Author's note: Someone asked if I was planning on making this Taang or Azulaang, and I just want you all to know that I was not planning at all. Also, I think Kataang is still in the running. Also, in case you guys haven't read the news, there's going to maybe be some new Avatar show, so that's really exciting. And if any of you write, I've got one weird tip to help you inflate your word counts: author's notes.

Aang dreamt he was back in the war. Fire whirled around him as he stared at the hordes of steel faced soldiers. Their faces twisted and morphed, looking like demonic spirits, then back to normal masks. The metal reflected the fire as it went from orange to red, then to a different colour entirely. Flashes of blue blended with the rest of the fire until only the blue remained. Aang's blood ran cold as he turned around. There she was, dressed in the green and brown outfit she was wearing all those years ago. He breathed in sharply and rose into the air, a white glow obscuring everything but her face. A bolt of lightning shot out of her fingers, but he spun and caught the bolt on his own.

In.

Through.

Out.

His other hand fired out the same bolt, but he couldn't see her face anymore. Just the back of a bald child in airbender clothing. It was too late to warn the kid as the blast of electricity shot towards them, but his lighting was intercepted by a rock hurled through the air. It burst into splinters of rock as Toph popped out from the periphery of his vision.

"Not again, not when I can do something about it."

Then Aang was watching a fight from above, blasts of blue fire shooting into walls of rock, and rocks hurling themselves into flame that disintegrated them. Toph and Azula hurled insults as well as the elements at each other. His view on them became closer and closer until he realized he wasn't just watching, he was falling through the air, wind whipping at his face. Once again, he was falling headfirst, his spirit having fled.

Aang woke up with the wind whipping through his scalp, and the firm grasp of a hand on his wrist. Even with his eyes closed, he could see the light of the sun. The droning of the air slowly subsided as he got used to it, and a different droning began to replace it.

"-and Ho Tun had already eaten all the food! He kept talking about how he was no longer in 'doom' from whatever it was that was scaring him, but in a couple of hours he was back to chatting about it. It wasn't that his sense of doom snuck up on it though, it was more that the eggs were bad and he had once again been the instigator of his own downfall. The Dark One was very pleased, and this just made Ho Tun even more mad. So the two of them got to fighting, but the two of them still suck, so hard. They were just shooting coins at each other? And the coins weren't even moving that fast. They still were bouncing off the skin! And the kids were just yelping and shooting and yelping and shooting for almost fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes! That's fifteen minutes longer than a good fight takes! And it didn't even end with a knockout or anything, just a huff and a - ooh, you're awake! Any good dreams or anything? Although I guess it'd be hard since you don't know what my students look like."

A yawn escaped as soon as he opened his lips. "How . . . How long have we been flying?"

"All day and all night! What happened to you? We got onto Appa and then you just crashed." Toph rummaged through something and took a bite out of something. Aang wanted to open his eyes but it was still too bright, so he just layed back on the saddle, pulling Toph towards him. She collapsed beside him, onto a pile of blankets he was lucky to have. With the sun and the gentle rocking of Appa's flying, he managed to sleep right until they landed on the Ember Islands.

Somehow the wedding party had gotten wind of them coming, and a full entourage was waiting for them. Aang couldn't see any of them, but was greeted with a full-throated shout of "Aang!" from Sokka. Then the rest of the cheers started. Turning to Toph, Aang asked, "Did we tell them when we were coming back?"

"I don't remember telling them we were leaving."

Jumping down between Zuko and Mai, Aang gave both of them a big hug. Zuko grabbed onto him, squeezing him a couple times in a manly fashion. Mai resigned herself to it, but with an appreciative smile on her face. With giggles and snippets of "group hug?" and "without me?" Ty Lee jumped into the pile. This was almost a little too much for Aang, but he tried to enjoy it as best as he could. Across the courtyard, he could see Toph going through a similar ordeal with Suki, Sokka, and Katara, although Toph was much more resistant. Or so he could tell. It could have just been her face and body and the stream of insults. He gave her a smile and a thumbs up, as if to say, "I'm right there with you," or something, and was about to walk over before he heard a soft cough behind him. A cough designed specifically to get his attention.

After the major uproar died down a bit, Aang waved off the small crowd and went off exploring the source of the cough. He made it a couple of yards down a corridor before he let himself be tackled through the ground by Azula. She hopped back up and offered him her hand.

"Thank god you're back, it's been quite a bore without you. No one's been roping me into their elaborate secret plots to confuse one, maybe two people." She cocked a grin and wiggled her fingers for him to take again, so he did. After raising himself up, he gave her an awkward few pats on the shoulder.

"Well, I'm sure it was still fun just doing wedding things?" Her grin shrunk a little before being replaced by a slightly more fake one. It had not still been fun, apparently. "There's nothing going on today, right? For the wedding?"

"Not for us. Zuzu and Mai are going to the dragon priest temple for some priests to tell them that they should get married. As if the last dozen years haven't made enough of an impact. But that does give us a day or two to catch our breath before we'll be called on to perform our family duties."

Aang tilted his head in confusion. "Family duties . . . ?" Azula opened her mouth to speak. "How about we get some tea and you can tell me all about it." The smile returned to her face as the two of them set out.

As far as the past week had gone, it had been much more eventful for Aang than for Azula. Whenever Aang asked a question about the events of the marriage preparations that he wasn't there for, he was blown off by some dismissive statement.

"Oh, it was all just legal nonsense meant to occupy time."

"Oh, you know how people are, it was boring to me."

"There was nothing important going on, you're lucky you got to miss it."

So Aang told her about the central air temple, or at least what he could definitely say he knew about it. She stared at him, rapt in attention as he spoke, and he felt more comfortable than he had in weeks. While usually Aang was happy to just sit back and listen, he found himself getting more open and didn't realize how long he had been talking until he tried to pour a cup of tea from an empty pot. Almost instantly, Azula poured half of her cup into his.

"Do you want me to order a new pot? We could continue this conversation. Although . . ." she gestured to the night sky, hours having passed since he touched down. " . . . it is getting rather late." She stood up to walk away from the table and Aang reached out his hand to beckon her to stay.

"We can get another pot, definitely. It's been . . . nice." She hadn't actually moved from the table, so Aang believed he stood a decent chance of her not bolting. She glanced back at him, then let a grin slip out.

"You will require some more sleep though. Your eyes are looking awfully droopy, and you need to be in your best shape for the events tomorrow." Aang started to notice more things about her face. Her smile was more real than he had seen before, threatening to burst into laughter.

"Something tomorrow? I don't know any of the Fire Nation wedding customs anymore, what's happening tomorrow? Something involving me?"

Her eyes were glittering now, sparkles of emotion reflecting the firelights all around them. "Of course, you're the Avatar! And who's ever heard of a Fire Lady that couldn't bend? You'll obviously have to give her bending tomorrow. Ozai's will do, but if you can just give her bending of her own, that would be perfect."

Aang squinted and turned his head almost all the way over. "Is this . . . was this . . . was I supposed to . . . I don't know if I can . . . what?" She was looking at him expectantly, so he tried to put the dots together. "I don't know if I can give people bending yet, and the only time I took someone's away, I had no idea what I was doing. Still don't."

"Well, you should find out soon. I'll help you, if you need someone to test on. I always thought I could be a good water-" Whatever she was about to say was drowned out by her own laughter as she broke down and Aang finally realized it was definitely a joke. She had kneeled over in her own laughing fit, so Aang kneeled down to join her. Her hand grabbed his shoulder as she caught her own breath. "Your face! It was . . . so confused!" She looked him in the eyes as she smiled, and Aang smiled back as they both stood up. "You will have to sleep well tonight though. Apparently tomorrow you'll all be on a trip to talk to some dragons. I told them they could have done this sooner than two weeks from the wedding, but you know Zuko. He's a fan of theatrics."

Aang had picked out one very important phrase in her string of words. "You'll all?"

"We'll all. If you think I should come?" Aang couldn't tell how the question was supposed to be aimed towards him, but he tried as best he could.

"Of course, why wouldn't you?

"Then I'll come. We'll be leaving bright and early!"