Too much of a burden

Appa landed almost soundlessly in front of the statue of Avatar Kyoshi. The current Avatar and his friends had arrived to Kyoshi Islands, where a large group of villagers had gathered to meet them. Two weeks prior they departured from Ba Sing Se on a journey to visit each other's families and the turn had now come to Suki's parents – and Sokka's new in-laws.

The gang had already visited Gaoling and Toph's parents. The truth be told, the initial welcome from the Bei Fong's had not been a hug and a kiss: rather the guards had surrounded Appa when he landed in the garden and had not allowed anyone on his back to come down. Toph's father himself had demanded that the Avatar should vacate his property immediately; it had all happened so fast that Toph had not had the chance to announce her presence. Her mother had, in contrast to her husband, not rushed out when they spotted the flying bison in the distance. She had stayed to watch from her living room on the second floor and had therefore immediately spotted the small form of her daughter in the bison's saddle. Poppy ran as fast as she could out of the house towards Appa, knocking down a guard who tried to restrain her in the process, all the while shouting her daughter's name on the top of her lungs while Toph herself glided down on the ground to her mother. After the initial shock Lao joined his wife and daughter in a hug, happy as the couple was to see their only child again. Afterwards the whole gang was invited into the house for a talk, though not after Toph and Aang had explained to the still-furious Lao and Poppy that the Avatar had not kidnapped their innocent daughter but that she had in fact gone voluntarily. Once inside the Bei Fongs had explained to Toph that they had heard of her efforts in the war and they were extremely proud of what she had done, and that they could see now that she wasn't as helpless as they had previously believed. Poppy had hugged her daughter again and told her how happy they had been to receive that letter from her and how it had helped them to understand their daughter. At the mention of Toph's letter Sokka had begun to frantically inquire what had happened to his hawk: it turned out that the Bei Fongs had kept him since they didn't know where to send him back. Sokka was overjoyed to be reunited with his bird and the gang had spent a couple of days in Gaoling to give Toph and her parents a chance to reconnect. They had not been keen on the idea of letting Toph travel away with the gang again, but had ultimately understood that she wanted to be on her own a little while longer.

The gang had once again been offered the large guest house in the middle of the village and they had all been glad to accept, except for Suki who had chosen to stay at her parents' house. The last couple of days they had been on the island had consisted of celebrations: the islanders wanted to show how grateful they were to Aang and the rest, and especially how proud they were of Suki and her warriors. Between the different celebrations Aang, Katara and Toph hung out with Ty Lee and her new friends, sharing war stories with each other. They were extremely keen on hearing Ty Lee tell about the other side of the conflict. Sokka couldn't imagine a better place to be than with the island's resident fighter group, but unfortunately for him, he had to spend most of his time living through the ninth level of hell: getting acquainted with his girlfriend's parents. Poor Sokka were more nervous for the whole ordeal than he was during the invasion.

At afternoon on their second day on Kyoshi the islanders had decided to take a break. Katara and Aang, who had been craving a little time alone together, decided to head further up the mountain behind the village. Following a stream they found a spot in the trees where the stream widened and became a small lake, a perfect place for some casual water bending, and they stripped themselves of unnecessary clothing. Originally they started out with a couple of easy techniques but it soon transformed into a massive water fight that didn't stop before Katara had lifted most of the water in the pond up and dumped it on Aang in one giant splash. Laughing hard they threw themselves on the pile of clothes after Aang had dried them both with a warm wind. Resting her head on his stomach she closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of his hands through her hair and the closeness of their bodies.

"I've needed this," Katara thought to herself, "we haven't been able to goof of like this for awhile. I've missed seeing that side of Aang."

For quite some time she simply laid there reliving their past travels and inevitable she remembered the time they visited the southern air temple. It was the first stop on their long journey and Aang had really expected to find his people still there. He had been devastated, she remembered, and it had been terrifying to see him lose it all when he found Gyatso. He may be the Avatar, she thought, but he was still a kid. She smiled as she turned to look at him, and traced a finger down his arm. At least he used to be a kid, but now he clearly had become something more.

"Sweet?" she asked, still dwelling on the memory of the temple. He murmured something, indicating he was listening. "I've wondered if you would like to visit the air temple again, on the way to the village?"

"No," he said simply. His short answer made her somewhat uneasy, she could feel something was wrong.

"Well, why not?"

"Because there's nothing to come back to, it's empty," he answered, and so quietly she almost couldn't hear it he continued, "there's no-one left at all."

This left both of them deep in thought. Unbeknownst to them they pondered the same thing: the fact that Aang was the last of the air nomads.

"Have you ever… thought about," she paused nervously, choosing her next words with care," restoring the fourth nation, Aang?" His quiet 'yeah' made her sink before she could continue.

"Well, what did you have in mind?"

"I…" he started slowly, "can only really think of one possibility. Since I'm the last airbender, all new airbenders have to originate with me. We… I have to have… kids. A lot, I guess."

Katara turned to look at him properly and saw that he was blushing madly. He was thoroughly ashamed at what his words meant, not only for him, but especially of what he had almost implied about her role. Slowly she sat up and Aang couldn't help but see it as if she was trying to keep a distance to him.

"I don't know what to…" she started but was quickly interrupted by the saddened Avatar.

"Ugh, what an idiotic thing to say. I'm sorry, Katara, I didn't mean that you – we had to…" he gulped, "It's too much of a burden to put on anyone – the recreation of an entire nation – and I can't believe… I don't want you to feel obliged to do anything. But I…"he paused, "can understand if you don't want to hang around anymore now that… now that you know."

The Avatar prepared to stand up and leave but was stopped by her hand on his own, and a small made him sit down fully again. He glanced at Katara, but she wasn't even looking at him. From where they were on the mountainside they could look south over the village and the cove – towards the pole. With her gaze still on the south she started to speak:

"I've always known that someday I would get married and have children. For some time I've even known that I would get married to you and that my children would have you as a father. It was a good plan, one that I looked forward to experiencing when we were old enough. It really was a good plan," she paused, and Aang knew that the rejection he had expected since the beginning of the conversation, and feared deep in his soul, was next to come, "I've just never felt like the world needed me to reproduce before, and it's not really a nice thought."

"I didn't ask that kind of pressure, Aang," each new word made his heart sink, "so I guess I will have to try to not think about it so much. It's still a good plan and what you have said hasn't really changed anything about it. I was going to marry you and have as many kids as you wanted anyway, just for the sake of our own happiness," she smiled, " so I guess nothing's really changed and we're not going to do anything I hadn't expected us do to anyway."

Aang blinked, speechless. She hadn't rejected him, she hadn't walked away. She was actually looking forward to sharing this life with him. A tear appeared in his eye, and as he pulled her into a hug as tight as their bodies allowed, he buried his face in her hair. He kissed her neck and whispered into her ear:

"I don't care what the rest of the world thinks, you are my world. I… I love you."

She gasped at his confession and gently took his face between her hands. She stroked his chin and neck while she looked deep in his eyes, and what she saw made her smile. She leaned in to kiss him and did her best to pour her feelings into it. It was sweet, at first, but soon Aang leaned closer to her: his lips started to move with hers livelier than they had ever done before, and when his tongue touched her lips and mouth for the first time, fire ran down her body. The second time she parted her lips slightly and allowed him in. She was dazed, couldn't think, and she suspected he was in the same situation: they went with instincts and after what seemed like an eternity they broke the kiss; Katara was on her back with Aang on top of her. His hands were in her hair and hers was around him, holding him tightly against her.

"I love you too," she whispered. Immediately she realized the positions they were in and the feel of his bare skin against her hands and stomach made her remember that they hadn't put their clothes back on after training. Aang seemed to have come to the same conclusion because they both blushed deep crimson. In spite of this neither of them shifted position.

"You don't want to… start already, do you?" she said uncertainly, and his blush deepened.

"Ehm, as you said; we're both way too young for that, right? I wouldn't mind if we waited a couple of years before doing… anything like that," he said nervously, and they both smiled before he continued, "besides, you know your brother would kill me if he finds out that we're even talking about it."

Her amused laughter was loud enough to wake the lemur dozing above them in the trees.

A/N: Yay, one more chapter up! This was actually pretty hard to write, I think. How do you make two kids discuss sex realisticly, tastefully AND keeping them in character? I'd like to think I did okay... Once again, please review: it means a million and helps a lot :)