Book One: The Oracle

Chapter Four: Love, Lust and Loathing

A/N: I'm back with chappie four. Hope you enjoy. Please review! I beg of you. -please.and.thank.you-

Also, really quick I'd like to say; There is one word of profanity in here, and it is well placed, I'd like to say. I'm usually against using profanity in my writing, but this is definitely needed in my opinion. Excuse me for it. Thank you.

Well, I suppose I owe all of you answers... Thank you so much to my loyal reviewers; I appreciate you guys so unbelievably much!

arizony: Hopefully this chapter answers your question: of course I'm continuing it! Azula, that evil little thing...

Night -KFT-: Thanks! That means a lot. (Really, it does)

Sokkas Instincts 2: Why thank you! Maybe I will do that with the doors... it does seem to be a problem sometimes. You mean the saloon doors right? Hehe... I could get some humor out of that. ;) I'm glad Hakoda doesn't seem too aggravating. And oh, I've just been itching for someone to ask me about the book title. Haha... It's just my version of 'The Avatar', since an oracle is another word for a mediator, or someone who brings peace between two or more parties... which is what Aang does (plus, it sounds cool). And finally, no - you don't always write long reviews, but I love it when you do!

TTAvatarfan: Very glad you think so! Lols, be patient.

Bob the Chicken Nugget: Wow. Thankies.

avatar209: I was hoping someone would catch on to that! Yes, Toph does care about Aang and Katara's relationship... but only in the slightest (as you will find out in a chapter soon coming to you... she just can't help messing with people...)

Jeni27: I'm glad you're enjoying this. Tehe. Yes, I don't usually like writing stuff without Aang. He's just so great. You know, originally this story was going to be about Aang dying, Katara finding a stranded child who was the Avatar... bladabladablada, and the only reason I didn't do that was because I didn't have the heart to kill Aang. How sad is that. It hurts me to kill off an animated character... By the way; I choose to not comment on that Joo Dee remark... though I'm technically commenting on it by saying I'm not commenting on it. Ugh.

DuHSPaZZiNGFeL: Thank you so much! I'm very glad to hear you're enjoying it.

Thanks again to all my reviewers!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the characters within it.

Aang had been quite literally knocked over by Katara's attempts to hug him. He fell backwards on the bed and she came crashing down on his chest, making herself comfortable by lying next to him with her head in the crook of his neck. They were just enjoying the time together, but Katara, very much missing the sound of Aang's voice, chose to speak up.

"I was... Do you even... Aang, I missed you," she finally decided to settle on, tightening her grip on him.

She felt him chuckle a bit underneath her, but cringe almost immediately after. She shot up and looked down at him.

"Are you okay? Oh... this isn't good... I've healed you too much for you to-"

"Katara. I'm fine."

She sighed heavily and put out her hand. He took it, which was followed by her pulling him up to a sitting position.

"We should probably get going. I'm scared Sokka and Toph spent all our money buying stuff... or worse."

Katara giggled as Aang's eyes widened from her prediction.

"Worse?" he questioned, a worried look still plastered on his face.

"They've been influencing people to give them stuff because they're friends with you," she replied casually, "It bugs me so much. We should be paying for that stuff, not freely taking it. But you know them... they don't care."

"Oh," Aang said, a bit of sadness in his voice. "Katara?"

She picked her eyes up off the increasingly interesting spot on the floor to look into his beautiful gray eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Uhh..." He wasn't really sure what he was going to say, so decided to completely change the subject. "Where are we?"

"Some inn or something. Sokka wants us to stay here for a few days."

Katara, looking like she just realized something, bit her bottom lip. She glanced around the room rapidly, then back at Aang.

"What?" he asked, picking up on her tension. She shook her head.

"Let's just get out of here."

Aang seemed to do a pretty good job at walking for a twelve year old boy who'd just defeated a malicious Fire Lord two weeks prior. He trotted down the stairs with Katara, who was, to his delight, leading him by the hand. She glanced at the creepy counter girl, who's name she still lacked for knowledge. The waterbender didn't really care too much, though, since she was so... strange.

Katara nudged Aang's arm, gesturing to the girl behind the counter. She wasn't paying any attention to them at all, but she was still smiling. The girl had her head down, staring at something on the flat surface of the counter.

Aang shrugged, not having seen the woman before, and continued onward with the blue eyed girl leading him.

"What's up with her?" Aang asked once they made their way outside.

"I'm not sure, but she gives me the creeps."

Katara was still grasping the young airbenders hand and squeezed it softly as she spoke. She interlaced her fingers with his and he stared at her, a little slow on the uptake and not really listening to what she was saying.

"...I wasn't really sure, but do you?"

He blinked rapidly a few times, realizing what he'd just done and thought of the only way to amend it.

"What?"

The waterbender stopped in her tracks and stared at him.

"I said... After everything we've been through, I'm not sure if you'd remember all that happened at the palace." After a second of pondering it, she added, "Do you remember?"

"Uh... what part?" he asked, racking his brains for answers. He didn't know how they got on this topic, but wasn't really worried about it.

She shrugged.

"The end... after the fight."

Aang found himself staring at his feet. His brain was completely unfocused, and quite blurry when it came to the topic of the battle. After the battle was even foggier.

"I remember... falling. Backwards or something... like I tripped."

"Uh-huh," Katara said, egging him on to continue.

"There was a flash of light... and an explosion noise. I couldn't move, but I looked as far over as I could with my eyes. There were people. Crowding me... so many people. I felt nauseous and then someone picked me up. I couldn't understand them, but then I realized it was you... I think."

She smiled a bit, giving his hand an affectionate squeeze.

"Okay, any more?"

"Something I don't remember... but there was something. I know it. And then everything went black. For a while it felt like I was swimming... or dropped in liquid or something. But I didn't feel it. It wasn't cold or wet... just and endless sea of nothingness. Blank." Aang paused, picking his head up from the ground and staring into Katara's eyes. "All of a sudden, there was a feeling like lightning or... or a jolt of some sort. My whole body went numb, and it felt like it was raining. I could feel it all again. The cold. The wet." He shook his head. "I don't know. And I heard you talking to me. It was like we were in a crazy dream. You told me that..." he trailed off, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment from what he was about to say.

"What?" Katara demanded, "What'd I tell you?"

"Um. I don't remember," he fibbed.

As they picked up on there walking, there was a short silence. It was broken by the rush of Katara's melodic voice.

"I love you," she said, a determined edge in the words.

"I love yo- wait... what?!" Aang questioned quickly, stopping them yet again.

She smiled at him and rubbed her thumb softly atop his hand. He disregarded it, his full attention on her words.

"I love you. That's what I told you. That's what I said and I meant it. And I'll say it again and again and again until it gets through to your thick skull enough that you remember it," she said, half sarcastically, half seriously.

He simply gaped at her, having no response at all to a moment he'd been waiting for, but didn't quite expect. He ripped his hand from hers, using both appendages to rub his eyes. After several moments of trying to figure out if it was real or an illusion, Aang non-chalantly placed his hand back into hers and continued walking.

"Oh, don't act so surprised," Katara noted, smiling softly to herself.

"Why? The girl of my dreams -and when I say that, I mean literally, not as a figure of speech- just told me she loved me! Twice!" he blurted out quickly.

She giggled yet again at him, swaying her body to push him playfully. He stumbled, and after recomposing his balance, nudged her arm in return.

"Well technically, if you count all the times, it's more like four. And you've only got two... and a half, I suppose. Someone needs to catch up," she said, the last sentence in sing-song.

"You're serious?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Of course not. I mean... who's counting, anyway?"

Aang shook his head.

"No... when you say you love me."

At first, Katara thought he was kidding. Something about the look in his eyes scared her and bewildered her at the same time. They shone with so much intensity and sincerity that she'd ever seen, causing her to swallow hard against her will. She didn't care if telling him she loved him was a commitment. She wanted to be committed to him, and just this simple stare he gave her told her everything. Told her that he truly didn't know if she was speaking the truth.

"Of course, Aang. Why on Earth would you think otherwise?"

He glanced at the ground, an object that seemed to be very intriguing to the both of them today. After looking back up, his smile returned.

"I love you, too."

The airbender leaned forward, his face inches from hers. He placed his hands on her hips and brought himself even closer. She expected him to kiss her and closed her eyes, but instead found a chill go up her spine as he whispered in her ear.

"And I always will."

She blushed furiously as he pulled away, confused as to why she was doing so. She felt her breath get short as she inhaled and exhaled, her body going into some unorthodox shut-down mode.

"Aang," she gasped, almost inaudibly, still short of breath. She cleared her throat to speak again, but couldn't.

"Oh, hey guys!" came Toph's voice out of what seemed like nowhere. She and Sokka materialized beside them.

Aang gave Katara another quick glance before greeting the others.

"Toph!" he exclaimed, putting his arms out to hug her.

She quickly jabbed below his shoulder, causing him to grasp at it in pain.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there, Twinkletoes. Just 'cuz you can hug Sweetness over here, doesn't mean I'm open for business."

Katara and Aang simultaneously blushed.

"Well, Aang," said Sokka, "I think saving my sister, father and I multiple times from impending doom, defeating the Fire Lord, and staying alive through it all long enough to be hugged, deserves a hug from me."

Sokka stepped towards the young monk, grasping him in a tight hug and patting his back.

"Good work, buddy." He pulled back and fished something out of his bag. "So! This man, all official looking and stuff walks up to us, right? He's like 'You wit' the Avatar?'" he said, a poor imitation of the large man, "And we said 'Yeah...'. Then he hands us this envelope and goes 'Get that to him A. S. A. P.', and walked away dramatically. It. Was. Awesome."

Katara and Aang laughed while Toph rolled her eyes.

"What?" Sokka asked.

"Nothing, nothing," came Katara, "Just hand it over, genius."

He did what was asked of him and watched as Aang fumbled with the paper. He finally got a grip of the underside and pulled upward, tearing it until the paper inside was revealed. He removed it gently.

It was an off-white color, imprinted to look like dragons covered the entirity of it. On the inside was a letter which he read aloud.

"Avatar Aang,

The Mayor of Ciris has cordially invited you to attend a dinner party

tonight at eight oclock. If you have plans on leaving before then,

you do not need to make your departure known, we will simply know

if you are not there. Even the Fire Lord himself may be attending,

but not every guest is set in stone. We appologize for such a short

notice and hope dearly that you can make it.

Thank you for your time,

Meinu Sombell"

Three of the four looked curiously at the formality of the letter, rereading it over and over to themselves.

"Huh. Looks like Zuko's gonna be there," said Katara, a bit of excitement in her voice.

Aang raised his eyebrow at her.

"Where's Ciris?" he asked.

Toph laughed softly.

"Here, you dimwit," she replied, throwing her hands in the air.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, I've kinda been sleeping for the past two weeks."

"Well sooorry, Mr. All-Powerful. I didn't know you needed to hibernate to recharge!"

"I already knew you needed to insult others to feel better about yourself, but I didn't get the memo that saving the world was a crime these days!"

"You also obviously didn't get the memo th-"

"GUYS! Why are you fighting? You're friends. Aang just asked a simple question," Katara said, matter-of-factly.

"Oh, look at this. Sugar Queen's teaming up with her boyfriend! I'm sooo scared."

Katara glared at her, an evil look that most feared, but Toph couldn't. After remembering why, Katara turned her glare into words.

"For your information, Sightless, that doesn't insult me anymore! Ya know? That's probably why you can't even get a boyfriend! You can't see what you look like, so you don't care, and people are naturally driven away from you!"

Toph clenched her fists, her lips trembling with anger. She fell to her hands and knees, her whole body shaking.

"Not cool," said Sokka, who was quite enjoying the fight before, not expecting Toph to give up so soon. He knew she was a little sensitive when it came to her not being able to see, but Katara really crossed the line. With all of the nicknames she could've gave her; all of the insults, she chose to pick on her blindness.

"You know, Katara," Toph said, lifting her head, "I know I'm a total bitch sometimes, but that's who I am. You - never, ever follow suit, you hear me? Stay who you are, don't... don't..."

She could feel the tears in her eyes as they became moist, stinging as they slipped down her cheeks.

"Toph..." Katara replied sadly. She pulled the blind girl to her feet and hugged her, surprised when she hugged in return. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean it... I'm so, so sorry..."

She shook her head, her black bangs swaying from side to side.

"No... you're right. About it all. And I'm the one who should be sorry. This doesn't mean I'm changing or anything, but I am sorry."

She wisked the remanding tears from her eyes and sighed softly.

"So... are we going to this dinner party or what?"

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short. I tried to make it longer, but it didn't fit right. By the way, the last four lines are Toph, if that's not clear. It sounded too repetitive to make it completely obvious that it was, so I didn't.

And yeah, I put the word of profanity... hey! I warned you in bold print! :P

Oh! Oh! I'm heading down to San Diego (I'm in Orange County right now) tommorow morning. There's a lot more to do there, so the chapters might take a bit longer. My aunt still has a comp, but I won't be spending much time typing. I think we'll be up there until the Finale ends, (WHOOT! THE FINALE! -is happy-) so keep a look out for my story. Thanks

I came up with this title after listening to What Is This Feeling? from Wicked. Lols. If you know what that is, then you may find the chapter title a bit amusing. xD

Anywho, please, please review (whoa, that rhymed). It'd really make my day.

Thanks so much guys, and a special thanks to everyone who did review. -virtual cookie-

-Katara