The After-Breakup

Modern AU – Katara (21) & Aang (20) - This oneshot was inspired by a scene from The Amazing Spiderman 2 btw

*****I do not own Avatar

It was only about twenty minutes ago that he received a phone call, one that made him nervous and excited enough to hurriedly put on his black-chinos, blue sweater and black jacket-coat, and rush off into the night – telling his roommates Teo, Sokka and Zuko to not wait up for him. Dodging skyscrapers and the occasional helicopters, Aang flew his way through the snowy winters of Republic City to place of meeting; the Plaza which was a few blocks away from campus. This was the last thing he expected to be doing; he had prevented a bank robbery and had dealt with an attempted kidnapping earlier during the day, and with Teo's technological help, he had tracked the remainder of the Red Lotus gang who were hiding in the outskirts of the Phoenix District. Aang was ready to raid their hideout and finish the gang warfare that very same night, however, upon analysing his many bruises and cuts, Teo suggested Aang rest and heal himself tonight; so that he would be at a hundred percent when he'd eventually take them down. This would also allow Teo time to patch-up Aang's Avatar suit as it too was badly damaged and if tattered any further, it would reveal the monk's blue tattoo's which would allow his enemies to narrow down the identity of the Avatar. Because all other monks remained in the temples – believing it would be a betrayal of true Air Nomadic culture and duty to abandon them – Aang and Gyatso were the only airbenders who resided in Republic City for the time being. Also, even though the Avatar Cycle was perceived to be completely random, Aang's enemies were already suspecting the Avatar to be an airbender, so that didn't help either.

Gyatso wanted Aang to complete his studies at Republic City University, so he opted to move there. While Aang lived on-campus in his dorm – shared by his roommates Teo, Sokka and Zuko – Gyatso rented an apartment for him to live in but had to return to the Southern Air Temple due to unexplained reasons. Although Aang was initially bummed out, he was satisfied knowing he at least had his friends Sokka, Teo, Suki, Toph, Zuko, Ty Lee, Haru, Azula and Mai to call family. Not to mention his girlfriend – or ex-girlfriend as of a month ago – Katara, who would always stick by his side. The master waterbender and Avatar had been dating for six months before their recent breakup. Although Aang most certainly did not want to do it, he knew that if he kept this up, Katara would always be put in danger – and even though she could protect herself, he still felt guilty for putting her in a position to be hurt in the first place. So, through many tears, apologies and reassurances, he had let her go abruptly – telling her it was for her own safety.

Katara, at first, reluctantly accepted the terms of the breakup and for the first three weeks, she kept it together. She did not go running back to him nor he to her, and she didn't concern herself with any of his problems. However, as time went on, Katara recognised that she was merely avoiding the airbender, and he was also simple avoiding her. Thus, during group outings, things would get quite awkward between the two – almost to the point where they both decided to stop hanging out with their friends altogether; if not to avoid Toph's constant teasing then to just avoid the awkwardness that originated from unspoken and harboured feelings. Neither one of them had attempted to get back together, explain themselves or at the very least become best friends again – as that was the root of their relationship prior to dating. For an entire month, Katara and Aang would focus on their studies, practice their bending, and Aang would most likely be taking down gangs and preventing crimes while being chased by the Republic City Police Department (RCPD) for being a vigilante – while Katara would sit indoors, watching the slow and calm rain drops trace outlines on her dorm window, worrying whether the airbender she deeply loved was safe while Suki, Toph, and Jin argue in the background about which couple from that stupid Love Island tv-show was the cutest. Occasionally Katara would catch a glimpse of a hooded figure flying in the distance, airbending his way around the city, reminding her that although he was still out there, he was fine.

Aang also often found himself drowning in the endless wormhole of memories that he shared with his waterbending ex-girlfriend – unable to pull himself out of it unless he had to abruptly leave to save the day or if he remembered last minute that he had a 2500-word essay to complete which was often due at midnight – so in about three or four hours. Even though he practically forced himself to forget about her by avoiding her and his own friends, he never fully could ever commit to being away from her. Sometimes he'd wish that he had never made the decision to breakup with her in the first place, seeing as he could never not worry about Katara or wonder what she would be doing whenever she wasn't snuggling into his arms. However, now he was racing through the skies, shortly approaching the rendezvous point Katara had told him to meet her at. Sure enough, when he landed in an alleyway a couple meters away from the gigantic Christmas tree he saw her standing by, he was once again at awe by exactly how beautiful Katara was.

As he walked through the traffic – literally walked through the traffic, like not waiting for the green light and instead walking right up to her without taking his eyes off her – with the many honks coming from angry drivers in the distance, he found himself zoning out as the tunes of Song of Zula sweetly rang through his earphones. Upon closing in on her, he subconsciously smiled lightly as he took in her figure: she was wearing tight skinny jeans that were complemented by her white Air Max's, underneath her white jacket coat she wore a white button-up blouse with a blue, white, and light-yellow patterned scarf wrapped around her neck. Her outfit complemented her tanned skin perfectly, as well as allowing her chocolatey, smooth hair to dress around her coat and scarf beautifully. Through the numerous flocks of strangers passing by, once Aang crossed the road, he saw Katara sweetly smile in his direction, causing his heart to skip a few beats as he halted for a moment before continuing to make his way over to her.

Upon closing his proximity to her, Aang pressed pause and pulled out his earphones as he lost himself into those translucent cerulean eyes again, never wanting to look away for the life of him. However, as he approached her, he knew he had to dissolve the awkwardness right away, and so he found himself slightly grinning and laughing when trying to think of what to say.

"Hey" Aang stated while chuckling and mentally chiding himself, 'Hey'. That's the best you can do? Idiot!

"Hi", Katara responded, still sweetly smiling at him, Spirits he's so cute when he's nervous, she thought to herself.

After taking another moment to fully appreciate her beauty, Aang truthfully stated, "You look beautiful."

Grinning and slightly blushing herself, Katara dipped her head to hide her blush as she didn't want him to know that he still had that effect on her. After a moment of regaining her composure, Katara tilted her head back up to his height and responded, "I'm sorry for the last-minute phone call, it was kind of..." She trailed off but Aang reassured her right away.

"No, it's alright I... I wasn't doing anything anyways."

"Well, I just figured it was time..." Katara stated, losing herself in his cloudy grey eyes for a moment. However, once she noticed Aang was somewhat confused at what she was trying to say, she elaborated, "You know... time for us to be friends."

For a moment there, she wasn't sure but, Katara felt that she recognised a look of disappointment come across his face. Although she herself felt that it truly was time that they become friends again, she couldn't help but wonder if he – like her – wanted for them to be more one again. Thus, his somewhat disappointed expression made her both happy and optimistic; that maybe this would all work out in the end.

Collecting his thoughts after processing what Katara just said, Aang smiled and chuckled while responding in joy – feeling joyful that if they could no longer be together, even though he wanted to, they could at least be friends again. "Friends... yeah, no... that – that works." He couldn't help but slightly stutter near the end of his response, still marvelled at how nervous and yet excited that simple sweet smile of hers' could make him.

"I just don't want us to avoid each other... or make this any more awkward for our friends", Katara added. Trying to hide her hopes of them maybe reuniting as a couple as she secretly wanted him to work for it.

While shrugging his shoulders like it was obvious and no big deal, Aang replied, "Yeah, no I – I get that". It took a moment for him to regain his train of thought as he was once again mesmerised by those full-of-life cerulean eyes, however, once he did, he began slowing walking past her as she followed, walking beside him as he continued. "But uh... if were... if we're gonna be friends then uh... we need to establish some... some ground rules."

"Some ground rules?" Katara questioned while laughing and giggling. After Aang reassured her that he was definitely adamant on keeping his ground rules, Katara again questioned him, "Okay, like what?"

Without a second thought, Aang immediately answered, "That laugh."

"M-My laugh?"

"You're laugh is off the table..."

"Oh, my laugh is off the table?"

"Your laugh is most certainly off the table."

"I thought you loved my laugh..."

"You have to figure out a more annoying laugh."

Upon hearing his recommendation, Katara tried adopting her brother's legendary sense of humour – one which she clearly did not possess – and she hysterically laughed like a non-threatening, second-grade, cliché, chump of a movie villain. Aang took a moment to take in her cuteness before he broke into a laughter that only she could bring out of him. While they laughed together, Aang took a moment to relish the additional beauty the coloured Christmas lights provided her. Due to the time of the year, Aang and Katara were passing a marketplace in the open-aired Plaza which housed many ice-cream, gelato, coffee shops and cafés – ones that were all decorated with illuminating red, green, orange and blue lights. While the blue and orange tinted her coat and highlighted her smile, Aang flirted with Katara as he voiced his thoughts concerning her 'newfound, threatening and annoying' laugh:

"That's still adorable..." Aang stated while chuckling, which in turn caused Katara to laugh and giggle more so than usual.

While still giggling and grinning at Aang, she tried denying the obvious fact, "No its not adorable..." Aang simply nodded his head, keeping to his statement while she continued fighting, "No its not adorable. No, its not." Suddenly, upon realising that Aang was trying to get that specific reaction out of her by complimenting her in a flirtatious way, Katara thought she'd fire back and play games with the airbender. "Okay, I have a ground rule..."

"What?" Aang asked as they continued walking slowing to the hot chocolate kart they always used to buy off of whenever they spent time together in the past.

"Don't..." Katara thought for a second as she didn't actually have anything to fire back with, however upon analysing for a moment, she eventually continued, "Don't tell me... that I look beautiful. With your stupid big grey eyes." As she came to halt, stopping by the Christmas tree that illuminated the walkway while numerous friends, college kids, couples and strangers passed by, Aang turned around to face her – slightly raising his eyebrows and half-smiling yet half-smirking, delivering a message that Katara knew all too well. "I'm serious, Aang..." Katara half-lied while giggling, still being weak to 'the look' he'd often give her to fluster her.

Realising that she was trying to play along with his 'not thought out at all and completely initiated in the moment ground rule game', Aang decided to test the waters some more, "Well, that's gonna be a problem."

"How come?" Katara immediately fired back, not backing down from losing this little game of theirs'.

"Well, not a day goes by when you don't look absolutely gorgeous. And since the monks raised me to always speak my mind and be truthful, I can't not speak of your beauty."

Aang's reply caused an all to familiar heat to rise to Katara's cheeks, thus highlighting her glistening tan skin with a pink hue, one which she desperately tried to hide and yet was still caught by the goofy airbender. Realising he had again flustered her, Aang celebrated his victory with a smirk, but Katara did not back down.

"Aang..." Once she looked up and saw his shit-eating smirk, Katara playfully punched his shoulder before continuing, "these rules are non-negotiable."

Sighing in defeat, Aang continued walking and allowed her to win this time. As she followed him side-by-side, Aang noticed her tugging her hair slightly – something he came to understand after six months of dating, that Katara only tugged at her hair when she was extremely flustered or nervous. So, he decided to play with her some more.

"Oh, no. I just figured out the next ground rule."

"What?" Katara asked while chuckling, slightly amused and grateful that he wanted to keep the conversation going by continuing to play their little game.

"No more of that", Aang reached out and slightly and carefully tugged her hair while she chuckled at his absurd rule. "No more of this little hair thingy you do."

While playing with the long strands of her chocolate hair, Katara playfully replied, "What else am I supposed to do? I'm just... fixing it."

Trying to act highly offended by placing his hand by his heart and wincing in pain, Aang took a few steps back while playfully pouting and crying out sarcastically, "You... you just spat in the face of my very serious ground rules. I... I can't do this anymore..."

"Aang..." Katara called out while giggling, Spirits, he's still such a goofball, she thought to herself while running after him.

Once Katara caught up to Aang, they both waited in line to order their hot chocolate while Katara announced her next ground rule, "No more of this little neck rub that you do. You can't do that anymore. I know you only do it when you're nervous."

Smirking to himself, Aang thought he'd keep flirting with her and see where it leads, "Well if you stop being so adorable and stop looking so drop-dead gorgeous, then maybe I'll stop being so nervous around you."

"Aang!" Katara exclaimed while she once again nudged his shoulder, this time however, not even trying to hide her deep blush. "What did I tell you about calling me beautiful or gorgeous, these rules are non-negotiable."

Aang simply giggled in response as she giggled alongside him. Shrugging it off, they moved up the line and ordered their traditional hot chocolate beverages. While waiting for their drinks, the lady making them turned around and said, "You two are a very lovely couple", while holding out their beverages for them.

Aang and Katara both blushed wildly at her not so untruthful assumption, noticing that while waiting, they would occasionally steal glances at each other. Yet, upon receiving his drink, Aang was going to correct the lady and tell her that they were 'just friends', but Katara beat him to it. Her response and the action that followed it however, was one he had not expected just yet...

"Thanks!" She exclaimed, while grabbing her hot chocolate with her left hand and taking Aang's hand with her right, intertwining their fingers and dragging him along before he had the chance to respond himself.

Aang wondered why she didn't allow him to correct the lady or why she didn't correct her herself, and he knew this would a perfect opportunity to tease her, but he opted to show some mercy and just quietly followed along – taking sips of his warming and delicious hot chocolate while being dragged by the waterbender he least expected to be spending this lovely night with.

"And yeah. So, I finished that and... I got, completely addicted to this place that serves Jasmine Tea."

"Yeah, I know. It's great." Aang replied, taking a sip of his hot chocolate as Katara beamed at him.

"Have you been there?" She asked, slightly surprised that Aang seemed to know the specific restaurant that she was talking about.

"The Jasmine Dragon, its a few blocks away from your dorm, I know, you love it there." Aang mentally cringed and chided himself as soon as that statement came out of his mouth. As he began walking to a small tree to his left, Katara trailed behind while narrowing her eyes slightly.

"How do you know that?"

"Huh?" He tried to play dumb while he turned his back to Katara to hide his blushing face.

"How do you know I love it there?"

While swinging around the small tree in the hopes that she'll tell him to stop and let it go, Aang suddenly had no choice but to respond as she cut him off and stared him in the eye with a small smirk tugging at her velvet lips.

"Because ummm..." Aang cleared his throat, trying to deepen his voice so he could sound somewhat more convincing, "because you told me."

Taking another sip of her hot chocolate, Katara narrowed her eyes once again as her smirk grew wider, "The place just opened last week."

Knowing that he was caught, Aang tried to hide his embarrassment behind that small and short tree log. Katara's eyes continued to hone-in on the airbender in front of her while a small smile overtook the smirk that was previously tugging at her lips. After taking a moment to consider all possibilities, her eyes widened and she opened her mouth slightly in an O' shape as to express her surprise and shock at her sudden realisation; Katara and Aang had avoided each other for an entire month, which also meant no verbal or online communication between the two. So, there was no way for him to know that she grew a liking to a restaurant that only recently opened unless...

"Have you been following me?" She asked, while playfully pointing an accusing finger towards him. Aang couldn't find himself to speak in the fear that he'll stutter or forget his words which would further embarrass him. So, while still trying to hide his blush behind the tree, he slowly nodded 'yes', causing Katara to giggle at his growing embarrassment at being caught. Aang, when he wasn't studying or spending time catching criminals and stopping gang wars, would often find himself subconsciously looking out for Katara; watching over her as he would any regular civilian... only, she wasn't any regular civilian – at least not to him.

"How often?"

After looking away for a brief moment, Aang found a second wind and with new built-up courage, he opted to reply truthfully rather than try to lie – as even though she wasn't Toph, Katara would often be able to see through his rare yet occasional lies. "Just once a day... sometimes more."

Blushing herself, Katara looked away for a moment to regain her composure before returning to face him with another question, a curious yet sweet smile still tugging her lips.

"Why?" She asked. Not knowing if she would like his answer, Aang opted to stay quiet and shrug his shoulders while smiling back at her. So, she questioned him again, "To make sure I'm safe?" Katara asked while placing her cup of hot chocolate down on the flat railing right beside her, not taking her eyes off his and leaning closer to him while she did it.

"Yeh", Aang answered softly. However, even though he knew this would be a risky thing to say, he wanted her to know just how much their relationship and she herself means to him. So, still speaking softly, Aang lovingly replied while moving away from the tree and standing directly in front of Katara, "But also cause it's the closest I can get to still being with you..."

Not needing to hear anything else, Katara stood on her tiptoes, snaked her left arm around Aang's neck and pulled him down to her soft velvet lips. Although somewhat surprised, Aang relished at the feeling of her lips on his as he wrapped both his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him as he kissed her back passionately. Realising there was still some obstruction, Katara reached out behind her and grabbed the cup containing hot chocolate from Aang's hands and placed it on the railing next to hers. Now fulling being able to embrace her, Aang tilted his head slightly to deepen the kiss as he leaned further down and allowed Katara to stand on her feet properly. Snaking her other arm around his neck now, Katara also tilted her head and slid her tongue in his mouth, moaning at the delightful mixture of warm hot chocolate and Aang himself that she tasted immediately. As Aang and Katara's tongues clashed for dominance, they both couldn't help but think simultaneously, this is exactly how I wanted this night to go.

After several minutes of making out, the two lovers finally pulled away and sighed in relief simultaneously, both benders thoroughly enjoying and appreciating how one simple phone call led to all this. Grinning madly at her, Aang decided to break the silence in the only way he knew how:

"Well, this certainly breaks all our ground rules."

Giggling at her airbender, Katara opted to rather lessen the talking as she craved something else entirely, "Shut up and kiss me."

Smiling back, Aang obliged while softly whispering, "Yes mam", before smashing his lips against hers. Moaning at the taste of her candy-tasting tongue as she slips it into his mouth once again, Aang gently wraps his arms around Katara, tightening his grip before he lifts her off her feet. While doing so, Katara again wrapped an arm around Aang's strong neck, her hand caressing the back of his neck while her other hand played with and tugged at his dark brown hair, something she had grown accustomed to doing during the previous six months of dating.

As the two continued making out under the moonlight, their figures slightly illuminated by the glowing green, red, blue and orange lights, they both couldn't help but wonder, maybe separating was the mistake, and loving the solution.