A/N Finally, what you've all been waiting for: CHAPTER 21! :D sorry for the long wait...just got done with school yesterday and since we had a bagillion finals and since i'd be out 2 days missing dues dates and finals i had to get everything done early and had like no time to type...so here it is! ENJOY! :D

Chapter 21: I love him…not you

"Aang, what do you want?" I said, irritated. He better not say what I was sure he was going to.

"I think you're going to fast with this marriage and frankly, um look right in front of you!" He waved his hand in front of his face while saying what I DIDN'T want to hear.

"Aang, I don't love you! I love Zuko!" Ooh, that sounded harsh but whatever.

"Katara, you don't understand what you're putting me through," He became very irritated as well.

"Oh, so now I'm supposed to not marry Zuko because you don't want us to? I can make my own choices and besides, what about Toph? You two are together right?"

"Well, yeah but-"

"You can't do this to her!" I interrupted him, "She loves you, love her back! Just let go! I'll never love you the way I love Zuko and I'll never leave him!" I shouted. Then when I looked at Aang a tear escaped from his eye.

"What's wrong?" Toph and Zuko both said running over to us. Aang looked away to hide the pained look on his face and Zuko held me close to him because he knew I was upset.

Toph put a hand on Aang's shoulder," What's wrong?" Wow…that was the most caring voice I've ever heard- coming from Toph that is.

"Nothing," He lied. Why would he try to lie to Toph of all people?

"Aang, don't lie to me," See? I knew she'd know he was lying. He sighed.

"I can't do this anymore," He said, sadly.

"What do you mean?" She was getting anxious and irritated.

"I can't be with you, I…I still…love…" He couldn't even finish the sentence.

"After all this time you still love her?" A tear rolled down her cheek. That made me feel awful and I didn't know why Zuko and I stood there but we didn't move. I think it was because we were shocked because it really would end for Aang and Toph.

Finally Aang nodded his head yes and the tears just kept rolling. On his face and hers, "Oh," she was sad but I saw her clenching her fists. I knew she was angry and wanted to hurt someone but she wouldn't hurt Aang and I knew she wouldn't hurt me. She was smart enough to know that it wasn't my fault that Aang still loved me. After all, she knew Zuko and I were madly in love, hell we were getting married!

"Why?" She peeped.

"Huh?" Aang asked, confused.

"Why would do this to me? After all of the love I gave you and…" She trailed off.

"Toph…" Aang said, lifting his hand to touch her, she smacked his hand away and stormed off.

"Toph," I said following her, and for the first time, I walked away from Zuko and not even acknowledging him. I loved Zuko and I always wanted to be with him but now, my friend needed me and I'd be there for her.

She reached her room and slammed the door. I don't think she bothered to check her vibrations to realize I was right outside her door. I was hesitant, I wasn't sure if I should let her think this through or comfort her now to make sure she didn't think anything wrong or bad.

Finally I lifted my hand and quietly knocked on the door, "Toph…can I come in? It's Katara," I said softly. I heard foot steps and she opened her door and sat back down on her bed, covering her eyes with her hands and she kept breathing heavily, like anyone did when they cried.

I sat on the bed and patted her on the back, "Toph, I'm so sorry,"

"Why?" she managed to say.

"Well I feel like Aang still loving me was somehow my fault but I mean, it's not like I'd tease him-"

"Katara, don't say anymore" She interrupted, "I know it's not your fault. You're obviously in love with Zuko and you're freaking getting married to him! You obviously love him more than Aang…it's just that Aang doesn't know how to handle this. He's never had a girlfriend-or a crush, I'm assuming but that doesn't mean I'm not upset. Yes, her hurt me, very badly, but for the first time, I don't want to hurt anyone because I'm angry. I love Aang too much to punch him or something. I'm just going to have to talk to him about this later but for now I need to think about this…alone." Wow I was amazed by her bravery and control about this, "This is what I admire about you, Toph. You're a really strong girl and you understand what Aang is going through and I know you're hurt but," I put my hand on her shoulder, "I know you and Aang, together, will make it through and with time I bet you'll be back together."

"You really think so?"

"Yeah," I said. She smiled and wiped a tear from her eye, "Thanks Katara," She gave me a hug and I got up to go, "I'm going to give you time to think about this but if you need someone to talk to, you can come get me ok?"

"Ok, thanks," She said as I left her room.

Toph and I may not have gotten along a lot but at times like this, you'd think we were sisters.

When I got back to my room, because it was getting to be dusk, I found Zuko sitting on my bed, waiting for me, "How was your talk with Toph?" He asked, him and Toph weren't that close but I knew he cared for her.

"Very well. She told me how she felt about it, I gave her re-assuring words, we hugged, and then I left her to think it through," I said as Zuko got off my bed. He held my close, "You always know how to make people feel better and that is one of the many things I love about you." He kissed me, very softly not too demanding and I loved that about him. He never pushed me to do anything that I didn't want to do, he was so sweet.

He slowly pulled away and looked into my eyes, "I could look into your beautiful, icy-blue eyes...forever," Just like every other time he mentioned my eyes, my knees went week and I'd fall into his arms, like he had cast a spell on me to make me fall into him. He caught me from falling, like always, and I would just keeps my eyes locked with, "Your beautiful golden ones," I said quietly. He blushed.

We stared into each other's eyes for quite a while. It sounded cheesy but when you're actually looking into the most beautiful, heart- melting eyes, you just don't care.

Finally we had to break away when there was a knock on the door. Sokka's head popped in, "Hey you guys want some dinner? 'Cause the chefs made some and we're waiting for you…"

"Yes," I quickly said, "I want something to eat," My stomach growled, yeah, I really did.

"Yeah, I want some too," Zuko added.

We walked down the hall into the dining room. There was a large, long table in the middle of the room with six tall, fancy chairs spaced out so that two were on the left and right and then one on each end, but we always moved them closer to each other.

I always moved one chair to the head of the table to where Zuko was sitting and Aang would sit on the other end with Toph and Sokka would move his chair to the one side that Suki was on. It was nice, too, because since we were all far apart, we could have our own little conversations.

But this time Aang wasn't here, "Where's Aang?" I asked.

"Oh, we saw him leave the palace…" Suki said, "Yeah, he said he was going for a walk and would be back late tonight or tomorrow morning," Sokka added.

"That's a long walk," Zuko said, holding the O in long.

"Yeah, but he probably just needs time to think…" I added. I mean, I knew it was confusing when I was with Aang and I liked Zuko but in this case, Aang is me, Toph is Aang and I'm Zuko. But in this situation, Aang would not have me.

I sort of felt bad though. He still loved me and I kind of rudely rejected him. So no, I didn't just sort of feel bad, I really did but not as much as you would think because I loved Zuko too much to leave him for Aang. So I guess I had mixed feelings about it…

My thoughts trailed off as I saw Toph walk over to us with the chair in her hand, "Can I sit by you guys?" Toph asked.

"Sure," I said cheerfully, as I looked at the other end of the table. Sokka sat the end this time with Suki.

And sure enough, the chefs came out with trays of all sorts of food. Fried rice, Miso soup, chicken, vegetables, tea. It all looked so good so we each took what we wanted and dug into our food.

I ate fried rice with bits of chicken and a side of Miso soup. I also got a cup of Jasmine Tea. Ever since Zuko's uncle served us some it's been my favorite tea.

We ate in silence for several minutes. It got kind of awkward, so I broke the silence, "Wow, this is some good fried rice isn't it?" I said, holding a little bunch of fried rice between my chop sticks. No one said anything. I just went back to eating, a little embarrassed.

"What if Aang doesn't come back?" Toph suddenly said, very worried.

"Don't worry about Aang," Zuko said with confidence, "He always does this, when something big happens he goes off and thinks about it and comes back just fine," Zuko smiled at Toph even though he knew she couldn't see him.

"Yeah, Toph. I'm sure when he comes back, you'll be in his arms and happy together again," I added. Toph smiled, "You guys are the best," She punched both Zuko and I in the shoulder. We smiled but still rubbed our arms from the pain of the punch. We all went back to eating.

After finishing our food we all got up to go and get some rest. Before Toph walked off, I saw that she still seemed worried. I put a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry about Aang. He'll be back by tomorrow and you guys will be together again." I said, half smiling.

"I know. I'm just gonna go to bed and get some sleep," She replied.

"Ok, night Toph," I said, walking towards Zuko.

"Night Katara." She called.

Zuko held me at my waist, "You always make everyone feel better don't you?" Zuko said, smiling at me.

"Everyone except Aang…and Sokka about the wedding," I replied. We laughed. We started to walk down the hall

"Well you always make me feel better," His smile grew bigger. I blushed, "You're so cheesy!" I giggled. He kissed me on the cheek, "I can't get over how adorable you are." He said.

"See what I mean?" I joked as we walked down the hall to my room.

We both got ready for bed. When we were, I crawled into my bed with him and cuddled up next to him.

"Good night love," He said softly. I smiled and blushed.

"Good night," I said as I peacefully fell asleep.

When I awoke, Zuko was surprisingly already out of bed. Usually, I was up before Zuko but he seemed to have been up for a while. I got up and got dressed in my water tribe clothes and made sure my betrothal necklace was tied tight (so I wouldn't loose it) and not crooked (so you could see Zuko's beautiful carving). I made sure my hair wasn't a complete mess and walked out into the hall.

I looked to see if anyone was up and out. No one was in the hall so I walked out into the main hall by the entrance of the palace and saw Toph by the door and Zuko standing close by. I ran over and asked Zuko what was going on.

"Aang is back but he refuses to come into the palace. So Toph is trying to get him to come back," Zuko sounded stressed by this.

"Well why the hell did he come back if he doesn't even want to enter the palace?"

"He wanted to get his stuff and leave the palace. He claims that he is needed else where and can't "waste his time" with the fire nation or any of us." He said, pretty irritated. That irritated me to, "So it's like he doesn't even care about us anymore?" I yelled. Zuko and Toph were caught by surprise by my anger. I saw Aang poke his head through the door.

"Excuse me Toph," Aang said. Toph reluctantly moved aside and Aang walked in, "Katara, it's not that I don't care its just…I can't do this anymore. I made a mistake. I lost you and now I've lost Toph…I just think I should go. I'm causing you and Toph harm and I'm needed else where," He said.

"Ok first off, you're not causing harm, well to Toph yeah but, not to us! Just the stress of the fact that you won't let go of me." I raised my voice a bit, "I know you love me but there's no way I'm ever leaving Zuko. I just can be with you when I, one, love Zuko and two, when you're more like a brother instead of a lover. I'm marring Zuko, not you." A pained look shot across his face, "Katara, don't marry him. Marry me!" He whispered. Didn't he just say that he was hurting Toph? What the hell?

"Aang! What did I just say?" Ugh. I was really irritated now. Suddenly I remembered in that dream I had so long ago that someone did say, "Katara don't marry him! Marry me!" I'm not sure why, but I still remembered that dream like I had it last night. I guess it was one of those dreams you always remember. I broke away from my thoughts when Toph put a hand on Aang's shoulder. She spoke very brazenly, "Aang, Katara does NOT love you. But I DO love you Aang. I love you! And I'll take you back if you can be with me." a tear escaped from her eye, "I'm not exactly mad at you because I love you too much. Please, be with me," She sniffled. I had never dreamed of Toph saying things like, "I love you" more or less in front of us.

"I love you," She repeated. Zuko and I were speechless. Well he was until he seemed to have thought of an idea.

"Aang, Toph! I have an idea!"

"What?" Aang asked.

"Why don't you and Toph take a vacation to Ember Island, to sort this out. Then, when you're ready, come back to the palace. Ember Island does smooth the most ragged edges! It'd be perfect!" Zuko sounded so excited. I giggled a little bit, just because Zuko was talking like he was five and he just got told that he would get all the candy he wanted and wouldn't have a bedtime either.

"That's actually not a bad idea…" Aang said. He looked at Toph and he didn't even have to ask her because the way he looked at her was like he was saying "Want to go?" telepathically to Toph.

"Yeah, I do want to go," She said.

"Then its settled, I'll get you get you guys transportation, a place to stay, everything and I'll pay for it too. All's you have to do is get your things packed and be ready by tomorrow morning."

"Ok." They both said, heading to their rooms to get their things packed.

"You…are…amazing," I said, looking into Zuko's eyes, "Just perfect!" I exclaimed, "Now Toph and Aang will be able to re-build their relationship." I smiled.

"I know," He said, "And while they're gone we'll be able to pre-pare for our wedding," he tapped my nose. I smiled wider and hugged him tight.

"Things are going to work out perfectly," I let out a contented sigh.

"Yes they will," He concluded as he went it for a heart-melting kiss.

A/N I kind of like this chapter except Aang makes no sense why would he say that? wait i wrote this WHAT THE HELL (random person) "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!" * splashes water in face* haha sorry i have random issues meaning i do extreamly random things that make no sense...anyways R&R!