Book 3 Chapter 2: The Headband

"Go to your room!" Sokka bellowed with a tug on his fake beard. Aang's face immediately fell. Maybe Sokka was exaggerating a little, but Katara couldn't help but agree that inviting almost a hundred Fire Nation citizens to their hide-out was a bad idea, even if they were only students. Wasn't the point of staying in this cave to avoid any extra contact with the Fire Nation? Still, Aang seemed so enraptured with the idea that Katara, Toph, and even Sokka helped him with the preparations.

The students began to file in and stood around nervously, unsure of what to do with themselves, voicing concern that they shouldn't even be there. Aang quickly rebutted their protests with a quick introduction to dancing, demonstrating some Fire Nation dance moves he'd learned over a hundred years ago. There was no denying he was light on his feet. It probably had something to do with his air bending.

"Who knew twinkle-toes could dance?" Toph crowed across the table from Katara. She smiled softly as she watched him, half-wishing she could be up there too. It sure did look like he was having fun. To her surprise, he pulled one of the girls – On Ji? – In to help him demonstrate the moves. Katara felt a strange twinge in her gut.

"Wow, they look pretty good together," Sokka commented, still wearing that ridiculous beard.

"Eh. If that's what you like." The twinge grew. She felt somehow hurt that Aang hadn't chosen to demonstrate the moves with her, even though it was silly. What did it matter who he chose?

Slowly the students began to join in, and they actually appeared to be enjoying themselves. Katara rested her cheek in her palm, quietly giving in to her self-pity, when Aang appeared before her with a hand out-stretched.

"I don't know Aang. These shoes aren't really right for dancing." She desparately wanted to try it, but didn't want her eagerness to show. "And I'm not sure that I know how to-"

"Take my hand," Aang interrupted confidently, almost as if he believed in her. She couldn't help the grin that suddenly appeared on her face.

"Okay." Aang led her to the center of the room and whispered instructions as he led her in a dance. For a few moments she was concentrating so completely on the dance and on the boy across from her that she didn't notice the attention of the crowd slowly turning on them.

"Aang, everyone's watching," She suddenly felt very self-conscious.

"Don't worry about them. It's just you and me right now." Aang encouraged with a half-smile that made her blush. She turned her focus completely back to Aang, concentrating once more on the moves. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had this much fun. Aang twirled gracefully around her as she executed some moves of her own. As the dance ended and Aang dipped her as a finale, she couldn't help but notice the warmth of his hand on her waist and the way his gray eyes sparkled into hers. He was Aang, but suddenly he was also so much more.

This one was a little different than the first because I actually did it within the parameters of the episode. Hopefully it felt like more than just a re-telling (though that's basically what it was). I actually watched the last section of that episode as I wrote this to get the dialogue right.

Again, this is a new idea I'm trying out, writing a Kataang one-shot for each episode of the 3rd book. If it's a format you like, let me know! I'd love to do it for other books and ships!