Aang sat on the edge of one of the upside down hanging temple buildings. He had sensed some sort of disturbance lingering in the air as some birds began to scatter. Everyone seemed to be off doing their own thing which was a relief, leaving him to sit quietly in meditation only being disturbed every so often by Momo chucking berries at the back of his head. He turned around as he heard footsteps, his eye catching Katara as she made her way towards him carrying a canteen of water with her.
She had her hair loosed behind her and hanging which seemed to flow lightly in the breeze from the high altitude of the temples. It was more comfortable as opposed to it weighing her head slightly when she kept it in her usual braid. She smiled at him before taking a seat down next to him. "Mind if I sit?" she asked him while sitting already. "Wait forget that one" she laughed lightly leaning back on the spot.
Aang felt his cheeks vaguely heat up as she sat down beside him "Oh hey Katara" he watched her with a smile as she leaned back, scooting over a bit to give her some room beside him "Sit? Sure I don't mind if you sit… why would you...I-I mean I mind?" He began to ramble foolishly his cheeks turned a bright red before he completely shut up and just nodded his head vigorously.
She giggled lightly then smiled at him. "Hey think before you speak." she said to him before she crossed her legs and leaned back a bit more, her hands supporting her so she wouldn't loose balance. "So...what's up, you seem a bit more down then usual" she asked him while looking out ahead of her at the vast cloud adorned canyon ahead of them.
Aang hunched his shoulders nervously "Well…y'know the usual…meditating and all" he looked over at her from the corners of his eyes and then averted his gaze "I'm still so confused about everything…Everyone has expectations for me... They are all depending on me...But...I-I don't know if I'm ready yet…to be this savior that they all want. I failed at the invasion and I just don't know if I can pick myself back up again…I really don't know what to do!" He shifted on the spot and let out an audible sigh "I'm still just a kid…" He mumbled the second part quietly, leaning over into a fetal position and rest his head on his arms mirroring Katara as he gazed out at the canyon ahead of them.
"Listen Aang you're no kid...you're older than I am by 100 years...I know we expect a lot from you but we all want is for you to do your best be safe as well… and no matter what we will always be beside you every step of the way" Katara gently placed her hand on his shoulder, drawing his attention away from the canyon. She gave him a reassuring smile.
Aang felt some sort of guilt inside him; regardless of Katara's comforting words he still had some very deep internal self doubt. He still kept his head slouched forwards as if unresponsive but felt his chest leap as she laid her reassuring hand over his shoulder. After a moment he lifted his head to look right back at her "I missed out so much over those 100 years…I've only just started working on my fire bending…but thanks…" he trailed off, slowly bringing his own hand up to hers and resting the tips of his fingers just over her knuckles.
Katara looked at him and smiled before sliding her fingers in between his. "I know Aang, but there's still hope, and that's all we need to get ourselves pointed in the right direction. As long as we have you" Katara looked away slightly caught up in her own words and felt her cheeks redden in embarrassment.
"Thanks Katara, it really means a lot to me to have you here by my side… I-" Aang's words were cut short as he heard a yell from inside the temple which echoed through the canyon. It sounded like Sokka but he didn't have time to completely register until…
"Watch out, boomerang ho!" Aang only had a split second to see Sokka pop his head out from behind the column to the left before his all too familiar blue boomerang knocked him upside the head sending him backwards onto the hard stone floor.
Sokka grimaced "Oops…?" he hunched his shoulders and ducked behind the column seeing Aang knocked out accidentally on the ground beside Katara.
Katara looked back at Sokka then growled as she got to her feet spinning around to glare at him. She picked up the boomerang then lunged forward with it, holding it threateningly above her head "SOKKA!" she yelled as she ran towards him launching the boomerang right back at him (which missed and hit one of the columns) she popped open her bending water canteen and began to form it ready to whip Sokka for being so stupid.
Sokka let out a high pitched girly scream and ran in the opposite direction "N-now Katara c-can't we think this over, it was an accident!" He slipped behind another pillar as she whipped a thin stream of water at his feet. He peaked out at her "Come on sis!"
Katara narrowed her eyes withdrawing the water back into the pouch "You better watch out where you throw that thing Sokka or your getting the whipping of your life!"
Sokka slipped out from behind the pillar and nodded nervously, slowly walking over to Aang's unconscious body, he leaned over him and prodded him in the side. Aang was unresponsive to the gesture but was breathing normally. He really was just knocked out and would wake up in due time. "Eh…should we bring him inside the temple…?" he nervously looked up to see what his sister would say.
"Well its starting to rain anyways…" she looked up to see some forming dark rain clouds and sighed "Yeah bring him over to the fire pit, I'll go round up Appa and bring him inside.
Sokka nodded and leaned over plucking him off the ground. He hobbled to the side a bit due to the unbalanced stance he had before regaining his centre of gravity and carrying him over the central meeting area. Zuko and Toph gave him weird looks as he walked by and set Aang down on one of the sleeping bags. He just let out a nervous laugh hoping they wouldn't bother him about it as he took a seat beside them.
Momo padded over to Aang's form shouting a bunch of random gibberish at him in monkey talk and Sokka just shoed him away "Go away Momo your not helping…" he frowned.
Toph made use of her earth bending to hit the enormous shutters in the main area closed as she felt the wind blowing the rain in "Jeez it's really picking up out there…" She'd managed to close them quickly and with a sigh she sat back down next to Zuko spending the following minutes picking dirt out from between her toes.
Katara took a seat at Aang's head, taking some water out and splashing it over his face in an attempt to wake him up, which didn't seem to do much. Zuko looked over to Aang and then to Sokka "…Sooo what happened…?" he raised a questioning brow and Sokka just shrunk in his spot "I kinda knocked him out while practicing with my boomerang…" Zuko only gave him a dead panned look "Why am I not surprised…"
Momo let out another string of chattered nonsense before leaping onto Katara's shoulder and climbing onto her head. She let out another sigh, letting Aang's head slip back onto the sleeping bag as she picked up one of the water bending books Sokka had snatched from Wong-Shi-Tong's library and began to read through it to pass the time. It was a slow day but a good chance for everyone to relax.
Aang began to wake up slowly; he let out a small groan, wincing as he began to come to. His hand was the first off him to show signs of movement as he reached up to his head where Sokka had hit him to rub the abused area and slowly opened his eyes.
Sokka leaned forward in anticipation, grabbing Zuko's shoulders to push himself up pointing out the obvious, thrusting his finger forwards to point at Aang "He's waking up!" Zuko let out a small growl having a hard time tolerating Sokka getting in his personal space.