Red. So much red. Red, its richness fading into vibrant pinks, lavenders, and purples, tempered with streaks of orange and gold. The whole sky is filled with fire.
Sunset, Katara mused from the saddle, is the best. All thoughts of war, of pain and loss, of bending and journeying, faded away under the dazzling display. Sunset was when a certain muted sublimity blanketed the weary travelers, making the entire world soft and fuzzy, allowing thoughts and emotions that fled from the bright daylight and hid from dark night to come out and tickle the edges of consciousness. For Katara, sunset was when she could think in peace, when she could marvel at the beauty of the world all around her, when the impossible happened and raging crimson could melt perfectly into soothing sapphire. Harmony.
She draped her arm over the edge of Appa's saddle, letting the cool twilight breeze wind through her fingers as the great bison flew on.
Far below, someone else was watching the skies as well, but he paid no heed to the brilliantly marbled palette of the heavens. His attention was focused on the speck floating dreamily ahead of the ship. Ahead, dammit. Always ahead.
"Prince Zuko!"
The prince whipped around at the gruff tones of his uncle's startled voice, hands automatically positioned in a defensive pose. Instead of the expected attack, Zuko beheld his uncle's wide grin, a dopey face raised to the sky. "What a gorgeous sunset! Prince Zuko, you were up here all this time and didn't even think to call me up for this magnificent show? My goodness! I haven't seen such a sunset for so long! How pretty, my my!"
Zuko dropped his hands and stared at the old man, simultaneously amused and frustrated by his uncle's eccentricities. Who had time to enjoy sunset, when there was an Avatar to catch and honor to restore? And besides, it's only sunset. It happens everyday. When the sun goes down. "Uncle, we've been following the Avatar for a few days now. Sooner or later, he will need more supplies, or that great shaggy beast of his will need to rest. And then, I shall have him!"
Iroh sighed. This nephew of his. Always rushing forwards, so fixated on that one goal, never to pause and enjoy the marvels of the world around him. Ahead, poor boy, always ahead. "Set aside your pursuit of the Avatar for a while, dear nephew. Why not enjoy the present while you have it? After all, it slips away as soon as you even comprehend it is there. Try to appreciate some of it, will you? Look at these colors; they're so brilliant right now, but regardless of how doggedly they work to show everyone their beauty, in minutes, they fade, they're gone, a thing of the past. If you don't look at them now, you never will. They will only be a shadow in your memory, wisps of gray."
Zuko grimaced at Iroh, but silently admitted the old man was right, the sunset was beautiful. He held onto his pugnacious attitude for a heartbeat longer, then let it slip away. The Avatar was in his sights again, he could be patient. He moved next to his uncle, the two men standing side by side at the ship's prow, looking up to the heavens. Zuko couldn't remember the last time he had really seen such beauty. His jaded mind relaxed a little at the visual feast surrounding him. Look at all of that blue. Not the sometimes-garish shade of a summer's clearest midday, but something softer, deeper, calmer. Peaceful. One could get carried away in the profundity of that blue. Blue, with the sun's last exhalations of scarlet and gold. It all fits together so perfectly.