keep the paper lantern lit

secrets

day two of zutaraang week 2020! this oneshot takes place when aang is 18, katara is 19, and zuko is 21 (aka this one of the earlier storylines i wrote). i hope you enjoy! :)

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secrets: too much love will kill you if you can't make up your mind - torn between the lover and the love you leave behind... but why should you have to choose?

Aang couldn't keep secrets from Katara. He'd never been able to, and he really didn't think he ever would be, either. But surely he'd never have to be good at keeping secrets from her. He could trust Katara with anything! She was his forever girl!

Which was why it was killing him to not tell her about his... feelings. He felt like he was going to explode, and he knew he had to tell her today. If he waited any longer, he was worried he might combust at random. And that would be... well, less than ideal. For the both of them. But mostly for him.

Fortunately, neither he nor Katara had any official business to attend to that afternoon, so they were able to quietly slip off into the Earth King's garden together without anyone catching sight of or following them.

"Alright. What's so important that you had to bring me someplace so private?" Katara asked teasingly, with the playful lilt to her voice that Aang adored.

He nervously swallowed the lump in his throat. Spirits, he was sweating buckets, his fingers tapping his thighs antsily - surely she was picking up on how terrified he was. How he was radiating sheer anxiety. She was too smart to not notice.

Deep down, he knew everything would more than likely be fine. Katara was the kindest and most understanding person he knew, and the fact that she loved him as much as he loved her - and he adored her more than just about anyone, with a single notable exception - made him feel like the luckiest guy in the world. He'd tell her, and then she would probably hug him and reassure him that it was no big deal, promising that she still loved him just as much as before.

Or so he desperately hoped.

"There's something I need to tell you," Aang finally said, his hands gripping the orange fabric by his sides so tightly he was half-worried he'd end up tearing a hole through it.

Katara's expression softened as she seemed to fully realize how anxious her boyfriend was, and she took his hands in hers before leading him beneath a tree with orchids blooming along the bark, gently lowering them both to sit on the ground. "Whenever you're ready to talk, I'm here to listen," she promised.

Aang gulped, but nodded, pulling his hands out of hers to rest them on his lap. "You... You know how I told you that the Air Nomads don't" - he winced - "didn't believe love was bound by physical form? And - And that you could love regardless of gender or nation, and that sometimes... sometimes you might even fall in love with multiple people?"

Katara nodded, and he wondered if she knew where he was going with this. "Mhm. I remember."

Aang took a deep breath. It was now or never. If he couldn't tell Katara, then there was no way he'd be able to tell anyone else, much less... "I love Zuko!" he blurted out, anxiety causing his hands to clench into fists. "But - I love you, too!" Even knowing that there was nothing wrong with him, knowing that there was no shame in him loving more than one person, he still couldn't help but feel terrified of what his girlfriend's reaction would be. Uncertain? Disgusted? Confused? "It's - It's hard for me to explain. I love both of you, so much, and - uh, it's different, I guess? What I feel for you is different than what I feel for Zuko, but it's also... the same."

Aang then realized that at some point he'd stopped making eye contact with Katara, and though he was terrified of what emotions he might see on his girlfriend's face, he lifted his gaze from the ground to look directly at her.