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Chapter 18

The members of Team Avatar were walking through the crowded streets of Ba Sing Se. The boys tried a few vendors and easily found clothes to wear to the dance. The girls on the other hand were being pickier. Every time they found a vendor the girls couldn't find something they wanted.

"Katara, what about this dress?" Suki asked, holding a purple dress in front of her own body.

"Hmmm... try a green one," Katara replied.

Suki started looking through the dresses and found a blue, Water Tribe dress. "Katara, you should buy this one!"

"I already to you, I'm not buying anyth-" The dress instantly caught her gaz as she turned around, stunned by the beauty of the dress. The dress had fluid designs and was made of silk material. The dress had spaghetti straps and went down to her knees.

Suki laughed. "So you're getting it, right?"

Katara rolled her eyes and grabbed it fiercely from her arms. "Yeah, yeah."

"Too bad you can't go out with Aang. He would be drooling the whole night," Suki teased.

Katara blushed. "Oh well."

Suki and Katara finished shopping and found Mai. They started looking around for their boyfriends before finding them by a stream.

"Hey guys!" Aang waved with a grin on his face. He noticed the dress that Katara was holding. "I thought you weren't buying a dress?"

"It looked too nice for me to not buy it." She looked over at Sokka. "...And is Sokka trying to fish?"

"Uhm, yeah," Zuko said.

"Doesn't he know the streams in the river don't have fish?" Suki said.

"THEY DON'T!? I have been out here a couple of times a day trying to catch a fish! Zuko bet me and ZUKO!" He jumped at the Firelord who barely sidestepped him. Aang snickered and Zuko laughed. Mai smiled at Sokka's stupidity and Suki ran to see if her boyfriend was alright. Katara just looked annoyed at her brother's foolishness. They headed back to the house and prepared themselves for the next school day. The Spirit Ball was just in three days.

The next day at school Aang walked toward his fifth-period class. He got there to see his teacher making an announcement.

"Class, listen up! A new rule was added for the Spirit Dance. All attendees must wear masks while on the dance floor. Others won't know your identity except for your date. The point of having a date is not to only dance with them, but to share the most important dance of the night with them. After that, you are free to dance with whoever you please. Now, I don't really care about the dance, so I'll let you off the hook if you're caught without a mask. If you have any problems with this feel free to march up to the office and complain to them instead of me. Is that clear?" The entire class nodded. "Alright, let's get to learnin'."

The period ended an hour later and the halls started filling up with students.

"Aa-Kuzon! Wait up!" Katara yelled, running quickly towards Aang as he walked to his sixth-period class.

"Yeah, Katara? What is it?" Aang asked.

"You heard about the mask rule, right?"

Aang nodded.

"I think that means we're allowed to dance with each other now," Katara whispered excitedly.

He smiled. "Oh yeeeeaaahhhh... Well, I can't wait to finish dancing with On Ji, so I can start dancing with you.

That sentence caused her to blush while also boosting her confidence. "We should thank the Earth King." "

Aang grabbed her hands and smiled at her. "Yeah... that was pretty thoughtful of him."

The day of the dance came quickly and the Gaang was preparing to leave. Katara had worked on her jealousy problems and got better at controlling that feeling. She felt less paranoid about Aang and On Ji going on a date. Zuko, on the other hand, was scared of how to deal with Jin. He didn't want her to think they were together or anything.

"Sokka, are you ready to go?" Aang said to him.

"Just a minute Aang," Sokka said.

The girls walked down from their rooms and Aang found it hard not to gape at Katara's beauty. She giggled a little bit. Happy to know that even after a few months of dating, she still had that effect on him. Suki laughed at the two lovers and found Sokka. He grabbed her hand and led her out. That left a paranoid Zuko with Aang and Katara.

"I gotta meet Jin. Maybe I should go late so she thinks I don't care-or… I…" he left confused.

This left Aang and Katara alone for a second.

"You look beautiful Katara," Aang said, causing her to blush.

"I could tell from the way you were looking at me," she teased him. It was his turn to blush.

"I really wish I wasn't going with On Ji. I just want it to be you and I don't want it to hurt you. I just can't break my cover," he said, a bit upset.

She sighed. "I understand." Although she managed to gain better control of her feelings of jealousy, it still hadn't gone away completely.

"Well, I guess I should go now," Aang said, awkwardly.

"Yeah," she replied.

Aang got up to leave and stood in the doorway. There was an awkward silence.

"I'll see you there... I guess."

"Yeah... see you."

"Bye."

"Bye.

As soon as Aang closed the door, they both shared the same thoughts. "That was so awkward."

As he got closer to the school, he put on his mask and met On Ji in the courtyard. She also put on her mask and they walked into the school. They walked into the main ballroom and found a bunch of couples dancing, while some were hanging around the food area.

"Care to dance?" On Ji asked.

"Er... dance with you?" Aang stuttered. He had hoped that he would be able to avoid dancing with her. "Of course, I would love to!" He plastered a fake smile.

She dragged him out onto the dance floor and they began doing some classic Fire Nation dance moves.

Aang noticed a drastic improvement from when they danced in the Fire Nation cave ."It looks like you have been practicing."

"Oh yeah, after the cave I started to dance on my own. That night was very special for me." She blushed.

"Yeah, me too," he thought aloud. Aang thought about the first time that he danced with Katara and looked into the ceiling all dreamy-like. On Ji interpreted his spacing out as him thinking of their dance together. She blushed even more. They continued to dance and then they stopped with the music.

"Would you like me to grab some punch?" she asked through the mask.

""Yeah, I'm pretty thirsty after all that dancing," he replied back.

Aang sat down as she headed toward the refreshments table. He longed and thought about Katara and her lips as he waited. Katara entered the room shortly after Aang and On Ji started dancing. She was asked to dance multiple times and politely rejected all of them. She only wanted Aang and hadn't seen him in a while. She was prepared to follow him to make sure no one did anything that she would kill them over.

"Let's hope I find Aang so we can share a dance before another girl tries to steal him," she thought hopefully.

Katara spotted Aang and walked toward him. Aang saw someone coming toward him. He smelled Katara scent and saw a little of her wavy chocolate hair. He got up and started to drift toward her. The two were about to meet.

"Kuzon, come on!" On Ji said to him grabbing his arm. Aang's face turned to a frown as On Ji led him out to the classrooms where people were partying. He didn't notice that the water in the plant pots frozen and shattered into a million pieces. Katara was not happy, to say the least.

"I was so close to Aang. I was so close to getting that dance," she thought.

Katara followed them into a room with about twenty other kids in it. A few of them sat in a circle as they made room for Aang and On Ji to fit in.

"Okay, we have enough to play," a boy said.

"Alright, let's begin," On Ji responded.

Another boy looked at Katara. "Do you want to play too?"

"Whatever they are playing doesn't matter I just need to keep an eye on Aang," she thought.

"Nah, I'll just watch," she responded. Katara removed her mask a little bit, showing the left side of her face. She carefully watched Aang.

"Okay, time to play spin the bottle," the first boy said.

Katara's face fell to a frown from under the mask. "Oh no, a kissing game. I can't stop this. What do I do?" she started to panic.

One of the girls spun the bottle and it moved fast.

"Anyone but Aang, anyone but Aang," she thought.

"Not me, not me, not me," Aang thought.

The bottle started to slow down and landed on the boy across from Aang. The two went into the adjacent bathroom for a second and then they both came out. The next girl spun and Aang and Katara thought the same things again. The bottle landed on Aang this time.

"What do I do? I can't kiss her. I love Katara," he thought.

Aang and the girl headed into the bathroom. The girl lifted her mask enough for him to see her lips. He did the same. The girl started to lean in and Aang waited. He then pulled away at the last second.

"Sorry, but I can't do this. I have to go," he said before walking out the bathroom. He saw that Katara wasn't there anymore and went looking for her. He found her sitting on the step outside.

"Katara, what are you doing out here. How about-" He didn't finish.

"I love you so much and right now I can't be with you. It's destroying me... it's destroying us. I've been handling it well ever since our talk with Iroh but this is just overwhelming. Dancing with her, and now kissing? I just wanna go in and water whip any girl that makes eye contact with you."

Aang grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into an embrace. "Remember what I said at the Jasmine Dragon?" He whispered into her ear.

"What?"

"I'll always make it up to you." He smiled pecked her on the lips. "After we have our semester-finals, we'll finally be done with school and we can be 'oogie-ish' whenever we want."

"Can't wait." She crashed her lips onto his and he returned the favor.

Aang and Katara walked back into the ballroom together, fingers laced. The crowd was too distracted by the dancing, music, and partying to notice 'Kuzon' and Katara. They walked around and eventually found Sokka and Suki sitting in a corner.

"Guys, help me! Sokka has been drinking cactus juice. He thought that only desert-cactus juice negatively affects you. I tried to warn him but now he's all loopy," Suki explained. Katara groaned in annoyance and Aang looked with slight amusement as Sokka tried to catch the stars.

"Hi Aang, hey Katara. You been dancing?" he asked floppily.

"Hey, don't call me Aang. I'm supposed to be Kuzon," Aang whispered.

Sokka ignored Aang and looked at his sister. "Katara where are your cloud babies, the ones you had with Aang?"

"Babies!?" she asked, face flushed.

"Cloud babies! They're your children that you had with Aang, hundreds of them! They bend the clouds created weird lookin' drawings."

"Sokka, me and Katara haven't had any babies. We aren't planning to for a very, long time," Aang said. Katara's cheeks turned an even darker red.

"At least it seems like he's not against having a family with me," Katara thought.

"What are you talking about Aang? One day, you disappeared with Katara to this room and strange noises came out. When you opened the door, a bunch of cloud babies started pouring out and Katara gained some weight. A few months later, some more cloud babies were born!" Sokka said before passing out. Katara's blush had crept down to her neck and Aang turned crimson at Sokka's words. Suki laughed at the sight. They propped him up on their shoulders and headed home. When they got there, they threw Sokka on the couch and waited for the rest of Team Avatar to return.