Dance Like Nobody's Watching...
The empty halls and rubble-filled rooms of the Western Air Temple weren't spooky... not in the daylight. They were sad.
Katara walked through them as the Gaang took a break from making their plans, and as she saw the murals on the walls, the Airbender statues here and there, she didn't feel scared.
She felt sad.
And the feeling grew as she walked.
She knew that female Airbenders had lived here... some her own age, years and years ago. Lives just beginning, just... ended. A history, a heritage... lost. Eliminated.
Gone.
At the same time... there were whispers of their lives, good ones. The Airbenders were cunning architects and planners. Water from nearby streams up above trickled down into fountains and pools. And light... light came in from unexpected places. Sometimes it was reflected from pools of water... sometimes it came in directly, from clever shafts cut into the rock.
So that while the Airbenders themselves were undoubtedly gone, somehow... they weren't. Even despite the worst that had been done to them. Their temple lived.
In that uplifted mood, Katara found the great Pai Sho board. The largest in the world, it was said.
The high dome of the place made it a cathedral of light and air.
Katara threw her arms wide and danced, reveling in the open space. It felt good after the closeness of the stone.
Dancing...
She stopped.
That night...
Her muscles remembered the moves. Her mind remembered the music. The Flameos. She snorted. But they were good. Better than anything she'd heard in the Earth Kingdom, certainly.
She also remembered how he was. He wasn't the boy in the iceberg then at all. He was... so...
In his element, for lack of a better way to put it. So self-possessed. He knew how to dance. And felt no qualms at all at getting out there and doing it.
Especially with that On Ji girl...
Katara frowned. Then she looked up and laughed. Was she actually about to growl?
That simple dance from Ba Sing Se that seemed to set the whole room dancing bit by bit...
Here, now, her arms moved, circling, slowly picking up the rhythm.
And he came to her... and asked her to join him. Not On Ji. Her.
No hesitation. No awkwardness. Just "Take my hand."
And she did.
He told her his plan.
Just simple circles at first, touching at the wrists...
"Don't worry about them. It's just you... and me right now." And that look.
She began to circle. Alone. Arm out, palm up.
Whirls... high round kicks... darting in so close to him, almost nose to nose... then a quiet smile.
She remembered. She moved in time in the silence, just as she did then.
Someone in the shadows noticed.
Then handstands... whirls... she threw herself into the air and spun almost horizontally, her back to the floor.
Another handstand... one last flourish, and—
She almost threw herself into where Aang's arms had been, would have been, and came to a screeching halt. She wasn't going to throw herself into the floor now, surely!
She realized she was alone. And not in the Fire Nation, not at that dance, not that night, but here... now... the Western Air Temple...
And more than a little confused.
She shook her head, and smiled at herself. I'm just being silly, that's all. It was fun, but...
She headed back to the others.
Toph met up with her before she reached the camp, though. "Soooo... you enjoy your little dance?"
"What? I was—it was just—it was nothing at all! I just saw the open space, and... I wanted to dance. Is that all right with you?"
"Oh, that's just fine with me, Sugar Queen. But aren't you going to tell Twinkletoes about it?"
"Why would I?" Katara asked, getting a little more self-possessed. "It was just a dance."
Just before they reached the camp, Toph said something, very softly...
"I can tell you're ly-ing..."