FIRST OFF: I missed two days of Kataang week! My laptop broke right as it was opening and it took me forever to get it fixed. I plan on catching up, but until then, please accept this offering (it's really more of a warm up, since it's been a while since I've dug into fics/Kataang week. Prompt was Rainy Days. Feedback is always welcome, and Happy Kataang Week! ~TA

The beach is a frothing, fathomless mess of tide and wind and tempest, water crashing along the shore and breaking back out to sea again. Overhead, the sky is a grey steel, with clouds moving about, blocking out the sun and casting a weak, cold light onto the ground below. Looking up, Aang fancies he feels raindrops starting to fall, but it could just as easily be the ocean spray, calling his attention back to the earth below.

"Feels like rain," he remarks to the woman beside him.

"I don't mind the rain." Katara is barefoot, the loose cloth of her robe wrapped tight around her slender frame as she picks her way across the beach, pausing every now and then to admire a seashell or to pause and watch the power of the ocean. The beach reminds her of home, when you could stand on what felt like the very edge of the world and stare out on an unending mass of water, knowing it couldn't possibly last forever, but still feeling like it might anyways.

She doesn't realize Aang is watching her with adoration in his gaze – or maybe she's just too used to it to pay much heed – but her hand seeks out his as they meander down the sandy shoreline, fingers tangling together as they continue on their aimless journey.

Time together has been rare, lately, with Aang rebuilding the world one brick at a time. She helps him every step of the way, but there is only so much she can do to ease the burden off his shoulders, and she knows, although she never says it, that Aang is attempting to atone for abandoning the world. It's a heavy weight for someone who is still so young, but it's a weight she will help him carry until the task is done.

The wind blows around them and the ocean continues to beat along the shoreline, but still they walk, their clothes soaked by the spray of the ocean, their skin chilled but not yet freezing. Out here, it's easy to believe they are the only two people left alone in the world: there's not even a stray fishing boat, lonely against the horizon, to remind them of the rest of the world. It's both lonely and incredibly freeing, a combination of isolation and the knowledge that there is no one to watch them, no one to fight, no one to impress or plead with or put on a show for.

She thinks about running down the length of the beach, hair streaming behind her, laughing as she waits for Aang to catch up, breathing hard as she struggles against the pliable sand. She thinks about dashing into the waves, fighting against the current as she races Aang to the farthest point, before swimming back. She thinks about calling down a thunderstorm and then dancing in the rain, teardrops on her face as she contemplates the future and all the parts of her that have come alive under this adventure, with Aang beside her.

Aang's hand is warm in hers, and he squeezes it gently. "What are you thinking about?"

They have an eternity together to right the wrongs of a hundred years of war, to build a city and bring benders and non-benders together again, to bring balance and harmony to a world that has only known chaos and strife. They have an eternity to have a family, to watch it grow and thrive, to bring back the Air Benders and watch their friends grow old, retire their war stories, and settle into peace.

More importantly, they have each other.

"I'm thinking about us," she says simply, and smiles as Aang kisses her, raindrops finally falling down around them in a burst of celebration.