"Katara, can we talk?"
Aang traces his fingertips over Katara's veins. The memory of him making the same motion over Azula's soulmark comes unbidden into his mind and Aang tries to wave it away as he would the nearby cloud of dragonflies hovering over the riverbank. He presses his fingers more firmly as though chastising his mind with a physical reminder. There's a slight tremble to her wrist.
"Are you sure you're okay with me practicing bloodbending on you?" asks Aang.
"Of course," says Katara but there's a small tightness between her brows and she looks away a second too quick.
Aang drops her hand. "You're lying," he says, trying hard to keep the accusation out of his voice. It wasn't that he blamed her—quite the opposite. He would have been surprised if she wasn't the least bit nervous—but they haven't spoken freely to one another in a while and the silence between them has made Aang more hesitant with his words and tone.
"It's not the bloodbending," starts Katara but then she pauses. "Okay it is but only partially. Can we talk?"
"Of course," says Aang but Katara has turned away from him. She walks to the small waterfall running into the river of a brook and runs her hand through the rushing water, playing with it as she would her hair.
Aang follows her and takes a seat on one of the damp rocks, submerging his feet into the cool water, and trying not to notice the distance between them.
Katara drops her hand and looks past him. "I want us to still be friends," she says softly, "I know I hurt you by picking Zuko. It was never my intention to hurt you but nevertheless I should have addressed your feelings for me sooner. I'm sorry."
Aang tackles Katara into a hug and squeezes for all it's worth. "We'll always be friends," he promises. He feels dampness across his shoulder and soon he's staining her shirt with tears of his own.
"We'll always be friends," repeats Katara while wrapping her arms around him. "Always."
"Always," agrees Aang.
They stay like that, two parts of a heart, hugging each other until eventually they break away.
"It was never my intention to make you feel that way," says Aang, settling back onto his rock. "You two are soulmates, and even if you weren't, you can't choose who you fall in love with. I didn't blame you or anything. I just needed some space and I thought you did too."
"I didn't know what to think," says Katara, submerging her feet next to Aang's and crisscrossing his ripples with her own, "you never said anything."
"I know, I assumed, I'm sorry."
"It's okay. We're okay."
"Can I ask," begins Aang but then he stops.
Katara gives him a reassuring smile. "Please do, I'd rather have it all out in the open."
"Alright, when did you realize you were in love with Zuko?"
"Well, I, uh," Katara lets out an amused sigh. "I didn't exactly want to be in love with Mister Brooding and Dramatic."
Aang nods. He remembers the fights Zuko and Katara had in the early days, back when Aang was the only one who believed they could be friends.
"If I had the choice I would've chosen someone else. But, it's like if every day you went out to count the tides." Katara leans back. "Every day you'd see them and you'd count them. You think you know them inside out. Then, one day, someone tells you the tides are influenced by the moon and you think: that can't be right, it doesn't make sense, I know the tides. So you decide, for whatever reason, maybe to prove them wrong, to go out at night to count the tides and suddenly—"
"You believe," finishes Aang. The remnants of his crush hurting like broken glass in his heart.
"Yeah…" Katara turns towards him. "I don't mind teaching you bloodbending. It's a bit unsettling how quickly you pick it up but," she forces a shrug, "benefits of being the Avatar, I guess. My concern is whether Azula played a part. Did she put you up to this?"
"It was my idea," says Aang. He doesn't mention his conversation with Azula, he's made Katara worry enough already, but by the way Katara frowns he figures she's already guessed at the truth.
"Aang, I know she's your soulmate but please be careful. You can't trust her, not with your life at least. She—"
Can he trust her? Aang is reminded of the moments—the ones where something changes between them. One second he thinks he's going to die, or die again, and then something happens and in the next second it's like they're playing a private game for two. A game where he doesn't know the rules.
"Aang?" Katara voice pools with concern. "You lost yourself for a moment there. Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, I was just thinking…I don't think she'll kill me," says Aang. Sincerity, soft and quiet, brushes alongside his words like a summer breeze. "She doesn't want the game to end."
