Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender

Author's Note: Chapter 9 review responses are at the end. We get to see Iroh's point of view for the first time! And my husband would like me to mention that he was grabbing me while I was trying to write the first portion of this chapter. Don't ask me why; he's weird. He also suggested that a disembodied voice shout "Tell her you love her!" to Aang, per denythefreshmaker's review for Chapter 7.

Illuminations

Iroh was surprised when the young waterbender, Katara, approached him after he had given Aang his second firebending lesson.

"Um, Iroh?" she said nervously. "Can I talk to you for a minute? Privately?"

Intrigued, Iroh nodded and waved off his nephew, who was expecting his own lesson. Zuko would probably fume for a while, but he'd get over it. Katara led Iroh back to their campsite. Sokka was the only one there, except for the two animals.

"Could you give us a little privacy?" Katara asked her brother pointedly, in a tone that indicated it was not a question. Sokka gave her a long-suffering expression and threw his arms into the air.

"Fine, just kick me out of my own campsite," he said, standing up. "I should go hunting anyway. It would be nice to have some fresh meat."

As he went off into a nearby grove of ash trees, Katara began building up the campfire. Iroh obliged her by lighting it, and she bent some water into a kettle and set it to boil.

"I have jasmine tea," she told him. "I think that's your favorite?"

Iroh raised a curious eyebrow at her and smiled.

"Do you want something?"

"Just a little advice, maybe," she replied with a small smile.

"I'll do what I can. Shall we make ourselves comfortable?" They both sat down. Katara fidgeted anxiously. Now that she had him here, she didn't seem to know how to begin. Iroh regarded her patiently.

"It's just…I wonder…you've been in love before, right?" she began at last.

"Once or twice," he said cautiously.

"Well, what I'm wondering is, how did you know? I mean, how can you tell?"

"I take it this isn't merely idle speculation?" Iroh suggested, trying not to betray any reaction. If she was saying what he thought, Aang's outlook was promising indeed. However, he would have to proceed carefully.

"No, I mean, I've considered the possibility that I might be…but I have no idea what it would feel like, the signs to look for."

The teakettle whistled its readiness. Iroh used the distraction to weigh his answer. He removed the kettle from the heat and poured the water over the prepared tea leaves to steep.

"Love can affect people in different ways," he started. "The main thing that always seems constant is that you care about someone else more than you care about yourself. You would gladly sacrifice something of yours to spare them. Their pain is your pain, and their happiness is your happiness." Katara nodded thoughtfully but said nothing. Iroh left her to her thoughts for a moment, as he considered how far he might push her.

"Then, there's what I call the 'one great love,'" he added, checking for the girl's reaction. She seemed both curious and a little fearful.

"What is that?"

"Well, not everyone believes in it, my nephew for one," Iroh replied, handing her a cup of tea. Katara impatiently waved him to continue. "My own theory is that everyone comes into the world broken."

"Broken? What do you mean?" Katara asked, clearly very interested. Iroh looked around and grasped a stick of firewood that lay beside him and broke it in half.

"Look at this stick," he instructed, showing her the rough edges of one half where it had split. "We are like this, broken, with jagged edges inside, except we don't know we're broken. We feel perfectly fine, until we find the person who completes us." He put the two halves together, indicating how all the shattered pieces matched up to make the stick appear whole again. "Only then do you realize how incomplete you were before. Each person's strengths balance the weaknesses of the other, and if you must be separated, you notice the lack."

Katara's eyes widened as he made this speech, and she suddenly jumped up and began pacing. Iroh calmly allowed her to finish her line of thought.

"Earth, air, and water," she swore softly, still pacing.

"What, no fire?" he asked archly. That got Katara to stand still for a moment and cast him a rueful glance.

"Where I come from, to swear by fire is the worst possible curse."

"Yes, I suppose it would be," Iroh responded, feeling a sudden sadness come over him. Trying to push it aside, he inquired, "Do you think this has happened to you?"

"I think it's possible," she conceded, after a pause.

"Excellent!" Iroh could not hide his gladness at this. He was surprised, therefore, when Katara whirled on him, angry.

"Excellent? How can you say it's excellent?"

"Isn't it?" Iroh returned, retreating into his former caution. "Many people go through their lives without ever experiencing this. You are fortunate to find it so young." The girl's anger appeared to evaporate as quickly as it had flared.

"I suppose, when you put it that way, but it's…it's…"

"Inconvenient?"

"Very."

"It usually is."

Katara paced a while longer before settling back to the ground.

"I can't tell him," she announced, looking off to the side. "He has so many burdens already. I can't add another."

Iroh observed her for a long moment. He admired her strength of character, and it occurred to him that the Avatar had made an excellent choice.

"Perhaps you should consider something," Iroh gently interrupted her reverie. "If you tell him, and he does not feel the same, it will be an added burden, true. But suppose he does feel the same? In that case, you would be removing one from him instead."

Katara looked sharply at him, as though this had never occurred to her.

"How could that be?"

"Well, if he is truly your other half, it follows that you would also be his."

"But, how can he be broken? He's the Avatar!" Katara gasped as she realized she had finally completely confessed. She seemed relieved when Iroh expressed no surprise.

"Certainly, but each life is a distinct individual."

"I…I just don't know."

"I understand that this is a difficult thing for you to accept so young," Iroh acknowledged. "For both of you, perhaps. Just think about it."

"I will," she promised.

Over the next week or so, the companions fell into a routine: firebending in the morning, earthbending in the middle of the day, and waterbending in the evening, with travel at intervals in between. This schedule was particularly grueling for Aang, who was the only one that had to be present for every lesson. Consequently, Katara or Sokka would usually take the reins while they flew to give Aang a mental and physical break.

Katara worried that Aang might be pushing himself too hard. She understood the need for urgency, and she could appreciate his dedication, but she also saw the way he collapsed every night, falling into deep sleep almost as soon as he lay down. She supposed she could be grateful he no longer seemed troubled by dreams, but she wondered how long he could keep up this pace.

One evening, Aang seemed unusually distracted as they were working on his waterbending.

"I think that's enough for today," Katara announced. "Why don't we sit and talk for a little while?" Aang looked surprised at first, but his expression quickly changed to one of gratitude. That gave Katara a fluttery feeling in her stomach that was becoming all too familiar. Aang air-dried them both, and they dressed and seated themselves on the riverbank.

"Is something bothering you?" she asked him, once they were comfortably settled, facing one another.

"Actually, yes," he admitted with a sigh. "Tomorrow's the day Iroh will be asking me to wield actual fire for the first time."

"You're worried?"

"Not so much worried as…scared, I guess."

"About what?" Katara was genuinely confused. Aang looked at her in astonishment.

"I just can't forget what happened last time," he said, lowering his gaze. All of a sudden, Katara got it. How could she not have noticed that he'd never attempted to manipulate fire since? In the excitement over learning about her healing ability, she had honestly almost forgotten that Aang had burned her. She felt terrible that she'd failed to realize how much that had affected him, but she had a chance now to make it right.

"Give me your hands," she ordered, offering her own to him. Aang tilted his head at her questioningly. "Do you trust me?" she challenged. Unhesitatingly, he placed his hands in hers, and she tried to ignore the tingle she felt at the contact.

Katara felt a surge of love – she could no longer deny it – at this display of his faith in her. She also felt a little guilty about having pulled that trick, since she'd been fairly certain what his response would be, but she thought this was important. She looked down at the tattoos on his hands.

"That must really have hurt," she commented, wondering why she'd never considered before the extent of pain he must have endured to be so marked.

"It did," he confessed. "Mostly afterward, though."

"Really?" Katara knew she was allowing herself to get distracted, but she was truly curious.

"Yeah. After the first few needles go in, your body kind of goes into shock, and you don't feel the rest. The next day, I could hardly move, though."

"Why did you get so much?"

"I don't know," Aang shrugged. "It just seemed like the right pattern at the time."

Symmetry, Katara thought. He may not have known he was the Avatar then, but a part of him had an inkling of the balance he would one day represent to the world.

"You know, you could actually say that your hands are more scarred than mine," she said, returning to the topic at hand. To illustrate this, she turned their joined hands over to reveal her unblemished skin. "Maybe we need to lose control of our abilities once or twice. Maybe it happens for a reason. After all, if I hadn't lost control of my bending, Sokka and I might never have found you."

"That's what happened?" Aang sounded surprised. Katara realized that she had never told him this part of the story. Not so astonishing, once she thought about it. Her temper played a key role, and it was not her favorite feature.

"Yes," she replied. "I was angry with Sokka for, well, a lot of stupid things, really. I lost my temper, and my out-of-control bending cracked the iceberg."

Aang just looked at her in amazement. Katara laughed a little.

"You know, that's almost exactly the expression Sokka had on his face when it happened. Anyway, if I hadn't lost control then, we might not have the hope of saving the world from Fire Lord Ozai now. And if you hadn't lost control of firebending once, I may never have learned I had the power to heal."

Aang looked as though he wanted to disagree with her, but then he reconsidered and smiled broadly. To Katara, it was as bright as though midday had inexplicably returned to their little piece of the world, and she couldn't help but smile back.

"Thanks, Katara," he said instead. "I think I needed to hear that." Unable to restrain herself any longer, Katara pulled him into a quick hug. It also forced her to let go of his hands, which she was afraid she might not be able to do otherwise. When she pulled back, she grinned at Aang mischievously.

"I seem to remember a wise bender once telling me that, to be a bender, you have to let go of fear," she teased him.

"I did say that, didn't I?' he remarked with a sheepish grin of his own. "I guess I should take my own advice."

The pair found that no more needed to be said. They simply sat there in companionable silence for a while longer and watched the sun set.

Sokka woke in the night and walked to the top of a hill. He didn't know what had awakened him, usually a very deep sleeper, but he felt almost summoned here. He sat down on the ground and looked at the nearly-full moon. At last, he spoke his thoughts aloud.

"Yue, I need you to let me go. I loved you. I guess part of me always will. But I'm still here, and you're…well, unreachable." He paused, feeling a little silly and wondering exactly what he thought he was doing. "I just wish there was some way you could show me it was okay to move on. A sign, or something."

Of course, that was impossible. Princess Yue could see half the earth right now, and there was no way she could know he was trying to talk to her. Just then, though, a strange, wispy cloud floated in front of the glowing orb. Sokka frowned; he hadn't seen any clouds at all when he'd first arrived here. The moon seemed to glow more brightly through the ragged shape. Curious, Sokka looked down at the ground, where the moonlight was falling in slender beams through the cloud's shadow. To his surprise, he found what looked for all the world like a single, written symbol: "go."

Author's Note: Since they use Asian characters in the show, I thought this last bit might actually work. It might be a little farfetched, but it seemed such a beautiful scene when it popped into my head. If you don't like it, well, at least it's short.

Review responses:

Thank you to Ari-Griffin, icefire108, and avatarkataang for your support.

MyrmidonGuy and frozenheat: Thanks you guys! It seems like every time I'm afraid a chapter is kind of slow and not that interesting, one or both of you claims it as a favorite, so I'm glad!

xenus: Well, the voice-in-your-head thing didn't originate with me, but I think I handled it creatively. Glad you liked it!

xXxEndangeredSpeciesxXx: Yes, I love Shakespeare! That arguing in her head just popped into my mind, and I had to use it.

Kairuthefrog: I don't really remember much about 12-year-olds when I was that age, but I do remember a few relationships kicking off.

SilvrImage: I'm impressed you could read all of it in essentially one sitting! I surprised myself when I realized how long it had become. I think I can close it out with about 14 chapters, but we'll see.

SnakeEyes16: I'm glad you found it, too. You might say I decided to write this because I love the Kataang ship and it didn't seem there was enough high-quality work in that category. It's grown since I started, but I'm still glad I'm doing this.

denythefreshmaker: Watch your language:) Hey, Iroh's getting food and jasmine tea in compensation. If they find him a woman, he'll have just about everything he wants out of life.