Chapter 2

Katara had replayed that day in her mind hundreds of times.

What had been said. Who had acted first. The sight of Urik being pitched against the ice by Aang's whirlwind. Her own whip slapping the face of the boy she loved. The look of stark betrayal in Aang's eyes as he air-bent her away from him. How had things escalated so quickly…?

Everything had seemed to go in slow motion afterwards… Aang flying away on Appa… Her Dad walking her home with an arm around her shoulders… going to bed in some sort of unbelieving stupor.

When she woke the next morning, before she opened her eyes, she believed for one shining moment that it had all been a dream, that none of that had really happened: the kiss, her fight with Aang, her Dad's banning him from the South Pole. But when she opened her eyes and tried to sit up, wincing at the pain up and down her right side where she had hit the ice after Aang had air-bent at her, awareness slowly sank into her stomach, and she knew that it hadn't been a dream. Dropping her face in her hands, she was left with a whole slew of complicated emotions to work through.

Katara was angry. She had always had a hot temper, and when she thought about the events of the day before… her temper blazed, nostrils flaring in indignation. How could he do that?! Swoop down on her after 6 months of absence, and then to fight over her like a toddler over his favorite toy! Who was Aang to be gone for so long, expecting her to do nothing but pine away for his return!? This anger fed off of old wounds, since she had felt lonely and abandoned for a long time already.

And she felt hurt. Hurt that Aang could say those things. Hurt that he would strike her. It's not like the two of them had never had any disagreements in the past. But usually in those cases Aang would quickly soften, apologize, and let her win. Aang hated conflict, especially conflict with her, and was almost overtly lenient with her. He had never intentionally hurt her with his words, and certainly had never hurt her physically.

But beyond the anger and hurt, what Katara felt most was ashamed. Ashamed that she had kissed Urik. Ashamed that Aang had seen. Ashamed that she had fought him.

Yes she had believed that Aang wasn't staying true to her, but did that really give her permission to kiss Urik? The kiss had not been expected or planned on her part, the fact that she had kissed him back still surprising her. But had she wanted to? Isn't that why she hadn't pulled away…?

Katara felt profoundly confused. With or without the events of last night, Katara felt conflicted about her relationship with Aang, Urik notwithstanding. When she was younger, she had wanted nothing more than to marry the young Avatar and valiantly fight with him for the betterment of the world. But she had grown older, and she understood the world now in a way she had not then. A house divided against itself, cannot stand. Would she and Aang be capable of building a unified house together? Did they want the same things? Katara didn't know, and perhaps this break is what she needed: time on her own to figure things out.

She pictured Aang's face twisted in anger – like it had been when those sandbenders stole Appa all those years ago. Just as she could then, she could see through his rage this time too; see that he was hurting inside, that it was pain that caused him to lash out. Hurting him was unbearable.

But his actions had been inexcusable. What he had done to Urik! The way he had thrown her… All of it was just a nightmare.

Or at least she wished it had been. If it had been a nightmare, then she could wake up.

….

Aang had gone to the Southern Air Temple after his forced departure from the South Pole. He hadn't really planned to. Maybe it was Appa who led him there, or something else instinctual within him that took him back to his childhood home. But whatever the reason, he was there now, seated on the crumbling railing of one of the temple's many balconies looking out unseeing at the cold night.

It was quiet. He was alone.

Aang had always feared being alone. Not alone as in "no one else around", because he didn't mind time on his own. What Aang deeply feared was being alone as in "abandoned" and "isolated". To have no one who knew him, who understood. He had felt so small and alone when he had woken from the iceberg and learned of the fate of his people, when he had discovered that he was the last airbender.

But Katara had been there. She had kept him from drowning in it. She had saved his life in more ways than one, and he had loved her for it. Aang's love for Katara was as much a part of him now as his airbending or his tattoos. But now he had lost her.

Now he was truly alone.

…..

Urik had shown up on her doorstep later that next morning, his arm in a sling, but thankfully not broken. A few darkening bruises and a split lip… All visible reminders of how her life had fallen apart yesterday.

"I came to see you, Katara… I came to tell you that I'm sorry for how things happened…" He paused and looked her in the eye, "But I'm not sorry I kissed you."

Katara had slowly turned away, back into the house mumbling something about needing time.

Time for what?

Time moved forward, and in the following year Aang had written her a few letters, the first one arriving just a few days after that day. She had left it rolled up on her bedside table for 2 days, conflict clenching in her stomach every time she looked at it. When she finally decided to open it tears were falling down her cheeks before she even had the string untied… In it he had told her he was sorry. That he had never meant to hurt her. That he feared she would never forgive him…feared that he could never forgive himself.

A few weeks later another scroll had come. The third came a month after that. Hakoda had eyed the scrolls warily, but didn't say anything. In the fourth scroll Aang had asked her to come to him, to meet him on Kyoshi Island. He knew he wasn't welcome in the South Pole, but could he please just see her?

The last letter he sent was six months afterwards. He'd said that he knew that she didn't love him anymore, but that he hoped that they could still be friends. He said that he hoped she could be happy.

No matter how things had gotten muddled between them, Aang had been her best friend for so long, and she really had loved him…

So she didn't fully understand why she couldn't answer his letters. The first time she had sat down to write a reply, she had sat in front of an empty parchment for over an hour, glazed eyes gazing unfocused out the window. What do you say to someone who had changed your life as much as Aang had changed hers? What do you say when you are simultaneously desperate to see him, to hold him, and yet sure it would be the wrong choice?

And she had other complications. For months following her break-up with Aang, Katara had avoided Urik. She had painfully conflicting feelings toward the Avatar, and spending time with Urik panged with guilt. In most ways she had resigned herself to the fact that she and Aang were no longer together; part of her had felt that for a long time already. But she wasn't ready to jump into another relationship. She wasn't ready to "adapt from one man to another without a backward glance" as Aang had so heartlessly accused her.

Her Father's words often came to her mind: cultural conflict, incompatibility, losing her identity, leaving her home. Maybe he was right after all. Maybe this was the painful break that they needed to be able to move on with their lives…?

And even though she never could put it into writing, Katara hoped that one day he could be happy too…

…

Nothing in Aang's life was private.

The events at the South Pole had been devastating for him, in a deeply personal way. But as much as he wanted to hide his shameful behavior, and deal with his heartbreak on his own, the story of his losing it down South traveled far and wide. Speculation and story embellishments abounded. "Not that this story needs much embellishing, " he thought bitterly, "it's distressingly sensational as it is."

Aang sighed hollowly. In just a few minutes' time, how he pictured his future to be had cracked, fallen apart in his hands, and blown away on the wind like sand slipping through his grasping fingers. His dreams of Katara being with him always had been shattered in less than half an hour.

Time marched on. Aang had sent Katara letters. He had asked her to forgive him. Asked her to meet with him. But she had never answered, like hollow pleadings shouted into the wind, the words lost out there, the wind never replying; and something hardened in his heart.

Aang had had a lot of time, years in fact by now, to consider what had gone wrong between him and Katara. He didn't realize it until much later, but things had not been entirely as they should have been between them even before he had stumbled upon her kissing Urik.

They had both been so young when they had fallen in love. Not that being young made their love any less genuine, perhaps if anything, their feelings were even more authentic, being unmarred by societal expectations and prejudices. They weren't concerned with the complications of status, image or taboos. They just felt what they felt, and they felt it fully.

But they did lack experience, Aang far more so than even Katara.

Aang had not been raised in a community constructed around romantic love, although it certainly was a community of love. They had no single-family units, viewing instead everyone as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, grandparents. When playing together, everyone lovingly called one another by family relationships: Aang would be Aang Ge (big brother Aang) to the smaller boys and Xiao Aang Di (little brother Aang) to the teenagers. Gyatso had be "Yeye" (grandpapa) to nearly everyone (except in private Aang had sometimes called him "Baba", meaning "daddy".) The Air Nomads had viewed individual families as possessive and closed. Were we not all brothers? Would we not give the clothes off our backs to any young child in need, whether he or she carried our genetics or not? Did not all deserve to be welcomed into the inside of the familial group?

Over thousands of years, this openness and inclusiveness had led to unusual romantic views. The Air Nomads were romantic, sometimes hopelessly so. But their romances had been viewed more openly in terms of location and time together. Romantic links were seen more as spiritual bonds, not restricted by time and place. It was not uncommon for a man and a woman to be paired, to love each other deeply, and yet not to live together. In fact, couples that did live together were rare, as the temples themselves were gender segregated.

Honestly, Aang had had very little interest in romantic love when he had been a child living with the other airbenders. He was much more interested in playing airball with his friends, traveling the world with Gyatso, or getting into trouble with Bumi or Kuzon when he visited them. What he had gleaned about romance was more of passing observation, rather than any active interest or formal lessons. Perhaps there would have been more taught to him as he grew older? But he had been so young when the Air Nomads had been massacred… And now there was no one left to teach him…

There had been one day, when Aang had found Gyatso sorrowfully burning offerings on the balcony of his quarters. Aang had knelt with him and asked what he was doing, and why he was sad. The old monk had then told him of a nun who had lived at the Western Air Temple, named Ghihima, that he had loved nearly all of his life. That day had been the three-year anniversary of the day that she had passed into the Eternal Skies, and he was here honoring her, and grieving her loss. The young monk had questioned his mentor. "Ah, but my Xiao Aang Zi ("little Aang-son")," Gyatso had gently chided, "It is indeed painful to grieve, but when we grieve we are celebrating that what we had, and lost, was a good thing. And my love for Ghihima was, in fact, the best thing in my life." As he and Baba Gyatso watched the burned bits of consecrated papyrus floating out in offering into the wind, Aang had considered for the first time what it might mean to be in love.

And on the day Aang had awoken from the iceberg over one hundred years later, he had woken to the face of the most beautiful girl he could imagine. Quite suddenly he found that he cared about love. He wanted to know what it was, and how exactly did one do love?

Aang had learned about love by observing the romantic relationships in the world as he traveled. He learned that you should give flowers to a girl you like (preferably panda lilies). That girls liked gifts, like the necklace he had made for Katara out of Sokka's fishing line. Sokka had tried to give Aang advice on how to woo a woman, but Aang had found his advice confusing and counter-intuitive (although Aang had to admit that whatever Sokka did seemed to really work for him; the guy was a girl-magnet!). Aang had learned that barely touching lips with Katara in the Cave of Two Lovers had sent a jolt of pleasure through his whole body. (He had also learned in the Cave of Two Lovers that girls don't want to kiss when they feel insulted…). He discovered that dancing with the girl you love feels like magic (flameo hotman!). Aang observed that the other three nations all had marriages. Love made one want to get married; but, like in the case of Princess Yue's betrothal, marriage and love did not always go hand in hand. Through trial and error, Aang had learned that surprise kisses didn't always go over well. Iroh had taught him that choosing power was not more valuable than choosing love and happiness. And Aang had found by glorious experience that sunsets made amazing backdrops for first real kisses…

After the war Aang had learned a lot more about love, and as Aang had grown and matured, he learned, more specifically, about physical expressions of love. Katara had been a great teacher, and he had been a very eager student. He discovered that holding her hand made his whole body warm. Her hair smelled like flowers and happiness as he ran his fingers through it (for someone with no hair of his own, he found he had an peculiar affinity for Katara's). Aang had discovered the extreme thrill of lining his body up with Katara's and eliminating the space between them. As he had grown taller and broader and she had grown slightly more pronounced curves, simple touches between them had resulted in loaded atmospheres and a deep-seeded longing that almost hurt. Her mouth could be intoxicating, and sometimes he would wind up drunk with pleasure from exploring it. (He had also learned that fathers did not like to see him do this.)

But what he had realized most about love, was that Katara was it for him; she was his Forever Girl. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, to make her his wife, and to make their futures one.

But again, passion could not eliminate the value of experience. And as passionately as Aang had loved Katara, he had not realized until much later, when it was much too late, that he had neglected her. She had surely felt so lonely in the South Pole without him. He had likewise missed her desperately, but it had not occurred to his young teenage mind how he could take more active and frequent efforts to help her feel of his love. Send her a scroll. Make her a gift. Find more time to go to the village. Stay an extra day, or two there… Move heaven and earth to find a blasted chaperone to conform to that blasted father-induced rule so that Katara could join him as often as possible! Do whatever if takes to affirm to her that his feelings had not changed! He had thought that she had known that he loved her; but as her accusations about the General's daughter had shown, he had needed to confirm his devotion to her more clearly and more often. There was so much more he could have, should have done… And now it was too late.

…

Katara had seen Aang in person twice since their break. Once in Ba Sing Se just a year after their fall out in the South Pole. He had looked like he wanted to talk with her, but she found that her blood boiled anew thinking about his inexcusable behavior and subsequent hasty retreat that day. For some unexplainable reason, she was angry with him for leaving, angry he had not come back, fighting to keep her. And she was even more angry because she knew that it was her fault he hadn't. With one look at him she was hit with the full force of a year's worth of longing that she had tried to ignore. Katara's inner emotional conflict resulted in avoided eye contact from her, her body language screaming unapproachable. After several stuttered and aborted attempts to muster his courage to talk to her, Aang sighed with resignation. He gave up on mending their rift, since Katara was so clearly not interested in continued contact between them.

The only other time they had seen each other in person since then was years later at a Fire Nation celebration. Aang had entered the palace ballroom tall and broad-shouldered, with a pretty little fire nation noble on his arm. Katara found that even after all this time, when she knew she had no claim on him anymore, the sight of him with that girl still stung. When they had locked gazes, his eyes opened wider momentarily, some mixture of emotions passing over his face before his jaw tightened and he deliberately looked away. He steered the girl to the opposite side of the dance floor, although Katara noticed that as they walked he removed the girl's hand from his arm. Katara had not stayed at the celebration long afterwards, siting a headache and weariness from travel as reasons for her early departure.

She had been surprised by how much Aang had changed in the years since she had seen him last. He was tall and strong now, the boyish softness on his face gone. His body had become toned from years of martial arts practice bending all the elements, although he still maintained the slim, agile build of a child of the Air. But his dark eyes were the same, animated and beautiful. But now they were full of accusation when he looked at her. And she knew she was guilty as charged.

…..

After resigning himself to the reality that Katara would never be his, Aang's interactions with the opposite sex began to change. He had always liked people, and was very social by nature. The awkwardness of his youth had given way, allowing his natural charisma to shine, and people were drawn to him, women specifically. Aang had learned a lot about the world, and romance, since waking up form the iceberg. He could play this game better than before, although he never indulged in much more than playful flirtation. He couldn't seem to get serious with any girl. Unconsciously, he compared everyone to Katara, and no one ever measured up.

But pressure for Aang to marry heightened significantly after a recent kidnapping scare. It wasn't really much cause for concern in Aang's book, just a group of rag-tag desperados who had happened to stumble upon Aang in the forest while he was meditating into the Spirit World. His spirit being in the Spirit World had left his body unattended and vulnerable. But these highwaymen had been unprepared and ill fit to hold the Avatar; they were mere opportunists, with no more sinister motives than to try to wheedle Zuko into paying blackmail money to get him back. Aang had awoken from his Spirit journey, tied and gagged in some sort of cave. It didn't take long to free himself, spinning to standing with aid of his air-bending and then calling earth pikes up from the ground to break through his chains. Aang managed to apprehend four of his captors, the rest fleeing into the surrounding woods.

The bandits had really only had him in their custody for less than 24 hours, having sent off their blackmail requests mere hours before Aang had awoken and freed himself. But the damage had been done. The details of his abduction were blown out of proportion, stirring a panic among many of the world leaders. Their main concern had not being that Aang was threatened as the Avatar, but instead that the world had come so close to loosing its last airbender, the sole surviving member of the fourth and nearly extinct nation. This event awoke an urgency in many of the world leaders to hasten the repopulation of the Air Nomad nation. Much to Aang's discomfort, his intentions for producing offspring, and sooner rather than later, became a heated topic of political concern. Objectively, he understood and even shared in their concern for his nation; however, what this meant for his private life and future happiness was incredibly invasive and uncomfortable.

At barely 20 years old, Aang found himself being presented with a long list of eligible 'potential mothers to the next generation of airbenders'. Knowing how distasteful he found this, the politicians came up with as many creative ways to discretely set him up as possible, from assigned seating between noblemen's daughters at banquets, to planned "chance" meetings with young women in the stables while he took care of Appa. All of the attention, and his subsequent evasions, tended to perpetuate the rumors that the Avatar had become a bit of a tease.

Aang started spending more and more time with Toph, if for no other reason than to ward off the advances of other women. At first Toph didn't seem to mind; even taking her role as Aang's suitor-shield to heart by grabbing onto his arm and peppering him with exaggerated (and backhanded) terms of endearment ("oh Twinkletoesie!" or "my Sweet Monkey Feathers"). However, all the time spent with his Earthbending Master produced unwanted gossip of its own. And once Toph's very own mother began to believe the rumors and actively push her daughter into the Avatar's arms, Toph put her foot down (and through the floor). Twinkletoes was going to have to go at this on his own, because Toph BeiFang was not going to belong to anyone, and her mother's interference made her suddenly feel 'all oogie' about being seen with Aang like that. Their friendship remained, but Aang could no longer count on Toph to pose as a romantic buffer for him.

After that, Aang was left on his own to fend off the advances of Ambassadors' daughters sat next to him, or to dance every dance with a new pretty face hoping to find his favor. But so few people seemed to see him: Aang. When these women looked at him they saw "the Great and Powerful Avatar", not Aang himself. More than a little overwhelmed, Aang found himself frequently missing the simple love he had shared with Katara. What they had had together had been rooted in friendship and trust. What he wouldn't give to be twelve and in love again? Although the world had been ravaged by war, his heart had only ever had one bright guiding star: Katara. She had literally saved his life, and given him hope in the face of the loss of everything he had known and loved. And even now, with all the complications and disagreements between them, Aang would be lying if he said he didn't still long for Katara to be his again, to guide him as she had always done in their childhood.

…..

As the world's most uniquely singular person, the Avatar was a common topic of discussion worldwide, people of the South Pole being no exception. Although she tried hard not to appear over-eager to seek out the latest news about him, Katara had heard enough to know the basics of what Aang had been up to for the last few years.

She knew that he had started a community called the Air Acolytes: a group of Air Nomad enthusiasts, many of whose original members had come from the former 'Avatar Aang Fan Club', who were dedicating their lives to live after the manor of the Air Nomads of old, Avatar Aang leading and teaching them the traditions of his lost people. Despite the fact that none of the Air Acolytes were actual airbenders, having someone to pass the culture and traditions onto was an important step in reviving the fourth nation. The Acolytes had already started living at the Southern Air Temple with Aang. There was talk of soon restoring the Eastern Air Temple as well, at which point Acolytes would likely move there too.

The Air Acolytes numbers were relatively small, and had a noticeably far greater percentage of women than men, giving rise to some speculating that the group was really just a cover for the Avatar's haram. Some considered this actually to be a good idea, given the responsibility Avatar Aang had to repopulate the world with airbenders. But talk of it was always spoken of with conspiratorially raised eyebrows and whispered behind cupped hands with an air of scandal. Katara didn't really believe this rumor, but who was she to know? The Air Nomads had had such foreign familial traditions; perhaps that kind of thing was not too far fetched? Although whenever she thought of Aang, she had difficulty swallowing that possibility.

Katara did have some more reliable sources of information on Aang. As the World Representative of the Southern Water Tribe, Sokka had been in semi-regular contact with Aang and the other world leaders for years now.

"Don't believe everything you hear, Katara," her brother admonished, "Aang's still that same goofy kid who wanted to ride mail shoots and wouldn't hurt a fly. He may look all grown up and impressive, but deep down, he's still just the same as he always was." And then he annoyingly added, "However… I've seen a few of those Acolytes, and some of them are pretty easy on the eyes, it wouldn't take a lesser man than Aang to seriously consider taking advantage of that ratio difference!"

Katara had huffed at his shallow remark and frozen his tea. Sokka could be such an idiot!

…..

Urik had moved back to the North Pole within six months of their kiss. Katara had given him no reason to stay.

When he left, she felt guilty, and sorry to have ruined their friendship. But she still needed to figure herself out.

But Katara was tenacious and driven. She didn't sit around wallowing in self-pity and regret. She continued working with Pakku and Allika and others in rebuilding the village (although with all the help from the North, it was starting to look more like a city!). She continued to hone her waterbending skills, focusing on improving her healing skills as well, which she felt had a lot of room for improvement. And with caring for her aging Grandmother, Pakku, and her Dad and brother, there was plenty of work to be done.

And as time went on, she eventually felt ready to start dating again. She was talented, beautiful, a celebrated war hero, and the only daughter of the Chief. She did not lack for men interested in courting her. And it was fun and a bit exciting, to think that perhaps sometime soon, the water tribe family she had imagined as a child might become a reality!

When she imagined her cozy future family, the children she could picture: warm-skinned dark haired babies, active toddlers running amuck. But she always had trouble putting an image with the man who would become her husband. Each person she dated, she tried to imagine him filling that role, and always it just didn't fit. Unbidden images of her children laughing while riding an air-scooter with their father would pop into her mind, and she would quickly shake away the thoughts.

Katara had tried dating a few different men, from both tribes, but without much success. Knowing her dating history, many of the men she went out with felt the need to measure up to the Avatar (which in fact, although she didn't admit that to herself, was true). Some men tried too hard, posturing to appear stronger and more confident; others suffered from feelings of inferiority, anxious that they weren't meeting her expectations.

She tried her best to be open to possibilities, but the more she dated, and made no real connections, the more restless she got.

…..

Dating could be painful. And Aang had done a lot of it lately. It was difficult to go from a long-term, deeply committed relationship, one that he had hoped would last forever, to an endless string of first dates. The contrast was acute, and Aang often found himself aching for his relationship with Katara again, not just because of her, but because of the fulfillment that that kind of deeper relationship brought.

Over the last couple of years Aang had started training a group of Air Acolytes who had come to the Southern Air Temple to live and study. He found satisfaction being surrounded by people who genuinely wanted to learn the ways of his lost civilization. It was both rewarding to pass on his traditions, but also sometimes difficult, as teaching his culture and history to them was a constant reminder of how much had been lost. What had been a living, breathing way of life for him as a child, was now studied out of textbooks. Like learning a foreign language – the Acolytes could one day become conversant, but there was still a lot of mental translation happening as they grasped new ideas, practices and habits. It was not always easy to explain why the Air Nomads did things the way they did. "We just do." Until Aang would mentally modify that sentence to "we just did" or perhaps "I just do." There was no longer a present tense "we" for the airbenders…

But Aang valued the Air Acolytes, and was ever grateful for their sacrifices to help him keep his culture alive. He had great respect for each member of this small group of monks and nuns in training. They would ensure that the Air Nomads would have a part of the future.

Despite all the women Aang had been set up with in recent years, Aang had made it a personal rule not to date any of the Acolytes. He knew that could get really complicated really quick. There had been a few girls that had joined the Acolytes with the seeming sole motivation of pursuing him, which irritated Aang. He wanted to keep things professional and focused, so that only those who really wanted to honor his heritage were included among the Acolytes.

So he faced a bit of personal conflict when he started noticing a particular Acolyte girl named Cami. Not noticing like 'seeing someone for the first time', but noticing as in he began to find her attractive.

Cami was about his age and had been studying as an Air Acolyte for over a year. She was smart and dedicated and loved his culture with eager enthusiasm. Cami was cute, and gentle and kind, and Aang found her easy and interesting to talk to. She was one of the few people Aang had found since traveling the world with Team Avatar during the war who saw Aang not just as the Avatar. She saw him as Aang, and she was his friend. She admired him for his bravery, but also for his playfulness with that cheeky touch of mischief. She also knew that behind his optimistic exterior there was a deep underlying sadness he carried with him as the last airbender. She understood him. And for the first time in a long time, when Aang was with Cami, he didn't feel quite so alone.

Starting to date Cami was not an entirely conscious choice. In a way it just sort of happened. Things were comfortable with Cami. He always felt safe when held her hand, and when they started kissing, it was… nice. When she was close with him, she was a full pallet of blushes, ducking her head and tucking her dark hair behind her ear. She was adorable. And she was very much in love with him.

Aang was seriously considering asking her to marry him. It was true that his ancestors, the other Air Nomads, had not married, but from what he had observed of the other three nations, they probably wouldn't understand that. And frankly, it was something he wanted for himself. If he was going to spend his life with a woman, and raise a family with her, he wanted to be married, to pledge his commitment to her, and for her to know that he had made vows to her.

He and Cami came from as close to the same background as was possible for him; after all she was dedicating her life to join his nation. She was attractive, intelligent, and sweet, and being together was warm and easy. He could imagine his life with her.

And after returning from another conference with the leaders of the four nations (a conference that had supposed to have been about trade treaties, but ended up becoming a long winded discussion about the need for balance among the nations, which ultimately had turned into pressure on him to hurry up and start bringing back the air benders!), Aang decided to do it. He loved Cami. Maybe not in all the same ways that he had loved Katara, but he knew that she loved him and that they could be happy together.

When he did ask Cami to marry him, she threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him soundly. She told him that she wanted nothing more than to spend her life with him. She told him that this was the happiest day of her life.

He returned her hug, and smiled weakly to himself, wishing that he could feel the same.

…

News of the Avatar's engagement traveled quickly, and it seemed that all the world was celebrating.

When Katara heard the news, she had gone to her room and shut the door. She couldn't say that she was entirely surprised; after all Aang was twenty now, and the two of them had already been separated for over 4 years. And he deserved to find happiness. He deserved to find love. She was happy for him. Her brain told her all of these things. But silently tears trickled down her face. And she didn't bother to wipe them away.

What they had meant to each other back then, was something that would always remain: a bit of a fairy-tale memory. But that was then. And this is now. And it would seem that their futures would remain as wide apart as the Great Divide.

….

A/N: So what do you think? I know how this is playing in my head, but I don't know how it translates to other readers. Do the characters seem in-character? Is this situation believable? I am also open to constructive criticism (as this is my first fiction, I know I have a lot of room for improvement). I would love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to leave me a note in the messages.

To Ashley Barbosa: Thank you for my first review! Wow, who knew feedback would feel so good, haha! Alas, as you can see, it is in fact too soon to ask for them to be back together… but hopefully someday…?