Day Three, Part One

Aang had only rapped once on the door before Katara yanked it open to greet him with a breathless smile. "Good morning," she murmured almost shyly.

He moved a surreptitious glance down the length of her body, noting her short, ruffled skirt, dark leggings and white, knit top with short sleeves. She was showing less skin than she had the night before at the club, but that didn't lessen her appeal at all. Katara could have been wearing a potato sack and she still would have been the most beautiful sight in the world as far as Aang was concerned.

"Good morning?" he echoed with a shy smile, "It's definitely getting there."

She reddened adorably at that, a fact that made him want to kiss her immediately. It was practically all he had thought about since leaving her the night before, but now that the opportunity had presented itself, Aang found himself hesitating. What was so easily executed in his head, felt painfully awkward in reality. That was due in part to the limited time they had known one another. His feelings for her were strong and growing stronger by the moment, but he had only known her for two days. Surely, it would be completely forward if he started kissing her whenever the whim struck him, especially when they hadn't yet established what they were to each other or what they wanted to be.

The situation was very confusing for Aang. The kiss they'd shared made it evident that they were interested in one another romantically. He didn't doubt that Katara was as infatuated with him as he was with her. But what did that all mean in the grand scheme of things? They still barely knew one another and he was still scheduled to leave for the North Pole by the end of the week. Aang knew that he wanted to be with her, but he had no idea how they were supposed to work or make a relationship when he was literally days away from traveling to the other side of the world.

Should he really be kissing her when they hadn't yet discussed that disheartening situation? If he kissed Katara again wouldn't that imply an intimacy and commitment to her that he hadn't yet verbalized…and she hadn't yet consented to either? Aang didn't have the answers. He also didn't have a great deal of experience with the opposite sex to draw from either. What if Katara had merely been caught up in the sensual atmosphere the night before when she kissed him? Did he really want to take the chance of kissing her again when she might be having second thoughts about it?

In the end, Aang chose to err on the side of caution and hugged her instead, although everything inside him screamed otherwise. As they converged together awkwardly, almost as if they didn't quite know how to execute the embrace, Katara tried not to be disappointed by the fact he hadn't done more than hug her. She had been anticipating his kiss all morning so when he didn't give her one she was left feeling a bit confused. Rather than dwelling on that, however, Katara gave him a genuine squeeze and was smiling brightly when he released her.

"Are you ready to go?" Aang asked.

Katara jerked a nod. "Yeah. Just let me grab my keys and purse."

Aang stepped inside to wait for her, keeping a wary eye on Momo as he did so. The lemur lingered near his food bowl, demurely licking at his tiny paws. He looked at Momo. Momo looked at him. It seemed the lemur's own paws were more interesting, until… Momo's fastidious self-attentiveness ended abruptly when Aang deliberately pulled a small sandwich bag filled with lychee nuts from the interior pocket of his coat. Before Momo could execute his running dive, Aang threw out a hand to stave off the darting creature.

"Ah, ah, ah," he chided Momo, "I'm perfectly willing to share these with you, but you have to ask properly."

Momo obediently settled a few feet away from Aang and looked up at him with beseeching green eyes. Aang stooped to place the entire bag of nuts in the lemur's paw. "You can have them," he murmured, "I just wanted to see if you'd be willing to ask."

As Momo scampered off with his prize, Katara looked on with an amused and adoring smile. "Aww, you two are becoming friends."

He tossed her a smile. "We only needed to understand one another on a basic level."

"Hmm…if you keep on 'understanding' him that way you're going to spoil him rotten," she laughed in warning.

Aang straightened with a light shrug. "Eh…he could use it. He's a good egg." He started to ask Katara again if she was ready, but then a new thought occurred to him as he recognized rather belatedly that the apartment was empty. His brows drew together in a curious frown. "Where are Sokka and Suki? They're not still in bed, are they?"

Katara nodded. "It's their tradition. Every weekend they try to devote most of their time to being together," she explained, "I hardly ever see them when it rolls around. Sokka gets that from our dad."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, my dad always said that the way to keep your woman happy is to shower her with attention," Katara recited, "'Don't ever get too busy to let her know that you're just as in love with her as you were the day you met her,' he'd say."

"Good philosophy."

"Yeah, and he lived it too," Katara said with a bittersweet smile, "He and my mom were always going out on dates or taking a weekend together away from us…that is until she got too sick to go. Now Sokka tries to do the same thing for Suki. I think it's sweet."

Aang favored her with a besotted smile. "I think so too. I'd like to do the same thing for my woman."

It was plain to see that Aang had her in mind when he made his agreement. She didn't know what she found sweeter…the fact that he appreciated her father's romantic philosophy or the clear indication that he wouldn't mind it at all if she was his woman. The desire to kiss him rose up strong and unbidden in Katara, but she lacked the boldness to make the first move. It was one thing when the effort was mutual. It was another thing entirely for her to initiate it. The thought of attempting it and risking his rejection was a little daunting. Feeling a little silly and growing increasingly nervous in his presence, Katara attempted to alleviate the situation by announcing that she was finally ready to leave.

"You might want to bring a book or something," he suggested, "It's going to be a long trip, almost three hours. You might get a little bored."

"With you there with me?" Katara challenged with a half smile, "Not a chance."

When they reached the car five minutes later, Gyatso didn't seem at all annoyed that they had left him waiting for ten minutes in an idling vehicle. Instead, he greeted Katara with a warm and gracious smile that immediately eradicated her lingering doubts. She climbed into the backseat along with Aang and thanked Gyatso for allowing her to tag along.

"No need to thank me," Gyatso said, "I suspect you will be rather enjoyable company, Katara."

After Gyatso switched on the radio to listen to his favorite jazz station in an effort to give them some semblance of privacy and pulled out into traffic, Aang and Katara turned towards one another and settled deeper into the cushions. "Don't take it personally if I fall asleep," Aang warned her, "When I was a baby, taking me for long car rides in the country was my parents' preferred method of putting me to sleep. Now I'm hardwired."

"No wonder you told me to bring a book," Katara teased, "It was more for your benefit than for mine."

"Hey…I did tell you that I didn't want you to be bored. I tried to save you. Can I help it if you chose not to grab my very benevolent offer of a lifeline?"

She slapped his shoulder playfully. "I'm beginning to think that you're hardly ever serious, Avatar Aang."

"I'm not. It's a sickness, I know."

Katara wasn't sure if it was his straight-faced expression or his unapologetic tone, but she simply had to shake her head in chagrin because part of her suspected that he was more than a little whacky…and she loved it. As her internal giggles died away, she found herself voicing aloud a thought that had been needling her since the day she learned he was the Avatar.

"You're not anything like what I imagined the Avatar would be."

He arched a curious brow at that. "How so?"

"I knew the next avatar would be an air nomad and I just always imagined him or her to be this serious, spiritually inclined person."

Aang puffed out his chest in mock affront. "Who says I'm not serious or spiritually inclined?"

Katara gave his shoulder a commiserating pat. "Aang…" she began, as if she were about to deliver him very dire news, "I don't know how to tell you this, but…you're a goofball."

From his place behind the driver's wheel, Gyatso stifled a laugh that turned into a fit of choking coughs when Aang leveled him with a hot glare. Once his mentor was sufficiently quelled, Aang turned his attention back to Katara. "I'll have you know that I am very serious and spiritually inclined…at least two days out of the week."

She shook her head in giggling chagrin. "You really are impossible."

"Thank you. I do try." He started to settle back into his seat when Katara followed up with yet another question.

"You know…I've been meaning to ask you, Aang," she said, "…why don't you have a driver's license? When I turned sixteen, I couldn't wait to get mine. Maybe you wouldn't fall asleep in the car so much if you were doing the driving rather than the riding."

"Ha…ha…" Aang groused mirthlessly, "You're not the least bit funny. Not at all."

"Seriously…" Katara insisted after her spurt of hilarity had passed, "What are you waiting for?"

He flailed around to give her an answer. "Well…I…uh…you see…"

Gyatso shot Aang an arch glance through the rearview mirror. "Aang doesn't know how to drive, Katara," he provided smoothly, "He never learned how."

Aang made a face at him. "Thank you so much for clearing that up for her." He glared darkly when Gyatso merely chuckled in response. "You're helpful as always."

Katara balked. "For real? You don't know how to drive?"

"You say it like I just told you I have a third eye!" he retorted, "It's not that big a deal."

She clearly thought otherwise. "You seriously don't know how to drive?"

"I can drive a tractor," Aang argued weakly, "Does that count?"

The laughing twitch that trembled on Katara's lips told Aang that it did not. "So what happened?" she asked, "Did you miss that critical day in Driver's Ed? Did you just have difficulty mastering those complicated gear shifts or something?"

Not at all amused by her ribbing, Aang lifted his chin to a haughty angle. "For your information," he began in a superior tone, "I didn't want to learn. Who needs a car when you have a flying bison anyway?"

That response left Katara rolling her eyes. "Ugh, not the flying bison again. Didn't we already establish that I don't believe you?"

"And didn't we also establish that your lack of faith hurts me deeply?" Aang countered sweetly, "Just ask Gyatso if you don't believe me."

Katara decided to test his challenge. "Monk Gyatso, does Aang really have a flying bison?" She directed a dubious look at Aang before she added, "One of the rarest creatures in the entire world?"

"Yes, he does," the airbending master answered without preamble, "He is a beautiful and loyal animal."

Immediately, Katara was suspicious, not only because he answered so quickly but because…she could swear she saw his moustache twitch. She fixed Gyatso with a narrowed look of suspicion. "You're in on it too, aren't you?"

Aang guffawed and threw his hands up. "I can't win with you!"

"Why?" Katara challenged, "Because I caught on to the little ruse that you two cooked up? You have to get up pretty early in the morning to fool me, Avatar Aang."

From the driver's seat, Gyatso chuckled and shook his head. "You are much too young to be so skeptical," he chided her laughingly.

"Okay, I'll bite," she conceded with an arch smile, "But I expect to meet this ten ton magical beast as soon as we get to the farm."

"You will," Aang promised, "In the meantime, I should probably know how you like it."

At the whispered statement, a curious fluttering unfolded in the pit of Katara's stomach. She cut him a glance that was part shocked, part intrigued and part timid. "How do I like what?" she asked softly.

Aang leaned in close so that his breath stirred warmly against her cheek when he whispered, "Your crow."

It took Katara a split second to realize that he had been joking with her and, when she did, she was surprised by how disappointed she felt. She shoved him away with a good-natured shove of mock outrage. "That wasn't funny at all," she pouted.

He blinked at her innocently, his wide, gray eyes shimmering in the sunlight that filtered into the car's interior. "Why? What did you think I meant?"

Katara's lashes swept down to conceal the chaotic emotion in the blue depths of her gaze, but she could do nothing to hide the rosy hue in her cheeks. "Nothing," she mumbled, turning towards the window, "Just forget about it."

She could feel his confused stare on her back the instant she presented him with hers. Katara knew she was being a brat, but she didn't quite know how to explain to him what was going on inside of her. She didn't know how to make him understand that what had been a joke to him had taken her mind to at least half a dozen lurid places…all of which had involved his lips. He had been innocently teasing her and she had been plotting to ravish him! It was especially bad because his mentor was sitting less than three feet away from them. What was wrong with her? Katara felt like kissing Aang had awakened something hungry and primal within her and now she couldn't tame it into submission again.

Of course, there were several reasonable explanations for why she might have lost her mind after one kiss. First of all, it was, technically, her first. There had been the one time in her father's smokehouse with one of Sokka's childhood friends, but that hadn't been an experience that Katara wanted to relive. It had been dark and filled with dry heat on the inside. The boy in question had been nervous and fidgety. Katara had been equally nervous. She had been twelve and a half at the time and anticipating her first kiss with a boy she had nursed a crush on since her tenth birthday. He had lunged towards her…and missed. In the end, he was left mortified and she had a cut on the fleshy part of her lip. It wasn't an experience that Katara was eager to repeat…until Aang.

That brought her around nicely to her second point… Not only was Aang good-looking, charming and extremely funny, he was also the Avatar! If any kiss was going to make a girl weak in the knees, certainly it would be his. Yet, even as Katara reasoned on that possibility, she knew that her attraction to Aang had nothing at all to do with his being the Avatar. It was Aang. He was everything she never knew she wanted. Becoming friends with him had been a ridiculously easy thing and she was continually surprised by how much they seemed to have in common.

Often, when her mother had been alive, she had heard Kya use the phrase "two sides to every coin" when describing her relationship with Hakoda. And that was it. Somehow, Aang was the other side to her coin. Even though they had only just met, he was a part of her and Katara knew somehow that he had always been. There was something both sweet and seductive between them…not at all unlike the kiss he had given her the night before, which had started off so tentatively but had quickly bloomed into something incredible.

And therein lay the crux of Katara's problem. How could she have such strong, undeniable feelings for a boy she just met? How could she be so alive with need and emotion after just one kiss? It made absolutely no sense at all and yet…no matter how much effort she expended, she couldn't get her mind off of that kiss.

Aang seemed to know exactly how to please her even when she hadn't been sure herself. Conversely, she had felt the same. She wasn't surprised when she lightly tugged at his lower lip and he shuddered because, somehow, she had instinctively known that he would enjoy it. How did she know that? And how did he know that stroking the low curve of her back would be so arousing for her or that she liked it best when he cupped the back of her head while he kissed her?

She couldn't even look at him now, not because she was ashamed or embarrassed but because every time she did, she had to force her gaze to remain level with his otherwise she would find herself staring at his mouth. And she couldn't afford that because if she looked at his mouth, she'd think about the kiss and if she thought about the kiss, well… She had already made a fool out of herself once, thinking he meant one thing when he meant something else entirely. Katara didn't want to give a repeat performance.

But that didn't stop her from obsessing over the fact that, while she couldn't seem to purge their aborted kiss from her mind, Aang was altogether unaffected. Truthfully, he didn't seem all that eager to kiss her again at all. Katara started second-guessing herself then. Until just that moment, she had been sure that Aang had enjoyed their kiss as much as she did, but what if she was wrong? What if she misread his signals? What if he never wanted to kiss her again as long as he lived? Katara frowned deeply, her anxiety level rising with each self-directed question.

"What are you thinking about?"

Startled by Aang's question, Katara lurched around and jerked an awkward glance towards Aang. "What? What did you say?"

"Did I do something to offend you?" he asked timidly, "You haven't said a word in five minutes…and you're glaring at me like you want to kick a hole in my chest."

Belatedly recognizing that her disquietude was easily readable on her face, Katara quickly adopted a more docile façade. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was frowning."

"Obviously," Aang teased her lightly, "What's on your mind?"

"I don't know if I should tell you…" she hedged.

Aang's stomach dipped a little. "Why not? Are you mad at me?"

"No!" Katara answered quickly, "It's just…" She threw a furtive glance at Gyatso to confirm that he was fully preoccupied with driving before she continued in a low, cautious tone, "I was thinking about last night…"

"What about it?" Aang whispered, though he had a good idea what she meant.

Katara was well aware of that too because she reached over and pinched his forearm. "You know what I mean!"

Aang responded with a laughing yelp before he abruptly sobered. "Yeah…I know what you mean…"

"So…" she prompted impatiently.

"So what?"

Her lashes fluttered lower. "I can't stop thinking about it, Aang."

Once more, his gut pitched and rolled with her words. He darted a glance at Gyatso before confessing, "Neither can I. In fact, I even dreamed about you last night. And this morning? It was all I could think about."

Katara leveled him with a luminous stare. "It was?"

His mouth turned up in a lopsided smile. "It's a little hard not to be distracted with you in that outfit. You…uh…you have nice legs…not that I've been staring at them or anything!"

She tried hard to bite back her pleased smile. "Oh. So, you think I have nice legs?"

"I think you have nice everything," Aang sighed in an unguarded moment before catching himself. "Er…what I meant was…you manage to look beautiful in everything you wear. It's really unfair when you think about it. Somehow, I doubt my jeans and t-shirt have quite the same effect on you."

Katara thought about the way his blue jeans hung so relaxed on his lean hips and hugged his body in all the right places. She cleared her throat. "You'd…uh…you'd be surprised."

The hoarse quality in her tone coaxed a pleased smile from Aang. She smiled back. For the moment, they forgot that they were in the backseat of an economy sized car, motoring towards the wide open plains of the Earth Kingdom. It was as if they were the only two people in the world. They scooted closer together, hardly bothered by the confines their seatbelts created as they regarded one another shyly.

"So…" Katara drawled in a whisper, "Now that we've established that you've been thinking about it and I've been thinking about it…why are we only thinking about it?"

He flicked her lips with a brief glance. "That's a very good question, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe."

She regarded him with a sultry look from underneath the lush fan of her lashes. "I was hoping that it could happen again."

"So what's stopping you?"

Taken a bit off guard by his unreserved bluntness, Katara reared back a little and sputtered, "What…are you saying that I should make the first move?"

Unruffled by her balking reaction, Aang shrugged. "Why not? You're a liberated woman and all that. It's a new age. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to boldly take what you want when you want it."

Katara rolled her laughing gaze skyward. "You are so transparent. I wonder how many times you've used that speech to coax a girl into kissing you."

He gasped and pressed a single fist to his heart. "I'm wounded that you would have such a low opinion of me."

"Whatever."

"Just so you know, Miss Know-It-All, I've never tried to coax any girl into kissing me. You'd be the first."

She snapped a sharp glance to his face. "No, I'm not," she denied in breathless incredulity. Her heart wobbled a bit when she noticed how intently he was staring at her. "Aang, come on…I was not your first kiss."

"Yeah, you were…if you don't count cheek kisses," he insisted, "I guess I've never met a girl I wanted to kiss before…not that there haven't been a few who tried to get me to change my mind."

His admission left her stunned and shaken and strangely filled with pride. Katara tried to cover the rising lump of emotion in her throat with a wry laugh. "Oh, I'm sure you had to beat the girls off with a stick, mighty Avatar."

He tossed her a jaunty grin. "Well, I am me, after all."

"And such a modest 'me' too," she teased.

His mirthful smile gradually dissipated. "I'm not joking though, Katara," he insisted. He lowered his tone an octave as he added, "You're the only girl I've met that I wanted to kiss. I pretty much made up my mind about it minutes after meeting you."

"That fast?"

"Well, I have to admit…the combination of those shoes and that narrow little skirt did things to me."

Katara grinned. "Don't hold your breath on seeing either ever again."

"That's okay. It won't change how I feel. I'd still want you to kiss me. In fact…" he went on, lowering his voice to a trembling whisper as he did so, "I wouldn't mind it if you kissed me right now."

Her cheeks flamed in reaction to his raw confession. She squealed his name before bouncing a furtive glance up at Gyatso. When she was certain they hadn't been overheard, she hissed, "I can't believe you just said that to me."

"It's true. I want you to kiss me."

"Aang…stop it," she protested weakly.

"What's the matter?" he cajoled, "Don't you want to kiss me, Katara?"

Her answer escaped her in a timid mumble. "You know I do. I'm the one who brought it up, remember?"

"Then you should go for it. If you're worried about Gyatso, he won't care. He's all into his slow jazz." He shifted around and leaned his head back against the car seat, his hands folded across his abdomen, his eyes closed as he patiently waited for her to make her move. "Go ahead," he invited, "I'm all yours." She slapped him in the face with the fringe of her scarf. Aang popped open one eye to regard her. "That's not quite what I had in mind."

"You're out of your mind! Gyatso is sitting right there," she emphasized in an under-breath, "He's going to see me. I'm not kissing you in the backseat of his car, Aang."

"But you'll kiss me when we're out of it?"

She growled at him, but there was a definite gleam of intrigue in her eyes even as she scooted away from him with an exasperated huff. "I don't think we should be talking about this at all," she considered wisely.

"I don't think we should be talking at all."

Katara hissed his name again. "Behave yourself! Aang, come on! This is insane! We…we just met each other. We can't allow ourselves to be led by our hormones. We are responsible, mature young adults. Surely, we should have more self-control than this."

Aang appraised her with a thoughtful, sideways glance. "You're right," he sighed, "You're absolutely right."

"We should show some restraint and discipline, don't you think?"

"Yes, we should. The monks would expect nothing less from me."

"Exactly! I'm a good girl and you're a good boy. Good girls and boys should be modest and reserved."

"Indeed so."

She thrust out her hand to him. "So we're agreed that we will conduct ourselves in a sensible and prudent manner from this point onward?"

Aang pumped her hand vigorously. "We are agreed."

Katara found herself mesmerized by the avid gleam in his eyes as he looked at her. "We're not going to make it, are we, Aang?"

"Not a chance," he murmured.

They managed to distract themselves with a game of twenty questions for the next hour, but when Gyatso finally pulled over to a roadside rest stop so that they could take a potty break and stretch their legs, all bets were off. Katara scuttled to the women's bathroom to splash some cold water on her face, hoping to regain control of her rioting hormones. She surveyed her reflection in the mirror.

Her cheeks were flushed pink, a state that was becoming quite the norm for her in Aang's presence. Her blue eyes were wide and luminous and sparking with anticipation and excitement. There was an insipid grin hanging on her lips that she couldn't seem to banish. She looked…happy. It wasn't an expression Katara was particularly used to seeing, especially after her mother's death. She could fully admit that she had forgotten how to smile since Kya died. But Aang…he was reminding her how to do it again.

She was still thinking about that amazing fact as she stood before the vending machines later and contemplated the plethora of tasty snacks and beverages before her. Making a choice was difficult. Her thoughts continued to linger on Aang. Artificial cheese curls were the furthest thing from her mind.

As she struggled to focus, Katara was barely aware of the fact that she was fiddling with the medallion that hung from her choker until Aang came to stand beside her and said, "It's a beautiful necklace."

Katara jumped in surprise. "Thank you," she murmured, "It was my mother's. My dad gave it to her when he asked her to marry him."

"Oh, that's a Water Tribe tradition, isn't it?"

"It's a Northern Water Tribe tradition," Katara clarified, "This necklace first belonged to my grandmother Kanna. It was her betrothal necklace. But then she passed it on to my dad and my dad gave it to my mother."

"So, it's a family heirloom?" Aang surmised softly, "It must mean a great deal to you."

"It does. I wear it all the time because it feels like I have my mother with me wherever I go." She tipped a tender smile up at Aang. "She would have liked you a lot, I think."

"Because I'm the Avatar?"

Katara shook her head. "Because you're you."

They stood together in companionable silence after that, close enough to touch but not touching at all. Yet, they were vibrantly aware of each other's presence the entire time. Their every nerve ending was alive and pulsing with anticipation for what would come next between them.

Finally, Aang broke the silence by clearing his throat and asking, "So…have you decided on a treat yet?"

"Hmm…I've narrowed it down to the coconut cake or the Nutty Nut bar."

"Excellent choices. No beverage?"

She tapped her chin in further consideration. "Still considering it. What do you think? Maybe Moon Peach?" she ventured. Aang shuddered. "Cherry-Fizz?"

He lifted his shoulder in a shrug. "Eh, it's okay…what about Papaya Explosion?" Katara's pretty features twisted in a revolted grimace. Aang chuckled. "Okay, papaya is out. I'll make a note of that. So what's it going to be?"

"The Nutty Nut bar and a moon peach soda," she decided. When he started to dig around in his pocket for money, Katara realized his intention. "Aang, no! You don't have to do that. I can pay for my own snacks."

"I know I don't have to, Katara," he murmured with a soft, reassuring smile, "I want to. Besides…" he added as he slipped the coins into the slot, "…it's not like it's my money I'm spending. I bummed a couple of bucks off of Gyatso. If you want to thank someone, thank him."

Katara gave him a playful shove. "You're terrible."

However, her tune changed when he finished making his purchases. She was, once again, overwhelmed with the desire to kiss him, but this time the gnawing fear that had accompanied the desire before was absent. Quickly, before she lost the courage to do so, Katara rose up onto her tiptoes and pressed a tender kiss to the corner of his mouth. Aang stiffened in surprised reaction at first but then relaxed when Katara began to nibble at him softly. It took all the willpower he had not to grab her and kiss her breathless. When she finally pulled back, both their hearts were pounding. They regarded one another with blushing smiles.

"I've wanted to do that all morning," Katara whispered with a nervous glance at him.

"Really?" Aang wondered, "Because I've wanted to do this…"

When he dipped his head to kiss her, Katara was ready for him. His mouth slanted across hers with slow, deliberate hunger. As the kiss deepened, they turned into one another, pressing as closely as they could despite the candy bar and bottled drink between them. They strained against one another, seeking more, moaning softly into each other's mouth. But it was with the first tentative touch of Aang's tongue to Katara's lips that the kiss truly exploded.

Without warning, a series of jumbled images opened up between them. A dozen scenes passed through their minds in mutual exchange, shifting and merging and all with one thing in common. The visions were of them and in every single one…they were kissing. It was nothing at all either of them recognized and yet what they saw felt like memories nonetheless. They didn't only see the intimate exchange between them, they felt it as well and those feelings only heightened the kiss they shared in reality. It was an odd and fleeting experience, but incredibly visceral as well. Aang and Katara reared apart suddenly, both panting in dazed confusion.

"Did you see that?" Aang demanded with an anxious frown.

"Did you feel that?" Katara countered with equal anxiety, "What was all of that, Aang? What did we just see?"

"I have no idea, Katara," he murmured, blinking at her as if truly seeing her for the first time, "I don't have a clue."