Title: Day One, Beginnings or "Penguin Sledding"

Rating: K

A/N: I've been meaning to write something for A:TLA (and also A:LOK) for almost a year now but never got the opportunity. KF Kataang Week 2012, Challenge 8 (July 22nd to 28th) turned out to be the answer. I probably shouldn't begin yet another multi-chapter story, but my love for this couple knows no bounds. There'll also be Tokka week quite soon as well (August 1st to 7th).

Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to Mike and Bryan, Nickelodeon and Viacom.

Day 1: Beginnings
Many of the Kataang moments near the start were fluffy and adorable. Panda Lilies, Necklaces, the Iceberg… Focus on early series Kataang, like S1.

Katara was too old to go penguin sledding. She was fourteen, already a young woman who had responsibilities to both her family and her village. And yet, she couldn't find it in herself to deny the request of the mysterious young boy in front of her.

Aang and anything related to him baffled her. He was so different from everything she knew. His behavior was unlike any child of their age; he acted mostly like a young child who had no idea that they were all in the middle of a war, but he also showed a hidden maturity unlike anything she'd ever seen. He was also very exotic; she had never seen someone with such a pale skin tone or those interesting tattoos. His clothes were quite eye-catching. The orange and yellow complimented his playful and free personality perfectly. And to add to it all, he was also an airbender and had a sky bison (a creature believed to be extinct a century ago).

She became more and more curious about the boy in front of her by the minute. In less than a few hours he'd already become the most interesting thing that had ever happened in her life. She'd never met anyone quite like him. Not even Gran Gran with all of her years of experience had ever met an airbender and that made her suspicious of the young boy. But Katara couldn't possibly believe sweet, adorable Aang was dangerous; he wouldn't even hurt a fly. His airbending was as carefree as Aang and Katara found herself watching eagerly whenever he would make a simple demonstration with the most abundant element.

The boy seemed to have an unending energy: after playing with the children from the village and even standing Sokka for minutes on end, Aang was now hanging with the penguins as if he was old friends with the animals. Katara smiled warmly as she looked at him. Aang was different from everything she knew, but he still felt like family to her. The mysterious airbender brought her an array of feelings she'd never felt in such intensity before: curiosity, mirth, happiness and most importantly, hope.

It had been so long ever since she had allowed herself to feel hope. Ever since her mother's tragic and untimely death, Katara hadn't allowed herself to feel anything as the burden of responsibility increased over the years. She felt like there was nothing more to her life than her small village in the South Pole and the remains of her family, which was even smaller now that her father left to fight in this horrible war. Even though Hakoda left their small village with a smile and Sokka firmly believed he'd be back one day, Katara wasn't so sure. After all, this village was her whole life; she didn't know what lay after a couple of icebergs.

But Aang changed her views of the world. For the young boy, everything seemed so simple: there was no war, the main event of the day would be penguin sledding and going to the North Pole would be an easy task – one he was willing to do for her. Aang presented her with a set of possibilities she'd never thought of. Going to the other tribe, which they haven't contacted for years, and find herself a waterbender teacher there? The offer was more than tempting and even if her heart told her to go, her mind said the exact opposite. She should stay with whatever was left of her village and family – that's what she was told.

Aang's voice brought Katara back from her thoughts.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me, Katara?" Aang asked with an eager smile.

There were a variety of answers in the tip of her tongue: "I have to help Gran Gran with the house chores", "Sokka will wonder where we are", "Penguin sledding is for children"…. And yet, as she looked at those hopeful, twinkling grey eyes – another one of Aang's exotic traits she'd easily find herself wondering about – she couldn't say no.

Despite herself, she nodded smiling. Aang grinned at her and for once, the young water tribe girl didn't care about responsibilities. Katara thought she was too old to go penguin sledding, but Aang proved her wrong.

A/N: This story will be updated daily. Some chapters will be longer and others shorter, but with no drabbles or one-line works. Hopefully this will be the first of many portrayals of this lovely pairing!
Fieldings