Special thanks to Stephen King for inspiring me to write.
Special Thanks to Bryan, Jake, Dylan and everyone at DongBuFeng for getting me into avatar.
(Might just be me, but I almost cried writing this)
Chapter 1
War was awful. Katara needed to experience it first-hand to really, truly understand…know just how awful. I'm not talking about the Fire Nation war; I'm talking about the Purity War that broke out ten years afterwards. Katara and Aang were twenty –two and had spent so little time, what seemed like an instant to Katara, with each other before he left. He had to leave and she knew it, but it hurt so badly. She cried the night he left…she cried. Katara was a strong woman, but it was so hard to just let him go and not know if he would ever come back. And the letters she received from him didn't help. He tried to stay positive and comfort her, but the war was brutal; it was merciless. He had seen many people die during the war; he had come within a hair's breadth of dying himself.
The war was hurting their children too. They had been born only six years ago and were growing up without a father; and they were fully aware that they might never have one. Katara tried to comfort them by telling them stories about Aang's awesome bending and how he was such a strong, wonderful person, but she always ended up crying and bringing the children with her. Her children spent much of the day playing outside the gate, waiting for a letter from their father. They didn't care if the news was good or bad; they just cared that they knew their father was alive.
"Never give up hope." She always told them, "He will come back." And at first she believed it herself, but now…now that he had been gone for so long and never once been able to come back, she doubted it. The thought that the love of her life might not come back…might die…It almost made her vomit. It kept her awake at night with a stone wedged in her throat and a knife in her heart.
She was angry, at times, too. She was totally enraged that people had to kill for their religion. All it achieved was pain, pain for everyone. She hated the people who did it, hated them with all the heart that wasn't devoted to Aang. She wanted them all to just die so that Aang could come home; so that all the soldiers away from their families could go home.
But that night, he returned. He came during the night, on a rhino. But he moved slowly and leisurely so that Katara would just think it was another mailman and leave it alone. When he opened the door, Katara came down to see what was going on. When she caught sight of him she swore her heart would explode. She ran and embraced him with all her warmth. They kissed, and for that moment, nothing existed but them. Pressed tightly against each other, nothing else mattered. They lost a sense of reality for that long moment and totally forgot the world outside them. Their bodies were desensitized, numb; the only part of them still working was their heart. And they connected; Aang and Katara's spirits connected. No one said anything, but both of them knew that destiny would keep them together, no matter what.
When they pulled away, they kept eye contact and spoke. They didn't use words; they just knew through the other's eyes what the other was thinking. And they both ran upstairs holding each other's hand.
When they woke the children it was screaming and hugs so tight that they almost cut off circulation. They all fell on the ground in a giant heap and laughed together, in total bliss.