[Some of what she had said before that was sticking in his mind and wounding him slowly for some reason he couldn't put together at first. But as he followed her next request and looked towards her... it hit him. It reminded him of what she had told him before the Invasion. Right before they kissed.

"you're not the same boy I remembered from home. You've experienced so much that I haven't seen and..."

"We've been through so many things together and I've seen you grow up so much. You're not that little goofy kid I found in the iceberg anymore. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm really proud of you."

And there was the difference. "We've been through so many things together and...""You've experienced so much I haven't seen and..." The corrupting difference. They hadn't been through that together. This place had robbed them of their chance to grow up together. It was hard for Aang to realize, since his time with Katara had been relatively unbroken by being taken there. But it was there in front of him. The marks of all the time he missed with her here. He even missed this Katara's sixteenth birthday, and he knew how important that was.

He breathed shallowly as he took in every difference, and he speaks weakly.]

I... I see, Katara. I know. You've had... all this different time. And you don't look much the same as you did when we were... l-last together on Appa's back. [He scans her face, looking for something, some sign of any hope. Then... he adds quickly.] Except your eyes. ...They're still the same.