8 days ASC

The next day the Avatar, his friends, and the leadership of the Order of the White Lotus met at the abandoned Earth King's palace. They chose the war room – a room large enough to easily accommodate them all at one time.

Iroh stood up as the meeting coordinator mostly because of his strong connections to both groups that were present.

"First, I'd like to say that no matter what is discussed or decided in this forum, it will not be final without the full approval of those we deem necessary".

Aang piped in, "You mean like Hakoda and Chief Arnook of the water tribes?

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean," replied Iroh. "Also, Earth King Kuei is still on his journey with Bosco and there is no indication of where he is or when he'll be back."

"From an Air Nomad perspective, there is no one else but me. And Zuko can represent the Fire Nation," said Aang.

"So the other two nations' best interests must be represented by those of you who are here, but final approval must be received at a later time. Let's begin," said Iroh. "The first order of business is to review the needs of the four nations as we stand today."

"The first thing is that the fire nation needs to stand down all troops and military weapons," said Jeong Jeong.

"Agreed," said Zuko. "It will go much faster with help from the Earth Kingdom, where most of the military units are currently located."

"The Earth King should be located and returned to Ba Sing Se to oversee the rebuilding of his kingdom," remarked Bumi. "I plan to do my part, but I want to start with Omashu first. It was nearly destroyed when the fire nation invaded."

"Yes, that is probably the first step that is necessary," Iroh said. "But the removal of troops and disassembly and disposal of the weapons can begin without his presence."

"Each town may need to start rebuilding on their own," added Toph. "I can definitely help the cause, but first I want to return to Gaoling and make peace with my parents. I do miss them."

"Perhaps each town can provide a messenger to the Earth King, upon his return, letting them know what they need," remarked Iroh.

"Now moving on to the water tribes," Iroh stated.

"The water tribes have been greatly affected," said Katara. "However, what we must do to fix our homes will not require outside assistance."

"I agree with Katara. All of the benders from the Southern Tribe were removed and eliminated by the Fire Nation. To replenish those souls would require immigration from the Northern Water tribe – and that effort has already been started," stated Pakku. "The rest will be up to mother nature. "

"What about the Northern Tribe?" asked Sokka.

"They'll be fine. It will take time to rebuild the infrastructure, but they are already underway with all of that. After all, the attack by the fire nation was nearly 6 month ago now," stated Pakku.

"The fire nation will need a lot of support to help move on from their past," said Iroh. "Since the war has been raging over 100 years, most of the population never knew a time without a tyrant as a leader or their sons and daughters going off to war."

"There may be some residual supporters of my father as well," piped in Zuko. "We'll deal with that when it happens."

"There will also need to be work on the infrastructure of the capital city," stated Iroh. "After the day of black sun, there was much destroyed. The palace was also damaged by Zuko's Agni Kai with Azula."

Iroh then turned to Aang. "Avatar, I'm sorry to say that I have no plan for the Air Nomad nation. There is only one of you left. What can done?"

Aang stood up, looking very serious at everyone. "I have already come to terms with the fact that I am the last airbender. To be honest with you, I am unsure where to take things from here. Now that I can take the power from a bender, can I gift it as well? Or perhaps, in this world, I am not the only airbender left? Perhaps, as Pakku said earlier, mother nature make take care of the situation at a future time? I just need time to think and plan. My responsibility as the Avatar is to the world and to its people. I will not let you down as far as that goes, but I may ask for your help and support with respect to this sensitive topic. I take full responsibility for fixing this situation – if I can."

"Thank you, Aang. If there is anything anyone can do to assist you, please don't hesitate to speak up. This world owes you everything," said Iroh.

"I believe we have covered what we have needed to in our first meeting," said Iroh. "I think it is time to break for the day and reconvene tomorrow."

The session adjourned and the members started to leave the palace.

"Hey Aang! Wait up! Can I talk to you?" It was Katara.

"Sure," he said. He appeared to be a bit down after his speech about the air nomads.

They started walking back towards the Jasmine Dragon together. It was only the late afternoon and there was still plenty of time for everyone to have a nice evening before getting to bed.

"Aang, I wanted to have a serious, focused conversation with you," said Katara. "About us."

"Yeah. That would help me out a lot," he responded.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Aang paused for a few seconds not really sure how much to bare his soul. "Katara, you probably already know how I feel about you. But just so you aren't getting any mixed signals, the bottom line is that I love you. I have for quite some time. What we have been through together over this past year and your support and guidance has just made it even deeper for me."

He continued, "I do not doubt my love for you, but after what happened on Ember Island, I am a bit confused. And our kiss last night was so…."

Katara interrupted, "Aang. I admit that I knew you had very strong feelings for me for quite some time now. You should just ignore Ember Island. I reacted badly that night when you kissed me. All I could think about was the upcoming battle. I was afraid that if I let down my guard too much, I would be devastated if I lost you. And what if I were killed helping Zuko? It's just that we had so much on our minds besides the two of us. It could have turned out so different than it did."

Aang grabbed Katara's hand as they continued to walk through the streets of Ba Sing Se.

"I just need to know that I'm not some love-crazed 12 year old boy here," said Aang.

"Well you are almost 13 now!" laughed Katara.

Aang smiled. He stopped walking and turned to Katara.

"Katara, I love you," he said again.

"Aang, no more questions. No more unknowns. No more games. I love you, too." She paused. "I have for some time now but I held back knowing what we were up against and how I might distract you. I'm not going to hold back anymore. Now that the war is won, I want to be with you."

They looked into each others' eyes and kissed once again – the same way they had the night before.

The walk then continued hand-in-hand towards the Jasmine Dragon. Both were smiling.

OlOlOlOlOlO

Suki and Sokka were already at the Jasmine Dragon when they arrived. Iroh was busy in back.

"Isn't that cute?" remarked Suki very quietly. "Now they're holding hands!"

"What's going on?" asked Aang.

"Not much of anything," replied Sokka. Just enjoying some downtime with friends and having a snack with our tea.

"Aang, can I talk to you for a moment in the back?" asked Iroh.

"Sure thing!"

Aang kissed Katara's check and skipped his way to the back of the tea shop.

"Katara, what is going on?!" Suki asked.

"What do you mean?" Katara replied.

"I saw that kiss last night. Now you are holding hands! Are you two….dating?" asked Suki.

"Y'know, after all we've been through together, the word dating just doesn't seem to cut it. It seems so... trivial to put it that way," Katara said. "I would say in the last 24 hours, we've taken our friendship to an entirely different level though. We are definitely not just friends anymore."

"What!" yelled Sokka.

"No, no, no! Boy, you've got an interesting mind there, Sokka. What I'm trying to say is that we love each other and we are together," Katara said. "We'll just have to see where it goes."

"What do you mean?" asked Suki.

"Well, we are so young. I'm almost 15 and he is almost 13. It's a bit premature to be planning a wedding, isn't it?" Katara said. "I think we need to see what happens in the next year or two to determine any next steps. If it was meant to be, it will happen for us."

"Such a wise thing to say," said Suki.

"I'm proud of you little sister," Sokka replied.

OlOlOlOlOlO

"What did you want to see me about?" Aang asked Iroh.

Iroh was busy putting away dishes in some of the cupboards. He continued his work while starting to speak, "Young Avatar, I see you are getting very close to the waterbender."

"Yes. Yes, we are definitely...close," Aang noted.

"I am now only a simple old man who enjoys his tea. My romantic days are far behind me. But I have been told that I give some pretty good advice at times." Iroh winked, remembering their talk while walking towards the Crystal Caves under Ba Sing Se not so long ago.

"Yeah, I've heard that too," Aang replied.

"First of all, you are the Avatar. You will have responsibilities over the course of your entire life that she will need to be accepting of if you two plan to be together."

"Yes, that is true. I would never ask her to be unhappy," said Aang.

"Secondly," continued Iroh, "I realize you are powerful and you have just saved our world, but remember that you are only 12 years old."

"Almost 13," corrected Aang.

"Yes, almost 13," repeated Iroh. "As such, you must balance your young age with the desires of a relationship."

"What do you mean?" asked Aang.

"Let's just say that since Katara is older than you, she may be ready to take things further than you are ready for."

"You mean...sex?"asked Aang.

"Well, there's that as well as well as less complicated matters. She will be of marrying age in just over a year. You will still only be 14. You should be sure to make sure you and she are on the same page with things else misunderstandings may occur."

"Yes, we've already been down that path once. I don't want to go down it again with her."

"My advice is to take things slow, especially in the beginning. Continue to grow together - like a beautiful panda lily. Right now, the seed has only been planted - there may even be a seedling. You may think you are in madly in love, but over time you will see that you will become even more so. True soul mates."

"Thanks for this talk," said Aang. "I appreciate you looking out for me. I don't have many adult mentors anymore. I may be the Avatar, but I'm very new to girls."