Unruly Behavior

Katara bite down on her lip hard, and closed her eyes to stop the tears from coming. It was really all too much, sitting here in this torture she never knew could exist.

Ever since they'd defeated Ozai and imprisoned him three years ago, the world had seemed at ease and perfect. Perfect was a use she didn't use lightly - but the world was turning into that. The scares were being healed, the belief of the fire nation being horrid reformed or forgotten.

But here she was now, holding back her voice that she so deserately wanted to let loose.

And it was all the savior's fault - it was all Aang's fault!

He was grinning across of her, face placid as he pretended to listen to whatever Zuko was droning on and on about; maybe it was immigration issues of earthbenders coming to the fire nation - whatever! Katara didn't care because she was a little preoccupied at the moment.

And then his grey eyes slide from Zuko to her from across the table and Katara felt the urge to double over and hide her face.

She knew it must look entirely weird and ghastly, if Sokka's expression, who was obliviously sitting next to Aang, was anything to go off of. Her face must be red and flustered, totally uncontrolled as they sat in this dignified meeting room.

But it wasn't her fault! It was Aang, all Aang!

Who knew footsies could be so hard to deal with!

Just moments ago when she'd first felt his bare foot on hers, she had jumped, knocking her knees against the wood painfully and causing a slight disruption. She excused herself, saying that she thought she felt Momo. It was a total lie - she could see him in Toph's lap being petted nearby. She was wondering what it could have been, only to look across and see Aang softly chuckling to himself.

She had narrowed her eyes and gone off to battle.

But he seemed to know many more moves with his feet; it was probably because he knew earthbending. Waterbending was so much in the arms, your feet didn't do so much work as in other bending.

Whatever it was, Aang was a master at deflecting her own feet and running his up and down her shins and knees, a few times even slinking it up the side of her thigh. The first time he'd done that move, Katara thought her eyes were going to pop out of her skull.

While it was endearing and cute, especially the way he could keep his face so refined when doing something so childish, Katara had the strongest urge in the world to laugh and not care. She obviously knew that a diplomatic meeting wasn't the best place. Probably the worst, actually, with all the revered figures lining the long table.

But when he suddenly leaned forward a little more and moved his hand under the table to tickle the arch of her foot with magic fingertips, Katara couldn't hold back the sudden bark of laughter.

It seemed to echo around the people and she ducked her head in utter shame, face pure red.

"Zuko," Aang said as he leaned across and rubbed his embarrassed-to-death girlfriend's back,"I think we should wrap it up for today."

The king didn't seem to argue (Katara discovered later that everyone realized what was going on because of her inability to have a good poker face) and everyone slowly left the room. A few of them were chuckling, most just smiled with their eyes crinkled as they passed the young couple on their way out.

"That was positively torture!" Katara whispered harshly as they left.

Aang's straight face split into a grin as he he wrapped an arm around her hips, bringing her close to him as they walked.

"You know you liked it. Kept the meeting exciting, right?"

When she looked across to see his practically glowing face, Katara sighed before relenting.

But then she got a wicked idea, which she shared as she cupped his ear and whispered, "Why don't we find out just how exciting we can make your room?"

Pulling back, she saw his face had turned a bright red and she grinned.

He may have won that battle in the meeting, but she always won the war.