A/N – Continuing from the last chapter, here's where it's going to start getting a little more 'M' rated. For some obvious reasons I will refer to French kissing as making out. This is my first attempt at a lime/lemon, and let me know if you'd like more or if I should just stick with my original style of writing!
Book 4 – Air
Chapter 5 – Old Friends
As Katara was flung back into her tent, she was at first angry with Toph, but when she looked over at Aang, he was smiling at her, with a certain look in his eyes.
"She does know that you can just earth bend this wall down." Katara started, but before she could get anything else out, Aang grabbed her waist and pulled her closer kissing her lips. It felt as though her body would melt just from his kiss. Aang was about to pull away from her, but Katara didn't want him to. She placed on of her hands behind his head, and the other on his back and pulled him into her.
Aang didn't object to her actions, and started to move his hands from her waist, up and down her back. As he did this their kissing became heightened and faster paced, both of their heads were exchanging sides. Aang wanted to try something new, he was able to pull his lips away from hers, and started kissing her bottom lip, and then he worked his way down her chin. As he reached her chin he started to follow her jaw line and worked his way around to her ear, from there he moved down and started to kiss her neck. How Katara wished he had hair at this moment for something to squeeze in her hands, but squeezing the back of his head still let Aang knew that she liked it. As he started to kiss her neck, Katara's heart rate was increasing, her blood seemed to be getting hotter, and her breath was elevated.
Katara couldn't believe how wonderful this was, she never knew her neck was this sensitive, and when Aang would occasionally open his mouth and lick her it sent shivers up her spine. She had both of her hand around his head, and pull his face back to hers. She pulled his face to hers with such a force Aang was worried she might hurt them both. But his thoughts of that didn't last long when he felt something wet begging for entry into his mouth. It was Katara's tongue. They had kissed like this once before but it was he who initiated that kiss, but was pleased that Katara seemed to like this way, what did Sokka call it? Making out? Aang didn't care though. It was pure bliss to him. While they were kissing, he hadn't realized it but his hands had worked their way down past Katara's hips and were just above her butt. He didn't know why but he started to move down more, and when Katara didn't protest he had both of his hands resting on top of her butt, it felt so soft, and plump yet firm. He squeezed his hands, almost immediately he thought Katara would pull away and smack him, but while their faces were still joined, he felt a moan come from her throat.
Katara couldn't believe it! A part of her was screaming to push him away, but the other was telling her to go with it. She went with her feelings and kept kissing Aang, by now her hands were starting to explore his body, he was starting to build muscle all over. His earth bending sessions helped that out, while his water bending kept him flexible. She decided that Aang couldn't have all the fun, so she broke from their kiss, and started to kiss his neck, she was unsure of how Aang would react, and she traced her way around his neck she looked up at him. His eyes were closed but he was smiling, he was enjoying it. She snuck one of her hands down and playfully squeezed his butt. His eyes opened, and he looked down at her and just smiled.
Their lips found each other again, and they almost immediately started to make out again. This time Aang left one of his hands on her butt, the other worked back up to her waist then moved up her side to her stomach. Their kissing intensified, Aang wasn't sure if it was because of what he was doing but he didn't want to stop. His hand kept moving up until he brushed against something, it was the underside of Katara's breast. Sensing no cue to stop from her, he slowly brought his hand up over her breast cupping it. He started to gently squeeze it but Katara's hand shot to his and pulled it away and she broke from their kiss.
Katara was breathing heavily and said in between breaths, "I...think...we...should...take...it...slowly". Aang smiled back and her and nodded.
"Well let's at least cuddle while we fall asleep."
Katara had no objections to that, she nuzzled herself against his body, he wrapped his arms around her and they both started to drift off to sleep.
As Katara closed her eyes, she felt as if a part of her was being pulled away from her body. In response, her eyelids immediately opened and she found herself sitting in an archway. Clouds surrounded her, and she was mystified. She couldn't wrap her head around what just happened. Feeling a weird sensation, Katara held up her hands to examine them. Her hands were blue, she gasped, and she knew where she was. The Spirit World.
Katara had no idea how she got here, she thought only the Avatar was able to move between the physical and spirit worlds. Then it hit her, she remembered what Iroh said, he had been present in the spirit world. She stood up and thought to herself: Well since I'm here I might as well look around.
She stepped off the archways platform carefully since she could only see clouds, but her foot made contact with something solid and after placing more weight on her foot, she started to walk away from the archway, looking for someone, or something. Off in the distance a solid speck caught her eye. As she approached the figure she saw what appeared to be a Baboon meditating. Katara was about to say something to it, when it opened its eyes and said: "Go...Away!" Katara was about to say something but then remembered what Aang had told her, she turned away from the baboon, and respected his privacy.
Katara's eyes narrowed, off in the distance she saw a structure, and it looked similar to the Southern Air Temple. As she moved towards it, the temple itself, was moving towards her. She remembered that she wasn't in the physical world so things may be different here. She moved from walking on clouds to walking on the stones of the Air Temple. Katara remembered the last time she was here, and how Aang found out about what happened to his old friend.
"Katara"
There was a voice from above her, she whipped her head up to see nothing, she felt uneasy at the thought of being watched, especially after hearing about Koh, she didn't want to lose her face to that monster. But she reassured herself: It's nothing. She thought.
"Katara come this way"
The voice sounded old and gentle. Against her gut feelings she entered into the temple and began to search for the owner of the voice. She rounded hallways, and climbed stairs, but still couldn't find anything. Then she saw something, a room she somehow recognized, as she walked towards the room she saw someone sitting down, he had a bald head, and an arrow tattoo. She forgot about the voice and thought it was Aang, she ran for the room and pushed the door open, the smile on her face immediately changed to a look of disappointment.
"I know you were expecting someone else, young water bender, but I needed to talk with you."
Katara didn't feel threatened by this man, so she sat down across from him. She said "You are a master air bender, but who are you?" she inquired.
"I am an old friend of Aang's."
Katara gasped, she couldn't believe she hadn't recognized him yet, he looked like his statue, "Gyatso?"
Gyatso smiled and nodded, "I am happy to see that Aang has made new friends, and has found himself someone special."
Katara started to blush, "I honestly thought you would be mad at him, since he's a monk and all." She responded.
"Nonsense, Aang is the Avatar, I am so proud of what he did for Ozai, even though death may have been a better course of action, but we can't concern ourselves with what was, we must act on what is."
Katara's smiled and giggled a little bit, stopping herself midway before Gyatso started to laugh as well.
"I see that Aang has remembered some of my wisdom."
Katara nodded and said: "Why did you bring me here Gyatso, wouldn't you have rather talked with Aang?"
"I do miss Aang," Gyatso started, "but what I have to say is not for him, this may take a while here but when you wake up, please do not tell Aang what has happened here." Katara was about to protest, when Gyatso raised his hand and added, "When the time is right you can tell him."
Katara nodded, and Gyatso began to speak.
Iroh and the Freedom Fighters were approaching the location on the map, but even though they were still a good 20 minutes away, they could see the scarring of the land where the Fire Nation's airships started their attack on the Earth Kingdom. At first glance most of them were saddened by the damage to the land, but when they saw the camp ground and both Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation soldiers working together, a sense of joy and peace spread through them.
As they approached the camp, they were greeted by a soldier from each nation, both of them recognized Iroh, and bowed in respect. Iroh waved a hand and said, "There's no need to bow to me, I'm retired." Iroh smiled at them. They both nodded to him, the Earth Kingdom soldier said, "It's out of respect for you sir, for helping to give Ba Sing Se back to its people." They motioned for them to enter the camp and the Fire Nation soldier said to Iroh, "Your nephew still hasn't arrived but King Bumi would like to know you have arrived." Iroh thanked the soldier and entered the campground.
As they were walking they all felt something strange at their feet, then all of a sudden, Toph popped out of the ground behind The Duke and said, "Boo!" The Duke fell forwards, and they all started to laugh. Toph walked over to Iroh and punched him in the arm.
"Good to see you again!" She then turned to The Duke, and stomped her foot into the ground and used some earth to push him up. Once he regained his footing he went over to her and gave her a hug. "Yeah, yeah it's good to see you again to The Duke." Toph said.
Sokka and Suki were coming up the trail, and not too far behind them Aang and Katara were hand in hand, making their way to their old friends. It wasn't until they were all around them when they noticed someone new in their group.
"Hey guys, who is that with you?" Sokka said pointing to Ursa.
"I am just an old friend of Iroh's from before the war," Ursa started, "My name is Jin."
By this time, Aang and Katara had reached the group, and Aang was staring at this new woman. Katara elbowed him in his chest and said: "You shouldn't stare like that."
"But I know her, somehow, it's weird." Aang said. Then he got a mischievous grin on his face and with a flick of his wrist, bended an air current to remove her hood. As her hood fell off, Aang's eyes opened wide, and he said. "Lady Ursa."
Everyone gasped except for Iroh, and the Freedom Fighters. Aang continued, "You're Zuko's mom, aren't you?"
With heavy shoulders and a look of despair on her face she nodded and mouthed "Yes, I am."
Katara was the first to go to her side and said, "Why do you seem down? It's great that you're here, Zuko has been looking for you, for a long time." With those words tears began to fill Ursa's face and she feel to her knees. "I'm so sorry, did I say something wrong?" Katara wondered.
Ursa grabbed Katara's arm and looked at her, she said, "I just feel that I've been a terrible mother, what if Zuko will hate me when he sees me?"
By this time Aang walked up to Ursa and extend a hand to help her up. As he helped her off the ground he said, "Zuko doesn't hate you, he wants nothing more than to find you, he should be here later tonight, so you should get some rest eat up and wait, I'm sure he'll have lots of questions for you."
Ursa smiled at him and said, "Thank you Avatar, you're right, he'll have questions and I will answer all that I can, I owe him that much."
"You can just call me Aang." He said grinning.
The sun was setting and they were only an hour away from the landing site. Even though he had only been with Aang for a short while, he had gotten used to flying around on Appa. Now this boat seemed so much slower than him. From behind him Mai came up and wrapped her arms around him.
"Why don't you come inside?" Mai said.
"I've always liked being on the deck of a boat, being able to look out across the sea, it was my home for 3 years." Zuko said staring off into the distance.
"I only asked you to come inside not for your life's story." Mai said as she poked him in his sides.
As Zuko turned around he was smiling but when he looked behind Mai's head, he face turned to shock. There behind them was another Fire Nation ship, but it proudly bore the mark of the Phoenix King. Zuko was about to react when he heard whizzing by his head, they had shot a volley of arrows but overshot their mark, all but one. An arrow was sticking through Mai's shoulder, and looked like it might have pierced her heart. Zuko felt the rage inside of him boiling, but he had learned to calm himself over the past few months. He quickly called for his soldiers, and a servant to bring Mai inside.
From the main land everyone could see two ships off in the distance, and then they saw the volley of fire bombs, hurling towards Zuko's ship, it was the rebellion. Aang and Katara, quickly took off into the Water, while Suki, Toph, Sokka and the Freedom Fighters, and took off on Appa.
The rebels were attacking out of desperation, their attacks were wild and uncoordinated, most of their attacks missed, but the ones that hit were doing significant damage to Zuko's ship. He ordered his men to disable the rebel's engines, and target their trebuchets only.
The rebels were not adopting a different tactic, they were shooting their fire bombs with their own but using arrows to try and take out Zuko's crew. Zuko was willing to give this a shot, he told his men, "Stand your ground, but be careful, I don't want any deaths today!" He ran into the ship and started to work his way up the column. As he reached the bridge, he went out onto the balcony, and had a clear view of the rebel ship. He breathed in slowly and remembered what his uncle had taught him, you are its humble guide, you don't control it. He had a clear shot for their engines and when he released the power that surged through him was incredible. Lightning shot from Zuko's fingertips and travelled at immense speed and struck the enemy ship's engines, leaving them dead in the water. With a few well placed fire blasts he was able to destroy most of the enemy's weapons.
He sent out boarding parties to capture the crew, but some had already started to retreat on both small ships and the small jet boats. Zuko walked over to his Commander and said, "I would like you to assign a crew to the other ship and escort these prisoners to the Boiling Rock if they can fire bend or back to the main land."
The commander bowed, and set off to the other ship, as he was about to rush to Mai, Aang and Katara landed on the deck, he rushed to Katara and said, "You have to help Mai, she's been injured." He led them to his quarters but Mai was already sitting up with the arrow in her hands, but she was shivering. Katara pulled some water out of her water sack and started to heal her wound.
Mai smiled and said, "Thank you Katara, but you worry too much Zuko, and it missed anything important."
"Says you!" Zuko started, "I think it hit something very important."
She smiled at him and kissed him, then Aang popped up and said, "Zuko did you shoot lightning?" Zuko only nodded. "That was amazing," Aang said, "What did it feel like?"
"I'll tell you later Aang, maybe even show you how." Zuko said with a sly grin. They felt the boat touch the shore and they all started to exit off the boat. The rest of the gang was already waiting for him on the shore. As they reached the group, Iroh was the first to hug both Mai and Zuko.
"It was the rebels again, wasn't it?" Iroh asked.
"That or they were loyalists of my father. I have my Commander interrogating them while he escorts them to prison." Zuko was about to say more when he saw someone behind Iroh.
"Mother."