Disclaimer: I don't own ATLA


IX. Falling Into You

I'm falling into you
This dream could come true
And it feels so good falling into you

~Celine Dion, Falling Into You

The mist was still lingering in the air when Katara left the house and began walking towards the infirmary at the center of the village. A few golden leaves drifted on the cool breeze whispering reminders that autumn was quickly approaching. Katara smiled to herself. She loved autumn in the Earth Kingdom. The colors, the weather, everything was pleasant. It was definitely better than the South Pole. South Pole summers were still cold enough to be considered winter and there wasn't much to do down there besides hunting or going boating, or practicing her waterbending.

The little Earth Kingdom village suddenly loomed before her and Katara smiled as she saw people running about with tools and women dishing out food for breakfast. The little town was only one of many that she and her friends had stopped in to help with reparations; during the war, the little town had almost been razed to the ground save for the infirmary and some thatched huts. Most of the buildings were still standing on their foundations, but they were in such dilapidated conditions, no one could possibly live in them.

It's a good thing Zuko and Aang decided to stop here, she thought, surveying the crumbling structure that was supposed to be a house but looked more like an abandoned hut that nature had taken over. The people couldn't have held out much longer without a decent place to live.

"Master Katara, you came!" one woman cried, elated. "We didn't think you'd come."

"I overslept," the waterbender admitted. "Where's my brother?"

"He's helping Avatar Aang and Firelord Zuko," the woman said, gesturing to the building they were repairing near the infirmary.

Katara smiled and thanking the woman, made her way over to the others.

"So it finally happened," Sokka said.

"What?" his sister asked.

"For once in my life, I got up before you."

"Because someone didn't wake me up," Katara said, shooting an accusatory glance at Suki who had just joined them.

"It was all his fault," Suki said, pointing to Aang. "He told me not to."

Katara raised an eyebrow and Aang grinned.

"You and Toph looked so tired, we thought we'd let you sleep in," he explained.

"Toph sleeps in everyday," Katara reminded, chuckling. "So what's the agenda for today?"

"The usual," Zuko said. "And some babysitting."

"Babysitting?" Katara laughed. "You're going to babysit?"

"Someone has to watch the kids while their mothers work," Zuko said, offended. "Besides, I'm great with kids."

"Really? What else don't we know about you, Zuko?"

"He's going to teach me how to firebend," one of the little village boys piped up. He grinned widely. "I'm going to be the best firebending earthbender ever."

Zuko chuckled. "Sorry, buddy, but if you're an earthbender, you can only bend earth."

"Aw man," the little boy looked crestfallen and when Zuko looked up, there was an amused expression on Katara's face and when he asked her why, she just laughed and walked away.


Mai was glad to be away from the Fire Nation for once. She was getting tired of Zuko's incessant ranting on how boring the peace talks were and how the officials could be so uncompromising over some trivial matters so when Zuko proposed to help in the Earth Kingdom, she gladly accepted. Even if she didn't particularly like this village, she was glad to get away and glad for the change. She didn't really enjoy rebuilding the town, but there were some good things that came with helping, she realized. If nothing else, she at least got to spend more time with Zuko.

Being away from home seemed to do wonders for the young Firelord. Mai noticed he was less irritated and more at ease with the villagers, probably because he could relate to them. He seemed happy and cheerful, and there was a certain spring to his step. She never heard him complain about the people, only the work but rebuilding an entire town was grueling work. And though Mai wasn't one for overly cheerful people, she thought she could get used to the new Zuko.


Katara sat on the steps of the infirmary and quickly healed one of the village girls who had cut herself on a sharp, fallen tree branch. It was evening, and the sun was slowly moving closer to the horizon, so most of the healers in the infirmary had journeyed out into the town to help with any last minute tasks before the day ended, leaving Katara in charge. There weren't too many people who came into the infirmary at this time, so Katara didn't mind.

As soon as the little girl was all healed, she scurried away and joined several other children under the shade of a tree, where Zuko was trying to keep them occupied while their parents worked. He seemed to have his hands full trying to maintain over a dozen children and Katara thought about helping him, but Aang was quicker. He offered to mind some of the children for Zuko and Katara saw the young Firelord flash him a grateful smile.

"Can you teach me how to fly?" one of the little boys asked, fiddling with a stick that was supposed to resemble Aang's glider. The airbender laughed and gently pried the object away from the boy before he hit anyone.

"Sorry, little guy," he said, ruffling the boy's hair. "But you need to be an airbender to fly with a glider."

"So I can never fly?" the boy asked as a look of disappointment worked its way across his face. He hung his head and sniffled.

"How would you like to fly on Appa?" Aang asked, and the little boy looked at him eagerly and nodded vigorously.

"What about us?" the other children chimed. "Can we?"

Aang looked at Appa and the bison grunted as if he had given his consent. Within minutes, half the children had clambered up to sit in his saddle and Appa was flying before Aang even had time to check on the children. Zuko was trying to control the remaining kids and trying to convince them that they would get their turn, but it wasn't easy and even from where she was, Katara could hear their loud protests.

After flying around for a few minutes, Appa landed and the rest of the children rushed to get on and once again, the bison took off and began flying in circles. Katara wondered if it made them all dizzy, but the village kids didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, they seemed to be having lots of fun. Even Zuko and Aang seemed to be having a good time. Katara watched the young airbender with kids and laughed softly to herself. Every time she saw him with them, it was like falling in love all over again. She didn't even know if that was possible, but when it came love, she figured she was still relatively inexperienced.

She didn't know how long Appa gave the children rides, or how long Zuko and Aang watched them, but it was a long time before the two were able to convince the kids that Appa needed to rest and that they could do something else for fun. By the time they managed to divert the kids' attention from Appa to something else, it was time to send the kids home with their parents. Zuko and Aang looked exhausted, but they were both laughing over something Katara couldn't quite hear.

"It doesn't look easy, does it?" A young woman asked coming to stand beside Katara and watching the kids go home.

"No," the waterbender agreed ruefully, shaking her head. "It doesn't." But she had to admit, Aang was good with kids; even Zuko was. She hadn't really thought he was one for kids.

The young woman sighed. "We'll be doing that one day. Oh the joys of motherhood."

Katara laughed. Someone's very enthusiastic, she thought.

"If only I fell in love with a man like that but love is a strange thing," the young woman said, laughing to herself. The waterbender gave her a confused look, but she didn't bother to elaborate. "Something tells me that those two will be good fathers."

Katara grinned. "I'm sure they will."

That night, Katara fell asleep dreaming that she and Aang were having an argument over whose turn it was to watch their kids.

Falling like a leaf
Falling like a star
Finding a belief
Falling where you are
Falling into you
Falling into you
Falling into you

~Celine Dion


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~Cassidy Alice