I couldn't wait to get this chapter out. I spent two or three weeks working on it (mostly because school was eating up my time). If this is too fast pace, it's intended because I wanted the story to progress ASAP. It gets soooooo much interesting, I swear. I know, it's lame, me telling you that my story's great. Well I hope you enjoy and read on!

Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA. Yeah, I own it in my heart, though. That's good enough, right?

Chapter Two - Katara

Three weeks later…

"Morning." He whispers softly into my ear. There's nothing better than hearing his voice say my name first thing in the morning. I stir and turn to face him. His arm around my waist pulls me closer.

"Mm." I mumble. "Morning."

Aang chuckles and kisses my temple. I could feel him sit up on the bed, his arm still wrapped around me. Now I can feel his body lean over me and I imagine seeing his warm grey eyes. I smile and my own eyes flutter open.

And there he was. His beautiful face just above my own and his nose just inches away from mine. My eyes lock with his and he took my breath away—again. He always did. The early morning light made his milky skin glow and I had to make sure he wasn't just a figment of my imagination. Because he's really here, with me.

My last thought last night had been of Aang. My first thought? Also Aang. I'm not ashamed to say that…er, well, not ashamed to say it to myself, at least. If I ever said this out loud, Sokka and Toph would tease me to the ends of the Earth and back. Yeah, that's not a risk I'm going to take.

It annoyed me slightly how Sokka and Toph could get into my head this early in the morning. I push thoughts of them away and focused on Aang. Always on Aang. "Morning." I mumble again, lamely. Aang only chuckles, his smile shining down on me, making my cheeks grow warm.

Only two days left until the day.

I reach my arm up and place my fingers behind his neck. I pull him lower, closer to me, until my lips meet his. Even if his lips are already crushed against mine, I still pull him closer, needing him.

I'm out of breath when Aang abruptly pulls away. "Katara," He whispers beside my ear. His sweet breath tickles my ear, down my neck. "Too early in the morning."

Aang sits back up and beams down at me. I narrow my eyes at him, which only makes his smile bigger. "Fine." I grumble. I'm not mad about it. He never said I couldn't kiss him later. I make a show of sitting up, my long messy hair scattered behind me. Aang stands up and reaches for my hands. I take his hands in mine and let him pull me up.

He pulls me up with such ease, as if I'm lighter than air. And that's pretty much what Aang makes me feel-all light and warm inside. Yeah, I'm helpless. Helplessly in love with the Avatar.

Before my feet touch the ground, Aang pecks me softly on my cheek and carefully sets me down. I thank him by kissing him back. "I need food." I blurt out and head for the kitchen. I can hear Aang's soft laughter by the wooden stairs.

I walk calmly into Iroh's teashop, The Jasmine Dragon. It hasn't opened for the day yet, which is why I'm free to walk around in only my linen top and skirt, my hair a complete mess.

Iroh is already preparing tea and pouring it into glasses. Food's been lain out on the long table to the left of the teashop. Sitting before it, gobbling down their food is Toph, Suki, and Sokka.

"Why Katara, you look lovely today." Toph's voice rings out in her friendly mocking way.

I've gotten used to her I-can-totally-see-you sarcastic remarks. "Thanks, Toph." I reply and walk over to the table. She raises her cup of tea up to me as her reply and brings it back down to her lips to sip.

"Morning." I say as I slip into a seat in the table, facing opposite to Sokka and Suki.

Sokka looks up from his fried noodles to look at me. "Morning, sis." He mumbles and draws his attention back to his food.

"Where are Zuko and Mai?" I turn to Suki. Her skin is glowing today and her belly looks a lot bigger than a few weeks ago.

"Why are you looking for Zuko?" Aang says from the stairs, a challenging smile on his face. He regards Zuko with fondness, and I'm pretty sure he knows something that I don't.

"Because he isn't here." I reply. All of us decided to stay in the newly built separate rooms upstairs of Iroh's teashop for the remainder of our visit in Ba Sing Se. Aang and Zuko have been working closely with the Earth King Kuei to keep the peace and control the small riots that break out here and there.

I turn back to Suki. "He and Mai went out for a walk. They'll be back soon." Suki answers my question. Her hand rubs her growing belly, as she smiles down at it.

I glance at Sokka, who is still so very interested in his food, while Aang slips into a seat to my right. "Suki, when's the baby going to be due, again?" I ask.

Suki grins at me. "Not long, now. Maybe two or three months." She answers.

This catches Sokka's attention. He looks up from his food, a string of noodles hanging from his mouth. He looks at me with wide eyes. "What?" He says through a stuffed mouth. "So soon?"

Suki turns to him and narrows her eyes. "Of course. I'm supposed to have our baby in my womb for nine months. I don't want to have her inside me forever. Do you know how hard it is to carry her?"

Sokka sits up straight, sensing his wife's nerves start. "Relax, honey." He softly coos at her, stroking her arm. "Stress is bad for you and the baby." I try to bite back a chuckle when Suki shoots my brother a death glare.

"Why don't you try being pregnant?" Suki snaps.

"That would be impossible." Sokka retorts. Suki opens her mouth to reply, but Sokka saves himself by quickly grabbing her hand. " Calm down, I know your emotions are all over the place, but remember you're not doing this alone."

Suki closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath. "Okay." She whispers. And in a second, her eyes snap open, back to the cheery brown I was met with earlier. "Let's eat."

Cleaned up and no longer looking like a buffalo yak, I make my way down the stairs again to where Aang leans against the doorway facing the bustling street. There's no use in trying to sneak up on him. He'll either feel my footsteps' vibrations on the ground or he'll somehow sense me getting closer. So, I casually walk up to him and wrap my arms around his.

He sighs. "I wish this job didn't require leaving you." He tells me, watching the people walk here and there.

"I don't want you to leave." I admit. But knowing his job as the Avatar is one that requires a lot of moving, I don't do anything about it. I've seen him in action before, joined him for a while during the meetings after the War. But Aang tells me that riots and outbreaks are none of my concern anymore, they're slowly disappearing.

Aang sighs again and I can sense that there's more to his sigh than just leaving my side. "Hey," I ask softly. "Is something up?"

Aang doesn't reply instantly. He turns his head to look at my face, studying me with those wise and knowing gray eyes. What is he thinking? I ask myself. Finally he speaks up, "No, everything's fine." There's no emotion in his voice, which worries me. I loosen my grip on his arm and step back. I feel my brows furrow as it's time for me to study him.

There is definitely something going on. But now's not the time to beat Aang into telling me. I'm not about to ruin our day. Instead, I direct our attention into something more positive. "Only two more days left." I mumble.

The corners of his mouth twitch up in a smile. "How about we move it up to just one day?" He suggests jokingly. "I don't want to wait."

"Toph's going to go crazy if we change the date again." I say with a chuckle. "No more pissing Toph off."

I know by the look in his eyes that he's remembering the last time we broke it to Toph, telling her we were going to move the day to an earlier date. It involved dodging flying boulder disks and mud waves. Toph did the throwing and splashing, while we did the dodging. "That's probably a good idea." Aang nods.

There was a moment of silence as we tried to navigate our way through our racing thoughts. I don't know what he's thinking about, but by the looks of it, it's nothing good. I take a step forward so I'm closer to him. My hands are placed on either side of his chest and my eyes look straight at where his heart is. His arms wrap around my waist.

"You should probably go." I say quietly. I definitely don't want him to go. Every part of me screams for him not to, but we both know that there's just no way we'll be able to get him out of work.

"I know." He whispers. "I wish I didn't."

"I'll see you later." I mumble and tip my head up to look at him. He's grown. I mean he's seriously grown. In the past three years after the War, Aang's shot up and now towers over me. I'd also like to point out that his muscles didn't miss out on all the growing. I'm sort of proud of how he looks now, all grown up. But even if my Aang's physically grown up, I can always see the boy I found in the iceberg, years ago.

Aang leans down and presses his lips to mine. I savor every sweet moment. He pulls away to ask, "Are you going out on a walk?" Walking around the city isn't uncommon for me. I've made a habit out of walking in the morning and he knows it. I nod and he takes my hand. "Then I'll walk you outside."

Hand in hand, we walk out of The Jasmine Dragon and down the stairs into the busy day. A few citizens stop to greet us good morning, while others just nod politely in our direction. Once we reach the middle of the street, Aang stops. "Well, I walk on from here." He says.

"You sure you don't want to take Appa?" I ask. I'm probably stalling, trying to keep him with me for just a few more minutes.

Aang strokes my cheek with his free hand. "I'll be fine." He assures me. "You can take Appa today."

"Okay."

"Just remember, if there's an emergency, tell Appa to get me. I'll leave the meeting." He reminds me. His eyes look into mine, full of authority and love. He just wants to make sure I'm going to be okay. Honestly though, it's not like the world's going to end without him…um, yeah, I'm not going to take my chances on that.

"Don't worry. I'll be perfectly fine." I assure him just as he assured me. "There won't be a need to take you away from your Avatar duties."

He doesn't reply or take his eyes off me. I don't do otherwise but look back at him, trying to take him all in. "I love you." He whispers softly. I know that there's more he wants to say. Save it for the day, I want to tell him. It's not going to be long, now.

I smile. "I love you more." And with that, he smiles and kisses me one last time before turning around to walk down the road leading south, to the Earth King's palace.

I watch him leave until he becomes a dot in the distance—that happens in just a few seconds (you know, Airbender speed and all)—then I turn on my heels and walk the opposite direction.

I usually just walk randomly around the city, getting lost in the green scenery and the friendly atmosphere. There's no more brainwashing in the city anymore, as far as we're concerned. Long Feng has been taken care of and I'll leave it at that. I don't need to remember the details.

What I need to do is mentally prepare myself for the day. Mm, the day. That's never going to get old. Never. And nothing's going to ruin our day, not if I have anything to say about it.

I stop dead in my tracks.

Aang.

I can feel him near-by. He's here!

Before I could stop and even look at the facts, my legs take me forward, towards the direction of Aang's tugging presence. The feeling grows stronger with each step I take and I know when I'm close when I can practically feel him.

I've gotten used to this Avatar-and-lover connection. Aang told me about this before, saying that I'd expect to feel it growing stronger as the day comes closer. And I don't mind the feeling at all. The comfortable sensation warms all over my body—but the best part is that it feels like Aang is right beside me. It's like I can feel his body next to mine, like I can feel the warmth radiating from his skin that causes mine to blush. Aang and my spirit are one.

Suddenly, my mind chooses to think. It tells me that Aang said he'd be in a meeting the whole morning and wouldn't be back until after noon. But my stubbornness and will to see Aang tells me that he probably decided to take a break or walk around the city.

I choose to believe in the latter.

As I come even closer to the pull of Aang's spirit, I can hear him bending. A boulder is lifted off the ground and thrown many feet away, crashing on the ground with a pounding crunch. I hear the air howl past my ears and whoosh around, harassing my hair and tangling strands together. I hear the cackling of fire next, but it ends abruptly and I know the flame's out. It's as if Aang didn't want to let the fire spread. Lastly, I hear the soothing flow of water. He's trying to calm himself down. Whatever mood he's in, he's not in a good one.

I run faster, wanting to be by his side and comfort him. Maybe now's the time to ask him what he's been keeping from me. That solemn look on his face this morning hasn't completely left my thoughts.

I reach a cluster of tall and thick green bushes. I open my water pouch and bend the water inside, slicing at the sharp leaves and long stems. A few steps later, I can see the blue of the sky and the light green grass.

"Aang—" I start to call out as I shoot out from the cluster, but I stop dead in my tracks when I see the back of a teenager about my same height, wearing a mix of Water Tribe blue and Earth Kingdom green.

The girl's hair is the same colored brown as mine, but shorter and straighter, falling just a few centimeters from her shoulders. The girl gasps when she hears my voice and turns around. The alarming frightened look in her wide ocean blue and grassy green eyes makes her seem like a koala sheep standing in front of a hunter's fire.

There's no mistake that she just bended all four elements. I heard her. It wouldn't be hard to believe that she'd be a waterbender, judging from her Water Tribe outfit. She's got my skin color too, a light milky brown. But the greens in her eyes and dress caught me off guard. No person in the Water Tribe could ever have anything green. In the South Pole, anything colored green doesn't exist.

Then I'm hit with a strong realization. I've noticed it before but it didn't go through my mind well enough—She bended all four elements.

"How?" I blurt out.

"Please, don't scream—or tell anyone." The girl begs and I can hear the fear in her voice. She's afraid of me. She's not supposed to fear me—I'm not supposed to be a scary person (most of the time).

I shake my head, almost trembling, myself. This is impossible. I could've been hallucinating. That would probably be it, because no one in the world can be able to bend all four elements except for the Avatar. And the current Avatar is still alive. My Aang, is still alive.

"You can bend all four elements." I say out loud, more to myself than to the Water Tribe girl. Saying it out loud makes it more real, sending the feeling of dread creeping inside me. The girl freezes and I look into her eyes. "How is that possible?"

The Water Tribe girl's mouth opens to say something, but no sound comes out. She tries to speak again, but her voice fails her. I need answers. I need an answer that is anything but what I'm afraid could be true.

I hear Appa approach to my right and soon his big fluffy white body peeks out from behind the bushes. I snap my head to him. "Appa, get Aang. Now." I order him in a hurry. I know he can hear the anxiety and urgency in my voice because his body becomes more poised and ready. "Bring him to Iroh's tea shop. It's important. Yip, yip."

The girl's able to speak again as I watch Appa fly away to get Aang. "Iroh? General Iroh—the Dragon of the West?" The girl asks in disbelief. "Aang? As in, Avatar Aang? You know him?"

I didn't expect this girl to recognize me, but for some reason it surprises me that she doesn't. If she lives in the South Pole, my Gran Gran would've told the whole tribe about us. I nod. "Yes—I'm his…fiancé." I say and the word seems strange on my tongue. I've never said that world out loud. The other term though…seems better to me.

The girl's eyes grow even wider, and for a second, I was afraid her eyes would pop out of their sockets. "You're Katara of the Water Tribe? The master waterbender?" She asks me, her voice pitch growing higher with all the information she's sorting out.

Katara of the Water Tribe, master waterbender? That's what I'm known for back home? The title makes me blush. "Yes." I say. "Who are you?"

There's a long pause. A dreadfully long pause. It makes my insides squeeze and knot together. I feel the nervous shaking coming back and I have to clench my teeth to stop the chattering. I feel so far away that when she opens her mouth and confirms what I fear, I suddenly feel like I'm shutting down.

"I'm Genna. The second Avatar."

A/N: *le gasp!* KATARA FINALLY MEETS THE SECOND AVATAR! And have you heard enough of "the day" stuff? Yeah, I know. You probably guessed what it is already (hint: Katara gave it away).

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I'd really love for you to review! It'll mean so much to me. :)