Chapter Text
It was probably one of the coldest winter solstices that Katara could remember having experienced in the South Pole in quite some time. She edged carefully closer to the fire in the center of her living room, pulling the blanket around her and Zuko tighter.
“Ah, so the great Master Katara does get cold.”
“Oh, be quiet. It hasn’t been this cold here in years.”
“Of course, it hasn’t. It’s just my luck that the week I visit you has the coldest day in Southern Water Tribe history.” Zuko rolled his eyes, which got him a playful elbow from Katara. He chuckled. “Perhaps it has something to do with the portals to the Spirit World having been disrupted, yet again.”
“I think so,” Katara nodded as she tightening the blanket around them.
“Well, I know something we could do to keep us warm,” Zuko smirked.
Katara gave a sly smile to that. A younger Katara would have been all over him by now, but with age she had to change her technique and slow down a bit. Zuko rose from the ground, extending a hand to pull her up with him. He wrapped his arms around her; the fingers of his right hand were pressed against her back, his left pressed against the base of her hair as she lifted her face to his. His hair fell down beside him, intermingling with hers. They were quite the pair now, with matching hair colors, hair white as snow, as Aang had once described it.
Just as she nuzzled her nose into his cheek, placing a kiss on his soften skin, the front door rattled. Strange. It was late for someone to come-by.
Zuko sighed, as she pulled away. The door rattled again.
“Yes? Who is it?” She called, hesitant to open to door before Zuko smoothed down his robe. There was no verbal answer to her call. Instead a third thump against the door.
Cautiously, Katara opened it, expecting to find someone from the water tribe desperately needing help, but instead it was a small gust of wind, rolling itself into a ball bouncing against the door. She stepped back in only mild surprise, as she half expected it to be a trick by one of her grandchildren. But no one was there. Just a spinning ball of air.
“Aang?” Zuko whispered. The ball bobbed for a second as if in reconnection.
Tears immediately prickled Katara’s eyes, she looked over to Zuko in confusion, but he looked like he had no better idea than she. The ball circled the room, knocking their coats off of the coat rack, and padded again at the door.
A part of her told her not to go out into the cold following a strange ball of air, but she couldn’t say she hadn’t done something stupider before. She grabbed her coat from the floor only to notice Zuko too was dressing for outside. When she met his eyes, there was a desperate hope in them that was achingly familiar.
They threw on warmer clothing quickly, and hurried out the door to find the ball of air circling back and forth creating a circle in the snow outside Katara’s house.
“Impatient.” She said under her breath. “We aren’t quite as quick as we used to be.”
Unless her eyes were fooling her, the ball seemed to respond to her. It whirling around them, enlarging in size before picking them up, and carrying them away from the village.
“Aang! This is kidnapping!” Zuko yelled, grabbing hold of Katara as they tried to balance themselves on top of the blowing ball. His comments yielded no response as they were whisked away from the Southern Water Tribe towards the spirit portal.
“Is this real?” Katara asked, barely loud enough for Zuko to hear over the sound of the rushing wind around them.
“That or we are both dreaming this.” Zuko answered, a similar disbelief and nervousness coloring his voice.
The ball bounded over fields of pristine snow that shimmer with the moonlight. They should have been freezing from the speed they were moving at, but the chill seemed to flow over them, as if there was something pushing the cold air away from them.
The spirit portal rose above them. And without hesitation the ball of air kept pace straight at the portal.
“It’s going to toss us through.” Katara grasped Zuko tighter as they neared it rapidly, and then crossed through the portal. The ball of air disappeared almost instantly, letting Zuko and Katara tumble to the ground, groaning as they landed.
“Sorry about the landing. It’s the first time I tried that.”
Katara and Zuko looked up in disbelief from their tangled pile of limbs. The most familiar face was looking down at them as if this was some dream turned reality. His hands were extended to them in offering. Katara could barely make out his expression before tears blurred her vision. Not that she needed her vision to know the wry expression of her other beloved.
Katara squeezed Zuko’s arm tightly as Aang helped them to feet. He didn’t look a day older than the last time either had seen him. As if synchronized Zuko and Katara tumbled themselves into Aang’s arms for the first time in decades.
If this was a dream, they wished it would never end.