A/N: Surprise surprise, I'm back super soon XD Tbh that's all thanks to you guys, your reviews and kind words made me feel motivated to get this out to you all sooner as my way of saying thank you. Honestly, it really made my day, so I hope you enjoy this update.
6 hours later - Night Time:
Katara's POV:
It's a little after 1am when the door of the hotel room creaks open. I look up from the desk to find Aang's lips parting as he stares at me.
"I thought you'd be asleep." He starts with as he continues to hover at the half-open door, looking ready to exit it once more. I shrug.
"I was looking through those sheets of paper that Azula gave us, but haven't had any luck in finding another person who bends blue flames. Either she's lying to us or not every employee was registered under the company." I explain as I lean back against the chair rest. Aang continues to stare at me and I shift in discomfort at the attention. "What?" I echo back with a frown. That seems to snap him out of it as he shakes his head.
"I just...you always seem to work so hard." He murmurs softly. I splutter, but quickly hide it with a cough.
"So is the life of a doctor." I deflect nonchalantly. Aang watches me for a moment more before slowly nodding his head.
"I suppose." He voices unsurely as he finally enters the room completely and clicks the door shut behind him. "I'm going to get some shut-eye." The Airbender adds after a beat of silence and starts making his way to the sofa. I frown when he sits on the couch.
"I told you that sleeping on the sofa isn't good for your recovery." I remind, making the man pause in his movements. His eyes return to mine as his feet settle back on the floor.
"I don't want to make you uncomfortable." Aang finally says. I quirk an eyebrow at him.
"If I recall correctly, wasn't it you who freaked out this morning?" I point out, only for the Air Nomad to snort.
"Don't think I can't read you well enough to know that you felt very out of place." My former husband voices, his tone hitching ever so slightly. I swallow and shake my head.
"I was taken by surprise is all. Besides, I much prefer for you to sleep on an actual mattress than that thing." I urge, but the Airbender doesn't look convinced.
"I don't think..." He starts, but I quickly interrupt him.
"It's only one more night, right? It's not going to kill either of us if you slept on the bed." I insist firmly. Aang closes his mouth and glances between me and the mattress before releasing a sigh.
"If you're sure you're fine with it?" The man presses. I wave my hand.
"Completely." I lie. At that confirmation, the Airbender slowly moves off the sofa and goes over to the bed where he pulls up the duvet and lies down. I wait 20 minutes until his breathing evens and his light snoring vibrates throughout the room before my fingers twitch and I sag in my chair.
I glance at the papers in front of me, most of the words have just merged into one big fuzzy blob after staring at them for so long. There was only a few more papers to look through before I finished and I guess with Aang asleep, I have nothing better to do. I switch the lights off and just keep the desk lamp on. 'Guess I'm pulling another all-nighter. No way do I want a repeat of last night.' I sigh to myself and pick up another sheet of paper.
It's two hours later when I hear Aang stir in the bed. I pause and hold my breath.
"Katara?" Aang calls out sleepily. I groan silently.
"Yes?" I call back. He doesn't reply immediately, but I watch him slowly swing his legs over the edge of the mattress before moving to stand and look at me.
"You're still awake?" The Airbender asks with a frown as he starts making his way over to me.
"I wanted to finish looking through these papers." I say as I lift a random sheet that I had already read an hour ago. Aang scrutinises me as he rests a hand on the desk beside the pile I've finished.
"You don't have to lie to me." He voices softly. I gulp and avert my eyes.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I mutter. I hear him exhale heavily as he shifts to lean against the edge of the desk so that he can gaze at me.
"I'm not going to sleep on the bed if it means you're going to stay up all night to avoid being near me." Aang utters and I cringe when he puts it like that.
"It's not like that." I protest weakly. The Airbender snorts as he crosses his arms.
"Then what else is it? Because it seems pretty obvious to me." Aang voices with a scowl. I clench my teeth.
"I was trying to be polite." I shoot back as I lean against the back rest.
"Oh so lying is polite when you do it?" Aang retorts. I clench my hands and roughly push back my chair to stand.
"You have some nerve to call me into question over lying when that's all you ever did!" I grit back.
"You're being..." The Airbender cuts himself off as he sharply looks to his right. I frown.
"What are you..." I start, but I never get the chance to finish as the ground ripples with violent shaking before giving way beneath our feet. "AH!" I yell as we plummet through the hole.
"KATARA!" Aang shouts as he moves to grab my arm, but we're falling so fast that he fumbles and misses. I glance down and my stomach twists sickly when I see how deep we're falling through multiple stories of the hotel. A gust of air has me looking up as the Airbender wraps his hand around mine and grabs a nearby protruding rock, leaving us dangling in midair as rocks and building materials continue to collapse around us.
"Spirits!" I curse as Aang tries to heave us up onto the floor above us. "Aang, the rubble!" I shout, making the man snap his neck up as large slabs of rock descend at an alarming rate. The young Avatar grits his teeth and bends them to the side, narrowly missing us as it continues its rapid descent past us.
"Shoot!" Aang mutters as he tries to lift me up again. It's only when I see his arm shaking from the strain that I realise he's using his injured arm to pull me up. 'Double shoot.' I think worriedly as I try to stretch an arm to grab something to hold onto. "More rocks oncoming." Aang warns as he bends them away, but the building is so unstable that the rock we were clutching into gives way and we return to plummeting down as more building parts hurtle past us.
I raise my arms to protect my head, but nothing hits me. Looking up, I find that the Airbender has formed a ball of air around us for protection, but it does little to slow the velocity of our fall. I glance around, hoping to see something we can latch onto as we get increasingly close to the ground. In my frantic search I spot something that makes my stomach churn.
"Aang, the-!" I don't have time to finish my sentence, because the wall beside us collapses forwards and everything goes black after that.
30 minutes later:
I awaken to the smell of smoke. My eyes flutter open to meet darkness and I almost wish I stayed passed out as shooting pain runs up my leg.
"Gah!" I gasp out. A hand settles on my forearm and gives it a light squeeze before moving away.
"Hold on, I'm trying to make a tourniquet." Aang mutters and only then do I feel something like fabric being tightened around my mid-thigh. I release an undignified yelp. I feel the man wincing. "Sorry." He mumbles as he tightens the makeshift bandage once more before making a knot.
"Shoot." I curse when he finally finishes and appears in my line of sight. His face looks like it took a right beating with cuts and scrapes littering his cheeks and forehead which furrows in deep concern.
"Hey." The Airbender greets gently. I release a deep breath and try to sit up, only to flinch violently. "You shouldn't move, you had a metal pole wedged into your leg." Aang voices as his face twists at the thought.
My face pales and I try again to sit up, gritting my teeth as I move. Aang releases an exasperated sigh as he shifts to take me by the arm to help pull me forward. The world around me spins and I can feel myself falling backwards. Both to my relief and dismay, I find my head landing on something soft and warm instead of the hard unforgiving ground. When I glance up, I find two dark eyes looking down at me and if I wasn't in so much pain, I'd be shrivelling up in utter mortification at using Aang's chest as a head cushion.
"What happened? How long was I out?" The barrage of questions escapes past my lips before he can say anything else. His lips part before he looks the other way, making me frown. "Aang?" I probe as I shift slightly off him, confused about his reaction.
"I don't know what happened exactly. Some sort of explosion is my best guess. And...you were out for probably over half an hour." The Airbender mumbles as his grip around my shoulder tightens slightly. 'Oh. That's what that look was for. He was worried.' I swallow and against my better judgement, I lean back against him, surprising the man.
"Do you think the others are ok?" I ask, my voice small as thoughts of Sokka flashes in my mind, but Aang is quick to reassure me.
"Considering Toph is the best earthbender we know, I don't doubt she felt the tremors a mile away and got the other two to safety." Aang reminds with a smile. I bite the inside of my cheek, feeling unsure. 'As true as that is. The whole building collapsing is surely a bit too much, even for her?' I wonder anxiously just as the Airbender gives my shoulder a light squeeze. "I'm sure Sokka is fine." Aang insists, as if reading my thoughts. I give him a wiry smile.
"I hope so." I reply as I finally chance a look at my leg that continues to scream in agony. It's dark, but I can just make out a pool of something sticky on the ground. Having worked with it for years, I instantly know it's blood. A lot of blood.
My eyes immediately snap to the Airbender who's been able to mask his subtle tremors until now. "Oh jeez. Aang?" I prompt as the Airbender continues to look away. I glimpse to the side to find his other hand shaking. I instantly reach out for it and clutch it firmly. "Hey, it's ok." I hush gently.
The Air Nomad doesn't respond and so with my free hand, I reach up to cup the man's cheek and urge him to look at me. It's hard to make out his expression in the darkness, but when something moist hits my cheek, I already know what's running through his mind and my stomach twists.
"I'm ok." I murmur as my thumb brushes over the wet trail of tears. He takes a shuddering breath and nods.
"Y-Yeah." He breathes back haltingly. I bite my lip.
"I can't believe you didn't pass out from the blood." I try to joke, knowing that it will probably fall flat. A bark of dry laughter rips out of his throat.
"Trust me, I was very close to, but..." Aang trails off and I continue to stroke his cheek to encourage him to carry on. "Well, I couldn't let you bleed out, could I?" The Airbender ends with, his voice becoming more and more strained. Something in my chest melts and the urge to give him a peck on the cheek is so strong that I drop my hand and swallow.
"You very likely just saved my life, so thank you Aang." I murmur, but the Airbender shakes his head.
"We're not out of the woods yet. We're still stuck deep under all this rubble. I tried moving some of it, but every time I do, something else almost collapses in on us. It's all very unstable." Aang complains.
I purse my lips in thought and move to sit up properly, I bite my tongue as I'm reminded by the throbbing pain from my thigh, but I won't be any use by just lying down, so I push on. Being reminded by own injuries, has me suddenly wondering about whether my former husband had sustained any himself.
"Did you hurt yourself in the fall?" I suddenly ask as I drag my gaze over the young Avatar who's watching me with a frown. At my question, he scratches the side of his head, but when he does so, I notice a malalignment of his shoulders and widen my eyes. "Your left shoulder!" I gasp. He cringes.
"Yeah, I think I may have dislocated it. Hurts a whole lot more than I thought it would." Aang grumbles as he drops his uninjured arm. I scowl at him.
"You only think to mention this now?" I accuse irritably as I reach forward with the intention of popping it back in place. But when I take hold of his bicep, he flinches. My eyebrows furrow and I flicker my gaze up to find the man's face twisted in pain. "Spirits, this is the arm you fractured from Yon Rha, isn't it?" I query as I loosen my grip on his arm. Aang nods.
"Yeah, I guess it wasn't as healed as I thought it was." Aang mutters. I chew my lip.
"I need to pop your shoulder back in place. It's going to hurt." I warn as I get ready to push the humerus head back into its socket. Aang gives me a wiry smile.
"At this point, what doesn't hurt?" He jokes lightly, but his words leave me frowning, so with an awkward cough he nods his head. "Ready when you are." Aang adds. I nod and with a swift jerk, I push the joint back which prompts a low-pitched scream from the Airbender. "AH!" I wince, for more reasons than one.
"Sorry." I mutter, but when I pull back a bout of dizziness washes over me and I grab my head.
"Jeez that was painf...hey, are you ok?" Aang asks quickly as he shifts to his knees to crouch in front of me. My hand drops to my abdomen where I press my fingers into my belly. Wet stickiness greets me. 'Just great.' I curse. "Katara?" Aang repeats worriedly as he reaches out towards me. I flash him a quick smile, but it ends in a grimace.
"I'm sorry to ask this, but did you notice any bleeding elsewhere?" I query. The Airbender appears confused for a moment as his gaze flickers down before his face suddenly pales.
"You're still bleeding." Aang echoes hollowly as his hands frantically snap forward to lift up my blouse. I resist the urge to slap his hands away and cautiously glance down. I feel sick just looking at it. The diagonal slash is narrow, but long, stretching across half my abdomen as it continues to seep out blood.
"Great." I mutter as another bout of light-headedness hits me. Aang's hand starts trembling once more and it's enough to snap me out of my mind fog.
"You need to heal yourself." The Airbender orders. My lips part as I stare at him and I feel my own hand shaking.
"W-what?" I echo back as the man grasps my shoulders.
"You have to heal yourself! You've already lost a lot of blood while you were unconscious and you're still bleeding from your thigh. Not to mention this new cut." Aang elaborates while gesturing to my bleeding stomach. I shake my head.
"I-I can't! I stopped using my bending." I stutter. Aang's jaw drops.
"You're going to pass out from blood loss otherwise!" He hisses as he reaches forward to press his palms against the wound. I inhale sharply at both the physical contact and the pain.
"I'll just wrap my jacket around it." I say while shrugging off the thin cardigan. Aang glares at me.
"You know as well as I do that constricting the area isn't enough. We either need stitches or waterbending. Since the first one is unavailable and I never learnt the second one, we're left with one option and that's you." The Air Nomad reprimands with frustration. I can feel his hands shaking as blood begins to seep past his fingers. I bite the inside of my cheek hard.
"But..." I start, only for the man to cut me off.
"You just healed someone literally today! So, what's the big deal?" Aang bites and I shoot him a glower and pry his fingers off me.
"He would've died if I did nothing! There's no way I could have someone's life on my hands." I argue. The Avatar throws up his hands in disbelief.
"Oh, so it's ok if you die?!" Aang fires back as he stares at me incredulously. I falter.
"I... I'm not going to die." I protest feebly as I slip my arms out of the cardigan. My former husband growls. A sound I've never heard from him before.
"STOP IT!" He barks which makes me widen my eyes in shock. "You've lost close to a litre of blood already. I don't care that you used bloodbending on me!" Aang shouts angrily. I clench my jaws. "I just want you to heal yourself." He ends with as he pins me down with his fiery gaze.
"But I care!" I shout back as I wrap my arms above my waist. Aang's eyes flash.
"If this is about your dumb moral code, it's not worth dying over!" The air nomad grits out. I dig my fingers into my sides as I glare at him fiercely.
"This isn't about that! I hate myself for what I did to you. I...I kept thinking that maybe if I hadn't done that you wouldn't have walked out on me. Maybe you wouldn't have disappeared for years. Maybe...you'd still love me enough to come back." I croak as my throat tightens with years of suppressed emotions being let out. "I wanted you back so badly, but bloodbending ruined that. It created a wedge between us that can't be undone." I choke out. Aang parts his lips as he continues to stare at me.
"T-That's not true." He argues weakly. I screw my eyes tightly.
"Don't lie to me. Yon Rha might've been the start of it all going wrong, but my actions were the catalyst." I mutter as my head starts throbbing from the loss of blood and I half wonder if delirium has taken hold because why else would I be telling my former husband all of this? A whimper has me re-focussing in the Airbender whose eyes have filled with tears.
"I don't want you to die. P-Pease don't let me see you die." Aang cries out as he bends forward and bows his head before me. "I can't let you die. I can't be the reason. N-Not again. Never again." He chokes out as he firmly presses his forehead into the ground.
Something in my chest shatters at witnessing both his pleading words and desperate behaviour. 'How can I possibly deny him after all that?' I lift up my hand and stare at the blood that stains it. The memory of using the ability on Aang has my fingers trembling once more, but I push on and press my hand against the laceration, using the blood as the much-needed liquid to heal. The darkness lights up with the glow of healing.
After so many years of not using my bending, it feels just as foreign as it did earlier today. Yet with it, there's a certain level of familiarity. A core part of me that I've denied for so long. When I drop my hand into my lap, I gaze at the neatly closed line on my belly. Yet another scar.
I can feel Aang's gaze on me, but I don't meet his eyes as I unwrap his hazardously made tourniquet. Blood immediately splutters out and I feel myself getting increasingly lightheaded. I apply pressure to the injury and quickly try to heal it. Considering it pierced multiple layers, I don't have the energy to do a perfect job of it, so it's no surprise that my thigh continues to ring with a dull ache even after I've finished. I raise a hand to my head as a headache starts to take form. 'I forgot how straining healing can be.' I murmur to myself.
"Katara?" Aang's quiet voice finally cuts across the silence, as if he's worried that I'll self-combust on the spot. I massage my throbbing temples.
"Just dizzy is all." I reply, answering his unspoken question. I hear him sigh as he shakes his head.
"You're so stubborn." Aang breathes out. I scrunch my nose at him.
"Gee, thanks." I reply dryly. The Airbender rolls his eyes, but before I know it he pulls me into his arm, flushed against his chest. I blink twice in surprise. "Aang?" I probe in discomfort. That is, until I feel his shoulders shaking.
"Don't ever scare me like that again." He whispers. 'Oh jeez, he was really worried.' I swallow and give his back an awkward pat, but the longer I stay in his arms the heavier I feel my eyelids become and if I slip into a come right now, it wouldn't do either of us any favours, so I pull away from the man as soon as his shudders ease.
"We need to find a way to get out of here." I say as I pull my top back down. Aang nods his head and rises to his feet with difficulty. I frown. "Are you..." I start, only for the man to interrupt me.
"I just landed funny is all. I'll be ok." The Airbender answers with a smile as he offers his hand to me. I take it and despite his injuries, he pulls me up with ease. The world spins around me and I have to clutch my head with my free hand and close my eyes to stop the vertigo. I feel a squeeze from my other hand and I re-open my eyes to find Aang peering down at me with tightly knit eyebrows.
"Don't worry." I reassure him with a wave of my hand, but he doesn't look the least bit convinced.
"Maybe you should lie back down." He suggests, but I slip my hand out from his and shake my head which I regret when I see black dots dancing across my vision.
"Maybe after we get out of here." I say, but as soon as I lift one foot to walk, my muscle spasms and if Aang hadn't grabbed me, I know I would've fallen flat on my face. I flush when I look down to find that in the Airbender's haste he wrapped his arms around my waist to stop my descent. When our eyes meet, Aang subconsciously leans forward and my heart races, but he seems to catch himself at the last minute as he releases his hold on me and straightens up.
"Maybe I should have a look around first." Aang mutters as he brushes past me. I stare after him before jerking my head away, trying to busy myself with looking around when really, I'm trying not to scream at myself for being so foolish. 'What was I expecting? Aang was the one who left me, not the other way around. He's the last one to want us back together. Yet, why does he claim to love me and detest my words of hate? He's not making any sense! Either he wants one or the other, he can't just keep toying with me like this. Yon Rha or not.' I think angrily as I clench my hand hard.
"The whole thing is unstable." Aang voices as he drops down from his perched position up on a metal plank. I turn away from him and really take in our environment properly. It's like a dingy cave. Our breathing space is a 1 metre box that Aang likely had formed with both his earthbending and airbending judging by the way all the broken building structures are pointing away from us.
There doesn't seem to be any gaps or inconsistencies between the wedges of rocks. Plus, going off what Aang said, the whole thing is way too unstable to move. It would've been fine if we were near the top, but this far down the bottom, we risk getting ourselves crushed. So, we're effectively trapped. And with only a 1 metre box, it can't be that long since we run out of clean oxygen.
The smell of smoke that seemed to wake me up earlier seems to be getting stronger and I can tell it's only a matter of time before something else explodes from an unsafe electricity cable or our oxygen supply gets burnt through faster. 'We've already lost 40 or so minutes while I was passed out. Plus at least another 30 mins since I've woken up. How long do we have to get out of here? Normally it would be something like 4 days in a seal tight room. But that's not including other variables such as Aang being an Airbender with a greater affinity for air, whatever is burning the oxygen nearby and who knows what else. We could have anything between a couple of hours to 2 days.' I massage my forehead as I feel a tension headache coming on.
"Katara?" Aang calls out. I turn around slowly to find the man gazing at me in concern.
"Yeah?" I mutter back.
"You look tense." He comments. I roll my eyes.
"What is there about this situation that I shouldn't be tense?" I say sarcastically. His eyebrows shoot up to the tip of his arrow as he watches me wearily.
"Did I do something wrong?" The Airbender asks as he drops the hand that he had pressed against the wall. I wrinkle my nose and look away.
"What makes you think that?" I query in agitation.
"You aren't meeting my eyes." Aang points out. I bite the inside of my cheek.
"It's nothing." I mutter, but the Airbender isn't convinced as he crosses the distance between us.
"It's obviously not nothing." Aang insists. My fingers curl into a fist.
"What do you care?! After this is over, you're just going to disappear again anyway!" I snap, taking the man aback as his jaws slacken.
"That was always the arrangement though!" Aang protests. I clench my teeth. 'Of course. This small blip of time we spent together didn't matter. I told myself I'd keep my distance, but just being around him is affecting me in ways that I didn't want.'
"Forget it." I mumble. 'No need to make a fuss. This is what I wanted anyway. Isn't it?' Aang reaches out to take my wrist between his fingers. His gaze softens at my scowling one.
"You really don't hate me, do you?" He teases lightly. My scowl deepens and I'm just about to snatch my hand out of his grip when he reaches forward to tuck a frazzled strand of hair behind my ear. I freeze.
"Stop it." I whisper. His eyebrows furrow together as he watches me.
"Stop what?" Aang presses as his hand lingers by my cheek. I push him away.
"Stop pretending that you love me when you're just going to leave again." I utter sharply. My former husband sighs as he withdraws his hand.
"Why do those two have to be connected?" Aang asks with a touch of exasperation. "I can leave and still love you." He explains, but to me those are just contradicting sides. But I'm tired of arguing with him. I'm tired full stop. I've pushed myself for years with no break and I'm finally feeling the after-effects as my eyelids feel more and more like weights, pulling me down.
"Can you just find a way out of here?" I say, changing the conversation. Aang doesn't seem pleased, but mumbles something anyway.
"Sure." He voices as he walks to the other end of the 1-metre space. As soon as his back is turned, I release a silent cough into my hand. When I pull my fingers away from my mouth, bright red blood greets me. I grimace. 'That can't be good.'
My eyes flicker up to watch the Airbender as he drops his knee to the ground and presses a hand into the dirt. 'I should probably tell him.' I think half-heartedly. But as I continue to observe him, my reluctance grows. 'No point getting him worried for no reason.' I decide with a sigh. Although it's probably more to do with not wanting to talk to him to start with.
"I think I have an idea." Aang's voice rips me out of my thoughts. Blinking, he lifts his head towards me. "I could earthbend a tunnel under all this rubble and make an opening when we've passed it all, but it will be quite dark inside." The Airbender suggests. I nod my head.
"That will work." I agree as I walk over to the man. When he glimpses up, his lips part as he scrutinises me. I frown.
"What?" I echo. His lips love wordlessly, before he shakes his head.
"Nothing. Step back a little." He instructs while dropping his gaze to the ground. I stare at him in confusion, but do as he says. Aang snaps his hands down and suddenly a man-sized hole appears as the earth gets pushed down. "I'll hop down first." Aang says and I watch him disappear down the dark pit in a strikingly familiar fashion to when he did the same during those trials in the ancient library. The thought of it leaves me nauseated. "Katara, are you ok to jump down?" Aang calls back out from below.
I peer down into the hole to find the Airbender about a metre down. My hand subconsciously brushes against my thigh, but I hopefully should be able to manage. And with bent knees, I jump. When my feet touch the ground, I wobble and my vision wavers. 'Jeez, I definitely did more than just lacerate my thigh and abdomen.' I think silently as I hold onto the side of the man-made wall to steady myself.
I can feel Aang's gaze on me as I wait for my vision to adjust, but it takes longer than I anticipated and I find my knees weakening underneath me. 'Oh shoot.' I silently curse as I feel myself leaning more and more against the wall. My head spins again and in my dizziness, my knees buckle.
"Katara!" Aang's frantic shout is enough for me not to black out completely and when I open my eyes, I find Aang's face hovering over mine with panic-filled eyes.
"Sorry, my head is still spinning." I utter as I massage my forehead. I can hear...no, feel the man's frantic heart beat as his hands rests against my cheek. It's only then that I realise he broke my fall and settled my head over his lap. 'This is the worst.' I complain to myself as I feel my body flushing in embarrassment. I try to get up, but my limbs feel too heavy to move.
"Spirits Katara, why didn't you tell me you still felt unwell?" Aang queries as he swallows thickly. I squint up at him. Anxiety is clearly written on his features as his hand on my shoulder tightens slightly. His other hand is cautiously wrapped around my waist to stop me from slipping onto the ground. And in that moment, I just wish we could stay like this.
"I thought it was fine." I mumble. Aang bends his head until he presses his forehead against mine. Upon contact, I instantly know I'm not fine. The coolness of his skin is a stark contrast from the clammy heat of mine. 'What kind of doctor doesn't even realise they have a fever?' I berate with a low groan. Aang bites his lip as his gaze flickers between me and the dead end of the tunnel.
"I could carry you while I earthb..." Aang starts, but I immediately shoot up from his lap at the suggestion. Stars dance across my vision once more, but I stubbornly refuse to appear that unwell.
"No!" I blurt out, surprising the Airbender as he stares at me cautiously.
"You've been unsteady on your feet since you came to. You're going to fall again." Aang insists stubbornly. I wrinkle my nose at him. 'Sure, maybe he doesn't get stomach flips when I'm nearby, but I certainly do when he's in such close proximity to me.' I begrudgingly admit to myself.
"I'll just...lean against you if I feel off." I concede. Aang seems ready to argue, but decides to let it slide.
"Alright." He murmurs reluctantly. He takes hold of my elbows and pulls me up with him. Another wave of vertigo overcomes me and I find myself leaning forward to rest my head on the nearest thing.
"Katara?" Aang's quiet voice vibrates around me and when I re-open my eyes I realise why. My forehead is resting against his chest and I can just about feel his heart beating beneath me. It's lub-dub rhythm seems a little too fast to me, but he's probably just worried.
"Sorry." I mumble as I move away from him. I spot him chewing his bottom lip before he hesitantly wraps an arm around my back.
"Don't apologise." He whispers. A lump rises up my throat at his kindness and I force my eyes to be trained on the ground rather than him. 'Dumb feelings. Dumb fever. Dumb blood loss. Dumb everything.' I silently complain. "We're going to move forward slowly, ok?" Aang suggests gently. I give him the briefest of nods and that's what we do.
We walk slowly and after every few steps, Aang would push his free hand out in front of him to bend back the earth and elongate the tunnel for us to walk through. I can feel my quadriceps tiring and find myself leaning more and more into the Airbender as we walk. But every time I find my side pressed into his, I jerk back slightly, only to find myself leaning back again.
"Do you want to take a break?" Aang asks as we pause. I shake my head.
"No, we need to find the others and make sure they're ok." I say, sounding more breathless than I anticipated. The Airbender scrutinises me and shifts his arm around me.
"Katara, you've been jerking away from me the entire walk. I know the circumstances aren't ideal, but if you feel that uncomfortable around me, then I can..." I interrupt him before he can finish.
"It's not that." I mutter. My former husband stops in his tracks as he scans my face.
"Then what is it?" Aang queries in confusion. As I gaze up at him from this close up, I know I'd be fooling myself if I said I didn't still love him. I don't know what it is that makes me say my next words. Maybe it's the throbbing pain from my leg or the fever or the tightening in my chest. But I don't stop myself.
"I missed you." The whisper is so quiet that it could've honestly been an incoherent grumble.
Yet, I feel Aang's shoulder muscles tensing underneath my hand from where my arm is slung across as he helped me walk. His lips part as he stares at me, looking so obviously caught out by my statement. I close my eyes. 'Idiot. What good will saying that do?' I pull away from him and opt to rest my hip against the rough rock wall beside me.
"Forget I said anything." I mutter. I hear him audibly swallow before he shifts to stand in front of me. He bends his knees slightly, so that our eyes are level. Somewhere during my 3rd year at medicine, the boy had shot up and became taller than me.
"That's kind of a hard thing to forget." Aang murmurs gently as his features quirk up with a soft smile. My heart skips. "I missed you too Katara." He voices quietly as he takes my hands. My lips start trembling and I have to press them tightly together to still them.
"Then why can't we go back to how it was before?" I ask, the desperation that I had hid for so long coats my tone.
Aang's face crumples and it takes me a few moments before I realise why. My shoulders are shaking and I'm crying. Like a pathetic little girl, big bulgy tears escape down my cheeks. I'm engulfed into his warm embrace less than a second later.
Somewhere down the line, we swapped places. Once there was a time that I'd give him comforting hugs after either a nightmare or to cheer him up. But that line blurred and he became the one comforting me, holding me as I cried on my mother's anniversaries and when Yon Rha was found not guilty of her murder and then again when working as a doctor became too much for me to handle. And now he's doing it again. My biggest source of comfort, who, when he left, took a part of me with him.
"It's ok Katara." Aang hushes softly as he runs a hand up and down my back. I press my face into his shoulder, too embarrassed with myself to face him and yet not wanting him to ever disappear again.
When my tears eventually dry up, I finally muster up the courage to pull myself away. My eyes skirt away from his, knowing that I completely exposed myself to my former husband which I had promised I wouldn't do.
"You know, the whole thing is kind of ironic, huh?" Aang says, breaking the silence. I glimpse at the Airbender who's rubbing the back of his neck.
"What is?" I ask with a quirked eyebrow.
"We both want things to return to as they were, but circumstances just push us apart." The Air Nomad explains as he leans his back against the rocky wall. I bite my lip and wrap an arm around my waist.
"Yeah." I mumble as I'm cruelly reminded of why things won't change and therefore it being utterly pointless to be vulnerable like that.
"So, I'm guessing this means you don't hate me then?" Aang brings up cheekily. I cringe and fix my gaze onto the ground.
"I... shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry." I apologise as I ring my hands together. Aang pushes himself off the wall and returns to standing in front of me.
"Hey, I'm not looking for an apology." The man ushers lightly, but he's still as transparent as ever and I know it had hurt him when I said it. It's probably why I had said it in the first place. But I don't want to keep being mad at the man. It's become too exhausting and quite frankly it's hard to keep clutching onto the anger when he's looking at me all gentle like that.
"I don't hate you." I utter quietly. I hear him release a shallow breath.
"Well, that's a relief. Part of me really thought you did." Aang laughs awkwardly, but it's a ruse to mask the sting from those words. I lift up my head to find him rubbing the back of his neck again.
With a flicker of hesitation, I stretch out my hands to cup either side of his cheeks before I lose my cool. Aang inhales deeply at the action. I don't know what possesses me, but I push myself up onto my tip toes and lean forward to kiss his forehead. I can hear Aang's breathing hitch as soon as my lips press against his skin, but I withdraw before he can say or do anything else. His hand absently moves to touch the spot where I had kissed, as if stuck in a daze and I can't help the slight smugness I feel at still being able to elicit such a response from him after all this time.
"W-What was that for?" He stammers when I slip my hands off his face. I flush at his question when I realise I've been crossing way too many lines.
"You're technically still my husband, aren't you?" I say flippantly. Aang's jaw hangs open as he stares at me.
"Well, yes, b-but..." He falters.
"Can't a wife give her husband a peck on the forehead?" I carry on. The Airbender continues to gawk at me before lurching forward to feel the temperature at my forehead.
"Jeez you're burning up. No wonder why you're being delirious." Aang mutters as he drops his hand from my face. I'm just about to retort when I feel the need to vomit. 'Aurgh. What if he's right and I'm just saying a bunch of stuff that don't actually mean anything?' I half-wonder as I bend forward in the hopes that the nausea will pass. I feel a tug on my sleeve and the next thing I know, the Airbender is hoisting me up in one arm.
"What on earth are you..." I start in shock as Aang continues to earthbend with his free hand.
"The more delirious you get, the more urgently we need to get you to a hospital. We're nearly out from the rumble above us, so just hang in there." Aang explains without meeting my eyes, but the light pink dusting across his cheeks makes me wonder if my behaviour did have some effect on the man. I sigh as some of my usual logic returns to me in spades. 'Spirits, what am I doing?' I groan internally.
"Is it selfish...that I want to forget everything and just go back to how it was too?" Aang whispers. I blink twice and twist to meet his eyes, but he's not looking at me. His gaze is firmly fixed in front of him.
"No." I whisper back.
"You'll probably forget this by the time you wake up again, but I know you used your healing at least one other time during the past 5 years." Aang murmurs, as if stuck in thought. I frown at him and shake my head.
"How...how do you know that?" I echo back as I feel a sudden chill go down my spine.
"Because it was me who you used it on. The stumbling masked man in the alleyway was me." Aang's voice is so quiet that I have to strain my ears to hear him, but when I do, I freeze.
"You...?" I repeat back numbly.
"It's where I got the huge scar on my chest." The Airbender clarifies as he raises a hand to rest it against his sternum. "Who'd have thought you'd be right where I needed you to be to save my life, huh?" Aang continues as if stuck in an old memory.
The nausea that I've been trying so hard to battle against makes its way up my throat. Turning my head away from the man, I vomit. And again, until I'm empty. Hands run down my back and through my hair but my mind is too fixated on dredging up that memory that I've all but cast aside.
As a doctor, you get so used to helping people, even outside of the hospital. Giving CPR, wrapping up a nasty cut, lifting someone's legs when they've passed out. The only reason that memory somewhat stuck is because it was the only time I had to use my bending in years. Now I find out that it was my husband that I had saved. 'What if I had hesitated in using my bending? What if he hadn't made it and it would've been all my fault? What if...I just took his mask down and saw who he was?' My head spins again, but this time it spins in a way that tells me I'm going to pass out soon. My hand jerks up to grab the Airbender's collar.
"If I forget all this, remind me." I wheeze as Aang's face contorts with worry.
"Wait, what..." He starts as my head starts pounding. I slip my hand off him and clutch my head. 'Too much blood loss.' I think numbly as my vision blurs. "Katara!" I hear Aang calling, but his voice sounds faint and far away, as if I'm floating on a cloud.
The only thing I'm aware of is strong shaking and then a tight hand on my hip as I'm probably hoisted up. Then something warm and moist presses against my cheek. And then again at the corner of my lips. 'Was...was that a kiss?' I half wonder before darkness takes over completely.
A/N: Ok don't get too happy, I'm not quite ready to end this story so we've still got way more angst to deal with XD Currently writing chapter 17 at the mo, not sure how many more chapters this story will have, but I don't think it will be too many more – 25 chapters maybe? Hard to say as I usually let the story guide me. Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter. Next update may or may not be next week, might have to give next week a miss, we'll see. Till next time!
14/2/24