This chapter's prompt is Change. For many of these, I focused on Aang and Katara's relationship as adults, but I took this opportunity to explore how their relationship developed in those early teenage years. I actually had the section with Sokka planned for over a year, and I'm glad I got to finish it and incorporate it into a larger story arc. This one references several events in the comics, so if you are unfamiliar with those events, I apologize. However, the overall theme of the story should still be accessible. Thanks for taking the time to read and review!
Most of the time, Aang didn't mind being the Avatar. There was a lot of responsibility—sometimes a lot of responsibility—but he knew how to balance the role better than he did when he first learned his identity. Aang loved helping people with his bending, and he couldn't imagine his life without the friends he had now.
Most of the time, Aang liked being the Avatar—except for times like this, when he stood in front of a conference room full of every important statesman and scholar, looking to him for his opinion and Avatar wisdom, and his voice cracked.
At times like this, he wanted to earthbend himself a tunnel, burrow to the center of the earth, and never come out.
The first time it happened, he was talking to Appa and airbending hay into his stable in Ba Sing Se. He chattered to the sky bison and Momo about Iroh's tea shop, about the burgeoning Harmony Restoration Movement, and about his brand new relationship with Katara. Suddenly, he heard the pitch of his voice shoot up, and he stopped airbending abruptly, causing the pile of hay to rain down on Appa's head. The sky bison growled and shook himself. Aang placed his hand to his throat. He swallowed before laughing nervously and starting to chatter again.
It occurred periodically after that, and Aang hated that he couldn't predict it. Without warning, his voice betrayed him and made him sound even younger than he was. A couple times it happened while talking with Katara, and Aang felt his face heat up, just like when he used to try to awkwardly compliment her and the butterflies in his stomach prevented him from speaking properly. Not that the butterflies had really gone away, now that they were actually together.
Whenever his voice broke around her, she just chuckled and kissed him on the cheek. "You're changing, Aang," she said, and the reassurance in her voice always calmed him.
But now, with the eyes of Zuko, Earth King Kuei, White Lotus members, the Council of Five, and political scholars all trained on him, Aang wished more than anything that his voice wasn't changing.
"Aang," Katara whispered. "Keep going."
He shook himself out of his embarrassment, reached his arm behind his head, and smiled sheepishly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zuko nod encouragingly. He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and spoke again.
When the conference ended, they all filed out of the room into the hall. King Kuei regaled Sokka and Zuko with tales of his adventures with Bosco around the world. A little behind them, Aang and Katara walked side by side.
"Hey," he started. "Thanks for prompting me back there."
Katara smiled at him. "Of course. I know your voice is an inconvenience right now, but it's really nothing to be embarrassed about. All guys go through it, and it will end soon enough."
He grabbed her hand, grateful, and squeezed. She looked at him, startled.
Aang paused. "Oh . . . um, is this okay? We don't have to—" He let go of her hand and started to pull his arm back to his side.
Katara reached out and slipped her hand back into his. A blush tinged her cheeks. "No, it's okay. I was just surprised for a moment. This is still really new."
She wanted to hold hands! Confidence swelled inside of him. "Yeah, but it's a good kind of new, right?"
Katara nodded and smiled shyly at him. "Yeah, it is."
"Hey!" Sokka called from up ahead. They instantly dropped hands; they still didn't quite know how to act around each other, much less the others, and certainly not her brother. It was bad enough that he'd caught them kissing on the balcony. "Hurry up!" he called. "Iroh has food waiting for us at the Jasmine Dragon!"
"We're coming!" Katara yelled back. She jogged to catch up, pulling Aang along with her, and this time, she didn't let go of his hand afterwards.
"Oh, good morning, Katara."
"Good morning, Aang."
They grinned as they greeted each other. He stretched from his seated position in the middle of the large front room in the house in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se. He just finished his morning meditation when he heard her soft footsteps on the wooden floor. He watched her lithe form as she entered the kitchen.
"Have you eaten yet?" she asked.
The sudden growling of his stomach answered her question. They both chuckled, and he rose to join her in the kitchen. As he drew near, she turned around and draped her arms over his shoulders. They kissed, and when they pulled apart, the soft expression on her face made his day.
They treasured these morning moments together. It was a few months into the Harmony Restoration Movement planning, Suki had returned to Kyoshi Island, and Toph went to establish her metalbending school. When they didn't have meetings at the Earth King's palace, Sokka slept in as long as possible, living up to Toph's nickname of Snoozles, which meant Aang and Katara had breakfast alone.
He scooped the rice into two separate bowls while she dished out jook. She added some grilled meat to her bowl and vegetables to his. He took his breakfast to the low table and added some sweet buns as dessert.
"Did you sleep all right?" he asked
"Mostly," she answered. "Thanks for staying up with me."
It had been a full moon last night, and they'd stayed up later than usual waterbending. The moonlight had glistened on her dark hair and lit up her eyes in a way that dazzled him.
He opened his mouth to tell her how beautiful and powerful she was, how her mastery of her element filled him with awe, and how she moved with such fluid grace, but he was interrupted by a shout from down the hall.
"Katara!" Sokka yelled. "I thought you fixed these pants!"
She swallowed a bite of rice. "I did!"
"Nooo, you didn't!"
Her brother emerged from the hall, wearing a pair of blue pants that were noticeably too short around the ankles. He spread his arms out in a dramatic pose. "See?!"
"Sokka!" Katara exclaimed, exasperated. She rose from the table and knelt before him, fingering the cloth. She stood up and headed for her room. "Let me get my sewing kit and see what I can do."
Once she disappeared down the hall, Aang airbended himself over to Sokka, landing so suddenly that the warrior jerked back a little. "Wow, Sokka," Aang exclaimed, looking him up and down. "You're shooting up like a tree!"
"I keep telling you, man, you gotta eat lots of meat!" Sokka crowed. Katara came back into the front room with a small pouch of sewing supplies and started measuring the distance from the pant leg to her brother's ankle.
Aang glanced back at the table with his vegetarian breakfast waiting for him. He tried to remember if any of the monks had been very tall, but the only one he could remember clearly was Gyatso, and Aang already came up to his teacher's chin when he was twelve. He laughed hollowly. "I guess I'll always be short then."
He could feel Katara's eyes on him, but then Sokka howled in pain. "Hey!" he yelled. "You poked me!"
"Oops, my hand slipped," his sister replied, not sounding sorry at all. Katara sat back on her heels and considered the fabric, completely ignoring the faces he made at her. "I'll have to let out the hem again. We'll see where that gets us." She looked inside the pouch and then turned to her boyfriend. "Aang, could you get me a spool of blue thread? The one in here isn't the right shade. It should be in the top drawer of my nightstand."
"I'm on it!" Aang rushed off down the hall. He could still hear the siblings as he headed for Katara's room.
"What was that about?" Sokka demanded. "Why'd you poke me with a sewing needle?"
Aang paused with his hand on her door to listen to the response. Katara's voice was accusatory. "Would you knock it off, Sokka? Aang already feels bad about his voice changing, and you're just making fun of his height."
"Come on, Katara, he's fine. He knows I'm joking."
"Can't you go and give him some, I don't know, man-to-man advice?"
Aang sighed and opened her door, looking for the spool of thread. Katara's room was neat, the bed made and her clothes folded. Last night, when she finally felt like she could go to sleep, he had kissed her here while she sat on the bedside. She had smiled at him with hooded eyes, and Aang's heart pounded in his chest.
He pulled open the nightstand drawer. There were several spools of thread, a couple sewing needles, and her hand moisturizer. He found a dark blue spool and pulled it out. He started to close the drawer again, but the spools jostled, and he spied something else in the drawer. Curious, he picked it up.
He held a short expanse of woven twine and fishing line with a pink flower in the center. It was the necklace he made for Katara. She'd kept it?
There was a knock on the door. "Hey, Aang?"
Aang threw the necklace back into the drawer and slammed it shut. "Uh, yeah, Sokka?"
His girlfriend's brother entered the room. He wore a different pair of pants now, ones that actually came down to his ankles. Sokka gestured to the bed, and they both sat.
"Look," Sokka began. "I know it's tough right now. With your voice changing and starting to grow and . . . other things changing. But trust me, it will pass, and it will get better. And I didn't mean anything about the meat comment. I'm sure you'll be really tall, meat or no meat."
"It would be nice to not have to tip my chin up to kiss Katara," Aang mused.
Sokka slapped his face. "Aang," he groaned. "Oogies, man."
"Sorry." Aang ducked his head in apology. "You know, I've never asked . . . are you okay with me and Katara? Besides the oogies, I mean?"
Sokka looked at him sidelong, and Aang waited with bated breath. He treasured Sokka's friendship, and he wanted the warrior to approve of his relationship with Katara.
"You guys are good together, I'll admit it." Sokka's voice softened. "I knew you cared about each other, so it wasn't really a surprise when you got together. But still, she's my sister, Aang. I don't ever want to see her get hurt. She's been through enough."
Aang opened his mouth to respond, but Sokka held up his hand. "I know you wouldn't ever do anything deliberately. But you two are young. Just be careful with each other, okay?"
"Always," Aang promised solemnly.
"And try to keep the oogies to a minimum while I'm around, will you? I just can't handle it." Sokka shivered a little.
Aang chuckled. "Sure thing, Sokka."
When they returned to the front room to finish breakfast, Katara stood waiting patiently. She grinned at them and enveloped them both in a hug.
Aang emerged from the courtyard, sweaty and exhausted. He spent the whole afternoon moving through an intense earthbending regimen Toph had developed for him, and he was worn out. He flopped onto the cushions and waved his hand to circulate some air around himself.
"Good workout?" Katara ventured, looking up from the scrolls she was reading about the Harmony Restoration Movement. They were almost ready to start relocating the first Fire Nation colony, and she felt overwhelmed by the level of detail involved in the planning.
"Yeah." His voice was muffled by cushions.
He heard her giggle. Pushing himself up onto his elbows, he grinned at her. "You know, a healing session would certainly be nice. My muscles are definitely going to be sore tomorrow."
Grateful for a distraction from the scrolls, Katara eagerly rose and went over to him. He sat up straight and tall as she bent some water from the faucet.
He closed his eyes as the warmth of the water glided over his skin. First his scalp, then his neck and shoulders, finally moving down the line of his tattoo to the tight muscles of his back. He sensed her pause at the scar, and she paid extra attention to the tattered flesh there. He could feel her presence all around him, and the lavender shampoo she used floated to his nose.
The warmth moved down his arms. He opened his eyes and found her sitting in front of him, guiding the water over his forearms and hands, her blue eyes focused on the task at hand.
She was so beautiful.
Aang clasped her hands and kissed her abruptly. She gasped, lost her concentration, and the water splashed onto his crossed legs. Their laughter vibrated across their lips, and he felt her smiling against him.
Katara smirked at him when they moved apart, and then pecked his cheeks. She returned the water to the sink. "I take it you're feeling better?" she asked coyly.
"You always make me feel better," he returned honestly.
Despite her dark complexion, he detected the blush rising to her cheeks. What a change, he marveled. Before, she always made him blush, and now he could make her blush, hold her hand, and kiss her whenever he wanted to.
Aang glided his hand over her cheek and guided her face back to his. He felt her tip her chin up to kiss him properly.
He opened his eyes and pulled back. Katara looked confused. "Aang?"
"Stand up. I want to see something." He gathered her hands in his and pulled them both to their feet. He made sure they both stood evenly on the wooden floor. He asked her to take off her shoes, and she complied.
They stood face to face, and he was looking directly at her dark eyebrows.
"I'm taller," he breathed.
Katara laughed. The sound strummed through him. She coasted her hand from the top of her head to his forehead. "You are," she declared with a smile. "I told you you were growing, sweetie."
Aang blinked at her. Sweetie?
She ducked her head. "Is that okay? I was thinking of nicknames, but if you don't like it—"
He shook his head and pressed his forehead to hers. "No, it's great. I love it, sweetie."
She beamed at him, and Aang held her tightly, gratitude welling up in him.
What an amazing change.
Hooray for sweet fluffy moments! Thanks for reading. If you have a moment, please review and let me know your feedback!