Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, nor will I ever own it. Because if I owned Avatar it would have ended in Zutara and Taang... just saying.
Chapter 1: Fake Smiles, and Letters
"Do you have to go?"
Aang looked up from his suitcase and smiled sadly at the waterbender leaning on the door frame of his bedroom. "You know I do Katara." he said, "I'm the Avatar it's my job to keep the peace."
Katara shrugged and looked down at the floor, "I know." and really she did. After all she had been the original person, along with her brother Sokka (Agni bless his meat loving heart), to travel with Aang all over the world so he could master the other three elements in order for him to be able to defeat the firelord without getting smoked...no pun intended. She had seen so many terrible things of course she knew how important keeping the peace was, and thankfully Aang had managed to defeat Ozai, but even three years later the peace was still shaky and required constant meetings led and mediated by, of course, the Avatar.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Aang make his way over to her, but she didn't move. He brushed a brown strand of hair that escapes her braid from her face and tucked it neatly behind her ear. Then with the gentlest of touches he tilted her chin up until her blue eyes met his cool gray ones- yes she actually had to look up to be able to meet Aang's eyes now. "I'll only be gone for 2 months," he said in a soothing voice, "and if you really think about that it's only about 60 days, or eight weeks depending how you look at it... but if you want to count the hours you'll have to do a little more math. You take the twenty four and multiply it by 60, so you'll have to carry the-"
"Please dear La stop," Katara groaned eliciting a cheeky grin from the airbender, "You know I hate math Aang."
As the grin faded from his face Aang slowly drew Katara's face closer and closer. This is it, Katara thought, and as their lips met in a sweet kiss Katara felt...
Nothing.
No spark, no fireworks, not even the tiniest hint of passion. Nada, zip, zero, zilch.
Katara didn't know when exactly her feelings for Aang began to dwindle, but she had managed to narrow it down to sometime between their trip together to the newly rebuilt south pole, to visit her family, and now. The love she had felt for Aang after Sozin's Comet had disappeared. Okay, it didn't disappear , she still loved Aang, but more as a friend or a little brother.
She let out a groan of disappointment which thankfully Aang interpreted as satisfaction since he began to pull away a self appeased smile on his face. He ran his fingers down Katara's arm in a loving manner that was supposed to make Katara feel tingly, that to say the least didn't work, until he was grasping Katara's hand in his own. "On second thought if you give me another kiss like that I just might have to cancel the meeting." Aang said with a playful wink.
Katara gave her best fake giggle and coy smile, "Well you better leave now before I'm overly tempted." Aang leaned in to place a kiss on her lips again, but, thankfully, due to Katara's quick reflexes she managed to divert it to her cheek.
She placed a hand on Aang's chest and pushed him back wagging her finger as if scolding a polar dog puppy. "There will be none of that. Appa is saddled and waiting along with Momo, and if we keep going like this you're going to be late. Now, how would it look if the Avatar was late for his own meeting?" She asked.
Aang just rolled his eyes and reluctantly released his grasp on Katara, missing the look of relief on her face. "I hope you know I hate it when your right." He grumbled. With a thrust of his hand a section of earth popped up, and sent the pack flying straight into Aang's grip.
"Show off."
"You know you love it." He said jokingly.
You wish, Katara thought as Aang once again took her hand, "Come on you can walk me out."
Hand and hand they made their way through the halls of the Western Air temple, both lost in thought, and the only sound being the echoing of their own footsteps. Katara remembered a time when the temple was filled with the chatter and laughter of the gaAng, but at the end of the war everyone went their separate ways. Suki and Sokka moved back to the South Pole last year where they got married, and were now expecting their first child. Haru, Teo, and the Duke all moved to the newly established Republic City in search of jobs- Katara hadn't heard from them in the last two months. Toph was traveling all over the four nations trying to "find herself" as Iroh put it. Iroh, of course, was happily running his tea shop, The Jasmine Dragon, in Ba Sing Se. Finally that left the newly coronated firelord, Zuko.
Thinking of Zuko caused a wave of sadness to crash of over Katara along with just a hint of guilt. After getting over her severe distrust of him Katara had gotten incredibly close to Zuko. In, fact besides Toph and occasionally Suki she felt like he was the only one she could really talk too, but in the past year or so between his duties as firelord and all the time she spent managing Aang's busy schedule they had drifted apart.
Katara let out a sigh of longing, earning her a strange look from Aang, what she would give for the good ole days when she always knew what was going on in the lives of the people she cared about, and she knew for a fact that she had feeling for Aang. She longed for a simpler time.
Aang cleared his throat, "So what do you plan to do while I'm gone?"
The waterbender shrugged her shoulders. "I don't really know. I'll probably just stay around here, they're are some things that need to be fixed that I've been meaning to get done for a while now. Or I might head down to the South Pole for a week or so."
"Why the South Pole we were just there?" Aang asked.
"Because they're my family," Katara said a bit indignantly, "and I miss them. Plus Suki is carrying my future niece or nephew, and I would like to go down there to see how she's doing."
" Sorry, I was just wondering!" Aang said, taking note of Katara's defensive tone.
Katara massaged one of her temples with her free hand. "I didn't mean to snap at you Aang. I just haven't been getting much sleep lately." This was true. It was amazing how heavy lying to Aang could make her conscience.
"Then you should get out of here! Go on vacation!" Aang said happily, now that the tension had passed, "Go see Iroh in Ba Sing Se! I'm sure he misses you. Just go somewhere you'll have fun. You of all people deserve a break."
Katara scoffed at his idea, rolling her blue eyes, she said, "A vacation? I don't have time for that. Like I said I have a lot I need to do here."
"It was just a suggestion." Before they could get into another scuffle they came out into the pasture where Appa was waiting for Aang.
Appa let out a bellow of greeting, which was soon followed by the four other sky bison who were sharing the pasture. After he and Katara returned to the Western Air Temple, Aang had made it his mission to find a way to bring the sky bison breed back, and upon discovering another female sky bison, in the Southern Air Temple, he had managed to bring several new sky bison into the world.
Appa began lumbering his way over to Aang, an excited Momo flying right behind him. The airbender released Katara's hand and pulled her into a hug instead.
"I'm gonna miss you Katara. Everyday." He whispered in her ear causing her heart to sink.
"I'll miss you too Aang." She lied.
Aang pulled back and placed a chaste kiss on the lips of his girlfriend. "The time will pass faster than you think. I'll see you soon sweetheart." With one last short kiss his flew onto the back of Appa.
The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, "Aang wait!"
"What is it Katara?" He Aang asked from Appa's back in confusion.
This was it. This was when Katara was supposed to tell him the truth. This was where she was supposed to tell him her feelings had changed, and not to expect her to be here when he got back. Then she was supposed to to go back inside pack her things and head back home to start her life over.
That was what she was supposed to do, but as she looked into Aang's big gray eyes-innocent even after all he's been through- she saw that little twelve year old boy who she had just pulled out of the iceberg and had sworn to protect.
She couldn't do it. She forced a smile onto her face, "I hope you have a time, fly safely."
"I will, I promise." Aang said, "Oh and remember what I said about the vacation!" He took the reins in his hand, "Appa, yip yip!" And with one final wave he was gone. Flying through the air finally leaving Katara alone.
The smile slid from her face and in that moment she looked much older than her eighteen years. Katara looked around her once more at the familiarity of the Western Air temple, and suddenly found herself sick of it all. Making a decision right then she decided to take Aang's advice, and go on a vacation for herself, but not to any of the places he'd suggested.
She was going to the Fire Nation.
Author's Note
Thanks for sticking with me through this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it! This is my first fanfic so constructive criticism is appreciated and please no flames. Save that for the forums. Review and thanks again for reading!