Katara woke up by a guard shaking her awake. She looked around her, everyone else was asleep. "What do you want?" she said grumpily.
"Katara it's me, Aang" he said.
"Aang? What are you doing here?" she whispered sitting up.
"I needed to see you" he whispered.
"What, why?"
"Like I said, your special, and you're important to me"
"Well you're important to me too. At least your life is going well."
"Yeah, I'm marrying a crazy woman, I'm stuck with boring official stuff to do, and I have to behave."
"Well I'm stuck down here, serving that crazy woman you're marrying, and have boring yet hard stuff to do. And yes I have to behave too"
"Yeah you beat me" he smirked. They heard people around them starting to wake up and guards coming towards the servant quarters. Out of instinct, Aang kissed Katara's cheek and quickly left the room. Katara was dazed. She didn't see that coming. She quickly lay back down and pretended to sleep when the guards came to check on them.
"Time to get up pheasants!" one guard yelled. Katara sat up and stretched. She quickly got up and cleaned up a little bit. As soon as she was done she was pushed out of the door by a guard. She sulked her way into the castle and into Lady Meng's room. Lady Meng was still asleep. Katara saw a note on the side table. She assumed they were instructions for her. She grabbed the paper and quickly skimmed over it. She quickly ran a bath for Lady Meng, prepared tea for her and dusted her furniture. Lady Meng was very picky; she was also a neat freak. Everything had to be clean for her or else she would throw a fit or act rude. The last thing on her list was to wake Lady Meng up. Katara opened the curtains to let in the light to wake her up. Lady Meng groaned and slowly woke up. When Katara knew she was awake, she slipped out of the room. She scurried down the hall so she wouldn't miss the breakfast served for the servants. First though, she would have to serve the royal court. She casually walked into the kitchen.
"Ey! There is the young lady who was brought here yesterday!" the head cook boomed at Katara.
"Good morning sir" She said calmly.
"So I heard you're Lady Meng's new servant. Good luck with that one, she is a handful, especially when she wakes up" he said moving around perfecting the foods.
"That is why as soon as she was awake I came here. Now what should I bring out to the royal court?" she asked looking at the food.
"Well you're the first servant here so can you take out the bread and ale?" the cook asked checking the bread one last time.
"Got it" she said grabbing the tray with the pitchers of ale and the tray with the baskets of bread. She backed herself out of the kitchen door. She walked over to the table and spread the ale and bread on the table. Aang was watching her like a hawk the whole time.
When she came over to him to put down the ale and bread near him he stopped her arm to get her attention "Quiet the morning bird huh?" he whispered.
She smiled "Yeah, it may help me here" she whispered placing the ale down.
"Yeah, get all the work done early for some free time" he whispered.
"What do you mean?" she asked quietly.
"Well I could show you the royal garden. Are you up for it?" he asked.
"Sure, and is it just me or is the great prince falling for a servant?" she whispered.
"I guess I am" he smirked.
"Is it just as weird if a servant is falling for a prince?" she whispered placing a bread basket down.
"Not at all" he whispered watching her every move.
After she was done placing out the bread and ale she walked back to the kitchen. By now, the other servants that were assigned breakfast came. They served out the deer, ham, chicken, and fish dishes. After all of the food was served out, the royals ate as they pleased. Katara decided to help around the kitchen. She helped mop the floor and cleaned up the kitchen a bit. After the food was done being eaten, Katara and the other servants went out and retrieved the dishes. Katara helped bring the bread and ale out to the servants' dining room. She quietly ate by herself. When she was done she got up to look around the castle.
She strolled through the halls. She passed many rooms and several other servants. She was about to round a corner when she felt a hand grab her shoulder. She spun around to face them. "Aang?" she asked when she saw that it was Aang.
"I thought that was you." he smiled.
"Yeah well the clothes probably helped." She smirked.
"Yeah they did. So do you want to take me up on that walk in the garden?" he asked holding his hand out.
She smiled and blushed a little "Sure" she replied grabbing his hand. He tugged her to his side. They walked through the hallways, talking the whole way. Aang stopped in front of a decorated wooden door. He carefully opened it since it was obviously an older door. He pulled her into the sunlight; she had to blink to adjust to the light. When her eyes adjusted she gasped in awe. Around her was the most beautiful garden she had even seen, with small shrubs, flowers, trees, benches, stone paths, and a breath taking fountain in the middle of the large garden. "This is amazing!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, I used to come here every day with my mom before she got sick." He said with a pang of sadness in his voice. She didn't know why, but she hugged him, trying to help push all of the bad memories away. He hugged her back, crying small tears into her hair. She wanted to do anything she could to make him feel better.
"What are you doing pheasant?" an all too familiar voice said from behind Katara. It was Lady Meng and she was not too pleased with Katara hugging Aang. Katara reluctantly backed away from Aang.
"I'm sorry, we weren't-"Katara stammered.
"Listen to me servant, you stay away from him, and may I remind you I'm marrying him." Lady Meng said threatening her.
"I-I will Lady Meng, I'm sorry!" she said frightened. She was backing away when a hand stopped her.
"No Meng, she will be allowed to see me." Aang said.
"She is my servant Aang, and as long as I live in the castle she will not be allowed to see you." Meng said rudely.
"Then leave, I'm not going to marry you. You are an awful woman, any man that marries you is truly unfortunate." He said calmly. Katara was bewildered by this. Lady Meng stormed away.
"Well, you finally stood up to that." Katara said.
"Yeah well she was way out of line." He said avoiding Katara's gaze.
"Aang what's wrong? Why are you avoiding me now?" she asked putting a hand on his arm.
"I'm afraid of what my dad will do to me for this." He said glancing at her.
"He may be a lot of things but he is your dad, he should understand" she said lightly.
"Yeah but he is also the king, and I'm the prince and in his mind you're just a servant." He said a bit agitated.
"Well what am I in your mind?" she asked fearing the worst.
"You're an amazing, wonderful woman." He said not realizing what he was saying as he said it.
"Wha- I am?" she asked bewildered.
"Of course, I-I mean I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean It." he stammered realizing what he had said.
"Aww you're so sweet." She whispered as she hugged him. She took him by surprise, after he realized it, he hugged her back. A servant came out and they pulled away.
"Ex-excuse me prince Aang sir, but your father is extremely mad, Lady Meng came in, in total hysteria. She said something about you canceling the wedding."
"I'll be right in" he said calmly. The servant nodded and walked back inside.
"Are you sure you'll be able to handle it?" she asked bewildered.
"With you by my side, I can handle anything" he said smiling down at her. She returned the smile and took his hand. They walked inside together, ready to face anything.