Pirate Love (kataang story)

A New Friend

It had been a few weeks since they had last seen Azula, which they were all thankful for to say the least. They already had enough trouble dealing with their fellow pirates, let alone a crazy Fire Nation princess who was hell bent on capturing Aang and Zuko to drag them back to her father.

Not that Katara was going to let her take Aang, of course. As long as she drew breath, Azula wouldn't lay a finger on him if she could help it. Not that he couldn't help himself, of course, but when Azula returned to try again, and they all knew she would, Katara would not allow herself to be so easily distracted as she had been when they first fought the crazy princess.

She had never had to fight royalty before, but she didn't necessarily mind it. She was already on the wanted list of three nations, and the only reason she wasn't an official enemy of the Air Nomads was because they didn't have any enemies. Like Aang had told her, they forgave and forgot every wrong that had been done against them, and did not have any need for enemies.

Still though, she wasn't quite used to having anyone actively hunting for her. At least, not like this, anyway. There had been the occasional Earth Kingdom military ship that had tried to hunt her down, but she had managed to elude them time and time again, making it no problem at all. This was different, though. Azula was a woman on a mission, and she could tell that she wouldn't give up as easily as the Earth Kingdom military had.

It didn't matter though. Whatever Azula threw at them, they would be ready for it. Even if they had to take the crazy princess down to get her off their backs. She knew that Zuko didn't want them to kill her, but if it came down to either having her die or Aang die, she would much rather that the former die than the latter.

Aang meant the world to her. The more time that they spent together, the more she knew that she couldn't live without him, and the more that she knew that she would do whatever it took to make sure that he was alive and at her side. Even if it meant that she would make the former Fire Nation Prince angry with her. No matter what, she had to keep Aang alive.

"Captain?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, she looked to her right and was surprised to see none other than the subject of her thoughts standing a few feet away from her. Clearing her throat, she replied. "Yes?"

"Are you alright?" he couldn't help but ask with concern clear on his face. "You looked a little out of it there."

Smiling at his concern for her, she nodded and walked up to give him a kiss. "I'm fine," she assured him as she pecked his lips again. "I was just thinking."

"Thinking about what?" Aang asked curiously.

"I was just thinking about when we'll have to deal with Azula again," she decided to tell him, knowing that it wasn't the full truth, but that it wasn't a lie, either. Normally, she would always want to be completely honest with him, but she knew that he wouldn't be very happy if she had already made the decision that she would end Azula if it came down to it. Especially if she did so for Aang's sake.

Fortunately for her, he didn't seem to catch on that she was hiding something, and nodded in agreement as he thought about it. "Aye, I've been thinking about that, too. But I actually had a bit of a request to ask."

Katara's eyes lit up in curiosity as she heard this, finding that she was interested to hear about this request he would ask. He didn't normally make requests, which she was more than tolerant of, of course, but it was still a bit surprising.

Realizing that she had been silent, she forced herself to snap out of it and gave him a smile. "What did you have in mind?" she asked curiously, finding herself interested to see what he had in mind.