Author's Note: Ok, this one was a STRUGGLE to write. It was written, rewritten, re-rewritten. Thank you for reading and reviewing. Let me know what you think! ATLA owned by MDD and BK.
After: Tales of Ba Sing Se
It was the ache in her hip that finally prompted Katara to stand and take a look around. They'd been in Ba Sing Se for almost a week, now, and Long Feng's ominous hints to maintain the status quo had caused them to go nearly insane from boredom. A few more days of this, and she'd be half tempted to fight her way through Dai Lee agents just for want of something to do.
They had already tried keeping themselves quietly busy within the city. Aang had wandered the city looking for Appa and somehow ended up helping a zoo keeper obtain more land. The details on that were a little hazy, but she had 'oohed' and 'aahed' when he told her in an excited voice about how happy the animals were in their new habitats. Katara hadn't seen him in such a good mood since before Appa had been stolen.
She and Toph had gone for a girls' day out, a nice opportunity to bond. She could only imagine what Sokka had been up to, but sometimes he went for walks up and down the streets of the upper and middle rings, late into the evening. He said he wanted to 'get a feel' for the city. Katara could tell that he didn't really care for what he saw. She didn't care for it, either.
For the first few days, they had tried their best to meaningfully occupy their time, but there were only so many spa days and ramshackle zoos and streets to wander before they simply ran out of things to do. Time seemed almost to be going backwards, and their mood was growing darker by the day.
Katara straightened up, feeling determined. It was time to do something productive.
Toph lay spread eagle on a plush couch, dozing, Momo stretched out next to her. Sokka sat at a table nearby, doodling in the corner of some official residential documents Joo Dee had sent for them to sign, and muttering to himself about the inconsistencies of world leaders. The fact that the Earth King and his not-so-grand secretariat had not been willing to listen to the information Sokka had obtained from The Library was a source of near constant irritation for him. How could they possibly be so uncaring in the face of a world war? No one among their small group understood it, but Sokka, who valued reason and logic above all things, was particularly affected by it.
That being said, none of them were more affected than Aang. Appa's loss had hit him hard, and Long Feng's less than enthusiastic attitude regarding their discovery from the Library wasn't helping. Katara wasn't the only one who could tell. Sokka had pulled her aside only yesterday and told her that he thought he had heard a blast of air coming from Aang's room the night before. He had gone to check on him, but Aang hadn't opened the door. Toph was worried, too. And it took a lot to worry Toph.
Looking over at him, it was easy to see why. He hadn't been particularly interested in visiting Ba Sing Se, but Aang had entered the city with a newfound optimism. After their run-in with Long Feng and the Dai Lee, and lack of news about Appa within the city, Aang had resumed the depressed state that had been prevalent following Appa's disappearance. He sat in a chair at the same table as Sokka, leaned forward on his elbows. His hand twisted lightly in front of him, keeping a feather pulled from a nearby cushion afloat. His expression was blank. It was as if, in order to keep himself from thinking about Appa, he was simply choosing not to think at all.
She bit her lower lip. Katara wanted more than anything to comfort him, but he'd already rebuffed several attempts to do just that this week. She meandered over to the table, hoping to subtly entice Aang into conversation. "What are you drawing, Sokka?"
"Nothing really. Just passing time," he grumbled.
She frowned. "Aren't those the papers that Joo Dee wanted us to sign? The ones that say that we can stay here in the government housing?"
"We're already here," Sokka answered. "What are they going to do? Kick us out?"
She crossed her arms, completely at a loss of what to say next. Aang hadn't so much as looked at her. He sat there, blowing air at his feather. Stymied, Katara turned back to Sokka's drawing. He held a charcoal stick loosely, sketching dark, broad lines, into a long, oblong shaped body. Two horns came next…
Sokka was no artist, but he was clearly sketching Appa.
An idea formed in Katara's mind. The only thing that would make Aang happy was finding Appa. They'd exhausted their options on wandering the city and asking people, hoping for the best. It was time to do some advertising. If they could get a picture of sky bison and take it to a print shop in the city, they could make posters and flyers to post around all the rings. That way, they didn't have to be in the right place at the right time to find the right information. They could have eyes everywhere. They'd put the city to work for them.
"Aang," Katara said excitedly. "I have an idea!"
He turned what little of his attention he had to give on her, and she quickly outlined her idea. Before she was even finished, a smile tugged at his lips and there was a little bit of life back in his gray eyes.
"Where could we get a picture of a bison?" Aang wondered aloud.
"I'll bet the university library has one," Sokka supplied helpfully. "There's bound to be something useful there, since everything else in Ba Sing Se has been worthless."
An hour later, Aang and Katara climbed the steps to the library and requested entrance from the huffy librarian who stood watch over a sea of tables and chairs where students were seated to study. She waved them in, not even looking up from her romance novel.
Looking over the expansive library, stacked wall to wall with books, Aang smiled. "I've got a good feeling about this," he said, determined.
But after several hours of pouring over library books, Katara was feeling much less confident than when they had started. Sure, finding cultural textbooks on Airbenders had been easy enough, and most of them mentioned sky bison, but none of them had pictures worth using at a print shop. Even their descriptions were lacking. One particularly vague textbook had described sky bison as being 'similar in size to a platypus-bear'. Despite her discouragement, Katara didn't want to give Aang the impression she was giving up. She smiled and nodded encouragingly, repeating 'just one book more, it'll be in the next one'. Aang's earlier enthusiasm had dissipated, but he followed her instructions with minimal complaint.
When they left their table for the seventh time, each in search for 'just one more book', Katara leaned against a bookshelf as soon as he was out of sight, hands going to her temples. This had to be a success. Katara just wanted to see Aang happy again.
"Hello, there," came a voice from behind her. "I haven't seen you here before. Are you new?"
Katara looked over her shoulder to see a boy, maybe one or two years older than her, leaning casually against the bookshelf next to her. He wore a green uniform, and he had a cart stacked high with used books. A library employee. He had an aura of smug confidence about him, and she immediately took a disliking to him.
"Yea, I'm new," she admitted finally. "But I'm here with-"
"That's great! I can show you around campus. I'm sure you'll love it here. You can come sit at my table until my shift is over." He said all of this as if it were already decided.
"No, thanks," she snapped, fixing him with a glare. "I'm waiting for my friend to come back."
"Oh." After a pause, he added, "That guy you came in with? I guess he can come, too." The boy crossed his arms, scarcely concealing his contempt for the idea.
"Nice to know you've been watching us. And we're not going anywhere. We're busy." She turned on her heel stalked away, muttering under her breath at the nerve of some people. Trudging back to their table, she threw herself into a chair.
The sound of scraping startled her, and she looked up to find the same boy from before pulling out a chair to sit down across from her, his cart discarded by the shelves.
"Sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all. "I didn't know you were 'with' that kid. I just thought you'd like the company of somebody more… More." He waggled his eyebrows at her.
She raised her eyebrows, appalled. "I don't even know what you mean by that. No, don't explain it," she added, when it was clear he intended to.
Katara was about to tell him that 'that kid' he was insulting was the Avatar, when she stopped herself. In a moment of clarity, she realized that she didn't want him to know. If he found out, he would probably fawn over Aang when moments before he was insulting him. Or, the more likely scenario, he would say something rude, as he'd managed to do with Katara in a scant ten sentences. Katara didn't think she could listen to either of those scenarios play out without slapping this imbecile across the room with whatever water she could find. Then they would get kicked out, and they hadn't even found a picture of a sky bison yet.
More to the point, she didn't want this guy talking about Aang anymore. He didn't deserve to know that he was standing in the same room and insulting the person who was going to save him from a war that he probably didn't even know about.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aang rounding the corner, two large books in his arms. He had a satisfied smile on his face, clearly confident about the contents of one or both of them. He lit up even further when he saw her. "Hey, Katara! I think I found a good one. I haven't seen any pictures of bison yet, but there's been pictures of just about everything else. There was one about lemurs, so there's gotta be one about bison- oh. I didn't realize you had… company." Aang's eyes flicked back and forth between Katara and 'company'.
Katara wanted to shrivel up on the spot.
The boy seemed intent on making the situation even worse. He rolled his eyes. "Oh, great, your friend is back."
Katara practically hissed at him before turning stricken eyes to Aang. She felt a stab of concern at the look on his face. Was he confused? Crestfallen? Disappointed? Irritated? It was a good approximation of all the things that she was feeling at the intrusion of her unwanted guest, but there was something more. He looked almost… jealous.
Despite the manifold emotions flitting across his features, his voice was deceptively neutral when he asked, "Who is this, Katara?"
"We actually haven't gotten to names, yet. We're at the part where I tell him I don't want to go anywhere with him because I'm here with you, and he ignores me."
Aang's expression finally settled on angry. His eyes lowered to a glare. What he lacked in height, he made up for in lean musculature and an aura of power that even a complete idiot like this one could pick up on. Although she knew that he was, Katara had never applied the word 'dangerous' to Aang before. He looked dangerous now. The impertinent young man leaned back in his chair, intimidated.
"Leave. Now." Aang said, his voice low and threatening.
The boy ran off without as much as a backwards glance.
Aang sat down next to her, books dropping heavily on the table. "What was that all about?" he asked.
"Just some idiot who thought it would be a good idea to give me a tour against my will," Katara said hotly. She turned to him. "Thanks, by the way. I thought he would never leave."
Aang nodded stiffly. "No problem," he mumbled.
She looked at him sharply. His eyes were cast down at his hands, which thumbed idly between the pages of one of his books.
Katara put a hand on his shoulder, forcing his attention back to her. "Is everything alright?"
"Yes," he answered, too quickly.
She raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged sheepishly.
"Yea, everything's okay," he explained further. "I just saw that guy with you and thought… well, I guess I thought…"
"What?" she asked. "You thought I'd leave?"
He shrugged again.
"Aang, are you crazy? I'd never leave you for an idiot like that." Her heart gave a flutter, and she felt a small measure of panic. He needed to understand she would never do something like that to him, but she didn't know where to begin.
It was her turn to cast her eyes downward. "I would never leave you," she said again, softly but firmly. A faint blush spread across her cheeks.
His small, satisfied smile and answering blush set her heart fluttering again. He slid the heavier of the two books closer to them, and flipped open the pages.
"This one looks promising," he murmured, turning their attention back to the task at hand.
Beautiful, detailed illustrations danced past Katara's eyes as he leafed through the books. Their heads bent together as his fingers ran over depictions of architecture, clothing, local flora around each of the four Air Temples, and a series of drawings of the indigenous animals. Lemurs, several species of birds, the goat-leopard common to the higher altitudes of the Eastern Temple, and at last, at long last, a stunning illustration of a sky bison.
His long fingers trailed over the page in yearning. "We found it," he said quietly.
She nodded. "There's a print shop two streets over."
Without speaking, they both did a quick check of the people surrounding them, then turned back to each other. Katara gestured at the paper, and Aang gave her a quick wink before neatly tearing out the page. They shut the book, putting it back where Aang had found it on the bookshelf before marching out of the library and down the stone steps, grinning as they found themselves one step closer to finding their furry friend.