A/N: Hi, everyone. Thanks for being patient with me. I don't know how to say sorry for keeping you waiting, other than by offering a sincere apology. I know how crummy it is to be left hanging. I work full time in the mental health field and am a social work graduate student, and last semester was grueling. I intended to do some writing over my break, but you know what they say about best laid plans…anyway. I come to you with a mere morsel of a chapter—let's call this chapter 8.1. It's a sort of prequel to chapter 1. I know it may be too little too late, but it's something. I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm alive and well and not intending to give up on this story. I don't know when I'll be sending more your way, but I look forward to having the time to sit down and write more. :) As always, best wishes and be well.
;
Aang didn't think the trip to the Earth Kingdom would come soon enough.
After the night he and Katara had shared, they'd spent Sunday lazing together, making love in virtually every room in her apartment. He was insatiable, and she seemed as addicted to him as he was to her. He didn't think he would ever get used to, much less tire of, the thrill that came with knowing, touching, loving Katara so intimately.
He spent the following Monday and Tuesday at work on autopilot, replaying the last six months of his life in his mind. After his father's passing, he wasn't sure he would ever feel like himself again. He'd had to pack up and leave Republic City just to feel like he was able to breathe again. Then, when he was finally starting to fathom living in a world without Gyatso, he was forced to return home following another equally-troubling tragedy—the death of his godfather, mentor, and friend, Roku. He'd returned to Republic City feeling bereft, hopeless.
Then, in the most peculiar twist of fate of all, he'd met Katara. After months of trying to reconnect with his spirit, to breathe, to be again, he'd met a woman who both invigorated him and stole the very oxygen from his lungs he'd been seeking so ardently.
Before he'd opened the door to that hotel room and beheld her, he'd been resolved to not sleep with the escort Zuko had been insistent about gifting him. Basically the moment his eyes met Katara's, oceanic in their color, depth, and intensity, however, that resolve flew out the window…