Betrayed

~2~

Toph and Sokka headed to thier rooms to bed. Aang walked to Katara's room and pressed his ear to the door. He herd Katara walking around the room. Inside the room Katara was walking in circles playing with her hair playing out all the possible reactions each of her friends would have if they knew she was a blood bender. "Aang's reaction is going to be the worst. He's going to hate blood bending all together, meaning he's going to hate me. I'm not going to lie to myself I really really want to learn blood bending it feels like a part of me that I have been missing." Katara thought to herself as she paced around the room.

Aang softly knocked on the door causing Katara to flinch and get into a fighting stance. "Hey Katara it's me Aang can I come in?" Katara sighed and let her guard down. She went to her bed and sat down her back facing the door. "Yes you can come in." Aang slowly opened the door and closed it behind him. He walked to the bed and sat down next to Katara. "Katara I have been meaning to ask you... did Hama say something to you before she disappeared? Something that scared you?" Katara looked at Aang confused. "Why would you think that?" "Well before she made that mist it looked like she whispered something in your ear. You can tell me Katara you can trust me." "What the hell do I tell him? Damn it Katara think!" "Ummm.. she just said that she's never going back to jail. That she will do whatever it takes to make sure she doesn't get sent back there." Aang nodded. "Did she say she was going to hurt you or anyone specifically?" "No." Aang softly smiled at Katara and hugged her. "We will get her, promise." Katara started to get worried. "Hey you don't need to promise me anything! Let's just take our time and find her." Aang let go of Katara and stood up. "Okay then see you tomorrow." Katara waved as Aang walked out the room closing the door behind him. Katara let out a sigh of relief. She stayed up till dawn not getting any sleep due to anxiety. All Katara could think about was ways to sneak out and sneak back in. She felt if the gaang found out about her being a blood bender and her wanting to be a blood bender they would think she is a monster.

At dawn Katara tip toed out of her room and down the hall. The front and back door were way to loud someone would definitely hear her leaving, the only way for her to escape without anyone knowing would be through the window. She brought a chair from her room and climbed on top of it. She unlocked the window and climbed out. "Yes I got out without anyone knowing." Katara whispered to herself. What Katara didn't know was that a certain earth bender felt her leave the house.

Katara ran to the same spot where her and Hama had last seen each other. Hama was already there playing with her water bending. "Katara you made it!" Katara ran to Hama and gave her a hug. She still found it odd how much she trusted Hama. "Okay so first we are going to be blood bending animals. I know you are more gentle than I am so we will not be killing them. Just making them dance!" Katara giggled. "Wait I probably sound like a crazy person! Laughing when I know I'm going to be manipulating innocent creatures!" Katara immediately stopped laughing and frowned. "Katara it's okay to laugh, this is going to be fun! The animals will remain unharmed." "Well I mean we are just making them dance. We aren't hurting them." Katara smiled at Hama. "Okay let's do this I want to learn."

Katara and Hama had completely lost track of time. They have been practicing for 4 hours and Katara can now blood bend every animal in the forest. Katara can blood bend 5 animals at a time, Hama can bend 11 at a time. They were laughing, seeing the animals dance was one of the funniest things Katara  had ever seen. "O-oh my gosh!" Katara laughed she fell over and layed on the grass. She never knew laughing could feel so amazing, a real laugh. (Does anyone else feel like that? Like when you laugh for real it feels so amazing and it's like for a good minute your problems just disappear? Okay back to the story) Katara looked at the sky, her eyes widened. "Hama" Hama turned around and faced Katara. "What's wrong Katara?" Katara quickly got up. "How long have we been training?!" Hama looked at the sky and tapped her chin. "Well maybe like 4 or 5 hours I would say." Katara's eyes widened even more. "Shit shit shit shit!! Hama thanks for teaching me but I have to go! See you tomorrow!" Katara waved to Hama and ran back to the inn. "How the hell did I lose track of time?! I stayed up all night worried about them finding out but it will be MY DUMBASS that gives it away!" She found the window she snuck out of and used her water bending to make some stairs. She climbed through the window, she jumped down lightly hardly making a sound. Katara stared at the floor and sighed. "I will admit, I love blood bending. I really do. Good news is that I made it back without anyone noticing. Just have to make up an excuse, and not be around Toph. I will have to tell Aang or Sokka alone so they can tell Toph. Yeah. And I just went to out to get some papaya. Yeah. No wait I hate papaya. Umm watermelon? yeah watermelon." Katara brushed herself off and walked down towards the dinning room trying to look as casual as possible. When Katara entered the room the whole gaang screamed "KATARA! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Katara laughed and sat at the table. "I went out." Sokka stood up. "That's all your going to say? 'Oh guys I went out but I'm not going to tell any of you where I went.'" Sokka mocked in a high pitch voice. "Hey I never said any of that stuff!" "You might as well!" Katara turned to Aang. "Aang come I have to talk to you." Aang got up and walked with Katara out of the room. "What do you need to tell me?" "I went out to buy some watermelon. That's were I went." Aang looked at Katara suspiciously. "Why couldn't you just say that at the table?" Katara panicked for a moment. This did not go unnoticed by Aang. "Well Sokka wouldn't let me talk so I had to tell you so you could tell Sokka!" Katara said confidently. "Ha I can be a good lier!" Katara thought to herself. "Okay so if you went to go get watermelon... where's the watermelon?" All of Katara's confidence flew out the window. "I need classes on how to lie and how to sneak out and back in." Katara nervously laughed. "Ooohh the watermelon! Well you see when I got the watermelon I was on my way back here!" Aang nodded and motioned for Katara to continue. Katara panicked again. "A-and then... I dropped the watermelon? YES I DROPPED IT AND IT BROKE!!" Aang was not buying a word Katara had said to him. He knew she was lying. "Well tell me Katara why did it take you 4 hours to get a watermelon?" Katara forced out a fake laugh. "HAHAH 4 hours! Your so funny Aang! I left not to long ago!" Aang was slightly hurt that Katara had been lying to his face for 5 minutes straight. "Katara can you please stop lying to me? Last night Toph woke me up and told me that you left the inn. I asked her why she was waking me up for that and she said it was because you didn't leave through the front of back door you left through a window. Where did you sneak off to that you don't want m-us to know about?" Katara lowered her head and stared at her feet. "Does Sokka know too?" "No we thought he would freak out to much." Katara sadly smiled at looked at Aang. "Thanks." Katara turned and tried to walk away but was pinned to the wall. "Your not going anywhere until you tell me where you went." Katara was shocked. She blushed. "A-" Katara tried to get out a sentence but was to distracted by the boy in front of her. "Wow he's hot, oh my gosh Katara stop!! You guys are just friends! Just stare at the wall behind him. Just stare at the wall." Aang looked at Katara, he looked determined to know where she went. "Where did you go last night Katara?" Katara gulped and was finally able to speak. "I-I c-cant t-tell y-you. I'm sorry." Katara layed her head on his chest. Aang took a deep breath and hugged her, she hugged back. "Katara I'm just worried. Did Hama say something to you? Is she making you do things for her? You don't have to listen to her." Katara sighed. "Trust me Aang she's not forcing me to do anything. I'm the real villain here."