Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Avatar: The Wind on the Waves ❯ Chapter 2

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Several hours into the night, Katara was awakened to the rumble of Appa's warning. Despite her haziness, she collected her thoughts and suddenly remembered everything; sweet touches, passionate kisses, and the holy light of arrow tattoos.

She moved to get up, but a dead weight resting on top of her made it rather difficult.

Aang

Katara gave his shoulder a little shake. He groaned, but opened his eyes wearily.

“What…?” Aang mumbled, not yet fully aware of where or how he was.

“Aang, someone's coming!” she whispered loudly.

At this, the Avatar came to his senses. He clumsily leapt to his feet, still wobbly from slumber. Getting a sense of his surroundings, Aang cautiously leaned his head out of the tent to see his bison.

“Who is it, Appa? Is it Sokka? How far away is he?”

The sky bison delayed, then lowed softly. Aang let out the breath he was holding, but didn't relax for long. He turned to Katara, as if to relay what he knew, but at the sight of her unclothed form, silenced his tongue. He admired her, a warm smile gracing his features briefly.

“Sokka's probably coming for his bath.” He said. “If we hurry, we can make it look like nothing happened.”

Simultaneously, they grappled for their clothing and hastily piled it on. In spite of the moonlight, there was no fixing Katara's hair or healing the scratches she had passionately raked into Aang's shoulders. A little readjustment of clothing might be able to hide the scratches, Aang mentally reasoned, and Katara's hair often became disheveled when waterbending and splashing for extended periods of time.

Another, more urgent rumble from Appa told them that whoever was approaching was nearly there. Both hopping out of the tent, Aang quickly earthbent it back to how it had been prior. He flashed a smile to Katara, and she moved to the bison's face, petting it affectionately. Aang commenced airbending the flat of Appa's tail, giving the impression that he was drying the last of the water off of the animal.

It was Sokka who came up, looking around suspiciously before spotting the trio ahead of him. His bathing supplies were tucked in a small bundle under his left arm, but the meteorite sword was in hand, at the ready. His shoulders, initially tense, relaxed at the sight of his sister, friend, and the bison.

“What's taking you guys so long?” Sokka complained.

Aang put on his biggest smile and `finished' airbending.

“You weren't kidding when you said that Appa needed a bath really badly!” he said. Noticing a glob of wet fur in the water, he picked it up and held it out to Sokka. “See? There's tons of it everywhere! At least now, Appa won't have all of that extra weight on him!”

“You're feeling much better, aren't you, Appa?” said Katara sweetly.

“Well, if you guys are all set, I'd like my long overdue bath now.” Sokka dropped his stuff on edge of the pool and sheathed his sword. Aang and Katara took this as their cue to leave. But just as they were stepping out of sight, Sokka called out to them. They froze, fearing some minuscule evidence of what had transpired earlier had been discovered. Nervously, they backtracked to Sokka, who regarded them pensively.

“Something's different…” Sokka scratched his chin.

“What do you mean?” Aang blinked.

“I can't put my finger on it… You guys didn't run into any trouble out here, did you?”

“No.” said Katara.

“Nothing worse than wet bison fur all over the place.” Aang added with a smile.

Sokka stared a bit longer, then shrugged.

“Maybe I'm just imagining things.” He sighed. “All right, I'll be back in a little while.”

They walked beside Appa for a bit, then climbed into the saddle together to snuggle on the rest of the way back. Only once did Appa stop, and even then, it was only to sample some of the tasty tall grass along the way. Eventually, they fell asleep, leaning against one another for warmth, and did not wake up even when Appa curled up for the night.

The smell of food wafted under Aang's nose, but it was not a meal he would be partaking of. What was it, he sometimes wondered, was Sokka's obsession with meat at every meal? All the same, he stretched, careful not to disturb the sleeping beauty beside him. Regardless of his caution, however, Katara stirred awake.

“Hm…?” she cracked her eyes open.

“Good morning, Katara.” Aang smiled. “Did you sleep ok?”

“I did.” She replied; her dreams had echoed their lovemaking, leaving her to wake in a cheerful disposition. The smell of food hit her nose, and she peered over the rim of the saddle at the camp circle below. Just from the smell, she knew it to be one of the few recipes Sokka knew very well; it consisted of salted meat being boiled until it was rehydrated and tender. In a hurry, the meat would still be too salty, but with enough time, it was a very tasty dish.

Aang slid down Appa's tail and stretched again. Zuko and Toph were sitting by the fire, but Sokka was no where to be seen.

“Where's Sokka?” Aang asked.

“He said he was going out hunting since this is what's left of the meat we had.” said Toph.

“He didn't catch anything yesterday when he went out?”

“Nope.”

Katara slid down from the saddle to put together Aang's breakfast and have some herself. Zuko, who had been eating quite silently, eyed the two of them pensively. Confused and secretly nervous, Aang looked behind himself in case the fire prince's gaze was on something there instead.

“Something wrong, Zuko?” Aang asked, then glanced back at Appa again. “Did I miss a spot on Appa?”

“N-No, nothing like that…” Zuko replied.

Something was definitely different, but what it was, the Fire Prince couldn't quite pinpoint it; something in plain sight, yet barely so…

They finished breakfast and cleaned up, still with half the day remaining to do more or less whatever they pleased. Aang went off with Zuko for more firebending lessons at a clearing not all that far away. Toph idly amused herself by bending the space earth bracelet into various shapes. Katara busied herself organizing and taking stock of their travel supplies.

Sokka was pissed. His hunting trip had gone excellently. He had brought down a moose boar and even managed to snag a pheasant hawk. Both would provide enough food for the next few days, and they wouldn't be small meals either. It would also be a change from the lizardeer he had been catching on his past few hunting trips. By all rights and reason, he should have been overjoyed.

But Sokka was furious. As he half-dragged, half-carried his prizes back to the camp, he felt nothing but anger, betrayal, dishonesty, and hurt. Oh… when he got back to camp, he swore, Aang would beg to face the Fire Lord alone if it meant he would not have to face the insanely enraged water tribe boy. He was gripping the dead pheasant hawk so tightly that he broke a few more of its bones without even realizing it.

That nagging feeling that something had been off about Aang and Katara ceased to plague him throughout the previous night. No matter how he tried to figure it out, no clue would come to him. If he didn't resolve what it was by night the next day, he was just going to give up and forget about it.

It came to him while he was hunting today, and the realization struck him like a well-aimed arrow shot in his back. He had taken aim at the pheasant hawk, its autumn red feathers stark against the blue cloudless sky, and loosed the boomerang. It came down in a flurry of its own feathers, but Sokka had caught it as easily as the professional hunter he was.

As he looked the bird over, something caught his eye, and suddenly the nagging feeling clicked in his head. He suddenly clenched the bird tightly in his blue gloves, realization hitting him like Appa landing on him. Gathering his catch, he stormed back to the camp.

Toph was the first to notice that Sokka was returning. Initially happy, she immediately felt something was amiss and put her hands against the earth, getting a feel for more of his vibrations. Her sightless eyes grew wide and nervous.

“Hey guys…” she said, trying not to sound how she felt. “Sokka's on his way back… and he mad!”

“Mad?” Katara turned to her. “Maybe he just didn't catch anything.”

“No…” Toph shifted her hands and feet to better feel the earth. “He's got food all right, and he's stomping like an angry moose lion. He's literally shaking all over from being so angry!”

Katara felt her heart skip a beat, then pound rapidly in her chest. Sokka had not gone hunting anywhere near where she and Aang had been last night, so she shouldn't have had to worry about him finding any stray evidence, if there was any to be had. Still, the fear gripped her heart as Sokka came through the tree line with his catch, his face dark with fury.

Sokka looked up at her, and his anger seemed to increase, if it were even possible. He threw down his catch and stormed up to her.

“WHAT WERE YOU AND AANG DOING LAST NIGHT?” he bellowed.

“Washing Appa!” she snapped back. “What do you think we did?”

“JUST washing Appa? Is that ALL you two did?”

“Of course that's all we did! Sokka, what is wrong with you? What's this all about?”

Sokka lowered his darkened gaze to the floor, his body shaking with barely restrained anger.

“If nothing happened…” he hissed through clenched teeth. “THEN EXPLAIN THIS!”

His arm shot out at her, and for a split second, Katara was certain he was going to punch her. But no blow landed. Instead, his hand darted out to her waist, grabbing hold of the belt and ripping it off as easily as paper. Pulling it taut between his hands, he put the belt right in front of Katara's face.

Aang's autumn red silk belt