Authors Note: Your reviews mean so much to me avatarmaddy, Abbl2, and my two wonderful guests :) thank you so much for reading!

A goofy smile spread across Meelo's face as he saw the object of his few hours' affection. He had taken a fall, but he hadn't been seriously injured. She was even prettier up close was all he could think about as he stared up into her worried grey eyes.

Meelo winced as he opened his mouth to speak,

"I, uh, yeah! Yes, I'm fine. Just dandy, better even, then I was before." He said rubbing the back of his head. He was keeping it cool, totally nonchalant, maybe Meelo had meant to trip over that rock haphazardly. Meelo sat up and Aurie stood up, Aureole was recovering from her concern and blinked her large eyes a few times and filling the awkward silence,

"Well...that's good." She said noncommittally, slowly bouncing on and off the balls of her feet.

"Yeah—really great." Meelo said nodding in agreement...he had forgotten why he had come down here in the first place without a game plan...or at least something to say.

So he went off a limb and tried to muster up anything, anything, to end the uncomfortable silence that had followed his previous stupid sentence,

"So, umm, you're one of the sister's that lives here? That's awesome! I'm with the traveling party that came through last night; we just made our way back through the earth kingdom." He smiled good-naturedly.

Aurie pursed her lips and blew out her nose, she didn't like that her training and meditation were interrupted, she hated being surprised (especially in the form of Monk Moron falling down half of a mountain and scaring the air out of her), and she harbored unpleasant feelings towards small talk with strangers,

"How interesting, umm, are you lost or anything?" She offered, maybe he had been looking for food...or his bison, or something else mundane and found himself lost and clearly out of place. She could direct him to the correct path and he could be on his way. Then, she could go back to concentrating.

"Oh, umm, no, I'm not lost really, I was going for a walk and lucky for me my tumble down the cliff landed me in the presence of a pretty girl." There, he got his smooth-talking-cool-guy act back on. Aureole's cheeks turned bright red, no necessarily out of flattery, she was taken aback by his forwardness and quite frankly annoyed that her training time was being wasted by some tall, good looking, cliff creeper. Her finger jabbed pointedly at his chest,

"Listen here punk, I'm busy right now and—" Aureole was about to tear into him when Meelo interrupted her as she spoke,"

"So, you'll be free later?"

"And I don't need—huh?" Aurie's eyebrows shot up and she looked very, very confused. Meelo continued, speaking slowly to make sure Aureole understood him,

"You're busy now, ..but, you'll be free later?" He asked hopefully, he watched as the girl lowered her defenses slightly and crossed her arms loosely,

"Well, no. I'm busy pretty much all day long."

"Well, what about tomorrow? The next day? I'm free whenever, I just have to help sister Lang teach a class to the younger students in the afternoon tomorrow." Because of her limited contact with the opposite sex, Aureole was completely inept in what exactly this monk was getting at, what did he want her free time for? He just all of the sudden fell in, she didn't even know him...but she had this strange feeling that she did know him, from somewhere, like a distant and cloudy memory. He looked so familiar.

"I don't even know your name, Monk I-think-you-hit-your-head-to-hard." Meelo smiled embarrassed, he had forgotten to introduce himself twice in a row now...on the same day. Traveling around with a bunch of dirty man friends really sucks the manners out of a guy.

"My name is Monk Meelo, from the Southern Air Temple; it is a pleasure to meet you...?"

"Aureole." Auire answered slowly, she really didn't want to be rude but she also really didn't want to be talking to some random Monk, albeit a really good looking monk. Seeing that he was about to speak again Aurie quickly interrupted him,

"You're weird." She walked brusquely around him and started up the stone steps that lead back up to the temple. Meelo quickly followed up after her,

"Hey! Wait up! I thought you were busy down there?" He fell in step behind her, not minding the view at all. Aureole rolled her eyes and concentrated on staying calm,

"I was busy," She spun around to face him, her hands on her hips, "You know, I have a lot of training to do and it doesn't help when attractive strangers drop in, literally, and force awkward conversations and waste my time." She finished haughtily, continuing her way up the staircase. Meelo's smile grew in tenfold and he lifted off the ground, air bending a few steps ahead of Aureole who almost ran into him, causing Meelo to catch her by her hand and shoulder,

"All that I got out of that was that you think I'm gorgeous." Meelo smiled half joking and half in smugness. Aureole's bright red and flustered face scowled and she stepped around him and out of his physical contact,

"W-what? When did I say that? I didn't say that." Her voice got higher in pitch and her cheeks were basically on fire, why did she get so flustered around this guy? She looked at him again; smug smile and all, and she noticed that he looked interestingly young, like he shouldn't be a master air bender because he's so young kind of young.

"You said it just a minute ago and don't worry, people get distracted and tongue tied constantly around me," He wiggled his eye brows, "It's because I'm incredibly good looking." She could tell he was just teasing her but she hated being teased. She was a very high strung girl and didn't like any funny business.

"I think you've let the air get to your head." She said dismissively trying to regain control of the situation. She was getting close to laughing with him, it was horrifying.

"There's no room for air in my head, it's full of you." She bit her lip and blinked a few times, trying to contain a giggle, but it slipped, that was possibly the cheesiest line she had ever heard.

"That is soo bad." She laughed and he joined in, happy to have made her happy, her laugh seemed contagious.

"But you're laughing," Meelo said happily, "So, it couldn't have been that bad." The wind started to pick up, blowing bright brown hair into Aureole's face and she let a small smile slip,

"No, it was really bad, that's why I laughed." She looked to the sun rising higher in the sky, "We should get up to the temple before the sun scorches our skin." Aurie just couldn't see why people thought she was a 'stick in the mud' or a 'downer', she was damn right endearing.

The midmorning light was beating harshly onto their heads and as they walked up the steps in a comfortable silence, Aurie and Meelo both privately had distant feelings of the spirits shifting in some way—like a change was coming on the wings of the cool breeze. Certain fates were being decided and the winds being sent their way were not the kind of currents that could be controlled.

Aureole was about to speak when she noticed a literal change in the wind, at first she thought it was her sisters, and she was about to let out a squeak of dread but when she looked to the sky she saw a flying lemur, more specifically her flying lemur, Ume. Meelo noticed her looking up and did the same just in time to witness Ume fly straight at Aureole, grabbing onto her face and bringing himself to a stop. Looking up at Meelo, Aureole grimaced and said,

"Umm, this is Ume. He is my lemur...he's a little clumsy? Yeah, that's the word I would use to describe him." She pet her friend upon the head and Ume did the same to her. Ume felt that Aurie was his human servant who often needed his help and guidance. Humans were not the brightest of creatures.

"He's awesome!" Meelo exclaimed excitedly, after months being away from air animals in the Earth kingdom all of the bison and lemurs that inhabited the Eastern Temple were a welcome familiarity. "Man, he's fast, I'm surprised he didn't knock you over, he basically slammed into your face. Someone's stronger than they seem." He punched Aureole's shoulder playfully and she rolled her eyes

Ume licked Aurie's cheek and let out a small squeak and trill, turning to face Meelo he hopped off of Aurie's face and crawled circles around his shoulders, both of the young air nomads were perplexed by Ume's behavior,

"Ume! Leave Meelo alone, you're being weird. Go play with the other sky lemurs." She said crossly, grabbing Ume and gently tossing him in the air, prompting him to spread his wings and land on her shoulder again. Aurie shrugged her shoulder and she and Meelo continued up the mountain, Meelo talking the entire time and changing subjects so fast that Aureole had trouble keeping up. She thought the monk was okay...but that didn't make him any less annoying. She suspected he would hang around her while she had an early lunch and then leave her alone—she had a schedule to keep.

'Maybe Dechan and Lhe-mi will come and bother him away,' was a hope that Aurie held onto while the monk continued his fast speak,

"Oh and then in the other villages also were celebrating an Avatar related holiday it was so cool and there was a lot of food and it was so good and the place was packed they even brought in a fire nation acrobatic act with benders and there were so many lights not as many as I saw when I went to the New Year's festival in Basing-Se man so those people know how to party everyone was heavily intoxicated even I can't remember half that night, not that I'm one to drink very much just sometimes when the mood is right and—" Aureole was about to snap when she saw Sister Ling up ahead and quickened her pace up to see her,

"Sister Ling!" She called out grabbing her mentor's attention. Sister Ling smiled warmly at her favorite student, who looked rather flustered, and then she noticed that Aureole was being followed by a handsome young monk that was staying with them from the traveling party.

"Hello child, you look as if you have had an exciting morning." She had a bowl full of fruit and invited the young nomads to join her, much to the chagrin of her student who was so desperately trying to shake Meelo off her shoulder. What? Ling could tell when her pupil didn't like someone, she is a very perceptive old woman, she also enjoys teasing her high strung student.

Rolling her eyes and grabbing two large apples and four plums she introduced Meelo and Ling to each other and she listened halfheartedly as Meelo and Ling had an animated discussion of his travels. Air nomads were well known for their easygoing sense of humor and a day never passed without hearing laughter ringing out the temples like bells.

Aurie loved the sound of laughter, it made her happy, she could never understand how easily laughter came to most people, she would smile or smirk in amusement, but laughing was never something she let herself do too frequently. She felt the need to control everything about herself and although the freeness of laughter excited her and pleased her—it also scared her. Aureole has a fear of letting go, of having nothing spiritually and emotionally; of being empty and alone.

Hearing one of Meelo's friends call out to him she looked up and see him waving back, he turned to the two ladies,

"If you'll excuse me, I have to be off. It was a pleasure to meet both of you. I hope to see you later on." He winked at Aureole who scowled and bit into her second apple, Ume was in her lap finishing a third plum, and they watched Meelo walk away. Aureole soaked in the silence like she had been deprived of it for years.

"Gosh, I thought he would never leave." Aurie put her hands on her head. Sister Ling smiled,

"Oh, but he seemed like such a nice young man. Not to mention good looking! If I were 30 years younger..." She trailed off laughing to herself.

"Sister Ling!" Aurie nearly choked on her apple, her eyebrow involuntarily twitched, "I did not hear that. He was annoying is what he was, no amount of tall, lean, muscly armed, attractiveness can cure him of that." Ling gave Aureole a knowing smile and continued eating a slice of her peach. Aureole narrowed her eyes and sat up straighter,

"What are you dreaming up there in that dubious mind of yours?"

"Oh nothing dear," Ling said feigning innocence, "It's just that I've never seen you react so—strongly to anyone like you did just now."

"Me either!" Dechan jumped out from behind a bush and into the shade of the tree were Ling and Aurie were eating, causing Aureole to jump nearly twelve feet in the air. Lhe-mi echoed the same thing as she grabbed a mango from the fruit basket and sat down next to Sister Ling.

"Wha—Where did you two little monster's come from?" Aureole was blushing for the umpteenth time that day and glaring at her two little friends.

"From over there in that bush."

"Duh."

"Weren't you there?" Aureole smacked her forehead and crossed her arms as Ume climbed onto her shoulder and attempted smooth out the frown on her brow with his tiny hands making little lemur noises during the process.

"So," Both girls were rolled unto their stomachs, hands tucked under their chins, and feet kicking slightly back and forth, looking up at their older sister. Dechan's smile grew mischievously with delight,

"Tell us about your Hunk-ey Monk-ey, Aurie!"

"What was th—I, huh, jeeze. I can't even believe you said that." Aureole shook her head, exasperated, what was happening to the world. This has been an odd morning, and she was refusing to let it be an odd rest of the day. She stood up abruptly, holding Ume to her chest, and left in a huff, grumbling about training and studying while the three ladies left behind laughed and gossiped about their favorite haughty teenager.

A month went by and every morning Meelo would drop in on Aurie while she trained and hang around her until he had to go teach a class in the afternoon. He was really just trying to be her friend at this point; he thought she was wonderful and beautiful...but incredibly high strung. There was just something about her and he like being around her—hearing her talk. She was mostly quiet because well...believe it or not Meelo had this problem of talking ceaselessly without being aware that he was talking ceaselessly. He liked that Aureole was careful about what she said, because he could tell she really thought about stuff before she said it—Meelo was pretty certain she was something amazing.

"Hey, earth to Meelo," Nawang hit him in the back of the head, "Buddy, snap out of it, you're staring creepily into space again." Meelo blinked a few times and then grinned goofily,

"Sorry, man."

"Are you thinking about that girl again? The mean one?" Nawang asked rhetorically...he knew Meelo was thinking about her. He'd been absent this entire week, spending all of his free time bothering a girl who didn't want much to do with him. It kind of seemed to Nawang like she didn't really want much to do with anyone.

"She's not mean," Meelo frowned, "She's, um, feisty."

"And stuck up," Nawang added.

"She's just very goal oriented!" Meelo defended adamantly.

"Wow, she sounds like a bucket full of fun, Meelo. 'Goal oriented' is just the phrase I would use to describe a girl to complement your lazy arrogance."

"That's what I thought too!" Meelo replied happily, unaware his friend's words were laced heavily with sarcasm.

Rolling his eyes Nawang thought seriously about asking his friend what his intentions were. He's a bit of a womanizer and this girl Meelo was after hadn't even been 100 miles outside of her own temple yet. Being older than Meelo by almost ten years, Nawang had a different view of the world. Meelo saw everything as new, exciting, and his for the taking; Nawang knew of consequences for his actions and looked at the world a bit more cautiously. But Meelo—Meelo sort of just dove into things. Like this girl, Aureole; Meelo was all about this girl Aureole and Nawang had no idea why, she was pretty, he would give her that, but she had a bad attitude. He had thought about mentioning it...but he didn't want to ruffle anyone's feathers. Besides, he would think to himself, lately his friend had been in a bit of a funk, he just wasn't the happy go lucky kid he usually was as of late. This girl was giving him back some of his enthusiasm. He just sincerely hoped for his friend's sake that Meelo's heart didn't get all messed up and broken.

"You should be careful, she seems like trouble." Nawang ended up saying anyway.

"I think she seems...familiar," Meelo countered, "I don't know how to explain it but, I feel drawn to her, you know? Like—like how wind feels, it's pushing me towards her and circling around her."

"I never knew you to be the hopeless romantic type," Nawang laughed lightly. "I'm just saying that you should watch out for yourself. It's not like you're going to be here forever and she's not even done mastering air bending, maybe you should take a step back, you're falling pretty quickly here."

"I never said I was in love with the girl!" Meelo became defensive, " I just—I don't know, there's something about her that I can't explain and I don't want to risk letting it slip away before I find out what it is."

"I feel like you're turning her into an idea, she's not something to figure out, she's a person. A normal person. Don't put her on a pedestal that she can't reach, you're going to hurt yourself and her."

"I'm not putting her on a pedestal she can't reach; you're over thinking the situation." Meelo said, he was a little annoyed...mostly because he might actually be doing all of those things—but still, he didn't want to hear them.

"Let's hope so." Nawang stood up and offered a hand to his friend who declined. Meelo said he needed to clear his head a little bit and that he would meet up with him later, maybe they could practice their air bending together. Of course, Meelo's version of clearing his head that day was going to find Aureole and not really clear his head at all. He figured he would find her down by where she usually practiced so he headed that way slowly—a fluttery feeling burst in his chest at the thought of seeing her face.

'This day is horrible.' Aurie thought to herself as she tried for the millionth time to do her air bending technique. Lately, because of her uncomfortably odd dreams, Aureole had only been sleeping around four hours a night, add that to her new annoying Monk who followed her around, and her absolutely neurotic training schedule, and...well Aurie was on edge—more so than usual.

Her typically enduring patient behavior was gone; she snapped at Dechan and Lhe-mi and had been avoiding sister Ling because she didn't want to yell at the old woman for answering her despair linked questions with confusing riddles. And she didn't know if Meelo was thick headed or just stupid, because she'd been the meanest to him and he hadn't even noticed, he was right next to her every day, following her around like a puppy.

Like when they were walking down the hall the other day,

"Hey, Aureole, wanna know about the time when I had to fight off a tiger-dillo in Ba Sing Se and—"

"No." Aureole said flatly.

"But, it was really cool! Its fangs were—"

"No."

"Well how about—"

"Don't you have some where to be?" Areole cut Meelo off viciously.

"Nope!" Meelo smiled goofily and flung an arm around Aurie's shoulders, "You're pretty much stuck with me the rest of the day," Meelo tapped her nose with his finger,"...lucky you."

Aurie glared up at him through her thick dark eye lashes, he was so damn cheerful; she smacked his arm away and then stuck her nose up in the air walking quickly ahead of him. She couldn't seem to be away from him long enough, it was exhausting.

But sometimes—not often but sometimes, there were these short moments of silence when they would be together, looking at the sunrise or the view of the world from the top of the temple when they were both distracted by the colors and the quiet, and she felt lighter and peaceful knowing that Meelo was next to her. But she had about a twelve second rebound before Aureole was back to being grumpy gilacorn, biting and snapping at anything that got in her way or slightly annoyed her.

And this is what her mood has reduced her bending too, an uneven current that she was chaotically trying to control...but failing at miserably. After flying a few feet up in the air and being dropped by it, Aureole was blowing fly away hairs out of her face when she felt the tingle of a stare on her back, turning around and leering she said,

"Stop looking at me, Ume!" Aureole glared at the lemur, causing him to make a tiny noise and then cover his eyes with his hands. Aureole concentrated on manipulating the wind to circle around her, she was certain that she had control but then her mind sent her back to being trapped inside a glacier with a flash of bright blue light. The wind circulating around her began to pulse and become unsteady, her footing was compromised and she was thrown up into her own air current, spinning her around harshly, and then slamming her into the smooth rocks of the mountainside. Painfully sliding down the rock, Aureole had her cheek resting on the cool stone, giving herself moment to collect herself before standing up.

She felt Ume land lightly on her back and begin patting her head in comfort.

'At least no one saw that...' She thought glumly to herself.

"Hey Aureole, are you alright?" Meelo asked frantically and he came rushing next to Aureole's prone body with a gust of wind, "I saw you slam in to the wall." He tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder and she shakily sat up putting her hand on her cheek and grumbling that she was fine.

The phrase, 'I spoke to soon,' wandered darkly past her mind. Meelo was talking without breathing, repeatedly asking if she was okay, just going on and on and on,

'Holy freaking spirit would this guy ever shut up?' Her head pounded violently, like there was a tiny man inside kicking and punching her skull. Her arms and stomach ached horribly; she knew they were turning purple, as she inhaled timidly trying to lessen the pain of breathing she felt a tear slip past her eyes. Maybe she deserved this, maybe being mean and bitching at everyone that talked to her the past few weeks was catching up with her.

Aureole was so tired and drained—but she couldn't sleep. She was stressing herself out by keeping all of her feelings bottled up inside and no she was in mind numbing pain. Before she knew it several tears came spilling down her cheeks. She reached up to wipe them away and cover her face but Meelo beat her to it.

"Hey," He said gently wiping away her tears, "Hey, you don't need to cry," Seeing her lower lip tremble and wide eyes water caused his heart to ache unbearably. He lightly touched her head where he had seen it bounce off of the stone and felt a large bump forming underneath her hair. She winced and swatted his hand away sniffling and moving herself so that she sat a little straighter with her leg crossed and her back resting against the side of the mountain.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was choked when she spoke, she was barely keeping herself from sobbing. She hated this, this was stupid, and crying was stupid, especially in front of Meelo. But she couldn't bring herself to stop. Not that she cared what he thought but she didn't want him to think she was a cry baby.

"I—well I came down to see you and then I saw you go up in the air and then...well get violently thrown against the side of the mountain. Then I flew down here to see if you were hurt and well, well—jeeze, A-are you oaky?"

"Do I look okay?" She snapped at him, still crying, raising her voice even slightly jarred her head and made her vision black dotted and dizzy. She immediately felt bad for being mean, which made her think, that she must've hit her head super hard, and ended up apologizing quickly.

"That's okay, you're hurt." He muttered distractedly, he bent down and placed his arms behind her back and knees to lift her, "We have to get you back to the temple," When he raised her up she shut her eyes tightly and buried her face against his shoulder. Holding her a securely as possible without hurting her, Meelo walked lightly over to the steps before he heard muffle a fowl word into his shoulder and he stopped to look down,

"We need to stop, okay? Just for a minute or 10 because I can't handle this right now," She sounded hysteric even to herself but Aureole's entire body felt every little movement that Meelo made as he walked.

All Meelo could think as he gently sat down with Aurie in his arms was that they could really use a water bender with healing abilities right now. Tears were still leaking from the corners of her eyes and she was rubbing the temples of her eyes as she tried to collect herself...now that he thought about it Meelo could see how he missed the signs of Aurie falling apart. He knew she rarely slept...she was always awake before he was awake staring blankly out at sunrises and she was never slept until hours after everyone else fell asleep, he could see the dark circles under her eyes.

When her first saw her, he saw what everyone else did; she was a young, pretty, and strong girl that trained very hard and took herself way too seriously. But he could see that she put way too much pressure on herself and that she was cracking,

"You need to relax more," He said seriously as he was thinking about it, "And probably eat more, and sleep more now that I think about it. You're stressing yourself out, Aurie."

"I am not stressing myself out," She had calmed down and spoke stubbornly.

"Oh, really? Do you usually lose control and slam yourself against large stone walls then?"

Aureole took a deep breath, breathing out her nose slowly, her head was pounding less harshly and her vision was clearing. She knew she wasn't seriously hurt, lucky for her, but she was exhausted from crying. She let a few moments pass before she looked up at Meelo and answered dejectedly,

"No."

"Well then maybe you should take my advice." Meelo felt relieved that she wasn't arguing with him...or maybe he should be worried because that's what she usually did.

"Easier said than done." Aureole muttered leaning her head back against his shoulder thoughtlessly. He really liked this, Meelo noticed, he felt so content to just hold her and not let go.

"It is easy," Meelo encouraged, "All you have to do is to let your mind be free. Think of nothing and relax." Aurie fiddled with the end of her braid, the dull ache of her bruises clouded her mind,

"I guess I just don't know how to do that..." She finally concluded. Sure she meditated...not nearly as often as she should but she did it. She did most of her training on her own unless she asked for Sister Ling's help which was rare. Maybe she needed more structure.

"I could teach you," Meelo suggested eagerly, "I could help you with your training!" He said enthusiastically. Getting Aureole to look up at him and raise her eye brow, did she really want this kid teaching her?...yes, yes she did. It's because he's a talented and powerful bender her logical side reasoned but every other part of her just wanted to be around him no matter how much she pretended she didn't like being around him.

"Fine," Aureole said surprising Meelo, "But you have to take it seriously, Meelo. This isn't a joke, okay? This is important to me."

"I know, I know! I will be serious! It'll be great you'll see, I'm an awesome teacher." His movements became animated and excited again. It made Aurie smile a little, but her head was still foggy and her thoughts felt like they were swimming in a thick goo, as much as she like sitting here with Meelo, leaned against his warm chest...she knew that they really needed to get her to a healer,

"I'm sure you are. But, could you—erm, take me to the temple? I think I might have a head in my concussion." Aureole's eye sight became fuzzy again and she blinked hard a few times trying to clear it.

"Oh, yeah sure thing, hold on tight." He flew up the stairs as quickly as possible and Aureole lost consciousness.