This is for all the Katoph fans out there. And if that's not your thing, feel free to slip away now while no one's looking.

A big shout-out goes to HanJoo, whose drawing inspired this story and its title (see my profile for a link if you're interested) and whose gentle application of a boot to my derriere reminded me to get on with writing it! I guess this could be considered a follow-on to Seeing through the Darkness, and once again, although the story references certain canon events, for the sake of my sanity I'm going to say that the characters are older in this story (mid- to late-teens).

Don't Let Go

Chapter One

Tap. Taptaptap. Tap tap.

Had Katara been asleep, the sudden knocking at the door might have provoked a violent response. Instead she sighed in relief at the sound of that familiar rhythm and slipped fully-dressed from her bed, picking up her water skin from the floor and sliding its strap over her shoulder as she passed. She paused long enough to smooth down her hair and straightened her clothes before she opened the door. On the other side stood a bleary-eyed airbender, who bit back a massive yawn as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He looked as exhausted as if he had lain awake all night, yet Katara had listened to the soft snores coming from the adjoining room as she lay on her bed and counted the roof beams criss-crossing over her head. The straw mattress was so soft, almost too soft after countless nights spent sleeping on the hard ground, but she was unable to sleep as long as the inn rang with the loud voices and footsteps of drunken revellers returning from the festival.

"Hey, Katara. I'm really sorry to wake you."

"It's fine," she replied, glancing into the corridor past him. "Is it time to leave?"

"Uh huuuuuh." Aang hid another vast yawn behind his hand and stood blinking at her as she pulled on her boots. After another sleep-dulled moment, he remembered the bundle of packages sitting beside the door and scooped the entire pile into his arms, waving off Katara's attempts to take some of them herself. She finally gave up and, with a good-natured shrug at his chivalry, she led the way down the stairs and out of the inn.

The night before had seen the market square completely transformed. Every building in the village seemed to have been bedecked with brightly coloured decorations of every size, paper and canvas animals coming alive as they fluttered and darted in the breeze. Katara couldn't hold back a smile at the sight of the colourful lanterns hanging between the buildings and strung through the branches of the trees. She had walked beneath brilliant orbs of blue and green and yellow as she explored the stalls in the square, her simple quest for food and supplies soon forgotten as she breathed in the exotic smells of spices and cooking meats and aged wines rising from the nearby stalls. Bolts of silk and linen in a thousand rainbow hues were unfurled along trestle tables amid the soft sheen of jewellery and polished stones laid out on dark velvet to catch a girl's eye, watched over by traders and merchants who had travelled the length and breadth of the four nations. By the time she had visited every stall and had her fill of barter, she was astonished to find that night had fallen and several men were lighting the last of the lanterns as others cleared away the stalls to make room for the musicians and dancers that were to come. Now those same lanterns had dimmed to a faint glow against the dark sky as they walked through the village, which seemed eerily quiet and still after the loud celebrations the night before.

Had Aang known beforehand that the village would be celebrating its spring festival? The more she thought about the previous day, the greater her suspicions grew. After spending most of the day training together, Aang had finally called a halt in the late afternoon and suggested a trip to the nearby village to buy supplies. There was no need to pester the other two to join them, he had told her, especially since he thought that Sokka and Toph could use some time alone together. The last words were accompanied by a mischievous grin and a conspiratorial waggling of his eyebrows, but Katara didn't find the idea at all funny. No, her stomach had twisted painfully at the thought and she had hurried away rather than face Aang's smirk, leaving the startled airbender to run after her. He had barely had time to call out a farewell to Sokka as he raced to catch up.

Now as they picked their way through the muddy square, stepping over crushed paper decorations and dropped pieces of food, Katara glanced over at Aang and found herself gazing into steady grey eyes. Aang blushed slightly and looked away, then glanced back. He grinned self-consciously at being caught looking, twice in a row. His grin slowly faded away as a thought crossed his mind and his expression turned serious. He looked at her again and Katara could almost see the question forming on his lips. Instead of speaking, however, he slung the bundle of packages over his shoulder and busied himself looking around at the painted animal banners hanging limply from their poles, ignoring her attempts to catch his eye.

As they passed beyond the last house in the village, Aang finally spoke up. The airbender was no fool; he knew that he had said something to upset Katara the day before, but he had decided not to raise the issue and risk spoiling their time together. Now, however, his curiosity knew no bounds. Like a man probing at a sore tooth with his tongue, he waited nervously for the sharp sting to follow.

"Katara, I wanted to ask you this earlier, but... there's no easy way to say this."

"What is it?" She eyed him warily, unconsciously falling a step or two behind as she braced herself for an awkward question.

"You really don't like the thought of Toph and Sokka together, do you?" He hurried on to explain, "You didn't seem happy when I mentioned it yesterday. But I don't understand. I mean Toph is a great person and I thought you liked her. Sure, the two of you didn't get along at first, but you're friends now, aren't you? I would have thought if you would approve of anyone seeing your brother, it would be Toph, and..."

Katara tuned out the rest of his anxious chatter. She appreciated his attempts to stick up for their friends, but whatever warmth that brought her was lost in the violent churning of her stomach. Toph and Sokka. Sokka and Toph. No matter how she twisted it, the names didn't fit together. She didn't want them to fit together. Sokka already had Suki. And as for the earthbender...

"Let's not spoil what we have by talking about that," Katara interrupted Aang mid-sentence. Her tone was calm and expressionless, perhaps a little too calm. She didn't elaborate on what exactly they had but Aang was beyond noticing; the argument that he had feared had not materialised. He grinned happily to himself as Katara's words sank in.

They walked until night ebbed away from dawn's light, and when the clouds flared violet and deep vermillion overhead, Aang suggested that they stop for a while. His sense of triumph only grew at Katara's nod. He found a hill with a clear view and once they had set down their load, it made perfect sense to unwrap some bread and fruit for breakfast. Katara declined his offer of food, opting instead to lie in the grass and watch the sky come alive with colour. She could think of no better way to start the day and even Aang was silent as he contemplated the beauty laid out before him.

Aang watched the rising sun paint Katara's face with streaks of gold and marvelled at the fact that she was allowing him to stare so openly. She was too deeply immersed in her own thoughts to notice his attention and he couldn't help but wonder what those distant eyes were looking at. She had also done something similar the night before, he recalled.

After sharing several dances with Katara at the festival, Aang had suggested that they find an inn rather than attempt the long walk back in the darkness. Katara had looked at him for a long moment before agreeing to find separate rooms. After striking up conversation with the keeper of a nearby inn, they soon found themselves invited to join him and his wife for dinner. The food was excellent, the company lively, and their voices and laughter had only grown louder by the hour. But Katara had grown quieter and more distant with each passing hour, her laughter fading into a wan smile that soon became a weary look, and at last she excused herself to bed.

This morning, she wore that same tired, distant look and Aang wondered when she might want to hear the stories that she had missed after her early retreat. For now he could concentrate on distracting her from whatever thoughts left her looking slightly saddened, but he resolved to ensure that Katara got some sleep once they reached their camp.

"Hey, Katara, do you remember that old saying?" He folded his hands behind his head and leaned back to look up at the sky.

"I'm sorry?" she answered after a moment or two, stirring from her deep thoughts.

"There used to be some old saying about the colours of the sky," Aang repeated. After a moment, he remembered and grinned proudly. "'Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning. Red sky at night, sailor's delight.' I never really thought about it before. Why is a red sky in the morning such a bad thing?" He gestured towards the clouds as he spoke.

"I don't know. I've never heard that saying before." She glanced at Aang and couldn't resist adding, "I guess it was before my time."

Aang hunched forward and screwed up his face into wrinkles, waving his staff at Katara indignantly. "You pesky young 'uns," he wheezed, "show some respect for your elders!"

"Yes, grandpa, of course, grandpa!" Katara dodged a swipe from his staff as she laughed at the ridiculous display. Aang lay back, his grin directed at her this time. It was such a relief to see her laughing again, even if it lasted only for a moment. Katara climbed to her feet and offered Aang her hand.

"Do you need a hand getting up, grandpa? You must be stiff after all these years."

Aang shook his head and leapt to his feet on a sudden gust of wind. Katara turned away with a slight smile, and the sight made Aang grin in delight. His smile soon turned to a puzzled look as Katara began tying up their bundles of supplies for carrying once more and thrust several parcels at him. She picked up her own bundles and began to march briskly down the grassy slope.

"What's the rush, Katara?"

The clouds overhead were still tinged with faint shades of orange and pink and Aang would have preferred to watch the sun rise fully before leaving this placid little hillside, but Katara seemed to have other ideas. Aang sighed as he hurried after the waterbender. Perhaps she was just anxious to get back to the camp. After all, she hadn't known that he would whisk her away to a village festival the day before. Aang on the other hand had planned out the whole day in advance, and the knowledge that he would soon have her to himself for the rest of the day had lent him strength during their gruelling sparring. Perhaps he had not been entirely honest as he persuaded her to linger longer and longer in the village, but it had been worth the trouble. No amount of silver could buy the happiness that he felt that night. He just wished that he could believe Katara had enjoyed herself as much.

It was a rare occurrence indeed, but even heroes and earthbenders could have bad days. No self-respecting warrior would admit to such a thing, however, and Toph Bei Fong never usually allowed herself such indulgences. Today, however, she was almost ready to admit that she was having a Really Bad Day.

The fact that her bad day had lasted forty-eight hours made it doubly heinous. Toph had been vacillating between waking and sleeping for hours now, unable to relax as long as the iron-toothed unease gnawed at the pit of her stomach. She wasn't one to worry --she didn't believe in it and regarded worrying as a way for the insecure to waste their time-- but now her body rebelled against her mind. She continued to pace in the same wide circles that she had walked since sometime the day before, wearing away the ticklish blades of grass until there was nothing but hard, sandy earth beneath her feet. The same thoughts continued to circle in her mind as her feet wore away at the bare path, chasing an answer that she still couldn't find.

For as long as Toph could remember, minutes had passed into hours, marked only by the persistent grinding chirps of crickets in the grass all around their camp, while she waited and listened. At any moment, she knew that she would hear that light tread and the soft voice that would accompany it as Katara returned from her afternoon sparring with Aang. This whole charade had begun sometime after lunch the day before, when a light touch on her shoulder had alerted her to Katara's presence. Then the voice that she loved to hear had breathed a request into her ear, asking her to meet Katara at the river after she finished training with Aang. Her tone told Toph that it was no urgent matter but the feather-light brush of fingertips against the nape of her neck made her tremble with anticipation. And so the blind girl had loitered around the camp, growing increasingly short-tempered with each of Sokka's fumbling attempts to make conversation. His thoughtless chatter and the noisy scrape of his whetstone on iron grated against her raw nerves, while she strove to hear that tiny, distant sound. How long she had paced around the camp, she didn't know, but finally Sokka had told her to go train for a while to relieve her tension. He offered to prepare dinner and tell her when it was ready, and the meaning of his words hadn't registered at first. If Sokka was cooking dinner, it meant that he didn't expect Katara to come back any time soon.

She could have saved herself a lot of sorrow at that moment, she realised far too late, if she had just realised that fact. Instead she had passed the hours practicing her forms and hand strikes, not wanting to disturb Sokka even as the heavy burden of worry lay on her shoulders. She had heard but not answered Sokka's call to dinner, unable to stomach the thought of eating any food, much less his attempt at cooking. Only when her heart pounded fit to burst out of her chest and the sweat dripped from her body did she notice that the air had turned cold and the night insects had started to chirrup. Night had fallen and Katara was still missing, along with Aang. A completely unconcerned Sokka had gone to bed shortly after sunset and his steady snores should have been enough to reassure her, but it no longer did.

Toph growled under her breath and cracked her knuckles, one by one, savouring the loud pops that her friends hated. An hour ago the noisy chatter of birds flitting through the trees enclosing their camp had replaced the dwindling chirps of the crickets, and now she could feel sunrise in the gradually warming air and the dew beading the grass underfoot. Another day was born, and where was Katara? Where was Aang, for that matter?

The logical answer was that they were together. Aang and Katara, off alone with one another, and since they had not breathed a word of it to Sokka or Toph, it was clearly a private assignation. Katara and Aang. She could imagine it now. Aang had whisked her away to a special place where they could be alone, enjoying the hours that stretched before them. She could almost hear the shared laughter and the nervous giggles quickly stifled as he moved closer to her, conversation dying away as Katara blushed. Would he whisper sweet, empty words in her ear? They would have eaten together, of course, and maybe they had broken off small bites to feed each other, leaning into one another until the inevitable happened. A kiss.

"Spirits be damned!" Toph raked her hands through her dark hair as if she could tear her thoughts out of her very head. Her fists clenched until the skin stretched painfully across her knuckles, but it wasn't enough. She had to do something before she went any crazier. It no longer mattered that her sightless eyes and head ached after so many hours without rest or that it felt like her very bones ground together under the stress. Toph let out another angry growl and paused for another moment to listen. All she heard were Sokka's deep snores coming from the other side of the clearing, and so she turned and strode away into the trees.

Toph padded through the dew-stained grass as she headed towards the river, where the trees thinned out along the bank and the sandy earth turned to familiar, welcoming gravel. She had trained there for several hours the evening before and now she intended to drill there again until she was tired enough to sleep, or until Aang and Katara finally decided to return. When the sound of rushing water grew louder, almost drowning out other noises, and the texture of the dirt changed underfoot, she knew that she had arrived. She drew a deep breath and released it slowly, then tried a few more times when it failed to calm her in the slightest. She stepped into her horse stance, closed her eyes, and focused on each breath. She sought to return to that place of calm, from which could stand and direct the very rocks to move. One, two, she counted inside her head as she began throwing straight-arm punches, only remembering at the last second to curb her power. Two slender ridges shot through the ground from her body, advancing mere inches with each punch and each stamp. She gradually progressed to the more advanced forms, and each time her feet struck the ground, she saw a little further through the vibrations and through the ground.

Toph stamped down more forcefully and concentrated on the shocks rippling through the earth. She could hear the birds darting from tree to tree but with determined concentration she could feel them landing on the individual branches. Her vision grew to encompass an ever wider area, a thousand details adding themselves to her mental map. She could count the footsteps of the insects crawling in the undergrowth, she could even feel the sap pulsing slowly through the roots of the ancient trees around her, but she could not feel the one thing she sought. Sokka still lay in his bed roll, each snore vibrating through the length of his body, beside the grazing bulk of Appa and the flashes that were Momo as he pounced after squirrels. But there were no tell-tale vibrations from approaching footsteps or the distance murmur of voices. Perhaps they were out of range, or maybe Aang was showing off his airbending once again, or perhaps they were not on the move but holed up somewhere as their date continued from the night before. Or maybe something had happened to them and she could not hear their distress, would not detect them until it was too late...

Another violent stamp cut off that thought as she sought to see a little further through the minute tremors in the ground. She didn't notice the rumble that shuddered through the ground as she continued to move; she was too intent on reading the echoes that came back to her from a mile around. Toph let the last tremors die away as she collected her strength and prepared to try again. She had to try again. Katara was somewhere out there, and she wanted to find her. Toph needed to find her, before her treacherous thoughts overwhelmed her common sense. Before she began to wonder if she was imagining things.

Before she realised that she was already losing Katara to Aang.

To be continued…