~ Toph's Not the Only Earth Bender in Ba Sing Se ~
(A Kataang Fic for the hopeless romantic)
The Jasmine Dragon (and the Night Before)
Aang walked out of the teashop to the spectacular Ba Sing Se sunset around him. Behind him he felt as much as heard the quiet footsteps that followed him. HE shouldn't of been surprised, she had been with him from the start, and now she was with him at the end. At least he thought she was. He couldn't stop the blush spreading to his cheeks as she walked up behind him and laid her hand on his shoulder.
Turning to face her without thinking, he hugged her impulsively. He could feel her returning the embrace, and he flashed back to that perfect moment when he'd opened his eyes in her arms. He let his insecurities go, and turned to look over the sunset again, with her by his side.
A long moment passed and something made him turn back to Katara. She was facing him, also blushing lightly, but then she pressed her lips to his. The kiss deepened and stretched on for what could have been an eternity, and the world was at peace…
The sun was shining brightly…
The sun was shining brightly. Groaning Aang stirred from his dream unwillingly. The hard light of morning heralded a new day, and all that it would bring. Still, he held onto the last images from last night for a moment longer revelling in the memories.
Even after their lips broke apart, they held each other. Time was only measured by the movement of the sun as it dropped ever lower into the sky. Aang could see the stars as they came out, reflected in Katara's eyes. The moment felt surreal, and yet more real than anything he'd ever felt before. He thought it would just go on for ever…
"Ooh Twinkletoes!" The ground shook slightly, and without thinking he kicked lifted himself and Katara into the air. "Hey no fair!" Toph yelled.
Dropping to the ground with a rather breathless Katara, Aang turned to Toph "What were you trying to do anyway?" He said, irritation filling his voice.
"I was just giving you a little nudge… I was picking up a vibe coming from you two." Both Aang and Katara blushed furiously. If only she knew how unnecessary she'd been.
"Wow, I don't need to see to see that." Toph remarked, picking up on their rapidly beating hearts and blushes.
"See what?" Sokka emerged from inside "Wait was all that rumbling you?" he asked suspiciously of Toph.
"Hey don't look at me; I'm not the only Earthbender in the city." Toph said shrugging, although Sokka was still glaring at her.
"So it's not an earthquake after all?" yelled a frustrated Zuko.
"How boring" Mai yawned, leading him out onto the balcony as well.
"Well it could have been" Suki said in Sokka's defence.
"Well because of him and his earthquake alert I was crammed in a closet with-" Zuko luckily managed to cut himself off in time as everyone's glares focused on him "uh… with… out… tea!" he mumbled, before seizing gratefully on the teapot Iroh was waving in the air behind everyone's back.
"Aww… Thank you nephew! I don't like to boast but tea really is essential. Imagine being in a closet without it?" he chuckled and everyone joined in.
No one seemed to notice Aang as he quietly slipped over to Katara. Even Toph's usually keen earth bending senses didn't notice, and he'd never been more glad at being forgotten.
"Hold on" he whispered in her Katara's ear, grinning mischievously to her. With that he lightly airbent them off the ground and over the edge of the balcony. Breathing a sigh of relief they leaned into each other, grinning as they listened to the conversation continuing above.
"I still can't believe you thought my little nudge was an earthquake!" Toph said loudly.
"Ow!" they heard Sokka yelped, they didn't need to see to know that Toph had just thumped him on the shoulder. Aang rubbed his shoulder subconsciously in sympathy. "Hey that was no nudge!" Sokka complained.
"Oh sorry" Toph mocked "here let me try again"
"No!" Sokka squealed, drawing laughs from everyone "Hey…" he protested "I was just afraid she would earthbend again." he muttered darkly, "I mean look at the shop."
"What do you mean Sokka?" Suki asked.
"Well look what Toph did; she's as bad as Katara and Aang sometimes." Sokka grumbled.
Below the balcony Aang and Katara could clearly hear Iroh's groan. "My tea…"
"It's only a little spilt tea uncle." Zuko said patting him reassuringly.
"Is this seriously happening?" Mai asked of nobody in particular.
"Well it's Toph's fault" Sokka complained stubbornly.
"Look, I didn't start an earthquake you big wimp!" Toph said exasperated. "I was just giving Aang and Katara a little push... but of course Twinkletoes just dodged like a girl." Toph tried to change the subject, but the damage was done.
"Wait… What! What were you doing? What were Aang and Katara doing?"
"I don't know why you're getting so worked up over this…" Mai said, looking between the still sobbing Iroh and the fuming Sokka.
"Well I think it's cute." Suki said brightly.
"CUTE!" Sokka yelled.
Below the balcony Aang cringed, but was surprised by Katara bursting out giggling beside him.
"Speaking of Twinkletoes and Sugar-queen, can anyone see them, I can't feel them around."
"Aang, come quickly" Katara said, grabbing his hand. Still a little confused by everything, Aang nevertheless gladly took her hand, and allowed her to lead him away.
"Why are we running away?" he asked, after they'd gone some distance.
"Do you really want to listen to Sokka all night?" Aang pretended to think about it and they both dissolved into laughter.
"Aang!" Seemingly out of nowhere drifted Sokka's voice.
"Aang!" Reluctantly opening his eyes, he realized that Sokka was actually yelling beside him.
"Aang!" Groaning, he raised his head from the pillow.
He had missed his usual morning meditation, but that didn't bother him as much as Sokka's shouts right now.
"Where on earth were you last night?"
"Um…" he stuttered but Sokka saved him unwittingly, talking right over him.
"I mean seriously we waited for like hours for you before dinner, only for you to tell us you weren't hungry!" Sokka grumbled. "Although in hindsight it might not have been such a bad thing, no offence buddy, but rabbiroo food doesn't sit well with a warrior." Sokka flexed one of his biceps for emphasis at their room's mirror. "And having a proper meaty meal, cooked on a meat stove for meat-eaters was worth waiting for!"
Despite himself Aang couldn't help but laugh, it was just so typical of Sokka.
"Now hurry up, waiting for dinner is one thing, but you make me wait for breakfast and no matter how many times you save the world there is no way I'll forgive you."
"I wonder what he'll do if we miss lunch at the meeting today?" Aang mused aloud, trundling down the stairs after Sokka. One thing was for sure though; he didn't want to be in that meeting when it came between Sokka and a meal.
-I-
Looking around in the rising moonlight, Katara saw that they'd come to stop at a small pond. "Hey look turtleducks!" Aang was pointing eagerly, drawing a giggle from her.
"What are you kids doing here!" a grouchy voice sounded behind them.
"Uh oh, here we go again." Aang mumbled. Katara hid a grin behind him. "Are these your ducks?"
"This is my garden!" he grumbled "Go make out somewhere else!"
Blushing deeply the two of them quickly hurried away from the man. Katara however turned around, smiling mischievously and bent a sphere of water over the grouchy man's head. Dropping it on him she and Aang both laughed. "That'll cool him off."
"You know this reminds me of when you tried to pull that scam with Toph" He smirked, while running haphazardly through the middle ring streets.
They stopped mutually, hugging their sides and panting for breath. "You know I was almost starting to miss the running." She smiled, gaining control over her breathing.
"Well dumping the water on that guy was funny. Reminds me of that Cabbage guy we kept running into" Aang said, grinning widely.
"Yeah." She said giggling softly. They shared an awkward moment, yet she loved the bubbly nervous feeling which had overcome her. It was like she was meeting him again for the first time and they both felt a little unsure of what to say to each other. Truthfully it had already been said.
"Hey Katara?" Aang said softly, breaking the silence, but his gentle voice only increased the tension between them.
"Hmm?" she mumbled
"I need to ask you something"
"What is it?"
"Please come closer…" A familiar sense of Déjà Vu filled her, as she embraced him. She smiled and pecked him on the lips, silencing him, and it was like a floodgate bursting as they embraced, the kiss deepening. They were holding each other tightly like they had so many times before, just them.
It had always been just them.
Finally after what seemed eons they reluctantly broke apart, and
"You look really pretty Katara" Aang finally managed, averting his eyes. He raised them as he felt her soft hand on his cheek.
"Thanks Aang, although that wasn't a question."
"Hmm…?" he mumbled "Well I guess you kind of already answered it, and asking for you to kiss me after you already did just seemed-" She kissed him quickly again, cutting off his rambling and making him blush adorably.
She wasn't opposed to deepening the kiss again, but the grumbling of her stomach betrayed her, and alerted Aang to the fact that they had snuck off before dinner.
Grinning goofily, Aang happily laced his hand with hers, although she missed the feeling of his lips against hers. It was worth however to see those beautiful grey eyes and his trademark grin. She really loved that grin of his. "At the risk of sounding like Sokka, do you wanna go get something to eat?"
For an impromptu first date, it was everything Katara could have dreamed of and more, it was perfect.
Katara groggily opened her eyes. She groaned as the mornings hard light hit her eyes as she was roughly shaken awake. Yet nothing could shake the smile from her face. Never in all of her wild imaginings had she thought her life would turn out like this. But then again, a year ago no one would have thought anything would be like this.
Still it would have been nice if she could have slept in and relived last night's memory in her dreams for a little longer. She looked around for who was shaking her, and saw Toph sitting on a bed across from her tapping her foot sending vibrations through the floor.
"So where did you and Twinkletoes disappear to last night?" Toph asked bluntly.
"Why do you want to know?" Katara said defensively, glad that Toph couldn't see her blush, nor feel it through the soft mattress of the bed.
"I'm just curious as to whether Sokka will kill you or not when he finds out" Toph said seriously, and Katara couldn't tell if she was mocking her or not.
"It is really none of your business either way" she said haughtily. In truth she didn't want to share her memories from the night before, because it was something she wanted to be between her and Aang alone.
"Yeah I knew it, Sokka's gonna kill you guys!" Toph said merrily.
"There is no way he'll find out what happened" Katara said crossly.
"So something did happen?" Toph's smug voice continued to taunt her.
"No!" she shouted.
"Tell it to the hand Sugarqueen, coz I can feel your heartbeat from over here!"
"What's going on?" A sleepy Suki mumbled from under her pillow.
Toph smiled crookedly at the other tired girl "I guess you could just hope that your brother is too tired from his own activities last night to bother you." She said snarkily.
"Urgh!" Katara groaned, she had just about had it with Toph. She finished readying herself in a hurry, before striding out of the girl's room down to the main floor of The Jasmine Dragon for breakfast, a smirking Toph following her the whole way.
-II-
Breakfast was a simple affair, with Iroh handing out some fresh bread porridge. Aang was lead down the stairs by Sokka to an empty room with plates set out for the six of them.
Zuko and Mai were staying in Ba Sing Se's palace with their royal retinue, as befitted Zuko's new position as Fire Lord. They excused themselves last night saying that they had caused enough headaches by disappearing for the day, and didn't want to cause a panic by disappearing for the night as well. In truth Aang was supposed to be staying at the palace as well, but he had turned down the offer, more than comfortable in Iroh's humble teashop. Iroh, suspecting that their reason for staying at the palace was more because they wanted a room to themselves, had just chuckled and told them to behave.
"Where's the meat?" Sokka moaned beside him, snapping back to the present.
"Sokka, it's breakfast" Aang said by way of explanation.
"That's exactly my point!"
Aang didn't bother arguing, and just tucked into his porridge. It was just his luck that Katara had to come down the stairs at that moment. She looked sulky, and he guessed the reason for that was the grinning Toph following behind her. Despite that when her eyes met his she burst into a radiant smile, and he was sure he was doing the same.
Cursing himself for a fool he realized what an idiot he must have looked like, with a mouthful of oatmeal running down his chin. Hiding a furious blush he looked down at his food and began attacking his food like he was facing Ozai all over again.
He heard a soft giggle beside him, and couldn't stop himself from turning to stare at Katara's beautiful face again.
"Here, let me get that for you" She was holding a napkin, and wiped his chin for him, as Aang forced himself to swallow his entire mouthful so he could grin earnest.
No one in the room missed the intimacy of the gesture; Iroh smiled at the sight, Toph smirked, and Sokka's brow furrowed. The moment was broken when Suki stumbled down looking a little wobbly, a far cry from her usual Kyoshi warrior grace. Sokka stared at her stupidly much like Aang had at Katara, only his mouth hinged openly, and it's contents dropped all over the table.
Reacting quickly, Aang airbended a shield between him and Katara, and the splattering debris from Sokka's mouth.
"Oi!" Sokka yelled, as the oatmeal was blown all over him.
Aang just stared cheekily at the mess that was Sokka while Katara giggled.
"That's it!" Sokka yelled, taking a fighting stance. "Food Fight!"
Even Iroh got involved; launching his batch of Juk at anyone who came to close with a serving ladle. The bread rolls became swords, and Aang and Katara bent the soggy oatmeal as a team, before dissolving into their own personal battle. Understandably not much breakfast was left after all was said and done.
Author's Note: This idea was originally part of a longer story I have since merged with other designs of mine. I consider it a little experiment with merging flashbacks with dialogue, so I've re-designated it now as a sugary one-shot.
~BenignViewer