Chapter 3.

This one is a little short but I needed to end it somewhere, and I only read through this one a few times so if you catch any mistakes I apologize in advance. Enjoy.

Broken Glass

Her eyes snapped open and she turned her head, Aang's mouth landed near her jaw and she took a second to regret that tragedy.

"Sokka! What are you doing here!"

Seeing her brother stand at the opening of the cavern was the shock she needed.

She then noticed how they were sitting.

She was on Aang's lap, her legs wrapped around his waist. Arms around his neck, hands on the back of his head.

The blush that spread all over her face was more than Sokka could take.

"Katara get out of that water right this instant. I'm going to kill this guy" he headed over to them but Katara jumped out first stopping Sokka before he got to close.

"Sokka stop, stop its not what you think."

"Not what I think? Not what I think! Katara I have eyes I know what I saw."

She held him back.

"I know what you think you saw but there is something you don't understand. This water does something to you its, its hard to explain." she stuttered.

Katara looked over to Aang and saw him drinking the water again.

"Aang! Stop it, get out of there." she moved over to grab his arm to drag him out of the water.

Sokka walked over to help her, or possibly punch him, when Aang's head suddenly fell back and he passed out. He guess he had to help him…

They dragged him out to lay on the cave floor.

"What's wrong with him?" Sokka asked curious, but still wanting to hit him.

Katara was kneeling next to Aang trying to wake him up. She softly hit his cheek, Aang mumble some incoherent words then went quiet again.

She leaned over her to make sure he was breathing.

"I'm not sure what's wrong with him, Sokka I'm worried. It all started with the tea and this crazy town, and-" her breath caught and she held back a sob.

"I don't even know what is wrong with me, but I'm glad to see you Sokka, I missed you."

Sokka sat down next to her and gave her a hug.

"I missed you too. Listen you're right about this town, we need to get out of here. I got here a few days ago looking for you and I overheard-"

"Wait what did you say?" Katara lifted her head to look at him.

"I got here a few days ago looking -"

"A few days ago? Whaat? Sokka we only just arrived here today, hours ago actually."

Katara stood up and started pacing.

"A few days? Oh my spirits this place is so crazy! Is that possible we've been down here for days?"

Sokka was starting to get worried, he'd never known his sister to act like this, she was pulling her own hair, that wasn't normal.

He stood up and stopped her pacing, putting both hands on her shoulders.

"Katara stop. Start at the beginning."

She took a deep breath and went on to tell him how she met Aang, that they've been traveling together, how he's the Avatar and everything up to the crazy Lana and the weird tea.

"Wow. You've been busy. Listen we need to get out of here, and don't think I've forgotten that scene I walked in on sister." She blushed.

"Didn't you drink any of the tea Sokka?" he threw her a look and rolled his eyes, knowing she was ignoring his last point on purpose.

"I wasn't offered any actually. People just kept telling me to leave and come back when I had a wife. It was all rather insulting really." Sokka said looking thoughtful for a second. "I guess its good that they didn't, their rudeness was what made me think to stay and look around a little more. Come on lets get out of here." He stood up and they both grabbed one of Aang's arms and started walking with him.

They made their way up and out toward the end of the cave.

"Wait a minute, stop here. I'm going to go up and see if anyone is guarding the way out."

They leaned Aang against the wall and Sokka headed up the rest of the way alone.

Katara tried waking Aang again.

"Aang what's wrong with you?" she lightly tapped his cheek.

All she could think about is that if Sokka had only walked in a few minutes later she might of felt his lips on hers.

Katara let out a small sigh, she's never been this curious about anything. Glancing about to make sure Sokka wasn't on his way back she decided to take what she wanted.

Making sure Aang was still out, she leaned closer and placed a quick kiss on his mouth.

Peeking open her eyes she gasped when she saw grey looking back at her.

"I wish I knew what was making you light up like that." Aang said in a whisper, all his comment did was make her blush brighter.

"I uh I'm sorry."

Katara never felt so humiliated.

"For what?" Aang still looked dazed.

She looked up at him again, slightly worried, hoping that water didn't effect his brain.

"Are you alright Aang?" he blinked a few times trying to clear his head.

"I'm not sure, my memory is fuzzy what are we doing here?"

He was looking at her face trying to find clues to why she was acting so weird when he noticed her neck.

"Who did that to you? What the hell happened?" he reached up to turn her face back and forth getting a better look at the small red bruises that scattered her throat.

Katara didn't think her face could get and hotter.

"Who do I need to kill around here?" Aang stood up quickly looking around for some unnoticed assailant but stumbled a bit having to hold on the wall to keep his balance.

Katara was busy wishing the floor would open up and swallow her.

"Aang sit down your not making this easy."

He glared around the cave one more time and sat back down.

"Katara I think you need to explain some things to me." he took in her blush and stared at her confused. "Well first you should know my brother Sokka is here, and we need to get out of this town. I think we may have been down here for longer than we thought, a few days longer…"

Aang nodded for her to continue, trying to take it all in even with his splitting headache. Then he heard someone coming, they both stood up and Aang pushed her behind him.

"Get your hands off my sister."

Sokka stopped and glared at Aang.

Aang glared at Sokka.

"Sokka shut up, come on we need to get out of here." Katara stepped out from behind Aang and started walking up the trail leaving them behind.

Both men took each others measure, looking up and then down, glaring the whole time. Finding nothing to say they followed Katara up.

"There was one guy standing in the mouth of the cave but I took care of him, he had been following me around since I arrived. If we head left out of this place we'll avoid the town and get out of here without to much fuss… hopefully."

Aang and Katara nodded letting Sokka take the lead.

They made their way out thankfully not running into any trouble, once they were in the clear Aang pointed the way to where Appa should be. He headed in that direction' Katara and Sokka fell in line behind.

Katara slowed down to speak with her brother alone, "Listen Sokka, could you not mention what you saw to him." she pleaded with her eyes.

Sokka glared.

"What why? He deserves to hear a piece if my mind."

"I don't think he remembers Sokka and I'd really rather not ruin things. He's come to be a great friend to me. Please all you would do is embarrass us both."

Katara felt her eyes watering and took full advantage, looking up at her brother.

"Please Sokka" she let out a loud sniff for good measure.

He let out a loud groan of anger.

"Fine Katara but if I see one step in that direction he's going to hear my thoughts on the matter. One step!"

She gave her brother a quick hug, "Thank you thank you!"

Then she jogged to catch up with Aang.

Sokka just shook his head. He was to young to deal with this.

They headed into the clearing and Appa came bounding toward them landing on Aang giving him a big lick. Aang just laughed happy to see him too.

It was already near sundown so they decided to travel a few miles to get some distance between them and Gansu then make camp.

Sokka was hesitant to get on Appa, but after receiving a big lick of his own discovered Appa to be just a big softy, and after a few minutes declared it the best way to travel.

Finding a spot next to a river they stopped, Katara put what food they had together to make dinner.

Sokka and Aang headed out together to gather wood for the fire. Katara threw them a worried glance before turning back to the dinner. She hoped they would got along she really didn't need more to worry about.

Sokka was surprised to find out how much he liked Aang, he really was a nice guy. And smart too. Not anywhere near as smart as him, but who is really.

They talked about their past, and Aang told him that he was an Airbender. Leaving out that he was the Avatar, and Sokka didn't bother telling him he already knew.

Sokka told him about the south pole and Aang explained to him how the air temples stayed level on the tops of mountains. Sokka told him he wanted to see them, and Aang promised to show him one day.

They avoided the subject of what had happened earlier staying on easy topics, leaving that conversation for later, or maybe never.

By the time they made it back to camp Katara was gone.

Their dinner was laid out for them, her portion already eaten.

"Where did she go?" Sokka started looking around with a worried frown.

"Don't worry, she's probably down at the river, she usually practices Waterbending before bed."

Aang sat down to eat, Sokka glared at him a bit for the fact that he knew his sisters before bed habits, but then shrugged following his lead.

Not before long Sokka was snoring.

Aang couldn't sleep if Katara wasn't back so he decided to head out to look for her.

He grinned when he found her. She was sitting on a large flat rock next to the bank of the river.

Trying not to disturb her he quietly airbended his way up and sat down facing her.

Her eyes were closed, face utterly serene, unbeknownst to him her mind was going crazy thinking about what happened earlier.

He took a moment to look at her neck again.

The light bruises were still noticeable, he knew what caused them , he just really wanted to know who caused them.

Someone in that village, so much for their great views on marriage.

He was going to have to take Appa back to that damn village and kill someone.

He started imagining how he would do it. Aang knew he was a peaceful person, violence usually made his stomach turn but when he saw how Katara was taken advantage of…. The amount of anger was a little shocking to him, but he couldn't help it.

"Aang if your going to sit up here please don't growl at me."

Aang brought his attention back up to her, not realizing he was making noise.

She was looking at him with a crooked smile and Aang felt his heart skip for a moment.

"Katara I need you to tell me something." he said seriously, she looked up at him silently waiting for him to continue.

"Who did this to you?" he brought a hand up to her neck.

Her smile dropped and Katara felt her face heat up.

She really needed to get a handle on this blushing problem when he was around.

She swallowed rather loudly and cleared her throat. Not sure what to tell him.

He just looked so concerned.

"If he hurt you I wont stop until I kill him." Aang said, a deathly calm in his voice. He frowned grabbing her attention again.

"Aang it's really not a big deal, just forget it." she looked down, she had never been good at lying.

He tilted her chin up to look him in the eyes.

"Katara we are traveling together I know you want to protect me because I'm the Avatar but I'm supposed to protect you too. If someone hurt you and took advantage of you, I will make them pay.

I don't want to see you hurt Katara. In the short time we've known each other you have come to mean a lot to me."

She gave him a small smile, glad that she wasn't alone in her feelings. She sniffed and blinked back a few tears, he was just so sincere.

Aang took those tears to mean something else entirely.

"I'll kill him, Katara tell me his name. I swear to the spirits I will find him that damn -"

"Aang, Aang stop.."

He kept going off telling her how he was going to kill this man who hurt her.

So she told him.

"It was you."

He stopped mid rant and looked at her.

"What did you say?"

Katara looked upward avoiding his eyes.

"It was you. Well us. Together." she glanced down at him to see how he was taking this news.

His mouth was open and he was staring at her throat.

Katara bit her lip, worried that she did the wrong thing in telling him.

Aang's eyes didn't miss a beat glancing up to look at those lips. Taking in his reaction she tried to read his thoughts through his eyes. Was he going to hate her?

"I'm sorry Aang it's ok, we can just forget it happened, I don't want you to regret meeting me. We can split up-"

"Katara stop talking" he held his fingers over her lips to stop her words, taking a second to appreciate their softness against his fingers.

He looked deep into her eyes, Katara felt her heart speed up, her breathing became irregular.

She waited to see what he would say.

"The only thing I regret Katara,"

Moving his hand from her mouth he brought it down to rub his thumb on one of the marks she said he left on her.

"is not remembering doing it."

He gave her a quick half smile to show he wasn't upset. Grabbing her hand, he put a kiss on the top, then turned it over kissing the inside of her wrist.

Then he left her atop that rock and headed back to camp. She could only wonder at his thoughts.

Katara let out an unsteady breath and fell back, laying down she waiting until her heart went back to normal then got up and went to bed.

He heard her walk past him and lay down. Aang couldn't relax enough to fall asleep yet. His head was full of what she had told him. Is it possible he really couldn't remember doing that to her? Ever since he sat down at that tea shop his head had started to get fuzzy. He sort of remembered walking down into that cave but once in there it all goes blank, next thing he knew he was waking up against that wall.

It was so frustrating! At least if it was going to happen he wanted to remember and enjoy it.

She seemed to get over it rather well though, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. He raised an eyebrow unsure of what to think about that.

Letting out a small groan of frustration he rolled over. Maybe if he kissed her again he would remember kissing her before… or maybe she'll realize how terrible he was for doing it and hate him forever.

His thoughts were going back and forth. The fire had died down by the time he finally settled enough to fall asleep. He dreamed of her.

Katara woke up first the next day and used what she saved from dinner to put together their breakfast. They definitely needed to stop somewhere to get supplies.

She walked over to wake up Sokka but he refused to budge. She shook him so hard his tongue flopped out and he started mumbling.

Rolling her eyes she gave up on him and walked over to Aang. He had an arm flung over his face sleeping he looked so peaceful, she decided just to leave them alone to sleep.

Packing up her bed and gathering their few supplies she put out what was left of the fire and looked around. There was nothing to do, and she sure didn't want to think about yesterday anymore.

It looked to be a few hours before noon so she decided they had slept enough. Aang would probably be the easiest to wake up so she walked over to him.

"Aang. Aaaaangg. Wake up." she reached over and lifted his arm off his face and dropped it unceremoniously to his side. He shifted slightly but stayed sleeping. Katara blew out a frustrated breath.

"Wake up. Aang its time to get up. We need to get moving." she pointed her finger out and slowly moved it to his face she was going to poke his cheek but at the last second he moved, landing her finger right into his eye.

"Oww! What was that for?" Aang said bringing up his hand to hold his injured eye. He squinted his good at her accusingly. Katara tried to keep the smile off her face and ended up with a crooked frown. Aang just glared a little harder then rolled his eye.

"If you wanted to wake me up a normal shove would of sufficed."

Katara just reached up to rub the back of her head. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to."

"You're lucky I'm a monk. Forgiveness is in my nature."

"Will you help me wake up Sokka? He's impossible." she said turning away from him to walk over to her brother, hiding her laugh.

"Sure." Aang stretched up and headed over to the siblings.

Katara was violently shaking her brother and Aang was busy laughing. "You try." Katara said giving up on him.

Aang walked over to Sokka and leaned close, "Hey Sokka wake up." he practically whispered to him. Sokka sat up and scratched his back. "Good morning guys'" he said with a yawn.

Katara's mouth was hanging open and she was giving Aang an incredulous look. He just grinned back at her.

"You two deserve each other." and with that she walked off.

"What's wrong with her?" Sokka asked Aang yawning once again. Aang just shrugged his shoulders and rubbed his eye.

Well there you are hope that satisfied. Review.

I'm glad people seem to be enjoying this. Thanks to everyone so far.

Also, I noticed when I post the formatting goes a little weird. Sorry if that bothers anyone.

On a side note, anyone finish mockingjay yet? Got it yesterday so excited!

Coming up next: He could only watch helplessly as they took his sister from him, he looked around angrily glaring at everyone who glanced his way, they wouldn't have her for long. He promised.