I Know She Loves You

~A~

Aang looked up from where he was sitting swinging his legs from the ledge below Iroh's tea-house. It had been less than a day that they'd been back in Ba Sing Se now that the war had finally ended, having arrived late the evening before. Now it was just noon, and Sokka was looking down at him with a grin.

"Hey, Aang, come on. Iroh's got food! Real food, with meat!" he enthused a little deliberately, just teasing his friend.

Predictably, the teen's face wrinkled in disgust. "And that's supposed to make me want to eat? That's gross, Sokka!"

The older teen chuckled. "Oh, he's got vegetarian stuff for you, too. No worries!"

The avatar sighed, then looked pensively out at the city stretched before him. "I'm not really all that hungry right now," he shook his head, "but thanks."

Eyes narrowing, the older boy looked at his friend, his best friend, truthfully, and sat down beside him. He was pretty sure he knew what the problem was, and maybe it was time to bring it up. It was certain that Aang never would.

"Look, I know you love Katara, Aang. It sort of came up before, remember? When I tried to chase you after you apologized for that mess with Bato and then realized that you loved her, but you got away from me?" He chuckled at the memory. "I don't really mind, despite how I tease and torture you about it," he told the now blushing and gaping boy next to him. "It's just natural for an older brother to be that way with his sister. But I'm warning you now, I don't want to see, well... see..."

Aang snorted. "You mean you don't want to see or hear what you make us all see and hear with you and Suki all the time?"

It was Sokka's turn to redden uncomfortably. "Yeah, it's hypocritical of me, I suppose, but I just can't stand the thought of seeing or hearing you and my younger sister. It's just... weird."

At that Aang shook his head and looked away, a certain sadness in his eyes that surprised his companion immensely. What...?

"Aang?"

"Well, you won't have to see or listen to me and your sister, at any rate, Sokka. She made it quite clear that she doesn't feel the same as I do for her when she rejected me, so you should save that warning for whoever she does choose," he replied dispiritedly. "I'm not going to be a problem for you in that respect."

He was astounded when Sokka burst out laughing so hard he fell over, and then he scowled, hurt that his friend found such a painful subject funny. How would he feel if Suki didn't love him in return, and then someone – a friend no less – laughed at him for it?

Sokka eventually sat back up once his laughter was down to chuckles, and shook his head at his now angry companion. "And you believed her?!" he chuckled once more, incredulously.

Aang's frown deepened. "What?"

"Katara was just lying to herself and you, trying to protect her heart, I guess. I understand that. I almost did the same thing after Yue... when Suki came back into my life, I tried to push her away. I felt guilty, and like I was betraying what I had shared with her for another woman."

"And how does all that mean that Katara... loves me?" He said the word love with a deep reverence, and Sokka was absolutely certain in that moment that no one would ever be able to love Katara like this one young man did.

Settling himself a little more comfortably in case the discussion got too long and they were out here for a while, Sokka said, "Because she almost died for you." The statement was blunt, meant to shock, and it did. No one had ever really told Aang about what had happened while he was unconscious from Azula's strike – at least not the details.

Aang's eyes were wide and stunned, and there was a growing horror in them as he gasped, "What?!" like he couldn't even draw enough breath to speak.

"When you were in that coma after Ba Sing Se, Katara worked herself almost to death trying to bring you back. She went so far that she gave you so much of her energy through trying to heal you that she almost... well, for lack of a better word, emptied herself. She barely had enough energy left to keep her own heart beating and her lungs drawing air." He glanced at his friend, taking in the still-horrified stare and now gaping mouth, and continued. "Me and dad found her on the floor of your room, unconscious herself and barely breathing. And as soon as she woke, we had to practically restrain her from going right back and doing the same thing all over. She almost died for love of you, Aang, and then she tried to do it again. I've no doubt she would do the same thing now without thought or care for the consequences. And that's why I know she's in love with you. Because only someone in love would risk so much for another."

Still stunned and terrified that he could have lost Katara without even knowing it, Aang continued to gape at Sokka for several seconds before he shuddered and his terror at the thought faded a little. It took him that few moments to regain his equilibrium with the realization that Katara hadn't died, that she was still alive and most importantly, just inside the tea shop behind he and Sokka, safe and sound.

He looked down, a hand coming up to clench in his robes over his heart as it skipped a beat one last time with that fear before it faded into sleep inside him. It would never be wholly gone now, because he was in love with her and she could be taken from him so easily at any time. Life was never a guarantee, only death was, as the monks had told him.

"Are you sure?" he finally questioned hesitantly, his voice barely above a whisper, as if he couldn't bear to even say such a thing aloud – as though the beauty of it would disappear should he do so. His gaze raised from his lap and he met Sokka's eyes slowly, uncertainly, hoping that the older teen wasn't just trying to give him some encouragement and that what he was saying was really true. It was such a hard thing to imagine, but he wanted it more than he could ever remember wanting anything. He wanted it more than he would ever want anything.

"I'm one thousand percent sure," Sokka stated, nodding almost briskly. "I'll tell you what. I'll make a deal with you. I'm so sure I'm right that if you confess to Katara and I'm wrong, I'll stop eating meat for good."

Instant shock. Again.

Well, that took care of that. Aang perfectly believed Sokka at that moment, knew he had to be right, because his friend would never give up his meat. So if he was betting with that hanging in the balance, then he was entirely certain that Katara really did love him. Aang couldn't be more sure of it now than if she'd told him her feelings herself.

His face flushed and he almost began to hyperventilate at the deliciousness of the thought. Katara loves me! She loves me! I've got to talk to her, and then kiss her, and kiss her some more, and...

His meltdown was interrupted by his future brother-in-law, who was beginning to give him a vaguely disturbed look and shaking his head.

"No, Aang! Stop! I already told you I don't want to know about any of... those things!" he sputtered rapidly.

The avatar looked at him with total confusion. "What are you talking about? Katara's not even out here!"

The other teen was waving his hands and growing redder and more cross-eyed looking by the moment. "I know what you were thinking! And dude, that's my sister! Can you not think those things about her in my presence, please?"

Aang couldn't help but laugh, his spirit now feeling light and more happy than he had ever been. "Sokka, if you don't want me around you when I'm thinking those things about your sister, then you shouldn't have been around me since like... before the battle at the Northern Water Tribe," the avatar said cheekily, grinning wider at the horrified look on his friend's face.

Yup. He'd known that would work, and it had splendidly, he mused as he watched the other boy jump to his feet and run off yelling, "Oogies!" whatever that meant. Now on to important things...

Aang was still grinning as he got quickly to his feet and took off in the opposite direction from Sokka.

Time to find his future.