A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews! Here's the next chap, hope it answers some questions for ya…

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The cooler air that breezed across Aang's skin only caused his heart to race even more fervently in his chest and his awareness of the butterflies occupying his stomach to heighten. He shivered involuntarily, not because of the icy waters that crashed beneath him or the freezing temperatures he was entering. To say he was nervous would be an understatement. His anxiety tingled in his fingertips and turned his insides in knots of worry and doubt.

"Maybe I should have written her back saying that I was coming instead of trying to surprise her…" he worried out loud. "What if she doesn't recognize me? What if she doesn't like what she sees? What if she doesn't like how I've changed?"

He groaned as he gripped Appa's reigns tighter, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I don't know if I can watch Katara marry someone else…"

Appa grunted loudly.

"I know she didn't say it was her wedding… But she didn't say that it wasn't her wedding either!" Aang argued halfheartedly, appreciative of his furry friends' presence.

He sighed deeply, inhaling the salty sea air and filling his lungs with the distant scent of stewed sea prunes. "Well… at least the food hasn't changed," he moaned. He laughed at the disgusted look on Momo's face as his delicate nostrils also caught the scent. "Man, it must really be bad if you think it stinks, Momo!" he chuckled.

He felt Appa pick up speed as the Southern Water Tribe village came into view. "Well guys," he sighed, trying to steady his nerves, "There it is… home."

He felt his lips curl into an involuntary smile as Appa landed tiredly near the shore line. "Thanks buddy," Aang encouraged as he airbended himself from the flying bison, "It's been a while since you've had to fly through the night like that, huh?"

As Appa grunted in reply, Aang looked around the icy barren shoreline. His eyes drifted to the rift separating the village from the harsh ocean winds. He suddenly had the overwhelming urge to break into a run as he couldn't wait another minute to see Katara and Sokka.

He pulled on his dark cobalt parka, which he had finally found at a "curio shop" over by the docks in the Fire Nation after spending an entire day searching for one. No doubt it had been picked up in the Northern Water Tribe by the questionable shopkeepers. He situated the hood over his bald head to keep his heat from escaping him.

"Momo, stay here with Appa. I'll be back in a little bit with some food for you guys," he said as he pulled on a pair of mittens, his fingers defrosting in their warmth. He quickly began the trudge up the snow towards the pillars of campfire smoke billowing from behind the ridge.

When he reached the top of the ridge, he paused.

"This place sure has changed…" he mumbled to himself, taking in the beautiful ice sculptures and decorative artifacts that dotted the village. The tents were still there and still made of some kind of animal hide that Aang didn't wish to think about identifying. However, they were much bigger than he remembered. Perhaps the biggest change was the number of people he saw. Men, women, children, grandparents… The small village seemed to have suddenly expanded its occupancy ten fold since the last time Aang had been there.

He breathed deeply, trying to calm his nervously racing heart as he started his descent into the village.

He passed by numerous people he didn't recognize and a few that he did. Bato was busy stringing a line of fish. When Aang caught eye contact with him, he didn't more than blink than give Aang any type of friendly smile or greeting. 'He must not recognize me… What if Katara doesn't recognize me either?!' Aang thought frantically. He briefly entertained the idea of asking Bato if he knew where Katara and Sokka were, but he shrugged the thought away, deciding he'd surely come across them soon.

As he continued deeper into the village, he blushed at the number of young girls that smiled slyly at him, some even going as far as winking. Not that he wasn't used to unusual attention, it kind of goes with being the Avatar… But he had never grown accustomed to the amplified attention he seemed to always get from the opposite sex.

He smiled and laughed nervously as he tightened his hood around his head, being sure his arrow was hidden out of plain view. 'Who knows what they would do if they knew I was the Avatar…' he shuddered at the thought as a sharp feminine voice rang out behind him...

"Are you deaf or a retarded hogmonkey?! I said I don't need any assistance, you bafoon!"

Aang instantly straightened up at the all-too-familiar voice, his ears perked and his brow creased.

He turned around slowly to a rather entertaining scene that was taking place only a few yards away. A young man, seemingly about Aang's age, blushed brilliantly as he bowed over and over again, apologizing immensely for apparently upsetting the woman he was talking to.

Aang smiled inadvertently at the young woman before suddenly realizing who she was…

"Toph?! Is that you?"

The young woman turned towards his voice, her pale eyes focusing just over his shoulder, "Twinkle Toes?!"

Aang's face erupted in a grin as he walked over to where Toph was standing. As he got closer, he realized how much his young friend had changed since the last time he had seen her. It'd been almost four years since he had visited the Earth Kingdom city when she had happened to be in Ba Sing Se with her parents. He saw the Bei Fong's at the celebration of the Earth King's first year back at his throne.

She had definitely gotten taller, standing only a couple of inches under him. She was dressed, as he, in a warm Water Tribe parka tied tightly at the neck line, but the green headband in her hair still held back her ebony hair. He was honestly shocked at how feminine she looked, and he blushed when he realized that he had been eying her head to toe the entire walk over.

"I'd recognize those footsteps anywhere… But what's with the nervousness Twinkle Toes?" Toph asked as he approached. "You're shaking so bad I could feel the vibrations even in the ice!"

"Oh…uh… I'm just surprised to see you here Toph. That's all."

Toph briefly looked as if she would argue, but decided the vibrations were too fuzzy through the thick blanket of ice and snow to tell if he was truly lying or not. She puffed a short laugh and decided a friendly punch in the shoulder would do just fine, "Why wouldn't I be here? Sokka demanded that the wedding be here and you know how Sokka gets when he gets his mind set on something."

He rubbed his shoulder as he answered, "Yeah… Katara told me about that…"

An awkward silence followed and Aang couldn't stand not knowing any longer. "So, Toph... Katara wasn't really very specific in the letter she sent. Whose wedding is this anyways?"

Toph's expression went blank before a sly smile spread its way across her mouth, "You mean you don't know?"

Aang shook his head, then remembering she was blind said, "No… She said something about a promise she made to someone about not telling me yet…"

Toph brought her hand up to her face, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "Is that so… Well, I knew that you guys haven't seen each other in a few years, but I never dreamed that Katara would keep something like a wedding a secret from you…" she muttered, almost more to herself than anything else.

Aang's face fell into a frown and his heart seemed to plummet to his feet, "Oh… So it is her wedding then?"

Toph smiled sympathetically and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "Maybe you should go talk to her. I'm sure you guys have a lot of catching up to do."

Aang managed a weak smile, "It's sure good seeing you again Toph. I guess I should go find the bride and congratulate her, huh?"

"Shouldn't be too hard to do, Twinkle Toes…" she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.

Aang turned to continue his search for Katara. "You're going to be here until the wedding, right?" he asked suddenly, almost tripping into a display of ice artifacts.

She grinned triumphantly to keep from laughing, "I couldn't really be anywhere else!"

Aang smiled back, "Yeah… Okay Toph. I'll see you around then!"

His smile, however, dropped abruptly as he turned back around. Suddenly, he felt like he would be sick. The knots in his stomach seemed to twist violently at the thought of Katara marrying someone else. 'So it's true then…' he thought miserably. 'She's really going to get married.'

He stopped at a frozen water fountain in the middle of the street and peered down into his reflection in the ice. 'What do you mean?! Of course she's going to get married! This is Katara… she's perfect in every way. You didn't think she'd stay single forever did you?' his reflection seemed to argue.

He sighed as he analyzed his face in the frozen fountain. His stormy grey eyes seemed even greyer than usual and his face seemed suddenly older and not his own. He really had changed a lot… He was older and taller, of course. But in six years he had grown mature, wise, and strong, finally looking and feeling the role of the Avatar as a man, not just a boy.

He slowly bended some warmth into his hands, realizing his fingers felt numb from the cold as he tore his eyes away from the ice. As his mittens warmed, he trudged through the small town, lost in his own thoughts of how to tell the girl he loved he was happy for her wedding.