I've been a bad author. I know it's been almost two weeks since I last updated this, but I was really busy. But I finally managed to post this (better late than never, right?). The idea is PandaLily22's so all credit goes to her. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
LIV. A Grandmother's Concern
"A grandmother is a little bit parent, a little bit teacher, and a little bit best friend."
~ Unknown
In the darkness of the winter night that seemed to stretch over the South Pole like a blanket, three figures hastily trudged through the snowdrifts towards the ocean a few hundred yards away. Despite the chill, Sokka and Hakoda had gone out to go fishing. Trailing behind them, Aang looked out of place. He honestly didn't know why Sokka had dragged him along but the warrior had said he wouldn't like being in the house with just Kanna and Katara as they had a tendency to talk about subjects women generally discussed. Aang would have rather preferred being indoors than out in the cold, endless night that winter usually brought on to the South Pole, but it was too late to turn back now. Shoving his frozen hands into his pockets, he concentrated on using some firebending to keep them warm while trudging after the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe and his son.
"What I'd give to be a firebender," Kanna muttered, giving the hearth in the kitchen an ineffectual poke. "Why is it that these fires never seem to warm the house."
"It's warm enough," Katara admitted.
Kanna sighed. "Maybe I am just getting old."
Katara laughed. "If it makes a difference, Gran Gran, I bet you can singlehandedly take down Sokka with nothing but a wooden spoon."
"Of course. I'm a grandmother; what else are we for?" She chuckled. "Oh, it seems so strange to think that you two are so grown up and engaged. I must admit, I'm rather fond of that Kyoshi Warrior. I don't think I could have done half the things she's doing when I was her age. When is she coming back?"
"Day after tomorrow," Katara replied. "She said she has some last minute stuff to take care of before coming down here again."
"I hope you told her to dress warmly. It's frightfully cold down here."
Katara nodded. "I did. It seems so strange to think that Sokka's getting married in a few months."
"It is," her grandmother agreed, handing Katara some dough to knead. "And what about you?" she asked, eyeing the engagement necklace her granddaughter wore. "You don't think it's strange that you're engaged?"
The waterbender smiled. Frankly, Katara didn't find it strange. It felt…right, somehow. She couldn't explain it clearly in terms that would be coherent and make sense, but being engaged to Aang just felt…natural almost, like it was what was supposed to happen.
"Honestly, I'm a little shocked and excited," Katara admitted. "But I don't find it strange."
"I think it'd be a little hard not to be shocked and excited when you're engaged to the most powerful person in the world," Kanna said. "But Katara, have you thought about this seriously?"
"Thought about what?" Katara asked blankly.
"Your engagement."
"Of course I have, Gran Gran."
"And you still want to go through with it?"
"Of course I do. I… do you not approve, Gran?"
"What's there not to approve of, Katara? Aang's the Avatar and he loves you very much. You're a very lucky girl, Katara. But as fond as I am of Aang, you're my granddaughter and I want you to be happy."
"I will be," she replied, softly.
"Will you be? Marriage is a lifelong commitment, my dear. If you don't like it, there's not much anyone can do to help."
"I know and I understand that, but I still want to do this," Katara said.
Kanna returned, momentarily, to her cooking before turning back to face Katara. Her granddaughter had a quizzical expression on her face and her sapphire eyes seemed to regard her in a curious light.
"I'm not trying to deter you," Kanna explained. "I just want you to know what you're getting yourself into. You have a choice, Katara. Unlike the women before you and even some of the young women today, you can choose what you want to do."
"I know what I want to do."
"And you've considered this from all angles?"
"I…suppose so."
"You shouldn't gamble with your future. Supposing now might mean regretting it later."
"Well, I've thought about everything," Katara replied.
"You do realize you'll be on your own quite a lot, don't you?"
The waterbender nodded. She knew sharing Aang with the rest of the world was something she had to get used to, but from what she had learned, Roku and Ta Min never really had a problem with being away from each other in the past so she wasn't too worried about her future with Aang. At any rate, the airbender told her often enough that he didn't think he could stand too much time away from her before he went insane, so the thought had crossed her mind but she hadn't been too preoccupied about it.
"And I hope you realize you'll be busy yourself. It's only a matter of time before people come to you for help too."
"I know," Katara admitted. She wasn't too keen on the idea, but there wasn't much she could do about it.
"And you'll also be scrutinized. It won't be fun, but I'm sure you'll deal with it."
"What do you mean scrutinized?"
"What else? There will be all sorts of people watching you. Bitter people, men and women alike, just waiting for you to mess up so they can prove you don't belong with Aang. Strange people who will worship the ground you walk on, etc. Being the Avatar's wife isn't an easy job."
For a moment, Kanna thought she saw a flash of anger in Katara's eyes, but it was replaced by a different look, one Kanna could only describe as almost reproachful.
"Is that really what you think my future with Aang will be, Gran Gran? A job?"
"Katara, it won't be a walk in the park," she sighed. "You'll have responsibilities and expectations. It might not be what you imagined at all."
"It will be," she replied, resolutely. "Besides, Aang keeps telling me over and over again it shouldn't bother me because he'd never let his duties come between us and I believe him."
"He can make those promises, but he's still the Avatar. He can't run away from who he is."
Katara groaned in exasperation and her grandmother sighed.
"Katara, I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. Nor am I trying to discourage you from being with Aang. I just want to make sure you are fully aware of what you are doing. You can love someone and still hate being with them. I should know," Kanna said, eyes downcast.
"Then what should I do?" The waterbender demanded angrily. "Find a random stranger to fall in love with?"
At this, Kanna laughed. "You couldn't even if you tried, my little waterbender. Love works in ways we cannot understand. You'd be miserable if you tried and you know it."
"Then what do you want me to do, Gran Gran?" Katara sighed. "You keep saying you're not trying to discourage me, but then you come up with so many reasons why I should reconsider being with Aang."
"I just want to make sure you're aware of what your future holds. The road ahead will be fraught with challenges and at times it won't be easy, especially if you're not happy or if you can't trust the person you love."
"Well, I can. I trust Aang with my life."
"I know that. When I said 'you', I meant people in general."
The two fell silent after that. The only sound was that of Katara kneading the bread and Kanna stirred the stewed sea prunes.
Suddenly, Kanna burst out laughing. "You know, I sound exactly like my mother. Before I got married, she told me almost the exact same things. Of course, your grandfather wasn't the Avatar, but the lecture she gave me was generally along the same lines." She sighed, smiling a bit. "I think it's safe to say I won the prize for lousy grandmother of the year, right?"
Katara shook her head. "No. If anything, you deserve the prize for being the greatest. You're the best grandmother anyone could ask for, even if I was mad before. You were just concerned and I guess I wasn't really thinking about our engagement seriously."
"You're not going to back out, are you?" Kanna asked. "I can take waterbenders who chicken out down singlehandedly too and I might not even need a spoon."
Katara laughed at their joke. "I know. But I'm not backing out. I couldn't. I'm just thinking about it."
"Are you nervous?"
"Honestly, yes. I wasn't before, but now…"
"Yes?"
Katara sighed and stopped kneading the dough. She wiped her hands clean and turned to face her grandmother.
"I'm scared I'll let everyone down. What if I'm not good at being the Avatar's wife? What if Aang decides he doesn't want me anymore, or if he gets bored of me, or…"
"Katara, now you're being ridiculous. You'll be an excellent wife. It's in your genes; with a mother like yours, there is no way you can be a horrible wife. As for Aang deciding he doesn't want you, I think that is highly unlikely. He is the type of person who would put you and your needs before his and the world's. I wouldn't be surprised if, in a few years, government officials started complaining that the Avatar was too busy being with you than helping the world."
"But what if he gets tired of me?"
"He'll get tired of you when I grow wings and fly. You're worrying unnecessarily now."
"I can't help it," Katara replied, biting her lip. For some reason, the truth came at her as if it was hitting her for the first time. She was engaged to the Avatar. The most powerful person on the planet, the bridge between worlds. Now, it seemed so surreal.
"What if Aang abandons me for some other girl?"
"I will personally take care of him, Avatar or not," Kanna promised. "But you and I both know he would do that. He couldn't." She sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't have had this conversation with you. Now, you're just being unreasonable."
"I'm sorry," the waterbender apologized. "It's just that I never realized how much truth there was in what you said. Do you really think I can do this?"
"I said it would be hard, but you've helped save the world, my little waterbender. This should be a piece of cake compared to that."
"I hope it is," Katara said, smiling. "Aang seems to think it will be."
Kanna chuckled. "I wonder where those three are anyway," she murmured referring to Sokka, Hakoda, and Aang. "Why they go out in such cold weather or why they dragged Aang along is beyond me. I bet they're probably still fishing."
Kanna's guess was somewhat accurate. Sokka was trying his luck at catching a couple more fish before they called it a day, but Hakoda had seemed to think they had plenty. So while Sokka fished patiently, the airbender and the chief waited. At last, Sokka gave up and the three began the trek home.
"We've been gone for a long time," Hakoda noted, glancing at the sky. "What do you think your grandmother and sister have been up to?"
Sokka grinned. "Girl talk, what else? Gran was probably talking to Katara about her engagement and stuff. You don't have to be worried," the warrior said to the airbender. "Gran gave me the same talk. She likes you. She's just concerned. She wants to make sure Katara knows what she's doing."
Aang nodded. Honestly, he was more concentrated on trying not to sneeze at the moment than worrying about what Kanna was telling Katara.
"I think she is," Hakoda said. "Some of the young men here are complete idiots, if you ask me. There are some nice ones, but I don't think they'd make her very happy."
Aang managed a small grin before sneezing anyway. Luckily, the fish didn't go flying as Sokka predicted they would.
They reached the house just as Kanna was leaving to get more firewood. Sokka took the fish in while Aang offered to help Kanna since he hadn't done much on the fishing trip.
"Just let an old woman do what she can while she can," she said, smiling good-naturedly.
"Perhaps you'd better go with her then," Hakoda teased. "My mother might decide she can waterbend and hurt herself."
They burst out laughing.
"I hope you haven't been slandering the poor boy's reputation," Hakoda continued, grinning at his mother.
Kanna shook her head. "Not at all, though I may have made Katara a nervous wreck. She's convinced Aang will get bored of her."
"I couldn't," Aang replied, grinning. "I'd get bored of being the Avatar, but not of being with Katara."
"Exactly what I told her, but my granddaughter won't listen. She's concerned that you might abandon her for someone else."
"I don't think I could or I'd want to. Sokka already threatened to feed me to the Unagi with Suki's help, if I ever did and I'd rather not get eaten by a giant sea creature."
Kanna laughed. "I don't think you will."
"Speaking of concerns," Hakoda said. "I've got one."
Aang nodded. "I'd imagine you'd have a lot."
"No," the chief admitted. "I'm not too worried because I've seen you and Katara together before and I know you'll take care of her whether she needs you to or not. But this concern is slightly different. It's about bringing back the airbenders."
"Oh," Aang replied.
"In the future, I don't want it to…"
"It's not Katara's responsibility to bring them back," Aang interrupted. "I know there are a lot of people who think it is, but, like I told her, it doesn't matter to me."
Kanna looked puzzled. "You don't mind being the last of your kind?"
Aang shrugged. "I'm not happy about it, but it's not fair to ask any one person to try and bring back an entire nation. And I wouldn't ask her to do something I couldn't do myself."
"So, in the future, you wouldn't mind if your children weren't airbenders?" Kanna clarified.
Aang nodded. "No. As long as Katara is happy and they are happy, I wouldn't."
Much to Aang's surprise, Hakoda chuckled instead of following up with a serious comment. "It's a good thing you weren't around when I was a boy," he stated. "Competition would have been fierce."
"I doubt it," Aang said, modestly.
"You'd have gotten all the girls," Kanna joked. "And my son and the other men would have all been bachelors."
Later that night, after their dinner had been finished, Aang joined Katara out on the frozen shores of the South Pole. An icy breeze was blowing and the ocean waves were lapping gently against the frozen shores as the two stood side by side watching the waves.
"Are you nervous?" Aang asked, glancing at the waterbender.
"A little," she admitted. "But it's wearing off. Gran Gran was talking to me and at first I just kept brushing things aside, but now I can't help but wonder if she's right. What if our future is not what I imagined it to be?"
Aang shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "I guess…"
"But there's another problem too," Katara continued. "What if it's better than what I imagined?"
"That's not a problem then, is it?" Aang wondered.
"It is, actually," Katara replied, grinning. "Because I may never want to leave you or let you go."
"Somehow, I don't think that'd be much of a problem for me."
Katara laughed. "We'll see. After all, we've got the rest of our lives to spend together, right?"
Aang nodded. "Yeah, we do, though I still think it's not long enough."
"How much longer could you possibly want?"
"Oh, I don't know," he replied, nonchalantly. "Forever sounds nice, don't you think?"
She smiled. "Forever sounds perfect."
See that button on the bottom, the one that says review? A whole bunch of people have pressed it and I'm running out of ways to thank them (actually, I ran out 52 chapters ago :D). So, I guess I'll say what I always say. Thank you all so much for all the reviews I've gotten so far. Readers and reviewers are a writer's best friend and motivation. And thanks for all the ideas various people have given me. Honestly, if it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't have updated as often as I have. Thank you all so much! ^-^
~ Cassidy Alice
