Just A Little Kid
Aang
Good news for the Fire Lord. The nation's greatest threat… is just a little kid. -Iroh
He should have known, from the minute that he earned his tattoos, that he would never again be normal.
How could he ever be, a master airbender at age twelve?
He knew that something was going to change, that something would be different, but he tried to pretend that it wouldn't.
Although his friends still treated him the same way after his tattooing, there was a certain barrier between him and the rest of them now, and he could feel it.
He just didn't want to believe it.
So he ignored it, going around and playing his usual games with them, laughing with them, talking with them. But there was something different there now.
It was as though the laughter was just a little bit more forced, their speech just a little bit lower, their games just a little less fun. It was as though they were treating him differently.
As though they were treating him with….. respect.
And he didn't like it one bit.
He couldn't stand feeling separated from all of them, just because of a few little arrows. But, to his dismay, it didn't just stop with his friends.
He began to notice that the adults were acting strangely with him too. All around him, monks were treating him differently, acting like he was equal to them.
But he wasn't, and he knew it.
He was still the same old silly little kid, same old airbender, same old Aang. But that didn't seem to be what everyone else thought. It seemed like to them, he was a different kid, a new Aang, a new person.
But as time went on, Aang began to realize that the broken bridge between him and the other kids was finally mended, and he now felt like he truly fit in again. He soon forgot how upset he had been, how differently he had been treated, and began to feel like himself again.
Everything was back to normal.
And then the monks came.
He saw them at a distance, walking slowly towards the little group of airbenders that Aang and his friends made up. Only when they drew closer did Aang see just how upset they looked.
And he also saw that every eye was turned to him.
As Aang stared at the monks, one of them beckoned to him, calling him forth. Curiously, Aang separated himself from the crowd, walking shyly towards the monks.
"Come, Aang." Monk Gyatso said gently. "There is much to say."
And so, Aang followed the little group of monks, building up the final wall between him and his friends. And there was nothing that he could do to knock it down.
That was when everything was changed for good. He knew that, no matter how much time past, no matter what happened, nothing would ever be the same again. The connection between him and the others was officially broken, the bridge keeping them together ruined for good.
His world was turned upside down, and all because of those five simple words: "Aang, you are the avatar."
It wasn't fair.
Just five words, and suddenly, he was responsible for the fate of the world!
Everywhere he turned, the faces of his fellow airbenders were filled with different emotions.
He could see that some of them feared him, some honored him, and many pitied him.
But what he saw most was hope.
Wherever he looked, wherever he was, there was always someone who put their hopes in him.
And that was what he hated the most.
Everyone believed in him, Aang, a little twelve-year-old boy, and all because some monks told him that he was the avatar.
And he fully believed, that, no matter how hard he tried, no matter what had been, he would never be a normal kid again.
Monk Gyatso did try to comfort him, to play with him, to try to preserve the last little bit of the child left in him, but it wasn't enough.
Aang was working far more than he was playing, and he just couldn't keep his mind straight. But although he was working as hard as he could, the monks seemed to think that they needed to take him away from all that he knew, all that he loved, and decided to seclude him further by sending him away.
And that was the last of it.
Aang knew, that if he didn't leave, right then and there he wouldn't be able to take it.
He now had no one, nothing, to hold on to, and he felt it.
He chose to retreat, run away, away from responsibility and wherever the monks decided to sent him.
He was leaving.
Aang stepped up to the window, staring into the night, knowing, deep down, that he would never see his home, or his people, ever again. He gazed at his world, at all that he had ever known, peering through the veil of rain to stare out at what used to be.
Looking back, happiness seemed to be a treasure that he could not find in the bleak sea of sorrows that he found himself in now.
Stepping onto the windowsill, he opened his glider and prepared to leave behind his home, and with it, his childhood.
Blinking back tears, he stepped out into the world, soaring away from all that was carefree, replacing it instead with responsibility.
Out into the darkness.
Out into the unknown.
Away from his home.
Away from his childhood.
Away from everything.
And the little boy flew off into the rain, beginning his journey of a grown man, but knowing, in his heart, that he was really just a little kid.
A/N: There's going to be 9 of these in all (unless I do more.) In a review, let me know who you wanna see next, out of: Toph, Zuko, Iroh, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai. (Or, if there are other characters you like, let me know about them, too. Thanks! :D)
Sokka's next!