Just a foolish teenager
I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. I've failed again, but this is when it matters most and I failed. I need the Avatar State. I need it. Why won't it come? I wish this would just end. I can feel my skin being burned off my body and huddling in a pile of ash at my feet. I can see my bones crumbling and dissolving in the warm, humid air. But that is like walking through a field of flowers whilst licking a lolli-pop compared to seeing my lover suffer so. I am watching her literally disappear from me; she is being burned at the stake as if she was a rotisserie chicken without the rotisserie. She is just sitting there looking at me and I swear that I can see a single tear roll down her cheek as she watches me in return. I'm giving up, there is nothing more that I can do for either myself or her. We are both going to die. Suddenly she speaks to me.
"Aang, why are you giving up? Why, Aang, WHY! Aang! AANG…
"Aang! Aang, wake up!" said a soothing feminine voice.
I jolted upright as fast as my weak body could take me.
"WHAA! Whaa... ha…ahha…"
She must have thought I was crazy.
"Aang, are you alright? You were sweating and twitching like a mad man, so I thought it best to wake you up."
"I think I'm alright. Thanks for waking me up." As I said this I turned my body away from her laid back down. She put a consoling hand on my shoulder.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, not especially. It was just a bad dream, that's all."
"Aang, it's been over two weeks since you defeated the Fire Lord, and you're still having these nightmares. Please talk to me. All of us are tired of seeing you moping around and all sad and depressed all the time."
"Look, I'm sorry I put all of you guys through this, ok? Is that good enough?"
She didn't respond. She looked down at her feet and I swear I could see a puppy-dog-put on her lips. It makes me so angry how she has the ability to make me spit out whatever she wants me to.
"Okay, fine. My dream was about you and me; we were in the Fire Lord's throne room fighting him all over again, except this time we didn't win. I was so worn out that I could see my body disintegrating, and I was watching you…" I swallowed hard and continued the sentence that I wanted desperately not to finish "I was watching you be burned at the stake. And it was torture because I couldn't do anything about it. There. Are you happy now?"
She looked down at her feet again as if she was pondering what to say next.
"Aang, the war is over now. We all have recovered from our injuries. Is something else bothering you?"
"I don't know, Katara."
"I think you do"
"NO, I DON"T, ALRIGHT! Please, I need to be alone right now. Just leave, please."
She looked hurt at what I had said.
I'm sorry I hurt you again, Katara. Please forgive me
She got up and left me to sit here and be depressed.
Katara's POV
He is so infuriating. He sits around and pouts all day and pretends he doesn't need help, but really he's just trying to make the obvious point that he does. Then when I try to help him, he just turns me away and tries to act tough, like he can handle it on his own. Why can't he just understand that he didn't do anything wrong, everyone has recovered fine, and we all just miss the old Aang?
It's a good thing I love him, or I probably would have harmed him bodily by now.
I know. I'll get Sokka to go talk to him. A good 'man-to-man' talk might work help.
I walked over to the tents at which Sokka was waiting in line for lunch. After all of this time, through all of these difficult challenges, he hadn't changed a bit.
"Hey, Sokka."
He jerked his around as if he was shocked to hear my voice.
"Katara! Where have you been? I haven't seen you since the war ended!"
He pulled me into a tight embrace.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I've been running around trying to heal and help as many people as I can before it is too late."
He seemed distracted as I was speaking to him.
"Katara, maybe istead of focusing on just everyone else, you should help yourself too. Look at your arms. They are very charred. And your eyes have dark circles around them, have you rested at all in the past two weeks?"
I sighed and looked at my arms. Wow, they are burnt pretty badly. I hadn't really noticed.
"I've tried to sleep every chance I get, but my mind keeps thinking back on… things."
He gave me a worried look as if he was about to ask me "What do you mean by 'things'?" but he just shook the look off his face and moved on to another question.
"So if you're so busy, what brings you to this side of camp?"
"Well, actually, I have a favor to ask of you."
He lifted one eyebrow.
"And what would that be?"
"If you don't mind, could you go talk to Aang? He has been acting weird ever since the war ended. I've been trying to help him, but he won't listen to me."
"Well I think it's safe to say that if even you can't get through to him, it's pretty much hopeless that anyone else can. I'll try though. I just have to eat my lunch first."
I just rolled my eyes, as this was the typical Sokka motivation. Eat first, important things later.
"Alright, thanks, Sokka. Hopefully I'll get more free time once more people start recovering and going home."
"Okay, take care of yourself."
And with that we went our separate ways, he to eat his lunch, and I to heal more victims of the perilous yet victorious battle.
Aang's POV
Why. Why did you cause all of these people to get hurt? Why did you cause your friends to get hurt? Why did you cause Katara to get hurt? Why did you ha…
My ever-so annoying and on-going thoughts were interrupted by a ruffling noise coming from the door to my tent.
"Gag u flag ju wagu bat... Where is the stupid entrance to this stupid tent?!"
If I had been in my normal state of mind I would have found this incident hilarious.
"AH-HA! I found you!"
Sokka came bursting through the flap that he apparently had trouble finding and seemed surprised that I was staring at him as if he were an alien.
"Umm… hey, Aang. How you doing?"
"Well, let's just say I've been better."
I sat up and straight and laid my head in my hands. Sokka walked over to me and gave me a friendly pat on the back.
"Hey, man look. Everything's going to be okay, now. The war is over and we all survived. We may have gotten a few scratches and bruises along the way but we survived all the same."
"A few scratches and bruises?! What in the world are you talking about?! I was shot with a bolt of lightning, and not you're every-day-natural-bolt either! You have lost Yue and Suki, that may be physical, but it hurts all the same. Katara has been burned, was forced to learn blood-bending, and has had to keep the rest of us from going crazy! To me that is a little more than a few scratches and bruises!"
I was panting when I finished screaming at him. He had turned around and was looking at the canvas wall of my tent. He stayed that way for a while before finally turning around.
"Something else is bothering you, isn't it? It's not like you to be this upset over something like this. What's eating you?"
"Look at Katara!! She has severe burns all over her body and it is all my fault! I could have protected her…"
It all came out so fast and loud, I didn't really mean to yell it at him. He put his hand up to his chin, looking as to be deciphering what I had just yelled to him. Suddenly he snapped his fingers and his eyes glowed with the realization of something huge.
"I understand now. You're in love with my sister, aren't you?"
Not even the state that I was in could keep me from turning a deep crimson red.
"Yes, I think I am, and I think I always have been."
He looked stunned at me saying this, and all to my surprise. I figured everyone had found out by now.
"Have you told her?"
"I mentioned something about it."
"What did you say exactly?"
"Umm, well… it was before the battle so it had to be quick, so I just said, 'Katara, I have to tell you something. I think there is something for us beyond just being friends...' then she kissed me and with that the conversation was over and we were making our way to the Palace."
I tried not to make eye-contact with him. I just kept looking at the ground. I was afraid he might try to strangle me. A long period of pure misery while waiting for him to hurt me passed until he finally said something.
"She loves you too."
"Isn't it her place to say that, Sokka? And how do you even know anyway?"
He looked at me and started to fidget like he had poisonous scorpion-snakes in his pants.
"Psssh... Why does she even have to say it? Sometimes love goes unsaid. How do I know?!?! What are you crazy?! I'm her brother, and I know these things."
He had taken away all my reasons to sulk.
"Thanks Sokka."
"I'll go get her."
"What?!"
"Well don't you want to talk to her and tell her why you've been such a jerk?"
"Uh… umm…heh… I… uh…"
"Quit your mumblin'. I'll go get her."
"OK, thanks."
"Anytime."
Then he left.
Katara's POV
I'm so tired. I really need to take a rest. I think I'm getting delirious. I just saw an earthbender with a broken ankle belly-dancing. There goes a warrior with 14 stitches in his hip doing the worm. Oh and here comes Sokka jumping up and down yelling "Hoop! Hoop! Comin' through! Important matters to discuss with my sister! Hoop!" Oh wait…
"Sokka?! What's wrong with you? Okay, where are you hiding the cactus juice?"
"No, No, I'm sober now. This is just how I act when I'm really, really hyper."
"But I've never seen you act this way." I said with a furrowed eyebrow.
"That's because I've never been this excited. Come on," and he grabbed my arm and dragged me for about 45 feet over to Aang's tent.
"Why did you bring me here? I thought you were talking to him?"
"I did and I think he needs to talk to you now," and he ran off, probably to the food line.
So I found the opening to the tent and ventured over to my seat next to Aang. He was just staring off at the opposite wall as if mulling something over.
"Hey," I said, quieter than expected.
He slowly turned his head to look at me and he gave me some look that looked like a smirk.
"Hey."
"So, what's up?"
He looked at the ground. Why does he always have to do that? Why can't he just look me straight in the eyes and say what he needs to say? That would make the suspense more bearable, just looking into his comforting, grey eyes that have seen more than I will ever know.
"I don't really know how to put this lightly, say it slowly so that it doesn't come at you like a rampaging platypus-bear. So I'll just say it…"
There he goes again. Pausing just at the best part. He's just trying to torture me isn't he?
"I love you."
Wow. I wasn't really expecting that. How do you reply to that kind of statement? I don't think it would be best fitting to say "Well, you know, what's not to love?" Not that I would say that. Do I really love Aang? Not just like-love, but the spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-him-love? Do I really feel that for him?
"I had to tell you. It was like a fierce fire burning me on the inside and it was slowly encasing my whole body and if I didn't say something soon I would have given in. I'm so sorry."
He looked away and although he was trying to hide it, I could see the tears come to his eyes.
I wept.
And wept.
We wept together.
I walked over to him and buried my face in his back and we just laid there for what seemed like hours.
We've been through so much. This must be why I'm crying so hard. It's amazing that we made it through all of the twists and bumps in the road.
"Aang…" Is all I could manage to get out.
Who am I kidding? That's not why I'm crying so hard.
I love him.
Why was it even questionable?
I know the answer.
I'm just a foolish teenager.
"No… Aang… Don't apologize… I…" I whimpered between weeps.
He sat up, wiped his face, and for once, looked me in the eyes.
"I love you. I always have and just never realized it. I'm just a foolish teenager"
We just sat there, staring at each other, taking in how we will never again in our lives experience such a perfect moment.
I know the average person would think that a moment is only perfect if you kiss or make-out, but it is really unbelievable how wrong they are.
This moment is perfect, just how it is. We don't need to throw in some unnecessary lip-locking.
Suddenly, I heard ruffling noises come from the opening of the tent.
"Oh. My. Gosh. Why does this tent give me such trouble?! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU STUPID FLAP?!?!"
We both jumped when we saw a sharp black object stab through the wall of the tent.
"HA! That's much better."
And, as I should have expected, Sokka came barging in looking very confident about having overcome the door.
"Whoa, it looks like you two made some progress," he said with a smirk.
I'm sure that it did look pretty awkward, what with my arms wrapped around Aang's neck and his arms wrapped around my waist, and not to mention the utterly close proximity.
"Sokka…" I said, irritated.
"Hey, I'm just here to see how it went."
Aang exchanged a quick glance.
"You could say that it went okay" he said, looking down at me, without a trace of regret on his face.
A/N: Next chapter coming up soon. Sorry I haven't been writing recently, I've been working on this one for the past 2 or 3 months. There will only be 2 chapters in this series by the way.
Disclaimer:
Aang: Ya know, we have a lot of fans. I wonder who writes our material.
Sokka: That's a good question.
Toph: Yeah.
Katara: Yeah, we do have a lot of fans.
Zuko: What's this WE stuff? Everyone knows I'm SEXYFINE!!! rips off shirt and begins to dance like a stripper
Sokka: Um… okay. Well you know, I heard of this crazy awesome writer, the name's aangkatara140. Yeah strange name…
Aang and Katara blush
Aang: Hehe…
Katara: Well… um… heh… that name doesn't sound very professional, any other suggestions?
Sokka: Well how about um… I"VE GOT IT! Bryan Konietzko and Mike Dimartino!
Toph: Sounds professional to me!
Aang: Ok then… heh… let's officially forget about aangkatara140.
Katara: Uh…blushes deeply yeah.