A/N: Hi Friends! I apologize for the long wait for this chapter. But finally it is here! I had hoped to get the entire resolution into this chapter, but alas, the content was just too long, so there will be one final chapter after this one. I won't have it up next Tuesday (as I have family in town that day), but I do hope to have it posted by the end of next week. Then this story will be complete!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

….

Standing together on the dormant volcanic rim of Caldera City, Aang and Katara grasped one another tightly. It was only a temporary hiatus—they needed to get further away, and soon—but the relief Katara felt to finally hold Aang to her, to hug him and feel for herself that he was safe, was a balm her frayed nerves could hardly believe. Her arms had been aching for him for weeks, so she clung to him tightly. Her lips met his temple and he buried his head further into her collarbone.

I'm here. I've got you. We're safe!

Aang took a deep, shuddering breath and whispered into her neck, "I'm so sorry, Katara."

"Shhh," Katara tried to shush him. "There's nothing you need to be sorry for—"

But Aang was persistent. "No, I need you to know." He straightened and took a step back, keeping her hands in his and looking earnestly into her eyes. "I'm sorry for so many things. I'm sorry that I didn't believe you that day. And I'm sorry I put you in danger tonight. I'm sorry about my engagement…"

"I knew you hated it, Aang," Katara spoke softly. "I knew it wasn't what you wanted."

"You're right. I didn't want it. But it still wasn't right. It wasn't who I am, or who I want to be, and I am sorry, because it betrayed you, Katara. And my feelings for you…" On this last declaration, Aang looked downward, an adorable bashfulness coloring his expression.

Katara's hand cupped Aang's cheek, calling his eyes back to her. "I'm sorry too, Aang. There was so much I wish I could have explained. I should have told you the truth sooner."

"Oh yeah… the truth…" Aang's eyes darted to the side unsurely, but he pulled her close anyway. "I'm just relieved you are okay!" Aang said, cradling her head against his chest. "When I came for you, and you weren't there—" Aang's voice broke.

"But I am here now," Katara soothed.

Aang answered by squeezing her tighter.

They both breathed deeply as though it could unload the terror and anxiety the last few hours had held, exhaling relief at the other's safety.

But the moment was fleeting. A loud explosion brought their heads snapping back towards the city. A funnel of black smoke plumed skyward in a region south of the palace. Thirty seconds later, another explosion erupted, followed shortly afterward by another. Even from this distance, Katara and Aang could see the commotion and the glow of fires as they consumed the buildings.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"I don't know," Aang said warily as he pulled Katara's hand back towards Appa. "But let's get out of here."

From the sky, Katara glanced back again in time to see one more explosion from the dark city, adding another burning glow in the line like red-hot links on a chain pulled from the blacksmith's fire.

She then turned her face away from Caldera City, and didn't look back again.

….

They flew for a long time. At first they flew east over the ocean, but after about half an hour Katara noticed that Aang directed Appa to turn in a large arc back towards the west.

"What are you doing?" Katara yelled over the rushing wind. "Shouldn't we keep going east? Why are you turning back to the Fire Nation?!"

"We have to meet up with someone," Aang yelled back to her, his concentration divided as he worked his arms in wide continuous circles, airbending to aid Appa in his flight. "I flew east first to lead any followers to think that we headed for the Earth Kingdom."

Meet up with who? Katara wanted to ask, but she could see how exhausted Aang was and how his efforts to airbend with Appa was taking his full attention, so she swallowed her questions.

Katara wasn't sure how long they flew—she drifted in and out of an exhausted sleep as she laid on her stomach, gripping the fur on Appa's back—but when a drop in altitude awoke her, the sun was already hanging full and low over the ocean behind them.

As they flew downward, the drop in her stomach reminded her-with a matching drop of her heart-that she had left someone behind. Someone she had come to rescue in the first place.

She'd known she had to leave this time, that she'd had no choice—she couldn't help Sokka if she was dead—but leaving him behind had been awful. And as the sun rose, her failure to her brother hit her with new weight.

Appa landed on the beach heavily, clearly exhausted. Aang, looking equally spent, slipped from his head and trudged heavily towards the tree line, leading his tired bison after him. "Come on, Appa. Let's get you in the shade of the trees. We can't afford for you to be seen."

Once Appa was safely hidden in the thick jungle foliage, the great sky bison collapsed, turning his face under his front paw to sleep. Katara gently let herself down from his back and approached Aang who was now back on the sand, scanning the beach while he shaded his eyes with his hand.

"Where are they?" he asked under his breath.

"Who?"

"Mai!" Aang said a bit anxiously, still scanning the shoreline. "And Sokka, of course."

At hearing her brother's name, Katara took a step backward in shock. "Sokka?!"

"Yeah," Aang said, dropping his hand to look at her. "I knew you wouldn't leave without him, and I couldn't leave without you. I told Mai I wouldn't leave without your brother."

"You knew— how did you—?!"

"You told me you had a brother in the Fire Nation. And I kind of, worked it out from there…" Aang shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck sort of awkwardly. Suddenly a look of uncertainty flashed on his face. "Sokka is your brother… right?"

Katara bit her trembling lip and nodded, astounded and impressed that Aang had worked out both who her brother was and that he had somehow arranged for his rescue. A deep well of gratitude for Aang and his selflessness began to fill inside her. Aang could have left. On his own. Without her. Without Sokka. But he hadn't.

Aang's expression turned to concern when he saw the tears in her eyes. "He'll be okay, Katara. We'll find him. We're later than we were supposed to be, but they have to still be here. Mai wouldn't have left without us…" His words sounded more wishful than sure.

Katara was of course concerned about finding Sokka and this Mai, but Aang had mistaken the meaning of her emotion. Walking out of the trees to meet Aang on the beach, she lifted her hand to his face. "Aang, you have no idea how much… I mean, I can't express… You're more than I…"

She couldn't seem to finish any sentence she started. So instead she pulled Aang's forehead down to her own and whispered softly, "Thank you."

Her closeness caused Aang's breath to hitch, every bit of his attention suddenly alert and focused on her. His eyelids slid half-closed, and she felt his warm breath brush her skin. He wanted her, it was obvious, but still he waited—waited for her to decide what to do with the charged air between them. Katara could sense his restraint, his chest rising and falling with each breath.

They had kissed before, on the palace rooftop that night that now felt like a lifetime ago. That kiss had been so new and naive, all elation and spontaneity. But in hindsight, sitting alone in her cell night after night, she had wondered if it had been a mistake.

Falling in love with Aang had taken Katara by surprise, sneaking up on her like a snowstorm in June. But now she was ready, to make a conscious choice, one that she had already had plenty of time to contemplate in her cell, when her broken heart had refused to mend.

She knew what she was doing, and she had no reservations left.

So it was deliberate when she captured Aang's bottom lip between hers, drawing a ragged breath from his mouth. Softly and slowly, she kissed him again, and then again—unhurried but each touch dense with meaning.

This kiss was different from their first—like the difference between a kiss given before and after a war. Katara knew in her head that there was still war raging ahead of them, more fighting to be done, but for them, right now in this moment, it felt like victory was already theirs.

Aang's restraint quickly gave way and his responding kiss held an enthusiasm that was far less reserved, his hands bracketing her hips and pulling her closer as his lips rediscovered hers. Katara's head began to spin as she drank him in, long and intoxicating.

"Seeing as he's an airbender, Katfish, I don't know that trying to suffocate the Avatar is likely to work…"

A hot spike of annoyance at the interruption flared in Katara, as she and Aang jumped apart in embarrassed surprise.

But when her eyes fell on the man who had interrupted them—yes he was a man now—her hand flew to her mouth! Even after all these years, Sokka was unmistakable. Through her emotion, Katara half-laughed half-sobbed, noting how fitting it was that her first reaction at being reunited with Sokka again had been irritation.

"Sokka!" she cried and launched herself over the sand and into her brother's arms!

….

Sokka could hardly believe that the woman hugging him tightly was his baby sister. It had been so long—he had lost so much time—that Katara was a full grown woman now.

"Sokka! I can't believe it's you!" Katara's voice sounded wet.

Katara pulled back and looked at him—her eyes the exact same shade as their father's, her hair still done in loopies on her forehead like their Gran Gran, and the expression on her face looking so much like their mother he had to remind himself that this was Katara—and suddenly all of what Sokka had lost came barreling down on him. For so many years he had resigned himself to the fact that his people were all gone. But here was Katara, right here! And he wasn't alone anymore. The realization brought tears to his eyes that he tried hastily to blink away.

"It's uh," Sokka swallowed, trying to keep his voice level. "It's been a long time, Katfish."

Katara's voice broke in an exasperated sob, tears streaming down her cheeks. "You know I hate it when you call me Katfish."

Sokka chuckled past the emotion clogging his throat. "Yeah. I know."

To keep himself from blubbering as much as his sister, Sokka forced his eyes away from her, over her shoulder to where Aang stood. His eyes narrowed. His distrust of the kid, and what he had just seen him doing with his sister, distracted him, drying his eyes.

Sokka straightened up to his full height and pinned Aang with an Avatar-or-not-you-touch-my-sister-again-and-I'll-string-you-up look. Sokka was gratified to see Aang squirm.

"It's uh, good to see you again, Sokka," Aang said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Long time no see, huh?" he laughed awkwardly.

Sokka narrowed his eyes further. "Yeah. It's been ages. Oh wait, no, it was just a few hours ago. At your wedding. Can't say that I'm happy to see you macking on my sister so soon after your failed nuptials."

"Sokka!" Katara interjected aghast, stepping away from him and placing her hands judgmentally on her hips—looking so much like herself it made his heart pang. "You leave Aang alone! Aang is… he's the reason you are here right now!"

"That's only partly true," a droll, raspy voice said. The gloomy girl Sokka had just met tonight (when she, wearing a terrifying blue mask, had startled him awake in his dorm at the R&D department with a knife at his throat and a hand over his mouth, demanding that he stay quiet and come with her) soon emerged from the shadows of the trees. "The other reason is right behind me."

"Oh Aangy!" Ty Lee's expressive voice enthused as she bounded from the trees. "You made it! We were getting soooo worried!" Sokka's new girlfriend—at least he presumed that's what she was to him by now—threw her arms tightly around Aang's neck. "We've been searching all over for you! When you didn't come by sunrise, Mai threatened to leave."

When all eyes turned to Mai, she shrugged. "I knew we weren't your only appointment at sunrise," Mai said to Aang, deadpan. "Wondered if maybe you'd decided to stay and get married instead." Sokka couldn't tell if she was joking or not-he still didn't have a good read on the terrifying, yet perpetually bored girl-in-black.

"Yeah, glad I'm not doing that right now…" Aang laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck again. "Thanks for waiting for me, Mai."

"I would have left you," Mai said dryly. "But then I would have had to explain to everyone at base why I'd come back with two unsanctioned rescues while the one I was sent to retrieve wasn't with me. I just didn't want to have to deal with that kind of drama," she finished with a sigh.

Aang chuckled and cleared his throat awkwardly. "I wouldn't want to inconvenience you like that, Mai."

"You always inconvenience me, Aang." Mai sighed, but Sokka sensed a hint of tease underneath her outward annoyance.

Aang turned to Sokka. "I really am glad to see you. When we left Caldera City, there were some explosions. It looked like they came from the Research & Development Department… I'd just hoped you'd gotten out before then."

"Oh that," Sokka said with a pish, trying for nonchalance while feeling a wonderful vindictive satisfaction knowing that his bombs had worked. "That was just my parting gift to the R&D department."

"What?!" Katara asked nonplussed.

"If you think I hadn't been planning ways to blow that place up since I got there then you're missing a few screws," Sokka said defensively. Then changing to a joking tone, "I'm just glad to hear it went off as I'd planned!"

Sokka wasn't at all bothered that he was the only one who laughed at his joke.

"But farewell, Leila! I'll miss you everyday!" Sokka said solemnly as he placed his hand over his heart.

Ty Lee's hands went to her hips. "Who is Leila?" she asked.

Sokka had named his tool belt Leila, and he was indeed sure he would miss her. But the jealousy in Ty Lee's large eyes made him flash her a charming smile and a flirtatious wink. "No need to worry, Ty. Not even Leila could compare with you."

"Aww," Ty Lee gushed and slipped under Sokka's arm, wrapping her arms around his waist. She fit warmly there and Sokka did not mind her body pressed against his own.

"Ugh," Mai complained, consciously turning away from them. She then ran her eyes over Aang. "You look like crap, Aang."

Aang laughed lightly, rubbing his shoulder, the short chain at his wrist swinging softly. "I don't doubt it. I feel pretty crappy, too."

Katara placed her hand on Aang's shoulder. He turned and smiled at her, covering her hand with his own as the two of them gazed sappily at one another. Sokka nearly gagged.

"I take it things didn't go according to plan?" Mai asked, looking significantly at the handcuffs on Aang's wrists.

"Nope."

"Well I'm not surprised. Your plan sucked," she stated, holding out her hand towards him. "Gimme that."

"What?" Aang asked.

Mai pulled something small and sharp out of her hair and motioned to his hand. "Let me see your handcuffs."

Aang removed his hand from Katara's and dropped it into Mai's outstretched hand. The gloomy girl went right to work picking the lock on his wrist, which a moment later dropped into the sand with a muffled thud. She then started working on the other one.

When the second cuff fell from Aang's wrist, he rubbed his forearms gratefully. "Thanks, Mai!" He then looked at Sokka's little sister with a dopey smile. "Could you help Katara too?"

Mai looked at Katara with steely impasse, before holding out her hand blankly. Katara reluctantly placed her wrist in Mai's offered hand.

"Hi, Mai. I'm Katara."

"You don't say," she replied, her gravely voice a dry huff.

"So," Katara began, "who are you exactly?"

Mai glanced up at her with a small smirk. "I'm Zuko's girlfriend."

Katara visibly startled, before fumbling a response. "Oh! I didn't know that Zuko… was with someone… again…" Katara covered her initial flustered response with an attempt at a warm welcome. "Well, I'm glad for him… and you," she added hastily. "Zuko and I go way back. We traveled together for a long time."

"Yeah. So I've heard," Mai replied cooly.

Katara's restraints dropped into the sand, and she rubbed her wrists as well. "Is Zuko okay?" she asked, her voice a touch contrite. Sokka wasn't sure how his sister knew this Zuko fellow, but he could tell that they had some sort of history she seemed regretful about.

"Besides being worried sick about you? Yeah. He's fine," Mai answered. "I'm sure he will be delighted when he sees that you are one of the three 'bonus prizes' I picked up from the Royal City."

Mai then added dryly, "I'd have preferred a bag of fire-flakes myself…"

Katara's eyes narrowed at the black-haired girl's slight, but Mai simply stared back at her from under the shadow of her bangs.

"Zuko didn't know you were coming to get me?" Ty Lee asked in surprise, breaking the tension.

"Nope." Mai replied without elaboration.

"Well I'm sure he will be glad to see all of us," Katara insisted obstinately.

"Whatever," Mai dismissed. She then turned to the whole group. "Okay people, let's get out out of here." She turned toward the tree line where they had hidden the war balloon. "The fact that the sun has already risen will not do us any favors, but we've got to get moving anyway."

Sokka turned to follow her. "Where exactly are we going?"

Only her golden eyes shifted his way. "That's classified."

"Shouldn't I know where we are headed? These balloons can take some muscle to steer, and I like to drive."

Sokka had learned long ago that most women didn't take kindly to any male posturing—and frankly he'd met enough women since leaving home that could knock him flat to have largely change his chauvinist views anyway—but it didn't stop him from pushing a few buttons, testing this Mai. Seemed like a good way to get a better read on who he was traveling with.

Mai only looked dismissively at him. "If I had my way, you wouldn't even be here. So do your best to stay out of the way, will you?" She then flashed the fakest, most patronizing smile Sokka had ever seen, before walking blankly past him.

Sokka chuckled. It looked like Mai was not someone to cross.

"Let's move people," she commanded again. Everyone began to move toward the tree line.

Everyone except one person, that is.

"Heh, heh, um… about that…"

They all turned toward the Avatar who laughed nervously from his unmoved place on the beach.

Mai turned a dangerous look upon him. "About what, Aang?"

"Well, um, I won't be coming with you."

"What?" the question whistled sharply at him like a knife. Mai pinned The Avatar with her cutting glare.

"I'm not returning with you to Zuko right now," he said a little more confidently, despite Mai's withering scowl. "There's something I need to do first."

"You've got to be kidding me." Mai pinched the bridge of her nose. "Where do you plan to go?"

"Um… that's classified?" Aang laughed clearly trying to make a joke. But Mai just glared harder.

"You know what we've just gone through to break you out of there? And now you refuse to come with me?!" The words were low, but more impassioned than anything else Sokka had heard Mai say. "Aang, I'm going to kill you."

"As much as I wholeheartedly believe that you could in fact kill me… I still can't come with you right now."

Katara returned to Aang's side and slipped her hand into his. "What do you need to do, Aang?" she asked closely (too closely, Sokka felt).

"I'll, um, tell you later?" he said, tipping his head to remind her of the other three listening.

"And how do you expect to find the hidden Rebellion later, Aang?" Mai asked exasperated. "Once you've finished whatever vacation you feel you need to take first, that is."

"You could just… tell me where it is?" Aang asked with a hopeful smile.

"Classified," Mai stated flatly.

"But couldn't you just fudge a little on—"

"No, Aang. No." Mai interrupted, clearly annoyed. "I can't just 'fudge' on disclosing the location of the entire Rebellion. Up until yesterday, they weren't even sure whether they wanted to eliminate you or rescue you, Aang. Master Piandao gave the go-ahead on 'rescue protocol' on a hunch but he very well could have given a different order… So, no. No I can't give you the location of the Rebellion!"

"I can show him," Katara said, straitening up. "I'll go with Aang to… wherever it is he's going, and then bring him to the Rebellion afterwards."

"No." Mai and Sokka both said together, before talking over one another: "The Rebellion needs Aang now" and "Katara, I don't trust him with you."

But Katara only lifted her chin obstinately. "Just give me the code name for the location, and I'll know it."

Mai and Katara stared one another down for a long time.

"I know the Rebellion inside and out. I helped start it." Katara prodded. "Just give me the code. That way we could do without all of the drama and just get on our ways."

Sokka was standing close enough to hear Mai mutter under her breath. "I could do without all of you and your dumb-ash opinions."

But what she finally said loud enough for all to hear was, "Relics."

Katara nodded in apparent understanding. "We will meet you there when we're done."

Aang reached out a hand to Katara. "I really appreciate you… being willing to come with me, Katara, but… it's not exactly a happy thing I've got to do. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she said kindly. "I want to come with you."

The Avatar nodded in grateful acceptance.

"Alight, I'm done with this," Mai said turning back towards the trees.

"Have fun you two!" Ty Lee winked at Aang and Katara as she skipped to link elbows with Mai, who's resulting groan could be heard even from inside the shade of the trees.

But Sokka wasn't satisfied. "Excuse us a minute," Sokka said to Aang as he took Katara by the arm and led her away.

"Listen," he whispered urgently to her once they were out of range of the Avatar's hearing. "You don't owe him anything, Katara. Don't feel obligated—"

"Sokka, stop. I'm a big girl now. I can take care of myself."

"I know," he affirmed blinking fast, as that annoying swelling caught in his throat again. "I know that. I just… I don't want you to be hurt… or used…"

Katara shook her head firmly. "Aang would never do that to me." She then pulled her big brother into another hug. "Aang is one of the best people I've ever known. You can trust him."

Sokka squeezed his sister back, noting the conviction and sincerity in her voice. "Okay. I hope you're right."

"I know I am."

"Sokka, Cutie, hurry up!" Ty Lee's voice called to him.

"Coming," he called back. But first he pressed something into Katara's hand.

"What's this?" she asked holding up the pouch he'd given her.

"Just in case you need it. I don't want you to feel… dependent." Sokka glanced apprehensively at Aang again.

Katara looked inside the jingling pouch, and then back up at Sokka in surprise. "Where did you get all of this?"

"Let's just say that I sold a war balloon I didn't own… and to the Rebellion no less!" he laughed ironically. "Who knew I'd be sailing to freedom on that very same balloon I sold on the black-market?! Guess I win twice!" He then smiled more gently at his sister. "I was trying to get enough money to bribe a way out for you. But looks like your boyfriend beat me to the rescue."

"He's not my…" Katara started indigently, but then she glanced at Aang and ducked her head, tucking a stray hair bashfully behind her ear. "Thank you, Sokka. I'm so glad to have you back."

"Me too, Katara," he said with a final quick squeeze before he headed towards the trees. But just before stepping out of sight, he turned back toward the couple on the beach. "Don't do… well, don't do anything. And if you do… I don't want to hear about it." He shuddered as though something slimy had slithered down his collar.

He then pointed an accusatory finger at Aang. "Don't make me regret not killing you when I'd planned to, Avatar."

Sokka smiled smugly to himself, basking in the satisfaction of seeing Aang's startled surprise. And the scowl Katara gave him as he walked away? Yup, felt just like home.

….

Aang and Katara watched as the war balloon rose from the trees and headed east. Mai was right, it was a risk to travel in the daytime, but hopefully the Fire Nation insignia would get them safely through Fire Nation borders.

"So, uh," Katara asked, as she tucked her hair shyly behind her ear, "will we be going now too, then?"

Being alone again after all that had transpired seemed to throw wide a door of timid uncertainty between them. In more dramatic moments they had fought for one another, had declared their feelings with boldness. But in this moment, the newness of this thing between them left them both feeling a bit shy.

"Um, no," Aang answered, a hot flutter flapping around in his stomach. "Appa needs to rest. He's uh, he's not ready for a long flight yet. We have no choice but to stick around while he sleeps."

"Oh, okay," Katara nodded, a long silence following. Their eyes met again, but she glanced away quickly.

Aang realized he'd been smiling dopily at her. He laughed awkwardly and shook his head, turning to head back toward the trees. But the movement reminded him of how stiff his body was, of how he hurt all over. Aang winced, shifting his shoulders in an effort to keep the torn fabric of his shirt off his burned back.

"Let me help with that," Katara said, seeming grateful for something to focus on.

"It's okay, I'm—"

"Don't say 'fine', Aang." Her crystal blue eyes looked with reproving concern at him.

Aang chuckled and turned back toward her. "Okay. I'm not fine. Truth be told, I hurt everywhere," he admitted with a laugh.

Katara smiled sadly, and took off her outer robe and shoes. Then, wearing just her nightdress, she took Aang by the hand and pulled him towards the water. Aang kicked off his shoes hastily and let her guide him into the gentle waves.

When they were waist deep in the unusually clear water, Katara faced him, her bright blue eyes studying his face. She then lifted a water-covered hand gently to his burned cheek. Closing her eyes and breathing deeply, Aang felt the water under her hand shimmer as the pain in his cheek siphon away.

As long as he lived, Aang didn't think he would ever stop being amazed at Katara's healing. A pang of jealousy struck once again at his heart, as he recognized deep down that healing would never be something he could do. But he quickly reminded himself that not all gifts are meant for all people. That true equilibrium required differences to complement and counterbalance one another. And he was grateful that Katara was willing to share her gift with him.

Aang then thought of how Katara had been willing to share her gift with others as well—with Azula. How she had healed his sister when she'd lain dying, her skin still sizzling with electric charge, her eyes growing dim. Aang realized—more now than he had been capable of processing in that panicked moment—that what he had asked of Katara had been a difficult thing for her. She hadn't agreed with him, hadn't wanted to heal Azula. And yet she had anyway. Why? Because he'd asked her to. Suddenly the heroism of that selfless act hit him with a new kind of gratitude. Aang was sure that he didn't deserve to be with this incredible woman, and yet still, here she was, standing by him and with him.

As the glow began to diminish, Aang reached up and grasped her hand, leaning his now-smoothly healed cheek into her touch. "You're amazing," he whispered, turning his lips to kiss her palm softly. Katara smiled, blushing beautifully before moving her hand to his forehead, healing a cut he hadn't even realized was there.

Aang watched Katara intently as she gently moved downward, healing as she went. No words were spoken as she brought her hands up to his collar and began undoing the butterfly buttons that held his shirt closed. He brought his own hands up to help, pulling his tattered shirt off his shoulders and dropping it afloat into the water. Aang smiled, albeit a bit smugly, seeing the way Katara's gaze washed over his body appreciatively. He caught her eye, and she blushed furiously.

Aang leaned down and kissed her gently, reassuring her that he didn't mind. After all, if she thought he hadn't already noticed the pleasant way her wet nightclothes clung to her form, she was kidding herself.

Carefully, Katara's healing hands moved over a burn on his shoulder, then down to his chest, healing a deep bruise there. Her touch brought far more pleasure than just that of healing, and Aang hungered to touch her. So he placed a hand on her waist, drawing her closer to him. Katara's breath hitched. Even though she avoided his eye, pretending to remain focused only on her healing, Aang noticed the way she gulped in air, her chest rising and falling with the sped up pounding of her heart.

Aang smiled. He liked the way he flustered her.

But the mood soon changed when she turned him around to heal his back. An old shame flooded him when he turned his scarred back towards her. He now knew—in his head, at least—that he had nothing to be ashamed of, that he had not deserved his punishments. But the shame still felt real anyway. Katara's eyes filled with tears as she examined the long, fresh whip burns criss-crossing his skin.

"Oh, Aang…"

"Please don't pity me, Katara."

"I don't. It's not pity, I just…" her voice got very quiet. "This was because of me…"

Aang turned abruptly. "No. This was because of Ozai. Not you." He gently brushed her cheek with his thumb. "I couldn't let him hurt you."

Katara looked down at the water flowing back and forth around their waists, neither rejecting nor accepting his words. Eventually she simply turned him around again.

"I think this will best be done submerged," she mused, examining his throbbing back.

Aang felt the water rise up beneath him, lifting his feet off the sandy ocean bottom. If he hadn't trusted Katara so fully, his instinct would have been to struggle for control, but instead he simply let himself be whisked further out to sea where neither of them could touch bottom.

At first, when Katara submerged him up to his neck in the clear ocean, Aang hissed from the sting of saltwater on his wounds, but almost immediately he felt Katara's hands on him, and then his whole back tingled into light all at once. Katara's miraculous hands then drew away the pain as his lacerated skin knit itself back together.

When the pain dissipated and the shimmering stopped, Katara still kept her hands on his back. They rested only lightly on him, but the way she didn't remove her touch consumed his attention.

Aang reached around and grasped one of her hands, threading his fingers through hers and pulling her hand around to the front of his chest. The action brought Katara's body up against his back, causing both of their breaths to catch. The water lapped around their shoulders as they tread water together.

"Thank you, Katara," Aang said huskily, bringing her hand up to his lips and placing a soft kiss on her knuckles.

Aang felt a feathery kiss on the back of his bare shoulder, and his eyes drifted closed in pleasure.

"I wish I could fix this too," Katara said. Aang felt his skin warm where she placed another light kiss on the back of his neck. "You told me once that this means that you're a Master Airbender, isn't that right?" Her hand trailed down his spine.

It took Aang a minute to focus, to pull his mind back from bliss in order to understand.

Ah, his tattoo.

Aang knew that the sacred blue line of his people had long ago been disrupted by scars from his reeducation. It was something that made him sad, especially as he remembered the loving and long-dead hands of those who had given it to him.

"The most basic meaning, yeah," he answered, letting his eyes drift closed again.

"And you got this… before you were frozen in ice," Katara stated contemplatively, running her fingers along his tattoo again, sending tingles entirely unrelated to healing down his spine and radiating through his whole body. "So that means you were, what? twelve?"

"Eleven," Aang answered distractedly.

"Eleven? When you became a master? Was it common for airbenders to become masters so young?"

Aang thought back to the hubbub his ceremony had stirred throughout the entire Air Nomad community. Youngest airbending master in three hundred years!

"No," he answered with a modest half-smile. "Not too common."

Katara's fingers found the blue line on his arm, and began to follow it around his forearm to his hand, swimming around him in the water to face him in the process. As her eyes studies his tattoos, he studied her.

In the water, Katara seemed perfectly at ease. Her warm brown skin shone in the morning sun while little water droplets in her hair and on her lashes made her sparkle. Her long hair brushed past Aang softly, swaying back and forth in the gentle waves.

She was beautiful.

Aang had thought Katara was beautiful from the very first moment he'd laid eyes on her in his training arena, but he hadn't even known her then. He hadn't known how truly deep her beauty went.

Aang's eyes dropped to her lips. He wanted to kiss her.

But Katara's attention was elsewhere. "You said that being a master airbender was your tattoo's basic meaning," she said, brushing her hand over the arrow on his forehead, causing Aang's eyes to flutter shut blissfully. "What else does it mean?"

"Oh, um…" Aang was finding it hard to concentrate, Katara's touch distracting him in a most enjoyable way. "They're also a symbol of the airbender oaths…" Aang's eyes honed in on Katara's lips again, a particular drop of water there making him thirsty.

"Oaths?" she asked, intrigued. Katara's mind was clearly focused in directions other than his own.

"Um yeah," he said, trying to bring his attention to what she was saying. "The oath makes us full members of the community, like a rite of passage into adulthood. In the oath we promise to live in balance with nature, to honor all life," his own words began to break him from his blissful disconnect.

"…to avoid violence… and killing."

Aang thought of the many ways he had broken his oath, and suddenly he felt very heavy. So heavy in fact that it seemed unnatural to float on the water's surface, when he was sure he ought to sink like a stone.

A few of the older monks had opposed Aang receiving his tattoos so early. Most notably, Gyatso. He'd told Aang it was not because he doubted his mastery of Air; he opposed it because of the oath. Gyatso had felt Aang was too young to fully comprehend the commitment.

At the time, Aang had felt betrayed by his mentor. Angry even that he hadn't felt he was ready.

But the rest of the counsel elders had pushed past Monk Gyatso's concerns, and awarded Aang his tattoos anyway. They'd taken his oath along with his childhood greedily.

Aang still remembered the way his chest had swelled with pride when he was unhooded at his ceremony, showing off his new tattoos for the first time. But when he'd looked at Gyatso, his mentor had had tears in his eyes. Aang hadn't understood.

But perhaps he does now.

In his time in the Fire Nation, Aang had betrayed himself, his people, his oath.

Which was why he needed this time. To go home. To see for himself. To fix his broken promises.

To become a Child of Air once again.

….