That afternoon, everyone seemed to be acting normal. Nobody was purposefully avoiding me- except Toph- or looking at me like I might kill them. Toph hadn't told anyone and neither had Zuko… yet. The day was still young, I'd have to watch out for him. Toph wouldn't tell because she was the one who had actually witnessed me doing the horrible deeds and she was even hesitant to tell me about them. Aang of course wouldn't tell, because of what had happened earlier, and so that just left Sokka, The Duke, Teo and Haru who weren't in the loop about me- and I intended to keep it that way.
The only problem with Toph and me not speaking, was that Sokka seemed to notice. My brother happens to be completely oblivious to everything that's happening (me bloodbending at night, me going out with Aang ect.) but he just so happens to notice me and Toph not talking. He's unbelievable!
"Hey, Katara," Sokka said, "Why are you and Toph like avoiding each other, you were just started to hang out alone more, and now its like your not speaking or something."
"Oh, it's nothing, Toph and I just had a little fight, I'm sure she'll come around sometime soon." I answered half truthfully.
"Right," he said with his usual sarcasm, but after my answer, he let the subject drop. That was extremely un-Sokka-like. I took it as a good omen though, because I really didn't want to talk about Toph at that moment.
Just as I was about to go to my room, Sokka stopped me. "Wait. I think you and I need to talk," he said. I nodded and he led me to the stream. We sat down on a log on the banks and after a long silence, that wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, he started to speak. "Katara," then he took a deep breath. Oh great, here it comes, he knows why Toph isn't talking to me and that I'm going out in the woods and bloodbending every night. I braced myself, ready for the worst. "Katara, I need to talk to you about Aang," he said.
"Aang?" I said thoroughly perplexed, "Why do you want to talk to me about Aang?"
"Well, you and he are in a new relationship, and I know I said I trust you guys, but I don't want to see my baby sister get hurt."
"Sokka, I won't get hurt," I said feeling extremely relieved that this was a conversation about Aang instead of my bloodbending, "I mean, it's Aang we're talking about."
"I know, I know. I trust you both, it's just… Katara I… I guess, I don't really want to see you grow up," he said softly. I closed my eyes tightly and opened them again quickly.
"Sokka, it's not like I'm going to you know like run away with Aang and leave you here to rot," I answered, "I'm not going anywhere." I gently hugged him and decided to leave him alone for a while to contemplate. I walked back up to the temple and into the courtyard to sit by myself like I was letting Sokka do. Too much had happened recently, and I needed to sit and think a while.