It's been three days. He still hasn't spoken to me.
"Aang! Can't you just talk to me?" I scream. He looks away.
"I didn't want this to happen! I didn't want…" I stopped. Tears began to barge into my eyes. It has been three days, but all the emotions are so strong and so real that it feels like it just happened in the last hour.
"You didn't want Katara to die? Me neither!" his voice is horse, and his tone angered as joy and relief spreads through my eyes.
"Thanks. Thanks for talking to me again."
He looked away. "I know…" he began. "I know that I shouldn't have stopped talking…but really…how can I speak…" I look at him. He is so hurt. So vulnerable.
"How can I speak knowing that she'll never hear me?"
"She can hear you Aang. Your Avatar. For all you know, she's somewhere in the spirit world floating or something…" I choked.
"Or just dead." Aang added.
"Yeah, or just dead."
He looks at me and then buries his head on my shoulder. I hold him tight. We stand there like that for a few minutes, him crying on my shoulder.
I finally speak. "Aang." I say softly. He stops sobbing.
"I better go find Sokka." He says.
I look at him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm not okay," he says, "but I'm a lot better." I look at him again and after a pause, I hear a "thanks." Then he looks at the ground. "You shouldn't be dealing with my emotions. I mean, you really didn't do this…its not your fault."
"Look," I begin. "You just had the worst thing happen to you, you lost the girl you loved, I'll do whatever I can to help that I can."
"God. I miss her so much. I really loved her. Have you ever loved someone like that?"
"Yeah." I said. And at that second, Sokka entered the doorway. "And it looks like they just entered the room."
"Hey Toph," he says.
"Hey.