A short Kataang fanfic with both Aang and Katara's point of view in it. It takes place in between 312: The Western Air Temple and 313: The Firebending Masters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. I do own some cookies though. But those are reserved for the reviewers!

[Katara's POV

"What? We don't have any food anymore?" Sokka exclaimed

"Why the big fuzz? We'll just go on an trip to find some food on the grounds above this tempel" I said.

"Well, what are we waiting for then?" A new look appeared on the face of my brother. It reminded me of a predator lurking it's prey.

"Hold on, party people. I'm not going anywhere. My feet still hurt to much. You go without me." Toph said. This was very understandable, as Zuko only burned her feet the day before yesterday.

"You're not coming either, Zuko. Teo, Toph, Haru and the Duke, I trust that you make sure he doens't sneak away." I needed to be sure Zuko wouldn't get out of the Western Air Tempel. The less chance he recieved to turn his back on us again, the safer it is for the lot of us.

"Come on, as if I would try to sneak away. Can't you trust me?" The Firenation prince questioned out loud.

"No, I can't" I replied in a very sincere way and on top of it I gave him a cold stare. I'm never going to let him forget what he has done to us.

"And why are we still standing here? Let's go!" Sokka said. He snatched his backpack and raced for the higher grounds.

"Hey, can't you even wait up for Aang and I? Come on Aang. We have to leave now if we want to catch up with him."

We made for the higher grounds and caught up with Sokka halfway there. His enthusiasm for food had been conquered by the many stairs on the way out. Once out on the field again, Sokka suggested that he would try to hunt himself some meat and that Aang and I could find some berries or edible plants. Without even giving us a chance to reply, he left with an even bigger grin on his face.

I considered myself to be quite experienced in the field of food gathering, after all, I had always been the one to take care of the food all this time.

"There, those roots are edible, Aang." I called Aang over and started to pull out some of them, but was very surprised to feel my hands hurting soon after I touched one of them. "Aah!" I exclaimed.

"What, what happened?" Aang said worriedly "Oh, I see. You thought those were Turnips, didn't you?"

"Yes. Why do they sting like that?" I gasped and looked at my both hands. They started to become red.

"It's because they're not Turnips. Those are Monkshood. They only grow around the Western Air Tempel and nowhere else. That's why they called them Monkshood." Aang explained. "Let me have a look at those." he said, taking my hands into his.

The sensation of his hands touching mine was pleasant, but my palms still hurt. "How do you know that? I always thought you weren't that fond of food gathering." I asked.

"I'm not", he smirked, "but when I spent a year at this temple, the monks thought me about the plants and animals around the temple, according to the costums. You see, they use it to teach young monks about the balance in nature. This plant is a very good example of that, the antidote for the acid on the outer shell of the root is to be found within the root itself, because it has to protect itself from it, too." He opened my water flask and used a small amount of water to make an incision in the root. A liquid came free, which he bended onto my hands. They instantly felt better.

"Thanks" I said, impressed with his knowledge about the plants. "You know, I keep forgetting you have been here before. The temple must have been so pretty back then."

"Yes.. It was" He said sadly.

Stupid, I'm stupid! Why did I have to remind him of the airbenders? "I'm so sorry, Aang".

"No, it's okay. It's just that... The place is so different and just like with the other airtemples, the people seem to have forgotten about the monks that used to live in there. I do not want them to be forgotten, but there is nothing I can do. It's even harder to face the fact that everyone had accepted that all airbenders were gone."

I pulled him in for a hug. He had gone through so much and it can take a lot of time before some things in our mind can be put at rest. Sometimes, it even takes forever, she thought of Zuko. "The Firenation has done some very awful things, but don't forget, we're going to stop this war and then we will get the chance to restore balance and repopulate the Air Nomads" I blushed at my last sentence. It hadn't come out very well and the thought of me and Aang repopulating the Air Nomads was very awkward. "I mean, you will get the chance to repopulate the Air Nomads" I quickly corrected myself, silently thanking the fact that Aang's face was next to mine, not in front of it, so he could not see my blush.

After Aang had processed the awkward thought of him and Katara "repopulating", he was smiled. "You're right, Katara. We're going to fix this. We're going to bring back balance in the world and ... I'll repopulate the Air Nomads" he said, somewhat teasingly stressing the ' I '. He continued enjoying hugging Katara. It was to nice to break it up, so he didn't. Closing his eyes, he rested the side of his head against hers. "Thanks, Katara".

"You're welcome" I whispered, enjoying the hug too. Though, to avoid an awkward moment, I broke it off and tried to chance the subject. "So, this Monkshood, is it edible?"

"Yes, that is, if you remove the stingy outside. It even was a local specialty in the temple. I know the recipe, all we need is water and another herb that can be found around here too." He answered.

After we had gathered enough of the Monkshood, we searched for the herb. Through all the things that had happened at the Day Of Black Sun, I had forgotten how much I liked spending time with Aang. We didn't do things like this nearly enough in my opinion. In fact, we hadn't been this close since his departure from the submarine just before the invasion.. I felt my cheeks going red at the thought. That moment had confused me. Well, not the moment itself, but Aang's behavior afterwards. He acted as if it had never happened. I silently made myself promise that I would ask him about it.

[AANG'S POV

We talked about some random things. I wanted to make this moment take as long as I could. Therefor I didn't say anything the previous two times when I spotted the herb we were looking for. But it had been quite some time, so I informed of the herb laying only a few yards in front of us. "There, that should be enough", I said while putting it in her basket. We returned to the entrance to the tunnel, waiting for Sokka to join us. "He must be finished by now, I'm sure he'll be here soon." Katara seemed to be thinking about something serious. "What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"Aang.." She said "I want to ask you something, do you mind?"

"Not at all, why would I?" I replied, slightly worried.

"You know, right before the invasion, on that submarine..." Katara started looking at the ground. I could see her blush though. I blushed too. It must have confused her a bit. I decided to jump in and took her hands in mine.

"I know what you mean." I interrupted. I started blushing too, to my despise "Before the invasion I was... different." I explained. "All the things that happened on that day kind of had an impact on me. Suddenly, everything had changed and I had to direct my thoughts to the new challenges..." Now I had started looking down. I wasn't proud of the way that I had treated Katara after I had kissed her, but still I was telling the truth. With the failing of the invasion and Zuko joining the group, everything suddenly became more complicated. "But I want you to know that I'm still the same. I still feel the same way." And with that, I squeezed her hands lightly.

Katara seemed relieved, as far as I could tell from the corner of my eye. I still wasn't facing her. "I'm glad to hear that, Aang." She squeezed back.

At that moment Sokka arrived. Katara and I quickly pulled our hands back and tried to look casually. There really wasn't any need for it though, Sokka seemed to only have eyes for the two bodies he held in his hands. "Hmmmm, dinner" He began to drool. "I can already smell them being roasted" his drooling continued, seemingly multiplied. "Let's get them cookin'! Race you guys down!" And just as simple as that he started running down the stairs that led to the temple.

"I guess we should head back" I said.

"Yeah, I guess so..." Katara replied. "Thanks, Aang" and she placed a brief kiss on my left cheek, holding the other in her hand.

Needless to say I blushed madly. I took the hand that was holding my cheek and lead its holder down the stairs. It was just as Katara had said. Though I had lost so much in the past one hundred years, there were also things I had gained. And above all those things, I liked her the most.

I was struck out of my thinking by the sound of something or someone hitting the floor. After some curses, I could faintly hear Sokka's voice saying "I'm okay!".

A/N: oh well, there goes my first fanfic! Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you have any comment, please, do let me know. It would help me soooo much :-)

And if anyone is wondering why I put the stairs to the higher grounds in, even while they're not in the series, I just think there ought to be a stairway like that lol.

Like I stated in the A/N at the beginning of the story; reviewers get (virtual) cookies:-P

Cheers!