Thank you all for all the reviews, favoriting, and follows to this story. I'm happy to see how much people enjoy this story. I'm sorry for taking a while with this chapter but I've been busy with college, family, and reading other Kataang stories as well.
The moon was high up in the darkened sky when Aang led Appa to the stables. The past few hours tired him out and he couldn't wait to get some rest. As much as he wanted to get some sleep, he needed to have a talk with his furry companions about their behavior with Katara earlier. Not once had he seen Appa and Momo act like this with anyone else so why now? Once they reached the stables, Aang was quick to pull the saddle off Appa's back and the rope from his horns. With all of that done, he turned to Appa and Momo, who was still on top of the bison's head.
"What was with that attitude you two had with Katara earlier?", Aang asked with his arms crossed. The two flying mammals seemed put off by that question. They weren't expecting him to be angry with them.
"Rrrrrrrr", Appa groaned.
"Katara didn't mean to hurt me intentionally Appa. We can't fault her if she wanted to be with Zuko", Aang replied. It surprised him to hear that they knew that Katara was the reason for his pain.
"Rrrrrrrrrrrrr", the bison groaned again. Momo jumped off of Appa's head to Aang and hugged him tight. The last time the lemur hugged him was when Aang was punching the ground after seeing Katara and Zuko together.
"I can understand if you don't want to forgive her but please for my sake…just be civil with her. No more snarling or growling at her." Aang replied as he patted the lemur's head. Satisfied with the pat on the head, Momo flew back to Appa, who just said nothing and immediately started to chomp on the hay that was left in the stable.
'Guess I should just let them think about it', the air bender thought to himself as he left the stable. While walking back to the palace, he replayed the conversation he had with Katara in his head. He told her the truth and if there was one thing he could confirm from confronting her, it was that his choice to leave was the right one. Katara was adamant that he could have just stayed and talked to her, but how could he? There was just no way that he could.
'Stay and talk to her about my unrequited feelings? Yeah, that would have worked out "great". How could she have still expected me to stay with a broken heart?'
Then there was the last question she had asked him. She had asked him if he was still in love with her. Why?
'What would it matter if I still loved her or not? She's with Zuko for crying out loud! What would she have said if I did tell her that I love her? She'd probably would just pity me.'
Katara's pity was the last thing he wanted from her. Aang decided right there that he wouldn't tell her the truth. She didn't deserve to know that she still had his heart even after all these months. Even after all the pain he had endured. Aang finally arrived at the palace and immediately went to the room that was reserved for him. He needed to sleep.
The next day, Aang met with Zuko in his office. Thankfully, none of the gang was too injured from the attack the other day.
"How are you feeling Sifu Hotman?" Aang asked. Zuko sitting at his desk, felt irritated with his friend's nickname for him.
"You are never going to stop calling me that are you?" he responded with an annoyed tone.
"Yup, and there's nothing you can do about it" Aang replied with a smirk.
"I'm the fire lord, I'm pretty sure I could something if I wanted to" Zuko scoffed.
"And I'm the Avatar. I can dish out whatever you throw at me"
Zuko chuckled as he stood up from his desk and walked over to Aang, "You're probably right. It's good to have you back with us, I missed you buddy"
"It's good to be back. I missed you too" Aang replied as they hugged each other. He did miss Zuko during his time away from his friends. Aang could never be mad at him for his relationship with Katara. Even if it was the reason why he had left in the first place. The two broke off the hug and Zuko walked back to his desk.
"I've had the loyalists you subdued interrogated. It took my officers a while, but they were able to get the location of the loyalist's headquarters. Anyone that they found there have already been taken into custody, so I don't think we'll have to worry about any more assassination attempts from them for now." Zuko explained.
Aang let out a sigh of relief, "That's great."
Now that the threat against his friend is gone, Aang could leave without any worry.
"So how have you been? You've had us worried when you left without saying anything" Zuko questioned.
"I've been alright. I have been doing what I said in the letter that I left for you guys. Fulfilling my avatar duties and helping out wherever I could." Aang answered. He already knew that Zuko found out about his reasons for leaving.
"So I've heard but there was another reason why you left."
"Yeah, there was…" Aang turned his eyes away from Zuko. He really didn't want to talk about this with him.
"Listen Aang…I'm sorry that we hu—" Aang interrupted him.
"I get it Zuko! I'm sure you're sorry about how things turned out, but I don't want to hear or talk about it. So just drop it, alright?", the air bender narrowed his eyes.
Zuko was caught off guard by Aang's irritated attitude. Not once has Aang spoken to him like that before. He decided to just do what his friend wanted and changed the subject.
"Alright, I'll drop it", Zuko put his hands up. The last thing he needed was to deal with an angry Avatar.
"Have you checked on the others yet?" Zuko asked.
"Not yet but I'll go see how they're doing now. Luckily, none of you guys got too hurt from the attack yesterday." Aang replied, happy for the change of subject.
"Go on ahead. I just need to go through some letters, and I'll meet up with the rest of you later."
"Sure", Aang walked out of Zuko's office and headed straight to the room that his friends occupied now. As he entered the room he found them all on their beds except for Suki, who was cuddling with Sokka on his bed.
"Aang!", Sokka cried out as soon as he saw him. Aang rushed over to his bed and embraced him in his arms.
"Glad to see you're doing well", they broke off their hug and Aang turned to Suki, "Shouldn't you be resting on your own bed?"
Suki smirked and pointed at her boyfriend, "This guy right over here wouldn't stop whining until I agreed to cuddle with him"
"Seriously Sokka?" he turned to him.
"Hey! I'll have you know that cuddling actually speeds up the recovery process" Sokka spoke with a matter-of-fact tone.
"Where did you hear that Snoozles? 'The idiot's guide to healing'?", Toph spoke up, sitting up on her bed. Aang turned to her and wrapped his arms around her.
"It's good to see you again Toph" he pulled back from her.
"I'd say the same thing Twinkle-toes but…", Toph waved her hands in front of her face, "well you know"
"Yeah I do", Aang chuckled, "How are your feet?"
Toph pulled the covers off her legs and revealed her feet to him. From what Aang could see, there were still some burns from the day before.
"Still can't really see with my feet", she answered him.
"Let me see if I can change that", Aang grabbed a bowl of water and bent the water to her feet. The water glowed at the contact and Toph immediately felt the burning sensation from the bottom of her feet peeling off. Sokka and Suki were in awe of how Aang was able to heal at a fast rate. After a few minutes, he was done.
"Alright Toph, try to walk", he encouraged her. Toph turned her legs to the side of the bed and jumped off. She felt no pain when her feet hit the ground and was walking like she normally did. She turned back to Aang with a huge grin.
"You did it twinkle-toes! I can finally see with my feet again" Toph exclaimed happily. Aang smiled at his friend's happiness.
"Guess those healing lessons at the north pole paid off" Sokka commented. Aang nodded his head in agreement.
The four friends talked for a while, Aang caught them up on everything since he had last seen them. Later the door opened and revealed Katara coming inside the room. She looked a lot better since yesterday, Sokka and Suki also noticed how bright she smiled when she looked at Aang. They hadn't seen her smile like that in months. Katara looked surprised to see Toph already on her feet again.
"Toph, you're walking again…" she said.
"Yup! Thanks to this guy" Toph responded as she punched Aang's left shoulder. Katara looked back at Aang, who winced from Toph's punch and rubbed his shoulder. Somehow Toph seemed to get stronger with every punch she gave him.
"Since when were you so good at healing?" Katara questioned Aang, remembering how he used water bending to heal the others after the attack.
"I was staying in the north pole with the northern water tribe and took Yugoda's lessons. She was more than happy to teach me everything." Aang responded.
"Guess she taught you well" Katara replied, "Since Toph's feet are already healed then I got nothing to do, so how about you and I do some water bending practice together?"
"Nah, I'm good. I'm not really in the mood for any water bending practice." Not that he didn't feel like doing any water bending practice, he just didn't want to be alone with her. Aang had a feeling that Katara would want to continue their discussion from the night before. She already knew why he left so there was nothing else that needed to be discussed between them.
"Oh, but I insist. It's been a while since we've done any water bending together." Katara wasn't planning on taking no for an answer. She felt a pang of irritation at his instant refusal to water bend with her.
"I don't feel like doing any practice right now Katara."
"What? Is the Avatar suddenly too good to do any bending practice with his Sifu?" Katara crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.
"That's not even close to what I said. I just don't want to" Aang responded, annoyed at her accusation.
"Either way you and I still need to talk so you might as well just come with me. Let's go" she demanded.
"There is nothing more for us to talk about." Aang stated. 'Just leave me alone already.'
"Yes, there is! Now quit being so difficult and come with me", Katara walked up to him and grabbed his hand. Aang pulled back his hand before she could drag him away.
"You're not my mother Katara! You don't get to tell me what to do" Aang retorted. Sokka, Suki, and Toph watched them go back and forth with each other. They weren't sure how to handle the tension rising between the two. Saying anything would just lead them to getting ignored by the two. Finally, Aang decided he had enough of Katara.
"Forget this! I'm not going to sit here and deal with you" Aang walked past Katara and out the door.
"You are so not walking away from this!", Katara followed him out of the room, leaving Suki, Sokka, and Toph in the room. All three of them flabbergasted at what they just saw.
"Should we follow them?" Suki asked the other two.
"I feel like we should" said Sokka.
Toph nodded her head, "Yeah, and if they get in a fight then I don't wanna miss it!". With that, the three jumped up and ran out the door.
Aang had already reached the courtyard with Katara hot on his tail. The sky was blue with the sun still high up in the sky.
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM AANG?!" yelled Katara. The air bender stopped moving and turned around to face her, allowing her to finally reach him.
"You're my problem!", he pointed at her, "Why can't you just let me be? I didn't want to do any water bending practice and you made a big deal out of it"
"Well excuse me for wanting to spend time with you after all these months that you have been gone! Besides, we didn't get to finish talking last night", Katara retorted, her hands clenched into fists at her side. Aang spread his arms out to his side in exasperation.
"I already told you why I left! What more do you want from me Katara?"
"I want to know if you still love me Aang!"
"WHAT FOR?! You're with Zuko, what does that matter?"
"IT JUST DOES! Especially considering you left me because of how you felt about me"
Aang dropped his arms and turned away from her. Katara reached out and grabbed his arm to keep him from walking away again. "Stop trying to avoid this Aang"
"UGH, Fine!", He spun back towards her, "I don't love you anymore Katara". Aang made sure to look her in the eye when he spoke. He could almost have sworn he saw a twinge of sadness in her eyes when he said that. 'Probably just my imagination.', he thought to himself.
She didn't know why she felt hurt hearing him say that. Katara didn't want to believe that he was telling the truth.
"You don't need to pity me anymore Katara. Just go be happy with Zuko." Aang spoke again. Katara flared up in anger at his words, however.
"Is that really how you think I felt? That I pitied you?! You should know me better than that!"
"Well that's how it felt to me when I find out about your secret meetings. When you and Zuko finally decided to tell everyone, Zuko said you kept your relationship secret so that it wouldn't cause a distraction, but you and I both know what he meant by that. You did out of pity for me" Aang crossed his arms.
"It wasn't because I pitied you Aang, I already told you that I didn't want to hurt you. I genuinely meant that." Katara protested.
"If that's what you want to think then that's fine by me Katara, I don't care. I'm done talking about this"
Aang turned his back to her and walked away. Katara, however, wasn't done talking to him. She was getting frustrated with Aang's constant aversion from her, "You may be done but I'm not. You can't keep running from me.". Aang elected to ignore her, in his mind there was no point in him staying to argue with her. They were both too stubborn. As he kept walking, Aang felt a smack of a whip to his right butt cheek.
"YEEOWWWWWW" Aang jumped up from the pain. As soon as his feet hit the ground they were automatically frozen, keeping him in place. He twisted his head back to see Katara in a water bending stance, scowling at him.
"You are not going anywhere" she stated. She had no intention of letting him avoid her any longer. Aang melted the ice from his feet with his fire bending and turned his body towards her.
"I don't want to fight you Katara." He growled, clenching and unclenching his fists. Katara wasn't deterred by his words.
"You're not giving me much of a choice. If I have to knock you down then I will" she avowed. With that said, she bent another stream of water at him. Aang was quick to jump from the attack. Katara was relentless with her attacks, bending the water in his direction. Aang used his air bending to run faster, avoiding her attacks.
"Come on Avatar! You can't keep running, use all of the elements if you have to against me" She was goading him, and he knew it. 'Let's see if you can handle this', Aang thought to himself. Katara may be a powerful water bender but she's never faced an air bender in combat before. Aang jumped up twenty feet in the air, as he started coming down he spun his body to gather as much air as he needed. When he finally touched the ground, Aang punched a huge powerful gust of wind at Katara and blew her off her feet. The gust of wind forced her back by a few feet from him. She landed on her back, tumbling further away. After she stopped tumbling, Katara forced herself to get back on her feet, despite her pain.
"You may be a master water bender, but I was an air bending master before you were even born Katara. I don't need more than just my native element to beat you", Aang boasted. Katara said nothing in return and got back into her stance. She bent the water from her flask around her arms and started running towards him. Aang dashed towards her, ready to counter-strike her at a moments notice. Before they could reach each other however, a blaze of fire came between them and stopped them in their tracks. The blast came from Zuko.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!" he hollered at the two of them. They didn't give an answer to his question. Zuko made sure to get in between them so they didn't try anything else with each other. "Well I'm waiting!"
Aang was the first to respond, "Your girlfriend wouldn't leave me alone and attacked me, so I fought back"
"Only because you wouldn't stop trying to run from me!" Katara retorted.
"I wouldn't have to run if you could just take 'no' for an answer.", Aang exasperated.
Zuko turned his head to his right side, looking at the three figures watching them from behind a pillar, "You guys were watching them this whole time, why didn't you stop them from fighting?"
Aang and Katara looked to see that it was Suki, Toph, and Sokka.
"Look at me man, how do you expect me to get in between Aang and Katara?" Sokka questioned Zuko.
"Same here. I wasn't going to jump into that", said Suki.
"Honestly…I just wanted to see who would win", Toph admitted. Zuko smacked his forehead with his hand and groaned. 'Why did I pick these idiots to be my friends?'
"I'm out of here. If you need me then I'll be in my room Zuko. I need to meditate" Aang spoke up. Before Zuko could respond, the air bender turned around and jumped over to the window of his room. Then Katara started to stomp away as well, she was still seething with rage towards Aang.
"Katara", Zuko called out to her, "Where are you going?"
"To my room, I want to be alone" she replied and continued on her way to her room. Toph, Sokka, and Suki walked up to Zuko. Sokka spoke to break the tension in the air left by Katara and Aang.
"Well that could have gone worse" he muttered. The others grunted in agreement. Katara slammed the door shut as soon as she stepped into her room. She leaned her back on the door and slid down to the ground. Aang closed the window and sat down in lotus position in the middle of his room. Now that the two were finally alone in their rooms; they could finally let their true emotions out. Katara pulled her knees to her chest and started sobbing. Aang buried his face in his hands and cried.
How could things get this bad between them?
A couple of hours later, Zuko was knocking on Aang's bedroom door. Aang made sure to wash his face with water to hide the fact that he was crying. With that out of the way, he opened the door and let Zuko in.
"What can I do for you Hotman?" Aang asked.
"King Kuei sent me a letter saying that he's throwing a party to celebrate our new trade agreements between all of the nations in a couple of weeks." Zuko replied and handed Aang the letter.
"Oh yeah, I think he mentioned something about that last time I was in Ba Sing Se" the air bender recalled.
"Since we don't need to worry about my dad's supporters attacking, I was thinking maybe you and the others should head out to Ba Sing Se tomorrow and have some fun. My uncle Iroh will be sure to let you guys stay in his spare rooms at his tea shop." Zuko suggested.
"That sounds great but are you sure it's okay? What about you?", Not that Aang wasn't grateful for the chance to have some fun with his friends, Zuko's suggestion just seemed to come out of nowhere.
"Of course it's okay. I'll meet up with you guys there later after I'm finished with some of my work here." Zuko assured him. A thought then came to Aang's mind. Would Katara be going with him to Ba Sing Se? He wasn't sure about how Appa would feel about that considering what's happened and especially for him as well after what happened between them today.
"Will Katara be coming with us?" he asked Zuko.
"Oh no she's going to be coming a little later with Sokka. I already spoken with all of them and we figured it was best if you and Katara get some space from each other" Zuko replied. Aang wasn't sure how to feel about his friends making plans like this without consulting him first but he knew there was no use in complaining about it now. This way was probably for the best.
Tomorrow had come and Appa was packed and ready for flight. It was decided that Suki and Toph would fly with Aang to Ba Sing Se while Sokka stayed back with Katara and eventually take a boat to the earth kingdom city. Normally Suki would stick with Sokka, but she was to meet with Ty Lee and the rest of the Kyoshi warrior for the new recruitment ceremony. As captain, Suki couldn't afford to miss it. Toph decided that she didn't want to wait too long to go to the city and was sick of staying in the fire nation for so long. Aang felt guilty however, he believed that it was his fault that the group had to split up because of the tension between him and Katara.
"Honestly Aang, this was to be expected but don't be so hard on yourself" Sokka assured them. He had come to see them off.
"How can I not be? If I had just been calm and kept my emotions from getting the best of me then we wouldn't have to separate like this" Aang murmured. Toph smacked his back in an attempt to get him to stop moping.
"Get over it Twinkle-toes! What's happened is done and there's no use being sad about it." She stated, already annoyed with Aang's self-blaming.
"I agree with Toph. As much as I want to have Suki stay with me, she has important work to do with the Kyoshi warriors and I need to stay with Katara. Me and her are due for some sibling bonding time anyway." Sokka insisted. Aang knew better than to argue with them. He hugged the water tribe warrior goodbye and jumped on to Appa's head. Suki gave Toph a boost to the saddle. Once Toph settled on the saddle, Suki turned to her boyfriend. This was going to be their first time separating since the war ended.
"Try not to get on your sister's bad side" Suki instructed him with a smile.
"What kind of big brother would I be if I didn't do that every once in a while?" Sokka chuckled. The couple kissed each other goodbye and Suki climbed on to the saddle. Aang looked down to his friend.
"Zuko couldn't come see us off?"
"He had a meeting with the fire sages, but he wanted me to tell you guys to have a safe trip", Sokka answered him. Aang nodded his head and looked back at the fire nation palace. He saw a flash of blue dashing behind the palace doors. Katara was watching them, peering at them from a distance. It saddened Aang to see her hiding like this from them…from him. He still blamed himself for what happened the day before. He looked back down to Sokka.
"Hey Sokka, can you tell Katara that I'm really sorry for how I acted yesterday?"
Sokka smiled at his friend's request and gave him a thumbs-up, "Sure thing buddy, I'll let her know."
"Thank you", Aang then turned his head to the girls on the saddle, "You two ready?"
Suki and Toph sat at the front of the saddle. Momo was resting on Toph's right shoulder. Toph had both arms around Suki's arm, she seemed nervous to fly and Suki was happy to provide the blind girl comfort.
"Ready!" Suki answered excitedly.
"Ready" Toph answered, although not as excited as Suki. Aang turned back to Sokka.
"See you in a few days! Appa YIP YIP!"
The bison grunted in response and soared off up to the bright blue sky. Just like that they were off to Ba Sing Se.
As always, be sure to leave a review if you like this chapter. I hope to get to work on the next chapter of "Yandere Katara" soon. Hope you all have a great Sunday!