, like more than normal. Katara seemed to have no difficulty putting her hands on me: caressing my face, holding my hand, and guiding me through waterbending by touch. Still, I was petrified that I would make a mistake, that I would do something wrong, which can so easily be done by placing one's hand in the wrong place.

One year ago I remember back to one particular conversation during the war while we were in the Earth Kingdom.

"Aang, you have to pay attention," Katara commanded crossly. I'd gone off to la la land in the middle of a waterbending practice.

"Oh sorry, I'll try to pay more attention" I stammered, blushing hard.

"Aang," Katara began with a sigh, "you've been distracted all day, what's up."

"It's, it's….." I started, a hot blush forming on my face, "I don't want to talk about it."

Katara's face softened, "Aang, you know you can talk to me."

My blush deepened. 'This is Katara, why am I getting so embarrassed?' I thought wildly about something, anything other than how I had been fantasizing about running my hands through her hair all day. "umm, well I have this h-hair question, I mean hand question, I mean, I mean waterbending question, about hands, and hair, I mean just hands." I stuttered.

Katara gave me a warm smile, "Aang slow down, what do you want to know about waterbending?"

I started sweating, 'How did I manage to get myself in this sticky situation, one that couldn't be able to explain away.' I quickly thought up an excuse, "umm, I mean can you show me again how you move your hands to grab onto objects…" That seemed believable enough, right, even though I had mastered that move days before.

"Oh Aang, I thought you already learned that," Katara replied with an affectionate smile, "here let me show you." Katara walked over to me, sidling up behind me, taking my hands in hers. Monkey feathers, her wet skin made me feel like my whole body was on fire when she touched me. I could feel her pressed up tight against my back, but even worse, her hands felt so soft as they grasped mine. I about lost my mind again. "Now Aang, you need turn turn your wrists like this, yeah that's it, then you close your hand, like… this."

My body felt like jelly, which was probably why when Katara closed her hands around mine, instead of cupping my hand, her fingers slid in in-between mine. We both just stood there for a while, staring at our interlocking hands for a while, both not sure what to do.

Katara reacted first, pulling her hand out of mine and stepping back, "I think you got the move now, pupil Aang," adding some sass. I looked behind me. Katara stood there with her hands on her hips, giving me a smirk like there was some inside joke I didn't get.

"uhh, sure, thanks Katara," I mumbled, trying to sound cheerful.

A couple of different emotions flashed across Katara's face as she looked back at me, now I was really confused, did she really notice the same thing I did, did she feel the same way I did when she held my hand in her's? It was like she didn't think anything out of the ordinary had happened.

"Well I think that is enough practice for today, Aang, let's go see if Sokka caught any fish." She gave me a reassuring smile as we both walked back to the camp.

Present day. (a few months ACS)

I'm holding Katara tight against me; it's the end of a long day and all I wanted to do was to relax and kiss my girlfriend, but Katara had different ideas. I was resting my hands on her hips as I attempted to gently kiss her, but her hands kept moving, kept moving up and down my back, up my sides and around my neck. What I thought was a sweet innocent kiss was turning into full on make out session.

When I thought it couldn't get any hotter, I felt my back slam into the wooden wall of his bedroom. I was trying to keep up with the kiss, but Katara seemed bound and determined to control it; he was sticking her tongue into my mouth and smashing her body into mine. When she finally broke for air I breathlessly asked, "why?"

"Because," Katara replied before, grabbing my hands and raising them above my head, "you're mine." Then she resumed kissing me. I was out of breath again when she finally had her fill of me, letting go of my hands and cupping my cheek and she put her forhead against mine.

"What was that for?" I asked, flabbergasted, not that I minded.

"I was just thinking back to, uh, during the war." Katara replied, nervously.

"What about it?" I was completely lost what on Earth could she be referring, to, maybe when I got struck by lightning, or when I kissed her on the submarine.

"I was…" Katara began, blushing, "no its stupid."

"No Katara," I said holding her hands in mine, "I want to know."

"Okay," she conceded, "I was remembering back to when we were waterbending,"

I smirked, "yeah, we did that a lot,"

"Aang!" Katara cried, "let me finish."

"Sorry, sweetie."

"As I was saying, It was before the cave of two lovers, we were practicing grabbing objects with water tendrils, it was the day you were so distracted, and I sort of directed your movement, and we held hands." Katara was blushing now, looking down.

"Oh, what about it?" I asked, not sure where this was going.

"Oh, I was just doing what I should have done day."

I laughed, "You really wanted to do that to me?"

"No, I mean yes, I mean not exactly that, but something like that, more than just ignoring it."

"Wow Katara, I didn't think you were such a naughty girl back then."

"Aang," she shouted, pushing me against the wall, "I, wasn't…. naughty"

"Sorry, sweetie, I had to," I replied holding back giggles

"No, that was mean, no more kisses for a week," she declared, turning around and crossing her arms.

"Oh, Kataarrrraaa, don't do that. I'm said I was sorry, I just wouldn't have thought you thought about me that way."

"Yeah," Katara replied softly, "I did." Turning around slowly.

I grabbed her hands that were crossed over her chest and held them gently. "Yeah, me too. I guess it just took time to realize what this meant." Gesturing at our hands by raising them in front of her face.

"Yeah," she replied. Closing the distance between us with a kiss.