~A~

Hate Mail

~A~

Katara sighed as she closed the door of their house in Ba Sing Se, looking ruefully at the pile of mail in her hand. While most of it was perfectly average mail, she could already see that a couple of the letters were not going to be any fun, despite the fact that they were addressed to her.

They were quite literally hate mail.

This had actually been going on for some time. Aang had a very large fan club made up of a lot more girls than boys, and some of them had begun sending her rather nasty letters once they'd all found out that she was the Avatar's girlfriend and, as he'd put it more than once, the love of his life.

And while he seemed to enjoy the interest these 'fans' showed in him and his culture, to him the girls were the same as the boys. He never paid any attention to their attempts to flirt with him, and most of the time didn't even realize they were trying. Toph had said once that Aang didn't notice the difference between a roomful of girls and one of boys because to him they were all just people to hang around with. The only girl that he noticed was one was Katara herself, and he'd thought she was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen from the moment he'd met her. (Which he'd also told her repeatedly.)

Nonetheless, it was rather disconcerting to receive these letters, which of course were never signed. All Aang's fans knew that she was a Master Waterbender, already considered the best in the world, and not a one of them were willing to face her in case she got too angry and they got more than they bargained for. Atop that, there was the fact that the young airbender would not appreciate anyone openly coming between he and his girlfriend, nor the disrespect to Katara, himself, or his people's teachings that such things as hate mail would certainly show.

That was why she had never told the monk about the letters, always careful to burn them so he wouldn't ever get the chance to read the ugliness in them. Sometimes she just burned them without opening them, but sometimes she couldn't help it and did read them. She started to open one, but then decided that she just wasn't feeling up to dealing with the nastiness that could and did get thrown at her in them and left it alone.

With a small sigh of resignation she went into the common room and was surprised to find most of the group lounging around. With raised brows she asked, "No one has anything to do?" as a general question to the room, and everyone just shook their heads, looking a bit bored, truthfully.

"Oh, well, here's the mail," she said, moving around the room to pass out the various letters. When she got to Aang she tried to grab the letter for him from the stack without dropping anything, but she didn't have any luck in that endeavor. His letter was stuck between several of hers, and she dropped the entire pile right in front of him.

Kneeling in a quick rush she tried to brush aside his instinctive move to help her. "It's okay, I've got it," she breathed out rapidly, and Aang cocked a brow at her, suddenly suspicious.

"What's going on?" he asked her in a low tone.

"Nothing!" she managed to get out in a mostly normal voice, but it was too late and he was picking up the one she'd already opened.

He glanced down at it and then frowned as his eyes focused on what was there without him really meaning to, and Katara's shoulders slumped and her heart sank as she grasped the other letters and picked them up, returning to her feet to stand awkwardly in front of him. By the time he was finished reading his face was red with anger and he was scowling deeper than she'd ever seen.

Looking up at her from where he was still sitting he tilted his head at her hand and asked, "Those others are like this, aren't they?" although it was clear it really wasn't a question.

After a moment spent trying to figure out if she could play it off as though this had never happened before she gave it up and nodded reluctantly.

"How long has this been going on?"

She flinched a little at the obvious edge in the question. "Umm... since that time in Yu Dao when we found out about your... fanclub," she said in a small voice. "Not long after that I got the first one."

He shot to his feet and stared at her, completely ignoring the silence from the rest of the gang as they watched the unfolding mini-drama uncomprehendingly. "Why didn't you tell me about this?" he demanded, thrusting the now crumpled letter towards her in frustrated fury as he glanced at it again. "You shouldn't be hiding things like this from me! Has anyone... tried anything?" he asked suddenly, and Katara knew exactly what he meant.

She snorted, looking away and folding her arms. "No, of course not. These were all sent by cowards – none of them would actually have the nerve or courage to face me. And I didn't tell you because you have enough to deal with, Aang. You can't take care of everything, and people like that-" she gestured at the letter he was still holding, "-are one of those things. Even the avatar can't stomp out stupidity, hatred, and ignorance from the entire world."

"Katara, I can't protect you if you don't tell me when there's a problem!" he shot at her, beginning to pace, his features clearly filled with worry. "Please, don't hide stuff like this from me," he begged, not even noticing as Sokka began frowning in the background, beginning to figure out what was going on.

"Aang, I-"

"Katara, what have you been hiding?" her brother demanded sternly, and the young woman first flushed guiltily, then started to get mad at all the prodding.

"None of your business!" she snapped at her brother. But before she could say anything else, the airbender himself stepped in, flashing a look at Sokka that took the older teen by surprise.

"Please let me handle this. This is a problem that stems from our relationship, and that's no one else's concern. I can take care of it," he assured the teen in a softer though no less authoritative voice, and after a few moments of staring the young avatar down, Sokka sighed and nodded, settling back in his seat a little reluctantly.

It was extremely rare that Aang used any sort of authority when it came to those he now considered his family, so when he did Sokka tended to respect his wishes. The only reason he was reluctant this time was because there was obviously some kind of danger to his sister, not that she couldn't handle herself, he privately acknowledged after a moment. She had defeated Azula, after all, and that was no mean feat. If she could handle her, then a bunch of teenaged fangirls of the avatar's shouldn't really be a problem, he finally decided.

Aang flashed the warrior a small smile. "Thanks, Sokka." Then he turned back to the now-fuming Katara and his voice brooked no argument, surprising his girlfriend with its firmness. He'd never been one to order her to do anything before, but apparently this situation brought out the over-protective male in him, and the waterbender had learned the hard way that trying to get a guy to stop acting in a way that was basically instinctive to him was just about impossible. "I'm going to take care of this. But if you get any more of these, you need to let me know. No more hiding things from me, Katara, I mean it."

"I can take care of myself, you know," she protested grumpily, though everyone could tell that she wasn't really fighting him any longer.

"I know that," Aang agreed easily. "But that doesn't mean I won't protect you anyway, especially from things like this. Could I have the other letters, please?"

Katara growled but handed him the notes. "Fine," she sighed, knowing it was a lost cause.

"Are there any others?"

She shook her head and plopped down on the sofa next to the place he'd been sitting. "I burned them all."

He shot her a look at that. "How many have there been?"

She flushed and looked away, folding her arms over her chest mutinously, though she answered his query. "Eighteen," she mumbled.

"Eighte-" Aang smacked his hand over his mouth and cut himself off, staring at her with annoyance. "Never mind," he finally sighed after regaining control of his tongue – and his temper.

"Gee, Katara, you shoulda known Twinkletoes wouldn't take this kinda thing well," Toph inserted, smirking. "I can't believe you thought you could hide this from him. He was bound to find out sooner or later."

"Can we drop the subject now?" the waterbender asked sulkily, refusing to meet anyone's eyes, and Aang just shook his head.

Sometimes his girlfriend was so independent it scared him. He was afraid one day she'd get in over her head trying to protect him from the ugliness in some people, and he wouldn't be there to save her. It was a scary thought, and even scarier for the fact that this threat was because of him, because of her relationship with him. If anything ever happened to her he'd lose his mind.

Well, he'd just have to keep ahead of her. Even with her making it difficult, he would protect her.

He folded the letters and slipped them into his tunic. He'd look at them later and decide how he wanted to handle the situation, but for now he could set the matter aside. Sitting back down in his spot from earlier, he smiled charmingly at her.

"There's somewhere I wanted to take you tomorrow," he began, pleased when she looked interested despite herself.

"There won't be any fangirls, will there?"

"Nope," he said cheerfully, grinning at her. "I can promise that it will be a completely fangirl-free zone. So what do you say?"

She sighed, she fidgeted, she tried to drum up some of her earlier irritation, but in the end she had to give up. She simply couldn't fight that adorable smile – the one that was just for her.

"Okay."

Aang beamed.