'Katara?'

'Mm?'

When he didn't answer, Katara looked over her shoulder to see him standing between the balcony banister and the cactus pot-plant, obviously lingering there for her to join him. She allowed the water she was bending to slither back into the sea and curiously walked over to him.

A smile was playing around his lips as he watched her progress; she was wearing his favourite cropped white singlet and skirt, garments that hugged her figure and contrasted beautifully with the tone of her skin. As she approached, the flickering light from the lanterns on the porch steps illuminated the water droplets that clung to her waist. A scent of sea salt and moon flowers emanated from her skin.

Katara's feet left prints in the sand and she stopped just in front of him, looking up at his face with soft eyes. He only had flowy orange pants on; his slender, sculpted torso was thrown into an even more complimenting perspective by the position of the candlelight.

'What is it?' she asked.

'We've known each other for so long, Katara,' said Aang, putting his arrowed hands to rest on her hips. 'Almost as long as I can remember. You've always been there for me in a way no one else has, and you've taught me so much – not just about bending but about myself and the world around me. You've saved my life countless times, and we even ended up saving the entire world together.'

'Where are you going with this?' Katara asked, raising an eyebrow despite the butterflies that were rapidly multiplying in the pit of her stomach.

A strange kind of fear suddenly gripped her where she stood. His eyes softened as he continued.

'But after everything that we've been through, I still wake up every day unable to believe that you're beside me. You make me feel so lucky, Katara, and I love you so, so much.' He took a deep breath and raised his hand to lightly twist a lock of her hair behind her ear. Aang's eyes were dancing with a familiar passion; Katara's heartbeat quickened. 'I could go the rest of my life without being able to bend a single element, but –' He took his palm from her cheek to twirl his fingers, weaving a thin ribbon of water from the oil lamp on the step, a string of pebbles from the pot-plant, a disk of air and a snake of fire to swirl around each other into the shape of a glowing heart, '– I couldn't go a single day without you. Katara, will you be my wife?'

As soon as the words left his lips, Katara's heart leapt into her throat. She stared into his beautifully familiar face – a face in which she had seen the most carefree laughter, the most destroying sadness, the most dangerous rage and the most heart-wrenching fear; but in him now she saw a deep, pure, gentle love smoulder, a love she had reciprocated for what seemed like forever. And she smiled.

'Of course I'll be your wife, Aang,' she replied. 'I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you.'