Edit: October 18th-October 30th, 2008
If you've read this chapter before, read this. If not, don't read this part unless you wanna be spoiled for this chapter: After Aang comes back after those eight ears, I go on for about three paragraphs as to why he hasn't been able to send letters, going into a lot of detail. I felt that there wasn't really much reason for Aang not to write Katara, so I just changed things around to make it easier to believe than having Aang actually 'forget' about Katara. Just thought I'd letcha know!
Okay. Here's chapter one. Now the story finally begins. Eight years into the future. The first part of this chapter is just Katara taking about how it's been years since she's last heard from Aang, etc. And it appears in some other form near the end of this chapter. You'll see. The second part is basically what has been happening during those eight years, and it's the first chapter (duh). Anyway, it's strange… Since this story was written, I've only received one review. On my last story, just about everyone said they wanted a sequel… If you're reading, please review. Like I've said before, there's no point writing this if no one's letting me know how I'm doing. So, this chapter is dedicated to KaTaAnG fOr EvEr, my replier!
Disclaimer: I only own Avatar on opposite day…
'It has been eight years since the day Aang has left me. Eight years! Eight years of waiting, eight years of watching the sky in hope of seeing that damned bison, eight years of hoping for even the slightest bit of news telling me when Aang's coming home, or even if he's alive. I have been waiting all these years for Aang to return so we can finally start our lives together, but now, I've lost all hope that he will ever return. I want to move on; I want to start a family! But I want it with him…'
It had been eight years since Aang had left. Even though Katara had put her life on hold until Aang returned, life went on…
About a year after Aang had left, Sokka and Suki got engaged. Katara was happy for her brother. She loved Suki like a sister, and supported their relationship one-hundred-and-fifty percent. They had a short engagement- less than six months before they were married. While she was happy in general for the loving couple, Katara didn't enjoy the beautiful winter wedding as much as she should have. Suki was a gorgeous bride and everything about the ceremony was flawless. On the inside, however, Katara felt an unpleasant mixture of jealousy, guilt, and heartbreak. Why couldn't this be her wedding with Aang? Where on Earth was he? When was he coming back? Was he ever gonna return home at all? These were the thoughts that haunted Katara for years afterwards.
Unfortunately, not too long after the wedding, Katara and Sokka's grandmother, Kana, had passed away of old age. Master Pakku was heartbroken, but remained in the Southern Water Tribe to teach the younger children waterbending.
A few years later, Suki became pregnant, and later, had a little girl who was named Suri. She looked just like her mother; light brown hair, green eyes, and fair skin. You could only tell that she was Sokka's child because of her dry sense of humor, and her love of adventures.
Just before Suri turned three, Suki was, once again, pregnant. Katara's jealously grew and she felt guilty because of this. She had to be happy for them. She was happy for them. It was a blessing. But still, she wanted this to be her… longing did nothing but grow inside of her.
So, in summary, eight years had passed since this whole thing with Aang leaving for the Fire Nation to take care of the rebels, Sokka and Suki are together with one daughter, and another child on the way, and now our story can finally begin…
It was the early afternoon. Katara sat near a small pond with a few young children who were in waterbending stances. For the past two years, she had been assisting the younger children in waterbending lessons after Master Pakku had lost his patience with a five year old girl, reducing her to tears. Katara, on the contrary, was much more patient and not quite as uptight. She was once like them. She could wait. It's not like she had anything tying her down…
"Master Katara, do I move my hands like this?" A little boy asked. He was in a perfect stance, moving his hands in a fluid motion.
"Yes!" The young boy grinned happily. "That's perfect." Katara smiled. "Do you think you're ready to try it on the water?"
The boy thought for a moment. "Yeah, I'm ready!" He moved closer to the water, and took his stance once again, and moved his hands back and forth. Soon, the water below him had started moving in sync with his hands. "I'm doing it! Look Master Katara! I'm doing it!"
The other students stopped what they were doing to watch the six year old boy's progress.
"That's great!" Katara clapped her hands. It felt great when a child waterbended for the first time. It made Katara feel like she had accomplished a great feat, one with many rewards.
After pushing and pulling the water a few more times, the boy let his hands fall to his sides, dropping the water back into the pond. "That was very good!" Katara praised. "Excellent. Okay. I think that's enough for today. You may go."
"Suri, you get back here this instant!" Suki yelled. She loved that child, but she was such a handful. Why did she have to take after Sokka?
"But Mommy," the three year old girl whined. "I wanna show you sumthin'!" Before Suki could even stop her, Suri jumped off the sidewalk, and into a puddle that was left from the rain they had the other night.
"Ah! Suri," Suki yelled, shielding her face from the water the young girl was splashing everywhere. Finally, Suki grabbed her daughter by the arm, and dragged her away. "What do you think you were doing young lady?" Suki said angrily as soon as they entered their home.
"I hadda show you I can waterbend, like Auntie 'Tara!" Suri replied happily.
"Suri…" Suki moaned. She sighed heavily as she took the wet child to her room to change. Just as she was pulling out a new parka, Sokka walked in.
"Hey! How are my lovely ladies doing to—" Sokka stopped short when he saw his daughter, soaking wet. "Okay, Suri… why are you wet?"
"I waterbended, Daddy," she said happily.
Sokka looked confused, so Suki cut in. "By that, she means she splashed in a puddle, and got herself soaked!" Suki gave Sokka a death glare as he laughed. "Sokka, don't encourage that kind of behavior!" She said quietly, so Suri wouldn't hear.
"Sorry Suki," Sokka said. "Here, let me help you with that." He took the parka away from Suki, and helped Suri into it.
"Well, it seems like you have everything under control. I'm going to go lay down," Suki said as she rested her hand on her six-month-old pregnant belly.
"So," Sokka said as soon as his wife was out of ear shot. "You waterbended you said?" Suri smiled.
Early the next morning, when the sun was just peeking out from under the horizon, Sokka was out fishing in the ocean. After an hour with no luck, he decided that he would just give up. "Stupid fish," he murmured to himself as he watched a school of fish swim by. He could swear they were taunting him. Just as he was about to turn around, something in the sky had caught his eye. It looked like a big, white fluffy animal flying towards him. "No way," he whispered. Abandoning his fishing pole, he took a few steps forward, stopping just short of the ocean, and just stared disbelievingly as the giant bison came closer with each passing minute.
Finally, Appa had come in for a landing. At the top of his head sat the Avatar.
"Hey Sokka," the airbender yelled, waving from his animal guide's head. He stood up and airbended himself to the ground as a little lemur flew onto his shoulder.
"Aang," Sokka said, still not believing his eyes. Aang hadn't changed too much; his head was still bare, the blue arrow sitting proudly on his forehead, he had the same goofy smile he had since he was 12, and it seemed as though Aang had changed into his faux fur coat before he had arrived. The only differences were the facts that he had shot up at least a foot since he last saw him, and his voice was much deeper as well.
"Wow Aang, it's been so long! Uh, it's great to see you!" Sokka said, uncertain as to what to say to someone he hasn't heard from in eight years.
"Yeah, it's great to see you too!" Aang smiled. An awkward silence followed.
"She really missed you, you know," Sokka said, breaking the silence.
Aang nodded, knowing Sokka was talking about Katara.
"Why didn't you let us know what was going on, Aang? Why couldn't you find the time to at least write her a letter, letting her know that you were alright?" Sokka's voice started to get a little louder as he went on. "Why didn't you even give Katara- your fiancée- one thought while you were gone? My sister is a wreck because of you. It's been eight years since you left, and you just come back out of the blue, and expect us to go on like nothing has ever happened? I don't think so!"
Aang didn't say a word. He just stood there, frozen to the spot. Sokka was right. Why couldn't he find the time to contact them? "I— Sokka— of course, I thought about Katara all the time. I just—"
"Couldn't find the five minutes to write to her?" Sokka finished for him.
Aang felt horrible. How could he be so stupid? Of course, it broke his heart when he had to leave Katara, and he had planned on writing her after he got settled in, but once he got to the Fire Nation, he was sent straight to work.
His days were spent either with Zuko as they planned strategies for capturing the Ozai supporters, carrying out said strategies, he had to arrange for the captured men to be taken to the Boiling Rock prison and make sure he was able to round up every single man… Ending the rebellion took a lot longer than he thought. Five years of more and more firebenders returning to try to either overthrow or assassinate the Fire Lord, kill the Avatar, some even tried to free Ozai from his prison cell, not considering the fact that he was now powerless.
Aang hardly ever had any time to even think about his fiancée, let alone write to her. On those rare moments where he did have any free time, he would use that to either sleep or eat. The longer he went without writing Katara, the angrier he thought she'd be.
Aang should've just left after those five years, and beg for Katara's forgiveness, but no. He had to be sure Zuko was given maximum security just in case more rebels showed up, he had to help the Fire Lord do all the other thousands of things he had to do. But what's done is done. There was no changing the past…
"So, she must really hate me…?" Aang asked after he finished criticizing himself.
"I don't think she hates you, Aang." Sokka said. "She'll probably be very mad and go into a huge waterbending rage, but in the end— if you're still alive, that is, I'm sure she'll forgive you," the warrior said simply.
"Uh, thanks Sokka…" Aang said unsurely. "I feel better now…"
By the time the pair made it back to the village with Appa and Momo in tow, the sun was higher in the sky; Sokka estimated it to be around the time the village began their workday. Katara was probably just getting up about now. Sokka lead Aang to Katara's hut before the airbender pulled his friend to the side.
"Sokka, if I die, I want you to take care of Appa and Momo." Momo gave an angry squeak from Sokka's shoulder as Aang walked inside to finally face Katara.
Katara had just woken up. "Another day," she sighed. As she changed out of her nightclothes and put on her everyday outfit, she thought she heard someone walk into her home. Since Sokka sometimes made a habit of coming into her home unannounced, Katara figured it was just her brother. She sighed as she walked into the main room.
"Hey Aang," she said, obviously distracted. She was just about to walk outside when her brain finally registered who she had just seen. "AANG!" she yelled, not knowing whether to kiss him or to kill him, "what are you doing here? Why… What… When did you… When did you get back?"
"Not too long ago." Aang said, relieved that Katara didn't seem too angry. "I met Sokka by the ocean while he was fishing, or rather watching the fish swim away from him." He laughed. He was happy when Katara managed a small smile.
"Oh, Aang, I just can't believe… After all this time…" and suddenly, without warning, a hard glare formed across her caramel face as Katara smacked the Avatar hard across his face.
Aang wasn't surprised, to say the least. "Yeah, I probably deserved that…" He said, wincing, as he put a hand on his cheek where Katara had slapped him.
"You have been gone for eight years, Aang. Eight years! Eight years of waiting, eight years of sleepless nights, watching the sky, and hoping that you were coming back to me. I have been waiting all this time to hear something, anything, about what was going on. You could've been dead and I would never have heard about it, Aang. I put my whole life on hold for you! I have been proposed to countless times over the years, but I turned them all down. I could already be happily married and even have a family, but no. I had to wait for you." Katara was breathing fast and heavy.
"You don't even know the hell you have put me through since you left. It was like a part of me was missing. I was heartbroken, I was told to forget about you and move on, I was told that you were never coming back. I didn't want to believe them, but in a way—" She took another shaky breath before continuing, leaving that sentence unfinished.
"Everything has been a mess since you left. You're just…" She bowed her head as she fought back tears. The waterbender didn't know what else to say. There weren't enough words in the world to tell him what a horrible thing it was that he has done.
Aang was feeling even worse now than he did, if that was possible. He didn't know what to say. "Katara, I… I'm so sorry. I—"
"Sorry? You have been gone all this time and all you can say is you're sorry?"
"Well, what do you want me to say? What do you want me to do?" Aang asked desperately. He wanted nothing more than for Katara to forgive him, even though he didn't think he deserved it.
"I'm sorry Aang. This… this is just happening too fast. I think I just need to be alone for a bit to think things through." Katara said tearfully as she turned away from the monk and headed towards her room, not even turning back to see the Avatar standing in the main room, tears streaming down his face.
So, let me know what you think. I won't put up a new chapter till I get a reply. I'm not trying to be rude, but just take one minute to type up a (non-flame) review!
Next chapter, Aang seeks help from an unlikely person about what he should do to win back Katara's heart. What'll happen? Find out next chapter! (Coming soon to a fan-fiction website near you!)
