énouement

the message

There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment
Set aside for us

Who wants to live forever?
Who wants to live forever?

Who dares to love forever?
When love must die...

—Queen, "Who Wants to Live Forever"

~*~

Katara is acting as the caboose of a braid train for the tweens of the Southern Water Tribe when Sokka enters the spacious igloo, gripping a scroll in his hand as if his life depends on it.

"Katara," he says, voice out of tune like a yueqin string strung too tight, "I have—We need to—"

Sokka's jaw clenches. He exhales a shaky breath, discordant. "Please."

The string breaks.

"There's something you need to know."

Her brother's distress sends concern clawing at the wall of Katara's stomach, and she nods.

"Alright." She gently winds a small band around the braid of the young girl in front of her. "I'm sorry, everyone, but we're going to have to stop here for today."

A chorus of disappointed cries echo around the room, and Katara laughs.

"I know, I know. But now you can go home and show your parents how beautiful your hair looks!"

Her words seem to console the small group, and she provides goodbye waves and—where requested—hugs as they all make their way back outside.

As soon as the last child leaves, Sokka slides the sealskin door curtain shut. Katara starts to make a joke about the tension in the room, but the words freeze on her tongue when she sees tears slide down her brother's face.

"Sokka?" she says, uneasy. "What's—"

"He's dead." Sokka grits his teeth, failing to hold back a sob. "He's dead, Katara. What do we—"

His voice splinters like the wood of that wrecked Fire Nation ship on the day the Avatar returned. "What do we do?"

Hyperventilation inches up Katara's lungs and fills her chest. "Who's dead?" she whispers, but the pit of her stomach recoils with the truth she already knows. How else can her brother's reaction be read?

Sokka stares at her, and she can tell he's pleading for her not to make him say it out loud but she needs to hear it from him and only him or else truth will never become reality.

"Tell me!"

Sokka presses his lips together, a futile attempt to stop another sob. "It's Aang."

It's Aang.

Katara swears time should be standing still right now but instead seconds are becoming minutes faster than ever before. She can't feel her hands. Why can't she feel her hands? "This isn't funny."

Sokka holds out the letter, spotted with sweat and tears. "I'm sorry."

Her chest aches. "No. There must have been a mistake."

Sokka closes his eyes, anguish contorting his features. "Katara—"

Her chest heaves. "Stop." Katara's voice pitches to a shriek. "It's not true!"

Her brother's voice wobbles on a tightrope as he reads. "At dusk on the day before this message's writing, Avatar Aang of the Southern Air Temple was tragically killed in an earthbending accident in Yu Dao—"

A scream echoes through the room that Katara doesn't recognize as her own until the walls of the igloo fracture, her knees collapsing along with the far half of the icy building. She claws at her temples until they bleed as another agonized scream escapes her lips, hot tears freezing on her cheeks. "Please, please! Make it stop!"