Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to chekhovsgunman, a wonderful reader whose flatteringly verbose reviews make my day every time.

Katara sat down to lunch in the palace dining room. Zuko had made a habit of sharing a big midday meal with his friends whenever they were all together in the palace. Nozomi, baby Roku, and Zuko's assistant Joshu, a slim, energetic young man only a few years older than his employer, usually joined them as well. The chef had outdone himself, serving roast duck, udon noodles, smoked sea slug, and vegetable dumplings for Aang. The group of teens chatted about their environmental projects, the feedback they'd been receiving about the new history curriculum, and the latest news from Yu Dao. They lingered at the table, enjoying each others' company for a few more minutes before returning to their separate tasks for the afternoon.

Sokka was the one to finally break the spell. "Well, I'm off," He stood up, stretched and patted his full belly. "Back to Piandao's."

"You're not going too?" Katara asked Suki, noticing she'd stayed seated.

"I asked her to do a bit of security consulting with my bodyguards," Zuko explained.

"My favorite warrior, out to protect the poor weak Fire Lord," Sokka leaned down to give Suki a quick kiss on his way out the door. "Love you," he called over his shoulder.

"Love you too," she responded happily, waving at her boyfriend as he walked off.

"Barf," Toph elbowed Aang.

Watching her brother and his girlfriend declare their feelings so casually, in that offhand way, made something snap inside Katara. The greatest gift, and they just tossed it around like it was nothing. Intellectually, she knew the words couldn't be wasted or worn out, but seeing others enjoy an easygoing intimacy that had inexplicably been denied to her was maddening.

She had noticed that she seemed to vacillate wildly between efforts to be breezy and casual with Aang, to keep her boyfriend at the emotional distance that she assumed the Air Nomads had used, and desperately grasping for closeness, almost always physically. Since she was afraid to talk about what was really bothering her, she used her body instead, pushing them to the edge of what they'd agreed 'go slowly' meant. It wasn't usually very satisfying, but she couldn't seem to help herself.

When everyone left the dining room and scattered, she grabbed her boyfriend's arm and pulled him into the nearest bedroom she could find, a generic guest room. She pushed him down on the bed and practically pounced on top of him. She kissed him just the way he liked it, but with somewhat more speed and force than usual, pushing her tongue deep into his mouth until she felt him moan. He was wearing his tunic draped over his left shoulder, which made it easy for her to reach her hands in and run her fingers over his chest and sides. She hiked up her skirt a little so she could straddle his hips and rock against him, something she'd never dared try before. His hands moved to her waist, encouraging her. Why won't you say it? She screamed silently into their kiss. Isn't this enough for you? When she moved her lips to his neck, sucking forcefully on his pulse point, she heard him speak up.

"Sweetie, are you ok? I'm enjoying this, but you seem...off."

She sat up and pulled away, turning her body inward. "I'm sorry if that was too much."

"No, that's not it." Aang shook his head. He doubted such a thing existed for him, where she was concerned. "C'mon, let's go to the fountain." He grabbed her hand and led her through the palace halls to the deepest fountain on the grounds. When they arrived there, he kicked off his shoes and waded in.

"Here. Figure eight." He sent a globe of water her way, and she returned it almost automatically, climbing in after him.

As they passed the water back and forth, Katara started to calm down and feel more centered. She felt sheepish about those intense kisses now; she knew jumping on him like that wasn't the best way to soothe her anxiety. They focused on precision with the waterbending form, not looking at each other, their attention trained on the water and its exact shape. She could sense her own blood flowing at a more measured rate, as her thoughts became more clear.

She was jealous of her brother's relationship, she had to admit to herself. Things hadn't been easy for Sokka and Suki, but now everything was perfect in their world. They seemed so happy and settled, their future completely assured and uncomplicated. They wanted the same things in life, and their culture gap was an easily jumped ravine rather than a gaping canyon. Marriage customs on the South Pole and Kyoshi Island were basically similar; the main differences were a matter of word choices at the ceremony rather than fundamental lifestyle setup. And children-the freedom and ease they would have regarding that choice, the normalcy….They would never have to share or make concessions-but if Katara thought too much about that, she would either get angry or weepy, so it would be best if she stopped that thought right there.

She knew she owed Aang an explanation of some kind. "It's funny, I'm sure it was hard for Sokka to see us together when he and Suki were broken up, but now when I see them together, it's hard for me." She confided.

His jaw tightened. "I think I know what you mean."

They continued passing the water, right around you, left around me, again, and again.

Katara absolutely could not just ask, do you love me? Her pride forbade it. So she tried to think of a different question she could ask instead. "You said the Air Nomads didn't arrange their lives around living in pairs," she began.

"In the monastery they didn't. But, Katara, the monasteries are gone." Aang reminded her.

"I know."

"A monk without a monastery is just a hermit. I don't want to be a hermit."

"No, I don't think you'd like that. And...I wouldn't either." She admitted.

"You don't want me to live alone?"

"Not really. Unless you want to."

"I don't want to live alone."

"Me neither."

"Are you saying you want us to live together?" Aang asked, looking at her and not at the water.

She kept her attention determinedly on the water, afraid to answer directly. "We talked about traveling together, but not about settling down. Or even having a kind of...home base, a place to come back to between trips."

"You are my home base, Katara."

She let the water drop abruptly and looked at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means wherever you are, I'm home." He answered simply. "So I'm not worried about where we might settle down, or even whether or not we ever do stay for long in any one place, as long as you're with me."

Her throat felt tight. "That sounds like...arranging your life around..."

"Around you? I guess so. Maybe that makes me a bad monk." He shrugged. "I guess I'm the one who gets to decide which parts of my culture get reborn and which parts stay dead. If I have to give you up or keep you at a distance in order to be the perfect monk-well, that's just not going to happen. I'm sure Gyatso and the others would understand."

Could this be enough? Katara wondered, staring at him, unable to believe sacrificing his people's way of life like this could be so simple for him. It made her want to be just as generous, so that he wasn't the only one compromising. Could he be home for her without a vow, without a ceremony to let everyone know what they were to each other? Just the fact that he'd known that she needed the water to help her come back to herself told her that he already was. She knew she loved him now, and she wasn't going to let anything stop her from keeping him as close as she could, for as long as she could, not even the mess in that box she was hiding inside.

She felt looser, more relaxed, safer. She was willing to try. She waded through the water to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"Are you kidding?" Aang pulled away just enough to grin at her. "I was about to ask if we could pick up where we left off." His voice was mischievous, only half serious, telling her that he was up for it, but only if she was, no pressure.

Katara found that the internal frenzy that had driven her earlier ambush was gone. She still wanted closeness, but not necessarily the kind she'd been reaching for before. "Can we just cuddle?" She asked, hoping he wasn't disappointed. She'd make up for it sometime.

"Of course," he smiled broadly at her. He could never feel let down if she was happy, and he could tell she felt much happier now than she'd been in that random bedroom. "Want to visit Appa?"

They climbed out of the fountain, dried off and put their shoes back on. Then the couple walked hand in hand to the stable where Appa slept when they were at the palace. After they greeted, fed, and petted the bison for a while, he settled down for a nap and they lay down between two of his legs, on a soft pile of straw. It was like being cocooned together in a wooly chrysalis.

"Thank you," she told him. "For bringing me to the water. For taking care of me, and not taking advantage. You knew exactly what I really needed."

"It doesn't feel right to me unless you feel right. I can tell." He answered stoutly. "And this is nice too. If that was bothering you, wondering about where or how we would live, then I'm glad we got it out in the open."

"Me too."

"And, you know, if there's ever anything else you want to talk about, I'm here." He reminded her.

She didn't respond. That felt like it was putting the onus on her. Now, if any problems arose from here on because she didn't say something, it would be her fault, and that didn't feel fair. But of course he didn't mean it that way; he was simply offering himself to her as support for anything.

They both had more questions to ask, more doubts to settle, more feelings to share. Each one contemplated starting any number of difficult conversations, but found they were so warm and comfortable and emotionally exhausted—they fell asleep together there in the stable.

Author's Note: Leave me a review to tell me what you think!

Next week: the Gaang revisits the Jang Hui river