escapism

Kyoshi Island welcomes Aang back like a hero. Rooms at the inn are reserved for each of them, but as the sun sets low on the horizon, Katara sees Sokka slinking down the hallway, likely in search of Suki.

She's disappointed that he's gone. After her conversation with Gyatso a few days before, she's found herself hiding within company. It's easier to stop thinking when she isn't alone. She'd prefer to go to Aang, but since he's at the root of her turmoil, well... She has intentionally distanced herself, mentally preparing for her approaching departure.

It pains her. She can tell it pains him too, by his lingering looks, the heavy sighs when she darts past him in the hallway. Before, if something was bothering her, she'd often find herself drifting towards him, suggesting a sparring session or even something as simple as reading nearby as he meditates. Chaotic as he often is, she finds him calming, in a strange way. Or at least, she used to.

After sulking in her room for a while, she knocks on Toph's door. They've been traveling together over three months now, and she still doesn't know the Earthbender as well as she'd like to. Better late than never, Katara thinks. If nothing else, it'll distract her from her own thoughts.

"Come in, Katara," is Toph's gruff reply, and Katara pushes into her room, ready to leave her trouble at the doorstep, even if only for a little while.

She's sitting at her desk, feet propped up on the polished wood. In her hands are a packet of letters in pristine stationary, crisp white envelopes with a luscious green wax seal. She rubs her thumbs over the paper like they're jewels.

"Who are those from?" Katara asks.

"Tao."

Katara hesitates, unsure of how to phrase her question, but the Earthbender answers it before she can ask.

"I can't read them," Toph mutters. "I don't know why he bothers." She tosses the envelopes onto the desk. "Be better to send a stone tablet."

"Postage would be much more expensive."

The girl laughs harshly. "I think we're good for it."

Katara hesitates. Letters between husband and wife are intimate, and she doesn't want to overstep her boundaries. But, Toph wears her emotions on her face like a beacon, and right now, distress is all over it. "I can read them to you, if you'd like."

A raised eyebrow. "What if it's private?"

"I promise I won't listen."

That earns her widened eyes, followed by raucous laughter. "A stupid joke," Toph says, still chuckling, "but a nice offer. I might take you up on it."

"Hand me the letters."

The packet is tossed into her lap, and Katara tears the first letter open. "It says... Hold on... that he finished your school's blueprints a few weeks ago- they're enclosed... You'll have to find someone to help you build a three-dimensional model so you can give it a once-over... Your father and mother are doing well, your mother misses you terribly... She's decided to go into textile design as a hobby..." Katara lowers the letter, commenting before she realizes she's spoken aloud. "Tao struck me as more... affectionate."

"Tao and I are not in love."

Katara frowns- that wasn't the impression she received from the young man the last time she saw him.

"We do love each other," Toph explains. "But, we're not each others'... type."

"Oh?" Then, understanding. "Oh."

She shrugs. "His father came to work for mine when we were both little- six or seven. We had a lot of things in common beyond disabilities. Common interests. He's funny, smart. Gentle in a way I've never been. And kind. He's always been kind."

"He seems that way."

"When we got older, it became clear that we shared another similarity; types of love that aren't accepted in everywhere. Gaoling can be militant in that regard." She pauses to pick at a scab on her arm. "I never wanted a fairy tale romance. Never expected it. Neither did he. Our friendship has always been strong, and it only grew stronger the older we got. Our parents misinterpreted it."

"And you let them."

A nod. "Tao has a partner that works in one of my father's factories." She sighs affectionately. "His name is Lee- he's a handful, but he loves Tao to distraction."

Katara hums her understanding. "And, you?"

"I've had a few here and there- nothing serious. There's always something more interesting happening, and Tao and Lee give me all the support I could ever want. I've never regretted the decision to marry. And we do love each other, in our fashion."

Katara settles deeper into her chair. "They sound like a special pair."

"They are." Toph cocks her head, almost mischievous. "Loving them is easy... Nothing like you and Aang."

She would deny it, but she supposes that lately she wears her heart on her sleeve as much as this Earthbender.

Toph correctly interprets her silence. "I don't really understand the problem. I've never struggled with making up my mind, and I've certainly never been my own worst enemy in achieving it."

"That's fortunate," Katara notes wryly.

"It's hard to be a captive audience for this song and dance," she says. "I like you, so I don't mind you tagging along while he learns Earthbending, and I definitely think he won't mind. Why are you making things so difficult? Just... make a decision, and stick with it. Put yourself out of your misery."

"You don't beat around the bush, do you?"

"I tear the bush out by the roots."

"I'll keep it in mind," she replies with a chuckle. "In the meantime, while I'm deciding... maybe I can read the rest of these letters to you?"

Toph's feet- calloused and blackened with a healthy coating of dirt- plop back onto the desk with a 'bang!'. She waves her hand. "Read away."

Katara knows she won't sleep well that night, so she wanders down the trails to the lagoon, far behind the village, to watch the moonrise. To breathe freely for a moment.

Toph's advice. Gyatso's advice. Yue's. Sokka's.

But what does she actually want?

She sits down just as the edge of the moon is peeking above the horizon. The sand is cold to the touch, and she's grateful for the blanket she brought with her, the tasseled ends flickering in the sea breeze. Her knees are tucked against her chest, chin resting on them, eyes closed to soak in a moment of weightlessness, thoughtlessness. Peace.

Without opening her eyes, she knows he's there, sinking down beside her. She can feel his warmth, even from a few feet away.

"I heard you leave," he murmurs. "I couldn't sleep, either."

She opens her eyes. His loose shirt is billowing in the breeze, and there are goosebumps on his arms from the chill. She scoots closer almost involuntarily, lifting an arm to offer one end of her blanket. He accepts, wrapping it around his shoulders, and they watch the moon rise together, watch the light dance on the lagoon. Nights are cold now that summer has ended, and, when he notices her shiver, he gathers driftwood to make a small fire.

When it's warm and crackling, he sits back down at one end of the blanket, and holds his hands to the heat. "Toph wants to leave in a couple days," he says quietly, and she shudders at the rough burr of his voice. "Off to Ba Sing Se. Her family has a house there with a training yard. We could practice in peace, and I could check in with the Earth King. Probably need to- I haven't seen him in a couple years."

"That's good."

He shrugs. "I don't like Ba Sing Se."

She doesn't have a response to that, and instead watches the way the fire dances in the wind, the colors of the flame. Orange and blue. Hints of green.

After a while, he asks the question she knows he came to ask. "Why won't you come with us?"

Her response is measured, neutral, nothing like the clamor her heart makes in her chest. "You don't need a Waterbending Master."

"That's not an answer," he says ruefully.

"It's the one I have."

He looks away. Lets the silence deepen, lets the current carry the topic away, out of reach. "For my Waterbending ceremony, I asked for you to paint the symbols. Not Pakku."

That piques her interest. "Really?"

"Pakku was the Master, but you taught me. I feel like... I've learned everything I know about Waterbending from you. I wanted it to be you."

She frowns down at her hands. "I barely remember it."

"Let's do it again. Let's do it right."

The suggestion is sudden, his tone brighter than anything else that's been said in this secluded cove.

"What, now?" she asks with a laugh. "We don't have any paint. And, I don't know the words."

"We can use soot. And... just make something up." He's already reaching into the fire, grasping carefully at the unlit end of a burning stick and plunging it into the sand to extinguish it.

There's a strong sense of self-consciousness- it feels childish, for some reason- but she wishes she'd had a bigger role to play in the ceremony, anyway. To act as a participant, rather than a passive witness. "Alright," she says, standing. The blanket falls into the sand. "Kneel."

He does as she orders, and hands her the stick. Gingerly, she rubs her fingertips into the burnt end. He's looking up at her, waiting for her to start, and she swallows nervously. A moment ago, this felt silly, but now, with him on his knees before her, she feels a little like the Southern Princess she was never meant to be.

"Avatar Aang," she starts, but it settles strangely on her tongue. She tries again. "Aang... you have mastered the skills required to call yourself a Waterbending Master. You have felt the ebb, and the flow. You've stood beneath the moon at every tide, and have borne witness to each of her phases."

The light of that very moon is reflecting in his eyes, with a hint of that twinkle she hasn't seen in a while. She reaches out with one blackened finger, and traces vague semblances of the Ocean and Moon symbols on his forehead. The charcoal doesn't transfer well, so when she goes to draw the lines under his eyes, she cups one hand to his jaw to press a little harder. Her fingertips glide over his skin, under those pools of silver, and then down the bridge of his nose. Her heart judders uncomfortably as the tip of her forefinger passes over his lips, soft and warm, then down to his chin.

"Rise a Master, Aang."

He stands slowly, smoothly, rising head and shoulders above her. They are closer than she realized- she had to draw near to make the symbols- and he's looking down at her in a way that sends a shiver down to her toes.

"Don't go," he murmurs suddenly. "Please... stay with me."

After all the advice, all the turmoil, all of everything, the decision is easy.

At breakfast the next morning, Toph catches Katara on the way to grabbing a third breakfast pastry from the dining room table. The Earthbender stops her with a firm hand on her arm.

"You decided," Toph says. An easy grin. "I knew you'd make the right choice."

"How'd you know? Did Aang tell you?"

"No. Haven't spoken with him since yesterday. You just have a different energy. Your weight on the earth feels different. It was just a guess." Another grin. "But a good guess."

Katara stares. "That's... incredible."

"I know. I'm fantastic."

She heaves a wry snort, before looking around warily. "Did you- have you mentioned it to Sokka-?"

"He won't be upset."

"Stop doing that," Katara complains. "It's freaky."

"You're just predictable, Katara," Toph says with a laugh. "You're not in turmoil about staying anymore, so now you have to be in turmoil about something else."

"You're a menace. Did you know that?"

Toph laughs. "Yea. But you like me anyway."

The girls chuckle quietly, and sit back down at the breakfast table. Aang's eyes dart to Katara's- he still has the faintest hint of soot on his right cheek- but he looks back down at his breakfast with the ghost of a smile. Her decision to stay noticeably boosts the mood, and when breakfast is finished, Aang stands, stretches, and says to Toph," Ready for a lesson?"

Shock splashes across her face, plain as day. "You're asking for a lesson?"

"Yea," he says blithely, as if he doesn't avoid his Earthbending lessons like the plague. "What about it?"

They're out the door a few minutes later, and Katara and Sokka are left to their own devices for the day.

"Come for a walk with me," Sokka suggests innocently.

She sees it for what it is immediately; no doubt, he's heard of the change in her plans. "Alright," she replies, choosing, for once, to face her problem head-on.

They make their way down the main street, a natural lapse in conversation following a peremptory discussion about the weather, when he finally builds up the courage to address his concerns. "So... I overheard you talking to Toph earlier. Something about a decision. Something about staying."

"He wants me to. I want to."

"Dad's not going to like it." A pause. "Well, I don't know... Steward Hakoda will probably see the merit. Dad is a different story."

Her fingertips glide over the smooth, weather-beaten walls of an apothecary shop. "And you? What do you think?"

"I don't know," he admits. "You two have always been a strange pair, from the first moment I saw you. I don't know where staying with him will take you..." He wrinkles his nose, but there's an undercurrent of amusement. "Although, I think I can make a pretty educated guess."

She frowns. Sokka and Toph's optimistic guesses aside, Katara isn't so naive as to believe in fairytale endings. For once, though, she's decided to stay in the moment, satisfied with her decision and ready to face whatever comes next- with or without her father's approval.

"That doesn't mean I think it's a mistake, though," Sokka adds suddenly. "I'm interested in seeing where it leads you."

"Me, too."

"And I'll be going with you, of course."

It's an unexpected admission, and she's surprised to find herself happy to hear it. "I'm glad," she says softly. "Dad won't be."

Sokka chuckles. "I'm sure he'll find some way to cope with the disappointment."

The rest of the afternoon is spent in shops and quiet lagoons, much more peaceful without the hustle and bustle of the Kyoshi Festival from months before. Suki joins them after dinner, and Katara stammers an awkward excuse for an escape until the warrior stares her down, that ever-present undercurrent of amusement rearing its head.

"Sokka told me about you defending my honor while you were up north," Suki says, somehow polite and mirthful at the same time. "I appreciate that, but you can set your mind at ease. We really are keeping things very casual. No sense in tying anyone down if neither of us know what the future holds."

Katara's mouth opens, closes. No words come out. She settles on a curt bob of her head, and the Kyoshi Warrior gives her a wink before dragging Sokka off to a nearby food stall. They disappear for the rest of the evening, making the most, no doubt, of what little time they have together before circumstances drag them apart again.

Aang promised that Ba Sing Se is the biggest city she'd ever see- the biggest city in the world. Even with that promise- and Toph's declarations of the same- her jaw drops at the sight of it. Huge doesn't even begin to cover it.

As immediately apparent as the size is how much she hates it. It's sprawling, and it's hideous. It's designed like a bullseye to keep the classes separated, and there is a smell wafting from the outermost ring (and even the middle one, at times) that makes her eyes water. The Upper Ring's architects spared no expense, but it's scarcely less crowded than the rings below it, and she can think of more than a few ways that money could have been better spent. Within hours of settling into the Bei Fong's estate, she is already yearning for rolling rivers through wide open meadows or a creek racing under a thick canopy of trees.

During lunch, she overhears Toph's plan to spend the next two months here (she gasps in horror at the news), and promptly stomps off to sulk in the large workshop that Toph repurposed as a stable for Appa. She's leaning against the bison's legs, grumbling complaints and ill-wishes on eons-old city planners, when she feels a sturdy breeze. Aang drops stealthily from the ceiling. He can't see her from where she's standing- protected as she is by the bison's round stomach and thick fur- but she hears him leap onto Appa's head, utilizing the bison's good nature and excellent listening skills to lodge complaints of his own.

"The badger moles can kiss my ass," he grumbles irritably.

She finds this such a funny declaration that she's chortling before she can restrain herself, and Aang nearly drops from Appa's head in surprise.

"Katara," he says with a start. "Don't scare me like that."

"Afraid I was a badger mole?"

A guilty look flickers her way, and more grumbling ensues.

"You wouldn't happen to be running from an Earthbending lesson, now would you, Aang?"

"Not from the lesson," he clarifies. "From the teacher. I'm a pacifist, and she's an incredible Earthbender, but Spirits, sometimes I just want to throttle her."

She laughs again. "I'd love to see that."

"You'd be healing broken bones for weeks."

"Yes. Yours."

"Obviously."

They fall silent. She picks at a bug burrowed deep in Appa's fur, and he stares down at her, lost in thought. The thoughts come together, though, and he holds hand out to her, her favorite crooked smile on his face. "Come on," he urges. "It's been a while since we've spent any time alone together. There's a spot in the Middle Ring that I want to show you."

She can't think of anything better to do- she can't think of anything she'd rather do- and she takes his hand in hers, let's him pull her up beside him. They're off a moment later, sailing between massive barn doors and up into the crisp blue of the sky. They glide over bustling markets and houses and craftsmen shops, until a park materializes under them, trees coated in autumn leaves of red, orange, and yellow. Appa drops down into it, surprisingly gentle for a beast so massive, and Katara slides down to the leaf-strewn ground, a look of wonder on her face.

She's never seen leaves these colors before, all her autumns having been spent in either of the Poles, where trees are a scarce commodity. A quick glance to Aang- at his kasaya, the one he wears when he's not attending a formal function- and she smiles at the similarity. "You look like the leaves."

"The Air Nomads are meant to represent the autumn."

Aang guides her between the trees toward the sound of running water. She feels the pull as if a string were tied to her heart- to the water, and to him, beside her. A leaf floats down, the brightest red, and catches in her hair, and he picks it out for her. She sees him furtively tuck it into a hidden pocket in his sash a few minutes later, and the knowledge warms her to her toes.

They reach the creek a moment later- clear and flowing over smooth, rounded rocks, ruffling deeper into the park between beams of sunlight that sneak their way past the trees' canopy. When she dips her hand into the water, it feels cold and crisp. She closes her eyes and imagines that the two of them are somewhere else, somewhere where there's nothing but them and a thousand trees and this stream beside them.

"Thank you for bringing me here," she sighs wistfully. "It doesn't even feel like the same city."

He leans against the narrow trunk of a nearby tree. "Many of the principles that the city is founded on are in direct conflict with my people's beliefs. But even in a place like this, you can find something beautiful, if you look hard enough."

"You came here often, growing up?"

"Gyatso stood in as ambassador to Earth King Kuei a few times, starting when I was about eight," he explains, nodding. "He always insisted I come with him. I didn't understand, then..." A wry chuckle. "We stopped coming when it became clear that I wouldn't stay put in the Air Nation embassy while he was off in meetings for hours at a time. I often wandered the city alone. It's how I found this place."

She laughs. "Some things don't change."

"Are you saying I still run off?" he asks, feigning offense.

"What are we doing right now?"

"Good point."

She chuckles, tossing him an amused look before leaving the stream to step under the warm canopy, her hands wrapping around the slim trunks as she swings from tree to tree. Imagining what it might have been like to be here with Aang as a child. Just a girl, without a care in the world.

He watches her with a shy smile, arms crossed over his chest. As she swings around the tree he leans against, he reaches one hand out to stop her. His eyes are soft on her, and it's like they're on the beach in Kyoshi again, the night of their impromptu Master ceremony. "Growing up," he murmurs, "everyone always told me I needed to sit still. To listen, to behave. That I needed to be someone, that I needed to understand, to act appropriately. They still do. I spend half of every visit to the Southern Air Temple explaining why I made one decision or another- and them telling me why I shouldn't have."

She understands- she was told something similar, growing up. "I'm sorry."

"You're the first person in my entire life that lets me be myself." The sentence is said abruptly, like it's a secret he's been holding on to. "I know that sounds clichéd," he adds, wincing. "But, I just wanted you to know... how much it means to me."

Her heart is in her throat. She's consciously aware of how ragged her breathing is, and prays he doesn't notice the same. "Of course."

His hands fall away. Her heartbeat steadies.

"We should head back," he says reluctantly. "I have an Earthbending lesson."

A week passes. Word of the Avatar's arrival spreads, and soon, there are people lined up outside their door, begging for blessings or advice or even just the chance to brag to friends later, saying "I was talking with Avatar Aang the other day-"

A smile is plastered on his face for every impromptu visit. He greets them kindly- he even shoos them away kindly- but after a while, it begins to feel like their first couple months together, all over again. He collapses in his room every evening, and barely engages with the others during meals. She starts bringing him tea after dinner, just for an excuse to check on him, and often stays long after the sun sinks low in the horizon, neither of them speaking, just taking quiet comfort in the other's company.

Two weeks pass. Aang has a meeting with Earth King Kuei, and strangely (assertively) insists they all attend. He swears it's simply an opportunity for them to meet someone new, but it takes Katara all of five seconds in the Earth King's presence to realize that they are there as a buffer. The king is vapid and shallow, doting over a pet bear while most of his citizens reside in a slum.

When the king gleefully suggests they attend a party thrown in the bear's honor for Ba Sing Se's elite, her eyes flash to Aang's. It's a silent scolding for forcing her to come, and he quirks his shoulder in the quietest (and falsest) apology. The meeting drags for hours, and Katara hasn't seen Aang this frustrated since the summit in Gaoling. There's a tell-tale vein ticking in the corner of his temple, and his answers to King Kuei's insipid questions become shorter and shorter.

When they're finally dismissed (Bosco the bear needs a nap), Sokka and Toph return to the house, but Aang goes off like a shot, and it's all Katara can do to keep up with him. He sprints down to the Lower Ring- to breathe, to escape- but everywhere he goes, there is the press of bodies, hands reaching for him. He quickly says a polite prayer at the crowd's request, but Katara can see a wild edge around his eyes.

When the crowd presses harder, forcing them into a corner, he wraps an arm around her waist and blasts them to the roof of a high building. The force of his bending blows a hole in the wall of a nearby tanner's shop. Afterward, he is strongly discouraged from returning to the shop by Ba Sing Se's police force, no matter how many times he offers to help clean it up or offers to pay for damages.

Three weeks pass, and Katara grows more and more anxious with the amount of attention their arrival has garnered. The Red Lotus has been quiet- conspicuously so- but they're still a threat. When a gaggle of young girls meet them at a local vegetarian restaurant (someone overhead Aang suggesting it to Sokka, and word spread like wildfire), Katara puts her foot down.

"We need to re-evaluate our daily habits," she says firmly. It pains her- the freedom to explore the city after his daily obligations is the only thing keeping Aang sane, she is sure- but she's more afraid of putting him at risk. "We've become too predictable. It could be dangerous."

He nods quietly, but she knows she's disappointed him, and she tosses and turns that night, trying to figure out a way to make it up to him. Nothing comes to mind.

They pay the price for their mistakes a few days later. It's market day in the Upper Ring- Middle Ring craftsmen come to ply their wares in the City Common, the huge courtyard in the shadow of the Palace- and Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph wander from vendor to vendor, a gaggle of adoring fans trailing behind them. A contingent from Ba Sing Se's police force acts as a barrier, a fact that simultaneously calms and irritates Aang. Katara can see the dichotomy playing out across his features every time the crowd waves and cheers for him over the officers' shoulders. Appreciative of the distance, but unhappy with the necessity in the first place.

Sokka shares her wariness- he was there for the attack on Kyoshi- but Toph remains blissfully ignorant. After the police force rebuffs a young teen that pushed past them to snatch forcefully at Aang's robes, Toph belligerently orders the guards to leave.

"There is still a credible threat to Aang's safety- and yours, might I add," Katara snaps, stopping the guards as they slink a few meters back. "Of course, I disagree with how they handled that, but removing them altogether?"

Toph scoffs her disapproval, and the Red Lotus arrives moments later to prove her wrong.

They drop into the market from the roof of the Palace. Dozens of them, in masks all white save for the outline of their namesake, and immediately, the square is plunged into chaos. Razor sharp rocks and whips of water sail through the air as often as knives and arrows, and Sokka bellows for everyone to get down as Katara barrels for Aang. He is already embroiled in a fight, expertly dispatching several assailants with a dangerous combination of Air, Earth, and Waterbending. She'd be proud if she wasn't so terrified for him.

"Aang," she bellows. They need to leave- the longer they stay, the more likely this is to end in disaster.

His eyes dart to hers, face paling even as he moves in a blur. A spike of rock splits the cobbled ground in front of her, and a blast of wind rushes past her on either side of it. Behind her, two attackers go cartwheeling backward, knives clattering to the ground. She's just peering around the rock to find Sokka and Toph when Aang reaches her, turns her around to face him.

"You need to get out of here," they declare at the same time.

Katara shakes her head. "They're not here for me, they're here for you. You need to leave."

"But the people in the square-"

"The Red Lotus will leave when we do!" she says desperately. "Please, Aang- get Toph, I'll get Sokka, and let's go! We'll meet at Appa's barn and fly from the city."

There's little room for discussion, and he knows it, but there's a strange look on his face. She thinks he's going to argue when he does something even stranger; his hands cup her jaw, pulling her to him. She can feel his fingers digging into her skin in desperation, and his forehead presses against hers when he murmurs fiercely, "Be careful."

Her heart judders. It's too much at once. "We need to go."

His hands falls away, and he gives her a brisk nod, then he's off, leaping over half a dozen civilians cowering in fear, and sending an attacker to his knees with an earth-shattering kick. Katara doesn't spare him a second glance- she spins wildly, in search of Sokka. A swing of her arm here- a tornado kick to bring an assailant gasping to his knees- and then she sees her brother in one corner of the square, fighting off Red Lotus members as he ushers a group of teenage girls into the safety of a nearby building. She skids to a halt beside him as he's tossing a chair to barricade the door.

"Let's go," Katara says, panting. "Toph and Aang are already together, across the square-" a bob of her head in their direction.

They dodge and weave, he with his club, she with her bending. Toph and Aang are in a similar dance across the square, slowly making their way to the same arched gateway at the entrance of the City Common. She slides under the legs of an assailant, slicing neatly at one hamstring, rolls and continues running, Sokka three steps ahead of her.

There are bodies everywhere- Red Lotus, and civilian, but she doesn't have time to spare them a glance. Time to process those emotions later.

That mistake almost kills her.

The body is laying with its white mask skyward as she passes by, a red stain seeping through nondescript clothing. Dead, she thinks grimly. She's just leaping over it when the body rolls over suddenly- a bright light flashes in the sun- and then pain like nothing she's ever felt before sears fire into her abdomen. She makes a sound- some sound, she doesn't know, her mind is animal at this point- and collapses on the ground, her forehead pressed into the dirt and one hand pressed into her side.

She hears her name on Aang's lips- a panicked, hoarse shout in desperation- but he's far away, too far to respond. Someone lifts her; she can feel her body jostling against a firm chest, jarring her with every step and bringing tears to her already burning eyes. Her cheek rests against blue fabric. Sokka, she thinks, and she wraps one arm around his neck, her head lolling back. She is vaguely aware of a roaring sound, and then she lets the pain take her, lets it drag her down into quiet, peaceful oblivion.

She wakes in water, wearing nothing but her sarashi and leggings. Sokka is asleep in a nearby chair, his chin resting against his chest, his arms crossed. She sits up, gasps at the soreness, and glances down at her abdomen. Stitches there, a thin wound, neat little rows of black thread trimming a new, puffy pink scar. "Ugh," she groans.

Her brother wakes in an instant. He leaps to her, his face the picture of relief. "Katara," he breathes. "Spirits, I'm so glad you're okay."

"Why am I in a tub?"

"I put you in there," he explains. "The Earth King's healers dressed your wound and did your stitches, but with an abdominal wound, they were sure it would fester. I put you in here as a last-ditch effort, hoping you'd heal yourself."

"Good thinking," she mutters gratefully. "How long have I been down?"

He draws a deep breath, clearly relieved to hear her talking logistics. "A day or so."

"What... what happened?"

"You got stabbed," he says succinctly.

Her response is dry. "Thanks."

A weak grin. "Now, you can join the club." He lifts one side of his tunic, bares a new, ragged slash across one hip.

She glances down at her perfectly neat, evenly stitched wound. "Yours looks more impressive," she laments.

He chuckles.

"Where's... how's Aang? And Toph? Are they okay?"

His change in demeanor is palpable. "Toph's a little shaken, but she's alright. A few cuts and bruises here and there. It took her a few hours to start talking again, but now she won't shut up about how many Red Lotus members are permanent additions to Ba Sing Se's prison system because of her- if not the city morgue."

She inhales deep, steadying her nerves. "And... Aang?"

"Aang's... not doing well."

She swallows heavily. "What-"

"He's not wounded," Sokka assures her. "He got... mad."

"What do you mean?"

"His eyes and tattoos glowed white- it was the craziest thing I've ever seen- and he blasted half those Red Lotus guys to high hell. The City Common is completely destroyed."

"Did he- did any of them-"

"Die?" He shrugs. "I don't know. I'm told more than a few of them are in pretty rough shape."

She chews at her bottom lip. "Where is he, now?"

"He's either been in his room, or in meetings with the Earth King and his Dai Li Captain. They're gathering up information about the attack- they caught a few prisoners." Sokka frowns. "This attack was different than the others in the past- multiple targets. They were going for the Earth King next."

A shudder runs through her. This was exactly what she was afraid of. Sooner or later, the Red Lotus was going to get their feet under them. "What did Aang have to say about that?" she asks.

"We've been having a hard time coaxing Aang into saying much of anything," Sokka grumbles. "He won't eat, either. Toph went in last night, and I tried again this morning. He's just meditating. I think he's been meditating since..." He looks at her strangely, brows knit together. "Take all the time you need, but if you're feeling well enough, maybe you should try. Seeing you up and about might snap him out of it."

She nods, lays back down. After a little while, she sends Sokka away, and gingerly dresses in the clothes laid aside for her- a dress of the finest silk in the Earth Kingdom fashion. She clasps the jade buttons, but leaves her hair down; raising her arms above her head is painful. Then she makes her way to Aang's room. When she reaches his door, she doesn't bother knocking.

Aang sits on the floor at the foot of his bed, eyes closed, hands in his lap. "I'm not hungry," he says gruffly, without opening his eyes.

She crosses her arms. "Good. I didn't bring anything."

At the sound of her voice, he takes one look at her, and before she can realize what's happening- before she can breathe- she's in his arms, one hand cradling her head, the other wrapped around her, arms like steel bands. He trembles, breathing ragged, when she wraps her arms around him, too.

"I'm alright," she murmurs.

All he can do is nod, his face tucked in to the crook of her neck. She gives him a moment- some time to collect his thoughts, his feelings- and then she pulls away, arms on his shoulders as she takes a good look at him. "Spirits, you look exhausted," she says.

A weak chuckle, more like a heavy exhale of breath. "I am. I haven't slept..."

"Well come on, then," she mutters, releasing him and settling herself into a pouf in one corner of his room. "We're safe now. Go on, Aang. Rest."

He's snoring peacefully a few minutes later.