A/N: Nightmares are a fanwriter's paradise
This thing came from pure and utter midnight inspiration. Yesterday I was doing my annual fic clean- up on my pc and I came across this one-shot that for some reason I never finished. I stared reading it and when I came to the part I left off I was like nooo that can't be it! So I decided to finish it. and there you go. Kataang fluffiness for ya Keep in mind that I hadn't watched SR yet when I wrote this, so Katara's nightmare is a little off plot. I didn't change it 'cause I felt too lazy anyway I fixed that part the best I could. The setting is before Zuko joins them and also before NaD and DoBS so yeah
Enjoy and leave me reviews plz I heart them
Disclaimer: If I owned Avatar, I would've picked another cast for the movie ): but I don't. Ohwells.
A Nighttime's Tale
She saw it right before her own little naïve eyes; the wounded body of her mother lying half dead on the icy ground. Her innocence was stolen from her that very day, just as many things she knew were never going to come back.
"Mommy, mommy! Stand up, mommy!" she screamed desperately crying her beautiful azure eyes out, those everyone in her tribe told her were "just as her mother's".
"Kya!" Hakoda hurried next to his wife hoping so hard this was just a nightmare.
"Daddy, mom's asleep. Tell her to wake up, we have to go!" Little Katara grieved. Kya moaned in pain, unable to hide it any further.
"Mom! Stand up." Sokka demanded, pulling his mother's arm helplessly. The woman only smiled sadly to her kid. Surprised and confused, they looked up for their father's aid. They grew even more shocked when they discovered the man who seemed invincible and powerful to them, was crying quietly. He knelt down to kiss his wife good-bye, she replied with the last strength she had.
"Kids, say bye to your mommy." Hakoda said trying to hide his broken voice for the sake of his own children. Sokka, the oldest turned down to see his mother,
"Mom, don't leave us." Sokka pleaded rubbing his mother's arm; she on the other hand couldn't help but cry. She reached for her son's cheek and said,
"Sokka… promise me you'll take care of Katara, as the good warrior you are." Sokka cried as he nodded, sobbing he knelt to kiss his mother. Little Katara, however, denied herself.
"Don't die, mommy!" She pleaded running out of ways to convince Kya. The brave woman smiled to her,
"My little waterbender... You'll go far, you and your brother both. You've got to take care of each other, alright?" Katara shook her head from side to side,
"NO, NO… We need you mom!" Katara said holding her mother's body.
"Good-bye Katara, my little girl." She whispered as she gave into the intoxicating cold slumber that called for death.
"No!" Katara sobbed mournfully.
She awoke abruptly; gasping for air and with tears in her eyes.
"What…?" Katara muttered to herself, taking a time to recognize the place she was in. It was all a nightmare, just that. She looked around and identified what was left of a campfire and the bodies dozed off in a deep sleep surrounding it. She sat and incorporated, ashamed of herself trying to wipe out her senseless tears.
"This is so stupid!" Katara scolded herself whispering. She was tired of being strong to everyone but herself, she couldn't stand being weak. Memories of her mom would bring her to her pleading knees again in an instant nonetheless, just like that cursed day. Not many things had such effect on this strong and determined waterbender; but this dream, rather this nightmare had been teasing her for many nights now. No one would notice because she was exceptional at hiding these things, things that weakened her reputation. But this moonless night was taunting and cruel, tonight she didn't feel like sleeping; she wasn't able to gather rest anyway. Katara then decided to take a little promenade, a walk that rapidly turned into a boring and lonely trip. Deceived, she decided to go back to the camp and noticed on the distance a sleeping silhouette lying by Appa suspecting that was Aang. She approached carefully to check on him. Katara knew Aang was a light sleeper so she had to be very cautious in not to disturb the Avatar's slumber. The water tribe girl was impressed to not only see an extremely dozed off teenager, but also almost on the verge of snoring in a very non-Aang-like way.
"Well, I guess those earthbending practices must be real tiring." She said to herself, though she wasn't buying Aang's unnatural sleeping. She knelt to check on him with more detail. "Hmm…" She said narrowing her blue eyes, staring at the thirteen-year-old. Still not convinced, she tested him by poking his back.
"I'm awake." The Airbender rapidly muttered. Katara didn't see that coming and naturally fell on her back.
"Aang!" Katara whispered back careful not to wake any other of the Gaang's members. "Why did you do that?!" The girl said exasperated.
"Shh…You'll wake everyone up." Aang said grinning amused. Katara gave him a reprehensive look, which caused the air nomad's smile to be torn down immediately.
"I'm sorry" She hurried up to amend herself, "It's just that I couldn't sleep, I guess I'm just moody because of that." Katara apologized.
"You've not been sleeping these days, have you?" Aang said worried.
"Yeah…" the girl said looking down, "But, how'd you know?" she continued as the question hit her quickly on her head.
"Good thing I'm the only one with a light sleep, otherwise you'd have everyone else pretty mad at you." Aang said implying the answer kindly.
"Ugh… right, I forgot." Katara said slapping her forehead regretting her midnight wanderings.
"What's wrong?" Aang continued, Katara didn't respond. "Come on, Katara. I know something's bothering you." Aang replied to his friend's silence.
"I… I'm not sure I want to talk about it right now…" Katara finally spoke. Surprised by the answer, Aang scooped a little closer to Katara.
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" He said kind of hurt by the girl's attitude, "I'm your friend." he reassured her.
"I know, I know!" Katara said dropping her head, sighing hopelessly.
"Then?" Aang followed. Katara raised her eyes to meet Aang's smoky grey ones, "Katara, you're always there for everyone who needs you, especially me. Let me help you now." He said determined.
"It's about a dream I've been having for a while now." Katara said finally giving up. Aang raised his eyebrows.
"A dream?"
"Well, it's more of a nightmare really." The waterbender explained, "It's about my mother." She said as-matter-of-factly.
"Oh…" Aang replied back, getting a sense of where this conversation was heading to.
"It's not really interesting, you know. You really don't have to hear if you don't want to." Katara said misinterpreting Aang's tone as one of boredom.
"But I do." he rapidly said "It's about her death, isn't in?" Aang muttered sadly, guessing right. Katara didn't respond; she only bent her head until Aang couldn't perceive her eyes.
"I don't know how to stop it!" The girl sighed out attempting to suppress her quiet sobs, failing shamelessly. "I thought that if I ignored it, it would go away by itself. But it just becomes clearer and clearer each time!" Aang felt his own heart shrink and shatter to pieces. If there was anything that could break Aang's heart in such a painful way, that would be seeing Katara suffer.
"Katara…" He whispered her name carefully pronouncing each syllable. She tried to hold her sobs in but her willpower and strength suddenly abandoned her.
"No, don't do that. Don't hold it in." Aang said rubbing her back. "You'll feel better if you let your feelings out." Still, headstrong as ever, Katara attempted otherwise.
"You don't have to be always the strong one, you know." Aang told her secretly bemused by her attempt.
"What do you mean?" She asked promptly with uneven breathing.
"A day off, or rather a night won't harm anyone."
"I don't want you to see me like this." Katara confessed him. Aang on the other hand was so surprised he almost felt angry.
"Katara, you're my friend, and I know you're really smart. But that is just one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard you saying." Aang said now serious. "You don't want me seeing you like what? You miss your mother and there's nothing wrong with that." Katara was pleased and quite surprised by Aang's maturity and support toward her; this gave her self-assurance and a certain peace.
"It's painful to remember." She said allowed to talk normally now she was calmed. "You see, my dream it's not really something my mind made up. It's a memory." Aang widened his eyes, sudden comprehension filling his expression.
"Oh," He murmured. Katara smiled understandingly. "So, it's your memory of when…" Aang trailed off suggestively.
"Yeah…" Katara sighed looking down. "It's so clear in my mind, as if it just had happened." The girl looked genuinely depressed, and as matter of fact as if she was in the presence of death itself too. She resembled the moment.
"You know, I don't know the antidote for that." Aang admitted, "But I do know ways to make you feel better." Katara raised an eyebrow curiously. "Or the way I would have it done, more or less." The waterbender smiled meekly at the young monk and he continued making the most out of his unexpected luck. "The monks, mostly Gyatso actually, told me bedtime stories when I had nightmares as a younger child." Aang explained, "And I figured you could use a nighttime tale tonight." Katara giggled slightly.
"I wouldn't mind." She agreed soothed by the thought that Aang was probably capable of drifting her mind away from nightmares at least for a night. Aang signaled a place next to him on one of Appa's paws, she obediently followed the direction. They both lied down resting on the bison's furry warmth, perfectly protecting themselves from the night's cold breeze.
"What kind of story would you like to hear?" Aang asked "I know all sorts of stories." He said goofily grinning at her, causing the watertribe girl to abandon her sad expression almost immediately.
"I don't know. What kinds of stories did you use to hear when you were younger?" Katara asked him curiously.
"Mostly legends, fairytales for all you can tell." Aang answered. "Almost all of them were about spirits, bending, or falling in love. Things like that."
"Oh, well tell me your favorite story then." Katara pleaded Aang not putting too much attention to the simple matter. Aang however, suddenly found his favorite childhood story a reason to blush in front of his friend. "What's wrong?" She asked concerned.
"Nothing." He answered quickly, gulping noisily. "Okay, then…" Aang begun hesitant. "My favorite night tale… hmmm…" Aang muttered scratching his bald scalp. "Ah, I remember now." He said enlightened by his young memory. "Okay, so this is… um… a legend monk Gyatso used to tell me a lot. It's about the Avatar."
"Oh," Katara muttered in awe, containing curiosity effortful. She found anything related to the Avatar and spirits disturbingly interesting.
"I have to warn you though; I'm not a good storyteller." Aang admitted sheepishly.
"That's okay, you've done it before. You're good at it, keep going." Katara encouraged him unable to resist the suspense any longer. Aang smiled pleased at her.
"Supposedly," Aang begun, "every Avatar, since the beginning of time has had a matching spirit, a Ren."
"Like a soul mate?" Katara interrupted.
"Yes, like a soul mate." Aang assured her without minding the interruption. "Anyway, this 'spirit'" Aang said, air quoting. "Has the power to balance the Avatar itself. Like Tui and La, they balance each other. And though the Avatar can live without finding his Ren or matching spirit as you could call it I guess, he is not as powerful if he never gets to meet his Ren. It's not balanced."
"So where does the Avatar find this spirit? Do you have to travel to the spirit world?" Katara asked absorbed by Aang's tale. He chuckled.
"No, you can't find it in the spirit world; the Avatar has to find that spirit in other human being. In other words, you have to fall in love." Aang explained smiling at her meaningfully, as if he tried to shout at her an unavoidable truth through that smile. Katara blushed at the thought of knowing who Aang would think of as that "matching spirit".
"So the Avatar works best if he's in love?" Katara asked a little skeptic but interested.
"In this legend, yeah." Aang corrected her, so much for it to be real. "Okay, so the story is about the very first Avatar, and how he got to meet his matching spirit. The first Avatar was a man called Yu Loi, and he was a waterbender. He was also the Avatar who had achieved complete and total synchronization with the Earth and all the four elements, he was part of them and they were part of him."
"Well, it was easy for him! He was the very first one." Katara complained for Aang's sake. "You have to deal with so much more!" Aang chuckled thankfully.
"So, this man, Yu Loi was once wandering by his town's river when he saw a girl fetching water for her house. He fell in love with her, her name was Quiang and was the oldest of all four girls in her family. She noticed Yu Loi was spying on her and at first she thought he was trying to wrong her, but instead Yu Loi introduced himself and offered to fetch the water for her. They met and fell in love almost instantly. Now, in those days, the Avatar wasn't known. People didn't know what an Avatar was so Yu Loi knew no more than anyone else about being the Avatar, he was alone in his journey to master the elements, and the Avatar state, and all that fun stuff." Aang said sarcastically. Katara laughed.
"Wait, so no one knew about the Avatar?" Katara asked falling into account of that.
"Nope, just Yu Loi." Aang seconded her.
"Whoa, see? And you complain about knowing nothing." Katara mocked him; Aang laughed almost a little too loud, enough to wake everybody in camp.
"Shh!" Katara hushed suppressing a roaring laughter herself.
"Well anyway, the cool part comes later. They were fairly young when they first met, so they married at the first chance they had. When Quiang found out Yu Loi was the Avatar, he thought Quiang would stop loving him, but instead she was glad she knew. She explained him that during her childhood she had these visions about a man, a bender. She had had premonitions about the Avatar while she was a little girl." Aang stopped to see Katara's reaction. She was bewildered, both by the story and the fact that she had so many times dreamed of finding the Avatar herself before she met Aang. He smiled at her and continued.
"The spirits told Quiang everything Yu Loi needed to know in order to be a fulfilled Avatar, so both Yu Loi and Quiang spent their lives figuring how to work out being the Avatar. That's why Yu Loi was so good at being the Avatar, Quiang helped him. In the end Yu Loi became the very first and very best Avatar in history, and they left a set of scrolls with proverbs and teachings for the next one to come in the cycle." Aang finished with a tone of contentment. Katara was utterly delighted by the story; Aang had been successful in distracting Katara from her sad mood.
"And what happened to the scrolls? Who has them? Aang, can you see? If we find them there is so much you could learn and…"
"Katara, that's why it's a legend, nobody has ever found those scrolls. Though, rumor has it that the sieges, monks, and wisemen of each nation have their share of each element. That's where the monks believed all the knowledge of the Avatar came from." Aang explained.
"Oh, so there's nothing true to it?" Katara asked a little disappointed
"Gyatso said that all of it was true, but you can never tell." He told her. "Even the Ren thing and all…He used to tease me about it, actually." Aang said blushing. Katara didn't answer to that commentary, leaving the benefit of doubt for Aang.
"Thank you Aang." Katara said making an unexpected move: Turning on her side to gently peck Aang on the cheek.
"You…you're welcome." Aang said vainly trying to keep his easiness intact. "Do you think you'll still have nightmares tonight?" Aang asked hopeful for a positive answer.
"I don't think so." Katara said lifting from her warm spot on Appa's paw. Aang followed her with his eyes puzzled.
"Where are you going?" He asked unable to bite his tongue.
"To sleep." Katara replied very clueless to Aang's train of thought, though it suddenly hit her head. "I don't want to disturb you." She added, afraid she might have had hurt the airbender's feelings.
"Oh… Okay." Aang said apparently without even putting an effort on hiding his disappointment.
"Ugh, the fire's done." She said getting a quick glimpse of the place where she was sleeping a couple hours ago. "I'm going to freeze." She complained, praying to all the spirits that Aang caught the subliminal message. "I should better get going, good night Aang." She said sweetly to him, cursing herself and Aang as well for not letting her stay.
"Um… Katara? I really don't mind you staying over here." Aang whispered loud enough for her to listen. "Besides, I wanna check on you in case your nightmares come back." He smiled attentively. Katara blushed, abruptly regretting having prayed to stay with Aang.
"Are you sure?" She trailed off insecurely.
"Yeah, plus I don't think you wanna freeze yourself over there. Come on." Aang said friendly signaling again the same spot where she was a few moments ago. She walked over there quite eagerly, hoping Aang hadn't noticed that, and lied again next to him. With a sleepy mind, and no control of herself Katara let her instinct drive her as she unconsciously snuggled against Aang's chest, leaving the poor kid without words. Still, this didn't prevent him from enjoying it and going with the flow himself.
"Good night, Katara." He said, and for the first time being him who pecked Katara. Not worrying about how regretful and ashamed he would feel after his mind caught up with his actions. "I hope you don't have any more nightmares."
"'Night, Aang." A very sleepy Katara responded likewise. After that night, the nighttime tales became a ritual for both.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed it :D Don't forget to leave reviews :) Merreh Christmas XD