Aang had vanished.

He wasn't particularly needed for the Siege at that moment in time; the Fire Nation forces had been quiet, some might have said too quiet, since the disastrous meeting between the Earth King and the Firelord.

Still, the Avatar had failed to turn up for breakfast or for his waterbending training, and so Katara had gone looking for him. He had not been on the roof, his favourite place to sit quietly when Appa had been missing, and neither was he in the Royal Palace. Neither the Council of Five nor Kuei knew where he was. Katara had been worried sick, and had been on the verge of going to the outer walls, a trip that would have taken several hours, to see if he was there when she saw a flash of orange somewhere on the rooftops of the Lower Ring.

Katara made her way towards it, and soon found herself using the water out of a nearby fountain to elevate herself into the roof of a tea-shop. There, she found Aang, hiding on the roof, laying on his back and watching the clouds. He visibly jumped when Katara's face slid into his field of vision, before a look of relief came into his face.

"Gah! Oh, it's you. Don't do that Katara!"

"Don't sneak off then! Then I won't have to keep coming to whichever out-of-the-way hiding spot you've chosen this time to get away. Although this isn't very out of the way..." she said, looking out at the bustling streets below them. Remarkably, nobody appeared to have noticed them.

"I know. I was just thinking about fighting the Firelord again."

"We've been over this," Katara tried to reassure him. "The walls of Ba Sing Se will keep him out long enough for you to learn the elements, you can pick and choose when and how you want to fight him."

"But I can't. Sozin's Comet is coming this year. The Walls can keep out normal Firebenders, but a Firebender army powered by the Comet will smash straight through them. And all these people-"

Aang gestured to the street below them."

"-Will die. I have to fight him soon to keep them alive, but I don't know how. I have mastered air bending, and I think I'm getting there with the waterbending, but I'm nowhere near mastering earth and I haven't even started fire! The one time I tried I accidentally burnt you! -for which I apologise!" He added hastily."

"You already did- several times. And I accepted that apology each time." Katara replied. "Besides, I learned to heal because of it."

They sat there, a while, the Avatar and the Waterbender, each of them contemplating the huge task ahead- and each of them all too aware of the consequences of failure. That failure could spell doom for the city of Ba Sing Se, but it could also destroy Aang. Katara wasn't sure what she would do if that happened. Aang was the Avatar- the fate of the world rested on his shoulders, as they were all reminded constantly.

However, to Katara he was not the Avatar, but Aang, the boy in the Iceberg, the boy she had come to know in the months she had known him. He was funny and inventive, not to mention handsome, but she would never mention that to his face. And she didn't worry for Aang the Avatar on behalf of the world, she worried for Aang the boy because of what he meant for her.

What did Aang mean to her exactly? It was a lot, but she found herself unable to put it into words.

Then, she had an idea. "Maybe what you need is not necessarily to understand bending, but to understand fighting."

"What are you saying?" Aang looked confused.

"You're not very confident because at the moment you rely entirely on your bending, which is nowhere near ready yet. So what if you didn't rely entirely on your bending?"

Twenty minutes later

"So, Aang, you wish to learn the way of the Boomerang?" Sokka said, puffing up his chest at the thought of getting to teach the Avatar.

"...actually Sokka, when I asked for fighting training, I was asking Suki. But I can learn the boomerang too!" Aang added diplomatically."

"Why do you want to learn from us? You have a lot of lessons already and, well, you can bend all four elements. What need do you have in a fight of non-bending fighting techniques?" Suki asked.

"My bending is not ready yet and I probably have to face Ozai soon, so I want every advantage possible going in."

Suki put down her noodles and picked up her war-fans. "Very well. Your first lesson starts in 30 seconds."

"Will Aang have to dress as a Kyoshi Warrior?" Sokka asked, with a hint of excitement.

"No, I don't think that will be necessary."

"Why? When you thought me, you said I had to accept all of your customs, including the clothing. Why not Aang?"

"Firstly, Aang isn't joining the Kyoshi Warriors, he's only learning our fighting techniques. And secondly, Aang didn't spend the time between meeting me and asking for my teaching constantly putting my combat abilities down for being a girl."

Sokka was about to argue, but stopped. "Good point, well presented." Suki laughed and kissed him.

Then she turned to Aang. "Now. Without using your bending, attack me."

Aang lunged forward, swinging his fist. Suki easily dodged out of the way, coming up behind him. However, Aang in turn dodged her attempt to poke the back of his head. He was an Airbender after all; avoiding and evading was what he did.

Aang was no slouch, but he was untrained, so Suki blocked or dodged every attack.

"Not bad!" She said eventually. "You're promising, more promising than he was." She nodded in the general direction of Sokka, who looked outraged for a second, but then seemed to accept that her words were harsh but fair.

"Now, what you need to do is-"

Suki was interrupted by a messenger sprinting into the courtyard at full speed.

"The.. Earth King... requests your presence at the... outer walls!" He gasped, trying to get his breath back. "Fire Nation... attack! Multiple giant drills!"

That was all the group needed to hear. They all rushed to Appa and the Sky Bison took off, making his way to the outer wall and the battle that awaited them.