After seeing Aang and the girls flying off on Appa, Katara retired to her room. She sat on her bed, retracing what happened within the past couple of days with Aang. Just as when he was finally back in her life, he left again. 'I shouldn't have been so forceful with him. If I just let it be then he wouldn't have had to leave again', she thought to herself.
Katara heard a knock on her door, accompanied by her brother's voice.
"It's me sis. This a bad time?", Sokka asked.
"No it's not. You can come in Sokka", she replied. With that, Sokka opened the door and walked inside.
"Are you okay?", he asked as he sat next to her on the edge of the bed. Katara shook her head.
"I drove him away again...", she muttered.
"Whaaaaat? I don't know about driving him away again. Eve—" Sokka tried to assure her until she looked at him with her eyebrows arched.
"He left so that we would have space from one another after the fight we had. The fight that I started. If I hadn't been so persistent with him then he would still be here" she retorted.
"It wasn't his idea to leave Katara. It was Zuko's idea and I agreed with him. What's happened has happened so try not to dwell on it so much.", Sokka placed his hand on her shoulder.
"What if he hates me now because of yesterday?"
"Aang won't hate you Katara"
'He couldn't hate you even if he tried.' Sokka thought to himself. Deep down, Sokka knew that Aang could never find it in himself to hate Katara. He was still in love with her after all. Toph had already confirmed to him and Suki that Aang was lying when he told Katara he didn't love her anymore.
"How could you be so sure?", Katara wondered.
"When have you ever known Aang to hate anyone? The fire nation wiped out his people but he never once hated them for it. It would be silly of him to hate you just because you fought with each other" Sokka stated in a encouraging tone. Katara realized that her brother was right. However, she still wasn't to sure after everything that happened. Sokka continued speaking.
"If he really hated you then he wouldn't have asked me to tell you that he's sorry"
Katara turned to him confused, "Sorry for what?"
"For how he acted yesterday. He's been blaming himself for letting his emotions get the best of him. Just like you, he's being hard on himself for how things turned out."
"But I'm the one that kept pushing him. I was so irritated with how he brushed off practicing water bending with me and I wouldn't listen when he said no the first time. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine."
"You may see it that way Katara but he doesn't. Both of you can be really stubborn when you feel guilty about something"
She looked away from her brother, there wasn't a point in arguing about it. Then she remembered why she was mad at her brother and turned back to him with anger in her eyes.
"I still can't believe that you lied to me about him." She growled. This time Sokka turned away from her. He knew this topic would come up eventually but wasn't sure how to address it with her yet.
"My own brother and supposed friends...lying to me this whole time about Aang. You knew how worried I was yet you lied." Katara snapped.
"Technically we didn't lie...we just withheld what we knew" Sokka grumbled, still not looking his sister in the eye. Katara immediately got up from the bed and stood in front of him with her fists clenched.
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT BETTER SOKKA!" She yelled, making him flinch. "You could have saved us the trouble of looking for him but neither you, Suki, or Toph said anything! While I was wondering if he was safe or not, you were exchanging letters with him behind my back."
"I didn't like hiding the truth from you Katara", Sokka sighed, "But you never saw him like I did. Aang was hurt and there was nothing else we could do. We couldn't make him stay so we just said our goodbyes and let him go."
"So not only did you know, you also got to say goodbye to him while he just left us a letter." Katara was seething. "You could have just convinced him to talk to me before letting him make such a drastic decision like leaving us"
This time Sokka jumped up from the bed and stood in front of her. Towering over her before speaking, "That would have been the last thing he needed Katara! You were the reason he left. I get that you're upset with me and the girls for lying to you, but if I'm going to be honest...I am not sorry. I did what I felt was right and I'm not going to apologize for it."
Neither of the two siblings spoke for a few seconds. They just stared at each other, waiting for the other to falter. Sokka's eye's began to soften and so did Katara's. She walked to her window with her arms crossed and watched birds flying from a distance in the sky. Sokka just glanced at her, waiting for her to say anything.
"What else did you hide from me?" She asked, not even bother to look back at him. Sokka sighed.
"We met with Aang on Kyoshi Island to catch up.", he confessed.
Katara scoffed, "Of course you did. No wonder you didn't ask me if I wanted to come with you."
Sokka had no response for that. What could he say? It was the truth after all.
"At this point I was worried about you. Since he left you were barely smiling so I tried to convince Aang to come back."
"You did?" Katara asked, now looking at him.
"Yeah...I hate seeing you down Katara. I told Aang that you were miserable without him and insisted that he come back so that you would be better but he couldn't. He just couldn't face you again without feeling miserable himself." Sokka explained, closing his eyes before continuing, "I still remember seeing the hurt look he had on his face. Aang didn't want to go back to the way he was before he left and even looked terrified at the aspect of it. Whatever pain he was feeling after knowing about you and Zuko...it really scared him"
Sokka opened his eyes and looked back to his sister. Tears had started swelling up in her eyes and her arms dropped to the floor as she looked to him.
"Did I really...hurt him that much?", Katara sniveled.
"Yeah, you did. But I know you didn't hurt him intentionally and Aang knows that too", Sokka stated.
His assurance however did not placate her. Katara knew that Aang loved her and would be hurt when he found out about her and Zuko, but she never meant for him to be so hurt that he would become scared. She never wanted that for him. Katara thought back to how desperately she wanted him back and was now thinking of how much pain he would suffer had she managed to successfully bring him back to her. She admonished him for leaving but never took the time to truly understand what her relationship with Zuko did to Aang. Especially after all they have been through together.
Katara buried her face in her hands and sobbed into them. Her knees gave out, causing her to go down until her brother caught her and held her in his arms. She clutched on to Sokka and buried her head to his chest.
"I didn't mean to hurt him Sokka! That was the last thing I ever wanted to do to Aang...I never wanted us to be like this" she cried.
"Shhhh, I know you didn't mean it Katara. I already told you that I know you didn't do it intentionally and Aang knows it too." Sokka consoled her, he rubbed his hand on her back still holding her as she let her tears flow. "Just try to be more understanding with him. He made the decision to leave because he felt that he had no other choice, not because he wanted to."
Katara still sobbed on his chest, but nodded to indicate that she was listening to him.
"I'm not going to rag on you for choosing to be with Zuko. You made your choice on who you wanted to be with and Aang accepted that. So now you need accept how he chose to deal with it. Okay?"
At this point Katara had stopped crying and nodded her head again.
"When we get to Ba Sing Se, I'll talk to Aang and try to convince him to talk to you again and you two can hash it out. Maybe you two will finally be able to go back to normal after talking."
"Okay" Katara sniffed as she pulled her head back and wiped her tears. She looked up to her brother and smiled, "Thank you Sokka"
"No problem little sis. Now let's eat some meat! I'm starving." Sokka replied with a grin. Katara slapped his shoulder playfully.
"You just had to ruin the moment" she giggled.
"Oh please! If anything I added more to the moment. Meat makes things better after all" Sokka declared.
"You are such a meathead", but Katara wouldn't have him any other way.
After steering Appa for an hour, the air bender decided to sit with his friends. There was hardly any clouds in the sky so he didn't have to worry about any storms delaying them on their travel.
"Alright buddy, I'll just let you lead the way back to Ba Sing Se" Aang said to Appa. The bison grunted in agreement with him. Aang jumped up from Appa's head to the saddle where Suki and Toph sat relaxing. Toph had let go of Suki and gripped one hand on the edge of the right side of the saddle while petting Momo who rested on her lap with her other hand. Suki sat across from her on the left side.
"You two excited?" Aang questioned them.
"You know it Twinkle-toes! No offense to Sparky, but it's way too hot and stuffy out in the fire nation and I couldn't wait to get out of there" Toph grinned.
"Same", Suki agreed, "Plus I've missed spending time with my girls, so it will be nice to hang out with them and meet the new recruits. Only down side is not having Sokka around"
"Spirits Suki, I know you're in love with Snoozles but you don't gotta spend all your time with him", Toph snorted.
"I don't spend all of my time with him Toph!" Suki retorted.
"Then other than when you're going to the restroom to do your business, when were you not with him these past few days?"
"I-I-I...well...one time I-...Ummm" Suki stammered as she struggled to think of an example of when she and Sokka weren't together. Her face going red as her mind went blank. Toph turned to Aang.
"She's blushing right now isn't she?"
"Her face is almost as red as a tomato" Aang chuckled.
Suki crossed her arms and pouted. Aang scooted over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Don't be upset Suki. We're just teasing you. If it helps, I think you and Sokka are a really cute couple"
With that, the Kyoshi captain stopped pouting and felt herself light up at his words, "Thank you Aang"
"Moving on from the sappy couple that is Snoozles and Honey, let's start talking about you air boy", Toph suggested. Aang pulled his hand off of Suki's shoulder and looked to Toph.
"What about me?" He wondered. Although he had a feeling about where this conversation would go.
"Why did you lie to Katara when she asked if you still loved her?"
Aang sighed, nothing could ever get past his earth bending Sifu.
"What would have been the point in telling her that I still loved her even after all these months?" Aang sighed, "She's with Zuko so there's not point in telling her"
"Maybe she was just curious", Suki suggested.
"Even if she was curious, what would she have done if I told her the truth? Nothing. She wouldn't do anything other than pity me"
"So are you never going to tell her the truth then?" Toph asked.
"No", Aang spoke without hesitation, "Katara doesn't need to know."
"If that's how you feel then we'll accept it Aang. We just don't want to see you two fighting with each other."
"It's not like I wanted to fight her but she wasn't really giving me much of a choice. Maybe If I had just gone along with water bending practice, we wouldn't have ended up fighting"
"No twinkle-toes, you were right to stand your ground like that. I don't care if you did leave her hanging for months. You don't owe her anything.", Toph insisted. Suki nodded her head in agreement.
"Toph is right Aang. I can understand that Katara wanting to talk and spend time with you, but she didn't have a right to try to force you to go with her after you've already said no to her."
"Do you guys really think so?" Aang wondered.
"Of course we do. Don't get me wrong, I love Sugar Queen but she's not perfect. She can get really bossy when she doesn't have things going her way.", Toph asserted.
"If she tries anything else like that again then you can count on us to back you up." Suki reassured. Aang was glad to know that his friends wouldn't let him deal with his problems on his own.
"Thanks, I really appreciate that...I just hope that Katara and I can still be friends after all this." Aang replied with a smile.
With that came a moment of silence as the three pondered in their minds. They all laid on their backs. Suki and Aang talked about the shape of the clouds until Toph decided to bring up what she was thinking about.
"So I just realized something...", she asked as she gazed with empty eyes towards Suki and Aang.
"What is it?" Aang asked.
"You two talk to each other a lot more now than you used to", Toph stated. Suki and Aang looked at each other until Aang pushed himself to sit up and turned his head back to Toph.
"What do you mean? We've always talked to each other"
"Not like you guys do now. While the war was still going on, you two would just greet each other and barely conversed at all."
"That's not true...", Aang turned to Suki, "right?"
"When we met with Suki at the railway station that went into Ba Sing Se and went on the Serpent's pass, you two didn't talk much.", Toph pointed out.
"Well...I was more concerned about Appa more than anything else at the time..."
"And then when Suki got back with us after Snoozles and Sparky come back from the boiling rock, you didn't talk much then either."
Toph had a point. During the war, him and Suki never had a legitimate conversation between each other. Sure they were busy with trying to end the war but Aang still made time to talk with the others. He never thought much about it until now even though he considered the Kyoshi captain as his friend.
"Don't be so hard on yourself Aang. I never really made much of an attempt to talk to you because I was either busy talking to Sokka or I was...well too intimidated by you" Suki spoke up as she sat up as well.
"Intimidated?" Aang wondered as this came as a surprise to him.
"HOLD UP! You were intimidated by twinkle-toes? He is quite easily the least intimidating person I have ever met!" Toph exclaimed.
Aang looked back to her and narrowed his eyes, "Gee thanks Toph..."
"Hey I'm just stating facts here", Toph shrugged. Aang was going to argue until Suki spoke up again.
"Aang is still the most powerful bender in the world Toph. His past life before Avatar Roku was Avatar Kyoshi who was someone I've admired ever since I was a child. From all the stories I heard, she was an amazing women always fought injustice and even lived over 200 hundred years. I wanted to be so much like her and became a Kyoshi warrior so that I could."
Aang and Toph listened intently as Suki went on.
"When I first met you Aang, I was in awe of you, but I was also intimidated by you. When I first saw you, I assumed that you were just some weird happy go lucky kid only to find out you were Kyoshi's air reincarnate. There was so much I wanted to ask but I was too nervous. So I kept my distance from you and then Sokka would distract me from thinking about you. I was hoping that Sokka would formally introduce me to you when we finished our training together but then Zuko attacked us and you all had to leave."
Suki curled her knees up to her chest and hugged them as she went on.
"For a while I saw you as Avatar Kyoshi's reincarnation and not as Aang. I would eventually see that you are a really great guy that just wanted to have fun but still had to save the world. When I got to see you all again while working security at the railway station and then again after escaping the boiling prison, I wanted to close to you but we were dealing with whatever was happening at the moment. I think the most we ever talked was the last time we were all on Kyoshi island and I finally got to know you."
Aang said nothing and thought about what she had admitted. It wasn't a secret that she looked up to Kyoshi, but the fact that Suki had felt intimidated and nervous around him saddened him.
"Suki...I'm sorry that I...well made you feel that way", he tried apologizing but she wouldn't let him. Suki moved up to him and put her hand on his.
"You have nothing to be sorry for Aang. I was the one that was overthinking everything. We're friends now and always will be. That's all that matters to me now." Suki assured him. Aang smiled and threw his arms around her. She held him in her arms in return. He was glad that he made the stop to ride the Koi fish because had he not, then he never would have met Suki. As they broke their hug, Aang remembered something.
"Monkey Feathers! I can't believe I forgot" he cried out. Suki looked at him with a worried expression.
"What is it?", she asked.
"I was suppose to give you a message from Yue. I spoke to her while I was on my way to save you all. She appeared to me when I was thinking of ways to avoid confronting Katara. She made me promise that I would talk to Katara", Aang explained.
"Yue? Wasn't she suppose to be that northern water tribe princess that Sokka fell in love with? And even turned into the moon spirit?" Toph wondered.
"The very same", Aang answered.
"What was her message for me?" Suki questioned. The fact that Sokka's past love had wanted to say something to her caught her off guard. She never met Yue and only knew what Sokka had told her about the princess.
"Yue told me that she's happy that Sokka has you now. She said that you're really good to him and honestly I gotta agree." Aang grinned.
"She really said that?" Suki was surprised. Aang nodded his head. She couldn't believe that a girl that she heard so much about and never met had felt that way about her.
"Wow...I guess that takes a load off of me. I'd be lying if I said I didn't worry about the moon spirit being upset with me because I'm with Sokka now" she remarked.
"Didn't you meet Snoozles before he met Yue anyway?" Toph inquired.
"Well yeah but I didn't think I would ever see him or the others ever again when they left" Suki answered.
"Well congratulations, you got the moon spirit's blessing to be Meathead's girlfriend" Toph stated, clapping her hands unenthusiastically.
"Guess I do..." Suki shrugged and turned back to Aang with a grateful smile, "Thanks for passing the message...and for agreeing. It means a lot to me."
"It's no problem" Aang grinned.
"I know I was never curious about what you guys did before meeting yours truly, but I wouldn't mind hearing more about this Yue chick" said Toph. Aang perked up at this, eager to tell them what happened in the North Pole.
"How about I start at the beginning then? We finally arrived at the North Pole..."
Katara stood before the door to Zuko's office. A couple of hours after eating with her brother, she was informed by a royal servant that the fire lord wished to speak with her. On her way, she wondered what it was Zuko wanted to speak to her about. The arrangements for her and Sokka to take an Air ship to Ba Sing Se the next day was already set, so what more could he wish to speak to her about? Then she started to think about how little time they had spent together since she had come back from Omashu. Katara had let herself drown in a sea of sadness after realizing that Aang was initially avoiding her. She remembered how Zuko, Sokka, Toph, and Suki did whatever they could to make her feel better but just couldn't. She had been so distraught over Aang that she neglected to spend a lot of time with them and neglected to take care of herself properly. Whenever she did choose to spend time with any of them, all she could think of was the air bender. She would keep wondering where he was, what he was doing, and wondered if she would ever get to see him again. Although when he finally came back, nothing went the way she had hoped and he had left again.
'I know Sokka said not to be so hard on myself...but how can I not be? I made the situation between Aang and I worse.', Katara sighed and shook her head, 'No point on dwelling on it too much...I'll try to be better when I see him again. I can't lose him again...'
She took a deep breath and knocked on the door lightly.
"Come in.", Zuko called out. Katara turned the door knob and opened the door. When she stepped in, she saw her boyfriend sitting at his desk. It looked like he was going through some files. Closing the door behind her, Katara walked up and stopped in front of his desk.
"You wanted to talk to me?" Katara queried. Zuko shuffled up the papers on his desk and put them to a side. When he finally looked up to her, he seemed nervous. One hand was on the desk tapping away while the other he used to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
"S-s-so...um...H-h-h-h-ow wasss your day?" Zuko stuttered. Yup, he was definitely nervous. A baby turtle-duck could see how antsy he was being.
"It was good. So what's up with you?" She questioned him.
"N-nothing is wrong...with m-m-me." Zuko blurted. Katara wasn't having any of this.
"Zuko." She said with an authoritative tone and crossed her arms, like a parent scolding their child. Zuko took a deep breath to calm himself down.
"I wanted to talk to you about...us" he confessed.
"Oh", Katara wasn't sure what to expect, "What about us?"
"I want to break up with you Katara" Zuko winced. He finally said what he wanted to say for a while now. It was now or never for him.
"HUH?! Why? Is it because we haven't had any time together?" Katara demanded. She knew that she hadn't spent a lot of time with him but she didn't think he would break up with her over it.
"It isn't because of that. It's because I realized that my feelings for you aren't what I thought they were Katara." Zuko replied.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I don't really think of you in a romantic way like I thought I did" Zuko explained. Katara narrowed her eyes at him.
"We've been together this long and NOW you realize that?!" She fumed.
"Well not now...It started when I had suspicions about you and Aang a few weeks back"
"What suspicions?" Katara scowled. Zuko felt glued to his chair, unable to get away.
"That you really do have feelings for Aang"
"What?! How could you think that? That's not true" Katara denied and slapped her hands on Zuko's desk. However, Zuko, annoyance rising in him, didn't waver and stood up.
"Cut the crap Katara! Ever since he left, Aang was all you could think of. Even when we were together I knew you couldn't get him out of your mind."
"I was worried because Aang is my best friend. He left without giving us any notice so of course I'll keep wondering about him and whether or not he's okay!" Katara objected.
"You were obsessed with him Katara. You went as far as threatening King Bumi with violence if he didn't tell you where Aang went!" Zuko pointed out.
Katara twisted around and made a dash for the door. She couldn't stand to hear any more of what Zuko had to say. Before she could reach the door, she felt Zuko's hand pulling her arm.
"I had copies of the scrolls that contained information on Aang's whereabouts that were sent to you. Be honest Katara and tell me how you felt when you read about his stop in Lu Rane village...about that water bending girl he spent time with."
Katara clicked her tongue, still not looking at him. She remembered her exact reaction.
"Tell me" Zuko ordered.
"Fine! I was angry and threw the scroll at the wall. I thought he was trying to replace me and it just made me mad" she confessed. Zuko's grip on her remained firm.
"Tell me how you felt when King Bumi told you about the prostitutes he sent to Aang's room during his stay in Omashu."
She twisted her head back at him, seething at him. Zuko stood his ground and waited for her to answer him.
"I was angry at Bumi for pulling such a disgusting prank like that on Aang and...I felt relieved when he told me that Aang didn't have sex with those women." She confessed again. She realized what Zuko was trying to do.
"Tell me how you feel when you think of Aang being in a romantic relationship with another girl that isn't you"
Katara thought back to the first time they landed on Kyoshi island and the time Aang had thrown the dance party for the fire nation students.
"I-I feel bothered when I think of him being in romantic relationship with another girl. I don't like the idea of him being like that with someone that isn't me."
There it was. Her answer confirmed what Zuko suspected and even now he wasn't bothered by it.
"Now I want you to tell me one final thing. Tell me how you feel about Aang."
Katara looked away from him and gathered her thoughts before finally answering him.
"Aang...he's my best friend. He has always been such a sweet and funny guy. He's very mature for his age. Even if he does like to play around a lot. He was the first person to believe in me and was willing to take to me to the North Pole to learn how to water bend even after we had just met. He reminded me what it was like to have fun again and was always there for me when I needed him. Aang would always find a way to make me feel loved and cherished. Whenever I was around him, I always felt happy. After spending almost a year with him, I couldn't imagine my life without him in it and when he left...it was like a part of me was gone."
Tears started to swell in her eyes when she remembered how she felt after Aang left. How distraught she was without him by her side. With each word she spoke, she felt herself become lighter. She looked back up to Zuko, who was smiling at her.
"You're right Zuko...I do have feelings for Aang. In fact, I think I'm in love with him." Katara finished and then wiped the tears out of her eyes.
"I told you so. I knew I was right." Zuko chuckled and finally let go of her arm.
"It doesn't bother you?" Katara wondered.
He shrugged, "It doesn't. When I realized it didn't bother me, I started to question my feelings for you. I would think back to our dates and remember how uncomfortable I felt when you wanted to do stuff like those dancing routines and talk about our feelings. We would almost always fight too. I felt like I had to change who I was when I was around you and I wasn't happy about it. You and I are too different from each other and we both wanted different things."
Katara reflected back on her secret meetings and dates with Zuko. She remembered always having to be the one to come up with ideas on what to do. When she had brought up the idea of dancing, he was resistant to it. Sadly he wasn't a very good dancer like Aang was and had managed to step on her feet and drop her more than once. Zuko wasn't the best at talking about his feelings either. Katara couldn't blame him for that considering the environment he grew up in. Talking about feelings would have been seen as a sign of weakness in his family. When Zuko became more resistant to what she wanted to do, they would end up arguing with one another. Katara had hoped that their relationship would be able to thrive after the war ended, but it didn't.
"I would think of Mai a lot whenever you and I were together. I remember being happy and content with her. I miss her."
"Didn't she betray Azula so that you and Sokka could escape the boiling rock with my dad and Suki?" Katara asked.
"Yes...yes she did. She had to rot in prison for helping us and what do I do in return?" Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and cringed inwardly.
"Yeah..." Katara replied awkwardly. He didn't have to say it but she knew what Zuko meant. A part of her wondered if Mai hated her for taking Zuko.
"So I guess we're breaking up" she stated.
"Yeah, but it doesn't mean that you and I still can't be friends. I still care about you and always will." Zuko insisted.
"I'll always care about you too Zuko" Katara stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. Zuko returned the friendly embrace. After some seconds, they broke off their hug and smiled at each other.
"So are you going to try to convince Mai to take you back?" Katara asked.
"Well I'm definitely going to try. I just don't know how I'll be able to convince her" Zuko answered, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "What about you?"
Katara's smile fell. Although she knew now what her feelings for Aang were, she didn't know for sure if he would reciprocate those feelings. Aang did tell her that he didn't love her anymore after all.
"Aang told me that he doesn't love me anymore...so I don't think he'll want me ever again", Katara groaned.
"Do you really think that he doesn't love you anymore", Zuko inquired.
"Why else would he say it?"
"I think it's possible that he was lying to you Katara"
"But why would h-..." Katara then remembered what Aang had said to her.
"You don't need to pity me any more Katara."
'Maybe that's why he would lie. He thought I would just pity him for still being in love with me', she thought to herself. She didn't know that entirely for sure though. For all Katara knew, Aang could have been telling the truth but a part of her didn't believe it. Either way, Katara was going to find out for sure if Aang still loved her or not. She was determined now more than ever to see him again.