Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or the song "A Little Bit in Love." It's from the musical Wonderful Town by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green (hope I spelled those right).

Author's Note: Simply a brief missing scene from the group's time in Ba Sing Se. And whoa, what a season finale, eh? More about that at the end.

Just a Little Bit

Mm-mm, I'm a little bit in love,

Never felt this way before.

Mm-mm, just a little bit in love,

Or perhaps, a little bit more.

Katara sat on a cushion in the main room of their house in Ba Sing Se. Aang was meditating across the room. Katara had shooed Sokka and Toph out of the house because they were simply incapable of being quiet. She knew that Aang had found it hard to meditate lately, between the lack of silence in the house and the distractions of Appa's continuing absence and the omnipresence of the Dai Li.

Katara, however, had remained, seating herself quietly across from Aang. Partly, she wanted to make sure he had no interruptions, but she was also taking advantage of the opportunity to watch him without being observed.

Her eyes traced the blue arrow on his forehead, moving down to the arched eyebrows and lingering with some sadness on the new crease that had formed between them. Katara resisted the urge to sigh, keeping her breathing soft and even.

At least Aang was more himself now, but Katara couldn't help thinking about all the things that must be weighing on him: the burden he carried, the loss of his oldest companion, his fears of hurting people when the Avatar State overcame him. Watching him, Katara felt a strong tug of something new. It had started growing inside while they crossed Serpent's Pass. No, that wasn't quite right. That was when she began noticing the feeling, but it had actually begun to form long before. It had been so slow and gradual that she found she couldn't pinpoint its true origin.

Katara puzzled over this for a while. She had loved Aang almost since finding him, in the same way that she loved Sokka or Gran-Gran. Now, though, something was different. He had an effect on her that no one else ever had.

When he looks at me,

Everything's hazy and all out of focus.

When he touches me,

I'm in the spell of a strange hocus-pocus.

Katara's eyes moved further to take in the familiar lines of the cheekbones, nose, and finally the mouth and jaw. Suddenly, the angle of the mouth shifted, and Katara raised her gaze to find that Aang's eyes had opened. As they focused and met hers, she felt oddly lightheaded. Aang gave her a small smile, and Katara managed to smile back, despite her disorientation.

"Have you been here the whole time?" he asked quietly. "It must have been kind of boring."

"Yes, I have," she answered the question, choosing not to address the other part of his comment. "I was just wondering why waterbenders and earthbenders don't seem to meditate, only airbenders and firebenders."

"That's a good question," he agreed. "Firebenders need to meditate because calmness of mind is necessary for control of their element. I don't know that airbenders really needed to; it was just part of our culture. You know, like how we sort of separated ourselves from the rest of the world. In hindsight, that might not have been the best idea."

"I'm sorry," Katara apologized, mortified at the sadness in his voice and face. "I didn't mean to remind you--"

"It's okay. Most of the things I do remind me of them. They're all still part of me, you know," he paused, looking at her seriously. "Just like your mother is still a part of you."

Katara was silent for a while. She felt a little guilty about how obsessive she could get about the loss of her mother when it couldn't even compare to the level of Aang's loss. She wondered how he kept on going sometimes. Finally, she decided they both needed a diversion.

"Would you like to take a walk?" she asked.

"Sure." Aang airlifted himself to his feet and came over to offer Katara a hand before she had a chance to make a move. From anyone else, she might have been offended by the gesture, but from him it was…different somehow. She smiled and put her hand in his, starting slightly as a small thrill went through her at the contact.

It's so…I don't know.

I'm so…I don't know.

I don't know, but I know,

If it's love, then it's lovely.

Their eyes met, and Katara could tell that Aang had felt something, too. She allowed him to pull her to her feet, and neither of them seemed inclined to let go. Aang cleared his throat.

"So, where would you like to go?" he asked, looking at their joined hands as though they combined to form a puzzle he was trying to figure out.

"I don't know. Let's just walk." Katara had to let go of him to scribble a quick note for Sokka, but she hesitantly took Aang's hand again as they went out the door.

For her part, Katara's own feelings were the puzzle she was working on. She felt strangely giddy, and she wondered if this was what it was like to be in love. She'd heard about it, of course, but no one had ever really explained how it felt. All she did know was that looking at Aang, seeing him smile shyly at her, made a warm feeling start in her stomach and spread to every part of her body.

She smiled back, and strolling aimlessly down the city streets, hand in hand with the Avatar who might also be her true love, she decided that this was at least a good beginning. Maybe she didn't need to understand everything right away. Maybe this shared moment was enough, at least for now.

Mm-mm, it's so nice to be alive

When you meet someone who bewitches you.

Will he be my all?

Or did I just fall a little bit,

A little bit in love?

--

Author's note: I heard the song recently, which I have long loved, and thought it would make a cute Kataang piece. So, about the finale, I think a lot of people are misunderstanding Aang's giving up of Katara. In a way, I think that makes her more his than ever. There's an old saying that if you love something, you should let it go. If it doesn't come back, it was never yours, but if it returns, cherish it forever. Remember that he still loves her – he needed that to open the fourth Chakra. Of course, it could also be interpreted that he hadn't quite completed the "letting go" when he was struck. Anyway, the opening of the Chakras was less about getting rid of your emotions than accepting them and not letting them hold you back. I'm thinking of exploring this in another oneshot soon.

Member of the Boomeraang Squad: charleegirl, Jesus.Lives, Liselle129

Thank you to kataangfan22, MormonMaiden, Tech-Man, Piezo (I have a possible Tokka idea, but I'm still working on it), frozenheat, pokey, kataang93, SnakeEyes16, and Mcwheeler12 for reviewing Chapter 7.