DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN, NOR HAVE I EVER OWNED ATLA. I DO NOT OWN, NOR HAVE I EVER OWNED THE CHARACTERS IN ATLA. I DO NOT OWN, NOR HAVE I EVER OWNED NICKELODEON. HAVE NO AFFILIATION, NOR HAVE I EVER HAD ANY AFFILIATION WITH THE WRITERS OR ANIMATORS OF ATLA. I HAVE NO AFFILIATION, NOR HAVE I EVER HAD ANY AFFILIATION WITH NICKELODEON.
Please Read & Review
I have started writing Prequels, here is a list of them:
A Second First Date; One month after Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai
Nightmares; A One-Shot Prequel to Together Again. Aang saved the world, he faced Ozai on his own. Everyone kept saying that he was a great hero, that he was so brave. He wore a brave face and acted all the hero they thought he was. But at night in his sleep he was a scared boy, scared for his life as he tried to get away from a psycho Firebender. The Battle came back at night.
Anila's Story; This is another Prequel to Together Again. It's about a Young Female Airbender just starting out in life. She was ready to travel the world as soon as she turns 16. Little does she know, Destiny has a grand purpose for her first child.
I Want to thank my beta readers for their help, advice, and contributions: 116788 (pen name not user ID) and ReverieNishio
*116788 (pen name not user ID) is available to beta read for others, she has 3 slots open right now.
Chapter 81
"So what was that scroll, Jingbo brought you?' She asked him as she yawned, her heavy breathing now back to normal. Her head rested on his shoulder and her arm across his chest.
"Oh, it was a message from King Bumi, King Kuei had picked him up on his way here, it said they will be arriving sometime tomorrow." He answered yawning too.
"Oh, ok." She sighed and in just moments her breathing deepened and he knew she had drifted off to sleep.
He kissed the top of her head, pulled her closer to himself and drifted off to sleep shortly after.
Aang woke up to a crying baby. He rolled over and found Katara's side empty, It was still very dark outside, it had to be the middle of the night. He got up pulled his pants and underwear back on and went into the twins room. Katara was feeding Sapphire while an angry Kya sat in her crib crying for her turn to nurse.
Katara had noticed Aang coming in the room. "I'm sorry you woke up, Sweetie."
"It's okay; I'll change and hold Kya until it's her turn." He walked over to Kya's crib and picked up his Mini-Waterbender. "It's ok my Kya, I'll change you and cuddle you until it's your turn Baby Girl." He changed her diaper and swayed back and forth trying to comfort her while her sister nursed.
After about 5 more minutes Katara put Sapphire into her crib and took Kya from her daddy. Aang stayed in the twin's room until Kya was asleep too, and then walked back into their room with Katara. He stripped of his pants once again, left his underwear on, and climbed back into bed. Katara had put her nightgown back on before she went in to feed the twins. She slid under the blanket, Aang was on his side, he slid his arm under her neck and pulled her against himself. He rested his chin on the top of her head and fell into a wonderful blissful sleep once again.
The horn blasted echoing sound as soon as the Earth Kingdom's War Balloon was spotted. Aang and Katara got their children, with assistance from the girls. They reached the landing place just minutes before the balloon got there.
"Jade, King Bumi is here, remember I told you Aang and Bumi are the same age, right?" Katara asked.
"Yeah, Katara I remember." Jade answered.
Jade saw a well-dressed man with glasses get off the Balloon then he was followed by a strangely dressed man that looked like he could be the first man's grandfather maybe even great grandfather . The two men were followed by a few servants. People stopped exiting the Balloon "Where is King Bumi?" Jade asked Katara. She had expected to see a young man but there wasn't any.
"Right there." Katara pointed to the strangely dressed old man.
Jade looked on in shock. "Him!? The old guy?"
Katara laughed... "Yeah the old guy... I married a man 98 years older than me."
Jade had forgotten that Aang was actually 120 and not 20. Aang made it easy to forget that he was actually from another time, another era. Days gone. He didn't act like he was from long ago.
Aang strode up to his old friend Bumi; they hugged and chatted for a few minutes as Aang walked with him into the temple. "Katara, Come on!" He said as he walked with his best friend Bumi.
"So when do I get to see those twin girls of yours that were born during the last meetings we had?" Bumi asked his friend.
"Oh, Yeah! Katara, bring the girls here, Bumi wants to see them." Aang called to his wife.
"Oh, I get to see your wife too... I can't remember, did I ever meet her?" Bumi asked.
Aang laughed at his old friend. "Yeah you encased her in creeping crystal 8 years ago."
"You married that pretty Water Tribe girl you were always traveling with?" Bumi said "Lucky you Aang, I'm proud of you."
Katara and her girls caught up with them. "Hello King Bumi, It's nice to see you again."
"Wow you are even luckier than I thought, how did you get to marry such a beautiful woman?" Bumi asked Aang.
Katara laughed. "By being very persistent." She answered for Aang.
"I want to see your two children." Bumi told them.
"We have three." Aang responded.
"Three children, you have only been married only a few months over a year... I read." Bumi said.
"Our first child, Gyatso is a two-year-old Airbender." Aang said proudly. Aang took Gyatso from Haru and showed him to Bumi.
"He looks exactly like you Aang." Bumi said sounding a bit surprised.
"Yeah, he is my Mini-Airbender." Katara said.
Aang set Gyatso down and relieved Jade of Sapphire, Katara was holding Kya. "These are our twin daughters Sapphire, she is an airbender, and Kya, she is a waterbender." Aang told Bumi.
"Aaawwwww they are so beautiful." Bumi said. "I am so happy for you Aang."
"Those are the babies that were born while we had the meetings in Ba Sing Se?" Earth King Kuei asked Aang in awe over the two beautiful happy cooing baby girls.
"Yes, your Earthiness. They are almost six months old." Aang responded as they walked up to the Apartments. "We have Apartments all set up for you both. They are located near ours." Aang gestured towards himself and Katara. "We have Air Acolytes assigned to each of our world leaders. They will run errands for you and help you with finding everything you need... I apologize for the completely vegetarian food here. We do not have any restaurants but we do have a large kitchen and dining hall, you can go there to eat or have your Air Acolytes bring food up to you... There is no cost for food, we do not have or use money here. Also your apartments have kitchens so you can also cook for yourselves. Do you have any questions for us?"
"When are the other leaders going to be arriving?" King Kuei asked.
"Fire Lord Zuko and Southern Water Tribe Representative Sokka are already here... We are expecting Chief Arnook and The Representative from Yu Dao to be arriving any day now. The meetings will start in a week. Your assigned Air Acolytes will show you around, they can lead you to where the meeting hall is. There is going to be a feast in honor of your arrival, tonight." Aang finished.
Gyatso was showing off his Airbending tricks he could do to Ursa. All the women were at Aang and Katara's home as well as all five babies.
"He's being a flirt again." Suki laughed. The women were drinking tea and visiting with each other. "So how are things between you and Haru, Jade?"
"We are so happy, I love him so much. I've never felt so happy in my life. When I wake up I get excited because I know when I get here I'll see him. He walks me back to the girls' dormitory every night. I had no idea love felt like this." Jade said with a dreamy smile.
"I think they are cute together." Katara said.
"You've never been in love before? Or liked a guy?" Suki asked.
Katara and Jade started to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Mai asked.
"Yes she did like a guy before..." Katara said
"I never even had a snowflake's chance in a Fire Nation volcano." Jade said.
"Who did you like?" Mai asked.
"Aang." Katara and Jade said at the same time, and then they started laughing harder. Jade loved that Katara had no ill feelings for her, even after she had admitted to Katara that she was one of those girls at the temple that basically called her a whore. Katara always joked about how Jade had liked Aang, She was such a kind sweet woman, When the girls would blush at something Aang said or did she always said "Yeah, me too!" She wasn't jealous or possessive about her husband. She didn't need to be, she thought it was cute or funny.
The 4 younger girls were playing with the babies. They loved all the babies and playing with them was the best part of the job of being Katara's maidens... When they weren't needed to do other small things too, they mostly got to play.
All the World Leaders had finally arrived. The Acolytes were throwing one last feast the evening before the Leadership Meetings started.
Aang and Katara sat in their regular seats; next to Katara were Sokka and Suki. Next to Aang were Zuko and Mai. Next to Suki was King Kuei; Next to Mai was King Bumi. Next to King Bumi was Chief Arnook and next to King Kuei was the Yu Dao Representative. It was amazing to see all the World Leaders sitting in one place.
Aang stood up, everyone stopped talking immediately. "Hello everyone, we are having this feast to ask the spirits to be with us and help guide us to Keep Peace and Harmony in the world. We will be starting our semiannual World Leadership Meetings tomorrow morning. I am very proud of all the work you Acolytes did to help prepare The Southern Air Temple for our guests and for these meetings. I want you all to assist the leaders with anything they need help with, I want them all to see how The Air Nomads live, to be an example of Peace and Harmony to the world. Thank You All, Let the feast begin." Aang sat back down after he finished his short speech, everyone applauded then started eating.
The feast Went off perfectly and there was traditional Air Nomad music and dancing after the food was eaten. Like always Aang and Katara was the couple everyone watched and applauded.
The first day of the meetings went over smoothly; everyone was in agreement with traded goods, shipping routers, etc.
Katara heard the front door open then a minute later it closed. Aang Sokka and Zuko walked into Aang and Katara's home after the day's meetings finished. "Hi Sweetie, we're in the kitchen." She hollered.
The house smelled of fresh baked bread, cake, cookies, and tarts. She had been baking all day with the other women, she was happy she had a bigger kitchen right now, there were 4 busy women working on different things to go together for dinner tonight.
As the men, minus Haru he was already there, walked in the kitchen they found all their wives in aprons and hair pulled into buns as they worked. They were cutting and mixing and cooking and kneading dough, roasting vegetables. They actually had made a few meat dishes too. The men were amazed at all the food that was already completely covered the table in the kitchen, ready to be served in the dining area as soon as everything was done cooking. Each husband went to their wife and hugged them from behind and kissed them on their cheeks.
"MEAT!" Sokka said drooling a bit.
"You lovely ladies sure have been working hard cooking for us." Aang said.
"You handsome men have been working hard to keep peace in the world." Katara smiled then kissed her husband.
They all laughed and talked about what went on in that day's meetings. Everything was just awesome and fun.
The days flew by so quickly, the meeting went great everyone agreed on everything... The world was in total harmony. The meetings were half over before they knew it.
Katara was cooking dinner for her family when Aang got back from the meetings. "Hi Sweetie, how did the meetings go today?" She asked him as he came into the kitchen.
"They were ok." He said with a half-smile, a FAKE half-smile at that.
"What's wrong sweetie? You look stressed." She had a worried look on her face.
"I'm fine, I just have quite a bit on my mind right now... from the meetings. It's ok though." He managed a bigger smile, but Katara could tell it was still fake.
"Ok well dinner is almost done, I made vegetable stew and fresh bread. You look like you could use a little comfort food right now, maybe a healing treatment later." She stared into his eyes and put her hand on his cheek.
"It will be ok, My Love... Just fine." He was trying to reassure himself too.
"Ok, I don't believe you, but I'll let you talk about it when you are ready." She lightly kissed his lips then went and stir the stew and pulled the loafs of bread out of the oven. She set the table and brought their dinner to it. "Gyatso, come here it's dinner time." She said as she went to the play pen and picked up both of her daughters and brought them into the dining area for their dinner.
Aang cooled the girls' bowls of stew while she made a bowl for Gyatso, he already knew how to cool it his himself... Katara was amazed at how fast he was learning to Airbend. Katara next made bowls for herself and her husband, then cut and served bread to everyone too. As they ate they each fed one twin, they talked and laughed, Aang looked happier since they all sat down and ate as a family. Aang's family was the most important thing in the world to him.
After dinner Katara put Gyatso in the bath. Then he got to sit with daddy and learn how to make air marbles, he still couldn't do it yet but he watched daddy closely and laughed, while Katara bathed Kya and Sapphire. When she was finished she had one twin on each hip as she came out of the bathroom.
"Ok, Little One, its bed time, Daddy can you put him to bed while I nurse Kya and Sapphire?" She asked Aang.
"Yeah, no problem." He said. "Come here Little One." Gyatso went to his daddy and jumped, he got pretty good height for a two year old but nothing like even a novice Airbender could. Aang took hold of his son's hands. "Okay, jump, Daddy will help. As he jumped Aang gave him a little boost and put Gyatso on his shoulders. "Let's go to bed now."
Katara Let Sapphire crawl around as she feed Kya. After Gyatso was put to bed, Aang went into the twins' room to find Sapphire blowing at the chimes in their bedroom. "Hi! Sapphire, you are learning fast!" He told her.
"Gyatso could make it swirl all the way around the room at her age." Katara told her husband.
"That boy amazes me, he is learning FAST." He said
"TOO fast!" Katara said.