~A~

Because He's Aang

~A~

"Twinkletoes still thinks you're only with him until you can find someone better," Toph said in a lightly disparaging tone as she joined Katara at the balcony of Iroh's tea shop. It had been a year since the end of the war, and the gang had joined up here to celebrate this most important of anniversaries together.

The older girl choked before looking at her friend disbelievingly. "What? No, he doesn't! He knows better than that, Toph. Why would you think something like that?"

The earthbender shrugged. "Because it's true."

Katara frowned, looking down at the shorter girl uncertainly. She knew Toph pretty well by now, and she was fully aware that she wasn't the type to say stuff like this without a good reason. But what...? I mean, surely Aang really doesn't think that, does he? Maybe she just took something wrong... "How do you know that?" she asked cautiously.

"He said it, that's how. You know, earlier when we were at the ceremony, and all those guys were trying to catch your attention. I don't think he meant for it to be overheard, really, but he forgets about my senses all the time, so..." she cracked her knuckles, leaning up on her tiptoes and then stretching her arms over her head casually, "... well, you get the drift."

The waterbender was dumbfounded. "But... that's the craziest thing I've ever heard! Why would he think something like that for even a minute?"

"I know, right? I mean, he's the Avatar. It's not like any other guy could compete with that, anyway."

Lips turning down at that comment, Katara cast a glare at the younger girl, well aware that even if she couldn't technically see it, she would nonetheless be well aware of the expression she was being regarded with.

Toph smirked knowingly. "What?"

"That has nothing to do with it, Toph! Do you really think I'm that shallow? I love him because he's Aang, not because he's the Avatar. I'd still love him just as much if he weren't." A light blush crept up her cheeks and she turned back to the beautiful view before them almost shyly. "Don't get me wrong. I mean, the Avatar's great and all, but... while Aang might be the Avatar, the Avatar isn't Aang. There will only ever be one of him, and I thank the spirits every day that he's mine. I respect the Avatar, but I love Aang. You know what I mean?" She let out a heavy breath and her hand came up to lay over her heart, a small smile curving her lips just a little. "He's everything to me, because he's Aang. My peaceful soaring boy."

Inwardly smiling, still, Toph wasn't about to let anyone see her softer side and so she harrumphed, folding her arms across her chest and letting her chin jut out aggressively. "Yeah, yeah, yuck. How do you always know how to bring the sap? Jeeze," she muttered, shaking her head. And it's a good thing Katara can't 'see' the way I can, or she might have been too embarrassed to say everything she just did. But I'm glad she did, because Twinkletoes really needed to hear it. Now, if he can stop being a wuss and just talk to her about this, maybe he'd get over this stupid inferiority complex of his.

She scoffed at herself after a moment.

Yeah, right. This was Aang she was thinking about, after all. When it came to anything to do with Katara, he became a total jellyfish.

~A~

Coming out of the back room of the Jasmine Dragon, Aang paused and looked around with a small frown, wondering where Katara had gotten to. He felt jittery and nervous, his gut roiling with the awful feelings of jealousy and insecurity that had been coaxed earlier from the darker side that all humans had, even the Avatar. He knew he should be finding a good, quiet spot and meditating, doing his best to work his way through his overwhelmed and terrible emotions. But he couldn't even focus for two seconds on what he knew he should be doing, instead searching almost desperately for his girlfriend.

"-earlier when we were at the ceremony, and all those guys were trying to catch your attention. I don't think he meant for it to be overheard, really, but he forgets about my senses all the time, so... well, you get the drift."

The young Avatar choked on an indrawn breath and turned red, coming to an abrupt halt just on the inside of the door as he listened in to the two girls out on the balcony speaking.

Oh, spirits, I forgot about her hearing, he realized with a sense of panic. And she's telling Katara! Is she going to be mad at me... or worse? He shuddered and his shoulders slumped. Thanks for ratting me out, Toph.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that he tried to make himself move away so he would no longer be considered snooping, he was caught fast by an almost fatalistic sense of curiosity. Maybe this was actually a good thing – at least now he'd know how she was going to react to the fact that even the Avatar could be an idiot, instead of just being worried about her possible reaction.

"But... that's the craziest thing I've ever heard! Why would he think something like that for even a minute?"

She sounds really indignant – oh, man, she's definitely going to kill me... he swallowed hard.

"I know, right? I mean, he's the Avatar. It's not like any other guy could compete with that, anyway."

Aang blinked. And then blinked again as there came a definite pause in the conversation. Frowning, the teen peeked around the frame of the door, for some reason wanting to see Katara, to see her reaction to what the earthbender had just intimated.

His eyes widened. Whoa! That's a really dirty look, he winced, glad he wasn't on the receiving end of it, though he knew he'd better prepare himself for the one he was going to get as soon as she saw him again. Toph was lucky she was blind and couldn't truly see it.

Breath catching for a moment as he took in what Katara had to say on the subject of their friend's words, he sighed as something that had been cold and tight somewhere deep inside him eased at her impassioned rebuttal. And he found that he understood exactly what she was saying when she claimed that while he was the Avatar, the Avatar wasn't him. Of course, he'd always known that, but he hadn't been aware that she understood the concept of what the Avatar really was so very well. He shouldn't be so surprised, though, he realized ruefully. Katara had always known him – even better than he knew himself at times, and he couldn't help the rush of love that washed over him as his eyes softened on the waterbender with deep and abiding affection.

He had to admit to feeling really foolish, however, and he was pretty sure his girlfriend would be pointing that foolishness out to him as soon as she finished taking Toph to task, so he inhaled deeply and stood up, squaring his shoulders and preparing to step out of hiding.

It was time to face the music.

And maybe if I give her the round lemur eyes, she'll be amenable to a little 'couple time' after I've apologized for being so stupid?

He could only hope so, because right now all he wanted to do was hold her in his arms... forever.

~A~

Katara watched Toph disappear into the city with narrowed, thoughtful eyes, her attention not really on her earthbending friend, but on her boyfriend, instead – and the talk they most definitely needed to have. Her frown deepened as she considered what Toph had told her, truthfully a little hurt to know that Aang really believed such a horrible thing.

But then a sense of shame swept over her, and her face fell even more. His fear was most definitely her fault – after all, she'd been quite stupid about her feelings for him, and for a time there towards the end of the war she'd hurt him terribly and confused the issues between them with her avoidance, pushing him away and basically rejecting him. She was very ashamed of herself for it; she was simply being a coward when it came right down to it – she'd loved Aang for a long time, she just hadn't wanted to face that fact because of the difficulties of maintaining such a relationship with the Avatar. And especially with the Avatar in a world torn by a hundred years of war – a world that seemed to have an inordinate number of people in it that wanted him dead.

She sighed. "I've hurt him," she murmured to herself, a single tear tracking its way down a smooth, milk chocolate cheek. "Now I need to heal him." She turned away from the beautiful evening view and started to head back into the shop to track down a certain airbender, but then stopped when she took in who was standing behind her with a rather shamefaced expression marring his even features.

"I'm sorry, Katara," he began, a hand coming up and rubbing the back of his neck as he averted his gaze from her with a blush, leaving her with no doubts that he'd overheard her conversation with Toph, but Katara wouldn't allow him to go there – it wasn't him who should be apologizing.

It was her.

"No, Aang," she responded immediately, speaking up before he could get anything else out, surprising him. "I'm the one who's sorry. This is my fault," she continued, her own expression of shame settling on her face and confusing the Avatar.

"Umm..." he began, looking at her hesitantly now, unsure what to say to that confidence. "How... I mean..."

"We've never talked about certain things," she interrupted, closing with him and reaching out a tentative hand towards him. "About how I... how I acted after you kissed me that time on the Day of Black Sun. How I avoided facing what was between us and pushed you away," she continued determinedly, despite the sheen of guilty tears in her eyes. "What I did back then... it was wrong. I was trying to avoid getting hurt by hurting you, and because of what I did then, you've kind of had... these feelings of uncertainty, feelings of worry that I might change my mind. You're afraid of being hurt again, I understand, Aang. And that's my fault. These worries were brought about by my past actions, and that's why I'm not mad about the fear you've been harboring in the back of your mind. I'm the one that put that fear there, and I'm the one that needs to address and remove it. To heal it. I never did... and that's what's brought us to this moment. So, I'm the one who's sorry. More sorry than you'll ever know, because... well, because I do love you, more than anything else in the world, more than I could ever put into words, and I hate myself for hurting you the way that I did. The way that I have." Her hand started to drop back down, away from him as she finished her little speech, but he reached out and grabbed it up, wrapping his own around her soft, sweet one with loving warmth.

"Katara, it's okay. I understand why you acted the way you did back then. To be honest, I've thought about those same things sometimes. Being with me... it's dangerous, and there's times I've thought about, well... breaking up with you for your own good," he said, his glance fluttering down to his feet before moving back up to meet her eyes again at her inadvertent gasp and desperate clutching of his fingers. "I don't want you to get hurt because of me. I don't think I could live if that happened. But... I know that isn't the right way to think about this. To do that would be disrespectful to you, because you have the right to decide for yourself what you want. If I... if I left, it would be taking your choice away from you, and I can't do that. That's why I haven't left, and I won't, don't worry," he soothed, a trembling smile meeting her frantic eyes as he pulled her closer. "So... I guess what I'm trying to say is, I forgave you for all of that a long time ago, even though we never actually talked about it. This dumb jealousy that I get whenever some guy tries to talk you up... it's something that I need to deal with – a flaw that I've been letting control me when I shouldn't. I was being stupid, I know that. But I'm better now, you've healed me – I can let it go." His smile smoothed out and turned loving. "Hearing the things you said to Toph... they really helped. It doesn't hurt anymore, though I didn't mean to eavesdrop."

His girlfriend chuckled nervously, her grip on him not easing with his assurances. "I know... I'm actually glad you did overhear, though. We needed to talk about it."

"Yeah," he agreed sheepishly, "I know. And I'm glad we have. So..." a mischievous twinkle lit his silver eyes, "now that's out of the way, would you consider joining me for a walk on this beautiful evening, Master Katara?" he asked, bowing gallantly over her hand as she blushed and smiled at him with affection, her fear easing at his manner.

"I'd love to, Avatar Aang," she replied flirtatiously after a moment, allowing him to chivy her out of the melancholy, fearful mood the previous topic had instilled in her. There was no point in lingering over it, after all; she'd said what she needed to say, apologized, and he'd forgiven her. It was time to put it in the past and move on, and she was more than willing to do so. I'll just focus on proving my love to him every day and in every single circumstance, until he knows with no doubts that I will never change my mind – that I'll always love him, she decided as he grinned at her and slipped his arm around hers, coming to her side to lead her off into the balmy night air over Ba Sing Se.

Now... if I can just convince him that I need some 'couple time', she thought, glancing sideways at him. The round lemur eyes might work...

And they did.

~A~

A/N: It's been pretty much a year since I've posted on anything - this year has been very difficult and this is the first thing I've written in all this time. I've had a lot of health issues, in fact, I just got out of the hospital a couple of days ago. I was thinking that I was going to get back into posting, that things were finally going to start calming down, and then, wham! there I was in hospital again, unable to write a damn thing or even function. All that to say, I don't know when I'm going to be truly able to get back into regular updating again, but I'm honestly thrilled with myself that I finally managed to write something again. So here it is, though it's not my best work it isn't my worst, either. Which is a definite improvement. I hope that people will still enjoy my stuff!

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