Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Flight ❯ The Study ( Chapter 4 )

“Katara!” Aang was struggling to steer the craft one handed, as his other arm was warding off the storm of blows from the furious waterbender. “I can't steer with you hitting me!”

“Why?! Why would you leave?! Why are you saying it like you're never coming back!?”

“You can hit me all you want when we get on the ground, but night flying is dangerous enough, much less along this canyon!”

Katara growled in exasperation but conceded the point. She lowered her fists and sat up in the hammock, deliberately not looking at Aang. She wanted an explanation and she wanted it Now.

~~~

The glider was barely on the landing platform when Katara leapt from her seat to bar any escape route Aang might have taken from her. Aang, however, drew himself from the hammock slowly, walking as if dragging a great weight. He had put it off, tried to divert the news, but this was the sticking place. The point where he couldn't dodge, distract or flirt his was out of danger. If he didn't tell her straight forwardly, she might try and follow him, and that would be disaster.

But he went ahead and tried for one last attempt to stall…

“Katara, lets go somewhere else. I want to sit down. Don't you want to sit? We can go…”

“No.” she nimbly blocked his every stride, flowing like her element to block him from the stairwell. “I think I deserve to hear what this is about right now.

Aang sighed. “Please, Katara. I really think you'll want to sit down…”

“Now.”

Aang gave up. He should have known by her stance that she wasn't letting him go anywhere. He sagged.

`I…had a vision. I've been having more and more dreams lately. Spirit dreams. Dreams of flying through the history of the world, but mostly, the history of the air nomads. I couldn't make sense of it all…but, each time, I felt a call. I felt this emptiness, but it was a heavy emptiness. And at the end of every dream someone would whisper “the last airbender” to me before I woke up. I finally had them often enough to remember to write them down.”

Aang stole a glance at Katara. He'd been staring somewhere a few inches above her head as he spoke, and now he took a chance look at her reaction. Her pose had softened. Her arms were still crossed, her general body language closed and stubborn, but there was a hint of curiosity in the tilt of her head, and the anger seemed to have faded to mere disapproval. He was afraid to think too hard on what she was disapproving; but “you'd-better-have-a-good-excuse” and “you're-lucky-you-haven't-given-ME-one” was the general message.

“I meditated on what I'd written down,” Aang braved on. “and I think the dreams were mostly telling me that my job isn't over. That the world isn't saved…at least, not all the way. That while I have a duty as the avatar: as a bender of all four elements, I also have a duty as an Air master. The Last Air Master.” He realized he was rubbing his head again, along his tattoo, where his hair seemed to always some in first if he didn't keep up with shaving it.

“I think the spirits were trying to tell me that…I have to somehow bring the air nation back.”

He paused, knowing that this conclusion needed processing time. He knew it had taken him a long time to accept the idea himself.

Katara had turned from him, upon hearing Aang's statement. She tried to fathom what all the implications were and found it was like trying to measure water through a sieve.

She placed a hand on the white stone of the wall, almost blue in the moonlight, and leaned slightly on it. The sun had finally disappeared beyond the wooded hills far to the west. The deep velvet blue of night contrasted nicely with the lingering orange glow of sunset, not unlike the gold and blue pattern of her airbender-style dress. A tiny laugh escaped her lips.

“You were right Aang. I do need to sit down for this.”

~~~~~

Ten minutes of silent padding down marble staircases lined with carvings took them to the old airbender dorms. Once they'd probably been filled with the snores and after-hours giggling of apprentices, but now were used as the gang's defacto home. They settled in Aang's room mostly because it was the only one on that floor with an attached study. (Aang suspected the Mistress of Novices had used this room back when the temples divided monks & nuns into separate parts of the globe.)

the study itself couldn't have been mistaken for anything but a study. Every inch of wall besides the courtyard-facing window & door was carved into bookshelves. Katara suspected Aang had earthbended into to room from a different building, as the desk was a rosy sandstone, with less dust on it than the limestone walls of the room itself. The desk also betrayed itself as not being native to the room by having playful carvings of air bison and clouds, while the bedroom and accompanying study was staunchly decoration-free.

Katara had ample time to notice the room, as Aang was being slow in resuming his story.

Aang ran a hand along the desk, focusing on the subtle patterns in the sandstone table instead of Katara's face. He wasn't ashamed of his reasons, exactly, but he was afraid that she wouldn't understand the spiritual side. That she wouldn't understand the geis he had to that world, as much to the spirits as to his friends on this side of dreaming.

“Eventually, I got an actual vision during one of our meditation sessions, you might remember…”

he stalled, looking at Katara. She had taken a seat on the dusty stone bench next to the door. Something in her posture hinted that she considered herself to be blocking Aang's route of escape. He hastily looked away. His fingers started playing with the carvings on the desk, lightly disturbing the century-old grime.

“erm, anyway…in that vision there was a star, then a whole bunch of stars grew extra bright and made the image of an air bison. The bison bellowed at me, then flew into the rising sun.”

Aang closed him eyes, and when he opened them again his face seemed full of a surety and compulsion Katara hadn't seen since the day of black sun, when he thought it might be his last day on earth. Her own expression softened instantly, almost unconsciously.

“it was then I knew I had to follow the dreams. I have to follow them and find…whatever the spirits need me to find. Whether that be descendants of the nomads…or people who might be able to be taught to airbend….or even the spirits of Wind themselves!”

 

Aang had stood up in his fervor, and hadn't noticed until that very moment that in standing up he'd unconsciously earthbended. A newborn pillar of rock loomed innocently in the courtyard, casting shadows over the moon-viewing pond. Aang sighed and bent the courtyard smooth with a smooth stamping-punching movement.

Katara heard herself sigh longingly and blushed. She didn't know why, but when Aang earthbended…something about the stable masculinity and confidence on his earthbending moves….was, undeniably, sexy.

“all I know at the moment is that I need to fly east…I have a strong feeling that more dreams will come to lead me, but for now all I know for sure is east.” Aang said in a calm, collected voice.

Katara rose from the bench. She laid a hand on his arm tentatively before seeming to give up and lay her forehead on his shoulder. Aang also hesitated before laying a gentle hand on her back. the intimacy ice had already been broken, back in the forest, but perhaps a small lingering of out doubts remained.

Katara started to whisper something into Aang's skin but stopped. It didn't seem quite as important to demand more explanation as it was to just stand there and listen to him breathe.

They both stood there, the silence growing. but to Aang and Katara, silence was an old friend. To them, silence was a chance to hear the world's heart beat. A time to hear the wind blow, or water drip deep in the limestone caves, or a bird sing far, far in the distance. Their meditations together before had been full of the world's rhythm, and now this silence was full of each other, hearts beating as one.

The impatient side of Katara finally won out “there's still so much I don't understand.” She whispered. “why leave us? Is it something that you have to do alone? Why…why do you want to go and leave me behind?” she wrapped her arms around his torso, as if he would fly away right then and there if she didn't stop him.

“and why now? What's so great about right now that you are having these dreams all of a sudden? There are still things to do in the fire nation, aren't there? A hundred years of war doesn't get patched up in a few months, even in a year or two…”

she was gaining momentum now, her words coming to her faster and faster, her arms tightening even more around Aang's waist.

“zuko hasn't been the fire lord for long enough to be without you, there's still talk of rebels and…”

Aang struck a mighty blow in the name of silence. He cut Katara off with a generous kiss.

Clearly the ice that had before prevented them from intimacy was broken and melting rapidly in the heat of their kisses. Katara quickly got over her surprise. A small part of her was upset that he was so effective in cutting her off, but the parts that didn't mind one bit quickly vetoed the others. They broke for air, and before Aang could override her senses with another one, Katara laid an insistent hand on his chest between him and her.

“I think I deserve one answer to my questions.” Katara was trying hard to keep the breathlessness from her voice. “at least.”

“zuko can handle himself. I think the spirits know that and are ready for me to move on to my next task. Or maybe there is some time limit and they'll reveal it to me as I follow my visions. Just like they revealed about the comet. And the eclipse.”

“no! I want the answer to why we…why I can't go too? Does it really need to be you and you alone? Did you…did you not think we'd want to help?” Aang could hardly stand the pained pleading look she gave him. He pressed her head into his chest to avoid looking at it.

Katara kept on. “you don't deserve to be alone. Ever. “ she made a sound suspiciously like a sniffle from his chest. “it doesn't have to be like it was with the fire lord. You are…like family now. Why shouldn't your burden's be ours?”

“like family?” Aang quavered.

“well…to sokka and toph anyway…I mean, to me too, but…” she was aware she was blushing. Her cheeks burned so hot she would be surprised if Aang didn't feel it through his shirt.

“c'mon Katara. I've told you how I feel, no matter how hard you made it for me to say. Tell me…tell me I'm not just like a brother to you.”

She pulled back to stare at his face. This was forward, even for Aang. Aang's trademark half-grin smiled back at her. “you're trying to stall!” she accused, embarrassment still heating her face. “tell me why you think you can just fly off without me…I mean us. “

“maybe I am trying to stall. Maybe not. But I'd like a clear-cut answer to my question as much as you do. “ Aang was enjoying this game, especially if it put off him revealing that he had no good reason for leaving her behind. Oh sure he had told himself that she might not understand, that the others had started new lives, were trying to settle into post-war life, but none of those seemed good enough reason when facing Katara's sapphire-bright eyes and kissable cinnamon mouth. Toph and sokka he might be able to write off as starting new lives: toph with her earthbending students and sokka with the water-tribe navy patrol, but Katara hadn't settled like the others. Come to think of it, mostly she spent time with him…

“that's not fair. I'm supposed to give you some big confession while you just fly off into the sunset and leave me?”

“sunrise.”

“whatever, sunrise. You just go on some big spirit journey that takes you, I don't know, the rest of your life, and I pine for you quietly at home? And worry about you? Is that what you want?” Katara had assumed her classic `mothering' stance, hands on her hips, staring defiance while her mouth pouted sternly in between scolding. The effect was lessened as he was a good head or so taller than her now, but Aang found it just as cute as ever.

“maybe you won't pine after me. Maybe you'll open a waterbending school. Maybe you'll be the first woman to teach waterbending in the whole history of the North Pole. You could replace pakku. Maybe you'll accept some handsome water guy's betrothal necklace…” he was smiling as he said it, yet a twinge of irrational jealously flared in his eyes nonetheless.

“stop it. You know I wouldn't do that…it's you I want to be with...”

She reached a hand up to rub his head. He caught the hand and used it to draw her in close again. A heartbeat later he had caught her up in a whirlwind of kisses. She finally gave in completely. She leaned against him, kissing him back with a steady rhythmic passion. Their lips came together, tongues trailing briefly between their mouths before pulling away. They kissed like waves, breaking over one another, retreating slightly but still touching, then crashing together again.

Aang's hands tangled in her hair, fingertips pressed into her neck. One of Katara's hands pressed into his bare back, the other clutched his robe. His muscles jumped under her touch, just like before, in the forest. It had been good in the forest, but not like this. Not nearly as mouth bruising, not nearly as stormy and heated as these. Aang moved to the corner of her mouth to across her cheek to her neck and collarbone. Katara moaned.

“Aang…please…” Aang's kisses where trailing dangerously, deliciously downwards. Already her wrap-dress had fallen off her shoulder to drape precariously over one arm. The shirt underneath was cut low and high, baring her stomach. She felt him mouth her name against the hollow of her throat.

He finally looked up at her, eyes dark, almost black. Desire radiated from those eyes.

“yes Katara? Please what? Katara.” He teased in almost a singsong voice.

“please…don't leave me.” He almost moved to kiss her again, but she repeated her plea before he could cut her off again. “don't leave me. Take me with you. I couldn't…I…just, please. “ she whispered the last word, tears beginning to well in her eyes. “I couldn't stand it. You being so wonderful today, you..kissing me and being like this. Then leaving me to worry about you, only to have this day, this night to replay in my mind. Please. “

she blinked, and her tears somehow stayed at bay, making the room swim. “please”.

“Katara.” He kissed her softly. “Katara.” He laid his hands on her hips. “Katara.” He slowly walked her out of the study and into the adjoining room. “Katara” he whispered into her ear, repeating it like a mantra against darkness.

“I won't leave you. I can see that now. I promise. Now please, please don't cry. I won't leave you.”

Katara clutched at him with all her might and he wrapped his arms just as fiercely around her.

“Aang.” She kissed him roughly. “Aang” she tugged him to the floor where his overstuffed goose-rabbit fur pallet lay. “Aang” she whispered as she slid his robe from his shoulder. Her hands danced over his bare chest as they began to kiss slowly, savoring each other. “you promised not to leave me. Just remember, you promised.” She whispered in between kisses.

“Katara. I love you.”

She had heard it before. She had known it before. She had felt the same way before. But those times didn't have the relief and bliss and sweetness this time had. It also didn't have the man Aang had become kneeling before her, bare chest and bare heart in her hands.

“I love you too. “

He launched a new wave of kisses and caresses at her. It was all she could do to keep up, and still she felt like she was drowning the wake of his passion. His enthusiasm knocked her backwards into his pallet. Her skirts were feeling looser and looser, now that the shoulder wrap was dislodged. His loose robe trailed over her too. He was concentrating kisses on her throat again.

“Aang…”

He cut her off with another hurricane of kisses. Finally he let her speak (and breathe) again.

“Aang…do you think…are we…we're in your bed.”

“are you sure we're not in the clouds?” it was so sappy, so adorably Aang that Katara laughed.

“I don't want to leave you. But do you want me to stop?” he asked. He mentally kicked himself for not asking before he had let her guide him to the floor. but surely she HAD guided him to the bed? Hadn't she initiated…whatever this might turn into?

“I…no.”

“Are you sure?”

“No…well…I want…”

“Please, Katara. Let me know. Let me know if I need to stop. I don't want to hurt you. “

She cut him off with a rough insistent kiss.