@Feylins' prompt for this piece was as follows: I adore "Avatar: The Last Airbender" - so, maybe a Kataang centered Christmas one-shot? They can give each other presents representative of Waterbender and Airbender culture :) I'd prefer if it's set after the series has ended - so, everyone is still in their teens. Zuko is still Firelord and dating Mai. Sokka and Suki are a couple. Toph is still single and being awesome. I'm not sure I got the present part right, but I did make sure to include all of the above-noted characters, with a focus on presents, Katara, and Aang. I hope the results meet with Feylins' approval!

Katara frowned slightly, all her attention focussed on a single drop of salty water. The droplet hung suspended in the air, held there by the force of Katara's will and her calm, fluid motions. Immediately below the water droplet was a sculpture, a delicate filigree of salt crystals catching the light like so many snow flakes. With exquisite care, Katara balanced the droplet of brine on the tip of one of the salt crystals. For a long moment, she held her breath, the droplet quivering slightly against the crystal. Then, with a single, definitive gesture, Katara forced the water in the droplet to instantly change state. A second gesture drove the water vapour out into the air, leaving only the salt, a filigree of cubes so small that a thousand of them could fit on a fingernail. Katara let out a long breath, and someone clapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, what's that?" A familiar voice asked.

"Sokka!" Katara turned to face her brother. "Watch what you're doing, you big oaf! This is a very delicate process, and I don't want you to -"

Sokka's hand was reaching out towards the tiny salt sculpture. Katara batted the hand away

"Don't touch that!" she said, glaring at her brother.

Sokka held both hands out in an apologetic gesture. "Okay, okay" he said, stepping back, "I didn't touch it. Whatever it is."

"It's a salt sculpture." Katara sounded apologetic. "Of Appa."

Sokka tilted his head to one side. "That's supposed to be Appa?"

"It's not finished, okay?"

"Fine, fine. Why are you making a salt Appa?"

"It's a present. For Aang. I'm giving it to him at Zuko's thing tomorrow."

What Katara described as a thing was what Zuko had described as a 'small get-together in honour of the season'. For Katara, a 'small get-together' meant three or four people, but given Zuko's recent coronation as Fire Lord, she was worried that he might have something a little bigger in mind. Something bigger, more crowded, and definitely hotter, in the literal sense. The Fire Nation might not have a large a bureaucracy as the Earth Kingdom, but it had just as much protocol – and naturally, fire played a role in every event.

Sokka's left eyebrow quirked insolently. "A salt Appa? For Aang? Why not just make him a pair of tiger seal skin mittens, or something? That's what mom always made for dad." he paused, and held up one finger, as if lecturing. "They make a practical gift."

"Sealskin mittens? For Aang? He's a vegetarian Air Nomad, Sokka. They don't do animal skins."

Sokka's face fell. "True," he admitted. "What about just making your sculpture out of ice?"

"Ice? Ice melts. And we're going to a party hosted by the Fire Lord. What happened to practical?"

"You never said you wanted your gift to be permanent," he said with a shrug. "And ice is practical – you're a waterbender, remember?"

"I suppose you're getting something practical for Suki?" Katara asked, trying to change the subject.

"Not in the least," Sokka replied, grinning. "I'm getting her a bouquet of red roses, half a brick of black tea from the Jasmine Dragon – Iroh recommended it personally - and a pair of tickets to nex year's Earth Rumble."

"Suki's a fan of professional earthbending?" Katara asked. "Really?"

"I don't know if she's an Earth Rumble fan," Sokka replied honestly, "But I do know that I am. And if she isn't, she will be; those guys are awesome. Besides, Toph got me a discount on the tickets."

Katara rolled her eyes. Her brother continued to grin as he left the room.

~*~

Two hours later, Katara had added all of six brine droplets to her sculpture. She was fifteen minutes late for the lunch she'd arranged with Toph.

Toph seemed to take Katara's late arrival with good humour – at least, for most of the meal. Katar was when, with a loud sigh, Toph set down her egg custard tart and placed her hands flat on the table.

"You know, Katara," Toph said, her voice only a little strained. "I value my time, because I'm a busy person. So when I make an appointment, say to meet a friend, for lunch, especially when that friend is a little blind girl, who has travelled all the way from Ba Sing Se within the past week, with only an elderly firebending tea shop owner to accompany her, and -"

"Okay, okay," Katara frowned. "I was late. I admit it. And it isn't like you've never been late yourself."

"Me? Late? Not likely. Anyhow, this isn't like you, Katara. You're usually really punctual,'' Toph commented. "Is something going on? Did you and Aang have a fight?"

"What? No! Of course not."

"You sure? You're being pretty sensitive."

Katara sighed, staring into her tea cup. The stem end of a tiny tea leaf floated, bobbing lazily just to the right of centre.

"We didn't have a fight. I'm just having trouble with his present. I promised him it would be something really special, and - "

Toph interrupted Katara."You can't think of what to get him? How about a gift certificate for a hundred of these?" She held up the egg tart expectantly.

Katara rolled her eyes. "Egg tarts?" she said, dryly.

"They are his favourite," Toph said, taking a bite.

Katara sighed, then continued, "it isn't that I don't know what to get. I'm already making him a present. It's just taking a really, really long time."

"What're you making?"

"A model of Appa out of salt crystals. I place droplets of brine in the right location, then force the water out as vapour really quickly, leaving just the dry salt in place. It takes forever."

"Why didn't you just use clay or something, Katara?" Toph asked. "Or, better yet, let me make you one out of calcite! It's supposed to be white and sparkly, like salt, and I could earthbend you a fat, furry, flying bison in no time!"

"No! The whole point is that I want to make it myself. And I want to make it using waterbending."

"Then you should have made it out of ice."

"Have you been talking to Sokka?" Katara asked, suspiciously.

Toph laughed and took another bite out of her egg tart.

~*~

Two hours before sunrise, Katara was finally finished. The salt Appa was almost as big as an ostrich horse egg. Appa's arrow markings, broad nose, and flat tail were all perfectly rendered in sparkling, white crystals. It was glorious – and Katara was exhausted. She didn't bother trying to drag herself off to bed. She just made sure she was far enough from the half-full bucket of brine, and lay down where she stood. She intended to lie there for only a few minutes, but it was dark, and Katara's eyelids felt uncontrollably heavy. She pillowed her head on her crossed arms, too weary to move, and fell asleep.

The next thing Katara knew, her arm was being jiggled by a gentle but insistent hand. Her eyes opened to find Sokka leaning over her. His head was silhouetted against the light streaming in from a nearby window – light that was streaming in at far too high an angle for early morning at this time of year.

"What time is it?"

Sokka frowned at her. "Late," he said. "You've got about forty minutes before we've got to go."

"Forty minutes?!" Katara rocketed up into a sitting position. "But I've got to get dressed! Ugh, and do my hair!"

Sokka held out a hand and Katara clasped it. He pulled Katara to her feet, taking a step back in the process. The back of his heel hit the bucket of brine. For a moment, time seemed to stop. Katara, now fully, unexpectedly awake, held her breath as the bucket tottered. Then the bucket fell.

The splashing brine sprayed towards Katara's bison model as the bucket fell. In a swift, sure, motion Katara pushed Sokka out of the way. With a thrust of her hand, she stopped the salt water in mid-air, a hair's breadth from the sculpture. She bent the water back into the bucket, using the force of the moving liquid to force the bucket back upright. Katara heaved a sigh of relief.

"I'll just get rid of this, okay?" Sokka picked up the bucket by its handle.

"Good," Katara said wearily. "Now stay away from my sculpture!"

Sokka made a face.

~*~

Katara had only been partly right about Zuko's party. There were more than four people, but it wasn't the elaborate Fire Nation extravaganza she had been expecting. Instead, the group really did seem to consist of people the Fire Lord knew personally, and liked. Of course Zuko's uncle Iroh was there, extolling the virtues of different types of tea. Katara saw a couple of Kiyoshi warriors in full regalia and facepaint, a smattering of Fire Nation courtiers, and at least one professor from Ba Sing Se university. There was even a guy Katara could have sworn she'd seen babbling about cabbages somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. Better yet, the party was being held not in some stuffy, inner room of the palace, but out in the gardens.

Katara carried the salt sculpture carefully, cradling it in her arms. There was a cool breeze, and the sun had disappeared from the sky as a bank of clouds had blown in from the sea. Most of the guests were wearing jackets, or heavy winter robes. Katara wasn't. Even though the day was cool for the Fire Nation, it felt warm to Katara. She still missed the ice and snow she had grown up with; these mild Fire Nation so-called winters were a disappointment.

Despite the gloomy skies, the garden was a riot of colour. Tiny flames, cut out of shiny paper, hung from trees and formed garlands. Katara resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course a Fire Nation party, regardless of the occasion, would be decorated with flames. It did, however, look cheerful. Katara felt that her own clothing added to the festive atmosphere; she was wearing one of the blue water tribe dresses that perfectly matched her eyes. The bison felt heavy in Katara's arms, and she set it down behind a bench in one of the unroofed areas, marked out with broad red paving stones, that peppered the garden.

"Katara!" called an excited, familiar voice.

Katara's heart fluttered. As she turned, a smile stretched across her face. "Aang! I'm so glad to see you!"

Aang was standing three steps away from Katara, dressed in his usual shades of saffron and madder. She threw her arms around the airbender, drawing a blush that crept up Aang's cheeks and a smile that was almost grateful.

"I'm glad to see you, too, Katara," Aang replied, his voice almost spacey with delight. Then, he very deliberately stepped back and smiled at Katara.

To Katara's eyes the smile looked unusually smug, at least on Aang's round, mild-mannered face.

"What? What is it?" Katara asked.

Aang's smile widened. "I got you something. Well, made you something. You want to come see?"

"I made you something too," Katara gestured in the direction of the bench where she had left the salt model of Appa.

"Really?" Aang's delight made his voice sound lighter and brighter, and it was Katara's turn to smile in response.

"I can't wait to see it," Aang said, "But come see what I made you, first.

Aang grabbed Katara's hand and dragged her along after him, towards a pavilion with a swooping, tiled roof in the dark red and black shades so common in the Fire Nation. Aang's hand was warm, and his grip was firm but gentle. As they ran, she threw a smile at Sokka and Suki, and a 'hello' at Toph. Nearly at the pavilion, they ran past Zuko, whose formal Fire Lord robes contrasted with his nonchalant posture; he was leaning against the pavilion wall chatting with Mai.

"Hey, Zuko!" Katara called in greeting as Aang rushed her past. "Thanks for the party invite!"

Zuko looked askance at them. "Where are you two off to?" He asked curiously.

"I'm going to show Katara her present!" Aang replied.

Katara felt her cheeks turn just a little pink. Zuko shrugged, and turned his attention back to Mai.

The wooden boards that formed the floor of the pavilion echoed under their feet as they ran below the roof. In the middle of the open, airy space was an object draped in a saffron-yellow cloth. Katara eyed the object. It was a long, narrow, low rectangle, though that was all she could tell. Aang stood in front of it proudly, his hands clasped behind his back.

"What is it?"

"I'll show you."

Aang turned, and with a flourish, pulled off the cloth. Underneath was a long, slightly oval-shaped board, smooth-topped with a slightly concave bottom. It was wood, polished to a glorious shine. Katara blinked.

Aang rushed to explain. "I've always had such fun with my gliders, and I wanted you to have something similar. Then I remembered about how Avatar Kuruk used to use a board on water all the time. And then I remembered how much fun you had on one when we were at the beach that one time, and -"

"It's a surf board?" Katara interrupted.

"Yeah, exactly. A hand-made one."

"I love it. It looks well-balanced - it'll be really easy to propel with waterbending. This is going to be a lot of fun, come summer."

"You really like it?" Aang's voice was eager.

"Of course!" Katara's voice was rich and warm. "It's beautiful," and it really was, the wood glowing even in the overcast conditions. "You really made this yourself, Aang?"

"It took months."

"Oh, Aang, that's so much work. You shouldn't have."

"Sure I should have," Aang said with a smile.

A cool, damp breeze blew unexpectedly though the pavilion, lifting Katara's hair so that it moved like a living thing. Aang put a hand on Katara's shoulder and leaned in towards her, his eyes bright. Katara found her own lips parting slightly.

A clap of thunder echoed through the garden, rolling across the sky.

Katara pulled back, her motion jerky, Aang's eyes wide with surprise. The thunder receded, replaced by the steady patter of rain.

"Rain?! Oh, no!"

Katara turned and ran out of the pavilion, elbowing her way past the party guests who were trying to make their way in.

"Katara!" Aang called. "Where are you going?"

"My present for you!" Katara explained as Aang caught up with her, "It's outside!"

"It's only rain," Aang said.

"The present is water soluble!"

It didn't rain very often in the Fire Nation Capital, but when it did, the storms tended to be intense, thunderclouds laden with moisture blown in from the sea. Katara was already soaked, but she didn't care. All she could think of was the salt sculpture. Her imagination supplied an image of the raindrops drilling into the delicate sculpture, wrecking and destroying it. As soon as she was close enough, Katara used her waterbending to direct the raindrops away from the model Appa, but it was too late. But the time Katara found herself kneeling on the sodden wooden bench, reaching for the salt sculpture, it was a bedraggled mess.

The figurine was slippery in Katara's arms, and the delicate tracery of salt crystals was gone. Yes, the sculpture still held Appa's basic shape, but everything else, all the artistry, had dissolved in the rain.

"I'm sorry, Aang," Katara said. It was all she could do to keep the tears from running down her face.

"It's okay, Katara, I can see that it was a, um, flying cat?"

"It was Appa! It was a model of Appa."

Dejected, Katara carried the model back to the covered pavilion. The guests stood aside, responding to the unhappy expression on Katara's face. The salt prickled on her arms as she placed the ruined sculpture on the floor.

Sokka, standing among the crowd, blinked twice "That thing really got creamed," he commented, his voice as solemn as he could manage.

"I'm sorry, Aang," Katara repeated. "It's ruined."

"Maybe we can fix it?" Aang said, doubtfully.

"Aang, it took an eternity!" Katara protested.

"Sure, but with two people -"

"Three," a familiar voice interrupted. It was Toph, her eyes staring blankly, but a smile playing on her lips. "Salt is a mineral. I can earthbend it, if you two can dry it out.

Katara sniffled.

"Toph's right!" Aanh sounded excited. "I think with three of us, we can fix it. It' supposed to be a model of Appa, right?"

Katara nodded.

Aang continued, "and we all know what Appa looks like."

"Well, actually -" Toph began.

"Or feels like," Aang added.

"Thank you," Toph replied.

"Fine." Kaatara assumed a waterbending stance, "Let's give it a try."

The assembled guests watched with interest as Aang and Toph both shifed into bending stances as well. A few fluid movements from each of of the three benders, and things began to happen.

Aang began focusing blasts of air onto the statue, like a drying fan. Katara began to pull water from the salt. She did it as quickly as she could, almost messily, not carrying if the resulting salt crystals were an amorphous mess. They continued for several minutes, to the fascination of the assembled guests.

"I can't think of the last time I felt so useless," Sokka commented, watching. He was talking to no-one in particular, but the Fire Lord replied.

"I know exactly what you mean," Zuko sighed.

Toph, one foot forward, used her earthbending abilities to probe the salt.

"No," she said, with a shake of her head. "It's still too wet, unless one of you waterbends the thing into shape at the same time as I earthbend it.

"Eventually all the water has to be gone," Katara said with a frown. "So there's no point in not driving off the water."

"In this humid air -" Aang said despondently.

"Maybe I can make myself useful after all," Zuko put in. He began to roll up his sleeves.

"What are you going to do?" Sokka asked.

"They need hot, dry air. I'm going to firebend just enough flame around that little salt thing to start the process going."

"You know," Sokka commented, "That does not make me feel any more useful."

"Just stay out of the way," Zuko advised him.

Zuko had spent most of his childhood as eldest son of a reigning Fire Lord, and his education had been of the highest quality, particularly when it came to firebending technique. He set up the small flame with an elegant movement, and held it in place with simple, efficient gestures. At the back of the crowd, his uncle, Iroh, smiled.

Almost immediately, Katara could feel the difference that the additional heat made. Suddenly, driving off the water became easier by an order of magnitude. With both Katara and Zuko focussed on drying out the outer layer of the sculpture, it was only a few moments before Aang and Toph could easily manipulate the salt itself, independent of the water.

When the four of them stood back there was a smattering of applause from their audience and a whoop from Sokka. Katara looked over the resulting model carefully. It was a salt Appa, but it wasn't the same salt Appa Katara had made. Where the original sculpture had emphasized a fine filigree of sparkling salt crystals, Aang and Toph's work was smooth, shiny, and sleek. It still looked like Appa, of course – it looked shockingly like Appa – but it didn't look like the sculpture Katara had spent all those hours making.

As the crowd surged forward to admire the sculpture – the work of four expert benders, after all, one of whom was the Avatar – Katara stepped back. She allowed the crowd of guests to flow around her, and eventually found herself against one of the pavilion's low railings. She sighed, feeling despondent. It was a long time before anyone seemed to notice her, and when someone did, it was Aang.

Aang was cheerful, when he walked over. "Doesn't the salt model of Appa look great?" He asked.

"Sure. Yeah." Katara frowned slightly, leaning against the railing. "Yeah, it looks great.

Aang frowned. "Is everything okay, Katara?"

"It's fine."

"You don't look like it's fine. Is it the salt Appa? You don't like how it looks?"

Katara couldn't claim the model bison was ugly; it wasn't. "No, no. It looks great."

Aang looked over his shoulder at the sculpture. He looked back at Katara, and made a face. "But there's still something wrong with it, isn't there?"

"There's nothing wrong with it!"

"Then why are you so unhappy?"

Katara threw her hands in the air. "Fine, fine, I'm unhappy. I'm unhappy because it was supposed to be my present for you. Not Toph's and Zuko's and – and your own present to yourself!"

"But, Katara - "

"I wanted to give you something special, something I made myself, something like what you gave me!"

"Woah, calm down, Katara. It's a great gift."

Katara glared at him. "But, Aang, it's like I didn't get you anything at all."

"Didn't get me anything? But, Katara, you got me a great gift."

"A half-dissolved statue of Appa?"

"An awesome statue of Appa," Aang corrected, "And something better. A chance to work together with three of my best friends, to make something beautiful."

"And that - you're really happy with that?"

"Sure! This is one of the best gifts I've ever gotten."

"Really?" Katara replied, blinking in surprise.

"Yeah, really. And you can bet I'll never forget it."

Aang's smile was infectious, and Katara found herself smiling back.

"Thanks, Aang," Katara said. Then, impulsively, she leaned over and kissed Aang on the cheek. Grinning, she said, "and I hope you won't forget that, either!"