Chapter Text
Katara felt the tears running down her face and was angry that she was crying. She wiped them away roughly and stared at her phone screen.
She needed to call someone, but she didn’t know who.
She had dumbly followed Aang down to Ba SIng Se University for college, thinking they were going to be together forever, only to find him cheating on her in their apartment.
Tears threatened to spill again and Katara took a breath.
She needed to call someone, but she didn’t know who.
None of her friends or family were even on the same continent at the moment. She chewed on her lip as she mentally tried to think of someone to call.
Aang had been her best friend for years and she relied on him for his friend group.
She couldn’t exactly call his buddies when he cheated on her.
Before she had started at Ba Sing Se U, Haru had texted her congratulating her on her acceptance and to let him know if she ever needed anything.
Well… she needed a lot of things right now that she didn’t even know how to verbalize.
Katara picked at her chapped lip as she hit the green dial button. He could have taken finals already and left campus. He might not have her number in his phone anymore. It was a Friday night for La’s sake, he could be out partying like a normal college student that just finished finals.
There was also the time she got him arrested, but she was fourteen and he said he forgave her for that.
On the second ring, Haru answered, “Katara?” as laughter and music played in the background.
She felt paralyzed. She wanted to hang up.
“Katara?” He asked again.
“Are you okay?” He asked gently. Only Haru would somehow know that she hadn’t butt dialed him.
“No-” She wailed off in a sob that felt like it came from deep within her.
She heard a creaky door and then the music and other voices were gone.
“Katara, where are you?”
“My..apartment,” she hiccupped pathetically.
“And where is your apartment?”
Haru had always been the nicest out of all of Sokka’s friends, the most patient.
“Badger and 24th street.” She wiped a booger away.
“Be there in a minute.”
Normally Katara would say that he didn’t have to. She didn’t want to bother him, but Katara felt so lost she just sat in quiet as she heard Haru begin to navigate the campus streets.
She heard Haru greet a few people that acknowledged him by name as he walked down the campus streets filled with students thrilled to be done with finals, a whole summer ahead of them.
A few minutes in silence later and she heard, “I think I’m here. Are you in the white and green apartments?”
“Yeah.” Katara answered in a small voice.
“Which apartment?”
“303.”
She heard him walking up the stairs followed shortly after by a knock.
“It’s open.” She quietly said to the phone.
Haru poked his head inside to see Katara sitting pitifully at the dining room table.
He sat down across from her and asked, “Katara?”
She couldn’t make eye contact with him. She didn’t let people see her like this, but she really needed help.
She gestured to her bags and boxes strewn all over the entry way. She took a deep breath, “Aang cheated on me.”
It felt weird to say. The word cheated. It was a harsh and ugly word to describe the end of a five year relationship.
“I’m so sorry Katara.” Haru gripped her shoulder comfortingly.
“We were supposed to go visit the Air Temples this summer, but I don’t even know where he is now. We got into a big argument and he took off and we were supposed to put our stuff in storage tonight, because we were supposed to leave tomorrow.”
“Do you need a place to stay?” Haru interrupted her panic attack in the gentlest way possible.
Katara worried her lip. She had been so focused on Aang she hadn’t quite computed her impending homelessness. Their lease was up tomorrow. She nodded her head yes.
“I have an extra bed, if you want to crash.” He offered. Katara didn't have to look at his deep green eyes to know that he meant it.
She just nodded, overwhelmed that the cute little apartment she made over the semester was gone and her cute little relationship was too.
Haru stood up and Katara did too, their chairs dragging obnoxiously along the fake tile floor.
He grabbed a few of her bags and said, “We can come grab the rest tomorrow.”
He stepped outside and she followed him. She shoved her key in the lock and turned it. The metal clicking had a sense of finality. Like her relationship was really over.
“Katara.”
Haru’s voice reminded her that she had been staring at the door for a strange amount of time. She pulled her key out and followed Haru out of her apartment building and down the block to the green truck he had since him and Sokka were in high school.
He effortlessly tossed her things in the back of the pickup.
Katara got in and they drove past gaggles of co-eds celebrating the end of the year, past the crowded apartments and dormitories, to the edge of campus. The moon was brighter away from the bustle of campus. The bugs hummed happily in the quiet.
Haru pulled into a dirt driveway to a small home.
He ushered her inside and pointed her to her room for the night. Before she turned to go, she finally looked at Haru and begged, “Please don’t tell Sokka.”
Haru earnestly looked down at her, “Wouldn’t dream of it. Good night Katara.”