Broken then Healed
Chapter 14.
Do you ever wonder what would have happened if Zuko had let Katara heal his scar in the Crystal Catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se? A Zutara Fan-fiction
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN AVATAR! I wish I did though. I lot of things would have happened differently. *smirks*
This story takes place at the end of season 2, and then what would have happened after in season 3.
Please review! :) It makes my day!
"Okay that settles it," Sokka points a finger at Aang. "No more school for you!" All heads nodded in agreement after hearing the tale that Katara had just retold to everyone.
"But I'm not ready to leave," Aang whines. "I'm having fun being a regular kid. You don't know what its' like, Sokka." He added, "You get to regular all the time."
"Ouch," Toph mocks from across the cave. And even Zuko can't help but crack a smile at this. The avatar only groans and paces the room, trying to come up with a reason of why he should stay in school, or at least do something more to help these kids.
"Listen guys," Aang starts after a moment. "These kids are the future of the fire nation, and if we want to change this place. The bets thing we can do right now is start with them."
"Aang," Iroh immediately responded, making everyone think he would try and disagree with him. But everyone was surprised at what he said. "I think you're right. If we can change these kids, we can change the future nation."
Zuko objected, but now he had a scowl on his face. "What could you possibly do to change a bunch of fire monsters? it's not like we can give them a toy and have expect them to be all anti-fire lord."
"No," Aang responded with a smirk," but we can show then a little bit of freedom."
This time, it was Katara who replied. And now she was irritated. She hated shooting down Aang, but this was getting a bit ridiculous. "How are we going to do that Aang? We can't exactly take the whole school on a field trip without somebody noticing." Aang gave her a a pleading look, and she softened a little bit. Only a little. "Come on Aang, I am just trying to be reasonable. Someone is going to tell a teacher or parent about this and we're all going to be screwed."
"Trust me," the young boy exclaimed. "When they hear about this, they won't tell anybody. They wouldn't want anyone to ruin the fun."
Toph snorted, "fun? You're going to do something fun for them?"
"Yes," Aang replied, so sure of himself. "And they are most definitely going to have fun." Katara raised an eyebrow, and Aang plowed on. "They're going to have fun because," he paused for a dramatic effect. "We are going to throw them... A secret dance party!"
Everyone was stunned, but Sokka was the first to recover. He pointed at Aang, and mocked him in his best Wang Fire voice, "got to your room!"
|oO0Oo|
It was quiet, and Toph was earthbending pillars up from the cave ground, and then Sokka decided to speak up. "I can't believe we are throwing a secret dance party. It just seems so... Silly."
"I know," Toph replied after she finished the last pillar. "And I haven't even been to a dance party before."
Aang appeared next the the two and inspected the pillars. After he decided nothing was wrong with them, he tried to make the water tribe boy feel a little better. "Don't think of it as a secret dance party, Sokka." He reassured him. "Think of it as a cultural event celebrating the art of fancy feet!" The young boy then broke out into a series of dance movements, but was interrupted by someone shouting.
"They're coming," Toph shouts after feeling a bunch of vibrations from outside the cave. "Everyone stop bending." Katara hurriedly bended the juice back into the punch bowls while Zuko and Iroh lit the last candles near the back of the cave. They had wanted to give the cave a 'glow'. Aang had just ushered Appa out of the back exit when the first kids and members of the band streamed in. The avatar immediately rushed of to greet the school kids while Katara and Zuko showed the band where they would be standing and performing.
Once everything was settled, everyone except Aang realized what a horrible idea this had been. All the kids were standing in the middle of the cave, looking nervous. The avatar seemed to realize what was happening and tried to cheer them up. He leaped in front of them and spread his arms. "Ladies and gentlemen," he announced in his best MC voice. "I present to you, the Flamey-os!" Aang threw his arms up towards the band on the pillars, signaling them to play. The music started, but instead on dancing like Aang expected, the school kids just kept standing there. Looking as awkward and out of place as water in a desert.
A young boy that looked about Aang's age spoke after a few uncomfortable minutes. "Now what do we do?"
'Well, now you dance," Aang tried to explain with certainty. Hoping that his confidence would encourage them. No such luck.
Another boy hid his head in his collar as if he were a turtle hiding in his shell. "I don't think my parents want me to be dancing in a cave."
"Yah," another piped up. "What is someone finds out?" Without waiting for an answer, the student scurried off in the opposite direction towards the exit.
"Oh boy," Aang groaned. "Listen guys. Dancing isn't something you should be thinking about. It is a form of self-expression that no one should ever or can ever take away from you." The same boy that spoke first decided to point out another reason of why they shouldn't be dancing in a cave.
"Maybe it was like that in colonies for you, Kuzon. But we just don't do this here in the mainland."
"Sure you do," Aang argued. Not giving up hope. "You have done for generations, and it just so happens that I know some classic fire nation dances. One hundred years ago, this was called the 'Phoenix Flight.'" The avatar starts to run in a circle. The he squats while he runs, kicking his feet in like you would in a Russian folk dance. His arms were spread out behind him, imitating the wings of a bird. All the school kids had gathered around the dancing boy, and were oohing and ahhing.
"Who knew Twinkletoes could actually dance?" Toph asked Katara who was sitting in the seat across from her. In the spur of the moment, Toph had made some tables and chairs before the kids came. Katara was glad, because she couldn't' imagine having to stand through this. She glanced around, noticing how Sokka and Zuko were leaned up against the wall opposite from her, and they seemed to be in a conversation. Looking in the opposite direction she saw that Aang had gotten the kids to start dancing, and Iroh had decided to join them. She smiled, and met Aang's eyes. He grinned at her and started a new dance, telling everyone what is was known for without breaking eye contact. But when another girl imitated the dance right next to him, Aang tore his gaze away from the water bender and turned his attention on the girl. Disappointment filled her, and she looked back over at Sokka and Zuko, who were no longer in a conversation. Instead they were walking towards her and Toph.
They crossed the room and sat in the chairs next to her. "Why don't you go dance with your boyfriend?" Sokka cocked his head towards the avatar, who was no longer dancing with the girl, but instructing a group of people on how to dance like the people in Ba Sing Se.
Katara shook her head, she didn't want to interrupt anything. "Umm. No thanks, I don't want to steal him away from those kids. They look like they are having a good time." The waterbender then tried to do the same tactic with Sokka. "Why aren't you dancing with anyone, Sokka?"
"Oh," he sputters. Almost defensively, "I'm not in the mood to dance right now." Her brother looks over his shoulder, looking for an excuse, and luckily he found one. "Hey," Sokka exclaimed. "It looks like Aang is coming to dance with you!"
It was obvious by the look on Katara's face that she didn't want to dance with Aang. "Oh..." The avatar was making his way across the room, heading straight towards Katara. "Umm," she turned her head away, but what she saw shocked her. Zuko was standing across the table, holding his hand out to her.
"Care to dance?" Her first reaction was to decline, but when she saw Aang getting closer out of the corner of her eye, she hastily grabbed his hand.
"Yes," She replied with a relieved smile. "I would... Love to." The avatar was standing a few feet away, gaping at the two. He had expected Katara to decline. But she didn't. Why? Aang strode over to Sokka and grabbed his arm.
"What is going on?" Aang almost hissed. "What are they doing?"
"They are going to dance," Sokka muttered, not sure what to think. "And I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. But I am just going to assume it's a bad thing."
Meanwhile, the fire bender had lead Katara into the middle of the cave, and whispered into her ear. The waterbender smiled, then nodded. They both took a step away fromm each other, and started their dance. It starting off with them circling each other, and then they stretched out their arms and touched their wrists together. Katara started to cartwheel through the air, and when she was finished, Zuko grabbed Katara and twirled her around. Her hair was flying, and they were starting to draw a crowd. Smoothly they backed away from each other, kicked over each other's heads, then branched off from each other and did their separate moves. But when they came back together, they were both breathing heavily. The fire bender sent Katara in to one last twirl, then brought her close to him, letting her rest her head in his chest.
Their hearts were beating in sync, and it was almost magical. Katara lifted her head and looked up at the boy who had just made her night, and beamed. But when she looked over his shoulder, she gasped and jerked away from him. She immediately felt the loss of warmth, but she didn't really care. She realized how they must have looked together, because Sokka and Aang were both glaring daggers at the fire bender. Iroh, on the other hand, was acting like a child who had won a toy. Toph was smirking. Oh boy. The water bender let her dance partner alone on the dance floor and started to make her way back over her table, but she decided to give Zuko one last glance. He was glaring at Aang, just as much as Aang was glaring at him. She sighed, and walked over to Toph, plopping herself into the chair next to her. It wasn't that she didn't want to be seen with Zuko, it was just that Aang was her boyfriend, and she shouldn't be looking like she was someone else's girlfriend.
"You don't have to tell me what happened." The blind earth bender gloated. "Your heartbeat tells it all."
"I don't know what you're talking about," The older girl huffed and crossed her arm. "And if our hearts were beating fast," she added. "It was because we were dancing."
Toph grunted, "Yah. Whatever you say." Sokka apparently thought this was the right time to join in on the conversation. He left Aang and crossed the space between him and his sister.
"What was that?" He cried, throwing his hands in the direction of the dance floor.
'"It was called a dance, Sokka." The girl smirked. "Maybe you should try it." Her brother ignored the snarky response and took a seat next to her.
"That's not what I meant and you know it." All of the sudden, his demeanor turned serious, and Katara knew she should stop avoiding his questions.
She shrugged, "I danced with Zuko. It's not that big of a deal. People dance all the time." Sokka's eyes bugged out of his head, and he gave his sister a look that made her feel stupid.
"Not a big deal?" He scolded, clearly annoyed. "What's not a big deal is dancing, and that was not just 'dancing'. You guys looked like a couple."
Crap. That's what I was afraid of. "Well, we're not so it's okay."
"But-" He was shut up when Katara smacked him on the arm. Sokka was about to protest again, but saw that his sister wasn't looking at him anymore. She was looking over his shoulder. Quickly, Sokka spun around and saw what she was staring at. The Headmaster from the fire nation school was here, and he was looking for Aang.
Let me tell you how mad I am right now. LET ME TELL YOU! I had 1,331 words in this story, and I wasn't even done writing yet. But for someone reason, when I was writing this chapter, the internet like crapped out or something. And the story went back down to 728 words. Let's just have a moment of silence for this tragedy. I was almost in tears. Okay now that I have that out of my system, I can continue on.
This was a long chapter! I told you guys that I would put a Zutara scene, but while I was writing, I realized that this chapter was already getting a bit long, and I hadn't even gotten to the Zutara moment. So I just ended making this chapter a little bit longer because I HAD to put that little scene in there. Honestly, I have no idea how to write a dance scene. So yah, if any of you are dancers. I apologize for my horrible portrayal. :'D
airichan623: That is actually a really good idea to try and find Ursa different way! Hmm... Now that had got me thinking, would they stumble across a village that Ursa lived in and then continue on from there? Or should I have made Ursa follow a different path when she met Ozai, and have the group find Ursa in a completely different way from the show? Wow...
rainbownarwhal: OMG that is such a great idea! I am definitely going to use that later on. And don't worry, I will give you credit. I might change it so that when Katara is pressured to tell who she actually likes, he gets mad at the two of them and storms off or something... Wow, this is so great I am getting ahead of myself. :D
zutara4eva: I will post some Zutara scenes later on in the story! Once they become a thing and all. But maybe I should create a bunch of short side stories with Zutara Fluff... Maybe...
Things I might do with this story. Please review and tell me what I should and shouldn't do:
1. Should this fan fiction have Taang or Tokka? If I did Tokka, that would require a break-up between Sokka and Suki. And personally, I like Taang better. But I want to write whatever you guys like best! SO what should I do?
2. What do you guys think about finding Ursa a different way? Should I have them find Ursa a bit earlier? Or should I have Ursa have taken a completely different path after sh left Ozai and have the Gaang find her in another completely different way?
Please, please, please review and tell me what you think about these ideas. :) :) :)