Coming Together

Something is Wrong ?Right?

Autumn surrounded the city with beautiful oranges, reds, and yellows of dying leaves and cooler winds off the bay. The sun was getting further from the earth, right at that sweet spot between perihelion and aphelion. Temperatures were mild, sometimes a little chilly. As the weeks rolled on from summer to autumn though, Katara's pleasure was dissipating and her patience was being spread thin. Out of everything that had been happening she knew one thing for certain; Aang was avoiding her.

There had been fewer and fewer morning wake up calls to her house. Fewer bending sessions. Fewer meals together. Just over all less time together. When she was with him he seemed distracted, looking at her in a weird way that was unnerving to her. She tried to keep calm about it. She reminded herself that he was the avatar and was busy with the whole world and that she really couldn't ask for 100% of his time. This calmed her a little but there was still something bizarre about the situation.

Katara was dressed for the day and decided to head down to City Hall and talk to Sokka, hoping to catch him available. She snuck in the main door and walked off to the left to go upstairs to Sokka's office. She rounded the corner and was surprised to find him standing in the doorway of his office and Aang in the hall. They both stopped talking abruptly when Aang turned his head to see her walking towards them.

"Oh, hey Sweetie!" He said with a little too much enthusiasm. She frowned and looked between them.

"Hey, I thought you were going to Ba Sing Se today? What are you doing here, talking to Sokka?"

Aang looked to her brother and back to her before smiling again.

"I was just, uh, getting some things cleared up before I left! There were some issues with..." He trailed off and looked to Sokka. His face was blank and no help. Aang's eyes widened and Sokka sighed.

"Trading." He said flatly.

"Trading!" Aang repeated quickly. "There were some issues with the trade routes that I needed to help with and now I am done so..." He turned back to Sokka and shook his hand. "Thank you for the help."

"Wait, I thought you helped him, not the other way around." Katara said and crossed her arms.

"Right! Thanks for letting me help Sokka. It was, um, helpful?" She said and rubbed the back of his neck. Sokka patted him on the shoulder and changed the subject.

"Have a good trip. Be careful."

"Okay thanks." He said and Sokka gave him a firm hand shake by the arm, waving goodbye to his sister and going back into his office, closing the door. Aang looked to Katara and smiled and shrugged.

"Okay, so I guess I need to get going. Appa is on the roof." He leaned in to give her an kiss and she put a hand on his chest to stop him.

"What is going on with you lately?"

His puckered lips came to a frown and he put a hand on her waist.

"What do you mean?"

"You have been avoiding me. And when you are around me you've been... odd."

"No I haven't! I've been really busy, honest! And what do you mean odd? Odd how?"

"Like that whole thing between you and my brother just now. That was just... it felt like you were using code with him or something. You're hiding something from me."