Sorry that this took so long to come out. I was busy yesterday and the day before.

Please review.

Disclaimer: ATLA is not one of the things I own.

Chapter 12

Today was the last full day on Ember Island. The Gaang had to go back to Ba Sing Se tomorrow. They were leaving early tomorrow morning.

"Oh man, I just realized we have more meetings," Aang said.

"Oh no, not again," Sokka groaned.

"Our vacation made me forget all about it," Zuko said.

"At least we're all well-rested now," Katara chimed in.

"Yeah, you won't be sleeping, exploding things, or hallucinating... for now," Toph added.

"We should make the most of today," Suki said.

"Yeah, we can all hang out and do something together. We could play volleyball!" Sokka said.

"Actually, I was planning to spend the day with Katara," Aang piped up.

"Really?" Katara asked him, full of joy.

"Yeah, I wanted to do something with you, maybe walk into town and walk around the beach. Even though we hung out yesterday I still feel guilty about what I did. I want to make up for the lost time we had."

She hugged Aang. "Thanks, sweetie." She pecked him on the lips.

"OOGIES," Sokka groaned. Suki elbowed him in the side.

Katara and Aang left for the town while the rest of the Gaang went out on the beach once again.

"Aang, can I pleaaaaaase get this?" Katara said with a puppy-dog face. She held a Fire Nation tunic right in front of her.

"I can't say no to that," he replied, a hand on his neck.

She grabbed his hand and brought him over to the desk.

"Avatar Aang. It's an honor to have you purchase something from my shop," the shopkeeper said. "It's on the house, Avatar. No need to pay."

"Are you sure? I'd rather pay for it," Aang said.

"Nonsense, Avatar. Aren't you here with the Firelord too? I could never charge him or close friends of his."

Aang reached in his pocket and put two gold pieces on the table. He grabbed Katara's hand and they quickly rushed out of there.

"Thanks, Aang," she kissed him on the cheek. "I'll try it on when we get back to the house."

They continued to walk around some more and came across the dance hall where Aang 'cheated' on her.

Katara noticeably looked more upset as they walked by.

"Care for a dance?" Aang asked.

"I don't know, Aang. Looking at it makes me sad and it reminds me of bad memories." She looked down.

"I'm sorry... I just thought that breaking up with you would make you safer."

She smiled at him. "I know, you proved your love for me once again. You love me so much that you would give us up for my safety."

He smiled back. "So how about that dance? If this place gives you bad memories then why don't we create a good one."

They went inside. Aang waited on the dance floor while she put her bag down on a chair.

An uptempo song was on, similar to the last time they were at the dance. Thirty seconds after they started to dance, the song had ended. A romantic, slow beat song started to play. They blushed and started slow-dancing.

"Thanks for convincing me to dance, Aang. This memory will outshine the bad ones. I'll always remember this," she whispered to him.

He laughed. "Me too."

The dance finished and they decided to go back to the house. Katara had gone to her room to try out her new outfit.

"How does it look, Aang?" She walked into the room.

"Beautiful as always," he said dreamily.

She blushed and giggled. "Aang, how does it actually look?"

"It looks a little big on you and the shoes don't really match but other than that it looks great!"

"Oh, I guess I'll just grow into it then. Now hold on, let me change into my swimsuit," Katara said as she closed the door.

A minute went by and she was changed into her swimsuit.

"Alright, let's go." She clutched his hand and led him out.

They walked down to the beach where the rest of the Gaang were hanging out.

"Hey guys! Up for another game of volleyball?" Sokka asked.

"No, we're going to walk down the beach. Maybe later," Katara replied.

"The beach won't be busy today since the boats returned back to the Fire Nation this morning. You probably won't have as much trouble as you did last time," Zuko chimed in.

"Thanks for telling us, Zuko."

Zuko smiled at them while they walked over to the commercial side.

"Wow, he was right. There's barely anyone here," Katara said.

"Good, now there won't be any distractions and now I can just focus on you." He looked over to Katara. She smiled back.

Even though there were fewer people, it didn't change the fact that people would glance over at the couple. A whole group of girls eyed Aang down. Katara, once again, snuggled closer to him.

"Katara," he laughed, "you don't need to keep doing that. We've already been over this, I'm not going to leave you for some random girl staring at me."

"I just want to make it clear that you're mine. I don't want any distractions from our alone time." She kissed him on the cheek.

They held each other closer and walked back to Zuko's beach. It had gotten pretty late.

"Where have you guys been? I'm starving," Sokka said, rubbing his stomach. "Since you're here now, tell me what you want so I can head out."

"Katara and I can go get the food," Aang said. He turned to Katara. "If that's okay with you."

"I'd love to, sweetie," Katara replied.

"No, no, I insist on getting the food," Sokka said.

"Sokka, we'll get you meat tonight, don't worry. But I'm not buying it myself, Katara will have to do it."

Sokka ran over to Aang and pulled him a hug. "THANK YOU! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so happy that I could kiss you right now!"

"Errrr... you probably wanna save that for Suki," Aang replied awkwardly.

Sokka stepped back and let go of Aang. "Yeah, you're right."

Katara and Aang went inside to change from their beachwear into their streetwear. Surprisingly, Katara had finished changing BEFORE Aang.

"I wonder what he's doing," Katara wondered.

Aang popped out of his room a few seconds later. He had been wearing a Fire Nation outfit, complete with a headband.

"Wow, Aang. Where'd you get this?" She searched up and down his body, inspecting his new clothing.

"I bought it a few days ago, back when we had the 'talk'. I actually bought it with you in mind. I thought you would like it. I kept forgetting that I was trying to break up with you," he laughed awkwardly. "Oh, and the headband is from that time where I enrolled in that Fire Nation school."

There was an awkward silence.

"Well, you were right about me liking it. You look so handsome," Katara said.

"You don't look so bad yourself," he smiled to her.

They headed into town, hand-in-hand. Katara went over to the meat stalls while Aang went to the vegetable stalls. They spent twenty minutes purchasing the food and walking around.

"Alright, ready to head back?" Aang asked.

"Can we walk around a little longer," she looked up to him. "Pleaaase?"

"Uh, well we have to get the groceries back to the house. They're probably starving."

"C'mon Aang, just a little longer?" she asked with puppy-dog eyes.

He smiled at her. "Okay... fine."

They started walking around. Fingers laced once again.

"I really don't want to leave tomorrow," Katara said with a little sadness.

"Me neither, I wish we had more time alone, but the world needs us. It needs our help rebuilding and we'll probably be busy with this for years to come. But don't worry..." he turned to her. "...I'll always make time for you."

He turned to look forward. A few seconds later, she planted a kiss on his cheek.

"Thanks, sweetie," she said to him.

The couple got back to the house a few seconds later. Sokka had been watching the door ever since they left.

"There you guys are, I'm STARVING!" Sokka said.

"We grabbed tons of food while we were out. We'll have a large dinner tonight," Katara said to him.

"You guys were out for WAY TOO LONG. I'm starting to think that you guys need to be watched, I can only imagine what you two do by yourselves!" he said to the couple.

Aang was flushed and Katara was livid. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"Chill out, Snoozles. No one else is complaining. We're used to the long wait because when you're out by yourself you usually take just as long, if not, longer than them," Toph said.

"Bu-but... but, but-" Sokka stammered.

"It's true, honey," Suki said.

Sokka looked defeated and grabbed the bags from Aang and Katara and stormed out of the room to start on the barbecue. He peeked his head back into the room just a few seconds later.

"Uh... Aang? Zuko? Someone come help me with the fire."

Zuko stood up and went outside.

Sokka had finishing barbecuing the meat and the vegetables a few minutes earlier. Now everyone was chowing down on the food.

"Mmmmmm! This is delicious! Nevermind you guys took so long, it was worth the wait!" Sokka said with his mouth full.

Katara rolled her eyes and started to munch on her food again.

"You guys remember that terrible Ember Island play?" Zuko asked, out of nowhere.

Everyone except Mai and Toph nodded.

"It wasn't that terrible, they pretty much had all of us nailed down," Toph said.

"No they didn't, they made me a girl," Aang said.

"They made me a preachy crybaby!" Katara added.

"And they made me overly depressed and dramatic. I wasn't that obsessed with my honor," Zuko added.

"Yeah! And worst of all, they made me say terrible meat jokes! My jokes are GREAT!" Sokka said.

Everyone just looked up at Sokka.

"What?" he questioned.

They ignored his question and kept talking.

"I can't believe they made me have a crush on Zuko! Just thinking about it makes my stomach ache!"

"Yeah, it was VERY uncomfortable. You aren't my type," he turned to Mai.

"I agree, it was super discomforting. I can admit that you are a great friend but you aren't my type. Plus, I have someone else, someone that I'm very happy with." She leaned on Aang's shoulder.

Team Avatar continued to feast and continued to discuss about earlier adventures. Aang got up and snuck off. Nobody seemed to notice Aang's disappearance because he had been quiet ever since the talk of the Ember Island play. Katara finished her food quickly and followed after him.

Sokka noticed that Katara got up. "Hey, where are you going?"

Everyone's eyes were locked on her. "Ummm... I need to... use the bathroom," she replied.

"Oh, alright then." Sokka shrugged his shoulders and the rest of the Gaang continued to talk.

Katara walked into the house and started searching for him. He wasn't downstairs, so she went up to check his room. She noticed him standing out on the balcony.

"Aang..." she whispered as she put a hand on his shoulder. "I know that you're insecure about me and Zuko but trust me, we've never thought of getting into a relationship and we never will. I need you to understand. The play was inaccurate and doesn't properly show who we actually are."

"Yeah... I know..." he replied. Katara looked relieved. "...But that wasn't the only thing on my mind..."

Katara had a worried look on her face. "...I was also thinking about the kiss we had. I-I never really apologized for it."

"Aang," she cupped his face into her hands, "that's in the past. Look where we are now. We're dating now and we're both happy."

"Yeah... but you said you weren't interested and then I kissed you and we became a little distant for a few days. I was stupid, I shouldn't have kissed you like that," he looked down.

"I didn't that I wasn't interested, I said I was confused. Don't you understand the difference?"

Aang shook his head.

"When I said that I was confused, I really meant to say that I did have feelings for you, but I knew that it wasn't the right time, we were in the middle of a war. I was... I was also scared. I thought that if I admitted that I loved you, losing you to Ozai would've hurt even more. Looking back, I was a fool, and I'm sorry that I put you through that."

Aang grabbed her hands. "Well... I'm sorry too. I still kissed you without even asking you first."

"And you're forgiven." She hugged him and they stayed like that for a while.

They released the hug and they stared into each other's eyes. Their faces started moving closer until they closed the gap. The moon shined upon them while they shared and beautiful, deep kiss.

Author's Note: The tunic Katara bought and the outfit Aang wore are supposed to be the ones they wear in "The Search". It's a little big on them because they would obviously grow over the next year.