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Chapter Text

Shining hazel eyes. Bright robes made up of strips of fabric coloured in shades of sunset they almost never saw down in the Southern tribes. Katara wasn’t quite sure what to make of the boy sprawled across the ice in front of her. One minute, she’d been getting upset with Sokka over how rude he was being about her water-bending, and the next, she had split a massive iceberg clean in half and released some glowing beam, a blue-arrow-tattooed teenage boy, and his hulking fluffy monster-dog-bear-thing. 

The boy would later tell her that it was called a “sky bison”, and that it flew. Sokka would not believe this. She had rushed over the hill towards the bluish glow, tumbling through the snow until she had seen him. 

Shining hazel eyes. Bright robes made up of strips of fabric coloured in shades of sunset they almost never saw down in the Southern tribes. 

The most beautiful boy she’d ever seen .

She couldn’t help her lips parting slightly, jaw hanging slack before she remembered herself. The boy sat up, and Katara tried her best to focus, to gather a cohesive thought.

“W-What is it?” She breathed, whispering for some reason as if the boy would spook and disappear if she was too loud. 

“W-Will-” he struggled, the words so hoarse that it was as though he hadn’t used his voice in decades. He cleared his throat, eyes sparkling distractingly, grinning roguishly. “Will you go penguin sledding with me?”

Katara blanched, momentarily caught off guard. She looked back over at Sokka, who had been watching the exchange with narrowed eyes and a suspicious expression as he recrossed his arms over one another. 

“I- um-... yes?” she answered, hesitantly, just as Sokka’s voice overlapped hers, yelping the words “She absolutely will not!” Katara shot him a scathing glare as the boy rose to his feet, shaking the snow off of his cloak like a polar-bear dog. 

Sokka continued, his voice both indignant and commanding.“We don’t even know your name, Mr. Walking Ice Cube! What were you doing in there? Were you trying to mimic a snow-man and you got too carried away?” 

“And you aren’t dressed for the cold,” Katara added appraisingly, giving him a once-over. “You look-”

“Dashingly handsome?” The boy smoothly interjected, accompanied by a grin that felt like it was just for her.

“...Cold.”  she said flatly, hoping she wasn’t furiously blushing as she shot him with what she hoped came across as a scathing glare.

Aang chuckled, pushing himself up with his hands on his knees. He was… taller than Katara had realised, taller than Sokka. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, turning to look over his shoulder at the remains of the boulder-sized chunk of ice he had just been blasted out of.  “Aang. My name’s Aang.” He hesitated, momentarily seeming to puzzle something over. “And honestly? No clue. Don’t remember how me and…Appa!” He yelped, suddenly scrambling back over the hill of ice and snow. Katara followed him without thinking, and Sokka, grumbling under his breath, followed moments later. 

Katara was honestly sure that nothing could have prepared her for her first sighting of a sky bison. The creature Aang called “Appa” was huge, towering over all three of them. Aang had run straight for his side, moving more swiftly and lightly than Katara would have thought possible. With a jump, he launched himself at one of Appa’s six legs, wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug. Katara giggled behind her thick seal-fur gloves, the show of affection strangely tugging at her heartstrings. Sokka, meanwhile, remained unamused.

“So, you’ve brought a monster to invade the village, then? You’re some incognito Fire Nation soldier sent in as an undercover scout? Well, I’ll have you know that I’m the village’s strongest warrior, a-”

“The only warrior,” Katara chimed in, lightly elbowing Sokka’s side, earning herself a responding glare. 

“The strongest warrior.” Sokka reiterated. “And I don’t much like firebenders.” He added the words pointedly.

“Ah.” Aang titled his head. “That’s a shame. Some of my closest friends are Fire Nation.”

“Of course they are,” Sokka glared, hunching over into a defensive position and adjusting his fishing spear until it pointed directly at Aang.

“Well, I certainly am not,” Aang huffed. “I’m a- ah- ah-,” he began to answer Sokka, but instead, suddenly let out a loud, booming sneeze, which launched him up through the air until he hovered higher than Appa before dropping back down and sliding through the ice until he was back in front of Katara and Sokka.

Katara and Sokka’s jaws dropped in shock. Her voice full of wonder, Katara raised one of her gloved hands to cover her mouth. “You’re, you’re an airbender .”

“Sure am,” Aang nodded with a smile, the pride in his voice evident. 

“Suuuure,” Sokka said flatly, his voice clearly distrustful. “And I’m the Avatar.”

Instead of responding in a similarly snippy tone, Aang awkwardly looked away for a moment, his body language tense before his eyes scanned the sea around them. “Do you guys not have any kind of boat? How’d you get out there in the first place?” 

“Ask my magical sister,” Sokka snipped, sticking his tongue out at Katara.

“Magical?”  Aang’s nose wrinkled in confusion, head tilting before his eyes widened in understanding. “You’re a waterbender!” Katara nodded, and Aang beamed, clearly excited before an idea came to him. “Well, if you guys are stuck, Appa and I can give you a lift!”

“Appa can give us a lift?” Sokka said incredulously. He gestured at the sky bison, sprawled across the ice and looking as though he could sleep for weeks longer. “If anything, he looks like he needs us to lift him up off the ground.”

Aang just grinned toothily, and minutes later, after a few attempts to get up onto Appa’s saddle and the words “yip yip!”, the three of them sat on the back of a flying sky bison. 

Naturally, Sokka was still a skeptic. “A pulley system! Hot air from a hidden firebender! Secret underwater sea-vents! Or maybe we all ate something funny and all of this is all in our heads… ” He finished off his sentence by wiggling his fingers as if he was ready to cast a spell.

“Sokka, I think Appa is about to throw you off if you keep accusing him of being a fake.”

Sokka was ready to snap back at Aang with even more ludicrous theories, but stopped when he looked over at Katara. He leaned over, waving his hands in front of her face. “Katara? Earth to Katara?”

Katara snapped back to focus. “Huh?” 

“You were staring, at-”

“The sky!” Katara interrupted, before Sokka could follow her line of sight back to Aang. “It’s- it’s so nice from up here.” She smiled awkwardly as Aang nodded his agreement. She wasn’t quite sure why she had been gazing at him since they’d taken off. There was something so different and so familiar about him. She felt an odd urge to get to know him better. And she was more than intrigued that he was an Airbender in a world she was sure no longer had monks. There was a reason she and Sokka had found him, and frozen in an iceberg of all places! She just knew it. There had to be something greater behind this.

When they landed just outside the village, to say the village children were excited would have been an understatement. Squeals of joy and excitement bounced between nearby glaciers as kids yelled into tents and called one another together, and in no time, Aang was surrounded by a hoard of small children, pinching and pulling at his robes and petting Appa by smacking grubby hands against the fur of his legs. Aang had only chucked, tugging off one kid that had wrapped around his leg.

“They’re… well, we don’t see newcomers or visitors up here much.” Katara smiled as Aang offered her a hand to get down from Appa’s saddle. She slid down the slope of the sky bison’s back, landing gracefully. “At least, not the kind you want to have.”

Aang followed her eyes to a series of sticks with Firebender helmets haphazardly balanced on them, then sighed deeply, turning back to her with a sympathetic look in his eyes. “I understand. Believe me, I do.” He was distracted by one of the nonsense-jabbering kids at his feet, asking him why he was blue. Aang smiled softly, kneeling so he could look the kids in the eye.

“So I can do this ,” he grinned, and pulled out marbles from his bag. Holding out his palms, he spun them in a circle using air, his face the picture of excitement. The kids oo-ed and ah-ed appropriately, clapping their hands and cheering.

“Again! Again!” They cheered, tugging at Aang’s robes some more, but Aang simply promised to show them more later and turned to ask Katara if she wanted to take him up on his penguin-sledding offer. They set out across the tundra to the spot Katara remembered going to with Sokka when they were little, walking in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

Katara still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Aang. The Water Tribe boys had always been all flashy muscles, seal-jerky breath, and overconfidence, so Katara had never seen someone move, carry themself, the way Aang did. Besides, much of them had gone off to aid their fathers or find their place on the mainland against the troops of the fire nation. She hadn’t really gotten to hang out with guys around her age in years. 

“No one’s seen an Airbender in…quite some time.” Katara said the words gently. “How’d you find your way up here, anyways?”

“You mean, no one’s seen an Airbender up here in a while? Yeah, I still don’t remember much, but I’m pretty sure I just brought Appa out here so I could check out the South Pole.” He said the words with a strangely manufactured casual air. She opened her mouth to say that what she’d really mean was that no one had seen an Airbender for a century, but she held her tongue, sure that it would be wrong to remind him of his own peoples genocide. There must have been Airbenders who escaped then, ones who quietly stuck to the shadows. 

Katara had admittedly forgotten how much fun penguin sledding was. “Spirits, I haven’t done this since I was a kid!” she called to Aang as he raced past her, surprisingly skilled considering that he’d never even seen a penguin until half an hour before. 

“You still are a kid!” He called back over his shoulder. “A kid who’s losing this race, badly !”

Katara’s competitive streak reared its head, her eyes narrowing as Aang stuck out his tongue. She sat up slightly, no longer gripping the penguin’s fur as tightly. “You wish!” She shouted back the words as she raised her hands, breathing deeply. Her hands moved through the positions she had practised from the few bending scrolls the tribe still held on to, and before Aang knew it, the snow in front of Katara turned to ice, and she shot past him as his own ice trail suddenly became dry snow with too much friction to slide on. 

She made it to the bottom of the hill, beaming, breathing heavily. The wind had whipped her hair out of her bun, and she knew without checking that her hair must have looked like a lion-turtle’s mane. She watched as Aang made a show of drying himself off with a gust of wind that he then redirected at her, messing up her curls even more. 

“You’re a cheater !” Aang gasped, mockingly clutching imaginary pearls at his throat. “I demand a rematch.”

Katara strode past him, only turning her head to cast him a smug smirk. “Maybe you’re just not as good of a penguin sledder as you thought .”

“Oh, not so fast!” Aang grabbed her wrist, tugging her back towards him, and she internally questioned why the momentary brush of their skin made her heart flip. He tried to trip her, she tried to flip him, and they both ended up on their backs in the snow, giggling, cheeks and noses bright pink from the cold. 

She rolled over onto her side, noticing a simple linen and wood bracelet around Aang’s wrist. She reached out before she could think better of it, lightly brushing the wood with her fingers then awkwardly withdrawing her hand. “I thought monks weren’t supposed to have earthly possessions?”

“Ah,” Aang smiled, sitting upright. “I made an exception for this one. My friend, Monk Gyatso, he made it. It’s a reminder of my people. Air nomads raise children in communities, often send them to different temples, so… I never really knew my parents. Gyatso was the closest thing to family I had. He was a… mentor of sorts, I guess.” He shrugged, clearly trying to keep it light, but she could see in the way his eyes glistened slightly that Gyatso meant a lot to him. 

“I get it.” Katara smiled. “Me and Sokka’s dad went off to fight against the fire nation years ago, and our mother-” she coughed, trying to cover the way her voice had caught in her throat. “My mother…passed, some time ago.” She reached up to her neck, fingers subconsciously brushing the familiar cloth and stone necklace. 

“Was that hers?” Aang looked sidelong at her, the empathy in his eyes almost too much for Katara to bear. “It’s…beautiful.”

Before she could nod her response, she heard a shout from across the ice. She rose to her feet, brushing off the bits of snow that clung to her jacket, only to see her brother jog across the snow toward them. Sokka shot a side eye at Aang and Katara, looking between the two of them judgmentally, before telling them that Gran-Gran wanted to meet their new visitor. 

The trio walked quietly across the ice, and Katara tucked away the memory of Aang saying the word “beautiful” to her, tucked away the image of his eyes sparkling as he pretended to be furious when she beat him at sledding. 

When they had returned to the village, Sokka made a beeline for the elders tent right away, where Gran-Gran was already waiting. The moment Aang ducked through the doorway to join them, Katara watched her grandmother’s hands begin to shake. 

“Gran, I want you to meet Aang, he’s-”

“An airbender.” Her grandmother said the words with complete and utter awe. “The last airbender.”

Aang’s nose wrinkled in confusion, his head tilting and mouth opening to ask for clarification, but Gran’s next words stunned him and the rest of the room into silence. 

“The Avatar .”

Sokka and Katara’s jaws dropped, both pivoting to face Aang. Katara looked up at him, expecting to see shock and confusion, but she was met with sheepishness as Aang rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

“You are .” Katara breathed. “Spirits, you’re the Avatar.” Sokka muttered something under his breath about knowing that he would have probably been able to figure that out himself, and Katara kicked him in the shins in response.

“I…” Aang trailed off, turning to look at the painted map hanging across the heavy canvas wall. He reached out, tracing lines through the different territories. He hung his shoulders, then looked back at them. “I never wanted to be. All my life, it's just made me different, and, well, it's drawn a lot of unwanted attention. A couple years back, when I was about 13, a comet came overhead that boosted the Fire Nation’s bending. They came for my temple, for me, so that I wouldn’t stand in the way of their plans for world domination, but I went into this… thing called the Avatar state, and I fought them off.”

“ All of them?” Sokka asked incredulously, sounding uncharacteristically impressed. Aang nodded, then continued. 

“After the fight, the monks increased my training, then shipped me off to the Water tribes to learn waterbending once I’d fully mastered Air. Or, at least, they intended to… there was a storm. I think that’s how I wound up frozen. Spirits , I must’ve been stuck in there for weeks. “

Katara, who had been quietly listening, suddenly felt a flicker of recognition. “The comet… Aang, we haven’t had any comets since Sozin’s comet.”

Aang nodded tersely. “That’s the one.”

Katara’s face paled in shock, along with Sokka and Gran. “Aang.” She stepped closer, tentatively resting a hand on his forearm, which was still grazing the map. She pulled it down to his side, then pulled away, but kept her hand near, as if she worried he would collapse. 

“I think you’ve been in the iceberg for more than a handful of weeks.” Sokka said the words hesitantly, stepping towards them until he was beside Katara, facing Aang alongside her. Katara looked back at her brother, then drew in a steadying breath. 

“I think you’ve been in there for a hundred years .”

Katara watched as her words seemed to cut through Aang, his world crumbling inside of his mind. She watched him realise that all of the monks he had known, including Gyatso, had lived and died, had spent entire lifetimes without him. She wondered how much worse it would be when he found out that there had been a second attack on the Air nomads, probably orchestrated to line up with when he was being sent South. That not just the Air nomads he had known, but every Air nomad in existence had been wiped out by the Fire Nation. Katara had never felt more powerless than how she felt in this moment. There was nothing she could do, nothing she could say, that would even come close to easing the pain and shock Aang was likely experiencin g.

But she didn’t have to.

Because before she could speak, before Aang could speak, horns blared through the crisp air outside. Horns the entire village knew, horns that prompted screams from children. 

Another Fire Nation raid.

Aang didn’t pause, didn’t let himself hesitate. Katara didn’t blame him. She was sure that if he thought about it for more than a few moments, he’d crumble entirely, and considering the situation they were now in, they couldn’t afford for Aang to sort through everything.

Katara didn’t realize how dire a situation it was until the three of them had reached the gates to the village, and Katara watched as the hull broke through centuries old ice as if it were butter. Sokka ran ahead as the bow of the ship split open in a rush of steam and machinery. Katara felt the blood drain from her face as she saw who stepped out. The Fire Nation prince. The one who had been scarred by his own father. He was here, in her village. Terror began to set in.

Prince Zuko wrinkled his nose at Sokka as though he was nothing more than an inanimate obstacle in his way, and shoved him aside, his soldiers following suit. 

“I have come here for the Avatar. For my honour ,” Zuko snarled, his words a sharp, lethal weapon. “I know he’s here. I saw his beacon. He should be an older man? Master of all four elements?” His eyes swept through the crowd, passing right over Aang as his gaze narrowed on Gran and the other village elders. Katara felt Aang tense beside her.

With no warning, Zuko and his soldiers blasted a wave of fire straight for the grandmothers and grandfathers who had huddled together. 

And their fire was met by a gust of wind so powerful that it sucked the very oxygen out of the air, extinguishing their flame before it got anywhere near their targets. 

Zuko whirled around, his voice contorting in anger at the sight of Aang, standing tall and proud with his staff in one hand and a constantly spinning sphere of wind in the other. 

“You?” Zuko spat, seething. “I’ve trained for years to face the Avatar. You’re just a teenager.”

Aang, somewhat caught off guard, leaned back, raising an eyebrow in confusion, a teasing grin on his face once he’d realised that he’d managed to bother the Fire Prince himself. 

“...S- so are you...?"

Chapter Text

“You?” Zuko spat, seething. “I’ve trained for years to face the Avatar. You’re just a teenager.”

Aang, somewhat caught off guard, leaned back, raising an eyebrow in confusion, a teasing grin on his face once he’d realised that he’d managed to bother the Fire Prince himself. 

“...S- so are you...?"

Zuko straightened, fire flaring in his eyes, his fists tightening as the air around them began to sizzle and steam. “A child. A child managed to outmanoeuvre me. A mere boy was running circles around the entire crew I command for years.”

“No, a teenager . C’mon, give me my credit, I had a whole growth spurt and everything, do I really still look like a child to you?” Aang put on a falsely sincere tone, bending his knees and tensing his body into a defensive stance. “You hurt this village, or its people, and you’ll see just how much more than ‘just a teenager’ I am.”

Zuko scoffed, fire again lighting up his palm. “Big talk for a pacifist monk.”

“Sure, as a monk, I won’t start a fight.” Aang grinned. “But I can finish them.”

This set Zuko off, and when he shot another wave of fire, this time directed at the young airbender, Aang was ready for the attack, already spinning through the air to block the onslaught with his whirling staff. Spinning the glider rapidly, Aang blinked through the steam. This only angered Zuko, who sent an onslaught of attacks rapidly back towards Aang. The airbender did his best to deflect and redirect, but once the flames started getting closer and closer to hurting Katara and the other villagers, he stuck his staff straight into the ground and held out his hands, releasing a mighty blast of wind that knocked Zuko to the ground. 

“Enough.” Aang scoffed, the disgust in his voice evident. “If I go with you, will you leave this village in peace?”

Zuko glared up at him as he pushed himself off of the snow, then steam enveloped his body again for a moment as he vapourised the snowflakes clinging to his traditional armour. “You have my word.”

“Your word means nothing, Fire Prince .” Sokka spat out the title as if the very syllables were laced with venom. Aang only held up a hand to Sokka to indicate that he needed to calm down, then moved to step forward, only to be stopped by a grip on his arm. He turned to Katara, her smaller hand wrapped around his broader forearm, her lip held between her teeth in fear. She wondered if he could tell just how much fear was coursing through her body. She couldn’t let the Fire Nation take more from her than they already had. Couldn’t let them take more from the world. Aang was the Avatar, finally emerged after all these dark years without them, and to let him fall right into the genocidal hands of the Fire Nation? 

It was about the same as just handing them over the rest of the mainland. 

Aang placed his other hand over hers, gently tugging his forearm out of her grasp so that he could envelop her palm softly. He leaned in, lips almost brushing her ear as he whispered. 

“I promise, I’ll find a way out. I’ll come back to you, and to Sokka. Keep this safe for me, would you?” He pulled away just as quickly as he had pulled her in, and Katara looked down to see that Aang had slid Monk Gyatso’s bracelet around her own wrist. She looked back up to watch as Zuko’s cronies tied Aang arms together, threatening him with spears until he trudged onto the ship. With a final menacing glare at the village people, Zuko and the rest of his men followed suit, trudging up the sloped ramp into the darkness beyond. 

Katara felt a little piece of something inside her break with the click of the ship’s hull closing.

There was something so unsettling about being given so much hope and having it all ripped away from her only over the course of one day. She watched the ship push off from the ice and turn away, moving toward the imprisonment of the boy Katara had just realised could save the world. Her gloved hand stayed clasped over her mouth, her body frozen in shock, as she watched the ship fade. After a few minutes, she became aware that Sokka was tugging at her coat. She blinked, shook her head, and turned to him.

“Katara,” Sokka said urgently, and Katara knew what he was going to tell her before he said a word.

“I know. We have to go after him, somehow.” Katara bit her lip, absent-mindedly playing with Aang's bracelet, still woven around her wrist.

Sokka nodded sharply. “He’s our responsibility, no matter how much I berated him when we met earlier. We need to find that sky monster of his, it’s the only way we’ll be able to catch up with the ship.”

“Aang called it a sky bison.”

“He also didn’t tell us that he was the Avatar, so I’m not sure if we can take everything he says at face value,” Sokka pointed out as Katara rolled her eyes. He cocked a grin. “C’mon, let's go get the little guy.”

“Aang’s taller than you!” Katara called after him, rushing to keep up with Sokka’s longer strides.

“Sure, in his dreams !” The decidedly-shorter-than-Aang boy called back. 

When they did manage to find Appa, he was sitting at the rear entrance to the village, peacefully napping and ignoring the flood of small children poking at his fur. When he raised his head to look up at Katara and Sokka as their footsteps approached, the sky bison looked less than amused.

“Here’s the deal, bucko.” Sokka said matter of factly, accompanying his words with sharp gestures and exaggerated syllables, as if Appa was deaf. “Your friend needs your help, and WE need YOUR help to get to him. You get the picture?” Without waiting for any kind of affirmation, Sokka nodded briskly then scrambled up to Appa’s back, settling into what appeared to be the driver's seat. 

Appa did not move, didn’t even blink.

Sokka blinked, utterly bewildered. “How do we get him to, y’know, go ?”

Katara scoffed, stepping closer and resting a hand on the creature’s nose. Appa huffed and leaned into her touch, then sniffed, making a sad rumbling noise. Katara’s brow furrowed in confusion until she followed Appa’s line of sight to Aang’s wood and linen bracelet, clasped loosely around her wrist. She clumsily reached for it, sliding it off awkwardly to hold out to Appa.

“He needs you.” Katara breathed, “Aang needs you.”

“He’s not gonna-” Sokka started, but as Katara slid onto Appa’s back, they felt him begin to levitate. Sokka huffed, crossing his arms dramatically. “Spirits, I hate when you’re right and I’m wrong.” Too concerned to snap a retort back at Sokka, Katara just settled down into her seat, anxiously picking at the leather of her coat. 

She didn’t stop until the ship came into view. She could see Aang on the deck, the look of relief plain on his face. He called something out to them, but the wind swept the words away before they could hear. She felt a flicker of relief when she noted that Aang’s ankles and wrists were no longer shackled, but she felt her stomach drop when she realised that Zuko was also there, actively firebending directly at Aang. Aang, light on his feet as ever, was managing to dodge his attacks, but it was bringing him closer and closer to the edge of the boat. Katara twisted her lip with nerves as she watched Aang’s calves bump against the edge of the boat.

Then her eyes followed the airbender as he slipped over and plunged into the frigid sea below.

She couldn’t help it. The minute she saw Aang’s silhouette slip below the water line, she screamed his name over and over. Appa rumbled below her, his nerves clearly somewhat resembling her own. Katara didn’t know how long it had been when she finally saw a glimpse of something in the water.

Something…glowing.

Entirely out of nowhere, Aang burst from the water, exploding in a rush of waves and splashing water. Light coursed through the arrow tattoos on his body, and when he lifted his head, his eyes were glowing. She felt her stomach flip when those intense, focused eyes zeroed in on her for just a moment. Katara, he’s looking at Appa. He’s checking that all of us are okay, she told herself, but that didn't stop a subtle blush from creeping across her cheekbones. She shook her head and focused on the scene below. Aang rose higher from the sea, and Katara noted that he wasn’t using air to do so, but water . It wrapped around him, a pillar that pulled him up and splashed him back onto the deck, where the water circled him as though it was an extension of himself. Gone were the cocky, teasing movements of a teenage boy, replaced by trained, calculated moves, practised strikes. In a matter of minutes, he had emptied the deck entirely, every Fire Nation soldier unhappily treading water in the frigid temperatures below. 

He finally swept Zuko overboard with another pointed attack, and when the coast was finally cleared, the glowing light and water disappeared just as quickly as it had come, and Katara watched Aang slump to the ground, collapsing and unconscious. Appa dove for him, before Katara and Sokka could ask him to, and once they were close enough to the deck, Katara dropped down, while Sokka and Appa stayed floating about them. 

“Aang!” She called, sliding down to her knees and pulling him into her lap so that she could check his pulse and breathing. “No, no , Aang…” Katara’s voice swept. “Spirits, are you okay?” 

Below her, Aang slowly blinked open his eyes, a smile spreading across his face. “I’m alright.” He sat up, wincing as his eyes nervously flicked over her. “Are you alright?... And Appa, and Sokka?” She nodded.

“Let's get you out of here,”Katara added, but it was Aang who reached out to her after asking first, his arm wrapping around the entirety of her waist as he pulled her to him. 

“Hold on,” He grinned, then he snapped open his glider. They floated up suddenly, carried by a combination of Aang’s bending and the winds of the South Pole, and Aang spun them a couple of times ( such a showboat , she thought) before returning the two to Appa. After all three were settled in and Appa once again began to rise higher above the horizon, painted by the orange and pink hues of the setting sun, Aang turned to Katara and Sokka. 

Katara was wide eyed. “How’d you do all of that? With the water… I thought you didn’t know how to bend it yet?”

“I…don’t.” Aang scratched the back of his neck. “But when I’m in the Avatar state…”

“Avatar state?” Sokka questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Aang nodded, continuing. “The monks told me about it after that attack on my people, during the comet. It’s all the wisdom, all the skill of every single one of my past lives. I’m at my most powerful then, able to bend every element with ease. It’s… it’s a lot of power to be responsible for.”

Katara leaned over, taking Aang’s hand in hers and gently sliding his bracelet back onto his wrist, running her thumb over the Air Nomad symbol carved on one of its beads. “I understand why you didn’t want to tell us about being the Avatar, but Aang… the world needs you now. You need to be there for it.”

He looked away. “I can take you back to the village, but I’ll have to leave right away. After… after seeing the way the Fire Nation’s tactics have changed, the way their aggression is growing… I can’t in good conscience stay here and bring them to your doorstep again.”

“Aang,” Katara said again, this time more forcefully. “I’m sorry, I hate to put more pressure on you, but… Sokka and I can’t leave. We’re coming with you. And you need to go to the Northern Water Tribe so that you can learn waterbending. It’s the only way the world can fight back against Fire Nation expansion.” She rested a hand back on his arm again. “We need you on our side.”

“I’m sorry, we’re what ?” Sokka asked incredulously. “I don’t much feel like getting toasted and roasted on a daily basis because of the airhead over here.”

“Sokka’s right,” Aang affirmed. “It’s my battle, Katara. I can’t let anyone else be hurt because of me. Enough already have been.”

“Because you tried to get away from your responsibilities. Aang, I know that the Air temples would have sent you to the Northern Tribe to learn waterbending- even a century ago, my people in the South did not teach waterbending the way that the Northerners do. You were here, frozen in the waters of the Southern Tribe because you didn’t want to follow orders, didn’t want that responsibility. You were here because you were running away. You need people, friends , to keep you on track. I’m not letting you run away again.” Katara smiled softly, looking over at Sokka. “Neither of us are.”

Aang looked between the two, seemingly contemplating before his face broke into a grin. “I won’t be able to get rid of either of you, will I?” Sokka elbowed him jokingly, smirking back. He leaned back over to his knapsack, then pulled out a somewhat crumpled map. Tracing lines across the paper, Sokka pointed out what would be the most direct route that didn’t lead them over Fire Nation territory. Aang excitedly chattered on about the options for activities on the way, while Katara just rolled her eyes sarcastically. 

“...and over here is where we can find the Unagi, I’ve heard that’s fun to ride, and here…” His voice faltered, his finger halting over the Southern Air Temple. “This is…this is home .” Sokka reached out, his hand awkwardly patting Aang’s broad back. “It’s where we should go first.” Aang sighed. “I know, none of my old friends will be left, but… I need to see it again. I need to understand how long it’s been. I need to see my people.”

Sokka and Katara only silently looked sidelong at each other, wondering how they could possibly explain to Aang that there likely wouldn’t be any of his “people” left at all. 

The trio flew on through the sunset, until Tui rose above them, pulling the colour out of the sky as if she were weaving onyx black strands of soft wool into the most beautiful of tapestries. Katara settled on her back, tugging her fur lined overcoat closer, huddled against Sokka, who was in turn huddled against Aang for warmth. Moonlight and starlight bathed the three in enough light that neither Katara nor Aang could sleep, although Sokka seemed to be snoring away just fine. After a few hours of fruitless attempts to slip into dreamland, both Katara and Aang rose from their respective spots beside Sokka and moved to sit in the driver’s bench.

“Trouble sleeping too, huh?” Aang cocked a grin, tilting his head to Katara. She kept her eyes fixed upwards, trained on the moon and the stars, worried that if she looked away, she’d end up staring into his eyes like a weirdo. 

“I always feel so awake with the moon’s light on me. Sleeping under the stars has never really been a thing that works. It’s too energising, too… too much. It’s hard to explain.”

“No, no… I get it. I feel the same way in a windstorm, all those breezes and gusts of wind, it feels… exhilarating.” She watched through her peripheral vision as he looked up at the moon. “In times of war, I think we all tend to forget how spiritual bending is at its core. I’d say it’s a good thing that you’re in touch enough with the origins of your abilities to feel the moon’s pull tug at you just as much as it does on the ocean.” 

Katara raised an eyebrow at the cheesy sincerity, and he chuckled in response. “I’m serious! Out of all the nations, Airbenders have the highest rate of benders, and I’ve always felt like it’s because of how much we connect to the spiritual aspect of all of this. We feel our element through our veins, we acknowledge its origins, we treat it as a sacred art.”

Katara nodded, puzzling it all over. “I wish I’d gotten to learn bending as a child properly, the way you did, with the stories of its origins and the teaching of precise bending forms.”

Aang’s brows wrinkled at this. “You- you didn’t get a teacher? But… weren’t you the one to break me out of the iceberg?”

“You’re looking at the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe.” She sighed, hanging her head. “Everything I know of waterbending was either made up through trial and error, or scraped together by bits and pieces of the few bending scrolls my tribe held on to. We’ve never believed in building fortresses and kingdoms the way the Northern Tribe does, and so, when the Fire Nation raids began… our waterbending numbers just continued to dwindle as they were defeated and taken to Spirits know where.” She bit her lip, trying desperately to steady her voice. “That's… that’s how my mother passed. I was there, in the tent, when she was…killed.”

“Oh, Katara,” Aang breathed, “ Spirits , I am… I’m so beyond sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologise.” Katara smiled at him through the pinpricks of tears gathering in her eyes. “It…it was my fault. I should’ve taken the fall for her. It should have been me.”

“ Katara . Your mother loved you, so, so much. She protected you because she couldn’t imagine a world without you. And you were a child , a child with no training or control over her bending. As awful as it is, you couldn’t have done anything. Shouldn’t have had to feel like you needed to do something. This, your mother, the state of the world… It's my fault. If I had been here, when I was supposed to be-”

“Aang.” Katara cut him off, looking up into his eyes. “You were a child too. It should have never been your responsibility to save an entire world. That’s too much for anyone. While it obviously wasn’t the right choice, I understand why you would’ve wanted to escape that.”

“Then can we agree that both of us have regrets we hold against ourselves that aren’t exactly fair? That both of us are critiquing our own past actions too harshly?”

Katara smiled, shaking her head. “I guess you’ve got me there.” 

Aang smiled back. “Now is our time to try to make up for that. I can’t bring back everyone who was hurt in this war, and you can’t bring back your mother, but together, the two-, three of us can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

“I’d like that,” Katara exhaled, her breath calming down and tears dissipating. The two spent hours talking back and forth, exchanging the stories of their respective childhoods. Katara learned that Aang had invented several new bending moves and had been a big fan of fruit pies, while Aang learned that Katara had always been the bossier one between her and Sokka and that she had almost chipped a tooth on seal jerky when she was six. They continued talking back and forth in increasingly hushed tones until the world faded away under the cover of clouds and sleep.

Katara awoke to the loud shout of her brother. 

“Wakey wakey, lovebirds!” he yelped, chucking a rock-hard stick of seal jerky at both of them. 

“Ouch, Sokka !” Katara snapped at him, rubbing her head at the spot where she had been hit, before realising that she was leaning against Aang and immediately jumping away, blushing furiously. 

Aang yawned, seemingly unaffected by their proximity as he picked up the jerky that had been tossed at him. Sniffing it and making a dubious expression, Aang sighed in disappointment, holding it out back to Sokka. “I’m a vegetarian, I… I can’t eat this.”

Sokka snatched the jerky out of his hand, seemingly offended by Aang’s rejection of Sokka’s favourite food. “Well then, considering I don’t have much else that isn’t meat-based, it looks like you’ll have to eat a handful of Appa’s fur for breakfast!” He looked between the two of them, grinning widely and looking immensely proud of himself. When neither of the two burst out into the enthusiastic laughter he was clearly fishing for, Sokka sat back down, huddling more closely into his overcoat and glaring daggers at the other two. “Tough crowd,” he mumbled, crossing his arms dramatically.

Aang leaned over the side of the saddle, looking down at Appa. “Are we close, bud?” Appa rumbled back, and Aang shrugged. “I get it, the clouds leave a lot to the imagination. Let me help you out.” With a few sharp gestures and deep breaths, Aang sent a gust of wind ahead of them, clearing a circle in the clouds below. Through the window, Katara could see a glimpse of imposing mountains and the spires of buildings that looked as though they could brush the stars. 

Aang’s face split into a grin. “We’re home, buddy.” He reached for Appa’s side, giving it an affectionate scratch. “Spirits, I haven’t cleaned my room in over a century. Not looking forward to that.” Katara and Sokka once again exchanged quiet, loaded looks back and forth. As they got closer and closer to the temple, all Katara could see was the chipped marble, the ivy encasing some of the structures, the dead plants and flowers. 

The majesty and beauty of the temple was obvious, but… it was also obvious that no one had been here in decades.

 The moment they settled onto the stones dug into the ground that surrounded the temple, Aang floated off of the bison’s back, as Katara and Sokka leapt off behind him. As he landed, he looked around, scratching his bald head in confusion. “I guess everybody… wasn’t ready for visitors.” Katara and Sokka both shrugged noncommittally, their nerves spiking. “Or maybe they’re just not home right now,” Aang added, the hope evident in his voice.  

Katara stepped forward, hoping that once she reached Aang, she would think of some sort of way to break the news to him gently, but before she could say a word, a sharp cracking noise echoed from below her. The sound echoed off of buildings, and both Aang and Sokka whipped around at the noise. Katara moved her foot away quickly, her heart dropping at the thought of what it could be.

Only to see a cracked Air Tribe medallion on the ground below her feet. 

Aang tilted his head, confused as Katara kneeled upon noticing that the medallion was attached to a necklace that led through a bush. She pushed aside the branches, and before she could think better of it, screamed. Aang rushed to her side before she could stop him, ignoring her attempts to push him back. He took her face in his hands, checking for any kind of injury, before following her gaze to what was just behind him.

In the bush, charred and burned, was the skeleton of what Katara was sure had been an Airbender. Although not much of their robes had survived, there were enough scraps of orange and yellow to indicate what nation they had been from. Aang’s hands fell away from Katara as he stepped back, his hand covering his mouth in shock, his breathing coming more rapidly. Katara turned back to Sokka, only to see that her brother was standing in a nearby field of grass, standing abnormally still, staring down at the boulders and sticks surrounding him. 

But they were not boulders, were not sticks. They were bones , bones of people Aang had known, the bodies of those who Aang had seen as family. Katara couldn’t imagine how Aang was feeling. 

“Guys, I think you need to come see this.” Sokka sighed, his tone somber. Katara looked back at Aang.

“I’ll go look, Aang. You… you don’t need to see anything more.”

“I do.” He said, his mouth set in a hard line.

Katara walked alongside him towards Sokka, and weaving between the bones and skulls of the field made her feel as though she was going to be sick. Flashes of orange and yellow clothing seemed to swirl around her, along with the red garb of what she assumed had been Fire Nation soldiers. Orange. Yellow. Red. Orange. Yellow. Blue.

Blue?

When she reached Sokka, she gasped at the sight of it. There hadn’t just been Airbenders and Firebenders here .

Sokka finished her thought for her. “They must have known when Aang was leaving and done a sneak attack, with tons of forces concentrated at once.” He hesitated, swallowing. “I think, though… I think they had enslaved Waterbenders with them. After Aang foiled their attempt to take over during Sozin’s comet, they needed some new sort of advantage, another strategy to overpower the Airbenders.”

“What?” Katara breathed, looking at the bodies around her. 

Sokka knelt, pointing out the silver chains still wrapped around the thin wrists of one of the bodies. “They chained up waterbenders they had taken, probably forced them to heal the Fire Nation soldiers mid-battle. That’s how they got the advantage. They didn’t need another comet. They just needed Aang out of the picture.” Katara shook her head, her hand rising to cover her mouth. 

Her own people had been forced to aid in this genocide . 

She turned around, eyes searching for Aang, only to see him standing on the pavilion next to the grassy field, his eyes visibly glistening. She wanted to call out to him, to hold him, to find some way to help him through this. She watched him look over the field of his dead friends, teachers, fellow monks. Aang closed his eyes, sinking to the floor in grief. 

When he opened them again, all Katara could see were glowing eyes, blazing bright. Blazing with anger . 

She barely had time to think before the wind began to whip around her and Sokka, sending leaves swirling.

Chapter Text

She turned around, eyes searching for Aang, only to see him standing on the pavilion next to the grassy field, his eyes visibly glistening. She wanted to call out to him, to hold him, to find some way to help him through this. She watched him look over the field of his dead friends, teachers, fellow monks. Aang closed his eyes, sinking to the floor in grief. 

When he opened them again, all Katara could see were glowing eyes, blazing bright. Blazing with anger . 

She barely had time to think before the wind began to whip around her and Sokka, sending leaves swirling. Sokka ducked under a couple larger branches that had broken off of the nearby fruit trees, dead and unused. Trees that had probably supplied the fruit for the Air Nomad’s traditional pies over a century ago. Aang’s tattoos and eyes were blazing blue now, glowing so brightly that it hurt to look over at him. Sokka moved behind a stone, hoping it would provide cover as he beckoned to Katara to do the same.

But Katara refused.

Aang needs my help , she told herself as she pushed against the winds Aang sent in every direction. Aang needs my help. She repeated the mantra over and over, until she’d finally pushed past the grassy, bone-lined field and gotten within what she hoped was Aang’s hearing distance. 

“AANG!” She shouted up at him as he began to levitate, a sphere of air and rock encircling him. She barely even recognized him this way, anger distorting his features, his muscle defined by the light emulating from him. All she could see was that rage and anger and pain, and all she wanted was to get close enough to pull him out of it. With the winds picking up the way they were, she struggled to stay on the ground. Still, she had to. Aang needs my help. Katara felt a hand at her back, and Sokka was there with her, trying to help get through to Aang.

She cleared her throat, calling out to him again. “AANG! Please , I know that you must be feeling grief and guilt right now beyond anything anyone could imagine. You may be the last Airbender, but your people, their love and teachings, live on through you. They wouldn’t want this for you!”

Sokka joined her. “They wouldn’t want you to succumb to grief and rage!” He shouted.

“Believe me, I get why that would be tempting, but… they would want you to work with those to care about to make sure no one has to experience this again.” Katara nodded frantically, looking back to Aang. “Please, Aang, come back to us. We care about you!” She exhaled shakily, looking away for a moment before looking back. “Please, come back to me.”

For a second longer, Aang stayed there, hovering in the air, until the light coursing through him abruptly shut off, and he began to fall to the Earth like a shooting star. 

“AANG!” Katara screamed again, pure panic flooding her voice. He was clearly unconscious, and he couldn’t catch himself. She raced to him, acting before thinking, and suddenly her arms were moving through positions instinctively, and the nearby pond was drained of water entirely, all of it rushing to catch the falling Airbender. It got to him just in time, wrapping around him gently before soaking into the ground between the stones below. 

“How in the spirits did you do that?” Sokka asked incredulously, eyes roaming over the scene. 

“I didn’t really think,” Katara admitted, “I just kinda… did .” She slid to her knees, picking up Aang’s limp body. His eyes seemed to move behind his lids, then he blinked awake.

He smiled, weakly. “We’ve got to stop meeting with me passed out across your lap.”

“Aang.” Katara smiled softly. “You don’t have to diffuse the situation, or make a joke to change the topic.”

Sokka kneeled beside him, resting a hand on his back. “Let yourself feel it, bud.” 

Aang looked between the two of them, and before he could hold it back, tears gathered in his eyes and Katara and Sokka pulled him in, wrapping their arms around him and holding him tightly through his sobs. “I- I really am the last Airbender,” he coughed out, and the realization sent him into another round of sobs. “The two of you must have known, but… but didn't want to burst my bubble.”

He pulled back, looking between the two as they nodded. 

“Understandable,” he sighed. “It would have been a bit more dangerous for me to go all Avatar State while on Appa’s back.” 

“I know that- that it’s painful, Aang, but… in favour of answers for what you’re meant to do to become a fully realized Avatar, it- it might be a good idea for us to look through wherever your people stored knowledge or history.” Katara added, gently. “We can walk ahead, make sure you don’t see anything else that’ll…” she trailed off.

“Katara, it’s okay. I appreciate you guys trying to spare my feelings, but… covering my eyes won’t undo anything.”

Aang led the way through the temple, and Katara winced at every single skeleton that lined the halls of the stone pathways carved through the sacred building. Aang couldn’t look at them, didn’t let himself look at them. Katara didn’t blame him for it. She hadn’t been able to look at the handful of bodies left after every Fire Nation raid, and yet, here were the bodies of all of his people, his entire culture. 

She was snapped out of her spiralling train of thought by the screech of stone against stone as Aang funnelled air through a complex looking lock system, the gears driving it creaking from disuse. Sokka and Katara flinched, but Aang stayed still. 

The door opened to hundreds, if not thousands, of stone statues, gazing unflinchingly back at them.

Sokka dropped into a defensive position out of habit, as if the statues would lunge toward them at any minute, and Katara just rolled her eyes and laughed, pushing past them as she stepped towards the statues in awe. Weaving between them, she stopped at one of a woman with traditional water tribe clothing that made her heart twist with homesickness. She felt Aang standing behind her, his exposed chest through his one-shoulder robes radiating heat in a way that made her face flush with colour.

He reached up to brush a finger against the statue’s delicately carved hair. “She has your little…hair thingies.”

Somewhat unconsciously, she reached up to brush her own loops of hair, grazing the white bone-beads with her ring finger. “I didn’t realise the great Avatar paid attention to things like that.”

A teasing smile spread across Aang’s lips. “I think you’ll find that I’m a very attentive person.” He said the words innocently enough, but the way honey seemed to wrap around every syllable caught Katara off guard, sending warmth spreading down her spine as she momentarily forgot how to speak. Aang grinned again, looking as though he was about to add something, before a chittery, squeaking noise echoed through the room, bouncing between statues. 

“What was that ?” Sokka yelped, jumping away from the statue whose armour and sword he had been examining. The screech of metal against stone sounded from somewhere on Sokka’s side of the room, and both Katara and Aang quickly wove between statues to join him, all three tensing. From between the statues, the sound got louder, and a helmet dragged between the sculptures, moving haphazardly as it scraped against the floor.

“GHOSTIE!” Sokka yelped, jumping backwards as he pointed an accusatory finger at the helmet. Katara stayed silent, visibly pale. Aang looked back at the two of them, then faced the helmet again. Then, he stepped through those same strange airbending forms, his movement ending with the sharp expulsion of wind from his fist. The helmet blew away, clattering against the stone, revealing….

….Well, Katara wasn’t quite sure. It was a little, fluffy creature. It's fur was in the same shades as Appa’s- she supposed that was an Air nomad creature thing. The little guy’s ears looked like they were the same height as his body, and he had a long, thin tail and big, blank, green eyes. 

“A monkey lemur!” Aang yelped, at the same time that Sokka exclaimed “Food!” The pair looked at one another in confusion, and the monkey-lemur-thing took the opportunity to bolt, jumping between sculptures until it could dart out of the stone doorway.
“Follow him!” Aang called, as the three began to run after the creature, Aang gracefully floating between carvings with impossibly high jumps while the Water tribe siblings did their best to keep up. The monkey lemur jumped as it ran, trying to gain ground, but Sokka’s hunger drove him to run faster still, and it was only a few minutes before Sokka caught up to the little animal. He wiggled out of Sokka’s hands, darting forward for a bit longer before crashing into Appa and falling over. Katara and Aang laughed at this, walking up beside Sokka. Aang moved a few steps further, reaching down to pick up the creature, who sniffed him and promptly began crawling over his shoulders. Aang smiled at this, then reached up to rest a hand on Appa.

“Looks like the three of us are the last of the Airbenders.” Aang sighed, a soft smile on his face that wavered as he looked back up to the spires of the Air temple. “We’ve got to represent a whole culture, you know? Stick together.” As if in response, the lemur jumped off of Aang’s shoulders, leaping onto Appa’s back as the sky bison grumbled.

“What are you going to call him?” Katara asked as Appa kneeled and she pulled herself up onto his back, offering a hand to Sokka once she had settled into the soft leather seat. 

“Momo.” Aang said decisively as he floated up onto Appa’s back on a sphere of fast-spinning air. Momo christened his new name by nipping at Sokka’s ear, and Katara and Aang doubled over laughing as Sokka began animatedly lecturing the lemur, who chattered right back and wiggled his finger mockingly in an imitation of Sokka’s attempt at sternness.

Katara watched Aang take one last, painful look at the temple, then turn to the sky ahead, lit up in shades of orange, pink, and gold. She swore she could see arrows in every cloud, arrows like the ones inked across Aang’s body, and the gentle breeze that carried the crisp night air towards them seemed to wrap around them like a loving spirit.

“...You have no idea where we’re going, do you?” Sokka sighed, turning the map that was held against Appa’s saddle with a couple of rocks toward himself. “I’ve been charting our progress, and it’s starting to look more like a scrap of paper a toddler is practising circles on than a navigational tool.”

“C’mon Sokka, I’m an Air nomad, travel is in my blood. I have a very strong internal compass. Besides, you’ll find that as a nomad, I’m a master of evasive manoeuvring.” Katara raised an eyebrow, looking up from her spot near the back of the saddle as she stitched a rip in Sokka’s pants. “Besides,” Aang continued, typical teenage boy overconfidence emitting from his tone of voice. “I know it’s near water.”

Sokka leaned over the edge of the saddle, eyes scanning the blue expanse below them that stretched as far as the eye could see. “We must be getting close then,” he scoffed, his tone dripping in sarcasm as he slouched back into his spot across from Katara.

Aang floated back to the driver’s seat, turning around to face Katara, who was still hunched over in focus as she gently tugged the bone needle through the thin fabric. She had realized from the temperature at the Air temple that her and her brother would need lighter clothes than their thick, seal-hide coats and woollen pants, so she’d busied herself with adjusting their wardrobes to compensate. Sokka, however, had remained both ungrateful and outright sexist about it.

“How do you do that?” Aang asked, curiosity evident in his tone. “I’ve never seen stitches that disappear like that, it looks so… seamless!” 

Sokka held out a hand, his expression aloof. “Men like us shouldn’t bother ourselves with this type of thing, Aang.”

“What do you mean?” The airbender cocked his head, looking genuinely puzzled. “It seems useful, no?”

“It’s girl stuff.”

Katara’s fist clenched. “ Girl stuff?”

“Yeah,” Sokka shrugged, unbothered despite the clear shift in Katara’s mood. “Girls do the cooking, cleaning, sewing, the easy stuff. Men do the other stuff, the fighting, the sword-making, y’know? The tough, hard stuff.”

Aang knew that he hadn’t known Katara for very long, but he felt pretty correct in his assessment that she was one more offhand comment away from throwing Sokka off of Appa, judging by the way her breath was coming more quickly and her eyebrows were furrowed. “Guys, please , we don’t need to-”

“I finished up with your pants, Sokka!” Katara grinned fakely, her voice bright and energetic in a way that felt strained. “And look what a great job I did!”

She threw the pants at him and Sokka pulled them towards him, only to note the gaping holes across several seams. “ Katara ! I can’t wear these, you’ve got to fix them, you-”

Aang turned back to face the sky ahead of them, trying to hide his chuckle. He knew he was probably supposed to play the peacekeeper in these scenarios, but it was just too funny to keep a straight face for. From behind him, Katara hid a small smile once she noticed Aang’s shoulders shaking in laughter. 

“I think I see land ahead!” He called back to the two of them, and both Katara and Sokka looked grateful for a reason to take a break from shouting at one another. 

Sokka shuffled forward, pulling out the map he had just stashed in his cloth knapsack. He ran his finger along the islands. “This should be…. Bhanti Island,” he proclaimed proudly, as Katara wrinkled her nose in confusion. She shuffled over to him, then rolled her eyes.

“It’s upside-down, Sokka.” 

“Oh.” He looked mildly irritated that Katara had ruined his self image as a master navigator. “Then it’s Kyoshi Island.”

“Perfect.” Aang grinned boyishly, tightening his grip on the reins. 

“What are we here for, anyways?” Katara asked, tipping her head.

Aang’s grin only widened. “To ride the Unagi.”

“The ooo- what ?” Sokka threw up his arms in confusion, but before Aang provided a response, Appa suddenly shot into a sharp nosedive at Aang’s command, sending the three of them racing to the beach below. Sokka and Katara screamed, Momo chittered and grabbed onto Aang’s shoulder, and Aang just laughed, tugging at the reins to smooth out their landing. They slid onto the beach somewhat smoothly, but Katara still felt sick with nerves. Sokka immediately jumped off, almost kissing the sand in relief, and Aang followed close behind. Katara moved to stand up and join them, but a combination of that nerve-sick feeling and a bit of light-headedness had her slipping a little, stumbling off the saddle. She would’ve landed face-first in the sand, but Aang smoothly caught her with a current of air, then offered a hand. 

Once she was safe on the ground, Katara blushed, embarrassed that she’d lost her balance that easily. She moved to tell Aang, only to have Sokka take one look at her and burst out laughing. 

“What?!” She snapped, suddenly overly self-conscious.

“Your hair !” He cackled, a shaking finger pointing at her. Confused, Katara reached out her hand to draw a tendril of water from the cold morning sea. She concentrated, forming it first into a sphere and then a flat oval, then stilled the water so that she could see her reflection…

Only to drop the water in surprise when she finally saw what Sokka was talking about. Her carefully done hair was snarled around in its braids,  bits of it loose and bits of it still intact. She huffed in annoyance, then fished out a small glass mirror and her hairbrush. 

“Aang,” she said distractedly, “could you hold this for me?” She handed him the mirror. 

“Y-yeah, no problem.”

She tugged out her hair ties, flipping her head upside down for a moment to make sure that it had all gotten loose, then she gingerly tugged a few tendrils of water from the nearby ocean and wrapped tiny streams around her hair, tugging out the crimped braid pattern and reviving her curls. Then, she carefully bent the remaining liquid back out. 

She couldn’t see his face through her thick hair as she stood back up, but from his voice, Aang seemed impressed. “I get that you haven’t been able to learn any big combat moves, but for someone whose bending is self- taught, you sure have a pretty good handle on these smaller things.”

She properly flipped her head up now, curls and waves bouncing around her face. Her dark brown locks shone with honey-toned highlights, all different shades of caramel and chocolate sparkling as they framed her face. She reached up, gently twisting and clipping a few strands out of the way, but a few wayward pieces still fell forward, gently brushing against soft, full lips and smooth skin. Aang awkwardly froze for a moment, caught off guard by how different she looked when her hair was loose and free. He had a weird urge to tell her so, but bit his tongue, instead focusing on her answer. 

“I learned most of the smaller things from helping Gran-Gran.” Katara’s eyes sparkled, clearly caught up in a vision of home as she reached up to brush up her hair. “ As she’s gotten older, her range of mobility has started leaving her. It’s not really comfortable or safe for her to stoop over to wash her hair, so I learned how to bring the water to her and wash it while she was sitting up, then I learned how to dry it for her fast.”

Aang smiled softly at this, but before he could say anything, Sokka’s voice cut through the air between the two. “Really though, why are we here?”

Aang shrugged. “Appa was tired.” He elbowed the sky bison, and right on cue, Appa let out a loud, echoing yawn.

“Appa always seems tired.”

“It’s fine, Sokka. Maybe we can stock up on food here. I saw a couple fruit trees, I think, although that might have been a fear-induced hallucination.” Katara shot a sarcastic glare at Aang, who threw up his hands in a ‘don’t shoot!’ pose. 

“Alright,” Aang said agreeably. “The water’s a little cold right now, I think I can save Unagi-riding until we’ve replenished our supplies.” 

Before the three could turn toward the forest and check if the fruit trees Katara had seen weren’t figments of a wishful imagination, they suddenly heard a whoosh of air and a series of thuds, and before they knew it, they were surrounded by figures in green and black. Katara barely got a look at them before her hood was pulled over her eyes, a blindfold was tugged onto her head, and her limbs were tied together, the rope cutting into her wrists harshly. They were carried for some time, and try as she might, no amount of struggling made any progress towards her escape. The muffled shouts and curses from beside her told her that Sokka was trying something similar, with similar levels of success. Finally, their captors seemed to choose a place to stop, and Katara felt ropes wrap around her waist this time, fastening her to something wooden. Her blindfold was ripped off harshly, without warning, and Katara blinked rapidly against the sudden drastic change in light, trying to get her eyes to adjust as quickly as possible. Once she was able to make out more than just blurry shapes, she twisted this way and that, trying to find Aang, and Sokka. They were tied up next to her, their backs against one large wooden pole or stake of some sort, and Katara watched in fear as one of the figures lunged forward, grabbing Sokka’s collar.

Sokka yelped, his voice defensive and offensive all at once. “There is no way a bunch of girls in cutesy makeup and dresses managed to tie me up.”

“Awe, you think our makeup is cutesy? How sweet .” The girl's voice was crooning at first, sweet and gentle, but Katara could see from the way her muscles flexed as she held Sokka by the collar that there was venom hiding behind those words. She was right. “Throw him to the Unagi.” The words were passive, but they sent emotion flooding through Katara.

“STOP!” She shouted, straining against the rope that bound her against the wooden spire. “Stop, please. He’s an idiot, I know, but he's all I have.” Her eyes teared up, as much as she tried to keep them from doing so, but all she could see was her mother falling before her, images of the bodies that littered the village. She couldn’t fail to save someone close to her, not again , not now. 

“ Enough .” Aang’s voice came seemingly out of nowhere, more authoritative than she’d ever heard him. “We aren’t here to hurt you, and Sokka’s backward views on female warriors do not reflect me or Katara’s opinions.” The girl who seemed to lead the warriors released Sokka, stepping back a few feet to look Aang in the eye. He paused, clearly debating how much to give away, before just going for it. Aang inhaled deeply, then in one clean movement, broke free from the ropes sharply before jumping higher than anyone should be able to, floating there for a moment before drifting back smoothly like a cherry blossom catching an early summer wind.

“I’m the Avatar. They’re with me. You hurt either of them, and I’m the one you’ll have to answer to.” He suddenly looked more serious than Katara had ever seen him. His jaw was set, his muscles tense and defined through his one-shouldered robe, his brow furrowed. She would almost be afraid of him if not for the knowledge that he was doing this to defend her. And Sokka, of course.

The warrior girl paled now, even through her white makeup, then dropped to a deep bow, as the other warriors quickly followed suit in one elegant, unison movement. “Kyoshi has returned to us.”

Aang looked suddenly uncomfortable with all the attention, a light blush forming on his cheeks that had Katara feeling uncharacteristically irritated, even as he turned around to help Sokka and her out of their ropes. The villagers flooded him now, all trying to get a glimpse of the Avatar, reaching out just to graze his robes. Sokka and Katara were pushed to the side, and Katara awkwardly ran her hand over her arm, biting her lip as she watched the scene unfold. Aang was grinning, saying something she couldn’t make out as he showed the villagers his spinning marble trick and some guy passed out in excitement, frothing at the mouth for…some reason.

Sokka followed her line of sight, smirking. “ Somebody's jealous.”

Defensively, Katara fired right back. “And somebody just got kidnapped by a bunch of girls. I thought you were the best warrior in the Southern village? Maybe you need the Kyoshi girls to show you how it’s done .” She spat out the last words more irritatedly than she’d intended. With that, she stormed off, heading for what seemed to be the town market. She heard Aang’s voice call out to her through the crowd of chattering villagers, but she ignored it, until Aang caught her elbow just as she walked up to the first cart of fabrics and foods, turning her around.

“Katara, c’mon, we’re supposed to be sticking together, where are you going?” Aang tugged at her arm until she was facing him, looking at her earnestly as if he hadn’t basically been flirting with all of those girls back there.

The words came out before she could stop them. “I thought monks weren’t supposed to go around flirting with any random girl, and they’re definitely not supposed to go around catering to a village full of fangirls.”

Aang raised an eyebrow, his expression teasing in a way that made Katara want to splash the smirk off of his face in a wave of water. “You sure have a lot of opinions on what you think monks are supposed to do, considering that I’m the only one you’ve ever met.” He shifted his weight, leaning in a bit closer. “Matter of fact, maybe it's just that you have a lot of opinions on what you think I’m supposed to be doing.”

Katara stiffened at the memory of the words that Sokka had just said minutes before. “Why would I care what you’re doing? I don’t. ”

Aang shrugged, reaching past her to grab a papaya and biting into it. After swallowing, he reached into Katara’s satchel, his hand brushing her waist as he pulled out some coins and quietly thanked the vendor. “Keep telling yourself that, Katara.” Hearing his name from her lips did something to her, but she kept her gaze level, eyes blazing with flame until Aang backed off. “I’m going to go train with the girls. It’d be nice to get a bit of a workout in.”

“Have fun.” Katara shot back, her voice dull.

“I will.”

“Great.” She crossed her arms now, her face heating.

“I know it’s great.” Aang crossed his arms too, brow furrowing.

“I’m glad you know.” Katara was fully aware that she sounded ridiculous, and she could not care less.

“I’m glad you’re glad.” 

“ Good .”

“Fine!” Aang huffed frustratedly, turning back to the green uniformed girls beckoning to him. Katara turned away, ignoring him as his figure receded into what seemed to be the warrior’s training centre. Instead, she focused on shifting through the fabric options, chattering with the shop owners as she did. It was a beautiful day, the sun shining brightly overhead even despite the island's cooler climate. It seemed like both Sokka and Aang were set on sticking around for the day- Sokka so that he could find a way to regain his honour and repair his ego by beating the Kyoshi warriors at least once, and Aang… so that he could bask in the attention of his fans, she supposed. Ridiculous . 

Her line of thought was interrupted by a full body collision. Neither of them were going fast enough to knock the other over, but it did leave Katara a bit unsteady. She held her arms out for balance, made sure she hadn’t knocked anything over, and then looked up. The girl opposite her was beautiful, delicate and petite with this sense of strength and grace to her. Her hair was black and curly, cut short in a way that made her locks bounce around her face playfully, and her tan skin was set off by beautiful ivy-green eyes. She looked to be in an off-duty version of the Kyoshi Warrior uniform, which she was nervously straightening now.

“I’m so sorry,” Katara smiled apologetically, adjusting the fruits in her basket so that none of them spilled. “Totally my fault, I was, I was lost in thought.”

“Please, don’t apologize.” The girl reached out and gently caught Katara’s animatedly moving hands between her own. “ I should have been more attentive. My name is Ayiti. It’s so lovely, such an honour to meet the girlfriend of the Avatar.”

Katara felt her brain short-circuit, frying her ability to speak. “He’s not- well, we’re not-” She stammered uncharacteristically. “We’re just friends.”

“Ah.” Ayiti’s full lips formed an “o”, her eyebrows raised. “Oh my goodness, I’m so, so sorry! I just saw how beautiful you are, and how handsome he is… the way he jumped to protect your brother once he saw how it hurt you…. I guess I jumped to conclusions a little fast.”

“Thank you,” Katara smiled at the sweet compliment, pleasantly surprised by the unabashed kindness of this girl. “And really, don’t worry about it. I’m not hurt, or offended, or anything.”

“Please, I’d love to be able to show you around my village. It isn’t often that we see a waterbender around these parts, and especially a waterbender who’s a girl! I’d love to get some insider information on your fighting style! I’ve heard that we Kyoshi Warriors derive a lot of our moves from Avatar Kyoshi’s preferred waterbending forms.”

“I’d love to take you up on the offer for a tour, but unfortunately, I don’t have any fighting abilities to speak of.”

“More of a healer?”

“More of a nothing, to be honest. I’m self-taught.”

“Everybody starts somewhere. Trust me, I won’t judge” Ayiti brightened again. “Let’s stop by the museum-library first! We have waterbending scrolls of Avatar Kyoshi’s on display. Maybe you could learn a thing or two!”

“Really? That’d be wonderful.” Katara beamed back, filled with bubbling excitement. 

“Perfect! I’ll get the Avatar, and-” 

“Maybe this could just be a you-and-me thing?” Katara suggested hopefully. “Besides, Aang’s… busy with all the other Kyoshi girls.” She realised she might have let a little too much emotion show when Ayiti gave her an appraising look.

“Somebody’s jealous .”

“Don’t remind me.”

Chapter Text

After a couple of hours trailing after Ayiti through stacks of stacks of waterbending scrolls, Katara was getting increasingly excited about the new bending forms she’d be able to try. She poured over them, fingers tracing over the traditional water tribe drawings that sent a twinge of homesickness tugging at her heart. Perhaps sensing the more sombre, focused shift in Katara’s energy, Ayiti slipped away for an hour or two to the Kyoshi dojo, only to return giggling excitedly. 

“Guess what your brother’s up to…” Ayiti was beaming, barely holding back her laughter now.

“Spirits, I’m not sure I even want to know.” Katara rolled her eyes, carefully curling up the centuries old paper in front of her and tucking it alongside the others in her cloth satchel. “What, did he accidentally get a sword stuck in some important monument after bragging to some poor unassuming villager about his swordsmanship?”

“Better.” Ayiti’s eyes flashed with amusement as she settled into the plush stool opposite Katara. She reached forward, hands resting on the varnished wooden table as her elegantly almond shaped nails drummed rhythmically in anticipation. “I missed his grand entrance, but apparently, he’s been set on helping us poor, untrained Kyoshi warriors! He pranced his way in, going on and on about how he’s the best warrior in his tribe. I got there just in time to see Suki wipe the floor with him.”

Katara groaned in embarrassment, burying her head in her hands as she slumped against the table. 

“No, no, you don’t need to be too embarrassed for him.” Ayiti rested a comforting hand on Katara’s arm as the Water tribe girl looked up, her scepticism apparent in her expression. “He was actually pretty sweet after Suki humbled him. He said he was ready to learn, that he had been overly cocky when he came in.”

Katara wrinkled her nose. “That doesn’t sound like the Sokka I know.”

“We were surprised too! He let us paint his face in the traditional style of Kyoshi warriors, even put on the armoured gown too!” Ayiti giggled again, remembering. “Although he was a little embarrassed when Aang saw him in it. I think Sokka interpreted Aang’s attempt to compliment him as Aang poking a little fun at him.”

“What’s Aang been up to, anyways?” Katara tried to make the question seem thoughtless, throwing in a shrug to accompany her words, but Ayiti’s shrewd expression saw right through her. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” She crooned, a teasing grin on her face. “C’mon, you’ve gotta get your mind off of the Avatar, and you’ve had your nose buried in scrolls the whole day. Let me show the future Waterbending master around my little old village.”

Ayiti helped Katara gather the rest of the scrolls and drop them off in the guesthouse, then dragged her between the different stalls, chattering animatedly. Katara had never really gotten to have a girlfriend her age, and she couldn’t believe all that she’d missed out on. For once, she felt her age. Back home, she took care of so many of the village kids whose parents had been lost to fire nation raids. She felt like it was her responsibility, that it was the least she could do, and she did enjoy it.

But perhaps she hadn’t quite grasped what it had taken out of her.

For every hour Sokka spent hunting for food and training to be a warrior, Katara spent parenting children, washing laundry, cooking, cleaning, repairing homes and weapons. She wished for maybe the millionth time that she and her brother had been able to have proper childhoods, present parents to lift that burden from them. She remembered Aang reminding her that she still was a kid. 

Here, walking around the market with Ayiti, she slipped into conversation excitedly, the two’s conversation oscillating between mentions of what the war had taken from them and more lighthearted teasing, and she was beyond grateful for the simplicity of a friend who saw her. 

Katara snapped out of her contemplation from an elbow to her side, courtesy of Ayiti. “C’mon, you’ve got to tell me what the deal is between you and Aang. I know there’s gotta be something. If not from him, at least from you! The way you look at him…” she trailed off, shaking her head with a smile.

“The way I look at him is the way a friend would look at another friend .” Katara said firmly, furiously blushing. She bit her lip, looking around to make sure they were out of earshot before continuing. “I don’t know, Ayiti. I just don’t know.”

If Ayiti were a monkey-lemur, her ears would have perked up as her face seemed to come alight. “I knew -”

Her voice was cut off by the sound of a loud, clanging bell, and around them, the girls dressed in garb similar to Ayiti’s began weaving through the crowd, headed to the training centre.

“Saved by the bell,” Ayiti glared at the direction the loud clanging had been coming from before spinning back to face Katara and grabbing the girl's hands in hers. “We will continue this conversation. But in the meantime, there’s a path back to the ocean tucked away at the end of the forest path over there. You should try out some of the bending forms on those scrolls!”

“Thank you,” Katara’s voice was full of genuine, raw emotion. “For all of your help, for showing me around, thank you.”

“Anytime.” Ayiti’s similarly genuine tone turned playful. “And when you’re done saving the world, let me know when the wedding date is!”

Katara’s only response was a shove and an eyeroll.

After Ayiti’s figure faded into the sea of green-wearing Kyoshi warriors, Katara turned in the direction that Ayiti had pointed her to. A few almost eye-impaling wayward branches and overgrown vines later, Katara found the proper path. It was well worn, cutting a thin slice through thick forest that slowly widened over time until it opened into the beach. She stepped around a hill, aiming for the part of the water that seemed calmer, but was caught off guard by flashes of skin and muscle between the grasses that blocked her view. Narrowing her brow, she stepped closer, finally reaching the top of the sandy hill.

Aang was there.

He was circling through pushups rhythmically, first using both arms, then just one, then nothing but his breath. He’d tossed aside his typical one-shoulder robes, muscles flashing through a shimmering sheen likely brought on from the overbearing sun. He hadn’t seen her, considering that he was currently facing the sandy ground below him. Katara walked over the hill toward him, changing her trajectory at the last moment as she stepped to the edge of the water. She checked the form again on the scroll, then inhaled deeply, centring herself. Her limbs moved carefully, and she closed her eyes, feeling the water around her, feeling the rest of the world fade…

But even as she focused her attention, she was still admittedly overly aware of Aang’s presence. Especially when she heard him stand and heard him walk toward her. 

“Katara?” His face lit up, nose wrinkling as he grinned. “Are you down here just to watch me ride the Unagi?” 

“No, I’m-” She interrupted herself when what he’d said sank in. “You’re doing what ?”

“Riding the Unagi.” He said the words as if they were comparable to running out for a quick bag of groceries, or taking one’s polar-bear-dog for a walk. 

“Aang, you, you can’t . That’s stupid! It’s dangerous.” She crossed her arms, shifting her weight as he stepped past her, walking deeper into the water. “You’re staying here.”

“Yeah? Make me .” His grin was as good as a formal invitation. 

Katara launched a wave of water at him, her laughter ringing out through the bay. She pulled out a few of the moves she remembered from the scrolls she’d poured over, and while they weren’t executed perfectly, they were enough to throw the Airbender a bit off balance.

“Somebody’s got some new moves! Too bad they still aren’t enough to beat the mighty Avatar!” Aang called at her, flexing his muscles mockingly as he sent a gust of air her way.

“Oh really ?” She huffed back, forming longer tendrils around her arms that she lashed toward him. The two stayed like that for a while, sending attacks back and forth. It was fun, to fight when it didn’t really mean anything, to spar just for the sake of sparring. Aang finally managed to pull farther away, floating over the deeper end of the bay as Katara lingered closer to the shoreline. 

“Aang, please , I’m being serious.” Katara dropped her teasing tone. “I don’t want you to get hurt.” 

“Only if you admit it.”

“Admit what?”

“That you were jealous, earlier.”

Katara glared at him, and he threw his hands up defensively. 

“Fine. I might have been a tiny bit jealous that you met so many new friends so fast." She spat out the words, her tone softening as she continued. " I felt like you were ditching me and Sokka for all the Kyoshi girls.”

Aang’s expression softened. “Katara. I’m the one who should be sorry, I was being an idiot. I got kinda caught up in all of the Avatar fame.”

Katara grinned, shaking her head. “C’mon, get back over here before you catch a cold.” Aang nodded back, beginning to swim in her direction, but Katara began to notice an unnatural, dark shimmer behind him.

 She watched in horror as dark fins began to rise from the water, and Aang looked back at her with fear in his eyes. He rose from the water, struggling to hold on to the shiny scales of the Unagi. The beast’s head rose out of the water alongside its torso, and it tipped its head curiously at the sight of Aang on its back, baring its teeth as it did. Aang jumped, swinging on the creature’s whiskers, trying to evade its sword-sized teeth. Without notice, it snapped its jaws open, unnaturally wide to the point of unhinging, and a concentrated jet of water shot out of its throat, sending Aang flying across the bay towards Katara. Even from the distance she was at, she could see that his body had landed wrong, unnatural, crumpled.

“AANG!” She shouted, wading into the water as quickly as she could, hoping with all her will that she could somehow outrun this ancient serpent hell bent on getting to Aang before she could. Aang didn’t stir. Against her own pessimistic judgement of their odds of survival, Katara somehow managed to scoop Aang against her, holding him tight. He was unconscious, and she couldn’t see if he was breathing. Another bolt of fear struck through her. Through blurry vision made hazy by fear and anger, Katara watched the Unagi rear its head again, but instead of holding Aang against her and waiting for their inevitable end, she struck back.

It happened so quickly, the wave of water that mirrored the rising tide of anger crashing through Katara’s own body. Her hand moved as if she wasn’t in complete control, and perhaps she wasn’t. Perhaps the spirits of water had looked kindly upon the two kindred souls. Or perhaps, Katara had simply moved in accordance with what the pure adrenaline that seemed to replace her very blood demanded. 

The two of them were thrown backwards, Katara’s wave of water pushing them to the safety of the shore. She allowed herself only a second to catch her breath before rolling over to check on Aang.

Still, the Airbender did not stir.

“Aang. Please , wake up.”

He did not breathe.

She closed her eyes, running her hand along his chest, the heat that normally radiated from him snuffed out entirely. She could feel water there, in his lungs, weighing them down. The wrongness of it . She could feel the liquid tugging at her, the molecules themselves wishing to return to the ocean from whence they came.

She obliged them.

Katara coaxed out a thin tendril of the seawater, watching nervously as Aang shuddered involuntarily as the stream of liquid flowed through his lips. He coughed. Coughed again.

Another cough, and his eyes opened, and she was met with the comforting vibrance of his storm-cloud eyes. 

“K-Katara,” He managed, the words strained by salt and sea. “Don’t ride the Unagi. Not fun .”

“Noted.” Katara grinned, unable to hold back her relief. She almost began chewing him out for scaring her like that, but cut herself off before she spoke, her nose twitching. “Why…why can I smell smoke?” She rose, only for her stomach to drop in horror at what she saw in the next bay over.

A fire nation ship. Zuko’s fire nation ship. Soldiers were already flowing from its helm, with Zuko himself at the head of the pack. 

She whirled back to Aang, but he had already risen, wincing as he coughed again. He turned to her, fearful and self-assured all at once. “We have to warn the village.” He reached out to her, already snapping open his glider, but she hesitated. 

His gaze softened. “Katara, trust me, I won’t let you fall. I can’t just leave you here, I need to make sure you’re safe, that you’re with me.”

Katara, flustered into silence, couldn’t do much more than nod and take his hand, letting him pull her close as the two took flight. Her stomach dropped as she took in the scene below. Kyoshi warriors burst from the training dojo, but with the Firebender's range attacks, the match didn’t exactly seem fair. Nothing had been set on fire, at least not yet, but she could see even from this high up that the villagers below shook in fear as Zuko shouted at the townspeople. Aang dropped down, landing the two of them softly, a couple metres behind Zuko. The Firebender whirled to face them, an attack already flaring from his fists, and Katara felt her whole body tense for a moment. Without hesitation, Aang moved in front of her, spinning his staff to diffuse the flame as he turned back to her. She’d never seen so much fear in his eyes.

“Katara, move !” He barked authoritatively, turning his glare back to Zuko, and Katara obliged without a second's hesitation, darting to a cluster of children gawking on the street and ushering them inside. She continued moving between buildings, trying to bring as many to safety as she could, but every time she looked up, more destruction seemed to follow Aang and Zuko as they remained locked in battle. Even though Aang seemed bent on deflecting attacks, never initiating any of his own, redirected fire was still fire, and for every flame that he dodged, another building gained a couple of scorch marks. Katara scanned the faces of every Kyoshi warrior she saw, hoping and praying that Ayiti could handle herself, that she was alright. Finally, she spotted her newfound friend through the fray, locked in hand to hand combat and laser focused. Katara felt herself release a breath. Ayiti was okay. Though, not for much longer if the violence continued at this rapid rate. She heard a soft landing behind her, and whirled around to see Aang, his brow furrowed and gaze wracked with guilt.

“Look what I’ve brought to this place. What I’ve done to them.”

“It's not your fault, Aang.”

He turned back to face the blazing buildings, the faces of Fire nation soldiers twisted in unnerving anger. “It is, though. If I hadn’t been here… Katara, people got hurt because of me.”

She took a step closer to him. “You don’t have to be here. We need to leave. I know, it seems backwards to run away, but they’ll leave to follow us. Kyoshi can rebuild its buildings, but if we stay any longer, the lives lost… those can never be brought back.”

Aang nodded, although he still looked somewhat pained over the idea of surrender in any form. “I’ll call Appa.”

As Katara had predicted, once Appa rose above the smoke curling around the spires of Kyoshi, Zuko called for his troops to rush back to the ship. Still, even as they watched the soldiers leave the town in droves, Aang still looked as though he felt that their business was unfinished. The town was still in flames, buildings destroyed, children crying.  Katara read his expression, and tried her best to relieve a bit of his guilt.

“Aang, there’s nothing more you could have done. Zuko would have destroyed the whole place if we stayed. You did the right thing.”

Aang stayed silent, looking ahead of them, shoulders slumped until he suddenly straightened them. Without warning, Aang swung his legs over the side of the saddle and leapt off of Appa, the movement all at once fluid and graceful and terrifying . Katara rushed to the side of the saddle, calling out to him, but Aang only adjusted his position, raising his hands above his head as he neatly cut through the water’s surface like a warrior’s spear. A couple breath-holding moments later, Aang emerged.

He wasn’t the only being that broke the water’s surface.

Below him, the Unagi rose, with Aang gripping its whiskers, his brow furrowed and arms tensed. Even from up here, Katara could tell that the beast was fighting him, but Aang wasn’t having it. He managed to steer the creature to the end of the village, and once they were within range, the Unagi once again unhinged its jaw, releasing a geyser of water through the air that put out all of the still-raging fires below. Katara noted with satisfaction that it also managed to thoroughly soak Zuko and his crew before they made it to the safety of their ship. Once every hint of fire had been put out, Aang released the Unagi’s whiskers and allowed himself to be thrown up and launched at Appa. Appa caught him in his front paws, and Aang managed to climb his way to the saddle’s edge. Katara offered him a hand up, but he shook his head, instead muscling his way up with one arm and ending in an unnecessarily graceful flip. He jokingly spread his arms and then bowed, as if controlling and riding the Unagi had been a mere circus trick, and the Water tribe siblings humoured him, applauding along. 

“I know, I know,” Aang threw his hands up defensively at Katara as he settled into his usual cross-legged position. “That was dangerous, and stupid.”

Katara shrugged. “It was.” She grinned back at him anyways. She reached into her knapsack, wordlessly passing bread buns she had purchased earlier that day to Sokka and Aang, then breaking off a smaller piece for Momo. The three rode off through the sunset-speckled clouds, the only sounds for miles being their own conversation and the chattering and rumbling of Momo and Appa. Sokka pulled out some sort of tile game with moving pieces and a point system, and it was clear that Aang was grateful for the distraction from his own thoughts over everything that had gone wrong in the last day. Sokka proclaimed himself to be a master of strategy, hm-ing and haw-ing over every minuscule movement of a piece, insisting that he had an overarching plan, only for Aang to capture his king early on. Sokka challenged Katara next, and although the match was a bit closer, Katara managed to win. In part because Aang kept getting Momo to distract Sokka, then snatching Sokka’s pieces off of the board and hiding them as if they were never there in the first place. 

It was a nice feeling to find a pocket of peace and quiet in a time of war. 

After a couple more games, Katara could feel the moon tug at her again, signifying the fading of the sun. Sokka yawned more and more until he called it a day, tugging on an eye cover and snuggling into his sleeping bag. Aang managed to slip away into sleep before long, and so, Katara was left awake again, gazing at the moon-dappled ocean that stretched for miles below. 

It was difficult to explain exactly what being a Waterbender felt like.

It wasn’t as though the ocean felt alive, per se, but rather that she could feel its energy. A constant ebbing and flowing, motion that she felt as though she was a part of. As if she could stand in the ocean for long enough and become water itself. It was a strange sensation, but one she was well accustomed to. After all, she had felt it since she was a baby, ever since her parents had found that she was a bender through their traditional ceremony for deducing such things. Infants would be lined up in a row, nestled in their cribs. Each would be given a small vial of water to play with, and once they had become accustomed to the feeling of the water’s movement, they would have that very vial of water splashed on them. If the child was a Waterbender, the droplets would suspend in midair, if only for a moment, then come crashing back down. Katara could still remember that moment. It was the first real memory she had. She always recalled it with a mix of fondness and heartbreak. Her mother had been the one to give her the vial of water, to cheer for her excitedly. She remembered her mother scooping up her and Sokka, cheering for both of them, her smile lighting up her beautiful features. She had told her children that they were so special to her, that they would change the world someday.

Katara wondered what her mother would say if she could see what her and Sokka were doing now. She hoped her mother would have been proud of who they had become. Who she had raised.

Her line of thought was interrupted by the sounds of tossing and turning on the other side of Sokka. Katara sat up. It wasn’t as though she had been asleep in the first place anyways. She blinked, squinting in an attempt to adjust to the darkness more quickly, only to see that it was Aang who was moving back and forth, his limbs shaking and his brow furrowed.
“...Aang?” Katara whispered the words hesitantly, reaching out her hand as a reflex before realizing that it might have been a little too weird to touch an unconscious person's arm.

“K-” Aang was whispering something now, the words unclear, with only the syllable of “kuh” standing out. He was even more restless now, his limbs moving more and more. It almost sounded like-

 “Katara!” he called out, eyes still closed, voice wracked with fear. 

“Aang!” She whisper-hissed, crawling over to his side, trying to figure out what was wrong. He was still sleeping, wasn’t he? Why was he calling out to her ? 

“Please, please, don’t hurt her. You can’t . You don’t know what I’ll do if she isn’t safe.” His fists were clenched, his tone more angry than she’d ever heard when he was awake.

“Aang?” She breathed again, still confused. “Aang, it’s a dream. A nightmare, maybe. You’re okay .” She tried to make her voice as soothing as possible, reaching out to touch his arm, but she felt his hand clamp around her wrist and tug her hand up until her fingers brushed his cheeks. Only then did Aang seem to un-tense, nuzzling into her touch. 

“ Katara ,” he breathed, and the utter relief in his voice made her blush, made her too flustered to stay there, touching him. She tried to slip her hand away, to move back to the other side of Sokka, but Aang’s grip on her was more firm than she had expected. He moved himself closer, trying to seek her out, still sleeping. “Please, please stay. You’re okay , spirits, you’re okay, I was so worried.” He was murmuring constantly now, still seeking her out. Katara bit her lip, feeling guilty for seeing him in such a vulnerable state.

She leaned down, still whispering. “It’s okay, Aang. When you wake up, you’ll forget about your nightmare, you’ll forget about all of this. You’re only talking like this because you’re dreaming. It’s okay. Goodnight .”

She carefully untangled her hand from his, then crept over to her sleeping bag, trying her best to resist the moon’s pull, trying her best to drift into dreams.

When she did sleep, she swore that she saw Aang, sitting next to her on a mountaintop of clouds painted in gold and pink, his gaze as adoring as his voice had been only moments before. 

Chapter Text

It took Katara, Aang, and Sokka longer than it should have to identify that they were one member short. Katara had been gathering firewood for their dinner when Sokka had first noticed the distinct lack of chattering and food-snatching. Katara settled down next to him, wordlessly passing a slice of week-old bread and a small wooden bowl of soup before serving herself. Aang, unlike Sokka, had chosen to help prepare the meal- the soup itself was made in a traditional Air Nomad style, and Aang had been the one to help Katara deduce which plants and mushrooms were safe to harvest and consume.

“Where is Momo, anyways?” Sokka asked, digging into his soup a moment later. Aang raised an eyebrow at the aggression with which Sokka ripped apart and dipped his slice of bread. Sokka only stuck out his tongue in response to Aang’s judgement. 

“I haven’t seen him,” Katara shrugged. “I thought he was with Aang.”

Aang’s brow creased in concern. “I…haven’t seen him around either.” 

With a huff of annoyance, Sokka set aside his food with a dramatic clatter, slapped his hands on his thighs, and stood. Noting Aang and Katara’s sceptical looks toward him, he sighed. “C’mon, let’s go grab the chattering food-thief out of whatever hole he crawled down.” As if in response, they heard a distinctly Momo-like shriek echoing ahead.

Aang grinned, rising with a burst of air, his feet brushing the ground for a moment before he settled. “I’ll take the skies!”

“Of course you will.” Sokka grumbled under his breath about how hungry he was and how much his feet hurt as he and Katara walked under the trees Aang was darting between. Katara was more caught up in watching the way Aang moved overhead. If she was being entirely honest with herself, she was jealous of it. Not the ability to dart between trees, or the lightness with which Aang moved, but the way that the mastery of the elements seemed to come to him so easily. He had told her a few days before that he’d gotten his Airbending mastery tattoos at only the age of twelve, and had joked that hopefully, the element of water wouldn’t present too much of a challenge. She had laughed and said that it wasn’t too likely that the sense of natural skill would seamlessly transfer over.

Until it had.

Every move she’d shown him, the moves that had taken her years to learn and perfect, were executed by him with ease in a matter of minutes.

It infuriated her, got under her skin in a way nothing else ever had, and she didn’t really get why. After all, Aang mastering each element quickly was in her best interest, as well as the best interest of the world- without the mastery of each element, Aang wouldn’t stand a chance against Fire Lord Ozai. At the same time… Katara selfishly felt…protective over her element, in a way. It was her own little piece of her culture and her people, and as such, she felt like she was the one that the element should be coming easily to.

That first night after Katara had taken the Waterbending scroll from the pirates, she hadn’t been able to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, every time she nestled back into her sleeping bag, she was struck with visions of the day before.

Aang had been filled with panic over his vision of Avatar Roku. The idea of mastering all four elements before the end of the next summer…Katara had understood his fear and immediately offered to teach him the little bending that she knew, but she hadn’t been prepared for the irritation she felt at Aang’s almost instantaneous prowess. She had been prepared for him to struggle, but he’d matched her perfectly. He’d reassured her, had been kind enough to call her a brilliant teacher. It had still tugged at her enough that seeing the Waterbending scroll she just knew had been stolen had been enough for her to entirely toss away the morals she prided herself on following all her life. 

After she'd taken it, she’d been on edge, trying form after form, and she’d blown up at Aang, shouting that she was sick of his “infinite wisdom.” She’d immediately felt awful at the expression on Aang’s face, disappointment and a bit of hurt. She hadn’t slept, shifting through forms over and over again, her temper rising repeatedly. The sounds of her shouting had drawn that Fire prince and his uncle right to them. She’d run right into Zuko’s arms, and looking up into the calculated blankness of his eyes, Katara had felt fear that chilled her to her bones. He’d dangled her mother’s necklace right in front of her, and her fear had been replaced by heartbreak. 

Katara shook it off, turning over again and shifting under her blankets. She felt those eyes boring a hole into her still, one surrounded by perfectly ivory skin and the other marred by painful burns. She rolled over onto her back, quietly cursing the moon, winking at her in the sky behind a light cloud cover.

There was no way she would be sleeping tonight.

Instead, she had reached beside her. She’d kept the scroll safely tucked in her bag, and Katara told herself that she wouldn’t make the same mistake of altering anyone to their location with loud curses and irritation as she practiced. Instead, she stepped carefully over Sokka and Aang, who were both sound asleep, with their legs draped over each other haphazardly, and Momo, who was curled up into Sokka’s arms. It was only a few paces to the closest stream. There, on the riverbank, she spread out the scroll, anchored it with a rock, and settled into her closest approximation to the meditative stance she’d seen Aang use for his morning reflective periods. 

That meditative stance had felt as close to a breakthrough as Katara had ever experienced. She tried to stay as still as possible, untangling all of those mental threads of jealousy towards Aang. She couldn’t draw her bending when she was stuck like this, rigid in her jealousy and insecurity of her own comparative lack of progress. Katara stayed there, taking deep breaths in and out, trying her best to visualize crashing tides and hidden waterfalls and still lakes until she finally rose from her position. She drilled her forms over and over again, improving just a little each time, until the sun had risen. She repeated this rehearsal ritualistically, nightly.

Neither Sokka nor Aang knew that she hadn’t properly slept in days.

So now, as they hunted through the forest for Momo, Katara watched the ease with which Aang interacted with his birth element, and tried her best to squash the jealousy that still threatened to rear its ugly head despite her best efforts. She was pulled away from her overlapping thoughts at the sound of Aang’s shout of “Momo!” from above, a few paces ahead of her and Sokka. The two looked at one another before speeding up, reaching the upcoming clearing just in time to watch a metal cage crash from the sky and break open. Momo bounced out from the opening in the metal, seemingly unharmed, and chattered opinionatedly at Sokka before leaping on the boy’s shoulder and snatching the bread he still held in his hand. 

“Oh, come on ,” Sokka huffed, raising his hand to smack himself in the forehead, which left an angry red mark. Overhead, Aang darted between cages that looked just like the one before Sokka. Each of them held a seemingly unassuming forest animal. Sokka eventually lost his patience and tossed his boomerang up to help, sending it slicing through the remaining chains. As each metal cage crashed to the ground, Sokka moved forward and squatted, running a finger along the metal and squinting.

Sokka rose, crossing his arms as his expression shifted to anger. “The traps are Fire Nation. You can tell from the metalwork- no other tribes can achieve seams this flawless without the aid of a Firebender that can bend blue flame.”

Aang’s nose wrinkled as he gently landed next to Katara. “What do the Firebenders want with these forest animals?”

“We won’t be sticking around long enough to find out.” Sokka said decisively as the three began to walk back to where they’d left Appa. “As the leader, I say we get walking AQAP.”

Katara raised an eyebrow. “AQAP?”

“It means As Quickly As Possible.” Sokka recited the acronym as if it was obvious. “It’s a more efficient method of communication. I call them ‘short-word-quick-talkers.’ Trust me, they’re gonna be very popular.”

Katara and Aang side-eyed one another sceptically before falling into step behind Sokka. 

“What do you mean by ‘get walking?’” Aang’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “We have Appa, we don’t need to walk anywhere. Flying’s much faster.”

“But more conspicuous,” Sokka pointed out, raising a finger to accentuate his point. “How do you think that crazy Zuko kid keeps finding us? Appa’s practically a beacon for trouble.” As if Appa had heard him, he let out an irritated grumble as the three approached where they’d set up camp. “Sorry bud,” Sokka said, surprisingly genuine as he busied himself with cleaning up their supplies, “But it’s true.”

“What?” Katara crossed her arms, her voice rising. “Appa’s not too noticeable!”

Sokka levelled a glare, his voice deadpan. “He’s a gigantic, fluffy monster with an arrow on his head . It’s kinda hard to miss him.” He scooped up more supplies, tossing them into the pack on his back.

Aang ran a hand over Appa’s head, scratching him behind his horns. “It’s okay, buddy. He’s just lashing out because he’s jealous that he doesn’t have an arrow.” Appa grumbled in response, seemingly agreeing.

Katara bent a stream of water from the bottle strapped to her hip, then carefully sent a water-whip straight for their fire, silently proud at how much her late-night practice sessions had allowed her to improve. “Who says you’re qualified to be the boss, all of a sudden?”

“I’m not the boss, I’m the leader.”

Katara scoffed incredulously. “ You’re the leader?”

“Naturally.” Sokka puffed out his chest like a peacock pigeon. “I’m the oldest.”

Aang raised an eyebrow, grinning teasingly. “Sokka, I’ve been around for over a century. I have training robes that are older than you.”

Sokka deflated slightly, his shoulders slouching before he managed a retort. “Well, I’m wiser, then. And I have instincts.”

“Ooh, instincts .” Katara wiggled her fingers at him, her voice filled with fake awe. “Please, oh wise leader , share with us your wisdom.”

“Guys, guys.” Aang stepped between the two siblings, both of whom were glaring daggers at the other. “C’mon, it’ll be a nice change of pace, and a break for Appa! Walking could be fun !”

“Wow,” Aang huffed, his face the image of teenage petulance. “Walking stinks .”

“So does Sokka’s so-called instinct .” Katara grumbled under her breath, loud enough for Sokka to hear and turn around angrily before thinking better of it and facing ahead once more. “I’m tired of carrying this pack,” Katara groused, shifting her weight slightly.

Aang reached over to take it from her, before his eyes lit up mischievously. “You know who should carry it for a while? Sokka’s instincts.” He grinned broadly at the way Sokka grumbled at this. “Hey, Sokka’s instincts, could you-”

“Will you two cut it out!” Sokka snapped, and Katara and Aang backed off, sending each other sidelong glances as they both tried not to laugh. “I’m doing this for your benefit. Without the big hairy creature that’s practically a billboard advertising our location, there’s no way the Fire Nation will find-” He pushed aside a bush ahead of them, and that's when they saw it.

A Fire Nation camp. Filled to the brim with soldiers. All looking at the three of them. Aang and Katara dropped their bags, but before they could dart away, the Fire soldiers sent a wave of flame behind them, consuming their only way out. Without looking, Aang gestured sharply, and Katara watched behind them with wide eyes as the very oxygen fanning the flames was pulled from them. Still, it wasn’t enough to stop the entire wave of fire, and so, Aang turned his efforts to the soldiers ahead of them. All three of them dropped into a defensive position, preparing to fight their way out as the soldiers advanced, only for the one leading the charge to drop to the ground suddenly, entirely unconscious. 

"Did one of you do that?" Sokka asked, skeptically. When neither of the two said anything, he continued. "No? Then who-"

As if in response, Katara noticed a movement in the trees above and elbowed Aang and Sokka, who both jerked their heads up. There was a boy up there, standing on the trees as if he owned the entirety of the forest. He looked to be about 16, 17, and Katara’s eyes snagged on the way that the boy’s muscled body filled out his uniform of tall boots, loose pants, a long sleeve top, and fingerless, elbow-length gloves, all in neutral shades of orange and brown. His grin was lazy in the way that those who know their own importance grin, and as he smirked at all of those below him, he unsheathed two long hooks, swinging gracefully over and around tree branches before taking out two Fire Nation men as he landed. The men landed in a pile near Aang, Katara, and Sokka’s feet, and all three of them looked up in awe as the boy advanced toward them, holding a single stalk of wheat between his teeth.

“Down you go,” Jet grinned, self-satisfied and authoritative in his stance. Katara beamed back, her lips parted in an amazed expression, while Aang and Sokka’s features quickly settled into neutrality. Before long, an archer and a few other kids dropped from the trees surrounding them, and both Aang and Katara jumped into the fray in response alongside the mismatched gang of weapon-slinging kids. Sokka joined in, his irritation visibly rising as Jet took down each soldier before Sokka could even get close to being in range.

“You snooze you loose, man,” Jet shrugged, his hooks snagging on a man who had been about to grab Katara. “Apologise to the lady.” He smirked, then kicked the man hard, dropping him to the side.

“I had her,” Aang grumbled under his breath, occupied with bending currents of wind to sweep soldiers out of the clearing. Katara furrowed her brow at Aang’s irritation, but decided to note it as something to ask about later. Finally, the remaining soldiers scampered out of the clearing in retreat, their shouts and yelps echoing through the forest. Katara still couldn’t take her eyes off of Jet. He sauntered over to her, a roguish grin on his face as he spoke.

“Hey.” He tossed his hair as he said it, his grin directed entirely at her now, and Katara felt a soft blush spread across her cheeks as she looked up at him. She broke her gaze only to check that Aang and Sokka were okay, and as she looked across the field to Aang…

Was she imagining it, or was his jaw clenching? Was she imagining it, or was his normally approachable expression shifting into a deadpan stare?

Aang couldn’t quite pinpoint why he could feel a flicker of irritation rising up in him as he watched that Jet kid talk to Katara. After all, the guy had just helped the three of them get the jump on an entire camp of Fire Nation soldiers. Aang knew that if it was anyone else, he’d already be over there, saying thank you and getting to know the guy that’d just helped them, and yet…

And yet, he found himself glaring daggers at the way that Jet grinned down at Katara, at the way she blushed back at him, at how the two looked together. Why was he acting like this? The monks had drilled good manners and kindness to strangers into him and the other kids his age back at the monastery since birth. Why was this different? He supposed he’d acted similarly when they’d met Haru a week or so earlier.

His gaze flicked from Jet to Katara, to the brush brushing her cheeks, the soft smile of her full lips. He was hit by the thought that he wanted to be there, next to her, in Jet’s place.

What was it about Katara that made Aang feel as though he could only breathe when she was around? 

Katara couldn’t shake the feeling that Aang wasn’t all that happy about their new companions. To be fair, neither was Sokka- she got the impression that he felt as though his position as a leader was in jeopardy, considering the situation that his idea to start walking had placed them in. Aang, though….

He was harder to read.

She remembered noting that he’d been more quiet when Haru was around, but she’d attributed that to tiredness, or maybe the desire to keep the whole “Avatar” thing under wraps. Now, he didn’t just seem more quiet, but… on edge.

She got her answer a few hours later.

Jet had walked them through the forest, gesturing broadly while speaking of their most recent victories against the Fire Nation. Sokka finally ventured to ask how they’d managed to stay fairly undetected all of this time, and Jet had only held out a rope and smirked. Sokka had taken it, his expression sceptical, only to be pulled upwards, through the cover of the leaves. Once Sokka disappeared above, Jet turned to Katara.

“Grab hold of me, Katara.” Jet extended his hand, the stalk of wheat he held between his teeth shifting as he grinned roguishly. Katara extended her hand shyly, nervously. 

“I’m not sure about how safe it is to trust a vine to hold up under our combined weight, Jet, maybe-” Katara began to chatter anxiously, only to stop abruptly when she felt an arm curl around her waist. She looked up and Jet was there, pulling her against him, his expression firm when he met her eyes.

“I’ve got you.” The phrase was so decisive, so confident, that Katara completely abandoned her nerves. Jet tugged her closer to him, grinning devilishly. Katara let out a surprised yelp as Jet shot upwards, swinging between trees in a show of impressive agility. She clung onto him like a baby koala-otter, squeezing her eyes shut. Jet chuckled, and a moment later, his arm was around her waist again, pulling her to him as he reached the platforms the others waited on. Katara refused to let go until they were firmly on solid ground, and she carefully untangled herself from Jet’s torso once they did, hoping that she wasn’t visibly blushing as she realised just how tightly she’d clung on and just how embarrassing that was. 

Katara was too caught up in her Jet-related nerves to notice the way that Aang’s breathing was coming more quickly, that his fists were quickly clenching and unclenching. She walked towards Aang, who was joined by Sokka, only for Aang’s eyes to flit away every time they met hers. She reached out an arm reflexively, her hand lightly brushing Aang’s bicep as her brow furrowed in concern.

“Are you alright?”

His eyes flashed with something she couldn’t quite read, and his jaw clenched before he spoke. “I’m sorry, Katara, I just… I need a minute. My judgement is…impaired, right now. I just need to think.  I’m gonna go find somewhere to meditate.” He backed up as Sokka and Katara exchanged concerned glances, and he brightened his voice in response to the concern, his words bright“I’ll catch up with the two of you later, I think Jet said something about dinner and I should probably go figure out a vegan alternative for myself anyways.” With that, Aang took a running start and lept from the platform, snapping his body into a streamlined jackknife as his glider shot open. 

“What is up with him? I thought monks were supposed to be known for being happy-go-lucky travellers.”

Katara bit her lip. “I’m not sure,” She admitted, as her eyes tracked Aang’s orange-and-yellow-robed figure as it darted between and behind the leaves and branches of the towering trees. “I’m not sure.”

Hours later, when the sun had barely begun to kiss the horizon, Katara and Sokka looked up from sorting between blasting jelly and jelly candy, which Pipsqueak had somehow managed to mislabel. A flash of orange and yellow darted between the trees, and the light thud of slippers on wood told the two that Aang had returned. Katara surged forward, hoping to check in with him, to ask what had set him off. She wasn’t sure why Aang seemed so tense- it wasn’t like him. Usually, he was thrilled to meet new people who were friendly, considering how often those they met tried to kill or capture him. She had figured that Aang and Jet would hit it off- both were heroic in her eyes, pillars of hope for the citizens oppressed by the Fire Nation. And Jet…what was there to dislike about him? Behind Aang, he seemed to be the most noble boy she’d met.

Aang smiled at her, softly, but she saw that look visibly harden when his eyes met something behind her. She turned to see Jet, grinning right at Katara and ignoring Aang. “Dinner’s ready.”

“We’d love to jo-” Katara started, spinning back to Aang, only to see him stalking past, Jet’s head only meeting his shoulder. She hurried ahead, only slowing once she’d reached Aang’s side.

“Really, are you feeling okay? If you need to talk, or anything like that, I’d be happy to.”

He smiled softly. “Thank you, but it’s okay. Just in an off mood, I guess.”

“I didn’t even think you were capable of that,” Katara mused. “Your disposition is usually so…sunny.”

He flashed a teasing grin, seemingly more subdued than usual. “For you? Always.” Katara shoved his shoulder, quietly grateful to see him smile. She didn’t miss the way his eyes flicked away from her face to look over her dark blue dress, the way it lightly skimmed mid-thigh. She didn’t hide her own gaze as she did the same, flitting over the way his one-shoulder robes exposed his shoulders and back muscles. 

The quietly intense moment was broken up by Sokka, who’d finally figured out a way to separate the blasting jelly and candied jelly. 

The three settled in the spots Jet had reserved for their “guests of honour”, and Aang's brow furrowed in concentration as he did his best to locate vegan-friendly food among the piles of meat that adored the beat-up wooden centre table. He turned to the boy sitting next to him, a hulking young gentleman with muscular arms the size of the average person.“Do you think you could pass me the potatoes and rice, uh…

“Pipsqueak,” The boy grunted, folding his arms over one another as if daring Aang to laugh at his name.

Aang, naturally, did. 

“You think my name is funny ?” The words were menacing, laced with the underlying threat of brute force and mindless strength.

Through his chuckles, Aang managed, “It’s hilarious .”

A moment of tense silence followed, but it was immediately broken up by the great chortles of laughter Pipsqueak let out at the response. He slammed an open hand into Aang’s back, clearly intending for a typical bro-moment, only to send Aang face-down into the mashed potatoes he’d just served himself. He pushed himself off, wiping off the food with the corner of a napkin, and grinned right back at Pipsqueak.

It was an admirable trait, Aang’s ability to fit right in like a puzzle piece. Katara still felt a little awkward around the constant new faces. Ayiti and her had clicked right away, but with all the other new faces they’d met along the way, she found herself going on and on with speeches about hope and faith in Aang. She knew she was overeager, and she’d told Aang as much while they flew one day, but Aang only grabbed her by the shoulders, had her face him, and told her that her kindness and empathy were nothing less than admirable. 

Katara didn’t like admitting to herself how often she repeated his words in her mind. 

It confused her, why Aang seemed to be doing so well at fitting in with Pipsqueak, conversing with The Duke, but reluctant to even meet Jet’s eyes without a glare in his hazel eyes. She’d thought it jealousy, but she’d thrown away the thought quickly. What did Aang have to be jealous of when it came to Jet? Aang was taller by a head, visibly stronger, beautiful . Jet was handsome, sure, but was Aang really that unable to see himself clearly?

As if Jet had heard her thinking of him, he suddenly settled down between her and Aang, dragging an ornately carved wooden seat along with him. 

“You look lovely.” Jet turned fully toward Katara once he’d settled in his seat, and he slid a calloused, rough hand up her thigh, grinning roguishly. “Enjoying dinner?” Unable to speak, Katara nodded, carefully swatting his hand off of her. Once again, Katara didn’t miss Aang’s gaze fixed on Jet’s hand, the way he held himself as if he would have removed Jet’s hand himself had she not. He finally met her eyes, and she shook her head slightly. It’s fine, she mouthed. I’m fine.

A pause, and Aang mouthed back, I’m not .

Before she could ask what he meant by that, Jet rose to his feet, lazily clanging his fork against his wine-glass. “At attention, men!” Everyone snapped upright, only to collapse into uproarious laughter seconds later. Jet followed suit, chuckling charismatically. “I kid, I kid. But really, every single one of you should be proud of the work we did today. Today, we struck another blow against the Fire Nation swine.” He kept his glass raised, turning to wink and grin at every single member of his crew. It was admirable, how personal he could make his gaze feel when it was trained on you. Each and every one of them raised their glasses, cheering and whooping like wild animals. “Now, the Fire Nation seems to think that a handful of teenage tree-dwellers don’t stand a chance against their tyranny, and maybe they’re right…” He paused dramatically, leaving space for more hoots and hollers from the boys, as jeers and boos echoed through the treetops around them. “Or maybe,” he continued, his tone wrapped in fresh venom. “Maybe they’re dead wrong .” 

He turned his gaze to Katara, reaching out a hand to her as he beckoned her to join him atop the table. With stars in her eyes, she smiled softly and took it, adjusting her skirt as he helped her stand. “I was especially impressed by the efforts of Katara, our very own waterbending master. A little applause for the lady?” He lifted her hand above her head, spinning her elegantly, and she giggled at the cheers directed at her. Jet steadied her once she’d stopped spinning, and she beamed back up at him before tipping her head back down to where she’d been sitting.

Aang gazed back up at her, his eyes never leaving hers, his expression unreadable as he quietly sipped from his wooden cup.

After a few more rounds of speeches and rowdy anti-Fire Nation sentiment, Katara quietly moved to stand with Jet as he cleared the plates after the other Freedom Fighters dispersed. 

“Need any help?”

Jet flashed a quick grin. “Thanks, I appreciate it. I love the other rebels, but they don’t have the best table manners, and I’m afraid that that extends to clearing off and washing the dishes.” She giggled at this, following him to a basin of soapy water and settling in the stool next to him. He moved to grab a cloth, but Katara, feeling daring, grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“Allow me.” She furrowed her brow, her hands shaking slightly, and to her delight, the soapy water rose from the wooden bucket at her command. It danced through the air, before splitting into streams that splashed back down to the wooden slats of the floor and rose again, wrapped around each dish like frosting to a cake. Jet clapped, whistling lowly in appreciation as each dish neatly stacked itself on the bamboo drying racks, entirely clean and sparkling in the moonlight.

“And you say you’re self taught?” Jet asked, shaking his head, his expression one of awe. “You must be a hell of a good teacher.”

Katara dipped her head in humility. “I suppose I had to be.” Her tone turned bitter as she shook her head slowly. “The Fire Nation took away any chance I had at learning in the traditional way, through the teachings of my bending elders.”

Jet’s face paled slightly in understanding. “They took them. Killed them all.”

She looked away, seemingly lost in memories. “My mother as well. She lied that she was the last Waterbender when they came for me. They made sure she suffered for it.” 

Jet took her hand. His rough calluses made the gesture painful, but Katara chose not to tell him. “They killed my mother as well. I… I understand that quiet rage. Spirits, I carry it every day.” He hesitated a moment before continuing. “Would you… would you care to join me for sparring practice, tomorrow morning? Might help you feel a bit safer next time you need to face off against Fire Nation swine.”

Katara smiled back. “I’d like that.” Jet continued to regale her with stories of all he and his fighters had accomplished as of late, but Katara found herself distracted, her gaze wandering over his shoulder every now and then.

It was not lost on her that Aang’s light had stayed on and his curtains drawn until Jet had returned her to her room for the night.

Katara rose in the morning after an uncharacteristically good sleep, perhaps because the moon’s light hadn’t been able to reach her under the thoroughly made straw-and-leaf roof. Sokka was gone, with nothing but a hastily scrawled note resting on his pillow informing her and Aang that Jet and the others had enlisted him for an important mission. She turned to Aang’s room, noting that the door was ajar, but once she crossed the room to peer inside, she noticed that Aang was gone. 

She hadn’t gotten a chance to ask him why he’d stayed awake so late the night before.

It doesn’t matter, Katara told herself as she briskly dressed in the fighting linens Ayiti had purchased for her on Kyoshi. It doesn’t. The mantra was, thankfully, enough to placate her.

Or at least, it had been, before she’d arrived at the sparring ring and could suddenly see nothing but tan skin and flashing blue arrow tattoos. Aang was there, spinning twin wooden staffs as he moved briskly and precisely through a series of complex moves, his body sharp and lethal. Gone was that lighthearted energy, the grins that made him seem youthful and bright. Here was the boy that had had his entire people and way of life destroyed ruthlessly in the brink of an eye. Here was the last Airbender.

Her slippered foot squealed against the crudely built wooden stairs as she stepped toward him, and he whirled at the sound, the cloud that had hung so heavily over his disposition evaporating instantaneously. 

“Katara,” Aang breathed, quickly resettling himself. “I wasn’t expecting you over here.” Confusion slowly overtook his look of surprise. “Why are you-”

“Katara!” Jet’s voice echoed over the treetop clearing as both Katara and Aang spun to face the sudden outburst. “Bright and early, as expected. Ready to trade a couple punches, Freedom Fighter style?”

Katara ignored Aang’s look of concern and nodded fiercely with a grin on her lips.

He echoed her grin. “Then let the games begin.”

After he descended down the steps and joined her, Jet busied himself with finding a staff for her that best fit her measurements, then walked her through how to hold it properly, how to stand. Aang watched it all quietly, settled on a stool just outside of the ring, his gaze boring into Katara as she did her best to ignore him. 

“Right then,” Jet said decisively, reaching for the twin hooks strapped to his back. “Ready to give it a whirl?” Katara only nodded, settling into the ready stance he had taught her moments before. “I won’t go easy on you, I hope you know. Challenges force us to rise to them.” 

He gave her only a second for his words to sink in before he lunged.

Jet was ruthless, an unstoppable force as his hooks clanged against the wood of Katara’s staff. She switched into defence mode immediately, ducking between his attacks, holding out her staff to shield herself. When his increasingly aggressive moves were enough to snap the thick wood clean in two, Katara felt another flare of fear. Jet wasn’t slowing, wasn’t stopping. She held out those two broken off pieces, doing her best to deflect each strike, but it wasn’t enough against the barrage of offensive strikes. At last, she was knocked down, her back scraping against rough wood chips, and with another lash of his hooks, she felt a scrape across her cheekbone, the beading of blood.

Still, Jet did not stop.

Not until, with lethal promise alight in his eyes, Aang moved forward from behind him, his voice purely authoritative as he barked, “That’s enough .” Wind shot from his outstretched fingertips, and both hooks snapped cleanly in half as Jet himself fell to the floor, pressed against it by the phantom breeze. For a moment, Katara swore that she saw a familiar flicker of pale blue light running along Aang’s tattoos, until he turned back to her and that anger temporarily subsided.

He dropped to his knees, helped her sit up as his eyes flicked over her, alight with concern. “Are you alright? Injured at all?” Katara turned her face to him, tears pricking her eyes even as she cursed herself for being so sensitive. Aang gently dapped at the scrape across her cheek, his touch gentle. She clung to him as he helped her up, reluctant to let go of the safety of his arms. 

When Jet got to his feet, Aang was not so kind. 

“What was that?” Aang’s voice was gravel, flame, the winds of a winter storm. “You could have seriously hurt her. She’s untrained, Jet. You came at her as if she was an enemy.”

Katara turned her gaze back to Jet, who looked wholly and thoroughly guilty. “I didn’t- I meant to help teach her to protect herself, but I…” He looked away, shaking his head in shame as he looked earnestly back at her. “I took things too far.” Aang visibly bristled as Jet reached forward, taking one of Katara’s hands between her own. He flashed her a charming smile, and she felt her fear begin to dissipate. “I only wanted to assure your future safety in battle. I’ll leave you in the Airbender’s capable hands- I should go join your brother on his mission.” he pressed a kiss to her hand, then took a running start toward the edge of the platform, leaping from the ledge and whooping as he swung down through the tree cover to the forest floor below. 

Katara knew without looking that Aang was still gritting his teeth, still glaring at the spot through which Jet had just vanished. Brushing dust and wood chips off of her clothing, she asked, “Could you just say whatever it is you’re thinking?”

Aang’s exhale came in a dramatic woosh . “I wasn’t thinking anything.” Katara sent him a knowing glare, and he relented. “I don’t think you want to hear what I have to say.”

“Please.”

“Fine. I think Jet is a dangerous extremist. And he’s clearly crazy.”

Katara retorted defensively, without giving herself more than a moment to think over her response. “Crazy? Dangerous?”

Aang eyed her incredulously. “ Katara . He kept striking you even when you were defenceless, on the ground.”

“ Aang . He told me himself that he wouldn’t be pulling any punches.”

Aang’s head tipped skyward, as if he was silently begging the spirits for their eternal patience. “That doesn’t mean any of what he just did was okay. You’re a beginner.”

She crossed her arms, her ego flaring now. “I’m not some weak little kid.”

“Right,” Aang nodded, his tone borderline mocking. “You just topple over the moment you’re met with an offensive attack.”

“You wish you could fight as well as me.”

He cocked a brow. “You want to bet?”

Katara narrowed her eyes. “Doesn’t a bet require there to be a question of who will win?”

He chuckled, his eyes appraising now. “Alright then, Master Katara.” The title was teasing, but his light tone faded as he continued. “If at any point, it’s too much, tell me. I’ll stop any time you need. I don’t want to make you feel the way he just did.”

Katara tossed aside the cork to her water flask, her tone just as lethal as his had been minutes before. “The only thing you’ll make me feel is pity, when I wipe the floor with you.”

He tugged off the shoulder of his robes, revealing muscled skin Katara made herself look away from. “We’ve got a trash talker on our hands, it seems. Not for long.”

Both of them took several steps back, until each stood perfectly opposite the other.

“Ready?” Katara called, the water from her hip flasks pooling around her palms.

“Ready.” Aang confirmed, hopping atop an air scooter. “ Begin .” The moment the word left Aang’s lips, Katara hurled ice shards right for him, each one a polished, silver dagger. Aang dodged each with ease, a teasing smile blooming across his face. His easy-go-lucky grin sent Katara’s blood boiling, and she called more water to her, forming the water octopus she’d studied late at night for days now. Each tentacle lunged out, aiming for Aang, and still, he wove between them, not a drop of water on him save for the sheen of sweat paining his chest in shimmer. Worse still, he used his wind to bend the force of her attack back to her, leaving her hair soaking wet and her ego more than bruised.

“Stay. Still.” Katara huffed, her temper rising steadily.

Aang pretended to consider it, then shot a burst of air back at her, drying her hair in an instant. “I’d rather not.”

“Fight. Back .” She grit her teeth, her irritation fueling more and more strikes against him. 

Aang pulled his winds back, allowing her hair to settle in a messy tangle of curls and knots, courtesy of his hair-drying blast. “If you’d rather, we could try hand-t0-hand combat. The monks never officially trained us in it, being pacifists and all, so we might be on more equal footing that way.”

She pulled her water back into the bottles at her hip. “ Anything that means I get to land a hit on you.” They squared off again, and Katara did her best to ignore how much Aang’s nearness unsteadied her. She could tell right away that Aang was going easy on her, holding back to let her get a few hits in, and she sent him a glare that communicated as much. 

“Alright.” He grinned. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” All at once, Aang swept his leg under her, smoothly catching her in a rolling dive as she slipped to the ground. He rolled again, and suddenly, he kneeled over her, his hands pinning her down, his eye contact unwavering. She felt her mind spin, not from injury, but from the dizzying intoxication that was his nearness. Her lips parted, not entirely from her control, and she watched as Aang’s eyes flicked down to her lips, then back at her eyes. Again, back and forth. He should have gotten off of her by now, it was clear that he’d bested her, and yet…

Why did he linger?

Her lips parted again as she moved to ask him exactly that, only for the squeaking of boots above to send Aang scrambling off of her, quickly brushing off wood chips as he moved to face whoever had interrupted them. Moments later, Sokka’s face appeared over the edge of the railing, and Katara internally cursed her brother’s less-than-ideal timing as he hurriedly descended to meet the pair.

All at once, Katara could see that something was off. Sokka’s eyes were wild, his demeanour urgent. “Sokka, wh-”

“We’re leaving. We have to.” His tone was firm, as if the question was undoubtedly not up for debate.

“Jet is not who he says he is.”

Chapter Text

All at once, Katara could see that something was off. Sokka’s eyes were wild, his demeanour urgent. “Sokka, wh-”

“We’re leaving. We have to.” His tone was firm, as if the question was undoubtedly not up for debate.

“Jet is not who he says he is.” Sokka crossed his arms, pacing back and forth before whirling back to them. “Your ‘boyfriend’ is nothing more than a ruthless thug.”

Katara’s gaze flicked back toward Aang before responding. “He’s not my boyfriend, Sokka. He’s a friend and he’s been a good host.”

“I have to disagree with that,” Aang interjected, raising an eyebrow. “Katara, what he just did…”

Sokka’s glare only deepened. “What did he do?”

Katara pinned Aang with a glare that said he’d better stay silent. “Nothing.” Sokka still looked sceptical at this, but grabbed each of them by the elbow anyway, dragging them back into their shared straw hut. Only once the door was firmly shut and the windows entirely closed did their conversation continue.

“We can’t trust Jet.” Aang paced around their room, tossing a small sphere of air between his hands. 

“Agreed.” Sokka said decisively, settling back in his chair and swinging his feet onto the small table opposite him.

“W-” Katara scoffed, whipping her head between them as her brow creased in confusion. “What are you two talking about? All we’ve seen so far from Jet is that he’s a hero.”

Sokka looked somewhat defensive at this. “He isn’t a hero. He was just in the right place at the right time.”

“And we should be grateful for that, considering that he only needed to save us because your intuition put us in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Katara rolled her eyes, turning her gaze to Aang. “I can’t believe you’re taking Sokka’s side on this. Normally, you’re much more level-headed than this.”

Aang threw up his hands defensively. “There’s no sides! And you know that if there were, I’d be on yours. I do trust you Katara, I trust your judgement, but… there’s just something off about Jet. I’m not trying to suggest anything rash. I’m just saying maybe we should exercise a little bit of caution.”

“Fine,” Katara snipped, folding her arms over one another.

“Fine.” Aang’s response was equally clipped.

The three swept into Jet’s office rather dramatically, with Katara’s long skirt blowing in the light breeze brought on by Aang’s unease. Sokka wasted no time in rushing forward and slamming both palms flat on the desk that Jet was currently sitting at, his boots casually resting on the wood. 

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Jet's tone was infinitely unbothered. He turned his gaze to Aang and Katara, breaking into a grin. “Did I tell you how well Sokka did on his first mission? We scored a real win, pushed back against the Fire Nation scum.”

Sokka looked utterly offended by Jet’s praise. “Fire Nation scum? He was an old man.”

“Meaning he’s had more time, all his life, to wreak havoc and evil on the good people of the other nations,” Jet fired back, his tone firm and unyielding. “Besides, he was no innocent civilian.” With dramatic flair, Jet tossed an object he’d been fiddling with onto the wood of the table with a loud thunk. Sokka picked it up, tipping it this way and that. “A poisoned dagger.” Jet seemed to take pleasure in the words. “The Fire Nation thought he’d go unnoticed and un-stopped. It seems the ‘harmless old man’ was instead a snake in sheep's clothing.” Katara only gasped, lifting a hand up to run her hand over her neck, only to remember that she no longer had her mother’s necklace to comfort her, courtesy of Zuko. Irritation flared at the thought. I’ll get it back in time.

“There wasn’t- I didn’t-” Sokka sputtered, turning the knife over again and again as if answers would reveal themselves with the right amount of intense scrutiny. He turned back to Aang and Sokka, a plea in his eyes. “This wasn’t there before, I swear. The man was unarmed.” 

Jet rose, placing a single hand on Sokka’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, man. The adrenaline probably distracted you. You did well today. Took out a real threat.” He moved forward, now to Aang and Katara. “I have a mission for the two of you, if you’d like it. Care to help out a band of ragtag rebels in need?” Katara nodded, beaming in response, pride swelling at the thought of being useful. Aang nodded as well, albeit more reluctantly. 

No one else in the room could read his expression as his gaze bored into Jet, silently informing him that he was only going along to protect Katara from the ambitions of the extremist Freedom Fighter.

For although Katara’s trust had been won anew, Aang’s had decidedly not.

Katara and Aang trudged behind Jet as he directed them through the forest, occasionally swatting plants out of the way with his wicked, twin hooks. Katara tried her best to ignore the metal bands now encircling the centre of each staff, courtesy of Aang snapping them apart with his winds the day before. Jet apologized, she reminded himself. He was only trying to help prepare me. He got a little carried away, he said as much.

“Where are we headed, Jet?” Aang asked the question innocently enough, but Katara could hear the layers of his voice, the underlying question of trust. He would tolerate Jet, that much was clear, as long as Katara did, but he clearly was not exactly content about it. 

“We’ve got a big plan to score big against the Fire Nation.” Jet kept his face straight ahead, his hooks swinging, and Katara could see the bit of wheat he still held between his teeth over his shoulder. 

“Sounds…big.” Aang said the words somewhat sarcastically, earning a choked giggle from Katara, but Jet didn’t quite seem to catch the nuance of it all.

“Oh, it will be.” He hacked aside a final overhanging branch. “Here we are.”

“...A bunch of holes in the ground?” Aang shifted his weight and raised an eyebrow, only to immediately drop to a defensive position when Katara swatted him, hard, on the arm and gave him a glare. He raised his hands in a “don’t shoot” position, and schooled his features into neutrality by the time Jet turned around. 

Jet only smirked, and raised his hand, and as he did, a geyser went up behind him, sending mist skyward that drizzled on them as lightly as a windswept feather. Katara tipped her face up, grinning into the droplets of water. 

“The water wants to be let out, clearly. It’s practically begging the two of you to help it along.”

Katara’s expression quickly shifted from joy to unsteadiness. “I’ve… I've never used bending on water I can’t see.” She turned to Jet, her braid tumbling over her shoulder. “Jet, I don’t know if-”

“Katara,” he said, gazing earnestly into her eyes, his hands resting on her shoulder as he stood behind her. “You can do this.”

Aang coughed, rather awkwardly. “...What about me?”

“Pft, you’re the Avatar.” He chuckled. “I know you can do this.” He headed away quickly, letting them know to meet him back at camp once they were done. Aang and Katara worked in silence for a few moments, entirely in tandem as they gestured for each geyser to break free. They made quick work of the first few, but the next couple seemed insistent on staying firmly underground. 

“About what Sokka said, earlier…” Aang trailed off when he saw the flame in Katara’s eyes.

“Please, don’t tell me you’re indulging him in his conspiracies.”

“Katara, he’s your brother. What reason would he have to lie?”

“I’m not saying he’s lying, I’m saying he was… confused, maybe.”

Aang paused his movements at this, letting the water he was bending drop to his feet, coursing through cracks in the rock floor beneath them. “Katara. You can’t genuinely believe that. Sokka is an idiot, but he’s not dumb.”

Katara raised an eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“That Sokka can be goofy, sure, but I trust him and his perception, 100%. He doesn’t miss things. If anything, he sees and notices things most people don’t. If he doesn’t trust Jet….” Aang sighed, resuming his bending forms. “I just feel like you’re getting too close to him. Jet, I mean.”

“And what would the problem be with that?” Katara could hear her voice rising, her temper flaring.

“He’s a bad guy, Katara.”

“You don’t know that!”

“He hurt you!” Katara shut her mouth at the raw emotion in Aang’s voice. He was breathing heavily now, his fists clenching as wind whipped around them. He bit his lip, took in some deep breaths. “He hurt you,” he repeated, this time more gently. “I didn’t protect you quickly enough.”

“Aang…” Katara trailed off, realizing that they’d cleared the last of the geysers. She knew she should say something, respond, acknowledge this thing that seemed to be flickering between them, every moment they were alone, and yet, to say something would be to make it real. 

To make this hazy, tangle of something… tangible. 

Now was not the time. They were at war. Aang was meant to save the world. It would be selfish of her to waste even a fraction of his time and attention. And to be honest, she wasn’t even sure what it was she wanted from him. What it was she felt for him. She told herself it was friendship, over and over, but every once in a while, she would wake up in a cold sweat from dreams where they were something else. For a few moments, her hazy, half-unconscious self would struggle to reconcile a world in which her and Aang were just... friends. It always scared her, that temporary feeling of panic and loss before she remembered what they were to each other in the real world. She couldn’t stomach it. 

“We… um…. We should meet up with Jet, at the reservoir.” Before Aang could say a word, Katara began walking. She heard Aang scramble to catch up, heard him say something about how they should be going to the hideout, but she kept walking.

She was sure that if she stayed here, if she thought too much about the emotion Aang had just held in his voice, she would say something she’d regret.

After a healthy dose of emotional avoidance, courtesy of a long walk through the perpetually autumn-leaved forest, Aang and Katara reached the clifftop clearing overlooking the reservoir gates. Katara squinted, her eyes darting between bits of the valley, before she finally noticed a couple of Freedom Fighters at the base of the gates. 

She felt Aang step closer behind her, and as he did, she heard a distinct gasp. She turned back to him, raising an eyebrow, only to see that he had paled slightly, his eyebrows furrowed. “They- they’re loading the barrels they rooted from those Fire Nation soldiers yesterday.”

“The blasting jelly…? But why…” Katara trailed off as she turned back to the valley, where the fighters had begun rigging lines of the stuff. She turned back to Aang, her expression confirming what he already knew. 

“Because Jet’s gonna blow up the dam.” Aang’s tone was as sombre as she’d ever heard it.

“N-no,” Katara sputtered, but she could hear the unsteadiness in her own defensive tone. “It would destroy the town, h-harm innocent people. Jet would never- could ever-”

“Couldn’t I?”

 Out of nowhere, Jet lunged from the trees at the clearing’s edge, snatching Aang’s glider before he could deploy it and cleanly sliding it onto his back before ducking into a somersault. 

“Jet…” Katara hated that her voice was trembling, hated that she could feel the tears threatening to fall. “All of these people… what are you doing?”

“Katara,” Jet said, and his voice sounded genuinely wounded by her disappointment at his betrayal. “Out of everyone, I thought you would understand. Your mother…”

“Don’t talk about my mother,” Katara bit out the words, her eyes narrowing. 

“Do you want what happened to her, to you, to happen again? For every child of every nation to end up motherless, their family slaughtered by tyrannical dictators? We have to take our wins where we can get them, anytime we can get them.” At the sinister note in his tone, Aang immediately strode forward until he was positioned between the two, and he gently tucked Katara behind him. “I thought you would understand. Although, I suppose I did assume your brother would, as well…”

“Where is Sokka?” Katara bared her teeth, tears flowing freely now, and she felt Aang tense beside her. Jet reached out, his hands extending to her face, but before he could even brush her skin, Aang’s hand snapped out, his hand clamped around Jet’s wrist. Instead of striking, he simply nodded his head to Katara, as if he had just opened a door for her, and Katara gladly obliged him.

She drew the water from the pouch at her belt before Jet had a moment to register her attack.

Her water-whip threw him to the ground, and Aang leapt forward, reaching for his glider as it tumbled from Jet’s back, only for Jet to strike with his hooks and tug it out of reach once more. 

Aang huffed in frustration and took to the air, flipping backwards until he’d landed in an overhanging tree. “I won’t fight you, Jet.”

“You will, if you want this.” He dangled the glider teasingly before strapping it to his back and darting toward Aang, his hooks gleaming in the afternoon light. Aang darted back, retreating through the forest, but Jet continued to pursue him relentlessly. Katara watched in horror, running after the two on the ground as Jet finally landed on a treetop next to Aang and lashed out at him, the clanging sounds of his hooks hitting wood echoing through the forest. Aang sent out a burst of air, a desperate attempt to push him back, but Jet only flipped over it, darting closer and closer. Aang finally pushed him back with a sharp kick that expelled a concentrated burst of wind, and Katara could hear the thump as Jet’s head connected with the tree behind him. Aang gritted his teeth, displeased with the need for violence at all. Jet rose once more, back on the offensive as if nothing had happened. In turn, Aang switched back to defence, darting between trees once more as he rose higher and higher. The two broke the tree cover, then dropped back down, chasing one another down tree trunks until Jet managed to hook Aang’s ankles, throwing him off balance. 

Aang used the opportunity to swing to the underside of a branch, crawling along it before popping up to take Jet by surprise. Fed up, Aang clapped his hands together, releasing an intensely powerful gust of wind that sent Jet tumbling to the forest floor below. He managed to snag a branch before he dropped, but as he hung there, Aang’s glider slid from his back, and Aang took the opportunity to  leap down for it, crashing to the ground about a foot away. 

Jet dropped down after him, but before he could fully advance toward Aang and deliver another brutal blow, Katara surged forward, pulling water from the nearby stream to land strike after strike on Jet. He was sputtering now, absolutely drenched, but he couldn’t reach either of them, not with Katara’s intense offensive strategy. Aang struggled to his feet in time to see Jet slip until his back was against an imposingly tall oak tree, and once it was, Katara hit him with one last blast.

This time, instead of the water splashing to the ground, Katara exhaled, and suddenly, the water was ice, pinning Jet to the tree in glistening shards of crystal and diamond. She left only his neck and head, but from the neck down, Jet was entirely immobilised. 

Katara took a shaky step forward, her voice quaking now. “Why, Jet?” She shook her head, balling her fists before releasing them again. “I can't believe I trusted you.” From her expression, it seemed that she was unable to decide whether she was hurt or furious. Perhaps, she was both. “You’re sick.” She spat out the words with disgust, and behind her, Aang’s expression mirrored the same feeling.Katara expected him to continue trying to peddle his extremist worldview, to demand her to release him. 

What she didn’t expect was for him to begin whistling, a complex and rhythmic melody punctuated by sharp note changes. He smirked as he did, pausing to catch his breath for only a moment before going on, still wearing that self-satisfied expression. 

“What are you-” Katara began, but Jet cut her off with a grin. 

“You’re too late.”

At his words, Aang whipped around, pulling out his glider to drop down to the valley, only for him to crash to the ground a few seconds later, the damage to his glider rendering it useless. Katara ran up to him, dropping to her knees as the two looked over the valley below. 

“Please, Sokka,” Katara chanted under her breath. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you. Please.” The two watched in horror as a flaming arrow arced gracefully across the sky before dropping down sharply, burying its flint tip into the head of a barrel below. Almost instantaneously, the valley erupted in an explosion that seemed to rock the very ground Aang and Katara stood on. All at once, the water held back by the walls of the dam rushed out in a devastating wave, one that swept away or buried everything in its path. The water rushed through the contours of the earth, sweeping away the village in a tsunami of destruction. Buildings split apart, walls crumbled, wells flooded, and all Aang and Katara could do was watch. It was heart wrenching.

Katara felt her eyes well with tears as she watched a stuffed rabbit drift by that couldn’t have belonged to anyone over the age of five.

Aang’s voice was solemn, heartbroken as he said, “Sokka didn’t make it in time.” Katara only raised a hand to her mouth, her whole body shaking with sobs as she remembered image after image of the raids on her village, the lifeless bodies left behind, the families that cried for them.

Here, there would be none to mourn one another. All these lives, extinguished in the name of peace. False peace, peace peddled by Jet and the others that followed his extremist worldview. She felt sick.

Whirling around, she bared her teeth, her tone snarling like a wild beast. “Jet, you monster!”

Jet only clicked his tongue, that same self-satisfied smirk on his face. “This was a victory, Katara, remember that. One you and Aang aided in, might I add. Your efforts with the geysers were vital.”Katara swayed on her feet, unsteady for a moment, and Aang rushed to help her stay standing. Jet only continued, unfazed by her evident disgust. “The Fire Nation is gone. This valley will be safe.”

Aang’s eyes narrowed at this, but before he could respond, he heard familiar grumbling behind him. Before he knew it, Appa was rising through the air behind him, with Momo and Sokka atop his back. Katara called her brother’s name in relief, but Sokka’s gaze did not leave Jet’s.

“It will be safe. Without you,” Sokka spat, gripping Appa’s reins tightly. “I warned the villagers of your little plan.” Jet shouted at him, his confusion evident, but Sokka continued, unbothered by Jet’s protest. “It took convincing- after all, they had no real reason to believe me- they thought I was a spy. Until the old Fire Nation man that you and your cronies harassed stuck up for me, told them it was all true. We managed to get everyone safe and out in time.” Sokka scoffed. “The only victory you achieved was creating the new monument of an underwater village. Not a single person, Fire Nation or otherwise, was hurt by your little scheme.”

“Sokka, you fool!” Jet was irate now, struggling harder than ever against his icy restraints. “We could have freed this valley!”

“Freed who? They would be left with a village of graves. That is no victory.” Aang shot him with a lethal glare as he helped Katara up onto Appa’s saddle. 

“You… you traitor!” Jet pushed harder, but the ice did not budge, and as Katara glared at the boy, Aang swore he saw the ice creep up just a little bit higher.

“No, Jet. You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people.” Sokka’s tone was genuine now, raw and disappointed. Katara wrapped her arms around herself, forcibly turning away. Sokka called out to Appa, and he rose skyward, leaving Jet pinned to the tree, calling after them, begging Katara to listen. Katara only quietly rocked back and forth, tears streaming down her cheeks at his betrayal. 

They flew in silence for a while. Aang moved up to sit next to Sokka, who had turned them in the wrong direction, and the two chatted back and forth about where Sokka had been during the day, and what he and Katara had missed. In the backseat, Katara sat in silence, mentally tearing herself apart for even momentarily trusting and supporting someone that… cruel. She felt awful for ignoring the signs, for defending him to Aang, for being so reluctant to see Jet for who he truly was. They had packed leftovers from the feast the night before, and Katara remained entirely silent as they flew over acres and acres of dusty-orange forest, munching on bread and cold, roasted vegetables. Once they were far enough away that they were sure the Freedom Fighters couldn’t catch up, the three landed and set up camp. 

Sokka, as usual, was out like an oil lamp the moment his head hit the pillow. Katara, on the other hand, prepared to conduct her typical night routine of rising to drill her waterbending forms. 

Tonight was different. She still couldn’t sleep, that much was the same, but as she rose to drill her forms by the river, she felt a hand clamp around her forearm. She almost screamed, but when she whirled around to face her would-be attacker, she exhaled in a whoosh, relieved that it was only Aang.

“My bad,” he whispered, cringing at his choice to grab her arm without warning. “Didn’t mean to scare you.” 

Katara dropped back down onto her sleeping bag, neatly crossing her legs. Aang did his best to ignore that she was only in her wrappings now, that the moonlight was sparkling on her bare skin, like a spirit in a painting of old. “I was just…wanting some air.”

“C’mon, Katara, don’t even try. You’re an awful liar.” He flashed a grin, and in the dark, the starlight set his teeth aglow. “I know you’ve been bending at night.”

Katara blanched at this. “How?”

“Light sleeper?” Aang shrugged. “Plus, you’re not great at sneaking out, either. You’ve stepped on me pretty much every time you’ve gotten up to practise.”

 “I really didn’t mean to do that.” She winced, offering an apologetic smile. “Remember when we talked about how the moon kinda makes me feel awake? That I have trouble sleeping at night? It’s almost like the more often I bend, the worse that gets. Sleeping has been pretty much impossible for the last week or so, so I thought I might as well get some practice time in.”

“Katara, you’ve got to sleep. I get the desire to be the best bender you can be, the urgency we’re all under, but to bend to the best of your abilities, you need to rest.”

“I can’t, though. How do you suggest I fix that?” She said the words sarcastically, crossing her arms as she attempted to defend actions she knew were illogical. 

“I, um…” Aang trailed off, and even in the dark, she could tell he was trying to hide a blush, could tell he was embarrassed. “I got you something.” He quickly backtracked, his voice somewhat frantic. “If you want. You might not. Want it, that is. And you don’t have to, and I’m not sure if it’ll even-”

“Aang.” Katara caught his hands in hers, looking into his eyes earnestly. “What is it?”

“When I left, yesterday, before dinner, saying I had to go blow off some steam? I decided to walk around the village, in disguise, of course.” Aang reached into his back, pulling out a small silk drawstring pouch with something in it that clinked. “I saw this, and- and thought of you.” He loosened the strings, and out tumbled a small, glass bottle. “Lavender, poppy… it’s meant to help you sleep. I’m not sure how true their claims were, but apparently, it’s a sleep cure made with Waterbenders in mind.”

“Aang…” After Jet’s betrayal that day, Katara had left feeling shaken, used. For Aang to do something like this… she surged forward, pulling him into a tight hug. At first, Aang’s body was stiff, like a puppet with its strings pulled too tightly, but after a few moments, she felt him melt into her, burying his head in her neck as they held one another. They broke apart after a few moments too long, and dazedly, Katara wondered if she had imagined feeling Aang’s heart beat more quickly as they touched. 

“Thank you.” She could hear herself that the words were too tense, too quick, as she snatched the vial out of Aang’s hand, but her embarrassment simply would not allow her to speak as she normally would. She heard Aang turn over, chuckling softly.

“Goodnight, Katara.”

Katara whispered back softly. “Goodnight, Aang.”

That night, Katara slept peacefully, slipping into dreams of cloud-covered beds and sugar dewdrops. She did not wake, not even once, bathed in clouds of poppy and lavender.

Chapter Text

“Hold still! ”

Katara, sunning herself on the riverside rocks that lined that day’s campsite, only rolled her eyes, doing her best to hold back her laughter at Sokka’s attempt to catch a fish with his bare hands. Ever since Sokka had awoken that morning with a craving to catch and eat the fish that had woken them up with splashing during the night before, the valley had been filled with his yelps and huffs of exasperation as he missed the fish again and again. He trudged out of the water, his clothes soggy, weighing down his sluggish steps as he dramatically flopped onto the beach below. Katara noted that his hair was full of sand when he propped himself up on his elbows and reached for his fishing pole, seemingly giving up on catching the fish without any tools. 

“You are so gonna be dinner.” Sokka fixed the fish with a dramatic glare as he wildly swung the fishing pole. He stopped abruptly when he realised no line had yet cast an arc through the air. He whirled back to Katara, who was still lounging, and Aang, who seemed to be fiddling with something resting on the sand at his feet. “Which one of you two magic-wielders wizard-ed away my fishing line?” He crossed his arms and tapped his feet impatiently as he waited for a response. 

Katara only wrinkled her nose, pushing off of the rocks she was resting on to take a closer look at Sokka’s fishing pole. “I didn’t touch it, Sokka.”

“... I did,” Aang admitted, raising his hand sheepishly. He kept the other hand behind his back, and to Katara, he almost seemed nervous. “I didn’t think you’d need it, Sokka.” Sokka stormed over, snatching at what Aang held behind his back.

“Aang, it’s all tangled. How am I supposed to catch anything with this?” Sokka tossed it over his shoulder, and without choosing to, Katara darted to catch it, her reflexes acting entirely on instinct. She unfurled her palm to reveal a woven necklace, full of complex knots, adorned with a pale pink flower carved from some sort of lightweight stone. 

Aang rose with a burst of wind, and smoothly strode over to her. As he passed, he gently tugged the trinket from her hand. “May I move your hair?” The softness of his words sent a shiver down her spine, and wordlessly, she nodded. She was sure that if she spoke, it would’ve come out in a squeak, for reasons she still couldn’t quite grasp. As he gently gathered and swept her hair over one shoulder, he responded to Sokka, his tone even, as if the two were discussing the weather. As if his hands weren’t brushing Katara’s collarbones, as if they weren’t carefully smoothing her hair as he fastened the necklace around her neck. 

Perhaps it was a good thing that he was standing behind her. She was sure that her face must have been flushed an embarrassingly cherry shade of red. 

“It’s not tangled, it’s woven.” Aang shook his head, clicking his tongue as if the difference should have been obvious to Sokka. “I made it, for Katara.” His voice became more shy as he stepped back from her, the necklace fully fastened. “I thought since Zuko took your other one…” He was rubbing the back of his neck, in a nervous way that Katara found strangely endearing when she turned to face him again. 

“Thank you, Aang.” She smiled softly, feeling somewhat self-conscious when their eye contact did not break as she turned. “So, how do I look?” Her tone was joking, but her smile froze as she saw a blush creep up his cheeks. 

“Do- do you mean all of you, or just your neck?”He tugged at his colour, biting his lip for a moment as he gave her a once-over before finally looking away. “I mean, because they both look-”

“Well, Aang,” Sokka smirked, his teasing tone evident. “Somebody’s got the oogies .”

“Psht,” Aang rolled his eyes, sending a breeze to blow back Sokka’s sandy hair. His tone sounded causal, but it seemed to waver slightly. “Katara’s a friend, Sokka. Dependable, just like Appa, or Momo.”

“Thanks.” Katara said flatly, pretending to suddenly be interested in observing the sand at her feet. Dependable. He sure did know what a girl wanted to hear.

“Hah, maybe you should go into the jewellery business, instead of doing your whole world-saving thing!” Sokka exclaimed from the water’s edge, seemingly unaware of the tension that had been crackling between the two benders only moments before. 

“I don’t see why I can’t do both!” Aang ambled over to him, leaving Katara thoroughly confused and more than a little hurt. “I would say that you should start a business too, but it looks like you don’t have too much of a chance of breaking into the fishing industry.”

“Mmm, care to help? I don’t see you doing much more than watching from the sidelines.” Sokka shot him a glare, daggers in his eyes.

“A vegetarian fisher?” Aang raised an eyebrow, but walked into the water alongside Sokka regardless.

“Maybe you can do the bookkeeping for the business. I think you have the potential to have a real head for numbers.” The fish shot up beside Sokka, splashing teasingly, and Sokka lunged, only to come up with empty hands yet again.

Aang doubled over, weak with laughter, which was made worse when the fish came up yet again, just to splash Sokka with yet another small wave of water. “I think to have a bookkeeper, you need to be able to catch fish to sell,” he managed through his chuckling.

“Yeah, alright, Air-Boy .” Sokka fixed him with another glare, and before Aang could dart out of the water, Sokka tackled him, managing to submerge him for only a couple seconds before Aang erupted from the water in a burst of wind, using the waterbending he’d already learned to combat Sokka’s overeager splashing. 

Katara giggled, settling back onto one of the larger rocks, but her smile faded as she watched the way Aang’s eyes shone in merriment, the way he grinned playfully. Katara’s a friend.

She couldn’t stop replaying the words over and over again, even as Sokka finally caught and roasted his fish, even as she and Aang foraged for the nuts and berries that would make up his dinner, even as she extinguished that night’s cooking fire. She settled into her sleeping blankets, the scent of poppy and lavender still clinging to them, and the reminder of Aang’s gift only worsened her spiralling thoughts. 

Katara’s a friend.

She wasn’t sure if that was fully true. Not after the way she felt when she looked up at him, not after the way he’d jumped to protect her from Jet, not after the way her heart leapt into her throat at every accidental touch. 

Was this only friendship, to him?

She cast a sidelong glance to Aang, curled up with Momo under woven orange-and-yellow sleeping sheets. Moonlight danced across the planes of his cheekbones, his skin sparkling as if cast from mica. 

It was as if the moon spirits themselves were marking him as hers. 

Wordlessly, she leaned over him, quietly adjusting the branches to his right until the moon caught on the leaves above him, until his face was no longer illuminated. 

He wasn’t hers . She wasn’t sure why she had to keep reminding herself of that. 

Katara awoke abruptly, blinking into the sunlight that shone across the sands of the beach. She wondered for a moment why she felt as though she’d been aggressively shaken awake, only for a mighty roar to rip through the early morning stillness, her question answered instantaneously. 

“Whosit- whatha-” Sokka startled awake, his words slurring into gibberish as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes and shot upright. Aang rose directly afterwards, his muscles tense and his head on a swivel, scanning for danger. In his panic, Sokka began gathering their sleeping rolls, piling them on Appa’s back. 

The roar echoed again, closer this time, and Aang shot upwards, a burst of wind propelling him and Momo to the top of a nearby boulder. He extended a pointed finger, his head snapping back to Sokka and Katara in concern. “Someone’s being attacked by a platypus bear!” 

The siblings surged forward, Sokka with his boomerang in hand. Around the side of the boulder stood a platypus bear, larger than average, standing on its hind legs as it swatted massive paws, roaring at the man who stood before it. The man only calmly evaded each attack, a pleasant smile painted on his face as he did. Aang shot ahead, leaping to a large stone behind the bear, and rather than beg for help, the man only addressed Aang with that same kind smile.

“Well, hello there!” He dodged another particularly nasty swipe, looking nothing less than content with the situation he found himself in. “Nice day, isn’t it?”

“Nice day!? ” Sokka asked, rather incredulously, before being cut off by Aang’s desperate warnings directed at the old man.

“If you make noise, he’ll run off!” Aang yelped, his hands cupped around his mouth as he shouted his advice.

“No, no, play dead!” Sokka shouted, flailing his arms to catch the man’s attention. “He’ll lose interest!” 

The man only chucked, amused as he dodged the bear’s swings yet again in a narrow miss.

“Run downhill, then climb a tree?” Katara offered, running up behind Sokka.

“No! Punch him in the bill!” Sokka swung his closed fist to emphasize his point. 

“And then run in zig-zags!” Aang chimed in.

“Ah ah ah,” The man tutted, wagging his finger at the bear as it attempted an attack yet again. “I appreciate the advice, children,” he added, turning his head to face them as he continued his dodging, “but there is really no need. All will be well.”

When the next swipe came within a hair’s length of drawing blood, Aang surged forward, sending a wall of air to push back the bear. The animal started forward in response, but after a roar from Appa, who had lumbered up behind the beast, the platypus bear ambled off in fear, dropping an egg as it did so. The animal continued grumbling under its breath as it submerged itself in the nearby river. The minute he was sure the beast was gone, Aang whirled back to the man, offering a hand for him to steady himself. 

The man only shook his head, refusing the offer as he rose to his feet with a pleasant smile on his face. “The help is appreciated, young man, but unnecessary. Not to worry.” He looked up to the summer sky, grinning now. “Aunt Wu had already predicted a safe crossing for me.”

The three friends glanced between one another, silently communicating both scepticism and confusion, before Sokka ultimately attempted a response. 

“...Aunt who?” Sokka raised an eyebrow.

“No, Aunt Wu.” The man clucked his tongue at Sokka, as if he was disappointed that the young Water Tribe boy didn’t know the woman he was speaking of. “She is the fortune teller from my village.” The man’s voice took on a tone of pride, even as Sokka subtly made a “he’s crazy” gesture at Aang and Katara. “Awful nice knowing your future,” he went on, nodding as his eyes fluttered shut for a moment.

“I can imagine,” Katara said dreamily, the thought comforting.

“But- the fortune teller…. She was wrong,” Sokka added, his words slow as if he believed the man to be too unintelligent to register their meaning. “You didn’t have a safe journey- you were almost killed! You had a fight with a platypus bear! That’s hardly a safe stroll through the park.”

“Ah, but the key word, my young friend, is almost.” He left Sokka sputtering wordlessly in disbelief as he stooped to sling a worn cloth bag over his shoulder, and straightened, facing them once more. “I hope for the three of you that your journey goes similarly well.”

Aang sidled over to Katara, bending slightly to whisper in her ear behind his hand. “Did he just wish for a platypus-bear attack on us?” 

Katara giggled, turning to whisper back, before the man stopped his ambling abruptly and turned back to them, extending a wrapped object he pulled from his bag.

“Oh, and Aunt Wu said that if I encountered any travellers, to give them this.” With those parting words, the man turned for a final time and strode down the river bank, his figure quickly fading amongst the clouds of early-morning mist and dew. Aang began excitedly tearing at the fabric, his expression of excitement akin to that of a child on Yulemas, while Katara’s eyes remained fixed on where the man’s silhouette had dissipated moments before. 

“Maybe…” She trailed off, marvelling at how ridiculous she felt even as she continued, “Maybe we could stop by the man’s village, speak to Aunt Wu ourselves? It could be fun!”

“C’mon,” Sokka rolled his eyes, his disbelief somehow louder than Aang’s excited paper-tearing. “Fortune-telling is nonsense. Smokes and mirrors and guess work, that’s what I'd call it.” His rant was interrupted by the popping sound of an umbrella unfurling as Aang finally managed to tear off the last bit of stubborn wrapping paper. 

“An umbrella!” He grinned as if he’d been handed a priceless diamond, and before Sokka could counter his excitement with the point that the sky had not a single cloud, suddenly, the three were caught in what could only be described as a torrential downpour. Aang snapped the umbrella up, drops of water sliding down his clean-shaven head before it fully covered him. 

Katara couldn’t help but be slightly amused at the way Sokka’s smugness settled into a scowl. 

She reached overhead, waving her hand in a graceful arc as the raindrops above her head formed a small shield of water. She stepped sidelong until she’d joined Aang under the umbrella, and as she looked up at him, she realised there were still a few water drops trickling down Aang’s tattoos, with no hair to stop or absorb them. She moved without thinking, her hand almost brushing Aang’s skin as she pulled the droplets from him to the palm of her hand. Upon seeing the way his eyes fixed on hers, she sheepishly wiped the water on her skirt before twisting to face Sokka. 

“This proves it, Sokka. She knew exactly what we’d need!”

“It proves nothing,” Sokka huffed, holding up the egg the platypus had left behind, which provided little shelter from the rain trickling down his arm wrappings and ponytail. “You can’t really tell the future.”

Katara let herself smile at this, mockery creeping into her tone. “I guess you’re not really getting wet, then.”

Sokka moved his hands as if he was preparing to gesture aggressively, only for the rain-slicked egg to slip in his hands, the large shell cracking over him as both Katara and Aang laughed at what could only be the spirits themselves teasing Sokka.

The three trudged along, Sokka soaking wet and grumbling under his breath, while both Aang and Katara remained bone dry. 

“Of course she predicted it was going to rain. Any so-called “fortune teller” idiot could’ve seen the grey clouds gathering all day.” He accentuated the phrase “fortune teller” with dramatised air quotes, rolling his eyes to further drive his point home.

“Just admit that you clearly aren’t one of those ‘fortune teller idiots’, and you can come under the umbrella.” Katara’s tone was one of learned patience, accumulated from years of putting up with Sokka’s self-righteous tantrums. 

“You think I can’t? Like I said, smokes and mirrors. Look, I’ll predict the future, right here, right now.” He straightened, his tone taking up a worldly, haughty accent that did not sound nearly as authoritative as he had intended. He hopped from foot to foot, as if casting some sort of wizardly spell. “It is going to continue drizzling.” He crossed his arms, clearly satisfied as the rain continued. “See?”

As if Sokka’s words themselves had been a cue in a play, the rain abruptly stopped, replaced by early-afternoon sunshine that sparkled over the puddles that lined the path and spilled through the hills and divots of the forest path. 

Aang chuckled, smoothly closing the umbrella. “Not everyone has the gift, Sokka.” He shot him a teasing side smirk that had Sokka turning an irritated shade of red. Appa ambled up behind the Water Tribe boy and, adding insult to injury, shook the water from his coat, drenching Sokka’s already soaked clothes thoroughly.

After a couple more twists and turns through the winding trails of the forest, they finally stumbled upon an imposing copper, gold, and green gate that marked the village’s entrance. Chortling turkey-ducks squabbled at their feet, nipping at the heels of the newcomers while they scrounged for seeds wedged between the floor tiles of the town’s market. The town itself was beautifully quaint, made up of simple, well-maintained shops and homes. The villagers themselves looked perfectly content, strolling through the stalls that peddled fruits and fabrics as they chattered amongst themselves.

Katara supposed that that type of simple happiness and comfort came from knowing exactly how everything would turn out.

 She led the group, enthusiastically weaving through the crowd in the direction that the signs labelled “Aunt Wu’s” pointed in. Sokka lagged behind, still grumbling about the ridiculousness of it all. Finally, they stood in front of a white house, with beautifully carved wooden window panes and a large, circular door made from deep red wood and woven beige fabric. A man stood at attention in front of it, with black-and-white robes that draped over his nimble frame imposingly and white spiked hair that signified his age. 

He smiled mysteriously at the three, as if they had met before, and simply bowed, sweeping his hand gracefully as he gestured to the door. “Aunt Wu has been expecting you.” His eyes sparkled knowingly as he straightened, and while Katara found herself captivated, Sokka only scoffed, rolling his eyes as he passed through the door behind her. 

The bones of the rooms were simple, but the ambiance of the items in the room were anything but. Dark brown rugs were covered with throw pillows, and incense and candles stacked on low tables sent smoke curling along the wood of the low ceiling. Hand-painted dividers stood against the walls, lit by overhead paper lanterns that swayed slightly in a phantom breeze.

Before Katara could take in the rest of the room, footsteps padded down the hall beyond the far wall ahead of them. A girl, seemingly around Aang’s age, entered the room, lingering in the paper-and-wood doorway as her eyes swept over the newcomers. Her hair was beautiful, wild and spikey, slicked into twin pigtails on either side of her head. She wore a traditional gown in soft shades of pink and purple that perfectly set off the blush growing across her cheeks as she fixed her eyes on Aang, who stood tall beside Katara and Sokka, muscles rippling through his one-shouldered robes. Katara followed her gaze, biting back the urge to scowl. 

Friends. We are friends .

She schooled her face back into neutrality and instead smiled personably at the girl, hoping with all her might that her contentedness with the girl’s presence came across as genuine. Katara bit back the stab of insecurity that struck her as the girl smiled at each of them. Spirits , she was beautiful. Her soft, dark brown eyes only set off the wildness of her hair, and her button nose wrinkled adorably as her thin, delicate lips parted to speak. 

“My name is Meng. I’m Aunt Wu’s niece, and her personal assistant.” Her gaze swept over Aang again, her eyes sparkling, and Katara bit back a grimace. “Well, hello there!”

Was Katara only being dramatic, or was Aang’s answering smile overly enthusiastic? “Hello,” He grinned softly, adjusting his off-shoulder robes.

Meng’s voice took on the practised tone of a hostess. “Could I get any of you a bit of tea, or Aunt Wu’s special bean curd puffs?”

“I could go for some puffs,” Sokka nodded, seemingly turning over the idea in his mind as he did. Meng looked as though she had more to say, but she shook her head gently, the movement almost imperceptible, as if she was speaking to herself. 

“Of course.” She went to fetch refreshments, but stopped, turning back to Aang, as if she’d just worked up a bit of courage. “You…seem to have some pretty big ears.” She immediately flushed as the words left her lips, embarrassed at how awkwardly she’d said them.

Aang reached up to pinch one of his ears between the pads of his fingers, furrowing his brow as he did so. “I…guess so?”

“Don’t be modest!” Sokka scoffed, clearly enjoying the chance to mess with Aang. He leaned over, slapping the Airbender on the back, hard. “They’re huge!”

“In any case,” Meng continued, hiding a giggle behind her hand, “It was lovely to meet you, Aang.”

“Likewise,” He nodded politely, and the simple gesture was enough to light up Meng’s expression entirely. She scampered quickly out of the room, her soft footsteps echoing as she faded from view. 

Sokka quickly fixed his focus back on Katara.”There’s no way that this fortune-teller is anything but a cold-hearted scam. She’s just preying on the knowledge that some people, ” he paused, sending an emphasised glare directly at Katara, “are naive enough to believe her sham.”

“Or,” She countered, her voice raising in volume. “ Hopeful enough.”

“Same thing as naivete.” 

“It is not -” She huffed, rising to her feet, but Aang reached up, tugging on her arm to bring her back down before turning to Sokka and making a “chill out” gesture. 

“Guys, please. Not really the place.” Katara knew he was right, but she rolled her eyes anyway, dramatically settling back onto her plush floor pillow. The doors to what Katara assumed was Aunt Wu’s room flew open, and a young round-faced woman with a glowing smile burst out. She zeroed in on Meng, who had been about to walk through the doorway with servings of tea and bean curd puffs. 

“Oh, Meng!” The girl called, wrapping her arms around Meng, who struggled to keep all the cups and bowls steady. “Aunt Wu has finally said that I’m going to meet my true love! He’s going to give me a rare panda lily.”

“Lia, how romantic .” Meng transferred the dishes to just one arm, using her newly free hand to squeeze her friend’s hands.

“I wonder if your true love will bring you a rare flower.” Lia winked, grinning conspiratorially. Her tone became hushed, quiet enough that Aang and Sokka likely couldn’t hear any more, but distinct enough that Katara could make it out. “Is that the big-eared guy Aunt Wu predicted you’d marry?” 

Meng blushed thoroughly, and shoved away her friend, rolling her eyes. “Hush, Lia. I have bean curds to deliver.” She turned sharply, and in her eagerness, she tumbled forward, losing her careful grip on the tray. Her long robes pooled and twisted at her feet, and with another step, they pulled taunt, sending her falling down to the ground at Aang’s feet.

Aang acted out of instinct, sending a breeze to steady the swaying porcelain teacups while leaning forward to catch the tray, brushing his fingers against Meng’s in the process. She looked up slowly, their eyes locking for a moment. If the girl hadn’t been blushing before, she certainly was now as she retreated, apologising profusely. Sokka didn’t wait a moment before snatching the bowl off of Aang’s lap and digging in.

“Welcome, young travellers.” An older woman swept into the room, dressed in shades of orange and red in an ornate gown that only made her presence more imposing. It could only be Aunt Wu. “Now, who is next? Don’t be shy.” Neither Katara nor Sokka acknowledged her offer, too busy glaring at one another over their disagreement on how real fortune-telling was. 

“I’ll go,” Aang raised his hand, standing and brushing off his robes. “I think these two still have some negative energy to work off before their readings.” He chuckled, sending the siblings a somewhat pointed look. 

“Very well.” Aunt Wu nodded briefly before turning on her heels. “Come along now, child.” Aang dutifully followed her out of the room, leaving Katara still glaring at Sokka as the boy loudly munched on bean curd puffs. 

A few minutes later, Katara found her curiosity peaking rather quickly. “So…what do you think they’re talking about back there?” 

She immediately cringed at how interested she sounded, but Sokka didn’t seem to take any note of it. Around yet another mouthful of puffs, Sokka said, in a rather garbled tone, “Dunno. Probably boring stuff, like who he’s gonna marry, or how many babies he’s gonna have.”

“Right. Dumb stuff.” A moment passed, and Katara reached forward, “accidentally” spilling fruit juice over her hands. She jumped up, acting as if she was surprised. “I’m gonna go wash my hands. Because…the fruit juice. Yeah? Yeah.”

Sokka only grumbled quietly, shrugging as he reached for another handful. 

Katara slipped out through the doorway and into the hallway, careful to keep her steps light along the creaking wooden slats. She could hear Aang’s voice mixed with that of Aunt Wu, but neither was loud enough for her to hear fully. She sidled up closer to the paper-and-wood, internally lambasting herself for being foolhardy enough to attempt eavesdropping on something so private.

If she was being entirely honest with herself, she didn’t know why she was doing this at all.

As her ear pressed against worn paper, she was finally able to hear more clearly. The crackling of a fire echoed through the room, alongside angry cracking noises. 

“I’ve never seen this before!” Katara could hear the screech of a chair being pushed back, as if Aunt Wu had leapt to her feet out of shock. “Oh, my!” Through the thin paper, Katara could suddenly clearly see orange light flare through the room. Scrabbling, as if Aunt Wu was rummaging through something and then, “Your destiny- this is incredible- you will be involved in a great battle, an awesome conflict between the forces of good and evil.” She paused for a moment to catch her breath, clearly in awe as her voice rose in intensity. “A battle whose outcome will determine the fate of the whole world!” 

“I…well, I’m sorry to say… I knew that, already.” Aang chuckled, and she could hear the thud of Aunt Wu dropping back into her seat. “That actually wasn’t what I was hoping to ask about, if that’s okay.”

“A-alright.” Aunt Wu sounded thoroughly shaken. 

“Did it… did it say anything about…” He took a deep breath, and Katara felt her heart leap to her throat. “A girl?”

“A girl ?” 

“A girl.” Katara breathed to herself, her heart rate picking up.

“A what?” 

Katara jumped back, whirling to the source of the words, only to blanch at the realisation that Meng stood no more than a few feet away from her. She quickly tucked her hands behind her back, as if she had literally been caught red-handed. 

Meng raised an eyebrow, her gaze flicking over Katara judgmentally. 

“I was…. Washing my hands.” 

“The sink is back there. And your hands are clearly still dripping in fruit juice.” Meng continued flaying her alive with her eyes as she pointed to the opposite end of the hall. 

“Right, then I’ll just-” 

Meng stepped into her path, shaking her head. “Please return to the waiting room.” 

Katara bristled, irritated now. “I still have to wash my hands.”

“Mm, well…” Meng pretended to think about it for a moment. “ You can’t be here. We take patient confidentiality very seriously, I’m afraid.”

Katara wished the earth would open up and swallow her whole as Meng supervised her washing her hands and immediately dragged her back to her seat in the sitting room.

It couldn’t have been more than a couple minutes before Aang returned, his trademark grin on his face. Aunt Wu was in tow, and she turned to where Katara and Sokka were sitting. “Who is next?” 

“Alright,” Sokka huffed, rising with a grumble. “Let’s get this over with.”

Aunt Wu barely blinked before retorting with, “Your future will be full of struggle and anguish, most of it self -inflicted.” She raised her eyebrows in emphasis, her eyes sweeping over the boy in an all-knowing fashion. 

“But- you didn’t read my palms or anything!” Sokka raised his hands in defence, his tone genuinely offended. 

“I don’t need to.” Aunt Wu waved her hand in a circle, as if encircling his figure. “It is written all over your face.” She looked as though she was ready to move on, but after a loaded look from both Aang and Katara directed at her, she relented. “I was only kidding.” Her tone was flat, anything but joking, but Sokka’s expression immediately brightened regardless. “Come along now, child.” Just as Aang had, Sokka trailed along, leaving Katara to continue theorising about what Aunt Wu and Aang had discussed in their session.

As if his gaze had pierced right through to her thoughts, Aang read her mind easily. “You’re thinking about what we might’ve talked about in our session, aren’t you?”

She panicked for a moment, wondering if he’d somehow detected her lingering outside of the room with some sort of Avatar-power. “Why- why would you think that?”

“You’ve got that look on your face.”

“What look?”

“That curious one.”

“I don’t have a curious look.” She tossed her hair, trying her best to un-do whatever obvious expression she had on, which only further amused Aang.

“Sure you don’t. And I’m not the Avatar.” 

Katara relented. “ Fine . Maybe I’m a bit curious.”

“So, you admit it.” Aang smirked, relishing in his victory. “But no.”

“No?!” Katara felt her temper flare.

“No. If I tell you, it won’t come true.” Aang shrugged, crossing his legs over one another casually.

“Aang, it isn’t a wish. That’s not how futures work.”

Aang shrugged again, tossing a bean curd puff. “I’d rather not take my chances.”

“You-” She started, but the squeak of the door cut her off. Katara rose, assuming that it was time for her reading, only for Meng to appear from the hallway. 

“I need a moment to reset things before your session, Katina.” She shot a glare that Katara couldn’t quite decipher.

She tried her best not to visibly bristle at the clearly intentional butchering of her name.

“Katara, my child.” Aunt Wu strode into the sitting room, with Sokka at her heels. “Not to worry. I will be ready for your reading in only a moment.” 

As Sokka passed Katara on her way to the door, she grinned widely at him. “She knows my name! How would she know that, if she couldn’t tell the future?”

“Because I told her.” Sokka rolled his eyes, his expression quickly shifting from exasperation to abject horror. “Which one of you ate the rest of the puffs?”

Meng slipped out of the room, gesturing to Aunt Wu and Katara that she was done tidying the room. Katara swept away before Sokka could figure out the answer. She felt as though her entire body was buzzing, set alight from the inside. She must have been physically vibrating with energy as she sat, because Aunt Wu chuckled and asked her to take a couple of deep breaths. Once she finally sat still, she leaned forward, her eyes sparkling as she laid her hand palm-up on her lap.

“Oh, no, palm reading is not my method of choice today.” She nodded slowly, rising to walk around a basket of what appeared to be bones positioned to her left. “The clouds told me this morning that bone-scrying will be the most optimal.” 

“I see,” Katara nodded sagely, trying her best to appear well-versed in the art of future-telling. 

“Now, what is it you’re looking for answers regarding?”

“Love,” She blurted, fully aware of how animated she sounded. “Could you see what my future holds in the way of romance?”

“Ah,” Aunt Wu nodded. “That I can, my dear.” She turned to the side, her eyes darting across the table at her side. “It appears that Meng has selected a bone for you to use. She has a real eye for it, you know. Takes after me.”

“Mm.” Katara nodded. For a moment, as Aunt Wu turned the small bone over. In her hands, it looked as though it was already cracked. Surely, it was a trick of the light.

Aunt Wu gently tossed the bone onto the fire, and after only a moment, it shattered entirely, leaving small shards to litter the floor. Katara paled. That couldn’t exactly be a good sign. 

The way that Aunt Wu shook her head confirmed it. “I’m afraid, my dear, that the bones do not spell a happy ending for you and your love. Doomed to chase after him, doomed for him to run from you, for all of time. You will be a powerful bender, you will even be happy…”

Katara felt her heart sink into the ground, felt it shatter like the bone in the fire as Aunt Wu continued. 

“But you will never have him. He will never be yours.”

Katara’s a friend.

Aang’s words still haunted her. Perhaps they always would. 

Chapter Text

Katara felt her heart sink into the ground, felt it shatter like the bone in the fire as Aunt Wu continued. 

“But you will never have him. He will never be yours.”

Katara’s a friend.

Aang’s words still haunted her. Perhaps they always would. 

The rest of Aunt Wu’s predictions had felt like a blur. If she was fully honest, she hadn’t listened to a single one. The sound of Aunt Wu telling her that she would have a perfectly content life still boomed through her, deafened her. It was almost worse to think that she would live a perfectly fine life, a content one, even, without Aang .

Was this why Aang’s words had tugged at her, settled under her skin the way they had? Did she want him more than she had allowed herself to consider? She’d always left Sokka to be the one who got caught up in feelings. Katara’s sense of duty had always been too strong to consider a life after the war, a life that centred her own desires, but ever since she had pulled Aang from that iceberg, she had felt her thoughts shift in a distinctly selfish direction. 

She felt horribly guilty for it, even now, even if she didn’t yet entirely understand what it was that she wanted. She hadn’t let herself grasp the jealousy that had been sparked by the way Meng’s fingers had brushed Aang’s as she’d dropped that bowl. And now, even if she still didn’t quite understand it, she knew at least that Aunt Wu’s prediction had hit her like a stone sinking through a calm lake. She felt the ripples even now, tearing up the labels of friendship and camaraderie that she’d wrapped around this bond between her and Aang. 

Katara didn’t quite snap out of her contemplative trance until she’d settled into the floor cushion next to Aang, the floorboards creaking and shifting as Sokka shot up in excitement. 

“ Finally .” Sokka huffed, rolling his eyes as he brushed bean-curd-puff dust off of his trousers. “Katara, you sure took your time.”

Sokka’s irritation was enough to spark Katara into retaliating. “Speak for yourself! Your session easily took half an hour longer than mine or Aang’s.”

“I’m an important man,” Sokka huffed, crossing his arms. “She had a lot of important, future-y ground to cover.”

Katara and Aang shot one another sceptical glances at the ever-sceptical Sokka’s dreamy, far off expression. 

“Yep,” Sokka grinned, popping the “p” loudly as he folded his hands behind his head, stretching. “Things are looking up for ol’ Sokka.”

Katara raised an eyebrow. “You were just saying that fortune-telling was silly and illogical an hour ago .”

“It was! Until she said some things that sounded pretty good.” Sokka amended, mumbling the last few words under his breath as if he was ashamed of his sudden change of heart.

“What could she have said that was good enough to change your mind?” Aang piped up, his genuinely interested tone providing contrast to Katara’s mocking mood.

Sokka only smiled bittersweetly, softly shaking his head back and forth as Katara and Aang looked at one another, equally confused. 

“Young Sokka, was it?” Madame Wu smiled softly as the two settled into seats opposite one another, the paper doors softly clicking shut behind them. “I must say, boy, if you truly are a non-believer, I don’t see why you are interested in sitting down for a session with me. I have little patience for those who make a mockery of my life’s work.”

“Ah,” Sokka winced, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck. “I just… I don’t see the logic. It looks like make believe, at least to me.”

“How have you arrived at the conclusion that all of this is make believe if you’ve never received a reading?”

“How have you reached the conclusion that I haven’t received a reading?” Sokka retorted, feeling strangely defensive. 

“My instincts tell me that you are not one to make judgements based on experience, but rather, your biases .” Sokka shrunk back slightly, feeling rather called out by how close to home Madame Wu’s barb had struck. “Now, may I commence, boy?” Sokka nodded, stunned into silence, and Madame Wu nodded back curtly, rising from her seat. “For one as stubborn as yourself, it will take tea-scrying to soften your rough exterior.”

“Rough? I just washed my face this morning,” Sokka pouted, reaching up to brush his fingers against his cheekbone. Madame Wu pinned him with a glare as she scattered herbs across the surface of the water before him, lavender and thyme swirling into a soft purple shade. Sokka shut up, already regretting his attempt at lightening the mood. He was pretty sure that Madame Wu wasn’t exactly happy about providing him, a fairly vocal non-believer, with a reading. He still found the mystical arts silly, but here, in a room lined in shadow and dried plants, filled with scrying pans and woven baskets, alone with the fortune teller, he could feel a bit of his bravado fading slightly. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but he found himself biting back all the usual barbs he typically used to ridicule things like fortune telling. Perhaps it was the scientist in him, curious regarding what tall tales Madame Wu would end up crafting with her pot of tea. 

The room grew silent, the only sound now Madame Wu fiddling with her stir-stick as the lavender-and-thyme tea brewed and bubbled beneath her touch. Finally, smoke began to skitter across the bubbling surface, and Madame Wu settled down across from Sokka, wisps curling around her as if she herself controlled their every movement. Sokka stayed dead quiet, his breathing kept to a minimum as he watched the fortuneteller seemingly drift in and out of consciousness, the swirling smoke encapsulating her entirely now in soft spirals that mimicked the clouds outside. She mumbled to herself, and although Sokka was sure it was a language he understood, something about it still seemed otherworldly. He did his best to maintain his nonchalant air, but no amount of leaning back in his seat and yawning could disguise the goosebumps prickling along his forearms. 

 “You’re a difficult one, aren’t you?” After what felt like an eternity, Madame Wu settled back into her chair, her gaze distinctly appraising. She immediately held out a palm, anticipating him jumping to defend himself. “There is no need for comments. I was being honest earlier, when I said that you will often be the source of your own misery. It is not for lack of trying. For some time, you will genuinely delude yourself into believing that you are content in your close-mindedness, you will be blind to things greater than yourself. But I foresee a turning point, one that is undoubtedly tragic, one that will shape you, young Sokka. At this fork, it will be up to you to decide the type of man you want to be. A great sacrifice, one that costs you everything. You will be the one to decide if you live as though you are worthy of such a sacrifice.”

Madame Wu waited for the boy to mock her, to tell her all of this was nothing but smoke and mirrors, as other naysayers had in the past, but instead, the young boy surprised her. 

“At the branch, if I take the road where I become…worthy…” He trailed off, his voice small, as if her response meant everything to him at this moment. “Will I be happy?”

She was stunned into silence for a moment, the sincerity in his voice undeniably true. A beat passed, and then, 

“Yes. It will take time. You will go through a great deal. But you will be happy.”

Both Sokka and Madame Wu pretended as though they did not notice the solitary tear slipping down Sokka’s cheek as the boy pressed his fist to his hand and bowed to her.

When Sokka slipped through beaded curtains back out into the drawing room, he almost slipped up. Almost let his bravado-filled persona slip, almost told Katara and Aang exactly what had happened, what Madame Wu had told him. Instead, he cracked jokes, innuendos, made it sound as though all he’d asked about was girls and riches. 

Still, Madame Wu’s predictions had given him more hope than she knew. He couldn’t quite open up yet, but if her prediction did one day prove true, then perhaps he wouldn’t need this shield of bravado and silliness for too much longer.

Maybe he'd be able to be himself, and that would be enough.

As she crossed the major road that split the town’s market in two, all Katara could think of was what Madame Wu had said, over and over again. She still didn’t let it fully sink in, didn’t always let herself liken the man Madame Wu had seen to Aang himself, but that had done little to soften the blow. 

Besides, doomed to chase after him, forevermore? She couldn’t help but think that she had been entirely mischaracterized- when had she been someone to ignore the reality of a situation only to seek pain? Maybe I should head back for a repeat appointment, she mused, shifting her basket of groceries to her other arm. A hand-painted sign advertising fresh berries and vegetables snagged her attention, and she carefully wove her way through the passing shoppers. The motion reminded her of the way Ayiti had tugged her through Kyoshi’s market, and all at once, she felt a pang of homesickness-not for the place, but for the person . Travelling with only Sokka, Appa, and Aang as company, as interesting and exciting as it was, did make her long for Ayiti’s presence. She could picture it, the way Ayiti would keep Sokka in check, the way she would be on Katara’s side no matter the dispute, the way both Ayiti and Aang would probably bond over their bubbly, sweet personalities…

…Great. It only took me a few minutes this time to bring my thoughts back to that spirits-damned Airbender, Katara thought irritatedly as she squeezed the kumquat she was holding just a little too roughly to check for bruising. 

“Woah there. I’m glad to see that you’re thorough with your produce, but I’m getting the sense that you’re more so letting out unfavourable emotions than checking fruit.” Katara watched as broad hands reached out and gently untangled her hands from the now mangled fruit. She followed the boy’s arms up to his face. He was tall and broad, built like an army soldier, but sweetly youthful in his open expression. One blue eye and one green eye blinked back at her, the blue eye so pale it seemed to glow in the light of the fading afternoon sun. His hair was black and thick, curling lightly around his face in layers cropped shorter and shorter around the crown of his head. The effect strangely reminded Katara of the light-eyed polar bear dogs back home, with their shaggy fur and eager-to-please expressions. 

“I’m Akio, the fruit seller around here. I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before,” He continued, running his hand lightly through his hair as he tipped his head sideways slightly. “And trust me, I never forget a customer.” He flashed her a grin, but one entirely pure and genuine in a way that caught her off guard. Typically, she’d found that many of the younger sellers in markets like these would try to flirt in order to get away with higher prices, but Akio didn’t strike her as the sort to do anything like that. 

“I’m Katara. And you’re right- I am new around here. My travel companions and I just came to stock up on supplies. And… to receive our fortunes.” She smiled awkwardly, shifting her weight to hide her grimace at the still-stinging memory.

“That bad, huh?” Akio chuckled, shaking his head back and forth softly. Katara only winced in response, wordlessly passing over her pouch of coins to pay for her selection of fresh fruit. The two chattered back and forth until the town square’s sundial had crept past the measurement for early evening.

Akio chuckled under his breath, bringing the conversation back to fortune telling after all that time trading travel stories and fruit preferences. “Truth be told, I wasn’t exactly happy about it when Madame Wu first read my fortune.”

Katara wrinkled her brow. “Why, what did she predict for you?”

“To be honest, I normally don’t really talk about my fortune with people.” Akio came around to the front of the stand to help Katara wrap the fruit in cloth for safe transport. He seemed to turn a thought over in his mind a few times before speaking again. Katara was moments away from rushing into telling him that he didn’t need to share if it felt like too much, but he spoke again. “It might help, though, to talk it through from someone else. Besides, you’re only passing through town, so it’s not like you can spread the story to anyone who knows me, and you’ve already been a sparkling conversationalist and seemingly fairly trustworthy.” He mused over it for a few more sections, finally reaching a conclusion as he reached up to run his hands through his hair again. “Alright. If you’d like to hear it, come meet me back here when the moon’s silhouette comes out from behind the end of the forest. Trust me, it’s a good story, at the very least.” 

The two parted ways, and as Katara once again darted through the crowds, she felt a rather comforting sense of camaraderie with the burly teenage fruit seller. He seemed content, even if he didn’t exactly have the best of futures to look forward to. He gave her the hope that she, too, would be able to move past Madame Wu’s words.

Then again, she couldn’t exactly imagine the word “doomed” being part of any future she could be content with. 

It took a few minutes of waiting by the town square before Akio’s frame came into view, his head ducking under a wooden sign overhead as he walked towards her. 

“You actually showed,” Akio chuckled, leaning against the side of his cart.

“How could I not? I’m curious now.” Katara smiled up at him. “Besides, you sounded like you needed someone to talk things through with. I’m always happy to be that person.”

“You’ve got a point,” Akio admitted, matching her stride as Katara began to walk toward one of the benches lining the main path. The two settled down, Katara smoothing her skirt as Akio continued. “It’s not like I really have anyone else to talk about this with. Besides, it seems like you can sympathise with being less-than-content about your future.” 

Katara cocked her head, her brow crinkling in confusion. “Why don’t you have anyone to talk to about it? I assumed someone as easygoing as you would have a whole circle of people to lean on.”

“Admittedly, I do have my fair share of friends…” He trailed off, looking up into the stars. “But the only friend who I want to talk to about any of this, my best friend… she’s… part of the fortune.” He buried his head in his hands, groaning irritatedly.

Katara’s eyes widened. “Part of your fortune?” She echoed, still confused. 

Akio turned his head, meeting Katara’s gaze, and she was taken aback by the emotions swirling in his expression. 

“I’m in love with my best friend, Meng.”

“...Like, fortuneteller’s-assistant-Meng?”

“That’s the one.”

“... the really rude fortuneteller's-assistant- Meng?”

“I see you’ve met her already.” Akio chuckled, tossing his head back with a grin. “I will say, she doesn’t tend to make a great first impression. She can be a bit… standoffish with newcomers. She tends to act a little bit uppity, sort of as a defence mechanism. It makes more sense why she’s the way she is once you get to know her well.”

“And I assume you do know her well?”

“She’s usually the only person I talk to about anything real. She has been for years, but… everything’s been off since I received my first reading from Madame Wu.” He continued on, settling backward into the bench and shifting to face Katara. “Newcomers are always free to receive their fortunes, but for locals, you receive your first reading at age 16. I received mine last year, and… let’s just say that Madame Wu seems to have a talent for revealing things to you that’ve been right under your nose.” Akio chuckled, shaking his head slightly. “I wasn’t sure who the fortune was about until I saw Meng right after my reading, and suddenly all of the pieces clicked into place. I finally got it- that I had been in love with her for years, and never let myself process it because of our friendship. I held off saying anything because Meng’s a year younger, so I figured that once she turned 16 and received her fortune, she’d come to the same conclusion, but instead… I guess whatever Madame Wu told her didn’t point her to me.” 

He exhaled shakily, doing his best to keep his composure. “I went back to Madame Wu for another reading, only to find that my future had shifted- now, rather than live a life with the one I love, she said I’d be left forever brokenhearted. ”

“Oh, Akio .” Katara’s tone was pure sympathy.

“That was months ago. She’s dated a string of guys since then, and I’ve had to stand here and be fine with it. If I tell her… Meng is so committed to fortunes that I’m scared she’ll just want to be with me because she thinks it’s destined. I want her to want this because of me , not because of fate.” He buried his head in his hands once more. 

Not sure what to do, Katara tentatively reached out, resting a hand on Akio’s shoulder. “If your fate changed once, it could change again.”

“Nah,” Akio cocked his head, a mask of cool bravado slipping over his features once more. “If I’m being entirely honest, it’s probably for the best. Meng deserves the world, someone she’s madly head over heels with. I’m just her childhood best friend and the town fruit-seller. Meng is destined for bigger things than just this little village, bigger things than what I can offer.”

Akio rose, flashing Katara a grin and a wave as he walked backwards for a couple paces. “She outgrew me years ago.”And try as he might to come off as joking, Katara could feel the sting in his words, the strain in his laugh.

Katara could only watch as Akio ducked into the alley behind his stand, his silhouette blending in with late night shadows as his words rang through the courtyard.

The moment that the sliding door of their rented room clicked shut behind her, Katara heard shuffling, a groggy voice whispering. “Katara? Is that you?”

“Aang?” She whisper-shouted back, blinking into the darkness. She fumbled around by the door until she managed to grab a sea-moss lantern by the door and tugged off the cover. Immediately, what the lantern illuminated had her in stitches. Aang was there, sprawled across a thin bamboo mat, clearly half-asleep, but for whatever reason, not in the bedroom he shared with Sokka. She settled down onto a floor cushion next to him, still giggling at the way he continued to groggily blink at her. “What are you still doing up?”

He pulled himself up onto his elbows, rubbing at his eyes in a way that reminded Katara of a seal-penguin pup. “I went to check on you before bed, but you weren’t in your room. I wanted to make sure you got home alright.”

She wrinkled her nose at him teasingly. “What, you thought I was kidnapped or something? Joining an illegal street fighting ring? You can trust me to be able to take care of myself, you know.”

“Firstly, you and I both know that with how our sparring went back at Jet’s compound, if anyone is winning a street fight between the two of us, it’s me .” Mock-offended, Katara parted her lips to respond before Aang held up a hand to stop her. “And secondly,” He continued, grinning slightly as Katara stuck out her tongue at him, “I know full well that you can do much more than just hold your own. But that doesn’t mean I don’t worry about you, Katara.” She felt her heart beat sporadically for a moment, and instantly wanted to curse at herself. 

“So what were you up to, Ms. Street Fighter?”

“For the record, I would have a much cooler fighting name than that,” Katara huffed, reaching up to gather her hair over her shoulder. She wrapped one curl around her finger, letting it spring up and down as she spoke. “I met a fruit-seller in town, Akio?”

“Meng actually mentioned someone named Akio to me.” 

Katara smiled softly, her expression sad. “I’m sure she did.”

Aang raised a brow, confused. “I feel like I’m missing something here.” 

Katara paused for a second, catching her bottom lip between her teeth as she turned over the idea of telling Aang what Akio had said before finally deciding to just get out with it. “Akio kinda needed a shoulder to cry on, so to speak. He told me that he and Meng have been friends for years, best friends.”

She looked back at Aang, who was listening intently, his eyes focused on her.

“Up until Akio had his fortune read last year. He’s… he told me that he’s in love with Meng. Has been for years, even though he only realised somewhat recently. But when he had his fortune read again… he found out that his feelings wouldn’t ever be reciprocated. He’s been telling himself that it’s better this way, that she deserves better, but I don’t think he even fully believes that.”

“I don’t believe it either.” Katara looked back up at Aang, confused. “Because Meng doesn’t want whatever Akio thinks is “better” than him. She wants him . I think she just doesn’t realise that she can have him.”

“How would you know that?”

“Because she told me herself.” 

Katara bit back the slight sting of jealousy that shot through her like a dart. Admittedly, she didn’t love the idea of Aang and Meng spending the day together, even if it had just been to show him around the village. In the moment, though, she knew it wasn’t exactly rational. She’d seen the two around the village earlier that day, and while she’d still felt stings of jealousy followed by guilt then, all she had seen was Meng visibly flirting while Aang kept a respectful distance. Her jealousy had flickered away at that- the reminder that Aang wasn’t hers to be protective over. He could make his own decisions.

She blinked back into focus, breaking free from the sea of her thoughts. “She seemed much more interested in you than anything else.”

“I mean, it isn’t every day you get a chance to flirt with the Avatar. I don’t blame her.” Katara shoved him, rolling her eyes to hide her smile. “In all seriousness, I did notice her flirting. I didn’t mind it for a while, but it got to be a bit much. Once I mentioned that to her, her expression just sort of… flickered. She kind of crumpled, started apologising.” His brows creased, a tint of guilt slipping into his tone at the memory. “I told her there was no need- I honestly felt awful about it, until she had a chance to explain. She told me that she’d been told by Aunt Wu, somewhat recently, that she needed to watch for a boy with big ears. Apparently, she thought that was me .”

Katara snorted, unable to cover the sound in time.

Aang shot her a joking glare from the corner of his eye. “I do not have big ears.”

“ Right . Of course not.”

“Anyways,” he continued with a pointed look in her direction. “She didn’t seem too happy to hear that I wasn’t interested in anything like that. I’d say that saving the world is pretty much taking up most of my headspace at the moment”

“Ah. Right.” Katara could hear the awkward tension in her tone, and prayed that he hadn’t heard it. 

“Meng went on to add that it hadn’t been who she’d had in mind, but that she trusted Aunt Wu’s judgement. She told me that she had been hoping that Aunt Wu would tell her that she was destined to end up with a friend of hers, one she’d known for years…” Aang trailed off as Katara’s eyes widened in excitement.

“You don’t think-” Katara gasped softly.

“-That Akio’s feelings have been mutual all along? I’m almost positive.” Aang grinned. "She didn't mention Akio directly, per se, but she glanced over at him constantly, kept making excuses to show me areas near his stall in detail, and everywhere we went, she had a story about Aiko." He shrugged, still smiling. "I read between the lines. What I don’t understand is how neither of them have ever connected the dots, even after years of friendship.”

“That's probably exactly why. I’d bet that neither of them had ever thought the other could see them as anything but friends.” Katara’s eyes widened further, realisation dawning all at once. “What if Madame Wu never meant that Meng should look out for guys who look like you romantically?”

“Yes, right…” Aang nodded excitedly, but after a few seconds, his nods slowed. “I’ve got to be honest. I’m not quite following you here.”

“What if Madame Wu knew that you’d come, and meant for you to help Meng find her real true love all along?”

Aang sprung up from his seat in a burst of air, his features lighting up as he did. “I’m so in.” He whirled to the ornate door behind them, the one Sokka was currently snoring loudly behind.

“And I know exactly where to start.”

Sokka was in the middle of trying to explain the process of collection, evaporation, and condensation to a crowd of loudly disagreeing villagers when Aang finally managed to track him down the next morning. The moment Sokka saw Aang’s blue arrows through the crowd, he dragged him over before Aang could say a single word. 

“Aang, can you believe that these people think that rain just… just, makes itself? No one here has ever even heard the word precipitation.”

“I can and do believe it, because I had never heard the word “precipitation” until you said it just now.” Aang shrugged upon seeing Sokka’s horrified expression. “What can I say, the monks weren’t all that focused on teaching me to study weather patterns.” He reached out and slapped Sokka on the back, grinning widely. “I do have something I need you to teach me, though.”

Sokka narrowed his eyes, somewhat suspicious of what Aang had come to ask about. “Shoot.”

"So, Sokka, you know some stuff about ladies, right?"

"I mean, I've been known to know stuff. About ladies." Sokka grinned, shrugging casually. "What can I do you for?"

"Oh, it isn't for me," Aang rushed, shaking his head. "It's for a friend."

Sokka blinked incredulously. "That's what they all say."

"I mean it, it's really for a friend. There's this girl he likes, that he's only ever been friends with, but he's realized that he sees her as more than that," Aang added, gesturing. "What kinds of things can he do to show that he's ready for something more?"

Sokka's eyes narrowed into slits, dating between Aang and Katara, who was off browsing carvings in the corner of the market. Unbeknownst to Aang, Sokka was almost certain that the Airbender was asking these questions for himself, and he was determined to give the worst advice possible. Sokka nodded, his expression shifting as he contemplated. "Alright, I've got a few tricks that work every time. Let me show you the ropes." 

Katara was sorting through a little set of wooden carvings when she heard, or rather, didn’t hear, Aang’s trademark feather-light steps behind her. She turned to face him, tossing a carved fruit between her hands as she did. “What were you off doing?”

“I asked Sokka for advice,” He grinned, looking infinitely proud of himself.

Katara pinched the bridge of her nose. “You didn’t .”

“It seems like he’s successfully flirted with a new girl in pretty much every town we’ve stopped in. He must be doing something right.”

“It’s Sokka, Aang. He never does anything right.”

“I trust him. He gave me some solid flirting advice.”

Katara gave him an appraisal once over, lifting a brow as she did. “All right, let's see it.”

“You might not be ready for it.” Aang’s tone was one of mock concern.

“I promise you, I am.” Katara rolled her eyes, folding her arms over one another sceptically. “Lay it on me, airhead.”

Aang leaned behind her until his hand met the fruit stand. He leaned casually, his sandalwood and salt scent drifting over her as he leaned just a bit closer and reached for her hand, his calluses scraping her softer skin gently. He turned the wooden fruit over in his hand a couple times, his voice even deeper than usual. “So… papayas, huh?”

The awkwardness of his words was enough to jolt her from her flustered stupor. She ducked her head, hoping to hide the redness spreading across her face, but Aang leaned down alongside her, catching her eyes and scanning her face. 

“It worked!” Aang crowed, jumping just a little higher than a normal person would be able to as he celebrated. 

“It did not ,” Katara scoffed, the first few syllables coming out in a croak. The words came out more harshly than she had meant them to- if Aang were a monkey-lemur, his ears probably would have flattened at her tone. She coughed, trying to lighten the mood as she continued. “C’mon, I was just… messing with you. I have a better plan, anyway.”

“Alright.” Aang took the change of topic in stride, jogging to catch up to Katara as she wove through the street. “Where are we headed?”

“The only person I’ve ever seen Meng listen to wholeheartedly is Aunt Wu. So that’s exactly who we need to go to.”

“We just need to figure out a way to tamper with her reading,” Aang mused, catching on quickly.

“With the ability to bend both water and air, I was thinking that it shouldn’t be too hard to intervene with a steam reading.”

“Katara!”Before she could register his movement, Aang was sweeping her off her feet and spinning her on a sphere of air, whooping with excitement. “You’re a genius !” She could still feel her vision spinning when he carefully set her back down, lending her his arm to steady herself. “I picked the wrong Water Tribe sibling to get my ideas from, clearly.”

“Eh, I don’t blame you for trying out Sokka’s idea first. Even a broken sundial is right twice a day.” Katara smiled softly at Aang as he walked ahead of her, eager to put their plan in motion. 

And even though the two of them were no longer spinning, she swore she could still feel his hands enveloping her waist, his grin fixed solely on her. 

“How are we supposed to bend something that we can’t see?” Katara hissed from her crouched position beside Aang as the two of them peered through a thin slit in the paper that surrounded Madame Wu’s divination room. 

Aang adjusted the way he hunched his back slightly. “We did it just fine when Jet asked us to bend those steam vents.” Katara scowled at the memory. “As long as the two of us combined have enough of an artistic vision to make a recognizable steam portrait of Akio, everything’ll be fine.” 

A beat of silence passed.

“On second thought, considering that you and Sokka share the same genetics, I’m quickly losing faith in this plan.”

Katara’s only response was to shove Aang into the paper wall in front of them, and somehow, by some miracle of the spirits, it managed not to rip.

Or at least, not very much .

Katara sent a silent thank-you up to the spirits for only making Aang somewhat quietly puncture a small hole as the two of them huddled around the new window into Meng and Aunt Wu’s session, staring intently. After a few minutes of hushed chatter, Katara and Aang watched steam began to rise from the cauldron in front of Aunt Wu. Once again, Katara was struck by just how otherworldly Aunt Wu appeared, with tendrils of smoke gently weaving around her body as if adorning her in the finest of jewels. She remained transfixed until the word “love” broke through the haze, snapping her back into focus. 

In front of them, Aunt Wu wrinkled her nose. “Love? Again? Meng, my dear, I have told you all that I know.” Meng had said the same thing to Aang when he’d tried to convince her to go back for another reading. Aang had rather ominously said that maybe she just had to look a little closer next time, and Meng, eager at any chance to find love, rushed back for a repeat reading that very day. “I’m afraid that I cannot guarantee that my prediction has shifted.” 

Katara couldn’t see Meng’s face, but for all the reasons she had to dislike the girl, she still felt her heart twinge at the devoted, heartbroken tone of her next words. “Please, Auntie. I just… I need to be sure.”

Aunt Wu simply bowed her head, raising her hands. Aang and Katara snapped into focus, concentrating and breathing deeply as the smoke in front of the fortuneteller began to take on a distinct shape. Slowly, although a somewhat rough depiction of the boy, the image of Akio surfaced, his shaggy hair and broad shoulders cutting through the haze. Meng gasped, both of her hands over her mouth, as years of realisation hit her all at once. Even though Meng was facing Aunt Wu, Katara could see the image of the girl in her mind, the emotion swirling in her eyes, the thoughts that must be running through her head. 

Aunt Wu’s brow furrowed slightly, zeroing in on what exactly she had conjured, but when recognition flashed in her eyes, she didn’t seem surprised.

No, instead, she smiled softly at the hazy depiction of the boy, as if pieces planted years ago had at last fallen into place.

Kagtara and Aang quietly stood, not wanting to intrude on the rest of the reading. As they rose, carefully darting between creaking floorboards, candles lit up silhouettes in the room behind them, reflecting the embrace between the aunt and her young niece. A few moments passed, and suddenly, the shadows broke apart. Katara and Aang ducked around a closet as Meng burst through the doors, racing to the courtyard. The two eyed one another, then darted from the courtyard, Aang tugging at Katara’s hand as the two rushed to keep up. 

They made it to the outskirts of the market just in time to watch Akio shout out to Meng, confused as to what she was doing. He ducked around his stand, his head cocked in confusion as he and Meng collided. His hands came up to meet her waist out of instinct, and as his lips parted, likely to ask what was going on, Katara and Aang, as well as likely half the people in the market, heard Meng ask if she could kiss him. 

Katara had never seen an expression as worshipful as the one Akio gave to Meng as he swept her off her feet and kissed her, years of longing melting away between them like the wisps of smoke only now fading from Aunt Wu’s cauldron.

Sokka, Katara, and Aang had finally agreed that it was about time to get back on the road, if only to avoid Sokka shouting at every last villager in the town about the disprovability of their conspiracy theories. Aunt Wu held a banquet that night, and although she claimed that it was to wish the Avatar safe travels, each and every villager knew that the real focus of the night was wholly on Akio and Meng. Every other conversation Katara had overheard that night had been gossip about the two lovebirds, and it was strangely sweet to know just how many of their neighbours had been rooting for the two for years. At the same time, Katara still couldn’t quite shake the jealousy that had taken root from the moment she’d watched Meng run to Akio in the market square. She should just feel happy for them, and she did, but watching the way the two chattered away, meeting in the middle of distance that had grown for months still left a pit settling in her stomach. 

Her gaze flicked to Aang on instinct, watching as he crossed the pavilion to speak to the happy couple. Akio walked off to speak with what looked like a few of his friends, and as Aang and Meng continued to speak, the latter began to look strangely guilty, biting her lip and avoiding eye contact. It took Katara aback slightly when Aang crossed his arms, his expression stern and unyielding. When Katara finally managed to meet his eye, Meng was already crossing the courtyard toward her, looking as though she had something to say.

“Katara,” She said, guilt seeping through her expression. “Can we… talk?”

“...Alright,” Katara said, confused. 

The two settled onto a bench, and immediately, Meng took Katara’s hands into hers, gratefulness momentarily eclipsing the worry on her face. “What you’ve done… Akio and I have been speaking all afternoon, trying to figure out what suddenly changed after years of standstill, and after comparing stories… It's all thanks to you and Aang, and for that, I will always be grateful.” She sighed, looking off at Akio. “I didn’t deserve your help. Not after what I’d done.”

“What you’d done?” Katara echoed. 

“When I first saw Aang… I thought that because he fit Aunt Wu’s description of someone who would come to be very important to me, it meant that he and I were meant to be together. But… when I saw the way he looked at you… I was silly. I behaved immaturely, and I planted a splintered bone for Aunt Wu to use in your reading, just to make you give up on pursuing him.I was so desperate for a love connection after all the couples I’d seen Aunt Wu create, and… to say I was rash would probably be an understatement.” She sighed.  “I… I don’t know what came over me. I have no excuse, no justification.”

Strangely enough, Katara didn’t feel angry. Meng had clearly assumed she’d be- the girl was on the edge of the bench, looking as though she was ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

“It’s… it’s okay.”

“It is?”

“Well, it isn’t, but I mean that I’m not really upset.” Katara exhaled, eyes flitting over to Aang as he entertained a group of villagers with that same spinning marble trick. “Even if that reading was sabotaged… something tells me it’s not that far off. We’re in the middle of a war, and even if we weren’t, Aang is meant for bigger things than me.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure.” Meng smiled softly, watching Akio walk up and begin chattering with Aang. “If working with Aunt Wu has taught me anything, it’s to expect love in the most unpredictable of places. I think I understand her better now, the way she means for the fortunes to work. She predicts what she can, but up to a certain point, you need to craft your own destiny.” Her eyes flicked back to Katara. “And I hope you know that you can’t decide what Aang needs without any of his input. Please, remember that. Sure, Aang is the Avatar, but Katara, you just devoted days of your life to helping a girl who literally made you think your future was doomed .” Katara giggled at that. “You’re a catch- it’s why you made me feel so threatened. If Aang is even half a brilliant Avatar as everyone seems to think he is, he’ll see that.”

“Akio and I took years , and thanks to the two of you, we’re here, together .” She shook her head, a smile in her eyes as she looked back to the courtyard. “I can never be thankful enough for that.” Meng rose from the bench, and tugged at Akio, tipping her head toward the mountain. The two began walking toward the stone path that veered toward the long-dormant volcano’s base, and Katara remembered Akio saying that Meng’s favourite flower had always been the rare panda lilies that grew on the volcano's edge.

Her eyes flitted back to Aang, who was grinning at the couple as they chattered animatedly, passing through the arch that marked the edge of the village. As if he’d felt her gaze, he looked back at Katara, grinning even wider now. The slight sting of jealousy Katara had felt at watching the happy couple unite began to heal over.

Aang and I are a team- we help people, the world, together. Nothing more than that.

Somewhere deep in her heart, a barrier nestled itself around her emotions once more. 

They’d slept late the night before, at first because the party had gone on for longer than expected, and then because Sokka got too deep into yet another debate and eventually had to be dragged away. Sokka had urged them to rise early that morning, in the hopes of getting firmly back on schedule, but both Aang and Katara had been dragging their heels for the last hour or so, hoping to bid Akio and Meng farewell before leaving. As far as they knew, the two hadn’t come back down the mountain the night before. That in and of itself wasn’t too strange- they had left past midnight, and considering how early Sokka had woken them up, it had really only been a few hours. Instead of dwelling on it too much, the trio began loading up Appa with the rest of their supplies, bundling sleeping blankets and food reserves into easily stackable rolls. 

Just as Katara began losing hope, Meng’s signature wild curls peeked into her view. Katara moved to call out to her, waving, but the moment Akio and Meng’s faces came into view, she knew instantly that something was wrong. The two were racing toward the town, their eyes wide with panic. The minute they got within shouting range, Katara heard them. 

“The volcano!” Meng shouted, her footsteps clicking against stone as she shifted off of the veering dirt path. “It isn’t dormant. Aunt Wu was wrong .”

Katara paled. “All these people…”

She heard footsteps drop down beside her, and when she turned, Aang was standing there, looking every bit the imposing, noble Avatar the world saw him as. It always caught her slightly off guard, to remember the power he wielded, the responsibility he carried. “Sokka, Akio, Katara, Meng, we need to clear the village. Take Appa if you need to- everyone needs to be out of harm's way as quickly as possible.” His words were firm and authoritative, but caring, in a way that made you want to follow him.

‘Where does that leave you ?” Katara tugged at Aang’s sleeve, stopping him before he could snap open his glider. 

He grinned, but nerves still hid behind his easy going demeanour. “I’m off to fight a volcano, naturally.” Before Katara could object, or even attempt to convince him to make a real plan, he was off, a streak in the sky as fast as a shooting star. 

Katara whirled back to Akio, Meng, and Sokka. “New plan. You three need to clear the village. I’m going after Aang.” She turned to face the mountain, where orange flame was just beginning to rise over the rock’s edge. “I’m not letting him face this alone.” She waited a beat for Sokka to interject, to insist that she wasn’t ready, but surprisingly, he didn’t. She blinked, caught off guard by his lack of protest. “You aren’t going to tell me that you don’t think I’m ready?”

“Nah. I don’t think you’re ready.” Sokka grinned, pulling himself up onto Appa’s saddle as Akio and Meng hurried to follow. “I know you are. Now go kick some volcano butt. Aang needs your help more than he knows.” He turned back to make sure his passengers were fully seated, then gripped the reins, cueing the sky bison to rise. “Appa, yip yip!”

Overhead, Appa flew back and forth, herding clouds into the shape of a skull. Behind her, Katara could hear the villagers stirring, leaving their houses to shout and point at the sky. Inspiration shot through her, and she turned back to the square, calling out to the villagers who were now gathered haphazardly, chattering amongst themselves. Sokka, Akio, and Meng landed, and as the villager’s focus shifted to staring at the massive sky bison, Katara took the opportunity to seize their attention.

“I know that all of you are scared.” As if to accentuate her point, the black smoke billowing over the lip of the volcano seemed to intensify. “But I’m here to ask for your help. If any of you are Earthbenders, please come with me. We can dig a trench to lessen the impact of the lava. Those of you who aren’t, follow Sokka, Akio, and Meng. They’ll do their best to get you to safety.”

The crowd split into non-benders and benders, the latter surging after Katara as she ran to where she had last seen Aang overhead. As ash began to scatter through the sky, Katara darted between houses, ushering out children and families on her path to Aang.

She could only hope that she wasn’t already too late. 

Aang had already lost track of how long it had been before he’d begun losing to the oncoming onslaught of the volcano. The air had become a mess of ash and billowing smoke. On the ground below, he could make out the indistinct shapes of Earthbenders carving trenches through the dirt and rock, but he feared that it was too little, too late. The ground rumbled again, and Aang watched in horror as the lava began surging into view. 

More frantic now, he dropped to the ground in a gust of wind, urging the benders that were still digging to flee. Lava was flowing more quickly now, and Aang turned to see Sokka landing beside him, perched on top of Appa.

“Akio and Meng are clearing the rest of the village.” Sokka’s words were sharp, focused. “Where’s Katara?”

Aang felt his stomach drop.

Sokka registered the confusion and shock on Aang’s face. “You don’t know, do you?” 

Aang grabbed Sokka’s arm roughly, his gaze desperate. “Find her. If the trenches overflow, I’ll be here to handle it. But I need to know that she’s safe.” Sokka nodded, jumping atop the air bison again to survey from the skies. 

Aang turned back to the volcano, his jaw set, his expression determined. He could already see that the lava would be too much, that the trenches would overflow. Aang knew what he needed to do. Up ahead, the lava surged, a sea of fire that quickly filled the hurriedly-dug trenches. Overhead, Sokka retreated, landing a few paces back from Aang, who still didn’t flinch as flaming sparks of rock negan to fly from the eruption. 

Aang didn’t flinch from the fire, didn’t run. If anything, he seemed to welcome it.

He surged forward, leaping unnaturally high as he did, and the wind that had begun to whip through the valley bent to his will entirely. Not unwillingly, but as if the wind spirits themselves respected the young monk that deeply. Hurricanes unfurled around his clenched fists as he rose higher still, the clouds now shaping themselves around his silhouette. Wind poured into his palms, an endless onslaught of it, and Aang dropped down, unleashing that pure energy back into the tsunami of fire and rock facing him. For a moment, the lava itself seemed to swirl in the wind before Aang let loose another torrent of wind, this one enough to solidify the lava into a thin rock wall, gnarled and twisted. He exhaled shakily, relieved that he hadn’t failed, relieved that this village would be safe.

His next thought was of Katara.

He turned, his eyes flitting to and fro as he searched through the now-gathered crowd for the waterbender. 

Aan didn’t hear the splintering, the cracking, in time to act. 

But she did.

Like a raging river spirit, Katara broke through the crowd, water coating her up to her shoulders. Her hair was wild, her eyes panicked. 

“Katara!” He shouted out, his relief at her safety evident, only to register the fear in her eyes a moment later. “Kat-”

“Aang!” She shouted, barking the word as if it was a command. “Get behind me!” He heard the crack seconds after she did, as the cooled rock shield began to splinter and the lava began to rush out once more. Before he could turn, before he could react, Katara was there, sending a river’s worth of water in a wave to beat back the flame. Hissing filled the valley as the water met fire and sent steam upward in great billowing clouds. Aang fought to stand, needed to protect her, but Katara sent him backward, out of harm's way, in a rush of water that left him sprawled on the ground next to Sokka. Mist enveloped her entirely, even as Aang desperately called out her name, and when the hissing stopped, the terrible silence threatened to undo him entirely. 

For that terrible moment, Aang felt control slip just out of his reach, felt his past lives calling louder and louder as grief and rage surged through him.

But as the mist cleared, Katara was there , and she was safe .

She stood triumphant, glowing in the light of the dying glow of lava, the windswept ashes sending her wild hair blowing in the wind.

The thought came before Aang could question it.

Spirits, she is ethereal.

“She’s okay. I should’ve known she would be.” Sokka broke Aang’s stupor with a sigh of relief, pride evident in his voice as he spoke. “Man, sometimes I forget how much of a powerful bender my kid sister is.”

“Wait, what did you just say?” Aang snapped to attention, turning back to Sokka.

“Nothing,” he shrugged, his eyes still on his sister. “Just that Katara is one powerful bender.”

Aang felt the world tilt on its axis, remembered the scent of incense and smoke in Aunt Wu’s scrying room. Something had shifted, there was something here to expand upon. He was sure of it. Ash swirling around her, Katara still stood, her eyes frantically searching the crowd, and when her gaze locked with Aang’s, it was as if he could feel something click distinctly into place. 

“Yes,” Aang breathed, his words almost indistinct, a feeling he couldn’t quite describe surging through him as his eyes stayed locked on Katara’s figure, enveloped in the glow of dying embers. 

“...I suppose she is.”

Chapter Text

In the middle of a field of lavender-lilies, possibly the most sleep-inducing meadow in all of the continent, surrounded by two soundly snoring siblings, the last Airbender found himself entirely and utterly awake. Worse still, rather than snatching scraps of rest from the unforgiving night, he found himself contemplating whether he had enough basic common sense to even call himself worthy of the title of Avatar.  

On second thought, Aang mused, the sleep deprivation is probably making me a bit dramatic.

Aang hadn’t necessarily ever considered himself to be the brightest in the trio of travellers- that title almost certainly went to either Katara or Sokka, both brilliant in their own respective rights, and yet, he couldn’t help but think himself utterly stupid as he flashed back to the moments in which Madame Wu had given him his fortune. He told himself that he wasn’t sure why he had asked about a girl in his reading with Madame Wu, but he was at least bright enough to know that that wasn’t exactly the truth either. 

Katara. Each time he drifted off into sleep for a few precious moments, he saw her there, stark against the dying embers of the volcano’s rage, as if the flames that had lined her silhouette had emblazoned her image directly onto his eyelids in that instant. Katara. He let his head roll to the side a bit, just enough so that Katara’s sleeping form drifted into his peripheral vision. A soft breeze passed between the two, carrying her scent of sea salt, linen, and snowberries.

He blushed when, through his sleepless haze, he registered that his own hands had called the wind.

His eyes drifted past her, first to the field itself, and then to the plumes of slope just barely curling through the edges of the dark sky, like ash gathering along the edges of an ink-stained piece of parchment. His expression darkened at the sight, at the way those wisps twisted upward like smoke around the horns of the long-extinguished dragons of old. Katara’s sleeping silhouette was backlit by the field of flowers, and further still, by those faraway fires… It reminded him exactly why he couldn’t spend his time exchanging wistful glances in fields.

Yes , Katara was evidently becoming an incredible bender, meaning that she did fit right in with Aunt Wu’s predictions, and yes , he… couldn’t deny anymore that he’d been seeing her in a romantic light for some time now, but he couldn’t keep doing this. Couldn’t keep flirting offhandedly as if it wasn’t starting to mean something. Couldn’t keep selfishly wishing that the two of them had met in a world where they could be something more than what they were now. The Airbenders had always taught him to be flexible, to bend with the breeze, and yet everything in him made him want to root right to the ground where Katara was sleeping and stick to her side, always. 

He hated himself, a little bit, for the selfishness of wanting more than just brief sidelong looks and brushes of hands. His feelings weren’t quite concrete yet, that was for certain, but he could feel something tugging at him to follow her, something that was worsening by the day. 

He hated himself, a lot bit, for wanting to wake Katara up and steal her away, tug her hand through the field and run with her until they found a world in which he was not the Avatar and the world didn’t need saving, but that world simply didn’t exist.

Katara jolted herself awake harshly, snapping to attention like a Water Tribe warrior at the sound of the morning bells.The moment her head had hit her lumpy, unforgiving pillow (which was particularly misshapen after she’d used it to smack some sense into Aang for putting himself in direct danger by fighting a volcano) the night before, she’d been plagued with visions of that fiery inferno. Of alternate universes in which she hadn’t gotten to Aang in time. Her sleep had been restless, too light to offer any real refuge, and her mood undeniably reflected that. She kept the hood of her sweater firmly over her face to hide from the light of the early morning stillness, and based on how hesitant Sokka and Aang were to approach her all morning, she certainly had a glower to match. 

Katara packed up her things in tired silence, save for a few concerned glances and “How was your sleep?”s from Aang. She of course didn’t regret it, but she somehow felt oddly embarrassed for the way she’d ran to protect him without a second thought, as if she’d shown her cards too early. The three passed through a forest trail, with Appa ambling behind them and Momo swinging between trees overhead, until Sokka tripped over a broken, charred arrow tied off with Waterbender beads. Sokka took off almost instantaneously, words tumbling from his lips as he traced the signs of battle- a charred trunk there, a bootprint there, a scuffed rock. Behind him, Aang and Katara did their best to keep pace, stumbling occasionally even as Sokka remained focused as a hunter in a snowstorm. 

Katara felt her slippers sink into sand just as Sokka called back that the trail had gone cold. There was a sting in her chest at the thought of the number that must’ve been added to the death toll, only for her spirits to soar at the sight of a torn Water Tribe sail splitting the horizon ahead. She sped up, outpacing even Sokka, willing the outline of a ship to be more than a mere mirage. Katara’s slippers catching against the rough splinters of shrapnel did little to deter her, the shouts of Aang and Sokka fading into the wind as she surged again, only to come to a sharp halt once she made out the carvings on the ship’s hull.

Water Tribe. Her mind hadn’t been playing tricks on her. 

Heavy steps, followed by ones so light they were almost indiscernable, altered her to Sokka and Aang’s presences. The former’s keen eyes caught what Katara hadn’t. “Dad’s carvings. It’s from his fleet,” Sokka breathed, relief at the evidence that their father hadn’t simply dropped off of the face of the arctic the minute he’d faded from view. “I’m going to go check for clues, so I can establish a timeline. You and Aang should stay out here- we don’t know how stable the boat is yet.”

“Are you serious? ‘Establish a timeli -’” Sokka disappeared before Katara could finish her eye roll and mocking imitation of his uncharacteristically formal language. Still, she was far too overcome with emotion to argue with the latest installment in Sokka’s endless attempts at claiming leadership. She sank into the sand, leaning back against Appa, who had curved instinctively to shield her from the blustering early-morning sea wind. Aang slumped beside her, his easygoing smile not quite reaching the look of concern in his eyes. 

“Before you try to distract me from speculating about whether my dad’s ship is somewhere in a wreck like this one, don’t bother.” Katara’s attempt at a lighthearted chuckle seemed to catch on something invisible in her throat, coming off as a soft cough that only led to Aang skeptically raising a single unfairly perfect eyebrow. “I’m easy-breezy. Waterbenders are adaptable, and all of that.” 

She waved her hand as if swatting away his concerns before he could even voice them, only to lift up a spray of sand that somehow swirled its way into her nose, which prompted a sneeze that had Momo yelping in surprise. The little monkey lemur skittered away from his place on Katara’s shoulder onto Aang’s, eyeing the former distrustfully as if she was a moment away from letting loose another unexpected sneeze. 

“Traitor,” Katara seethed. Momo hissed right back at her, a sound she was sure was akin to a curse in monkey-lemur-speak. Aang’s eyes, alight with mirth, met hers, and she couldn’t hold back giggles at the ridiculousness of this silly little creature and his fickleness. Still, Katara felt oddly guilty for laughing when sitting directly across from evidence of yet another battle waged and lost by her people at the hands of the Fire Nation. She said as much, and Aang shook his head, tipping his chin skyward as his words took on a faraway quality. 

“I’m learning pretty quickly that finding times to laugh even in a world where everything serves as a reminder of tragedy becomes the new normal in wartime, whether we want it to or not.” Aang’s half smile held all the unsaid words of a grieving survivor. “You shouldn’t beat yourself up over it.” His words took on his more typical mischievous tone. “You should beat yourself up for losing a water fight to an Air monk.”

Katara’s brow wrinkled, her sleep-adled mind not quite catching up. “...But I’m not losing a water figh-”

Her words were punctuated by a splash of water right to the face. Aang had darted to the shoreline in his typical feather-light way, his hands still cupped in the shallows as he chuckled at her steadily rising rage. She was oddly grateful that Sokka was so caught up in exploring the wreckage- if he was here, he would certainly join in, and she had to admit that she liked these rare moments of just her and Aang. At the very beginning of their journey, it had been a recurring fear of hers that travelling with Aang and Sokka would quickly become tagging along with a pair who wanted nothing to do with her, but Aang had done nothing of the sort. Sure, him and Sokka were undoubtedly the closest of the three- there had been plenty of long lakeside chats and hikes where the two had surged ahead, or heated debates Katara wasn’t made a part of- but Katara still felt as though there was a place for her here, still felt as though she was listened to and valued. She secretly valued these stolen moments with just Aang, held onto the memories and ran her hands over them like well-worn river stones. Even more so, she held onto the times Aang looked at her the way he was looking at her now- a grin on his face with eyes that shone with something still unidentifiable when they met hers.

Katara raced after him, eager to join the fight. Water arced through the windswept air as Aang rushed through waterbending forms with near perfect execution. Katara had found as of late that one of the biggest problems with teaching Aang all of her forms was that he now knew every single one of her tricks- as a result, sparring with him had quickly become akin to sparring with a mirror. Luckily, Katara was nothing if not competitive, so she’d thrown herself into learning new ways to execute the limited forms she knew. Aang smoothly shot a spray of water her way with a sharp elbow move that whipped up sea foam in a carefully shot breeze, and she saw her opening. 

Somewhat clumsily, she stepped forward, angling her kneed in a crude imitation of Aang’s graceful movement. Hand up. Elbow out, then snap forward. She wasn’t quite sure if an Airbending movement would work on water, but she figured that the different forms of bending were at least somewhat interconnected, and her gamble paid off. Rather than being pushed by air, she sent the sea foam in front of her spraying through the air in an arc similar to Aang’s with nothing more than her bending abilities. She hit her target, accidentally giving Aang a bushy foam beard and a bit of white bubbly hair, and rather than snorting increduclously or retaliating, Aang threw his head back and laughed, leaning forward to rest his arms on his knees. He tugged off the upper portion of his robes, wiping his face as he chuckled, and Katara felt heat paint its way across her cheekbones, suddenly all too away of the striking figure he cut against the pale blue sky. His muscles flexed distractingly as he patted his chin and the crown of his head, and Katara had to look away, feigning sudden interest in a passing heron-crane. 

“Y’know, if you’re going to mimic my bending forms, you might as well do them right.” Aang slung the now-dripping upper portion of his robes over his shoulder, shaking his head as if devastated by the butchering of his people’s traditions. Before Katara could banter back with a snappy retort, Aang was behind her, hands hovering over her forearms. “Can I-” 

“Mhm,” Katara nodded, her eyes fixed at a far-off point in the horizon. Her traitorous heart hadn’t beat this quickly since before Jet had been revealed to be evil incarnate, and when she risked a glance backward, she was caught off guard by the complete lack of teasing in Aang’s expression. Katara had admittedly expected a smirk, or at the very least a raised eyebrow and an eye twinkle, but Aang’s look of genuine focus made her pray even more desperately that he hadn’t caught on to the blush on her face. She’d had crushes on Sokka’s friends before, fleeting ones that rarely lasted more than a month, and she knew that this was all it was, but that knowledge did little to calm her still-raging heartbeat. Aang’s had just begun to lightly brush her wrists, redirecting the angle of her arms, when a loud shout rang out, echoing along the cliffs that lined the ocean clearing.

Katara did her best to stifle an irritated sigh. Sokka.

“You have about three seconds to get your hands off of my sister before I restart the Avatar cycle.” The threat was obviously a lie, but Sokka’s cocked head and crossed arms conveyed enough legitimate anger for Aang to drop Katara’s wrists and step backward as if her skin had turned blazing hot. Oddly embarrassed, Katara did the same, her blush intensifying out of shame rather than the nervousness that had prompted it. She was just about ready to call Sokka a scrap of blubbery seal jerky, but Aang beat her to the punch as his eyes narrowed, suddenly focused. Katara saw it just seconds after him- a thin still-bleeding scrape lining Sokka’s cheekbone that could’ve only been made so precisely by a recently sharpened blade.

“Not sure if I’m the one that should be worried about my safety right now,” Aang retorted, his tone easy and relaxed, and Katara internally cursed herself for her sting of irritation at his lack of effected-ness following their close proximity. “Did the ship fight back? What happened to you?”

It wasn’t Sokka’s voice that answered, but rather, a low, gruff one that had played a role in so many of her childhood memories. A lumbering figure emerged from the side of the wreckage, resting a single hand on Sokka’s shoulder, and even as Aang tensed, prepared for a new foe, Katara felt her face light up in joy. 

Bato.

“I did,” Bato grinned, standing strong, and Katara felt as though a ghost had returned to life.