Man I really took a whole month to update. So here's chapter 27 and like I said already I'm really excited for the next chapter :D Anyways enjoy!

...

One Week Later

"Alright just like we planned, you go in there and carefully get Liang from her crib and quickly bring her out. It's still pretty early, so Katara's gonna be asleep. Oh and also make sure that Liang doesn't cry or Katara will wake up." Toph whispered to Sokka and he nodded his head.

The boomerang guy carefully opened the door and peeked in but quickly closed it again. His eyes widened and heart beat began to race.

"What? What happened?" Toph asked.

"Aang's in there. They're in bed together." He responded with a still shocked faced.

"WHAT? Are they naked?" She asked in a concerned tone.

"What? No. Wait-" He then slightly opened the door again and peeked.

"Um, no. They're just...cuddling."

"Wait, does that mean they're back together? Oh please let it be they're not. I still need two more weeks."

"You need two? I need three!" He looked back at the door again uncertain of how to continue.

"So what now?" He asked.

"Just stick to the plan and don't make any unnecessary movements. Remember Twinkletoes is an airbender, so he might sense you."

She then turned him around to face the door. "Good luck!" The earthbender said in a sarcastic tone.

Sokka opened the door and quietly walked over to the baby's crib. As he walked he saw Aang and Katara holding each other in bed. Katara had her head in his chest and he had his arm around her.

The Water Tribe warrior carefully took the already awake baby out of the crib. She didn't make a sound so he thought he was good. Then as he was walking back to the door he tripped on a lemur shaped plushie that was laying on the ground.

His eyes widened at Liang almost hitting the ground but he caught her just in time. However, it was enough to make her begin to cry.

"Not it!" Aang and Katara yelled out simultaneously as they sat up in bed.

"Sokka? What are you doing here?" Katara asked as she rubbed her eye.

"Oh hey! Um well I just came to get my favorite niece and take her out for a nice walk so that her amazing mother, who is also the best sister in the world, could get some rest." He responded quickly.

"Wow that's really sweet of you Sokka." Aang said with a smile.

"Mhm." Katara replied with a suspicion filled glare.

"Yep. Anyways I'll get out of your hair now, see you guys later." The Water Tribe Warrior said and turned towards the door.

"Hold it." Katara commanded.

"Yes?" Sokka turned with a fake innocent smile in his face.

"Now where are you really taking her?" She finally asked.

He sighs, "Fine! So me and Toph were making out around the- I mean walking out around the palace. And we saw these guards talking and they all have babies and they were arguing as to whose baby could crawl the fastest. They ended up deciding to do a race between the babies to see who was the fastest crawler. And naturally me and Toph decided to place a bet on it. But the thing is we don't have a baby. And then we thought of Liang and came here to take her to the race."

"Wow! That sounds great! And she can crawl really fast so she's bound to win!" Aang began and then noticed Katara glaring at him which made him change his words quickly to please her.

"I mean no Sokka! How could you possibly think that we would let you use our baby to win a bet on a race that could get her injured!" He exclaimed trying to cover up what he said prior.

The boomerang guy then sighed heavily and turned to face his sister. "Katara please, we'll bring her back as soon as we're done. And if you want you can get half the money if she wins. Actually make that a quarter of the money."

"I don't want any money, Sokka! I just don't want you using my baby like an ostrichhorse to win a stupid bet."

"Come on, Katara. This could be fun for her, she gets to go outside and play with other babies her age. She doesn't really get to do that in here. Plus she's a strong baby and Sokka and Toph will be keeping an eye on her." Aang spoke again to try and convince her.

She glares at Aang and sees he's not changing his mind this time. She continued to stare at his 'please' face and turns to her brother who now has the same face going for him.

"Fine."

Sokka's face lights up and he begins to jump with Liang in his arms.

"But I swear to you, Sokka. If you get even one scratch on my baby, you will regret ever asking me this."

"Duly noted." He nods his head turns towards the door once more but turns around one last time.

"Actually before I go-"

"Oh, what now!" Katara exclaims.

"Are you two back together?" He asks while pointing a finger at them.

Aang and Katara look down and notice they're touching hands in bed together and remember the position they slept in last night, which makes the two begin flush. Katara begins to fidget with her hair and Aang scratching his neck.

"Well you see that is a very good question." They say simultaneously.

"Mhm, and the answer to that question is um.." They both look at each other before answering

"Umm well...not exactly?" Katara finally responds.

"Yeah, not really?" Aang says in unison with her words.

"Yes!" Sokka exclaims in relief.

They both raise an eyebrow at him, weirded out by his enthusiasm in their separation.

He becomes aware of what he just said and tries to hide it, "I mean- aw, man! You guys aren't together yet? That-that sucks! But you know, you both need time to digest things before you can be ready to be together. And I think that time should be about, and I'm just throwing a random number out here, three weeks?"

"Uh.."

"You know what? I'm just gonna go now. Okay see ya!" He then finally exits the room and they're left alone.

The two stay there and try to focus their vision on separate parts of the the bedroom, but keep catching glances at each other.

"So, last night was a long night." Aang breaks the silence.

"We have the eye bags to prove it." Aang chuckles at her comment.

"Yeah, honestly in the eight months she's been alive, I don't think she's ever cried that much." Katara continued.

"The fact that I actually believe that."

They both laugh and when the laughter dies they're left staring at one another. He gives her a soft smile to which she returns.

"Well I should get going. I have a meeting with Zuko and some generals, and the healers might tell me I'm finally ready to get back to my job as the Avatar." Aang says and breaks their bubble.

"That's great! Well good luck with that." She replied with some dismay for him having to leave.

He smiles once more and before leaving kisses her forehead lightly.

"See you later."

"Bye."

Later that day

Katara was walking through the hallways by the throne room when she heard a door slam. She peeked her head out and saw Aang walking around in a circle while blasting fire from his fists.

Without knowing she was there he threw fire towards where Katara was coming from and nearly hit her.

"Woah!" She said out loud in response to nearly being hit.

"Katara! I'm sorry! I didn't see you." He exclaimed in guilt.

"No it's fine. Are you okay?" She asked in concern.

"Yeah I'm fine." He tried to downplay his anger.

"Aang.."

He knew there was no point in covering it up when it came to Katara. "Okay, you got me. It's the stupid healers! In the meeting I was told that they need me in Ba Sing Se in three weeks because apparently it's chaos over there! But the healers say that I'm not ready since I haven't been able to enter the Avatar State since I got back!" He let out in rage and she watched him in pity.

"You haven't been able to renter the Avatar State?" Aang suddenly realized he hadn't let her in on that.

"Um, yeah I haven't."

"And they haven't been able to help me either! In there they were making it seem like it was all my fault! Like I like not being able to do my job as the Avatar. The world needs me and I'm not there to help." The airbender sat against the wall with his head down.

She was disheartened to see him like this, when suddenly a bulb turned on in her mind.

"How 'bout I help you?"

"What?" He looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Did you forget I'm the best healer in the world?" She said with a smile and put her hands on her hips.

Aang chuckled, "How could I forget? Remember I was the one that pushed you to go to that ceremony in the North Pole to get your medal for World's Best Healer."

"Exactly! Now come on," she extended her hand to bring him up from the floor, "Let's get your Avatar State back."

As she gathered water in a bucket, Katara looked up and saw Aang taking off his shirt to begin the healing process.

"What?" He chuckled in response to her long staring.

She placed the bucket down and rushed up to him. Without another thought she urged her lips onto his. And to her surprise he returned it with equal passion.

Their tongues met and neither battled for dominance. They allowed each other to explore the other's mouth to the very last inch. Without wanting to waste another second of this long awaited encounter, Katara's top hit the floor. Her hands traveled down his back and could feel the butterflies gather up in her center.

Katara

He was now against the wall with Katara glued to him. She pushed herself up and wrapped her legs around his bare waist while he held the back of her head to not let go of her lips.

Katara

As she pulled him closer, however, she couldn't help but notice he began to slip away. But he wasn't leaving her grip, rather he was vanishing.

"Katara!"

"Huh?" She was suddenly shaken from her thoughts and blinked once more to find Aang waving his hand in front of her face.

"Are you okay? You spaced out on me for a good minute."

The waterbender realized how stupid she might've looked considering she was puckering her lips. "Uh, yeah. I'm great! I just needed a sex, I MEAN- SEC! To uh," she gave her self a mental slap in the face for what she just said and tried to find an excuse to cover up her story, "To examine your abs, I MEAN- ABS-SOLUTELY bad-looking scars you've got going on."

She tried to chuckle it off but it was clearly not working since Aang looked like a tomato. Spirits, Katara! What is wrong with you? Was it that hard to not let him know of your dirty thoughts of him for two seconds?! She scolded herself internally.

Then suddenly Aang began to laugh, it was that classic laugh that makes anyone and everyone smile. "Why are you laughing?" She asked with a flushed face.

"I'm sorry," he said while still cackling. "Do you remember when you told me about how bad of a job I did when hiding my crush on you for the first year we knew each other?"

"Yeah.."

"Well it's you who's not doing a good job now," he chuckled.

"Shut up!" She said while hitting him in the shoulder and he continued laughing.

"Do you want to get your Avatar State back or not?"

The laughter died and he smiled at her, "Fine, but are you sure you're gonna be able to concentrate without getting lost in your dirty thoughts?"

Katara hit him again but he still managed to get a laugh out of her. "Get over yourself!"

"Are you sure it's not you who wants to get under me?" He asked with a smirk and was hit once again.

"Fine, how 'bout we even this out?"

The airbender raised an eyebrow at her and then widened his eyes when she took off her top and was left in her white undergarments. Blood rushed to his cheeks at the sight before him.

"Shall we begin?" She said while pointing her hand to the tatami mat.

He shook his head after a second of admiring her and laid down on the mat.

Katara began by bending water over his chest and circling around that area.

"Are they as bad as you said earlier?" He asked in worry.

"No I was just exaggerating."

She examined his wounds clearly but felt she was missing something. "Sit up for me real quick."

The airbender sat up and Katara scanned more of his injuries located on his back and shoulders while trying to figure out the chi paths that were locked. "Okay Aang, I'm gonna need you to stay very still."

She then bended water on the front and back of his torso at the same time and gave it some pressure. After a minute she allowed the water to fall. "How about you try now?"

Aang turned to her and sat in Lotus Position. He closed his eyes and concentrated in entering the Avatar State.

After five minutes of nothing happening, Katara began to worry that her healing wasn't enough. But before her worries grew, Aang's eyes opened in a white glow along with his tattoos.

When the glowing dimmed, he was greeted by Katara's arms around his neck. "You did it!" She exclaimed.

"I couldn't have done it without your help!"

They both settled into the embrace and were only taken back by their faces getting closer to one another. Maybe it was the skin-to-skin contact, maybe it was the high of the moment, or maybe it was that entering the Avatar State felt like the last step to finally coming home. Just as Aang began to lean in to close the space between them, the door opened.

"Hey Aan-ah!" Sokka began and then covered his eyes at the sight of his sister and best friend half-naked and in each other's arms.

They quickly put space between and sat up. Katara grabbed the top laying on the floor and covered herself.

"What is it Sokka?" She asked.

"Well, I was looking for Aang." He turned to his friend, "Toph was wondering if you wanted to have an earthbending match with her outside?"

"Uh, sure." He responded and turned to face Katara, "Wanna come?"

"Nah, it's fine. You go, I'll see you later." She replied with a smile.

The airbender shook his head and tried to hide his disappointment at her not coming along. Before leaving however he hugged her tight again and thanked her for what she did.

As Aang exited the door, Sokka raised an eyebrow and looked from Aang to Katara and back and forth.