April 25th, Sunday, Ba Sing Se

"So, Aang's not coming?"

Carrying five boxes of pizza over his head, Zuko made his way to the living room of his and Mai's penthouse.

The group of friends from Caldera City University was meeting again for the first time in months, to catch up before the couple's wedding. It wasn't very common for them to all be reunited at the same place. Ever since they had left the Fire Nation, after graduating, they had each followed their own path in life.

But now, when they finally had the chance to be all together again, one of them was missing: Aang.

Zuko dropped the pizza boxes over the coffee table, quickly opening the one on the top and taking a slice in his hands. Toph, who sat lazily on an armchair, reached out and took one for herself too.

"He just told me he couldn't make it. Didn't tell why." The Beifong stated.

It wasn't a lie, although it could count as an omission. She knew everything that was going on, from the pregnancy to the break-up. But Aang hadn't excused himself with any plausible reasoning that day. He had, indeed, just told her he couldn't make it.

Being one of the few common friends between Aang and Katara put Toph in an awful position, now that their relationship was over. Even though she had never been one to consider romance so interesting, she wished they could just get back together and stop with the nonsense.

For the time being, however, she did the best she could juggling the two friendships, and keeping the secrets in between them.

"Oh, no! That's so sad. I haven't seen him in so long!" Ty Lee cried, sitting cross-legged on the floor, nibbling her slice of pizza.

Ty Lee was another friend of the group, having also met Mai, Zuko, and his sister Azula during childhood. Toph didn't like her at first when they met in college, finding her bubbly personality quite annoying, but the girl was hard to hate. It was quite true, however, that Ty Lee stood out in their group, together with Aang. The two of them seemed too happy and cheerful to be hanging out with the rest, who came across as brooding, sad and rich teenagers. But after all, they were all very good friends, balancing each other pretty well.

Settling down on the couch beside his fiancée, Zuko sighed. "Aang's been so sad lately. We should do something about it. Have an intervention."

"An intervention, huh?" Mai's usually bored voice seemed to suddenly have a hint of interest.

"Yeah, something like that." He continued to propose his idea." We have to knock some sense into him or take him to a party. He's our friend, and he's been moping for way too long."

A sound of clapping heels echoed through the penthouse as Azula, Zuko's sister, came from the kitchen, carrying a bottle of wine and five glasses. She settled down on the opposite side of the couch from her brother, popping the bottle open.

Azula and Aang were never close friends, but being such a people-person, she always seemed to read him. During the majority of their time in college, they had some sort of rivalry, having such distinct energies. However, they almost always ended up hanging out together, being both close to Zuko. Ever since their father, Ozai, had been arrested, Azula and her brother grew closer, and she became a permanent part of their group.

Pouring the content of the bottle into her glass, she chuckled.

"I agree, brother. It's time for him to move on to the next stage of grief and get flat out drunk." Azula said, taking a sip, and handing him one of the other glasses.

Zuko shot his sister an angry look but took the glass anyway.

Ty Lee was the one to intervene. "All jokes aside, I think you're right, Zuko. We're his friends, we have to cheer him up, or at least get him to talk about whatever he's going through. He's taking his break up quite harshly. He must have been really in love."

"Yeah, he and Katara were very close for all I know." Toph pointed out, trying to sound as neutral as she could.

Azula furrowed her eyebrows at Toph's comment, swirling the wine inside her glass and taking a sip.

"Isn't it strange?" She narrowed her eyes and looked at the others.

Mai, who was laying down on the same couch, looked up.

"What's strange?" Her raspy voice inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"There's just something sketchy about this whole situation. Aang seemed head over heels for this Katara girl and it all ended very suddenly." The girl continued.

Zuko and Ty Lee's expressions hardened in thought. The man's hair fell on his face, adding up to his brooding features.

"I don't think there's anything sketchy about it. Aang just catches feeling quite easily. Remember his college girlfriend, On Ji?" Toph quickly pointed out, trying to dismiss Azula's comment. When Ty Lee's expression softened, she sighed, relieved. "They only dated for three months and during the entirety of the following year, he cried every time we mentioned her name."

"I guess you're right, Toph." Ty Lee said, a smile coming to her face in relief.

"Yeah, probably. Aang's just a simp." Mai murmured.

Azula crossed her legs, taking a deep breath in thought. She then proceeded to stare at Toph, with narrowed eyes. A smirk came to her lips as she concluded.

"She's knocked up." The woman said, leaning forward to refill her glass of wine.

Toph choked on her pizza slice, almost ending up in a coughing fit. The others stared at her with wide eyes

"What? Are you crazy?" Zuko exclaimed. "Of course not!"

Mai looked from her fiancé to Azula with narrowed eyes, too immersed in her thinking. She raised an eyebrow, humming. "Well, it does make sense."

"How come?"

"They started dating normally, you know? It was casual for the first days they were together, during Toph's two birthday parties." She began to explain the theory. "Then, there was probably a turning point, when Aang became invested, it became rushed, obsessive... We all know he's a family guy. If she's pregnant, that would explain a lot."

With a pout on her lips, Ty Lee pointed out. "Don't you think that if Aang was having a baby, he'd tell us?"

Azula shrugged, crossing her legs over the couch.

"Maybe. But that could also be a reason why he's acting so distant. He's guilty he hasn't told us"

Toph mentally cursed. That girl was good.

"What? Pregnant? Psh... Of course not." Toph gulped, pulling a random rock from her pockets and fidgeting with it.

Mai was the first one to raise an eyebrow at Toph. "Aren't you close to Katara? You'd know if she were pregnant."

Toph felt slightly uncomfortable about lying too blatantly, but it was a necessary measure. She fidgeted with her fingers, in a therapeutic motion.

"She's not pregnant. And come on now, guys, you know Aang. Twinkletoes is a simp. He's just moping over a heartbreak."

Azula shifted on her seat, crossing her arms.

"Fine, believe whatever you want." She said, before swiftly turning to her brother, with a grin on her face. "But I'll bet you twenty bucks that she's pregnant, Zuzu."

He was the only one who still seemed unconvinced. In his mind, Aang was still the same annoying teenager he was when they first met. Thinking of him in the role of a father felt too strange. Looking deeply into his sister's eyes, Zuko scoffed.

"Only twenty? Why, because you know you're going to lose?"

"Alright, then, fifty bucks."

"Fifty bucks it is." He said as the sibling shook hands in agreement. Toph lowered her head, chuckling.

Looks like Azula is about to become fifty bucks richer.

April 26th, Monday, Ba Sing Se

Being back in the hallways of a high school felt weird to Katara. Sure, she'd had great memories of her own high school, but being in an environment like that again made her feel like a child.

Which was quite ironic, since she was about to have one.

Some students already roamed the hallways, as the classes were coming near an end. There was an immense amount of lockers there, probably due to the large number of students attending.

Suddenly, a door next to her opened and the loud noise from the teenagers echoed in her ears. Katara pulled her coat that she had been wearing since her family arrived in the city, looking at the students who came out of a classroom. They all seemed embarrassed, with deep blushes on their faces.

Her tension dimmed down when she realized they had probably just come out of the Sex-Ed class Sokka had mentioned. She covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from laughing out loud at the teenagers' awkwardness. However, the tension came back as soon as she heard someone speak from the classroom.

"No, Shoji. You can't take the model of the organs home." Aang's familiar voice made her stop on her feet.

Even as the students from that classroom were already leaving, she stood frozen in the middle of the hallway, almost unable to take a step forward.

He was there.

She thought about turning around because Katara knew she wouldn't be able to keep herself together if his face was sad, like in the yoga class the previous week. It had been one of the hardest things of her life, and she didn't think he could do it again.

But then again, avoiding him wouldn't solve anything.

Katara took a deep breath in, forcing her legs to work with the sheer force of will. Sneaking in between the remaining students in the hallway, she stood next to the door, looking at the scene inside.

"Ugh, fine, Mr. Aang." A teenager in a red hoodie walked to the door with a frown on his face. Before going out, he looked at Katara with a quizzed expression.

In front of the classroom's board, a tall man stood, dressed in a button-up shirt. Aang looked distracted, putting away plastic models of reproductive organs and some posters into a cardboard box. He took a couple of seconds to realize she was standing by the doorstep.

When he looked up, his stare became fixed in her. Katara smiled faintly, whispering a greeting under her breath.

"Hey."

"...Hey." He replied, with hesitation.

The two stayed in silence, taking in each other's presence. The bags under his eyes, which were there the last time she saw him, weren't as dark anymore, but his face didn't glow, and his signature grin didn't show. Instead, his lips were only twisted slightly, in a shy smile.

Feeling uncomfortable under his gaze after too many seconds, Katara put together the first thing that came to her mind. "Was that kid trying to take the plastic vagina home?"

Aang looked down and chuckled, nodding.

"Yeah... Shoji is the craziest student I've ever had." His gaze lifted, fixated in Katara's blue eyes. He took a sharp breath and rested his hands behind his back, on the wall. "So... to what do I owe the visit? Is everything okay?"

"Yes. Very okay. Uh... I just feel like we need to talk." She shifted in her feet, fidgeting with the sleeves of her coat.

"Oh, okay." Now, even his faint smile faded away.

Katara leaned by a desk and analyzed the man in front of her, as an immense amount of guilt and heartache flooded in her chest.

Let's start with the easier stuff, she thought to herself.

"I'm sorry I couldn't go shopping with you. For the car seat, I mean. I liked the one you picked, though."

He stood stunned for a couple of seconds, before replying.

"I'm glad you liked it. And it's okay, really."

"No, it's... not okay." She took a deep breath. "And I know things are... complicated between us, but I should have never isolated myself from you."

Aang walked towards the desks and leaned on another table next to her.

It was as if she had ripped off a Band-Aid. As soon as she got the first apology out, Katara spoke with much less effort.

"And I should've listened to you. I shut you off completely after you proposed." As she said that, they both winced slightly. "That was very wrong of me. You're a permanent person in my life now, and I was being too immature."

His gaze was still fixed on her, his stormy eyes now gleaming, empathetically.

"I forgive you," Aang spoke up, summoning all the inner courage he could get. "But I should also apologize about the proposal. I... I can't say I didn't mean it, but... It was bad timing. We have a baby on the way, and proposing was the exact opposite of 'taking things slow' like we had planned."

Katara chuckled, with a sad smile on her face, as her eyes started filling with tears. "I'm also really sorry I was rude to you during the yoga class. I just couldn't bear to know that I had hurt you, and maybe if I avoided you, the problem would be gone, but it wasn't."

"Katara..."

"I realized that because I... I made you miss out on a big moment." Katara's hands dropped to her little bump, and his eyes followed. "And it wasn't fair to you."

His expression softened as he stared at her stomach, now slightly uncovered by the jacket. Almost in a whisper, Aang commented.

"You have a bump." He smiled, now, with his eyes glowing again. "Sokka showed me the picture, but it's better in person."

"I'm sorry you had to find out by a blurred picture Sokka took."

She bit her lip, running her thumb across the small swell of her stomach. Aang raised his hand, motioning towards the bump.

"Can I...?"

Katara nodded, and then his hands touched her stomach. A chuckle of pure joy echoed through the classroom, and he scooched closer to her.

Now, with his hands resting on her stomach, Aang's heart started to beat fast. "It's so precious."

She smiled, fondly, only to realize that he was now very close to her. His warmth radiated and she almost stopped breathing because of the proximity. The smile on his face faded away, and his breathing became slow as he stared at her lips.

Aang's nose was inches from touching hers, and Katara had to keep herself from leaning in and kissing him.

Stop, Katara, She told herself. Closing her eyes with a sigh, she took a step back.

"I... I still want us to just be co-parents." She said, in a whisper.

His big, silver eyes returned to a dark grey tone as she said it, and he looked down, nodding. "We should... focus on the baby, right?"

"Yeah."

Aang leaned back against a desk, trying to control his breathing. An awkward silence filled the classroom once again, and it almost ripped their hearts apart.

"So... It's the end of the first trimester. How are you feeling?" In an attempt to fill the void, he mentioned a safer subject.

"The sickness has dimmed down a lot, so I feel good, mostly." Katara answered, and he replied with a fond smile. "You know, I mentioned this to you, but my family is visiting from the Southern Water Tribe, and I still haven't told them anything. It just didn't feel right without you there so... Do you want to come over to dinner this Thursday?"

For a moment, the silver in his eyes gleamed, and his signature grin was back.

"Yeah! Of course." He took a while pondering, before proposing another idea. "Since we're breaking the news to them... What do you think about inviting my friends as well, to get it over with?"

"Oh, of course. I don't want to go through this more than once." They laughed together, and it felt like old times for a second before the silence came back. Fiddling with her jacket, Katara took this as an excuse to leave. "I should probably head back... Gran-Gran wanted me to show her around the city."

"Sure... I'll see you Thursday, then?" Aang said, pursing his lips before smiling.

"Yes." She turned around the classroom's door frame and looked back, waving. "See you."

He took a last glimpse of her before she disappeared down the school's hallways.

Once he was sure he was alone in the room, Aang covered his face with his hands, trying to figure out what had just happened. It was hard to know if he was happy about it or not. He felt an ache in his heart, remembering her words.

'I still want us to be co-parents.'

But then he took a deep breath and remembered the feeling of the baby bump in his hands. Maybe being co-parents wasn't that bad. It wasn't ideal, but... It was good for now.

Aang couldn't help but smile. One step at a time...