A/N: Oh my goodness ffnet long time no see! Wow sorry I have been MIA for so long. I've just been so busy with school and work and life in general. Also, I just haven't had much inspiration for writing recently. I mean, I'll get a little fleeting idea in my mind and think "Hey maybe I should expand on that," but never follow through and forget it the next day. But then I wrote this during finals! No it's not my best one, but it isn't my worst. It didn't at all go the direction I thought it would, but I don't think it turned out awful. It's just a short little semi-Kataangy scene I feel may have happened immediately following DOBS part 2. I hope you like it!

Reviews are very much appreciated! :)

Disclaimer: I think it has been thoroughly established that I will never even come close to Bryke's level and therefore have too smallish of a brain to ever come up with these incredible characters in ATLA...

"I know just the place where we'll be safe for a little while: the Western Air Temple."

I feel Appa surge forward beneath me, my hair blowing back as we pick up speed. No one questions Aang's plan; we're all still too busy processing what has just happened.

We lost...again. This wasn't supposed to happen. This was supposed to be the end. Today was supposed to be the day that went down in the history books as the last day of a one hundred year war, the day the tyrannical reign of the Fire Nation finally crumbled to pieces. But history was not kind to us, in fact it feels more like a knife to the gut.

I look around Appa's saddle at the quiet faces of my defeated friends. The mixing feelings for sadness, anger, regret, and pain hang so thick in the air I feel as though I can touch it. No one speaks. Everyone just simply stares off into the vast sky of a world that is still yet to be saved. I look to my brother and see his brow creased in frustration. He must feel so guilty. I want to comfort him, but I have learned over the years to give Sokka his space when wounds are fresh, so I leave him in his quiet contemplation.

I look out to sky like the rest of my friends, and close my eyes as I feel the moisture of the clouds cool my sweat and dirt-caked face. A sad smile tugs at my lips as I remember a time not so long ago (although it feels like a different lifetime) when I helped a young airbender shape the clouds to save a village. I remember how young, hopeful – innocent – we were then. Everything is different now. I am no longer the little waterbender whose world stopped at whatever horizon she looked at that night. I am Katara, waterbending master whose world expands to every nation and the skies above and waters below, and I have a feeling of responsibility to protect and fight for this big new world of mine, to help save it.

But today, I failed. We all did.

I turn my gaze from the misty atmosphere to the back of the freshly shaven head sitting at the reins. His eyes are locked on the sky directly ahead, back rigid, shoulders square, sitting straight up. I realize this loss is a bigger blow to him than to anyone else aboard this bison. He's the Avatar. He isn't supposed to fail...at least that's what the rest of the world seems to believe.

But I know better. Aang may be the Avatar, but I knew him first as Aang. Aang, the sweet, fun-loving, caring airbender with the attention span of a rabbit squirrel and a knack for getting in trouble. He's eccentric and carefree...or at least he used to be. I guess he's changed more than any of us. He's still fun and outgoing and quirky, but the burden of the world on his shoulders has weighed down his smile. The innocence that used to radiate from him is gone, lost with a crack of lightning beneath Ba Sing Se. He's grown up so much.

We've been through so many things together, and I've seen you grow up so much.

My mind flashes back to the moment we shared atop the submarine earlier today. It happened so fast and I haven't had a spare second to think about it until now. He kissed me. Aang kissed me. I let that fact sink into my brain and really try to process it for the first time. Was it weird? Yeah, a little. Should I have seen it coming? I don't know...

Did I like it? Maybe...

I pull my knees to my chest and bury my face in my hands. When did everything get this complicated? Things used to be so simple! Gone are the days when my biggest worry was whether or not Sokka would hurt himself with his boomerang again (it took him a while to figure it out). Now there's just so much going on and so much to worry and think about that there's not really time to examine how I feel about everything.

Aang and I. Ever since I saved him from that iceberg, I know we've shared a special and powerful connection. From day one he has been my best friend...but anything more? I honestly don't know. I mean, yes, I suspected that he may have had a schoolboy crush in the beginning, and I admit I may have second glanced him a time or two back then, but then came a war, a comet, an evil firelord, and a destiny that left no time or room for innocence or naivety. We grew up. In less than a year, we've grown up.

I run my hands through my hair and clasp them on the back of my neck, staring at my dirty and scraped up knees. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and exhale slowly. This isn't the time to be worrying about such things. I'm sure that moment will come soon enough, but right now, he's hurting. I need to comfort him.

Taking another deep breath, I crawl to the edge of the saddle and slide onto Appa's head beside Aang. He's still sitting stiff, eyes set resolutely forward in faux disinterest, but the tearstains on his cheeks betray his pain.

I wrap my arm around his shoulder and whisper, "It's going to be okay."

I watch as his eyes begin to glisten with tears aching to be shed. He finally breaks his steadfast gaze to look down at his hands, like he's afraid to look at me.

"Maybe," he responds. "But right now...right now it couldn't be further from okay. I failed...again."

I shake my head and pull him closer, "No, Aang," I reply. "We failed."

A tear drips from his cheek and onto his fists clenched him guilt. My own vision starts to blur as hot tears threaten to fall. I tighten my grip on his shoulder once again as I say with more confidence than I thought I had, "We are a team. A family. Everything we do, we do together. We fight together, we win together," I place my hand on his face and gently turn his cheek so our eyes meet, "and we fail together."

His eyes soften as they look into mine, and he nods his head in an almost imperceptible shake of acceptance. I take a deep breath and offer him a small, bittersweet smile, which he readily returns. I suddenly realize our proximity and that my hand is still lingering on his cheek, so I drop it to my lap and break our gaze to look off into the horizon. I do keep my arm around his shoulder because I feel he still needs the support, and I discover that I need it too.

We may have failed, but this time, I didn't lose him. That, I feel, is a small victory in and of itself. This time, my heart wasn't shattered by the crack of a devastating bolt of lightning that almost ended his life for good.

Aang was right. Everything will be different after today. We made it out alive but not unscathed. This loss is a new wound that needs healing and another problem that needs solving. But looking off into the orange sunset over a world counting on us to save it, I have not even an inkling of doubt that we can overcome anything, as long as we do it together.

A/N: Thanks again for reading! Don't forget to REVIEW (no flames please)!