Avatar: The Last Airbender: Reemergence

2

Aang awoke to the bright light from the sun's rays seeping in through the window. He didn't know what time it was but he wouldn't be surprised if it was almost already noon. Sitting up slowly, careful not to wake up his still sleeping girlfriend, he looked around the room. Judging by the amount of sunlight coming into it, he knew his suspicions of it being the middle of the day were right.

Ever since the destruction of the Southern Air Temple a little over a month ago, he and his friends hadn't really had much to do which was why sleeping in this late had become a little bit of a norm for them. Despite everything, General Howe seemed reluctant to have their assistance so they were just left to hang out in the city and pass the time until the coronation of the new Earth King, which Aang felt like they needed to be there for. Luckily, Aang reminded himself, the coronation took place today so that meant that they should be able to finally get out of this city in a few days. It wasn't that the city was unpleasant, but Aang eventually grew tired of staying in the same place for so long. The only place he could handle staying in for more than a month was the Southern Watertribe and he suspected that was because it had practically become his new home. Maybe they could head back there once they left the city. It had been several months since they had to leave it behind when they had to chase Tau across the Earth Kingdom.

Making a mental note to talk to his friends about it Aang got up out of bed and quickly got dressed, all the while making sure he was quiet enough to not wake Katara. Getting up earlier then her had become another norm to him over the course of the past month. He knew what the reason for that was though. Once they were both up, they were nearly always together and Aang never got much time to himself and getting up earlier than her was the only way to solve that. Normally, that would not be a problem but this was something that Katara could not know about...not yet at least.

Taking a seat at the desk near the corner of the bedroom, Aang opened one of the drawers and inside sat a nearly complete betrothal necklace. Aang reached down and carefully picked it up as if it was going to shatter if he was to rough with it.

It had become his own personal project during the past month. He found that it distracted him from his guilt of destroying the Southern Air Temple but even more important than that, this was something for Katara...and something that would hopefully lead to them spending the rest of their lives together.

His decision to ask Katara to marry him had happened once he realized that they could very well lose each other. Their near death in the Si Wong Desert had proved that and it had been a wakeup call to him. He was always planning on asking Katara eventually but everything that had gone on during the past few months had encouraged him to do it sooner rather than later. So now, he was planning on asking her during his own sixteenth birthday. He still needed to put the finishing touches on the necklace though and ask her father for permission to marry her; which was the thing he was dreading the most. He knew that nervousness was common though and it was just something he would have to deal with.

Coming out of his thoughts, Aang set the necklace down on the table to inspect it. At first, he was going to make the traditional Watertribe themed necklace with a blue ribbon and a blue stone but that had very quickly changed. Aang had been surprised at the time but not long after he started to work on the betrothal necklace, Katara had had copies of her own air nomad clothes that he had given her during her birthday made. When Aang had question why she had done that, she had simply and smiled while telling him that since her destiny was to help him, which she had learned thanks to a visit from a spiritually form of her mother, it seemed only right to her that she stand alongside him and helped represent his own long lost nation. The gesture had meant a lot to Aang and he had found that she was completely serious about it. The air nomad clothes were pretty much all she wore now.