Summary: It's Aang and Katara's turn to cook dinner for the temple, and Aang feels like doing something a little different. Or, the one where I do too much research about Tibetan roasted barley snacks. Slight continuation of "help me remember (the ghosts of my past)" but you don't have to read it to understand this.

Word Count: 5.6k

Welcome to Day 4 of Kataang Week 2023! Today's prompt is Cultural Exchange! Enjoy!

It had been a busy few months since Katara and Aang had arrived at the Southern Air Temple.

Hours, days, and weeks were spent welcoming acolytes to their new homes, maintaining the newly planted garden of Air Nomad herbs and fruits, exploring the temple, and cataloging the library as the temple slowly began to bustle in activity, with quiet moments becoming fewer and farther between. Before long, the smell of steamed vegetables was a constant pervasion in the air, often accompanied by the sounds of Aang's flute or newer acolytes learning the basics of the Air Nomad language.

Katara silently watched the scene taking place before her, gaze affectionately resting on her boyfriend seated underneath a peach tree. It was late afternoon, which meant Aang was teaching his daily meditation class in the temple courtyard. The rays of sunlight only accentuated the lines of his body as his chest rose and fell with each deep, steady breath, each acolyte around him seated on the stone floor trying to do the same.

"Breathing is the key to meditation," Aang said without opening his eyes. "It's not about trying to not think. If you do that, you'll end up losing concentration anyways. You have to be completely focused on just one thing: your breath." He inhaled. "The feeling of air filling your nose and your lungs." He then exhaled. "And the feeling of it leaving your body. In and out."

Katara couldn't help but smile. She had never seen Aang so in his element, both literally and figuratively, as she had in the last few months. He seemed more cheerful, almost lighter, more like the boy that had asked her to go penguin sledding with him all those years ago rather than a fully realized Avatar with all the burdens of the world on his shoulders. She loved seeing him so happy and fulfilled.

Suddenly, the sound of a gong rang throughout the temple, marking the end of classes for the day.

"Alright, everyone, that's our cue," Aang said as he and the other acolytes opened their eyes and stood up. "Thank you all for a wonderful class. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Thank you, Sifu Aang," the acolytes chorused. They bowed to him and left the courtyard, laughter filling the air as they ran off to meet with their friends.

"Sifu Aang, huh?" Katara called out to him while he jumped up onto the stone pathway where she was standing.

Aang grinned as she wrapped her arms around his neck and greeted him with a kiss. "Well, they can't exactly call me a monk, now can they?"

Katara giggled. "I suppose not." She tilted her head to the side, taking in the amused sparkle in his eyes, the loving smile resting on his lips. "It's fitting," she murmured. "I like it."

"I'm glad I have your approval, m'lady," Aang said as he made a point to gallantly bend down and press a kiss to the back of her hand. "Your affections will fuel my very being as we march into tonight's battle together."

"And what battle would that be, my love?"

The airbender pulled her hand upwards as he launched her into a twirl and pressed their foreheads together, eliciting an unnaturally high-pitched noise from Katara as she gripped his arm tightly.

"That would be, of course…" He paused for suspense, looking at her very seriously. "Dinner."

The waterbender rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "I take it that means it's our turn to cook tonight?"

"M'lady is as intelligent as she is beautiful!" he proclaimed, making Katara laugh.

"What did you have in mind, sweetie?"

"Well," he began, suddenly very shy. "I was hoping we could try something a little bit different this time."

"Different?" The waterbender quirked a brow. "Different how?"

"Remember those books you found in the library? About a week after we got here?" She nodded. "I was hoping we could try some of the recipes from there- the ones I recognized from when I was a kid. Just to see if they're the same as the ones Monk Gyatso used to make."

Katara gave him a soft smile. "I think that sounds perfect. The acolytes will love that."

"There is one more thing…" Aang trailed off.

"Oh?"

"I was also wondering if we could try making some traditional Southern Water Tribe dishes too. Anything you want! Just, you know, vegetarian." He gave her a hopeful look, chewing on his lip as he waited for her answer.

She nodded eagerly. "I'd like that," she whispered.

"Great!" Aang grinned. "Now come on! We have a lot of food to make!" Without another word, he unfurled his staff, wrapped his arm tightly around Katara's waist, and launched them into the air, heading straight for the kitchen balcony near the top of the temple spire.

The waterbender let out a squeal of delight as they landed. "I love flying with you," she said. The view of the trees and clouds from this height was incredible- the baby sky bison chewing on the apples below, Appa flitting around in the sky with one of the sky bison from the new herd they had found. Katara barely had time to take it all in before Aang grabbed her hand and whisked her away to the kitchens.

"What are we cooking today, sweetie?" he asked her as they washed their hands and began to prepare.

"I'm thinking…" Katara hummed in thought. "Five-flavor soup, seaweed cookies, and broth dumplings. What are your plans?"

Aang pulled a cookbook off one of the kitchen shelves. Vibrantly colored flower petals stuck out of the pages, each bookmarking a different recipe. "I was looking at this earlier. I think we should try to make tsampa, sweet rice, and their lemon fruit pie recipe."

"Lemon?" Katara gave him a curious look as she began pulling ingredients from the pantry. "I thought your favorite was purple, the plum one."

"It is! But the acolytes found this little orchard of lemon trees a few weeks ago, and the fruits started ripening. They're super fresh right now." Aang then smiled sheepishly. "Plus, uh, one of the acolytes made a lemon curd the other day, and I've kinda been craving this ever since."

The waterbender laughed and shook her head, kissing his cheek as she set down some pots and pans on the counter in front of him. "Never change, sweetie. Now, what ingredients do we need? I know tsampa needs barley so I got that out. I also have eggs, flour, and sugar for the pie and rice for the sweet rice, of course. What else?"

Aang thought for a moment. "Tsampa is usually eaten with butter tea, so we'll need butter, tea, and salt for that. The fruit pies will just need some milk and cream cheese from the icebox. And vanilla and lemons of course. The sweet rice…" Aang flipped to a page in the cookbook marked by a white petal. He dragged his finger down the page as he scrutinized the ingredients list. "Looks like we'll need dried mangos, pears, and…" The airbender faltered and closed the book. "Southern Air Temple style raisins."

Katara paused her rifling through the pantry when she caught a glimpse of the sad smile on Aang's face. "Sweetie? What's wrong? We have raisins right here." She raised a glass container filled to the brim with black raisins.

"Not Southern Air Temple raisins," he said, trying to cover his disappointment. "Southern Air Temple raisins are golden, not black. They're dried differently. I'm not quite sure how. They taste better, fruitier." The airbender sighed and stared blankly at the floor tiles, the enthusiasm he had now depleted.

Katara walked over to him and rested her hand on his shoulder. "So tomorrow, we'll go back to the library and find out how to make them. For next time." She gave him an encouraging smile. "But for tonight, what do you want to do? Use the black raisins? Use nothing at all? Switch recipes?"

Aang looked up at Katara and squeezed her hand gratefully. "No, it's okay. We can just use the black raisins. They're all raisins- how different could they taste?" He turned back to the ingredients on the counter to begin sorting them by recipe when Katara nudged him.

"Hey," she said, bumping their shoulders together. "We'll figure out how. If not with this library, then by trial and error. That's a promise. I'll even help you eat all the test batches."

The airbender gave her a look. "You hate raisins."

"Yeah," she smiled. "I do."

Aang wrapped his arm around her, giving her shoulder a quick squeeze as he pecked her temple. He didn't need words to express his appreciation, and he wasn't sure words would ever be able to fully express what he felt for her at that moment.

"What do we need for five-flavor soup, broth dumplings, and the seaweed cookies, sweetie?" He poked his head in the pantry. "Actually, do we even have seaweed?"

"In the ice box, but not enough for both the soup and the cookies. I think we'll just use it for the soup. But last time Dad was in the Earth Kingdom, he brought me and Gran Gran this new leafy vegetable. I think he called it kale? Gran Gran tells me that it works really well with chocolate in the cookies. It won't be exactly the same as the ones I'm used to, but I suppose it'll have to do."

Aang poured out some apple cider for them to cool down while cooking near the stove on the warm spring day. "Here's to recipes with a twist," he said as he handed her a cup.

She clinked their glasses together before taking a sip, smiling as the taste hit her tongue. "Ah, just what I needed. Thank you, sweetie. Now, where were we?"

Within the next few minutes, the two gathered the rest of their ingredients, spoons, and measuring cups and laid them all across the kitchen counter into seven distinct piles- one for each recipe, plus a middle pile for things they'd need across multiple.

"Alright, what first?" Aang said while walking up behind Katara, who was shuffling between all the recipe papers in her hands.

"I think we should start with the tsampa and sweet rice. Those have the most active cooking time." She looked at the parchment with a scrutinizing glare. "Then I think we can make the five-flavor soup and fruit pies. While those are cooking, we can make the seaweed cookies and broth dumplings. We can steam some vegetables with the dumplings too."

He gave her an impressed glance. "Sounds like a plan."

"You said roasting the barley for the tsampa uses airbending, right?" He nodded. "Then you start on that while I start with the rice."

"Yes ma'am, sweetie, ma'am," he said with a salute.

The couple quickly got to work, settling into a rhythm as they began cooking. Katara used her waterbending to swirl around the rice in a ball of water in order to wash off any dirt or powdery starch. Meanwhile, Aang used quick bursts of firebending to heat the sand near the oven and airbended it through the small opening in large swaths. He then poured out the barley into a pan and laid it on top. The grain sizzled as it was heated and roasted on the sand.

"Mmm," Katara hummed as a nutty scent filled the kitchen, still staring down at the pan to see if the water had boiled yet. "Smells amazing, sweetie."

Aang sighed happily as he began chopping up the dried mangoes and pears for the sweet rice, making sure to check in on and stir the barley every few minutes so that it wouldn't burn. "Smells like my childhood," he grinned. "Tsampa was one of my favorite training snacks, especially during long lessons with Monk Gyatso. Kuzon, Bumi, and I got in trouble so many times for trying to sneak in here and get extra."

"Why am I not surprised?" She gently nudged him to the side once he finished with the fruits, taking the cut morsels to dump them into a pot of milk and sugar, which she then put over the stove and stirred as it began to simmer.

Aang leaned over the brick opening of the oven and used a small gust of airbending to toss the barley in the pan. "I think this still needs a few more minutes, sweetie. Want me to start on the five-flavor soup?"

"Yes, please. Start by cutting the seaweed into strips. I can get the spices ready now that this water is finally boiling." She reduced the heat on the stove for the rice, covering it with a lid, and grabbed the garlic, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon from their place next to the veggie broth she had made earlier that week.

"How thin, Tara?" The airbender held up a piece of whole seaweed and jiggled it.

"About an eighth to a quarter inch, but no more than a half," Katara said as she minced the garlic and ginger, not even looking up from the cutting board.

He stared blankly.

The waterbender saw the expression on his face and rolled her eyes. "Think the width of Momo's fingers."

Aang brightened with understanding immediately. "Lemur finger-thick seaweed strips, coming right up!"

Katara shook her head in disbelief and laughed as she walked over to the oven, pulling out the barley pan with a heat-proof mitt sewn from bison fur. "I think this looks done, Aang. What should I do with it now?"

The airbender gestured to the cabinet right next to the pantry. "There should be a big mortar and pestle in there. Grind the barley until it's about flour texture. The butter tea doesn't take too long so we can do that part at the end."

Katara nodded and began rifling through the cabinet in question. Once she found what she was looking for, she poured in the still-hot barley in quarters, humming an old Water Tribe song as the grain was crushed into powder.

Aang looked at her curiously as he put another piece of seaweed in the bowl next to him. "I haven't heard that one before. What's it from?"

The waterbender slid the mortar across the counter to Aang for his approval on the grain's coarseness. "I heard it the last time we visited the Southern Water Tribe. The elders sang it on history night and said it used to be sung after a boy completed ice dodging. It went out of practice a few years after the raids started since ice dodging became less of a celebratory coming-of-age event and more of an induction for another warrior who could fight the Fire Nation."

Aang slid the mortar back and gave her an understanding smile. "It's a beautiful song."

She smiled back at him, tilting the mortar to cascade the powdered barley into a bowl for serving. "I know. I'm excited to hear it again and learn some new ones the next time we go."

"And teach me some," Aang added with a wink. "Now what am I doing with this seaweed?"

"Nothing for now." Just add some broth to a pot and heat it with the spices on the stove." Katara nodded her head towards where the garlic, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves were on the cutting board. "Check on the rice for me too?"

The airbender peeked through the steam-covered lid to see beautiful white fluffiness beneath. "Looks good to me, sweetie. Think you know what comes next?"

Katara paused her grating of a lemon for the pie and pursed her lips in thought, not wanting to get the answer wrong. "Let the rice cool to room temperature and then add it to the milk?" she asked nervously. "I think?"

Aang walked over to the waterbender, looking at her very seriously, not a hint of humor on his face. "You would be…" She gulped. "Absolutely correct," he finished with a grin. "I've taught you well, Pupil Katara." He bowed to her, a teasing smile on his face as he looked up at her with one eye open.

"It has been my pleasure, Sifu Aang," she laughed while bowing back. "However, I'm afraid I am not as skilled in the art of fruit pies. What goes after zesting and juicing these lemons?"

The airbender peeked back at the cookbook. "Says here to mix together flour, butter, cold water, and sugar to make a shortbread dough. 'Make a thin layer of dough on the bottom of the pan, bake, and then add fruit pie filling to bake again.'" He handed the book to her so that she could look at the measurements. "Think you're up to the challenge?"

"I will accept all challenges in this kitchen with grace and dignity, Sifu Aang," Katara said with a solemn voice.

"Then I wish you great luck on the journey ahead of you, Pupil Katara." He pulled out a spoon and tapped her once on each shoulder. "With this uh… ancient artifact! Yes, with this ancient artifact, I give you the blessings of the great fruit pie masters that came before you."

The two stared at each other in full seriousness, neither wishing to be the first to break, before bursting into laughter.

"I love cooking with you," Katara giggled as she gradually returned to the task at hand, reaching over the countertop to grab the flour and butter.

"The feeling is mutual," Aang grinned. "I add the seaweed once I can smell the broth, right?" The waterbender nodded, smelling the spices in the air as she began mixing the butter into the flour with her hands. "Alright!" He covered the pot with a lid. "Then that just has to cook for a while. Tsampa done, soup done, rice cooling, fruit pies in the process- we're on fire! What's next?"

The waterbender pointed her dough-covered hand toward the kale lying next to the countertop. "Seaweed cookies! Well, 'kale and chocolate cookies' I suppose is more accurate. The recipe is really similar to the normal seaweed-less Earth Kingdom cookies. Just add chopped kale and chocolate chips at the end."

"Will do, Sifu Katara!"

Katara waterbended another large droplet of cold water into the shortbread dough until she gave it an approving look, satisfied with the consistency. Meanwhile, Aang had decided to use airbending to create a mini-tornado to help him cream together the butter, eggs, and sugar for the cookies, making Katara both horrified and fascinated by the machinations of her airbender's mind.

"Alright! Time to add the flour!"

The waterbender's eyes widened as he made a move to dump in all the flour at once. "Aang don't-"

But she had been too late. The damage had been done.

Katara coughed, waving around her hand to clear up the cloud of flour settling around her face.

Aang squinted. His eyelids were completely white, along with his nose and the top part of his shirt. A thin layer of dust covered most of the countertop, with specks of the powder dotting the surfaces of the stovetop, as well as all the ingredients. The airbender peeked into the bowl, where barely a tablespoon of flour had made it into the batter itself. He turned to Katara, a reflective expression on his face and his lips pursed.

"Mistakes were made."

She chuckled and wiped off the flour on her face and dress, attention shifting back to the fruit pan pie so that she could line it with the shortbread dough.

"You'll hear no argument from me, sweetie."

Katara walked over to the pan of cooling rice, also freckled with spots of flour, and touched the rice with the pad of her finger. She then took the wooden spoon, Aang's "ancient artifact" from earlier, and scooped the now-cooled rice into the thickened milk mixture that had been simmering for, sprinkling a handful of the black raisins on top. She waterbended a small droplet of the cream, blowing on it so as to not burn her tongue, and hummed in delight as the taste flooded her mouth.

"This sweet rice tastes amazing, Aang. The pear and mango are just, mm. It's delicious."

He paused his gentle whisking of the seaweed cookie batter. "Can I try?" The waterbender nodded, creating another droplet and cooling it before she dropped it in his open mouth.

"Do you like it?"

"Like it?" Aang waterbended another droplet from the saucepan and gave it a gentle gust of airbending. "It tastes exactly how I remember it. It's perfect." He gave her a cheesy smile. "Just like you."

She walked past him to put away the ingredients they were done using in the pantry, a warm magenta spreading across her cheeks. "I'd tell you the same but you still have a clump of flour on your face." Aang scrambled to rub it off when Katara reached up and wiped it away with her thumb. "There. Now you're perfect." He blushed as the waterbender held up the fruit pie molds. "I'm going to go put the crusts in the oven."

The airbender nodded, an uncontrollable grin on his face as he watched her walk out to the balcony. The way her ponytail swang with each step hypnotized him. She always had such a way of making him breathless.

"I feel you staring at me, Aang," Katara called out, back still toward him. "Focus on the cookies."

"I'm not staring! I'm… being inspired! Can't make a Southern Water Tribe dish without paying respect to the people of the Southern Water Tribe, right?" Aang replied, returning to his gentle kneading of the dough as he heard her laugh.

"Hang in there, sweetie," she said when she walked back in. "We're almost there. Cookies, fruit pies, broth dumplings. Once you're done with the dough, put them onto the baking sheets. Then we can start the dumplings. I'll make the fruit pie filling in the meantime."

"Oh, let me help you with that," Aang said, seeing her pour her egg whites into a bowl. "One of the tricks to a good fruit pie is airbending the egg whites until they're super fluffy." He made a motion to whip them up when Katara held his arm, making him stop.

"Sweetie, I love you, but do you really want to try airbending to make a recipe go faster again?" She made a point to look over her shoulder at the countertop, still white with flour.

Aang furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Whaaaaat?" He flicked his wrist sharply, making a gust of wind blow all the flour that had been on the floors and countertop out onto the balcony. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Katara gave him a look.

"Alright, but that was different! I used to do this all the time with Monk Gyatso! It'll be fine. Avatar promise."

Her gaze remained unwavering.

Aang gave her the best polar bear dog eyes he could muster. "Pleeeeaaaaaaase?"

The waterbender sighed, relenting ("Yes!"), but motioned for him to pause. He obliged as she walked out onto the balcony and poked her head back through the entrance to look in, her entire body shielded by the wall with just the top of her head and eyes sticking out to monitor his progress.

Aang glared. "Your skepticism is noted and unappreciated."

"Love you, sweetie!"

The airbender shook his head as he created rapidly moving spirals of air in the bowl of egg whites, filling them with air as they began to froth up and turn translucent. He stuck his finger in the whites after a few minutes and pulled it back out, testing to see if the peaks would flop over. Satisfied that he had achieved his goal, he flipped the bowl upside down over his head, grinning as they stayed in place.

"See, Katara! I can be responsible in the kitchen."

Katara walked back in slowly, baked crusts in hand, once she saw there were no imminent disasters. Nevertheless, she eyed the bowl above Aang's head suspiciously, swiping it out of his hands as soon as she was close enough.

"Uh huh. How about you finish those kale cookies, sweetie?"

Aang gasped, mock-offended, but returned back to his station of rolling out the cookies into balls and lightly flattening them with his hands before spacing them out on a baking sheet. Katara meanwhile had finished whisking the cream cheese, milk, vanilla, and sugar into the egg white mixture and was pouring them into the fruit pie molds, the smell of the baked shortbread crust making her stomach rumble.

"Hang in there, sweetie," Aang chuckled. "We'll get to eat all these soon enough." He grabbed the pie pans off the counter once he saw she was finished, balancing them on one arm with the cookies on the other. "I'll take these to the oven."

Katara pecked his cheek in thanks. "I'll start on the dumpling wrappers."

The airbender quickly went onto the balcony and placed the kale cookies and fruit pies on the hot sand of the oven and closed its little window, taking care to not burn himself. He headed back inside and gathered all the ingredients that he would need to make the dumpling filling.

"Katara?"

"Yes, sweetie?" She looked up from the dough she was kneading.

"I hadn't thought about this until now but- how do you get the broth into the dumplings? Do you inject them or something?" he asked as he chopped some sea prunes.

"Not exactly." Katara pointed to a small jar of powder next to the mushrooms. "See that? It's a powder made from a special red seaweed that only grows beneath the ice near the Southern Spirit Oasis. It makes things into jelly." She tore off a piece of dough and began rolling it out with some flour. "You heat up some veggie broth, mix it with the powder, cool it, and then put the little cut up jelly cubes into the dumplings. When the dumplings steam, the jelly gets hot and melts back into broth."

Aang furrowed his eyebrows. "Won't it take a while to cool? I mean it took the rice ages, and that was only to room temperature."

Katara grinned. "Normally, yes. But the jellies don't have to be at room temperature. Actually, they should be a little colder than that. We can use waterbending to freeze the broth just enough to fill the dumplings with them." She paused before adding, "After I found out I was a waterbender, my mom was the one who suggested the idea. I wasn't able to freeze the broth every time since I didn't have much control over my waterbending, but she always said the ones where I could tasted the best."

She gave him a playful look, a smile tugging at her lips. "So if these suck, and I find out she was lying, I will never forgive you."

The airbender laughed. "I'll try to keep that in mind."

He poured in the last of the sauces and spices into his bowl of chopped vegetables and began heating up a bowl of the broth with firebending. Katara walked over, all the dumpling wrappers rolled out, and sprinkled in the seaweed powder while Aang stirred it all together. The waterbender sighed and leaned against his shoulder as they watched the broth for it to boil.

"Thank you for letting me show you all these things," she murmured. "It means a lot."

He gave her a small smile, gazing at her affectionately. "We're the last of our cultures, remember? If we can't share it with them, then we can at least share it with each other." He looked back down at the pot and spoke softly. "I couldn't have done any of this without you, sweetie. Not restoring the Air Temples, the acolytes, this dinner, none of it. I love you."

She closed her eyes happily. "I love you too, sweetie."

Suddenly, the two jumped as the timer for the cookies went off.

Katara chuckled once she recovered from the shock and nudged him. "You go get those. I'll make these jellies." He nodded and jogged out of the room to retrieve the baked goods before they burned as the waterbender slowly cooled the veggie broth with blitzes of freezing it into ice until it congealed.

"You know, I'd never thought I'd say this," Aang said, setting the tray down onto a trivet. "But these kale and chocolate cookies smell really good. Almost better than the fruit pie." Katara gave him a surprised look. "Almost! Fruit pies are still my favorite."

She laughed. "Maybe tonight that'll change." She set down the block of gelatinous veggie broth on the cutting board for Aang to cut as she began the lemon topping for the fruit pies. Before long, the dumplings had been filled, vegetables washed, and both were ready to be steamed in the bamboo basket as Katara took the fruit pies out of the oven and let Aang show her how to put the finishing touches on.

"You pipe around just like this," he said, tongue sticking out with concentration as he moved the piping bag in circles around the center of the pie. "And once you get that little spiral base…" With a swish of air, the yellow center had doubled in height, its ridges well defined and ending in a perfect point.

Katara inhaled deeply. "Smells like the dumplings and vegetables are done too." She smiled. "Let's make that butter tea, serve this all up, and eat!"

Dinner that evening would be a night remembered for many weeks to come. As they did every evening, the acolytes, Aang, and Katara all gathered in the temple dining room to eat together. They seated themselves on small cushions on the floor around the edges of a long rectangular table, with Aang at the head and Katara right by his side.

"Tonight's dinner is a little different, everyone," Aang said once the acolytes were all seated. "Today, not only do we have traditional Air Nomad dishes like sweet rice, tsampa, butter tea, and lemon fruit pies, but Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe has also been gracious enough to share her own cultural foods with us- broth dumplings, five-flavor soup, and seaweed cookies."

"Even if they don't actually have seaweed in them," Katara added sheepishly, making a few of the acolytes laugh.

Aang extended his hands to the people on either side of him as they all said a prayer together.

"We thank the Spirits for this food, which will nourish both our bodies and our spirits. We thank them for the work and labor that went into every grain of rice, every fruit, every lemur finger-thick strand of seaweed. We humbly receive this meal."

Everyone at the table bowed their heads in silence for a moment before Aang opened his eyes and grinned.

"With that out of the way, let's eat!"

"So? What was your favorite?" Katara asked after they had laid down for bed together, their ribs aching from all the laughter at dinner but their hearts and bellies full.

"I'm assuming everything isn't an option?" he smiled. The waterbender shook her head. "Well, first I have to say your mom was not lying about those broth dumplings. I mean, I may have burned my tongue when I tried the first one, but it was so worth it." They both laughed.

The airbender turned to her, fingers absent-mindedly playing with a strand of her hair. "To be completely honest?" Katara looked at him curiously. "I think I do like kale cookies better than lemon fruit pie," he admitted shamefully, making Katara gasp. "Plum fruit pie is still number one! But the chocolate and kale paired way better than I thought they would. The five-flavor soup was really good too."

The waterbender grinned, pressing a kiss to his cheek with a resounding smack. "I'm glad you liked it. Were the raisins okay in the sweet rice?"

Aang nodded. "Not as bad as I thought they'd be. I mean, I still think the golden raisins would have tasted better, but I won't be too sad if I go the rest of my life eating black raisins with my sweet rice." He winked at her. "It helps that the cook is very talented and very distracting," he said, making Katara roll her eyes and blush. "How about you? What was your favorite?"

Katara closed her eyes, mind transported back to some of the best food she had ever tasted. "I could eat that sweet rice every day for the rest of my life. I can't wait to try it with actual golden raisins."

"You picked out all the raisins!"

"I know, and that's why I can't wait to see if golden raisins make me change my mind about raisins. Maybe I've judged them too harshly." Aang laughed and shook his head. "The tsampa was also amazing. It reminds me of this thing that grows in the South Pole called taro. The fruit pies…" Katara trailed off, fully in heaven as she relived eating that gooey lemon center. "Lemons aren't even in my top few favorite fruits! You have to make the other flavors for me sometime. Plum next, since it's your favorite."

Aang yawned and gave her a tired smile. "It's a deal." He looked at her with sleepy eyes and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

"Thank you."

"For?"

"For making me feel not so alone."

Katara's features softened and she wrapped him in an embrace.

"Of course," she murmured. "You've always done the same for me. I love you, sweetie."

"I love you too, Tara. Sweet dreams."

"Sweet dreams."