A/N: hey guys! sorry i haven't updated this story in quite awhile- i've been extremely busy with school and family stuff (relating to covid), but i'm back. i was reading the older chapters of this story and i can see how terrible my writing is- there's tons of room for improvement when it comes to my writing skills, but i won't hate on myself too much for it since i'm mostly writing this for fun in my free time.

anyways, if anyone is still even reading this story, i hope you enjoy!

disclaimer: i do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or any of it's characters.

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Aang and Sokka carried the two girls onto Appa and headed off, with Sokka on Appa's head guiding him and Aang, Toph and Katara on Appa's saddle. Toph and Katara were asleep, Sokka was talking to Momo and Appa, while Aang was sitting with Katara resting on his lap.

"hey Aang?" Sokka yelled, attempting to get Aang's attention.

"Shhh! Katara's sleeping, you're gonna wake her up!" Aang quietly yelled back in reply

"Sorry! i just needed to talk to you about something" Sokka explained quietly

"oh okay, about what?" Aang asked curiously

when Aang didn't get a response back he decided to just go to Sokka and talk to him.

Aang carefully moved Katara off of his lap and comfortably laid her down on Appa's saddle, then climbed up to Appa's head to talk with Sokka. "Hey Aang, welcome to the head of the this whole operation." Sokka said addressing Aang in a joking tone, "oh how wonderful of a place it is here" Aang replied playing-along with Sokka. "Anyways, what'd you wanna talk to me about?" Aang asked essentially, still curious about what Sokka was trying to tell him earlier. "oh right, can i see the letter you got from the sandbenders? you know, about Katara's kidnapping and buyer?" Sokka asked guardedly. Aang had forgotten about the letter since they left the little hut, mainly because he was so focused on helping Katara that he wasn't putting any intentness into the letter.

"uh yeah sure, i haven't exactly looked at it yet.." Aang replied apprehensively

"you haven't? so you're telling me that you didn't even briefly look at the letter thats for the order of your girlfriend's kidnapping?" Sokka asked dubiously.

"yeah.. and i know it's stupid to say that, but i was so focused on helping Katara that it didn't even cross my mind to look at it" Aang explained, ashamed of himself for not even looking at the letter when it had such priority when it came to Katara's survival and just her overall safety.

"i guess that makes sense, is she okay? she looked pretty beat up when we found her.." Sokka asked sheepishly. he was embarrassed and ashamed of himself for letting Katara get kidnapped, although at the time of her kidnapping there wasn't much he could've done to help prevent it as he would've been barely awake.

"she has a broken rib, but other then that she has very minor injuries from those sandbending jerks.." Aang said with enmity in his voice, even though they got Katara back, he was still outraged at the sandbenders for what they did.

Sokka noticed Aang's tone but decided to shake it off and continue on with what he originally wanted to talk about. "anyways, can i see the letter?" Sokka asked trying to somewhat change the topic, "oh yeah, here you go" Aang replied while handing the older boy the letter.

Sokka quickly took the rolled up parchment and opened it up hurriedly, anxious to see what possible information that he could unearth from it. Aang was just as eager to see what the letter said as much as Sokka, but he just couldn't bring himself to look at the contents inside of the parchment. just the thought of seeing an order that was for the kidnapping of his girlfriend disgusted him, he knew that some people would want Katara, whether it was to control him or just because they wanted her specifically. but seeing that some people would actually try to take her was horrifying to him, she was his everything, and the idea of someone just taking her away from him and possibly even torturing her along with it petrified him. Aang always wanted Katara to be safe and happy, for her to never be harmed or scared, which he knew it was a stupid thing for him to want since he couldn't restrict some of the terrible people in the world from doing some things, nor could he make her safe and happy all the time with the lifestyle they had.

although he didn't care if it was a naive thing to want, he would always try his best to protect her and make sure she was safe and loved, even if it was the last thing he did.

Aang was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Sokka's reaction from reading the order on the parchment.

"what the fuck?" Sokka said in disgusted tone, Aang's eyes went to focus on Sokka's face to see his reaction. Sokka was absolutely outraged. "what does it say?" Aang asked immediately, although Sokka didn't even seem to acknowledged Aang's question.

"they just see her as an object! not even a person! Katara is more than just a "future toy" and a "soon to be house wife", she's so much more than that! someone needs to smack some sense into this guy, and that someone will be me" Sokka started shouting in fury. "Sokka clam down! what'd it say?" Aang said trying to defuse a bit of Sokka's anger from reading the parchment.

"it basically says that the guy only wants Katara so she can be his wife, but mainly his sex toy. he's like 60! hell no, theres no way i'm letting that happen." Sokka explained while still heated, he was not delighted at all. Aang was so confused by this point that he grabbed the parchment from Sokka and started reading it.

he was horrified.

to be continued...