Her nerves were all over the place.
She had thought at first that it was because they were in the Fire Nation. Being in enemy territory, no matter how incognito, was bound to make anyone's stomach do flip flops. They had a job to do, and couldn't do that if they were caught here after all.
But if she was honest with herself, her stomach flutters had started kicking up for a different reason. Seeing Aang fall in Ba Sing Se had hammered home the fact of how he was a person as much as the powerful Avatar. And now, with his disguise covering up the outward differences she had subconsciously noted to set him apart as Avatar - his previously shaved head, his airmaster tattoos - well, she had to try and watch it or else hope that Toph had her feet propped up. There was no denying that if she looked at him as "just a guy", just "Kuzon", he gave her nerves.
Which is silly. He's just the same old Aang, she told herself. Oddly, that reminder didn't help and her eyes followed his sparkling ones as he showed his new classmates old Fire Nation dances. When his charming smile - usually a welcome sight - landed on a group of giggling girls, Katara's own mouth turned down unconsciously. This was only exacerbated by her brother commenting on how good he looked with the girl next to him. Ridiculous, you're being ridiculous, she reminded herself. It's just Aang. Not like you have any claim.
She had her chin in her hand a few minutes later, hoping she looked disinterested rather than dejected, when suddenly an outstretched hand appeared in front of her. She looked up to see who it belonged to, and her jitters only went doubletime when she saw Aang smiling down at her. She started to nervously mumble an excuse, but his instruction to take his hand cut her off. She slipped her hand into his. As he started to pull them to the dance floor, he told her, "A dance can be like sparring but cooperative, just follow my lead. Trust me, it'll be fun." The confidence oozing from him was.. well it was definitely not calming whatever was flip-flopping in her stomach, but she found it appealing.
Soon they reached the middle of the floor and the music was drowning words out. Aang leaned in to whisper in her ear. "My turn to be Sifu," he said, with a wink and a grin. This joke did calm Katara somewhat.. they had teased one another about the Sifu title since the early days of traveling with Toph. She smiled back and they solemnly bowed to one another before putting each putting an arm up, wrists touching, to begin their dance.
Katara copied the steps of her "dance sifu", but quickly noticed a crowd gathering to watch them, which fired her nerves back up in force. When she called his attention to all the eyes on them, Aang merely smiled and said assuredly, "It's just you and me right now." Katara allowed herself a moment to imagine that being true and a bit of a smile slipped across her face as she focused her attention solely on Aang. Following his moves, filling in with complementary ones of her own, the beat of the music seemed to spur them on and guide them. At times their faces were so close to one another...and then he was off and spinning again, and she was left with a niggling of wish. By the end of the dance, they had both succeeded in completely forgetting the crowd of fire nation students that stood around them.
During the last measure of the song, Aang dipped her dramatically low. There was a half-moment pause and then he brought her back to stand in a smooth motion. The last few notes rang out and Katara let the momentum carry her on - the adrenaline from their dance and the electricity in the air were what was fueling her, not carefully weighed thoughts. As she was brought back to her feet and turned to face Aang again, she placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to press her lips to his. At this, the crowd of students let out whoops and whistles, which brought Katara's mind straight down from the atmosphere to the reality that it was not just her and Aang right now. The two jumped apart, both blushing, and Aang trying to suppress the grin on his face.
At the cheers, Sokka stood to try and peek over the crowd while Toph swung her feet down from the table to set them on the stone floor and "see" what the fuss was. "Must have been a good dance. They're taking bows," she said with an eye roll. And indeed they were. Aang, seeing Katara's momentary freeze post-kiss, had grabbed her hand and lifted then lowered it so they shared a bow.
"We'll talk tonight, okay?" Aang whispered so quietly that even Katara barely heard him. She looked at him. Well, he doesn't seem upset, she considered. She gave a nod and a smile. Maybe all that flip-flopping in her gut could settle down after tonight.
For now though, she was nervous. She had liked the kiss - a lot - but it was so un-thought-out and that was unlike her. What if he didn't feel the same? What if she had just messed up the best friendship she had going? And she couldn't even go sit back at the table and overthink in solitude, because her brother and Toph were there. Sokka was bound to tease something, and there was no way she could keep her reaction secret from Toph then. Katara bit her lip and fiddled with her hair, trying to decide what to do.
Aang could see her nervous movements and wanted to help. Well, honestly, what he wanted was to dance with her again. Getting her out of her head, out of her worries, making her happy.. that made him happy. But he didn't think she'd go for another dance, so he settled for a distraction. He nudged her arm with his elbow and grinned at her. "Hey, check out these moves!" he called out. The waterbender looked up at him and giggled as he goofily strutted backwards, chopping his hands forward. Pleased to hear her happy again, Aang closed his eyes and carried on with his silly dance.
"He's the one we want! The boy with the headband!"
They had been found out! Aang darted into the crowd of Fire Nation students and looked around wildly. He sighed in relief when he saw Toph and Sokka slip out the back hall towards Appa, but where was Katara? Finally his eyes fell on her whispering to a boy who nodded at her. She headed towards the hall as well, as the boy took off his belt and tied it around his own head, then gestured to some friends to do the same. As Aang hid in the crowd, he could hear the guards getting frustrated as they turned around student after headband-adorned student only to find they weren't the ones. Guess we sowed the seeds of independence after all, he thought to himself as he headed towards the back hall. He smiled and bowed to one last classmate before joining Katara in the hall, earthbending the way closed behind them.
Before exiting the cave to join Toph and Sokka, there was one thing he had to do. "Katara," he said, grabbing her wrist and bringing her closer. "Thanks for dancing with me." He pulled her in for a hug, and even found the courage to nuzzle her cheek, though not quite enough to kiss her.
Katara couldn't help but grin. "No, thank you for being my dance Sifu." With that they both ran out of the cave laughing, jumping on Appa to complete their getaway. As they were flying away on the sky bison, the talk turned to the dance party and how Aang had helped the fire nation students. He tried to gloss it over as no big deal, but Katara could feel pride (and maybe a bit of something else) bubbling up. "Well, that was some dance party, Aang," she declared as she leaned in to kiss his cheek causing him to flush pink.
The Gaang decided to go ahead and press on flying through the night. Appa had gotten plenty of rest during Aang's time at school, and the more distance they could put between themselves and the site of the dance party, the better. Aang offered to take first shift at steering, and the others settled down. Once Sokka and Toph were dueling each other in volume of snores, Katara quietly slipped over the edge of the saddle to join Aang.
"Hey," she greeted him in a quiet whisper, earning her a grin in return. She was glad for that, because the silence had given her nerves time to jump back in. "So...," she started awkwardly, "...sorry about earlier."
Aang's head whipped towards her and he fixed her with a quizzical look before matching her hushed tone in hopes that their friends would stay asleep. "What? Why? I mean, unless you didn't like it."
"No, that's not it. I just didn't even think about it at all, and kind of threw it on you. I know last time you only went along so we could get out the cave... Guess there's something about caves, huh?"
Aang jumped in with a quiet chuckle. "Katara, I promise that is not the only reason I agreed in the Cave of Two Lovers. And maybe it's not caves, maybe it's secrets. Secret tunnel, secret dance party.."
Katara looked down and blushed at his teasing. "So you're not upset? And I didn't mess up our friendship? Because we can pretend it didn't happen if you want."
Aang was quiet for a bit, and when he spoke his voice was a shaky whisper. "Do you wish it didn't happen?"
Katara bit her lip and looked out at the clouds. Finally she shook her head. "No. I don't wish that. I feel like I should though. I mean, there's a whole war going on. We need to be focused, and I don't want to be distracting you-"
Aang put his hand on her shoulder to stop her rambling and turn her to face him. "Katara, my feelings for you are not a distraction for me. Or at least not a new one, and certainly not an unwelcome one." Both benders felt their cheeks tinge pink at that admission. Aang steeled himself and pressed on. "I liked you before you kissed me tonight, and I'd like it if we could just...be together." And with that, he held his breath and nervously awaited the response.
Katara considered. "What if it turns out we're not a good match?"
"We still know we make great best friends, so you're stuck with me that way anyway."
"What if people try to get to you through me? I don't want anything to happen to you," she worried.
"Then that's a reason to stick closer, so we can watch out for each other," he fired back.
She chewed her lip some more. "Are, um, are monks allowed to date? I don't want to take away your culture."
He mentally shook his head at her tendency to overthink everything. "Not monks, no. But nomads are. I was raised in the temple, but I was too young for monk vows yet, so lucky me I wouldn't be breaking any rules," he whispered back with a wink that he hoped was suave.
It was working. Katara found comfort in his confidence, reassured that he could counter each of her worries. Finally she nodded. "Okay."
"Okay? Really?" Aang asked with an eager grin.
"Yeah. But," she whispered, putting a calming hand on his forearm, causing him to still.
"But what?"
"I think we should keep it secret for now."
Aang frowned. For his part, he'd love to shout it from the rooftops, but Katara usually had good reasons for things. "Why secret?"
"Well for a couple reasons. For one, I still think it would be safer for you if people can't try and use our relationship as a weakness to get at you. And for another, I don't know that I can handle a whole summer's worth of teasing from the two up there on top of the stress we already have. Besides, I do want us to be able to focus, so slow and subtle seems the best way."
Aang considered. He knew that he'd absolutely give himself up for any of his friends - had already done so for Katara in fact - so that bit didn't sway him. He was pretty sure it wouldn't affect his focus, but maybe that was naive or maybe she meant her ability to focus. But there was no denying that Toph and Sokka wouldn't let them hear the end of it, and that likely would affect everyone's focus. "Okay Katara, we can do it that way," he whispered to the waterbender. "Secret til the war's over." She graced him with a grin in response, and reached over to hold his hand. He gave a smirk back and said, "Besides, we've already established how much you like secret things." Her cheeks flushed, but he wasn't wrong - she very much liked at least this secret.
A/N: Inspired by a lovely bit of art I saw (go check pottyospanna_art on insta and look for the adorable pic of Aang hugging Katara in The Headband episode). And, as a bonus, this fits the Day 5: Secretly Dating prompt of Kataang Week 2023. Because better late than never, and sometimes those are the only options my brain allows.
Hope this fulfills your fluff quota! I wanted them to still be a little awkward-if-excited about this, as that seems to be what fits the age/stage of "them" best at that moment. I have wanted to do this ever since I saw the artwork/prompt, but just never got around to it. Today was my birthday, so I was gifted free time. I used that to crank this out and am just gonna chuck it up there like it's not in serious need of a re-read and edit. LOL
I'm contemplating following out the rest of Book 3 with this in mind, keeping as close to the major events as possible but with some tweaks. Any interest in that? (Fair warning, it won't be quick, as I haven't written it out).