This is my first fanfic on this website, and I really hope you enjoy reading it. …And reviewing it, if you have time, please. Reviews are excellent.

It isn't exactly from any one person's perspective… it kind of switches back and forth. And it's not really fluffy either, at least not in this chapter. YESS! I'm writing a story with CHAPTERS! I'm so excited for what it turns out to be, because I do not know myself.

This is what I wished happened right after 'The Ember Island Players.' And I do mean right after, the very night they come back from the play. When I say I wished, I mean it is not coherent nor does it link to the episode after 'The Ember Island Players' in any way whatsoever.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. I only own the story line and idea for this fanfiction.

Enjoy! ^^

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Chapter One

Aang sighed as he walked down the small hill towards the beach. The night sky was beautifully laid out above and in front of him, with seemingly miniscule stars glistening from every point in the sky. He nearly tripped over the shrubs and bushes that his feet were currently surrounded by, for he was watching the night sky more than he was watching where he was going.

This was good for him, right now. It was good for him not to think too much about anything and let the peaceful thoughts dominate over the more horrible ones.

His mind was distracted, though, and far away from Ember Island where he was currently forced to reside in. His thoughts were calm and reassuring—at the moment—but, as he tried to focus on walking, he couldn't help but let his thoughts zoom elsewhere, to what Katara might be thinking right now and what she was doing. He quickly plugged his ears and nose—which was quite hard to do, at the same time, actually—and blew out hard threw his mouth in an attempt to drown out his own thoughts. He'd worried far too much about Katara for the past few days; it was going to ruin him by the end of the week if he kept it up. Using loud Airbending to stop thinking about it seemed rather ridiculous, and pathetic. Aang wanted to forget all about it. He should be able to forget all about it.

Yet he couldn't.

Then again, what happened earlier that night had renewed his previous suspicions about how he wished Katara didn't feel about him. That vital fact certainly didn't touch any peaceful shores.

He sighed again as his bare feet touched the heartbreakingly smooth sand—as though his heart weren't broken in the first place—and reveled in its coldness. Aang had always thought the Fire Nation was supposed to be hot and humid, but apparently the temperature changed drastically during the night. The sand soothed him as he walked farther out towards the beachfront.

He'd stubbornly refused to let his Air Nomad instincts take over and simply fly down to the beach on his glider; Aang didn't know why, but he had a feeling that kind of approach would not 'leave his mind at peace', as the monks called it. Even as he thought about how exhilarating the wind in his face would feel, even as he knew his mind would be detached from worldly concerns as he flew through the air . . . walking seemed to have more of the right effect.

Dropping down harshly on the now wet sand close to the ocean, Aang folded his legs into his usual meditating position, with both his legs overlapping the other. He thought wryly how good it was to be genetically flexible at times like these as he forced his legs farther over one another into a position that would be altogether impossible for a non-bender to hold. He was facing towards the navy blue ocean, whose waves crashed against one another violently. He didn't so much as flinch as a fresh wave of mist hit in him the face and chest; he thought vaguely how very strange it was that the water was actually warm. Then again, nearly everything in the Fire Nation is at least warm, he spat to himself in his mind.

Slowly closing his eyes and clasping his fingers together as though he were worshipping or praying, Aang allowed his mind to find inner peace at the far reaches of the Universe.

Then he slowly gained unconsciousness.

-x-

Katara tossed and turned restlessly in her bed. She knew it was very late at night—early in the morning, actually—yet she could not find enough inner peace in herself to even close her eyes. She nearly laughed aloud as she found herself chanting in her head, inner peace, inner peace, inner peace . . .

But laughing was the last thing she felt like doing at the moment. How could anyone find humor in the fact that they had just broken someone's—a best friend's—heart? Not only had she broken it; she was sure she had ripped it fully out of his chest and burned it to a crisp with her harsh words, despite the fact that she was a Waterbender. . . .That wasn't the worst part, though. The worst part was knowing that he thought what she had said was true.

But it wasn't true! How could he not see that!? How could he take my words and put them right next to his heart. . . She hadn't meant it to sound as though it was his fault. Proves just how selfish I am, she thought bitterly.

She bit down hard on her bottom lip as she realized this was her fault. If she had just kissed him back, if she hadn't even mentioned the word 'confused'. . . maybe things would be better for both of them right now, in more ways than one. She was just vaguely aware of the fact that her lips were really starting to hurt underneath the force of her teeth; she was too caught up in mental hurt to notice any physical hurt. She could've had her leg chopped off at that moment and it would still not affect her as badly as her situation with Aang did.

When her teeth started to break skin, she quickly jolted back to reality, finally lifting her teeth from their painful embedment in her bottom lip. "Ow." The sound of her quiet, pained voice startled her.

She wiped across her lip swiftly with the sleeve of her bed gown and was fairly unsurprised as she looked at it to find that it was, indeed, stained with the red crimson liquid that now flowed freely from her mouth. "Oh, great," Katara sighed sarcastically as she slowly made her way to the bathroom to wash up.

Walking down the dark and drafty hallway, she couldn't help but think of a time when everything was so much . . . brighter.

She nearly got pulled into a flashback memory of times when their gang was small, when Suki and Toph hadn't yet joined the group. When it was only her, Aang, and her pigheaded brother . . . and they were all so careless. This was all before they all realized it was Aang's destiny to learn to bend all four elements, defeat the Firelord, and restore balance to the world. Before there were complications of—and she hardly let herself think the words—a romantic relationship with her best friend in the whole world. Thinking back, she realized just how oblivious she was all those many months they were together. How could she have not noticed that Aang was in love with her? Even when Sokka had hinted it and teased him about it so many times, she had thought it was just Sokka being Sokka. After all, he'd teased Aang countless times on their journey, and it never meant anything in the end.

Not counting the time when he just so happened to be correct.

By now she had reached the bathroom, although she nearly stumbled over her own feet while walking through the doorway. This was very uncharacteristic for Katara, what, with possibly being the greatest Waterbender in the world who was required to master coordination and balance. She looked in the mirror and gasped when she saw her reflection.

Her face was sallow and paler than usual, except for around the eyes where it was blotched, red, and looked swollen. Her eyes themselves were bloodshot and looked like she hadn't slept for days. Her bottom eyelids were a color of purple, blue, and black all mixed together to make a horrible image, adding to the effect of lack of sleep. How had this happened to her? She was well-rested since last night and didn't feel tired at all. It could have been because she was worried sick over Aang and it was impossible for her to sleep anyways, but she quickly diminished that thought, knowing she'd just get more upset if it were true.

Katara continued on with soaking a warm wash cloth and putting pressure on her bottom lip to reduce bleeding. She refused to look at her reflection to see if it really had stopped bleeding, in fear of seeing the monstrous condition of her face again. Rinsing the cloth, though, she swiftly wiped across her face, in an attempt to look like a normal human being again. With one swift glance at the mirror, she knew it'd be impossible to wipe away the blotches and shadows under her eyes. Let time and rest take care of that, she thought. Rinsing the cloth and hanging it on the rack to dry, she slowly made her way down the hall again.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to sleep even if she tried, she began to walk back and forth down the nearly black hallway, contemplating several things over in her head.

"K-Katara? Wha-What are you"—yawn—"doing up this . . . late?" Katara was so enveloped in her thoughts; she hadn't heard Sokka's door open.

Spinning around to face him she let out a startled yelp. "Oh!" Sokka raised an eyebrow; Katara could only see it because he was holding a small torch in his hand that dimly lit up the hallway with its faint glow. She realized he was still in his bed clothes, had bags under his eyes, and had a very bad case of bed-head. She couldn't help but laugh inwardly at that part. "I-I . . . well, I dunno. I couldn't sleep, so . . . I just decided to . . . y'know, walk around a bit, stretch my legs." At this, Sokka's eyebrow only rose higher. Katara's heart started to beat furiously out of nervousness, and the back of her neck began to sweat. How could she explain the real reason of why she was out of bed?

"Oh, yeah. You can't sleep, so you decide to walk around in a drafty hallway in the middle of the night, and you're"—he raised one of his hands to quote—"stretching your legs." His voice was marred with heavy sarcasm, and Katara couldn't help but flinch.

"Yes—exactly that," Katara lied, biting her tongue.

Sokka scoffed. "As amusing as your lying is, I'd like you to tell me the actual reason of why you're walking around outside my bedroom."

This was exactly what Katara wished he hadn't said, but she attempted to cleverly find a way around it anyway. "Well, not everyone can get what they'd like, now, can they, Sokka?" and she started swiftly walking away from him, only to have a hand grasp her shoulder—she winced at his touch—stopping her in her tracks. Looking around, she saw his face wasn't demanding or amused; just a pure look a concern that was obviously for her. Katara sighed, knowing she'd have to tell him the truth now.

"Sokka," she began, not knowing how to talk about boys with her own brother, "I've kind of . . . ran into a bit of a . . . problem, with Aang lately."

To her immense surprise, he merely nodded, as though he understood. "I had a feeling there was something up between you guys." He paused, saw the expression on her face—though Katara had no idea what it was herself—and started again. "Do you wanna sit down and talk about it?"

Katara had an acute awareness that Sokka was someone she could trust with this. He was her brother, after all, and he was supposed to be watching out for her, whether it be physically or emotionally. She felt as though she'd burst into tears any second, but she knew that would instantly alarm him, and he'd probably do something to Aang that would make Katara regret she'd started to cry.

"Yes," she said simply, forcing her voice not to betray her feelings, but it just ended up sounding monotone.

Katara realized Sokka hadn't let go of her shoulder, and as they started to walk out to the balcony to face the night sky, he kept his hand in place. It was oddly soothing, having her brother to comfort her with a simple touch such as a shoulder grasp. She realized that this was something she could easily vent to him as they sat down on the railing leading to some stairs.

"So . . . a problem with Aang, huh?" he began slowly, sounding hesitant. "Sounds big."

Bigger than you'll ever know, Katara thought with a pang of sadness. "Yeah. I guess you could say that." Katara didn't start talking again immediately after that.

". . . Well, I know I could be doing much better things than sitting out here in the middle of the night with my sister, saying nothing." He was obviously gesturing for her to continue.

Katara sighed tremendously before speaking. "Sokka . . . at that stupid play earlier today, I talked with him about our . . ." She couldn't think of the right word. ". . . feelings, for each other, I mean," she finished lamely. Out of nervous habit, she began to bite her bottom lip again, completely oblivious to the unhealed wound.

Sokka raised his eyebrows again. "And?" he pressed. "How does that explain why you're acting so jittery?"

"Well . . . something he said kind of caught me off-guard."

"Must I know what that something is?" he questioned impatiently.

"I suppose not," Katara admitted. "But the point is, I reacted so . . . unnecessary, and I really hurt him on the inside." That's an understatement, she thought as though poison ivy were clinging to her throat. "I'm not sure if I should make it up to him, or how I should make it up to him, or what to do at all."

Sokka heard the indecisiveness and pain in her voice, and immediately knew this was serious. "I'm usually not the one who would listen to your boy problems," Sokka said, echoing her earlier thoughts, "but with Aang, I'll have to make an exception." He seemed to be deep in thought, and even started to rub his chin wisely for the effect.

"Well, one thing's for sure," he said suddenly, sticking his finger in the air as though he had just made an amazing discovery.

"What's that?" Katara replied, startled.

"You'll have to do something, at least."

"Oh, well that's nice to know." She rolled her eyes, dipping her voice deep in sarcasm. "I would have never thought of that on my own, Sokka. Thank you so much."

"Hey, I'm just a guy trying to help," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I might have to know exactly what Aang said to you in order for me to think of what you should really do."

This hit an amazing nerve in Katara's gut, and she was instantly reluctant. "Well—the thing is, Sokka, it's a bit personal. I don't know how to tell you."

He stared at her as though she were mentally competent. "Look, Katara, do you want me to help you, or not?"

"Of course I do!"

"Then for the love of the Watertribe, please tell me what it is Aang said."

"Alright." Katara tried to find a way she could let this off easy for Sokka. "He kind of told me how he really felt about me, and well . . . h-he said, um—"

"He said that he loves you, didn't he?" Sokka interrupted. Katara gawked at him as though he had suddenly turned into a platypusbear before her very eyes.

"H-How in the world did you know that, Sokka?" she breathed. Then she turned angry. "You weren't spying on us, were you!?"

"No, Katara!" he replied, surprised by her reaction. "No offense or anything, but you've been incredibly unobservant for the past year. Almost from the moment we met Aang, I knew he liked you."

Katara sighed, looking at her feet. "I know. When I look back on that moment, I actually do realize how blind I've been." She couldn't help but let a single tear drop when she said her next words. "And I said that I was confused, that I didn't know if we should be together or not. I made a huge mistake, and now he's so upset, and I—well, I don't know what I should—how I . . ." She couldn't continue, for the tears were flowing freely now, pooling up out of her tear ducts and onto her lap. They seemed like pools of blood to her, raining from her eyes because she was in such deep, emotional pain.

Instinctively, Sokka stood up, and sat back down right next to Katara, hugging her close with one arm, while she continued to cry noiselessly. After a few minutes of this, he whispered soothingly in her ear. "Katara. I know you will make the right decision with this." Katara inclined her face a fraction of an inch towards her brother. "But there's just one thing you have to decide before you do." He paused, making sure he had her attention. Katara sobbed quieter now for his sake, while he breathed his next words that seemed to reluctantly spill out of his mouth.

"Now you have to decide how you feel about him."

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That's the end of the first chapter. Thank you so much for reading and don't forget to review, so that I'll be inspired to write the next chapter and have it in here by next week or sooner.