The Two Of Us - An ALTA X Reader Fanfiction

Chapter Eighteen~ 7 Months (AANG)

TW: DEPRESSION, ALCOHOL ABUSE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Month One:

She still hasn't woken up.
No amount of healing magic from the physicians, no amount of people talking to her will make her wake up. I keep reaching out to her in my mind, hoping I can talk to her the way I talk to the other Avatar spirits, but nothing happens. As it is, all I can do to keep from going mad at the whole situation is work until I drop.

Every single time I close my eyes I'm plagued with memories of her on the floor, eyes glassy and unfocused, heart not beating. As I drift to sleep I hear the sound of her ribs breaking again and again, the terrifying combination of relief and agony it brought as she was resuscitated. And my dreams are all nightmares now, the whip of the wind around her body cutting into my flesh, the sounds of the anger filled words pouring out of her in a distorted rage coupled with her pleading to be freed weakly in the background, the searing pain shooting through us both as I was brought closer to her.

I don't sleep much anymore.

Month Two:

Sokka found me in a nearby village, gently planting spring onions before the rest of the town rose. His face spoke legions before he opened his mouth.

"Y/N's gone. We don't know what happened or where she is, she just up and vanished in the middle of the night."

My exhaustion riddled mind barely registered what he said. Standing, I grabbed my glider from the dirt beside me. My mouth moved on autopilot.

"What do you need me to do."

Sokka looked crestfallen, as if he expected something else from me.

"Aang...I have no idea. We thought you might have an idea of where she is."

~~~~~~~~~~
The next weeks were spent at home-but it doesn't feel like home- organizing troops with Zuko to search for Y/N across the Fire Nation and searching Ba Sin Se for her myself, and drinking at night until I pass out. My head always hurts, and I feel internally numb to the things happening around me.

Month Three:

Desperation has creeped into my mind. I have to find her. I lied to her, I pushed her away and now she's gone. And something else isn't right, I can feel it in the way Zuko looks at me, in the way Toph carefully picks her words before she speaks now. They're hiding something. Did someone take Y/N? There's no way they would have willingly let her leave, not with the condition she was in.

My lack of sleep and constant intoxication has me wandering around like a dead man walking. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror the other day, and it looked like I died weeks ago and haven't realized it yet. My eyes are perpetually dark and sallow, my skin as pale as hers used to be. It hurts to look at myself. What have I become? What kind of Avatar am I? Roku would be disappointed. Monk Gyatso would be disappointed.

Month Four:

Katara is acting strangely.

At first it made sense why she would be so withdrawn, she wasn't fond of Y/N and had been attacked by her. But now she's snapping at everyone. She's getting in the way of search parties, she looks scared. Guilty, almost. She's done something. But what?

~~~~~~~~~~
I walked into the room without knocking, obviously startling Katara. Too bad I didn't have the capacity right now to care.

"Aang, what are you-"

"Where is she."

My voice sounded rougher than I anticipated, I nearly growled the words at her. I didn't know if she knew where Y/N was, but she knew something and I intended to find out.