Cooking

Flour flew ungraciously through the air. A thin coating had already settled among the dimly lit apartment, pots and pans were scattered unceremoniously as well as various ingredients that lay testament to many failed culinary attempts. In the center of the counter a handful of ancient looking scrolls were strewn about, each detailing some long-forgotten recipe of Air Nomad cuisine. Well, perhaps not so long forgotten. That was actually what had gotten Katara into this mess.

Katara was covered head to toe in a thin layer of dust, and her once tightly tied hair was now loose and waving rather wildly in her face as she frantically moved about the kitchen. She didn't understand what could possibly be so hard about this! It was simple! Make a spicy vegetable broth, then make some tofu dumplings with a handful of herbs, steam said dumplings to perfection, add to broth, and finally serve to one very grateful boyfriend. So, why in the name of every spirt in existence was this the hardest thing that she had ever done!

"I swear that lady must have been a witch! There is no way that she could have possibly done this." Katara's sudden outburst had caused Momo who was snacking on some moon peaches in the corner to stand at attention. Once he realized the outburst wasn't aimed at him, he returned to his very urgent matter of stuffing himself.

As Katara set her latest batch of dumplings in a woven basket to steam, she couldn't help but reminisce on the events that set her down this disastrous path.

They were walking down the halls of Air Temple Island clasped at the hands. It wasn't an unusual sight; everyone was very well aware about how the Avatar was very attached to his waterbending instructor. Aang and Katara were talking aimlessly to themselves.

"I can't believe that Zuko is finally going to propose to Mai!" Aang was overjoyed for his dear friend. "They've been together so long it really made you wonder when he was going to do it.", the Avatar had been on the receiving end of many near anxious breakdowns over the upcoming proposal. He was more than happy to have it over with, so they could just celebrate the engagement with friends.

Katara gave her boyfriend a pointed look, "Yeah. Really makes you wonder why it takes some men so long to propose."

Crimson blushed on Aang's face. His hand reflexively went to rub his neck as his next words came out stuttered, "I … well…you know… it's a big step and I think it can take som-"

All the sudden someone yelling from across the courtyard drew their attention. Katara thought she heard Aang breathe a sigh of relief and reminded herself to bring up that particular line of questioning again later.

They made their way across the courtyard to the acolyte greeting them. Katara was less than ecstatic to realize that it was Acolyte Dorjee, it wasn't lost on her the small crush that the young acolyte harbored for Aang, and despite his assurances that his eyes were only on her, Katara couldn't help a small bout of jealousy now and again.

"I'm so excited to see you Avatar Aang, Master Katara." Dorjee's words sounded a little less than genuine at the end. She continued nevertheless, "I was looking through some of the ancient scrolls when I found some recipes for Air Nomad dishes, I prepared them for you, Avatar Aang. I would be honored for you to try them."

"Of course, Dorjee. I would be delighted." Katara sometimes hated Aang's kind soul.

Suffice to say that Aang had loved the tofu dumplings and spicy vegetable broth. It made Katara so happy to see a little piece of his culture brought back to him, but she couldn't help that pang of jealously as he kept raving about Dorjee's culinary ability. Her competitive spirt only grow as Aang just wouldn't stop mentioning it, so that was what led her here, to her fourth batch of dumplings.

Katara's thoughts came to a screeching halt. The dumplings were steaming for too long! She rushed across the kitchen to the basket as she managed to take them off the heat, burning herself in the process. The lid came crashing down close to the poor lemur still indulging himself on moon peaches, but a rather irritated screech let Katara know that Momo was fine.

It was just too much to handle at once. Katara felt like a failure, she laid her head down on the cool counter leaving a thick coat of flour on her cheek. It wasn't even noticed as she continued to mope.

Minutes passed by before the door to their abode opened. A familiar, warm voice called out like it always did, "Hey sweetie. Sorry I'm a little late, but you won't believe it! Sokka finally put in his proposal to change the name of the bay!" Aang called out as he was placing his shoes by the front door.

When he finally entered the kitchen, Aang barely had time to take in the scene of the mess before being tackled into a hug.

He instinctively wrapped his arms around Katara, running his hand through her messy hair. "Are you okay? Katara, what happened?" he tried his best to put on a soothing voice.

"I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated." Katara tightened her grip around his waist as she spoke.

Aang sighed before speaking, "It's alright sweetie." He relaxed his grip around her before pulling her away a little to look in her eyes, "I just want to know what happened. So, I can help."

Katara found it difficult to look in his eyes, "I…I was jealous about the dumplings that Dorjee made." Judging by the look of surprise on Aang's face, that was not the answer that he was expecting, but Katara pressed on anyways. "It's just that you seemed so happy to have that piece of your culture back and you were constantly talking about how amazing of a cook she is. So… I just felt a little jealous about it. I decided that I wanted to surprise you by trying to make those dumplings, but they just wouldn't come out right and I got so frustrated." She still wouldn't look Aang in the eyes. Katara didn't want him to laugh, it would only make her feel sillier.

Instead, Aang pulled her closer. He spoke after a small moment, "I'm sorry I made you feel that way sweetie. I didn't mean too. I guess I just got caught up in all the excitement and I didn't really consider the way it made you feel."

"It's okay Aang. I'm sorry, I don't want to make you feel guilty about getting a piece of your people back. I just got so caught up in it. It's hard sometimes because they get to share in your culture and, I feel like you just have a special connection with the acolytes that I'm missing out on."

Aang embraced her tightly before pulling her away to look in her eyes again, "Don't ever apologize for the way you feel Katara. You're right, I do have a connection with the acolytes, but they're more like kindred spirts. The connection that we share, its different and deeper than any other I could ever have on this earth."

Katara looked into his grey eyes again and found nothing but love. She whispered, just barely audibly to him, "Thank you."

A large smile grew on Aang's face, "No problem. How about we try this recipe together? I'm not even sure I know how to make it myself!"

It was Katara's turn to smile, "That sounds like a great idea. Maybe we can continue that talk about proposals while we're at it."

Aang felt a lump in his throat as Katara turned back towards the kitchen, "Uh… Sure…If that's... you know…what you want."

AN: Welcome back everyone! I enjoyed writing this one a lot, its probably my second favorite after "Prestige". I'm really into the dynamic between Katara and the air acolytes because I can see a lot of interesting situations popping up with that. So, this is the second to last one before the end of this collection and I've got to say I'm pretty excited about next week's story. Its definitely the longest one and gets pretty angsty. I'm currently having a little trouble getting over a particular hump with the last story in this collection, so I'll probably upload it later in the week. Also, I wanted to thank those who have been leaving reviews! They are all great and mean a lot to me. Especially Bosco's Hat and Ashley Barbosa, they've been great and I greatly appreciate the support. You should check out Bosco's Hat stories if you hadn't had a chance, they're amazing! That being said, Thanks for reading let me know what you think!