A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys! Please enjoy and review. :) Thanks!
Chapter Two
The news of the holiday spread through the village by the next morning. Everyone seemed to want a part in the celebration, and they all wanted to honor Aang in any way they knew how.
Katara and Sokka had no idea how much planning and coordination an event like this needed when they came up with it. Both of them were feeling overwhelmed and bewildered by the beast they had created.
"We need to make an official list. This is just getting too out of hand," Sokka said and pulled out an old piece of parchment and a writing brush. The siblings were hiding in their family igloo, since every time they tried to venture outside, another tribesman would accost them, asking what they could possibly do for the Avatar on his holiday. It was exhausting, especially since they did not know how to answer most of them.
"If we can just write down all of our ideas and delegate them, it would be way more manageable," Sokka continued. He licked the brush, effectively turning his tongue and lips black, then dipped it into an ink bottle and paused thoughtfully over the parchment.
"Good idea, Sokka." Katara slumped against a stool near the fire and balanced her chin against her hand. "Okay, so Mina and her family and Dodda and his family have both offered to help with the food. I think Hani and Geto and their families would also be willing to help with that." Katara stood and began to pace as Sokka sloshed ink around. "So what kind of food should we tell them to prepare? Ooh, maybe we should have a banquet in the new government building with everyone. That would be fun. And Aang's a vegetarian, so we can just have meatless meals made in his honor." Katara bit her lip. "Well, maybe not stewed sea-prunes." Aang hated them.
"We need fun food too," Sokka said. "Ooh, oh, wait!" Sokka began to write furiously, ink smearing across the page. "We should have ice cream, or snow cones. And then we can put miniature Aang dolls in them!"
Sokka finally noticed her silence and looked up. Her expression was of pure distaste and horror. "We are not doing that."
"Ah, come on, Katara. It'll be fun. Hey, maybe we should only put him in a few of them, so the people who find them get a prize. We can make them out of string, or candy. It should be easy, right?" Sokka pulled a woven cord and began to knot it into what he thought looked like the Avatar.
"Okay, well, you work on that." Katara knew from experience that it was often just better to leave things alone in regards to her brother. "I'll run across the way and ask Hani and Geto if they're willing to help." Katara left their igloo, shaking her head at her brother's silliness. Sometimes he had fantastic plans, and other times, well, other times he wanted to put toy Aangs in ice cream.
"Katara." Aang's cheery voice reached her shortly before he did. He pulled her into a hug. The airbender was wearing a standard blue coat and boots, the first time she had ever seen him wear it. It brought out the blue hue in his gray eyes and accented the color of the arrow running back from his forehead. Without thinking, Katara reached up and placed her gloved hand against it, love unfolding in her eyes. She could not believe how much she missed seeing that beautiful tattooed symbol.
"Hi," he said with a smoldering smile that reminded her of the kiss from the night before. He took the hand pressed against his skin and kissed her hand through her glove. "I'm sorry I didn't get to see you again last night. You look beautiful this morning though."
"Hey, Aang." Her cheeks darkened slightly at his unwavering attention. She didn't remember him being this forward before, especially in the South Pole. Aang always kept a respectful distance in the past, just in case her father or someone who would tell her father saw them in a less than chaste embrace. Slightly nervous, Katara broke their eye contact and glanced around the area to see if anyone was spying on them. "How's the igloo my father gave you?"
"It's a bit too roomy." His eyes flickered, looking both mischievous and sexy. "I wish there was someone else–"
Out of the corner of her eye, Katara spotted Hani marching across the way. Grimacing at the poor timing, she put a hand against Aang's arm. "Could you hold that thought? I'll be right back."
Before Aang could respond, Katara shot off to chase down Hani, the best cook in the entire village. Hani was not a patient woman, and she kept walking even as Katara puffed out her request and held her aching side. "So what do you think?" Katara asked between gasps.
"All right. I'll do it." Hani said. She dropped a basket of fire chips against the side of her tent. They had not yet received an upgrade on their living quarters, and Katara and Pakku were swamped enough with repairs and adjustments as it was. "Go in and speak to my son, will you? I think we have a nice long piece of cloth that you could use for a banner. You are making a banner, right?"
Hani's voice was so critical that Katara, who hadn't even thought to make one, stumbled over her words to assure Hani that of course they were.
Retto, Hani's son, sat by the fire with a fraying net in his lap. He grinned when he saw Katara and stood up, wobbling slightly on his bad leg before giving her a hug that left her blushing. He was one of the more physical young men of the village, even towards girls that were already spoken for, like Katara. Katara couldn't help notice that he was also one of the more attractive.
"How's my favorite Southern Water Tribe waterbender?" Retto resumed his place by the fire, favoring the leg he injured in the war and gestured for Katara to take a seat on a stool.
Katara blinked, wondering if he was serious. "I'm the only Southern Water Tribe waterbender."
Retto waved that away as if to say, 'details, details'. Katara smiled in spite of herself. "So, what can I do for you?"
Katara quickly explained her and Sokka's plans for Breaking the Avatar Out of the Iceberg Day. Retto listened with rapt attention, nodding eagerly whenever she took a breath. "That sounds like a great plan. We should definitely give him a celebration in his honor. I'll talk to some of the men and see if there isn't more we can do for him."
"Great. Wonderful." Katara grinned with happiness. She was so proud that her tribe was enthusiastic and wanted to get involved in this. "Where is the cloth that your mother was talking about?"
"It's over there. Let me get it for you." Retto limped over to a basket holding a large assortment of fabrics and paints. "Here, you should just take the entire thing and return what you don't use. We're happy to contribute anything to this."
"That's really sweet, Retto, Sokka and I really appreciate it, and I know Aang will appreciate it too." With one last deep nod of respect, Katara lifted up the basket and scurried out of the tent. Retto always made her slightly nervous with his good looks, charms, and physical nature. She felt relieved to escape into the cold air to mask her red cheeks.
Katara nearly bumped into Aang on her way back to her family's igloo. "Oh, Aang. Hi. Sorry, I didn't see you there."
"What's that?" Aang asked. He looked at the basket in her arms curiously, and Katara had the irrational urge to shove it behind her back.
"Just some stuff for some, uh, stuff that Sokka and I are doing," Katara said. She cleared her throat and placed the basket by her feet. "So, where were we?" She moved forward into his arms and laced her hands behind his neck, giving him easy access in case – Katara hoped – he decided to kiss her.
Aang smiled and gripped her waist tighter. "Oh, I was just mentioning that –"
"Katara!" Sokka stuck his head out of the igloo and glared at her. The two lovers sprung apart. "Stop flirting with your boyfriend and get in here and help me. It's not like we have two weeks to do this, you know."
Aang frowned. "Do what?"
"It's nothing. Just tribe business. I'll see you for dinner for sure." Katara gave him a peck on the cheek, then hurried to chastise her brother for almost giving away their surprise. She thought she saw Aang's face droop with hurt, but she decided she must have imagined it as she hustled her supplies away.
Sokka had more errands for her to run, since he decided he was the one who needed to stay put in case people came to see them for answers or suggestions. Katara gave him several withering glances, even though people did stop by every half hour, and put him to work on the banner at least.
It was late afternoon before Katara returned after consulting with Geto and his family, Dakara, the village midwife, her father and his advisors, and finally Master Pakku for some cool water bending special effects.
"I think it might storm tomorrow," Katara said with a slight shiver as she entered the tent. She dropped a basket of supplies onto the ground and shook the snow from her coat. "Hopefully it will pass before the holiday." Sokka didn't reply. "Sokka?"
"We might have a problem with the banner. See, I ran out of space." Something in Sokka's voice was not right, it was too full of held back laughter. Frowning, Katara moved behind her brother to study his handiwork and gasped when she read the characters written upon it.
"Breaking the Avatar? We can't put up a sign that just says Breaking the Avatar! "
"You know, I kind of like it how it is," Sokka said, turning his head from side to side. "It's original, and catchy." He rubbed the back of his hand against his nose, smearing red paint across it like a bizarre blush.
"Can't you just, I don't know, flip it over and write Avatar Day on it instead?"
"That one's already been taken! And besides, Aang's bound to have bad memories of that place. We want something that represents us and our special connection to the Avatar anyway, don't we?"
"But putting up a sign that says Breaking the Avatar does not establish that." Katara took deep breaths to calm herself. "Sokka, listen – "
"Hey, Katara, are you in there?" There was a knock at the front of the igloo. The two Water Tribe siblings stared at each other with large eyes. If Aang came in, he would see everything and know something was up. Before Katara could react, Sokka stood up and shoved her out of the tent and swished the fur hanging shut.
"Aang," Katara said as she stumbled and nearly fell over. A part of her was not excited to see him at the moment because she really didn't want to leave all the planning to her brother, who suddenly wanted this entire celebration turned into a giant hoax. She couldn't allow him to do that to her and her Aang. "What do you need?"
Aang looked startled, and Katara realized that she sounded rather cross. "I'm sorry. I thought we were going to eat dinner together. But if you're busy –"
"Oh yes, that's right." Katara rubbed her temples. She was so stressed that just the thought of food made her feel nauseous. She couldn't believe how big a random idea could grow in two short days. "Actually, Aang, I am really busy."
"Oh. I just thought –" Aang shook his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that I came at a bad time for the Water Tribe. I should have – well. I guess I'll leave you to it then."
Guilt pervaded her conscious as she watched him walk away. She wanted to spend time with him, she really did, but she knew that this celebration was bigger than them now, it was a way for the Southern Tribe to show their gratitude towards the Avatar for all that he had done for them. She had never seen her tribe so energetic and happy to work towards a goal before. For so long her Tribe had been beaten by the Fire Nation, ravished by poverty, and broken by the lost of their waterbenders and warriors to the war, that it was encouraging to see that maybe, maybe they could finally find the hope to build their Tribe back up again. Katara knew that even though this celebration seemed like a trivial thing, it was the start of something great.
A/N: You've read it, now review! Thanks again. :D
