Vigilante Ways I
After dinner, when a chipper but tried Sokka returns to descend on what's left of the fried mushrooms and rice, Katara and Zuko make their usual excuses and depart for the winding road back to Shu Jing. Sokka is too busy regaling the others with his unique approach to swordsmanship to give them much notice— Toph likewise is occupied with drawing jokes out of his exaltations— but Aang watches them suspiciously as they leave.
Their crimson paint and spirit's mask are still hidden in Katara's satchel when the young monk confronts them on the road. His hands hold to his hips in suspicion, the light-heartedness in his expression replaced by severity.
The Avatar has questions.
Vigilante Ways II
'Where are you going?'
'For a walk, like we do every night.'
'But what do you do? Why doesn't anyone else come?'
'We have… things to talk about, Aang.'
'What things? What things, Katara?'
The firebender has had enough. 'What's your problem?'
'My problem, Zuko, is I get shot down by your sister, fall into a coma for two months, and when I wake up you're with us… cooking and—and walking with my—with my friend and it feels like something's going on!' The tip of the airbender's arrow that protrudes from his growing hairline flickers once, faintly, like a wisp of cloud as it passes across the moon.
'Aang.' Katara goes to him, tries to rest her hands on his shoulders but he shrugs them off.
'Are you… are you with him?' he demands, glaring around her at the scowling firebender.
The pink stains in Katara's cheeks are hidden under the cover of night. 'Why don't you go back to the others, Aang? I don't want to talk about this right now, we'll talk later, I promise.'
'Why won't you answer me? Are you, or aren't you?'
Katara's softness begins to toughen. 'I said I didn't want to talk about it right now.'
Hurt swirls in the Avatar's eyes. 'I thought... after the lover's cave… that you, that we…'
Guilt that shouldn't be hers, swirls low in Katara's stomach. 'Aang… it's not like that.'
But the airbender has tears in his eyes. He casts her one hurt look before shooting upwards in a flurry of wind and skipping away on the boughs of trees.
Vigilante Ways III
The Blue Spirit never talks but tonight his silence is louder than usual.
They come out of the bamboo forest in the hills, following the winding path down to the town. They've no lost or vulnerable souls to help tonight, no one Katara could scout out earlier in the day when she, Toph, and Sokka had been in the well-to-do village.
No, tonight they plan to restore the Blue Spirit to his trademark dao swords.
At the weapons store, the Painted Lady keeps watch while the Blue Spirit searches out the weapons. He wants to steal them, but the waterbender insists he leave his daggers and a few coins in payment so he does. Despite the blood boiling in his veins to a medley of are you with him? and Aang… it's not like that he respects her wishes.
What he wants is to set the whole damn town on fire.
Vigilante Ways IV
They spend some time slinking like shadows through the streets, but under the stewardship of Master Piando the town of Shu Jing has settled into an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity. There doesn't seem to be any crime to speak of.
When the Painted Lady gives up on the night's wanderings and suggests a rooftop tea, the Blue Spirit shakes his head sharply and nods towards the forest.
'You want to go back? Already?' she asks. 'But it's so early.'
He doesn't answer, despite the absence of an audience, and it's in this frosty silence that he leads the way to the edge of town. Once the houses are at their backs, the fire-lit windows dwindling behind them, Katara can't help herself.; she never could see a wound without finding a way to bleed and mend it.
'Zuko. Talk to me.'
Guys! The Drama™! Can you believe?! We're going through tropes like nobody's business: secretly dating, dramatic confrontations, love triangles, unrequited love. Christ, someone put a stop to it.
RHI trivia #4: I actually love Aang a lot. I don't even mind the canon pairing of he and Katara (I just feel it's a little unlikely, speaking as a former-teenaged girl – as if all of us didn't go through the "bad boy" phase). Aang is beautiful and pure and has waaaaay too much relying on him to have a romantic sub-plot rn.