The Avatar's Marriage

The In Laws

One week had passed since Katara's arrival at the Eastern Air Temple, and it seemed that she had been busy ever since. Every moment that was not spent familiarizing herself with her future husband's affairs was spent with the nuns of the Temple, getting her ready for the wedding. And every moment that was not spent going over Aang's affairs or with the nuns were spent in Aang's company. And Aang had his own things to do. He spent an hour or two every night reading scrolls that were sent to him from all over the world. Most of them were congratulations on becoming a fully-realized Avatar, but a lot of them were also updates on the status of the world. After all, it had been twenty years since Avatar Roku died, so Aang needed a brief catching up period.

To Katara's delight, she found that it was very easy to spend time with her future husband after they got over their initial nervousness about meeting each other. Even though he was the Avatar, and that made him seem unapproachable, he welcomed her company. He was a gentle soul who had a great love for life. Perhaps he did not love her yet, but he respected her and he genuinely cared about her. He was shy in his advances with her, and seemed overly concerned about not wanting to push their relationship further than was appropriate for the state of their relationship. So even though they were going to be married within a few days, they behaved as if they were merely dating.

For Aang, those few days were a dream. After meeting her and being able to talk with her, he became much more comfortable in her presence. Of course, he was still nervous about the idea of marrying this woman, but as he spoke with her, the idea became more and more compelling.

When she had arrived, she had been somewhat reserved. Aang expected that had something to do with the expectations that the Water Tribe placed on their women, that they become submissive to their husbands. But once they started practicing their Waterbending together in order to keep up their skills, the reserved shell fell away to reveal a fiery and passionate young woman. Aang quickly grew to like this passionate version of Katara and resolved that he would make it clear to her that, just because he was her husband, he didn't expect her to suddenly become submissive to him.

Gyatso once told him that relationships worked as a balance, with each half of the whole supporting one another. That was the sort of relationship that Aang wanted with his wife, not to force her into domestic servitude. There's more to marriage than forcing the one you love to cook, clean, and lay with you. Aang thought to himself, blushing at the last thought.

That was another thing. After the initial slow start, Katara seemed to want to speed up their relationship to levels not yet appropriate. They had only known each other for a week and had been kissing each other for that long, and Katara had all ready tried to undress him at least once.

He had to stop what they were doing and ask her to wait. She had agreed, albeit with some reluctance.

It was mid-day and now was not the time for them to be together. Aang had spent the entire day in meetings about finalizing where all the guests for the wedding would be staying, and Katara had spent all morning at the apartment that would be theirs after their marriage, making sure that they had all the things they would need to begin their married life. Now she was in with the dress-makers, having another fitting of the gown she would wear at the wedding.

Personally, Aang had no idea why she needed to attend so many fittings. She had just had the wedding dress fitted yesterday. Surely there couldn't be that much change in her figure to warrant an alteration. When Aang had mentioned this to the Head Nun as she dragged Katara away, the woman only acknowledged him briskly. "Such fittings are necessary. There is no need for you to interfere with this, Avatar, this is woman's work." And thus was Aang left alone to read these mind-numbing scrolls.

Aang massaged his temple, and groaned as he realized he had read the entire scroll without taking in a trace of meaning. If only the inability to feel boredom was one of the skills that the Avatar had. Aang thought to himself.