Finally another update. I've had a long and busy summer. Had some bad stuff happen family-wise, so I've been dealing with that. And I had a summer job. So, nothing to fear: this and my other stories are still alive and well. This chapter will focus a lot around Aang and Katara as usual, and it will have some of Sokka's ideas to set up the next couple chapters.
MUST READ: Another side note that is very important! Earlier in the story I had Aang turn 13 and Katara turn 15; I did that to create a more emotional effect on them, but I realize, storytelling wise, it was not the best move so: KATARA IS 14 and AANG IS 13 from now on. I prefer having them closer in age for the sake of romance anyway.
To answer Ashley Barbosa's question: Aang was Katara's first kiss. Looking back on it, what I wrote was a little confusing. I was trying to say that Katara almost kissed Jet when they first met, but she didn't and she is happy that she didn't. If that makes sense.
On to the story. I don't own ATLA. Bryke does.
Chapter 14: The First Date
Katara rose with the sun as its rays peaked their way through her window. She sat up slowly and stretched. She was extremely excited for the day ahead: it was the first full day of her and Aang being a couple and the day of their first date. They were going to spend a day alone together, waterbending, catching up and just enjoying each other. She stood up and gazed out her window. She enjoyed the cool morning breeze as she opened her window.
She got out of her night gown and washed up in her bathroom and got herself into her daily clothes. Walking out into the dining area, she decided o read some scrolls she managed to pick up at Wan Shi Tong's library while she waited for Aang to get up. She sat down on the couch and began to read. She secretly hoped he was still an early riser, so they could have some time alone before Sokka and Toph woke up.
Almost immediately after she finished her thought, Katara heard a door down the hall behind her creak open and then shut. She continued to read until and acted as if she was oblivious, knowing it was Aang; she wanted to see what he would do to get her attention. Soon after she felt someone's hot breath on the back of her neck that somehow sent chills down her spine despite the heat. She then felt a pair of soft lips plant a kiss on her cheek.
She smiled. "You missed." Katara stated, not wavering her attention from her scroll.
Aang blushed. "Huh?" Came a confused voice from Aang as he tried to figure out what she meant.
"I said you missed."
"I don't understa-Oh." Came Aang's realization. He moved to the end of the couch next to Katara and sat on the arm. He gently grabbed her chin and moved her to face him. "How's this?" He smirked before leaning in and giving her a slow burning kiss. He pulled away, both of them blushing, still trying to get used to all this. Though, they did think they were doing a good job of it so far.
"Much better." Katara hummed. "I think my day just got a whole lot better." Katara smiled.
Aang smiled back. "What'ya reading there."
Katara looked back to the scroll and then rolled it up."Just a scroll I picked up at Wan Shi Tong's library."
"What does it say?" Aang asked, genuinely interested.
Katara blushed and handed it to him. He was a little confused as to why she was so flustered. Aang grabbed the scroll and unrolled it and immediately blushed when he saw the title. Katara continued to avert her eyes. "It...uh...just happened to be the one I grabbed this morning."
"Um...do you...uh think it's a little early to be planning that?" Aang handed the scroll back to her.
"Probably, but I grabbed everything I could about the Air Nomads, including...that."
"Well, thanks for getting that. I have no knowledge of the subject."
"You're welcome."
"You know, we passed through the Misty Palms Oasis just after you did." Aang started.
"You did? Why didn't you come after us."
"I almost ran out into the desert by myself, but Iroh stopped me, saying it was far too dangerous."
"Oh...that must have been hard...being so close." Katara stated softly, grabbing Aang's hand and holding it in her own.
"It wasn't the first time. Omashu, the oasis, the ferry. But, it all paid off." Aang stated, twirling some of Katara's hair with his free hand.
Katara looked up into his eyes and pulled him down for a comforting hug and a brief kiss. "What's with the hair twirling?" She asked after she realized he had been doing it a while.
Aang pulled his hand away and blushed. "Sorry." He addeed meekly.
"No, it's all right." Katara assured.
"Okay." Aang started. "I really like what you've done with your hair."
Katara stood up quickly, to Aang's surprise. "Uggh." She grunted.
"What? Do you not like it?" Aang panicked as he stood up as well.
Katara turned around to face him. "No. No. No. It's not that at all." She assured as she walked closer to him.
"Then what is it?" Aang asked.
"It's stupid." Katara waved her hand in dismissal as she walked into the kitchen.
"I'm stupid. I can handle it." Aang joked.
Katara laughed pretty loudly at his personal insult. "Suki said you would like my hair like this."
"Man, she has been spot on lately." Aang muttered in amazement.
"Yeah. She has." Katara finished.
"So, when do you wanna go on our date?" Aang asked a little nervously.
"I want to go now, but Sokka will through a hissy fit if we don't tell him where we are going."
"I thought we weren't going to tell him yet."
"All he is going to know is that we are going to the lake to waterbend."
"Okay, good." Aang replied in understanding. "So, we have to wait for him to get up, huh?"
"Yeah, which could be a while." Katara sighed in disappointment.
Aang made his way back over to the couch and sat down. He patted the spot next to him. "We can catch up then."
Katara smiled and joined him. She quickly made herself comfortable by leaning her head on his shoulder. "I am so happy right now, Aang."
"Me too." He replied. "I love you."
Katara lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked him in the eyes. Taking in his silver orbs, briefly before capturing his lips in a kiss. "I love you too."
They spent the next hour or so catching up on the 'adventures' both of them took and how it was all worth it in the end. They ended up cuddling on the couch a bit and continued with small talk and a few lazy kisses here and there. Eventually, they heard a door down the hall open up and they pushed themselves apart in case Sokka was the culprit.
Soon the person in question revealed themselves. "You two love birds can't seem to get enough of each other, can you?" Toph mocked.
Aang and Katara relaxed a bit. "Toph, be quiet. He might here you." Katara chided her in a whisper.
"Relax, Sugarqueen. He can't hear me." Toph put her hands up in defense. "You should probably get your last few kisses in now. I can feel him getting up." She warned.
"Thanks for the warning." Katara thanked before turning to Aang and kissing him lightly on the lips. "There'll be more later." She whispered into his ear. He smiled before she got up and began to prepare some food for everyone.
Soon, Sokka managed to stumble his way out into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and silently yawning. "MORNING SNOOZLES!" Toph yelled and punched Sokka in the arm.
"Ow. Not so loud okay." The warrior complained.
Katara shook her head. "Sokka, it's like ten in the morning."
"So...that's early for me." Sokka blew off the comment before he sat down at the dining table.
"Uh huh. I would like to hear you explain that one to dad." Katara retorted.
"Oh, ha...ha." Sokka mocked a laugh. He turned to Aang. "Why are you so smiley this morning?"
The question kind of caught Aang off guard. "Oh...just you."
Sokka scoffed. "You just got back and I am suddenly outnumbered even more."
"I'm just joking, Sokka. I just slept well last night and it's good to be back with you guys again." He replied with a smile.
"it's good to have you back buddy." Sokka smiled at him. Katara placed a plate in front of him with fruit and bread on it. "What? No meat." He looked at her.
"If you want some meat, go find some and cook it yourself." Katara jabbed her brother in the chest.
"Fine, I'll deal with it." Sokka took a bite from a peach. "So what's the plan today?"
"Well, Aang and I are going to a lake out in the agrarian zone and waterbend."
"Why do you need to waterbend?" Sokka mumbled through his full mouth.
"Because I haven't waterbended in months; I can hardly do it now." Aang replied sullenly.
"But why a lake? We have a fountain out back."
Aang and Katara briefly looked at each other. "So we can do some more advanced techniques that will require lots of space." Katara partially lied. It was true that they needed more space to do some of the more advanced techniques of waterbending, but it was more so they could be alone together.
"Twinkletoes and I are gonna have to do some earthbending at some point too." Toph chimed in.
"We can do that tomorrow, Toph. It may surprise you that I actually have practiced earthbending quite a bit."
Toph punded her fist into her palm. "We better do it. It's been a while since I kicked somebody's butt."
"Well, I'm going to discuss things with Iroh about the invasion plan." Sokka added.
"Aren't you at all worried about the fact he was a Fire Nation general?" Toph asked.
"No, actually. I've read up on him, and he wasn't your typical Fire Nation general. He was sympathetic and well respected by everyone, including his enemies." Sokka paused to take another bite of fruit. "He's also a member of the White Lotus which is devoted to balance among the nations no matter the allegiances."
"Okay, that'll get us some progress on that front. We still need to meet the earth king." Katara added.
"I've been thinking about that." Toph stated. "I've been hearing all these floozy, upper class girls talking about this huge ball that is going to take place at the palace and that the Earth King will be there. I'm trying to figure out how we can get in."
"Good, we all have something to do today." Katara cheerfully added. They all got ready for the day quickly, eager to do what each wanted.
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Sokka had already made his way to the Jasmine Dragon when Aang and Katara finished up loading up their stuff for their 'waterbending practice' when Toph strolled over to them. "You two better behave." She teased.
Aang and Katara simultaneously blushed from the top of Appa's head. "Why would you care?" Katara asked teasingly.
"Because, I may tell Sokka if you don't." Toph stuck her tongue out at her friends.
"Okay, you have us there." Katara conceded.
"Have fun you two." Toph waved as she turned to walk back into their house.
Aang looked to his right to see the love of his life smiling softly at him. "Ready?" He asked.
Katara nodded. "Ready."
"Yip yip!" Aang commanded Appa. The great beast lurched into the air. Aang had deeply missed the feeling of flying in his separation from all his friends, human and animal alike. Aang set Appa's direction and commanded the beast to continue on until they reached the lake. "So what's the plan?" Aang asked.
Katara pulled some scrolls out from her back and unrolled them to reveal waterbending forms written on them. "In all seriousness, you do need waterbending training, even if we're calling this a date." She looked over to see understanding in his eyes. She loved his eyes. "We'll start with a warm up and then get into the more basic stuff that I taught you a long time ago, then we'll go until you get comfortable bending again. After that, I do want to teach you a more advanced move." Katara finished.
Aang watched as she continued to scan through the scrolls, occasionally moving her hair out of her face as the wind whipped it around. He smiled. "I love it when you're like this."
She looked at him quizzically. "Like what?" She asked.
"So devoted and passionate to achieve something." He stated simply. "It makes it even better that it's about me." He smirked.
"Oh...so it's all about you, huh?" Katara jokingly replied, catching on to Aang's little game.
"Sometimes it's about you." Aang replied.
"Sometimes? How often is it about me?" Katara asked teasingly.
"All the time, actually." Aang replied, sounding more sincere and honest than joking now. This took Katara by surprise.
"What do you mean?" She asked softly, seeing as how much this was affecting Aang at the moment.
"Everything I've ever done since the day I met you...I've done for you." He paused. "The only reason why I stay together under all this pressure, is you." He looked at her with a sort of ashamed expression on his face. He looked down into his lap.
"Hey, come here." Katara wrapped her arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. "We all need somebody to depend on every once in a while." Katara paused for a moment. "The only reason I keep fighting is because of you." Aang looked at her in utter surprise. "It's tough being an ordinary girl that suddenly gets dragged into fighting a war; you help me through it."
"I didn't realize it was like that for you to...I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize. I don't regret a single moment since coming with you." She smiled. "I finally got to master waterbending, see the world, and...well...fall in love."
Aang didn't know how to respond to what she just said, so he just said the first thing to come to mind. "I love you."
"I love you to." Katara briefly kissed him on the lips. She looked out in front of her. "It looks like we're almost there."
"Take us down, boy." Aang commanded Appa with some cheer in his voice.
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"General Iroh, are you here?" Sokka's voice bellowed as he entered the Jasmine dragon.
"Over here, my boy." Came his reply from the kitchen. Iroh appeared through the door wiping his hands off with a towel. "What can I do for you?"
"I want some advise on the invasion I have planned. Katara doesn't want me to talk to you about it, because she still doesn't trust you and Zuko fully, but if you have Aang's trust, you also have mine."
"That's good to hear, though I am sorry about Katara. I can see she has a heart of gold, but I understand her wariness." Iroh paused as he saw the expression on Sokka's face: the boy seemed to be reflecting, which was true; he was thinking about his mother. "You wanted to talk?"
"Oh-um yes." Sokka snapped back to reality and began to pull out numerous scrolls he gathered from the great library. "We found out about 'the darkest day in Fire Nation history' which turned out to be an eclipse. Am I right in saying Firebenders can't bend during an eclipse?"
"That would be correct." Iroh rubbed his beard as he gathered all of this in.
"Well, my plan calls for an invasion of the Fire Nation on that day, but we only have a seven minute window." Sokka looked up to see if Iroh was listening.
"The Fire Nation Capitol is heavily guarded. You have to get through the Gates of Azulon well before you get near the mainland."
"I have an idea about that." Sokka pulled out a pencil and blank scroll and began to draw. "We'll have waterbenders create a layer of fog to cover out ships. I know Katara alone could cover a fleet, but the bigger the layer of fog, the better."
"And what if the fog cover doesn't work?"
Sokka eagerly rolled out plans. "Then I designed this to be built." He explained excitedly.
"What is that?" Iroh asked, pointing at the page in confusion.
"I know the design is a bit crude, but if it works, the invasion will be much easier to accomplish." Sokka started as unrolled the scroll more. "I call them submarines. They are completely sealed and can go underwater. They are propelled with waterbending, so that's another thing Katara will probably have to do."
"This is ingenious, but where will you get the material, and who will build such a thing."
"As for the material, I am still working on that. But I do know someone who can build this."
"This does sound very good. Now, what about when you reach the mainland?" Iroh asked.
"We'll have to reach the capital city, once we get there we have to calm the citizens and make sure no one runs out into the line of fire." Sokka hesitated on his next topic. Iroh had a sense of where it was going. "Aang will have to face the Fire Lord. And, if Azula is also there, she needs to be dealt with."
"Hmm." Iroh hummed.
"I know she's your niece but-"
"Oh, she is crazy and needs to be stopped. But, I am too old to defeat her, and Zuko, I am afraid, simply isn't ready to face her alone."
They sat in silence for a few long moments before Sokka began speaking again. "I guess we'll have to figure that one out when the time gets closer."
"That is the only thing we can do. I am amazed you have put so much though and detail into this."
"Thank you, General Iroh."
"I am no General, just an old man who likes tea and once served in the military."
Sokka chuckled. "I think you and my dad would get along very well." He stated with a soft reminiscence of his childhood memories engrained in his voice.
"I am sorry about what this war has brought you and Katara." Iroh paused and then spoke softly. "Aang told me about your mother. I am so very sorry."
Sokka didn't respond immediately. He was surprised by the sincerity in Iroh's voice, and something else in his eyes; Iroh had also lost someone very close to him in this war. "You have nothing to apologize for, but I should get going. Toph said she had a plan about how to meet the earth king."
"I will let you go then." They both stood up. Iroh bowed. "It was a pleasure speaking with you."
Sokka bowed back. "Likewise."
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Katara had been running through every move in the book she was ruthless in her training as they hadn't stopped once, but it came with outstanding results. Aang had picked waterbending back up rather quickly, and was through the basic and intermediate moves extremely fast, but he got bogged down a bit with the more advanced stuff. Katara wasn't being harsh or forceful, she was giving positive reinforcement. She just hadn't stopped the training once for a break, but they were nearly finished.
Aang was now at the eight-point octopus form, a move where he had gotten close many times but hadn't been able to divide his attention enough to do it correctly. His distractedness probably came from the fact that there was a beautiful girl directly across from him, and he was tired of training and just wanted to relax and enjoy his time with her. Indeed he was glad to be with her, but the endless training was wearing down his patience.
"I think you'll get it this time Aang. You just need to focus."
"I know, I know. Let's get this done." Aang took his stance and brought up eight tentacles around him.
Katara initiated the routine by throwing ice spikes towards him. He moved swiftly and graceful to deflect every one sent his way. Just after he deflected the final one, Aang caught Katara with her guard down. He launched a tentacle towards her, wrapped it around her right ankle and pulled her leg out from under her. Katara clumsily fell straight on her back into the ankle deep water.
Katara sputtered in surprise as she attempted to regain her sense of direction and stand up, but as soon as she propped herself up by placing her arms behind her, Aang was kneeling in front of her with a wide grin.
"Is that good enough?"
"I suppose it is, Pupil Aang." Katara replied with fake annoyance.
Aang placed his hand out for her to take, but when she grabbed it, Katara yanked him straight down on top of her. She kissed him passionately, for which he leaned in deeper. Katara was eventually lying flat on her back as they continued to kiss. When they broke away, though, they both blushed a cherry red as they realized the position they were in.
They both scrambled off of each other and stood up. Katara looked at Aang. She gave a soft chuckle. "I guess we're still getting used to this, huh?"
"Uh, huh." Aang gave a nervous chuckle.
In order to break the tension, Katara expressed an idea. "How about we just go swimming for a while."
Aang perked up and away from the awkwardness before. "That sounds great!" He yelled in excitement.
Katara and Aang swam out to the deepest part of the lake, which was very shallow: about fifteen feet or so. Once they were out in the middle of the lake, Aang and Katara just gazed into each other's eyes as they treaded water. Eventually, a smile came across Aang's face.
"What?" Katara asked in confusion as his look was kind of strange. A fleeting look of mischief flashed through his gray eyes as she asked this.
"Race you to the bottom!" He said quickly and dove down, far to quickly for it to be a fair race, but Katara followed suit.
As she swam deeper and deeper, Katara lost sight of Aang and eventually gave up on reaching the bottom in order to search for him. She was surprised when she felt muscular arms wrap around her waist. Her initial response would've been panic, if she didn't know it was just Aang. Aang spun her around so they were now face-to-face. He smiled, but Katara was trying to signal that she was running out of breath. With an odd twisting motion with his hand, Aang formed an air pocket around there heads.
Katara sucked in a breath and sighed in relief, but she had no time to 'relax,' for soon Aang's lips were on hers. Katara melted into and decided to make the most of this magical moment. She hesitated at first, but then she dared to run her tongue along Aang's lips, silently begging for them to open. To her great surprise, Aang allowed entrance. She explore his moth, and he explored hers, but they were soon out of air.
Aang wrapped one arm around Katara, and with on forceful push with his left hand, propelled them to the surface. They both heaved in air once they reached daylight. There was no need for words as they looked at each other lovingly; all they could do was laugh joyousl.
It was like that until mid-afternoon. They swam in circles around each other, occasionally splashing the other and then sharing brief kissing and meaningful looks. They decided to call it quits around three o'clock. They made their way towards Appa.
The great beast held their towels, clothes, and food for the day. Food in which they forgot to eat thanks to their 'play time.'
"Man, I'm starving."
"Me too."
They finished drying off rather quickly. Aang put his shirt on, since that was all he took off along with his boots, and finished dressing quickly. Katara finished putting her robes back on as well.
The food they brought was simple: some assorted fruits and pastries. They leaned into Appa's tail and dug in. They ate in silence for a while, for there was no real need for words right now. They finished eating and laid in silence while they rolled onto their sides to look into each other's eyes. The both smiled happily.
"I love you, Aang."
"I love you too, Katara. Don't ever doubt that." Tears brimmed Katara's eyes as Aang said this, tears of joy and love. Aang leaned forward and kissed her softly.
Soon, however, they both yawned. Aang and Katara decided to ignore it, for they were too engrossd with each other's presence. Eventually sleep over came them.
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Sokka arrived back at their house at about mid-afternoon. As he walked in, he saw Toph lounging on the couch, nearly asleep. Sokka chuckled a bit at how uncomfortable she looked, but then again, she did sleep on rocks a lot. So, Sokka dismissed the 'uncomfortable' idea.
"Hey Toph!" Sokka yelled, hoping he would scare her. It didn't work.
"Why are you yelling?!" Toph yelled back just as loudly.
"Nothing." Sokka slumped in failure. "Did you figure out a plan to meet the earth king?"
"We have to crash a party, but yes."
"How'd you figure that out? And 'crash?'"
"Some nobles tried to lie to me about it for some reason, but I can tell when people are lying, so I 'pursuaded' them." Sokka looked confused. "I can sense if people are lying with earthbending."
"Oh." Toph then proceeded to explain that the earth king would be attending and that they would have to infiltrate the party.
"Sweet! Espionage."
"You are not infiltrating." She replied.
"Why?"
"Because you have never been to anything this pompous. You have no manners and you don't have proper etiquette. Speaking of which, Aang isn't doing it either."
"What?! I have...I have-" Toph raised an eyebrow, waiting for what he was going to say. "Okay, you've got me there, but why not Aang?"
"He's the Avatar. He'll get noticed right away, and he doesn't have the etiquette to do it either."
"Where are he and Katara anyway? I thought they'd be back by now."
Toph was hoping this wouldn't get brought up; she most definitely didn't want to cover for them. "Bending practice takes a while, and from what Katara told me of Aang's bending, it wasn't good." Toph replied confidently.
"I guess you're right. But, what was with their faces this morning?" Sokka asked, referencing the fleeting looks and stares that Aang and Katara were giving each other all morning.
"Um...I'm blind, remember?"
"Right. Anyway, they were just looking at each other oddly."
Toph was slightly exasperated with his constant questioning, and was annoyed that he hadn't connected the pieces yet. If she had to cover them for much longer, she would lose her patience with the 'love birds.'
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Katara awoke dreamily to find Aang still across from her, but now, he was lying on his back and her arm was laying over his chest. Her eyes went wide in a panic as she noticed something: It was almost dark. She sat up quickly and shook Aang's shoulder in an attempt to rouse him.
"Wha-what?" Aang blinked rapidly trying to figure out what was going on. He soon figured it out as he saw the inky blue, dusk sky.
"We need to go, now!" Katara began to panic. They quickly packed there things up and boarded Appa, yearning him to fly. Once they were in the air, Aang began to relax, but Katara was the opposite. "If Sokka wasn't on to us now, he's definitely a whole lock closer to figuring it out."
"Toph will cover for us."
"It's pretty hard to cover for people for nine hours, Aang."
"We can still get around this. We just have to say we were worn out, we took a break and accidentally fell asleep. It's that simple." Aang smiled at Katara confidently. She shifted in her position on Appa's neck next to Aang.
"That might work." Katara replied, still a little skeptical.
After what felt like an eternity in the air, Appa landed rather abruptly in front of the house. Aang and Katara hopped off, and Aang told Appa to get some hay behind the house. It was completely dark outside when the couple reached the door, Katara fumbled around with finding the door knob before she finally opened the door. The door swung open to reveal both Sokka, standing with hands on his hips, and Toph, who had her arms crossed.
Katara quickly tried to explain themselves. "Sorry, we're late, but-"
"Late? LATE?!" Sokka yelled. "It's been ten hours, TEN, since you two left. I just don't even know where to BEGIN!" Sokka yelled the last word so loudly that it even surprised Toph.
"Let us explain, Sokka." Katara spoke soothingly in order to try and diffuse the situation.
Sokka still looked angry, but agreed anyway. "Fine." He said tartly.
"Aang and I had a lot of stuff to go over-" Katara started, but was soon interupted by Aang.
"Yeah, yeah. We went through every waterbending move in the book-" And now Katara interupted him, in a playful way.
"So it took us a long time to get through them all and...and-" Katara looked to Aang for some help. They really weren't good at this 'on-the-spot' thinking.
"And...weeee got really tired-" Aang drew out his sentence hoping to think of more to say.
"Yeah, so we took a break and um...both sort of fell asleep." Katara was relieved to have finally finished telling that mess of a story. She hoped to the spirits that Sokka believed them. But, all they got was silence on her brothers part.
It was a few tense moments before Sokka spoke. "Toph?"
"Yes, Sokka?" Toph replied in irritation, not towards him, but to the airbender and the waterbender.
"Are they telling the truth?" Sokka asked.
Katara was really confused. "Why are you asking her? She wasn't there." She asked irritably.
Sokka pointed his finger up in mock epiphany. "Oh. I didn't tell you?" Sokka was now being extremely sarcastic. "I learned today that our little Toph is a human lie detector. It's something that her skill in earthbending allows her to do." Sokka was gesturing towards Toph, and was now gesturing to Aang and Katara, who looked rather worried. They thought Toph was covering for them. "So, Toph. Are they telling the truth?"
Katara looked at Toph in an expectant manner, even though she knew the expression wasn't seen by the earthbender.
"No." Toph stated plainly.
"So why don't you two tell me what really happened?" Sokka asked. He already had a pretty good idea about why they were gone so long, but he was mad that they hadn't told him. HIM: Her brother and HIS best friend.
"You're a traitor." Aang's soft comment was directed at Toph.
"I warned you." She replied in a sing-song voice.
Sokka spoke sternly. "Tell me."
Katara started. "First off, it wasn't a complete lie." She sighed. "We did do every waterbending move, and we got tired and accidentally fell asleep." Katara looked Aang in the eyes and smiled softly before looking back at her brother. "We wanted to spend the day with each other and relax. Just us." Sokka's expression softened at his sister's tone of voice.
"We're sorry we didn't tell you earlier." Aang chimed in, not wanting Katara to do the explaining all alone. She smiled at him.
"It just happened so fast...but-" She looked at Aang again and grabbed his hand. "We're in love." She finished, but she noticed Sokka looked sad.
"Look, I'm really happy for you two. But, why did you wait to tell me last?"
"But we never said that."
"But I am, aren't I?" His voice was soft, and disappointed.
Katara couldn't rebuke that. He was right. She looked down at her feet, ashamedly. "I'm sorry."
"But, why?" Sokka asked. At this point, Toph went outside to leave this 'family discussion' alone. Again, though, Sokka's voice was sad.
"We never meant to hurt you feelings." Aang replied.
"But you did." Sokka stated plainly. "We're a family. Families trust each other. Families support each other, and they never lie to each other. So, why?"
"Because we didn't know how you'd respond." Katara started. "We didn't know if you'd support us or not. And we can't be...you know...free around you. You'd always be teasing us. You'd never let us do anything 'loving' around you."
"But I do support you two!" Sokka yelled. "Katara, you were a mess for three months while Aang was gone, but he's back, and now this is the happiest I've seen you since...since ever." He explained further. Aang was purely amazed at what Sokka was saying. "Sure, I may tease..." He continued "...but it's just for a laugh. And I am okay if you two are expressive, but keep it at a minimum."
Katara ran forward and embraced Sokka in a tight hug. "Thanks, Sokka!"
Sokka petted her sister on the back. "I just want you to be happy." A few tears fell from Katara's eyes at this. She left her embrace of her brother and signaled Aang that she was going to bed. Aang nodded, as Sokka was now approaching. "I want a hug too."
Aang complied and gave Sokka a quick hug. "Thank you, Sokka."
"Just treat her right."
"I will." And with that Aang headed to his room.
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Katara couldn't sleep. The excitement from the day kept her up. That, and the long nap she took was easily another factor. She then heard a knock on her window shudders. She was confused, and then scared. Who or what would be knocking on her window.
"W-who's there?" Katara asked shakily
"It's me." Came Aang's voice.
"What are you doing?" She replied, both amazed and confused.
"Couldn't sleep. I think falling asleep earlier has something to do with it."
"Me too." She pondered something for a moment. "Why'd you come through the window?" She looked at him curiously.
"I don't think Sokka would like me in here." He said. "So this way my door is locked.
"Okay. D-do...would you like to join me?" She asked, gesturing towards the bed.
"Um...uh...sure."
Aang crawled in next to Katara. They sat up against the head board with Katara leaning her head on his shoulder. The talked for a long time, well into the early hours of the morning. But, even with all of their energy from the days' events, sleep over came them as they lightly embraced under the covers.
Sorry for the Abrupt ending, but I needed to give you guys something. Next chapter with start where we left off. Anyway, thanks for reading and please review.