Hm...you just gotta remember for this story the pendents that the Air Monks used to wear and the Kataang is awesome

I own squat

Thank you to my beta Hadriani ;D

The Gift

Katara and Appa had just landed at the Southern Air Temple. It looked the same as it did their first visit there, four years ago. Katara sighed Dusty and deserted, the old temple was depressing, but she had a mission to complete. She turned to Appa,

"Okay Appa can you tell me where the record room is?" Katara asked slowly inorder to make sure the bison could understand what she was saying. Appa grunted in response as he started walking towards one of the temple towers while Katara followed. Soon they arrived in one of the temple's old courtyards then Appa let out a loud grunt as he pointed his head towards a room with a sign above it that read Records. Katara patted Appa on the head,

"Thanks Appa," she said as she ran to the room leaving the bison in the court yard. Katara slowly opened the door as it gave a loud creek she slowly walked into the old dusty room. The room had thousands and thousands of old scrolls indicating things such as birth dates, death dates, and marriage dates for the citizens of the Southern Air Temple. Katara groaned,

"It's going to take forever to find Aang's birth certificate,...oh well," she said as she grabbed a scroll.

Katara had gone to the Southern Air Temple to find Aang's birth certificate because she was tired of not being able to celebrate Aang's birthday. For some reason beyond her Katara's comprehension Aang did not want people to celebrate his birthday. Every so often she would bring up the subject and casually ask him when his birthday was but every time he gave her the same response...

"Katara, it's okay you don't need to do anything. The monks always said birthdays are selfish"

After every time he said this he would always look away from her sadly and then instantly bounce back to his regular happy self. Katara had it, Aang was the avatar therefore a self giving being, but people (including Aang) tended to forget that he was also human who sometimes wanted and should be appreciated. Katara was sick and tired of him not wanting to be appreciated. So a few days ago she left Aang, Sokka and Toph in the South Pole (with out telling them where she was going, although she did leave them a note saying not to worry) and flew to the Southern Air Temple. If Aang wasn't going to tell her when his birthday was then she was going to figure it out for herself. This birthday after all she figured that his next birthday would be his 16th, the point where he would reach manhood, and Katara was determined to make the occasion special.

After a few hours of tearing through scroll after scroll Katara was beginning to lose her patience. She was just about to take a break when a huge gust of wind blew through the room causing one of the scrolls on the higher shelves to fall on her head.

"Ouch!!!" Katara yelled. She picked up the scroll that had fallen on her head. She unrolled it and her eyes widened as a smile appeared on her face, it was Aang's birth certificate. She felt a victorious grin spread across her face, she knew it was foolish to think this but Katara liked to believe that Monk Gyatso made that gust of wind. She looked at the scroll again and her eyes widened, it turned out that his birthday was in three days!!! Katara quickly ran out of the room. There was no time to plan a party for him since it was such short notice, but she was still going to give Aang a gift.

She walked back towards Appa deep in thought. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn't notice a large rock in the middle of her path. She tripped over clumsily,

"Oww" Katara said as Appa walked to her side, "I'm okay Appa...hey what's this?" Katara said as she picked up an old wooden pendant that had been lying on the ground. She noticed it was similar to the one the statue of Monk Gyatso wore. Katara knew exactly what she was going to get Aang for his birthday now. She ran towards an old tree and began working on Aang's present.

Katara arrived back at the South Pole early the morning of Aang's birthday. Once she landed she quietly walked Appa into his stable, making sure not to wake anyone or get noticed by any of the townsfolk. She slowly opened the stable door as Appa walked in and plopped on the ground and instantly fell asleep. Appa deserved a nice nap after flying from the Southern Water Tribe to the Southern Air Temple and back.

Katara stopped,

she heard the sound of someone slowly breathing, she was about to pull out a water whip but then she realized who it was. Aang was sleeping on a pile of hay with Momo wrapped around his neck. His black hair covering his eyes as his muscular chest moved up and down with every breath. He was probably worried sick about her and Appa and had fallen asleep there eagerly awaiting their return. Katara crawled up to Appa's saddle and grabbed a small package wrapped with brown paper. She climbed down off of Appa and walked over to Aang and Momo. She leaned towards Aang and gave him a soft kiss on the lips; he slowly woke up as she smiled at him,

"Katara!!!" Aang cried as he quickly pulled her into a hug, "Where did you go? What happened? Are you okay?"

"Aang, Appa and I are fine don't worry," Katara said, "Happy 16th Birthday, Aang!" she said as she handed him the package from behind her back. Aang looked at her dumbfounded,

"How did you know?"

"I went to the Southern Air Temple and looked through the records until I found your birth certificate," Katara responded as she placed the package in his lap,

'Katara you really didn't need to..." Aang started

"I know I didn't need to, but I wanted to Aang," Katara said, "if you really don't want to celebrate your birthday then you don't have to, but let me celebrate that my best friend and boyfriend was born." Aang smiled at Katara,

"Thanks," he said quietly

"No problem, now are going to open your present or not?" Katara asked playfully. Aang began to unwrap the package on his lap. His eyes widened when he saw what was inside,

"Do you like it? I made it myself," Katara said.

"Yeah, how did you know?" Aang asked dumbfounded.

"How did I know what?" Katara asked

"How did you know that Air Nomads received pendants on their sixteenth birthdays?" Aang asked.

"I didn't, I just found one lying on the ground and thought I could make you a nice one for your birthday," Katara said. He looked at the wooden pendent in his hands, it had the same symbols that were carved in Gyatso's pendant, which Katara had probably done on purpose to remind Aang of his old friend. The beads holding it together were made of a clay that were painted orange and yellow.

"Thank you I love it," Aang said as he held the gift in his hands, "Um...If you don't mind could you do something for me?"

"Sure"

"Well, traditionally the master would place the pendant around the pupil's neck the first time since it represented both completion of training and reaching adulthood. So I was wondering would you put it around my neck, since you are my favorite master," Aang asked.

"It would be an honor pupil Aang," Katara said playfully as she took the pendent from his hands and placed it gently over his head and onto his shoulders. "There we go, you look very handsome Aang."

"Thanks and you look quite lovely yourself." Aang said playfully as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Thanks," Katara said, "Oh you know we should go find Toph and Sokka they're probably still worried about me."

"Yeah," Aang said as Katara got up and ran out of the stable to find Sokka and Toph. As soon as Katara left Aang pulled something out of his pocket. His closed hand was out in front of him as he slowly opened his hand to reveal a necklace similar to the one Katara wore. However there were some differences, the ribbon was a lighter blue and the pendent was made out of the crystals from the cave of two lovers, but the most important difference in this necklace was that Aang had made it.

"You gave me a necklace, maybe some day you'll let me give you one," Aang said softly while looking at his work and then looking at the pendent around his neck. He put the betrothal necklace back in his pocket as he ran out to find Katara.

Please R&R

BTW: The Necklace being made out of the CoTL crystals wasn't my idea, I read it some where but it was too awesome not to use so if anyone knows who wrote it tell me so I can give credit. And something like this story's plot was mentioned in one of those 50 sentances things I HAD THIS IDEA BEFORE I READ THAT so I'm not copying someone else it was just coincidence