Hello! This is a series of fics about Ty Lee interacting with other characters in the Avatar world. The goal is to write her in scenes with every named character who was living at the end of the show. At first I was going to make all the stories romantic in nature, but soon realized I did not have the intestinal fortitude. I'll try to write some romance or sexual tension into the stories with many of the younger human cast, but a significant number of the stories will be gen.

The stories will be in alphabetical order of the other character's name, so Ty Lee/Aang is up first. I was going to write this for the Avatar 500 prompt "Sky," but at 400 words in and nowhere near done it became quickly obvious that it was not meant for the Avatar 500. I'll keep using the prompts to write these Ty Lee stories and even submit entries when I can make the word limit. It's a fun side project while I procrastinate on Shadow of the Dragon King and other stories in the ideas pipeline. I give my thanks to amanda91 for giving me the idea at her LiveJournal!

And so I give you...

Everybody Loves Ty Lee

1. Airborne

Second year of Firelord Zuko's reign, third moon of Earth (late spring)

"Aaaaaang!"

The call is a shriek of fear, a shout of joy, a battle-cry that cuts across the dawn. Aang rides the wind through the acrid smoke from the rebel airship, maneuvering himself to its port side just in time to catch her in her blurring pink flight from a broken window of the control room. There is a light thump of impact and a dip the glider's flight as she lands on his back, crouched like a cat and with perfect poise as though this were a planned move and not a headlong jump from a burning airship. There is the vague sense that there should be cheers and applause for this daring feat so high in the air.

Instead of cheers, there are the panicked shouts of renegade soldiers as the airship to their right that Aang and Ty Lee destroyed between them lists and threatens to go down. And instead af applause there is the rush of feet on metal from the airship to their left, firebenders running out onto the platform suspended below the gondola. The rebel firebenders take aim, and the morning air is momentarily cold as they suck in the heat of the sun around them.

Then fire and heat fill the air, a sheet of blinding red and gold hurtling toward the glider and its passenders.

"Hang on!" Aang shouts to the girl on his back. He circles down to evade, creating a rush of wind under the wings of his craft. Ty Lee giggles and takes his warning literally, dropping flat onto her stomach and wrapping her arms and legs around him. Her laughter rings clear across the golden sky as the flames follow them down, even as she hangs upside-down in the air clutching Aang and the glider. Perhaps the blood has rushed to his head due to the inverted position, for he looks slightly pink.

He is quick, as always, but the extra weight slows him down and the heat of the flames is intense. The tip of his right wing which brushed too close catches fire, and though Aang quickly blows out the flames with a breath of wind the glider starts a crazy clockwise spin which he just manages to stabilize as he circles back up to the ship. Bursts of fire rush by on all sides, threatening to set more than the glider alight.

As they are back in horizontal position, Ty Lee lets go of Aang and eases herself into a crouch despite the turbulence. She is no longer laughing, not even smiling as she regards the firebenders lined along the platform. Just as they close in again, and as the enemies take aim again she tenses, then drops from the glider onto one of the catwalks that extend from the sides of the platform, practically on top of the firebender who had aimed at her. A few quick jabs later the soldier tumbles limply to the platform, barely able to hold on against the winds that rip at them at this altitude.

Aang, buoyed by the loss of extra weight, spins up to aim a hand at the engine house emblazoned with the phoenix displayed. More flames come at him, and though he disperses them with a gust of air, his counterattacks hit the airship's superstructure rather than platform beneath its curve.

Then Ty Lee cartwheels down the perilously narrow catwalk onto the platform proper to pounce on the rebels. She jabs a pressure point here and vaults from the slumping body there, then sweeps out a foot as she lands. The air is thick with smoke and fire, not just from the firebenders but from the flaming airship she has just escaped, its streamlined form spewing black smoke as it tilts precariously off the starboard side.

"Now!" She shouts, and Aang, now free from the distracting attacks, swerves around to face the engine house again. He takes a deep breath that puffs his chest out, then blows out a concentrated gust of wind that slams into the propeller blades and brings them to a screeching halt.

The ship veers sharply to the right as the port engine keeps laboring, the halt too sudden for the engineers to compensate. The ship's horned prow rams into the burning, listing ship on its right and the groaning grind of metal on metal fills the air. Aang then sweeps a hand out, setting the engine house on fire for good measure.

As both ships start going down, Aang swoops down level with the platform under the gondola where Ty Lee dodges a few flame attacks, though by and large the rebels are too busy trying to hold on as the ship reels from impact and from its own death throes.

"Come on!" He shouts, and Ty Lee grins and leaps, flipping through the air over the head of the nearest firebender to land on the catwalk. She takes off running down the strip of metal without skipping a beat. But just as she's about to take the jump the ship tilts sideways, threatening to spill her over.

"Whoa!" She jumps clear anyway but her balance is off, and she falls short of the glider. Then she jerks to a stop, and she looks up at Aang and his firm grip on her arm. "Wow, thanks!"

The relief is short-lived, however, as the glider tilts and starts dropping down to the ship and the cliffs below, following the falling ships. Aang, his face set with determination, spins the craft one-handed to fold it back to a staff, wraps an arm tight around the girl, and falls like a stone from the sky. Ty Lee's scream as she clings to him is ecstatic or terrified, or both.

As the ground looms nearer with terrifying speed he puts his feet together and creates a burst of air behind them to speed their headlong flight down. Ty Lee holds him in a near chokehold, and teardrops from her watering eyes fly up to dance sparkling in the sunlight before they, too, succumb to gravity and scatter on their way down to earth.

They shoot past the falling ships and then, as the cliffside below them looms large, Aang thrusts his hand down to create a gust of air beneath them that gently buoys them up before they fall again. He flips over to get his feet below him, and with Ty Lee in his arms, lands safely on top of the cliff.

Immediately a shadow falls over them, growing larger and larger. Quickly dropping Ty Lee, who lands in a crouch next to him, Aang spreads and then sweeps his arms upward. The first of the falling airships rocks, its fall slowing in the updrift, which Aang maneuvers until the ship lands with a boom and a reverberating impact that sends dust flying into the air. The second ship is already falling toward the sea, and he stretches a hand out at the water-

And it shoots up as though from a giant splash although the ship has not hit the water yet, catching the airship in its wave and then instantly freezing to hold it immobile and safe well above sea level. The frozen pillar glitters with eery beauty in the warm spring sun.

"Wow, you've become really quick at waterbending, Aang," Ty Lee rises from her crouch as Aang lowers his hands.

"That wasn't me," Aang says quietly as streams of water rise from the sea, putting out the fires on the trapped airship. A hearty bellow echoes over the sea. Aang raises a hand gladly at the white and striped mass streaking to him over the water, and at the blue-clad figure that moves on top of it as though in a graceful dance. He turns back to the airship on the cliff, the tip of his staff resting on the ground and his mouth set in a straight, firm line.

Aang and Ty Lee both crouch as the boarding ramp of the gondola opens. Suddenly the water rises in a wall of blue and foam straight over the cliff as Aang and Ty Lee watch, awed, and arcs to the gondola where it slams over the boarding ramp and freezes into a thick sheet of ice.

And then there is a wind that rustles the grass as the flying white beast is level with them and the resounding bellow, unmistakeably in greeting, almost knocks both Aang and Ty Lee off their feet.

"Appa!" Aang's face lights up as he greets his animal companion, then calms to a quiet smile as he says more softly: "Katara."

She alights from Appa's saddle to land before them. "I think they'll get the message to stay put," she tells them. "The soldiers are on their way and they'll process the prisoners."

"The land and sea invasion's been stopped, too?" Aang asks eagerly.

"Yup." Katara crosses her arms, looking pleased. "I think we can tell Zuko that the rebel invasion is officially over."

"Which is kind of weird," Ty Lee says brightly, "when you guys were doing the invading the last time around."

Katara and Aang both give her a withering look, but if anything the acrobatic fighter's grin grows even wider. "But that's all in the past." She holds out her arms. "Group hug?"

Without waiting for an invitation she throws herself at Aang, knocking him briefly off balance, and plants a quick peck on his cheek. "That's for saving my life up there," she whispers, round eyes sparkling with mischief while he gapes at her.

"Oh! That'll be the soldiers." She lets go of Aang to gaze down the slope landward from the cliff, where a great many footsteps and the clanking of machinery approach. "See you, Aang, Katara. Nice working with you!" With a last dazzling smile over her shoulder she promptly backflips onto her hands and walks away on them, whistling a jaunty little tune.

Katara watches the girl disappear down the slope, then raises an eyebrow at Aang. "It's cute when you blush with your whole head,"

"I'm not!" Aang holds his hands out in denial, or in defense.

"C'mon, Mr. Popular." Katara raises an arm almost lazily to melt the ice over the boarding ramp as the soldiers approach. "We've still got a lot of messes to mop up." She turns away toward Appa.

"Katara."

She starts to turn, the flat look in her eyes saying she is not nearly as nonchalant as she would like to appear. Aang's hands are on her shoulders and he pulls her almost roughly to him, pressing his lips to hers as he holds her in a possessive embrace. Her arms come up around him, and she has a slightly dazed, dreamy look on her face as he pulls back to look into her eyes.

"Thanks, Katara." He puts a tender hand to one brown cheek, lightly stroking her face.

"F-for what?" She blushes a little, smiling.

He grins back in answer, and she lets out a small gasp of surprise as he lifts her into his arms and jumps up in a whoosh of air onto Appa's saddle. He kisses her lips again, lightly, and calls, "Yip yip!"

The air bison's flat tail strikes the earth to lift them into the air, and as Aang and Katara fly away, leaning on each other and holding hands, he waves his free hand with his eyes on the ground. Ty Lee, walking upright now, waves back from earth and watches the white speck disappear in the distance.

"They're glowing pink all the way over there," she sighs in contentment. "How sweet!" She giggles up at the brightening sky, cartwheels, and skips down the path toward the military encampment. A warm breeze stirs her hair and clothes, heralding an approaching summer full of life and its infinite possibilities.

Next: Ty Lee apologizes for past wrongs and displays her sense of style in the process.