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Chapter 21: Of Apple Rice and Full Moons

Aang's POV: Love. That one little word has been way overused recently! Zuko, Mai, Sokka (That one had me really shocked), and now Toph. She had tried to give me little half truths in the beginning, but I think she forgot that I'd learned from the best, and the best can't be fooled by stuff like that. Then she used that word. I was slightly flustered by how she said it.

Flashback:

"So tell me truthfully… how do you feel about Sokka?"

Her eyes widened, then narrowed to slits. "This is harsh payback!" I just grinned, I had a good idea, I just had to hear it out of the Ostrichorse's mouth to make sure.

"I like him, he's a nice boy."

"Come on, I'm not an idiot! For someone to not notice, they'd have to be completely bl… never mind. Just tell me and I'll let you down."

"The minute I can move just half of a muscle, you are so dead!"

"If you keep avoiding, I doubt you'll ever get down!"

"Fine. Yeah, I like him. There, now can I get down."

"Not until I get the truth, and the whole truth, like I said, I'm not dumb."

"Fine. I'm in love with him. Now let me down." Shocked, I let the water unfreeze without realizing it. But I realized it when I got a rock wall in the gut. "You mention even half of a syllable about this to Sokka, then the moment Ozai is defeated you'll be dust beneath my feet! Got it?"

I just nodded weakly and she transported away.

End Flashback:

Even an hour later, my brain was still totally shut down. I hadn't thought of a sneaky way to tip off Sokka, and I wasn't sure if I should tell Katara. I wonder who else knows.

I shook my head and transported to the Fountain, where I felt Katara making dinner. She was surprised by my sudden appearance, and I saw her with her arms covered with water, ready to attack if we had been followed. She dropped it when she saw it was me; she didn't look happy.

"Toph teach you yet another way to scare the crap out of people?"

"Sorry! But guess who you're talking to?"

"The guy who just scared me to death and nearly got decapitated for it?" The sarcasm dripped from her voice.

"The Earthbending Grand Master who just scared you to death and nearly got decapitated for it!" She squealed and dropped what she was doing, and I felt her attack me into a hug, knocking me over in the process. I smiled, and kissed her before airbending myself up, then helping her up. "I'm not sure who's more excited, me or you."

Katara smirked at my joke and went back to her rice, which smelled really good. Apples and Apple Blossoms was a winner.

I walked behind her, then hugged her from behind, putting my head over to one side of her and resting it on her shoulder. She continued to stir the rice with one hand, she rubbed my sore arm with the other, heat emanating from her hand, and warming my arm. Against her shoulder, I smelled her hair, the scent was delicious. I just enjoyed being with her.

I wasn't paying attention to vibrations, so when we heard a crash, and a saw a hole in the floor, both Katara and I jumped back, surprised, and readied ourselves for a fight if necessary. Toph and Haru came up, and we lowered our hands, and glared. I turned to Katara.

"Now I get why you were angry when I did it." I said sarcastically, Toph rolled her eyes.

"I'm gonna be working with Haru on Battle Morse for a bit, then I'm gonna be working on my earthbending 'till late, we came to get our food now, we'll eat while training." I saw Katara as if she was about to protest, but then she thought the better of it and filled up two bowls of rice, adding in the apple blossom to each and then handing one to Haru and Toph. Toph tried a bite tentatively, then smiled.

"Best one yet! Good job! Much better than that bowl of flames you forced down on us before! The edible flower pushed it over the top!"

"Thanks! I didn't know you liked apples so much."

"My favorite fruit! Anyway, gotta go… congrats again Twinkle Toes, we gotta spar now that you're a Grand Master!" With that, she disappeared, before I could take her up on the challenge. Katara smiled sadly, then rung the dinner bell. She quickly mumbled something under her breath, I didn't hear all of it, but I did hear something about Sokka.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" I could tell she was lying.

"Does it have anything to do with the Toph and Sokka thing?" I felt Katara panic as I said it.

"What do you mean 'thing'? There's no 'thing', unless you are talking about them being friends… cuz they are… best friends… y'know, buds! And… Toph was sad about when he was gone because… uh… well, y'know; best buds! And… with the taking care of coma Sokka… good buds, and… what do you mean 'thing'…and…and…" I loved to hear her babble, but I had to cut her off before she hyperventilated.

"Katara, slow down! First of all, I can tell you're lying. Second of all, I knew already."

"You do?" She asked me as if it wasn't obvious.

"Yeah! I know all about Toph's feelings and…" I was cut off.

"She just told you?" She sounded skeptical.

"Uh… well… I kind of froze her to the wall and forced her to tell me… but I kinda guessed already, I just didn't know that it was love."

"So you know all about how deep she is in…" Katara began, I nodded and cut her off.

"All about that, and all about how Sokka is totally in love with her too, and…" Katara nearly choked on nothing just then, and cut me off.

"Wait, go back!" I looked at her quizzically.

"You didn't know that?" She shook her head, then grinned.

"Ok! Now that I know that, this is the part where we intervene!" I smiled as she said it. Finally!

Sokka's POV: I heard Katara ring the dinner bell, and started to walk down. I was hoping to see Toph there, but recently she had been working late with Aang, and taking dinner out on the go. In fact, I haven't seen her since I woke up. This is one of those times when I'm jealous of Aang, he always gets designated time to spend with one of the most powerful, incredible girls ever.

When I got to the Fountain, where we always eat, I found Aang and Katara whispering and giggling to each other.

"Hey guys! I hope I didn't miss the gossip fest! Can you fill me in?" I sarcastically broke up their conversation, and they stood up straight when they saw me. What was going on with these two?

"Hey Sokka! Um… I was just telling Katara that I loved her new rice recipe. Once every one gets here, you have to try it!" Aang seemed panicked at first, but then got excited about Katara's dinner. Hopefully it was better than the fireballs she had us choke on before.

"Also, Aang has some big news! Why don't you tell him?" Aang and I both looked at Katara curiously, then Aang perked up.

"Yeah! I just became a Grand Master of Earthbending!" I was surprised, and then smiled. Though I would've thought water would come first, it was still a second element under his belt.

"That's great!" I returned Aang's proud smile, then something else popped into my head. "If you're here, then where's your master?"

I didn't think it was possible, but Aang and Katara's smiles widened and they glanced at each other, I looked down, hoping that my uncontrollable feelings went under Katara's sharp all-knowing radar.

"She said she'd be working late on her earthbending, and she's also working with Haru on his battle Morse. She's not gonna be eating with us. But she liked my rice, so just try it!" I rolled my eyes at the last part, and sat down with my back leaning on the fountain. I saw Zuko, and Mai coming in together and sitting down, kissing all the way; I rolled my eyes and looked away, as much as I wanted to replace them with me and Toph, I decided to look for the others.. Ty Lee and Teo came in a bit later; it looked as if he was practicing airbending moves, and Ty Lee was walking on her hands, trying to show him how to do the same. Iroh came in too, the Duke followed behind him, being dragged by a thin piece of string attached to his waist.

"What…?" Aang began to ask Iroh, but the older man just shook his head, telling him that it was better we didn't know.

"So, what happened today guys?" Katara asked as she passed out wooden bowls with rice in it. I looked at mine. It had a pinkish red tint, and had an Apple Blossom on it, which is an edible flower. Still being cautious I smelled the rice in front of me. It smelled a lot like… apples and flowers!

I spazzed right there, recognizing it as similar to the scent of the most incredible person I know. "Nnnyaaaahhhh!!" I verbally expressed my surprise without thinking. Every one turned to my with s curious look.

"Nyah happened?" Katara just felt the need to tease me right there.

"No… I just… got a splinter! Yeah… I got a splinter!" I pretended to take a splinter out of my finger then turned back to the skeptical people around me. "All better!" Everyone went back to their food and I tried to focus on the conversation while eating my own bowl of rice. I found it the most delicious thing ever.

"I have decided to leave here on my Nephew's war balloon. I am going to round up other members of an organization I am part of to help with our new invasion. I will be travelling the World to ask them to join the cause." Iroh spoke up, and we all sat up curiously.

"Are you sure?" Aang finally asked.

"You didn't think you'd be able to break into the Fire Nation Capital with only the eleven people we have here, did you? We may be capable fighters, but we're not good enough for two entire armies of Dai Li and Firebenders by ourselves. We'll need at least some back up. I will be leaving tomorrow morning after breakfast." Aang nodded.

"Anything else happen today?" Katara was clearly trying to keep the conversation up.

"I'm on the intermediate level of airbending, apparently, no airbender has ever progressed so quickly, besides Aang. Having the Avatar teach me is so cool!" Aang reacted modestly to the several compliments, and was quick to compliment back.

"Well, your interest in the airbender technique had really helped. You know the concept so well, you can get a move ten times as quickly." Now it was Teo's turn to act modest, but he didn't have to worry about being too modest, Ty Lee was his ego for him.

"He has been practicing all day! As soon as he got those scrolls he asked me to help him work on it. It looked like about a month's worth of moves in one afternoon! Then he almost beat me in a test of agility, then forced me to the library to get even MORE scrolls! He's obsessed! And he's really really good!" Teo's blush deepened.

"Want a new topic?" Katara asked Teo helpfully. Teo just nodded, and Katara looked around expectantly. When no one answered, she spoke up.

"Well, the moon is full tonight, so that means that tonight, Aang can put one more mastered element on his resume." Aang looked up, surprised and happy. I was slightly confused.

"I thought that the full moon is tomorrow."

"There are three days of the full moon, which most people don't know. So there's today, tomorrow, and the day after. That way, if Aang doesn't get the technique tonight, he still has two other days. But I doubt he'll need them." I nodded and went back to my food. As much as I missed the meat and fish, this was really good. For the rest of the meal, I just ate in silence, trying to push the thoughts of Toph out of my head, and trying to hold onto the scent.

After dinner Iroh walked up to me and pulled me out of everyone else's earshot before he quietly talked to me.

"I am leaving tomorrow, so I thought I should leave you with a piece of advice. Tell her."

"Sorry?" I was positive I'd misheard him.

"You should tell her how you feel. She is an amazing girl, and I'm sure she feels the same about you." I was shocked as he just walked away calmly.

Katara's POV: The minute dinner was over and I had cleaned up the dishes, I dragged Aang to a large pond in another wing that Toph helped me make. She made the huge crevice, and I 

supplied the water. We were even able to plant grass and several trees, which, thanks to my healing, grew about seventy times quicker than it should have. Some month old trees were thicker than the pillars in the fountain area. We needed every tree we got.

"Okay, what's next Katara?" Aang was excited, I could tell.

"Well, you've already mastered healing, so the only thing I can think of which is higher is what I learned in the Swamp, and what I learned from Hama."

"That psycho who wanted you to attack that town? You're gonna teach me that stuff?!"

"As horrible as I think it is, you need to know it, it could save your life one day. But before I go to bloodbending, let's start with the Swamp knowledge." I plucked a blade of grass, and put it at Aang's feet. "Pick up this blade of grass without wrapping it in a water cocoon. There's water in every plant, so you shouldn't have much trouble."

He looked at it and concentrated hard. After a little bit, he slowly picked it up and started spinning it around. Then he froze the water in the tiny blade of grass and made it literally a 'blade of grass.' Satisfied, I nodded and smiled, and he dropped it.

"Now let's try something a bit heavier, because in battle, using a giant root might be better than throwing some grassy toothpicks." I pulled out a wet branch that had fallen off a tree. After a bit, he did the same thing, mastering the art of moving plants.

"Good job! I'd say we're done with that! But that means time for what Hama had to say." Aang looked slightly upset. I continued to talk. "The first thing to know is that water is almost anywhere. Even in the air there is liquid, so if you don't have a stream or a tree or anything…" I bended a large bubble of water from the air that covered my arms, "Just look for the water in the air!"

Aang smiled and tried to emulate what I did. He was slightly disappointed when he'd only gotten a handful.

"Hama was only able to get that much too. I've just been practicing a lot, so I can get more. If you keep trying you'll be able to get as much too!"

We worked for half of an hour until Aang was able to take an arms length of water out of the air. He was sweating, but proud.

"Good job! Now, the air isn't the only place with water. Like I said before, plants are loaded with it. It may kill the plant, but it'll save your life. You can also use healing later if you feel really guilty, but it's not necessary." I demonstrated with pulling the water completely out of a tree, then also showed him with a few plants. "You try!"

Aang looked a bit upset with harming the wildlife, but complied. As soon as I told him he had mastered the technique, he made quick work at healing the parched grass under us. I smiled. He was so compassionate! Once we had green grass underneath him again, he stood up.

"There anything else?"

"Two things. One I just figured out. First of all, I learned how to bend wood." I was proud as I said it. I learned a few days ago.

"WHAT!? HOW!?"

"We can both bend water from trees no problem, and wood is just a purified and neater form of a tree, just like metal is with earth. So I figured that there had to be water trapped inside, because no one can completely take all the water out from wood unless they burn it. So I tried to find the water. It took me a while, but it was there! You recently learned how to metalbend, I assume, just do the same thing, but with wood!" Then I pulled out a wooden box that I had found in a far part of the temple. It was thick and worked well. I lightly shoved Aang in and closed the door.

I heard several thudding sounds, then the wood seemed to get smaller and tighter, as if Aang was bending the water out of it, and taking the wood with him. Then there was a resound cracking of wood, and Aang came out with a bit of water in his hand, there were splinters floating in it. Aang came over and kissed me, letting the water fall to the ground.

"You're amazing! Did you know that?" I smiled and kissed him back before I had to eventually pull away. He still had one more thing to learn.

"Sorry, but you're not done yet. Here comes the trick you can only do in light of a full moon. Yup, it's bloodbending. I wish you didn't need to know it, but you do. If you are in a really horrible position, where a you or a friend is about to die, you can also freeze, boil, or even stop blood, although I hope you never need to do it, you should know it." Aang looked more upset now, but he knew what could be at stake.

"What do I have to do?" He asked gloomily.

"First, you need to know that wherever there is life, there is water. That's how you could bend the water in the air, and in the plants. Now, you're gonna do the same thing… only to me." He looked as if he was about to protest, but just looked down for a second, then concentrated.

After awhile he opened his eyes and twist his hands around, and I felt my arm moving simultaneously. He was being very benign, merely having me slowly move different parts of my body.

Once he was convinced he had gotten it, he let go and glanced at his hands as if they were cursed. He shakily walked to the pond and started washing his hands and arms, furiously rubbing to get rid of the disease of burden, when he saw it wasn't working he started scratching and clawing at his skin. I was afraid he was going to make himself bleed, so I ran to him and pulled his arms away from each other, hugging him furiously to try and take away some of the burden. We just sat there for a few minutes, rocking slowly.

"Hey, don't worry. I never said you needed to ever use it. Only in life or death matters. It's okay. Can you handle one more move, or should we call it quits? It's the last one before you are a Grand Master of Waterbending." He calmed down considerably and looked back up at me.

"One more shouldn't be that hard." He put on a brave face, but I could see he was nervous.

"When I first found out about Hama, she used bloodbending on me, but I was able to use the energy of the full moon so I was impervious to the technique. So I'm going to use bloodbending on you and you have to resist." Aang just breathed in, looked up at the moon, and nodded.

I pushed back tears, then started to make his arms and legs move and twist gently. I watched Aang's face scrunch up, and forced concentration. He was clearly weakened from his break down a bit ago and had trouble with drawing out spiritual power. But after several minutes, he stopped moving and smiled wearily, then he bowed deeply in respect. I followed suit before enveloping him into a warm kiss.

"Wow, a Grand Master of water and earth, all in one day! We need to celebrate!" I said in between kisses.

"What did you have in mind?" He was breathing heavily now. Spirits, he was so hot.

The kisses became more frantic and more passionate. Aang broke away and started kissing me on each of my cheeks, the tip of my nose, my forehead, by my jaws, and trailing around the bottom of my face, until I brought him back up to my lips.

"Congratulations!" I said in between kisses, my voice airy from lack of breath.

Aang's POV: Everything that had happened today just melted away in Katara's arms, and her lips. Spirits, her lips! I could go on forever about her luscious lips.

I gently rubbed my tongue against her bottom lip, pleading for entrance, which she graciously permitted. I felt around every part of her mouth, taking in her taste, before I met her tongue with mine. Our tongues danced together, much like in the cave at my dance party, and they battled playfully. I couldn't get enough.

I explored every part of her mouth, carefully tickling and prodding every nook, rubbing against her teeth, and feeling her taste on the underside of her lips. She was amazing.

"Oh Aang! I love you, so much." My breath caught as she said it. I never thought I'd hear her say it.

"Katara, I love you too! So much! I could shout it to the heavens and the Spirits on the other side of the cosmic plane would hear me shouting my love, and it still wouldn't be enough to describe it. I love you so much! You are my world!"

Love. That one little word has been used so much recently. Zuko, Mai, Sokka, Toph, me, and now Katara. The air in the Temple was dripping with the feeling. It was always surrounding me. Love. After Katara and I eventually broke apart from each other's grasps, we just lied in the grass and looked up at the stars, her head resting in my shoulder, and me running my fingers through her hair. We fell asleep like that, in our lover's embrace.

Sigh! We haven't had any good Kataang in a while! I always love writing it!

I'm gonna say what everyone always hates to read; please review!

Toldja you'd hate to hear it!