So, yeah, this started out as a oneshot but I liked it so much that I decided to chapter it. But it doesn't really get any happier, so brace yourself. Nice and full of misery! So enjoy, and remember that it doesn't stay happy!

Music for this chapter is hard to pin down, but while writing this, I was listening to August 28, 3:30 a.m. by Automatic Loveletter. It fits the end of this chapter and the beginning of the next.

Just Keep Breathing

Chapter Two

Sokka walked back to the commons smiling and slid the door shut. Suki looked up at him with curious blue eyes that silently asked what had happened. She wasn't hopeful.

Sokka was glad that Toph and Zuko were living in different apartments on the other side of the Jasmine Dragon, apartments Iroh had ordered built when it was clear that most of the peace talks would be in Ba Sing Se and his nephew and cohorts would need a place to stay. Their apartment was only next door, so it convenient if the two were needed for something, but if Sokka wanted to have a tête-à-tête with Suki or Katara, he didn't have to worry about his private conversation being overheard.

Of course, he didn't include Aang. He, until very recently, hadn't cared enough about the world to care about any secrets. Sokka could have yelled something meant to be covert across the apartment and Aang would have been none the wiser.

"I think we may have the Avatar back, Suki," Sokka said, and he grinned.

Suki's eyes widened and she gasped. "Sokka, what do you mean? Are you saying…"

"Yeah, he is."

Suki turned towards the sound of the deep voice that had interrupted her and saw Aang standing in the doorway with his arm around Katara's waist. She was smiling.

Suki was so shocked, not only to hear Aang's voice, a sound none of them had heard in a very long time, but also seeing him happy, that her mouth fell open.

When Sokka had told her that Aang had, in a sense, recovered, Suki hadn't believed that Aang would have been so much improved in so short a time. She was surprised to see him standing there in the doorway like nothing had ever been wrong with his arm intimately wrapped around Katara.

Aang chuckled at Suki's face. "Yeah, I know. But everything I need to say needs to be said later, because the Avatar and the Southern Water Tribe Delegate have a peace meeting to go to." He rolled his eyes.

Katara hoped that Aang wouldn't feel the muscles in her back tighten and her body tense, but he was the Avatar, and she could tell by the subtle look of guilt on his face that he had noticed.

"Aang," she said, her voice laced with concern. "Do you really think that's a good idea? I mean, for one thing, the fighting is what caused everything and I can promise you that nothing has changed. For another… well, I just don't think it's a good idea."

Aang shrugged. "I wouldn't mind blowing off the meeting, but there are going to be more and I can't just put them endlessly on hold, and I can't just not show up."

Katara nodded grimly. "Well, can we at least reschedule this one? I don't mind going to tell the council. I just really don't want you to go."

Aang shook his head. "I have to be the one to tell them we're rescheduling it; you know they won't take word of mouth. I'll go with you. I actually just had a really good idea that I want to present to them and I think you'll like it. I'll have to talk to Zuko, but I think I can get us some free time away from Ba Sing Se."

Katara smiled quickly at the thought of getting out of the city the kept them inside its walls like prisoners. They had been in Ba Sing Se for far too long.

XXX

When Aang and Katara arrived at the meeting hall in the Earth King's palace, all the delegates and officials were already seated. Aang walked to the head of the table, and Katara sat at his right, though further down in rank than she thought was appropriate. She was all but a princess, the daughter of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe. Had she been from the North, she would have been addressed as Princess. And yet she sat further down the table than the Earth King's new advisor. Further down the table than Toph, who was there as the delegate from Gaoling, and was not royalty or the daughter of anyone of political importance.

She tried not to let to it get to her.

"Honoured council," Aang called, and everyone looked up at him with various degrees of shock written all over their faces. "Today I am indisposed. I would like to postpone this meeting and, with permission from Fire Lord Zuko, reconvene at his palace in the Fire Nation capital in a month's time."

Katara almost laughed out loud as she looked round at some of the delegates' faces. Their expressions were all astonished, more so than they had been when Aang had first spoken. Even the trained courtiers, even Zuko, the Fire Lord himself, couldn't keep the surprised shock from their faces.

For her part, Katara couldn't blame them. Aang had been all but absent during the last four years of peace meetings, and for him to suddenly speak up, especially to request a postponement of the meeting was akin to the dead speaking to someone who was not the Avatar.

"Fire Lord Zuko?"

Zuko turned to Aang, a frown on his face. "Um, yes, Avatar Aang, I think that it is acceptable."

Aang smiled and stood up. "Thank you, Fire Lord." He turned away from Zuko and then addressed the rest of the council. "This meeting is dismissed. See you all in a month."

Everyone stood and filed out except for Katara, who waited for Aang. As the Avatar, decorum dictated that he must stay until all the members of the council had gone. It was tradition for Katara to wait for him, even when he hadn't cared.

Katara watched as the last delegate went through the door and she then approached Aang.

"You're thinking of vacationing in the Fire Nation, aren't you?" she asked, threading the fingers of both her hands through both of his and smiling up at him.

Looking at Aang made Katara's mind flash with memories from the distant past. From the day she had met Aang, he had been at least a whole head shorter than she was. That had changed almost half a year after the war had ended when he hit his growth spurt and shot up before her eyes, right before he had become reclusive. He had suddenly sprung up like a weed, becoming handsome, his small, lanky body, the body of a child, turning into the lithe body of the man before her now.

Katara unlaced her fingers from Aang's and put her hand on his chest, his heartbeat resonating under her fingertips. Her other hand was still clasped it his, and she could feel his pulse as if it were her own.

Aang hadn't answered her question. She didn't give him the chance.

With an unintentionally seductive look playing in the lines of her features, she reached up with her free hand, the hand that had been on Aang's chest, and grabbed his neck, his rough, stubbly hair rubbing against her palm. Her smile was provocative, and she felt his pulse spike as she crashed her lips hungrily to his.

This is what I've been missing, she thought as Aang reacted to her kiss vigorously. Four years was too long for a couple to go without any sort of physical contact.

Katara pulled her lips away from Aang's and gasped for breath, throwing her head back and exposing her neck. Aang wasted no time putting his lips on the side of her displayed flesh and planted kisses up and down the skin there.

"Aang, stop." Katara panted. The logical part of her brain was taking over, telling her that now was not the time or the place, and they had people waiting on them back at the flat.

"But I don't want to," Aang muttered against Katara neck, one hand in her hair, twisting one hand in her hair wrapping it around his fingers, the other still handclasped with her.

Katara laughed, and the spell was broken. Aang lifted his head and laughed too, his hearty chuckle harmonizing perfectly with Katara's melodious laugh. Katara shook her head and lightly kissed the airbender on the nose.

"Come on, silly," she said, pulling on his arm and setting him off balance. "We've got people we need to talk to, and Zuko's going to want to know what's going on. You know he's freaking out right now."

Aang nodded and followed Katara out of the council's room and towards the outside of the palace, holding her hand tightly in his the entire way.

He was happy. For the first time in years he was truly happy. If he was honest with himself, he was a little upset that he had been missing out on all the perks of being in a relationship with Katara. When they had first started dating, they had been so young that they weren't really sure about each other. They knew there was a mutual attraction, but their youth prevented them from truly enjoying each other.

Now that they were older, now that Aang had started getting his life back together, he understood what they really were to each other, and he comprehended perfectly how to keep both himself and his beloved mirthful and on cloud nine.

He knew, of course, that they were going to have moments when one or the other of them needed space, times when the simply couldn't stand the sight of each other. He knew they were going to get in arguments and become inauspicious to each other. That was part of any kind of relationship, be it friendly or romantic.

It also kept things interesting. If everything was always peaceful and calm, they would get bored with each other and then they would be unhappy and separate.

Aang almost looked forward to the disagreements they would have just to prove that they had a healthy relationship. He knew – he could feel it in his bones, a deep resonating feeling that made him tingle – that the worst part of his life was over and he had a long and joyous life ahead of him. And he knew it would be with Katara.

"Hey, Katara?" Aang asked suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"Do you ever think about the future? I mean, things have always been different for us. Things changed for you and Sokka the moment you found me in that iceberg. Did you ever stop to think what any of it might have caused?"

Katara thought about it for a moment, smiling at the question. It was so innocent, so plain and honest, seemingly out of the blue. So typical Aang.

"Well, I certainly didn't stop to think, gee, in five years I'm going to be dating this guy, or even that I'd help you save the world. I mean, I knew things were going to change when I found you, but I guess I never stopped to think just how much things would be different. Although I guess that should have been my first thoughts when we took off with you, seeing as I knew you were the Avatar."

"The dating part or the saving the world part?"

Katara rolled her eyes and lightly shoved her boyfriend. "The saving the world part, obviously. It's a little stupid, don't you think?" I mean, I barely knew you and I grabbed my brother and we just left without ever questioning it, and I never stopped to think that you were the Avatar and I was going to help you save the world. Pretty dumb, right?"

Aang shrugged. "I wouldn't say that. I mean, you'd been waiting for me to turn up for as long as you could remember, and then, suddenly I was there. You probably just got caught up in all the excitement."

"Maybe," Katara replied. "but I think you're a little cocky. I wasn't waiting for you exactly, just the Avatar. You as yourself, as Aang, wasn't the person I was waiting for."

"Gee, thanks, that makes me feel so good." He said sarcastically.

Katara smiled. "No problem. But you didn't let me finish. I'm glad it was you, because if you had been at the temple that day, I wouldn't know you now. And I 'm glad you ran away and I'm glad that I'm the one that found you."

Aang was about to thank her in earnest when he looked at where they were and realized that they had walked right past their apartment.

"Katara, we just walked right past the apartment," He told Katara, and she laughed.

"It appears we have. We should probably turn around and go back."

Aang sighed wistfully. "Yeah. I just think it's funny that we were so caught up in our conversation that we walked right by. I can just imagine the look on Sokka's face."

Katara laughed at the mental image. "Yeah, too bad we missed it."

They turned around, laughing at their mistake and walked to the apartment, an entire block away from where they had realized their error.

When they walked through the door, everyone was gathered in the commons, though Sokka and Suki in the corner playing Pai Sho and Zuko was sitting next to Toph on the couch looking over some paperwork. Toph herself was simply sitting at her ease with her feet propped up on the table in front of her and a tea cup in her hand, not appearing to actually be drinking whatever was inside.

"So," Aang said, and everyone who wasn't blind looked up at him. "Uh, we have some plans to discuss."

Zuko sat back on the couch and crossed his arms under his chest. "Yes, and I think we all deserve to know what's going on with you, Aang."

The airbender smile sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess so." He took a deep breath to steady himself, and his face was then very serious.

"Look, guys, I know I haven't really been around, but things have changed. I'm not going to be moping around anymore. And I thought maybe we could take a vacation to Ember Island or something to get a break from all the stuff we get burdened with. We can vacation for a whole month, and afterwards we head to the capital where the peace talk will start again."

Aang could see Toph smile under her long, dark mass of hair that she, because she was blind, didn't ever bother to trim or move away from her face.

"Reliving the lazy days? Sounds like just the thing our little group needs."

"I don't mind the idea," Zuko said, rolling up the scrolls of paperwork piled in front of him. "But I wish someone would have told me about it before it was dropped on me in a meeting that's supposed to help me fix my country. I was hoping about getting my economy stabilized in this one."

Suki snorted. "You say that every time, Zuko, and it hasn't happened yet."

Zuko glared at Suki. "That is not my fault. If Kuei would swallow his pride, then we could all move on with our lives and…"

"Guys!"

Zuko didn't say anything about being interrupted and fell silent.

"It's obvious that we need this vacation. I think if everyone's up for it, we should leave tonight."

Everyone voice their consent. Yes, it would be great to leave tonight; I can be ready in five minutes; what should I pack; I'm so excited.

Aang smiled and looked down at Katara as the others chatted about going on vacation. "Do you like your surprise?"

Katara grinned like a fourteen year old girl. "I do. Thank you, Aang."

They walked out of the commons and in to Aang's room to start packing without another word to the others, who were still talking excitedly about Ember Island. It was like reliving the glory days.

XXX

Katara sat silently on the pile of rags Aang called a bed, watching him throw robes and various clothes in an old knapsack. He didn't like using a mattress, though mostly due to the fact that it was hard to find one that wasn't stuffed with feathers or wool. Instead, he had a stack of different cloths piled on top of the other until it had reached three or four feet high. Katara didn't think it was very comfortable, but when she had asked Aang about it, he just shrugged and told her he liked it.

"Hey, Aang," Katara said suddenly, a memory of the day before the Day of Black Sun replaying in her head. Aang looked at her in askance.

"Do you remember the day before the invasion? The day you couldn't sleep?"

Aang chuckled, a deep, throaty sound, and sauntered over to his girlfriend. "Yeah, offhandedly. My behavior then probably ranks up there with Sokka's on cactus juice."

Katara nodded and giggled. "Yeah, it was pretty crazy. But I was wondering why you take measures to prevent sleeping on mattresses stuff with wool, but you slept on that "giant cloud", as you put it, that night.

Aang shrugged and sat down next to Katara. "Well, for one thing, I knew where it came from, and I knew it was obtained humanely. For another, I was really, really tired. It was probably that that did me in."

Katara shook her head, and then rested against Aang, kissing his cheek. "You're weird."

Aang pulled Katara into his lap. "Then you're a weird boy's girlfriend."

Katara looked up at Aang lustily. "You're no boy, Aang."

Aang kissed Katara's lips, bending her over his forearm. She snaked her arms around his neck and pressed her body as close against Aang's as she could. She trailed her tongue over his lips, and he moaned and grabbed her thigh, which she pressed against his hip when she wrapped her leg around his waist.

"Aang," Katara whispered passionately. She could feel him beneath her, could feel how much he wanted her. She pushed her body so hard against his that it hurt, but she felt, even then, that it wasn't close enough.

With sudden ferocity, Katara pushed Aang back on the bed and crawled on top of him, straddling him. She leaned down and kissed him with wild abandon, full of desire and ready to have Aang right there, not thinking of the consequences or the people only a door away.

She was just about to slip her hands under Aang's tunic and take it off when she heard the door slide open, and looked up to see Zuko standing in the doorway.

Katara blushed red an untangled herself from Aang, swinging her leg over Aang's body and lifting herself up to sit next to him in one fell swoop.

Katara refused to look at either of the men in the room; not Zuko standing in the doorway or Aang, propped up on his elbows with his legs hanging over the bed. She preferred, instead, to stare, embarrassed, down at her feet. She could not have felt more mortified if she had been caught with her underwear at her ankles in the middle of the street.

"Um, am I interrupting something?" Zuko asked, slowly backing out of the room without realizing what he was doing.

"No," Aang said, but he sounded uncertain.

"Well," Zuko said awkwardly. " I came to tell you to hurry up and get packed. Sokka's getting impatient."

Zuko left without saying anything else to the couple he had just saved from a compromising situation, muttering about sex crazed, hormonally imbalanced saviors of the world.

Timidly, Katara raised her eyes to look at Aang and met his gaze. Her body was still trembling from the combination of endorphins and humiliation. T her relief, she wasn't the only one tinted red, and she sighed, leaning forward and putting her weight on her forearms, which rested on her knees.

"We can't keep doing this, Aang," she told him, running a hand through her thick and tangled hair. "It's not right."

Aang made a move to reach out and take Katara's hand, but checked himself, remembering that it was frequently simple gestures like the comfort of a hand that had gotten them started with much more serious matters.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, folding his hands on top of his stomach. "I just love you so much that sometimes I don't stop to think what I'm doing when I get to feeling… this way."

Katara reached out and grabbed Aang's hand, which she instantly regretted doing. Her hand brushed against the taut muscles of his stomach, and she felt a wave of the desire that had not completely drained from her body well up again. But she did not drop Aang's hand, instead wrapping both of hers around it and laying down next to Aang.

"I know," she said. "And I completely understand, because I feel the same way, but we can't keep this up. From now on, we aren't allowed to be in a room alone together. Otherwise we'll get tempted again."

"So we have to be chaperoned at all times?" Aang asked, looking crestfallen. Katara couldn't blame him; she disliked the idea just as much as he did.

"I know, I know, I hate it to. But we clearly can't control ourselves when we're alone, and it's just not appropriate. I love you and I don't want to put you between a rock and a hard place."

Aang hardly heard anything after he hear Katara say "I love you".

"You love me?" he asked, looking over at her with child-like wonder.

Katara's brow pulled together and was knitted with confusion. "Of course I love you. Wasn't it obvious?"

Aang didn't answer. He was too busy thinking, imagining the future in his head. Getting married, having kids, growing old together. He was blown away by Katara's confession of love, but it also made him radiate to the core with happiness.

"Katara, you have to marry me."

Katara was taken aback and sat up very suddenly. "What?"

"You have to marry me," he said, sitting up and angling his body towards hers. He grabbed her hands and put them both on his chest, over his heart, which was thumping erratically. "I love you, and I want to spend the rest of out lives together."

Katara was so dumbstruck that she could hardly speak. "But… aren't you going about it the wrong way? I mean, I love you, but you sort of just demanded I marry you, instead of asking."

Aang looked into the depths of Katara's ocean blue eyes. "I love you so, so much. Please, marry me?"

Katara still didn't know how to respond. Of course, she had known since that night five years ago that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Aang, and though marriage was the obvious way to do such a thing, marrying Aang had never really occurred to her.

"Aang, I… I don't know what to say. We're just so young, and I just… I just don't know."

Aang removed Katara's hands from his chest and kissed them before setting them down. "Do you want to marry me, Katara?"

"Of course I do! It's just…"

"Then say yes. It's that simple."

Aang's face looked dark and serious, and Katara felt very bad about putting such an expression in his handsome features. She meant to say something, anything, to make him feel better, but her jaw just opened and closed uselessly without any words ever coming out.

"Aang, I wish it were that simple," she finally came up with, and she watched anger flash in Aang's gray eyes. "But we can't just decided to get married."

Aang stood suddenly and walked back to his packing. His back was turned silently to Katara and he began to literally throw clothes in his knapsack.

"Aang, don't be that way. I…"

Aang spun around with a dangerous look on his face, like he was about to go into the Avatar State. When he spoke, however, his tone was contrastingly even.

"Go pack, Katara, because I really don't want to hear it. I'm not going to have a replay if Ember Island. So just go."

Katara's face was a picture of shock. Aang had never spoken to her like that, and she could feel the wetness dripping from her eyes, though she didn't immediately realize what it was.

"Aang," she whispered, reaching out towards him.

Aang didn't turn around to face her when he spoke.

"Go pack, Katara. We're leaving soon."

With tears running down her face, Katara got of the bed and headed to the door. She hesitated in the doorway, turning around with her left hand on the frame. "I love you." She said simply, her voice rough, and she left.

Aang turned around just in time to see Katara turn the corner and stared at the point where she disappeared.

XXX

Aang knew Katara was sitting by Appa's tail, but he steadily refused to look back that way as he loaded gear on Appa's saddle. Everyone, even Sokka, noticed that something was going on, noticed that Aang and Katara were ignoring each other, and Suki looked pointedly at Sokka.

"Have you noticed that your sister and Aang are ignoring each other?" she whispered in Sokka's ear.

Sokka's face was solemn, something that was very rare.

"Yes," he said. "and I'm worried that Aang's going to start being depressed again, which would be very bad."

Suki nodded and directed her gaze at Katara. The waterbender kept glancing sideways, trying to catch a glimpse of Aang, and holding back tears.

"I'll talk to Katara if you talk to Aang."

Sokka shook his head. "No, I think we should do it the other way around. I'm her brother; she's more likely to talk to me."

"I see your reasoning there," Suki agreed. "I think you're right. So let's go get this fixed before it gets any worse."

Sokka nodded, gave Suki a quick kiss, and turned towards his sister, who was sitting on the stone next to Appa's tail.

"Katara," he called softly, and Katara turned to look at him with red and puffy eyes.

"You look like hell," Sokka observed in his typically blunt manner. "Care to talk about it?"

Katara answered in the negative, but Sokka didn't move.

"Katara, you're my sister, and I'm here for you. It's pretty obvious that you had a fight with Aang, and I'm worried about both of you, so tell me what's wrong."

Katara sighed and looked down at her feet, and when she spoke, her voice was broken and uneven.

"He asked me to marry him, Sokka. At first I thought he was joking, but he was serious and he got upset when I couldn't tell him yes."

Sokka looked, awed, at his sister. "Wait, so he asked you to marry him and you said no? I don't get it."

"Look, Sokka, I love him, and yes, I want to marry him. Aang is the only man I've ever been able to see myself settling down with, but I just can't marry him right now."

"That doesn't make sense, Katara, and you know it" Sokka responded. "Aang loves you and you love Aang. Two plus two equals four. So why won't you marry him?"

"Why don't you marry Suki?" Katara countered.

Sokka didn't miss a beat. "Because we're waiting for the right time. We've been planning our wedding for months."

Katara's jaw hung slack with astonishment for two whole minutes before she found her voice and could respond. "You mean to tell me that you have been engaged to Suki for months!"

Sokka shook his head. "Not the way you make it sound. I didn't propose or anything. One day we just decided to get married and we've planning ever since."

"Well, great. Thanks for the news, Sokka. That's just going to make Aang feel so much better. You really couldn't have brought worse news."

Sokka put his hand on his sister's shoulder. "Marry him, Katara. Go up to him right now, tell him you love him, and say that you'll marry him."

END CHAPTER

*Takes deep breath*

That was a really long chapter by my standards, and it took me forever to type. But it was worth it, because I feel that this chapter was good.

And how about that lime, eh? Naughty kids. Of course, in the end it led to them having a really big fight, so karma got em!

I'd like to thank sing. your. heart. out287 for helping me so much with this chapter and betaing it. Without her, a good part of that lime wouldn't exist. Thanks also go out to MooseyAvatard who also read through some of this and gave me her opinion. Thanks, you two!

So, review if you liked it! Also, I'm working on a piece from the scene where Katara's leaving Aang's room and she's turned in the doorway, so let me know in your review if you would like to see it!

- The Pigeon One.