Change of Heart

Chapter 2

Many families from the Northern Tribe moved to their sister tribe to help rebuild, which means children who are waterbenders, who never learned how to bend. 

The Tribe Elders assigned Katara to be the waterbending to these young people. She agreed with the elders, as long as the girls could learn how to fight. They knew not to disagree with Katara unless they wanted to be challenged like Pakku was, so they complied.

One morning while Katara is teaching the children the water whip, Aang walks towards her with a worried look. 

Katara sees him and she says to the children, "Okay kids good job! That's enough for today, See you all next class. Now go find your mothers." The children ran to their moms as they giggled.

Katara walks towards Aang. "What happened now?" 

Aang signed as he gripped a piece of paper in his hand. "Toph is having trouble with the metalbenders. She didn't ask me to come but I'm going to Yu Dao to help her. Come with me."

Katara's shoulders tensed as always when Aang left once a month to always drop everything to help Toph. He always asked her to come but she always said no, because she made a commitment.

She sighs and answers him "Sorry but as always no. I can't go I made a commitment to these kids."

As she was about to turn around he grabbed her wrist harshly. "I wasn't asking this time Katara. You're coming with me." Katara widen his eyes and pulled at his grip, "Aang let go of me!"

Instead, the avatar did the opposite of what she wanted and tighten his hold on the waterbender. 

Just as she was about to yell at him even more, Sokka came back from Kyoshi Island. "Aang let go of my sister!"

Aang drops her wrist and Katara ran towards her brother. "What the world is going on?! Were you trying to force Katara to go with you to Yu Dao?!"

Aang sighs, "She needs to go to Yu Dao with me. Katara's my girlfriend, wherever I go, she goes with me."

Sokka glared at the manipulative airbender. "Oh, my Agni she doesn't belong to you! And you're such a hypocrite! You act like Katara is unfaithful but anytime Toph calls, you come running! Katara said she's not leaving so she's not leaving. Deal with it. Now go do whatever you needed to do." 

Sokka turned his back to Aang to face Katara. Aang frowned while he got on Appa and flew straight to Yu Dao. Sokka said to Katara,

"I love the dude but sometimes I wanna punch him in the face." 

This made Katara laugh. "Look at you standing up for women's rights. Suki taught you well."

Sokka nervously laughed and said, "Well I don't want glass put in my tea so 'being the feminist warrior' it is."

They both laughed but were interrupted by a tribeswoman, "Excuse me Lady Katara, but your weekly letter from the Fire Nation came in." The woman handed Katara the letter and Katara smiled while reading it.

Sokka raised an eyebrow at his suspicions something was going on, but he ignored it. "Zuko says he misses you being a dumbass, he misses everyone and thinks we should go to Ember Island to 'get away from reality for a little bit'. That seems like fun. Do you wanna go?"

Sokka nodded "Yeah uh...Suki is actually on the ship helping with cargo let me tell her the plan." Sokka then runs past her to his warrior girlfriend. 

She chuckled at his lovesick brother and walked inside her to write Zuko back:

Dear Zuko,

I miss you too. Very much. We all do. I think it is a great idea to go to Ember Island. We all need a break. Once Aang gets back from Yu Dao with Toph which I suspect, we'll leave on Appa for the Fire Nation to pick you up. That'll be so much fun! I hope you're doing well. I heard the Fire Nation is finally starting to gain an alliance with the Earth Kingdom. That's great. I'll talk to you next week

Sincerely, Katara

Katara then folded the letter and put it on the messenger to send back to Zuko. She walked back home, got ready for bed, and drifted into slumber waiting for Aang to return with Toph, which she fears.