A/N: And here I deliver the long awaited Aang and Katara scene. Sorry, but IMO, Aang is so hard to write! It's hard for me to write a change in emotion as is - I tend to dwell in it when I write - so the way Aang is so cute and eccentric in the show is just hard for me to write. I hope it comes off as okay for you all.

Oh, and I'm so proud of the later scene. I think I'm getting pretty good at fight scenes, so - *happydancearoundtheblock* In the very least, they're becoming easier to think of and write. I have now officially re-written it seven times. Not deleting it or anything but adding to it - so far, I think it's my favorite scene. But that could change ;)

On the second segment - I would like to say how hard it was to find a quote I felt matched. This one is the only one that came close but I chose to change it a bit so I put the original in parenthases and the added part is underlined. Tracking down poems and quotes is a lot harder when it's supposed to be specified; in a way.

Please review when you're on your way out! And I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own it. Bla-bitty-blah. Movin' on.

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Friends will come and friends will go,

The seasons change and it will show,

I will age and so will you,

But our friendship stays, strong and true.

~ Author Unknown

Thursday, two days before Avatar Aang's in-honor party...

Aang moved a few of the tabs around, for the twelth time in the last hour. He squinted at the paper and his tongue pressed against cheek as he considered it once more. Shaking his head vehemently, he moved another one of the tabs and sighed. He pushed the table seating chart across the table. "How about this?"

Analyzing it a minute, she pulled over the binder they had compiled with a summary on each person Toph put on the guest list. Katara thumbed to the section about the man whose tab Aang had last moved tables on and saw confirmation of what she had thought. Shaking her head, she too moved some of the tabs around, including the previous one. "Nope; General Tohsen can't sit next to the cheese seller, Bo Say. He tells a ton of war stories and the other guy hates those." She pushed it back for approval.

He looked down and sighed moved some more tabs around. "But this mayor guy can't sit next to Suki's friends because their paths crossed once when the Kyoshi warriors stole some supplies from his town - allegedly." Sliding it back across the table, Aang threw up his hands and jumped out of the chair, choosing to float on an air ball to vent. "This is useless! Why can't Toph do this - she invited these people. I don't even know half of them!"

Katara just laughed wryly. "Ah, but they know you. And Toph knows one of them in some form or another - through stories or in person and she wants to meet each and every one of them."

"I feel like she's throwing this party for herself and not for me..." He muttered.

"Hey, she's going to miss you! We're all leaving this place - even Zuko, the very own Fire Lord of this huge place - within short weeks of each other. Let her have this moment, yeah? Besides, I think she'll miss her favorite Avatar more than any of the rest of us". Katara smiled teasingly.

Aang felt his cheeks burn and cleared his throat before he tried to steer the conversation back to the chart. "Well, ehm, what if we add more tables and thin out the seatings? Like, instead of 6 people a table, do four. So it's more managible and I don't have a fight break out at my peaceful party."

"We won't all be able to all sit together." She pointed out and started counting on her fingers. "Me, you, Sokka, Suki, Toph, and Zuko. That's six if you don't count Iroh because he wants to catch up with some old friends of his, remember?"

"Eh, that's fine!" He waved it off. "I can seat Toph at Iroh's table - she'll love that - and neither will mind. And then Sokka and Suki can be... somewhere else... preferably in the back. No offence but their lovey-dovey twenty-four-seven stuff is annoying." He rolled his eyes and Katara couldn't stop herself from giggling.

"Okay, okay," she recovered quickly and continued on," Then that's you, me and Zuko at our table so who should also be there? Hmm..." Katara stared at the chart once more, tapping her fingers absently against her chin.

"Let me see the book again." He held his arms out and flawlessly caught the three pound binder. Tossing through, Aang made various groans, head shakes, and mutterings. Katara just leaned back in her chair. For now, she was giving up on the damn chart and letting Aang do it. It was his party after all.

She slid her legs up on the table noisely and studied the room. Wasn't like anyone used this room, so what if there are shoe scuffs on the oak?, she thought. Katara turned her attention over to the boy sitting across the table and became amused quickly by his unrealized antics. Unrealized by himself, that is.

Aang suddenly dissipated the spinning air ball and landed on his chair with a loud squeak coming from the furniture. "She invited Bumi! Remind me to kiss her when she gets back!" Katara laughed outright this time at both his excitement and words and he blushed, again. "Not like that! Ugh, just help me find his tab so I can move it."

She heaved her body up and crawled over the wide table and they scanned the sheet for it. Yep, I'm not going to bother twisting my back anymore by leaning over. Hah, if one of the government officials saw me now, Katara thought. "How in the world did she get a hold of him? I thought he was up in Omashu last."

"They're not completely isolated up there", he looked up and rolled his eyes at her before smiling. Aang's happiness was infectious.

"Well.. I know that... but still. It's your equivalent to a... an ... air temple!" Aang just shrugged at the comment, narrowing the tab down to the last few tables. "There!" She pointed and he rapidly moved his tab before working on downsizing all of the tables.

"Wait... that guy can't sit at Bumi's previous table because Kuei's there with his sloppy bear, Bosco. Ugh!" He dropped his face in his hands, frustrated, as he hit another proverbial speed bump.

Katara just layed on her back diagnally across the table and crossed her arms under her head. "Just let me know when you're done..." she teased.

Aang shoved her with his elbows but didn't move otherwise.

"Hey! Not cool." She continued to grin, finally finding fun in a project that was otherwise draining and tiresome - and had been for the past two hours.

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For passion, be it observed, brings insight with it; it can give a sort of intelligence to those observors looking onward.(simpletons, fools, and idiots, especially during youth).

~Honore De Balzac

Katara buried her face into her arm to keep from laughing out-loud - something she had noticed them all doing lately after the stress of most everything they did, day to day, had dissipated; it was almost like all the happiness was pent up inside of them and now that it had a time to burst, it was doing so willingly, Katara had mused one day. Iroh raised his hands instead of laughing and clapped from his positioned seat against the wall. "Good job, Suki!"

The Kyoshi warrior bowed appreciatively and turned back to her opponent. "Don't get so bummed out Sokka! That's only the third time we've fought. I've just been doing this longer than you." She shrugged, trying to make him feel better and make it seem like less of a win and more of a teaching. It didn't work.

"Best four out of seven! And this time, I'm using the longsword." He turned back in bemusement to exchange weapons.

"Alright, well, I'm still keeping this."

They squared off once more; katana vs. longsword. They circled each other for a few moments before Suki struck first, shooting out her katana. Sokka deflected it easily but the curve in it trapped his sword and she almost ripped it out of his hand when she pulled back sharply. He narrowed his eyes and dived at her feet this time. The metal clanged and she, too, deflected it easily.

The two onlookers watched intently. Honestly, each time it had been a close call. Suki only won them because of a very minor miss-step on Sokka's part; but that didn't stop him from becoming highly annoyed and even more proud to keep dueling. Sokka wasn't much of one to accept defeat unless he had to - and even then it was done grudgingly. Loosing a duel to his girlfriend - granted, she had trained a bit more intensely than he had - was hitting some kind of nerve in him; Katara guessed it was because he was a Master now and Suki was only, officially, a retired rogue warrior.

"I think he doesn't want to risk hurting her," Katara thought out loud without knowing it and was startled when Iroh responded next to her.

"Oh, that's quite possible. I've seen many duels in my life and this does seem odd... Of course, not many of those have been girl vs. boy so I can't speak on that dynamic." He flashed a cheeky grin. Katara rolled her eyes at him playfully and turned back to the two being spoken of.

They were enthralled in themselves now but not for the usual reasons. The metal continued to clash and echo off the tall stone walls of the dueling room for several tense minutes. Each dove and twisted and stabbed and reflected but neither came close enough to getting a kill hit on each other.

"What's all this about? You can hear them a mile away." Zuko frowned as he walked in and leaned against the doorway.

Iroh scooted closer to the doorway to speak in a stage whisper, "They've dueled three times but Sokka always messes up something near the end - bad positioning or aim or you know. Katara thinks that he does it on a sub-conscious level because he doesn't want to hurt dear Suki. I am inclined to agree. Here, "he patted the ground next to him - when he was finished with his fast speech - with a smile," watch. If it's true, he'll do it again soon."

Zuko nodded, slightly interested, and moved to sit down. Instead of sitting where his Uncle indicated, he positioned himself between the old man and Katara in a seemingly subconscious move . She just raised an eyebrow at him and waited. He felt her staring and looked over immediately. "What?"

"Nowhere else you could sit?"

"Iroh's too close to the door." Zuko said, a look in his eye daring her to voice what she thought about it while, at the same time, she saw a hint of amusement in his expression. No doubt it was because of her reaction and not the minor thing he actually did.

Katara, however, just settled with rolling her eyes - something she'd started doing a lot lately, too, it seemed - and turned back to watch the duel.

These past two months, everytime I'm sitting next to someone else he comes and inserts himself between. Unbelievable, she thought. And he doesn't even seem to realize it.

Sokka slid across the floor on the pads of his feet and stuck out his sword but at the last moment, it wobbled under her raised arm and she was able to press her katana to his neck. The weapon hitting skin, while unmarked, signaled the end of the duel. Squealing, she turned around with an accompanying grin and let the katana slump downwards in her hand. "I knew I was good but I didn't know I was that good!" Suki's surprised pride was evident and Sokka's shoulders slumping was more so.

"Yep, they were right. Sokka, you are afraid to fight a girl." Zuko announced suddenly, startling everyone to look at him - including Iroh, who was surprised his nephew voiced an opinion outright; even if it was true and even when he knew how much Zuko loved to state things brashly and of his own opinion.

"I am not!" Sokka huffed, placing his hands on his hips, the longsword being pushed out at an awkward angle.

The other teenager just smirked. "Yes, you are. You have to trust yourself to not overstep into causing actual damage and you can't seem to do that." A sudden thought struck him and, acting on the instinct to follow it, Zuko turned over to the girl next to him. "Katara, would like to duel so I can show him how it's done?"

She took his hand and stood up with him. "Sure; but just so you know - I am so kicking your ass."

"Fine, but I don't see how this will solve anything!" Sokka said loudly in a subconscious effort to pull the attention back to him before he set down his sword next to Suki's abandoned katana and let her lead him to the corner to sit. They settled in next to Iroh and the young warrior's annoyance soon ceased as his curiosity grew - and as he was in Suki's company longer.

"Sorry to disappoint you but I train all the time," Zuko continued as they walked over to the weapons hanging on the far wall over the training dummies filled with hay. He grabbed the Dual Dao swords. These ones were practically identical to the ones he trained with and would work just fine.

They were also the ones he had used when he had moonlighted as The Blue Spirit when he had saved Aang once and attacked the Fire Nation guards and army multiple times. At the time, he had thought it was just to vent, to let out frustration. But as he had started thinking back, before joining the Avatar gang for real, Zuko began to think it was more than that. As it turned out, it was. He looked around the room but didn't see Aang anywhere, assuming he must be meditating - as he had been doing every day.

Katara settled on a pair of Stiletto daggers since she'd only trained with small weapons lately and found them easier to hold. Fighting without bending had always been tough with her but, now, Zuko had been kind enough to let any of them use his trainer that came by one or twice a week. Even though she had been training somewhat recently, Katara found it hard to get into a real set of moves and, instead, went with her instincts most of the time. It may anger the trainer at times but it had worked when they were in battle - for real - and she felt more comfortable with it. "I dare say a wager is in order." Katara grinned as they walked to the center of the room and positioned their stances.

"Okay, what kind?" Zuko stood upright and crossed the swords in front of him.

"Hmmm..." She flipped the daggers around in her hands lazily but methodically. Actually being able to train with good weapons lately had done wonders for her skill set, how she was being taught to train issues aside. "What do you guys think? What kind of wager should be placed on this?" Katara yelled back over to them.

"Tea!" Iroh shouted jovially and everybody just ignored him as he grinned.

"Day at the Spa!" Suki joined in.

"Cooking Classes! They let you eat everything there." Sokka said the last part to himself and rubbed his stomach appreciatively.

"Alright, I choose a day at the spa. And three tickets; I want to bring the other two along." Katara decided.

"You want to be bring Sokka along?" He momentarily faltered in his stance and raised both eyebrows.

"No, dumb dumb, I mean Toph."

"I thought she hated girly stuff." Zuko said skeptically.

"Hah! She totally caved at the spa when we were in Ba Sing Se almost six months ago."

"Eh, okay. I choose... beating you." He smirked.

She just giggled at him. "Okay, just don't let your ego get too big. We going to do this?"

"Just waiting for you." He lifted his swords up again. Katara, in response, stopped flipping the Stiletto's and gripped them at her sides, points facing backwards, turned up.

"And I'm waiting for you."

They circled each other for a minute. Suki looked over at Iroh and gave him a look asking What's with them?. He just smiled a little and put a finger up to his lips. He wanted to watch these two closely and anyone else talking would distract Zuko and Katara from their little world. Besides the fact that he was interested in how different male vs. female duels were, he was also interested in seeing his nephew in a duel - something he hadn't seen in a long, long time - and seeing young Katara dueling - something he hadn't seen ever. But them both together made it even more fascination to his speculating and positive mind.

In a surprise move, Zuko lashed out first; trying to catch her by surprise. She ducked easily - too easy - and spun around him, kicking out at his knee and causing him to stumble forward.

"Surprise." Katara couldn't help herself and clucked with a small smirk. He quickly recovered and twirled the left sword low and the right one high, narrowly missing her chest in a simoultaneous strike. Katara leaned back just in time but ended up falling back when she was unable to regain her balance.

He came to stand over to her, about to put the swords across her throat to signal he won when she jammed the point of one blade into his right thigh, stopping short of pucturing the skin but still leaving a bruise. With the other, she spun it around at the same time and knocked his funny bone in his left elbow with it's hilt. Momentarily stunned by the action and and the tingling bouts of pain going down both sides of his body, Katara took the opportunity to slide out and push herself back up a few feet from him.

Zuko's determination kicked in and his eyes narrowed. He wasn't going to go easy on her anymore. Sliding his blades back into position, he starting charging at her. She played chicken so he wouldn't change direction and follow her, skidding out of the way at the last second but he'd already lunged ahead of her - or what would now be behind her. Spinning around like he'd practiced, Zuko spun the blades torwards her back.

Katara heard it and tucked the daggers to her side, and somersaulted forward. The Stiletto's would leave a bruise because of it on each of her wrists, if not puncturing a bit of skin that she was unaware of, but that was the last thing on her mind. He once again charged after her. She had a strong footing now and met metal with metal - going with her instincts - instead of dodging away to have it meet air like before. Zuko's superior strength was easily seen but she held the shaking daggers against his swords.

Sweat rolled down her face in the few minutes following but she didn't waver. A few spots of moisture began to dot his brow that she could see as he raised it, a look of surprise - and dare she say awe - on his face at her being able to stand blade to blade with him. Bending was something completely different than hand to hand and he wasn't surprised at how evenly she matched him with bending but hand to hand was... personally reliant on strength. There was nothing you could hide behind, not even a blade - as it took all of you, not just bending powers, to hold that blade up.

After several short, tense moments, the opposite blades - in her right hand, his left - slowly began to slide torwards to ground as she lost the upward force that held them still. Katara felt her shoulders start quivering and knew that there was no way she could keep them up. Adrenaline or not, her muscles were failing to superior strength.

She panted, trying to keep the blade up but failed. Jerking, Katara shot it forward to hit his stomach in a last ditch effort. At the same second, Zuko took a risk and tilted the sword back up, catching her neck. The silence deafened inside the room as the spectating friends tried to comprehend what had just happened from their poor vantage point. Both duelers looked down. They'd hit each other at the same time - they saw it, felt it and knew it without a doubt.

Iroh stood and clapped, grinning maniacly, startling the bunch. He hadn't seen a duel like that in years - a decade or more! "Well done!" He turned back to the couple who had their heads tilted and mouths gapped from the sidelines. Suki was analyzing their moves to learn more and Sokka was stuck between laughing at Zuko for being beat by a girl, and expressing his confusion on how no one was called out as a winner and, instead, it was a tie. "And that is how you duel when you have stakes involved!" He chattered on but the dualers tuned him out.

Katara looked up and met Zuko's gold eyes, tuning Iroh out. "Well..."

"Yeah. Didn't expect that." His eyes were still slightly wide in shock. She was sure hers matched on some level as well.

"So. Tie?"

"How about a dual win?"

"Then I expect my spa tickets." She grinned up.

"I'll have to come up with an actual winning prize then." He smiled back.

"Hey, you guys done? I want to duel Suki again!" Katara and Zuko seperated, lowering the blades they hadn't realized were still pressed against each other. They put the swords and Stilleto daggers back respectively as the other two picked up their own swords once more.

Everyone had just about gotten settled - whether it be their stances or seatings off to the side - when Toph caught everyone off guard by flying through the door on a slab of rock. And promptly letting it thud on the floor.

"Toph! What did I say about flying through the the halls on earth, or rock or whatever that is? You could accidently run into someone or damage the walls." Katara put her hands on her hips as she stood and looked at Toph expectantly, giving her a look that, if Toph could see it, would very much be constituted as a 'motherl look'.

Toph just waved her off. Literally. "Yeah, yeah, heard it before." Zuko exchanged a look with Katara as the young girl walked up to him. Toph stopped just in front and clasped her hands together in a 'help me' imitation. "I need your help - again."

He sighed. "This is about the party, isn't it?"

"Well n- yeah, it is. I booked a band that balked on me at the last minute and now the only one that sounds remotely close to it in the city is asking for twice the original price! Pleeeaasseee?" She blinked up at him and somehow made her big eyes look even more big and doe like. It was infectiously adorable - although if he said it out loud, she would probably slap him to a bloody pulp for being called adorable.

He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head back and forth, relenting already but not saying it yet. "You are going to be the death of me, Toph."

"If you mean the death of your pocketbook - then probably." She conceded and he smiled at the bluntness of it. "Coomme oonnn, ppplleaaaseee?"

"Alright, alright. This is important to you..."

"Yes, it is!"

"I'll grab some coin bags from my office, come with." He started for the door. Toph jumped up, squealing in a way very uncanny for her and that left them all - Sokka especiall - with different forms of a gapping fish expression. She hugged Zuko quickly before bouncing down the halls ahead of him. He just shook his head again and followed behind quickly, smiling affectionately like a brother would to a younger sister.

Katara's brother and Suki turned back to their newest duel with a dismissing shrug and started. Before long, clashing and clanging metal worked with the perfect acoustics of the room. Sokka was striking faster now and Suki didn't waver. Finally, they were on equal ground as they dueled and Iroh smiled at how it was his nephew that helped. He always knew Zuko was as kind and warm and had as good instincts as he showed to have but still, he seemed to be surprised every week by something large or small.

Katara stood over by Iroh - leaning against the doorway - still wearing a puzzled expression on her face. "Zuko is how she's paying for it?"

Iroh looked over at her. "You didn't know that?" She shook her head 'no'. "Oh yes, yes. When the young girl first started thinking of the idea, my nephew offered to pay if she ever did do it. Of course, I don't think he thought she was going to seriously do it! But, well, you know Zuko. It's not like he'd consider turning her away!" Iroh grinned. "That Toph... I dare say she's the lynchpin of your little group. A blunt one, but a lynchpin often is."

He watched for another moment before standing and informing Katara of his plans as he went down the hallway to start a pot of tea. Katara turned back to the couple battling, seeing but yet not seeing. She didn't notice what they were doing, so caught up in her thoughts, until she looked up and saw Suki kiss Soka in a, obviously congratulatory manner for him finally being able to beat her. They were an odd couple.

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