o.O Wow, this is still here. Even after I deleted my account back in, what, January?
I deleted my thread for "Hope" and added it here. It's pretty much nothing but boring Kataang fluff, set directly after the Season 2 finale.
Hope
Our situation was more desperate than ever before—and yet, I could not help but feel an irrational twinge of guilt that the young Avatar had been injured instead of me. I knew in my heart that there was really nothing I could have done about it, but that did not stop the combination of grief and guilt from growing to encompass the more tender, sensitive side of my heart.
“The Earth Kingdom has fallen.” Somehow the devastating words we had all feared for so long did not shock or depress me any further. It was simply a statement of a fact that I had accepted when I had seen my best friend—my hero—fall from the safety of the skies. It seemed to follow suit that once the human manifestation of all my steadfast hopes descended lifelessly from the air, so would the great city of Ba Sing Se itself. My companions shed tears for the shattered dreams of peace and freedom; I shed tears for the nearly fatal wounds that had felled the one and only person I would ever be able to love so intensely—as a friend, a brother, and, as I had begun to realize lately, as a lover.
I held the Airbender tightly, partially because I did not want him to fall off Appa while he slept, and partially because I needed him close to me. He wasn’t in good shape, but he was alive, and I needed to keep reassuring myself of that fact by feeling the steady rise and fall of his chest and the slow, rhythmic beating of his heart.
After a while, our group came to a consensus to stop for the night. I scooped Aang up into my arms once again and made an awkward descent from the flying bison, slowed by exhaustion and the weight of the unconscious boy. I declined Sokka’s kindhearted offer to carry Aang for me; I felt a strong surge of overprotection, and I didn’t want anyone else caring for the Airbender, even though I knew everyone else had the same good intentions as me.
Numbly, I asked Toph to create a tent for the injured Airbender. She did so without hesitation, then closed one around herself, presumably out of habit. Normally she offered some sarcastic remark related to the lack of peace and quiet before she simply shut the world out, but tonight an uneasy and exhausted silence took the place of the usual nighttime chatter.
Sokka handed Aang’s sleeping bag to the Earth king, muttering something like, “Sorry it’s not what you’re used to.” I carried Aang inside the Earth tent, silently thanking Toph for making it large enough to fit two people comfortably.
I laid the young Airbender on the ground, careful not to let the worst of his wounds come into contact with the ground. To accomplish this, I had to turn him onto his right side and prop his head up on his arm. It was a difficult task because I tried not to hurt his minor wounds in the process. Once it was finished, though, I burst into tears again at the sight of the terrible wound on his back.
“I could have lost you,” I choked hysterically. “I still could lose you! Don’t die, Aang! Stay alive!” My tears fell onto his face, sliding over the contours of his cheek, dripping off his nose and onto his arm, leaving streaks of mud on his dirty face. My loose hair brushed his shoulder and I cried miserably, terrified of the fact that there was no longer anything I could do, and knowing that if I lost him, I would no longer have a reason to live.
I lowered my face to level Aang’s and scooted closer to him. We were now lying side by side, a foot apart… half a foot… our noses touched, and I closed my eyes, wishing desperately that our intimate moment could be a real one, with Aang smiling and conscious and happy, with that glint of childlike enthusiasm in his amazing gray eyes….
“He’ll be all right,” I heard Sokka say in a falsely confident voice, as if the announcement itself would make the prediction come true.
My heart raced as I turned toward my brother, hoping beyond hope that he hadn’t seen how close my face was to Aang’s. The last thing I needed was Sokka teasing me about my relationship with Aang—because at this stage, anything could set me over the edge. “What do you want?” I regarded him a little more icily than I had intended.
“You need to sleep, Katara,” he said sternly. “We’ve all had a rough day. Come on.”
“No,” I answered. “I’m staying here with Aang.”
Even with the soft, dim glow of the moon and stars, I could see the emotions play off Sokka’s face. Sadness, confusion, sympathy, even a touch of anger—perhaps he had noticed how close Aang and I were?—but finally, brotherly concern won out.. “Katara, you have to sleep.”
“I will,” I shot back. “I’ll sleep here. But I’m not letting Aang out of my sight until he’s healed.” I looked out the opening of the tent, past my brother, at the soft, delicate glow of the moon. Could this have been how Sokka felt at the North Pole? “I have a chance to protect someone I love. Do you really want to take it away from me?”
His concern melted into sorrow. “No,” he decided. “I… I guess you can stay here. Just be sure and get some rest, will you?”
“All right,” I agreed. “Good night.”
“Good night, Katara.” Sokka turned and walked out of the tent, leaving me alone once again with the Avatar. I blinked back tears and wrapped my arms around him, as if to communicate without words that I would stay by his side forever. I moved my face closer to his and once again, our noses touched. My feeling of urgency slowly diminished as I focused my attention more on how lucky I was to have my best friend still with me. His clothing was tattered, burned, and dirty, and his breath came in ragged and, I could only guess, painful gasps. The silence of the night set in, and there was only Aang and me, both of us broken and helpless, but, at the very least, together.
A strange sense of complacency settled over me, and somehow in the midst of reflecting on all the trauma of the day I managed to fall into a restful slumber. I awoke several hours later when I felt Aang’s weight shift slightly beneath my arms. I opened my eyes to find myself staring into the deepest and most beautiful shade of gray-brown-blue that I had ever seen. My breath hitched as I realized how close we really were.
“Katara—” Aang tried to speak, but I shushed him promptly.
“Save your strength,” I told him. “Sleep, Aang. Sleep until you’re well and we can move on.”
But he was determined to talk to me. His eyes stayed open and staring into mine, and he shook his head slowly. Finally I allowed him to speak, simultaneously awed, concerned, and amused by his determination.
“Stay… please,” he pleaded in between gasps. “Katara… stay… with me.” Each word was a separate struggle, each syllable a plunge into excruciating pain; but still, he used his breath to invite me to stay with him.
“I’ll never leave you,” I promised, tilting my head so that our lips were barely a centimeter apart. We didn’t kiss, but then again, maybe we didn’t have to. I have discovered that with Aang, sometimes there is absolutely nothing powerful enough to express the depth of our bond. We both drifted back into a grateful slumber, and we were still in the same position when Sokka woke us the next morning.
And, as we were leaving the comfort of the campsite, I began to feel a small flicker of hope that maybe, just maybe, my Aang could still save the world.
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Meh, not my best work.
