A/N: I have never done a songfic before, but this just had to be written. I ship Kataang to a point of it being sad, but I can't help it. I want what they have in a relationship. I have always been curious as to what goes on beyond the pages of The Legend of Korra in terms of this relationship and situation so I wrote this. I hope you enjoy it! Expect more Kataang soon! Oh, and some Kataang family moments as well! I kind of made myself sad with this one.
Disclaimer: I don't own "The Scientist" by Coldplay or "The Legend of Korra".
Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry.
The soft powder crunched beneath her boots as she made another step in the direction she had traveled thousands of times. Her cerulean eyes gazed wearily at the rolling, white landscape before her and she breathed a small sigh of discontentment that turned into smoke as it touched the frigid air.
She passed the cliff. The cliff that Korra had been talking about earlier as she excitedly retold the story of how she had regained her bending. The late afternoon sunset touched its peak as it turned the sparkling snow into gentle pinks and soft peaches that sparkled as every ray grazed it's surface.
She stood there for a moment, graying hair loops blowing gently in the wind. This wind though wasn't a comfort as much as it was a curse.
She couldn't feel him there, not in this moment.
"Where are you, Aang?"
Her voice was quiet, though the conviction within was strong. It was a question she had asked many a time over the past years. But in the past months, it had become a question that haunted her nightmares, her daydreams,
even her actions.
Aang had been here, but he wasn't anymore.
Katara needed to say something though.
"I want to apologize," Her voice cracked a bit here, her bleary eyes looking down at her tanned boots. The wrinkles on her face became more apparent as the breeze caressed her face again, but it wasn't a familiar breeze.
It was foreign.
"I couldn't do anything."
She had told herself differently for years upon years now, that if only she had tried one more technique, he may still be here with her. But that wasn't the case. Aang dying had been in the end inevitable He was meant to die when he did. It was his duty as the Avatar to allow the cycle to continue, and let it continue he had.
You don't know how lovely you are.
His smile she could remember vividly, it being the smile that he shared with their children. His eyes had always fixed on her with such great emotional compacity that would have her blushing from the tip of her head to the ends of her toes. The laugh lines that marred the skin around his eyes later in life, were the most beautiful scars she had ever seen and could hardly think of them as aging wrinkles. She remembered every line, even remembered how many there were.
His voice though, was escaping her.
It was so distinct, so Aang. Even as he aged, it still had that gentle yet authoritive tone it had when they first were fighting the war together. There was still that slight slur of his syllables as he teased her relentlessly, that never seemed to go away. For some reason, she could never conjure his voice in her mind.
It was too lovely, it was too special. It was too Aang.
I had to find you, tell you I need you.
"I'm very disappointed in you, Aang," There was slight teasing in the way she voiced the words, though her expression remained solemn, "I thought you would be the one coming after me. Whatever happened to Forever Girl? Of course you probably find it quite comical how I always grasp these loose ends trying to get myself closer to you."
It was true. Ever since his death all those years ago, Katara had found herself searching for something constantly. It wasn't clear at first why her heart rate would pick up randomly in the middle of the night, and her hand would reach out, grasping on to chilled sheets that instantly turned her blood cold.
She was looking for him, for Aang.
"I miss you," Her voice came forth through a croak, a tear sliding down her aged face and falling off the side of the cliff. A gloved hand reached up to wipe the moisture away from her cheek, but the wind blew gently at that moment,
drying it with a slight chill before she could even reach it.
Tell you I set you apart.
"Aang," Her voice was softer now, pleading with him though he wasn't there, "I'm sorry that I tried so hard to fill the void you left in my life. The night they found her, I picked up everything without a second thought and rushed to her every beck and call. I was highly disappointed when I met her, and I couldn't see a single trace of you within her."
The old waterbender released a long sigh at this, "I would curl up and cry sometimes after we would train. She was brash, undisciplined, rude, and selfish and I just kept grasping for you, Aang. But you weren't there."
Another deep breath followed this.
"But that's because you were different from her. You aren't her. You were Aang."
Through her still freely flowing tears, the woman was able to manage a small smile, "Once I stopped looking for you, I saw Korra. I saw a girl who hid her fear with compulsiveness, and fought in order to keep herself motivated. I saw someone I knew that you would be proud of."
Tell me your secrets and ask me your questions.
The elderly master continued to walk past the cliff, down an icy path she had taken many a time before. Her eyes gazed at the horizon, the sun dipping low as a few stars became evident.
"I still think about you all the time, and I still talk to you like you are here," Her voice was quiet, almost as if she was sharing some secret that she would never want anyone to know but the air that surrounded her, "It helps most of the time. But sometimes, it just makes things worse."
The only sound that reached her ears was that of her boots crunching in the snow, and despite the fact that she was alone, she felt comforted at this.
"When, Aang? When do I get to see you?"
Her question was asked lightly as she neared a familiar fork in the path, the night air swirling around her easily as she faced it head on and continued in the direction she meant to take.
"Was Aunt Wu correct in assuming I would be given until my fourth great grandchild?" Katara laughed softly at that, "I'm sure Sokka is slapping himself in the head at that."
Her features grew solemn once again, "I sometimes wonder if we are even going get to be together. Being the Avatar's wife sometimes comes with its downsides, doesn't it? But you wouldn't let that happen, right?"
Her footfalls halted as she took in a familiar sight.
In front of her stood the remnants of an iceberg that had with stood years and years of being slammed with the constant gust of snow flurries, yet it looked just as it had that first day she had seen it.
The day she had found him.
"Aang," She sighed, a tear sliding down her tanned cheek and running over the edges of her lips, "I just need to know you're here."
At that moment, the persistent breeze gave her a slight caress. This was familiar The cold chill that lay in the air was nostalgic from years in the South Pole, yet the pressure and the touch were familiar.
She had to smile at this.
"You were always one for dramatics," Through her tears, she laughed as the breeze continued to tickle her cheeks, "I love guilt tripping you, especially since now days, it seems like the only way to get you to pay attention to me! And don't make any excuses about helping Korra either because we both know that was a lost cause for awhile there!"
The air pushed the loops away from her face with gentle ease.
"Thank you for everything today, Aang. Even when death has conquered you, that doesn't stop you from being you. I told Korra how proud you must have been of her and she teared up and said that she could tell by the look in your eyes that you were. In that moment, I have never seen Korra look more like you than right then."
Her gaze rose, the darkening sky causing shadows to cast across the snow covered ground. She recalled a moment in time when she had performed the same action and had spotted a young child at the top of the formation, his limp form falling down right into her parka clad arms.
If only she had known.
But as the breeze dried the moisture on her cheeks and blew softly through her hair, she felt like she always had.
Oh, let's go back to the start.