A/n: Ok, so hello everyone! I'm writing a multi-chaptered story again! Yay! I'm really excited to get started on this one. I've had this idea floating around in my mind for quite some time now, but hadn't really had the time to sit down and write it all out. It was either that, or because I was purposely avoiding this chapter.
Anyway, just to clarify, this story will follow a missing plot from Book 3: Fire. Though this season was definitely my favorite, I could not help but feel there was a complete thought process that was being put on the back burner until the conclusion of the series.
Katara and Aang.
Though we do get some Kataang moments here and there, the relationship that had built over time was suddenly very void and different. Most of this I would contribute to what had happened at the end of Book 2, with Aang falling in front of Katara and quite literally dying. I imagine that would put a small rift in your relationship, but their story was very jumbled up in the last few episodes and I just really need to make it more clear for my understanding. So, I hope you will enjoy a bit of my insight as well.
As far as this chapter goes, I really would call it more of a prologue as it doesn't really have a basic scene in which I centralized. This chapter is mostly to get the reader caught up to what Katara is thinking and to the events that have recently take place. From here on out, there will be more dialogue and more scenes that relate back to certain episodes within Book 3.
Katara in this chapter gave me a bit of a hard time. I'm constantly at war with the two possibilities of her actions during the time Aang was unconscious. A part of me wants to believe she was broken and moody and untouchable during this time, but my logic wants to take a less tragic route. I wrote her more thoughtful here and more worried than broken. She does appear a bit lost, but she's pulling through that Aang will make it.
(Also the mood of this story and the title is directly from "Distance" by Christina Perri. Give it a listen.)
With all of this said, I will let you read on.
Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender."
No one ever said that love was painful. But from Katara's knowledge, that's all it really was.
For as long as the young waterbender could remember, bad things had always happened to the things she loved. It was like when her rag doll was accidently thrown into the fire by a vengeful Sokka all those years ago. Her tiny heart had loved that doll more than anything. Her world had stopped when she witnessed the cloth being burned within the warmth of the fireplace.
But Aang was not a doll. He was a living, breathing human being. He was the Avatar. He was the embodiment of hope.
Yet, here he lay before her, the smell of charred human flesh still burned within the confines of her nose despite the time that had passed since Ba Sing Se. Since he had been struck by lightning. Since he had opened his eyes.
His pale back was smooth all for that one scar that lay on top of his beloved blue arrow that reached up his back and over his head. The skin there was agitated and pulled back, Katara wasn't certain the scar would ever truly go away. Aang was marked forever. Marked by her mistake.
Whatever happened to her duty to protect the Avatar with all her life? What happened to having Aang's back even when she didn't necessarily know what to do? What had happened to all those empty promises she had made herself?
She had been there. She had seen Azula shoot Aang clean through with her cold electricity. She was sure that Aang's heart hadn't been the only one to stop during that time though, because as she watched him arch his back in pure agony and defeat, she was sure she had died too.
Katara could have done something, but she had been too distracted by the fact he had control of the Avatar State. It was all her fault.
Heaving a heavy sigh, the waterbender drew water from the basin beside the bed in which the boy lay. The familiar warmth that spread through her hands as they began to glow couldn't even make her feel warm. Since Aang had gone cold, so had she.
The only time her fire had returned was when they had overtaken the Fire Navy ship in the Bay. At first, she hadn't wanted to leave Aang's side and was leaving the fighting up to her father and the Water Tribe soldiers. But something Sokka had said changed her mind.
"They have supplies, they have clean bandages, and advanced medicine."
That had done it.
Katara was sure her father and his men were shocked at the sheer talent she showed that day. She had gone from a hesitant, unexperienced bender, to a full on master. She fought for Aang though, not to flaunt whatever ability she may now have. It was all for him.
When they had taken control of the ship, the men had helped her bring Aang on. They found cabinets upon cabinets with medicines stacked on top of each other. She had what she needed. The water in the beginning had only done so much.
"Katara."
The young girl's brows rose in shock before she directed her gaze away from her hands to where the young airbender's lips moved lazily. He was whispering something. His eyes weren't open, so she assumed he had yet to wake. He was dreaming.
"Yes, Aang?" She whispered back to him, the water quickly being placed back into the basin, tanned hands reaching greedily to caress his pale, limp one.
Her face continued to fall as his expression didn't change and his incoherent mumbling continued. He needed to wake up. She needed him to wake up.
This continued on for a few moments, Katara watching his face closely as she waited for something to change. It was as if with the Avatar's fall, time had ceased to exist. The only proof any time had passed at all was the short stubble that lay on Aang's head, covering the line of his tattoo.
Hours could have passed, but the waterbender didn't care. All she wanted was for him to wake up and give her that goofy smile again. It had been so long since they had talked, since she had heard that soft tone he used.
His brows puckered, and he gave a quiet groan of discomfort. Katara's heart contracted as she just squeezed his hand tighter. She had done everything she could, yet she still couldn't diminish his pain.
"Aang, I'm so sorry."
Her voice was quiet, leveled to where it didn't use too much of her energy. She hadn't been sleeping as of late, and she hadn't eaten much either. She spent all of her time at his side yet she still couldn't help him more than she already had.
"I was meant to protect you, and I didn't. I always knew there was a reason that I had found you in that iceberg, and in the beginning I couldn't really see what it was. Gran Gran told me that my destiny was intertwined with your's, but I thought she meant because of our waterbending," Katara's eyes began to fill with tears as she remembered how exhilarating it felt being new friends with Aang. He was like a breath of fresh air. A green leaf in the turbulent winds of the South Pole. He was special.
"But Aang," The tears remained within her eyes as she began to address herself more than the injured boy in front of her, "I don't think that's what she meant at all."
Something had been bugging Katara for months now, constantly tugging at the edges of her heart and causing the blood to rise to her cheeks. She had always brushed it aside, telling herself she would cross that bridge when she needed to. But was that bridge standing right in front of her, directing her down the path she needed to go? Why was that bridge such a scary thing?
Why was love such a scary thing?
"I've seen it, Aang," She spoke softly as she lifted her fingers to play with the dark strands that lay on his forehead, a noticeable relief washing over his face as she gently grazed the skin there with the pad of her thumb, "I've seen you and I, together."
For quite awhile, her dreams had been plagued with abstract colors and meadows and valleys that she had never seen before. These dreams were strikingly different from the cold, snowy ones she had had when she lived in the South Pole. These dreams were plagued by faceless people running together through the tall grass, arms reaching and laughs rising. There were children sometimes running along side the figures, trying their best to keep pace with the taller ones.
After momentous events, those dreams would become a bit clearer. She would see a feature more clearly every time something important happened within their adventures. But it wasn't the fighting and the battles that brought these images forth.
It was Aang.
Little by little after he had kissed her in the cave of two lovers, and had been thrown in to the Avatar State in order to assure her safety, the pieces had begun to come together.
It was her and Aang.
She was running beside him, the young boy clearly taller than her as they pushed passed the blades of green. She would have a smile on her face that caused her heart to warm, but Aang's was far more radiant than her's,
his stormy eyes never leaving her face. Around their feet, the children would run with their little legs tripping over the other as they giggled animatedly. There was one girl and two boys. She could tell they were their's.
The dreams had become so vivid that she often awoke to tears trailing down her cheeks. She hadn't wanted the scene to end.
"It's wonderful, Aang," She smiled softly, the sparkle in her eyes still had not returned, "There's no more war. We're happy. You're safe. You'd love it."
Katara hated to admit that she enjoyed it a little more than she should.
Things had been growing complicated between them. It wasn't directly happening, but she could tell that Aang was feeling it as well. Ever since her eyes had been opened by that ridiculous fortune, that didn't seem so ridiculous anymore,
she could feel a pull within their relationship.
There was more there.
Katara had always known she had a bond with Aang, his injury only making it more evident as the time went on. The Avatar had also proven to have quite an attachment to her, sensing she was in trouble from continents away.
She had been meant to find him, not because he was something that she needed to protect, but because they were meant for each other.
This terrified her even more. Protecting him she could do, but being meant for him, being what he supposedly needed, that was a lot for a young girl.
She had long been done trying to hide her feelings from herself. That had left along with the light in his eyes that night while they flew over the Earth Kingdom. It was certain that she loved him, but it just couldn't be that simple.
Along with the war she was facing within herself, there was a war raging on in the world as well. A war that was destined to be stopped by the young boy in front of her. The young boy that had found his way into her heart with ease.
She couldn't expect him to return her feelings and affections while he was trying to prepare for the showdown of a lifetime. That was asking too much of him. That was stretching someone far more than a person should be stretched. The world needed to come before her.
Than there were the scenarios.
What if Aang was defeated by the Fire Lord? What if he died? What if he never returned to her? What if the dream she had been having, didn't come true?
There was an endless list of possibilities.
The more she thought about the current state of her feelings, the more she realized she needed to keep them at bay. Emotions were merely a distraction. As much as she loved optimism, she couldn't help but look towards the future as a cynic with the Avatar out cold beside her. As much as she wanted to hope, Aang had been right.
It was just a distraction.
Katara hadn't realized it, but that night she made a vow to cover up half of who she was. She made sure to bury her feelings down deep as she continued to lovingly caress the Avatar's face, imagining what it would feel like when he opened his eyes again.
If he ever opened them.
Love could be hidden, it could be veiled and it could be avoided, but love could not be diminished. Katara could not remove the feelings she already felt for him. But she could hide them.
She just needed to skirt the bridge until the war was over. Than everything would be fine. With Aang's future set in stone, she would then be able to make her future a reality as well.
But nothing is ever that easy.