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Katara reached the end of the temple and turned back around again. Her feet were starting to hurt from all this walking, but she simply couldn't sit still. She had been stressing herself out of her mind ever since Aang disappeared on some hair-brained mission to find firebending secrets in some dusty old temple with Zuko.
Zuko.
To be honest, she didn't really believe that Zuko was some kind of spy. She trusted him to not try to murder Aang in his sleep, but that was a far cry away from trusting him to do everything possible to protect Aang, to die for him if he had to, like she would.
Because he's my FRIEND.
Friend.
Just friend.
Of course, even if Aang wasn't off alone with someone who had tried to kill him just months earlier, he would still be off alone after turning her entire world upside down, leaving her hanging and her head spinning. Which was another reason why she couldn't stop herself from walking up and down the length of the temple, getting more and more annoyed at Aang for leaving right now.
Her face bunched up into a scowl. Where did he get the damn nerve!? How could he possibly think that now, of all times, would be a good time to drop this bombshell on her, when they still have a mission. Even if she did feel the same way about him (which she absolutely did not), it's not like they could explore that kind of relationship while the fate of the world was in jeopardy.
Although, she supposed, the fate of the world wasn't supposed to be in jeopardy by now. They weren't supposed to still be on a mission. They had all assumed that it would end, for better or worse, on the day of the eclipse. Before he kissed her, he asked "what if I don't come back?"
Her scowl deepened.
Did he honestly think that made it BETTER!?
What if he didn't come back? How is it better to let her know how he feels immediately before getting himself killed? To leave her wondering about what could have been?
But no, she reminded herself, there never would be any "what could have been" in any case, because she absolutely, positively, did not think of him that way.
Aang was sweet, and adorable, and kind, and a dozen other things, but he never caused her to react the way she had always assumed boys were supposed to.
Well, at least not at first….
She would be the first to admit that Aang wasn't really the same little kid she had pulled out of the iceberg. Well actually no, he was the same person, he was still unmistakably Aang, but he was starting to resemble more and more the man he was destined to become. And okay, maybe when he almost died, she had reacted a bit more….intensely than you would otherwise expect from a friend, more intensely than Sokka or Toph did, but she had always fussed over her friends when they were hurt, it's what Toph called her "motherly" side. She couldn't help it if she doted on Aang more because he got hurt more than the rest.
And okay, when they had danced in front of the Fire Nation school kids, he had been somewhat charming, but that wasn't really him, was it? He was playing a character for the crowd, to get them to loosen up, that was the whole point.
But most troubling of all, she couldn't deny that she had reacted a certain way when he had kissed her.
She shook her head to clear away the image. Of course she had reacted, it was her first kiss! It was a new, exciting experience, during an already exciting, dangerous situation! She would have reacted the exact same way with anyone! It didn't mean she had any more-than-friendly feelings for Aang, specifically.
Certainly not.
She couldn't.
It would mess everything up.
No, she was certain that Aang, with his lack of experience, had just misread her platonic affection for romance. It happens.
She just wished there was a way to silence that tiny part of her brain that kept disagreeing so she could focus. And stop all this exhausting pacing.
She was walking past their little camping area, and Toph was sitting on the ground, her burned feet propped up. Haru, however, was set in an earthbending stance, blindfolded. Toph was barking orders at him from the ground.
"Every person walks slightly differently, Stache Man! The length of their strides, how they distribute their weight on their feet, even the shapes of their toes, but that's harder when they're wearing shoes, which most people do for some reason."
Toph apparently sensed Katara walking into camp.
"Quick, who's walking up to us right now!"" demanded Toph.
"Errr….," Haru muttered, "...Sokka?"
"WHAT!?" Toph practically shrieked, "You thought that was Sokka!? His gait doesn't look anything like that, he's a good four inches taller!"
Haru took off his blindfold and looked towards Katara, looking disappointed with himself when he saw who she was.
"Oh, hey Katara."
Suddenly, she had an idea.
"Hey, Haru. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get it. Do you mind if I talk to Toph alone for a second?"
He looked relieved to find an excuse to get away from the wild child, "yeah sure thing, I'll go find Teo and The Duke."
"Try to find them blindfolded!" Toph called after him as he left, "Teo's definitely easy to spot."
Katara walked up to Toph, fairly certain that talking to her about something like this was a horrible idea, that Toph lacked the necessary sensitivity and….discretion, but she wanted to finally put this thing that had been hanging over her to bed.
"What can I do ya for, Sugar Queen?" Toph asked casually, leaning back against a bag, arms crossed behind her head, and feet still propped up off the ground.
"Toph….is your lie detecting ability still working without your feet?"
Toph's brow furrowed in curiosity about Katara's interest in lie detecting, "It should be. I can still feel with my hands," she placed both palms flat on the ground, "one way to find out."
Katara sighed, and sat down facing her.
"What's your name?" asked Toph
"Katara."
"Again, what's your name?"
"Yue."
"Where are you from?"
"Omashu."
"Again, where are you from?"
"The Southern Water Tribe."
Toph frowned, "Well, I'm getting something, but to tell you the truth, these kinds of questions aren't really helpful. For your heartbeat to change, you have to be covering up a secret that you actually care about. How about something more….personal?"
Oh no, thought Katara.
Toph's face twisted into a menacing smirk.
"Did you ever have a secret thing with Haru?"
Katara was too taken aback to be embarrassed. "Uh….no?"
Toph's smirk vanished, "Oh….huh…." then her face perked back up again in curiosity.
"Why do you really hate Zuko so much?"
Now Katara wasn't just confused by Toph's question, but angry. It was an absolutely stupid question.
"How can you possibly ask me that!?" Katara asked, gobsmacked, "You know all the things he did to us on our way to the North Pole. You were there when he helped Azula bring down Ba Sing Se!"
"Yeah, but you hate him a lot more than Aang or Sokka, and Aang is the one who died because of him—"Katara shuddered at the reminder"—All of your heart rates spiked when you saw him, but yours continues to go haywire when you so much as think about him even now. Which is weird, because you're usually the one who always believes the best in people, I honestly expected you to be the first one who gave him a chance."
Katara crossed her arms, "Toph, I hate him because he's done horrible things, and been complicit in even worse. He kidnapped Aang at the North Pole and nearly killed him in Ba Sing Se, all simply to selfishly regain his position of power."
"And is that all there is to it?" Toph pressed.
Katara tried to calm herself as much as she could, "Yes."
Toph waited a second, then her face split into a wide grin, "Well, good news, Katara, my lie detecting still works."
Katara threw her head back and groaned.
"Come on, then, give me the real scoop," Toph continued to press her.
Katara shyly drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
"I—"her voice caught in her throat"—I was the first one who gave him a chance, Toph. Back in Ba Sing Se, we were imprisoned in the crystal caves together. He started telling me about how his dad took his mom away from him, how he was banished from his home by his own father, and I started to think, maybe he was just another victim of the Fire Nation. Maybe all he needed, this whole time, was just one genuine act of kindness, one offer of friendship, and that would be enough to put him on the right path. So….I offered to use the spirit water on him.
Toph's eyes widened as she realized the implications of what might have happened, "Oh….dang….but wait, use it on what? Was he hurt?"
"No, I offered to use it to heal his scar. I don't even know if it would have worked, but—"
"Wait, what scar? Zuko has a scar?"
Katara's mouth fell open, then she quickly closed it, hoping to avoid a lecture on remembering Toph is blind.
"Uh….yeah. He has a burn scar covering most of one half of his face."
"Oh dang."
"Anyway, the point is, I came very close to wasting the spirit water on that….that selfish coward. If I had gone through with it…."
"Then Aang would be dead," Toph finished, solemnly.
Katara nodded, "I learned a valuable lesson that day. I'm too forgiving. Too trusting. Too naive. I believe in second chances, Toph. The crystal cave was his second chance. I'm less ready to believe in third chances. I wanted to see the best in Zuko, and because of that I almost lost—we almost lost Aang. I won't let that happen again."
Toph was silent for several seconds, before tentatively saying, "You know….I really don't think Aang would want you changing who you are on his account."
"Well he doesn't get to decide how I feel!" Katara snapped at her.
"Okay, okay," said Toph, her hands raised up defensively, "So anyway, why did you want to test my lie detection? Has Sokka been doing something sketchy? Or is this part of your mistrust of Zuko? I already plan on reading him constantly, don't worry."
Katara got nervous as they got to the reason she was here.
"Toph," Katara began, her voice shaking, "I'm trusting you as my friend. Whatever I say to you—"
"—Oh, we're doing soul searching? Hang on a sec," Toph spun around, dug into the bag, and when she turned back around, she was wearing Sokka's fake beard. "Please, continue, tell me what's troubling you," she said in a deep voice.
"Toph, will you please take this seriously!?" Katara hissed at her.
Toph pouted, "Okay, fine, you're no fun."
Katara collected herself again, "Whatever I say to you, no matter what you sense about it, stays between us, understand? You go blabbing about this or making jokes to the others, and I will never forgive you, got it?"
Toph was stunned with the seriousness of what her friend was saying, "Uh….sure, Katara, I promise."
Katara closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"My feelings towards Aang are completely, totally platonic. He is a very dear friend to me, but I have no desire to be anything more to him. I care about him, but I do not find him—"she winced"—physically attractive."
She tentatively opened one eye at Toph, who was sitting in silence, both palms on the ground, her eyes narrowed in thought. Then, her eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open.
Oh no.
"Oma. And. Shu!" exclaimed Toph.
Oh nooooo.
"LIAR!" declared Toph, pointing her finger at Katara with a huge grin on her face. Katara felt her face burning.
"I am not a liar!" Katara shouted, jumping to her feet, "Your stupid power isn't working properly! You don't know what you're talking about!"
She started walking fast out of the camp area. Toph made to follow her, but she could only crawl.
"Wait, Katara!" the burned girl called after her, "When did this start? What happened between you two!?"
But Katara was running now, getting as far away from Toph as she could. For once she was slightly grateful to Zuko for slowing her down.
It didn't matter. It didn't matter if some small—and she kept telling herself that it was indeed small—part of her felt more than friendship towards Aang. There was nothing to be done about it. They still had a job to do, and there was no room for distractions. Once they had taken care of Zuko's evil dad she could go back to hating the angry jerk unconditionally, and she could figure out whatever the heck this thing with Aang was.
But for now, she was just going to avoid Toph's stupid smirk for the rest of the day.