Chapter Text
There had been something off about her the whole evening. Angka had gotten very shy and withdrawn, leaving quietly in the middle of his and Sokki's conversation with Bato, and that wasn't like her.
Truth be told, Katar wasn't exactly terribly comfortable around their old family friend either. Bato was like their father; towering and broad-shouldered and brave, fearless and steadfast.
Everything Katar wasn't.
"Is something wrong, Katar?" Bato asked, his calm, kind voice breaking into Katar's wandering thoughts.
Katar started a little. "Oh. N-no, it's nothing," he said. There was a concerned weight behind the older man's eyes that made Katar acutely aware of his tightening chest. Seizing upon the excuse, he began to shift his legs and get up. "I'm actually going to go check on Angka," he said.
Sokki glanced up from her bowl of stewed sea prunes at that. "Oh, she left?" Sokki blinked towards the blank spot where Angka had been quietly curled up moments ago. "Huh. I didn't even notice she was gone."
"I'll be back in a little bit," he promised, standing to his feet.
He wandered out into the cool moonlit night, shrouded blue overtaking his vision.
-ATLA-
It took him a while to find her. He searched up and down the abbey twice before plying one of the nuns, who told him the girl had wandered out through the gates.
An anxious worry started creeping through his chest at that. Had she run off? Run away? What could have made her so upset that she would even do that?
But as his mind flipped through the night's events the answer quickly came to him.
Feeling alone.
Angka had been practically an afterthought the whole dinner. Sokki had asked a million and one questions of Bato with eager excitement, not hearing Angka's attempts to join the conversation. No one had even made sure she had eaten, or had food to her liking to eat. And then hearing from Bato that their father was due to send a message to them soon, and how Sokki tripped over herself to talk about how much she missed him and wanted to see him...
Angka must have thought they didn't want to go the North Pole with her anymore.
He kept all those thoughts in mind as he trekked down to the beach, checking the first place he thought she might have gone.
Fortunately his instincts were correct.
A huddled figure in orange was perched atop the prow of the beached Water Tribe vessel, staring up at the moon.
She glanced up in surprise at the sound of his footsteps softly crunching through the sand.
Katar let his relief show in the smile on his face. "You had me worried," he told her, coming to a stop. "Are you okay?"
She leapt down lightly from the boat prow, plastering on a cheerful expression. "I'm fine!" she said. "Of course I'm fine, why wouldn't I be fine?"
Katar wrinkled his mouth. Well that didn't sound convincing.
"You aren't at all upset about Sokki ignoring you for Bato?" he probed carefully. "I know she can be a little bull-headed and insensitive."
"Why would I be upset about that?" she asked. "He was your dad's friend, of course you'd be excited to see him. I'm sure you both really miss your dad, I know if I had a dad I'd probably miss him—"
There it was. That hollow, empty smile. The bright facade that didn't reach the depths of her eyes.
"Hey," he interrupted, stopping her with both hands placed on her shoulders. Katar looked seriously into her face, eyes warm with concern. "You know that Sokki and I aren't going to abandon you, right?" he asked.
The facade cracked, her eyes pinching, a little tremble going through her lip.
"Because we aren't. Just because we miss dad doesn't mean we're going to leave," he assured her. "I'm staying right here, with you. And I'm going with you to the North Pole," he promised with quiet earnestness.
Her eyes glimmered, the moonlight catching the liquid gleam on the edges of her eyes. She inhaled a shaky breath, staring back at him like she was about to cry.
"...Please don't be mad," she said in a small voice.
Confused, Katar watched as she reached into the folds of her clothes and pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment, holding it out to him timidly.
He took it slowly, unwinding it and stretching it back out.
A small jolt went through him at the contents, the scrawled penmanship and the hasty message jotted on the side of the map.
He looked back up at Angka, his eyes slightly harder now, a slight beat of anger flickering inside him.
"What is this?"
She wouldn't look at him. "Messenger just brought it by," she said, digging her toe in the sand.
"Were you going to hide this from us?" he asked, a harsh note in his voice.
"I—" Angka looked so heartbreakingly ashamed, turning her face and rubbing furiously at her eyes. "I don't know," she said, almost sobbing.
His anger faded almost immediately. He lowered the map, reaching for her shoulder.
"This doesn't change anything," he said. "I'm still staying."
She did let out a sob at that, hastily wiping her face, practically mashing her sleeves on her cheeks. "What—" she started, before having to swallow around the emotion in her throat, "—what about Sokki?"
He smiled faintly at her. "We'll tell Sokki in the morning," he promised.
-ATLA-
Sokki wasn't happy.
She frowned down at the map held between her hands much like Katar had done the night before. Angka wrung her hands together in front of her nervously, peeking up every so often to keep checking the other girl's reaction. Bato was a little ways off, tying up his carry pack, ready to depart whenever the three of them decided what they were doing. Angka was starting to warm to the older warrior. His calm demeanor and his warm words of praise when he'd taken them on their little mock ice-dodging mini-adventure had really endeared the man to him, and she was a little sad to see him go.
Of course parting from him was a little bit contingent on the next few moments.
Sokki finally raised her eyes to look over the map's edge at Katar.
"And you didn't immediately come running to me with this because...?"
Angka flinched at the accusatory note in her voice, shrinking into her shoulders, as if making herself smaller would hide her guilt better.
Fortunately, Katar was calm and nonchalant as he explained, "I just thought you might want to sleep on things."
"Katar, this is a map to our father," Sokki burst with emotion, waving the parchment at him. "Don't you want to see Dad?"
There was an expression that flickered across Katar's face, something pained and almost frightened. Angka could have blinked and almost missed it, tilting her head a bit with slight curiosity as Katar's gaze averted from his sister.
"Of—of course I want to see Dad... eventually," he stammered.
"Eventually?!" Sokki repeated in disbelief. "What do you mean 'eventually'? What is wrong with you?" Her voice was rising, growing slightly louder. "Who knows when we're going to get another chance like this again!"
"I know, it's just—" Katar started, clearly flustered.
"Just what?" Sokki demanded.
Katar folded arms across his chest with defensive stiffness. "Just that I think it might be more important to prioritize getting Angka to the North Pole, so she can learn waterbending and, you know, stop the Fire Lord? Even if we had the time to travel out of our way to go see Dad, which we don't," he emphasized, "there's no guarantee he or any of the other warriors could help us."
"He does kind of have a point," Angka pointed out, raising a timid finger.
Sokki briefly rounded on her. "Stay out of this!"
Angka meeped and shrunk into her shoulders.
"This—This is literally the same thing I said back on Kyoshi," Sokki sputtered, plastering hands over her face. "I said, 'Hey, we need to get to the North Pole quickly' and you were the one that wanted to linger and dawdle!"
Katar put his fists on his hips. "Well, we didn't have a deadline back then!"
"Uggghhhh you're unbelievable!" Sokki complained, pacing away from him a moment in frustration. "See, this is why Dad should have left me in charge. There'd be none of this changing our minds, or lollygagging about, we'd just get in, do the thing, and get out," she said, punctuating the words with pointed slaps of the side of her hand to a palm.
Katar gave a tired sigh. "Sokki, you know why Dad didn't leave you in charge after you toddled out in full warrior makeup with an armful of weapons begging for him to take you with him," he groaned, grimacing as if the memory embarrassed him. "And you were practically in charge anyway with how much you bossed us all around so what are you even complaining about?"
"Look," she said, swiveling back to face him. "All I'm saying is that if the goal here is to protect Angka—which I'm assuming it is—"
"It is," Katar confirmed warily.
"—then I would trust Dad and a squadron of Water Tribe warriors far more than I'd trust you." Something hard was in Sokki's eyes now. "Because you can't protect anyone, and it's going to get her killed."
Angka gave a tiny little gasp, eyes snapping up and hand covering her mouth. Katar's expression looked as though he'd been slapped. Her head was already filling with a thousand and one assurances to tell him that it wasn't true but to her surprise—
"Sokki." It was Bato. All three of them looked up to find him gazing sternly down at her. "That's out of line," he said.
"But—" Sokki started to protest.
"Walk with me," Bato ordered, jerking his head over his shoulder.
Hesitantly, Sokki moved to his side, and followed him across the abbey courtyard, continuing through the main gate and out into the surrounding woods.
A rustle went through the air as the nuns stirred from their silent observation of the argument and quickly went back to their duties.
Angka watched them a brief moment. The abbey made her heart clench painfully, the soft simple garb of the nuns reminding her too much of home, too much of what she'd lost. She shook her head, focusing on Katar, who had gone much too quiet.
She came around to stand in front of him.
"For the record," she said, with warm encouragement, "I don't think there's anything you've done since I've met you that could have remotely gotten me killed." After a few seconds she amended, "Well, except for maybe stealing that waterbending scroll from the pirates."
He chuckled mirthlessly but his eyes did brighten a tad. "Yeah... that was dumb wasn't it?"
His face fell, in that quiet way that it did when something was wrong, and he picked timidly at the string of the necklace she'd made for him. Angka bit her lip, stepping a bit closer.
"Do you... want to talk about it?" she offered.
A firm headshake and a solid, "No."
Angka watched him silently for a couple seconds. Then she lit up with an idea.
Her entire demeanor at once dazzlingly sunny, she asked breathlessly, "Wanna go make some smelling salts?"
Her excitement made his head perk up.
"Uh... sure?" he answered.
He gawped as she grabbed his wrist and turned in the same motion, running with him across the courtyard.
-ATLA-
Sokki glowered at the ground as it passed under her feet.
Bato led them quite a ways up the path, only turning around and bringing them to a halt once they reached a wide clearing that overlooked the vale.
He folded stern arms across his chest.
"Why did you say that to your brother?"
Sokki's eyes stayed down, shame-faced as she scuffed the dirt with her toe. "Because..." she defended. "I'm not wrong. Since we met her he's had this... this hero complex and thinks he can keep her safe from every possible bad thing ever and he just can't and it's embarrassing to watch, frankly."
"Embarrassing that he cares about someone, and wants her not to get hurt?" Bato asked pointedly.
"He can't fight!" she argued, raising her head. She gestured sharply with one hand. "He flails around in nearly every scuffle we've been in and he's never once been able to actually protect Angka!"
"And whose fault is that?" Bato challenged calmly. His narrowed features were firm like stone, severe in their scrutiny. "He's had no one to teach him how to waterbend. Your father and all the other village warriors left. And it doesn't sound like you've been very helpful either."
Sokki felt the words drying up in her mouth, replaced by an uncomfortable bile. Her eyes slowly fell back down, her hands fisting quietly at her sides.
"I've... been trying to teach him a couple things lately," she mumbled. "He's getting... a little better," she forced herself to admit. "But he still can't hold a weapon without shaking."
Bato nodded, his expression softening. "Understandable. I'd have trouble holding a weapon again too. I know what happened with your mother," he said, voice full of sympathy.
Sokki's fists clenched tighter, knuckles whitening, and her jaw tensed. Hot emotion battered at the confines of her chest, raging to be let out, but she clamped it down, holding it in with belligerent stubbornness.
He had been right there. Why hadn't he just—
Her inner thoughts were interrupted as Bato placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "Your anger flows out of a deep-seated hurt," he said, so softly. His slanted eyes were warm blue pools, tranquil and shimmering. "But you can't take it out on your brother. It's not fair to him. He was only a child."
Her lip quivered a moment. Sokki inhaled shakily through her nose in a long indignant breath.
She turned her head away, her eyes prickling, crossing her arms tightly.
"Still doesn't change the fact that he's useless," she muttered.
"I have a feeling he'll get less so, as he gets better at waterbending," Bato offered diplomatically.
She let herself shrug and then sighed heavily. "All the more reason to hurry up to the North Pole I guess," she exhaled in defeat.
She lifted her eyes, her anger fading.
"Thanks, Bato. Sometimes I do let my mouth run away from me. It was nice to see you again. I do really miss Dad—" More than anything, she finished in her head. "—but helping Angka is where I'm needed the most."
Bato smiled, and slung an arm around her shoulders in a side hug. "Your father will understand," he said. "And I know he's proud of you."
Sokki sniffled loudly, close to tears. Her mind flashed back to that fateful day years ago, the last time she'd seen him.
-ATLA-
"I want to go with you!" she pleaded, her arms full of weapons and supplies and her face haphazardly painted like a warrior's.
He ruffled her hair and smiled, heedless of the whispers behind him. "Sokki..." he said gently. "You are so brave. But you need to stay here. You need to help your brother protect the village. He's the chief now. You need to be there for him."
Her eyes filled with shimmering tears. "But I don't understand!" she cried, flinging herself into his arms.
Her father's strong warm arms wrapped around her. "You will, someday," he promised, enveloping her with a powerful grip.
She sobbed openly, her tears soaking his shirt, ruining her warpaint.
-ATLA-
Sokki shuddered, simmering down, leaning into Bato's hug. "Thank you..." she said again.
He smiled and rubbed her arm, like her father would have done a long time ago, and it made her heart ache. She thought he was about to say something again when—
The trees rustled loudly, seconds before something burst from them. A huge animal, down on all fours, brown-furred and snuffling from its pink and spiky nose.
The creature barreled past them, forcing them to break apart to duck and cover, and Sokki blurted out an indignant,"Hey!" as it thundered down the path.
She glared after the wake of the creature and its passengers, smeary patches of color fading into the distance.
"Where were they off to in such a hurry?" she huffed.
A look of horror passed over Bato's face.
"The abbey!" he cried.
Sokki's brain caught up with her then, forming solid images out of the blurs she'd glimpsed, and she realized she knew who was on top of the animal.
She paled. "Oh no," she breathed, turning around and running hellbent back down the path.
-ATLA-
He wasn't sure what exactly Angka was doing with the disparate components she was mixing but she seemed happy so Katar was only too willing to leave her to it. The airbender was tossing dust and herbs in her concoction, pausing to stir it vigorously.
"Okay, now gimme a bit of saddleclaw root," she asked of the closest sister.
"Oh?" she inquired, tilting a head curiously but handing the vial over.
"We used a similar technique at the Eastern Air Temple. Makes it way more potent," Angka explained. She shook out several leaves into her palm and sprinkled them atop the liquid, then grabbed up the wooden spoon and furiously mixed them in.
Katar watched, somewhat fascinated by the process. Angka seemed completely absorbed in what she was doing, eager to share the technique with the nuns, who crowded around in fascination, enraptured by the lost Air Nomad recipe.
Angka set her spoon aside with a flourish, reaching for a vial and scooping up a glassful of the mixture, passing it around eagerly.
"See?" she said.
A few nuns took whiffs and hummed appreciatively. Grinning, Angka dipped another vial and held it out to him.
Katar took it to be polite and let its scent waft under his nose. Even that small intake sent tingling vitality through him, like a shot of adrenaline had been injected straight into his veins.
"Wow," he said. He looked down at the vial with some wonder. "Potent."
Angka grinned and Katar's heart did that funny flip inside him. "Just a little Air Nomad mixture," she dismissed, though she was clearly ecstatic to have been able to share it with him. She grabbed a cork off the counter and shoved it into the top of the vial, pressing it to his chest when she was done. "For you," she said.
Katar's chest clenched just a little bit, his hands closing around the vial like it was something priceless.
There was a commotion suddenly from outside.
Angka turned towards the shouts with confusion, starting to wander towards the door that led to the main courtyard. Katar froze a moment, then followed with wary trepidation, his heart pounding a little.
His feet crossed the threshold and then froze again.
Atop a huge furred animal, a beast comparable to Appa in size, was a very hideously familiar female figure with a scarred left side. Katar's insides panicked at the sight of her, barely even registering the middle aged woman with the whip or the gray-haired elder on either side of her.
Zuka, his thoughts registered, grounding to a halt otherwise.
The beast she was mounted on snuffled, its pink nose tendrils twitching, snuffling, zeroing in on him in particular it seemed.
"Huh," commented the woman mounted in front of the Fire Nation prince. "Well, I'll tell you one thing, your boyfriend has interesting taste in jewelry."
Katar's mouth ran dry as Zuka's golden eyes lighted on Angka with manic fervor. She straightened, sliding almost immediately off of the brown creature. "It's his mother's, apparently," she growled, and his heart sank to see the familiar dark blue band and bright blue shell of his mother's necklace wrapped around her wrist.
The creature's snuffling made a terrible sense now. It could track by smell.
And he'd led the Fire Nation princess right to Angka.
His mouth dry, Katar took a step forward, an arm jutting out to shield Angka, who looked very pale and concerned as she shied back behind him.
"Ah. Momma's boy," the strange woman commented, lazing back in her saddle. "That makes sense, Miss Daddy Issues."
Zuka paid the tease no mind, striding forward with hostile purpose.
"Hand over the Avatar," she demanded, dropping into a ready stance.
Katar swallowed, steeling himself, some cold determination stealing over him. His mental grip took hold of the water in his canteen, drawing it out in a long ribbon.
With a flick of his wrist he snapped it towards the Fire Nation princess, scoring a satisfying hit directly into her scarred face.
She stumbled back, and now Appa had entered the fray, barreling into the strange snuffling beast from the side and upending both its remaining passengers.
The creature didn't stay down for long, and neither did Zuka, who screamed at the female mercenary, shouting something about her pet being useless. This prompted a snap of the whip from her hand, and the snuffling creature jerked around from its face-off against Appa, whirling on them.
He and Angka both dove for cover as the creature charged them, Angka smacking its head to the side with a flat gust of air. The thing's flailing tongue lashed out, hitting Katar, who gasped as he felt his body seize up, felt his limbs freeze unnaturally and his body topple to the ground.
A glancing hit, but one that had paralyzed him. He watched, helpless from his prone position, as Angka continued to dodge and leap around attacks from the creature and blasts of fire from Zuka.
His every thought screamed at him to move but he was as useless as he was that day, when his trembling hands had last properly held a weapon, when his mother...
Infuriated, Katar willed himself to fight against the paralyzing toxin. The smelling salts... he thought dully, feeling the vial press against his side, still close to his body. The creature was busy striking Appa with multiple lashes from its horrible long tongue, and Katar could see that the bison was growing steadily weaker with each progressive strike. Angka was holding off well against Zuka, one firm sweep of her staff upending the older girl and sending her head over heels in a manner that might have been comical in other situations.
It was decidedly less comical a few moments later, when a lucky whip by the snuffling creature's tongue caught Angka in her calf. Katar's face twisted as she squeaked, stumbled, couldn't recover in time. Zuka stalked forward with terrible purpose, her gold eyes like cold embers, and Katar strained at his paralyzed limbs to bring the little glass vial closer to his face.
"Leave her alone!" he screamed impotently, his thoughts whiting out in rage and panic, watching Zuka bend down and scoop Angka up by her middle like she weighed nothing, Angka struggling valiantly in the older girl's grip, her paralyzed leg useless in the efforts.
No. No no no no no no... his thoughts screamed. The vial was so close to his face. Just a little... closer...
There came an unexpected war cry from the plaza entrance, and Katar jerked up his head in time to see his sister come in with a flying tackle to Zuka's side. She grunted, dropping Angka, the two girls rolled and rolled and Sokki was punching furiously, brawling with a fierce desperation he'd never seen out of her before.
Marveling, Katar almost missed when the nun rushed to his side, hands curling up under his armpits, hauling him away from the conflict.
"Wait!" he cried, even as he felt his feet dragging along the cobblestones, the vial clutched in the hand that was limp by his side. "No, don't! Get me back on my feet!" he ordered. "I have to help her!"
To their credit, the nuns tilted him upright once he was out of immediate danger, one of them prying the vial from his frozen fingers and bringing it to his nose.
The sharp scent invigorated him, surging adrenaline through his veins. He felt the numb sensation start fading away, rapidly fading, his limbs beginning to steady underneath him.
He had to stay leaning against the wall for several long, unbearable moments still, as the paralyzing toxin rushed through his bloodstream and slowly dissipated.
He watched the fight from afar, nervous and straining every minute. Zuka eventually flung Sokki off her, and spent the rest of the fight single-mindedly pursuing Angka, who struggled on her paralyzed leg to evade.
Bato, meanwhile, was an unexpected boon to the fight. He charged in and engaged the strange mercenary woman directly, and while it was clear the woman was no slouch when it came to combat, even the wounded Water Tribe warrior gave her a good fight, striking at her weak points, joints and neck and diaphragm, keeping her on her toes.
Sokki made her way over to him as his feet were starting to steady under him.
"What are you doing just standing there?!" she complained, grabbing at his arm. "C'mon, we gotta get Angka out of here!"
Katar groaned as he felt his knees wobble a moment before steadying. "That animal..." he said, shaking off the last of the numbness. "It's got a paralyzing tongue and it can track by smell," he explained.
"So it sees with its nose?" asked Sokki.
He knew that look in his sister's eye. The look that said she had an idea. "Yeah, I think so," he confirmed.
Sokki glanced towards the potted jugs of perfume.
"Let's give it something to look at."
-ATLA-
Angka had kept ahead of Zuka's flame blasts and fire streaks relatively well, considering her crippled mobility with her leg. The venom was starting to wear off, so Angka could afford to be more aggressive with her air strikes, blasting and blowing away at Zuka and just letting her have the full measure of Air Nomad offense.
She'd managed to hook her foot in the gap of Katar's mother's necklace, pulling it away from Zuka's wrist. As she flipped over she reached down for it, grabbing it up with her hand, fingers clutching tightly around the precious memento.
Her head filled with triumph as she tightened fingers around it, thrilling with a private victory.
She didn't have time to appreciate Zuka's embarrassing faceplant into the floor of the courtyard. The creature and the lady mercenary were closing in; Appa's running defense interference was failing with every striking glance of the creature's tongue. Her heart clenched in dismay when her beloved bison fell to the side, moaning with a mournful bellow.
Her heart ticked rapidly for a moment as she found herself caught against the wall.
Then suddenly her nose was filled with fragrant scents. She glanced behind; the nuns had tipped over several potted containers full of perfume, and Katar was swirling the stuff all around the courtyard, masking and obscuring her scent in so much olfactory white noise.
The snuffling creature grew distressed, pawing at its nose, flailing, its tongue whipping out with aimless recklessness, striking Zuka and the mercenary and the elder. At least Angka thought so. They toppled over, senseless and numb, onto the cobblestones, and the brown animal scratched at its poor nose before retreating from the temple, agitated and overwhelmed.
Her heart was still pounding in her ears for several long moments before she felt the frantic hands of Katar tugging at her arm, urging her away.
Dully, still in disbelief that they'd managed to escape again, she let herself be pulled up into Appa's saddle. Appa had recovered quickly from the venom's effects—not surprisingly, given just how large and resilient he was—and it wasn't even five minutes before they were all aboard, waving goodbye to Bato, fleeing quickly before the Fire Nation princess and her entourage recovered.
The first thing she did once her ears stopped ringing with adrenaline was throw her arms around Sokki.
"You came back!" she cried, happiness bursting from her.
Sokki patted her arms indulgently. "'course I came back, someone had to help Katar protect you." She looked over Angka's shoulder back at her brother. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier. You did... good."
Angka quickly pulled back so that she could check Katar's face for his reaction. He was looking down, so it was hard to read him, but his shoulders were shrugging and he mumbled casually, "You weren't so bad yourself I guess. That was a good idea, with the fragrances."
"Yeah, but you pulled it off." Sokki sighed. "I owe you some credit for that." She glanced aside at Angka with a rueful smile. "I owe you an apology too, for blowing you off last night."
Angka fidgeted, shifting on her knees. "So... you aren't leaving?" she asked, tone cautiously hopeful.
"You're our family too. And right now, you need us more."
It was probably the most genuine and sweet thing Sokki had ever said to her, and Angka couldn't help but throw herself into a hug again.
Sokki indulged this embrace a little less patiently, awkwardly raising her arms and after several seconds coughing and saying, "Okay, that's enough hugging. I'm good."
Angka giggled as she pulled back. "Oh!" she gasped, suddenly, remembering something. She dug in her clothes for the place where she'd stashed Katar's necklace. "By the way, I think I found something of yours," she said.
She drew it out and held it dangling triumphantly.
Katar glanced up and then double-took, his eyes going wide and delighted, so dazzlingly happy it made her dizzy. "Angka! How did you get that?" he cried, reaching forward at once to take it from her. He held it in his palms with wonder and awe, perhaps close to tears, and Angka's heart swelled at being able to return the precious item to him.
"Ah, you know," she dismissed casually, "found it on the ground somewhere, thought you'd like it."
His eyes shimmered at her as he looked up. "Thank you," he whispered tremulously.
Angka beamed, and then her face fell a little. "I guess you won't need mine now," she said, a bit sadly.
"No no, I'll just wear them both, see?" he said, quickly fastening the Water Tribe pendant around his neck so that it sat above Angka's handmade one.
Her shell and leaf creation actually complemented the blues of his mother's necklace quite well, she thought, before she quickly peeled her eyes away from gawking too long at his neck.
He looked at her with warm gratitude. "Thank you for bringing this back to me," he said again.
He shifted forward suddenly, and Angka felt her thoughts blanking out into firework sparks as he pressed warm soft lips against her cheek.
She warmed, her skin turning pink, heart thudding anxiously inside her chest as she blushed shyly and ducked her head.
He kissed me, was her dazed thought, her head reeling as Katar leaned back again, arguing something with his sister now that she couldn't hear.
On the cheek, but still.
She slipped off the saddle onto Appa's head, Momo curling into her lap as she took the reins, steering them away from the abbey and heading north into the orange-tinted sky.