Aang found out a lot of information in a small amount of time. Usually he would have been inwardly proud of himself for unraveling something so complex so quickly, but these were anything but "usual" circumstances.

His "guest's" name was Katara. Katara Taslak. She was 23 years old and worked as a massage therapist in a spa in downtown Republic City that specialized in water therapies. She was a member of the Southern Water Tribe and had moved to Republic City about six years ago from a small village in the South Pole to attend the College of the Joint Nations. She'd taken the job at the spa right after graduation as she decided whether to go to graduate school for physiology.

Jet Suo had come into her life rather dramatically – he'd chased away a bunch of would-be muggers when Katara was walking to her car one evening after work. They'd been dating for six months.

His abandonment of her at the party was baffling, though Katara acknowledged that they'd argued before coming to the party. She'd had the beginnings of a migraine and wanted to stay home, but Jet insisted they go to the party and stay at least for a little while. Katara said she eventually agreed to a short stay, but that Jet had disappeared into a crowd of people almost as soon as they arrived.

Jet hadn't completely ignored her, though Katara groused that he'd seemed put out by her obvious discomfort at being there. The last she had seen of Jet, she told Aang, he was talking boisterously to a tall man with square-rimmed glasses and slicked-back dark hair that looked painted on.

Katara admitted her annoyance of her boyfriend's lack of attention caused her to indulge in alcohol a little more than was usual for her. She'd gulped a glass of the potent Omashu wine to fortify herself to march up to Jet and demand that he either take her home, or else.

One glass hadn't quite done the trick to hype her for the confrontation, but halfway through a second glass, her headache came back with a vengeance. Feeling sick and unable to locate Jet in the crowd, she'd stumbled into Aang's room. Her head felt immediately better when she laid down, and she meant to close her eyes for a few minutes … and ended up falling asleep for the rest of the night.

Aang listened as Katara spoke between bites of egg and fruit and sips of tea. She'd taken his offer of aspirin, saying her head felt like a herd of arctic hippos were sitting on her brain. The aspirin and food caused the pain lines to fade and her eyes looked brighter. Momo was still keeping a guarded watch on her from the couch but seemed to have accepted the stranger's presence while Appa, clearly as impressed by Katara as Aang was, had nuzzled her gently and received a soft laugh and skritches behind his ears as a reward. He now lay on the rug in front of the couch, sleeping in contentment.

"Jet works at Lake Laogai Office Supplies and Sundries," said Katara. "He's a delivery driver. Maybe he delivered something to your office? I know that really stretches the definition of 'knowing you from work,' but …'"

Aang shook his head regretfully, sad that he couldn't even offer her that fig leaf of an excuse.

"Sorry, but no. I do have a small office space in the Kuei Building downtown, but all our furniture is made by Earthenfire Industries. A friend's family owns the place, so I get a discount. And not to be a jerk, but I've heard kind of bad things about Lake Laogai's business practices."

"Well, Jet would agree with you." Katara brutally speared some moonpeach chunks and chewed angrily. "He hates it there."

"Really?" Aang was a little surprised. "Every time I see commercials for that place, everyone who works there is always smiling and looking happy. I mean, everyone has that same expression. It's … a little creepy, actually."

"No kidding. Jet thinks that's weird, too, but he says you just get worn down there, so he feels like those big, silly empty grins are a coping mechanism," said Katara. "His boss is a real asshole and Jet's dying to leave, but he needs the money to finish school."

"Oh that's pretty cool. What's he studying?"

"He's at RCU majoring in Documentary Studies. He wants to be a filmmaker," answered Katara. "He's paying his own way, so it's taken him more than six years. He grew up in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se and says there's been no realistic shows or movies about how dangerous and poor it was there when he was a kid. Everything on TV or in the movies are about how Ba Sing Se and other areas of the Earth Kingdom been cleaned up since the end of the war."

Aang nodded thoughtfully. The lower ring of Ba Sing Se had been all but obliterated in a decades-long war waged by the Fire Nation on every single other nation. The Earth Kingdom was vast but it had been hard-hit, with the poorer areas suffering the brunt of the destruction.

The more Katara talked, the sharper the picture of Jet Suo was becoming in Aang's mind. He seemed to be a scrappy fighter who'd endured a lot just for basic survival. Possibly he'd thought that because he could take care of himself, others could, too. That still didn't excuse him leaving his girlfriend in a strange man's home, though, especially since he didn't know the strange man himself!

Katara took out her cellphone and glared at it as if willing it to ring. Sighing in frustration, she set it down next to her glass of juice.

"I just don't understand. None of this makes sense. If this is some kind of prank, it's not funny," she said bitterly. "Our argument wasn't even that serious. Why would he just leave me here?"

Aang thought for a moment. "Could it be that Jet thought you left him?"

Katara raised her head. "... What?"

"You said you argued about coming here. You weren't feeling good." Aang spoke rapidly as the theory began to take shape in his brain. "He agrees to cut it short, but he sort of, um, ditches you when you get here and you see him in a long conversation with somebody. You were going to tell him to get you out of here or you were leaving on your own. Then you start feeling really bad and you go into my room and close the door. Jet doesn't know me, though he might know one of my friends. The guy you said you saw him talking sounds like Satoru, this guy my friend Toph is kind of seeing. He went a little overboard with hair gel last night and we were all teasing him about it a little. Satoru might have been the one who invited him … though that doesn't exactly explain why he told you this was the party of a friend from work."

"He might have been trying to impress me," said Katara, her lips set in a hard line. "Now that I think about it, I should've smelled an elephant rat when he told me about it. No friend of his from work would live in a place like this …"

Her eyes appreciatively roamed the bright interior and neat, orderly lines of Aang's apartment. In that moment, he was quietly thankful that he was something of a neat freak, because she definitely looked impressed.

"… Or in the Pasaang Quadrangle. But I just let it go. Anyway, I don't think Jet would think I left here without telling him." Katara's brows drew together. "I mean, wouldn't he try to find me first?"

"Maybe he did try," said Aang. "He might have looked around the apartment and didn't spot you. He might've checked the bathroom and saw you weren't in there, and it might not have occurred to him that you would've gone into a bedroom to sleep off your headache. He might've thought you got so angry with him that you stormed out and – wait, who drove? Him or you?"

She swallowed painfully. "He did."

"Then that all makes sense. Jet could have thought you stormed out and got a cab back to your place. He probably left pretty soon after he couldn't find you, not realizing you were still here."

Katara stared at him for what seemed like several seconds, and Aang had to force himself not to squirm. Spirits, she was pretty!

"That actually does make some sense," she said grudgingly. "But why wouldn't he call or text me to see where I was or at least apologize? It doesn't seem like his phone is even on. Every time I call, it goes straight to voicemail."

"If he thinks you're pissed at him, he might be waiting to talk to you until he figures you're in a better mood," said Aang with a small shrug. "It's only about 9:30 in the morning on a Sunday. He might be waiting until it's a little later to get in touch with you."

"… I can't believe it. What a mess!" She was frowning, but Aang though Katara sounded somewhat relieved. "I guess the only thing I can do is be thankful you weren't some kind of maniac … I mean you could have –"

Katara shuddered and looked away. "No offense or anything. It's just that it could've been dangerous if you'd been … that type of guy."

"No offense taken. I understand. You really can't be too careful."

But Aang reflected that this Jet guy appeared to be at best, kind of an idiot, and at worst, a major douche. Why not just check every room in the apartment just to be on the safe side? Because Katara was right, this could have easily turned from farce to tragedy under other circumstances, and then what would this Jet have to say for himself? If Katara had been his girlfriend, Aang knew he would've turned the place upside down … though the situation wouldn't have happened to begin with because he would never have forced her to come to a party she clearly hadn't wanted to attend.

"You said you own a business," Katara said, clearly wanting to change the subject. "What exactly is it that you do?"

"I'm an efficiency expert," said Aang, mopping his plate with the remains of his toast. "I help businesses evaluate their processes and structures and I come up with ways to make things better with fewer headaches and bottlenecks."

Katara raised a brow. "You mean you're one of those people who goes into an office and talk about how there's too much money spent on paperclips?"

"Not exactly." Aang chuckled. "Sure, you do have efficiency experts who get into all that minor stuff, but I approach it from the workers' point of view. If a worker is able to work more efficiently, that leads to less stress, better health, and happiness. Do I think most businesses could do without a lot of the stuff they have? Sure. I am an Air Nomad, after all. We're not really all that into having so much stuff …"

Her skeptical expression morphed into one of astonishment.

"Wait, you're an Air Nomad?"

Aang reddened when she leaned across the table to study him more closely, her eyes wandering from his shaved head and widening when she caught sight of the blue-arrow tattoos that streaked down his arms. He had matching tattoos that started at the back of his hamstrings and wound around his legs, ending in sharp points right above his toes. The arrows were traditional markings of his people and tended to be a conversation starter.

The Fire Nation had all but obliterated the Air Nomad race in years of brutal warfare. Fewer than 3,000 had survived the carnage, and with their mountain homes destroyed, those who'd survived lived in small pockets scattered in areas around the Earth Kingdom. Aang had been only 12 and had just received his tattoos when his people were targeted.

Usually he didn't make a big deal of people from other nations gawking at him, but Katara's eyes were traveling down his upper body in a way that made him sweat, and not because it was warm in the dining room, either.

"I didn't notice the tattoos before now." Katara lifted her gaze and Aang gulped silently to be scrutinized so thoroughly by those amazing eyes. "I've actually never met an Air Nomad before."

"Um." He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, well … this is what we look like. Some of us, I mean. Others … look different."

A small smile lifted her lips and she started to respond when a tinkling sound like crackling ice interrupted the moment, making them both jump a little.

Katara looked down and then quickly back up at Aang, a smile blooming on her lips.

"It's Jet! Looks like you were right about him wanting to wait until later in the morning to call."

Aang pasted what he hoped was a smile of contentment on his face as Katara picked up her cellphone. In truth, he was a little bummed that reality had so rudely asserted itself. The feeling waned quickly, though. Katara looked so happy that he knew he couldn't realistically be upset. Hopefully Jet would learn his lesson and be more present in his relationship with Katara in the future – literally.

Despite the giddiness of her expression, Katara was smirking when she answered the call.

"Jet, what the hell? Do you have any idea where I am? I …"

She trailed off and Aang glanced at her, then did a double take. Her expression had changed rapidly from relief to confusion.

"Wait, who is this …?"

She listened for a moment, deep grooves marring her forehead.

"Oh. Sneers? Why do you have Jet's phone? He didn't pressure you to call me and plead his case for him did he? He needs to get his ass on the phone and explain … what? I didn't hear you. … Hold it, did you just say you're at Republic City Memorial? What are you doing there?"

The skin on the back of Aang's neck prickled. Republic City Memorial Hospital was the largest medical and trauma center in Republic City. It wasn't very far from his office building, and he often passed by the sprawling complex when he took his post-lunch walk around the neighborhood.

Katara pressed the phone close to her ear, possibly to hear the person talking better, but after a few seconds she gasped and shoved her chair abruptly back from the table.

"A-accident? What kind of accident?"

Aang's stomach dropped. The expression on Katara's face was one of naked fear now. She wasn't looking at him and she was squeezing the phone so hard her knuckles were turning pale.

"But … on the Parkway …? … He wasn't –"

Katara took a breath, apparently interrupted by the person on the other end.

"They got him out? Oh thank the Spirits! You've seen him, right? Or else you wouldn't have his phone. When can I see him? Can I come now?"

She quieted after the barrage of questions to listen.

Aang was about to leave the table and give Katara privacy before suddenly seeing her jerk back as if she'd been punched and the blood draining from her face, leaving it an ashen mask.

The phone dropped from her hand and clattered noisily on the table, just missing her plate.

He shot to his feet, alarmed.

"Katara? What's wrong? What –"

She said nothing as she stood and ran toward the rear of the apartment. A moment later, he heard the door to the bathroom slam and almost immediately afterward came the sound of painful retching.

Aang stared in shock, not sure what to do when he heard a slightly muffled voice nearby.

"... Hello? Katara you still there? Katara!"

With a jolt, Aang realized that whoever was on the other line was still there.

Quickly picking up the phone, he answered breathlessly, "Hello? Who is this?"

There was a pause. Then a confused male voice came over the line.

"Sokka? That you?"

Aang nearly blurted "Who?" before getting himself together.

"No, my name's Aang. Jet and Katara were at my birthday party last night. There was a misunderstanding and Katara's been worried sick ..."

Aang paused, biting his lip. He was suddenly aware that if this was not Jet on the phone, something was very wrong.

"I heard Katara mention something about an accident? Can I ask what happened?"

There was silence. A long silence. Aang thought the person had hung up, then there was a short cough.

"Oh. Right. Jet did say he was going to a party last night." The speaker coughed again. "I'm Sneers, Jet's roommate. Yeah. He was on Huu Parkway a little after midnight and somehow he lost control of his car. Flipped it. Totaled it. But the paramedics were able to get him out with the jaws of life and get him to the emergency room for surgery."

Aang's throat tightened.

"So he had the surgery?"

"Yeah. He was pretty beat up, but he was conscious and the doctors said that in a few hours, he'd probably be okay enough for the cops to talk to him. You know, to get his statement."

Aang relaxed a little. "Oh, okay. Did he give the statement? Is he okay?"

Silence.

Aang held the phone and waited. Waited a minute more.

"Sneers? Hello? Is Jet okay?"

There came a shuddering breath, but no words.

Almost at that moment, Aang became aware of a change in the sounds coming from behind his bathroom door.

The retching noises had stopped, but taking their place were deep, painful, wracking sobs that the door couldn't muffle. They were almost like the sounds a wounded animal might make – wheezing gasps alternating with jolting cries of anguish.

Appa's ears went up and Momo crouched protectively, both of them looking in the direction of the bathroom. They seemed to sense that there was something gravely wrong and though alert, they stayed where they were.

Aang's stomach twisted as it occurred to him what Katara must have heard that would have caused such a strong reaction, and he braced himself for what he was sure he was going to hear next.

"He started bleeding internally around 8 this morning." Sneers' voice was thick with sorrow. "They rushed him back into surgery, but they couldn't stop it … Jet died 15 minutes ago."

Hey again, welcome to chapter 2. I get anxiety about writing to people so I probably won't do individual responses, sorry. Feel free to DM me though. Someone asked how long this will be. It's 18 chapters, but will be 20 if I decide to make the epilogue two chapters instead of one. See you next Friday. PS: Racists smell like poo. Thanks for the compliments on my username.