During "Sozin's Comet, Part 4"

"Katara, really, you should get some sleep," Zuko rasped, his chest fluttering beneath her hands with the effort of speaking. "I feel fine, the others need healing too."

Don't remind me, Katara thought. She hadn't gotten to spend much time with the others once they landed their battered airship awkwardly at the Fire Nation royal palace. They'd quickly taken the first servants' quarters available and collapsed, not even bothering to strip off their ashy clothes. But Katara had stayed up through most of the night, feverishly trying to siphon the twisted up energy away from her friend's wounds. Still, she'd noticed Sokka limping, only able to walk even to that extent thanks to Suki physically propping him up. And Aang...well, he was shirtless, but judging from the (minor, yes, but still frightening) burns all over his body, she guessed his monk robes had gone up in smoke.

Despite all that, her instincts, honed over months of being the only thing resembling a doctor her little family had access too, told her that Zuko was in the most danger. "Lie still," she cautioned him, for what felt like the thousandth time. "This only works if you relax."

"As if I could go anywhere," he cracked.

"Don't start making jokes now." Katara would've punched him in the arm, but given his state, she decided to give him a pass. "We all like you serious and stoic."

"It's a new me." He tried to shrug, then groaned in pain.

"I said, hold still!"

"Sorry, sorry. But seriously, either get some sleep or go heal someone else. That's the Fire Lord's order."

Katara chuckled. "Oh, don't even try that. I'm not Fire Nation, and you haven't even been crowned yet. Technically, the Fire Nation is in a state of anarchy right now."

"Marvelous," Zuko winced.

Katara sighed and lifted her hands from his sternum, carelessly tossing the bloody water encasing her hands to the side. "Fine. If you want to lie here in pain the rest of the night, be my guest." She grabbed a bell off his nightstand and placed it right by his calloused hand. "If the pain gets worse, or if you feel like you can't breathe, ring this like your life depends on it. It probably does."

Zuko nodded. "Thank you, Katara."

Katara frowned. "You thanking me? You saved my life, Zuko, this is the least I can do."

"Let's call it even, then. You guys helped me officially get my honor back."

"You did that yourself," a tired voice called from behind Katara. She whirled, calling her meager remaining water supply back to her hands. But she let the water drop to the floor again when she saw Sokka leaning against the doorframe, one foot lifted above the ground in a valiant effort to ease his pain. Katara rushed over and nearly wiped him off his one good foot in a ferocious hug.

"Sokka…" she whispered, his name all the words she could summon. Katara closed her eyes and breathed him in, the scent of smoke and sweat still lingering on his dark blue armor.

"We did it, sis," he replied softly, his voice unusually thick. Even her manly-man brother was caught up in the moment. Everything they had fought for, nearly died for—there was nothing standing in the way of achieving that vision now.

Katara opened her eyes and nearly started crying as she saw Aang, Toph, and Suki strolling up just behind her brother. She begrudgingly released Sokka and sprinted (yes, sprinted, she acknowledged to herself, no emotions to hide anymore) over to the others, yanking Toph into a surprisingly willing embrace first. "Glad to see you, Sweetness," Toph said.

"Don't get all mushy on me now, Toph," Katara said, kissing the top of the earthbender's head. That turned out to be a step too far. Toph abruptly pushed free of Katara's arms, but she was snickering slightly.

Suki practically jumped into Katara's arms, and both girls felt each other's tears drip softly onto their shoulders. "What do we do now?" Suki asked.

"I think we get at least one night just to relax," Toph interjected, before Katara could launch into an (admittedly preachy) speech about rebuilding a hopeful world.

"Honestly, sounds good to me," Katara laughed, gently letting Suki go. And now, Aang.

No awkwardness there. Nope, none at all.

The Avatar met her eyes at first, smiling shyly, but he broke his gaze quickly, looking down at the ground in something resembling shame. "Katara, I'm really sorry-"

She interrupted him with what felt like the fiercest hug she'd given anyone in her life. Aang released an audible "oof" and unhesitatingly hugged her back. "That can wait," Katara whispered into his ear. Her lips made contact, which she wasn't intending, but didn't exactly hate the feeling of. "You saved the world. I am so, so proud of you." She released her grip on his back, but kept a hand on his shoulder as the four of them walked back into Zuko's room. Sokka had stolen her seat by his bed, and she took no pity on her brother simply because of his leg. Medical duty called.

"Okay, if we're all gonna be in here, then I need to sit there," Katara said, marching up to her brother and flicking his shoulder lightly.

"Hey! I need to rest my leg!"

"I need to keep working on that," Katara motioned to the still-bloody starburst on Zuko's chest.

"I have a name," Zuko quipped.

"I was talking about your-" Katara started. "Ugh! Sokka, move!"

"Where am I supposed to sit?" Sokka whined. Katara gazed around the very-well furnished Prince's quarters. There was a comfortable desk chair, a trunk at the foot of the bed, two easy chairs and an ottoman, and, if necessary, the unused second nightstand.

"Look around the room," Katara suggested, rolling her eyes. Sokka harumphed and gingerly got up, draping an arm around Katara's shoulder. She led him over to the desk chair and slowly set him down.

"Now that," Sokka remarked. "Is a good chair. Did you miss this while you were gone, Zuko?"

"I wasn't exactly thinking about the furniture," Zuko said, trying to sit up against the headboard. Katara rushed over and put an end to any of those ambitions, lowering him gently back down to a fully reclined position. "More about how we were planning to take down my father, my sister, and a whole bloodthirsty army."

"Strange," Sokka sniffed the air dramatically. "I would've missed this. Guess you don't appreciate the things you're used to."

"Sure," Zuko laughed dryly, accepting the shot of pain this evidently brought to his wound.

"Alright, anyone have clean water?" Katara asked. Suki offered her canteen, and Katara gratefully opened the top, drawing out a clear stream of water and encasing her hands once again. She resumed Zuko's healing session, but it felt a lot less arduous now that her friends were near.

"So tell us how you took down the princess!" Toph said, far too excitedly. "Must have been some fight." In a way, Toph was lucky. She couldn't see Zuko's chest, the damage his own sister had thoughtlessly inflicted.

"Zuko was incredible," Katara said, shamelessly gushing because Zuko deserved to hear it. "Challenged Azula to an Agni Kai, and he was winning! And then…"

"I did what I had to do," Zuko said, insistently reassuring. "She shot lightning at Katara. She broke the rules because she knew she was losing. I jumped in the way."

"You...you did that for her?" Aang asked, floored.

"I'd hug you, but you don't seem like the hug type and you have an open wound, so we'll have to save it for another time," Sokka said kindly.

"I would've done that for any of you," Zuko looked around at his friends. Katara pulled one hand free of the water to squeeze his shoulder, hopefully gently enough not to cause any more pain. "Seriously, thank you all," he said, his voice starting to break. "You accepted me into your group, and you helped me be a positive force in the world, for once."

"Well, you're making the 'joining the group' process sound a lot easier than it actually was for you," Toph said wryly. Katara blushed, remembering how she had unflinchingly threatened to do the unthinkable to him if he so much as harmed a nonexistent hair on Aang's head.

"And we just did what we do," Suki said. "You coming to the good side will be remembered as the turning point in this war for the rest of history."

"I hope so," Zuko smiled. "But we've got a lot more history to make together."

"So how did you win, then?" Sokka asked, clearly still enraptured by the tale of the epic Agni Kai.

"I had to finish the job," Katara said bluntly.

"You mean...finish the job?" Suki asked, voice oozing with trepidation. Katara caught Aang's worried eyes. The Fire Lord, Yon Rha, Azula...Aang didn't want anyone to die by his or anyone he knew's hands. At times over the last couple weeks, she had found his ideology impractical. Now, she thought it was noble. There had been enough death in this war. If it could end without any more, ushering in an era of peace with a relatively peaceful conclusion, it was for the best.

"No, I chained her up," Katara said.

"How?" Aang asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"A complex waterbending move I'll have to show you at another time, pupil," Katara answered, donning the 'sifu' voiced she had developed over the past several months of training. She blushed again, thinking of how close she had been with Azula when she was floating around in the ice, wrapping the cold chains around the princess's legs and wrists. Katara would wager it would be a lot more fun to be that close to Aang than Azula.

"Neat," Aang smiled.

"Well, what about you?" Katara asked. "You beat the big bad himself!"

"It was the hardest thing I've ever had to-" Aang started, but Sokka (who else, Katara thought) cut him off.

"It was the coolest thing you've ever done!" Sokka jumped out of his chair and immediately groaned in pain, having been so excited that he forgot about his broken leg. "Katara, it was amazing! He glowed it up and was like…" Sokka started flapping his arms and opening and closing his fists. "...Airbending slice! Earthbending smash! Firebending whoosh! Waterbending...splash," he finished weakly.

"Okay, first off, why does waterbending get the weakest sound effect?" Katara protested. "Second," she turned to Aang. "You went into the Avatar state?"

"It was lucky I did," Aang said. "If I hadn't...I don't know what would have happened."

Aang's 'I don't know' wasn't fooling her one bit. He knew what would've happened if he hadn't managed to find his way into the Avatar State. Katara didn't want to think about it. She wanted to wrap him in a hug and not let go until the sun came up, and maybe not even then.

"Well, I'm glad you did," she finally said, too simply.

Aang caught the subtext. Or, he smiled, so Katara hoped he understood all the emotion behind Katara's...gladness. "Thanks, Katara."

"Now tell her how you took his bending away," Toph elbowed Aang.

"You kind of just did," Suki chimed in. Toph laughed and sat down in one of the easy chairs, not reclining so she could keep her feet on the ground.

"Okay, yeah," Aang said, almost seeming embarassed with the sheer magnitude of his feats. "A giant lion-turtle showed me how to take away people's bending, so that's what I did. I spared Ozai's life, but he won't be hurting anyone else ever again."

"Aang, that's amazing," Katara breathed. She looked at the young Avatar standing in front of her, tired, humble as he'd always been, and yet rightfully proud of all he had done for the world since coming out of that iceberg. His shoulders were loose and high, no longer buckled by the specter of the Fire Lord.

"Yep, pretty spectacular, and we got a bird's eye view," Sokka said proudly.

"Some of us," Toph grumbled. Sokka ignored the guilt-trip.

"And with that, I'm gonna go back to bed. Taking out a whole fleet is exhausting."

"Goodnight," Zuko and Katara said at the same time. Sokka limped out of the room, but suddenly jerked his head back toward the group as he made his way through the doorframe.

"Nobody wants to ask about how we destroyed the whole airship fleet?" Sokka whined.

"I'm sure we'll hear about it in the morning," Katara assured him.

"And every day for the rest of our lives," Toph added. "I can hardly wait."

"Okay, fine," Sokka conceded. "Goodnight." Suki stood up too and bid the group goodnight, following Sokka out of the room to 'help him walk'.

"Guess that's my cue, too," Toph sprang to her feet, showing no signs of the exhaustion that would make one want to sleep after a long battle.

"What happened to staying up late, Miss No-Rules?" Katara jabbed.

"Hey, are you finally getting in on the nickname game, Sweetness?" Toph laughed heartily. "There's room for improvement, but not a bad first attempt. And sue me, I'm tired. It happens to the best of us."

"You are indeed the best of us, Toph," Aang said cheerfully.

"I know, right? Anyways, g'night." She strolled out the door and down the hall.

Katara surveyed Zuko's chest. Since the others had come into his room, Katara's energy had been replenished, and it showed in the progress she'd made healing him. Zuko's sternum was still red, but the menace, the anger had left the wound. Cautiously, she removed her hands. Zuko tensed in anticipation, but as the last strings of water left the area, he relaxed.

"How's the pain?" Katara asked.

"I'll live."

"I know you're gonna live, Zuko, I asked how the pain was," Katara replied. Aang chuckled behind her.

"You can go," Zuko said, reading her mind. "I'll be able to sleep. And yes, I will ring this bell if I need you again. Thank you, Katara."

"Thank you, Zuko." She squeezed his hand and finally walked out of Zuko's room after what she knew had only been hours. It had felt like weeks. Moments later, she heard soft, distinctly Twinkly-toed footsteps behind her.

"Katara, can we talk?" Aang asked. Katara turned around and smiled at him, tired, but ready to have this conversation. The conversation. It had been several months coming and now...now they weren't in the middle of a war.

"Yeah, Aang," she said softly. "Let's talk."

TO BE CONTINUED

Sorry for making y'all wait longer than promised. College started up and I wanted to give my full attention to that. Hope I didn't disappoint after the extra day or two off. I promised fluff, and I intend to deliver. This is the first and last chapter I wrote with the whole gaang, I didn't always intend to save it for during Sozin's Comet, but the moment felt right. I wanted to see them all unwind. We have that beautiful tea shop scene of course, but I love the idea of none of them being able to sleep, so they crash Zuko's room and give an exhausted Katara the burst of energy she needs to help Zuko.

Chapter 20 will be a direct continuation of Chapter 19. Kataang fluff, as you might imagine, so buckle your seatbelts. Forewarning: they will not kiss. The teashop kiss must remain their first real completely two-sided, not-fueled-by-impending-cave-death kiss. I have spoken. But there can still be fluff :)

Thanks for reading, and if you enjoyed, please favorite and/or review. One more chapter to go. Thanks for an amazing journey so far, readers.