I revised this chapter. Spoilers for "The Avatar and the Fire Lord."
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The air chakra is the chakra of love.
It is blocked by grief.
"Do you... really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?" Aang heard her ask, sounding surprisingly quiet and hesitant as she did.
His head was still reeling from the visions that had raced through it: The visions of Roku and Sozin, of the volcano spewing lava and black smoke, of a friendship broken and ripped apart for the sake of power.
But that is the lesson of humankind, he realized: that it is capable of both great good and great evil. There is always the temptation towards one, but the other provides the strength to resist and overcome it.
There is always the choice between the two.
As Toph spoke, Aang looked over at his friend… and was shocked. Her smoky green eyes were cast down, her face shadowed by unkempt bangs, her shoulders hunched: and for those few moments, Toph once again became the tiny little blind girl who had never had a real friend before, whose greatest fear was being alone and forgotten by the world.
And as he glanced over at her, scraps of other past lessons also filtered into his thoughts.
"In the swamp, we see visions of people we've lost, people we loved: folks we think are gone…they're not. We're still connected to them. Death is an illusion."
He heard her laughter dancing through the mists.
"Love is a form of energy, and it swirls all around us."
It was odd; Aang thought he would have recalled the rough earthbender who had taught Roku, when looking over at his current teacher.
Instead, he saw the face of a woman worn by a monster, whose features suddenly ran together with the one behind the bridal veil that a young Roku had lifted away.The Air Nomad's love for him, as the Guru had once said, had not left this world.
As he thought of the faces of those two women, he wondered if their love had, either.
Perhaps there was more to the lesson Roku had given him than of good and evil...
"Some friendships are so strong that they can last lifetimes."
Because there was also the lesson that bonds break the barriers of time, they are never really broken, no matter how much grief is felt: the connection between Roku and Sozin, between the Avatar and the Crown Prince, was still there. And so was the one between the Avatar, and woman he had loved.
No matter how lost the connection seems, even if life, time, or tragedy says otherwise, it is still there. It can be found again, if fought for hard enough.
But the thoughts of love did not bring Katara's face into his mind: and because that confused him, Aang forcefully pushed them out in order to answer Toph's question.
She was connected to him.He had not figured out just how, but that much, he knew.
And despite lifetimes of change and separation, she had found him again. She had returned to aid him, and had not abandoned him.
(Life had given him a second chance)
Aang thought that she should at least know that he would not abandon her, either.
And so, bolstering himself up on her past lessons of bravery, he reached out and took Toph's rough little hand.
It fit perfectly with his own, like two pieces of a puzzle reconnecting.
She did not pull away.
"I don't see why not," he smiled.
And it is opened by hope.
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A/N: Best moment EVER. That scene in the episode made me giddy.