Too Much to Handle
"She didn't come home last night, Toph." He said holding his head in his hands as they sat on a rock near the path.
"Do you think it was because of me?" he whined. Aang was miserable. He didn't know how Katara felt about him and after Toph explained it in no uncertain terms, his heart was effectively broken. Toph sighed in pity.
"Listen kiddo. I don't think that's why she didn't come home. She went to go relieve some stress and probably found a cheap room to rent for the night. Katara is resourceful and highly skilled. She can take care of herself. But you…" Aang looked up sharply.
"Give her some space. We know you appreciate her and probably developed some weird crush on her because she saved your life and broke you out of a one-hundred-year suspended animation situation…" she said pausing. She sat up. quickly.
"Only to discover your entire world was gone and replaced with a nightmarish alternate reality where the Fire Nation ruined everything. That sucks." She added nodding. Aang frowned at Toph despising the very ground she walked on for her brutal honesty and highly pessimistic yet accurate assessment of his life. Aang couldn't give up.
"But she said she'd be my family now! Doesn't that mean she wants to be my wife and help me replace my people?" Toph's blinded eyes went wide.
"Did you…did you run that through your logic center before letting it leave your mouth? No, I'm sure you didn't. Aang, that's weird and creepy and…not normal." She chided. Aang blanched.
"You don't make those kinds of leaps in understanding without at least some facts behind them." She added. Toph sighed to the point her back curved like a letter c.
"Has Katara ever told you she liked you? With her words?" she asked turning in Aang's direction.
"Uh, no but—" he began.
"No, she hasn't.
Has Katara ever asked you to go out and do activities with just her?
Call you pet names?
Kiss you or give you the kind of affection she would give a boyfriend?"
Oh, no, she hasn't. Aang was starting to get Toph's point.
It was at that moment Katara ambled over the crest of the last hill before reaching camp. She walked up slowly and looked as if she had been dragged in by a meerkat wolf.
"I'm back," she grumbled barely waving.
She walked right past them to her sleeping bag next to Appa and got in it covering her head. Later that day, Katara made the evening meal and washed the dishes afterward.
She never once mentioned her "night out" and no one bothered to push the issue. Her business was her business, but Aang couldn't help but wonder if maybe Katara had found a boyfriend to kiss and call pet names that night.