The warm light of the sun soothed his cheek as he stepping into the clearing from between a few trees, a bright smile on his face as he took his surroundings in with youthful eyes. Aang watched a small innocence, a place alive the world full of war still had to offer with conflicting emotions behind grey eyes. Sad, because the world needed much more beautiful places like these, where life was still breathing and untouched by the hands of war that left this world in crumbles…and happy, because he was seeing a rare, pure sight before him. A weird experience to have, but not high unlikely for someone like him: a person who had a duty to uphold the whole world would experience many emotions simultaneously, just as now. The forest, still alive and breathing, was almost a rare sight outside the borders of the Fire Nation--the only place that was almost (but not quite) untouched by bloodshed.
Behind him was the Western Air Temple, abandoned into ruins. It was once one of the four great temples of the Air Nomads, who went extinct one hundred years ago, leaving Aang alone as the only Airbender, and as the Avatar to boot. That had not bothered the young Avatar in a while, now that he had a family - - people he cared for. His pain slowly softened, but it never left.
The feelings of solitude returned when he had set foot within the temple, but were almost forgotten again the moment Zuko entered their little group. It was weird, really. One day your greatest enemy decides to come at your doorstep, begging for forgiveness and asking to join your group. The funniest thing about it all was that they forgave him, too (except Katara, but Aang had a hunch more had happened between the two than they both would let on).
Aang could only shake his head in bemusement at these thoughts, and turned around to head back to the temple. Rotating his staff three times, he jerked it downwards in a short motion, revealing the glider. Sprinting and leaping, the Avatar took a good hold of the handles and set off. The wind rushed against his bare skin and ripped at his clothes as he flied swiftly through the air, his mind wandering through past events as he glided, half focused, towards the temple, still unknown off the event between his friends.
--
How can I be so stupid?! Zuko thought to himself, annoyed. How could he know that Katara was allergic to fireflakes? He had given some to her, and told her she needed to taste them first before he would tell her what it was. Worst mistake, ever!
As soon as she had one fireflake gulped down, she started to turn red. At first, the ex-prince thought she was not handling the heat too well, but the moment her cheeks began to swell, he knew. Zuko barely escaped with his life when Katara turned rigid the moment she found out she was having an allergic reaction; she would gone as far as slapping him with water into next week if Toph had not intervened in time. Zuko knew he was going to hear about this at dinner, no doubt, and probably going to taste it in his food as an added bonus, too.
--
Toph was having a great day, and nothing the rest could do to stop it. Well, a few things. But they wouldn't dare, anyway. The moment the vibrations of a very livid waterbender, and a scared out of his wits firebender caught her highly sensible feet, she had turned to look for the two bickering teenagers to see if something juicy would come up. And how it did.
The moment Toph had set foot within hearing radius -- which was not too hard because Katara's screams could be heard throughout the whole temple -- a gleeful grin formed on her face. As soon as the word "allergic" fell, her grin grew from ear to ear.
"What do you mean, "You didn't know"? Katara raged on as she pointed to her swollen face.
"Let me guess, maybe it's because I've only started to know you for a week, and we haven't been the most talkative people towards one another lately! Let alone talk about our allergies!"
"Don't you dare try to shove it onto me! You're the one who gave them to me in the first place."
"Yeah, well… You ate them!"
Let us just say what happened afterwards was not a happy sight, even for a blind girl. As soon as Toph had intervened, Zuko had stormed off without saying another word. Angry as Katara was, she did not take his turned retreat kindly, and hit him with a well-placed water whip against his rear. Toph could feel Sparky's heart skip a beat when the water connected against his butt and he almost jumped (blushing furiously, but being blind and all, Toph did not notice), as if he had not expected such a thing from Katara. How wrong he was.
--
That stupid jerk! If I get my hands on him, I swear…! Katara thought angrily to herself as she started pacing through her room. Luckily for her, the swelling in her face had subdued faster than expected, and there was no trace left that she had an allergic reaction only a few minutes ago. If she had taken more of those cursed sweets however, there would have had been a big chance she would have gotten ill, and that would only hinder the group, which was already dealing with a deadline. And it's all that snobby prince's fault!
Katara stomped her foot hard on the ground in frustration, and started to leave her room. However, a small glint of light made her stop in her tracks. It was her mother's necklace, which was placed safely on a lone desk near the corner of her room. Katara sighed deeply, almost sounding sad. With downcast eyes, she took the adornment in hands and placed it around her neck. Her fingers lingered for a few seconds when it touched the cold stone of the betrothal necklace. Nevertheless, before her mind could get back to the painful subject of her mother's death, she turned and left the room in silence.
--
Somewhere in the temple, a furious Zuko nursed his said sore spot. He snorted a small puff of smoke out of nostrils in irritation, and made a face.
"All girls are crazy."