Hey I got a fast update this time! Yes! -dances- And...It's a long post! And...it was one of my favorite posts to write. And...this post is getting closer and closer to a semi-sort of a plot. Not to much of a dramatic, spine-chilling plotline but a plotline where something ACTUALLY leads to another. Not just willy-nilly thrown in there.
Okay, now thanks for all the reviews! I feel like I haven't said thanks in a while only sorry for not updating, so really thank you. I would thank you all by name like I did when I first started but now there's just too many of you. Okay, I want to answer to some of your reviews since I haven't really done that in a while either.
Haley, no I don't know what your talking about lol.
KaTaAnG fOr EvEr, thank you so much!
Piper Aurora Potter, yes, that's pretty much what Sokka is to Aang. Aang's gonna have to watch out! XD
Aangs fangirl1214, the name Aang came up with was Kataang. I did a play on the shipping name XD. On their ages, I've been meaning to address this...so prepare for an earful. Okay, not really. Just a brief explanation. Currently in the story Aang is fourteen and Katara just turned sixteen. But I really wanted to age them up a little bit without it being totally unreasonable just because you have the most fun that way. But here's my brief timeline-ish. I'm going to kind of make this up. I think Aang was found sometime when summer was ending, I believe his birthday is sometime in fall because he's an Airbender (it could be ANYTIME but that's just when it's going to be for my fanfiction). So in reality he started twleve and turned thirteen early, early in the series. Then that means they reached the North Pole in the winter, (In 1x04, Katara says "At this rate we won't get to the North Pole until spring!") and then Ba Sing Se in spring. I also think that Katara's bday is in winter since she is a Waterbender (again totally making it up, because we don't really know because not every bender of a nation has a birthday in that season) but that means she turned fifteen at the North Pole. And I didn't exactly mention Aang's fourteenth birthday, but I have something planned for his fifteenth. SO OMG. That all totally makes sense. I-am-so-proud-of-myself-right now. That's like the first time something has made sense without it meaning to. I mean I didn't mean it to, I was just going to explain that I wanted to age them up. WOW. That's amazing. Okay, sorry if that took a long time. I was going to bring that up eventually.
kimfoo, oh wow, I can't believe this is one of your top favorite stories. :)
Dylan0513, thanks for all your reviews on my stories! They've been really helpful.
Kataang Rulez, I plan on making it much further than their wedding ;). I hope my beta, Haley, sticks around...as far as that goes...I hope all my readers stick around! ;) Perhaps by that time all my readers will have great-great-grandkids. XD
Okay, phew. I'm glad I got that out of the way! Anyway, I'd like to thank Haley yet again for being my beta reader. So let's get to the update!
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Aang slowly blinked in the morning sun. He gradually sat up, gently shifting Katara as he stood up, pushing the shades of the window out of the way to look upon a sheet of snow. Aang let the shades fall back into place.
"Mmm…good morning, Aang." Katara smiled from the bed, hugging her pillow.
"Good morning," Aang smiled back. The screen slid open as Aang pulled his robes over his head. Sokka came in and Katara sat up, her hair falling down her back.
"What do you want?" Katara asked throwing her pillow at him. Sokka caught it.
"I just wanted to apologize for accusing you and Aang, last night." Sokka said, hanging his head. Katara stayed silent for a moment, "Apology accepted."
"Now, get some clothes on!" Sokka rolled his eyes throwing the pillow back at her, walking out of the room. Aang gave Katara a lopsided grin as he came to her side and lifted her up out of the bed. Katara kissed him and then let go of Aang's arms as she hurried into her own robes. She quickly combed through her hair, but left it down. Aang slid open the screen and joined everyone else. Suki was finishing cooking breakfast, while Toph folded her blanket and set her pillow on top of the folded sheets. Sokka was helping Suki in the kitchen with putting the food onto plates for everyone.
"Morning, Aang, Morning, Katara!" Toph smiled.
"Morning, Toph!" Aang and Katara replied as they all sat down at the table as Sokka sat plates down in front of them.
"And, Katara, I made you your favorite, like Mom used to make." Sokka smiled apologetically, setting down her special plate in front of her.
"Thanks, Sokka." Katara nodded as she started to eat.
"I promised to help set up the festival for tonight," Suki told them taking a bite of her breakfast.
"Oh, I'd love to help!" Katara exclaimed.
"Count me in!" Aang grinned.
"I'll help, too!" Toph joined in.
"Sure, I'll help…I mean if everyone else is…" Sokka agreed, taking a bite of some fresh fruit on his plate.
"Oh, that's great! Oyaji will be so pleased to have you guys helping out!" Suki exclaimed pleasantly. After breakfast, Sokka offered to clean up the plates as Toph and Suki headed outside to start setting up. Katara went to go fix her hair, while Aang waited for her. She just grabbed a ribbon and pulled her hair up into a ponytail instead of her usual braid.
"Okay, let's go!" Katara exclaimed pulling Aang behind her. They hurried out into the snow and joined the others that were helping out. Soon, Sokka came out and everyone was given an assignment to do. Aang and Katara set off towards their assignment to clear the snow with their Waterbending.
"So are you excited about tonight?" Aang asked as they set to work.
"Of course!" Katara smiled, moving her arms in one gracious swoop as the snow moved out of the road.
After a few hours of working hard, they took a break for lunch.
"Well, it looks like we're making good progress for tonight!" Suki exclaimed as they sat down to lunch. They all agreed as they hungrily chowed down on the prepared food. After lunch they hurried back to work and once the sun started to set everyone hurried inside to get ready for the festival. The girls all hurried in one room, excitedly, to get ready as Sokka shrugged and he and Aang went to another room to get ready. After a little while longer the boys were waiting outside their rooms for the girls to finish up. Soon they finished up and came out, sliding the screen out of the way revealing themselves in their party outfits. Aang's face went into a full out blush and he started babbling nonsense words at the sight of Katara. Katara smiled sweetly at him and walked over to him and tenderly kissed him as she took his hand. Aang mumbled something as he blushed an entirely different shade and Katara giggled.
"Er…right, let's go." Sokka prompted them as they headed out. People were already swarming the streets as they walked out the door. Paper lanterns hung above them, and stalls lined the streets selling foods, goods, paper dolls, anything they could imagine.
"Oh, this is so exciting!" Katara exclaimed looking around. Aang slipped his hand down and tangled his fingers in Katara's. They swam through the crowd. Sokka immediately dragged Suki off in the opposite direction so they could go try a new festival food. Toph looked interested in a show and went off in another direction.
"So…what do you want to do?" Aang asked Katara looking around for ideas.
"I don't know…do you want to go look at some stalls to see what they're selling here?" Katara suggested.
"Okay," Aang agreed as Katara dragged him over to the side of the road to look at the different kiosks. They looked at all sorts of different goods. They looked at jewelry, at crafted miniature sculptures, at paper figurines. They continued to walk down the road. Aang stopped and spun Katara around before she stepped in a pile of melted snow that didn't quite make it cleared off the streets.
"Nicely done, Twinkle Toes." Katara regained her balance, using Toph's nickname for Aang. Then continued on down the row of kiosks. Aang stopped before they got to a certain stall.
"Katara, close your eyes, I'm getting you something, well us something." Aang corrected himself. Katara covered her eyes.
"Okay," she smiled. Aang talked to the merchant, gave him the coins, grabbed the gift and turned around.
"Open your eyes." Aang said. Katara let her fingers fall from her eyes. Aang stood before her holding a red umbrella he popped it open and smiled, holding a hand out to her to take. Katara's lips curled as she recalled the red umbrella they had gotten from the traveler who had lived in the village with Aunt Wu. Katara laid her hand on top of Aang's hand and Aang pulled her under the umbrella with him.
"MM! Aang you have to try this!" Sokka said stuffing something sticky into Aang's mouth, ruining the magic moment he and Katara were sharing.
"You too, Katara!" Sokka exclaimed shoving the sugary sweet into Katara's mouth.
"Modka!" Katara struggled to yell at her brother with her mouth filled with pure sugar. Katara saw Suki had her mouth stuffed with the same substance. Sokka was determined to get them all to taste the festival food.
"Where's Toph?" Sokka asked. Katara pointed some random direction to get Sokka to leave them alone.
"When Sokka finds food there's no stopping him." Suki said once she had swallowed.
"Yeah, I know." Katara groaned wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, a little disgusted.
"But I still love him." Suki sighed.
"You must really be love struck to be in love with my brother." Katara rolled her eyes.
"I'm going to really go find Toph and warn her." Suki said.
"Good idea!" Katara called as Suki headed off.
"Now where were we?" Katara smiled. Aang pulled her into an affectionate kiss under umbrella so there bodies were pressed against each other. Katara moved her jaw and opened her mouth a bit. She moved her hands down the sides of Aang's face as they were both caught in the passionate kiss.
"Well, Toph, I think we're interrupting something." Suki giggled coming up behind them. They both jumped and turned to face Suki and Toph, and they both started to burn a deep crimson.
"Ooh, were Aang and Katara caught being naughty out in public?" Toph asked crossing her arms over her chest with a sly look.
"Why, yes I think they were." Suki smirked.
"Toph! There you are! You have to try this!" Sokka yelled from across the street. He ran across shoving people out of the way and then pushed the sticky substance in Toph's mouth.
"Why the hell are you shoving this crap into my mouth?" Toph shouted, shoving Sokka back into the crowd.
"That's what I was warning you about." Suki rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Sokka you really shouldn't go around shoving food into people's mouths!" Suki scolded, helping him up. "You can give it to them and tell them to try it but you can't force feed it to them," she smiled.
"Okay, I'm sorry." Sokka apologized, leaning towards her.
"I'm not kissing you, sticky mouth!" Suki laughed dodging him.
"Come back here!" Sokka started to chase after her. He grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him.
"Sokka! No!" Suki cried. Sokka made smoochy noises and kissed her face. "Ugh, Sokka! You're disgusting! That syrupy stuff is all over me now!"
"I'm so sorry, mistress, let me help you." Sokka apologized bowing. He ran to a food stall on the other side of the road and grabbed a paper napkin and ran back to Suki. He licked it and dabbed her face. "There better?" Sokka asked throwing away the napkin.
"Much, thank you." Suki smiled, kissing him softly. A little while later in the night, Katara and Aang came for Sokka and Suki.
"Hey you guys! It's almost midnight!" Aang shouted indicating towards the moon that was almost directly above them. "We're gonna count down soon!" Katara shouted at them as Toph eagerly tried to drag Aang and Katara towards the crowd.
"We're coming!" Sokka shouted, grabbing Suki's hand and following. They came up behind Katara and Aang who were also joining the crowd. Everyone could hear faint voices growing louder and louder.
"Ten…nine…eight…seven! Six! Five! Four! THREE! TWO! ONE!" Everyone exploded into cheers to welcome the New Year.
"Happy New Year, my love." Aang whispered sweetly kissing Katara.
o0o
"Mmm, I'm still so tired from last night!" Katara groaned as she rolled over in bed.
"Ten more minutes!" Aang buried himself deeper into to sea of blankets. Katara propped herself up, as she realized she'd have to get ready for the day.
"I'm going to go take a bath, quickly." Katara told Aang as she got out of bed.
"M'kay," Aang sighed as he squeezed his pillow. He thought about Katara as he heard her run the water. Aang remembered the first day he met her and when they went penguin sledding. He had no idea that they would be getting married, but he definitely knew he had a certain liking for the girl more than any other person he had met. Aang must have drifted off because the next thing he knew Katara was coming out of the bathroom. Aang sat up and stretched as he watched Katara finish putting on her robes over her under wrap.
"Okay, I'll go take my bath now and I'll meet you out there for breakfast." Aang said getting up.
"Alright!" Katara called as she walked out. Once again everyone was already up.
"You look all freshened up, where's Aang?" Suki asked.
"I just took a bath and Aang's taking one right now." Katara replied.
"Oh, I think we were running low on towels in the guest room, you can go grab a towel out of me and Sokka's room for him?" Suki said.
"Oh, sure." Katara hurried into the other room. She quickly grabbed a towel and ran into their room trying to catch him before he got in the bath. Katara lightly knocked on the bathroom door as she walked in to find Aang with his back to her peeling off his last piece of clothing. She was about scurry out the room utterly embarrassed but an entirely different side of her took over, a more naughty side. A side of her that made her love him even more, every inch of him. Her stomach fluttered and churned as a monster growled with hunger. She raised her eyebrows.
"So that's where all your arrows go." Katara grinned evilly indicating to the arrows on his legs, and the arrow going down his backside.
"Katara!" Aang jumped, grabbing his clothes on the floor and wrapping them around his middle before turning around, his face a full-fledged crimson. Katara could also feel a blush creeping up her face but her evil grin stayed in place.
"You're out of towels in here." Katara told him, handing him the towel.
"Th-thanks," he stuttered. Katara turned around and headed out.
"Did you get Aang his towel?" Suki asked, as she was finishing up cooking. Katara grinned.
"Yup."
"I think there's more to this story." Toph mused.
"And I don't want to know about it." Sokka stopped her. As Suki started to serve breakfast onto the plates Aang came out and Katara grinned at him as he took a seat next to her. He smiled nervously at her as if she could still see right through his clothes. Katara just grinned.
"You two! Are just—! Inappropriate!" Sokka exclaimed.
"You don't even want to know about it!" Katara mocked. She grabbed her and Aang's plate and headed out on the front porch. Aang gave one last nervous, scared, deer-in-the-headlights type of glance around the table before following. He found Katara outside on the porch sitting cross-legged with her plate in front of her and his plate next to hers. Aang sat next to her and also crossed his legs. He picked up his breakfast roll and took a bite out of it. His eyes drifted over to Katara.
"Okay, I'm sorry about this morning. I couldn't help it. I just got this really weird feeling in my stomach and I felt like a totally different person seeing you with absolutely nothing on." Katara apologized. Aang grinned stupidly.
"Really now?" he asked.
"Yeah, I felt like this monster was born inside of me like it took over me." Katara explained the feeling. Aang grinned some more at his plate as if waiting for Katara. "…And I kind of liked it." Aang laughed. He couldn't imagine he and Katara were sitting here over breakfast talking about him naked.
"You liked it?" Aang smiled. They continued to eat. Katara giggled a bit.
"Like I was kind of hungry for more of you." She grinned with a mischievous look on her face.
"Don't even think about it Miss Katara Water Tribe." Aang grinned harder. Katara eyed him as she continued to laugh. "Sokka, he'd kill us right now just because of our thoughts." Aang chuckled.
"I know, isn't it great?" Katara put a hand on his knee suggestively. Aang smiled back.
"Excuse me Avatar, this came for you this morning." Oyaji approached them. "I'm sorry to interrupt on your vacation." Katara yanked her hand off of Aang's knee and tried to look as innocent as possible. Aang stood up and accepted the scroll he presented and bowed also trying to look innocent as well. Oyaji smiled walked off again. Aang came back and sat next to Katara and opened the scroll.
Dear Aang,
I've tried as long as I could to do without your help but I have reached a problem I cannot do without it. I'm having trouble reaching a trade agreement with the Earth Kingdom. I know you have connections in the Kingdom so I was thinking you could help me. Say hello to Katara, Sokka and Toph for me, tell them I wish them all the best. See you in a week or so.
Sincerely,
Fire Lord Zuko
Katara sighed.
"Well, you know they couldn't piece together the world without my help." Aang sighed rolling the scroll back up. "The only reason we went back to the Temple after the war, was just to get things settled, then you knew I'd have to help Zuko." Katara nodded.
"We should start to pack our bags." Katara suggested.
"What? Katara, this is Avatar stuff, you should stay here with Sokka, Suki and Toph and have fun. It'll just be boring Fire Nation governors." Aang told her.
"I know, but I've always been there for you and your Avatar stuff." Katara told him, lightly kissing him.
"Katara, I think I need to start dealing with this stuff by myself. To grow up, get up and get out there." Aang placed a hand on her face.
"Okay, you're the Avatar, you know what you're talking about." Katara pouted. Aang stood up and helped her up, smiling, remembering the conversation they had been having a minute before. "Not a word to Sokka about what we were talking about though, right?" Katara asked.
"Right," Aang grinned. "We'll continue that conversation when I get back." Katara laughed.
"Okay, it's a deal." Katara tried to laugh through the sorrow she was dealing with inside, realizing she'd have to spend a while without Aang.
"Well, I'll go start packing and you can go tell them." Aang said on a heavier note. Katara smiled sadly as she gave him a hug.
"Okay," she agreed. Katara wandered into the house and sat down as Toph, Sokka and Suki were finishing up breakfast.
"Hey, Katara, what's that?" Suki asked.
"It's from Zuko. He's summoned Aang to the palace, and he needs his help and Aang is determined to do it by himself." Katara sighed looking down. She silently brushed away a tear. Katara wondered if it was because she was happy that Aang was growing up and fully accepting his Avatar responsibility or sad that he was now determined to do it alone. There was silence around the table. "I should go help him pack." Katara stood up and headed for their bedroom.
o0o
Okay, before you all leave to go review or to go walk your goldfish or whatever your going to go do, I have a quickie little note about the New Year in this chapter. So I kinda sorta if you can call it that, combined the traditions of Chinese New Year (like don't they put up paper lanterns and stuff?) and the US New Year (counting down to midnight) because I just thought it would be kinda fun. And yes I know they don't celebrate it on the same day but...you know how Avatar is Chinese kinda inspired? Half of you: 'Wait...wait...you lost me at...walk your...goldfish...you can't...' Yes, people it's a joke, lol.