"How much do you remember?"
"Everything."
"How much is everything?" He dropped his gaze.
"Everything."
Aang sat bolt upright, chest heaving. The room was dark, but for a beam of white moonlight that pooled on the end of his bed. He ran shaking fingers over his head, dazed, feeling the sweat gather and run from his fingertips in an icy trickle down the back of his neck. With a jolt, he remembered why he woke.
His fingers scrabbled clumsily at the front of his tunic, eventually revealing the smooth, untarnished skin beneath. Aang prodded his stomach, unconvinced. He had been so sure. He had been cut, he remembered. But what he couldn't recall is how no trace of the incident remained. Still, though the lack of scars bothered him, he was relieved, in a way.
Aang sighed, dropping his head back onto the pillow. He blinked at the ceiling for a good few minutes, waiting for sleep to come. But the lasting nerves from the dreamed memory still twisted too raw in his gut. He grimaced as he realized he would be awake for a while.
He rolled onto his side, facing the long, undisturbed other half of the bed. That hurt him more than the cutting had. And no one would explain it to him either. He closed his eyes as he recalled his explosion earlier that afternoon. He regretted his response to Sokka's words the second it had left his mouth, but he had been frustrated.
"Katara doesn't want to see you." Why not? What had he done wrong? He hadn't seen a glimpse of her in the two days since she'd walked out of the room. The look on Katara's face had been burned into the front of his mind: guilt. Aang's throat tightened painfully. He didn't understand her reaction at all. How could he? He had expected her to be glad, as pleased to see him as he had been to see her. What had happened while he was unconscious?
His train of thought was abruptly interrupted by a flicker of movement in the darkened doorway. His body stiffened with anticipation. He waited, holding his breath, to see if he had only imagined it. There was a long pause, and his stomach flipped as he heard a floorboard below him creak. Blood pounded in his ears as the side of the bed dipped under some invisible weight.
They were back to finish the job.
Aang drew in a long, slow breath through his nose, ready to blast his attacker across the room. His skin prickled as the figure leaned over him. A surge of energy rippled up his spine.
Three.
Two.
One- Long, soft fingers brushed across his cheek.
Aang choked in surprise. The fingers were quickly retracted, and Aang struggled to sit up through the tangle of sheets.
"I didn't mean to wake you. Sorry."
"It's alright, I was already awake."
"Oh." Aang bit his lip.
"Katara, what are you doing here?" he blurted. Katara's silhouette, framed by a thin outline of pale moonlight, stiffened.
"I wanted to see you."
"But-" Katara edged closer. Very close. The smell of her hair suddenly filled Aang's nostrils, and the words melted on his tongue. Sitting in the dark, her expression was inscrutable, and yet in their proximity he could make out the shadow of cheeks, a nose…
…and the lips which had been inching expectantly towards his.
The whirlwind of questions and jumbled emotions that had been bouncing about inside his skull evaporated. His rehearsed demands of an explanation for avoiding him faded to nothing. They were replaced by a pleasant sense of light-headedness. "I missed you," he whispered, tucking her hair behind her ear. Katara's lips twitched a smile.
Then, (he wasn't quite unsure exactly how it had happened) Aang was on his back, Katara straddling his hips. Her hands were braced on the pillow behind his head, her hair falling like a curtain over her shoulder. Aang inhaled sharply. His heart throbbed painfully against a ribcage that suddenly seemed too small to contain it. Though this course of action wasn't what he'd expected when he had heard careful footsteps enter his room in the dead of night, Aang was perfectly content to go along with it. Katara paused a moment, as if drinking in the sight of him.
For Aang the silence seemed to last an eternity. Perhaps sensing the growing tension, Katara mercifully ended his torment by sealing her mouth over his.
Aang started to sit up, deepening the kiss, his hands sliding up and along her thighs, hips, waist, tightening about her back. Relief… Her torturous embargo appeared to be over. Whatever Aang had done, not that it really mattered to him at this point in time, had been forgiven, and here she was, right where she should be.
Katara opened her mouth against his (which eagerly complied) and wrapped her arms around his neck, scooting herself closer so that she was fully pressed against him. This subtle movement of her hips elicited a moan from Aang, whose hands clenched on her back involuntarily.
Their kisses quickly gained momentum, and it wasn't long before Katara was pushing open his tunic, the contact of her fingers on his skin causing Aang to shiver. They were colder than the rest of her hand, which was practically on fire. Aang pulled away, panting. Too cold. Before he could speak, Katara's hands abruptly left his chest and in an instant were on his shoulders, shoving him back into the mattress.
"Katara-" He was silenced with a hot, lingering kiss. He let his arms fall from her waist, but she didn't appear to notice.
"Kat-" The rest of her name came as a groan. Katara smiled against his mouth, running her tongue over his bottom lip again. Aang seriously considered giving in to her, but his curiosity got the better of him.
She made a noise of protest as he sat upright once more, gently prising her hands from his shoulders. She stilled as he took her fingers in his, and her breath hitched when he suddenly dragged them into the moonlight. Aang's jaw dropped.
"What happened to your-" With a yelp Aang tipped over the edge of the bed as she shot past him, landing with a nasty crunch on the hard wooden floor. Upside down, Aang watched the hem of her dress whip around the corner of the doorframe, the door shutting behind her with a snap. He groaned and rolled onto his back.
If the last time this had happened Aang had been confused, it was nothing compared to how he felt now.