Avatar the Last Airbender

Pillow Talk

Chapter 19: The Kiss

It was a terrifying experience to know the relationship with your best friend had suddenly changed to become so much more than you ever dared to hope. For Aang and Katara, that change was a slow, gradual evolution from strangers to acquaintances, from friends to lovers. But it was more than that. To simply say they were in love was a disservice to the dynamics of their relationship. Love was merely an extension; because Aang and Katara were not so much in love, but rather had become the very force of that love itself. Their hearts, minds, bodies and souls had become interchangeable with one another, because in the years since the end of the war, they had become one life shared simply within two bodies.

Of course, they had their troubles, especially in the early stages of their newfound romance. After their kiss on the balcony, everything had changed between them, and neither had been prepared for that eventuality.

The early stages in particular had become more complicated than what should have been, made more so by the shy approach taken by the enamored pair of benders. It seemed each had taken a very cautious approach in regards to their quickly changing relationship. It had become clear that, after that kiss, their first true kiss, that there was no turning back, and they were perfectly pleased with that.

However, they were both so very unfamiliar with first love, that neither wanted to take the take the initiative and risk scaring their partner into retreating from what was destined to be a beautiful thing. It had taken three days since exploring their mutual attraction for Aang to work the nerve up to hold Katara's hand as they walked through the marketplace.

Even that simple gesture of comfort had been hesitant. Katara had been hurt before, many times in fact, and it had taken so long for her to come to terms with her own feelings that Aang was annoyingly too conservative in handling this new intimacy. For Aang, he knew he loved Katara the moment he opened his eyes and found himself drowning in those radiant, sapphire pools of liquid ice. But it had taken nearly a year for her to sort out her feelings, and when he tried to push the issue, she balked and fled. He did not want to make that mistake again, and so handled everything regarding Katara as though it was all made of glass and could shatter at the slightest mistake.

For her own part, Katara merely chalked it up to Aang's shy demeanor. At least in the early stages. But when their two month anniversary had found them and Aang was still uncomfortable with public displays of affection, Katara found that had begun second guessing herself, as if the problem was not with Aang but with her.

Certainly she never wanted a relationship like Sokka and Suki's, where the pair was found groping each other at every turn and kissing so fervently it could easily be mistaken that their intention was to eat each other's faces. That's not what she wanted, but she had hoped for a little more affection from her boyfriend. So, much like their training exercises, she took the initiative.

The opportunity had actually presented itself only a few days after her decision to elicit more enthusiasm from her darling young Avatar. Throwing herself at him was certainly not her style, it was just not her; but she shrugged the rash decision off as desperate times and hormonal need. So when the pair had casually separated themselves from the rest of their friends while in Ba Sing Se, Katara quickly latched her fingers around Aang's wrist and pulled him down the nearest alley.

He only had the briefest of moments to ask what she was doing before he found his back forcefully colliding with a wall and her lips crashing against his in a fit of unrelenting need. His response was immediate, and though his body instinctively stiffened in shock, he quickly relaxed into the ministrations of Katara's tender mouth, finding his own rhythm and moving his lips in synch with hers. It was so unlike their first true kiss on the balcony outside Iroh's teashop. That kiss was sweet, delivered in softly defined tenderness. It was both a kiss of relief and release of all those fears and anxieties that kept them apart.

But this was different. It was wild and hungry, unleashed by the boundless need to express that their relationship was one worth believing in. Through that kiss, Aang felt all the unasked questions of his dedication to her, the confusion and anxiety over why he was being so cautious. Likewise, Katara understand all the fears and uncertainties pouring from the teen she held in her arms. He was scared of pushing into this relationship too quickly, afraid she'd run from him again.

Had they stopped to understand the significance of their discovery, they would have realized their hearts had united in that moment.

But they were too fixated on the sensation of absolving one another of their own doubts and fears to give any notice to this discovery. Aang poured his whole being into that kiss, his lips moving deftly along the ridges of her mouth, proclaiming in his silent promise that he would not shy away from her again. Katara, likewise, reaffirmed that she would never again run from him, because this was where she belonged.

There were many kisses that followed, a lifetime of love and passion, of trials and tribulations and struggles and triumphs that made every moment of their lives together all the more epic. But it was unspoken between them that no matter how many kisses had followed, that was their most special one. It was a kiss, born out of raw desperation and perhaps a touch of fear. It was wild and passionate and even terrifying, because they came to understand how their lives had changed, how they were so much better than they ever thought possible, simply because they had each other.

There was no haven in heaven or earth, in the Spirit Realm or any world hereafter that could shelter and protect, comfort and strengthen Aang and Katara any more than to be in each other's arms. For this was their home. Here, they belonged.

-End

A/N: Okay, this went way off-kilter. I intended to write a story about the first time Katara and Aang sleep together, i.e. share a sleeping bag (completely innocent perverts :-p) but then this thing happened. No idea how it came about as it was definitely not what I was intending. But anyway, seemed kind of nice and fluffy, so here you go.

Let me know what you think, reviews are how we writers get better after all. Danke