A/N - I got the idea for this from Lyralockes' millions of oneshots (seriously, she has like sixty-five kataang oneshots). And my playlist for this was basically the Twilight soundtrack. (I don't like Rob's Never Think.) It takes place directly after the finale, so SPOILERS ALERT
I don't own Avatar, although I really wish I did!
Katara looked out softly over the large city of Ba Sing Se. Aang's soft hand slipped into hers, and they stood like that. Her green dress flowed over her body nicely. His baggy Air Nation made his shoulders look broader, and older.
They made these observations by glancing sideways at the other. Then, they glance away, blushing, remembering the kiss they had just shared. It kind of embarrassed the couple.
About five minutes had passed, and neither of them had said anything. Katara hadn't spoken since she had made her negative comments on Sokka's painting. That had been about eight or nine minutes ago.
"Should we tell them?"
"Not yet, Toph. Don't ruin the moment."
"They have to know, Sokka!"
"She's right. He kind of wants an answer."
"See? Zuko agrees with me."
Katara, sick and tired of listening to the soft murmurs behind her, pulled a little water from the flowers below. Waterbending in small, indistinct movements, she got it up to just below the wall.
Aang snickered, and moved into a more of a stance. Katara gave the tiniest of nods, a signal. He flickered his eyes up and then back down. In a swift movement, the two waterbended the water over the ledge and flicked it at the people standing by the door.
Zuko, who had probably seen it coming, was in front and simply firebended at the water, evaporating it. He looked pretty serious.
"This is no time for jokes," he said dully. Even Sokka's usual sarcastic smile was absent from his face. Toph, though, looked kind of giddy under a façade of calmness.
"What is it?" Aang asked. He folded his arms across his chest, as his hand had been separated from Katara's when they had bended. Katara hopped up into a sitting position on the short wall beside them.
Sokka and Zuko exchanged a glance. Katara glared at them both. "Well?" she demanded.
"There's a bit of an event, you see," Zuko started to explain in his scratchy voice. "The Earth Kind just had associates inform us-"
"Cut to the chase!" Katara practically snarled.
Sokka snorted with laughter, and then pushed the scarred Fire Lord out of the way. "We're invited to an Earth Kingdom party, celebrating the end of the war!"
Instinctually, Aang moved in front of Katara protectively. She swallowed out of embarrassment. "Um, Aang? It's just a party," she whispered in his ear. Blushing, the avatar moved to the side again.
"Hello, lovebirds, can you focus on the 'event'?" Toph said, bored. Apparently, this wasn't the reaction she had wanted.
Katara and Aang looked away uncomfortably.
Zuko rolled his eyes. Toph looked like she wanted to throw up. Or at least put her feet up. Sokka shivered, probably at the thought of his little sister with one of the strongest guys on Earth.
"As we were saying, all of us have been invited to a formal event. A sort of truce between nations, per say," Zuko continued.
Toph rolled her blind eyes. "Zuko, you're making it sound very boring. Party!" She did a weird dance move that only a blind person could ever do.
Sokka started guffawing, his body shaking with soundless laughs. "Toph… maybe… you shouldn't… go," he managed between snickers.
Toph punched him on the hard. Pretty hard, it would seem.
"I'm going! Maybe I just won't dance…" Sokka laughed even harder at that.
Aang had sat down next to Katara, and now they were watching their friends with amused faces. But both of them were more remembering their dance in the Fire Nation. Would it be like that?
The little procession headed back inside, Sokka being the last because he shot Aang and Katara a warning look. Which they both ignored.
"You know, I don't think it's going to be the same as the secret dance," she whispered.
He nodded. "I know. That was more of the party Toph is talking about. This is probably going to be some thing where everyone stands around talking, while a light music plays in the background."
She had to stifle her laughter. "Exactly! And servers bring around food on a silver platter. How boring."
"Very boring."
"We're going to spice it up, aren't me?"
"You, me, Toph, Sokka, Suki. Maybe Zuko and Mai. And even better, Iroh." Aang grinned at his list. They started giggling softly. Who ever invited them was seriously going to regret it.
"Suki, can you help me?" Katara called across the hall. The Kyoshi warrior had on a nice pale rose colored dress. Katara herself was trying to zip up a loose blue dress. She had picked it because it was the colors of her home, but Aang protested that it matched her eyes.
Without saying, it's rather difficult to appreciate your boyfriend's compliment when, one, no one in the store will leave you alone, and two, you're in a dress. Okay, it was loose – for dancing, of course – but it is still awkward!
"Yes?" Suki asked, coming in Katara's room. She noticed her strange position, laughed, then helped zip it up.
Katara stepped back to look in the mirror. The dress looked nice, but her hair was a complete mess. She grabbed a hair brush off the dresser and started pulling it through the tangled locks. "How long do we have?"
"About two hours," Suki replied, sitting down in the chair by the window. "You have plenty of time."
Katara didn't mention that she was asking for her own sake. No, she could be done getting ready in ten minutes. She was more worried about Aang. He said he wouldn't take very long, but that was an hour ago.
Figuring he was trying to figure out what to wear, even if that was a girly thing to do, she pulled her hair back into a half ponytail, then put a flower clip over the band. There, she was done.
She turned around to Suki. "Okay, I'm ready."
Suki grinned. "Awesome, let's go downstairs."
The two girls hurried down the spiral staircase to the lounge-like place. It had formerly been a gathering place outside a small meeting room, but Zuko had had converted both into a place for him and his friends to be able to hang out.
There were still people in the palace who were upset about his choice. Of course, Iroh loved the new setup and often joined them.
Already in the room were Toph and Mai. Toph was wearing a green dress, and Mai had on a gold one. Probably to match her Fire Lord boyfriend.
"Hey guys!" Suki exclaimed, sitting down in a huge armchair, while Katara perched on the arm-rest of the couch Toph was sitting on. "What's up?"
"Nothing much. We're just waiting for the guys to be done," Mai replied.
"Slow pokes," Toph muttered.
They talked about random subjects, usually boyfriend things so Toph kept quiet – pure kid. About five minutes later, Sokka came down, wearing a blue ensemble. Kind of like a warrior's uniform, but without the swords or wolf head.
"Finally!" Suki said, getting up to hug Katara's brother. Aw, the two siblings matched!
"Just waiting on Aang and Zuko," Katara said.
It was still kind of funny how they could call the Fire Lord by his name. Unless they wanted to tease him, then they called him Sir Fire Lord. He usually threatened to shoot fire in their direction.
"I'm here!" Zuko called from the very top of the staircase. Slowly, he made his way down. Katara figured that the two workers were slowing him down. She'd seen him move a lot faster. Fast enough to put himself in the path of a lightning bolt.
She shivered and stopped that train of thought.
Mai met him at the bottom step, and dragged him to the loveseat she had just been sitting on.
"Oh, Katara," Zuko spoke up, turning to the waterbender. "Aang wants to talk to you. I don't know why, she just asked me to tell you."
She barely heard the last sentence. She was dashing up the stairs to Aang's room. Across from Zuko's own room. She knocked tentatively on the door. "Aang? It's me, Katara. Zuko said you wanted to talk to me?"
Suddenly the door opened, seemingly on its own. "Come here!" he called, sounding excited.
She pushed the door open wider and stepped in slowly. He was standing by the huge ceiling-to-floor mirror. His gray eyes flashed to her face and beckoned her over faster.
Confused, she walked to his side. "Look at us," he whispered, pointing at the mirror. And the two looking back at them could not have been their reflection. A handsome boy with a blue tattoo on his forehead, in a baggy orange outfit. A wide blue-eyed girl in a dress that seemed to hug to her shape, although Katara could barely feel it around her.
She shook her head. "That's… amazing." She refused to say 'That's not us.' It couldn't have been. The girl there was way too beautiful to be Katara.
He smirked. "Hey, you look fantastic," he complimented her, his eyes taking in the dress.
"Thanks. You do, too." Her eyes flickered back to the mirror, and, sure enough, the other girl was looking back at her with the same bewildered expression. "We should go downstairs. Before everyone starts to wonder where we were," she suggested.
He took her hand and led her out of the room. He airbended them both to the bottom of the stairs, grinned exuberantly.
A chorus of "Finally" and "It's about time" succeeded their landing. Everyone stood up and went outside. Waiting there was a carriage for seven, plus the carriage driver, Iroh. He smiled and waved them in.
It had an interesting set up. Instead of rows, all of the seats looked inward, in a small circle. Except Iroh's seat, that was in the circle but looked outward.
The ride there was accompanied by a growing anticipation. The group chatted aimlessly, topics changed randomly and not usually noticed. Eventually, everyone just started talking to their other about dancing and complimenting each other. Toph just argued to Iroh about the importance of tea.
After half an hour, they were at the palace. It was the only carriage in sight, although there were a ton of palanquins. At least it would be easy to find their way back.
They hurried to the door, although they were early. Some earthbenders opened the doors, and everyone slipped inside. One of the door-openers noticed no one was with Toph, and slipped after her. He asked her if she would like him to be her follower for the night.
Katara and Aang slid away before they could hear the answer. Everyone was taking up places around the huge room. The place was as big as all of the Western Air Temple put together!
It seemed Toph had said yes, because the boy was now following after her like the Earth King's bear. Katara elbowed Aang and pointed in their direction. He smiled.
Soon, everyone who was everyone was in the room. And, against their previous assumptions, everyone was dancing. It had just taken some coaxing from the avatar, the Fire Lord, and their friends.
Aang leaned down and whispered in Katara's ear, "Save the last dance for me."
She grinned, and then pressed her lips against his.