Chapter 3: The Duel
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Aang grinned as he and his opponent began walking around in the small circle that was now surrounded by their fellow crewmates, feeling excited for this fight. Despite being a sworn non-killer, he found that he enjoyed the practice of sword fighting as long as no one got seriously hurt from it. And truth be told, he hadn't had a challenging fight in quite some time, and was really hoping that this wouldn't be a quick fight.
He had been doing this for so long, most of the fights he took part in now were usually over in seconds, making him feel a bit bored. It had been so long since he had struggled to keep up with a skilled swordsman that he had forgotten what it was like to sweat in combat, and he was hoping that this 'Sokka' would prove to be more of a challenge.
"It's not too late to back out, mate," Aang decided to put out there as he swung his sword around a few times, limbering himself up as he prepared for their duel. "Just say the word and this can stop."
Despite offering this chance, he was happy to see that his opponent simply scoffed at him, making him learn more about his opponent as he did so. One of the reasons that 'The Ghost' was one of the most fierce pirates in the world was because of one thing that no other pirate did: Analyze their enemy. Using whatever he could find from how his opponent acted, whether they were full of confidence or had none at all, he could use that to his advantage and defeat them with ease.
His opponent rolled his eyes at him, making him smirk just a little as he saw that he truly didn't understand who he was dueling against. "Please. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging me to throw you back out into the sea."
Aang grinned, that same dangerously playful look in his eyes as he nodded to his opponent. "Aye then. Don't say I didn't warn you!" he called over the noises of the excited cheering of the crew, making Sokka roll his eyes as he continued circling around his opponent.
After a little while of waiting for his opponent to make the first move, Sokka's little amount of patience finally drained, making him decide that he would make the first strike. Charging toward him, he raised his sword to cut him down, but was quite surprised to find that his target had simply stepped out of the way, making him barrel forward towards the ship's main mast.
Going too fast to be able to stop himself, he closed his eyes and braced for impact as he crashed into the mast, earning a red mark on his forehead from his unwise decision. Shaking his head wildly to clear himself of his pain, he turned around and glared at the amused-looking airbender who simply shrugged with a laugh.
"You just got lucky," the annoyed young man decided to ignore the humiliation he had suffered for the moment. "I've got you this time!" Charging toward him again, he watched as his opponent stood perfectly still, making him think that he was going to actually win this, but then he was gone in a flash, making him blink in surprise as he had the sense to stop himself before he crashed into his fellow crewmates.
Getting angry again as he turned around and saw that Aang had just moved to the opposite end of the circle, he snarled and pointed his sword at him. "Stop running!" he commanded as he started moving towards him, this time making sure not to charge him as he did so.
"As you wish," Aang smirked and nodded to him, watching as Sokka quickly made his way up to him. Being satisfied that his opponent wasn't going anywhere, Sokka tried to land a blow on his chest, but Aang easily deflected his attack. Blinking in disbelief, he attempted to go for his opponent's knees, but he just jumped above the strike with ease, becoming surprised as the young airbender used some deft airbending to send him back a few feet.
Blinking in surprise for a few moments, he got angry again as he saw that this man was toying with him. "Alright, that's it! I'm ending this now!" he called over the loud chants of his fellow crewmates. Choosing to not charge him this time, he walked up to him and tried to strike his opponent's sword arm, but Aang easily blocked it and sent him back. Growling again, he swung his sword at the young airbender's head, but Aang simply ducked his swing and once again kicked him back, making Sokka's eye start to twitch as he saw that he was not going to win this by offense alone.
"What, are you afraid to fight?" Sokka challenged in a taunting manner, hoping that he could get his opponent to step off of defense.
To his great annoyance, Aang didn't seem to be bothered by this in the slightest. "I was trained as an Air Nomad, mate. Air Nomad fighting is all about defense. I prefer to let my opponents wear themselves out. But," he added as he saw that Sokka was becoming even more frustrated. "If that's what you want, then your wish is my command," he playfully bowed before taking the offensive, moving faster than Sokka's eyes could keep track of.
Just barely raising his sword in time, Sokka managed to block Aang's first attack, but was unable to stop the second with how quick his opponent was going and got a little cut on his arm, making him gasp as the pain flared throughout his body.
Seeing that Sokka was completely disoriented, Aang pointed his sword toward his throat and put on a peaceful face. "Do you yield?"
Despite his new wound, which was now trickling blood, he noticed that his opponent could have made the cut much deeper, but had chosen not to. Although he knew he should be grateful for this, he couldn't help but be angry because of it. It was clear that this man had been toying with him, but this was almost an insult to his pride.
"No!" he finally snarled back as he used his still-good sword arm and knocked the unsuspecting Aang's blade out of the way, making Aang blink in surprise as he went back to being on the defensive as Sokka started pressing more attacks. Though he felt bad that he had actually had to injure his opponent, he couldn't help but be a little happy now that Sokka appeared to be trying more. He was finally getting something of a challenge from an opponent.
But, as much as he knew he could make it more of a challenge by pretending he wasn't as skilled as he was, he knew that Sokka wouldn't want him to take it easy on him and decided to just do what he normally would. Deflecting each strike of Sokka's with ease, he parried the last one that his opponent threw at him and sent him back, pressing his own strike towards Sokka who managed to catch it at the last moment.
Seeing that he had him right where he wanted him, Aang crossed his sword over Sokka's and started making circular motions, eventually managing to knock his opponent's sword out of his hands and knocked him to the ground, placing the sharp edge of his sword right in front of Sokka's neck.
"Do us both a favor, mate," Aang breathed a little, finding that he had actually sweat a bit from the last part of their duel and being happy about it. "Yield."
After staring at the young man in front of him for several moments in a mixture of anger, surprise, and a hint of reverence, he finally nodded and Aang sighed in relief. Flourishing his sword a little to get the small amount of blood he had drawn from Sokka off of his blade, he sheathed his sword and offered a hand to his fallen challenger.
"You did well, mate," he attempted to make peace with him as he stuck a hand out to him, which Sokka just stared at for a few moments before sighing in defeat and allowing the airbender to pull him up off the ground.
"Whatever," he finally grumbled, not bothering to shake the hand that Aang offered as he started moping and walked away, clearly not happy about having been shown up so easily.
But, once Sokka had finally left and the crew had all seen that Aang had one, they cheered and all moved to congratulate him, making him smile a little. He couldn't fully enjoy this, however, because he felt bad for beating Sokka like he had. He knew that this was likely how it would turn out, but it was clear that the old quartermaster's pride had been severely wounded from their duel.
He didn't get to think about this for long, however, as he noticed none other than the sister of his opponent come walking up to him. "Well, I guess the stories are true," she chuckled as she walked up to him. "That wasn't too bad, 'Ghost'."
"Thanks, Captain," he laughed back as he looked back in the direction of where Sokka had moped off to. "I just wish I hadn't made a fool of him."
Katara rolled her eyes, but couldn't hold back a smile as she saw what a caring person he was. Even when Sokka taunted him endlessly and made fun of him, he still felt bad for making her arrogant brother feel bad. "Don't worry about him. Once he's had some time to feel sorry for himself, he'll come around," she assured him, making him laugh again as she smiled. "Well, now that it's settled, maybe we should get you below deck and take care of your wound."
Blinking in surprise, Aang was about to ask her what she meant when he suddenly felt a small sting on his hand. Looking down, he was surprised to find that Sokka had barely managed to land a slight blow on him, leaving a decent-sized scratch that he could clearly see on his hand. It was barely noticeable to anyone else, but he could certainly feel the pain coming from it.
"Oh, I'm alright," he tried to act like it was nothing, even though the small amount of pain was starting to irritate him the longer he felt it on his skin. "I don't need anything. Here, I'll just get some water and it should be fine," he told her as he walked over to a nearby barrel full of water and put his hand in it, feeling instant relief as the coldness of it calmed the pain in his hand down.
A collective gasp and the strange sound followed by a bright light coming flashing through his closed eyelids made his eyes shoot open, looking around at the people who all appeared to be fixed in place from seeing something that he hadn't noticed.
Then, just as he was about to ask what they were all staring at, he noticed something. Looking back to his hand, he couldn't believe his eyes as he found that the scratch that was once on his hand was completely healed with no proof that it had ever been there in the first place.
"You… Y-you just…" the completely awestruck captain looked between his hand and him as he could only continue to stare at this completely unexpected discovery. "You're a waterbender!"
At this, Aang finally snapped out of his surprise and looked at her with wide eyes. "What?"
"You're a waterbender," Katara insisted, bringing her hand over to him and showing him a scratch mark on it as well. She didn't bother telling him how she had gotten it, and as she lowered her hand into the water as well, that same eerie sound along with a glow came from the water. After a few moments, the glow faded and Katara brought her hand back out, showing that it too had been completely healed.
"But… But that's impossible!" Aang couldn't help but try to deny what had happened, finding that denial would be easier than trying to cope with the fact that he had just healed himself using waterbending. "I'm an airbender! You've all seen it! I can't be a waterbender!"
"Actually, there is one way," Toph, who had been watching the whole thing from the shadows stepped out and looked at Aang with almost reverence as she walked up to him. "There's only one person in the whole world who can bend more than one element."
Katara gasped as she thought about it, remembering the stories that her Gran-Gran had read to her before bed from what felt like so long ago. "The Avatar…" she trailed off in utter amazement as she looked at Aang, unable to keep the awe off of her face as she looked at him. "You're the Avatar…"
Sokka, still feeling quite defeated and humiliated from being shown up by the newcomer, slowly made his way below deck and finally reached the small portion of the ship where their doctor resided. Fortunately, since Katara was in charge of the ship, none of their crewmates got sick much, but they did get wounded all of the time in their battles, meaning that they needed someone who was capable of taking care of these wounds.
Fortunately for them, along their journey as pirates, they had stumbled across three Fire Nation runaways who needed a place to hide. And luckily for the three runaways, Katara and her crew had been more than willing to take them in. It hadn't been easy for them to adjust to their new life at first, but after some time, they had gotten used to the dangerous world of pirating and had made the most of it, knowing that they were far better off there then they were in their home country.
None of them had bothered to explain what exactly had happened to them in their homeland, but none of them had really cared. Most pirates became pirates for a reason, and not many of them were particularly willing to share why they had chosen to do so, and thus Katara had seen fit not to ask them.
It certainly didn't seem to matter, anyway. Whoever had been hunting them down had appeared to have lost them when they had joined their crew, and each of the three runaways had proven themselves useful for her raids.
Sokka couldn't help but laugh a little as he thought about the three hideaways-turned-pirates. Each of them were… different, but they made for good pirates. Well, except for one of them who refused to take part in the fighting, but he made up for his lack of fighting with other things.
The first person Sokka thought of was Zuko. Despite being pretty dull and humorless for the most part, he had proven himself to be a skilled swordsman and a good firebender. Something that was much appreciated on the ship. Despite his dull appearance, that all seemed to change whenever he was with his girlfriend.
His girlfriend too was an interesting case as well. She too was rather dull and uncaring, but that seemed to be what Zuko loved about her. From what Sokka had seen, they were both more than comfortable with who they were, and hadn't made any attempts to be more friendly towards others. Not that they were particularly rude, per se, they just weren't as friendly as others he had seen.
Last but not least, there was Iroh, a jolly old man who loved tea, good jokes, and music nights. Since he had decided that he would take no part in the fights, he had seen that the crew were in need of a proper healer and a good cook and had decided that this would be his role on the ship. Katara had liked this idea, as despite being a pirate, she had been raised to respect her elders and did not wish to see Iroh go down in battle. Not that she had thought that he couldn't fight, but it would have broken her heart to see such a happy old man fall by the sword of a pirate.
At any rate, the three hideaways were certainly not what Sokka had thought would be on his crew, but they all served their purpose and had proven useful with their specific abilities. Though he couldn't help but wonder how exactly Zuko had gotten the large scar that went over his face, and although he knew he could ask, had wisely decided against it. If Zuko had wanted to tell someone about it, he would have by now.
Shaking his head of these thoughts, he finally made his way over to the little area where Iroh appeared to be enjoying a cup of tea while reading a scroll. From what Sokka could see, it appeared to read: The Ten Best Teas in the World.
"Iroh?" he finally decided to speak up, taking Iroh a little by surprise as his eyes snapped up to the injured warrior.
"Ah, Sokka. You gave me a bit of a fright!" Iroh chuckled as he patted the little makeshift patient's table they had set up for him. "Come, sit!"
Sokka did as he was told and lifted himself off of the ground and onto the table as Iroh put his scroll down and took one more sip of tea before letting out a relaxed sigh and turned to look at the young pirate. "So, what did you do this time, young one? Did your feisty little friend trip you again?" he asked with a chuckle.
"No," Sokka blushed a little in embarrassment, remembering the many times Toph had tripped him as he was going down the stairs and had made him usually get a few bruises, if he had not broken any bones. He had gotten used to her 'teasing' as she called it, but he still wasn't very happy with her from the many times he had to go see Iroh because of her. "I might have challenged someone to a duel and lost," he admitted with a frown.
Iroh shook his head and tutted at him. "You young men and your need to prove yourselves. Why try to prove yourself when you can relax and have a nice calming cup of jasmine tea?" he asked as he poured a cup for Sokka and handed it to him, watching as Sokka hesitated for a moment but finally gave in as he took a sip, making Iroh smile. "See? Don't you feel better already?"
As much as Sokka didn't want to admit it, Iroh was right. The tea had instantly started calming his irritation and his nerves. "Yeah, it actually did make me feel better," he finally admitted out loud as he took another sip and let out a relaxed sigh. "Thanks, Iroh."
"My pleasure, young one," Iroh smiled before finally noticing the mark on Sokka's arm. "Ah. I see now that you have not come for tea and words of advice. Hold on a moment." Disappearing behind the curtain to his right, he came back a few moments with a rag and some weird-looking paste in a jar, making Sokka wince as he recognized it. There was no doubt that it worked, but it smelled awful.
Taking the rag, he gently wiped his arm clean of the blood and used some water to rinse it off. With that taken care of, he brought out a little painting brush and dipped it into the jar of paste, bringing it back over to the injured pirate's arm and spreading it delicately over the wound. After he was satisfied that his patient had enough on there, he ran back behind the curtain and came back with a roll of gauze, making sure to secure it well on his wound until it was well-covered. Making sure that it was secure, he then used a bit of glue and sealed it in place, ensuring that it wouldn't fall off until Sokka's wound had healed.
Everyone knew that it would be faster for Katara to heal them, but she was the only healer on the ship and didn't have time to deal with the many wounded that came down there, whether it was from a battle or if the crew were just being stupid. She did help when Iroh had more than he could handle on his own, thankfully, but otherwise Iroh was in charge of taking care of the crew.
But, Sokka honestly didn't really mind. The paste Iroh used dulled any sense of pain from it and he didn't mind having the gauze wrapped around his arm, so he decided to just be grateful as he looked up to Iroh. "Thank you, Iroh."
"You're very welcome," he smiled and patted him on the back. "So, may I ask why you were in a duel?"
Sokka smiled sheepishly and looked down at his feet. "Well, we found this new guy out in the sea and saved him, but it turns out he wasn't just a regular pirate. He's actually 'The Ghost'."
"The Ghost?" Iroh couldn't help but ask in surprise. "I thought that was just a legend?"
The young pirate shook his head. "I honestly had thought that he might just be a legend, too, but he's above deck right now," he shrugged simply before an annoyed look crossed on his face. "He tried to ask us to take him back to land so he could get his own ship, but Katara wanted to make him a part of our crew. It took him a little bit, but he finally agreed to join the crew on the condition that he be put in charge of something. And Katara decided to make him the Quartermaster."
"Ah, I see," Iroh said with a nod of understanding. "So you challenged this 'Ghost' to a duel to win back your right as Quartermaster?" Sokka nodded without tearing his eyes from his feet. "So, are you angry with this 'Ghost' or your sister?"
"Both," he responded immediately, but sighed after a few moments of silence and slumped his shoulders in defeat. "Neither, actually. As much as I don't want to admit it, they were both right. The Ghost is one of the best fighters I've ever seen. I didn't stand a chance against him."
"Well, it sounds like you've learned something from this, then," Iroh put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah," Sokka laughed bitterly. "I learned that I'm nowhere near as good of a swordsman as I thought I was."
But, to his great surprise, Iroh shook his head. "No, this is not true, young one. You are a good swordsman. What I believe that you should take from this is that you're not the best swordsman in the world. You once took great pride in your abilities as a swordsman, yes?" Sokka nodded reluctantly. "Then let this be a lesson that teaches you to be wary of any opponent. Just because you are skilled with the sword doesn't mean that others aren't as well."
After thinking about it for a few moments, Sokka realized that Iroh was right and nodded. "You're right. I'm still a good swordsman, I'm just not the best." Taking a deep breath, he took another sip of his tea and got up, giving Iroh a smile of gratitude. "Thanks, Iroh. For everything."
"You are very welcome, Sokka," Iroh gave him a smile and started walking him out of the room. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a very important scroll to finish reading." Sokka chuckled as he remembered what he had seen him reading and decided not to comment on it, walking away with a smile on his face. Though his pride was certainly damaged, Iroh had helped him see that he wasn't always going to be the best in everything that he did. Once he had accepted that, he had felt a peace he had not felt in a long time, making him smile as he decided to go above deck and apologize to his new Quartermaster for challenging him to a duel.
The deck was completely quiet as everyone around the startled airbender kept staring at him in awe, something that he found less appealing with every occurrence. They were all looking at him as if he was a Spirit or something, but he was just like them. Despite what had just happened, he couldn't so easily accept what they apparently were buying.
"How do you know that I even waterbended, mate? And what even is an 'Avatar'?" he decided to break the silence as he looked at Katara dead on, feeling himself start to panic as he wondered if what she said was true or not. "I am and always have been just an airbender."
Katara looked at him in disbelief, but then remembered that he had spent his whole life around fellow airbendending pirates. He likely didn't know very much about waterbending nor the legend of the Avatar. "Aang, some waterbenders have the ability to heal themselves with water. That's what you just did," she pointed to his hand, making him look down at it again in surprise as he realized that she was right. His hand hadn't healed until it had gone in the water, and considering that no one had been around him when he had done that, that left only one option.
"I…" he started off in disbelief as he tried to wrap this fact around his incredibly surprised and confused mind. "I… healed myself?" Katara could only nod as she and everyone around him continued staring at him, the awe on their faces never lessening as he reached his hand toward the water and took a deep breath, trying to focus on the water in front of him and commanding it to obey him.
Despite knowing that this was likely going to work, he still couldn't help but be surprised as he found that the water rose as his hand did, making his eyes widen as he saw that he really could bend the water to his will.
Letting it drop back into the barrel, he could only stand there as everyone on the deck but Katara and Toph immediately bowed to him, taking him even more by surprise as he saw that they were treating him like this.
"You really are the Avatar," Katara breathed, her mind racing with the possibilities of what she could do with that power. Sure, she had known that 'The Ghost' would be a great boon to her crew, but to have the Avatar himself join her crew? She never could have planned for this.
"I don't even know what an Avatar is, mate!" Aang objected as he tried to force himself to calm down, but found himself freaking out. As far as he had known, benders could only bend one element, but he had just proven that he could waterbend as well as airbend.
Seeing that Aang needed some peace and quiet to help him register all of this, she then turned to her crew who were still bowing to him and looked to Toph. "Toph! Can you get everyone back to their chores?"
Toph, despite still being quite shocked from what she had just witnessed, finally managed to pull herself together and nodded to her captain. "Aye Aye, Captain Sugar Queen," she smirked, making Katara roll her eyes as she then turned to the crew who were still on the ground as Sokka finally came above deck. "Alright, everyone! Enough of your lollygagging! Get back to work!"
Despite the fact that they were still in great awe from being before the Avatar, the crew heard her words and decided that it would be in their best interest to listen to her and got up, though most of them couldn't help but continue staring at the poor airbender as he tried to avoid their awestruck gazes.
Katara, seeing that he was really suffering from this sudden attention on him, walked over to him and grabbed his hand, ignoring the spark of electricity that went through her body at his touch as she started pulling him back to the captain's cabin. "Come on. Let's get you away from here." Aang only followed after her numbly, clearly still in quite a bit of shock and discomfort from having everyone treat him like that as Katara led the way.
Sokka, who had come up to the deck to apologize to Aang and had seen everyone bowing to him, stood still in utter confusion for a few moments before he decided to ask what was on his mind as he turned to Toph. "Um… Toph?"
"Yes, Snoozles?" she tried to act like her usual self, but she couldn't seem to keep a little shock out of her voice as she turned to look at him.
"What exactly happened?" he asked with a raised brow, remembering how the first thing he had seen was Aang looking almost paralyzed and most of his crewmates bowing before him.
Toph snorted and smirked a little. "You missed the show of a lifetime, Snoozles," she finally chuckled, making him look at her in more confusion as she gestured for him to follow her. "I'll explain it to you, but keep your mouth shut until I'm done." Sokka nodded in agreement and followed her as she began telling him of what had happened, making him wonder why Katara had dragged him off.
Katara couldn't quite believe what she had seen as she led the most powerful man in the world to her cabin. Sure, she had seen the evidence for herself, but it was still hard for her to wrap her mind around it. The last person she would expect to find adrift in the sea would be the Avatar himself, but there was no doubt in her mind that Aang was the one her grandmother had told her stories of. No one else on Earth could bend more than one element, and Aang had proven himself to bend both air and water.
Despite this incredible finding, she had also seen the almost horrified look on his face and, despite her tyro captain guise, had decided to help him out. After all, if she had found out that she was the Avatar, she would want a quiet place to let this all soak in as well.
Finally reaching her cabin, she opened the door and helped Aang inside, making sure to close and lock it so that no one else would be able to bother them. Bringing him over to her big desk in the middle, she sat him down in the comfiest chair she had and took her own seat in front of him, watching as he could only continue to stare in disbelief at his hands.
"Aang?" she asked gently, her sweet voice finally snapping him out of his surprise as he looked up at her. "Are you okay?"
Clearing his throat, he put on a fake smile and nodded to her. "Aye, mate. Why wouldn't I be?" he tried to put on a convincing tone, but she could see right through him.
"I can see the truth in your eyes, Aang," she decided to tell him, making him sigh as he slumped forward in defeat. "Why don't you seem happy about this? Most people would be happy about finding out that they were the Avatar."
"Well, it doesn't help that I don't even know what an 'Avatar' is," Aang shrugged as he looked up at her. "Besides, the way those people were looking at me…" Katara couldn't help but feel bad for him. She understood well not wanting to be in the limelight, and she could only imagine how weird it must have been to have people bow like that to him.
Deciding that she could comfort him later, she then decided that she could help him by explaining to him what he did not yet know. "Well, I don't know that much about the Avatar myself, but I'll tell you what I do know," she offered.
"Yes, please," he politely almost begged, wanting some clarity more than he had ever wanted anything else before at the moment.
Clearing her throat, she thought about all that her Gran-Gran had told her when she was little. "From what I've heard, the Avatar is the spirit of the planet who joined the mortals to keep the peace between the four nations. But since it had become mortal, that meant that the Avatar could die. After the death of the first Avatar who was born in the Fire Nation, the Avatar was reincarnated into the Air Nomads, then the Water Tribes, then the Earth Kingdom. This is what my Grandmother called 'The Avatar Cycle'."
Aang nodded simply, waving for her to continue. "The Avatar was the master of all four elements, and was in charge of making sure that the nations remained in balance. He had great power that no one else could match, and was the most powerful bender in the world." She stopped to think about it for a few moments. "The only other thing that I know about it is that the next Avatar was supposed to be born amongst the Air Nomads, but they hadn't found him. For years, people have wondered if the Avatar Cycle ended, but now we know the truth." She looked at him with a little bit of awe on her face. "It hasn't."
Taking this all in, Aang couldn't help but panic a little. So, he was the Avatar, and that meant that he would have to play the peacekeeper? But he was a pirate! He had spent his whole life robbing the very Kingdoms he was supposed to protect. How was he even supposed to gain their trust after all he had plundered from them?
"No… No, I can't be the Avatar," he tried to deny it once more, even though he knew the truth. "I can't be… If I'm the Avatar, then that means I have to-"
"No, you don't," Katara reached forward and put a calming hand on his own, once again sending a spark through both of their bodies at this as he looked up at her with wide eyes. "Just because you're the Avatar doesn't mean you have to do your duties. No one but the people on this ship know that you're the Avatar. No one else needs to know or will find out."
"But… but isn't that my job?" Aang couldn't help but sputter out. "The Avatar is supposed to keep the peace, right?"
To his surprise, Katara just shrugged simply. "But there's nothing for you to do. The world is already at peace, and no one else knows that you're the Avatar. You can do whatever you want, Aang. If the world needed you, I wouldn't be saying this, but it doesn't yet. It might in the future," she added, making him not like the sound of that as he felt the nerves of his responsibilities start to get to him.
Seeing the look on his face, Katara sighed and took his hand in hers, giving it a gentle squeeze as he found himself blushing ever so slightly. "Really, Aang. I know that you're probably worried, but you shouldn't be. If the world needs you, then we'll figure it out when it comes to that."
Despite everything that had happened, he couldn't help but raise a brow at her. "We?" he asked in surprise, watching as she blushed a little before removing her hand from his and shrugging as she looked away.
"We're in this together now, Aang," she forced herself to meet his eyes. "Avatar or not, you're a part of the crew. And like me, my ship takes care of its own. No matter what happens, we're in this together."
Feeling strangely comforted by this, Aang couldn't hold back a smile as he looked at her in gratitude. "Thank you," he whispered gratefully.
She couldn't help but smile back at him as they stared at each other, finding that neither of them wanted to look away as they sat there in silence.
Before anything could be said or done, the sound of a bell ringing snapped them both out of their trance, making their eyes widen as they recognized what it meant and stared at each other in surprise.
"We've got company…"
