The next morning, Aang woke up alone. I wonder where Katara is, he thought to himself. He brushed his teeth, shaved his head, and got dressed before heading down to the main part of the temple.
He made his way over to the dining area – no Katara. Perhaps she is in the main hall? Nope. Then to the landing pad; perhaps she is watching the early morning flyers? But she wasn't there either. Aang walked into the old prayer field and finally made his way into the peace garden.
The garden was another example of airbender history that was not kept up once the Mechanist and his people overtook the Northern Air Temple. However, it was pretty obvious that someone was now tending the garden over the summer. It must have been part of the Mechanist's new attempt at meshing technology with the history of the temple grounds. There were plum blossoms, trellises with jasmine climbing all over them, white lotus plants and even several white dragon bushes. The entire area had a luscious floral aroma to it.
Perhaps the most spectacular part of the whole garden was the huge, shallow fountain found in the middle. Katara was in the fountain practicing her waterbending moves. Aang watched her forms from behind a spiral-shaped tree.
Aang thought back to when he had first met 13 year-old Katara – though she turned 14 soon after they met. He admired her figure and her lines as she practiced the flowing forms of a waterbender while standing in the fountain. Her birthday was only 2 months away and she would soon be 15 – and she definitely looked like she was more woman than girl these days. His favorite part of her, however, would always be her eyes. Her deep glacier-blue eyes looking back at him, especially when she was very close to him, always made him pause.
Katara had just finished a streaming-the-water move when she began to smile knowingly. "Aang, are you spying on me?" Katara asked him with a slight giggle.
"Yeah, I guess I am," he replied. "You caught me."
Katara bent up a huge wave and sent it towards Aang. He caught it and sent it back at her.
"Oh hey there Momo!" she shouted and waved behind Aang. He turned to look and at that exact moment, she turned the wave back in his direction again. This time Aang was not prepared and it splashed over him and got him soaking wet. Katara was laughing.
Aang sent a sly smile her way. "So. You think you're so funny, do you?"
"No!" she shouted while still trying to control her laughter. "No, no!" Aang walked right up to her and gave her a huge, soaking-wet hug. "I guess I deserved that."
"You sure did!" he agreed.
Aang sat on the edge of fountain and pulled her down next to him. He gave her a gentle kiss on the lips.
"Why did you get up so early this morning?" he asked her in-between kisses.
"I didn't sleep well last night. When the sun rose, I thought I'd come down here to the garden to get some waterbending practice in," she replied.
"Have I told you that I love you today?" he asked playfully, still in between gentle kisses.
"No."
"I love you," he said.
"I love you, too," she replied.
Aang stood up, grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
"Thanks for the fun this morning. It cheered me up," Katara said.
"Why? What's wrong?" he asked.
"I guess I just miss some of the others a little bit. It's kind of like homesickness, but more about missing people than any particular place," she replied.
"Yeah, I miss our friends, too. But I'm happy we're here together though," said Aang. He put his hands on her waist and pulled her close for a hug. "Are you going to be ok?"
"Yeah. I'm fine," she replied.
"I'm going to head over to the prayer field then and meditate for a bit – if that's ok with you," Aang said.
"Sure. I'll go get some breakfast and tidy up the room," Katara replied. "I'll see you for lunch."
With that, they went their separate ways for the rest of the morning.
OlOlOlOlOlO
In the afternoon, Aang was in the air temple practice field working on his bending. He tried to spend at least 2 hours per day perfecting his bending techniques. At times, Katara would also practice with him; at other times, some of the earth kingdom folks who lived here would watch and assist when Aang requested it. But today, he was alone. Well, that is until just before dinner.
"Aang, how's it going?" asked Katara as she approached him.
He finished up the move he was in the middle of, then placed his hands and fingers together in the center of his waist, pushed down, and exhaled. When he released, he answered Katara, "It was a relatively good day. It's nice once in a while to have a solo practice just to really get my head straight as far as some of these moves go. It helps not to be distracted."
"I know what you mean," Katara replied. "Are you almost ready to head to dinner?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm starving," Aang said.
The two benders walked into the main hall from the practice field. No one was around.
"Katara, when was the last time this place has been empty?" Aang asked.
"Oh, I don't think I've ever seen it completely empty," she replied. "I wonder where everyone is?"
"Hmmm. I hope things are ok. I'm sensing that something's wrong," said Aang.
They walked back outside. It, too, was devoid of any people. "I didn't notice on the way in. No one's flying. And no one is outside either. Where are they?" said Aang worriedly.
"Let's go back inside and knock on some residential doors," replied Katara.
Knock-knock. Nothing. On to another door. Knock-knock. Again, nothing.
"Katara, I hate to worry you, but I'm starting to get concerned," said Aang.
"Let's keep checking," she said.
They checked the dining area, and even the bath house. No one was there. Katara grabbed Aang by the hand and led him down a long hallway to a large door. The door was locked and the only direct way in was airbending. "This is the last place I can think of," Katara said. "Open it and we'll check the sanctuary."
Aang performed a form and a blast of wind came from both hands into the funnels on the door. Slowly the mechanism turned and the door creaked open. It was very dark inside. The two teens slowly walked in.
"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AANG!"
Aang took three steps back quickly. He was not expecting this. His mouth sat agape for about 10 seconds. He rubbed his two wide eyes. Finally, it sunk in and he said something.
"Oh my stars!" he exclaimed. "How did you….? Who planned….? Wow!"
Teo walked up to Aang. "Katara was going to do something for your birthday. When she asked me for help, we decided to make it a party for everyone. Almost everyone here played a part in the planning," Teo said.
"Teo, this is amazing!" Katara exclaimed. "Thank you so much for making this happen!"
"Katara, come with me," Teo said and pulled her away from Aang. "Wait here Aang. I'll only be a second."
Teo took Katara to the corner of the room where the food was. "Here, as promised," he said as he handed her a fruit pie made with plums.
"Oh Teo, thanks. I'm sure he'll love it," she replied.
Katara walked back to Aang carrying the fruit pie in both hands. Aang spotted her return and a large smile came across his face. "Thanks...," he started, but just then Momo swooped down and flipped the pie out of her hands. It landed on the ground. Momo landed and started lapping it up.
Aang laughed. "It seems Momo misses fruit pies as much as I do!" he exclaimed.
"C'mon, I'll take you to the pies in the corner – not the other way around. Maybe you'll actually get one this time," said Katara smiling.
The evening was definitely being enjoyed by all. There was a ton of traditional air nomad food out. Aang hadn't had a true air nomad meal since he came out of the iceberg almost a year ago and he relished it. Aang also noticed that the sanctuary was almost back to its original state. It had not been used for parties by the air nomads, but the tables and chairs that were set up definitely didn't interfere with the ambiance of the room.
After dinner, a few air temple inhabitants got up and started to dance. "Katara, dance with me!" requested Aang after dinner.
"Absolutely," she replied.
Just as what happened at the fire nation secret cave dance party, pretty soon everyone else on the dance floor stopped and watched the two teens perform a tremendous show – a combination of martial arts and traditional dance. When they finished, there was clapping all around. The clapping died down except for one person off to Katara's left. That person kept clapping and clapping. Because it was an awkward situation, pretty soon Katara and Aang broke their final pose and looked over to see who was the enthusiastic supporter.
"Sokka!" shouted Katara. She ran up to him and nearly knocked him over with her hug.
"Hi little sister. Miss me?" he asked.
"I didn't think you'd be back so soon," she said.
"Well, we got to the North Pole and met with Chief Arnook. We delivered 'the plan' to him and there really wasn't much else to do. He agreed with it fully and sent his reply to Iroh in Ba Sing Se."
"I thought you'd stay a bit longer than a day or two," Katara said.
"Yeah, well, there's the Yue factor," he replied. "Everything up there reminded me of her and what happened the last time we were there. Suki was with me this time and it just didn't feel right. I feel like that is another chapter in my life and I've already gone onto the next one," Sokka attempted to explain.
Katara could tell he had a bit of an emotional hard time during this trip, so she decided to leave it alone. "Hungry? There's plenty of food still," Katara said. "I'm so happy to see you. I was just telling Aang this morning how much I miss some of our friends."
"What is this all about anyway?" Sokka asked.
"Today is Aang's 13th birthday," Katara replied.
"No way!" he shouted. He looked around the room, found Aang talking with Suki, ran up to him and put him in a brotherly head-lock. "Happy Birthday Airboy," he said to Aang.
"Cut it out!" Aang shouted playfully.
The four friends sat at one of the tables and caught up on their adventures over the past few weeks. Sokka and Suki told of their brief visit to the Northern Air Temple on their way to the North Pole. Aang finally got around to asking Sokka about Kuei as well.
"He was just frustrating," said Sokka, speaking of Kuei. "He copped this attitude when we told him what was going on. We couldn't convince him to leave."
"Did you happen to threaten him at all?" asked Aang.
"I don't think so," replied Sokka.
"Well, he said you told him I could and would force him to leave here against his will," explained Aang.
"Oh. Yeah, I do recall saying that," said Sokka. "That was the last time I talked with him. I guess I lost it a little bit and threw that one out at him."
"You don't really think I'd ever do that, do you?" asked Aang.
"No, I know you'd never do that. But I thought if I said it, it may twist his arm into going. It was my last resort try," said Sokka.
"Well, he wasn't very happy to see me," said Aang. "He was downright cold when I first ran into him here. It's going to take a while to get back into his good graces again. I need for him to trust me."
"Sorry if I messed things up, Aang," said Sokka.
"No matter. It is what it is. I've got my plan and I'm going forward with it," said Aang. "But let's straighten this out with the Earth King."
Aang looked around and found Kuei and Fei Yen on the dance floor. He flagged them down and waved them to where the group was sitting.
"Kuei, I don't want to spoil your fun, but I wanted you to know that Sokka and I have talked and there was a misunderstanding the last time he spoke to you," said Aang.
"Oh, is that right?" replied Kuei.
Sokka, not being very good at retractions or apologies, paused, sighed, and then finally spoke, "I should have never told you that Aang would force you back to Ba Sing Se. I said that out of frustration at the time and I know he would never really do it."
"Ah. I see," the Earth King said.
"Hopefully that clears things up a little," said Aang.
Kuei bowed and headed back to the dance floor with Fei Yen. As they walked away, Aang heard her whisper, "See. I told you there was an explanation."
"So Suki, how long are you two planning on staying?" Katara asked, purposely changing the subject.
"Oh, we were thinking from a few days to a week. We want to head down to the South Pole. I've never seen Sokka's home, and he's very anxious to see it again as well," said Suki.
"I wouldn't mind seeing home again," Katara remarked.
"We'll get down there again, Katara. I promise," said Aang.
"I know we will," she replied.