This is my first Avatar fanfic, and it was supposed to be a one-shot, but I think it's going to be two chapters. Both are going to be extremely sad. Basically, I just wanted to write out my own personal guess on why Aang dies at the age that the new show (Korra) has set. Personally I think that he dies a little early, they try to explain it's because of the 100 years in the iceberg but I have another theory, and this is just me writing that theory out. Warning, it's super sad. Kataang. Kataangst. Also a song-fic, only because a song inspired the 2nd chapter, and the 1st chapter reminded me of a song. Enjoy, R&R, all that good stuff.

I don't own Avatar or any of these characters. Derp.

He sat cross-legged in their bed, with his wife curled up in his arms, and shed silent tears. Nevertheless, his laughter echoed the small chamber, muffled as the familiar sound hit the walls of ice surrounding them. As the sound died off, he wished something else would take it's place; for the silence it left behind allowed him to hear her slowing heartbeat. It was, perhaps, the only sound in the world he did not want to hear from her.

".. and then you looked at me as if I was crazy, and you said, 'uh, sure. I guess?'" He laughed again as he recalled the rest of the memory, looking down into the same eyes that he had looked up at for the first time that fateful day. They were so bright, so wide and full of life. Now, they looked up at him with an undying love, the love that had nurtured and grown over a lifetime.. but they held just a little bit less of the life he'd seen that day.

She laughed with him – a quiet, breathy laugh, nothing like the full and rich sound he was used to hearing. "I thought.. you were about to tell me something.. important." She admitted, rolling her eyes weakly. Her breathing hitched, and as he listened to it, his own breath stopped until hers returned to it's normal rhythm. "Katara, maybe if I.." He reached a hand out to the wall, drawing forth some of it. It pooled into an oval of water around his hand, but in a burst of strength she reached over and nudged his arm away.

"Stop it. You don't even know how to do that, and besides, there isn't anything wrong with me. You can't heal this."

"But whyyy," He whined, and a little of the childish whine his voice used to have when he was young and carefree edged into his deep voice. He reached for her with his water-covered hand once more, and she knocked his arm away a second time. Her wrinkled features scrunched up in annoyance, and she tried to sit up.

"Because, Aang. You can't heal old age." She chuckled breathlessly, and tried to catch her breath from the mere effort of her attempts to move. Defeated, she sunk back down into his arms, and closed her eyes.

A beat passed, and Aang's features darkened. "Katara?" He whispered in a tiny, fearful voice. She opened one eye and glared at him, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you going to do that all night?" She murmured, agitation coloring her tone.

"Do what?" He blinked repeatedly, thrown into confusion by her sudden unhappiness.

"Check to see if I'm still here." She responded in a tone so calm, so understated, that it almost didn't break his heart to hear her ask such a thing.

Almost.

He had stopped crying, but her words brought the tears right back into his eyes, and she sighed sharply. "Aang." She called out to him, and he shook his head, shaking the tears away.

"I know, I know. You don't want to see me cry." He muffled into his arm, which he had raised to wipe against his face. When he lowered it, he looked down to see both her eyes open, shining up at him with blinding adoration. Her gaze captured him like nothing else could.

"I wasn't going to say that." She whispered.

"You weren't?"

She shook her head, and reached up to rest her soft, wrinkled hand against his cheek. "I was just going to ask you something. Something important."

He stilled, and then instinctively leaned into her touch. His eyes closed, but the moment was brief as soon as he realized he preferred the sight of her to the dark of his eyelids. They opened again and he smiled, nodding for her to continue.

"Come closer."

He giggled quietly, having been reminded not five minutes ago of how he'd said the same words to her when they were children. He echoed her response. "What is it?"

She pursed her lips to keep the smile from escaping, and whispered up to him. "Will you go penguin sledding?"

As first, her words brought that grin that she loved back to his face. His features split happily and he almost laughed, but the words were only just starting to sink in.

His smile warmed her heart, and she returned it in kind; but as she smiled, his own faded.

He waited, but only for a moment, before his heart clenched painfully. He thought, perhaps, perhaps she was just too tired to finish.

"With you?" He concluded hopefully, though she could see the fear of being wrong in his eyes. She hated that fear, and more than anything she wanted to nod her head and kiss his eyes and make it all better.

But she couldn't.

"No." Her eyebrows knitted as she watched his features fall. "I just want you to promise me you'll do it."

"Not without you, Katara." His eyes finally closed, and tears fell freely from them once more.

"Promise me, Aang." She urged, leaning in to rest her forehead against his, but he stubbornly shook his head and refused. Something told him they weren't talking about penguin sledding anymore.

"Not without you, Katara." He repeated, his voice surging powerfully in determination. His eyes opened to look directly into hers, so close that she could swear she saw just how determined he truly was, within them. This time, it was her turn to feel that painful clench of fear in her heart.

"Never without you."

Without you, the breeze warms, the girl smiles, the cloud moves.
Without you, the tides change, the boys run, the oceans crash.
The crowds roar, the days soar, the babies cry, without you.
The moon glows, the river flows, but I die, without you

The tears dry, without you.
Life goes on, but I'm gone.
Cause I die, without you..