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ABCLAF Logo This Kataang one-shot takes place in The Beach.



Chapter Five: Seeking Solace[]

Why doesn't she understand?

He sits, cross-legged, in the cold, wet sand, his dark gray pants plastered against his thighs. His eyes are closed, his lips forming a single phrase over and over again.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

He abruptly opens his eyes, locking his gaze at his hands, tensed into fists, tracing the sky blue tattoos as they spiral down his arms, each ending in an arrowhead, pointedly identifying the traitors. He bends his fingers, noting the sharpness of the half-moon nails, and gently places his right hand upon his left. Then he rolls his fingers until he finds the spot where it is most painful.

He presses.

Hot wildfire agony courses through him like lightning—Azula's lightning. The image of Katara, leaning over him, hair undone, eyes glistening with tears, mouth parted into half-smile of utter joy, is burned into his retinas. He blinks, and his heart clenches, and he shudders, though whether from the cold or the darkness in his core he cannot say.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

And then, the same image of Katara, though in a different setting. With the frigid South Pole breeze playing gently with her hair loopies and a fur-lined coat about her face.

But the same glistening eyes.

The same half-smile.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

And then, again, Katara, her clothing in tatters, a blood red cloak about her shoulders, embracing him, tears flowing down her cheeks.

But the same glistening eyes.

The same half-smile.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

In the iceberg.

She found him.

She found him.

In the catacombs.

She found him.

She found him.

In the water.

She found him.

She found him.

His soul burns almost painfully in its need to see her, to hug her, to tell her that it will be okay. Far off in the diamond jeweled blanket of onyx gems, a hazy sprinkle of violet-pink announces the arrival of the sun, an early messenger of the great lord of the sky, who has come to claim his domain from the moon.

From Yue.

Just like Sokka.

He has lost her.

He loves her.

He loves her more than he can say.

He loves her more than he can know.

He loves her enough to willingly be captured by the enemy.

He loves her enough to tell her the secrets of his past.

He loves her enough to brave an active volcano for a flower.

He loves her enough to know they can make the labyrinth.

He loves her enough to let her go when he must.

He loves her enough to forfeit his chance at the Avatar State.

He loves her enough to cover his arrows, to lose himself.

He loves her enough.

He loves her enough and more.

He loves her enough to know that he has lost her.

His rising gaze finds the first honey golden rays already straddling the horizon.

The

sun

will

come

but

solace

never

will.

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