A/N- Um... sorry? *hides* I accidentally grew a social life and then finals and then work and yeah. School's almost over so I should be much more free to focus on important things, like finishing this thing up before May is over.

Also DANCE SCENE HOW WRITE

Chapter 3

The streets of the little city were filled to bursting with people. It certainly couldn't compare to the crowds of Ba Sing Se, but it was pretty clear that Shou had not been exaggerating when he said the whole countryside was pouring into town to join in the celebrations. Sokka and Suki had gone ahead, while the other three lingered behind, dawdling down the street and peering into vendors' stalls. They were all headed for the central plaza, but Toph, Aang, and Katara were taking a more relaxed pace. They were all tired after a long day of flying, and it made sense to enjoy the party more languorously as a result.

"So, Twinkle Toes, how long do you think it'll be before somebody else notices they've got the guest of honor right here in their humble hometown?" Toph asked conversationally.

"Toph!" Katara admonished. "Can you keep your voice down?"

"I don't see why you're slinking around," she said. "It made sense when we were in the Fire Nation and everybody we met wanted you dead, but the war's over! You're a hero now. Might as well enjoy it."

"I plan to," Aang said. "By keeping a low profile so that I can actually enjoy myself."

"That sounds like a good plan," Katara agreed. She thought back to a stormy afternoon in a cave what felt like a long time ago and the things Aang had confessed to her that day. She didn't know for sure, but she was pretty sure she was the only one who would truly understand why Aang wouldn't want a big fuss to be made over his presence in this little city. She could guess easily that if the Avatar were fussed over, he wouldn't be able to take this time to just be Aang, and he needed that.

Toph shrugged, flipping a coin in the direction of a nearby drinks vendor, who supplied her with a sake cup. "Whatever," she said. "You do what you want, but I'm gonna go find Sokka and Suki and make sure this town has a real celebration." She gave them a bold grin and downed the sake in one go.

"Um, Toph," Katara said hesitantly, "Are you sure you should be-?"

"I'm a nobleman's daughter, Katara," Toph reminded her. "I can handle a little rice wine."

"If you say so," she allowed.

"I do say so." And with that, Toph picked up the pace so as to catch up to the other two. Katara and Aang exchanged a glance and a shrug before continuing their more leisurely journey up the street.

As it transpired, Aang's resolution to keep out of the spotlight didn't last very long. Within twenty minutes some passerby had taken a second glance at his arrows, and then the jig was well and truly up. As word spread around that the Avatar and his companions were in town, each of the five companions found themselves garnering more than a little attention. Katara lost sight of Toph and Sokka and Suki in the crowd, but from what she had seen of them, they were more than slightly enjoying the hero worship being bestowed upon them (though Suki predictably managed it with more grace than her raucous friends).

Aang handled the inevitable swarm of attentive townspeople with relative grace, answering questions and talking politely with the mayor of the town when the portly old man who held that title rushed out to greet him- though he did have to spend several minutes talking him out of organizing an impromptu ceremony in his honor. Katara, who had done her best to stay near him even as she conversed with her own little crowd of inquisitive citizens, couldn't help but feel an enormous surge of pride watching him. Just as she had the night of Zuko's coronation, she wondered where his newfound poise had come from. When on earth had her cute, silly Aang she'd pulled out of an iceberg transformed into this capable young Avatar?

Eventually, the immediate fascination of the townspeople wore off and Aang was left in (relative) peace. He found his way back to Katara's side.

"Hey," he greeted brightly.

"Hey," she said. "Guess you got mobbed after all, huh?"

"Looks that way," he said with a good-natured shrug. "Where are the others?"

Katara pointed across the way to where Toph could be seen sitting at an outdoor cafe. Her feet were up on the table, there was another glass of sake in her hand, and she was in the midst of what sounded like an animated retelling of their adventures for a group of heavily muscled teenage boys (presumably earthbenders) who were watching her with the wide eyes of children half their age as they listened to her talk. "Toph's over there," she said. "I'm not sure where Sokka and Suki got to."

"Wait, they're over there!" Aang pointed. Katara's brother and his girlfriend were in the middle of the square, dancing.

A small band had set up to one side of the central plaza, playing a selection of lively Earth Kingdom folk tunes. All across the open space, people were dancing. Couples, solo dancers, groups of children and teenagers holding hands and spinning in wild circles with the careless abandon of relief and joy.

Katara watched the shifting crowd and was reminded of another cave that held a special significance for herself and Aang, a candlelit grotto in the Fire Nation. The urge to see if there was any chance of a repeat of that night was powerful. She wanted to dance with him again, but this time she wanted it to be right. No secret identities or headbands or hair where there shouldn't be any. She turned to look at him, prepared to ask, and found him looking at her with a warm, soft expression on his face that made her breath catch. The words that had been about to fall easily from her lips got lost, and she could only stare at him, smiling dazedly.

"Katara?" he prompted when she didn't speak.

She made what she considered to be a heroic effort to shake herself out of her daze. "Would you... like to dance?" she asked shyly, blushing at a question she was sure was forward enough to give her away.

An enormous grin broke out on Aang's face. He didn't even bother to hide it. "Definitely," he enthused, needing no further invitation to take her hand and pull her out into the crowd. The music wasn't really appropriate for the same kind of dance they had done while in the Fire Nation, but they had spent months training together in waterbending. They both knew how the other moved, could anticipate the steps just by sight and by feel, twining themselves around each other in a slower, but more elaborate dance than their last.

Katara's mind was running like crazy, a happy giddy whirling in her head that made her almost dizzy from sheer delight. How had she never noticed that Aang looked at her like that? How had she missed that softness in his eyes until now? He loved her- he had to. He wouldn't look at her like that if he didn't. He was still looking at her like that. It was hidden behind that infectious smile of his, but now that she knew to look for it she could still see that adoration in his eyes.

As they swung past each other in the next form of their dance, she couldn't contain her exuberant laugh. She finally knew. She knew for sure now that this wasn't a mere infatuation for him any more than it was for her.

They hadn't cleared a space in the crowd the way they had at the Fire Nation school, and had to settle for making good use of the less-crowded area by the rim of the large fountain that sat in the center of the plaza. Good dancing wasn't a remarkable novelty here; although the Avatar dancing was something new and different, the townspeople had been good enough to leave him alone after the initial fascination wore thin. Katara wondered if Toph had had anything to do with that, for she'd seen the younger girl giving what looked like a stern talking-to to a handful of people earlier and- But then Aang's hand was on her back and she forgot what she'd been thinking about. He guided her in a few waltz-steps, their bodies close, and Katara swore she forgot how to breathe. She twisted away, whirling like a top around Aang as he reached for her hand, spinning her out with a dramatic flair before pulling her back to him once more. He caught her by the waist and as the folk dance came to an end, he dipped her back.

"I think we've been here before," Katara remarked in a low tone.

"Yeah," he said with the tiniest hint of a self-conscious grin, "I think you're right."

It struck her as the perfect moment. How could it not be? The exhilarating atmosphere of a world at peace, a plaza lit only by the stars and the glow of colored paper lanterns with the light sparkling in the fountain behind them, held tight in his arms after sharing a romantic dance... Yes. Now was the right moment. Now she could tell him everything. She looked up into his laughing grey eyes and took a breath, feeling her stomach flutter with nervous excitement.

"Aang?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

Suddenly, to her horror, Katara felt a sharp jostling sensation. She and Aang both yelped in surprise as their balance shifted and both of them went tumbling right into the fountain behind them. When Katara sat up, blinking and wiping water from her eyes, she saw a couple in their twenties standing there, both of them looking horror-struck, and realized they had accidentally bumped into them, knocking them off-balance.

"Avatar Aang, I'm so sorry!" exclaimed the man. "I didn't-"

"That's okay," Aang said with a laugh. "No harm done, right Katara?" He looked to her for confirmation, and she nodded.

"Right. No harm done," she agreed, and although she smiled cheerfully, internally she was grumbling that she had blown a perfect opportunity to tell him the truth.

Aang airbent himself to his feet with ease, drawing a gasp or two from onlookers, before offering her a helping hand which she gratefully accepted. As she straightened up, plucking disconsolately at her damp dress, she was surprised to see him turning scarlet and looking away. It took her several moments of confusion before she realized that the waterlogged silk of her dress was clinging to her skin in rather revealing ways. Mentally thanking Aang for averting his eyes and blushing hotly herself, she quickly bent the water from her clothes.

"Um, here," she said, attempting to avert any further awkwardness. "Let me dry you off."

"No, that's okay!" he blurted out. "I've got it." He did so quickly, and the tension of the moment evaporated.

"Should we go check on the others?" she asked. "I don't know about you, but it's been a long day and I'm getting pretty tired." It was true. As much fun as she was having, they had traveled for an unusually long time that day and she only had so much energy in her.

He nodded. "Good plan. I'm exhausted!"

It turned out that the others had already gone back to the inn. One of Toph's many new admirers had informed them that Sokka and Suki had bailed quite early in the evening (Katara pointedly decided not to think about why that might be, because there are some things a sister just doesn't want to know about her brother) and Toph had left the celebration not long after them.

When Aang and Katara arrived back to the room about a half hour later, it was to discover Toph asleep in the rollaway bed. Well, perhaps "in" was a bit too strong a word. "Sprawled across" might be a bit more accurate. It appeared that she had simply stumbled into the room and collapsed over the closest available piece of furniture.

"We shouldn't have let her drink," Katara murmured.

Aang snorted. "Were you planning on being the one to stop her?"

"Good point."

In the silence that washed over them in the wake of this statement, they both came to the same awkward realization at nearly the same moment. With Toph having staked her claim on the trundle bed, their tidy, Sokka-approved sleeping arrangements had been disrupted. Katara shot a look at Aang out of the corner of her eye just in time to catch him looking away from her quickly, a very light blush coloring his cheeks.

He was the first one to approach the subject. "Um, I guess she took over my bed."

"Looks that way."

"I'll just... take the floor, then," he said, gesturing vaguely to the rug beneath the window.

"What? No!" Katara exclaimed. Before her brain could catch up with her mouth, she blurted out, "We can share the bed."

Aang's eyes widened. "Wha... Ka- I, um... Katara... are you sure?"

"Definitely," she said with much more certainty than she felt. Aang was too much of a gentleman to do anything that he sensed she was uncomfortable with, and she knew that if she seemed unsure or hesitant, he would end up sleeping on the floor. The idea of him lying on the ground with only a rug between him and the hard wooden floor wasn't a nice one, especially when there was a soft warm mattress available with more than enough room for both of them. Alarm bells were going off in her head, warning her that this was a terrible idea, but they were at war with the extremely tempting prospect of falling asleep beside Aang. It was not a thought she had had before. It was not a thought she had even distantly entertained. Now that the idea had occurred to her, however, the idea of sleeping next to him was more appealing than she would have thought.

He tugged nervously at his ear, looking anywhere but at her. "I'm not so sure that's a great idea," he mumbled.

"Why not?" she asked. "We've slept right next to each other plenty of times. The only difference is that we'd be in a bed instead of lying on the ground."

She knew, they both knew, that there was most certainly a difference. But Katara had made up her mind and Aang, as was usual when he was uncertain or out of his depth, was willing to follow her lead.

"Well," he said, his expression a delightful combination of reluctant and eager, "I guess you're right. Just... don't tell Sokka or he'll skin me alive!"

Katara rolled her eyes. She loved her brother and she knew his intentions were good, but his protectiveness frequently did more than just border on patronizing. "It's none of Sokka's business," she said with a glower in the general direction of his and Suki's room, "and anyway, he ought to know I'm old enough to make my own decisions. If he tries to give you grief about it, he'll have me to answer to!"

Aang laughed at that, and she couldn't help but chuckle with him; Aang's laughter was infectious that way. "Alright, well, as long as you're willing to protect me from him, I guess it's alright."

Katara changed out of her gown and into a nightdress behind the painted dressing screen, while Aang changed into his new pyjamas (one of many gifts from Zuko, who had taken it upon himself to make sure the otherwise possession-free airbender at least had decent clothes on his back). Together they climbed into the bed, both taking extra precautions to stay on their own side and both completely oblivious to the fact that the other was doing exactly the same thing.

"Comfy mattress," Aang remarked.

"Yeah," Katara agreed with a nervous titter.

"Well... night," he added, with all the abrupt awkwardness of someone who knows they should speak but doesn't have the faintest idea what to say.

It took Katara all of twenty seconds to decide that this had been an absolutely terrible idea. What had she been thinking, deciding it was a good idea to share a bed with Aang tonight? The mattress was big, but it wasn't that big. How on earth had she thought she'd ever get to sleep with him right there, warm and sleepy and smelling good and perfect for cuddling? This was never going to work.

"Hey Aang?" she asked, and she wasn't sure what she'd meant to say except she'd had some vague idea of suggesting that maybe this was a bad idea after all, but at the sound of his drowsy "Hm?" she forgot it completely. She had something else she wanted to say.

She cast a glance at Toph, making sure the young earthbender really was asleep before she spoke.

"I... I want to run something by you. You, uh... you know that fight we had on Ember Island?" She didn't wait for him to acknowledge her but plunged on recklessly, "You know how I said it wasn't the right time for us to be together? Well I've been thinking about that and I think maybe now would be a better time. To be together, I mean. The war's over, the world's saved... this is what I was waiting for. I just needed everything to calm down, you know? I mean, I hope you know that. I hope you know that what I said that night had nothing to do with you. I mean, of course it had to do with you, it was about you, but I didn't... I don't..."

She let out a frustrated sigh, hating that the words weren't coming out the way she wanted them to. "What I'm trying to say is, I was scared and confused and I'm sorry I didn't really make it clear why that night, but I'm not confused anymore. I have feelings for you, Aang. I want to be together."

There it was. She'd said it. She clenched her eyes shut, waiting nervously for his reply.

Silence.

Katara's stomach dropped to her toes and she started to panic, thinking maybe she'd misread him completely.

And then, Aang snored softly. She looked over at him and realized that the exhausted airbender was fast asleep. He hadn't heard a word she'd said.

She sighed, both out of regret and out of fondness for the sleeping boy next to her. "Well, there's always tomorrow," she whispered. Turning on her side to face him, she scooted just a little closer to him and closed her eyes.