A/N: Well, this is it! The last chapter of Wedges of Ice and Air. It has been an interesting journey for me to write my first fan fiction; it's been a privilege to write about characters I care so much about.

Anyway, I hope that you have enjoyed this journey as well! Also please note, it is never too late to leave a review - I'd love to hear from you.

And without further ado, the conclusion…

Chapter 14

Aang awoke early as he usually did. He had always been an early riser, a habit left over from his childhood in the temples – all the monks had awoken early to greet the sunrise and feel the shifting winds of the new day. They would all meet in the lessening grey of the soon-to-rise sun and mediate together, breathing as though they were One as the first rays of sunshine crested the horizon, falling upon their peaceful blue-arrowed brows. One of the head monks would feel the breezes for the appropriate time, and then call out the start to the 'Receive the New Sun' chant at which all the boys and monks would finish the chant together, take one last large breath in through their noses, and then with the sounding of the great gong, release their breath and open their eyes to see the gloriously painted sky of the new day. It was an incredibly invigorating way to start the day, centered and refreshed and ready to follow wherever the winds took them.

Bumi had been sensitive to this tradition when he had given Aang this room, the balcony thoughtfully facing east. Aang's chant finished and his breath let out slowly, Aang imagined the sound of the gong and opened his eyes to the start of a beautiful sunrise.

Today was Day 20 after the death of the King. According to Earth Kingdom tradition, this marked the last day of the old King's reign. Tomorrow Gu would be crowned King of Omashu. There would be a grand ceremony, a feast and festival to celebrate. Aang had no formal role in the coronation, but he would be there, silently showing his support of Bumi's chosen successor.

But there was still one last day of King Bumi's reign. And Aang, acting as proxy for Bumi's first-born son, had responsibility to go to the tomb again and preform some final sacred rites. These were not traditions of his people, but of the earth kingdom; but Aang was honored to do them for his friend, saddened again that Bumi's own son could not preform them. The irony of the fact that Aang was technically older than Bumi (by a whole eight months, which matters when you're ten!) struck him – he never would have thought to be a stand-in for Bumi's son.

The beauty of this day was hard to ignore, and a light like the rising sun seemed to shine within Aang. He had mourned his friend, and he would mourn him still, but something about today felt brighter.

Without meaning to, Aang thought of Katara. Perhaps it was because this feeling was something he had always associated with her: a buoyancy, a gleam, a broad positivity as beautiful as the rising sun.

Aang's shoulders sagged slightly as he sighed. It had been fourteen days since he had last seen Katara, since he had angrily left her in the healing hut in the North Pole. And he missed her. A very familiar feeling, since he had been missing Katara for the last five years.

Sometime during the Twenty Days of Bereavement for King Bumi had also marked the five-year anniversary of Aang's expulsion from the South Pole and his agonized split with Katara. Another regret to bear during these days of mourning. He wished that the two of them had been able to mend their rift, that they could have at least left one anther as friends. But Aang had gotten unwillingly used to things not being as he wished they could be between he and Katara. He supposed he would just need to wish her well in his heart, and then let it all be.

She would marry Urik. Then he would have no choice but to turn his face to the sun and start his life again, unable to look back. Part of him yearned for that to finally happen, to just get it over with, while another other part prayed that it never would. She had infiltrated his heart when he was young, and he feared that he would never recover fully. As much as he wished otherwise, it would seem that Aang was incapable of not loving Katara.

But why?! Aang thought angrily. No one had ever hurt him as much as she had! No one had ever left him so inept with grief and regret.

But Aang knew why. It's because she's Katara. Katara who saved him from the ice, who believed in him when he couldn't even believe in himself. Katara who was more beautiful than anything he had ever seen; the girl who had given him courage and confidence in the future. Katara who was kind, and compassionate, and fiercely dedicated to what she felt was right. Katara who waterbended with a grace like the element she bent, twisting and weaving like shimmering waves in the sea. Katara who was hotheaded and frustrating and made him want to pull her into his arms and never, ever let her go!

Oh he knew why he loved her; what he couldn't figure out was how he was ever going to stop loving her.

Aang gathered his things. He would stop by the palace healer to have his shoulder re-wrapped again – it was feeling much better, not paining him at all unless he did something particularly strenuous with that arm, but he felt it wise to keep it wrapped for now. Then he would go to the sanctuary where Bumi's funeral had been held to gather what he needed to perform the final ceremonies before heading to the Cave of Oma and Shu. He had other things to worry about today.

Thoughts of Katara would have to wait.

….

Katara had risen uncharacteristically early, before the sun had even risen over the mountains in the distance. She had traveled as long as she could the evening before (knowing that she was close!), until the darkness of the night made it unreasonable to continue. But she knew she was nearly there, just another hour or two and she would be to the great gates of Omashu! Her excitement had made it difficult to sleep, so she had risen early, eaten a quick breakfast, bathed in the stream nearby, and then continued on her ostrich-horse towards Omashu.

When the great cone-shaped spires of the ancient city came into view just over an hour later, Katara caught her breath, a flood of relief surging through her as she spurred her ostrich-horse into a run. She didn't have any guarantee that Aang was still there – she had now been traveling after him for fourteen days – and who knew where he was now? She thought with faltering hope to herself:

Please still be here!

…..

"I'm sorry Katara, but Aang is not here."

Iroh's apologetic reply came from behind her. The guards had not allowed Katara entrance to the palace; given the recent attempted coup and the anticipated coronation scheduled for tomorrow security was in a heightened state. But luckily, Iroh had been passing by right as Katara had been explaining to the guard (for the third time) that she needed to speak with the Avatar. Katara's fingers had been itching at her water pouch, her desire to eliminate this obstacle herself almost outweighing her better judgment.

Katara spun around, "Oh Uncle Iroh!" then "Not here…?" her words came out softly, disappointment heavy in her voice.

"Well… not here, here. As in, not in the palace at the moment…" But Iroh's eyes twinkled with something warm when he replied conspiratorially, "But I do know where you can find him."

….

As Katara climbed onto the flat sunny out-cropping, her eyes roamed the cliff face until they found the entrance to the tunnel, "the Lovers' Cave" carved above the opening. Not far from the entrance, propped against the stone wall was Aang's glider, his shoes placed underneath.

Well, that's proof that he's here at least…

Katara approached, moving slower with each step. Here she had raced across the globe, across ocean and dusty road to find him, here she had hungered to get to him faster always faster, and yet now that she was so close, she found that she seemed to move in slow motion.

She realized that she was afraid: afraid to walk into the dark, afraid she might not find him and become lost…

And if she did find him, she was afraid of what he might say, what he might not say, afraid that she had already spent her last chance to gain his forgiveness.

Suddenly she wanted to turn back, to run from here and from him. If she never saw him again, perhaps she would never have to face her fears: her fear of being vulnerable, her fear of facing the consequences of her choices, her fear of not knowing what the future held, her fear that he may not want her anymore.

Katara's sudden desire to retreat and her burning urge to go forward battled, leaving her standing outside the Lovers' Cave, staring into the darkness, frozen.

Suddenly images of Katara's familiar childhood dream came to her mind: the cozy igloo filled with her children, all of them wrapped in furs by the fire, singing her own mother's lullabies, the smells of water tribe food cooking, her faceless husband protecting them all.

This had been a good dream, a hope that had kept her moving forward: the hope of a motherless child to one day become a mother herself, of one day recreating the innocence that war had stolen from her when as far as anyone could see in any direction, past or future, was more war.

But that dream was from before the war had ended, a feat she herself had helped to bring to pass. It was before she had seen anything of the world beyond her own tiny snow village. It was before she had tasted what true love felt like…

And now she had grown up, seen the world, changed – and she had out-grown this dream. It was no longer the totality of what she wanted. Holding on to it was holding her back.

It was keeping her from what she really wanted. It was keeping her from Aang.

Katara moved toward the cave's dark opening. A sudden jolt of fear gripping her again as she thought of going in there, all alone and blind. But she removed her shoes anyway, and placed them side-by-side with Aang's. She felt the dirt and rocks under her feet, and the cool stone wall under her hand as she walked several feet into the cool darkness. She was still afraid…

Katara took a deep breath and closed her eyes. What had those nomads said? She had to trust in love.

She imagined her future family again (something that she still wanted desperately), but this time so much of the vision seemed to change. She couldn't quite picture the location; were they in the snow? Or an open airy place? Or perhaps somewhere she had yet to ever see? She didn't know. But that didn't seem to matter now. And the children… what were they wearing? Were their heads adorned with blue beads, or perhaps shorn clean? What did they bend? She couldn't quite picture with clarity their dark water tribe skin like she used to. But she also found, that the unknown about them felt okay.

The only thing that was certain, in this new dream of her future, the only thing she knew that she wanted for sure, was that she wanted Aang.

The piece of her dream that she had never been able to picture clearly, the who of who she would spend her life with, was now painstakingly clear. She could picture him, tall and slim, grinning at her, that familiar sparkle of good-natured mischief in his eye, the one that kept her on her toes and made her heart flutter in anticipation. The way he would pull her close to him, adoration in his eyes right before he would kiss her, sending her mind whirling and her body aching for more. When she pictured Aang with her, her whole soul seemed to sigh and laugh in contentment while everything else would disappear, becoming unimportant. She wanted Aang to be her partner in life. Now that was clear. The rest could all change, but he must be with her. The other details blurring into darkness.

Love was brightest in the dark.

When she finally decided that Aang was her new dream for the future, not just a part of it, her future seemed to finally hum with wholeness and rightness, like finally finding the right way to make the singing bowl sing, resonating out strong and continuous.

Katara walked further into the cave, the darkness engulfing her. She was trusting in love, and the darkness no longer scared her.

…..

Aang entered the inner tomb of Oma and Shu. He had left his glider and shoes propped against the outer wall of the entrance to the Cave of Two Lovers. Removing his shoes was a sign of respect to the sacred Earthbenders' cave, but also had the benefit of allowing him to see more clearly with his seismic sense. Now that he had mastered earthbending, with the added bonus of having learned "seismic sight" from the Toph Beifang herself, the cave held little danger for him.

The funeral and procession had been public affairs, ways for the whole city to participate in honoring their King. But these last rites, the ones Aang would now conduct, were not public. These were the last private ceremonial observances of putting the King to rest.

The tomb was pitch black. Setting down the items in his hands, Aang reached out with his seismic sense. He knew there were torches mounted all along the walls of the large round room, but he hadn't known their exact locations. But now having gotten a good "look" at the room, Aang placed his hands together, took a deep breath and began shooting small flames onto the wicks of each torch, lighting them one by one. Slowly the room began to illuminate, gradually revealing the details of the tomb. Standing paramount were the giant depictions of Oma and Shu, kneeling toward one another, kissing, their story told in pictures below the edifice. The two large stone sarcophagi of King Bumi and his wife had been placed before it in the center of the room.

But it was now time to move them into one of the alcoves around the edge of the room. This was the responsibility of the oldest son, a role Aang was filling for his friend. He had also brought what was left of the five-day incense stick that he had lit during the funeral, and a bowl of stone fruit that would be left as an offering with the deceased couple.

Aang's heart was heavy as he earthbended the heavy stone box containing Iralee into an alcove. Without all of the torches lit, these alcoves would not even be visible. Aang recalled from his first time in this room, with Katara when they were kids, that the two of them had had no idea of the full size and scale of the room. With just their one burning torch, they could see little more than what was immediately around them.

Aang thought with a mixture of amusement and chagrin of his bumbling attempt to act cool when Katara had suggested that they kiss. He mentally smacked himself again as he thought of how horribly he had insulted her while saying exactly the opposite of how he really felt. "I'd rather kiss you than die!" Aang hoped that he had gotten smoother since then, but then thinking back on his most recent stolen kiss with her, and her subsequent rejection… perhaps he hadn't learned much. But his heart still panged when he thought of her. Aang wondered now if he would rather die than not kiss her…

Aang sighed and turned back to his task, earthbending Bumi's large casket over to the space next to his wife. The tomb reverberated with a boom as the great stone casket set heavily down into its final resting place. It was as though Aang felt the sound in his chest, the echo sounding in his heart long after it had stopped reverberating in his ears. This act, placing his friend Bumi with such finality, brought tears to Aang's eyes again, as he missed Bumi, missed Gyatso, missed all of his friends that he had lost in the genocide and to time.

Aang brought the incense stick – the one that had continued to burn from the funeral until now, the last day of King Bumi's reign – and the bowl of Everlasting Fruit to the alcove, kneeling and placing them with a bow before the King and his wife. His tears falling more freely.

As he thought of those he had lost, and of the woman he had wanted more than anything in this world, but did not want him in return, he felt suddenly unlovable. Like he had missed his real life sometime in the iceberg. And he would be destined to spend this life out of sync, unable to find his place. Like his life, at this time, was punishment for his cowardice as a twelve-year-old boy who had been afraid to live without Gyatso – and so his punishment is fit, here he is, living his life without Gyatso, or any of the others. All alone.

An irrational dread began to take hold of him, an icy hand of fear gripping his heart. Aang got hastily and clumsily to his feet. He needed to get out of here! Or he might be buried here himself. Buried in his own grief and isolation.

But as the panic started to take hold, the frightened need to get away. He felt something through the earth.

He felt... her.

His head snapped toward the door. Katara had not yet entered the burial chamber, but she was coming. Aang could feel her coming; he knew her footsteps, the shape of her body, the way her heart beat.

And Aang froze, waiting for her to come...

…..

Katara could see the light ahead. Although it was still some distance off, compared to the darkness of the cave lit only in the bluish light of the crystals above her, the warm yellow of the fire ahead was unmistakable.

More and more sure of her footing as the light grew stronger, Katara's bare feet began to move faster, bringing her closer to him. Anxiety and excitement flip-flopped in her stomach. She wanted to be with Aang so much it was almost painful, but she also knew that there was still a great chasm between them; emotionally they had a mountain's worth of baggage to climb. But she was finally brave enough to face that, to face the results of her choices. To finally apologize to the boy she had abandoned all those years ago.

And then suddenly she was there, standing breathless in the round opening of the Tomb. She was surprised by the sheer size of the room; it was so much bigger than she ever imagined it to be when she and Aang had been here before! Her eyes darting to the great stone carving of Oma and her beloved Shu – the first Earthbenders. Suddenly the tragedy of their story struck Katara. Of how their worlds had held them apart, forbidding them from being together. And the heartbreak of it was that the world had won in keeping them apart. The war had taken Shu from Oma before peace could be found. They had never had the opportunity to love in the open, to share their lives together. And the greatest tragedy of all was perhaps that the power to change that had been in them all along. It was not until her love was lost that Oma used her earthbending to put an end to the war that had separated them.

Katara did not want to wait until it was too late to love Aang. She wouldn't let the world, society and its concerns, keep them apart. She would act now, before it was too late!

Katara walked to the edge of the raised entrance platform, searching in the torchlight the rest of the room below. It took Katara a moment to find Aang – he had been standing so still that she hardly noticed him off to the side at the mouth of one of the many alcoves surrounding the room. He stood statue-like, nothing but his eyes moving as they followed her decent to the lower level.

His eyebrows were furrowed, in anger or in confusion she couldn't tell, his eyes flicking once quickly from the betrothal necklace at her throat and then back to her face, his expression darkening slightly. The firelight from the torches danced on his skin. But still he said nothing.

Katara stopped a few feet from him, her bare toes cushioned in the soft layer of sand covering the ancient stone floor. Aang said nothing, never breaking eye contact. She began to feel uncomfortable at the intensity of his gaze. She couldn't tell what she saw there: accusation? disbelief? relief or suspicion? She could see that he had been crying, tear trails left on his cheeks, but his eyes were dry now.

"Aang…"

Her voice seemed to shake him, like he had finally decided that she was real and not some specter of his imagination. A breath finally released from him, almost like a silent sob as he closed his eyes tightly, shaking his head minutely. But when his eyes found hers again, his gaze, if anything, was even more intense.

"Katara?... what are you doing here?"

Katara's mouth opened, but no reply immediately came. How should she answer that question? To find you… To make sure you were okay… To tell you that I'm sorry... Tell you that I love you.

"Well, I came… I mean, well I'm here to find you."

Aang's stance was still too still, like he was wary of her. "Well that part seems obvious," sarcasm tainting his words. "This isn't exactly a place for a chance meeting." And then with clear accusation in his tone, "You do realize I'm burring my best friend right now, don't you?"

Katara was taken aback, "Well, yes…" she stammered, "I know. I mean… Aang I'm so sorry about Bumi… I'm sorry…"

"I don't need your pity, Katara. One more person to pity the poor last airbender who doesn't know when or where he's supposed to be." Aang looked close to tears as he stared at the ground.

"Aang! I came here to do this with you. So you don't have to burry Bumi alone."

"Well, forgive me if I don't want to do this with another man's wife!" Aang almost yelled, the last word echoing around the room, his eyes darting again to her necklace. And then more quietly, "or soon-to-be wife, anyway…"

Katara's fingers jumped to the familiar smoothness of her mother's necklace, realizing that in the dim lights of the torches, Aang surely couldn't tell that she was no longer wearing Urik's betrothal mark.

"Aang…" she hesitated, "I'm not getting married anymore. Not to Urik anyway… I broke it off with him. This is, well, this isn't his necklace. It's my mother's. The one I've always worn…"

Aang looked genuinely surprised, a flash of something so vulnerable and childlike in his face it almost made her want to cry.

"Wha...? Why?" Katara could hear the hope trying hard not to bust through his cautious tone.

"Well, I have my reasons. Urik proved himself not to be the right one… but that is only part of the reason; the smaller part, actually." She hesitated, unsure of how to continue, but taking a step towards him, "the real reason is that, well… Aang, its because of you."

She moved another step towards him, and then another. Aang's voice whispering, "what about me, Katara?"

"I think you know, Aang." She was so close now, it would be difficult not to touch her.

Disbelief and hope both danced plainly on his face as Aang brought one hand up, to place it gently on her upper arm, the contact sending undue amounts of intense heat through her. She leaned forward still, moving towards him, her eyes drifting shut, her full lips parted slightly seeking his.

But then his hand stiffened on her arm, holding her back. She looked up to see that his gaze was averted from her, his eyes filling with tears, his dark eyebrows drawn and his mouth a tight angry line.

"What do you think I am, Katara?" Aang's voice was harsh, as he pushed her abruptly away, "your little yoyo toy?! Forgive me if I'm not up for being played with today."

Katara was shocked. Both at his tone and his rejection. She wasn't playing with him! She loved him! Feeling embarrassed and offended, she took a step away from him.

"I'm not toying with you, Aang! I'm here to tell you… well, I came all this way… I followed you half-way across the world, Aang! I didn't come all this way just to yank you around!"

"No?! Well what happened then? Urik lose interest for you? Got tired of him already, eh? I guess I should feel flattered. You didn't drop me until we had been together for a few years already. I guess your attention span is waning, huh?"

Katara's fists clenched. How dare he accuse her like this? And after she had just spent the last two weeks racing across the globe to be here for him?! Barely sleeping, exhausting herself!

"I don't deserve this, Aang."

"Don't you? Well, what do you deserve, Katara? Poor sweet, pathetic Aang to come racing back to you like a dog when you whistle?"

And then Katara saw it. She saw it flash in his face, in how his eyebrows raised vulnerably just like when they were young, right before he turned his back on her. Looking at his trembling back, his left hand gentling massaging his right shoulder, Katara could see all the hurt that was behind these attacks. Aang was nearly breaking inside and this was all he could do to keep from cracking open right here.

Aang stumbled away from her, stopping in front of the giant stone effigies of Oma and Shu, before he sank to the ground, burying his head in his hands.

Katara carefully approached him, her hand outstretched, wanting to touch his shoulder, but not daring to.

"I begged you to forgive me, Katara. I pleaded with you to at least let me try to mend what I had ruined." Aang's eyes glistened with hurt tears as he turned his intense gaze on her, "How could you let me beg like that?" He spat out angrily, the torches flaring on the walls, "With no reply at all!"

She had no good answer for him. She knew she had messed up. That she was as much to blame, if not more so, for the way things had become between them.

He looked down at the floor in front of him. "I loved you. And you just… didn't… love me."

Katara's heart nearly broke. She knew that she deserved this. He was right. She had not been fair with him. She was a terrible person.

"Aang," she began tentatively, not knowing how to possibly begin fixing this kind of pain, "I've hurt you. I never meant to, but I know that I have. And I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

"Again with the pity, Katara. I don't want it!"

"No! You will listen to me, Aang!" her voice flaring, "This isn't pity. This is pain. Pain that we share. Because in hurting you, I have hurt myself too. And I never meant to hurt anyone. I was just so confused, and lonely, and…" her chin began to quiver as she tried to hold back the sobs that threatened to burst. "I loved you too, Aang! I loved you with so much intensity that it scared me. And I was afraid… afraid that you would stop loving me, that you would find someone else… there you were, off in the world, doing all those wonderful things. And I was just home, just missing you all the time. Hearing things about all the pretty girls that wanted to be with you. And… and I let my insecurities convince me," she was crying openly now, "that I was safer without you, that we couldn't work. My Dad was sure of it. That our differences had doomed us before we could really even get started…"

Katara sank to her knees behind him. Her hands clasped, wringing together in her lap.

"…and I was just so afraid, Aang. Afraid of losing you, of losing myself, my culture, of losing my future before it even happened… And I let my fears convince me that I shouldn't be with you, that I didn't even deserve to be with you."

Aang was looking at her now, his expression battling between empathy and caution.

"But I knew that if I couldn't have you, then I couldn't have any contact with you at all. I hoped that if I just ignored you, pretended not to feel how I feel for you, then I could finally be strong and the love would all go away…"

Aang had turned now, facing her on his knees as well. The two unintentionally mirroring the giant images of Oma and Shu.

"That's why I never replied to your letters. That's why I didn't meet you on Kyoshi. And that's why I've been trying to run away from you ever since seeing you again in at Zuko's palace!"

Aang put his hand out to her, placing it gently on hers, calming her twisting hands and calling her eyes up to his as she confessed, "It's because I still love you, Aang! And there is nowhere in the world that I can run to get away from this incredible ache in my heart. This horrible… emptiness, from not being with you!"

Katara blinked up at the ceiling, her blue eyes shining with tears, "and I'm afraid now that I have ruined it all. That what I have done to you has been so… inexcusable, that you can never forgive me, never allow me back in your life, never love… "

But Aang softly shushed her as he brought both his hands up to her face, pulling her gaze down to meet his. His dark eyes searched hers, looking closely for something. Then he gently swept his thumbs over her cheeks, wiping away her tears while his fingers tunneled into the hair at the nape of her neck. Tenderly he pulled her closer, cradling her head against his chest, one hand still in her hair, the other pulling her into his strong, caring embrace. Katara wrapped her arms around his waist and cried; sobbing as this kind, compassionate, forgiving boy held her up.

Still holding her, Aang spoke quietly, "I would never stop you from being yourself, Katara."

She could only hold him closer, sniffling, "I know…"

"Neither you, nor I, would lose ourselves by being together. I believe we would find our best selves together. You're culture, my culture, they don't have to be at odds with one another. We can choose to take what we want of each, creating something new, making our own culture."

She simply nodded against his chest, unable to speak, relishing being held like this, breathing in his scent and the calming peace he brought. She had not felt this complete since… well since when they were together before. And it was like coming home and finding herself all at once. Like finally being where she was always meant to be.

"Katara?"

She regretfully lifted her head off his chest to look at him, his fingers still in her hair, his palm on her cheek. Aang's eyes penetrating when he spoke.

"I want you to know how sorry I am, for leaving you alone so much. I was young and stupid, and I didn't know. I didn't know how I was hurting you, making you doubt my feelings for you." Aang had to swallow hard before he could get the next words out, "And I'm sorry for… striking you that day. Seeing you hit the ground, from my wind…" a tear streamed down his face, "I couldn't imagine how I'd done that, that I would hurt you. I've never regretted anything so much… I've never felt so alone…"

Katara reached up with her own soft hand, wiping the tear from his cheek, a glimmer of water still clinging to his thick dark lashes.

"We've both hurt one another, Aang… and I forgive you. If you can ever forgive me?" she asked with a teary smile.

Aang groaned and tilted his forehead onto hers, "Of course I forgive you, Katara!" his expression giving her no doubt of his complete sincerity.

But before he could say more she pulled back and pierced him with her shining blue eyes, "I am letting go of my fear of what a future with you, what our future together, will hold, Aang. But the forces that challenge our relationship are still outside that cave right now. My father, for one, may have to choose between accepting you, and losing me; and I know there will be more challenges that will try to pull us apart."

"But I want you to know that I know what I want. And now that I know, you won't ever need to fear that I will abandon you ever again! I'm here for you now, and always! Because what I want more than anything is you, Aang. …If you'll have me?" Aang let out a mirthless laugh at the absurdity of her question.

"Aang, Sweetie, my life, and your life – they are meant to be One! And I will not let anything else ever divide us again!"

Suddenly Aang let out a sob and brought his lips to hers, kissing her hungrily; Katara returning his kisses with equal vigor.

One of Katara's knees slid between his in an effort to get closer to him, and he sat up from his heels, pulling her up as well so their bodies were flush together, his forearm wrapped all the way around her lower back and holding her hip. Aang's other hand tilted her head just so, to get a better angle at her seeking mouth. Katara grasped his shoulders, wrapping her arm around his neck, pulling him closer to her.

And thus they knelt facing one another, kissing; like Oma and Shu flickering in the firelight behind them.

…

Sometime later, the two found themselves stepping out of the inner tomb, as if with New Life. There was still plenty to work out between them, misunderstandings to understand, injuries to heal, apologies to give and accept; but for now, this was enough. Aang earthbended the great round stone back across the threshold, leaving behind the pain of what had once been, and walking out of the tomb, the pair's bond reborn.

Moving together through the tunnel of the Two Lovers, arms wrapped around one another, Aang and Katara once again followed the blue crystal path lighting their way ahead. Laughing and stopping for more kisses as they went, Aang thought with delight that love truly did shine brightest in the dark.

Aang couldn't help but think back to his first kiss with Katara, here in this very place, their lips barely touching, but the sensation sending electricity through him nonetheless.

And so he pulled Katara to him again, testing out another kiss, this time kissing her with much more confidence, and then bending to nibble under her ear while she tipped her head back and laughed. Yup, still felt like electricity!

Then sobering slightly, Aang wondered if this was somehow Bumi's doing. In his last day as King, perhaps Bumi's spirit had somehow arranged for them to reunite. Aang couldn't imagine that Bumi would want anything more than this happiness for his friend; for Aang to finally find (again!) his own Iralee!

Aang's mind then turned back to the day months ago, that he had spent cleansing his chakras near the Southern Air Temple, and of the vision that had unfolded to him. In the vision he had been wearing his finest Air Nomad robes, the fabric light and pleasant on his skin, heavy wooden beads hanging from his neck. A wedding altar had appeared before him and he had knelt before it. The altar had had a space for someone to kneel across from him, and take his hand, but there had been no one there. When he had looked about, he had seen Katara in a beautiful dress of water tribe blue in the distance; his heart had lurched for her, and he had run after her.

Emotion now caught in his throat, as he knew in his heart that one day Katara would kneel across from him at the altar, and take his hand. And there they would pledge their lives to one another forever. He would then never have to face this life without her love again. They would be a family, and he wouldn't be alone anymore.

Right now, however, they would just take their time leaving the cave. Getting sidetracked with happy flirtations and distracting kisses; in absolutely no hurry to leave. But eventually, they would step out into the light, turning their faces toward the sun. And hand-in-hand, they would face the rest of their lives together.

…

The End