Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar or the song "Once Upon a Dream" from Sleeping Beauty, words and adaptation of music by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence.
Author's Note: Well, this is a pretty short one, but the idea came to me, and it's about all I had time for. Besides, my reviews have been falling off, which means it must be time for another Kataang!:) Sokka and Katara discuss Aang the evening after they've "rescued" him from Zuko. I sort of envisioned this occurring the night before they go to the Southern Air Temple, but I'm not sure how long it took to get there.
Once Upon a Dream
"I don't get it."
"What?" Katara turned towards her brother, surprised out of her reverie by his voice. He was staring into the dying flames of their campfire.
"I just don't get it. How did you know?" Sokka gestured toward the boy sleeping on his bison. Aang had obviously been exhausted from his harrowing day, but it had almost the opposite effect on the Water Tribe siblings. At least, Katara knew that she felt abnormally keyed up. Between her first time away from home, her first flight, the run-in with the Fire Nation, and finding the Avatar, her mind kept going in circles, running over the new experiences. She couldn't quite settle down.
"I don't have any idea what you're talking about," Katara responded, shifting her position.
"How did you know who he was?"
"Well, I certainly didn't know he was the Avatar."
I know you;
I
walked with you
Once upon a dream.
"Okay, but you trusted him right away. What did you see that I missed?" The flickering firelight deepened the lines of his frown, and Katara could see that this was really bothering him. Sokka hated to be wrong, and he was desperate to figure out why. Katara wasn't certain she could help him with that, but she was willing to try.
"I'm not sure," she replied honestly. "I just sort of felt like I knew him, somehow."
"You couldn't possibly have known him," Sokka scoffed. "You said yourself he was in that ice for 100 years." He was being very logical, but that was exactly his problem. Despite her frequent insults, Katara knew that Sokka was quite intelligent. Unfortunately, that intelligence got in the way sometimes. He couldn't seem to expand his consciousness to believe in things that couldn't be readily proven. He'd always thought Katara silly for listening to Gran-Gran's tales night after night, but it was because of those stories that she was better equipped than he to adapt to their present situation.
I know you;
The
gleam in your eyes
Is so familiar a gleam.
"I don't mean I knew him with my head," she tried to explain. "It's more like I knew him with my heart."
"That makes even less sense."
"Look, you asked, and that's the best answer I can come up with," she retorted irritably. "I'm sorry if it doesn't fit in with your world view!" In truth, part of her frustration stemmed from the fact that she herself didn't fully understand what had happened. Since she didn't understand, it was nearly impossible for her to explain it in a way that Sokka would comprehend. Besides, even though her mind felt wide awake, she was really very tired.
All Katara knew was that she had felt a strange thrill of recognition, like something from a half-remembered dream, the moment her eyes had met Aang's. Later, she had joked about the "evil look in his eye" for the very reason that his eyes struck her as containing completely the opposite. They even looked oddly familiar.
But I know
it's true
That visions are seldom all they seem,
But if I
know you,
I know what you'll do -
"I guess we should try and get some sleep," Sokka said, apparently deciding the subject was closed. At her nod, he scooped sand over the fire to put it out. Katara could only hope that this journey they were on would help to broaden Sokka's horizons and make him open his mind to new possibilities. She was glad he had come along, but he could still be annoyingly close-minded.
Katara snuggled into her fur-lined sleeping roll, but her eyes and thoughts kept straying to where Aang slept peacefully. He wanted to go first to see his home at the Southern Air Temple, which was understandable, but she was worried about what they would find there. She would have to find a way to prepare him.
She marveled over how she had already come to care so much for someone she'd known only a few days. Gran-Gran had said that Katara and Sokka found Aang for a reason. Maybe it was her destiny, and Katara had somehow always known that it would happen. That might explain her sense of familiarity.
You'll love me at once,
The way you did
once
Upon a dream.
One thing Katara would definitely not tell Sokka was that she had long been wondering how she would ever meet a boy of her own age that was not her brother. The warriors had been gone for two years, and even the youngest of them was eight years her senior. Now a boy had shown up practically on their doorstep, and Sokka had already teased her about being his girlfriend. It was too soon to use such terms, but if her imagination occasionally strayed in that direction, perhaps she could be forgiven.
Whatever the purpose of their meeting, her fate and Sokka's were connected to Aang's now. The last airbender had no one else, even if he had yet to accept it, and maybe that was what drew Katara to him. Her heart already ached at the thought of the empty temple they would likely discover.
"Good night, Aang," she whispered into the darkness, needing to speak her feelings aloud, even if no one could hear her. "We'll be here for you, whatever happens."
Her promise made, she drifted off to sleep.
--
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: I'm not wild about the ending, but since this takes place between the second and third episodes, I didn't want to get too deep into their relationship. At the same time, I think I alluded to and foreshadowed things that would eventually happen and set up The Southern Air Temple.
Review responses:
Wishing Only Wounds the Heart: That does sound like a good idea, and I typed up the lyrics after reading your suggestion, but I haven't been able to sit down and write it yet. That song has a LOT of words, and I think I'll have to cut the second half, about the voice as payment.
Katara2102: I finally lost patience and watched WAS, too. I don't get Combustion Man's role in the season, other than an excuse for random action scenes. I've also watched the last segment of TFM, and it seemed mostly like filler to me. Do they really need an entire episode to explain where firebending came from? Yue explained waterbending origins in about two sentences! And why are Teo, Haru, and The Duke even there? They're ignored most of the time, anyway.
TTAvatarfan: Yeah, I still like Suki best with Sokka. I hope we see her again soon. I'm still plugging away at these collections, updating when I can. I'm trying to start rotating between this, Broadway, and What You Missed.
San-chan Reincarnaited: Okay, I have the lyrics typed up. I don't like to do the characters singing, though, unless it works with the story, and as protective as Sokka is, I'm not sure I can see it happening. However, it's occurred to me that it might work as one of Aang's hallucinations in N&D.
Aangsfangirl1214: Oh, I totally agree Sokka's Master was a huge Tokka episode. We mostly saw her side, but he did give her a present at the end. I just really wish they'd wrap up the Sukka angle if they're going to go this way with it.
ilovekataang: I've been thinking about that, but I'm not sure which couple to use it for.
