Aang opened his eyes slowly as he came out of his meditation session. He had been meditating on this for the last few weeks. It had become painfully obvious to him that while he loved Katara with all of his heart, she did not return his feelings and that her heart belonged to another. He wanted to see her happy, so he had been meditating, trying to come up with a solution that would not only help him move on, but would make Katara happy as well. His solution, which in his opinion was quite brilliant really, was to set her up with the man her heart did belong to, but then that presented a problem in itself. How was he going to do that? Thus he had turned to meditation in order to think of ways that would help get Katara together with her love. He stood up, wind gently rustling his clothing, and rubbed his hands together, a wide grin stretching over his face. Time to put his plan into action! It was a brilliant plan; there was no possible way that it was going to fail!
Zuko walked down the hall, muttering to himself. What could be so important that Katara needed him for, but was unable to ask herself and had to ask Aang? It wasn't that he didn't mind helping his friends, but honestly, he was busy and he would appreciate if they needed him, maybe they could work around his schedule a bit instead of saying he was needed *right now*? He paused as he reached the water benders room. He raised his hand to knock, hand pausing just before he rapped on the door. Aang had told him Katara was expecting him and to just walk in when he arrived. His hand moved to the door handle, opening it quietly as he walked in.
"Katara, wha-" the Fire Lords voice died in his throat as he took in the scene in front of him. Instead of pacing the room like he expected the water bender to do when she was waiting impatiently for something, he found the bender before him gloriously naked. He swallowed harshly. He knew he should look away, that would be the proper thing to do, but he found himself unable to move and unable to tear his gaze away from the enchanting site before him.
"Zuko! What are you doing here, get out!" a voice yelled at him, finally snapping the fire bender out of his stupor. He snuck a quick glance at her as he ducked back out the door, noticing how the blush stained her cheeks. A traitorous part of his mind wondered how far down that blush went and that it was such a shame he didn't stick around to get a better look. As he closed the door, he leaned against it, covering his face with his hands. He was going to need a very, very cold shower, and pray to any gods he could think of that Katara wouldn't kill him the next time he saw him. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to spend a little extra time in the fire temple today, he mused as he quickly walked (he was not running, Fire Lords do *not* run away terrified, nope, he was not running) in the directions of his room.
Back in front of Katara's room, Aang hoped down from his perch in the rafters. Well, that hadn't gone as planned. His shoulder sagged a bit in dejection. He would just have to come up with a Plan B! With new determination, he stood up straight and went to find Appa. Yes, Plan B and it would not fail him!
After meditating for another few days, Aang had come up with another plan, one this time he was sure would not fail! He hastily dodged the water whip Katara had just sent his way. The Last Airbender shook his head, trying to get himself together. If Katara beat him too easily she would know something was up and that wouldn't do! It had taken him quite a while to convince her to come out and spar with him this morning, claiming his water bending skills were getting a bit rusty. It had taken even longer to get Zuko to agree to join them after he finished up the latest meeting. And speaking of the young Fire Lord, he was right on time. Sending a last burst of water towards his friend, he signaled for them to stop.
"Zuko! It's good to see you joining us!" he called out, waiting for the fire bender to join them in the sparing ring.
"It's nice to have a break from those damned meetings," he drawled, "I knew becoming Fire Lord was going to be a lot of work, but those meetings are enough to kill anyone with boredom." Aang smiled as he heard Katara try and smother her giggle.
"Why don't you two have a have a round with each other?" Katara suggested.
"Uhh, I just remembered I promised I'd meet Sokka to teach him how to meditate!" the Avatar exclaimed quickly. "That's right; we are going to meditate, yup! Gotta run, have fun you two!" with that, Aang quickly extended his staff, allowing the wings to expand and used a bit of air bending to get himself off the ground. Now all I have to do is wait a few minutes and circle back to the rough to wait and watch!
"Ok, that was weird," Katara said, shrugging her shoulders. She couldn't even think how Aang had gotten her brother to agree to teach him to meditate in the first place. She turned to face the young Fire Lord. "Ready to get your ass handed to you?" she smirked.
"I doubt I'll be the one getting their ass handed to them," he replied, easily stepping into an offensive position, ready to strike after the water bender in front of him had made the first move.
If it wouldn't give the fact that he was hiding on the roof watching the two people below spar, Aang would have hit his head against the hard tiles below him. They had been sparring for nearly an hour and neither looked like they were about to jump the other and ravish them! Where had he gone wrong? He was so sure that the sexual tension that anyone with *eyes* could see building up between them would break given an outlet. But no, these two had to be stubborn and keep themselves in check. Stupid friends, he was trying to do them a favour and it was beginning to feel like they were working against him! He looked down, checking on the two benders below and could see that they were about to wrap up their sparring session. He sighed but then grinned as a new plan formed quickly in his mind. There was no way this one would fail!
From his perch on a rock outcrop, Aang watched below as Katara and Zuko enjoyed the natural hot water springs that were close to the Fire Lord's palace. It had taken him a little bit of wheedling to get both Katara and Zuko to agree to go and relax. Aang was hoping that the atmosphere of the hot springs would help their inhibitions lower. He blushed at the thought. And it looked like things were going well. The two benders below were flirting, laughing and over the last 20 minutes or so, they've moved closer and closer to each other.
"Hey! Looks like you guys started the party without me!" a voice rang out. Aang groaned. No, not Sokka! He loved his friend very dearly, but now was *not* the time for Sokka to be interrupting. Why, why couldn't his plans ever go the way he wanted them? All he wanted to do was make his friends happy. The avatar watched abject horror as Sokka got in the hot springs with the two other benders. Not only did he get into the hot tub, no, the water tribesman decided he needed to sit right between the two other benders, completely oblivious to what he just walked in on. Aang groaned as he buried his face in his palms. No, no, no, no, this could not be happening. How was this happening? Did some spirit out there hate him? Had he inadvertently pissed some spirit off to the point that they needed to interfere with his plans?
"Aren't these hot springs great?" Sokka exclaimed settling further into the deliciously hot water. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his sister glaring at him. "What? What did I say?" he asked, confusion colouring his tone. When she huffed at him in response and proceeded to cross her arms, he rolled his eyes. Girls, he would never understand them.
This was it, if this plan didn't work, he officially gave up. There were only so many failed plans he could tolerate before it drove him crazy. If this one for some reason didn't work, and to be honest, he didn't see how this one *wouldn't* work, the two love birds were on their own! He had spent the entire day decorating the royal gardens. Tiny paper balls of various colours hung from the trees, little candles inside, lighting them, giving the gardens an other-worldly glow. He had already gone to get the two lover birds, telling them the other wanted them to meet in the gardens. No way was he going to repeat the disaster sending Zuko to Katara's room had been! He'd picked a more neutral location, hoping that it would bring better results this time. He hoped into a nearby tree to settle down to wait.
The young man watched from his perch with baited breathe as he watched his two friends arrive. First Zuko, who stood there in confusion as he looked around the royal gardens, then Katara. He watched Katara's eyes light up as she took in all the lights decorating the garden. She turned to Zuko, throwing her arms around his neck. He could barely make out her whispering to the Fire Lord that the garden looked amazing. He watched as the Fire Lord opened his mouth to protest, but then wisely chose to shut it, instead slowly raising his arms and wrapping them around the water benders waist. Katara shyly placed a kiss on the fire benders cheek and giggled as she watched the man holding her blush.
Aang sighed in contently to himself as he soundlessly jumped down from his perch, making sure he remained unseen. It looked like his job here was done. The small breeze carried to him the sound of their laughter as he left his two friends to enjoy the night he had prepared for them.