A/N: (re-write: 7/1/07) yeah man, I'm back! Now read :)
Book One – The Journey Begins
Chapter Sixteen - Toru
Katara opened her eyes, shocked somewhat and peered out of the bush. She noticed Sokka cleaning mud off of himself, laughing his head off.
"SOKKA!" Katara yelled angrily as she stood.
She suddenly noticed that something had changed. She looked down quickly to find that she had two feet, two hands, no paws nor tail, or spots. Katara looked up and smiled. Sokka had completely scared her out of the cheetah form!
"SOKKA!" She yelled again, this time happily.
"I know I know you're mad at me and--" Sokka stopped talking before Katara stumbled over to him, human form, and embraced him in a BIG hug.
"You're- you're back to normal! How did that happen?" Sokka asked as Katara pulled away.
"You scared me out of it I guess..." Katara smiled. "THANK YOU I love you so much! I have to tell Aang!" Katara said happily as she quickly ran off. Sokka heaved a long sigh.
"I was supposed to do this to make you MAD, not happy," Sokka called. Katara ignored him and disappeared onto Appa's saddle.
She felt totally overjoyed to have her normal body back. Her own clothes, her own hair, no fur, and no difficulties of walking on four legs. Although she was back to normal, it took her a few moments to actually get used to it.
Katara eagerly knelt next to the young airbender snoozing the night away. She smiled and tenderly shook him awake. Aang grumbled and opened his eyes slightly. He gasped, noticing Katara was back to normal.
"Katara?" Aang asked softly. Katara happily nodded as Aang sat up and quickly embraced her in a large hug. Katara smiled and hugged him back before Aang pulled away.
"How are you back to normal?" Aang asked, getting confused.
"Sokka scared me and--"
"I was supposed to make you MAD," Sokka cut in loudly as he trudged over to the two. "Do you get it? I was supposed to scare you, like what you've been doing to me for the past two or three days, and you get all happy!"
"I would be happy, too, Sokka, you got her back to normal!" Aang said happily.
"Great... " Sokka grumbled.
"Sorry, Sokka, I didn't mean to ruin your plan. I didn't think you'd have to scare me to get me out of the cheetah form," Katara smiled. "You had me going to a moment there, u-until you started laughing that is."
Aang and Katara giggled as Sokka pouted.
"Thank you, Sokka," Katara smiled at her brother.
"Yeah, yeah. Goodnight, you two," Sokka said as he returned to his spot on Appa's head.
"Goodnight," the two called. Katara happily turned to Aang and smiled big. The two happily stared at each other for a moment before they hugged one another again.
"I'm glad you're back to normal," Aang said softly as he gently tightened his grip around her.
"Me too. Though I did like that form; it was fun being something different for awhile," Katara smiled as Aang gently pulled away and yawned. Katara gently slipped her hand into his and pulled him over to a cozy spot in Appa's saddle. Aang lay down and yawned yet again before he mentioned that he was tired. Katara nodded in agreement as she grabbed a large blanket from the back of Appa's saddle. She slowly laid down next to Aang before she draped the warm blanket over the both of them.
Aang cuddled with it, a small smile spreading across his face as he attempted to sleep. Katara made herself comfortable next to Aang, under the blanket, before she stopped fidgeting and sighed. She stared at Aang for a moment before she leaned forward and gave Aang a little kiss on the cheek. Aang smiled big and opened his eyes. He gazed at Katara through the night air.
"Goodnight," Katara smiled softly.
"Goodnight," Aang sighed as he quickly and happily fell asleep in Katara's close, and human, presence.
- - -
The next morning, the three landed Appa on a small island in hope of finding a town with a market or something from where they could buy supplies for their long journey.
The island held a small village a few miles away from the beach.
They eventually found a little shop in the village that had all the food and supplies they were looking for. Sokka declared that he was going to go look at a weapon store across the way and see if he could find anything he liked. Disinterested, Aang and Katara stayed together to do the rest of the shopping that they needed to do.
Aang and Katara were lost in a good conversation until someone walked up and stood a couple feet in front of Katara. Katara slowly stopped telling Aang something and turned her head. Standing there was a boy around Sokka's age. He had jet-black hair that delicately draped in front of his forehead and face slightly and he had beautiful green eyes that shimmered in the light.
He wore a workers uniform. Obviously, he worked in the store of which Aang and Katara were in. Katara froze and stared at him for a moment before he spoke.
"Hi, I'm Toru, is there anything I can help you with?" Toru asked Katara, not fully noticing Aang. Katara slightly went googly-eyed before she quickly shook her head bashfully and looked down.
"N-No, thank you." Katara said softly. Toru smiled.
"Well, I'm over there if you need me," he smiled as he walked off. Aang frowned and stared at Katara as he raised one eyebrow.
"That was odd," Aang chuckled. " Notice, he only came to us when there are about thirty other people here."
"Yeah. T-that's weird," Katara said as she frowned and looked at Aang. "No matter, he was just being nice."
As Aang and Katara continued to shop, Toru kept coming over and idly chatting with Katara, ignoring Aang fully. After a while, Katara and Toru walked off together, leaving Aang slumped in a chair in the store all by his lonesome.
After about an hour of glaring at the two across the way, Katara happily strolled over to Aang who was still sloppily slumped in a chair, holding a bag of the food he, Katara, and Sokka needed for their journey.
"Have fun?" Aang asked in a slightly angry tone. Katara frowned.
"Y-yes. But come on, let's go find Sokka," Katara smiled as she gently slipped her hand into Aang's and helped him up. Aang smiled softly as the two walked out of the store and to the weapon store across the way.
They instantly found Sokka looking at a wooden boomerang happily. He was with a store worker who was telling him about the boomerang. Sokka was, not surprisingly, the only customer in the small, run down weapon store. Katara and Aang walked in and hung out by Sokka who was going frantic about how cool the boomerang was.
After a while of just standing around, waiting for Sokka to get over the boomerang, Toru stepped into the store and walked over to Aang and Katara.
"Hey, Katara," Toru smiled. Aang instantly frowned and glared at him when he wasn't looking.
"Hi, Toru," Katara smiled. She was starting to get somewhat annoyed of him. As cute and nice as he was, he was still a little clingy.
"Hey, I want to show you something. I have an hour break from work," Toru smiled eagerly, motioning toward the door.
"O-Okay," Katara bested a smile and turned to Aang. "I'll be right back."
"That's what you said last time," Aang grumbled. "Oh but don't worry about me, go have fun," he said, slightly sarcastic and annoyed.
Katara frowned as she and Toru left. Katara kept glancing over her shoulder to catch glimpses of Aang to see if the sad and "I'm bored" look left his face. It didn't. Katara almost felt like running back to him, but she decided to stay with Toru just to see what it was that he wanted to show her.
- - -
"Wow, Toru, this is so beautiful," Katara smiled. The two were standing on a small bridge by a beautiful pond. They were beyond the city limits and they had been walking for about a half an hour now.
A few stray turtle ducks swam about in the somewhat clear water, making soft quacking noises as they happily flapped about.
"Yes, I thought so too," Toru smiled. "But you know what else is beautiful?"
Katara nervously looked at him. She knew his answer, but she pretended that she didn't.
"N-no, what?" Katara said softly.
"You," Toru smiled.
"Thanks Toru," Katara said, feeling somewhat odd that an almost perfectly good stranger, or someone she'd known for about an hour, was saying she was beautiful and giving her "looks". Katara started to feel uneasy as Toru started to move closer to her.
- - -
"Aang, where did Katara go?" Sokka asked as they were finally out of the lone weapon shop.
The two moseyed around town for some time.
Sokka gently pet Kaimah, who was resting in his arms. Momo was perched on Aang's shoulder happily as he murmured in his little language.
"She left with some guy," Aang said blankly as he slowly looked away and avoided eye contact with Sokka. Sokka frowned and quickly looked at Aang.
"Who?" Sokka asked.
"Don't know, some guy named Toru..." Aang frowned. The thought of Toru put an even bigger damper on his day. "He and Katara met in the store we were in a while ago."
Sokka noticed Aang's mood shift from slightly happy to sad. He chuckled wholeheartedly for Aang and patted his shoulder.
"Don't worry Aang," Sokka smiled. "She'll come back and then we can get out of here."
Aang nodded and looked around.
"I'm going to go look for her, okay?" Aang asked as he handed Sokka the bag of food. Sokka nodded as Aang walked off slowly, his shoulders slightly slumped with sadness.
"I'll be with Appa!" Sokka called.
Aang waved one hand in the air to signal that he heard him. He groaned inwardly as he was stuck holding a medium sized jug of water. The soft pottery it was made of made it slip in his hands. He let out a loud groan as he adjusted it for the tenth time. He slowly came to a small pond, obviously the city limits. The rest of the island was grass and a few stray mountains. Aang sighed and looked around impatiently, hoping to find Katara somewhere on this dang island.
- - -
Katara was getting more nervous by the second as Toru scoot closer and closer to her. Katara slowly attempted to scoot away but Toru noticed and quickly caught Katara in an awkward embrace in his arms.
Katara's eyes widened with shock as she nervously stared up at Toru. He slowly began to lean forward in attempt to kiss her, but Katara instinctively moved her head backwards slowly, feeling very uncomfortable. She almost felt as if she forgot how to move, scream, and even waterbend, even though her element was in clear view under the bridge before her.
She almost felt as if she should lash out and hit Toru for invading her personal space. She didn't even like him and felt more uncomfortable around him by the second. The thought of Aang suddenly flashed across her mind. She knew for a fact Aang would never get THIS close to her. At least not this early into their relationship anyway. She did have to admit to herself that Toru was very cute, but Katara didn't like him for any other reasons. Not the way she loved Aang.
- - -
Aang sighed for the hundredth time and slowly strolled onto a large bridge by the pond to find none other than Katara and Toru.
Toru's hands and arms were tightly wrapped around Katara's waist, his lips inches from hers, her body pressed against his. Aang gaped slightly as he felt as if he lost all control of his body. His stomach churned at the sight of Katara wrapped up in some other guy's arms.
He shook his head and slowly let the jug he was holding slip from his shaking hands. It shattered by his feet, making the water inside of it splattered everywhere. He froze at the image of the two people before him.
A/N: Aw, how sad… next chapter should be good
- Katara -
Mohalo ;)