Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or the song "Castle on a Cloud" from Les Miserables, based on the novel by Victor Hugo. The original lyrics are by Alain Boublil, English translation by Herbert Kretzmer.

Author's Note: Here is my new songfic collection, similar to 76 Trombones except that the songs can be from any musical, so this could go on for a while. I won't accept any Music Man suggestions for this collection, but if I think the idea is good enough, I may put it in 76 Trombones. See the end notes for further submission guidelines.

Castle on a Cloud

There is a castle on a cloud.
I like to go there in my sleep.
Aren't any floors for me to sweep,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

A little girl woke up from such an amazing dream that she just had to tell someone about it so she wouldn't forget. Although it might be risky, she decided to wake up her brother.

"Sokka!" she hissed across the tent they shared.

"What? Are we being attacked?" he asked, suddenly fully awake. This was not an unreasonable fear, as there had been several Fire Nation raids already in their lives. One had taken their mother last year. Katara's mind shied away from the memory, and she hastened to reassure Sokka.

"No, I just want to tell you about this dream I had."

"Is that all? A stupid dream?" He sounded like he was about to roll over and go back to sleep.

"Please, just listen. I saw this beautiful castle in the clouds!"

"A what?"

Katara knew Sokka had heard her, so she just went on.

"There were people and animals flying around it, too."

"That's just silly," declared Sokka, with all the wisdom conferred upon him from his nine years of life. "Humans can't fly."

"Well, not by themselves," she insisted. "They had things on their backs, like…" Katara searched her brain for something familiar she could compare them to. "Like sails!"

"Sails?"

"Yeah. Our sails catch the wind and move our ships around, right? Well, these caught the air, too, and kept people up in the sky."

There is a room that's full of toys.
There are a hundred boys and girls.
Nobody shouts or talks too loud,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

"I still say it's crazy," said Sokka.

"Well, it was just a dream," Katara defended. She went on with her narrative, undaunted. "There were lots of children there, too, but they were all bald."

"Why would they be bald? Only old men get bald."

"How should I know? I think they were all boys, too." Katara sighed as she tried to hold the picture of life there in her mind. "It seemed so…fun and peaceful."

"Without any chatty girls around, it probably was peaceful," Sokka grumbled. Katara stuck her tongue out at him, even though he probably couldn't see it.

She hesitated about one thing that stuck out to her. There was one particular boy who had caught her attention. He was bald like the others, but there was a blue arrow marked on his head, setting him apart. She thought he was a few years older than she was. He was standing and watching the other boys from a distance, holding a wooden staff, and he seemed sad. Somehow, this part of the dream felt too personal to share, so she moved on.

There is a lady, all in white,
Holds me and sings a lullaby.
She's nice to see, and she's soft to touch.
She says, "Cosette, I love you very much."

"I got to go into the castle and explore it a little," Katara continued. "I…I found Mom in one room. She held me and sang to me. Remember that lullaby she always used to sing?" There was a pause, long enough that Katara began to wonder if Sokka had gone back to sleep after all.

"Yeah, I remember," Sokka finally answered, quietly. "I dream about her sometimes, too."

"Then, it wasn't Mom anymore but a girl in a white dress. And she had white hair."

"You said she was a girl, not an old lady."

"She didn't look that old to me. She just had white hair."

"This just keeps getting crazier."

"I think she's going to be special to you someday," Katara suggested.

"Why would I need another stupid girl in my life?" Sokka argued. This, however, was one area where girls tended to be wiser than boys.

"You might not always feel that way," she said simply.

"Hmph. You sound like Dad."

"So? Don't you think he's smarter than you?" Now, she knew she had him boxed into a corner. Sokka hated to admit being wrong about anything, but he worshiped their father. He certainly wasn't going to say anything disparaging about him.

"Are we about done?" Sokka changed the subject.

"Almost. Right at the end, the moon carried the girl away."

I know a place where no one's lost.
I know a place where no one cries.
Crying at all is not allowed,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

"This is completely weird. Why are you telling me all this?" Sokka asked finally.

"It was all just so magical, I didn't want to forget it. Everybody seemed so peaceful and happy." Well, almost everyone, she amended internally, thinking of the boy with the arrow. "There was no war." Katara didn't know how she knew this, but she was sure of it. That was probably the part that touched her most of all, the idea that there could be a world without war.

"The war's been going on forever," Sokka objected. Considering all debate over, he rolled back up in his sleeping bag and promptly began breathing evenly. Katara lay awake for a while, trying to hold some of the details of her dream in her mind. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep as well, and her last thought before doing so was that it must be nice to live in a castle on a cloud.

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Member of the Boomeraang Squad: charleegirl, Jesus.Lives, Liselle129, Strix Moonwing, Avatarwolf, MormonMaiden, libowiekitty, Snows of Yester-Year, La Vixen de Amor, chocolatecoveredbananacheese, Aangy, and honorary member SnakeEyes16

Author's Note: Ever wonder why Katara was so ready to accept Aang as a friend? This is one possible explanation, besides the fact that he was the first boyfriend material she'd seen since she was 12. We don't really know when her mother was killed, but I've figured Katara was pretty young when it happened, based on her vague vision in the swamp.

To submit a request you'd like me to write, just include the song title, name of the musical, and a brief synopsis of the story idea in your review (one or two sentences). The songs should all be from shows that have been professionally performed on stage, preferably Broadway. This leaves the field pretty open, really, since songs by artists like Elvis Presley and Billy Joel have been incorporated into Broadway productions. I will make exceptions for songs that replace others when a show goes from stage to screen; for example, "Something Good" replaced "Ordinary Couple" in the film version of The Sound of Music. I may also consider songs from film or television written by people who otherwise did Broadway, like State Fair and Flower Drum Song (both scores by Rodgers & Hammerstein). Naturally, I reserve the right to reject any and all requests, with or without explanation. Gee, I'm sounding like a lawyer.