Thank you much for all the reviews! I do appreciate it, though I have no time to reply to all of them.

Uh... what to say... All of the information in this chapter is as of the end of the second season. And also... there's a lot of shameless flirting. Because shameless flirting is the only kind of flirting I'm good at. And why not?

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar

CHAPTER 2

Aang and Katara stayed together the rest of the day, wandering the city. Sokka gave up looking for them after he found a place for Aang to stay. He'd see them at dinner anyway.

Everyone in the city was surprised to see Aang, but the real surprise wasn't the sudden arrival of the Avatar. Nobody had seen Katara so happy in more than three years. She was actually smiling. The Water Tribe had missed Katara's smile.

With every comment about seeing Katara's beautiful smile again, and every laughing response from Katara, Aang felt more conflicted. On the one hand, he felt terrible to have caused her such pain that she hadn't smiled in three and a half years. On the other hand, he was amazed that he was the one person who could make her smile again.

But Aang kept these thoughts silent; he was far too busy trying to get to know Katara again. They talked all day as they meandered slowly through the great city of the South Pole. They both spent the morning raving about how much the other had changed in the past years.

"Aang, you've gotten so tall!" Katara laughed helplessly, glancing at their reflection in the canal they were walking beside. She turned to him with a smile. "The last time I saw you, we were eye-to-eye. Now you've got like six inches on me."

"Are you sure you haven't just shrunk?" Aang asked mischievously.

Katara stuck her tongue out at him. "I happen to have grown four inches, thank you."

Aang's eyes lost focus as they traveled slowly from her face down to her feet and back up. "Yeah, I noticed."

Katara's face burned bright red and her eyes widened. She looked around quickly, hoping no one had heard him. "Aang…" she muttered, embarrassed by his… attention.

He laughed nervously and grabbed her hand, pulling her along as he started walking again. "What? I was just agreeing with you. You've definitely gotten… taller."

Katara wished she would stop blushing, but instead the shade of red painted across her cheeks just got deeper. But then she narrowed her eyes and smirked. "What about you?" she asked slyly, looking him up and down just as he had to her. "Are those muscles I see?" The smirk remained firmly on her face as she punched him in the arm.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, feeling himself begin to blush as well. "I've always had muscles…" he muttered, trying desperately to sound indignant.

"And your voice," she practically purred, causing his eyes to go wide. "It seems to have dropped several octaves since we last spoke." He glanced at her in alarm. She was still grinning at him.

"Yuh-uh… yeah, yours too…" he replied with a nervous cough.

Katara tilted her head a little. "My voice? No… it's hardly changed at all," she continued, returning her gaze to the canal. She smirked. "Okay, maybe it has."

"Just a little," Aang muttered, eyes still wide.

Katara laughed, deciding that she had won the game. "Okay, so we've both done a lot of growing up in the past three and a half years," she said simply. Aang nodded, relieved that her attention was no longer focused on him. "But now the question is this: what have you been doing, Aang?"

Aang glanced over as Katara stopped walking. She sat down at the edge of the sidewalk and dangled her legs over the side, toes just barely skimming the surface of the water of the deep canal. Aang sat down beside her.

"What do you mean?" he asked quietly.

Katara looked over at him with a small smile. "What has the Avatar been up to these years? Where have you been, who have you seen?"

"Well I guess I've been doing my Avatar duties," Aang said simply, focusing intently on the canal. "I went into seclusion for a while to meditate in the Spirit World… and I've been travelling around the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation to clean things up. I had to pay visits to all of the kings and lords and stuff to make sure governments were still in place everywhere." He shrugged. "Just… Avatar stuff. But what about you?"

A blank look passed over Katara's face. "Me?"

"Yeah. What has the Avatar's best friend been up to these years?"

She visibly winced when he said 'best friend.' He noticed.

"Um… well, I taught kids to waterbend for a little while, but…" she trailed off. She had stopped because it hurt her to be teaching waterbending again, because it wasn't Aang. That became a pattern in her life. She couldn't do anything for more than a few weeks, because it reminded her of him. But she couldn't tell him that.

"Um, well I didn't really like it very much. So I've just been doing odd jobs around the city since then. I'm still training with waterbending though. It's the one thing I've been able to stick with all this time," she said, trying to sound lighthearted.

Aang cleared his throat worriedly. "Um… Sokka said that… a lot of guys have… proposed… to you?"

Katara froze, her breath catching in her throat. "Yeah…"

"Oh," Aang fell silent. "…And you turned all of them down?"

"…Yes."

"Oh."

Aang looked over at her. Her eyes were wide again as she stared at the canal. Her hands were clenched tightly on the edge of the sidewalk and she was biting her lower lip.

"Katara?"

She glanced at him. He looked… concerned? Confused? Nervous?

"Why?" he asked quietly.

"Why what?" Katara replied, beginning to feel flustered.

"Why did you turn them down?"

Katara looked down again, opening her mouth to respond. No sound came out. She took a few breaths. "None of them were the right man."

Aang wasn't sure what she meant. "What… were they all jerks or something?"

"No, that's not it," Katara continued uncomfortably. "Most of them were very nice. And handsome. Some were warriors, some were waterbenders, some were rich. Gran Gran couldn't believe I was turning down all of that security. But I don't want security."

Aang shifted nervously. "Then… what do you want?"

Katara sighed, now officially flustered. "Love. The man I marry will be the man I am in love with," she said quietly. "And… well… it would help if he loved me too."

The two of them lapsed into a strange silence. After a minute or so, Katara couldn't stand it, so she got to her feet quickly.

"It's uh… getting kind of cold, sitting in one place. Let's get walking again," she said, offering Aang a hand. He took it and pulled himself to his feet, holding onto it as they kept walking. Katara smiled. He still wanted to hold her hand. Maybe he just wanted to be close to her, too.

The rest of the conversations over the course of the day weren't nearly as tense. They talked at length about what had happened in the lives of their friends.

Sokka maintained flirtatious relationships with several girls over the course of the years, but it was becoming increasingly apparent that he favored Toph over everyone else. She was currently visiting, though she lived in the Earth Kingdom. Aang hadn't seen her yet, but Katara told him that she had grown into quite a catch. And she remained the same strong-willed, stubborn, aloof, world's-greatest-earthbender that she always had been. This left Sokka very, very flustered.

This point was proven around midday, when Katara and Aang saw Toph walking along the other side of the canal, a smirk on her face. Sokka was following her, obviously extremely frustrated.

"I don't get you! Could you just explain what you mean please?" he whined.

Toph stopped and turned to him, though she ended up looking a little to his left. She could see rather decently even though they were on ice, because there was solid earth underneath it. But the ice distorted her depth perception slightly. Sokka, who had gotten used to this, moved a little to the left so her white eyes were pointed at him.

"All I said was 'I'll think about it.' Don't have a panic attack, Snoozles," she scoffed, turning and walking away again.

Sokka let out an angry groan and began chasing after her again. "Toph! Come on, just answer the question!"

Aang and Katara watched them until they were out of sight. They shared a glance and started laughing.

"Wow, Toph sure has grown up," Aang commented. "She must be as tall as you now."

Katara shot him a warning glance. He grinned.

"What? She is," he said mysteriously, moving forward again.

Katara stood still, watching him for a moment. She smirked and ran to catch up with him.

Aang began telling her about all of their friends they had met along the course of their journey that he had caught up with while he was doing his Avatar duties. Everything in Omashu was going well. Bumi's health was finally in decline after nearly one hundred twenty years of life, but he seemed very prepared to go whenever it happened. Aang had said his goodbyes, and as was his duty as the Avatar, made sure that there was somebody qualified to take his place.

Katara, of course, saw through Aang's calm, analytical acceptance of the whole ordeal. She stopped walking and turned to face him. He smiled at her, but it wasn't a real smile. She hugged him tightly, right there in the middle of the city, surrounded by people who all glanced over with knowing grins.

"I'm sorry, Aang," she said quietly.

"It's okay, I'm fine," Aang said simply.

"Liar," Katara whispered.

"Katara…"

"He's the only friend you have left from before you were in the iceberg, Aang," Katara pointed out quietly. "I know you. You aren't okay." Aang sighed and nodded a little. "But you will be."

"Yeah?" Aang muttered.

"Yeah," Katara replied. "Because I'm here. And when it's time to let go, I will still be here. Okay?"

"Okay."

She kissed his cheek quickly, and his face burned red. But she pulled back and smiled at him.

"Okay," she said, taking his hand again and resuming their walk.

Haru and his father remained true to their word. They travelled through the Earth Kingdom liberating villages like their own, and after the war, they finally went home. Haru, however, wouldn't be staying home for long, because he'd met a girl in one of the villages they'd freed, and she wanted to see him again.

Jet had not survived his encounter with Long Feng. In his honor, Long Shot and Smellerbee created a lot of trouble in Ba Sing Sei, even after Azula took over. Aang wasn't sure where they were now. The two of them had disappeared shortly after he found them.

Meng had grown up, though she remained Aunt Wu's assistant. She found her big-eared mystery man shortly after the war, and her hair became extremely manageable.

Teo and his father were still living at the Northern Air Temple. They had managed to keep the temple out of the war for a good portion of it, but toward the end, the Mechanists inventions became a prime target. They still controlled the skies, however, so the temple became a fortress, which they held to the very end.

The North Pole was rebuilt, and a statue of Yue was enshrined in the Spirit Oasis. It remained a stronghold through the rest of the war.

Ba Sing Sei changed the most. The Dai Li was disbanded, and the Earth King was placed back on the throne. He formed a parliament to keep him connected to the people of the city, and created a new, not corrupt police force.

The Fire Nation suffered an economic depression after the war. Aang spent nearly a year there, trying to sort things out. He gained a great deal of diplomatic skill during his time there. He formed a sort of grudging friendship with Fire Lord Zuko. They would never trust each other completely, but they became acquainted out of necessity and maintained a truce in which they didn't speak of their history as enemies for the good of the Fire Nation. There were frequent rebellions and riots there over the next year while Zuko tried desperately to maintain control. Aang was forced to intervene constantly.

But things finally settled down in the world after three and a half years. So the only logical place to go was where Katara was. Which, needless to say, made Katara very happy.