[What? Why would she understand it like that? How could she understand it like that? His reaction to the second half hits him mush faster than a delayed reaction to the first half. Heaving, he tries to force himself onto his feet. His legs are shaky, and he takes a step forward] Who would?! I never said that! I never would say that! I am in awe of that, now more than ever, that you survived a perverse fate - not only here, but at home too! Your dedication to that is beautiful, and flashes of that are why I fell in love with you!

[He coughs. Something got stuck in his throat. He threatens to trip, to fall back into the pool. He tries to steady himself

Other things come to him in that moment when he falters. In a flash, he realizes:

"Why do you think I'm trying so hard to make it better!" + "There's a good reason for that, you know. He brought everyone hope when we had none."

"I know the story, Toph-chan. In another life, I even lived it."

So that's why the Prince of Omashu loved Aang so much.

Stupid. He was so stupid. It wasn't Aang the person, of course it wasn't, it was the Avatar. It was the promise of freedom, the promise of hope. All this time, he'd thought that it was Aang that was important. It wasn't. Aang was personally important to Katara and become personally important to his friends, but it could have been anyone. It could have been that Korra girl. He's been so preoccupied with the narrow lens of Katara's well being, he'd failed to see her circumstances.

I couldn't have known.

He's crying, still, isn't he? As he stands in vomit, trying not fall over.

That's not all you are. You are so much more. I have seen so much more.

But even as he thinks that, he knows, he's depended on her too. She was his Doctor, he had just sworn that. She was his doctor, his rock. The thing which had allowed him to become a better man. He had given her as many or more burdens than all of them.

And he was so.

Stupid]