When Katara awoke, the first thing she noticed was that Aang was no longer beside her. The next things she noticed, as she slowly came into consciousness, were that it was daytime, much colder than it had been at the Fire Nation party, and they weren't flying anymore. She found that Aang had wrapped her in a blanket, and she pulled it tightly around her shoulders as she got up.
"Aang?" she called. Appa groaned, and though Katara could never understand Aang's animal guide the way he could, she felt the direction Appa was telling her to go. It startled her at first, but then she smiled, patting him on the nose in thanks after she'd climbed down.
Katara blinked in the sunlight, taking in her surroundings as she walked. They were at the Southern Air Temple. Her heart soared at the realization that Aang had brought her back to his childhood home. She continued walking up the path to the temple when she found him, cross-legged on the ground, meditating in front of Gyatso's statue.
There were flowers strewn around the base of the statue, some sticks of incense, and several unlit candles. Aang had the softest smile on his face, but his cheeks were wet with tears. Katara bowed respectfully to Aang's former master and mentor before falling to her knees at his side.
Aang peeked an eye open and grinned besottedly at Katara. "I was just telling Gyatso that we're getting married," he said. "There are some scrolls in the library that have the old Air Nomad ceremonies in them. Wanna go find them with me after breakfast?"
Katara didn't think she could smile any wider than she did in response to that, and when words failed her she nodded quickly. They were really going to do it. They were going to get married. Here. In Aang's Temple. The layers of meaning were not lost on her; that this marriage could potentially bring back his people, and that getting married here would make Aang's next memory of this place a good one. A hopeful one.
She took his hand in hers and he helped her to her feet, both of them bouncing with joy once they stood. She folded the blanket neatly and left it by the statue, feeling warmed by the rising sun and her beloved at her side. Aang led her inside to the kitchens, where she was immediately overcome by the delicious smell of moonpeach fruit pie. She breathed the scent in deeply, and noticed that Aang had also set out a plate of artfully arranged fruits, a bowl of rice, a carafe of wine, and had a pot of water boiling for tea.
"How long have you been awake?" she asked, stunned at all the preparations he'd made already.
"A couple hours," he said dismissively as he added tea leaves to the boiling water. While the tea steeped, he pulled the fruit pie out of the oven and airbent the gooey center into a perfect swirl. Katara's mouth was already watering. Once that was ready, he moved to straining the tea and adding the milk and butter and salt.
On their last visit here, they'd discovered a small herd of buffalo yak residing near the base of the mountains. Aang must have flown down to milk them while she still slept this morning, and churned the butter before his meditations. It helped that he could use airbending to quicken the churning process but still; he'd certainly been busy. Katara sat on a nearby stool and leaned over the counter to watch him work.
He finally finished the preparations, just in time for Katara's stomach to grumble loudly. They had left before dinner the night before, which she now realized was sure to cause drama. Aang usually gave a speech at those events, and he had barely made an appearance before flying off with her.
Aang chuckled as he set all the foods and tea out on the counter before her, then came around to kiss her cheek. "Sorry this took so long," he said, wrapping his arms around her from behind and rubbing her hungry belly. He dipped his nose into her neck and nuzzled there until she laughed, then snuck another kiss in before taking a seat beside her. "I… unfortunately, I don't remember a lot about the weddings of my people, but I do remember these foods being brought out in the morning before the ceremony."
Katara could feel tears welling in her eyes. Any guilt she'd felt at leaving the celebrations the night before was immediately replaced with a deep adoration of, and devotion to the man sitting before her. She had already been touched that Aang would go through so much trouble to prepare an elaborate breakfast for the two of them, but knowing now that he had labored to prepare these specific foods with the explicit purpose of beginning their marriage ceremony…
"Aang," she squeaked out, trying and failing to calm her emotions. She sniffled, and he looked worried for a moment that he had overstepped before she pushed past the lump in her throat. "This is wonderful."
Aang smiled and opened his arms for a hug, which she gladly accepted. He placed a sweet kiss on her forehead before sitting back and continuing. "I don't remember what they did with the food, but… We're both hungry so we may as well eat," he laughed. "At least some of it. I don't know if we could finish all of it."
Katara's stomach growled again.
"Okay, maybe we could," he laughed. Aang said a brief blessing, thanking the Earth for providing them with this food, and they began to eat. "Tell me about the weddings of your people," he said.
Katara swallowed the bite of fruit pie she had been chewing, and smiled sadly. "I don't remember much, either, Aang," she said. "There were a few weddings right before the men went off to war, but I was so young, and looking back, I'm not sure if those were the most traditional anyway. I know there have been more since the war ended, but I haven't made it down to see any of them. Maybe in a few days, we can fly to the South Pole and ask Gran Gran."
"That's a great idea," Aang said softly. He drained his teacup, then grinning mischievously, he scooped a bit of the fruit pie filling and playfully swiped it across Katara's nose. Her eyes and mouth opened wide with shock, but then she did the same to him, decorating his cheeks and chin with the bright orange filling.
When their giggles finally died down and they'd finished their food and cleaned their faces, they placed an upside-down bowl over the remaining food and began the trek up the many stairs to the library. It was a somewhat tedious task to find the scrolls in question; the library was in rough shape. Not only had over a century of neglect allowed many things to deteriorate beyond repair, but it seemed as if some of the shelves may have actually been overturned on the day of the original attacks. Several areas were covered in black scorch marks, and there were piles of ash where scrolls and books should have been.
As they carefully opened each scroll, they tried to sort them by subject and salvageability. Katara watched Aang's face darken with each irreparable tome they found. These were the last links to his culture and his people; to the ways they had lived before the war and the things he had been too young to remember, and they were lost forever.
Finally, as the sun rose high and out of view of the tower windows, Aang found what they'd been looking for. The pain of the previous hours visibly melted off his face as he read through the words. "Katara!" he cried out. "Over here!"
"What is it, Aang?" she asked from her own corner of the library, settled against a shelf and surrounded by scrolls with varying degrees of damage. She looked up from the one she'd been examining—a very interesting account of a former monk from their travels to the Water Tribes—and saw the look of pure delight on his face as he held the scroll high in the air. She immediately jumped up and ran to him, hugging him in elation and feeling almost dizzy with anticipation.
"We're going to get married," he whispered, his voice tight with emotion.
"We're going to get married!" she repeated wetly, laughing in shock. "Are you ready?"
"To be your husband?" Aang asked. He kissed her then, slow and soft and savoring every moment. "I've never been more ready for anything in my life. Are you ready, though? To be the Avatar's wife?" There was much more trepidation, and a hint of sadness, in his voice as he spoke those last words. He pulled back from their hug and that same sorrow was evident in his eyes. "Being married to me will bring even more criticism and pressure to you, and…"
"And we're already dealing with that without being married, Aang," she interrupted. "Being married to you will be…" Katara's face went suddenly soft. She glanced out the window at the clear blue skies for a moment before meeting his gaze again, smiling dreamily. "Being married to you will be everything I ever wanted," she said. "It will be love and joy and laughter and soaring through the skies. We will be family, in a new sense. It will be a new beginning, and a bond strong and official enough that the nobles won't try and break us up anymore. And… one day…" Katara smiled dreamily. "One day, we'll bring your people back. You won't be alone anymore, Aang."
"I'm never alone," he said, kissing her again. His fingers threaded into her unbrushed hair, snagging slightly when he found a knot, but Katara only leaned further into him, clutching the back of his neck. "Let's do this," he whispered when they broke for air.
They walked arm in arm down the winding staircase, stealing excited glances at each other. Though they'd both had extra clothes in the emergency pack, Aang and Katara still wore their formal wear from the night before. Aang noticed it had wrinkled slightly from sleep, so when they reached the base of the stairs he stopped them a moment so he could use a mixture of water and firebending to steam the wrinkles out.
At first, Katara looked at him in confusion, but then he smirked and said, "We can't be wearing wrinkly clothes for our wedding, can we?"
"Oh my, of course not," she agreed in her most formal voice, curtsying slightly and giving a twirl once he'd finished her skirt. "Carry on, Avatar."
Aang chuckled at her but continued. When his own robes were clear of wrinkles as well, Katara cocked her head and examined him. He held his arms out to his side to show off his good looks and she giggled at his playful confidence. Then, she reached up to adjust the wooden necklace he wore; the identifying mark of a head monk and his hand-carved homage to Gyatso. She centered the guru bead and smoothed the tassels reverently on his chest, remembering the way he had painstakingly studied all the images of airbenders he could find in Zuko's library after the battle with Ozai in order to create this mala. He had been so small and young and carrying so much grief. Too much. She remembered the tears that had been shed in the process, and when she looked back up into his eyes now, they were filled to the brim again.
He smiled, then reached out to hug her to him, overwhelmed with emotion. "Thank you, Katara. You show so much care for the bits of my culture I have left, and you have no idea how much that means to me. I love you so much."
"Oh, Aang." Katara reached up and kissed each tear track that crept down his face. She held his face tenderly between her hands. "I love you, too. I promise you I will do everything I can to help you preserve and continue the ways of your people, just as you've helped me with mine. It won't be easy, but we will always have each other."
Aang pressed a grateful kiss to her forehead. He took a great, shuddering breath and then relaxed all of his muscles on the exhale, stepping to the side and offering Katara his arm again. She wrapped her hand around his bicep and they continued walking. Katara wasn't exactly sure where they were heading, but she happily followed his lead.
Finally, they exited the temple and came to a stop in front of Gyatso's statue.
Katara and Aang both bowed respectfully. Then Aang spread out the blanket Katara had left there that morning and knelt on it, taking out a flintstone and sparking fire to the incense sticks and each of the candles. Katara got to her knees on the blanket beside Aang, and when they were both ready, he unfurled the scroll.
This particular scroll was written in a script that Katara couldn't decipher, and she panicked for a moment. "This just explains that marriage is neither holy nor unholy to our people," Aang explained calmly, seeing her worry and pointing near the top of the scroll. "That it is not a necessary obligation, but a happy occasion when it happens. Each of the sections would normally be a separate ceremony, with participation from family and guardians and celebrations and feasting, but since it's just the two of us, we'll simplify things a bit. Here, the first ceremony starts with a prayer, asking the Spirits to bless our union and our marriage and our travels together."
Aang closed his eyes, and Katara followed suit, while he chanted in a language Katara had never heard before. As much time as they spent together, and as much as he had taught her about his culture, she hadn't heard—or even seen printed—the language of his people before now. The moment felt heavy and ancient and overwhelming, but she also felt so privileged that he would share it with her. His voice was light and airy and so, so free. It made her head spin. She almost expected to see his tattoos glowing when he finished speaking and she opened her eyes.
He smiled at her, face crinkling in merriment at the corners of his eyes. He reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out several pieces of red string, which he proceeded to tie around her left wrist. When he finished, he offered some string to Katara and held up his own wrist for her to do the same.
"Typically, guests would tie knots of red string around the wrists of the happy couple to wish them well," he said as she tied several strings around his wrist. "The red string symbolizes protection and happiness and love for years to come. It's just the two of us, but I figure we can still offer them to each other in place of our lost loved ones."
Katara thought of her mom, and the many times she had daydreamed about her wedding as a young girl. She never could have imagined a ceremony this intimate and meaningful, but she knew her mother would have been proud and happy for her. As she finished tying the last string around Aang's wrist, she could almost feel the warmth of her mother's embrace, and she let out a broken, contented sigh.
"That's so beautiful, Aang," she whispered.
Suddenly there was a loud groan and a screech, and they were joined by Appa, who curled around them in a semicircle, and Momo, who perched himself on Gyatso's stone shoulder. Aang and Katara chuckled at the animals' insistence on being involved in their wedding, too. Katara tossed some flower petals up onto Appa's head and when she turned back to Aang, eyes twinkling playfully, Aang leaned forward to kiss her hair.
"Next is the vows, so it's good we have some witnesses," Aang said with a grin. Then, he turned to her hesitantly. "I know you can't read this, so you'll just have to repeat after me—is that okay?"
Katara grinned back and nodded, her whole body positively buzzing with enthusiasm to be officially married. Married! To Aang!
"To my wife," Aang started, smiling wider than she'd ever seen him on the word 'wife,' "I promise to love and respect you, to be considerate and supportive, to do my fair share in our household and our travels, to perform my responsibilities lovingly and conscientiously, and to please you however I can." Aang wiggled his eyebrows as he finished and Katara couldn't help dissolving into giggles, thankful that they had this moment to themselves, to just be themselves.
When he didn't say anymore, Katara attempted to say the vows from memory. "To my husband," she said, finding the same joy Aang had in their new relationship, "I promise to love and respect you, to…" When she faltered, Aang happily leaned forward to whisper the next lines in her ear, and she repeated them out loud, unable to stop gazing intensely into his eyes as she did. "...to be considerate and supportive, to do my fair share in our household and our travels, to perform my responsibilities lovingly and conscientiously, and to please you however I can."
They shared a meaningful glance, but were soon interrupted by a strong breeze blowing through the mountainside. Katara had to pull her hair out of her face. The chimes that Aang had worked hard to re-hang on their many post-war visits here rang out loudly, and thousands of leaves and flower petals from the nearby greenery flew around them like confetti. As the wind died down, the last vestiges of blowing air felt like many, many hands gently brushing their faces, their arms, their backs, kindly smoothing Katara's windswept hair.
Aang and Katara both closed their eyes at the sensation, feeling the deep love and support of all those that they had lost. Katara felt like was being welcomed by Aang's people themselves; something that she never thought could happen. She breathed the spicy scent of the incense deeply and bowed her head in thanks.
She was brought out of her thoughts by Aang's fingers on her chin, lifting her face for a soft kiss which she joyfully leaned into. His lips moved against hers in the most tender way, and she couldn't help reaching out to hold him, then, pulling him tightly to her as she opened herself further to the ministrations of his mouth.
When they finally parted, Aang beamed at her. "That's it," he said. His voice was still tight but his face was glowing with pride. "We're… We're married, Katara!"
"Tui and La, we're married?! We're married!" Katara rose to her feet and pulled Aang up beside her, bouncing on the soles of her feet with excess energy. "Oh, Spirits," she said, breathlessly. "Aang. We're married!"
"I know," Aang murmured lowly, running his fingers along the side of her face and down to her neck before capturing her in a heated kiss. "You know," he whispered, grazing the shell of her ear with his teeth. "According to this scroll, after the ceremony and celebrations, we're supposed to… stay in our home for three whole days before seeing anyone else, as a test to the strength of our marriage." He nuzzled her neck affectionately and his hot breath sent her shuddering in anticipation.
"Is that so?" she asked. "Well, I wonder what we could do with those three days…" Katara tapped her chin in mock thought for a moment before she was unceremoniously scooped up by her husband.
"I have a few ideas," he said, carrying her towards the dormitory they usually used when they stayed here. Katara threw her head back in laughter.
"You know, you picked me up like this when we first met, too," she pointed out. "Way back on the Fire Nation ship after you sent the flare off."
"Oh yeeeaaah, the booby traps," he remembered, grinning salaciously. "Little did I know you'd trapped me for all eternity with those…"
"Aang!" she squealed with laughter. He set her back on her feet as they approached the door. He noticed his staff leaning against the wall where he'd left it earlier that morning, and suddenly his face lit up.
"Sometimes," he said, "the happy couple would glide through the skies together as they left the celebrations for their home. We have to share, but… would you like to fly a bit with me, my dearest wife?"
"I'd love to, my sweet husband." The words felt new and exciting on their tongues. They knew they were going a little overboard, but they couldn't help themselves. Aang popped open his glider and they both climbed on, flying out the large open window at the end of the hall. Katara wondered, not for the first time, what it would have looked like to see this place full of airbenders flying in and out of windows and doing tricks throughout the skies.
As they soared over the temple, she could almost see the orange and yellow of the monks going about their evening chores. It wasn't yet twilight, but the atmosphere still seemed to twinkle with an energy she couldn't quite name. She leaned into Aang, who did a few dramatic flips that made her stomach jump and her breath catch before exploding with giggles.
They didn't need words to express what they were feeling in that moment. Riding the wind, playing together in it, relishing this new step in their relationship, their life felt full of unlimited potential and so, so much love. Katara knew that every day with Aang would be like this. That despite their many worldly obligations, whenever they could sneak off for a minute they would be free as the wind, enjoying and appreciating all the small things in this life. Together.
Author's Note: I did not really intend for this to go the direction it did, but here we are. The kataang wedding has always intimidated me as a writer, because there are so many varied and all equally valid traditions across the many cultures that the Air Nomads and Water Tribes are based on. I did a lot of research, but was never really confident in my sources. I wound up pulling traditions that seemed to fit from various Buddhist practices around the world and tweaking them to make them more Air Nomad; some were tweaked more than others. I hope that this has been a respectful take on what an Air Nomad wedding *could* have been like, but if I have been accidentally offensive in any way, please let me know. I am always open to learning.