Sorry for not updating frequently. I've been extremely busy, but I should have more time to update and write now.

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Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA.

Chapter 9

Aang suddenly woke up and sat up almost right away. His whole body felt sore, weak, and tired. His vision was blurry.

He looked around and buried his hands in his face. "I'm suffering from major déjà vu."

A few seconds went by and Katara walked by his room. Not noticing him at first.

She turned around and poked her head into the room.

"Aang! You're awake!" she said with extreme happiness.

"I-" before he could respond, Katara rushed into the room and hugged him tightly.

"Did I die in the caverns... again?" he said weakly.

"You didn't this time, thank the spirits, but you were close to."

There was a pause.

"How long was I out this time?" she finally let go of Aang.

"About a week and a half," she said stepping back, admiring him.

He sat back down and rested his head on his pillow. She pulled up a chair and sat next to him.

"During the past week, I never left your side. I only left to go to the peace meetings but the first thing I'd do is come back to the house to check up on you. Even though the healers said you would be fine, I was still so worried that you wouldn't come back to me," she grabbed his hand.

"I'll always return to you, Katara, one way or another," he smiled at her.

"I love you, Aang," she kissed him on the cheek.

"I know," he laughed.

"Really, Aang?" she rolled her eyes, but she giggled.

"I'm just kidding," he laughed, "I love you too."

They shared a short, but sweet kiss.

Katara smiled at Aang, while he had his classic, goofy smile.

"So... what happened to Long Feng... an-and Hama too?"

"Long Feng was found trying to flee. He made it to the Outer Wall, but his disguise didn't work. Now he's being sent to a Fire Nation prison. Hama's being sent to the Fire Nation too but they'll be in entirely different prisons, so don't stress about it."

"What about the guy who almost killed you... err... us?"

"I don't really know too much about him. Zuko identified him as one of Ozai's top generals. Don't worry about him either, he was arrested right after you went unconscious."

"Phew," Aang said, wiping his forehead.

There was another pause.

"Is it just me, or do you feel like this is déjà vu?" Aang asked.

"No, I feel the same way. It's just like the caverns with Azula. Except this time, I felt more loss and sadness. I lost you back when we were best friends, and now I've lost you when we've barely started dating. Accepting my love for you has made the pain of watching you get hurt even more unbearable than it was before," tears rolled down her cheeks.

Aang pulled her into his arms. He didn't say anything. She let it all out. She eventually stopped after a few minutes.

Her eyes were watery and red. Her nose was stuffy. And her cheeks were stained by her tears.

"Better?" he whispered.

"Yes," she whispered back.

There had been a silence. It was longer than the two previous ones.

"Are there any plans this week?" he broke the silence.

"The meetings ended a couple of days ago and they're giving us a couple of weeks to take a break." Her voice was kind of weak from the sobbing.

Katara wiped one last tear from her eye with a smile on her face.

"Now c'mon, let's go see the others!" She grabbed Aang's hand and dragged him into the main room where everyone was chilling.

"AANG!" everyone said and they quickly rushed over to him. Toph punched him in the shoulder and Mai gave him a smile from across the room.

"So Katara tells me that we have a two-week vacation? Do you guys have any plans?" Aang asked.

"We waited for you to wake up because we wanted your opinion too, so no, no plans yet," Sokka said.

"Well I wanna leave this city," Toph said.

"Yeah, good things don't really happen around here," Zuko added.

"Where can we go to get maximum relaxation?" Katara thought out loud.

"We should go to Zuko's house. They can make us any type of food," Sokka said drooling.

"We aren't going to my palace just to watch you eat all my food," Zuko said, rolling his eyes.

"I know, let's go to Ember Island and hang out. We could go to the beach and relax for a week," Suki said.

"The Royal Family has a vacation house there, and the Firelord has his own section of the beach," Mai added.

"That's great! I can work on my sand sculptures without having to worry about people ruining them," Sokka said excitedly.

"I don't think that it's other people you have to worry about, Snoozles. It's already ruined to begin with," Toph responded.

Sokka scowled and the rest of the Gaang laughed.

"So what about you, Aang? Wanna hang out on Ember Island?" Katara asked.

"Well, it is kinda far, it would take a few hours to get there and if someone needs the Avatar, I won't be around to help."

"Twinkletoes, it's called a vacation. VAY-CAY-SHUN! We all need one desperately after that Long Feng business. There will be games, goofing around, relaxing, and you even get to see Katara in her swimsuit. A lot less clothing and a lot more skin," Toph winked or at least tried to.

Katara turned red.

"Toph is right, but I'm forgetting about that last comment," Sokka replied.

"Well..."

"C'mon Aang, do it for me. We can have personal time on the beach, just you and me," she whispered in his ear.

"Okay, I'll go," he grinned.

"Thank you Katara, only you could 'charm' Aang into doing this. Could you get him to build me a meat vault next?" he joked. The others started laughing as Aang and Katara turned red.

"Look I'm Katara," he said in a high-pitched voice.

"Hey, Aang come to the beach with me. We'll make out and annoy my brother and say a lot of gushy-mushy stuff to each other. We won't be fifty feet apart at any time and you'll strike anyone who bothers me with lightning," Sokka laughed. Aang and Katara turned crimson while the others had burst into tears except for Mai who just chuckled.

The Gaang talked with Aang for almost an hour.

Katara listened in on the discussion in the kitchen. She wanted Aang to catch up on them and she already had some alone time earlier. Her eyes were still kind of red and her cheeks were a little stained.

Toph and Suki were joking around and laughing sitting near the others, but not engaging in their conversation. Sokka walked over to them.

"Hey, you guys. Why does Katara look like she was crying?" he joked.

Toph and Suki punched him in each shoulder.

"HEY, what was that FOR?" he was confused and angry.

Suki pulled Sokka's ear close to her mouth and whispered to him. "Her nearly dead boyfriend finally woke up after the initial injury, almost 2 weeks later."

Toph leaned into Sokka's ear. "Of course she was crying, Snoozles. This is the third time where Aang had been close to being gone for good. Not to mention the fact that their relationship has become even tighter with them dating and all. Even I know when it's time to be sensitive and not joke about things."

"Alright, alright. Jeez." Suki let go of him and pushed him away.

Thirty minutes went by and everyone went upstairs to pack for their trip.

"Yeah! Woo! BEACH! BEACH! BEACH!" Sokka chanted as he walked up the stairs.

Three hours later, Ember Island was in the view of the Gaang. Mai and Zuko cuddled and Katara rested her head on Aang's shoulder while they were sleeping. Toph was sleeping in the middle of the saddle. Sokka and Suki were making out while Sokka steered.

"Guys, look! Ember Island is right over there!" he yelled.

Everyone was awoken by his screaming.

"Couldn't you have woken us up calmly?!" Zuko asked, annoyed.

"I wanted you guys to be awake as soon as possible because I cannot wait to hit the beach!" Sokka replied.

A few minutes later, they arrived in Zuko's courtyard. They all unpacked and ran to the beach as soon as possible.

Aang waited in front of Katara's room, waiting for her to change. She opened the door moments later and Aang started to drool. Katara noticed and started to giggle.

"W-wow... you look gorgeous," Aang said, still drooling.

"Are we going to hit the beach or what?" she grabbed a towel and Aang grabbed an umbrella.

They held hands as they walked over to the beach. She laid down her towel and Aang set up his umbrella. They chilled underneath for a few minutes.

Sokka started to make a statue of Suki. It was similar to his statue he had made previously, except this time it was a little better.

Aang noticed and got up.

"Hey, where are you going?" Katara asked.

"You'll see," he cracked his knuckles.

His tattoos and eyes glowed for a second and he used his sandbending to build a castle. He continued by making a moat with waterbending, complete with a drawbridge and sand-people guarding the castle.

"Katara, come over here!" he motioned.

"Coming!" she said with a huge smile.

Sokka's mouth fell open.

"No fair, how come you get a castle?!" he said, looking from his statue to the castle.

"Katara is my queen and she needs a castle."

"Aang is my king and we need a castle to live in," she responded, giggling.

Sokka's eye twitched.

"That is it! I'm going to take over that castle!" he charged over to the castle, screaming and Katara easily knocked him over with her waterbending.

"WAR!" he yelled.

The others started to attack the castle. Aang and Katara tried to protect it as best as they could.

Toph sent sandballs and Zuko sent fireballs. They teamed up and sent flaming sandballs. Aang easily deflected the attacks. Sokka and Suki tried to approach the castle but Katara drenched them every single time. Mai sent her knives into the castle wall but they did little damage. After a while, everyone gave up besides Sokka who kept rushing over.

"Hey Aang, let's go surfing," Katara said.

"Okay, let's go," Aang responded.

"Race you there!" Katara said, using her waterbended to get into the ocean.

"Wait up!" he said as he jumped off his castle, running over to the water.

Sokka went atop of the half-broken castle. He had a huge smile on his face.

"Yes, the castle is mine!" he yelled.

The castle fell apart right after.

"This. Sucks," he said with a pouty look on his face.

Aang and Katara had been surfing for a while.

"Ugh, these waves aren't big enough," Aang complained.

Katara smirked and said, "try this on for size."

She created the biggest wave she could muster and they surfed together, zig-zagging around each other.

"Is that the best you could do?" he asked with a goofy grin.

"Oh, so you can do better than that?" she asked.

"Watch," he said.

He went into the Avatar State for a few seconds.

"Hurry, jump on my board."

She jumped onto his iceboard and Aang extended it.

"Hold on!" he said.

The wave started to turn into a gigantic sixty-foot monster wave. The iceboard broke under the pressure of the wave and they fell into the wave. The Gaang knew that they had to get to safety before the wave would swallow the beach. Zuko climbed up a tree and Mai climbed up a tree that was next to his. Sokka and Suki were up by the house, and Toph hid under the sand safely. Aang and Katara laid right next to each other on the beach.

Aang turned his head and looked at Katara.

"That was fun," he laughed.

Katara smiled at him, "even better with you."

He grinned and then kissed her. He started to tickle her and they rolled around in the sand. She was giggling and screaming and Aang kept going. He ended up on top of Katara.

"SOMEONE is having fun," Toph said sarcastically.

Aang turned around to see his friends laughing at him. He realized his position and what it looked like. He got off of her and he was blushing like crazy. Katara picked up on it and she started blushing hard too. They both started blushing even more when they realized that they were barely clothed.

The others laughed for another minute and then they returned back to their things.

They were still blushing and hadn't talked for a few minutes until Katara turned her head over to Aang.

"Wanna go on a walk with me?" she asked.

"Okay."

They got up and laced their fingers as they walked down the beach. Soon, they had started to reach the more public part of the beach. Kids were playing in the sand and were splashing each other in the water. Adults were sunbathing and relaxing. More and more people started to notice Aang and many eyes went to Aang. Lots of girls were eyeing Aang. Trying to get a good look at him shirtless. Katara always leaned into Aang and hugged him closer whenever she caught a girl looking at him.

A few minutes later, a couple of fangirls walked up to him. They were about Aang's age. They followed Aang and Katara and kept asking them questions. None of them were too personal or anything and Aang felt comfortable answering them. Katara was getting a little frustrated because she wanted some time alone to be with her boyfriend. She kissed Aang on the cheek and the fangirls left.

They walked down the beach and passed by an ice cream vendor.

"Hey Katara, could you get us some ice cream, I'm kinda hungry."

"Yeah, sure."

Katara bought the ice cream and turned around. She noticed a fangirl was talking to Aang and she decided to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"...So, Avatar, do you have a girlfriend by chance?" she asked him.

Aang looked at Katara and she just stared back.

"A gir-girlfriend?" he stuttered.

"Uhhhh... yes, yes I do."

"Is it anything serious?" she asked again.

"Yeah, I'd say it's pretty serious."

"Well, do you think she would mind if I took you out on a date?" she asked.

Katara was furious. She marched right over to them.

"I THINK SHE WOULD MIND AND I DON'T THINK SHE WOULD BE OKAY WITH IT!" she yelled at the girl.

"Well, how would you know?" the girl asked smugly.

"MAYBE BECAUSE I AM HIS GIRLFRIEND!" Katara yelled louder.

The girl's eyes widened and she walked away. Aang was taken aback by Katara's yelling. He hoped that his future self wouldn't do anything to make her angry. They held hands and started heading back to Zuko's Private Beach.

"UGH, why won't these girls just realize that maybe, just maybe, that the girl the Avatar is walking with might be his girlfriend."

"Katara, don't worry about it. My heart longs for you, and for you only, as long as you are willing to accept it. I won't ever leave you for some random girl on the beach. You know that."

Katara smiled. "Yeah, I know."

They managed to get back to the house without any more problems or complications.

Aang went upstairs to use the bathroom. Katara waited down there for his return.

"So, how was the walk?" Suki asked casually.

"I just wish there weren't so many fangirls," Katara said bitterly.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay. It's just something that comes with dating the Avatar, but I'm willing to deal with whatever it takes just so I can be with him."

Suki gave Katara a warm smile. Sokka had been behind them and overheard their conversation.

"UGHHHHH," Sokka groaned. The ladies turned around and looked at him.

"Aang is not even here and you're still giving me the oogies."

Katara was about to lose it and she was ready to kill Sokka, but her boyfriend walked down the stairs and distracted her from blowing up.

"So, what are we having for dinner?"

"We-"

"We don't know yet," Sokka cut Katara off. "I'm heading to the market in a few minutes. I'll get the food."

"Alright, just don't forget to get me anything," Aang started walked towards Katara.

Half an hour had gone by and Sokka walked into the room with a huge basket of meat.

"What'd you buy from the market?" Toph asked.

"MEAT, I went to the market and bought all the meat. I bought komodo chicken, some duck, platypus egg, and some-"

"What about Aang? He can't eat any of this," Katara said annoyed.

Sokka reached through his bag and pulled out a bag of rice.

"Here ya go, Aang," he plopped the bag into Aang's hand.

"THANKS, SOKKA," Aang said sarcastically and annoyed.

"Yeah I know, my consideracy is so lovable."

"Consideracy?" Katara asked, facepalming.

"It's a word," he replied defensively.

"You said you would get Aang something. How did you even know everyone else wanted meat? I like Aang's vegetarian diet."

"I did get him something, Katara. You can share the rice with him and we get to enjoy more meat," Sokka replied.

Everyone watched as the siblings started fighting again.

"Katara, it's okay. The rice is fine for me," Aang said.

"Are you sure, Aang?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Let's just enjoy the rest of the night."

Sokka cooked all the meat on a huge bonfire and between him and Toph, they ate most of the meat. They hung out and talked around the bonfire for more hours. It got late and they decided to go to bed, excitedly waiting for the next day to come.