Yay for my first ever fanfiction! As this is my first attempt, please don't flame me. If the characters are a little OOC, I apologize, but I tried.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. I wish I owned Avatar.

CHAPTER 1: The good old days

"Aang! Watch out!" The high voice of Sokka screamed. Once again, they were on the run again from the fire nation. Well, on the fly, anyway.

Another fireball whizzed past, singeing Appa's fur. That was it for the first wave, but rest assured, there was plenty more on the way. They were running from a sizeable amount of fire nation troops, equipped with tanks and all sorts of other war machines.

"Aang, we have to get to a shelter or hiding place of some kind, or else we'll never be able to lose these soldiers." A softer voice this time, from Sokka's sister, Katara. Katara. Just thinking her name made Aang blush. Good thing for him, he was in the front and his face couldn't be seen.

"Yeah Twinkle toes, not to mention we have to get some sleep eventually! I'm tired!" A smaller voice this time, but with such a commanding presence that it made Aang think over his options again even though he had already thought them through quite a bit in the last half hour. After all, hundreds upon hundreds of fireballs had been flying past their ears for the past 30 minutes, growing excruciatingly closer to hitting them with each throw.

He was running out of options… it was growing darker by the minute, and he knew that even though the fire nation wouldn't stop, it didn't mean that they wouldn't. They could only hold out for so much longer… they were all exhausted, and Appa was starting to drift at a downward angle instead of his usual upwards one. He wouldn't last another hour of this dodging and weaving.

There was a small mountain range a little bit to their left, but it didn't seem like it offered much protection from the fire nation's war machines. Still, it was their only shot at getting a peaceful night's sleep. Aang considered it for a couple of seconds, then decided.

"All right, we're going to try and find a cave in that mountain range. If we can't, then we'll just have to risk staying in the forest for the night." Aang thought he had explained his plan quite well.

"Aren't we forgetting our resident earthbender? Eh, Twinkle toes?" Toph said in a very irritated tone. "I can make us a cave anywhere on that mountain."

Aang blushed again. "Ok, fine. Let's go then."

They flew straight towards the mountain, making no false moves to try and fool the fire nation. It wouldn't work anyway, at least not for long. But they could get their night of peaceful sleep, at least for everybody except Aang. He hadn't been sleeping so well lately. He had been having bad dreams. Well, not bad dreams, but dreams to disrupt his sleep when his responsible side began to take over and see what his impulsive side was dreaming about… Katara. Her name kept flashing through his mind, and he couldn't stop it, no matter how hard he tried. As if he wanted it to stop… he blushed again.

"HEY TWINKLE TOES! LAND ALREADY!" Toph was sounding angry. Toph angry plus Aang distracted equaled an injured Aang, so he landed Appa on a clearing of rock near a cliff in the mountainside. Toph 'looked' around for a little while, and then began to walk towards the wall. She stopped just before it, and stomped her foot into the ground, like an angry child. A round hole appeared, leading deep into the cliff. "Come on in, it's safe enough." Toph said when she noticed that her friends hadn't yet started to move towards the cave. They were all preoccupied. Aang with staring at Katara distractedly, Katara with staring into the sky at the smoke created by the firebenders, and Sokka staring at the very small amount of meat left in his pack.

"Huh?" Three voices sounded in unison. They all looked away from the prospective staring places, and began to walk towards the cave, with Aang bringing up the rear with Appa.

They made camp in the cave, and Aang volunteered to be the first watch. "But you've been watching us every night for the past two weeks, Aang." Katara was duely concerned. "Don't you think somebody else should take a turn, like maybe Sokka?" Sokka was already snoring in his sleeping bag. "Well, maybe not Sokka… but definitely not you all of the time!"

Aang looked at Katara for a few seconds before saying, "I know. But I don't sleep that well anyway, so no problems there. Besides," He flashed his characteristic grin, "Momo helps me every time."

Katara laughed before walking over to her sleeping bag. "all right, but wake me up at midnight. I want to take over for the second watch."

Aang looked at her with a little bit of a concerned look in his eye. "If I don't lose track of the time."

Toph sighed, and went to sleep on her rock. Those two are helpless sometimes.

And they all went to sleep for the night, except for Aang, afraid to go to sleep again because of his dreams…