MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVERYONE! Also Happy Chanukah, Kwanzaa whatever you celebrate! Okay, I know most of you haven't gotten a chance to read the last chapter but I wanted to get this up today for everyone to enjoy, because I actually got this one done ON TIME! -cheers- Gotta get back to baking! So I'll just let you read. Aang can do the disclaimer!
Aang: Yes! Kat doesn't own us or 'Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas'.
Thank you. ENJOY!
0o0o0
"Hello?" Katara picked up.
"Good morning!" Aang called.
"Hey, Aang." Katara replied.
"Put your phone on speaker," Aang told her as he ran downstairs. "Hey, Uncle Gyatso! Say hi to Katara!" Aang called to his Uncle.
"Hello, Katara! Merry Christmas!" Uncle Gytso smiled.
"Happy Holidays!" Katara replied. "Hold on." There was silence and a rustling on the other line for a moment.
"Sokka! Gran! Say hi to Aang and Uncle Gyatso!" Katara called.
"Hello Aang, Gyatso! Hope your enjoying your holidays so far!" Gran replied.
"Great, talking to your boyfriend again?" Sokka asked.
"Sokka! You talk to Suki all the time! So quit it!" Katara shouted.
"Nice to talk to you again too, Sokka." Aang laughed. "So what are you guys doing for Christmas?" Aang asked.
"Nothing other than staying home and opening presents." Katara replied.
"Great, because I've come up with a great plan." Aang grinned.
"What's this?" Katara asked.
"Well, all we do is the same thing on Christmas morning and since we're both just sitting at home opening presents…I was wondering if you, Sokka and Gran would like to come over on tomorrow night and stay the night, so we can all open presents together that morning. And that way we don't have to wait until the next time we see each other to open each other's presents and stuff." Aang suggested.
"That sounds great! Can we, Gran?" Katara begged.
"Hm, I don't see why not." Gran thought. "It certainly sounds better than our usual lonesome Christmas."
"Great!" Aang shouted.
"What time tomorrow? Do you have extra room and everything?" Katara asked.
"Wonderful, just come over around after lunch tomorrow. And we have extra blankets and extra room." Gyatso replied.
"Can't wait to see you then, Katara." Aang grinned.
"What about me?" Sokka asked.
"You too, Sokka." Aang laughed.
"Talk to you tomorrow, Aang. Love you!" Katara called.
"Love you, too." Aang replied.
"Whatever. See you tomorrow, Aang." Sokka told him.
"Bye." Aang hung up. He started to dance around the kitchen. "This will be, by far, the best Christmas ever!" Aang twirled around. Gyatso chuckled.
"So things are getting pretty serious between you and Katara?" he asked. Aang stopped and pursed his lips a blush rising in his cheeks.
"Uh…yeah…I suppose." Aang kicked the floor. "I gotta go clean my room!" Aang ran to his room. He shut the door and sank to the floor imagining what that Christmas would look like. Grinning to himself, he knew this was his favorite holiday but this season instead of feeling overjoyed, he'd feel ecstatic. Butterflies swirled in his stomach. Katara was coming to celebrate Christmas with them! He could sing. Quickly, he started to clear the floor of stray clothes and CDs and various debris. Standing back, he admired his work and then decided to check email. Opening the window and letting it load he opened his closet and pulled out the small box that was Katara's present, deciding to wrap it. Quickly, he popped open the box to glance at the sterling silver bracelet with a nameplate on it. He had decided on 'Forever Yours, Aang'. He smiled, satisfied with himself, he had used most of his Christmas present money on it. But Sokka's words echoed in his head. So when she breaks up with you, you can get it back and give it to another girl…Aang shuddered. His mind created the scene where Katara sat him down.
"Aang, I need to talk to you."
"What is it, Katara?"
"I think we should spend some time apart. I want to see other guys."
"What do you mean, Katara?"
No, he couldn't think that! What had Sokka meant 'when she breaks up with you'? Was Katara planning on breaking up with him? Maybe over the summer? Was she going on an exotic trip and forget about him? Suddenly an instant message popped up.
Waterprincessx3: Merry Christmas:D
Aang's head suddenly cleared, his heart leapt at seeing Katara's screen name and he jumped over to his computer and his fingers flashed across the keyboard.
Headintheclouds91: hey katara :)
Waterprincessx3: thanx again for inviting us over for xmas! -packing bags right now-
Another window popped up.
Warriord00d465: aang, when we cum ovr 2 ur house 4 xmas u keep ur hands off my sis.
Headintheclouds91: does that mean lips too? –sniggers-
Warriord00d465: YES U SNEAKING—
Headintheclouds91: k, sokka, chill.
Headintheclouds91: what if there conveniently happens to be plenty of mistletoe around?
Warriord00d465: AANG!
He switched back to he and Katara's conversation.
Headintheclouds91: srry, sokka's talkin' to me. Tellin' me to keep my hands off of u when u come over. Look:
Warriord00d465: aang, when we cum ovr 2 ur house 4 xmas u keep ur hands off my sis.
Headintheclouds91: does that mean lips too? –sniggers-
Waterprincessx3: nice, aang ;) –blows kiss-
Headintheclouds91: -blows kiss back- lol. –is wrapping ur present right now :D-
Waterprincessx3: ahhh, i can't wait till xmas morning!! Especially being all snuggly in my pjs with u. Lol :)
Headintheclouds91: mmm…does sound good, doesn't it:) h/o brb
Aang flipped back to Sokka's conversation.
Headintheclouds91: brb, wrapping kataras xmas present.
Warriord00d465: w/e.
He hurried downstairs and started to dig through their storage room and looked through all the bags and ribbons and ran upstairs grabbing the hot glue gun on the way. When he returned upstairs he plugged in the glue gun as he spread out his materials and returned to his computer opening both conversations and typing the same message.
Headintheclouds91: gonna bbl, working on wrapping katara's present…so I'll be here but…I'll be a slow response.
And he set to work. As soon as the hot glue gun was hot enough Aang started to work on gluing different types of burgundy and evergreen laces and ribbons onto a festive yet sophisticated bag. Once he was pleased with how it looked he started to fill the bag with the same type of burgundy and evergreen paper and then set the bracelet box in there, then surrounding it with paper again. With the last touch he grabbed a pen and wrote on the bag 'With love, from Aang to Katara'. Then he ran downstairs and added this present under the Christmas tree. Running back upstairs he cleaned up his mess and then jumped into his office chair.
Headintheclouds91: back!
Warriord00d's Auto-Response: So hungry I could eat a whole cow.
Aang rolled his eyes and switched back to Katara's conversation.
Headintheclouds91: immm back!
Waterprincessx3: welcome back. ;P
Headintheclouds91: might i say ur present looks beautiful under the tree too.
Waterprincessx3: I'll just have to wait till tomorrow to see! ;D
Waterprincessx3: g2g help gran pack up, kay? Tty tomorrow! Luv ya by!
Headintheclouds91: Love ya, ttyl!
Waterprincessx3 has signed off at 11:23 PMAang signed out as he ran downstairs. He had to find something to do until tomorrow. Aang thought about his mistletoe comment to Sokka and he grinned to himself. Quickly, he started to search through tubs of decorations in the storage room until he found what he wanted. Some mistletoe. Only one piece, but enough. He decided to hang it over his room since they'd be going in and out of it the most. Grinning to himself he pulled a chair to the doorway and started to hang it.
"I see you found the mistletoe." Uncle Gyatso chuckled as he came up the stairs.
"Ah!" Aang was startled and fell of the chair, the mistletoe falling on his head. Uncle Gyatso smiled as he helped Aang up and Aang smiled sheepishly. "Yeah," he grinned as he stood up on the chair again, hanging the mistletoe and getting off the chair and putting it back. His Uncle smirked at him as he passed on to the guest room to clean it up and get it ready for their guests coming over the next day. Aang leaned back on his bed just wishing time would pass.
o0o
Scoop, lift, throw! Sprinkle. Scoop, lift, throw! Sprinkle. This monotonous cycle repeated in Aang's head over and over for the past five hours. It was Christmas Eve and Katara and her family would be arriving soon and Aang was shoveling the drive, since it had snowed the night before, so they could get up to the house. He dragged the bag of salt with him to melt the ice and just as he was finishing sprinkling a patch of black ice he heard a car. Turning around he was greeted by Sokka's car. It slowed down and Aang ran to it as the window was rolled down.
"Hey," he grinned, his breath forming a little cloud.
"Merry Christmas, Aang!" Katara grinned.
"God, Aang! You must have been up since six shoveling this drive!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Five-thirty, and I didn't want you to worry about the snow and ice and trying to get up this drive." Aang replied.
"Thanks!" Sokka grinned.
"Go ahead up there, let me just finish this and put the shovel and salt away." Aang told them.
"Okay, see you when we get up there!" Katara smiled as Sokka started up the drive. Aang finished shoveling the last small hill of snow and hurried up the driveway. He stomped his boots on the front porch and leaned the shovel against the porch as he opened the door.
"Okay, I'm here!" Aang announced as he pulled off his boots and stripped his snow pants off down to his thermals.
"Sheesh, Aang. Keep your pants on!" Sokka laughed. Aang rolled his eyes as he glided over to Katara and placed a kiss on her lips. Katara smiled as they broke. "Hey! We already discussed this!" Sokka shouted.
"Put a sock in it, Sokka!" Katara smirked. "Where should I put my stuff?" Katara asked him.
"Uh…we can go put it up in my room?" Aang suggested.
"Okay," Katara smiled as she picked her bags up.
"I'll get these." Aang took Gran's bags for her.
"Thank you, Aang." Gran bowed her head in thanks.
"Sure," Aang grinned as he, Katara and Sokka headed upstairs. Aang stopped in the guest room and put Gran's bags away and then went back to his own room. Katara and Sokka dropped their bags.
"You wanna go downstairs and unload all the presents?" Katara asked.
"What are you Santa?" Aang laughed.
"Well, with all Sokka's presents…" Katara smirked.
"Hey, I didn't have any big presents this year. You probably have bigger presents than me." Sokka crossed his arms. They started to head downstairs but Aang stopped under his doorway and looked up, then looked at Katara. She giggled joining him under the mistletoe and they locked lips for a moment.
"Get a room." Sokka threw one of Aang's pillows at them. They broke and Katara glared at Sokka.
"Maybe we will." Katara smirked.
"Hey! I didn't mean—"
Aang and Katara started to laugh as they headed downstairs. "This is going to be one hell of a Christmas." Sokka growled.
o0o
"Hey, Katara?" Aang asked.
"Yes?" Katara replied not looking up.
"Katara?" Aang repeated.
"What is it, Aang?" Katara replied again not looking up from her work. Aang sighed as he floured his hands then dashed Katara's nose. She started to cough.
"Aang!" Katara took a small handful of flour and threw it in his face making it look ghostly. Aang shook it out of his eyes before grabbing an egg and smashing it on her head. She shrieked as the yolk ran down her hair and face. She took a cup of milk that Sokka had just measured out and threw it at Aang. He shouted as the cold milk drenched his clothing.
"What are you two doing?" Sokka demanded, but only got a stick of butter to the face in response. "You two are gonna get it!" Sokka shouted grabbing the vegetable oil and splashing the two already covered in flour, milk and egg. This continued until Gran and Uncle Gyatso rushed into the kitchen after hearing all the shouts and yells.
"What is going on in here?" Uncle Gyatso demanded.
"He started it!"
"She started it!" they all pointed fingers at each other.
"Katara! Sokka! You know better than this! We are invited into Aang and Gyatso's home for Christmas and you destroy their kitchen? I'm very disappointed in you two." Gran scolded.
"Actually, it was my fault. I started it by hitting Katara in the nose with flour, I'm sorry." Aang bowed his head.
"Well, as soon as you three get cleaned up you'll be in here cleaning this mess up, and we'll restart making those Christmas cookies. This time with supervision." Gyatso chuckled. Aang, Katara and Sokka trudged up the stairs careful not to get their mess on anything else as they made it up to Aang's bathroom.
"Look at us! We're a mess!" Katara laughed. They started to clean their faces and Sokka and Katara ran their hair underneath the sink to wash out the ingredients mixed into their hair.
"Ugh, look at my clothes! I didn't bring enough to change twice!" Katara sighed, looking at the mess spattered on her clothes. Aang moved out of the bathroom and scrounged around in his dresser.
"Here, you can change into these." Aang handed her one of his t-shirts and flannel pajama bottoms.
"Thanks!" Katara grabbed them giving him a kiss on the cheek.
"Now out, out, out!" Katara shoved the two boys out of the bathroom as she changed.
"Gee, Aang do you have any clothes for me?" Sokka asked in a high-pitched voice.
"Well, if you need to borrow some to go clean up the kitchen…" Aang trailed off.
"No I was kidding. I'll just wear what I was planning on wearing tomorrow and then throw it in the washer overnight." Sokka told him. "If Katara would hurry up!" he added. Katara opened the door and came out.
"How do I look?" Katara asked doing a model turn.
"Well, those pajama's sure look a hell of a lot better on you than me." Aang chuckled.
"Oooh! Aang used a bad word!" Sokka teased before disappearing into the bathroom.
"Sokka, shut up!" Katara shouted after him. She jumped onto Aang's bed and lay back as they both waited for Sokka. As soon as he came out in his new clothes they ran downstairs to start cleaning up. Aang got out the brooms, mops and rags.
"Hey, Katara…" Aang trailed off.
"You aren't gonna throw flour in my face are you?" Katara laughed.
"No…are you…planning on breaking up with me?" Aang asked.
"What!? No! Who put that stupid idea in your head?" Katara asked.
"Um…Sokka…" Aang bit his lip.
"Sokka!" Katara shouted.
"No, I didn't! When?" Sokka asked.
"When we were getting Katara's present." Aang reminded him.
"Oh, that? I just said that because if you guys ever did breakup Aang would never do it. He's too much of a…a nicey nice boy. Katara would do it for some reason, I don't know why. You're not afraid to break hearts, Katara. I've seen you do it before." Sokka shrugged.
"What? Since when?" Katara demanded.
"Since you've gotten every boy in school to look your way. Every boy in school wants to go out with you and then here comes little Aang freshman that captures your heart. You don't know how many boys wanted to take Aang out behind the school and shove him in the dumpster or something. All over you Katara. I heard the conversation and told them I'd go to the principle if anything happened. I think it was just a bunch of talk." Sokka told her. Both of them stood their wide-eyed.
"That many boys…are…?" Katara dropped her broom. "And Aang…"
"So you're not breaking up with me?" Aang asked.
"No! Never, Aang." Katara promised.
"AANG AND KATARA ARE GETTING MARRIED!" Sokka shouted, snickering.
"What? I never said that!" Katara exclaimed.
"You said you'd never break up with him. So you must be getting married." Sokka laughed.
"Well—but you see—Sokka! Stop confusing us!" Katara shouted. They continued to clean up.
"Cause Aang and Katara are going to the chapel to get maarrriieeddd!" Sokka sang to himself.
"SOKKA SHUT UP!" Katara roared. Aang blushed as he started to hum 'Carol of the Bells'.
"There's some appropriate music," Katara sighed, smiling, joining him in humming.
o0o
Aang grabbed one of the freshly made cookies and ran into the other room. He jumped onto the couch with Katara.
"Watch it! I have eggnog!" Katara laughed. Aang grabbed her glass and took a sip. "Aang!" she rolled her eyes. Sokka sighed as he put the movie in. After much discussion they had decided on 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas'. Katara curled up next to Aang as Sokka pushed play on the menu.
About two hours later, they all exhaustedly made their way to Aang's room. Sokka and Katara got out their sleeping bags.
"Wait, Katara. Take my bed, I'll sleep on the floor." Aang offered.
"No, that's okay Aang, I'm fine on the floor." Katara shrugged.
"No, I feel awkward if I get a big comfy bed and I make you sleep on the floor. I insist you to sleep in my bed." Aang told her.
"Or why don't you two share it?" Sokka rolled his eyes. "Never mind, I won't find you fully clothed in the morning."
"Sokka, grow up!" Katara hissed. "If your sure, Aang." Katara bit her lip.
"Yes, I'm sure." Aang nodded pulling out his sleeping bag from the closet. She uncertainly crawled onto his bed and slipped under the sheets.
"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!" Aang called before shutting the lights off. Katara giggled in the darkness.
"Night, Aang." Katara grinned as she buried herself in his bed sheets.