Hey guys! This one-shot is basically what I think would happen if Aang had never kissed Katara at the invasion, and how the tension between them would have built up to the point where they might become snippy with each other after the war had ended. Sorry to deviate from "A Nomad's Journey", but I really liked this idea and want to write a story of my own with it. Anyway, this story is based on the story "The Argument" by Frozenheat, though it's going to be a bit different. I promise that I'll be going back to my other story after this. Anyway, thank you guys so much for reading and I hope you all have a great day!
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Katara was never one to be snippy with people. She had a kind heart that loved to help others and make the ones she loved happy. During their travels around the world before the defeat of Ozai, she had spent much of her energy sacrificing her time and safety to make sure that anyone who needed her help, allies and enemies alike, would get it. The only person she really got annoyed with was her brother, and sometimes Toph when they didn't agree on something. Other than that, she was kind and happy to everyone.
Well… there was a new person on her list of people she couldn't help but be a bit annoyed around, even though it wasn't really his fault.
It had been clear to Sokka since their travels that the Avatar and the waterbender had feelings for each other, but for some reason, neither of them had done anything about it. Not that he would normally mind this, of course, as he wasn't exactly excited about the thought of his sister kissing his best friend. However, due to the lack of anything happening between them, Katara had been quite obviously on edge for a while. She was still as polite as ever, but whenever Aang came into the room or tried to start a conversation with her, it usually didn't end well.
And Aang's reaction to her obvious disgruntlement towards him certainly didn't help, either. All he wanted was to make her happy, and seeing her appear to be upset with him for a reason that he didn't know made him on the edge, too. Of course it didn't help that he wasn't particularly happy about the lack of progress he had made with Katara, despite everything they had gone through together. The Cave of Two Lovers, the way she kissed his cheek before they separated in Ba Sing Se, the secret dance party in the Fire Nation... He had really felt like he might have been winning her heart, but she had shown no sign of feeling the same that he could tell. Needless to say, he wasn't necessarily happy, either.
Because of this, the two had often gotten into little arguments here and there that they couldn't help. Arguing was the last thing they wanted to do with each other, but with their bottled up feelings that they had to hold back from each other every day, it was no simple feat to dissolve the tension between them. Katara always felt as if she wore her heart on her sleeve, and thought that Aang would be able to pick up the subtle hints she had been throwing him over their journey, but if he had, he showed no sign of it.
But it was because of this tension between them that Sokka had felt as if he was walking on eggshells whenever he was with them, which was almost always considering that he traveled with them. But, as the group was back in Ba Sing Se to discuss how the Harmony Restoration Movement was going thus far, Sokka found himself in another situation.
Fortunately for him, Toph was with them as well, due to the fact that she had been scouting Ba Sing Se for metalbending student talent. Unfortunately for her, however, she had yet to find anyone who she thought had the makings of a good metal bender, and had decided that she would have to extend her search elsewhere to find someone to train in her ways.
Thankfully, she had decided to take a week off from her search and had decided to spend some time with her friends, even if she had regretted it when she had seen her friends' bickering. Sokka was happy because of her staying, as Suki had gone back to Kyoshi Island, and frankly he didn't want to have to deal with the two secret lovers on his own. If only for a week.
"Why do you think they're like this?" Sokka couldn't help but whisper to her in annoyance as they sat behind the kitchen counter of the house they had gotten when they first came to Ba Sing se, hearing their friends argue over something that they had long forgotten about from how long this bickering had been going on.
Toph smirked a little as she heard this. "Oh, you know why, Snoozles. The things they're arguing about are stupid. It's not even a real argument, it's more like… aggressive flirting."
"Well, why can't they aggressively flirt somewhere we can't hear them?" Sokka complained with a roll of his eyes as he peeked around the counter and saw Katara pointing a finger at Aang accusingly, though he wasn't sure why. He could only make out bits and pieces of their "argument", but he hadn't heard anything that would make her accuse him of something.
"Well, Mr. High and Mighty Avatar!" Katara's voice could be heard from the other side of the house, making the two people hiding from them look at each other with wide eyes, even though Toph wasn't actually looking at him. "If you're so good at your job, why have you messed up so many times in the negotiations between the Earth King and the Fire Nation?"
Unable to stop himself, Sokka's curiosity got the better of him as he peeked around the corner of the counter and noticed the hurt look on Aang's face. Clearly, this had hit home with him. Aang started yelling again, and Sokka went back to his position with another sigh.
"This really isn't good," Sokka gulped as he listened to their argument increase in noise from their unhappiness at not knowing how the other felt for them. The things they were saying to each other were just not who they really were. Sokka knew without a doubt that neither one of them would be like this if the tension between them wasn't so strong.
After a few more moments of hearing their bickering, Toph decided that she couldn't take it anymore and got up, marching immediately over to the two lovers who didn't know the one thing that would make them stop bickering.
"Look, you two!" she began as she separated them rather forcefully, making them blink in surprise as they looked at their friend. "You two have been fighting all day! And over something stupid, too!" She pointed a finger in each of their faces. "If you don't stop fighting, I'll lock you both in a metal box so I don't have to hear your stupid argument again. So, are you done?" she asked with a 'look' at each of them. After a few moments of looking down at their feet in shame, they reluctantly nodded. "Good. Now come on. Obviously, being inside in one place for too long won't do you any good. Let's go walk around town."
"Yeah!" Sokka agreed as he finally came walking up to them. "Let's get out of the house for a little bit." Aang and Katara sighed and looked away from each other.
"Whatever you say, Sokka," Katara rolled her eyes as she walked out the door, not noticing as Aang watched her go with a sad look in his eyes before sighing and following her.
"Yeesh. Those two need to kiss and make up before Aang dies of sadness," Toph commented, having felt the sadness coming off of him.
Sokka sighed as he watched Aang walk out the door. "Yeah, I know." Shaking his head, he followed their lead and walked out the door with Toph right behind them.
As the four walked throughout the city, there was an uncomfortable silence between them that Sokka decided that he would try to make better with one of his famous jokes. "So… Ba Sing Se food? Am I right?" he asked in a clearly joking tone, watching as no one even raised a brow at him from this.
Seeing that hadn't worked, he tried to think of another. "Oh! Oh! I know! What do you get when you cross a tiger-lion and a pig-chicken?" he asked with a grin. The other three actually stopped, genuinely curious to hear what he had to say. "Some feisty meat!" he told them proudly, his smile dropping as Katara rolled her eyes at his lame joke.
"Sokka, you're jokes haven't gotten any better since we were little," she informed him grumpily. "You really should try to find a new hobby."
"It's not a hobby, it's just something I'm good at!" he argued.
Toph snickered and punched him in the arm. "Snoozles, that joke didn't even make sense! Did you really think that was funny?"
Sokka pouted as he heard this, but turned to look at his remaining friend who hadn't made fun of him yet. "You think it's funny, right Aang?"
"Why don't you ask Katara?" Aang moped a little as he looked down at his feet. "She apparently knows all about jokes since she thinks I am one."
"I never said that you were a joke!" Katara exclaimed, feeling her temper come out a bit again, even if she felt bad for making him feel this way. "I just said-"
"I know what you said, Katara!" Aang cut her off. "You didn't have to say it. I can read between the lines." Just as Katara opened her mouth to speak again, Toph decided that it was time for her to step in before it got even worse.
"That's it!" she yelled, catching the interest of the people around them as she grabbed Aang and Katara by their sleeves and started dragging them back to the house with Sokka right behind them, forgetting all about his bad joke in the interest to see what Toph had in store for the two. Finally reaching the house, she immediately walked to Aang's room and threw them in there, making sure to close the door and making sure that they wouldn't be able to get out by using her meteorite bracelet to keep the knob in place. "You two are going to stay in there until you figure out how to stop this arguing! Am I clear?!"
Katara banged on the door a little, but didn't want to damage it too much. It was still Aang's room, after all, even if the frustration she felt from not knowing how he felt for her made him irrationally angry at him. "Let us out, Toph!"
"Sorry, Sugar Queen!" Toph called back with a wolfish grin as she leaned into the door so they could hear her. "Once you two stop yelling at each other, then I'll let you out. See you whenever that is!" And with that, she grabbed Sokka by the arm and led him out the door, knowing that the two would need to have the house to themselves if they were going to work this out.
Sighing in frustration, Katara walked over to the window and thought about trying to get out that way, but Toph simply took some metal that she had been collecting and covered it, making her sigh in annoyance as she peered through the small bit of light Toph had allowed them so that they could see. "Well, looks like we're stuck in here," she mumbled as she moved to sit down against the wall.
Seeing this, Aang decided to sit down across from her, just barely managing to see her beautiful features in what little light was being allowed into the room. "So," he began awkwardly. "Should we try to figure out why we've been fighting?"
Katara frowned, looking down at her feet. "I don't know what you mean," she tried to deny it, not wanting to confess why she was upset. "You're the one getting angry. I'm just-"
"Katara," he cut her off as politely as he could. "I'm an Air Nomad. Fighting is the last thing I want to do." He looked down at his feet as well. "Especially with you," he mumbled, his eyes widening as he realized what he had said.
To his great relief, if Katara had heard this, she didn't seem to notice as she picked at her clothes before letting out a tired sigh. "Well, why are you getting so upset with me then?" she asked as she looked up at him, only seeing trace amounts of the young man she loved in the little light that they had there.
"Katara, you basically said that I'm a horrible Avatar," Aang told her cautiously, not wanting to get her angry again if he could help it.
Unfortunately, however, she seemed to get angry once again at this. "I didn't say that, I just said that you messed up a few times during the negotiations!" she argued.
"Yeah, but why did you have to tell me that, Katara?" he shot back as he leaned forward, refusing to back down from this challenge. "We were talking about something completely different, and then you started reminding me of a few mistakes I made. Why do you seem like you hate me?"
"Of course I don't hate you!" Katara scoffed as she stood up, disbelief shining in her eyes as she found that she couldn't believe that he would even think that. "I just… I wish you would tell me what you think of me!" she burst out, barely holding in a gasp that threatened to escape her throat at her unwitting confession. She hoped that by holding back her surprise at herself, he wouldn't catch onto what she had meant.
It seemed to work, as Aang stood up as well with a look of anger and tiredness on his face. "You really want to know what I think of you, Katara?"
Resuming her angry demeanor, though she wasn't entirely sure why, she almost yelled back. "I would love to, oh wise Avatar!"
Aang couldn't stop himself as the next words came out in such a fury that he didn't even realize what he was saying until it was too late. "I think that you're the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful girl in the world! Inside and out! Which is why I can't believe that you've been acting like this! This isn't the Katara I fell in love with!" He gasped once the words had finally come out, watching as he saw Katara's mouth practically drop to the ground in surprise. Gulping a little, he could only stare in shock as Katara stared right back at him, unsure what would happen next.
"Ah," Sokka sighed in contentment as he finished off the shish kabob he had gotten from a vendor nearby. He and Toph had decided to go around the neighborhood to enjoy the lovely weather while their friends worked out whatever was going on between them. Though Sokka couldn't help but wonder if they were just wasting their time by leaving them there. "So, do you think they're done fighting yet?" he asked curiously as they finally reached the house.
"I don't know," Toph admitted as she walked around to the window of Aang's room, tapping her feet on the ground to get a good sense of their surroundings. "I can feel them. They're both laying on the ground and are kind of… rolling around."
"Rolling around?" Sokka raised a brow in confusion before his eyes widened in fear. "Oh no! What if they're attacking each other?!"
"Well, only one way to find out," Toph grunted as she reached for the metal casing she had put in front of the window and tore it off just enough for Sokka to look through, making him gasp as he saw his best friend and his little sister in a heavy makeout session, rolling around just as Toph had told him they were. "Uh… What are they doing, Snoozles?" she whispered, not sure whether she should talk at a normal volume or not.
Sokka grimaced as he looked away from them. "Trust me, you don't want to know. Let's just say that they're definitely not fighting anymore," he told her with heavy disgust in his voice, trying to get the image of the two people closest to him kissing out of his mind.
Toph smirked as she realized what this meant. "Well, it's about time." Bending the metal quietly over the window again, she grabbed his arm and started dragging him off again. "Come on, Snoozles. I think the two lovebirds need some alone time."
Now satisfied with how things had turned out, the two made their back into the city and gave the new couple some time alone, knowing that they had a lot of tension to get through between them. Sokka just hoped that the tension between them wouldn't go too far. But, after they returned later that night and let them out, Aang and Katara had happily told them the good news, making Sokka relieved that he wouldn't be walking on eggshells around them anymore. And though he wasn't particularly excited about seeing his best friend and his sister kissing now that they were together, he was happy for them that they had managed to finally tell each other how they felt. With the tension that had built up between them finally gone, it was safe to say that he would never have to hear them fight like that ever again.