Aang was such an idiot. Why did he kiss her? She said she was confused after trying the best she could do to describe her hesitation with Aang and hers relationship. Katara slid down the wall of the hallway and groaned, her chest still slightly heaving from running away from him. The thought shot a pang of hurt in her heart. She ran away from him. She could go to him when he was in an Avatar State induced rage, but she couldn't face him when it was time to talk about… feelings? Katara almost laughed, but let out a choked sort of half chuckle. Suddenly, she heard the clutter of footsteps, indicating that the intermission was over. Katara got up and started to walk back towards the theatre, but before she left, she looked back to see if Aang was coming. He didn't follow.
The rest of the play only got worse, but instilled an unsettling thought that she didn't even consider before.
There was a chance Aang wouldn't win. He wouldn't come back. Her palms started to sweat and her heart started beating irregularly.
No, he had to come back. There wasn't another possibility. He had to.
On the way back to the house, she made the decision to talk to Aang about it more.
Only, when they arrived at the house, he was ignoring her, or, at least, avoiding her. Any time she would try to pull him away from the group or bring the topic up, he wouldn't acknowledge her.
She was starting to get frustrated. At one point, she ended up yelling at Aang in the midst of a conversation in the group that she needed to talk to him in private. He begrudgingly obliged, causing all except Toph to stare as they left with quizzical looks and inquiring minds.
Once they got to somewhere that seemed safe, she sighed, making herself face him. His expression was neutral, but with a hint of aggravation beneath the surface.
"Aang…" she started, biting her lip. He just stared. "Aang, look I'm sorry. I know I'm not being fair to you," she looked down now, playing with the tips of her fingers, "I just don't know how to explain it." She snuck a look from under her eyelashes to see if his expression had changed - it hadn't - and to show that she was sincere.
She groaned and threw her head and her arms back, starting to pace. "Why is it so hard to talk to you about this! We can talk about everything else!"
Aang sighed and sat on the ground cross-legged, watching her, "just say what's on your mind."
She snorted, "that's the thing - I have no idea what's on my mind! Or what's going on with it." She stopped her movements and sighed, looking towards Aang with a furrowed brow. Katara needed to stop being such anairbender and just confront it. She blew a piece of hair out of her face and walked towards Aang, sitting down next to him. His eyes never left her and his gaze felt heavy, but she forced herself to look at him.
"I…" she paused, gulping her words down, letting her eyes fall in cowardice. The second stretched on and Aang nodded for her to continue. "I don't think of you as a brother… nor a friend… I… I don't know what I think of you…"
Aang blinked a few times, his expression changed to a some what confused state, and nodded once. Katara let out a breath, closing her eyes and let her head fall to his shoulder, her hand softly intertwining with his.
"I don't know. I'm just… confused."
Aang half smiled and rubbed her shoulder soothingly, trying to comfort her.
"Okay, I'm sorry for being stupid. I shouldn't have tried to force you to make a decision and…" He trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence.
"Yeah, I'll say," Katara replied with a chuckle, which in turn made Aang laugh with her. He pushed her shoulder back so her head would be raised, allowing him to look at her. He was happy to see her smiling.
"We'll talk about it again when…. you defeat the Fire Lord." Katara tried to keep her voice from shaking, but felt it falter at the end. She needed some sort of reassurance that Aang would come back, or entice him more into winning so he would.
Aang seemed to pick up on her energy and what question she really was asking him from her statement, and tried to give her a reassuring smile. "Of course I'll come back."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Good," she squeezed his hand, kissed him on the cheek and left, a wave of ease passing over her. She just had to believe he'd be okay, and to believe in him, like all those years waiting for his return. And even though she wouldn't know the outcome of the battle yet, she was comfortable knowing that Aang would keep his promise, one way or another.