Hello everyone and thanks so much for your reviews! I'm so sorry this has taken a while, but I've finally wrapped up chapter two. I would be very happy to hear your feedback. Enjoy!
„Let's play a game!", Sokka suggested with bright eyes. His friends, who were just finishing dinner at their camp at the Western Air Temple, were eager to agree, as the stress of recent events, although to varying degrees, had taken a toll on them for sure. A little distraction was more than welcome. Aang, too, was more than happy to distract himself from thoughts about the upcoming Comet as well as the battle of his life against the Firelord, and, of course, from thoughts of a certain waterbender… He was unusually quiet tonight, which Katara had noticed.
„Let's go for a round of the Elements Quiz!," her brother suggested. „I've been practicing my knowledge of the elements lately," he winked.
The rest of the group groaned.
„No, please, nothing where I have to work my brain. Done with that for tonight!," Toph rolled her eyes.
„Oh come on! Don't you wanna learn some cool new facts about… soil…?," the warrior incented lamely.
„No, Sokka. If there's anything I already know then it's stuff about… soil," Toph concluded.
„But the majority right here are non-benders! Have you considered that, Missus I'm-so-grounded?"
„Ya, we are, but I'm not really in the mood for a quiz either, Sokka. Sorry," Theo said. The Duke and Haru nodded.
„I think we need a simple and fun game that doesn't require too many brain cells. Let's just relax a bit," Katara emphasized, to which her brother shot her a glance that seemed to say well thanks, sister.
„Well, how about this one!," Suki suddenly exclaimed and stuck her hands into her bag, looking for something. „It's called Beat the Badgermole. We put an item in the center (Zuko, would you mind putting out the campfire? …Thanks!). Every person receives four cards and needs to maintain this number at all times," she had found the cards by now and started to shuffle them. „The first person draws a fifth card and quickly needs to decide whether they want to keep it - in that case, they need to sort out one of the other cards to keep the count at four, and pass it on to the person next to them, or just pass the original card on right away. The cards are passed on clockwise and as soon as someone has four cards of the same symbol, they say Badgermole! and then we all have to try to grab the item as quickly as possible. Whoever is last is out! We continue until there's only the winner left." By the time she was done explaining, she had also pulled out a comb from her bag and placed it in the center, while everyone had moved closed so that they would be able to grab the object.
„Sounds fun to me!," Haru and Theo said in unison, while the Duke nodded. Zuko shrugged and said, „fine with me", while the rest of the group verbalized their interest as well.
„Okay… since you're the one suggesting it and you're my girlfriend… I shall be fine playing this game," Sokka said in an exaggerated tone, slightly insulted because his suggestion had been rejected but not being able to hide his interest in his girlfriend's game either.
The friends positioned themselves in a close circle and Suki started to draw a card from the staple. She was very quick to pass on one of her cards and called on the others to move faster. After a minute, everyone had increased their pace noticeably. Until…
„Badgermole!," Haru yelled, and all hands shot forwards to grab the comb. He was first and Zuko last, to which he just shrugged, seeming to be fine with watching the next rounds. However, there were two people who seemed not all too pleased at this round's outcome as his hand had landed atop hers, accidentally grabbing it while mistaking it for the comb in the heat of the moment. Aang didn't look at Katara and she didn't look at him either, clearly ignoring what had just happened. It was merely a second before everyone removed their hands, but she could feel Aang's hand on hers like a fire mark burned into her skin. Already, neither of them was too sure that the game was a good idea, but of course, they couldn't voice their doubts out loud. So, they tried their best not to touch hands for the remainder of the game - but failed miserably. Almost every round, they somehow ended up touching one another by accident. One time, Katara's nails even scratched Aang's hand, which she couldn't ignore and thus sent a fleeting apology in his direction, to which he replied „It's okay", trying to hold her gaze in vain. Although she avoided looking at him, he occasionally felt her eyes flicker at him for a split second.
The game built in tension and soon, everyone was screaming wildly, adrenaline rushing through their veins. Even Zuko seemed to enjoy himself, being glad to be finally accepted into the group. Only his student and his student's waterbending sifu were unusually quiet, which was particularly striking since Aang usually loved games. Although they tried to pretend it wasn't, the tension between the two of them was thick. Fortunately, everyone else was way too involved in the game to notice that something was going on between the two.
Once they had decided to call it a night - not before Toph had won the ultimately round, not being able to read the cards but listen to her fellow players' cries and react quickly enough to grab the comb -, everyone got up and chatted for a couple minutes before heading to bed. Aang and Katara got up at the same time, still avoiding looking at one another.
Because there was nothing he could really do in the moment, he decided to go to bed straight away, frustrated with both himself and the subject of his desire. This entire day, he had been wondering whether he had ruined their friendship with his kiss… Ever since, things had just been awkward between them and Katara was making it clearer each day that she wasn't particularly interested in kindling any spark that might be there, that he thought was there, and he wasn't even sure anymore that she wanted to rekindle their platonic relationship. Tonight's game had simply been incredibly awkward, and if this was the way things would be from now on, he almost regretted kissing her. Almost…
Katara headed to her nighttime spot as well, feeling slightly irritated with the game's intrusion into her carefully constructed fortress. Touching hands with Aang had definitely not helped keeping him at a distance in romantic terms! Although she had to admit that a part of her had liked feeling his hand on hers, briefly as it had been, another part of her felt defensive… and sad. When had their friendship become this complicated? Sometimes lately, she felt worlds apart from her best friend. Although they talked in their usual manner when their friends were around, they were definitely less carefree around one another. She missed being his friend… Why did Aang think he needed to level up what they'd had? Did they still have it? Why was she feeling like their friendship was severely strained, if they couldn't even look at each other properly anymore?
She sighed, slipping into her sleeping bag. She knew, however, that she wasn't really being fair to him. If he had decided to keep his feelings for her to himself, or worse than that, suppress them, she wouldn't have been happy either. After all, she did feel a little flattered that he was in love with her. It had a nice ring to it… and it made her feel cherished and desired, especially since it came from the one person she felt the most comfortable around. And she didn't want to him to think that she was rejecting him either. Not before she had fully made up her mind. Sometimes, she felt like talking to him about everything but she knew that there would be expectations. It's not that I don't have any feelings for him… It's just… It's just that… That I simply don't know what to tell him, she thought, frustrated. Up until this point, Aang had always only been a friend to her, her best friend. She had always dreamt of a tall, probably older guy with broad shoulders and... well, while she wasn't completely fixed on specific categories, she wondered whether she felt attracted to Aang or not, especially given the fact that he was still somewhat shorter than her – and younger, too. Only when he had kissed her – oh, that kiss! -, she had begun to consider the possibility of them being more than just friends (after processing the initial shock, that is). It was obvious that that was what he wanted. She acknowledged how much must it have taken him to build up the courage to actually kiss her. Yes, he had been under a lot of pressure when they said goodbye on the submarine, not knowing if he would ever see her again. It had probably been some sort of now-or-never thing. Still, it had been brave of him to do it.
On her part however, she still wasn't entirely sure whether she wanted to be more than friends. She felt extremely comfortable around him, no doubt... Sometimes, she even felt like she might want more, and in certain moments, she thought she could sense some butterbees in the pit of her stomach when she looked at him. But it was hard to tell. If she had known right away that she reciprocated his feelings, she would've been more than happy to fling her arms around his neck and kiss him back, right? But that wasn't exactly how she was feeling. Ugh, she was so confused! Did she want to be with him? Did she want him to be her boyfriend, be his girlfriend? She truly didn't know. She had not only felt somewhat flattered when he had kissed her, but also when he had asked her to dance in that cave many weeks ago. But she could feel flattered by anyone doing this, right? So it didn't mean that she wanted to be more than friends? Maybe, before asking the big questions, she should start off by less committed ones. Did she want to hold his hand? She already did that sometimes, although it would, of course, be a different kind of holding-hands if they started dating. Did she want him to kiss her again, or kiss him herself? It would be exciting, but it would also be a lot of pressure… Would she feel jealous if Aang started dating someone else? It was hard for her to imagine, although she had to admit that she hadn't really been happy watching him dance with that Fire Nation girl in the cave all those weeks ago. But maybe that had just been due to friendship jealousy because after all, she wasn't really keen on having to share her best friend with anyone else. But then again, she had to admit that he had been quite flirtatious that night and that she had felt extremely happy when he asked her to dance with him. He had made her feel special… But maybe this was just because every single kid in the cave had admired and applauded this Kuzon version of Aang and he had pulled her into the spotlight together with him? It was hard for her to tell. Maybe, maybe, maybe…
And that was why it seemed much easier to simply avoid the subject for now than to address it and hurt him by telling him that the thought of them becoming a couple hadn't really crossed her mind before. That was the one reason – she simply didn't want to hurt him -, and the other one was that she feared that if she told him she was confused, he would take it as a rejection, although that wasn't entirely what she wanted either. Because it wasn't that she didn't have feelings for him and simply wanted to spare him from humiliation. The reason was that she wasn't sure whether she had feelings for him or not, and that she wanted to leave the room open for discussion. Keep up the possibility of being with him, potentially and eventually... So she kind of hoped that avoiding the subject would either buy her enough time to figure out her own feelings or, in the case that she found she didn't like him back romantically, the entire subject would sort of just... solve itself? Spirits, this was confusing!
And there was more. How much longer could they actually wait, considering the battle of their lives was coming up and nobody knew whether they would make it out alive?