Things Kept

By: (Yami) White Rain.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

Pairing: Aang/Katara

Summary: Aang and Katara, on hope and love, and knowing there there is still time.

Warnings: Some small spoilers for the season finale.

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The moment Aang realizes he's in love with Katara:

They were standing on a cliff next to the ocean, and the wind was blowing through her hair. If he wasn't so numb, he would have thought about how pretty it was. But all he could think about was Appa and how much the anger and fear had burned within him and how killing took off the edge for a moment --

And she tells him to keep hoping.

Before bowing, a thought comes to his head: I'm in love her.

But he doesn't say it, because love had to be more foolish than hope.

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The moment Katara realizes she's in love with Aang:

Despite Sokka's assurance that they had it under control, Katara couldn't help but feel that they weren't prepared. At first she thought it was fear that they weren't strong enough, because she kept wanting to grab Aang and pull him into her arms and tell everyone to forget it.

But it occurred to her when she watches Sokka enter the walls of the Fire Kingdom as par their plan, and she feel something more than fear, she also feels hope, and she has faith in her brother.

Too soon, it's Aang's time to move, and she remembers the feeling that Aang could save the world she had just awhile ago, and she wonders why everything has suddenly changed. And the fear she felt when she thought Aang was dead (it was a fear that never went away, it haunted her dreams) bubbled inside of her and she takes several steps to him and says, "Aang, I - "

"Don't worry, Katara," Aang says, and grins at her before he crawls under the tunnel Toph had dug.

She doesn't, and she knows that she'll tell him after they win