A/N: Welcome to Kataang Week 2022 Day 6! Today's prompt is Quiet Moments! This chapter is dedicated to a dear friend of mine who has a great appreciation for maniacal laughter hehehe.
Summary: Sometimes, Katara and Aang didn't need words.
Word Count: 2.3k
Enjoy the story!
Air Temple Island was known for its quiet nights.
During the day, there was always a large humming of activity. The acolytes would be bustling about the grounds, the foghorn of the ferry would be blaring every hour or so, and people from all over the world would come to see what was left of the culture of the Air Nomads. Something always seemed to be happening.
However, by the time the sun painted Yue Bay in its crimson, orange, and golden light, things were different. By sunset, most of the acolytes had retired to their dorms. The ferry rounds slowed down as most visitors had already come and gone. The only distinctive sound that could be made out was the waves crashing against the rocks on the cliffside as the stars slowly came out to light up the night sky.
This particular night seemed to be no different, Aang noted to himself as he landed Appa near the stables. He took a quick peek inside to ensure that the bison would have enough hay, water, and apples for the night before grabbing his staff and flying up to his and Katara's bedroom balcony, letting himself in through the window.
Aang frowned as he entered. The room was dark, and the bed was made, pillows neatly up against the headboard with the sheets below it smoothed out. Three books and a pen lay on top of the waterbender's bedside table, but she herself was nowhere to be found.
Careful not to make too much noise, Aang walked across the room and carefully poked his head through the doorway, raising an eyebrow when he saw light coming from near the kitchen. The smell of tsampa and steamed dumplings filled his nose, but it was an awfully odd thing for such a late hour.
He quietly and quickly made his way down the stairs, curious as to what was going on below. His airbending kept his steps light, almost inaudible. He paused once he reached the bottom of the staircase, sighing happily when he saw her, cloth and needle in hand, as she sewed by the candlelight. The soft sound of his breath startled Katara, and she looked up when she heard the soft sound, smiling wearily when she saw the airbender.
"You shouldn't have waited," Aang whispered as she stood up and walked over to him, her arms quickly finding their way around his neck as he kissed her sweetly.
"I wanted to," Katara murmured in reply, unable to take her eyes off him. It felt like it had been far too long.
Aang's arms slowly found their way around her waist as he took a moment to enjoy her presence. It had been an arduous day of meetings, and Katara wasn't just at their home, she was his home.
"Come on, you're probably hungry." The waterbender took Aang's hands in hers and guided him towards the covered plates of still-warm food on the kitchen counter. She took both dishes in her hands, motioning for him to bring their utensils as she walked back to where she was sitting and placed the food gently onto the table with a soft cling. Wordlessly, she waved for him to come sit in the empty space next to him, smiling and leaning into him as the airbender happily obliged.
Once the two had taken their plates in their laps and had begun to eat, it was as if no amount of food in the world would've been enough. Dinnertime had been hours ago, and they were starving, both cleaning their plates ravenously in a matter of minutes.
Katara was the first to finish- she had never quite grown out of the habit of having to eat quickly that she had developed on their adventures before the war had ended. She sighed, hunger satiated, and placed her head on Aang's shoulder, closing her eyes and absent-mindedly humming an old Water Tribe song.
The airbender smiled as he too set down his plate and listened to the folk song. In their years of living and traveling together, Aang had discovered quite a few things about Katara: One of these things happened to be that she knew a lot of Southern Water Tribe songs. Another one of these things was that the Water Tribe songs she sang and hummed tended to be very indicative of her mood.
Sometimes, when she was feeling nostalgic and just wanted to be with someone, she'd hum the lullaby that her mother used to sing to her and Sokka with a soft, sad smile on her face. Other times, she'd sway from side to side to the tune of a sailor's song that filled up the room, laughing when Aang grabbed her hand and spun her around in their own little dance.
This song, however, was different.
It wasn't one he heard often, but he could recognize its slower, slightly haunting, melancholy notes anywhere. It was the same song, he had noticed, that she had hummed before sleeping the night of the full moon after they met Hama. He had asked her that night where it came from, just to take her mind off things, and she had told him that it was the song of one of the spirits of the sea, who was mortal before being cast out into the ocean by her father. The spirit had become a guardian of sea creatures following, but the song mourned the life she once had on land.
Aang had since learned that Katara would hum that song on nights when she didn't really feel like talking but still wanted someone to be with her. She was quiet those nights, but she expressed her affection in other ways, not needing words to let him know of her love and appreciation.
And so they sat next to each other on the sofa, relishing in the feeling of being with one another as the candlelight flickered and Katara's humming caused Aang's eyelids to droop halfway.
"Ready to go up?" he whispered when she was interrupted by her own yawn. He gently kissed her temple as the waterbender nodded sleepily. She turned her head and pressed her lips softly to Aang's cheek, returning his kiss, as the two stood up and walked back up the stairs.
They headed to their room, Aang dramatically opening the door and bowing for Katara to enter first, making her chuckle. He gently closed it behind him and groaned as he sat down in his desk chair, various papers strewn about in front of him. Katara stepped into her closet for a few minutes as she got dressed in her nightclothes, but she shook her head when she emerged and saw Aang muttering at a particularly high pile of documents.
"You work too much," she murmured. She slowly crept up to him, taking care that her feet landed softly and quietly against the cold, stone floors, and began rubbing his shoulders with her hands.
His body practically screamed at the relief from all the tension that had been building up for the last few weeks of nonstop meetings and events- creating an entirely new, independent republic was no small task.
Katara sighed. She hated that Aang had to do this to himself. All she wanted was to spend as many hours as she needed to relieve him of all his tension, but unfortunately that wouldn't be possible anytime soon. She soon moved her hands lower, now working on massaging his shoulder blades and back, though she knew there was plenty more work to be done where her hands had been a few seconds prior.
"You need to relax," she said softly as she pressed a few fluttery kisses to his exposed neck, hands still working their magic if Aang's closed eyes were any indication. "You can do all this later. Come lie in bed with me."
"Katara, I can't-"
He turned to look up at her and faltered when he saw the look on her face. Her lips were pursed, her eyes refusing to meet his gaze. Her hands had fallen from his shoulders to hug her torso.
To anyone else, she would've seemed annoyed, maybe even angry and overreacting, but Aang knew better. Her normally lively eyes were solemn- they were sad, almost hurt. She wasn't recoiling from him on purpose or trying to punish him, but rather was simply trying to hide the fact that she had missed him and just wanted to be near him.
He exhaled deeply and stood up, Katara's eyes darting up to his at the sudden movement.
"You can bring your work if you want," she murmured, her gaze flickering behind him as she saw the pile of all he had to do.
He gave her a small smile and kissed the top of her head, quickly gathering all the papers he would need for the night, and gestured for her to lead the way. Katara grinned, running and leaping under the covers to allow the airbender to nestle himself in the crook of her neck as he began reading over King Kuei's latest "grand ideas" for the Republic.
Katara couldn't help but sigh, her fingers tracing the edges of the blue on his arms. It was things like this she missed the most when he was away on trips or came home long after she had fallen asleep- the little things, the quiet moments, being able to just lie together, cuddle, and enjoy each other's presence.
She pressed a few soft kisses to the tip of the blue arrow on his head and reached out her arm behind her, fumbling around until she felt her pen and crossword book.
It was a hobby of hers that she had only picked up recently, after Aang had brought her the thin bundle of paper from a trip to Ba Sing Se. She hadn't been very good at it to begin with, loathing it with a passion as a result, but, on a night like this a few weeks ago, she decided enough was enough and gave the innocent booklet a chance. She quickly grew to love the puzzles, even asking Aang to bring her the newspaper when he went out into the city so that she could solve their daily ones, and she brought Aang no shortage of amusement from the maniacal giggles that escaped her after solving the next page in her workbook.
She squinted at the puzzle she was on, only three words left to figure out. "Six letter word for a tree that giraffalopes loved…" she thought. Suddenly, it came to her. "Acacia!" The waterbender grinned, furiously scribbling in the answer with her lucky pen when she felt Aang staring at her.
She looked at the airbender, who was watching her with a loving sparkle in his eyes, and raised her eyebrow at him as she made eye contact. Aang's eyes widened when he realized he'd been caught, immediately averting his gaze and drawing himself closer to her in hopes that she wouldn't see the warm pink tint covering his cheeks. (He failed, much to Katara's amusement.)
The waterbender chuckled, returning to her book. Two words left. "Seven letter word for a slow-moving mass of ice… iceberg? No, the 'e' is the second-to-last letter, not the third-to-last. Hmmm…"
Aang caught a quick glance of the booklet when he heard Katara's hum of confusion. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought. Seven letter word related to ice…
"Glacier."
The waterbender looked down at him in surprise, jotting the word down when she saw it fit in the spaces given. Aang winked at her in response before he turned back to the parchment, continuing to write his rebuttal as to why Bosco's birthday would not be made an international holiday in his tidy scrawl.
Katara narrowed her eyes at the last clue, the clue that had been stumping her for the last two days. "Five letter word for a small, thought-to-be extinct flying mammal…" What flying mammals did she even know of that were extinct? Dodo-pig? Too long, and they couldn't even fly! Flying gecko squirrels? Too long, not extinct…
"Wait a minute."
Thought-to-be-extinct flying mammals? Katara lived with three of them!
The waterbender grinned and quickly wrote in the last five letters of the puzzle. "L… …E… …M… …U… …R!"
"Hehehehe," Katara said with a giggle as she closed the book and made a satisfying thwip noise. Aang looked up at her, an amused glint in his eyes Katara noted as she spotted the pile on his bedside table, every document highlighted and annotated. Had it really been that long already?
Katara angled herself slightly to the side, setting her book and pen back on her side table before turning again to resume her tracing of Aang's arrows.
"You're adorable when you finish those, you know."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Please, the maniacal giggle at the end? It's so weird to hear yet strangely very 'you' at the same time."
"I do not maniacally giggle!"
Aang gave her a look.
"Okay, maybe a little bit," she said sheepishly, making the two of them dissolve into (not maniacal) laughter.
"I missed you," she whispered when their explosion of joy died down.
"I know." He took the hand so gently stroking his tattoos and pressed a long, soft kiss to it. "I missed you too. And I'm sorry." Aang frowned as they got comfortable underneath the blankets. "I'm sorry for all the late nights and long meetings."
Katara shook her head, taking his hands in hers and squeezing. "The world can have its Avatar, just as long as I have you."
She pressed a soft kiss to each of his knuckles before wordlessly turning around to turn off the light, letting him hold and bury her in his embrace.
Did they need words to say what was already implied as they drifted off into the dream realm?
No.
Did they say it anyways?
Of course.
"I love you, sweetie."
A/N: Writing with minimal dialogue was harder than I expected, but I liked how this turned out! Also, as a note, the myth Aang mentions with the song Katara hums is a slightly altered version of the Inuit myth of the sea goddess Sedna, in case anyone feels like reading more on that. See you guys tomorrow for the last day!