Atla Kataang - Blog Posts

i honestly love how silly so many atla characters are when you boil them down. sokka literally is out here as one small untrained boy with the confidence of an entire trained legion. aang has the most insanely overpowered abilities ever and he gives them up so he can be with his girlfriend, who is literally just a booktok boyfriend reincarnated into a water tribe girl who also invented feminism.

the gaang really are just the best examples of character writing ever. no-one will ever do it better than them.

actually crying over this interaction katara has in my fic on kyoshi island where she realizes how nice it is to have girlfriends

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“Guess what your brother’s up to…” Ayiti was beaming, barely holding back her laughter now.

“Spirits, I’m not sure I even want to know.” Katara rolled her eyes, carefully curling up the centuries old paper in front of her and tucking it alongside the others in her cloth satchell. “What, did he accidentally get a sword stuck in some important monument after bragging to some poor unassuming villager about his swordsmanship?”

“Better.” Ayiti’s eyes flashed with amusement as she settled into the plush stool opposite Katara. She reached forward, hands resting on the varnished wooden table as her elegantly almond shaped nails drummed rhythmically in anticipation. “I missed his grand entrance, but apparently, he’s been set on helping us poor, untrained Kyoshi warriors! He pranced his way in, going on and on about how he’s the best warrior in his tribe. I got there just in time to see Suki wipe the floor with him.”

Katara groaned in embarrassment, burying her head in her hands as she slumped against the table. 

“No, no, you don’t need to be too embarrassed for him.” Ayiti rested a comforting hand on Katara’s arm as the Water tribe girl looked up, her scepticism apparent in her expression. “He was actually pretty sweet after Suki humbled him. He said he was ready to learn, that he had been overly cocky when he came in.”

Katara wrinkled her nose. “That doesn’t sound like the Sokka I know.”

“We were surprised too! He let us paint his face in the traditional style of Kyoshi warriors, even put on the armoured gown too!” Ayiti giggled again, remembering. “Although he was a little embarrassed when Aang saw him in it. I think Sokka interpreted Aang’s attempt to compliment him as Aang poking a little fun at him.”

“What’s Aang been up to, anyways?” Katara tried to make the question seem thoughtless, throwing in a shrug to accompany her words, but Ayiti’s shrewd expression saw right through her. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” She crooned, a teasing grin on her face. “C’mon, you’ve gotta get your mind off of the Avatar, and you’ve had your nose buried in scrolls the whole day. Let me show the future Waterbending master around my little old village.”

Ayiti helped Katara gather the rest of the scrolls and drop them off in the guesthouse, then dragged her between the different stalls, chattering animatedly. Katara had never really gotten to have a girlfriend her age, and she couldn’t believe all that she’d missed out on. For once, she felt her age. Back home, she took care of so many of the village kids whose parents had been lost to fire nation raids. She felt like it was her responsibility, that it was the least she could do, and she did enjoy it.

But perhaps she hadn’t quite grasped what it had taken out of her.

For every hour Sokka spent hunting for food and training to be a warrior, Katara spent parenting children, washing laundry, cooking, cleaning, repairing homes and weapons. She wished for maybe the millionth time that she and her brother had been able to have proper childhoods, present parents to lift that burden from them. She remembered Aang reminding her that she still was a kid. 

Here, walking around the market with Ayiti, she slipped into conversation excitedly, the two’s conversation oscillating between mentions of what the war had taken from them and more lighthearted teasing, and she was beyond grateful for the simplicity of a friend who saw her. 

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

♥ this will be coming out along with the rest of ch4 on wednesday! check out the first three chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

my (quillthills) ao3 ATLA fanfiction masterlist:

"if happiness were a tangible thing, it would be you":

Katara is tired of the iron grip that Emperor Ozai has over the kingdom of Rosas, tired of watching him spread his influence across the mainland. When Sokka comes home from the palace with the knowledge of an impending tragedy, Katara is left to wish on the stars in hope that they will offer salvation. They do, in the form of the Avatar, a boy transformed into a wishing star almost a century earlier. Her wish for hope is fulfilled, in the form of a boy known to be the embodiment of hope. Will that same hope be enough to stand against a man powered by the dreams and wishes of an entire kingdom? OR: ever since pixina put the idea in my head of a kataang wish AU, i haven't been able to stop thinking about it. this fic is the result<3 if you haven't seen wish (2023) yet, don't worry! you don't really need to to understand this fic:)

"so i will go to secret gardens in my mind":

after he and katara's escape to the palace gardens the night prior, avatar aang, the king of all four elements, cannot stop thinking of the beautiful dark-haired water princess. misunderstandings and deliberate deception constructed by regent ozai makes the reconciliation of these star-crossed lovers more complicated than necessary. OR: the second of many kataang regency-era works ♔

"you’re in the wind, i’m in the water":

aang has only just been crowned as the avatar, the king of all four elements, and already, he struggles to find his footing in a society without any of his people. a dance with princess katara of the water tribe, and a subsequent escape to the palace gardens, helps him find that footing. OR: the first of many kataang regency-era works ♔

"there's a star-man, waiting in the sky":

a flash-fiction atla modern AU in which yue passes away from cancer early in life, and sokka becomes an astronaut so that he can go to space and be close to the moon she always loved so much ☾

"the teenager in the iceberg"- multichap

i feel like a lot of people have wondered how different atla as a whole would be if aang had been older, so in this au, aang was frozen at age 16! naturally, i just had to flip aang being after katara from day one to katara now having a crush on aang from the very beginning. essentially, to recap. ATLA aang aged up AU fic. kataang. where she falls first, and he falls harder. also, cmon. i just had to write a new version of the scene where zuko and aang meet.

"you with the dark curls, you with the watercolor eyes"- multichap

Avatar Aang had been told time and time again that to venture across the surface of the sea when the moon had risen and claimed what rightfully belonged to it was to sign your own death certificate. And yet, he found himself here, at the water’s edge, skipping stones, lost in thought. To be the Avatar had once meant something, years before. Before the four tribes had separated, scattered to the ends of the earth. Those who formed fire itself chased the other tribes from the surface lands, those who could move rock and metal burrowed underground, those who flowed with the air sent ships with great sails across the sea until they reached towering mountain spires. Those who bent water, who bent blood… they retreated to the depths of the sea, and with time, they became a part of it. Legend told of the way in which the Water tribes had adapted, two legs smoothed into razor sharp scales and voices twisted into something dark and luring. Now, they were the monsters known as sirens. OR: a KATAANG AU where tui and la have split the earth into the sea and the sky. aang is a winged avian, while katara is a siren<3

"well, my (not-yet) boyfriend's in a band":

in which the gaang are in a band, and when it comes time for them to write an original song to submit to the republic city music festival, aang is...suspiciously good at writing love song lyrics OR kataang, if they were in an indie band and aang didn't know how to communicate his feelings except through writing love songs

"i’m no longer a kid, and everything has changed":

after aang falls to azula's lightning strike in the caves of the earth kingdom, toph, sokka, and katara are left to pick up the pieces. katara's healing abilities are put to the test in the weeks that follow, but she finds herself seeing aang in a different light as she realizes how much he's endured since emerging from the iceberg only months before. OR: the weeks-long gap between the end of season two and the beginning of season three of ATLA is finally at least partially expanded upon. ALSO OR: a bit of aangst, or kataangst, if you will

"can you see me using everything to hold back?":

Katara's life after saving the world was filled with a whirlwind romance with Fire Lord Zuko that became a loveless, controlling marriage she is no longer happy in. After finding out the extent to which her husband has betrayed her trust, she escapes to find home in the person she has missed most during her time in the Fire Nation. OR: The common Zutara trope of "Zuko helps Katara escape an unhealthy relationship with Aang" is flipped entirely and completely on its head.

"my heart is yours, it’s you that i hold on to":

The war has been ended, Ozai has been rendered helpless, and Zuko has reclaimed the Fire Nation with the promise of peace. Everything that Aang has been working towards since the moment Katara freed him from the iceberg has been done. He's saved the world. Now, all that's left is to confess to his forever girl. OR Aang wakes up the morning after him and his friends saved the entire world, and the first (and only) thing he can think about is Katara. When they get a chance to talk, the two take a walk down memory lane.

"shining down on me":

sokka can't stop thinking about yue. she comes to him in his dreams, and try as he might, he just can't move on. inspired by the song "my love, mine all mine" by mitski

"the avatar's adventures in parenting":

aang being a bad parent is CHARACTER ASSASSINATION and i won't stand for it. i just know that him and katara wouldn't be focused on just passing on bending, but the *teachings* and ideals of both of their tribes to all their children, regardless of bending status. OR, aang and katara become parents and aang finds out that parenting is his proudest achievement, more so than stopping a hundred year war or holding the position of avatar

"i'm trying to tell you something, something that i already said":

katara speaks to each member of the gaang individually and finds out that aang has been head over heels with her for years and no one ever bothered telling her. this takes place after the fire lord is defeated, but in my version, they never kissed in the finale:oo katara is basically dumb in terms of love and so is aang and they are peak miscommunication trope and theres too much zutara content and not enough kataang OR katara interrogates each of her friends (toph, sokka, and zuko) and comes to the conclusion that she has lived for years without the kind of love most people wish for their entire lives

if any of these speak to you, they can all be found on my ao3 account:)<3 happy reading!!!

sooo.... anyone else ever wondered how different ATLA would have been if aang had been frozen at age 16 instead of age 12?

yeah... me too 😌 my new fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" follows the events of the show, but with only aang aged up, while everyone else remains their canon age.

also...cmon....how funny is it to switch zuko and aang's iconic dialogue to "you're just a teenager!" "...so are you?"

this idea was originally inspired by the talented @allgremlinart's aged up aang drawings, so please go show them some love!!:)<3

enjoy the excerpts from chapter three, that just dropped this morning!

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Katara watched Aang take one last, painful look at the temple, then turn to the sky ahead, lit up in shades of orange, pink, and gold. She swore she could see arrows in every cloud, arrows like the ones inked across Aang’s body, and the gentle breeze that carried the crisp night air towards them seemed to wrap around them like a loving spirit.

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“...You have no idea where we’re going, do you?” Sokka sighed, turning the map that was held against Appa’s saddle with a couple of rocks toward himself. “I’ve been charting our progress, and it’s starting to look more like a scrap of paper a toddler is practising circles on than a navigational tool.”

“C’mon Sokka, I’m an Air nomad, travel is in my blood. I have a very strong internal compass. Besides, you’ll find that as a nomad, I’m a master of evasive manoeuvring.” Katara raised an eyebrow, looking up from her spot near the back of the saddle as she stitched a rip in Sokka’s pants. “Besides,” Aang continued, typical teenage boy overconfidence emitting from his tone of voice. “I know it’s near water.”

Sokka leaned over the edge of the saddle, eyes scanning the blue expanse below them that stretched as far as the eye could see. “We must be getting close then,” he scoffed, his tone dripping in sarcasm as he slouched back into his spot across from Katara.

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“Aang,” she said distractedly, “could you hold this for me?” She handed him the mirror. 

“Y-yeah, no problem.”

She tugged out her hair ties, flipping her head upside down for a moment to make sure that it had all gotten loose, then she gingerly tugged a few tendrils of water from the nearby ocean and wrapped tiny streams around her hair, tugging out the crimped braid pattern and reviving her curls. Then, she carefully bent the remaining liquid back out. 

She couldn’t see his face through her thick hair as she stood back up, but from his voice, Aang seemed impressed. “I get that you haven’t been able to learn any big combat moves, but for someone whose bending is self- taught, you sure have a pretty good handle on these smaller things.”

She properly flipped her head up now, curls and waves bouncing around her face. Her dark brown locks shone with honey-toned highlights, all different shades of caramel and chocolate sparkling as they framed her face. She reached up, gently twisting and clipping a few strands out of the way, but a few wayward pieces still fell forward, gently brushing against soft, full lips and smooth skin. Aang awkwardly froze for a moment, caught off guard by how different she looked when her hair was loose and free. He had a weird urge to tell her so, but bit his tongue, instead focusing on her answer. 

“I learned most of the smaller things from helping Gran-Gran.” Katara’s eyes sparkled, clearly caught up in a vision of home as she reached up to brush up her hair. “ As she’s gotten older, her range of mobility has started leaving her. It’s not really comfortable or safe for her to stoop over to wash her hair, so I learned how to bring the water to her and wash it while she was sitting up, then I learned how to dry it for her fast.”

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Sokka yelped, his voice defensive and offensive all at once. “There is no way a bunch of girls in cutesy makeup and dresses managed to tie me up.”

“Awe, you think our makeup is cutesy? How sweet .” The girl's voice was crooning at first, sweet and gentle, but Katara could see from the way her muscles flexed as she held Sokka by the collar that there was venom hiding behind those words. She was right. “Throw him to the Unagi.”

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“Katara, c’mon, we’re supposed to be sticking together, where are you going?” Aang tugged at her arm until she was facing him, looking at her earnestly as if he hadn’t basically been flirting with all of those girls back there.

The words came out before she could stop them. “I thought monks weren’t supposed to go around flirting with any random girl, and they’re definitely not supposed to go around catering to a village full of fangirls.”

Aang raised an eyebrow, his expression teasing in a way that made Katara want to splash the smirk off of his face in a wave of water. “You sure have a lot of opinions on what you think monks are supposed to do, considering that I’m the only one you’ve ever met.” He shifted his weight, leaning in a bit closer. “Matter of fact, maybe it's just that you have a lot of opinions on what you think I’m supposed to be doing.”

Katara stiffened at the memory of the words that Sokka had just said minutes before. “Why would I care what you’re doing? I don’t. ”

Aang shrugged, reaching past her to grab a papaya and biting into it. After swallowing, he reached into Katara’s satchel, his hand brushing her waist as he pulled out some coins and quietly thanked the vendor. “Keep telling yourself that, Katara.” Hearing her name from his lips did something to her, but she kept her gaze level, eyes blazing with flame until Aang backed off.

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

♥ check out the three chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

"why are you so quiet, what's on your mind?"

"oh, nothing, just aang admiring katara without realizing he's in love with her"

guys, i am SO excited for tomorrow's new chapter of "the teenager in the iceberg" there's gonna be some great moment & generally im excited to start progressing past the first few episodes

here's a teaser excerpt!

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Sokka immediately jumped off, almost kissing the sand in relief, and Aang followed close behind. Katara moved to stand up and join them, but a combination of that nerve-sick feeling and a bit of light-headedness had her slipping a little, stumbling off the saddle. She would’ve landed face-first in the sand, but Aang smoothly caught her with a current of air, then offered a hand. 

Once she was safe on the ground, Katara blushed, embarrassed that she’d lost her balance that easily. She moved to tell Aang, only to have Sokka take one look at her and burst out laughing. 

“What?!” She snapped, suddenly overly self-conscious.

“Your hair!” He cackled, a shaking finger pointing at her. Confused, Katara reached out her hand to draw a tendril of water from the cold morning sea. She concentrated, forming it first into a sphere and then a flat oval, then stilled the water so that she could see her reflection…

Only to drop the water in surprise when she finally saw what Sokka was talking about. Her carefully done hair was snarled around in its braids,  bits of it loose and bits of it still intact. She huffed in annoyance, then fished out a small glass mirror and her hairbrush. 

“Aang,” she said distractedly, “could you hold this for me?” She handed him the mirror. 

“Y-yeah, no problem.”

She tugged out her hair ties, flipping her head upside down for a moment to make sure that it had all gotten loose, then she gingerly tugged a few tendrils of water from the nearby ocean and wrapped tiny streams around her hair, tugging out the crimped braid pattern and reviving her curls. Then, she carefully bent the remaining liquid back out. 

She couldn’t see his face through her thick hair as she stood back up, but from his voice, Aang seemed impressed. “I get that you haven’t been able to learn any big combat moves, but for someone whose bending is self- taught, you sure have a pretty good handle on these smaller things.”

She properly flipped her head up now, curls and waves bouncing around her face. Her dark brown locks shone with honey-toned highlights, all different shades of caramel and chocolate sparkling as they framed her face. She reached up, gently twisting and clipping a few strands out of the way, but a few wayward pieces still fell forward, gently brushing against soft, full lips and smooth skin. Aang awkwardly froze for a moment, caught off guard by how different she looked when her hair was loose and free. He had a weird urge to tell her so, but bit his tongue, instead focusing on her answer. 

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

sooo.... anyone else ever wondered how different ATLA would have been if aang had been frozen at age 16 instead of age 12?

yeah... me too 😌 my new fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" follows the events of the show, but with only aang aged up, while everyone else remains their canon age.

also...cmon....how funny is it to switch zuko and aang's iconic dialogue to "you're just a teenager!" "...so are you?"

enjoy the excerpt from (the upcoming) third chapter!! updates every wednesday!!

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Aang led the way through the temple, and Katara winced at every single skeleton that lined the halls of the stone pathways carved through the sacred building. Aang couldn’t look at them, didn’t let himself look at them. Katara didn’t blame him for it. She hadn’t been able to look at the handful of bodies left after every Fire Nation raid, and yet, here were the bodies of all of his people, his entire culture. 

She was snapped out of her spiralling train of thought by the screech of stone against stone as Aang funnelled air through a complex looking lock system, the gears driving it creaking from disuse. Sokka and Katara flinched, but Aang stayed still. 

The door opened to hundreds, if not thousands, of stone statues, gazing unflinchingly back at them.

Sokka dropped into a defensive position out of habit, as if the statues would lunge toward them at any minute, and Katara just rolled her eyes and giggled at her brother, pushing past him as she stepped towards the statues in awe. Weaving between them, she stopped at one of a woman with traditional water tribe clothing that made her heart twist with homesickness. She felt Aang standing behind her, his exposed chest through his one-shoulder robes radiating heat in a way that made her face flush with colour.

He reached up over her to brush a finger against the statue’s delicately carved hair. “She has your little…hair thingies.”

Somewhat unconsciously, she reached up to brush her own loops of hair, grazing the white bone-beads with her ring finger. “I didn’t realise the great Avatar paid attention to things like that.”

A teasing smile spread across Aang’s lips. “I think you’ll find that I’m a very attentive person.” He said the words innocently enough, but the way honey seemed to wrap around every syllable caught Katara off guard, sending warmth spreading down her spine as she momentarily forgot how to speak.

Aang grinned again, looking as though he was about to add something, before a chittery, squeaking noise echoed through the room, bouncing between statues. “What was that?” Sokka yelped, jumping away from the statue whose armour and sword he had been examining. The screech of metal against stone sounded from somewhere on Sokka’s side of the room, and both Katara and Aang quickly wove between statues to join him, all three tensing.

From between the statues, the sound got louder, and a helmet dragged between the sculptures, moving haphazardly as it scraped against the floor.

“GHOSTIE!” Sokka yelped, jumping backwards as he pointed an accusatory finger at the helmet. Katara stayed silent, visibly pale. Aang looked back at the two of them, then faced the helmet again. He stepped through those same strange airbending forms, his movement ending with the sharp expulsion of wind from his fist. The helmet blew away, clattering against the stone, revealing….

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

the gaang...as an indie rock band....? kataang, where aang's only way of confessing his feelings is by writing katara a love song....? 😏

💳💥💳💥💳💥💳💥

i present to you, excerpts from my new one-shot: Well, My (Not-Yet) Boyfriend's In A Band

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Aang winced, shielding himself with his drumsticks as he walked into Sokka and Katara’s garage almost a full half-hour later than their agreed-upon rehearsal time, as if the two thin pieces of wood could protect him from the combined side-eye of his friends. Even Toph, who regularly rolled in ages after rehearsal had started with a tea in her hand from Uncle Iroh’s, was shooting him a glare, which is how Aang knew he’d really messed up. He ducked his head into the entranceway, silently cursing himself for being just a bit too tall for the garage doorway.

Katara shifted from her position against the opposing doorframe, where she had been judgmentally leaning as she echoed the look in Toph’s eyes. “Aang…”

He threw up his hands in preemptive defence, words tumbling one after the other from his mouth. “I know! I know, I know I’m late,” he tugged his high-top converse off awkwardly, stashing his skateboard in the usual crevice he leaned it against. “But I swear, it’s for a good reason.”

“It better be,” Toph scoffed. “I blew off homework to come here.”

“Toph, you wouldn't have done the homework either way.”

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“I can feel you glaring at me, Zuko.” Toph smirked, then turned back to Aang. “You’ve been rustling around in your pockets for a while now, you sure you’re not stalling for a good reason on why you were late?”

“It is a good reason. Look!” Aang finally managed to tug out the crumpled piece of paper from his cargo pocket, unfurling it for Toph to see.

Silence filled the room, and then, in a tone laced so much with sarcasm that it was hard to tell when the tone stopped and the sarcasm began, Toph said flatly. “Well, it sounds like a piece of paper, but I assume you’re referring to what’s on the paper. Way to taunt a blind girl, Aang.”

“I-I didn’t mean, I-” Aang stuttered awkwardly, his cheeks flushing an embarrassed shade of pink. 

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“The only problem,” Aang added, “Is that the songs can’t be covers. We have to write something original. The idea of the music festival is to spotlight new young voices in indie rock.”

The others exchanged sidelong glances. “I’m sure that we can write something.” Sokka said with finality. “How hard can it be?”

Hours later, Sokka was sprawled on the couch, head stuffed between the dove grey cushions as he groaned at their utter lack of progress. Katara was perched on the arm of the couch, biting her lip as she tried to run through lyric ideas in her mind. Toph was (very un-subtly) preparing for a nap, curled up in the room’s vintage armchair, while Zuko paced with a hand on his chin, lost in thought.

Unsurprisingly, the five of them had discovered that writing original music does, in fact, require both skill and inspiration, something none of them felt they had at the moment. 

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“What about a love song?” Zuko suggested.

 “Ick, oogies!” Sokka yelped from his position next to the mini fridge as he pulled out a pair of sodas. He moved as though he was going to throw one to Toph, then thought better of it and just gently placed it next to her as he sat. 

“You have a girlfriend, Sokka.” Zuko pointed out as Sokka settled next to him. 

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“Aang, this is, this is great!”

“I like it.” Zuko nodded.

“Would someone please put text-to-speech on?”

“Let me read it out loud.” Sokka said, apologetically. “My bad, Toph."

♥ check out the (completed) fic & my ao3 here! ->

it's that time again...next ch of "the teenager in the iceberg" sneak peak!!!!!

kinda CW??: discussions of the air nomad genocide, loss of loved ones

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

When he opened them again, all Katara could see were glowing eyes, blazing bright. Blazing with anger. 

She barely had time to think before the wind began to whip around her and Sokka, sending leaves swirling. Sokka ducked under a couple larger branches that had broken off of the nearby fruit trees, dead and unused. Trees that had probably supplied the fruit for the Air Nomad’s traditional pies over a century ago. Aang’s tattoos and eyes were blazing blue now, glowing so brightly that it hurt to look over at him. Sokka ducked behind a stone, hoping it would provide cover as he beckoned to Katara to do the same.

But Katara refused.

Aang needs my help, she told herself as she pushed against the winds Aang sent in every direction. Aang needs my help. She repeated the mantra over and over, until she’d finally pushed past the grassy, bone lined field and gotten within what she hoped was Aang’s hearing distance. 

“AANG!” She shouted up at him as he began to levitate, a sphere of air and rock encircling him. She barely even recognized him this way, anger distorting his features, his muscle defined by the light emulating from him. All she could see was that rage and anger and pain, and all she wanted was to get close enough to pull him out of it. With the winds picking up the way they were, Katara struggled to stay on the ground. Still, she had to. Aang needs my help. She felt a hand at her back, and Sokka was there, trying to help get through to Aang.

She cleared her throat, calling out to him again. “AANG! Please, I know that you must be feeling grief, and guilt, right now beyond anything anyone could imagine." She coughed, the winds stirring up dust that caught in her throat. "You may be the last Airbender, but your people, their love and teachings, live on through you. They wouldn’t want this for you!”

Sokka joined her. “They wouldn’t want you to succumb to grief and rage!” He shouted. “Believe me, I get why that would be tempting, but… they would want you to work with those who care about you make sure no one has to experience this again.”

Katara nodded frantically, looking back to Aang. “Please, Aang, come back to us. We care about you!” She exhaled shakily, looking away for a moment before looking back. “Please, come back to me.”

For a second longer, Aang stayed there, hovering in the air, until the light coursing through him abruptly shut off, and he began to fall to the Earth like a shooting star.

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

not sure if you want to check it out? check out the lovely reader's comments!! (i love all of u comment ppl<3) 🤭

Hello! I just want to say that I've recently been binging some of your kataang writing and I want to say I LOVE LOVE YOUR WORK SO MUCH!!! especially the aged up aang one, I'm so excited for more to come (but please take your time!) the way you write aang dynamic with the other characters are soo on point to me and I'm giggling while reading it lol <3

(I'd comment on your ao3 works too but I'm a bit shy! But just so you know your work is amazing and I hope you keep it up! Thank you so much for blessing us with your writing!!)

the way i was giggling and kicking my feet while reading this oh my goodness 🤭🤭

thank you SO MUCH it means so so much that you're enjoying my work!!! like i actually can't say that enough!!! i really do try to get the dynamics right and atla and especially kataang holds such a special place in my heart so i'm so so glad that i'm doing the ship justice with my characterization of them 🤧🤍

i totally understand being too shy to comment (i feel that way all the time) and if your mind ever changes abt commenting, i'd love love love to hear from u:)<3 hehe thank u so much for being my very first ask and for all the kind words, i genuinely appreciate it so much and this has just absolutely MADE my day <3

sooo.... anyone else ever wondered how different ATLA would have been if aang had been frozen at age 16 instead of age 12?

yeah... me too 😌 my new fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" follows the events of the show, but with only aang aged up, while everyone else remains their canon age.

also...cmon....how funny is it to switch zuko and aang's iconic dialogue to "you're just a teenager!" "...so are you?"

this idea was originally inspired by the talented @allgremlinart's aged up aang drawings, so please go show them some love!!:)<3

enjoy the excerpts from chapters one and two!

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Aang chuckled, pushing himself up with his hands on his knees. He was… taller than Katara had realised, taller than Sokka. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, turning to look over his shoulder at the remains of the boulder-sized chunk of ice he had just been blasted out of.  “Aang. My name’s Aang.” He hesitated, momentarily seeming to puzzle something over. “And honestly? No clue. Don’t remember how me and…Appa!” He yelped, suddenly scrambling back over the hill of ice and snow. Katara followed him without thinking, and Sokka, grumbling under his breath, followed moments later. 

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

“So, you’ve brought a monster to invade the village, then? You’re some incognito Fire Nation soldier sent in as an undercover scout? Well, I’ll have you know that I’m the village’s strongest warrior, a-”

“The only warrior,” Katara chimed in, lightly elbowing Sokka’s side, earning herself a responding glare. 

“The strongest warrior.” Sokka reiterated. “And I don’t much like firebenders.” He added the words pointedly.

“Ah.” Aang titled his head. “That’s a shame. Some of my closest friends are Fire Nation.”

“Of course they are,” Sokka glared, hunching over into a defensive position and adjusting his fishing spear until it pointed directly at Aang.

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Katara still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Aang. The Water Tribe boys had always been all flashy muscles, seal-jerky breath, and overconfidence, so Katara had never seen someone move, carry themself, the way Aang did. 

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Katara had admittedly forgotten how much fun penguin sledding was. “Spirits, I haven’t done this since I was a kid!” she called to Aang as he raced past her, surprisingly skilled considering that he’d never even seen a penguin until half an hour before. 

“You still are a kid!” He called back over his shoulder. “A kid who’s losing this race, badly !”

Katara’s competitive streak reared its head, her eyes narrowing as Aang stuck out his tongue. She sat up slightly, no longer gripping the penguin’s fur as tightly. “You wish!” She shouted back the words as she raised her hands, breathing deeply. Her hands moved through the positions she had practised from the few bending scrolls the tribe still held on to, and before Aang knew it, the snow in front of Katara turned to ice, and she shot past him as his own ice trail suddenly became dry snow with too much friction to slide on. 

She made it to the bottom of the hill, beaming, breathing heavily. The wind had whipped her hair out of her bun, and she knew without checking that her hair must have looked like a lion-turtle’s mane. She watched as Aang made a show of drying himself off with a gust of wind that he then redirected at her, messing up her curls even more. 

“You’re a cheater !” Aang gasped, mockingly clutching imaginary pearls at his throat. “I demand a rematch.”

Katara strode past him, only turning her head to cast him a smug smirk. “Maybe you’re just not as good of a penguin sledder as you thought .”

“Oh, not so fast!” Aang grabbed her wrist, tugging her back towards him, and she internally questioned why the momentary brush of their skin made her heart flip. He tried to trip her, she tried to flip him, and they both ended up on their backs in the snow, giggling, cheeks and noses bright pink from the cold. 

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

“Trouble sleeping too, huh?” Aang cocked a grin, tilting his head to Katara. She kept her eyes fixed upwards, trained on the moon and the stars, worried that if she looked away, she’d end up staring into his eyes like a weirdo. 

“I always feel so awake with the moon’s light on me. Sleeping under the stars has never really been a thing that works. It’s too energising, too… too much. It’s hard to explain.”

“No, no… I get it. I feel the same way in a windstorm, all those breezes and gusts of wind, it feels… exhilarating.” She watched through her peripheral vision as he looked up at the moon. “In times of war, I think we all tend to forget how spiritual bending is at its core. I’d say it’s a good thing that you’re in touch enough with the origins of your abilities to feel the moon’s pull tug at you just as much as it does on the ocean.” 

⁎⁺˳ ✧༚ ˎˊ˗ ♡ ˗ˏˋയ ✩

Aang smiled back. “Now is our time to try to make up for that. I can’t bring back everyone who was hurt in this war, and you can’t bring back your mother, but together, the two-, three of us can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

“I’d like that,” Katara exhaled, her breath calming down and tears dissipating. The two spent hours talking back and forth, exchanging the stories of their respective childhoods. Katara learned that Aang had invented several new bending moves and had been a big fan of fruit pies, while Aang learned that Katara had always been the bossier one between her and Sokka and that she had almost chipped a tooth on seal jerky when she was six. They continued talking back and forth in increasingly hushed tones until the world faded away under the cover of clouds and sleep.

Katara awoke to the loud shout of her brother. 

“Wakey wakey, lovebirds!” he yelped, chucking a rock-hard stick of seal jerky at both of them. 

“Ouch, Sokka !” Katara snapped at him, rubbing her head at the spot where she had been hit, before realising that she was leaning against Aang and immediately jumping away, blushing furiously. 

♥ check out the two chapters of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

i love writing sokka, so i've thrown some of my favourite lines of his from my fanfic "the teenager in the iceberg" together, so that they can be properly appreciated <3 >:)

---

Sokka continued, his voice both indignant and commanding.“We don’t even know your name, Mr. Walking Ice Cube! What were you doing in there? Were you trying to mimic a snow-man and you got too carried away?” 

---

“So, you’ve brought a monster to invade the village, then? You’re some incognito Fire Nation soldier sent in as an undercover scout? Well, I’ll have you know that I’m the village’s strongest warrior, a-”

“The only warrior,” Katara chimed in, lightly elbowing Sokka’s side, earning herself a responding glare. 

“The strongest warrior.” Sokka reiterated. “And I don’t much like firebenders.” He added the words pointedly.

“Ah.” Aang titled his head. “That’s a shame. Some of my closest friends are Fire Nation.”

“Of course they are,” Sokka glared, hunching over into a defensive position and adjusting his fishing spear until it pointed directly at Aang.

---

“Appa can give us a lift?” Sokka said incredulously. He gestured at the sky bison, sprawled across the ice and looking as though he could sleep for weeks longer. “If anything, he looks like he needs us to lift him up off the ground.”

---

Naturally, Sokka was still a skeptic. “A pulley system! Hot air from a hidden firebender! Secret underwater sea-vents! Or maybe we all ate something funny and all of this is all in our heads… ” He finished off his sentence by wiggling his fingers as if he was ready to cast a spell.

---

Sokka nodded sharply. “He’s our responsibility, no matter how much I berated him when we met earlier. We need to find that sky monster of his, it’s the only way we’ll be able to catch up with the ship.”

“Aang called it a sky bison.”

“He also didn’t tell us that he was the Avatar, so I’m not sure if we can take everything he says at face value,” Sokka pointed out as Katara rolled her eyes. He cocked a grin. “C’mon, let's go get the little guy.”

“Aang’s taller than you!” Katara called after him, rushing to keep up with Sokka’s longer strides.

“Sure, in his dreams !” The decidedly-shorter-than-Aang boy called back. 

---

“Here’s the deal, bucko.” Sokka said matter of factly, accompanying his words with sharp gestures and exaggerated syllables, as if Appa was deaf. “Your friend needs your help, and WE need YOUR help to get to him. You get the picture?” Without waiting for any kind of affirmation, Sokka nodded briskly then scrambled up to Appa’s back, settling into what appeared to be the driver's seat. 

Appa did not move, didn’t even blink.

Sokka blinked, utterly bewildered. “How do we get him to, y’know, go ?”

---

“He’s not gonna-” Sokka started, but as Katara slid onto Appa’s back, they felt him begin to levitate. Sokka huffed, crossing his arms dramatically. “Spirits, I hate when you’re right and I’m wrong.” Too concerned to snap a retort back at Sokka, Katara just settled down into her seat, anxiously picking at the leather of her coat. 

---

Katara awoke to the loud shout of her brother. 

“Wakey wakey, lovebirds!” he yelped, chucking a rock-hard stick of seal jerky at both of them. 

“Ouch, Sokka!” Katara snapped at him, rubbing her head at the spot where she had been hit, before realising that she was leaning against Aang and immediately jumping away, blushing furiously. 

---

he's so sassy and funny i love sokka so much

♥ find the rest of the fic here!! ->

the following is an excerpt from my new ATLA aang is aaged up AU fanfic!! (or at least, a teaser from the upcoming update on wednesday) (!!!!) (so excited bc u guys seemed to really like the first ch and left so many lovely comments!!

i present to you, a little sample of ch2 of "the teenager in the iceberg"!!!

---

The trio flew on through the sunset, until Tui rose above them, pulling the colour out of the sky as if she were weaving onyx black strands of soft wool into the most beautiful of tapestries. Katara settled on her back, tugging her fur lined overcoat closer, huddled against Sokka, who was in turn huddled against Aang for warmth. Moonlight and starlight bathed the three in enough light that neither Katara nor Aang could sleep, although Sokka seemed to be snoring away just fine. After a few hours of fruitless attempts to slip into dreamland, both Katara and Aang rose from their respective spots beside Sokka and moved to sit in the driver’s bench.

“Trouble sleeping too, huh?” Aang cocked a grin, tilting his head to Katara. She kept her eyes fixed upwards, trained on the moon and the stars, worried that if she looked away, she’d end up staring into his eyes like a weirdo. 

“I always feel so awake with the moon’s light on me. Sleeping under the stars has never really been a thing that works. It’s too energising, too… too much. It’s hard to explain.”

“No, no… I get it. I feel the same way in a windstorm, all those breezes and gusts of wind, it feels… exhilarating.” She watched through her peripheral vision as he looked up at the moon. “In times of war, I think we all tend to forget how spiritual bending is at its core. I’d say it’s a good thing that you’re in touch enough with the origins of your abilities to feel the moon’s pull tug at you just as much as it does on the ocean.” Katara raised an eyebrow at the cheesy sincerity, and he chuckled in response. “I’m serious! Out of all the nations, Airbenders have the highest rate of benders, and I’ve always felt like it’s because of how much we connect to the spiritual aspect of all of this. We feel our element through our veins, we acknowledge its origins, we treat it as a sacred art.”

Katara nodded, puzzling it all over. “I wish I’d gotten to learn bending as a child properly, the way you did, with the stories of its origins and the teaching of precise bending forms.”

Aang’s brows wrinkled at this. “You- you didn’t get a teacher? But… weren’t you the one to break me out of the iceberg?”

“You’re looking at the last Waterbender of the Southern Tribe.” She sighed, hanging her head. “Everything I know about my bending was either made up through trial and error, or scraped together by bits and pieces of the few bending scrolls my tribe held on to. We’ve never believed in building fortresses and kingdoms the way the Northern Tribe does, and so, when the Fire Nation raids began… our waterbending numbers just continued to dwindle as they were defeated and taken to Spirits know where.” She bit her lip, trying desperately to steady her voice.

“That's… that’s how my mother passed. I was there, in the tent, when she was…killed.”

---

just finished the draft!! 4,424 words baybeeee!!!! you guys are eating GOOD w this update. releasing wednesday morning:))) catch up on the first chapter before then here ->

wow, i am on a writing spree today! new chapter of my aged up aang au fanfic should be coming at all of you weekly on wednesdays or thursdays, and the following is an excerpt from my draft of ch2 of "the teenager in the iceberg"

without further ado, enjoy water tribe sibling chaos

for context, this immediately follows aang being hauled off by zuko and the rest of his ship.

---

Katara felt a little piece of something inside her break with the click of the ship’s hull closing.

There was something so unsettling about being given so much hope and having it all ripped away from her only over the course of one day. She watched the ship push off from the ice and turn away, moving toward the imprisonment of the boy Katara had just realised could save the world. Her gloved hand stayed clasped over her mouth, her body frozen in shock, as she watched the ship fade. After a few minutes, she became aware that Sokka was tugging at her coat. She blinked, shook her head, and turned to him.

“Katara,” Sokka said urgently, and Katara knew what he was going to tell her before he said a word.

“I know. We have to go after him, somehow.” Katara bit her lip, absent-mindedly playing with Aang's bracelet, still woven around her wrist.

Sokka nodded sharply. “He’s our responsibility, no matter how much I berated him when we met earlier. We need to find that sky monster of his, it’s the only way we’ll be able to catch up with the ship.”

“Aang called it a sky bison.”

“He also didn’t tell us that he was the Avatar, so I’m not sure if we can take everything he says at face value,” Sokka pointed out as Katara rolled her eyes. He cocked a grin. “C’mon, let's go get the little guy.”

“Aang’s taller than you!” Katara called after him, rushing to keep up with Sokka’s longer strides.

“Sure, in his dreams!” The decidedly-shorter-than-Aang boy called back.

When they did manage to find Appa, he was sitting at the rear entrance to the village, peacefully napping and ignoring the flood of small children poking at his fur. When he raised his head to look up at Katara and Sokka as their footsteps approached, the sky bison looked less than amused.

“Here’s the deal, bucko.” Sokka said matter of factly, accompanying his words with sharp gestures and exaggerated syllables, as if Appa was deaf. “Your friend needs your help, and WE need YOUR help to get to him. You get the picture?” Without waiting for any kind of affirmation, Sokka nodded briskly then scrambled up to Appa’s back, settling into what appeared to be the driver's seat. 

Appa did not move, didn’t even blink.

Sokka blinked, utterly bewildered. “How do we get him to, y’know, go?”

Katara scoffed, stepping closer and resting a hand on the creature’s nose. Appa huffed and leaned into her touch, then sniffed, making a sad rumbling noise. Katara’s brow furrowed in confusion until she followed Appa’s line of sight to Aang’s wood and linen bracelet, clasped loosely around her wrist. She clumsily reached for it, sliding it off awkwardly to hold out to Appa.

“He needs you.” Katara breathed, “Aang needs you.” “He’s not gonna-” Sokka started, but as Katara slid onto Appa’s back, they felt him begin to levitate. Sokka huffed, crossing his arms dramatically. “Spirits, I hate when you’re right and I’m wrong.”

♥ check out the first chapter of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

has anyone ever wondered just how different aang and zuko's first battle would be if aang had been frozen at age 16...?

the following is an excerpt from my draft of ch2 of my new fanfic, "the teenager in the iceberg" on ao3. happy reading!!!

---

Because before she could speak, before Aang could speak, horns blared through the crisp air outside. Horns the entire village knew, horns that prompted screams from children. 

Another Fire Nation raid.

Aang didn’t pause, didn’t let himself hesitate. Katara didn’t blame him. She was sure that if he thought about it for more than a few moments, he’d crumble entirely, and considering the situation they were now in, they couldn’t afford for Aang to sort through everything.

Katara didn’t realise how dire a situation it was until the three of them had reached the gates to the village, and Katara watched as the hull broke through centuries old ice as if it were butter. Sokka ran ahead as the bow of the ship split open in a rush of steam and machinery. Katara felt the blood drain from her face as she saw who stepped out. The Fire Nation prince. The one who had been scarred by his own father. He was here, in her village. Terror began to set in.

Prince Zuko wrinkled his nose at Sokka as though he was nothing more than an inanimate obstacle in his way, and shoved him aside, his soldiers following suit. 

“I have come here for the Avatar. For my honour,” Zuko snarled, his words a sharp, lethal weapon. “I know he’s here. I saw his beacon. He should be an older man? Master of all four elements?” His eyes swept through the crowd, passing right over Aang as his gaze narrowed on Gran and the other village elders. Katara felt Aang tense beside her.

With no warning, Zuko and his soldiers blasted a wave of fire straight for the grandmothers and grandfathers who had huddled together. 

And their fire was met by a gust of wind so powerful that it sucked the very oxygen out of the air, extinguishing their flame before it got anywhere near their targets. 

Zuko whirled around, his voice contorting in anger at the sight of Aang, standing tall and proud with his staff in one hand and a constantly spinning sphere of wind in the other. 

“You?” Zuko spat, seething. “I’ve trained for years to face the Avatar. You’re just a teenager.”

Aang, somewhat caught off guard, leaned back, raising an eyebrow in confusion, a teasing grin on his face once he’d realised that he’d managed to bother the Fire Prince himself. 

“...S- so are you...?"

Zuko straightened, fire flaring in his eyes, his fists tightening as the air around them began to sizzle and steam. “A child. A child managed to outmanoeuvre me. A mere boy was running circles around the entire crew I command for years.”

“No, a teenager. C’mon, give me my credit, I had a whole growth spurt and everything, do I really still look like a child to you?” Aang put on a falsely sincere tone, venom behind his words as he bent his knees and tensed his body into a defensive stance. “You hurt this village, or its people, and you’ll see just how much more than ‘just a teenager’ I am.”

Zuko scoffed, fire again lighting up his palm. “Big talk for a pacifist monk.”

“Sure, as a monk, I won’t start a fight.” Aang grinned. “But I can finish them.”

---

♥ check out the first chapter of this (ongoing) fic & my ao3 here! ->

aang being a bad parent is CHARACTER ASSASSINATION and i won't stand for it. i just know that him and katara wouldn't be focused on just passing on bending, but the *teachings* and ideals of both of their tribes to all their children, regardless of bending status.

OR, aang and katara become parents and aang finds out that parenting is his proudest achievement, more so than stopping a hundred year war or holding the position of avatar

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

Of all the battles he had fought as the Avatar, all the struggles through which he had prevailed, Aang thought that perhaps parenthood was his life’s true proudest achievement. He’d known from the moment Katara had found out that they’d be parents that she’d be a wonderful mother, but he’d be lying if he said that he had been entirely confident in his own abilities.

---

Despite the many hats he had to wear for work, he always made a point of coming home to Katara as much as he possibly could. What was being the Avatar for, if not to use his abilities to race home to the love of his life?

---

Their third child, Tenzin, had immediately been identified as an airbender by Aang. He told Katara that he could just feel it, he could see it in the way his son moved through the air , waving his hands as if the oxygen itself was a tangible thing he could touch. As Bumi grew up, it was clear that he would be much more calm and stern than his two rambunctious siblings, perhaps in an unconscious attempt to balance them out.

Aang taught him the airbending traditions the same way he continued to teach Tenzin’s siblings-  he brought the three, along with Katara when she could take a break from work, to the air temples to aid in their restoration. He taught Tenzin the airbending forms, but he taught him in a group, with his other two siblings. For Kya, the airbending forms were applicable to her own waterbending, and for Bumi, they were a way for him to better understand the flow of chi through the body and calm his energetic nature. 

---

“Do you think they’re going to turn out alright?” Katara asked, and both pride and nervousness were present in her tone. “Are we doing a good job?”

Aang smiled softly at her, wrapping his arm around her smaller frame. “For a couple with only one parent between the two of us, I think we’re doing alright.”

Katara’s only response was a laugh and a splash of water to his face from the water she carried at her hip. She carefully bent it back into the bottle.

“They’re doing wonderfully.” Aang looked into the courtyard, where Kya and Bumi were locked in the mud, Kya bending mud-balls and Bumi throwing them back at her, while Tenzin tried in vain to get between them. “We have beautiful kids, Katara. Beautiful souls, too. The air nomad culture will live through them. It doesn’t matter if just Tenzin is an airbender- what the nomads would have wanted to be passed on is their way of life .”

♥ check out the rest of the (completed) fic & my ao3 here! ->

there are lots of people who've wondered what the gaang as a whole would have been like if they'd been older when they went on their world-altering quest, but... what if just aang was older? what if he had been frozen in his iceberg at age 16, instead of age 12?

for starters, i'm sure it'd change the dynamic between him and katara. maybe she'd look at him differently more quickly, maybe we'd get a bit of a reverse crush? he'd be taller than sokka much earlier on, and when zuko found him, he'd be "just a teenager," not "just a child."

essentially, to recap. ATLA aang aged up AU fic. kataang. where she falls first, and he falls harder.

i present to you... excepts from "the teenager in the iceberg", my newest ao3 fic 🤍

---

Shining blue eyes. Bright robes made up of strips of fabric coloured in shades of sunset they almost never saw down in the Southern tribes. 

The most beautiful boy she’d ever seen .

---

“W-Will-” he struggled, the words so hoarse that it was as though he hadn’t used his voice in decades. He cleared his throat, eyes sparkling distractingly, grinning roguishly. “Will you go penguin sledding with me?”

Katara blanched, momentarily caught off guard. She looked back over at Sokka, who had been watching the exchange with narrowed eyes and a suspicious expression as he recrossed his arms over one another. 

“I- um-... yes?” she answered, hesitantly, just as Sokka’s voice overlapped hers, yelping the words “She absolutely will not!” Katara shot him a scathing glare as the boy rose to his feet, shaking the snow off of his cloak like a polar-bear dog. 

Sokka continued, his voice both indignant and commanding.“We don’t even know your name, Mr. Walking Ice Cube! What were you doing in there? Were you trying to mimic a snow-man and you got too carried away?” 

“And you aren’t dressed for the cold,” Katara added appraisingly, giving him a once-over. “You look-”

“Dashingly handsome?” The boy smoothly interjected, accompanied by a grin that felt like it was just for her.

“...Cold.”  she said flatly, hoping she wasn’t furiously blushing as she shot him with what she hoped came across as a scathing glare.

---

Katara still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Aang. The Water Tribe boys had always been all flashy muscles, seal-jerky breath, and overconfidence, so Katara had never seen someone move, carry themself, the way Aang did.

---

Katara had admittedly forgotten how much fun penguin sledding was. “Spirits, I haven’t done this since I was a kid!” she called to Aang as he raced past her, surprisingly skilled considering that he’d never even seen a penguin until half an hour before. 

“You still are a kid!” He called back over his shoulder. “A kid who’s losing this race, badly!”

Katara’s competitive streak reared its head, her eyes narrowing as Aang stuck out his tongue. She sat up slightly, no longer gripping the penguin’s fur as tightly. “You wish!” She shouted back the words as she raised her hands, breathing deeply. Her hands moved through the positions she had practised from the few bending scrolls the tribe still held on to, and before Aang knew it, the snow in front of Katara turned to ice, and she shot past him as his own ice trail suddenly became dry snow with too much friction to slide on. 

She made it to the bottom of the hill, beaming, breathing heavily. The wind had whipped her hair out of her bun, and she knew without checking that her hair must have looked like a lion-turtle’s mane. She watched as Aang made a show of drying himself off with a gust of wind that he then redirected at her, messing up her curls even more. 

“You’re a cheater !” Aang gasped, mockingly clutching imaginary pearls at his throat. “I demand a rematch.”

Katara strode past him, only turning her head to cast him a smug smirk. “Maybe you’re just not as good of a penguin sledder as you thought.”

“Oh, not so fast!” Aang grabbed her wrist, tugging her back towards him, and she internally questioned why the momentary brush of their skin made her heart flip. He tried to trip her, she tried to flip him, and they both ended up on their backs in the snow, giggling, cheeks and noses bright pink from the cold. 

---

“Gran, I want you to meet Aang, he’s-”

“An airbender.” Her grandmother said the words with complete and utter awe. “The last airbender.”

Aang’s nose wrinkled in confusion, his head tilting and mouth opening to ask for clarification, but Gran’s next words stunned him and the rest of the room into silence. 

“The Avatar .”

Sokka and Katara’s jaws dropped, both pivoting to face Aang. Katara looked up at him, expecting to see shock and confusion, but she was met with sheepishness as Aang rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

“You are .” Katara breathed. “Spirits, you’re the Avatar.”

♥ this (multichapter) fic is still in progress, but check out the first chapter here!->

i think the idea that everyone else knew aang was in love with katara far before she did is such a funny and under-explored trope.

‿︵‿︵‿୨ ୧‿︵‿︵‿

“Aang? In love with you?” Sokka pondered it for a moment. “I mean, it checks out.”

“I-” Katara frowned, flustered by the second confirmation that day. “I didn’t say love .”

“I know.” Sokka shrugged. “But I did. C’mon, Katara, did you not see the way he looked at you when he got out of that iceberg?”

“Yeah, and I saw the way he looked at all those girls on Kyoshi, and that fire nation girl he danced with, and-”

Sokka cut her off with a single hand to the face. “Jet. Haru.”

“Touché.”

“To be honest, I always assumed he did and you knew, but just chose to skip around it to protect your friendship.” Sokka shrugged.

“I just- it wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. He’d just gotten out of an iceberg, he was so busy with everything. And he can just be so confusing. I feel like we never got the timing right. I mean, I thought that maybe something would happen after he got back from defeating the fire lord- I thought that once it was out of the way, we could be something, but…” She let out a soft sigh. “I guess not.”

“Katara.” Sokka awkwardly patted her back. “There, there.”

She shot him a glare.

♥ the rest of the fic can be found here ->

i'm coming out of my writing slump to drop some lines from a very fun concept to write in!!! atla au!!! and kataang content!!!! (to nobody's surprise)

i feel like a lot of people have wondered how different atla as a whole would be if aang had been older, so in this au, now zuko and aang are the same age! naturally, i just had to flip aang being after katara from day one to katara now having a crush on aang from the very beginning.

essentially, to recap. ATLA aang aged up AU fic. kataang. where she falls first, and he falls harder.

also, cmon. i just had to write a new version of the scene where zuko and aang meet.

zuko: you? you’re just a teenager!

aang: s-…so are you…?

---

Shining blue eyes. Bright robes made up of strips of fabric coloured in shades of sunset they almost never saw down in the Southern tribes. Katara wasn’t quite sure what to make of the boy sprawled across the ice in front of her. One minute, she’d been getting upset with Sokka over how rude he was being about her water-bending, and the next, she had split a massive iceberg clean in half and released some glowing beam, a blue-arrow-tattooed teenage boy, and his hulking fluffy monster-dog-bear-thing. 

The boy would later tell her that it was called a “sky bison”, and that it flew. Sokka had refused to believe this. Katara had rushed over the hill towards the bluish glow, tumbling through the snow and ice until she had seen him. 

Shining blue eyes. Bright robes made up of strips of fabric coloured in shades of sunset they almost never saw down in the Southern tribes. 

The most beautiful boy she’d ever seen.

She couldn’t help her lips parting slightly, jaw hanging slack before she remembered herself. The boy sat up, and Katara tried her best to focus, to gather a cohesive thought.

“W-What is it?” She breathed, whispering for some reason as if the boy would spook and disappear if she was too loud. 

“W-Will-” he struggled, the words so hoarse that it was as though he hadn’t used his voice in decades. He cleared his throat, eyes sparkling distractingly, grinning roguishly. “Will you go penguin sledding with me?”

Katara blanched, momentarily caught off guard. She looked back over at Sokka, who had been watching the exchange with narrowed eyes and a suspicious expression as he recrossed his arms over one another. 

“I- um-... yes?” she answered, hesitantly, just as Sokka’s voice overlapped hers, yelping the words “She absolutely will not!” Katara shot Sokka a scathing glare as the mysterious boy rose to his feet, shaking the snow off of his cloak like a polar-bear dog. 

Sokka continued, his voice both indignant and commanding. “We don’t even know your name, Mr. Walking Ice Cube! What were you doing in there? Were you trying to mimic a snow-man and got too carried away?” 

“And you aren’t exactly dressed for the weather here,” Katara added appraisingly, giving him a once-over. “You look-”

“Dashingly handsome?” The boy smoothly interjected, accompanied by a grin that felt like it was just for her.

“...Cold.”  she said flatly, hoping she wasn’t furiously blushing as she shot him with what she hoped came across as a scathing glare.

---

♥ if you want to stick around while i continue this fic, my ao3 (with lots of other kataang and atla works) can be found here!! the first chapter is up now->

do any other fanfic writers ever look back at something they've written and just wanna cry because you want what they have 😭 bcos same 😭😭 this exerpt is from my fic where i take the common zutara trope of zuko saving katara from a loveless relationship with aang and flip it on its head until it becomes kataang hehhee :) also new aang au fic coming soon!!!

---

Once she closed it, she turned to leave, but… hesitated. The wind, it seemed, had blown one of Aang’s cupboard doors wide open. But that wasn’t what gave her pause. No, what confused her was the glint of ice blue stone that seemed to shimmer inside. She stepped closer, then, silently apologizing to Aang for definitely invading his privacy, she reached in. 

And drew out what looked like a traditional Southern water tribe proposal necklace. 

For a moment, she was sure that her mind was playing tricks on her, that she was somehow misinterpreting something, but as she turned the necklace over, back and forth in her hands, she knew that this was unmistakably a proposal necklace. One she’d never seen before. The pendant itself, in style, shape, and material, mirrored her mother’s necklace, but the combination of carvings on it was different- two that were water tribe, that in fact matched her mother’s necklace perfectly, and two that looked distinctly air tribe. 

Before she could puzzle it over for much longer, she heard the clearing of someone’s throat and a gentle knock on the doorframe. She whirled around, feeling as though she’d been caught red-handed, only to see that it was Aang. He grinned at her, opening his mouth to ask her what she was doing snooping around his office, only for him to feel the words dry up in his throat when he saw what she was holding. 

She panicked, interpreting his expression as disappointment. “I found it by accident, I swear, I-”

“It’s okay, Katara,” Aang assured her, and he meant it. Maybe it was better that she’d found it this way. Spirits knew that it would’ve taken him much longer to work up the nerve to broach the subject with her.

“Who-who’s it… for?” Katara asked, trying not to make the tremble in her voice too obvious. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to keep it together if he told her that he’d found a lovely water tribe girl who wasn’t her to settle down with.

“She’s beautiful,” Aang smiled softly, shaking his head lightly. “She’s stubborn, opinionated, with a short temper at times, and I love how passionate she is about what she believes in. About helping people. She’s an incredibly talented and exceedingly humble bender, and she’s so, so kind, and, did I already mention how beautiful she is? Because spirits, she is. And I’m so in love with her. I have been since I was twelve.” He took a deep breath, his hands shaking now.

“I’m so, so, so in love with you , Katara.”

Katara suddenly could no longer form sentences.

“Do you want to know when I made that necklace?”

She nodded, staring up at his eyes, her own welling with happy tears. 

“The moment we arrived in the Northern Water tribe, years ago, I found a carver to teach me the significance of the symbols. Later on, I had Toph help me find an earthbender who specialized in teaching the skill required for etching tiny symbols in rock. I’ve carried it with me every day since.”

Katara’s tears were flowing freely now.

“I don’t want to rush you, don’t want to pressure you, and if you don’t want me the way I want you, then just say the word, and I’ll never mention it again, but Katara, I need you to know that I am head over heels for you. I meant what I said in my letters.

I am forever yours, always, if you’ll have me.”

---

♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->

did anybody else ever really want to know what happened those few weeks when aang was in his coma? we have it briefly summarized for us, but we never really get to see healer katara and how difficult it must have been for her to keep trying week after week only for aang to remain unconconsious?? plus the amount she would have had to work on her healing abilities and push her knowledge to her limits??? i don't typically write very much kataangst (see what i did there??), but i made an exception for this in-progress fic concept. i present to you some bits and pieces of "i'm no longer a kid, and everything has changed":

---

Katara felt the same flood of emotion that had washed over her as her mother fell as she watched Aang crumple and crash to the ground, Azula’s lighting still blazing through his body. For a second, she was back in her tent from years ago in the Southern Water Tribe, trying to waterbend to save her mother, only to realize that she had doomed her. Katara hadn't been able to believe it was real, even when the cloth-covered body’s arm was still wrapped in the bracelet Katara had made her in school only days before. Even when she saw the familiar necklace around her mother's neck.

Even when she had clasped the same necklace around her own neck. 

Seeing Aang now, she felt powerless, again, despite all that she had worked through, despite the skills she had gained. Fury rushed through her, and suddenly, she didn’t care who she hurt, who she got in the way of. It didn’t matter. They didn’t matter. He did. She had to get to him.

---

He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t moving. That was all she could think about, even as Sokka and Toph joined them, twin looks of horror on their faces as she quickly briefed them on the situation.

---

I know I can’t exactly… see it, but…” Toph said, solemnly. “Twinkle-toes looks… seems ... a bit…worse for wear.”

“Can you monitor his heartbeat?” Katara nervously ran her hands through the air above Aang's body. “I’m probably going to need to attempt something a bit experimental. I need to know if I need to stop, if it hurts him.”

“Is this the best idea?” Toph raised an eyebrow sceptically. Katara rested a hand on her lap, hanging her head slightly. “It’s the only idea I have.” Toph nodded sharply, as if she had just received orders, and rested her hand lightly on Aang’s upper arm. 

“Heartbeat steady.” She confirmed. “But something’s wrong with his breathing pattern. His lungs aren’t receiving enough blood, I think.” Katara exhaled, shakily, wracking her mind for something that could work. Her thoughts were cut off by the squeak of boots against metal, echoing from the doorway.

Her and Toph turned sharply, nervous that they were harbouring a Fire Nation stowaway, only to visibly relax when they realized it was only Sokka, joining them after setting the ship on its course. “If his blood is a liquid,” Sokka mused, crouching beside Aang,

“Couldn’t you… bend it, Katara?”

♥ check out the completed fic on my ao3:) ->

this one's for all the kataang shippers that got a little sad every time they saw absolute husband aang slander in a zutara fanfic.

OR: the common zutara trope of "zuko helps katara escape an unhealthy relationship with aang" is flipped entirely and completely on its head.

...

The liveliness of this mountaintop temple was nothing like the cold quiet that she had felt in Zuko’s castle these last few years. After she and her friends had saved the world, ending the Fire Lord’s reign, Katara had found herself at a crossroads. Although it made the most sense, she couldn’t bring herself to return back home, to the Southern Water Tribe. The memories were… too much.

Sokka had extended an offer for her to join him at the Northern Water Tribe, where he planned to find a teacher to aid him in mastering the traditional non-bending fighting styles of their people, but Katara just couldn’t bring herself to go back there, either. Toph and Aang were both headed to reconstruct important cultural monuments destroyed during the war, including the Air temples. She had considered coming with them, she really had, but ultimately… she made a different choice. 

...

So she had stayed with Zuko. 

Through his breakup with Mai, she had been the one he came to.

Through his first year as the Fire Lord, she was at his side. Attended every meeting, talked through his ideas, dragged him out to social events when he felt so in over his head that he would sit paralyzed in his room. That closeness had turned into something else the first night that he had kissed her.

...

And after what felt like years of quiet complacency and mild agreement, Katara felt her temper awaken, flicker. She calmed herself, reasoned that she didn’t know what he was doing with them. He could be checking for threats on her life, for poison sealed into an envelope. She held fast onto that tiny scrap of belief that he was still the man she had married, trusted, loved and been loved by.

Until that last thread of hope and trust was pulled taunt and then snapped entirely when Katara slipped into his office and found them. 

There were entire drawers of letters with her name on them.

...

Her attention drifted to the bottom of the bag. To Aang's scrolls. The ones she still hadn’t let herself read.

...

Katara,

How’s the fire palace? Started any underground dance clubs yet? I guess they’d be pretty tricky to start right under the nose of the new Fire Lord. Is Zuko adjusting well? I’m a bit worried about the burden of dismantling an entire empire falling squarely on his shoulders. Do you think I should head back, stick around for some peacekeeping? Give me any reason to come to be with you help, and I will.

Yours, Aang.

...

(Fire Lady) Katara,

I heard by word of mouth from a few Fire Nation travellers that passed through the Western Air Temple that you and Zuko had gotten married. Congratulations are in order, of course, but… Sokka, Toph, your dad and I never got our invitations. Was it a Fire-Nation-only event, or something? Your dad is pretty broken up about it. Sokka and I tried to console him, but he’s fairly upset, and honestly? I’m worried about you, Katara. This doesn't seem like you. You don’t sound like yourself.

Yours, always, Aang

...

She selected a third scroll, dated only a month before.

Katara,

I can’t deny that I’m concerned about how you’re doing. Especially considering that the Katara I know would never shut down every single opportunity to see her friends. We don’t mean to be overbearing, but we love you. So much. If all the new duties that come with being wife to the Fire Lord are too much, please, please, talk to any of us. Talk to me. I care about you, Katara, I always have, and I miss my best friend.

Forever yours, Aang.

Katara slid the scroll closed before her tears could drop onto it, and she quietly packed the papers away. She reached up, rubbing those tears away furiously the way she did as a child whenever Sokka called her a crybaby. The attempt to hold the tsunami of emotion back was fruitless. She doubled over, shoulders shaking with sobs.

She knew where she would go once the cargo ship reached the land. 

♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->

i think that by far, the most common zutara trope i've seen is zuko freeing katara from her unhappy marriage with the clingy, unappreciative aang.

i've always felt that that aang would genuinely worship the ground katara walked on and be exceedingly kind and respectful, and so i've always thought that this trope would make a lot more sense flipped, with aang in the position of being katara's safe space after zukko reverts back to his angry, sullen, lashing out persona that he was before uncle iroh & the gaang's involvement.

this fic is the result of me having the thought "might f around and write a kataang fic that flips the usual zutara trope of "zuko helps katara escape a failing relationship with aang" 😳"

---

Zuko was all alone, heading an entire empire and facilitating the transition of his nation from a war-bringer to a force for peace. At first, she told herself that it was only because he had needed help that she chose to stay with him, but that wasn’t being entirely honest. After that play on Ember Island, all of the scenes where the two of them were in love had opened Katara’s eyes to the possibility, and try as she might, she couldn’t shut them again. And Zuko, after all that he’d sacrificed to help them, after redeeming himself in her eyes, even fighting alongside her, he had seemed like her best chance at home. 

So she had stayed with him. 

---

Zuko proposed, after just six months, but Katara thought little of the brief timeline. When you know, you know, right? He had given her his mother’s ring, and had her dress in Fire Nation colours for the ceremony. She had been under the impression that the wedding would be a welding of cultures, and so she had spent weeks painstakingly carving a traditional water tribe proposal necklace. 

When she had presented it to him, Zuko had only said that a Fire Lord couldn’t be seen wearing another nation’s trinkets . She had quietly dabbed away her tears when he wasn’t looking.

---

The moon rose and set six more nights before Katara rose with it, slipping outside of the castle during the changing of the guard, draped in traditional water tribe colours for the first night in years. Before anyone had seen her, she had made it, slipping between Fire Nation homes almost silently. She only paused to pull clothes and a cloth head covering from a clothesline, silently apologizing to whatever family she had just stolen from. She tucked a couple of coins and a piece of gold jewellery into one of the pockets of the pants still on the clothesline, an attempt at making amends for her crime, then blended into the night again. 

She hadn’t stopped moving until she’d finally found a small forest, then she’d made herself a bed of moss and curled up as if she was a child back on the tundra, pretending to be a sleeping snow fox alongside Sokka.

She missed her brother. She missed her home.

---

She knew where she would go once the cargo ship reached the land. The last location Aang had been in was the Western Air temple. So that was where she would go. If she needed to, to find Aang, she’d scour every inch of the mainland. She knew he would do the same for her. Which begged the question- why hadn’t he come to her when he began to feel that something was off?

It was that question that Katara started with, as she settled into a comfortable position on Aang’s woven rug, a cup of hot tea curling steam around her body that she absent-mindedly bent into shapes around her.

---

Aang sighed, looking away. “Katara, I hate to give you more reasons to feel distressed, but in case you hadn’t remembered, you told me to stay away. Told me my “juvenile crush” was ridiculous and made you uncomfortable. I felt awful, and so, I backed off. I kept sending letters every couple months, trying to make sure you were okay, but you told me you were too busy, and I respected that.”

Katara’s tone was unsettlingly neutral when she responded. “...What?”

Aang titled his head, confused. “You said, in your letters, that-”

She responded in that same tone. “What letters , Aang?”

♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->

might f around and write a kataang fic that flips the usual zutara trope of "zuko helps katara escape a failing relationship with aang" would anybody be interested? 😳

--- can you see me using everything to hold back? ---

She strode up to the imposing wooden double doors, trying to psych herself up for the conversation she had ahead. Katara inhaled sharply, exhaling with a slow hand moment in an attempt at self- soothing. Before she had managed to work up the nerve to reach for the iron knocker, the door swung open of its own accord, accompanied by a sharp burst of air that admittedly caught her off guard. 

“Katara!”

And there he was.

“Aang,” she said, and the word felt like such a relief. 

“I haven’t seen you in, well, ages.” He tipped his head slightly to the side, looking her up and down, concern painted all over his face. “You want to come inside? I just put on a pot of Uncle Iroh’s tea.”

She smiled again, but it felt weak, unconvincing. “That’d be lovely.” She followed his retreating figure into the temple. After the war had ended, Toph and Aang had both temporarily moved between temples, trying to restore them so that they could become livable once more. Even if there were no more air nomads any more, Aang had reasoned that the monks would have wanted their temples to be used as a sanctuary for those in need, and so they had become ways to house those who were displaced by the war or simply had too many bad memories to return home. 

Katara only knew this from word-of-mouth. She had never before seen the air temples restored to their former glory firsthand, and the sight had knocked the wind out of her when she had finished her long and arduous climb up the mountain. Spires shot up through the clouds, with smaller buildings clustered all around them. Bridges extended across to neighbouring mountain peaks, and the entirety of the village was painted in shades of blue and gold. Although there weren’t air nomads flying overhead, as she imagined there would have been over a century ago, she noted that the village was surprisingly energized, with people coming in and out of their homes, a bustling street market and winged lemurs catching breezes overhead.

---

♥ the rest of the (now completed) fic can be found here!! ->

now that ao3 is back up, boy oh boy do i have a fic rec for you!!!!

i get that the comics are meant to fill that gap between atla and lok, but i feel like we've always been missing that moment where katara and aang actually formally confess their feelings and talk about everything they had been through. with how mature both of them are, it feels somewhat... unrealistic to me that we're never shown that moment where they talk it all out, after three (3!!!) whole seasons of buildup >:(

this fic was inspired by me wanting to show the moment when aang and katara are finally free from the responsibilities placed on them by the war!!!<3

OR: Aang wakes up the morning after him and his friends saved the entire world, and the first (and only) thing he can think about is Katara. When they get a chance to talk, the two take a walk down memory lane.

---

“Is it ok if I ask you something? While we’re on the topic of… us kissing?” Aang asked, hesitantly. 

Katara nodded. She had a feeling that she knew where this was going. “Ember Island?”

“Yeah.” He breathed. “We never got to… talk about that. After we kissed at the invasion, there was never a moment alone, and I do recognize now that Ember Island wasn’t the right time to bring it up, and I shouldn’t have sprung all of that on you. It wasn’t fair for me to ask you to make such a big statement. It wasn’t right for me to be so demanding. I felt ridiculously jealous over the implication that you were interested in Zuko, and I… well, I reacted poorly. I really am sorry for that.”

“I appreciate you saying that.”

He continued. “But, if you don’t mind me asking… what did you mean when you said you felt confused?”

Katara sighed, drawing water from the lake and tossing it between her hands idly. “I still don’t quite get it, even now. I think the best way to describe it was that I was in fight or flight, locked into survival mode. I did have feelings for you, and I knew that, but I just couldn’t let myself be vulnerable like that at a time like that. I guess that I was worried that if we started something, it’d be a weakness for the both of us. It felt too selfish to distract ourselves from the greater mission at hand when the world was at stake.”

“Ah.” Aang said, thinking it over as the pieces began to click together. “That… that makes a lot of sense.”

Katara continued. “If we’re both being honest, you do have a history of… avoidance, Aang. Giving into my feelings for you felt like it would mean enabling that bad habit of yours, and it seemed like the world needed you more than I did.”

---

Katara fought the blush spreading rapidly across her cheeks as the two leaned closer together. “Do you remember making that necklace for me out of fishing twine? So I could have a placeholder while Zuko had my mother’s necklace?”

He only nodded in response, her proximity rendering him entirely incapable of producing coherent speech. “I still have it. I don’t think you realize how much that meant to me.” She laughed, lost in memory for a second. “The way you looked at me when I put it on… and Sokka said you were acting like you were in love, and I… called you a good friend?”

“Mhm?” Aang asked, about as close to her as he could be without her lips on his. “What… what about it?”

"I don't want us to just be... good friends, not anymore." She took a deep breath, her voice wavering with nerves.

I think we were meant to be more than that." Katara breathed.

---

♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->

The war has been ended, Ozai has been rendered helpless, and Zuko has reclaimed the Fire Nation with the promise of peace. Everything that Aang has been working towards since the moment Katara freed him from the iceberg has been done. He's saved the world. Now, all that's left is to confess to his forever girl. The two are finally free from all the responsibilities placed upon them by the war and the world- now, loving one another no longer means neglecting their sense of duty.

OR: Aang wakes up the morning after him and his friends saved the entire world, and the first (and only) thing he can think about is Katara. When they get a chance to talk, the two take a walk down memory lane.

---

For a moment, in his still dream-addled mind, Aang wondered what he had done to wake up this way, only to have the memories rush back the moment his fingers lightly grazed the marks. For the first time in technically a century, a looming deadline of responsibility and unfulfillable promises wasn’t hanging over him.

Had it really only been yesterday when he and his friends had saved the world?

---

He remembered seeing that Katara was okay and feeling the relief so intensely that it felt as though it had reached his soul. Holding her for probably a couple seconds too long. Not wanting to let go, out of relief that she hadn’t been hurt.

---

From his place on the floor, bending a sphere of air for Momo to play with, Aang watched his friends bicker over Sokka’s drawing of them and felt so overwhelmed with emotion that he could hardly contain it. He had needed to grow up so quickly in the last year, all of them had. War had pushed them so far- each of them had lost so much, and yet, they could still smile. Could live in the peaceful world they deserved. That Aang would now be able to help create. 

Aang felt tears prick his eyes as he wondered what Gyatso would say if he had seen what Aang had done. If he knew that Aang finally stopped running from destiny. 

---

He turned to look at her, and spirits , she took his breath away. She pulled him in, and he wrapped his arms around her, burying his head in her neck, savouring in the reminder that she was okay , that they were okay , that they would have time now.

---

Guru Pathik was insane, absolutely crazy, for thinking anyone could ever choose cosmic energy over this girl. 

---

When Katara had excused herself early, saying that she had to grab a few things, Aang waited until she left the hall before jumping up from his seat.

“I have to- uh- um- A-Avatar things. To grab, from, from my room? And I should probably- uh- check on Appa. See how the, um, sleeping on the balcony… went?”

“...Mhm.” Toph deadpanned, “Sure, Twinkletoes. Just in case you were wondering, Miss Sugar Queen’s on her way to the gardens right now. You can catch up with her if you take the stairs to your left and make a couple of turns.” She elbowed Aang, hard enough to crack a rib or two. “Go get her, tigerdillo.”

---

“As much as I hate to admit it, you’re right. It wasn’t the time, no matter how much I wanted it to be.” He bit his lip nervously, then reached for her hands, pulling them between the two. The water she had been bending splashed back down into her lap, and after she gave a startled giggle, Aang helped her bend the droplets of water from her skirt. He took her hands in his once more, caressing her skin gently with his fingertips. 

“But… now could be that time. If you wanted it to be.” He breathed the words, looking into her shining, ocean-blue eyes.

♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->

katara speaks to each member of the gaang individually and finds out that aang has been head over heels with her for years and no one ever bothered telling her. this takes place after the fire lord is defeated, but in my version, they never kissed in the finale:oo katara is basically dumb in terms of love and so is aang and they are peak miscommunication trope and theres too much zutara content and not enough kataang

OR katara interrogates each of her friends (toph, sokka, and zuko) and comes to the conclusion that she has lived for years without the kind of love most people wish for their entire lives

....

Aang liked Katara. Like-likes her, even.

Wow, she thought to herself, I really should’ve grown out of using the phrase “like-like” by now.

She just couldn’t use the other word. That four-letter word that communicated such intense, devoted emotion. As soon as Toph said it, it seemed simultaneously to be the most obvious thing in the world and yet the most fundamentally incorrect thing Katara had ever heard.

“Wh-what,” Katara almost stammered, tripping over her words in a manner uncharacteristic of the Gaang’s most graceful member. “What gave you that impression?”

She was met with a blank stare and a raised eyebrow. “Have you not noticed the way he reacts when you’re in danger? When you’re hurt?” She paused, rolling her eyes incredulously. “For heaven’s sake, Katara, Twinkle-Toes gave up firebending after lightly toasting your hands. He gave up the avatar state for you. To be honest, if it would save you from some impending doom, I think he’d give up being the avatar for you, as long as you’d end up okay.”

“I think that’s taking the assumption a bit far.”

“I say that that doesn’t take it far enough.”

“I, I just- know he doesn’t feel that way about me. In the cave of two lovers, back before you joined the group, we were split from Sokka and when I thought we needed to kiss to get through the cave…” she blushed, remembering the embarrassment that had burned through her body. “He… he made it clear that he wasn’t interested.”

She was met with an eye roll. “Whatever you say, Sugar Queen.”

....

♥ the rest of the (completed) fic can be found here!! ->