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They were helping Iroh to clean the tea shop when it happened. She'd been sitting, hand mindlessly trailing over a bowl of water, and he'd been walking around the shop, collecting discarded cups and empty tea pots. He'd glanced at her, and asked, "Are you okay, sweetie?"
It happened suddenly.
It happened without a hint of warning.
It rolled through the air and hit her with a force worth a few hundred Appas.
She stared at him, unmoving and only blinking when her eyes absolutely burned. Her hands shook over the bowl of water. He gave her a quizzical look, tinged with worry. "Katara?" he asked.
She blinked once, sucked in a shaky breath, and responded to him in a soft voice, "What did you call me?" A grin broke across his features, and he placed the tea tray down on one of the clear tables. He practically bounded towards her then, and when he did reach her, he bent down to place a chaste kiss on her lips. Her eyelids fluttered, but the shock the warmth that thundered throughout her body was hardly affected.
"Sweetie. I called you sweetie," he answered. Slowly the happy smile on his face faded into a mask of childish fear – a fear she knew he had of doing something wrong with her. It was a worry that he'd crossed some unspoken line, a line he should have recognized but couldn't possibly have. And sure enough, with his worry came an apology:
"I shouldn't have called you that, I'm sorry. I mean, it just seemed fitting, but –"
"Aang," she interrupted. She stood when he froze in his bumbling, and he gave a sheepish smile, eyebrows raised in a way that still conveyed him being sorry. She kissed him softly, and they stayed that way, savoring the closeness, until finally she separated from him.
"It just caught me by surprise, is all. You have nothing to be sorry for." She grinned, a devious look she he'd remember to be a sign of incoming mischief. He became stiff, apprehensive, possibly waiting for the bowl of water that rested beside her to drench him. Instead she formed the word within her mind, prepared herself to say it, and added to her previous statement, "Sweetie."
He kissed her again, a quick peck on the lips, and returned to collecting the tea cups and few tea pots. He shot her a smile, which she returned happily. She picked up the bowl as he asked her, "So you are okay then, sweetie?"
She couldn't help the chuckle the bubbled up inside her, and answered, "I'm great, sweetie."
The day continued as normal, except for the occasional complaint from Sokka about the "oogies."
AN: Here, have Kataang drabble.
EVERYTHING IS SWEETIE AND NOTHING HURTS.
Okay, if you don't know about the leaked "The Promise" pages, and you're a Kataanger, here's what you need to know:
Aang and Katara call each other sweetie. It's official. "The Promise" is an official comic that follows the Gaang after the end. And Aang and Katara call each other sweetie.
Sweetie. SWEETIE.
So I say again:
EVERYTHING IS SWEETIE AND NOTHING HURTS.
I don't flame your ship, you don't flame mine.
Enjoy~