Chapter 4: An Unapproved Meeting

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"What do you mean 'she got away'?" Suki questioned him as they walked back to their base. After sending the girl off, though he wished he could have gotten her name first, he ran back to his friends and told them what he promised her he would. They were not taking it very well, or at least Suki wasn't, anyway. "You never let any of your targets get away."

Aang simply shrugged as he continued walking. "Usually I don't, but this time I didn't have any control in the situation," he lied. He felt bad for not being truthful with his friends, but after meeting that girl, something about her made him completely unable to complete that part of his mission. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he needed to find out. "I don't know how, but she managed to catch me as I was about to jump her and we ended up struggling where she slammed me against a tree and took the wind out of me. By the time I had caught my breath, she was long gone."

Suki groaned in frustration. "Great. This was supposed to be the easy part of the mission. Now not even this is easy."

"It's going to be okay, Suki," he assured her with a pat on the back. "I'm going to track her down again and I'll get her. Next time I just won't let her slam me against a tree," he joked, making her and Zuko laugh.

"Okay," she agreed with a smile. "If you say so." They finally reached the base and walked in. Taking their seats at the table, Aang grabbed some water bottles from their fridge and sat down with them.

"So, what were your 'prisoners' like?" he asked curiously as he opened his and took a sip.

Suki smirked as she looked at Zuko who smirked in return. "They walked into our trap knowing it was probably a trap but did it anyway."

Aang's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at them both in disbelief. "Really?"

"Yep," Zuko chuckled as he chugged half of his and let out a satisfied sigh. "While we were putting on our little play, we heard them talking about it. Some spies they are," he snickered.

Aang couldn't help but laugh with him. "Yeah, I wouldn't say they're the greatest spies in the world," he agreed as he took another sip. "So, as much as I know that we should try to take out this other agent, we should probably focus on the main mission right now," he told them, doing his best not to show how he really didn't want to go hunting for her again.

Suki nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right, The main mission is more important right now." She looked out the window and saw the setting sun. "It's too late now for us to go do some recon, so we'll have to do it in the morning."

"Okay," Zuko nodded. "How are we going to get in, though? The place looks like a fortress."

"It might as well be," Aang laughed a little. "The whole perimeter is filled with guards and defensive weapons. If we want to get in, we're going to need to find a hole in their defenses."

"Or create one," Suki added as she drank some more water. "If there's a weak spot in their defenses, maybe we can figure out a way to take out the guards and disable their weapons so that we can get in without much hassle."

Aang thought it over and slowly nodded. "Yeah, that could work. Let's just see what we're dealing with and make our decision then. Sound good?" They both nodded. "Great. Now how about we eat something? I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving."

Zuko nodded quickly while his stomach growled, making him blush in embarrassment as his teammates laughed at his hunger. "Sounds good to me. What do we have?"

"Zuko, you know we have a machine that can literally make you anything you want," Aang laughed as he gestured to the machine on the kitchen counter.

"Oh yeah," Zuko smiled sheepishly. "I forgot about that." Everyone got up and made their way over to the machine and put in their orders. Within minutes, everyone was sitting down and enjoying their meals.

Suki smiled as she ate her pasta. "This is the best pasta I've had in a long time. I can't believe they made a machine that can make food out of thin air."

Aang chuckled as he took a bite of his steak. "It's not just out of thin air, Suki. There's apparently water mixed with… something scientific that I don't remember that mix together and somehow makes it."

"Who cares how it works? I'm just happy that it works," Zuko grinned as he took a bite out of his pizza. Aang just laughed at his friend and continued enjoying his meal as he thought about all that had happened that day. Flashes of the beautiful girl kept going through his mind as he thought, making him feel a strange feeling he had never felt before. What is this feeling? he thought to himself.

"Aang!"

Aang quickly snapped out of his thoughts and looked up to see Suki waving her hand at him. "Oh sorry, Suki. What's up?"

Suki looked at him in concern. "Aang, are you okay? Ever since we've come back from the mission, you seem… a little off."

"I'm alright, Suki," Aang laughed a little, trying to cover up the nervousness that had nested deep within him. As much as he hated lying to his friends, he knew that if they knew the truth they would freak out and try to talk him out of it. And he just couldn't. Even with everything in him that was a spy screaming at him to take her life, something about her made him completely unable to. They had just met, and yet… it seemed like he had known her for a lifetime. "Sorry, I'm still a little tired from last night."

She didn't seem to believe him, but after a few moments of silence she nodded. "Okay… if you say so." They continued eating their meals in a comfortable silence and talked for a little they all grew tired. "Well," Suki started with a yawn. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed."

"Yeah, me too," Zuko agreed as he stood up and stretched. "I don't know why, but pretending to be cornered by animals seems to have taken a lot out of me."

Aang laughed a little and patted him on the back. "Well then why don't you get some sleep? I'm sure you could use some after such a hard day," he teased, making Zuko chuckle as they started heading upstairs. Making their way to their rooms, they all wished each other goodnight and went to their rooms. Though Aang had other plans than sleep. He needed to figure out what was going on, and the only way he saw doing that was by talking to the girl again. Fortunately for him, he knew his friends well enough to know that they would be asleep within half an hour. After waiting that long, he was reassured by the snoors he heard coming from the adjacent rooms and got himself ready. Quietly sneaking downstairs, he put his jacket and shoes on and saw Appa and Momo looking at him.

"Hey guys," he grinned and walked over to them to pet them. "I'm gonna go for a walk, so I'll be back in a little bit."

Appa barked, and somehow Aang knew exactly what he was saying.

"No, I'll be fine. Just stand guard over the base and make sure no one comes here, okay?" he told them. Appa barked and Momo chirped. "Good. I'll be back in a little bit," he promised before slowly walking out of the building and making his way to the East side of the island. This should be interesting, he thought as he walked.

Katara was a bit of a mess as she waited for her brother and his girlfriend to come back. She thought that she would be dead by now, but the one who was ordered to kill her decided to let her go. On purpose. Why did he do that? Why would he directly disobey his orders just to make sure that she survived? Something had happened between them, but Katara wasn't sure what exactly it was. She had never felt like that before. No guy had ever made her feel anything more than friendship, but this guy… something about him made her be okay with dying since she got to meet him. What was this feeling?

The front door opened to reveal Sokka and Toph walking in. "Sokka!" Katara gasped and ran up to give him a hug. "Are you okay?"

Sokka hugged her back. "Yeah, we're fine. We thought that you were going to die, though. The lady screaming was a trap. They said that they were going to kill you."

"I'm fine, Sokka," she assured him as she pulled back and sat down again. "While I was looking for you guys, the agent I told you about did come after me but-"

"But you kicked his butt and sent him running with his tail between his legs?" Sokka asked proudly.

Katara rolled her eyes at her brother. "No, Sokka. He almost killed me. He caught me by surprise and tried to get me. We struggled and somehow lost our hoods as we struggled into a tree and landed with him on top of me. I thought that he was going to kill me, but when we looked at each other…" she blushed as she remembered the memory.

"What?" Sokka questioned with a hint of suspicion as he noticed her blush.

She shook her head quickly. "It doesn't matter. Anyway, we looked at each other and I thought he was going to kill me, but then his friends were trying to find him and he told me to go."

Sokka's eyes widened to the size of plates. "What?! Why would he do that?" he wondered, not that he was complaining though.

"I have no idea," Katara shrugged, still trying to figure that out herself. All she knew was that she wanted to see him again. Even if that meant she would have to sneak out to go find him. "It doesn't matter. I'm alive, so I'll just have to take what I can get."

Toph finally spoke up, "Yeah, you got that right. One of the top agents in the four agencies decided not to kill you. No one's ever been that lucky before."

Katara smiled a little as she thought about it. Even if she had feared him after finding out that he was being sent after her, she was glad that she had met him. Something about him seemed to have… woken her up. As if she was asleep until she had seen his face. It was new, this feeling. She didn't entirely understand it, but the only she could figure to try to figure it out was by talking to him again. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she agreed before she looked back to Sokka. "So what exactly happened with you guys?"

"Well," Sokka started as he sat down at the table. "We took off running and found the lady and her boyfriend being backed against a tree by a couple of animals. We ran up there-"

"Knowing that it would probably be a trap," Toph broke in angrily with a glare at him.

Sokka gulped and nodded slowly. "Right, that," he laughed nervously before he resumed his tale. "Then we got their attention and they pounced on us. The animals we're pretty realistic, but it turned out that they were robots."

"Wow," Katara breathed as she tried to imagine that. "Well they just let you go?" she asked curiously.

He nodded. "Yeah. Even before their leader said to let us go, they said that they had no interest in hurting us. They just needed to keep us down so he could get to you."

She nodded as well as she thought about it. "Well I'm glad that they at least were nicer to you guys. I'm sorry I got you in that position."

"Hey, I'm just happy that you're okay," Sokka laughed a little. "I was really worried for you."

Katara rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the smile on her face. "Thanks, Sokka. Glad to know that you have so much faith in my abilities."

"You're the one who said the only reason you're alive is because the guy decided to let you go," Sokka pointed out with a shrug. "What did you expect? I'm your older brother. My job's to worry about you."

"Yeah, yeah," Katara waved him off, having heard that speech a thousand times. "I get it. Though I have to admit, I'm still surprised that he let me go."

Sokka nodded as he looked to be wondering that himself. "Yeah, why would he do that? There's no advantage to it. Maybe he has a crush on you," he joked, unknowingly making Katara blush as she thought of that possibility.

"Heh heh. Yeah," she tried to play it off but her blush hadn't gone away. Sokka looked at her suspiciously, making her nervous. She cleared her throat and willed her blush to go away, but it wouldn't. "So," she started as she got up. "It's kind of late, but I need some fresh air. I'll be back in a little bit."

Sokka looked at her in disbelief. "Katara, the most dangerous agent in the world is after you, and you're going out there alone?"

She just scoffed as she put her jacket on. "I'll be fine, Sokka. I can handle myself. I'll be back in a little bit," she promised before she ran out the door, not giving him a chance to argue further. With a sigh of relief, she started walking through the jungle and looked around. She had always heard that jungles were supposed to be dangerous, but the most dangerous animal she had seen so far was a lobster on the shore. The thought made her laugh as she continued walking and noticed a small clearing with a rock that would be perfect for sitting. Making her way over to it, she sat down and enjoyed the night sky and the millions of stars that she loved to watch. Ever since she was young, she had always been fascinated with the stars. It never failed to amaze her just how many there were in the sky.

"Yeah, I like the stars too," a voice said from… above her? She looked up in time to see the man in the hood jump down from a tree and land in front of her.

She blushed a little as she remembered their moment in the jungle. "Um, hi," she greeted him shyly before she got angry at herself. Get ahold of yourself, Katara! She chided herself.

Aang smiled a little and nodded to her before taking his hood off. "Hi." They both sat their in an awkward silence, neither knowing what to say. After a few moments, Aang decided to take the initiative. "Look, I know that I'm supposed to kill you, but… I just couldn't," he admitted with a sigh, taking her by surprise.

"Really?"

He nodded slowly. "I don't know why. I mean, I'm an agent," he shrugged as he sat next to her, causing both of their hearts to beat painfully in their chests. "My whole life I was taught to take my orders and carry them out, but when I saw you… I just couldn't do it. I wish I knew why, though." He took a deep breath and looked at her. "I'm not sure if it's just because I'm attracted to you or if there's something more to it."

Her heart thundered in her chest as she looked him in the eye. "Y-you're attracted to me?" she asked in disbelief.

A small blush crept over his face as he avoided her eyes. "Well… yeah. You're beautiful. How could I not be?" He paused and looked down at his feet. "But that shouldn't be enough for me to not be able to kill you, so there must be something else going on." He turned to look at her. "Are you an old friend that I don't quite remember or something? I don't understand why I can't do it."

Katara tried to think about it, but she didn't recall meeting him at all before. "No, I don't think so," she told him with a shake of her head. "I don't remember meeting you anywhere. The only reason why I knew of you before we met was because your brothers and sisters were talking about you."

"Really?" he asked with a chuckle to which she nodded to. "What did they say about me?"

"They basically just said that you were going to be their champion and that…" she trailed off, wondering how much she should tell him.

Aang rolled his eyes a little at his teammates. "They told you about the legend, didn't they?" Katara nodded slowly in response. "Of course they did," he laughed. "My people might be deadly, but they are very bad about keeping secrets."

She looked at him sharply. "So does that mean…"

He grinned a little and Earthbent some earth into one hand while he held a flame in the other. "Yeah, the legend is true."

"Wow," Katara breathed in amazement as she looked at him. "It must be pretty cool to be able to bend all of the elements."

"It can be," he agreed as he put the elements away. "But everything comes with a price."

Katara gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean? Isn't it really exciting to be the Peacekeeper? I thought anyone would be excited about that."

Aang was silent for a moment before he shrugged. "I'm sure that other people who haven't gone through what I've gone through would think it's cool, but they don't understand what comes with it," he admitted with a sigh, making her concerned for him as she felt her motherly instincts kick in.

"What do you mean?" she questioned as she gave him a hug, taking him by surprise before he finally hugged her back. They both enjoyed the feeling of being in each others' arms, but made sure to keep it short so as to not make it more awkward.

"Being the Peacekeeper means you have a lot of responsibility," he explained as he looked up at the stars. "Ever since they figured out what I was, they prepared me for what I would have to do. Not to mention that I was pretty much excluded from all games as a kid because 'it wouldn't be fair' to whatever team I wasn't on."

Katara looked at him sadly. "I'm so sorry to hear that," she murmured. "That must have been awful."

He shrugged it off as he looked away. "You get used to it after a while. Besides, we're agents. We're not supposed to complain about this kind of stuff."

"That doesn't fix things," Katara argued as she put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "Well… if you ever want to talk about it, I'll always be here for you."

Although he knew her words were sincere, he smiled sadly. "As much as I appreciate that, that's just not true. Once this mission is over, we'll have to go back to being enemies."

"No we don't," she shook her head defiantly. "If we can just explain why I attacked your brother, maybe we can convince them to become allies again. Then maybe we could be together," she thought aloud, making her blush heavily as she avoided his eyes.

A large blush spread over his cheeks as he looked away. "Well…" he finally started after a few moments of awkward silence. "We could definitely try to mend the bridges that were burned. It's not like we want to be your guys' enemies. We just didn't know what to think when we heard that you had attacked them."

Katara looked down, feeling ashamed of herself. "Yeah, I really am sorry about that," she sighed. "Like I said, it was an accident. I had no idea that he was a Wind."

Aang took her hand in his and squeezed it, making her blush as she looked up into his eyes. "It's okay, I understand. Being on a mission can often make you react before you think, so I know what you mean." He paused and looked down at their joined hands. He knew that this wasn't the best time for this, but he needed to figure out what was going on with him. Not once had he ever questioned his orders throughout his whole training to be a spy, and he was ordered to kill a girl that he couldn't bring himself to kill? Before anything else could be done, he needed to figure out what exactly was going on with him to make him feel so weak whenever she was around. "Look, I know that this isn't exactly the best time for this, but… I need to figure out what's going on with me."

"What do you mean?" Katara asked in confusion as she looked back up to him.

He brought up their joined hands. "This. Being around you… I don't know," he sighed as he looked down at his feet. "When I first saw you, I… I couldn't think right," he admitted, making her blush as she waited for him to continue. "Something about seeing you for the first time…I just sort of forgot about everything around me." He laughed a little. "I think I even forgot my own name.

"I think I know what you mean," Katara admitted as she looked down at their still intertwined hands. "When you attacked me, I was doing everything I could to stay alive, but when I saw your face…" she trailed off, not knowing quite how to describe it. "Something about you made me be okay with dying. Like all I really needed was to meet you for me to be happy and die content."

"What does that mean?" Aang asked himself more than her. "I don't understand it. I've never felt like this before." He sighed and looked over to her. "I shouldn't, but… I think I really want to kiss you right now," he admitted, making her blush as she looked into his eyes.

Katara felt herself leaning in as she got lost in his eyes. "I think I really want to kiss you too," she whispered before their lips collided, sending a spark shooting through their systems as they met. Their brains were fried in the kiss, leaving them acting purely on instinct as Aang wrapped his arms around her waist and Katara's went around his neck, pulling him as close to her as possible. After a few moments, they slowly pulled away and smiled at each other.

"That was…" Aang started breathlessly.

"Amazing," Katara agreed with a smile before she pulled him back in for another kiss. Aang's reason started to take him over as he pulled away, making her frown. "What's wrong?"

Aang shook his head. "Nothing's wrong, it's just that I'm supposed to kill you, and here I am kissing you." He laughed a little at himself. "I don't even know your real name."

Katara thought about it as she realized she didn't know his. "Oh yeah, I guess I don't know yours either," she laughed sheepishly before she stuck awkwardly stuck her hand out to him. "I'm Katara."

"Aang," he replied as he shook it. As soon as they had gotten a good shake in, Katara yanked him back to her lips and enjoyed his taste. Not expecting her to be so forward, his eyes sunk closed in bliss for a few moments before reason came back and he pulled away. "We shouldn't be doing this. We hardly even know each other."

"Well, let's get to know each other then," Katara suggested with a smile without skipping a beat, completely undeterred by his objections. "Tell me about yourself."

He thought about it for a few moments. "Well… I already told you my name, so I don't think I'll need to go over that again, unless you forgot it already," he joked, making her giggle as he listened to her melodic laugh.

"Nope, I remember," she promised once her giggles had settled. "Continue please," she requested politely.

"Okay, well other than that, there's not much to tell," he shrugged. "I was born into the Winds, and have been trained since I was eight years old to be a spy."

"So you're twenty years old?" Katara asked curiously to which he nodded. "Wow, I'm about to turn twenty in a couple months."

Aang smiled a little. "Well that's cool. Though it's not much different when you turn twenty." He laughed a little. "Actually, it's not different at all, now that I think about it. You're just another year older."

"Yeah I guess so," Katara laughed as well before she gestured for him to continue.

"So like I was saying, I grew up in the agency and just recently was made a full spy," he told her proudly, thinking of his ceremony. "I like music, hanging out with my friends, and I like to practice my bending in my spare time."

Katara smiled as she looked at him. "Which is your favorite element to bend?" she asked curiously.

"I have to admit, probably because I'm from the wind agency it's air," he admitted. "But water is a close second. The two are pretty alike if you think about it."

Katara thought about it and smiled as she realized he was right. "Yeah, you're right. They are a lot alike." She scooted closer to him, making him nervous at her proximity. "Kind of like we are."

Aang laughed nervously, not knowing what to do. He didn't mind having her near him, but he had never felt like this about a girl before, and he wasn't sure what to do about it. "W-what do you mean?" he stuttered, making her smile as she got even closer to him.

"Well…" she started with her hot breath on his face as she drew closer and closer, making him hold his breath as her face neared his. "I also like music, hanging out with my friends, and practicing my bending in my spare time. And I agree, water and air are very alike," she whispered in his ear, sending shivers down his spine as he fell completely under her control and had no problem with it. Not wasting another moment, Katara pulled him into another kiss, and this time he didn't fight it. He allowed his feelings to take the reins and just enjoyed the sweet taste of her lips as they kissed and put the reason away for a while. He would need it for another time, but now was not that time. After a few minutes, the need for air became to great and they reluctantly pulled apart. "Do you feel better about it now?" she asked curiously.

He nodded with a breathless laugh. "Yeah, I do now that I at least know something about you." Katara smiled and kissed him again before a thought came to mind. "So… if we're going to do this… how are we going to do this?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how are we going to do this," he gestured to the two of them. "My team thinks I'm still out to hunt you. How are we going to do this with them thinking that I still want to kill you?"

Katara was silent for a moment, deep in thought before she shrugged. "I guess we'll have to figure out a way for us all to get together and learn to trust each other. But how would we do that?" Thunder crackled above them as they looked up, seeing the sky darken as heavy torrents of rain threatened to come down. "Oh no, there's about to be another bad storm."

Aang nodded as he thought about it when an idea came to mind. "Wait, I've got an idea." He started whispering into her ear as the thunder rolled loudly.

An hour later, Aang, Zuko, and Suki came running towards the 'enemy' base. "So what's your plan again?" Zuko asked as they ran, trying not to get too wet from the rain that was now coming down.

"If I keep trying to chase her down, then she'll just keep slipping away," Aang explained as he ran. "If we call a temporary truce to work together to get the real mission done, then I can end her life after the mission is over on the way back."

Suki thought about it and nodded. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. And this way we don't have to worry about attacking each other on the real mission."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Aang lied through his teeth as they continued running. He didn't like lying to his friends, but he saw no other choice now. The only way that he and Katara could be together was if they all learned to trust one another and got both sides of the story. It was the only way they could see it working out to where no one would get hurt, whether physically or emotionally. After a few more minutes of running, they finally reached their destination and waited as Aang walked up to the door and knocked. A few moments later, a fake-angry Katara opened the door and glared at him from around the edge of the door. "Go away, whoever you are! You're not killing me today!"

Aang laughed a little at her idea of acting, but quickly shut himself up when he remembered he had an audience. "Look Miss, I know that we sort of got off on the wrong foot, but…"

"Got off on the wrong foot?" she asked fake-incredulously. "You tried to kill me!"

He sighed and shook his head. "Look, I know and I'm sorry. I was just following orders, but right now my agency has decided that the mission is more important than your death, and it would be better for everyone if we worked together to stop it. Do you think that we could have a truce and work together?"

Katara pretended to think about it for a moment before she let out a long fake sigh. "Fine, come in and we'll talk it out." She opened the door the rest of the way and allowed them inside, secretly kissing Aang's cheek as he was the last one to walk in, making him smile as they made their way to the living room where Toph and Sokka were laying against each other on the couch.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sokka exclaimed as he stood up and looked around for his sword but remembered that he had left it in his room. "How did you get in here?" he questioned them angrily.

"Relax, Sokka," Katara chided him as she took a seat on another couch. "They're not out to kill me anymore. They just want to talk to see if we can't work out a truce."

Sokka rolled his eyes at his sister. "Yeah… I'm sure that's why they're here." He glared at the new people. "I already fell into one of your traps and am lucky to be alive, not to mention my sister who just barely escaped your attack," he pointed accusingly at Aang who looked down in shame.

Katara rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Sokka, calm down. I understand… he was under orders to kill me. It's my fault anyway. What matters now is that he's not trying to kill me."

"Oh please, this is probably just a trick to get you to let your guard down," Sokka argued as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Katara shook her head at her brother. "Sokka, if they were going to attack me, they would have by now. I'm defenseless and they have all their weapons."

Zuko gave Aang a questioning look, but Aang realized what he was asking and shook his head adamantly, knowing Zuko would do it if he even gave him the slightest nod. "We're not here to do that," Aang assured him as he turned his attention back to them. "We just want to work together to get the real mission done and then go home. Can we work together, please?"

"I'm okay with it," Katara spoke back up. "The more we work together, the sooner the mission gets done. It makes more sense to work together anyway." She turned to Toph. "What do you think, Toph?"

Toph shrugged as she continued to lay back against the couch where Sokka had left her. "Sure, why not?" She got up and walked over to Zuko and jabbed a finger in his gut. "But don't you get any funny ideas, or I'll kick your ass."

Zuko laughed a little and guided her finger to Aang's gut. "You're poking the wrong guy," he explained when she 'looked' at him in confusion.

"Oh," she blushed a little before she remembered herself. "I mean, yeah." She poked Aang's gut again. "Don't get any funny ideas."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aang assured her as Suki and Zuko slightly smirked at each other, not enough for anyone to notice.

Katara looked back to Sokka. "So… what do you think, Sokka?"

"You already know what I think," Sokka grumbled as his arms remained crossed over his chest. "I don't trust them."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Relax, Sokka. It's not like we can't defend ourselves. If something bad does happen, then we'll kick them out."

"Or kill them," Toph suggested, making Suki and Zuko a little nervous at Toph's suggestion.

"We're not going to do anything," Aang assured them with his hands in the air to stop everybody. "We just want to work together to get this mission done. Can we all agree to just try to work together and get this done so the world doesn't end?" he asked them all. They all nodded in response. "Okay then. We're at an official truce. Thank you for hearing us out, and we should probably be getting back to our base now. We'll contact you in the morning."

As Katara had hoped, the storm had gotten worse to the point to which it wasn't safe outside for the three to go as everyone looked out the window to their left. "Um… I don't think it would be a good idea for you guys to go," Katara told them, trying her best to sound nonchalant.

"Wait a minute," Sokka objected as he stood up after sitting back down. "This guy," he pointed to Aang, "has orders to kill you and you want them to stay here?" he asked incredulously.

Katara rolled her eyes at him for what felt like the thousandth time. "He doesn't have those orders anymore, Sokka," she lied. "They're not going to do anything. Besides we're at a truce. It can't be broken unless both sides agree to break it."

Sokka let out a long sigh and rolled his eyes. "Fine, but they're staying down here. They're not taking our rooms," he refused adamantly.

"That's fine," Aang promised as he took off his jacket and laid it down on the floor, making Katara's eyes slowly rake over his muscular frame with a miniature hum of approval that no one else could hear. "I'll sleep on the floor and Suki and Zuko," he gestured to his friends, "can take the couches. We'll all be fine."

"Whatever," Sokka grumbled before he took Toph's hand and walked over to Aang and got in his face. "Don't get any ideas about killing my sister," he threatened menacingly.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aang promised as Sokka gave him one last glare and made his way upstairs with Toph right behind him. Zuko and Suki looked at each other and shrugged before moving over to the open couch where they laid down and cuddled together. Katara walked into another room and brought them a blanket.

"Sorry," she apologized to Aang as she laid it down on them. "I only have one extra blanket."

Aang yawned a little and shrugged. "It's fine. I'm used to sleeping without a blanket anyway." He laid down and looked over at his friends who were starting to fall asleep. Katara walked quietly over to him and leaned down to whisper in his ear, to which he nodded in response to before she walked upstairs. Waiting until his friends finally fell asleep, he slowly got up and crept his way up to a room with the door still cracked open, marking that it was Katara's. Slowly opening it up, he peeked inside and was relieved to see her waving him in. He walked in and closed the door softly behind him as she walked up and dragged him back to her bed, setting him down on it and laying down next to him.

"Thanks for coming," she smiled as she let out a little yawn. "Are your friends asleep?"

He nodded with a smile in return. "Oh yeah. They're out cold right now. I don't think anything could wake them up right now," he joked, making Katara laugh a little as he listened to her melodic laugh. He loved the sound of her laugh. It made him feel as if he was a kid again as he listened to the music that she called a laugh.

"Well good. We wouldn't want them to know you're here with me, would we?" she asked with a kiss on his lips.

"No, not yet," he agreed as he smiled at her. "But one day I definitely want them to know."

Katara smiled widely. "Really?"

"Yeah," he smiled wider, loving the fact that she was smiling because of him. "Once this has all settled down, I want them to know about you. I want them to know that you're my…" he trailed off with a questioning look. "What are we?"

Katara thought about it for a moment. "Well… People who do what we do call each other boyfriend and girlfriend, so… I guess we're boyfriend and girlfriend?" she responded with a shrug.

He smiled at that. "I like the sound of that," he told her, making her smile back at him. "So you're my…"

"Girlfriend?" she answered for him. He nodded. "Yeah. And you're my…"

"Boyfriend?" he answered for her in turn. She nodded with a smile. "Yeah, I guess I am."

She smiled again and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Well good, because that means I get to do this." Without another word, she pulled him into a kiss which he melted into, feeling more happy than he ever had with her lips on his. After a few moments, they slowly pulled apart and smiled again at each other. "We'll just have to watch out for my brother. I've never had a boyfriend before, so I don't know how he'll react."

Aang laughed a little. "Okay. I don't think it'll be too hard to trick him. No offense, but he doesn't seem all that bright."

"Oh don't worry, you're right," she laughed, making him laugh in return before she gave him one more kiss and snuggled into him. "Goodnight, Aang."

"Goodnight, Katara," he mumbled into her hair as she let out a content sigh and fell asleep, feeling completely safe in his arms as they held each other, neither one thinking of what the next day might bring.