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Autumn had always been Aang’s favourite season. When he told Katara, she countered that she had always just assumed it was spring ‘because, you know, new life and all that!’ Not knowing exactly why he laughed at the presumption, Aang explained that just because he respected all living things didn’t necessarily mean everything in his life revolved around that principle. His life kind of revolved around Katara nowadays. Well, Katara and being the Avatar. They both tended to overlook that last bit as much as possible, though when duty called, there wasn’t much room for avoidance.
“Why Autumn?” She piped up, pulling Aang from his thoughts as she lifted her head from his stomach to address him with curious blue eyes. He offered her a look and the slight shake of his head that said ‘I don’t really know,’ returning to gaze at the amber leaves of the oak tree right above. Today, the sun’s rays were soft and the breeze was just right, skating across his skin soothingly and the odd time blowing through the tail ends of her hair even from where she lay. Her head would rise and fall atop his stomach with each levelled breath he took. At first, he thought it must be annoying for her, but she insisted the motion relaxed her ‘to no end,’ explaining that she had held him lifeless in her arms once before and had every desire to know he was alive; even if that meant feeling each and every breath he took at every opportunity she had to do so. Sometimes, he noticed how she would place her hand over his heart when they lay together. Aang never could have guessed that was why.
Shutting his eyes, he brought up a hand to toy with a strand of her hair that was fanned out over his chest. “What about you?” He asked quietly.
“Hm?”
He opened one eye with a smile, glancing down at her face for a moment and noticing the cute little arch her brow made when she raised it. “What’s your favourite season?”
“…Oh.” She gave a small laugh, turning back to face the leaves. “I guess I’ve never really thought about it.” She furrowed her brow in thought and he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “What?”
“Nothing.” He shook his head and felt her relax again. “…You have time to think about it now?” Aang suggested, but she sat up, a hand landing on his chest. And even though she was very clearly annoyed, her voice was laced with a laugh. “I am not spending one of our very rare moments of alone time thinking about my favourite season.” Even with the tinge of irritation icing her tone, his wide grin won her over.
“Seemed like a pretty good idea to me…” She rolled her eyes, moving to lie down beside him, her head now laying on his chest and her hand taking its rightful place over his heart.
“Let’s just enjoy this while it lasts…” She sighed almost resentfully and let her eyes drift shut. The girl had learned never to get too comfortable: disaster could strike at any minute and Aang could be called at any time. Taking their stolen moments as they came seemed to be the best way in order to keep a level head. There was no use in getting angry when the magistrates and whoever else pulled him from her arms - she knew what loving him meant, and she loved him enough to put up with it.
While Katara thought about all this, Aang pondered over what she had said with his fingers gliding through her hair.
He hated that they couldn’t just enjoy their time together, they had to enjoy it while it lasted.
“What’s your favourite season?” He asked again. Her scoff was a hard protest.
“Aang-”
“Come on. I wanna know.” He said quietly, no hint of mischief in his voice whatsoever. So she decided to give him what he wanted and fell quiet as she took a moment to think.
“Autumn.”
He let out a heavy sigh and teased. “Very original…”
“I mean it!” She giggled, tilting her head up to see how much he was struggling to keep from smiling.
“…Alright.” He relented and she settled against him again with a smile bright on her face. “Why?”
The girl gave a leisured shrug. “I like the colours.”
“You mean the colours you see me in almost every day?” He teased again and she just took to slapping him playfully on the chest, a giddy sound spilling from her lips as he laughed heartily with her.
“You’re so annoying.”
With that, a calm, serene silence washed over them, her fingers drawing patterns across his chest dreamily as his nails raked across her scalp, applying pressure in all the right places. She hummed in contentment to let him know he was doing a good job, her hand eventually slowing to a stop when he took all of her attention. She allowed herself to relax completely, feeling her eyes flutter to a close while his fingers massaged the tension away. It was a talent of his - and the best part was, he didn’t even have to try all that hard. He just did whatever came natural and all of a sudden she’d be melting in his arms. “Not so annoying now, am I?” He remarked under his breath confidently and she could hear the smirk loud and clear in his voice. It wasn’t enough to rouse her out of her melty state, however. She only managed to hum a laugh with a slightly wider smile on her lips. it’s all she could manage. Quite frankly, it was all she could be bothered to give. His fingers felt too good in her hair to move.
She could let him do this forever… and, actually, he could do this forever. Without blinking an eye.
Well, maybe not forever. There were other things he liked to do with his girlfriend. “Don’t fall asleep yet.” He breathed into her hair, his fingers stopping for just a moment as he placed a kiss to her head and she let out a little whine, but soon he was back at it with a cocky smile and Katara settled again, shaking her head lazily.
“I won’t,” She replied with a voice that sure sounded like it was on the verge of sleep, he thought almost sadly. And as if she had some psychic link with him, she muttered with a smile, “You’ll get your kiss, sweetie, don’t worry,” while rubbing her hand slowly over his chest.
Aang almost felt embarrassed, his cheeks tingeing a light pink and suddenly he was glad she couldn’t see him. Imagine being embarrassed in front of your girlfriend of four years? It was positively pitiful. Toph would probably come up with a new nickname for him and Sokka would never let him live it down. Anyway, this wasn’t the time to think about Sokka and Toph, so he lay his head back on the grass and returned his full attention to the task at hand. As a passing thought, Aang wondered how it would feel if Katara did this for him. If he grew out his hair (like she secretly hoped he would) and did as he was doing now, would it really be this relaxing? She seemed to adore the gesture like nothing normal. Thinking back to the war when he had no other choice but to grow out his hair, Aang found it to be annoying and itchy and too hot. Basically, he didn’t get what the big deal was. Being bald was great! Although… he couldn’t lie and say he thought Katara should join him in his baldness: Aang loved her hair and found that he could and would easily run his fingers through it for hours on end; to which she would eventually tell him to stop because apparently doing so for too long made her hair ‘greasy’ and that was, supposedly, a bad thing. The silence as he drifted deep in aimless thought led him to believe his love was sleeping - a theory that was soon proved wrong when she stirred against him.
“Mmmm, okay…” She sighed with a stretch, her voice sounding more than pleased as she lifted her head, his hand coming away from her hair at the motion. Attempting to fix the wild tresses, she combed her own fingers through her slightly knotted hair with a tired groan and as he looked at her content and terribly beautiful face from his place on the grass, Aang decided he really liked her hair like this. It was a sexy mess, not an unkempt mess.
And he had seen it so many times before.
In waiting, his hands hovered in the air, keen eyes following as she threw a leg over his lap and sat back confidently on his thighs, splaying her fingers out on his chest as she leaned her weight on him with that look in her eyes. “Well?” She started. “How do I look?”
Aang was already shaking his head at her in that disbelieving manner, eyes raking over her features and hands finally settling on the curve of her hips. “Completely hypnotising.” He sat up, feeling to urge to get closer to her, Katara almost came eye to eye with him and she giggled, bowing her head shyly at his unabashed reply that would have meant only half what it did now without that look in his eyes or their intimate choice of position - or rather her choice of position. With her arms now wrapped around his neck, she took a composing breath in through her nose before meeting stormy eyes again.
“Does that mean you’ll do anything I say?” She arched a brow.
“In a heartbeat.” He replied swiftly, flirtatiously, flashing that charming smirk of his that never failed to tint her cheeks a rosy hue. He was simply too handsome for her not to blush, though if he noticed, he didn’t let on. He did notice, on the other hand, that it was a kind of defence that she would joke around after getting embarrassed, hence why she said what she said next.
“So… if I asked you to eat stewed sea prunes with me for dinner tonight, would you?”
He laughed, not even the slightest trace of irritation that she changed the dynamic of their flirting. “I’ll do anything you say, but that.”
Katara smiled, shifting a little closer and coaxing him to wrap his arms around her waist tightly. “I’m fine with that…” she purred.
“So am I,” he winked.
Feeling playful, she rolled her eyes, still noticing how her impatience grew stronger the longer they sat like this, staring at each other, basking in the other’s allure. Besides, it was no normal staring contest, it was the ‘I want you but I want you to say it first’ stare. She had initiated it.
But in the end, Katara was the very one to give in.
“Just c’mere…” She whispered with her eyes on his lips.
And she kissed him. Sweetly. Savouring him. Using her fingertips to trace his jaw and neck and collarbones.
This time, he tasted like an autumn breeze and it instantly became her reason for favouring this season over the others. At first, she had said Autumn on a whim, but now she decided she liked Autumn the most because of that and the fact the colours reminded her of her favourite Airbender - the love of her life who she would enjoy every single second with to the fullest, not considering when the moment would end… and instead focusing on making every moment last.
This one? This one would last.
Most definitely.