First off, I would like to whole heartedly apologize for my absence. I honestly feel like a monster for abandoning this project as that is exactly what I didn't want to do. I'm so sorry. It's not even that I stopped writing it, I have in fact had multiple chapters done for some time, but was too lazy to type them on my slow computer. Now I have this new laptop and I am more than ready to hop back on the fanfiction train and ride it all the way to end! I do plan on going back to old chapters this week and editing them, so you could say this story is under construction. It's just been so long and I've grown in my writing so it's so much easier for me to see all the flaws. Unfortunately the next few chapters are still a bit iffy too as I wrote them a while ago too, but alas! I shall fix it! I hope you guys enjoy this and if need be go back for a refresher (hopefully after I edit the old chapters haha).

Chapter 13

Ba Sing Se

"Toph. TOPH. TOPH!" Katara yelled, attempting to wake the sleeping earthbender. She truly did sleep like a rock.

"CAN IT SWEETNESS! I'm blind, not deaf! And I've got another 10 minutes of snoozing time!" Toph snarled, turning over and smacking a pillow over her head. Katara huffed and left muttering something about how disrespectful a tired Toph could be. On her way to freshen up, she slammed into something hard. She would've fallen over if the thing she slammed into hadn't of grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Sorry Katara! I didn't see you there," Aang apologized. Katara broke free of his grasp.

"Er, hi. I mean um its fine," she replied awkwardly. She was slightly taken aback at the fact she just slammed into his abs so hard she was almost knocked off her feet, but also she wasn't over their previous scuffle. She regretted the words she said to him, but his abandonment was still angering to her. He had to be as rock hard Toph to not notice how fragile she was these days, not physically, but emotionally. So treating her like porcelain wasn't ok either.

"Well bye," she said squeezing past Aang.

"Wait Katara!" Aang said urgently, seizing her wrist again, "Are we…okay?"

"I don't know any more Aang," she answered, her eyes downcast.

"What am I supposed to do Katara? I know I've done things I shouldn't have, but it happened. I want to fix it, I want to fix everything! But you need to tell me how."

Katara remained silent, causing Aang to ask the painful question, "Or do you not want us to be fixed?"

"That's not it at all! I don't know how though ok? Things may never be the same Aang, maybe it's not fixable or just wasn't meant to be."

"It's only not meant to be if you don't want it to be Katara."

"That's not true! But look where our relationship got us!"

"Our RELATIONSHIP didn't do anything! AZULA did! The rebels did! Our relationship was happy! WE WERE HAPPY! And as soon as you let yourself believe that, we can fix it! But lately it doesn't even seem like you want those memories back…"

"I do so! But the fact is I don't have them! And I may never get them back Aang, that's the reality of it all."

"I know Katara, but don't you trust yourself to know that those decisions you made before are what you wanted? What you want? Or have you just stopped caring?"

"What I care about is saving the fire nation and our friends."

"Friends you barely know nor remember! Give me a break Katara, that's only half of it. I'm trying so hard, but if it's all for nothing you need to tell me. Even if these last few years haven't happened for you, they have for me. You need to stop ignoring that. I love you. But if you just don't care, I'll learn not to. But I can't think with these what ifs because they make me continue trying on the slim chance you'll love me like you used to."

"Then…maybe you should start learning not to!" Katara cried, tearing from his grip once again and running down the hallway.

Aang went and sat in his room alone. Katara had said he should learn to stop loving her. He guessed she had already learned how to. Despite all this, he was painfully reminded of before the war and how she didn't want to distract him from his duties. It was a very Katara-like thing to do. He couldn't decide if this was case again, or if their relationship has really caused her enough pain to not even want it to happen. In any case, he would honor her current decision and simply focus on the task at hand. But even as he meditated Katara's face still kept flashing in his head, and he knew that no matter how hard he'd try he could never truly fulfill her wish.

He'd never end up loving anyone else more than he loved her, and yet, he'd still pretend for her.

Meanwhile, Katara had just gotten through her crying fit.

"I never seem to stop doing that these days…" Katara grumbled to herself. She finally freshened up and decided to set things right with Aang. She was actually just afraid of the same thing she always was: vulnerability. Aang saying he couldn't think because of her scared her, and she still thought he shouldn't focus on their relationship, but on Zuko and Mai and the rest of the fire nation. But she needed to apologize, because the tension wasn't something they needed either. And like always Katara needed to put Aang's and the world's safety at first. So she shoved her desperate desire to tell him that she didn't really want him to stop loving her, just like she didn't want to stop loving him, to the back of her mind.

"Sokka, Toph won't wake up! Could you please wake her up?" Aang asked as Sokka was packing.

"I guess so, I mean we're already like an hour behind schedule!" he sighed leaving to Katara and Toph's room.

"TOPH WAKEY WAKEY IT WAS TIME TO GO AN HOUR AGO LET'S GO!" Sokka shouted busting open the door.

"When will you dunderheads understand that I don't have a problem hearing?! I just don't want to get up!" She yelled back sitting up.

"C'mon Toph why have you been so grumpy lately?" Sokka questioned.

"Listen here loverboy, I think I have right to be a little annoyed when I'm the only sane one here. Excuse me if I don't want to listen to your oogiosity with fan girl or Katara and Aang's lover quarrels. It gets aggravating being the only one ALONE," Toph finally burst.

"OHHH I see! You're jealous!"

"What?!" Toph felt a blush coming on thinking he was talking about her being jealous of Suki.

"Yep! You're jealous of us because you haven't found your special guy!"

"Oh," Toph muttered, doing what she thought was rolling her eyes, "well I thought I did…"

"Really? Who?" Sokka asked surprised. Toph thinking about anyone like that gave him major oogies.

"Hm? Oh um no one you weren't supposed to hear that!" She blushed even fiercer. Seeing her like this reminded Sokka that Toph was still a girl. Of course she'd still have those feelings.

"I'll find out soon enough anyways. But for now just hurry up and get ready! And for the record, any guy would be lucky to have you," Sokka reassured her coming forward and rubbing her back. For that split second, he felt her heartbeat quicken and saw her blush darken.

"Oh my spirits…" he thought. It couldn't be…him? Right? Regardless he left her room quickly before she felt his heartbeat too, trying his best to reassure himself that he was just being crazy.

Aang was busy airbending the luggage onto Appa when Katara came out.

"Hey Aang, can we talk for a second?"

"Kinda busy Katara, we're already very late," he said in a monotonous voice.

"I just wanted to apologize for being so rude back there.

"Don't worry about it, you're right. The task at hand is the most important thing right now. OUR issues shouldn't get in the way."

Even though this is what Katara wanted, she was little upset to see herself seizing to be one of Aang's top priorities. It was what was best though.

"Um, yeah. Well, I'm sorry anyway for the harshness, I just don't want us to be upset going into this."

"Like I said, no worries. I'm not upset at all. Slightly relieved if anything," Aang lied, only hoping to reassure her, and himself really, of his dedication solely to this mission.

Katara frowned at his bluntness, but simply walked away. She began preoccupying her thoughts with game plans to distract herself from the awful morning she was having.

"You all packed?" Sokka asked Katara, just arriving outside with Suki.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, Aang just got all of our stuff on Appa," she replied breaking her thoughts, "Where's Toph?"

"Toph?! Who said anything about Toph?!" Sokka panicked, thinking everyone somehow knew about their encounter only moments ago. Everyone looked at Sokka with raised eyebrows.

"Um…me. Where is she?" Katara repeated.

"Oh ahah ahah ahah I don't know why would I know anything about Toph hahaha," he laughed nervously.

"I thought you went to wake her up Sokka?" Aang piped up.

"Did I?" Sokka replied nervously, "I hardly remember it was so long ago!"

"I'm right here," Toph said just exiting the house. Sokka jumped.

"See! There she is hahaha I had no idea! Clueless Sokka hahaha!"

"Control your jackhammer heart meathead, let's just go," Toph said, acting completely normal.

"Yeah…lets." Suki finally added looking at Sokka suspiciously.

Everyone boarded Appa and with a not so enthusiastic 'yip yip', they were on their way. The ride was considerably less cheerful than the one on the way to Ember Island. Then again, a lot of the hope they had before was slowly disappearing so it wasn't unexpected. For a little while all anyone heard was Momo's quiet chatters. Aang was staring intently into the distance. He pretended not to notice all of the eyes on him. Most of which looked away after a while, except for his personal favorite blue pair. Despite Katara's efforts to focus on a plan she still caught herself staring at Aang and tracing his light blue tattoos with her eyes. She wondered if any more of memories would come back like they did when she had kissed his cheek. She wanted to have them, but would those memories help them now, or hinder them with their new found connection again. She didn't know if she wanted to find out either, so instead she sat staring and daydreaming of that one moment of blissful clarity that she had before.

Meanwhile, Sokka's stare moved from Aang to Katara and finally to Toph. He thanked the spirits that she couldn't see, as bad as that sounded. Unfortunately for him, Suki could, and her stare was now directed at Sokka and Toph. Suki cuddled up to Sokka.

"What's up with you and her? Or just you I guess I should say," she questioned.

"Huh? Nothing!" he lied. Suki didn't believe him for a second, but instead of questioning him further she simply planted a kiss on his lips to direct his attention away from Toph and back to where it was meant to be; on her.

Toph thought for a second that she felt Sokka lying, but she could never know on a flying bison. And soon after she was distracted by the sound of smacking lips together. She knew it was Aang and Katara and she frowned at the only option there was.

Katara then tapped Aang's shoulder, before she even realized what she was doing.

"I really am sorry," she whispered.

"Don't be. We're past it. Focus on something else Katara," Aang advised.

"It doesn't feel like we're past it," she muttered.

"Can we talk about this after we talk to Iroh? I think that's what we should focus on. Besides, we're here."

No one noticed how fast time seemed to have gone by. Appa landed by his old shed with hay and everyone dismounted. As Aang began airbending everyone's luggage, a girl from the Avatar Aang fan club came running up.

"Hello Avatar Aang and friends!" she said excitedly, "Welcome back!"

"Thank you," he said giving a small smile. Katara looked at the girl as she grabbed her luggage.

"Oh hello Lady Katara! We've heard about the accident, how are you?"

"I'm fine…" Katara replied, noticing that even though the girl was talking to her, she was still focussed on Aang. This bothered her and she finally coughed loudly catching the attention of the girl.

"We need to get going, but it was nice seeing you," Katara informed, walking over to Aang and grabbing his hand, causing him to drop the sleeping bag he was airbending down.

"Nice going Katara," Sokka scoffed picking up his sleeping bag. Aang pulled his hand away and gave Katara an odd look that made her blush with embarrassment.

"Wow you sure know how to pick 'em," muttered the fan girl. Aang's acute hearing skills he had learned from Toph had picked up on this though. And apparently so did Katara who began reaching for her bending water.

Aang then grabbed her hand to prevent her from doing so and replied, "I do in fact. Which is why did not pick you. Have a nice day, we really must be going though."

Shocked at his reply and polite way in which he said it the fan girl didn't know how to respond. It appeared no one else did either as they all froze. All except Aang, who went on to grab his bag and guide Katara by the hand he was still holding down the road to the Jasmine Dragon, prompting everyone else to follow. The fan girl huffed and turned around, walking the opposite way. As she did this, Aang dropped Katara's hand and walked swiftly the rest of the way to the tea shop. Little did Katara know, Aang's heart was aching just as much as hers was.

They walked in and Iroh was serving someone tea.

"Iroh, we need to speak with you," Aang told him. Iroh could see from the look in his eye that it was urgent.

"I'll meet you in the back."

Moments later they were sitting in the back of the tea shop. Iroh had brought some tea and food with him.

"It is important to fill one's belly before going into what is sure to be a big discussion," Iroh said wisely, "And I'm hungry from all my work!" he added with a smile.

They all chuckled and then a silence followed as they all tried to think of a way to tell Iroh.

"Iroh, have you heard about anything strange going on in the fire nation?" Sokka asked.

"No, I can't say I have," he replied.

"Well there's definitely a big problem in the palace. It's Zuko. He's in trouble. Azula has been behind all of the attacks and now she somehow has Mai and Zuko held hostage!" Sokka explained.

"I cannot say I'm surprised. The only thing that frightens me is how she managed to get two very power fighters and a palace under her will without alerting the public," Iroh thought aloud, clearly concerned, "I take it she has contacted you in some way?"

"Yes. She's given us a week to meet her at the palace. We think she wants to…kill me and take the throne in her father's name," Aang explained.

"Yes that is definitely something she would do. We need to understand her plan. How many people she must have on her side to keep this whole thing under wraps."

"Well we think she still has the few Dai lee agents as well as the rebels like the ones who hurt Katara," Suki piped in.

"We need to think of how to get her supporters out of the way, because we know that alone she has proved unstable and therefore beatable. Since Azula is so persuasive she must have promised them something to convince them, and it must have been something great enough to convince a whole lot of people," Iroh explained.

"Yeah, Azula is a great liar," Toph added, remembering the day of the black sun.

"Well then we just get Aang to set em straight and do the old airbending slice for Azula!" Sokka exclaimed.

"It will not be so easy, they aren't just going to start talking. They'll attack before we get the chance," Katara said.

"Well further planning for that will be needed. Training. But in the end, it all comes down to Aang and Azula. You must take away her bending Aang, and end it for good," Iroh said sternly. Aang nodded.

Katara flooded with fear thinking of Aang vs. Azula. Their last encounter wasn't so simple. She killed him. But before she could voice her concerns, Sokka suggested meeting with the Kyoshi warriors so they could help prepare and eventually fight with them. Iroh told them to put their stuff in their old rooms before they left, and they could start discussing the final plan at supper. With that everyone got up and felt both more scared and relieved. But Katara was the most unsettled. She still didn't truly know how much Aang had improved yet. She wanted to talk to him, but after she put her stuff away and went to talk to him, Sokka informed her that he had gone to meditate somewhere and that she should just come with them to the Kyoshi Warriors.

But with all the uncertainty they all had, they all had the same determination to fix was Azula had destroyed. It was time to fix everything, even if it seemed unfixable.

All right guys so I'm not sure how good that was, but I hope it wasn't too bad! I'll be revising all the chapters I've posted thus far tomorrow and new chapter Thursday!

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