Gyatso

The bright rays coming from the huge curtains and window that was taller than him woke him up. He felt great. He rubbed his eyes which haven't adjusted to the bright light and yawned, not out of
sleepiness, rather just woken.

He propped himself up on his elbows and smiled. He was thinking of the irony of the situation. Yesterday he was a homeless boy at the shelter who was hoping that by some miracle Katara loved him back. Now here he was in a MANSION! With the love of his life in the next
room.

He fully sat up and stretched his arms up. He pushed the covers off his body and stood up half awake. He went up to the huge wooden mirror across from the bed. He looked his reflection in eye for a few seconds. Then he just flopped on the bed on his back. It felt so good to just sit and relax.

Then he popped up off the bed with his eyes wide. Gyatso! Shoot I forgot! What am I going to do! Here he was in a really fancy room living it up while his guardian was probably worried sick. He is going
to kill me! He thought.

An audible knock was heard at his door. "Aang. You still in there? " it was Katara. He quickly went to put on some yellow shorts and sat back on the bed. "Yeah I'm here you can come in if you want. " he said
to the closed door and watched a girl with an extremely bad case of bed head walk in. He tried in vain to control his laughter. He just couldn't do.

She yawned loudly and sat down next to Aang. She was wearing plaid pj pants. They were a light baby blue. There were navy blue thick lines going straight down and slightly less thick bright lines going through the big lines. There was also super skinny white lines going through the bright blue lines. To finish off the outfit, she wore a short-sleeved white t-shirt. And all Aang had on was a pair of yellow
athletic shorts.

He fell back on the bed with bursts of laughter. His body was vibrating from all the laughing. He didn't stop heck he couldn't stop laughing.

Katara was bewildered. She turned towards the mirror and saw the cause of his outbursts and she couldn't help but fall back with laughter just like Aang. There they were. Two teens laughing, rolling on the bed next to each other. It was a sight to see for sure.

After they had exhausted themselves, they lay still next to each other taking deep breaths and smiling. Aang leaned over and kissed her forehead. They slowly sat up and Aang still had his arm around her waist.

"So why did you come here again?" Aang asked with genuine curiosity.

"I was heading down to breakfast and I didn't know if you had already gone down. "

"Oh um I might've forgotten to tell you I'm a vegetarian. "

"Nope. I remembered and the chef knows because I already informed him yesterday. "

Aang couldn't contain his smile. Then he remembered Gyatso.

"Hey Katara?"

"Yeah?"

"Well because I've got a guardian, I well need to kinda tell him I'm here or ...…" he trailed off. Unsure of what to say.

Katara knew where he was going with this and smiled.

"How about we get breakfast and stop by the shelter and see if Gyatso wants to come live here. "

Aang nodded faintly and they both rose from the bed to head down to breakfast. Their hands intertwined the whole way down.

Breakfast is the most important meal and apparently in this house, they know. They sat at a rather large table. It was as long as a school bus. Aang hadn't seen a table this huge before in his lifetime.
And on the table was literally a feast fit for a king.

Belgium waffles were stacked four high and six across on a large platter. There were fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, bananas, appleberris(which were native to this country)
and a few more fruits that Aang couldn't name. There was a big container of warm maple syrup next to the waffles. And along with that, you could have fresh fruit not on the waffles. The fruit that
caught Aang's eye, was pineapple.

They didn't waste any time. Aang sat next to Katara and had on his plate three waffles with syrup and strawberries with lots and lots of pineapple on the side. While Katara had only two waffles with mixed
berries and a side of cantaloupe and pineapple.

Hakoda walked down as they had just started to eat.

They both noticed and looked at him while he just smiled.
"Morning everyone. How are we this morning?" he said grabbing a plate.

"Morning dad, we're doing well. There is one thing. Aang needs to talk to his guardian, Gyatso and if he has any clothes or possessions he can grab those. " Katara said eyeing a smiling Aang.

"When are you going?" he said taking a seat.

"After breakfast. "

"Well okay then. "

"Aang are you ready to go?" Katara yelled up the staircase.

A few seconds passed and Katara decided to bring him down stairs herself. She took the stairs two at a time and when she neared the top Aang appeared. Unable to slow her speed, she was afraid she was going to crash into him. She stepped on the last step and was unbalanced because of him, but Aang just stood behind her and caught her by wrapping his arms around her and she lightly fell into him. They both wore a smile and Aang gently pushed her back to a standing position. She turned and faced him and placed a small sweet kiss on his lips. They then ascended down the stairs competitively. Aang won and made sure Katara knew too.

"Winner! I am the winner!" he shouted.

Katara couldn't help but laugh.

They locked their hands together and walked out the door towards the shelter.

They entered one after the other. Aang walked to the front of the shelter with Katara trailing on his heels.

"Hey Arnook, I'm looking for Gyatso. " Aang said to the man serving food to the girl who he saw frequently there, Song.

" Um… Who's askin…Aang dude you look a whole lot better. Where you been? Oh wait is this your lady friend?" he asked quoting Iroh when he and Zuko were Ba Sing Se refuges.

"Hey Arny how ya doin? Is Gyatso in?" Arnook's face fell.

" Uh look Aang, why don't you and …"

"Katara"

"…Katara follow me to the back. You need to hear something. " they followed close behind Arny.

"He he are you sure?" Aang asked with hurt.

"I'm sure. I was there when it happened. A man was upset that there wasn't any more food for him and he started to attack people eating. Gyatso came out, trying to calm the man down. He did but for only a few minutes. The next morning , we found Gyatso dead in his bed. We saw he had a bullet wound a few inches from his throat. I'm really sorry Aang, it was a loss for us all. Do you want to grab your stuff out from your bed? Because as I can see, you'll be in more capable hands. " he said nodding towards Katara.

Katara followed Aang back to his bed. He reached under the bottom of a bunk bed and pulled out a duffle bag that looked heavy. He unzipped it and moved his hand around in it trying to find the right thing. Then he pulled a worn beanie with only a blue arrow pointing up towards his forehead. He placed the beanie on and zipped the bag back up.

Hurt was present in his eyes. Katara couldn't take it anymore. She wrapped her arms around him and he dropped his duffle and embraced her back. He vibrated in her arms as he sobbed. Katara felt horrible. She knows she couldn't do anything to prevent this, but she could do her best to comfort him and help him through it. She inhaled deeply and inhaled his sweet sent. She couldn't describe it but only that it was a combination between air, water, earth, and fire together. She sounded crazy but it's truly what he smelled like. She felt him ease up on the crying and withdrew. She wiped away some stray tears with her thumb.

"Aang listen to me. I know it hurts. I went through the same thing when my mom died. But just remember you still have me. " she said looking straight into his eyes.

"Thanks Katara. If you weren't here, than I don't know what I would've done!" he said. His smile seemed to clear away the storm clouds. Aang grabbed his bag, put his arm around Katara's waist, and headed towards home with this girl in his arms.

He had just gotten out of a hot shower and was dressed in the same yellow shorts the prior morning. He plopped his duffle on the fancy bed he called his own, and unzipped the worn zipper. Out he pulled a picture frame that had three out four pictures in the quad frame. There were four places to put pictures and he observed the pictures already in it. The picture in the right corner was one of when he was about 3 and he was on his mom's lap and his dad was standing behind them. The one in the left corner was of him at about age 7 just sitting down. The one in the left bottom corner was one of him with Gyatso about a year ago. They looked so happy. He was hoping to put in a picture of him and Katara, he even had saved enough money to buy a camera a month ago. It was only a cheap $100 one (the cheapest one he could find).

"Knock, knock. Hey Are you awake?" Katara asked.

"Hey, yeah but I'm probably going to go to sleep in about 20 minutes. So what's up?" he said making room on the bed for her to sit down and she did.

"Noth'n. What's this?' she asked picking up the frame.

"My photo album frame thingy."

"Why don't you put a third picture in it?" she asked looking up into his eyes.

"I was actually saving that spot for you and I." he said blushing.

"I'd honored. Do you have a camera?"

He pulled out his camera, making her smile. He turned it on and said, "Say 'cheese' ".

They crept close together and their heads leaned on the others. They smiled at the lens and their eyes were dilated at the bright flash. Aang turned the camera off and hugged Katara, who didn't object.

"Goodnight." Aang said and leaned into a small kiss that lasted 1/2 of a minute.

"Night see ya in the morn'n." Katara said leaving his room.

Aang knew the next morning he would get the picture developed and his quad picture frame of his life and the people dearest to him, would be complete. This was the last thing that went through his mind before he drifted off to the land of slimber.