Author's Notes: This one came out of nowhere. I'm on a roll with the Kataang stuff aren't I? Blah blah, I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. Blahblah. I think I'll add this one as the beginning to this "Kataang: Balancing each other" fic set I had in mind. Kind of like, a set of drabbles based on the idea that Katara and Aang balance out each other. This one deals with reincarnation, which is the beginning.
set 1: reincarnation
(love so alike)
She stops and listens to everything around her. It all comes into a symphony unheard, and she takes a deep breath as if listening attentively. Her gaze wanders towards Aang as she thinks of better days. On days when nothing stood on their way, and the only thing that mattered was if they had enough food to eat that day. However, everything seemed so complicated and dizzy than before. Happiness was drowning in fear and strife to survive their on coming encounter with the Fire Lord.
Katara tosses and turns on her sleeping mat, wondering why things ended up the way they did. Aang was in a stake of fear and panic, Sokka was trying to drone out his fear through sarcasm, and Toph hasn't said a word in days (which is quite rare considering how loud the girl was about everything and everyone around her). Their newest member, Zuko's uncle Iroh, usually tried his best to help the gang settle their fears and insecurities, but he could only do so much.
She was always the voice of reason and the glue that held them together. Katara made it her mission to get her friends back into their usual state of moods, but she was afraid as well. Just because she wanted to save the world didn't mean she wasn't scared. She doesn't know or ever heard of a human being scared of doing something that could cost them their lives. Her father told it best, and told his daughter that even warriors are afraid of battle, but the bravest ones fight no matter what.
Still, she wasn't only scared for her own survival but for her friends and brother too. She almost lost Aang once before at the hands of Azula back in Ba Sing Se, and thinking about it now made her insides toss and turn. Aang is the Avatar, and at first he seemed like this untouchable being. (She knows better than anyone how false that statement was) When she saw him fall, she felt herself fall along with him. Her heart still feels heavy thinking about it, and thanked the spirits everyday that she was able to save him in time.
She remembers the day her own mother stepped in front of the Fire Nation army to save their father. (Her mother was the greatest water bender she'd ever seen, and she watched her mother use her water bending techniques to stop the Fire Nation from destroying their home). He regrets it more than her how unable he was to save her that day, and Katara wonders why her mother risked her life like that to save their father. She was young, and she didn't know the complexity of the idea, but her father told his children that their mother did it out of love.
"Love..." she whispers to herself into the night, turning to her side as she tried to go back to sleep. Even now at her age she couldn't understand it. Gran Gran used to tell her that one day Katara will understand the word and what everything meant. She was already fifteen years old, and most women in her tribe married by the age of sixteen. If she doesn't know it now, then when will she know?
Calm down Katara, you're thinking too much into something you shouldn't really be thinking of.
It was normal for a girl her age to try and understand everything around her, along with things that dealt with love and guys in general. It wasn't a selfish thought, but Katara couldn't help but feel selfish at the thought. The world needs her right now, and she doesn't have the time to think about love or guys.
She takes a heavy breath, before closing her eyes in attempts to fall asleep. She doesn't know if what she dreamed next really happened, because it seemed surreal at the time. When she thinks back on her dream, she wonders if the spirits were giving her some sort of sign.
In her dream, she was stuck in a room filled with nothing but darkness. She runs around looking for a way out, and then she notices a line that leads to the north. She follows the line, and it seemed like an endless adventure until she found herself looking up and seeing a ball of light right above her. She reaches her hands towards the sky, trying to touch the light but before she could it disappeared.
Then, the line begins to trail down another path, only this time it leads east. She follows and follows until once again she finds the same ball of light from before. The only thing this time was that it was bigger. She reaches to touch the light, and gains victory in doing so.
The next thing she remembers were flashes of lives she's never seen or heard about before. They flash right before her eyes like a bright variety of colors. (They consist of blue, green, red and orange) She couldn't make out the faces, but something about the lives and the flashes of color felt so familiar to her.
When she wakes up, the first person she sees is Aang sleeping on her left. Whatever he was dreaming really made him happy. It was the first time in awhile she's seen Aang with a smile on his face. She smiles, and before she knows it that familiar feeling sprung up again. Her heart was beating faster, and for some odd reason she could hear his heart beating too.
When her hand hovered over his, she felt her whole body tense up and feel nervous. She didn't know why she was feeling this way, but for whatever reason it was, it had to be something out of this world. Without knowing, she lets her hand fall on top of his gently, before slowly drifting back to sleep.
"I'll always be with you, in this life and the next..."