By Fire and Water
Chapter One
"Aang, are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"…"
"Aang!"
"Don't worry Katara, everything's going to be great." Aang slipped his shoes on. "You ready to go?"
"Sure." Katara replied.
They began walking down the corridors, toward the hall where the Council of Five was about to meet. They met few people on their way there.
"Aang, I have to say it." Katara closed the customary three foot gap between them. "I think you're making a mistake. Sokka and Yue are going to be completely against the idea."
"I know that."
"Aang, you probably don't know a whole lot about how a loveless marriage ruins peoples lives, but-"
"Katara," He stepped closer to her. "nobody knows better than me." Aang lifted a hand to touch her cheek.
"Aang." She grabbed his hand and kept him from touching her cheek, avoiding his eyes. "You're the Avatar."
They heard footsteps. Katara quickly backed away three feet and they resumed walking. "Aang! There you are!" A beautiful woman with long, black hair that was swept up into a simple but elegant hairstyle wearing the robes of the Air Nomads approached them. "Everyone else is ready. Oh, how wonderful to see you again, Lady Katara." She nodded at Katara.
"Milady." Katara bowed.
"Who did the Earth Kingdom send, Sora?" Aang began walking alongside his wife, and Katara fell into pace behind them.
"They sent Suki. The Earth King would have come, but his wife is sick."
"Wasn't she about to have a child?"
"Yes." Sora's gaze fell to the floor. "The infant princess was lost in childbirth, and now the queen fights infection."
"Such dark times." Aang muttered.
They rounded the corner and came to two huge wooden doors that were already open. At the other end of the hall, there was a large table with five chairs placed behind it. Throughout the hall, there were hundreds of chairs, set up in many rows.
Aang briskly walked the distance to the table, and took the seat in the center. Sora to the seat to his right, Katara to his left, Suki next to Katara, and Fire Lord Zuko took the seat next to Sora. The hall grew quiet almost immediately.
"The Council of Five is begun. Lady Sora, would you state the matter at hand?" Aang said in a very official tone.
Sora stood up and announced in a voice loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear "There are some in the Fire Nation who believe that the War should not have ended the way it did. Their hostile intentions towards the other nations have led the Water Tribes to become angry. If the Fire Nation continues to act in this way, then the Treaty of the Element will shatter, and we will once again fall into endless war." Sora sat down again.
Now Zuko stood. "I do not support these ideas. These whisperers of war were supporters of the late Princess Azula. I will not allow war in my nation. Not during my reign. I am confident in any path that will lead us back to the peace that we've enjoyed for the better part of seventeen years. And so I shall abide by anything that Avatar Aang says."
When Zuko sat down, Aang stared at the stone table before him, lost in his own thoughts. He heard everything that was being said around him, but now his eyes were glassed over.
"Aang!"
'I gave her up. I gave her up.'
"Aang, listen to me!"
'I gave her up. I gave up love. Happiness. And now I'm going to make someone else do that. At least I had a choice. Why am I here? I don't belong here. I don't belong in this society where Katara can't walk beside me. Where I can't address her as simply 'Katara.'
"Avatar Aang?" asked Katara. Aang was snapped suddenly back to the present. Everyone was staring at him. "Avatar, are you all right?" She whispered.
"What-? Oh, yes, of course, I'm so sorry. ahem" Aang pushed back his chair and stood up. He'd been there barely ten minutes, and it already felt like hours. He'd never been good with long debates and discussions. "I have considered this dispute between the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes, and the best solution I believe," 'I can't be doing this. This is somebody else, this isn't me! "is to, um…" He coughed slightly. What else can I do? "is to unite these two nations," next to him, Katara passed a hand over her eyes, cleverly making it look like there was a bug of sorts flying into her face. "in marriage. In one year's time, Prince Notan, of the Fire Nation, and Princess Suteki, of the Water Tribes, will wed. Do the people of these two nations accept this council ?"
"We do." The assembly answered in unison.
"Very well." Aang sat back in chair and rubbed his temples.
Suki got up and rapped on stone table with a short wooden scepter. "Let it be proclaimed that Princess Suteki of the Water Tribes is as of now betrothed to Prince Notan of the Fire Nation. As is customary, the said princess will now reside in the court of her betrothed and will live in this palace for the next year, at which time they will be married." Scribes sitting along the walls were each copying down the official verdict. Whatever the Avatar suggested was almost always taken as the ruling, but every once in a while, there was a compromise somewhere along the way and the verdict came out differently.
Aang sighed almost silently. "The Council of Five is dismissed."
As everyone filtered out of the hall, Sora put a hand on his shoulder. "I believe that it was the right thing to do." Then she was called off by some ambassadors who needed to discuss something with her.
Suki smiled at him, but then her smiled faded and she turned and hurried away. Katara did not get up from her chair, and was making a conscious effort to avoid looking at him.
"Avatar Aang," Zuko bowed. "I believe you made a wise decision."
"Thank you. I do not know if it was as wise as you all think."
"I know that my son will be honored to carry out the duty that the Avatar has given him."
Aang opened his mouth to answer, but then he caught sight of someone behind Zuko and had to excuse himself.
"Lord Sokka." Aang extended his hand, but Sokka did not take it.
"Aang," Sokka hissed at him. "How could you do this?"
"Sokka, I-"
"You destroyed Katara, and now you're going to destroy my daughter, too?!"
"Sokka!" Aang grabbed his shoulder. "Sokka, I regret ever thinking of this, and please know that if I could change any of it- all of it, I would." He told his old friend in a low voice so that no one would hear them talking to one another so casually. "But I can't. What's done is done. I can only hope that this will keep war at bay for even just a moment more. Now please," He let his hand drop to its previous position. "no more anger."
Sokka took his hand in a brotherly embrace. "No more anger."
Still at the table, Katara's eyes filled with silvery tears. "No more anger." she whispered to herself. "Only heartbreak."