Avatar // Vital Signs // Part 1 of 1
Title: Vital Signs
Fandom Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: K+?
Word Count: 1,160
Summary: Aang thinks he can fix the Avatar Cycle. Hopefully the idea isn't as crazy as it sounds in his head.
Other: Post-series. No explicit spoilers past Day of the Black Sun, assumes the Gaang wins the war. Although I have watched through past The Boiling Rock, and that might have colored the story to a degree.
Light Aang/Katara shippyness.
***
Tendrils of smoke and dust rose above the ruined Fire Nation Palace. Somehow the edges of the extinct volcano managed to keep their integrity despite Toph’s onslaught below; maybe she’d thought of that and not bent any earth that couldn’t survive being moved. In the complex, Aang could just make out people moving - the palace guards who worked for Zuko now and their friends, no longer imprisoned, straightening up the worst of the mess and and digging out the few people they’d accidently buried under falling rubble.
Katara’s hand felt cool beneath his fingers. The soft, heavy warmth in the air around them, even this close to the ground, promised a quick beginning to the monsoon season. “I ... have to go,” Aang said, voice low. He felt about a hundred and twelve years old right then.
“Mm,” she replied, leaning into his shoulder. “They’ll worry if we’re gone too long, yeah.”
“Not that.” They shouldn’t stay gone too long, either, not with so much work that still needed to get done, but in the days since the Battle of Sozin’s Comet, since Fire Lord Ozai and Azula’s deaths, Aang finally felt like he had time to sit down and take a breath again. Time to think about a future longer than a few months. Time to think about Roku and Kyoshi and Kuruk and Yangchen, about himself. About another hundred years worth of responsibility he didn’t know if he was strong enough to handle. At least his friends would never let him even try to take care of the world alone. They’d all proved that a long time ago.
“Whatever it is, we don’t have to rush it.”
Aang angled his head to meet Katara’s glance. The bruise ringing her right eye, courtesy of some anonymous Fire Nation soldier, had faded almost completely back into her skin. He didn’t mention it; the echos of a thousand other lives - lives he had to find again, reconnect with, restore to the net of spirits that made up the Avatar - didn’t do a thing to tell him the encounter left Katara shaken. She used bloodbending to disarm the man who’d tried to kill her.
It was way past time that she - that all his friends - knew a world outside this war.
“I think Zuko would track me down himself and try to feed me to the sun dragons if I disappeared right now,” Aang replied.
Katara’s giggle carried out across the caldera as it strengthened and snowballed into a full belly laugh. She curled around her knees, gripping her ankles, shaking with each round of laughter. After a while she slowed, then sat up and knuckled tears out of her eyes. “You disappear again, I’ll track you down myself and feed you to the tiger-seals. Mister Big Important Firelord Pants can have what’s left of you for the dragons.”
“Then I promise I won’t disappear,” Aang said quickly, grinning himself. Katara took his hand again. When she squeezed his fingers he felt a tornado, a lightening storm and an earthquake go through his insides all at once. He wanted to kiss her again. No, Aang decided, he reallywanted to kiss her again. The thousand other voices - just four, now - thought Katara was right, though. They were both still kids, as much as anyone who’d spent the last year saving the world could still be kids, and they needed both finish growing up. He said, “I’m gonna go find the Airbenders.”
She pulled away, her mouth open and her eybrows quirked together. Katara shook her head a little afterwards, then closed her mouth and looked away from him. She sighed before she glanced back. Katara looked like she was fighting to keep from looking completely confused - still, one corner of her mouth turned down, like she was thinking her words through carefully before she said them.
“I know it sounds crazy,” he said.
“Not just crazy; it sounds impossible, unless you can - “ Katara stopped, then started again, “You’re the last Airbender. The last Air Nomad, period. We’ve been all over the world and we didn’t see - Aang, you’re the only Airbender anyone’s seen in the last hundred years.”
“But the world’s a big place.” And besides, they hadn’t looked for any other Airbenders. “But ... even if all the original Air Nomads are dead - ”
“You don’t think they are.”
“I hope they’re not.” He watched the motion down in the city, komodorhino-pulled carts and rhino handlers picking their way through broken streets. They’d needed every single last cracked road tile. Hopefully, Zuko had told them all earlier, he could get their amnesty paperwork drawn up and signed before someone got the stupid idea to get the City Works bureaucrats and their guards involved. Aang met the head of City Works earlier this morning. The man reminded him of Momo on the scent of some lychee nuts - nervous, twitchy and single-mindedly easy to irritate all at once. Chief Arnook hadn’t been even half that irritated after the siege of the north ended. “But even if they are gone, I - ” Aang stopped. He knew how silly it was for him to think saying it out loud would jinx the idea, but still. He wanted to be careful. “I think I can teach people Airbending.”
Katara looked at Aang like he’d just turned into a bear.
“I am not following you,” she said at last.
“Your people learned waterbending from the Moon and Ocean spirits,” he said.
Katara nodded. “Go on.”
“Earthbending:”
“From the badger-moles.”
“And Firebending comes from the sun dragons. The Air Nomads - skybison taught us how to airbend. Appa’s still here, and - ” Aang was thinking out loud now. “It’ll be harder to do, if I can’t find the other Air Nomads’ great-grandkids, but bending is about what your spirit is and who you are, not who you’re related to.”
Katara said what Aang really didn’t want to say out loud, her voice low and thoughtful. “If it works - ”
“- I know it’ll work - “
“- then the Avatar Cycle won’t be broken when you - “
“- when I die. Teo and Ty Lee both already want to try. This has to work. If it doesn’t the world might be in the same place it was when you found me in the iceberg.”
Neither of them spoke for a long time.
Katara looked upwards, toward the sky and the thick, fluffy clouds floating above them. Aang could have sworn he’d seen those exact same clouds a hundred years ago. “Sounds like - ” his friend took a breath, then started over. “Next you’re going to say you have to do this by yourself.”
Aang nodded, slowly. He rested his head on Katara’s shoulder and she leaned into him. “Yeah,” he replied, “I think it is.”
After another pause, Katara murmured, “The hard part is that I think you might be right.”
Fandom Avatar: the Last Airbender
Rating: K+?
Word Count: 1,160
Summary: Aang thinks he can fix the Avatar Cycle. Hopefully the idea isn't as crazy as it sounds in his head.
Other: Post-series. No explicit spoilers past Day of the Black Sun, assumes the Gaang wins the war. Although I have watched through past The Boiling Rock, and that might have colored the story to a degree.
Light Aang/Katara shippyness.
***
Tendrils of smoke and dust rose above the ruined Fire Nation Palace. Somehow the edges of the extinct volcano managed to keep their integrity despite Toph’s onslaught below; maybe she’d thought of that and not bent any earth that couldn’t survive being moved. In the complex, Aang could just make out people moving - the palace guards who worked for Zuko now and their friends, no longer imprisoned, straightening up the worst of the mess and and digging out the few people they’d accidently buried under falling rubble.
Katara’s hand felt cool beneath his fingers. The soft, heavy warmth in the air around them, even this close to the ground, promised a quick beginning to the monsoon season. “I ... have to go,” Aang said, voice low. He felt about a hundred and twelve years old right then.
“Mm,” she replied, leaning into his shoulder. “They’ll worry if we’re gone too long, yeah.”
“Not that.” They shouldn’t stay gone too long, either, not with so much work that still needed to get done, but in the days since the Battle of Sozin’s Comet, since Fire Lord Ozai and Azula’s deaths, Aang finally felt like he had time to sit down and take a breath again. Time to think about a future longer than a few months. Time to think about Roku and Kyoshi and Kuruk and Yangchen, about himself. About another hundred years worth of responsibility he didn’t know if he was strong enough to handle. At least his friends would never let him even try to take care of the world alone. They’d all proved that a long time ago.
“Whatever it is, we don’t have to rush it.”
Aang angled his head to meet Katara’s glance. The bruise ringing her right eye, courtesy of some anonymous Fire Nation soldier, had faded almost completely back into her skin. He didn’t mention it; the echos of a thousand other lives - lives he had to find again, reconnect with, restore to the net of spirits that made up the Avatar - didn’t do a thing to tell him the encounter left Katara shaken. She used bloodbending to disarm the man who’d tried to kill her.
It was way past time that she - that all his friends - knew a world outside this war.
“I think Zuko would track me down himself and try to feed me to the sun dragons if I disappeared right now,” Aang replied.
Katara’s giggle carried out across the caldera as it strengthened and snowballed into a full belly laugh. She curled around her knees, gripping her ankles, shaking with each round of laughter. After a while she slowed, then sat up and knuckled tears out of her eyes. “You disappear again, I’ll track you down myself and feed you to the tiger-seals. Mister Big Important Firelord Pants can have what’s left of you for the dragons.”
“Then I promise I won’t disappear,” Aang said quickly, grinning himself. Katara took his hand again. When she squeezed his fingers he felt a tornado, a lightening storm and an earthquake go through his insides all at once. He wanted to kiss her again. No, Aang decided, he reallywanted to kiss her again. The thousand other voices - just four, now - thought Katara was right, though. They were both still kids, as much as anyone who’d spent the last year saving the world could still be kids, and they needed both finish growing up. He said, “I’m gonna go find the Airbenders.”
She pulled away, her mouth open and her eybrows quirked together. Katara shook her head a little afterwards, then closed her mouth and looked away from him. She sighed before she glanced back. Katara looked like she was fighting to keep from looking completely confused - still, one corner of her mouth turned down, like she was thinking her words through carefully before she said them.
“I know it sounds crazy,” he said.
“Not just crazy; it sounds impossible, unless you can - “ Katara stopped, then started again, “You’re the last Airbender. The last Air Nomad, period. We’ve been all over the world and we didn’t see - Aang, you’re the only Airbender anyone’s seen in the last hundred years.”
“But the world’s a big place.” And besides, they hadn’t looked for any other Airbenders. “But ... even if all the original Air Nomads are dead - ”
“You don’t think they are.”
“I hope they’re not.” He watched the motion down in the city, komodorhino-pulled carts and rhino handlers picking their way through broken streets. They’d needed every single last cracked road tile. Hopefully, Zuko had told them all earlier, he could get their amnesty paperwork drawn up and signed before someone got the stupid idea to get the City Works bureaucrats and their guards involved. Aang met the head of City Works earlier this morning. The man reminded him of Momo on the scent of some lychee nuts - nervous, twitchy and single-mindedly easy to irritate all at once. Chief Arnook hadn’t been even half that irritated after the siege of the north ended. “But even if they are gone, I - ” Aang stopped. He knew how silly it was for him to think saying it out loud would jinx the idea, but still. He wanted to be careful. “I think I can teach people Airbending.”
Katara looked at Aang like he’d just turned into a bear.
“I am not following you,” she said at last.
“Your people learned waterbending from the Moon and Ocean spirits,” he said.
Katara nodded. “Go on.”
“Earthbending:”
“From the badger-moles.”
“And Firebending comes from the sun dragons. The Air Nomads - skybison taught us how to airbend. Appa’s still here, and - ” Aang was thinking out loud now. “It’ll be harder to do, if I can’t find the other Air Nomads’ great-grandkids, but bending is about what your spirit is and who you are, not who you’re related to.”
Katara said what Aang really didn’t want to say out loud, her voice low and thoughtful. “If it works - ”
“- I know it’ll work - “
“- then the Avatar Cycle won’t be broken when you - “
“- when I die. Teo and Ty Lee both already want to try. This has to work. If it doesn’t the world might be in the same place it was when you found me in the iceberg.”
Neither of them spoke for a long time.
Katara looked upwards, toward the sky and the thick, fluffy clouds floating above them. Aang could have sworn he’d seen those exact same clouds a hundred years ago. “Sounds like - ” his friend took a breath, then started over. “Next you’re going to say you have to do this by yourself.”
Aang nodded, slowly. He rested his head on Katara’s shoulder and she leaned into him. “Yeah,” he replied, “I think it is.”
After another pause, Katara murmured, “The hard part is that I think you might be right.”