Time: 10:24 AM Saturday morning. Ugh. Waaaayyyy too early for me.

AHHH!!! This was my favorite chapter to write so far! YEY for me! So….yes, I wanna talk about this chapter and my thoughts, but I think I shall wait until the next one so you all you wonderful people (I am not exaggerating, I never expected this many people to like and comment on my story) know what I am blabbering on about.

Ah… so enjoy this chapter! Reviews are always welcomed.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Avatar: the last airbender. In my dream last night, I did though. jk


Seeing his face brought back nervous memories. A deep blush surfaced on the back of my neck and face as my eyes met his strange grey ones. His mouth opened in surprised and he stared at me, his body completely turned towards me now.

Moments passed at we stared at each other, silence being the only sound between the two of us.

"K-Karina?" he whispered, his voice low and enchanting.

Tears pricked at my eyes as I swallowed, taking a step towards him. "H-hey Aaron."

His mouth spread into an enormous grin, his eyes sincere and true. "Karina!"

The next thing I knew was that his arms were around me and was hit with the force of a truck, being flung backwards. Never hitting the ground, I opened my eyes, terrified.

His tight embrace was suffocating, but finally realizing that I was in his arms, which were still as strong as ever I might add, I relaxed. My arms automatically came up and grabbed his waist, pulling his closer to me, if that was even possible, seeing as he was closer than I had ever been to a guy before.

My head fit perfectly in the crook of his neck, and I rested my chin on his shoulder, smiling happily to myself.

"I missed you Aaron," I whispered after a long period of silence.

His arms tightened at my voice, and he whispered back, his voice breaking a bit, "Not as much as I have."

I stared at the ground. He really missed me.

I could fall asleep like this. Forever.

He pulled away from me, and looked at me intently, making me squirm. "What?" I asked nervously.

A corner of his mouth quirked upwards, "Nothing."

I glared at him. Yeah right. What was he thinking about?

"Well," I said, looking at the lake over the edge of the cliff, "If it isn't that important, I suppose I can leave now. I just was stopping by and wanted to see if you were still here."

My heart was speeding a million miles an hour now, knowing the lie I was telling. Pulling from his arms, I turned my back to him as I said these words.

He was silent as I stood there. There always seems to be a lot of silence between us, I mused to myself.

His rough hand grabbed my left shoulder, clamping down on it, making my heart jump and jerking me around to face him. His face was that of pure annoyance and anger, his eyebrows knit together, grey stormy eyes.

He stepped closer to me, resting his forehead against mine. "Never," he said, his deep voice not daring to waver, "Never again will I let you go."

I closed my eyes, feeling the protection he just promised to ensue on my life.

"Never," I whispered back to him, pressing my forehead against his.

As he slowly rolled his forehead against mine, rolling down to my nose, you can imagine what comes next in line on the face. My eyes closed, my breathing picked up as I awaited the kiss.

He pulled his forehead away. My eyes sprung open as he was looking at the sky. Now, quite ticked at having two, TWO, kisses never followed through, I stared at him, my mouth open. I felt cold air come out of my nose as I breathed deeply out. Ice cold.

Haughtily, I walked over to the cliff and looked down at the lake. I knew he was looking at me curiously. Calmly, I breathed in some fresh air, clearing my mind, and focusing on the water. Barely lifting my wrist I pulled a giant stream of water up from the lake, somewhat five hundred feet below us. Like Aaron had said so long ago, merely simple stuff.

Holding it right below the edge of the cliff I looked off in the distance.

"Aaron, how long has it been?" I asked, still a bit ticked.

There was confusion in his voice as he answered, "Um, one and half years." Then he mumbled something, but was quite clear that he had said it loud enough for me to hear, "One and a half years too long."

I pretended to chew on this information, "How old am I now Aaron?"

He paused, "Nineteen?"

"Good," I said, and turned around to face him, lacing my hands behind my back, still holding the water, "now how old are you?"

"Seventeen," he offered, "but in two days I will be eighteen." A smile brightened his eyes, "we seem to have a good history meeting each other on important dates."

"Hmmm…." I mumbled to myself, "Aaron, come closer will you?"

A small blush rose on his face, but he obeyed, a look of curiosity splayed across his face. As soon as he was at least a good five feet away from me, I unleashed my attack.

Bringing my hands towards him, swinging them around me in a swirling motion, I pulled the water and whipped it in his direction. His eyes widened as his hands gracefully jumped out in front of him, pushing the water upwards with the air in a giant funnel. Moving fast, oh so ever fast, it was hard for me to see what was coming next, I pulled my arms down forcefully, forcing the molecules of water to break apart and create droplets. All of this came tumbling down on him, soaking his white shirt and jeans.

Hair sticking to his forehead, he looked at me in horror.

"Payback," I cooed, batting my eyes, thinking about the day we said goodbye and he had gotten me drenched. At least that day, he had been kind enough to dry me off with a blast of air.

A devious smile spread across his face, "You've been practicing," he said.

I turned my body to the lake, my back to him, entwining my hands together behind my back. "Well, when someone tells me to do something, I make it a promise to follow through."

I heard him shift his weight on the soggy grass. "When someone tells you to do something?" he asked. There was something in his voice that sounded alluring.

I instantly knew the mistake in my words. "Not all the time," I informed him, trying to find a way out of my problem I created, "only the things I find I want to do. Bending the water was relaxing and fun, so I continued with practicing. That's all."

He was right behind me, his chest inches away from my body. "I want you to do something."

My blood went cold…err… hot. Actually, I couldn't tell; my body was freaking out with him being so close anyways.

"Well…uh," I started, but he was quicker.

One of his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me and raced over the edge of the cliff. No joke. We were falling straight into the lake.

A scream escaped my lips as air rushed past my face, whipping my hair around, my stomach in my throat. Aaron, a few feet away from me, was as calm as ever, actually he was laughing!

"Better tuck your head in," he warned me as I felt the distance between us and the lake get smaller and smaller.

No sooner had I tucked in my head and curled into a ball, did I hit the shimmering lake water. The force yanked my head upwards and my arms were brutally ripped from the hold I had so tightly held. Sinking, I felt the cold lake water wrap itself around me, swirling beneath my clothes and tangling in my hair.

I opened my eyes to the watery landscape around me. Feeling the air in my lungs start to disappear, I kicked wildly upward, because I knew the surface was a ways off.

Using my bending, I propelled myself upwards faster, and finally bursting through the surface, gasping for breath. Aaron was already floating on the surface, laying on his back and staring at the sky, a far off look in his eyes. I swam over to him, angry as ever.

Grabbing his shoulder and pushing him down as much as I could, I yelled, "Why'd you do that!? We could have gotten hurt you idiot!"

His face was sullen and serious. Treading water, he grabbed both of my shoulders, his eyes flicking all over my face, as if trying to find an answer to a question. Finally, he looked me in the eyes. "That's the thing Karina! We can't get hurt! We can't die! Not when we are already dead!"

He stopped at his words, eyes swelling at the realization he had just said.

I felt pressure on my head when he said these words, and he winced in pain as well. Loosening his grip on my shoulders, he grabbed his head and treaded water with the other.

I gasped in the pain in my head and slipped a little beneath the water, losing focus on the water and the guy in front of me.

Feeling the calm waters lapping around my body, it felt like a loving trance, beckoning me beneath the surface of the water. My temple pounded painfully, and suddenly felt something pulling me back up and across the water.

Aaron had his arm around my waist, and was pulling me towards shore, pain etched across his face, as he winced as another pain attacked his forehead. Finally, finding solid ground he pulled me out of the water, walking me up the beach in his arms. If I could comprehend what as going on, I would have relished in this moment and wrapped my arms around him as well, but I couldn't seen to get that through my brain.

He laid me down on the beach and fell to his knees, holding himself up by his hands, his head hanging low, hair falling from his forehead.

And then, as quickly as it came, the pain was gone. Vanished.

I shot straight up as if breath had been breathed right back into me. I sucked in a deep breath, heaving from the loss a few moments ago.

I looked over at him, who had stood up and was staring at the sky again. What is it with him and the sky? I thought to myself.

"W-what was that?" I coughed a bit of water up.

He turned back to my wet figure on the ground. His confused grey eyes met mine, and something inside me clicked. Kiss him. I felt my face heat up a bit. No! I can't do that if he doesn't want too!

My eyes never strayed from his, as I saw a faint blush rise on his face as well.

He got down slowly on his knees, his eyes never leaving mine. Eyes. His stormy grey eyes that clouded my thoughts. Where had I seen them before? I could have sworn that someone I once knew had them. Someone.

My face was inches away from his as he leaned closer down at my sitting form. I was sure he could hear my heart beating from this far away now.

Now, lips centimeters away he stopped.

"Don't know," he whispered so only the air could hear him. I realized he was answering my question from before. He continued, "Just know…" he paused, "That I have to kiss you."

I breathed out ice air on his mouth, showing him I wanted exactly what he had in mind. Tilting his head ever so slightly, he brought his hands up, cradling my face gently and protectively.

The kiss was pure and sensual all in one. His lips touched ever so lightly at first but at that touch I could not hold back any longer. I pushed against him, breathing in his scent and locking our lips together into a true kiss. He hungrily pushed back at me, pushing me down on my back. I reached my arms up around him, drawing him closer in my haste. It felt like…. Like there was no time left and everything depended on this kiss. It was desperate and overwhelming.

My body shook violently as pain erupted in my temple again. I felt his lips break from mine as he tried to steady himself, struggling on all fours, to stay stable. He must have been feeling the pain as well, for he squeezed his eyes shut and winced, a groan escaping his lips. His arms ultimately crumpled beneath him, his weight falling directly on my stomach. Him falling knocked the wind out of me and I gasped for breath as the blackness started in the corners of my eyes and painted their way across my vision, finally engulfing me in a world of darkness.


Images. People. I was laughing, pulling my hair back into a braid. How long had is been since I did something like that? A guy came up to me, kissing me on the cheek before turning and talking to someone in our group. I knew these people. Oh so well.

Memories flicked past me in high speed, my mind not being able to take it all in. Darkness engulfed me again.

Fluttering my eyes open, my head throbbed continually. What's going on? As if an alarm clock had woken me up I jerked and looked around me. I was on my back and there was something lying beside me. Slowly I turned my head to a familiar figure's face whose eyes were opening just then coincidentally.

Strange grey eyes stared at me, surprise etched in the lines and sunbursts of his eyes. I knew those eyes. I searched his face. I knew that jaw. I knew those lips that were slightly open in surprise. I knew this guy.

My eyes stung, and I realized I was crying.

His eyes were on me, actual disbelief crossed his face. Happy disbelief.

"Katara?" he asked, his voice deep and wonderful.

I reached over and put a quivering hand on his face, just to make sure he was actually here.

"Aang."