Author's P.O.V.

A hand around Zuko's throat made him sputter, his body being flung away from Aadita's, his eyes obscured from her panicked gaze when a pair of grey-brown orbs were thrust into his line of sight. The Fire Lord gathered a blazing flame in his hand, but a tendril of water wrapped around it, snuffing it out with a finite sizzle.

"Don't. Fucking. Touch her."

"Aang..." Her voice trembled.

"Leave. Now."

"Look, I didn't know she was with you. She didn-"

"LEAVE!", The Avatar roared, his eyes and tattoos a blaze of light.

Aang dropped the young Firebender from where they had been hovering above the edge of the water, letting him stagger to his feet. Zuko retained his annoyed but wary expression, standing erect and retying his sash around his hips, sparing the girl a momentary glance. A sudden rush of air pushed him back the second their eyes met, making him regain his footing quickly and make his way back toward the resort. Aadita had been frozen in the spot where she'd fallen from Zuko's embrace. She watched the exchange between the two young men, her heart pounding in her chest at the rage she felt coming from Aang. She watched Zuko go, the sensation of a hot stone sitting in the pit of her stomach as she felt Aang turn toward her. In a split second and a gust of wind, Aadita was on her feet, her hands against his chest, as if holding him back.

"Aang, don't-"

"What do you think you're doing with him?!", he roared, his voice melded with that of the previous Avatars.

She struggled against his hold on her upper arms. "Why does this matter to you?! You aren't the boss of me!"

"You have NO right being with him or ANY other man!" He gripped her arms harder, shaking her, his teeth bared in rage. "NO RIGHT!"

"You do not want me! You left me long ago and yet you expect me to be alone, with no one, while you have her in your bed each night?!", she felt the tears well up in her eyes but she willed them back, a vicious snarl on her face that rivaled his. "How dare you!"

Aang seized her wrists, preventing her from the bending she was just about to do. He leaned in close, pinning her to the wall but holding her wrists between them. "I thought you were dead..." His voice shook with emotion, his eyes fading from the fluorescent light into their usual earthen tones. There was a hint of tears in those familiar eyes. A terrorized expression came across his face in place of his furry, concern breaking through her own as he gripped her wrists tighter. "I thought that I'd lost you forever...and so I had to make myself forget."

Aadita averted her eyes from his, feeling his tears fall against her chest. "And you so easily forgot about me, it seems." The young Avatar did not miss the hurt behind her words. He grasped her chin and forced her to look at him, beads of moisture glimmering in the moonlight, not yet fallen from her lashes. She visibly quivered from his touch, her lower lip clenched tightly between her teeth. Aang's hands slid from her wrists, up and over the backs of her hands, along her jaw, her temples, and up into the wilderness of her dark hair. "Aang, sto-"

"Look at me, Aadi."

"No, Aang, I dont-"

"Look. At. Me.", he nearly whispered, her amber eyes glimmering with unshed tears. "Listen and understand. If I had not learned to forget you, had I not let you go...the world as we know it would not exist. Everyone we have come to know, all of our friends, their families, their tribes, would all very likely be dead. I did what I did as the Avatar and nothing more..."

"Even when I thought you were dead," She grabbed the front of his robe, her eyes blazing as she pulled him closer. "Even when I thought that my world had ended, I remained yours. I could have been married, with children and a beautiful home ten times over by now. But none of that would come close to what I would have had, had it been with you. But, the one time when I let myself try to feel anything for any other man, when I try to find some form of happiness in this world, you snatch that away from me. You, who have happiness, and a future, and love...and love..." The tears left shimmering trails down her cheeks, the girl's expression so open and raw that it made him grip her tighter, for fear that she would fade away into the waves of her own turmoil. "Why can't I be happy, Aang? Why aren't I allowed to have happiness?"

As she began to crumple to the ground, a sob resonating in the still air, he brought himself flush against her, holding her head in his hands as he spoke fervently, his forehead against hers. "You are mine. You always have been my woman and you always will be. I will be the one to make you happy, to make you smile, to bring that special light into your eyes. I don't want a future without you in it." He smeared the river of tears from her cheeks with his thumbs, pressing his forehead further against hers, the moisture of the sea gathering where their bare skin touched. "I can't bare to see you with another man, to see him make you feel pleasure in a way that I never have been able to give you. It makes me crazy...That should be me, Aadita." He grasped her chin firmly and brought his lips over hers.

The young bender broke away, gasping as her heart thundered in her chest. "Aang, I can't-"

"It should be me." He pulled her in again, melding his lips to hers despite her struggles. Aadita desperately tried to throw him off, but the passion behind his kiss along with his greater strength held her in place. The more she thrashed, the tighter he held her, until she just gave up and let him. She finally let him in again, and as she did, a wave of emotion she had worked long to suppress came rushing back, including the undeniable attraction she had always felt for him. He kissed her again and again, making her lips sore and puffy with all of the attention. He kissed Aadita's cheeks, her nose, her brow. He kissed her from her temples to her jaw. He traced his lips along her neck, making her shudder and moan heatedly into her fist, gasping as his tongue traced her jugular. Every muscle in her body tensed as his teeth met her flesh in a gentle nip, the sound that escaped her making him experimentally bite a bit harder, his excitement rising as she began to squirm under his touch.

"I haven't-" She moaned aloud as his hands slipped from her hair and down her arms to her waist. "I've n-never...oh, gods...!"

"It WILL be me, Aadita...", he reached for her sash, pulling it loose and letting it part down the middle, a thin portion of russet skin visible from the moonlight above, the rest of her in shadows. Aang came up and kissed her fiercely again, his tongue forcing it's way into her mouth as his hands slithered their way into her robes and around her waist, the hotness of her skin like heaven in his hands. She gasped at his uncharacteristically assertive behavior, her excitement renewed as he began to roughly massage her sides. The moment that his thumbs passed the swell of her hip bones, she cried out loudly and bucked into the unmistakable bulge in the front of his pants, making him groan at the contact and pull her closer.

His hands began to wander further, sliding up along her curves and ribs to cup her large breasts, squeezing just a bit too roughly. Her nipples instantly hardened into his palms as he began to knead her globes, kissing her into a frenzy of lust. She bit his lip and growled when he pinched a nipple through her loosened chest wrappings. His eyes widened considerably at the curses she muttered when his lips found her cleavage. "Aang...!"

The young Avatar captured a nipple between his lips, letting his tongue encircle it gently and bring it into his mouth. Aadita threw her head back with pleasure, cupping the back of his head and bringing him closer, encouraging him to take more of her breast into his mouth. Aang took the invitation and engulfed as much of her breast as he could, sucking enthusiastically as his hands made their way to her hips. Before he knew it, the young Avatar had made his way to his knees, his love gazing down at him with a long withheld desire as he alternated between her salacious mounds, the girl rubbing her thighs together in response to his stimulation.

This intrigued Aang and he began to work his hands over her ample backside, down the backs of her thighs. The young multi-bender fidgeted under his intimate touch, thankful that the darkness hid the details of her form for his view. She felt her stomach muscles tighten, however, when she noticed that his attentions had changed from her breasts to her lower half. The girl nearly jumped two feet in the air when she felt his fingers begin to pull her lower wrappings down over her hips. Grabbing her hips to steady her, he pulled them down in one swift motion, noting the thread of arousal that led from her sex to the piece of fabric previously shrouding her modesty. Gripping her thighs again to make sure that she wouldn't bolt, Aang leaned forward and inhaled her scent deeply, his cock jerking at the feminine ambrosia that she leaked. Once he was sure that she wouldn't shrink away from him again, he pressed his mouth tentatively to her lower lips, his eyes flickering up to hers when he heard the needy whine from her. Hands slipping down to the back of his head, she pressed her womanhood against his mouth, choking on a sob when his lips opened up and enclosed her entire cunt in one wet, clumsy kiss.

Never before had she experienced such an alarming state of arousal, such reckless abandon. She couldn't control the trembling of her hips as he continued to explore her most secret place, the experience of his hot mouth and strong jaw holding her thighs apart would more than surely be committed to her deepest memories. A gush of wetness was the result of an experimental flick of his tongue against a throbbing nub that he'd learned much about in the last few years. Once sure he had her attention, Aang flattened his tongue and used it to roughly rub her clit, his eyes carefully watching as she securely clutched the back of his head. If there was any judging by her blown pupils, erratic breathing, and agape mouth, Aang thought he was doing a pretty good job.

Against her better judgment, her body dropped it's center of gravity right onto the Avatar's immensely talented lips, her back arching and undulating as she began to grind, his mouth opening willingly to envelope her quivering heat. She could hardly breathe.

"Aang-oh FUCK! I'm not...I'm not sure...you shouldn't..." She trailed off, her trembling thighs clenching his head, the heightened state of arousal bringing her fearfully back to her senses. "Stop this. Aang STOP! "

Defiantly, said Avatar gripped her thighs and wrenched them apart, fixing his moist lips to her clit again. His woman absolutely howled at his ministrations, her protests and attempts at stopping him inconsistent and muddled with curses. Aang almost chuckled at the choppy licks of water at his ankles trying to pull him back. Instead, he looked up into those molten pools of amber while he gyrated his tongue along the underside of her nub, the finger that glided between her folds and gently making it's way inside of her tight, hot passage making his cock throb with a viscous envy.

The next thing Aadita knew, there were cool, moist rocks pressed lightly into her lower back. Strong hands pushed her maroon dress up around her waist and pulled her flush against the hot, muscular body of the young Avatar, his hardness pressing up into her fully bare cunt. She shuddered at the sensation and gripped his shoulders for support, her heart in her throat, beating against the lips that fervently sucked and bit their way down to her heaving breasts. "...so perfect...all mine." He bit down on a dusky nipple, circling the abused bud as she cried out.

"...shouldn't do this...she'll know. I don't want to be...a mistake-" A hard kiss was pressed to her lips, silencing her with the pure intensity. Aang kissed her deeply, a kiss that'd been long yearned for, a kiss that left her breathless, mentally jumbled and shaking with need of any and all contact.

"You will never be my mistake. You are my choice. I could never ask her forgiveness enough, but I can't allow another moment to go by without being truly happy. Too long..." He kissed away the tears that spilled from her eyes. "Too long I've done everything in my power to make everyone else happy, to save the world; I'd been able to move on because I wasn't able to deal with the grief. And now that I have you back...you are not leaving me. Never again."

She bit her lip, looking away from him, uncertainty clear in her eyes. Though clearly fully aroused, even soaking through his own pants, she turned reached up and pulled the neck of her gown closed over her modesty, smiling reassuringly at him when his face fell in defeat. "Not here. I want to be with you in every way, but you aren't going to take me here on this beach."

His lips curled into a playful smirk,"You sure about that?" He ground himself into her, elated at the way her back bowed in time with her breathless groan. However, she quickly regained control, clamping her thighs as shut as they could be while still around his waist. With a hand firmly on his chest, she spoke. "Do that again, and I'll set you on fire." And then she kissed him sweetly, a sensation he knew in that moment he'd never tire of.

"It's nearly morning, Aang." She managed to pull herself out from under a very reluctant Aang. Retying her sash, she fought the urge to fling herself back into his arms, a small smile still fixed on her lips. "I'll see you soon..."

Quickly getting to his feet, he reached for her waist pulling her back into his warm embrace and those fragrant curls cushioned his nose just the way he remembered. But all too soon she was pulling away again, unclasping his hands from her body. Looking back up at him, she looked as if she was about to say something, something powerful that she'd been holding back for too many years. Instead, she clasped her full lips firmly shut, smiling at him wistfully, eye full of unexpressed passions, and turned on her heel.

He watched her go with his heart in his throat.

She didn't look back.