Kisses aren't Promises
Chapter 1: Priorities Change
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters (design and personality) recognizable from "Avatar the Last Airbender" series. I don't own the plot of "Avatar the Last Airbender" series, which I'm using as a base for this fanfiction. However, I feel that it is within my rights to claim ownership over this fanfiction's plot & original characters that may appear along the way, all of which are only for recreational proposes only - NOT FOR MY PERSONAL PROFIT, and thus, so I do.
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Katara sat beside her grandmother, helping clean the fish for dinner. Her movements were repetitive and well rehearsed. She seemed calm, comforted by the mundane task, but the storm brewing inside her mind was just too strong, even for the hypnotic glint of the knife...
I never thought this through, not really, which just goes to show how much of a kid I still am. How naïve I still am... And it's a relief, but a pain at the same time.
It's a relief that I still posses a little bit of naiveté, even after the incident with Hama.
It's a pain though, having to look at your past actions and acknowledge each and every bit of the egoistical, self-serving motivations behind them.
The day I left the South Pole, the plan was simple: help the Avatar master the elements, win against the Fire Nation, and come back home to marry, have children, and get old, all without having to worry about Fire Nation raids. I wasn't really concerned about world peace. I just wanted my own personal peace and happiness.
When Aunt Wu said I'd marry a powerful Bender and die old, surrounded by my grandchildren, I was reassured that such was my destiny. Then Sokka said the obvious - "Aang is a powerful Bender," and so the plan was modified to, marry Aang, have children, and so on..
Now...
War over for two months: check.
Being back at home for a month: check.
And still, I'm not happy yet, and I don't know why!
People here treat me like an adult when they want me to do some chore for them. Then they treat me like a child when I disagree with how they are handling things. "Being the Avatar's girlfriend doesn't mean you can talk to your elders like that!"
Eating only fish, seal jerky and sea prunes for the first three days was great. Two weeks of only fish, seal jerky and sea prunes isn't so great; I miss the nuts and fruits. Gutting tiger seals and fish isn't great. Having fish scales on you hair isn't either; when you think you got the last one out, you find two others. I don't really mind the gutting and cooking, but smelling like fish and seal blubber is horrible, though thanks to the cold, the smell only spreads when you are near a lit fire pit. Taking care of the kids is a nightmare. I fought enough with Toph to know I really don't like it; that is the one thing I never missed about being here.
And I feel I should be happy that I'm back home and things are turning out just like I always thought they would, but instead I'm cold, stinky and cranky. I'm whining and I feel guilty for whining like a spoiled brat... After all... This is what I wanted all along... right?
And... In a month, I'll be fifteen.
Father wants a great party. He likes things like that. But I don't feel like having a big party.
Master Pakku wants to invite important people from each and every nook and cranny of the world. I'd rather it was just family and close friends.
Sokka wants it to be a surprise party... Dear Sokka, actually, I would love to have a surprise party.
And Aang wants to ask me to marry him during the party. Obviously not much of a surprise there...
Someone came up with the notion that this marriage will happen on my sixteenth birthday and this is where things got complicated. Father, Master Pakku and the rest of the Tribe are delighted by the idea but I'm not so keen on it...
I have to remember to give Zuko something really nice for his birthday. After all, if it wasn't for the sneaking and infiltration tactics he taught me while we chased after mom's killer, I would never have found out about any of those plans.
Well, I would have...while in the middle of the first multi-national, after-war, but not-the-end-of-the-war celebratory party, surrounded by important strangers from all over the world and in front of my expectant family and an even more expectant Aang. Where I would be forced to say "yes" whether I meant it or not, because "no" just wouldn't be an acceptable answer. How can I say yes if I'm not sure I really mean yes? It wouldn't be fair to Aang. It wouldn't be fair to me.
What a wake up call.
After that, I realized that I don't know if I like the poles; I know for sure that I like the people who live there, but it was nice to be around trees and grass. I really liked it.
I don't like the cold.
I like fruits and gastronomic variety. There are so many delicious things in the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation!
I like the light weight of Fire Nation clothing. It's easier to move and bend with them. The parkas slow me down a lot and it's difficult to bend my arms in it.
I like daily baths and swimming around. It makes me feel even more connected with the water. It's impossible to do that here, though.
I want to learn more about healing... I could prevent people from getting big scars like Zuko's and Bato's. I wonder how Zuko got his scar... It's too focused to be like how Bato got his.
I want to learn more about herbs, pastes and unguents. There has to be a better way to cure colds, something that doesn't include a frozen frog...
I want to learn acupressure and acupuncture. Ty Lee isn't my enemy anymore but you never know what might happen and Aang said the Avatar State came back after he hit his back pretty hard exactly where Azula nailed him. If I had known about this, I could have healed him before he had to face Ozai.
And I want to work as a healer using all this knowledge. We would have twice as many people here than we do if we had a competent healer. Maybe even Mother could have been saved.
I want to make a name for myself. I don't want to be just "the Avatar's sifu," "the Avatar's girlfriend," "the Avatar's wife." I'm proud of my hard work and I want to be acknowledged for it, not for who I'm with.
Earning some coin with my own hard work would also be very nice. During our traveling, people gave us money because we were with the Avatar. Money is not a commodity, even less so in the middle of a war. We needed that money so we accepted it, but I would have felt better if we had done some work to earn it... I want to earn enough to live on comfortably and leave something nice for my children.
I want to learn a non-Bending fighting style, just for fun. Something a little more dynamic than Waterbending to keep me fit ten years from now.
I want to travel some more, as a tourist this time, to go sight seeing and learn the amusing tiny bits of history of the place I'm visiting so I'll have something to talk about, to tell to my grandchildren. But I also want to settle down eventually, to have a place with my things, my own place.
I do want to marry... After I'm done with the learning, working and traveling.
I do want children, after I'm done with the coin-earning.
The worst part is that sometimes I feel the only thing Aang and I really had in common was being part of the war.
He wants a lot of children; he says it all the time while he is playing with the children here. He has no idea how hard it is to raise just one child, how hard it is to raise your child, and he still is a child himself.
I want one child at least, two at most. I want them to be separated by more than two years, so they'll have different needs and will be less likely to compete with each other. And I don't want to mother my own husband; that would just feel wrong.
He wants to teach Airbending to his children, and he will! Any and all of his children will be Airbenders, no matter who the mother is! I mean, everybody knows there were no non-benders among the Air Nomads. I've always dreamed of teaching Waterbending to my children but if I marry him, I don't think it will even be a possibility.
Being the Avatar is a 24/7 job and he resents it... I think he feels like he has to please everybody all the time just because he is the Avatar...
Being a healer is a 24/7 job and I relish in it. It's the kind of hard, messy work that is really rewarding. I know that sometimes, people will die, but I've seen people die while I could do nothing but watch. At least now I can try to give people a fighting chance.
Aang loves his pets. I don't really mind Momo and Appa—they are great company and really loyal—but I refuse to clean bison dung for the rest of my lifespan.
He hates my favorite food, though to his credit, he has tried really hard to learn to like it. I don't even know what is his favorite food is; must be something only the Air Nomads knew how to cook. He always changes topics when I ask so it must bring forward some memories he doesn't know how to deal with... I know I could help him, but one can't really pressure Aang.
I would have never thought up this list if things had been left as they were and I really think shouldn't be whining about it; any other girl in my place would be delighted.
Ah, talking about pressuring Aang, whenever he is about to be forced to do something he doesn't want to do, he runs away and leaves everyone else behind to struggle and figure things out for him. Running away is not the answer.
I try to do my best no matter what but his running away has always left me disappointed, even when I knew he would come back. Sometimes I wished I could have just run away too. What makes him so special that he can do that without a second thought? Doesn't he ever stop and think about the feelings of the people he left behind?
I wonder how he would feel if I ran away on him...
Ran away...
Maybe... this time... running away is the answer! Gran-Gran did it, and it worked out great for her! Besides, it would teach them all a lesson—you don't just go around talking marriage and planning a marriage without the bride's knowledge.
That's it! I'll shamelessly run away.
Now, where should I go? And how? I don't want them to find me too soon and I don't want them to take long enough to resent me either. I just want to make a point.
Wait! I know! It's just... perfect!
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Special thanks: To flyawayohglory and Lyndotia, who beta-ed this chapter.
Author Note: Mike and Bryan officially announced that each nation has a different bender birth-ratio and that the Airbender birth-ratio was 100%; in other words, all children born from Airbenders are benders. As Mike and Bryan failed to present the whole math, I decided that when faced with the issue of mixed-nation parents, the bigger bender ratio wins out. If you don't like it or don't agree with it, you are welcome to write your own fanfiction about it.
Note to Kataangers, Zutarians, Maikos and all other shippers willing to read through this: Yes, the title of this fanfiction is a slight provocation. Those of you who are actually old enough to be here, in the M section, without breaking your country's laws, probably know that. Between summer-loves and prom-sweethearts, it takes a while until we find someone we want to spend the rest of our lives with and even then, sadly, divorce has become very frequent.
Forget about shipping wars. Most of Avatar's cast is still very young; they have much to stumble through before they are mature and humble enough to think twice. During the course of this fanfic, I'll do my best to mature them up a bit more before I start pairing them off and I would really, really like it if other people chose to use this concept, not only in their fanfictions (whatever paring they feature), but in their personal lives.
My chosen main paring is Zuko X Katara (whatever my reasons are, there is no place for them here in this note), but there are some surprises along the way. Whatever flag you hail, you are welcome to read and review, as long as you do it reflecting the age you must have to be reading things in the M section.