Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
A/N: Alright, so the idea for taste just kinda shriveled up and died(And it wasn't anything guttery!). I'm excited, because the idea for this chapter is what inspired me to do this series.
Chapter Five: Double Take
It's amazing how you never really look at a person, especially those closest to you.
Take my father, for instance. I had a rip-roaring argument with him that lasted nearly five hours over whether I would go with Aang to face Ozai. It took five hours for him to truly look at me and see that his little girl wasn't his little girl any longer. I had become an ancient woman in the body of a teenager. After all, watching the best and worst of human beings that war brings out can age any soul beyond its time. I belonged to the Avatar, and his quest and his soul.
Maybe it was being so intimately attached to his mission that made me oblivious to Aang. Aang was, well, just Aang. He was there when I woke up in the morning, and there when I went to bed at night. He was a constant part of my life.
You would think that almost losing him any number of times would have made me wake up. But for all the dramatic close encounters with death, it took one comment for me to do a double take.
It was all Toff's fault, as it usually is.
It was our celebration in Omashu. We had three other celebrations in various grand cities. Each wanting to shower us with thanks for ending the threat that the Fire Lord presented to their homes and families. I don't think I will ever be that fat again in my life. Nor do I think Sokka will ever be that happy again in his life.
Aang, despite various evasive maneuvers, had been cornered by three young women. They had to be noblewomen, or at least the daughters of wealthy merchants judging by the silk in varying shades of blue that all three wore. I absently wondered if they had coordinated their outfits to cover the entire blue spectrum.
Before you ask, I wasn't jealous. Unless Aang was doing a really good job covering up his attraction toward these girls under a facade of absolute terror, there was not thing to be jealous about. But I was watching the spectacle, ready to save him if any of them got too forward.
"Katara!" I startled and looked over to see Toph. She had apparently been trying to get my attention for awhile and told me so with the air of a slighted monarch.
"What's got you so absorbed?" She asked with an arched eyebrow. Suddenly, a wicked grin crossed the Earthbender's round face.
"Some girl got her hands on Aang, again, huh?"
Sometimes I really think Toph is faking the whole being blind thing.
"Three girls, actually," I muttered darkly.
She smirked.
"Even better. You should really snatch him up, before he gives up on you and gives into one of those leeches."
"What do you mean, give up on..."
But Toph was already halfway across the great hall floor, preparing to participate in her new favorite pastime: disengage Sokka's newest hero-worshiping hanger-on from him by making various allusions to his personal hygiene, the "truth" behind his rivalry with Zuko, etc.
I turned my attention back to Aang. And I looked this time, if that makes any sense, at all. I didn't just take that face for granted, like I did every morning when I woke up.
I saw the boy, but I saw the man he would soon become. I saw the scared child, but I saw the hero. I saw the innocence, but I saw the taint of darkness. I saw the fool, and I saw the sage.
I felt my heart warm in that familiar way, and I saw for the first time that I was in love with my best friend.