Sea and Sky

Chapter 4: Come and Find Me

Sea and Sky

Chapter 4: Come and Find Me

Ember Island Royal Palace

By  the time he'd pulled himself up from her bed and had wandered his way  into the large dining hall, the rest of the house had woken to join him  in breaking their fast. Aang was silent as he sat at the long oak table,  the note crumpled in his left hand as he sat.

Before he had  entered, the room had buzzed with chatter and conversation, all of his  friends reliving the previous night's events. Sokka nodded his head in  greeting towards Aang, his mouth full of food as he spoke. "Morning!"

Ignoring  Sokka's greeting, Aang dropped into a chair a few feet from Sokka and  tossed Katara's note the table. The balled up parchment rolled for a few  inches before meeting the metal rim of a fruit and pastry-filled  platter. Aang wasn't sure what he was feeling at the moment. An hour  earlier, he'd had the sad realization that the girl he'd proposed to the  night before snuck off in the night like a thief.

Face devoid of  emotion, Aang reached absently for a wedge of melon and took a small  bite as he leaned into the table. Before he'd come to breakfast, he'd  experienced a spectrum of emotions ranging from sadness to anger to  confusion. At the moment, he felt as if the energy had been sapped from  him. The fruit he ate provided little way in comfort.

Across the  table, Suki reached for the balled up parchment, the paper crinkling as  she pulled at it's edges to reveal Katara's hastily written note. As she  read the note, her eyes widened and her eyebrows rose in suprise.  "Aang, is this true?"

Sokka looked over Suki's shoulder to read  the letter, choking on the luke-warm tea he had been sipping. Before he  could speak, Suki shoved a slice of fruit into his mouth to silence  anything he might say.

"Did she give any idea of when she'd be  back?" Suki asked in a supportive tone as she neatly folded the note and  placed it underneath plate. Her heart raced as she remembered the  conversation she and Katara had the previous night. Before the  celebration and feast, Katara had come to her in a moment of emotional  crisis, on the verge of a breakdown.

The night before the banquet,  a man claiming to be an Earth Kingdom General had arrived to the palace  and offered his daughter in marriage to the Avatar. While Suki had  known that it was somewhat normal for women to throw themselves at Aang,  the fact that a noble family had offered a daughter in marriange in  exchange for an unspecified gift left Katara shaken.

That night  Katara had practically broken down her door, a nervous wreck and  completely inconsolable. Suki couldn't imagine the pressure Katara was  facing in that moment. After the Avatar proposed at the banquet, the  rushed proposal and Katara's departure seemed to make sense. Perhaps  both of them had felt some pressure to lock down their relationship,  perhaps Aang had proposed out of guilt about the General's offer. She  wasn't sure.

Over their years of travel together the women had  formed a sisterly bond and trusted each other with their deepest  secrets. But even some secrets Suki didn't know, and this one was in  particular she needed to figure out.

Aang shook his head silently  in response to her question. Flashes of their argument the night before  the banquet haunted him. They'd exchanged heated words, which had  ultimately lead to Katara in tears and him feeling like a villain. He  had no feelings for the random General's daughter, he hadn't met her  before that night. Perhaps Katara had hit a breaking point and was done  with him. The necklace left on the bed side table seemed to say as much.

But  her letter said different. She said she'd just needed time and she'd be  back soon. His mind was numb as he closed his eyes and leaned back into  his chair. Should he go after her, or let her come back to him? The  latter seemed to be the best course of action at the moment, he thought.