Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or anything associated with it except my fanfiction

I have no freaking clue. This idea is definitely overused here, buuut...

Aang was in a tizzy.

He had absolutely no clue how terrifying and stressful teenaged years could become. It was daunting, insurmountable, almost comically inconceivable, for one who had not yet finished growing to be put under an avalanche of pressure, to be buried by a rockslide of worries, to be shoved out of a frying pan and into a fire, to be simply blown away by the comedy of it all. He thought mastering four elements, defeating a Firelord-turned-Phoenix-King (turned Loser Lord, although he never admitted it out loud. Besides, Ozai only took two L's to his name thanks to Aang's and his friend's efforts), and ending a century's worth of death and destruction was hard. The dilemna he fell into made all three former tribulations seem as trivial as inventing the Air Scooter (he actually did not even show Gyatso himself the concept to the contraption until well into his double digits).

As it turned out, loving Katara was easy. The concept of being with her and engulfed by the searing feeling of passion and attachment and obsession was coveted. The logistics behind it all the love and fluff and sweetness, as Aang was quickly finding out, was not. Spirits knew he was enamored the moment he laid eyes on her face - the first he'd seen in a hundred years - and he would brave through anything for her. This statement still held true, although confronted with the mountain he had to hike through, he would very much had preferred going through the Serpent's Pass. With no bending. Twenty times in a row.

He covered his face with his hands, for once wishing he had hair, if only to tear it out in a fearful frenzy. What was he going to do? It was all a complete nightmare!

"What's the matter, Sweetie? You seem frustrated." Aang jolted from his chair then guiltily glanced back at Katara, with creases of worry clear on her otherwise unblemished face. Aang felt a slight pang of sadness at making his girlfriend so concerned, but on the other hand, it was her very being his girlfriend that made him so stressed out.

Who died and ascended to Spiritdom just to decide that love should be so hard?

"Aang?"

He hastily responded. "I'm alright. Just... thinking."

Katara frowned. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Well then, whatever you were thinking about is clearly stressing you out. Maybe you shouldn't keep it to yourself... unless, of course, you don't want to share it."

"No, it's fine, Katara. Nothing's wrong," he said evasively, with what he hoped was a disarming smile on his face. It was one of the things he loved about their relationship - they could share things, dark things, light things, secretive things and everything in between and beyond - and yet they could just as easily withhold such information is they so pleased. And Aang would rather brave the Serpent's Pass fifty times without his bending, before he would utter a single word of what was on his mind.

"If you say so..." Katara said suspiciously. Aang could tell her stress from his condition wasn't fully alleviated, so, in quick remedy, he gave her a reassuring peck on the lips that inexorably become a prolonged interlocking of passion before Katara lightly pushed Aang away, a slight smirk of amusement creeping onto her flushed lips.

"Can't seem to know where to stop, eh, Avatar?" she said smugly, seductively. Once upon a time, that would have completely done Aang in, utterly speechless and powerless to Katara's whims and fancies. Now, however, he had built up an immunization - no, a tolerance - for the type of game Katara played, and he begun coming up with responses of her own.

"No, I was satisified with a smooch. You, on the other hand, looked like you were thoroughly enjoying it," Aang replied. It worked well enough, arousing the faint red tinge on Katara's cheeks that Aang never failed to get a kick out of.

"You've been had, dear madam," he said gallantly, sweeping himself off the chair and bowing elegantly, one hand outstretched to the side, like an esteemed gentleman (Toph would have commented that it was actually the courtly mien of a blacksmith, but he couldn't care less). "Now, if you'll excuse me, no matter how much your graceful presence is welcomed here upon these hallowed grounds, I am afraid I must request of you to take leave of this domain, however temporarily, so that I may be freed to ponder my thoughts as I please - faces or no faces." Katara looked ready to fire back another retort, but he briefly nuzzled her nose, causing her to sigh reluctantly and relent.

"Okay, Avatar... I'll leave you to your pompous dealings and fancies." She couldn't, however, resist one final jab before exiting the room. "Or maybe you're thinking about that attractive woman who was eyeing you like a piece of candy the other day?"

With an elegent peal of laughter, she waltzed out of the room, much to Aang's chagrin. Her latter words - innocent accusations of lust and teenaged hormones, in fact, additionally assisted in bringing the elephant-rhino in the room back to Aang's field of focus.

He sighed sullenly, staring at the mutilated stone and blue ribbon and the only scroll about Water Tribe marriage customs he managed to scavenge and smuggle from the Southern Water Tribe.


Katara was in a tizzy.

She had absolutely no clue how terrifying and stressful her teenaged years had become. Of course, this was by far and large an infinitely better life than she gloomily anticipated in her disillusioned past, but even so, she was drowning in a flurry of fears and inundated by a barrage of worries that kept her up many nights - although she made sure Aang didn't know about them.

The Water Tribes had their customs for love and marriage - the Northern ones could be neglected altogether, as even though social reforms had began years ago and there was great progress in the region, for the time being the customs for marriage and love and unions remained too misogynistic for Katara to even think about. Ideally, as a Southern Watertribeswoman, she obviously knew her own customs regarding love and marriage.

Aang, on the other hand...

He was everything Katara missed in her life and never wanted to relinquish. Overflowing joy. Occasional immaturity, sprinkled in with responsibility and wisdom. Fun. Happiness. Security. Contentment. Never mind that he was the lucrative Avatar - she loved him as a man and a person, and nothing could change that.

He also happened to be an airbender, the last of his kind who struggled to cling to the customs of his people.

Things were so difficult and tedious for Katara. Begging for any material on Air Nomad customs and their perspective on love. Any rituals they performed. With each other. With outsiders to their nation. Anything and everything she could brainstorm, she strived her utmost to obtain, calling in arcane favors from the most unlikely places for any hint she could get at Aang's life had he lived it out with his people. She couldn't find anything. Not even Zuko, who purportedly had volumes upon volumes of knowledge stowed away in some dusty cabinet, held any iota of the invaluable information she desperately needed.

So on the outside, she remained cheerful for Aang and acted her normal self; on the inside, she was crying, completely clueless to the logistics of love.

She felt terrible. She wished she knew something, anything about her boyfriend's traditions. Absolutely nothing beyond what he had been so eager to tell her during their travels together. As Aang spent more and more time alone in his room, Katara grew more and more anxious, having plenty of time to mull over her thoughts and fret that Aang might be losing interest in her. He certainly didn't act it, but Katara couldn't be too paranoid. Not after what happened to her mother and what happened to her during the war...

So she had nothing. Nothing to learn. Nothing to know. Only an anxious waiting for judgement to be passed on such a dreadful day in the future...

"Sweetie?" she came to with a hand waving over her face. Belatedly, she realized the dishes she had been doing to pass the time and wait for Aang had overflowed, with water dribbling all over their floor. Redfaced, she hastily turned off the faucet and was about to waterbend the offending liquid off the floor when the sizeable puddle suddenly froze, shrank inwards, coalesced, and bobbed gently out of the convenient open window Katara had opened to breathe in the fresh air.

"I was going to do that," she said petulantly, arms crossed over her chest.

"Sorry. Just, you know, blank staring into space and everything. Didn't trust you," he said cheekily. Katara glared at him until, in apology, he wrapped his arms around her shoulder and neck and buried his head into her hair. "Mmm... smells good," he said. Katara flushed. Always the flirt. At least his skills had improved since his days of offering papaya.

Katara hummed, enjoying every moment she could of his warm contact, trying to spread the temporary pleasure into an eternity, so that, when Aang finally pulled out, the giddiness still remained.

"Couldn't get enough of it, huh?" Aang smirked. Big mistake.

"I had enough of it three years ago, Aang. Every day, every second, you just keep doing that. So I just left it like that, since you seem to enjoy it so much." Aang opened his mouth confidently, then realized the pitfall he had overlooked, and almost stomped away with a pout on his face until she pulled him in for a kiss.

"Is that better, you smoochy woochy cuddly wuddly bear?" she cooed. Aang's pout became less sincere.

"Maybe," he grumbled. She pecked him twice on the cheeks, and each time she could see his face lift up more and more until finally the creases disappeared.

"See, that wasn't so bad. Now, if you'll excuse me to the dishwashing..." she said, returning to face the small hill of nasty ceramic and goop that she had barely made a dent in. Aang suddenly swooped in, taking the instruments of scouring out of Katara's hand.

"Hey!" she protested.

Aang simply clucked his tongue. "You saw what happened to yourself when you tried washing the dishes today. I'll do them so that we don't get another mini flood and take on the risk of reparation fees. Besides," he added in a more gentle, more sincere tone, silencing Katara's squawk of protest. "You've been doing the dishes since... since... see, I can't even remember the last time you didn't do the dishes. You've been doing this menial chore since forever, and I'd say it's a bit overdue for saying it's a high time for me to partake of the chore as well."

Katara's anger melted away at his words, but she still wasn't too happy with him. Or with her predicament, which she now had the time to further examine with Aang taking up her only source of distraction... but he didn't need to know. So she playfully kissed him on the eyelids and said. "Thank you, kind sir. The Avatar stooping low enough to do the dishes!"

"Only for my love, dearest Katara," were his words, and with that, she skipped along, full of giddiness, until the reality of her situation came crashing down, and with it, her, onto the couch. She flopped onto the couch with a sigh, glad that the sink was loud enough to mask the noise, and she dully stared at the ceiling, with the only thing to do being to wait.


"Hello, Aang," she said.

"Hello, Katara," he said.

They were at home, in the dead of night, the only sounds their own breaths.

"So..."

"So...," he mimicked awkwardly. Then winced. "I'm sorry. But, I've been meaning to ask..." This was the moment he'd been bracing himself for. Heart racing at what he knew would be her response, he steeled the courage, and took a deep breath to ask the question.

Her blood ran cold. It was the moment. He would ask the dreaded question.

"What were your customs for marriage?"

Her stunned silence must have told him the wrong things, for he sighed a remorseful sigh. "I'm sorry, Katara. I- I"

"Sorry?" she asked. "Sorry?"

Aang was so confused when Katara burst into clear laughter, the unanticipated joy rebounding throughout their house. Wiping a tear from her eyes, Katara addressed Aang. "I thought you were going to ask me about what I knew about your marriage customs!"

And she dissolved into giggles once more, which Aang joined in out of sheer relief and confusion.

Aang finally managed to choke out. "Well, Katara, we never had marriage customs. My people didn't usually marry. But I'd be willing to break it, just for you." His eyes shined, and Katara never felt so happy in her life.

"Well, we have a very elaborate system, but I don't want it, and I think it's too complicated for love. I'd much rather prefer you over all those silly customs." He breathed a sigh of relief as Katara laughed and hugged him, and he had never felt so happy in his life.

How wrong they were.

Aang decided that that was the moment. Then or never. He could have thought of a million more romantic scenes, a thousand more appropriate times, but still, he fumbled for the object he had been carrying in his pocket for the last week, and presented it to Katara. "Marry me," he said spontaneously, no heed for the world.

Katara's heart temporarily stopped as she gapped at what he was holding. Then she hastily fumbled for her own necklace, shakily undoing the clasp before holding it in her hands. Trembling, she reached out for Aang's betrothal necklace - for her - and secured it to her neck. Despite the fond memories of her mother, she was willing - no, excited - no, elated - ecstatic - to explore a new world, a new day, a new present - with the one she would so soon be able to call husband.

Cradling her old necklace, she fondly touched the pendant of the new necklace - whose elaborate design she could not see in the night - and smiled the biggest smile she had ever smiled in her life.

Captivated and enthralled by the one he would all too soon call his wife, he smiled the biggest smile he had ever smiled in his life.

Positive/Constructive/Any and all reviews are welcomed.

I also considered an alternative ending where Aang doesn't end up making a necklace for Katara, which is fine as she gets to keep her old one. But from what I remember, Kya starts wearing the old necklace, doesn't she?