#Also may have taken inspiration from your own memory-loss ficlet Peaches

[flameohotwife]

18 for fluff prompts!!!

18. “you come here often?” “Well considering I work here, yes.” From this prompt list.

Rated T-ish. 1.2k words.

Aang stumbled into the clinic. He was covered in blood, holding a torn piece of robes to a wound on the back of his head, and being supported by a few Republic City residents.

“Tui and La, what happened?!” demanded the woman behind the desk as she scurried out to help him back to a room with an examination table. Her dark hair was peppered with white and her loopies flew around her as she gathered the necessary supplies.

“He was holdin’ up a bridge that collapsed with some kids crossin’ it. They just made it over when some rocks came down the mountain and caught ‘im in the head,” explained an older gentleman who was missing several of his front teeth. He held his hand next to his mouth in an effort to prevent the Avatar from hearing what he said next. “Passed out a minute. Not sure he knows entirely who he is right now…”

“Okay, thank you, sir,” the woman replied, taking the man’s hand and squeezing it gratefully. “I’ll take it from here.” The villagers slowly filed out of the clinic, confidently leaving the Avatar in the care of the great Master Katara.

“You’re getting too old for this, Sweetie,” she mumbled as she took the cloth from his hand to examine his head, wincing as she saw how bad it was. She could already tell there would be some fractures to heal, and that he had indeed suffered a concussion.

“You’re pretty,” Aang uttered, wobbling slightly as he sat on the table. “You come here often?”

“Well considering I work here, yes.” Katara bit back a smile as she worked. She knew from unfortunately frequent experience with Aang’s concussions that he always got extra flirtatious with her in this state, but he had never acted this way in the few times other healers had treated him. He always seemed to know—even when he was as addled as he was—who held his heart. “But right now you need to lay on your front and let me heal your head.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, a little too eagerly. He almost fell off the table as he tried to add a little airbending flourish to his movements, grossly miscalculating the distance and angle he needed to move his body properly onto the flat surface. Katara couldn’t help the giggle that escaped at his antics. Even well into his fifties and without knowing who she was, he still felt the need to show off for her.

“Easy, there, Avatar,” she chided. “You have quite the injury.”

“Sorry… What was your name?”

She grinned freely now that he couldn’t see her face. “Master Katara,” she responded, taking great effort to keep her voice even. She knew what he was going to say next before he even opened his mouth. He said it every time.

“Master Katara… Katara… Wow,” he sighed. “Your name is almost as beautiful as you!”

She slowly moved the water over his injury, hearing him sigh and gasp at different intervals as things healed or tightened. “Are you always such a flirt, Avatar?”

“I… Uh… I’m sorry…” he stammered. She could see the blush spreading down his neck. “I’m definitely not usually a ‘flirt.’ I don’t know what came over me…”

“Hmmmm,” she hummed in response. “Must be the head injury, then.” She worked carefully, making sure not to re-open old wounds as she went. The benefit to being the Avatar’s wife and primary healer was that she knew the location and severity of every injury he’d ever sustained in the last four decades. By this point in her life she’d assumed seeing her husband bloody but alive wouldn’t scare her nearly as much as it did, but despite the fact that she’d been able to get her hands to stop shaking so that she could work, her heart was still pounding.

Finally she was nearly done with his head, and her heartbeat slowly returned to normal. “I’ll have you know your flirting paid off, Avatar,” she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

“What do you mean?”

“We’re married.”

He tried to get up and look at her but she gently shoved him back down. “Married?! Noooo. I would remember marrying someone as amazing as you.” He paused a moment, enjoying the feel of her hands healing his wounds. “Your hands are magical.”

“Ha! Yes, they are, aren’t they? Don’t worry, you’ll remember,” she grinned. With as many times as she’d done this over the years, she knew he was moments away from revelation. The bone on the back of his skull was good as new, and she was just finishing up with the swelling underneath that was causing the memory loss.

“Remember… remember… Oh, no not again.”

“Welcome back, Sweetie.” Katara crouched down beside the table to look into his grey eyes, lined as they were with wrinkles but still just as bright as the day she’d broken him out of the iceberg. She checked to make sure his pupil dilation was back to normal before placing a soft kiss on his dry lips. “I already told you but I know you don’t remember; you really are getting too old for this.”

“Nonsense,” Aang waved her off, trying again to sit up.

“Not so fast,” Katara scolded, helping him move slowly. “You’re still really hurt. I healed the concussion and the fracture but there’s still work to do.” She resumed her healing position, looking for any more cuts and scrapes and internal bleeding.

“I don’t know how many times I can knit your skull back together, Sweetie,” she said sometime later, when she was sure she’d gotten the worst of it. “You’re not young anymore.”

“I know. Thank you, Katara.” He reached out his hand and she took it gratefully.

“Come on,” she said, pulling him to his feet. “You’re still covered in blood. Want to try out the new water-showers Sokka installed in here for the patients?”

“Hmmmm, I don’t know,” he thought for a moment before smiling deviously, pulling her close to him. “I might still be a little wobbly. I probably need you to come with me if I do anything like that. You know, so I don’t fall down and hit my head again.” He ran his hands down her curves and leaned down to kiss her neck.

“Aang,” Katara laughed. “I’m working!”

“So work,” he insisted, pulling her into the attached bathroom. “Keep your patient from further injury as he bathes.” He shut the door behind them. “Don’t let me stop you.” He undid the ties on the front of her dress before she could even think to protest.

“I love you,” she said, before leaning up to kiss his pulse-point, feeling how he was still alive—still here, and falling further into the trap he’d set. She felt his body respond, and pushed his bloody robes from his shoulders, pulling the lever that sent hot water through the pipes. As it began coursing through the shower head, she appreciated that Aang still had so much life coursing through him. That after every brush with death he’d had that set her heart into a panic, he always reassured her with his touch; his love.

“I love you, too,” he sighed, pulling her fully under the water with him and capturing her lips with his once more.

They stole those moments for themselves, to remember that while life is sacred, life is fleeting. That life is worth living, especially with the one you love. And if the other healers heard giggles and… other sounds… coming from the shower that day, nobody ever mentioned it.