Author's Note: I've never done this before so if I'm a train wreck, I sincerely apologize. Characters and world, etc. belong to creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and not me. Unfortunately.

After: The Waterbending Scroll

Their little fire cast a warm light across the copse of trees that surrounded Aang, Katara, and Sokka's well-hidden campsite. After their run-in with Zuko and the pirates the night before, they had been particularly diligent in finding an out-of-the-way spot to settle in for the night. Another mistake like yesterday's, and they'd be hard-pressed to survive until the summer solstice, let alone defeat the Fire Lord.

Aang leaned back against one of Appa's many furry legs, rubbing his wrist were an overzealous pirate had tied his bonds a little too tight. The past twenty-four hours had been a blur of excitement and he grinned at the memory. It was exactly the kind of trouble he used to get into a hundred years ago, even under the watchful eyes of the monks. Of course, he knew what Gyatso and the others would have said about stealing the scroll (and about Katara's excuse for it).

Aang's eyes flashed to Katara, who knelt across from him in front of the fire, stirring a small pot that held the evening's dinner. Growing up, Katara had so little exposure to the art of bending. Aang understood how that scroll might have felt like a thin thread, connecting her to thousands of years of South Pole culture. It connected her to her peoples' past, a people who had once made up a mighty Nation. Before the war. That feeling he understood intimately.

He crossed his arms and tilted his head back thoughtfully. No, he didn't blame her for stealing the scroll. And he had truly meant it when he had told her 'what's done is done', although perhaps he would have felt differently if he had known the series of events that would take place afterward. Getting yelled at by Katara and then subsequently captured by Zuko and pirates wasn't an ideal way to spend an evening, but everything had turned out alright in the end.

"Is dinner almost ready? I could eat a whole tiger-seal," Sokka said, lounging on his bedroll.

"Almost," came Katara's patient answer. "Gran-gran's stew was a little trickier to recreate than I thought it would be. Doesn't help that I'm not really in the mood for cooking, either," she huffed under her breath.

"Serves you right," Sokka said. "You can look at it as karma for stealing the scroll and the mess that came after." He wiggled his fingers at her. "The universe says you must be punished by cooking every meal for a week," he intoned in a spooky voice.

She pursed her lips. "I cook all the meals anyway, Sokka."

"Well," Sokka began, "that's your job, as the only gi-"

A well-aimed wooden spoon flew across the fire and hit Sokka squarely between the eyes, and Aang burst into laughter. Katara hid a smile as she twisted her hand above the pot, using waterbending to stir its contents.

"Serves you right, Sokka," Aang said, still laughing. "Don't let Suki hear that kind of talk, next time you see her. She might put you in a dress again."

Sokka grumbled from his blankets, rubbing his forehead. "You think I'd let her hear me say that? She'd probably break my fingers or something."

"Well, which would you rather I do?" Katara asked sweetly. "Break your fingers, or skip your dinner?"

"Anything but skipping the dinner," Sokka snapped. "I'm starved. Of course, I wouldn't be so hungry if I hadn't had to fight off twenty pirates, and Zuko, and his soldiers."

"Wow, thank goodness you were there," Katara drawled sarcastically, her hands dropping from stirring the pot and going to her hips. "I'm so glad you were able to manage all those bad guys all by yourself."

"Well, I certainly want to give credit where credit is due, Katara, since we would never have had to deal with those men if you hadn't stolen the scroll in the first place!" Sokka snarled.

A series of expressions, ranging from shock to rage to guilt, flashed across Katara's face. Finally, she stood from where she knelt before the fire and strode away from the campsite and into the trees.

Aang airbent himself into a standing position. "Sokka," he said reproachfully. "What did you say that for?"

"What? It's not like it isn't true." Sokka sulked, throwing his arms above his head.

Aang glared at him. "I think it's about time you ate something, Sokka, you're acting like an angry platypus-bear." He pointed at the pot of stew hanging above the fire. "Eat some of that. Hopefully Katara was able to make it edible before you upset her so much that she didn't want to finish cooking."

"Where are you going?"

"To check on Katara," Aang said, before he leapt off into the woods after her.

Katara hadn't made it far before he caught up with her. Her long braid swung back and forth across her back, in time with each footstep, as she stomped over the leaf-choked forest floor. Aang put a gentle hand on her shoulder as he caught up to her, as much to let her know she was there as to comfort her. He saw her flick her eyes over to him, but she didn't meet his gaze.

"Hi, Aang," she mumbled dejectedly. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "I think Sokka's just hungry. Maybe still a little on edge from yesterday and this morning."

"It's not like I meant for that to happen!" Katara exclaimed, whirling to him. "Do you feel the same way as him?"

"No!" Aang held up his hands, eyes going wide. "No, I don't. I'm not making excuses- I'm just trying… I'm just saying that maybe he felt that things didn't go as well as-"

"Ugh," Katara groaned, her head falling into her hands. "Just stop, Aang. I'm not… I'm not mad at you. I don't even think I'm mad at him. Although he was being a jerk." She straightened up, but still didn't meet his eye. "I'm angry at myself. Angry… and, well, embarrassed."

"Embarrassed?" Aang repeated, perplexed.

"Yea," she said. Her cheeks flushed, and the tips of her ears turned pink. "Look, the last twenty four hours- they definitely haven't been my best. I stole an expensive scroll from pirates. Obviously a bad idea. And then I could barely figure the scroll out, when you did all of it so easily! And then I got myself, you, and my brother captured by Zuko, and the only reason we got out of that scrape was because Sokka was clever enough to turn the Zuko and the pirates against each other!"

All of this came out in one breath, as if the dam that had held it all back had been released. Aang blinked, trying to process what she said, but she spoke again before he could respond.

"The thing I feel the worst about is the fact that that was the closest we've come to being captured by Zuko since we first ran into him. I put you and Sokka in danger, and-"

"Katara," Aang interrupted. "It's not a big deal."

She shot him a skeptical look.

He gave a lopsided smile. "Okay, maybe it's a bit of a big deal, but nothing happened. We're safe, and Zuko's nowhere to be seen. And he's nothing we can't manage, anyway. We've proven that. Several times, now."

It wasn't precisely the truth. Standing on that river bank, his hands bound and surrounded by pirates, Aang hadn't had a clue how the three of them were going to get away. Zuko was sure to take extra precautions after the last time Aang had escaped from him, and this time, Sokka and Katara were there, too. All three of them escaping unscathed would have proven much more difficult. And seeing Katara standing there as Zuko's prisoner, her hands bound, knowing what the Fire Nation might do to her, had left him with an intense, mixed bag of emotions. Half anger, half panic, and a strange, swooping fear that left him more confused than anything else. Aang had never been more appreciative of Sokka's quick thinking, even if he hadn't understood it at first. So, no, it wasn't precisely the truth, but Aang wasn't even sure if he was ready to tackle the truth right then.

"But Aang, if Sokka hadn't-," Katara protested.

Aang cut her off. "I know. And we can talk all day about might-have-been's, but what happened, happened. The monks used to say that worrying about what might have been was like standing outside on a sunny day and expecting rain- useless, and disappointing. Appreciate what happened. We'll learn from it. We always do." He shrugged and gave her a small smile.

Her bright blue eyes met his. "Yea, I guess you're right." She gave a half-hearted laugh. "Hard to argue with enlightened monks."

He grinned. "It is. Believe me, I tried. Too many times to count." He put his hand back on her shoulder. "Come back to camp with me. I'm sure we'll all feel better with some food in our stomachs. If Sokka has left us any."

Her eyes rolled. "He'd better not have eaten all of it. Or maybe I will break his fingers." She chuckled before giving him a sidelong glance. "Thanks, Aang," she said softly. "I appreciate you coming after me. And being so understanding. And just, well…" she started. She stood still for a moment, looking unsure, before finally putting her arms around him, pulling him into a warm hug and holding him there for a while, her cheek resting on his shoulder.

"It's nothing," he said, trying unsuccessfully to hide a blush when she finally pulled away from him.

Smiling, Katara grabbed his hand in hers and lead them back to camp./p