An: Hello! Well, here is my short, sweet, yet sad one shot! I thought of randomly one day. It takes place after the Boiling Rock episodes, so there are a few spoilers from the Western Air temple, and Boiling Rock episodes, mostly dealing with people that were met. Be forewarned. Hope you enjoy Staying Strong!
Oh yeah- I'm making this where Aang and Katara are already a couple. It's not a big detail, but it might help clear up a couple of lines.
Disclaimer: nasecoeur checking her pockets nope, I don't own Avatar, or anything else in this story that seems to be copyrighted.
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Katara sighed and flicked her wrist, moving the water near her chest back and forth in small ripples. It had been a week. One week since her life had changed forever. One week since the line between life and death was blurred even more than she ever thought possible.
'Come on girl, get a grip' She thought to herself as she held back her tears. She hadn't cried since that fateful day, and she promised herself that she never would again, in fear that if she did, she would never stop.
She sighed once again and closed her eyes, hoping that the movement of the lake and the light from the moon would calm her tormented heart.
It was a surprise attack. No one, not even Toph felt the troops surround the camp until it was too late. Aang, Katara, Zuko and Toph all took their appropriate fighting stances, ready for a hard battle. Sokka and Suki tried to find higher ground for a surprise attack.
"We see you over there, don't think that you could sneak up on us as easily as we did on you", Azula smirked as she and a small portion of the Fire Nation soldiers she brought with her focused their attention on Sokka and Suki, who were half way up a tree.
"Please, you really think that we would have let you sneak up on us that easily?" Toph was hoping that Aang thought of something to do before Azula could hear the surprise in her voice. She could tell they were surrounded, but…something was odd about the vibrations that the soldiers were putting off.
"Oh, really? How's this for more of a challenge?" Aula shot a lightning bolt directly at Toph. Zuko was able to push her out of harm's way and direct the bolt into the side of a cliff.
Toph was standing perfectly still. 'Why can I not sense them?' Azula must have seen the look on her face, and she smirked and let out one short, cruel chuckle.
"What's the matter? Having trouble seeing me?" Azula pointed to her shoe. "New invention of the fire nation. Using water and air, in our shoes, we are putting less pressure on the ground. If you can't tell where we are…you won't be able to fight"
"Toph's facial expressions went from confused, to shocked to terrified, before she wiped all emotion from her face.
"Toph, you really might want to go somewhere else right now…" Aang glanced back at his friend just quick enough to see her smirk and then disappear underground.
" Well, what do we do now?" Katara whispered to Aang, they were severely outnumbered, even with Toph. But, without the earthbender being able to fight at her fullest, the group had little chance of survival.
'Wonder what happened to the rest of the group' Aang quickly pondered. Earlier that day, Hakoda took Haru, Teo and The Duke out to show them some changes that he had been making to a captured Fire Nation Ship. They still hadn't returned.
Aang whispered back, "We wait, don't make the first move and let them strike first." Even though she was somewhere underground, Aang knew this is what Toph would have done if she was right there with them.
Unfortunately, Sokka didn't hear him.
"Well, this is fun and all, but, I'm tired of looking at your ugly faces." With that, he jumped out of the tree and he and Suki were hiding in and ran straight for Azula.
"Sokka, STOP!!" Aang yelled as Sokka charged for the princess. Aang ran as fast as he could, trying to get to Azula before Sokka, but he was stopped by a lucky swing from a Soldier's fire whip.
"Aang! Sokka!" This was Katara, she went for her bending water to try and pull Sokka out of harm's way. She saw a smirk on Azula's face and a flash of blue light.
Katara's eyes flashed open and she ducked her head under the water. 'Stop thinking about it. It only makes it harder to try and forget.' She rose back up out of the water, her eyes were red, but she convinced herself that is was just water running down her face.
"I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna cry." She was sure that she was saying this to convince herself. She knew that she had to keep up a strong appearance, not only for Aang, or the rest of the group, but for herself.
She was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't hear the footsteps behind her, or feel the water move as Aang sat down beside her.
"Katara? How are you doing?" Katara glanced over at Aang and saw the hurt and worry that outshone the youth in his gray eyes. She felt a tug on her heart strings. Though everyone had tried to convince him otherwise, Aang blamed Sokka's death on himself. He was angry that he couldn't get there in time, and that someone else had lost their life because he failed to do his job.
"Katara? Hello?" Katara shook her head clear and managed a feeble smile for Aang. "I'm doing ok. I just wish my mind would stop thinking about his-" She faltered. "About it." It seemed like an unspoken rule in and around the camp that no one ever said the word 'death'. Now, Katara was thankful for it.
"I understand how you feel. But…"Aang sighed and took a deep breath, "But, we- I'm worried about you Katara. You really haven't shown much of anything since that day. No smile and no tears. I'm afraid that something inside of you broke."
Katara felt pressure on her hand and looked down to see that it was being held by another that was decorated with a blue arrow. She looked up at him, and Aang could see the tears swelling up in her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry. I know that this has been really hard on you to, but I thought that pretending like it didn't happen would somehow make everything go away." She looked down at the water as she said this and using her other hand, she mindlessly moved the water back and forth in a soothing motion.
"You don't have to keep everything to yourself Katara. Sometimes, it is better to let other people in."
Katara sighed again and closed her eyes, glad that Aang was sitting next to her. She was suddenly thrown back into her flashback
"NOOOO!!" Katara screamed and cried as she ran to the body of her brother. She quickly took out her water to try and heal his burnt body, but it was already too late. The light that normally shone through his blue eyes was gone, replaced with a look of shock. Katara let her water fall to her side as she put her head down and sobbed.
Aang had finally made it to Azula and Zuko and Suki were close behind, they all aimed their attacks at her and were about to fire, when she was thrown into the air and landed unceremoniously in a pile fifteen feet away. Everyone put their hands down to see Toph rise up from under the ground. There were tears in her sightless eyes as she glanced over at Sokka's lifeless body. She could feel the vibrations he put out, but his heartbeat was missing. If she hadn't known what had happened, she could have mistaken him for a rock.
The Soldiers retreated back to Azula. One of them felt for a pulse, gave a sigh of relief, and picked her up and started running back the way they came. With the threat gone, everyone focused their attention on Sokka, and Katara, who was crying so hard that Aang thought she was going to pass out.
Suki made it over to Katara first and hugged the younger girl, with tears silently falling down her own face as well. Everyone stood in mourning for a few minutes until the others were heard coming back from the cliff, and Aang pulled Katara away to go meet Hakoda.
Katara opened her eyes again as the flashback faded away. She could feel the tears streaming down her face and she went to brush them away, but Aang beat her to it.
"I hate to see you so upset." His voice cracked with emotion as he spoke, "But, you need to cry. You need to feel this so it gets better. It will over time."
"How would you know?" Katara didn't mean to say this out loud, and Aang could tell by the way it was said, but he looked at her and tearfully smiled at the memory of Monk Gyatso and the other Airbenders as Katara gasped.
"I'm sorry Aang, I didn't mean that." She pulled her hand out of his grasp and used it to cover her face.
"I know. I know you didn't. It's hard losing someone close to you, and for a while it only gets harder. Then one day, it will just be a little easier. The pain will never go away, but those people we care about, the ones we love, they aren't truly gone." Aang turned his body so he was facing her. He took both of her hands and looked deep into her eyes. "I know that Sokka is still watching us. I bet you that he's somewhere in the spirit world complaining about how hungry he is and moping cause he misses his boomerang. Then, he'll look down to earth to check on us and see us here, and get really angry at me."
Katara hiccupped as she cried and chuckled at this mental picture. She knew how badly Aang was hurting, but he was still trying to ease her pain. "Yeah. Then he'll storm away for a second, and then turn around again to watch, because he would want something to tease me about when I…when I see him again."
Aang smiled a little wider, knowing that he helped her feel a little better. He let go of Katara's hands and pulled her by the waist into a hug. She hugged back and they just stood like that, hugging in the moonlight, leaning on the comfort of each other till Aang broke away.
He looked into Katara's eyes again and leaned forward and placed a gentle, innocent kiss on her lips. Katara kissed back, and they both sat back down in the water, holding hands and looking at the moon.
"You feel a little better?" Aang asked after a few minutes of sitting in a comfortable silence.
"Yeah, I do. I'm really lucky to have you around." Katara answered as she placed another, more forceful kiss on his lips.
Aang smiled and kissed her again. "That's my job. Aang: the Avatar, best friend, and boyfriend, Always here to help." Katara looked at him once more before resting her head on his shoulders and closing her eyes. This time, no ghosts of the past plagued her thoughts.
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AN: Sorry if any of the characters were Ooc, I tried to stick to the real stiry as best as I could.
Well, I hope everyone liked this! This was my first Avatar: TLA fanfic, and my first fanfic that I have written in over five years. Constructive criticism is welcome, requested even, but flamers are not.
Nasecoeur42