Title- Katara & the Avatar
Rating- K+, but labeling it T for security
Characters/Pairings- Kataang, the Gaang, and erstwhile Earth King Kuei
Genre(s)- Romance/humor/adventure
Summary- Aang & Co. set out to find the missing King Kuei and inform him of the war's end. For her part, Katara has something very important to tell the Avatar... but she's not having a whole lot of luck with that! Set in the time gap between Zuko's coronation and Ba Sing Se.

A/N- I've wanted to write this fic for awhile, because I like ~romantic tension~ fics, but I don't want to write a "Kataang takes eighty bajillion years to get together after the war" fic... I wanted to find a way to preserve that perfect happy Kataang ending the series got, but also have that lighthearted feeling of having the war be over but the two of them still dancing around each other. The solution? Fill in that big ol' gap between Zuko's coronation and their trip to Ba Sing Se, of course!

I wasn't planning on posting this until Almost Airbenders was finished, but I've hit a bit of a block there, and this fic is completely mapped out (although it is not yet fully written). It will have 13 chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue. So it's just a bit of lighthearted fun on the side while I plug away at Fireflight and try to actually make the words come out for AA.

Prologue

The coronation took place three days after the passing of the Comet.

The Fire Nation, and Katara and Zuko in particular, had passed the first day in tense anticipation of news from the battlefield. The answer they had been waiting for arrived just before sunset, when Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Suki brought the last functional airship of the Phoenix King's formerly mighty armada limping down to earth in the capitol, with a weak and furious Ozai in tow.

The second day had been a blur of preparation. All through the night the palace staff had been sending out word across the world as fast as it could be delivered, that the new Firelord would be crowned the following day. Fire Nation nobility and citizens of other nations who were within traveling distance began streaming in over the course of the day. The coronation would be a rush job, but it was important for Zuko to take the throne as quickly as possible in order to cement his rule as Ozai's firstborn and the rightful heir.

And on the third day, at high noon, Zuko was crowned.

For Katara it was almost a surreal experience to stand in the crowd and watch her former enemy, now a good friend, kneel and receive the crown of the Fire Nation. For generations a symbol of hatred and ruthlessness, it was now worn on the head of a just man seeking peace. And she had helped make it happen. She had fought beside him- beside all her friends- for a brighter world. She had put almost-Firelord Azula in chains. She had helped end a war that had shadowed her childhood, her parents' childhood, her grandparents' childhood. Her role hadn't been the largest, not by far, but she had helped to do this. The thought was staggering.

Things would be different now.

There was still work to be done, certainly. There was a whole world to rebuild and a century's worth of suffering to assuage, but the world itself had changed. People were weary of fighting and ready to begin anew, even the citizens of the Fire Nation, who had suffered as much as anyone. Zuko, who was a far better man than she had given him credit for until recently, could be trusted to shepherd his people in a way his ancestors had not.

The young man himself stood at the head of the stairs before the swelling crowd, and Katara was close enough to see the tiny smile that played around his mouth as he rose to his feet, accompanied by wild enthusiastic cheers from members of all three nations. But whatever pride Zuko felt in that moment, he concealed it well as he stepped forward to acknowledge the crowd.

A smile twitched at her lips as he glanced over his shoulder and, with a small wave and a jerk of his head, encouraged Aang (who up until that moment had lingered respectfully out of the way) to join him. There was something so endearing about seeing these two larger-than-life figures, who were also two of her dearest friends, being so unabashedly human.

But as Aang stepped forward into the brilliant late summer sunlight, whatever musings she'd had on Zuko fled abruptly as all of her attention focused immediately on the little airbender. Well, maybe not quite so little anymore...

He's so tall now, she thought dizzily. When did he get so tall?

As Katara gazed up at him, standing there so different from the silly boy he had been not even a year ago and yet still so much the same, something changed. For the life of her she couldn't have explained it, but it felt to her as though something clicked into place. The weight of confusion and fear she had been mired under for so long rolled back and a profound shift occurred within her.

It had occurred to her sometimes (too many times) over the course of their adventures that she was falling for him. How could she not suspect it, when he could make even dark and frightening times seem bright, and turn her stomach to doing backflips with a smile? She had been so afraid of it. The idea of leaving herself so vulnerable (hadn't she learned her lesson from Jet?) was petrifying. They were so young, and their mission was so dangerous, and sometimes he looked at her in a way that made her sure he must care for her, too but she didn't know... She didn't want to have her heart broken. She didn't want to fall for fear that no one would be there to catch her. But it had seemed that she didn't have much choice, so all she could do was repress it as best she could, and hope that maybe eventually this huge, ridiculous, oversized crush would go away.

Yes, the thought had occurred to her often.

But as she watched Aang as he stood beside the new Fire Lord, so collected and sure of himself, she had a new thought.

I love him, she decided, quite suddenly. And it seemed right. She was still terrified and they were still young she still had no idea where to go from here, but something had changed. She wasn't sure what it was, but it had happened and she couldn't find a single reason to regret it. She loved him. She, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, was in love with the Avatar. With Aang. With her best friend.

Katara knew she should be paying attention to the ceremony, to the traditions that were being carried out on the dais, but she was too preoccupied with this new and delightful realization that she had gone right ahead and fallen in love despite herself to care. She was a hero, but she was also a young girl, and thoughts of romance were much more interesting to her in that moment than the droned out speeches being made by the Fire Sages.

As Aang looked out across the crowd, he spotted her and they locked eyes. Her heartbeat doubled and she hoped he couldn't see that he was blushing, but she couldn't have looked away from him if she'd tried. She wondered if he was as transfixed as she was. She couldn't imagine that was possible, but he held her gaze so steadily that she had to consider the possibility.

He cared for her. She knew that much, now, and it was reassuring. As uncomfortable and messy as their confrontation the night of that atrocious play on Ember Island had been, she had at last gotten the confirmation she'd been unconsciously seeking, that she wasn't imagining the feelings she suspected he harbored for her. How deep those feelings ran, she couldn't be sure. She couldn't imagine herself inspiring in him the same depth of love she found herself feeling in that moment, but he did care. He cared enough that the thought of her being with Zuko, of all people visibly upset him (she cast a quick glance at the young Fire Lord and couldn't repress a snort of amusement at the very idea).

She had hurt him that night, and she knew it. Although they'd made a very excellent show of continuing the routine of their friendship as though nothing had happened, they both knew something was different after that night. There had been a slight cordiality in the way they talked to each other that had never been there even when they were strangers. They had avoided being alone together for fear of awkwardness, and the way he had sometimes avoided her eyes told Katara that her reaction to his ill-timed kiss was often on his mind.

With the benefit of hindsight, it seemed ridiculous. With the fresh realization that she'd been falling for him all along resonating through her, she couldn't seem to remember what it was that had made her so startled and panicky that night and sent her flying away from him.

And then a second realization struck her: she wanted to be with him. It should have been obvious, maybe, that having realized she was in love with Aang she would no longer be content to be only his friend. Somehow, though, it just hadn't occurred to her until that very second.

She valued their friendship enormously. She had never in her whole life been as close to anyone outside her immediate family- perhaps not even them- as she was with Aang. She had confided things to him, and he to her, that neither of them had ever told anyone else. They were best friends and she treasured the closeness between them. It was one of the most important relationships she had ever formed... but she wanted more. She wanted them to be together.

Katara resolved right then and there that as soon as a good opportunity presented itself, she would tell Aang everything.