But When the World Needed Him Most
Word Count: 452
Pairings: Hints of Sokka/Suki, Katara/Aang
Warning: To be safe, spoilers for the finale.
Notes: A little bit of an unhappy post-everything vignette.
x x x
But Aang had lived one hundred thirty years past the day he should have died, and so many years are not kind on any body, human or otherwise. He passed away quietly in his sleep.
"Yet smiling," Fire Lord Zuko said to the assembled crowd, "As though he had something to prove. Avatar Aang had many things to prove; the greatest of all was that love extends even to one's enemies." Four hundred thousand dignitaries, princes and friends bowed their heads. At the extreme ends of the globe the people of the water eyed their newborns carefully. "We should not remember Avatar Aang for the hundred years he left us, but for the single year in which he saved us all."
The crowd murmured a blessing, a prayer, and bowed their heads in a sort of forced silence. Avatar Aang was dead.
In the name of peace between nations Fire Lord Zuko had opened his imperial city for all those who had travelled far; a free night in a one-room hut was more than enough for most, but there were some guests more important than others. Sokka and Suki were given the servant's quarters in the room next to the Fire Lord's, Katara a cot in the imperial bedroom.
It was hours later, after the speeches and the refreshments and the schmoozing between nobility that had never met him but could pretend very well that they had, that Sokka found Katara. She was kneeling at Zuko's bed, her head in her hands. In her black gown she was every part the widow- it suited her terribly.
"Katara," he said, not possessing the right words. "…Katara."
When she looked up it was the look of the defeated Fire Lady; eyes deep red, hair a mess of tangles, skin ashen. She gave a mangled sort of cry and leapt into his arms.
After all these years Sokka was still just Sokka. He petted her hair and tried to soothe her with silence for hour-long minutes, but when it was obvious that there was something more terrible than the death of a beloved husband and friend, he held her at arm's length and looked deep into her eyes. She was still crying.
"Katara." Thirty years had brought a new calm to his voice. "You know Aang wouldn't want you to be this way."
"N-no," she stammered, faltering. "It's- we- only one ch-child, Sokka."
"Yes. You had a son and named him Pakku. Katara, I-"
His stomach dropped through the floor.
"He's a Waterbender," she sobbed.
x x x
Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could save us.
But when the world needed him most, he vanished.