Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender


I looked up at the sky and sighed. I wanted to say that I was disappointed. It had been a whole week since I had landed? Appeared? Teleported? Whichever was the correct verb to use, in the South Pole and nothing has changed. I was still here with the gaang. I didn't really expect to go back to my world after I didn't wake up back in my bed that first morning, but still. I think in some part of my subconscious I had hoped that somehow I would be back in my house by now. But that hope had now dwindled down to almost nothing. I was falling into the routine of this world. I was starting to become part of it. A part of me was scared. I didn't want to become part of this dangerous world. But another part of me was happy. If I was stuck here forever, or at least until my life ended, then wouldn't it be better for me just to become part of this world. Instead of fighting against it and hating my whole entire life here. Oh my gosh. I'm going to be stuck here forever. I rubbed my face with my hands as the realization dawned on me, or, at least, hit me with full force. Forever was a long, long time. Years! This is crazy. How did this ever happen again?

My worried thoughts were pushed aside as Sokka started talking from across the saddle. "You have no idea where you're going, do you?" Sokka asked Aang looking up from the map. I tilted my head backwards slightly to look at Aang.

"Weeelll, I know it's near water..." Aang said unsurely turning to look at Sokka from his place on Appa's head.

"I guess we're getting close then," Sokka stated flatly as we were flying over a huge body of water with no land in sight. I let out a sigh of boredom as I adjusted my hands beneath my head before gazing up at the endless sky once more.

"Momo, marbles please," I faintly heard Aang say followed by a few noises of scuffling, "Hey Katara! Check out this airbending trick!" As Aang called to Katara, I sat up from my position on Appa for the first time since I had lain down. My arms reached behind my back and up into the air stretching while my eyes watched Aang take the marbles between his hands. He opened them up and let the marble spin around in a circle in the gap of the now open hand hold. Aang's face lit up with a grin in his attempt to impress Katara.

My eyes wandered over to Katara who was working on sewing up Sokka's pants. "That's great, Aang," Katara said to Aang, not even bothering to look up from her work.

Aang's grin was wiped off his face with a crushed look. With a tone that matched his expression, he spoke up to her, "You didn't even look." He looked at me to get my opinion on the matter. I gave him forced smile and shrugged my shoulders slightly shaking my head, letting him know that he was just going to have to let it go. I felt as if I pitied the boy. The trials of love were never easy, not that I have any experience in the matter.

"That's great!" Katara said stopping from her work now that Aang was no longer doing his little trick.

"But I'm not doing it now," Aang let out a sadden breath. Ah, the difficulties of young love. I don't know why I'm talking about it anyway; it's not as if I'm a master romancer. In fact, I barely even talked to guys and I always got scared of finding out if a girl would be into me, so I have never had anything even close to a relationship. The most I've ever done in a relationship is think someone was cute. I wouldn't even stare at them or write their name down in a notebook, too afraid that I would get caught doing so. And knowing my luck, I would have. Perhaps that's why I never did it.

"I thought it was very nice Aang," I said trying to help Aang out. He shot me a grateful smile before returning his full attention to Katara.

"See Katara, Rachelle thought it was cool," Aang said to Katara trying to get her to see him in a heavenly light of awesomeness.

Before Katara could answer him back she was interrupted by her brother. "Stop bugging her, airhead," Sokka said waving his arms around dismissively from his spot on the back of Appa's saddle. "You need to give girls space when they do their sewing."

Both Katara and I were immediately ticked off by his comment. Stopping her sewing Katara turned to him with annoyance and anger on her face, "What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?"

"Simple: girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that. It's just the natural order of things." Oh, I could slap that boy. But more than anything it made me sad. Whether in the 15th century or the 21st century or in a fictional world, people were still sexist. And what made it sadder is that just about always women were on the bottom. We should really be the ones on top, I mean we were the ones who keep the human race going. Like I know the man has an important part in the process, but the job mostly just falls to the women. And then what happens. Women get beaten down for bearing a child. She gets stretch marks that will make her 'unbeautiful', she might lose her job, and so many other things. When did supporting life ever become a bad thing that people looked down on? I guess just like a lot of people Sokka was just a victim of idea's installed into his head growing up, but I know he'll get better. Because as much as an idiot he can be at times, he's a pretty smart dude.

With an exaggerated fake happiness, Katara replied to her brother's sexist comment, "All done with your pants! And look what a great job I did!" Glowering at Sokka, Katara threw the unfinished stitched pants at Sokka letting them smack him the face.

Sokka removed the pants from his head before sending a distress call out to his sister, "Wait! I was just kidding! I can't wear these!" As he talks he sticks his arm through the hole that still remained in his pants, "Katara, PLEASE! Rachelle! Can you fix them?"

I crossed my arms over my chest and scoffed, "Well I could, I don't know if it would be very good, but I could. I'm not going to, though. Because if that's the way that you treat the opposite sex then I don't think you deserve my help." I gave him an annoyed look before I clasped my hands together at the side of my head and started to talk in a sarcastically sweet tone. "Besides, aren't you a big strong man? I thought that there wasn't anything thing that you couldn't do."

Sokka's eyebrows furrowed together as he shouted back at me, "That's not funny! I seriously need these pants fixed."

Aang cut into our conversation, ending it from his seat up ahead, "Don't worry, Sokka. Where we're going, you won't need any pants!" At this comment, I placed my hand on my head and tried to not let my amusement show. It just sounded so wrong. I just could help but think of it in a perverted way. I blame the internet. Ruining my innocence.

In no time at all, the four of us were hopping down off of Appa and on to the beach that we had landed on. "We just made a pit stop yesterday. Shouldn't we get a little more flying done before we camp out?" Sokka spoke up voicing his concern in the matter of stopping so soon in the day. I have to say I agree, although I am excited to be on Kyoshi Island and am glad to be able to walk again.

"He's right. At this rate we won't get to the North Pole until spring," Katara agreed with her brother.

While Katara was talking, Aang walked over and looked out at the water, looking for the koi fish that he wanted to ride. He addressed Katara's concerns turning to Appa, "But Appa's tired already, aren't you boy? I said, aren't you boy?" Aang then 'inconspicuously' nudged Appa with his elbow signaling that he should yawn. Appa, being the loyal companion he is, complied and let out a large yawn. Unfortunately for Aang that yawn did not sound as if Appa was actually tired. I chucked quietly at their efforts.

"Yeah, that was real convincing," Sokka said voicing what all of us were thinking. "Still, hard to argue with a ten-ton magical monster."

Aang's attention was drawn away as he gasped before pointing out over the water. "LOOK!" Aang shouted causing all of us to look out at the water as a giant koi fish jumped out of the water and into the air. "That's why we're here," he started to explain as he stripped off all his clothes expect for his underwear. "Elephant koi. And I'm going to ride it. Katara, you've gotta watch me!" Grabbing Katara's attention, Aang dived into the cold water for a second before he leaped out letting out a shriek, "COLD!"

Katara and Sokka looked at each other wryly not sure where this was going. I, on the other hand, laughed at Aang's actions. Looking over at Sokka, I saw him make the "he's crazy" signal by twirling his finger next to his head. I chuckled, "I think you're just jealous Sokka."

"Jealous! Jealous of what?" Sokka snapped as if I had just made a ridiculous accusation.

"I don't know. His awesomeness." I held a small grin on my lips as Sokka scoffed at my comment and crossed his arms. I also think I heard him mutter 'jealous, that's ridiculous' under his breath. It was then at that time that Aang had dived under the water and caught a hold of one of the elephant koi. The giant fish leaped out of the water with Aang riding skillfully on its back, his hands grasping the dorsal fin. The koi then dived back into the water, carrying Aang with it. My mouth opened up with a smile of amazement. That fish was huge! I looked over at Katara who looked just as amazed as I was. We both started to laugh at Aang's crazy actions. We looked out at Aang who was waving at us. We both happily wave back at the boy.

"Woo!" Katara yelled out.

"You go Aang!" I called out as well. A couple of other fish came up from behind and started leaping in and out of the water creating a beautiful scene. It really was quite amazing. It was beautiful. "That just looks like so much fun!" Oh, how I wish I was out there riding the fish. I had always been a thrill seeker. Give me heights and crazy dangerous things any day, asking a teacher a question or having to talk to someone, nope. Just nope. It just who I was. I don't like not knowing what is going to happen. I suppose the fish wouldn't quite be the same as the other things I'm talking about from my world, which are regulated and decently safe for the most part, but with crazy dangerous things I knew what would happen, I knew what I was getting myself into. Talking with people, though, I don't know what to expect. So then I'll spend the whole day fretting about it, coming up with conversation which could happen but probably never will happen. Sigh. Human communication. Why did I never master it?

"He looks pretty good out there," Katara commented on Aang's fish riding skills. Oh, the skills. They're real.

"Are you kidding? The fish is doing all the work," Sokka scoffed at his sister's comment.

I chuckled at him, "Are you sure you're not jealous, Sokka, because it sure sounds like you are."

Before Sokka had time to reply, Katara captured our attention calling out, "No, Appa! Don't eat that!" Katara started to run forward, but I grabbed her arm stopping her.

"It's ok, I got this Katara," I gave her a kind smile. She nodded her head before she turned back around and starting watching Aang once again. I smiled at the couple. They were so cute together. I felt that as a good, kind person it was my duty to help their relationship bloom. I slightly jogged over to where Appa had started to eat some foliage that he wasn't supposed to. I walked beside the giant creature until I reached his head. I placed my hand on his soft fur, petting him softly to get his attention. "Hey, buddy. You can't eat that, ok? It could have plants that aren't good for you." I don't know whether or not he could actually understand me, but he let out a loud grunt anyway. "Thanks, I knew you'd understand buddy." And I had a big tongue lick me. I let out a laughed as I tried to wipe away the bison spit. I looked up at the giant beast and just stared for a moment. It was very surreal seeing Appa actually in front of me. I gave one last smile before running back over to where Katara and Sokka were standing.

As I arrived back Sokka yelled, "There's something in the water!" Sure enough as looking out in the water the last koi fish tried to leap out of the water before being pulled under.

"What is it?" I asked now standing by the siblings once again.

"Aang's in trouble," Sokka told me with the distress in his voice apparent before calling out, "Aang!"

"Get out of there!" Katara yelled as well trying to get Aang's attention. While they wove their arms around in crazy direction trying to signal Aang to come back to shore, I just stood there. I know that I should be like 'Oh no, Aang! He's gonna die', but really I felt pretty calm about it. Maybe it's just because I knew that Aang was going to be ok. I felt as though I should, at least, do something so I start waving my arms around crazily as well.

"Come back here! AANG!" Sokka called out.

"AANG!" followed Katara. Misinterpreting our gestures, Aang waved back before he was thrown off of the koi fish he was riding into the water. His head bobbed up over the water a second later as he spurted the water that had entered his mouth. I watched as a giant fin came out of the water casting a shadow upon Aang. It was a huge, purple fin that jutted up into the air leaving the three us fighting even harder to get Aang to hurry back to shore. Wondering what had cast the shadow on him, Aang turned around finally seeing that there was something in the water with him, something not so friendly and not so small either. He let out a scream before he turned around and started running on the water back to shore, unfortunately, the fish followed him. Luckily, Aang reached the shore before the fish got him. I felt a breeze rush past me as Sokka's voice joined Aang's in screaming. After watching the huge fish turn around and leave, Katara and I rushed over to the boys.

While Aang got dressed and Sokka sat at the base of the tree of which he had been knocked into, Katara started to talk, "What was that thing?"

"I don't know," Aang said finishing up.

Getting up and wiping off his pants Sokka said what needed to happen next, "Well, let's not stick around and find out. Time to hit the road." Even though I knew that the Kyoshi warriors were going to jump out of the trees and attack us, it didn't really help me at all. Moments later the group of warriors jumped out of trees and ambushed us. It all happened so quick I didn't even have time to think about what was happening. The next thing I know my eyes were covered as someone tied my hands behind my back then my arms to my sides. I was then thrown to the ground in a line next to what I think was Katara and Sokka. And just a word of advice, don't ever get thrown to the ground like this, it hurts and I knew that I was going to be bruised for the next few days. Great. I love being here so much. Next to me I faintly heard Sokka mumble out, "Or we could stay a while." And with a few more jostles around we were now tied up to something, standing up, waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly a voice broke through the darkness that I had gotten used to by now, "You three have some explaining to do."

"And if you don't answer all our questions, we're throwing you back in the water with the unagi." A voice who I recognized to be Suki continued.

Sokka then, being Sokka put his foot in his mouth and said, to what him, probably sounded brave and noble but came out sounding dickish, "Show yourselves, cowards!" I felt my blindfold being removed before the bright sunlight started streaming into my eyes. I squinted and turned my head around as my eyes adjusted to the light. After a few second I could slowly start to see the Kyoshi warriors come into view. They did look very cool all dressed up with all that make up on. They also looked very tough and scary. And here is where if I was Sokka I would say something like 'all women are scary', but I am not Sokka nor am I a sexist pig. Sokka continued to spew out sexist crap, "Who are you? Where are the men who ambushed us?"

"There were no men. We ambushed you," Suki spoke probably getting annoyed with Sokka due to the fact that she wanted to get down to business and figure out who we were. "Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?"

Sokka let out a small chuckle before replying, "Wait a second, there's no way that a bunch of girls took us down." Oh, yes, because you're oh so great Sokka.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Suki grab Sokka by the collar and started threatening Sokka, "A bunch of girls, huh? The unagi's gonna eat well tonight."

Katara quickly cut in to save her brother, "No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it. My brother is just an idiot sometimes."

"Sometimes?" I said jokingly with a smirk on my face.

"Hey!" Sokka called out at my comment while Katara gave me disapproving face. I just gave her a small smile and laughed slightly. Katara then smiled a little and giggled under her breath.

Aang then cut in taking an opportunity to try and calm the situation without anyone getting hurt, "It's my fault. I'm sorry we came here. I wanted to ride the elephant koi."

The old man, however, did not seem to calm down at what Aang said and sternly told us, "How do we know you're not Fire Nation spies? Kyoshi stayed out of the war so far. And we intend to keep it that way!" For some reason, I found this comment kind of bizarre. I don't know, it just makes me wonder if this is what a world at war is like. Are people always closed off and weary of everybody due to the war? It's kind of sad. I guess it just shows that war takes away the kindness and safety that would be in a peace environment.

"This island is named for Kyoshi? I know Kyoshi!" Aang excitedly said to the man.

The old man though thought that Aang was crazy, "Ha! How could you possibly know her? Avatar Kyoshi was born here four hundred years ago. She's been dead for centuries."

Aang simply replied, "I know her because I'm the Avatar." Which of course, nobody quite believed, but it did get everybody's faces to turn all shocked like.

Suki was the first to speak what all of the people were thinking, shaking her fist at Aang, "That's impossible! The last Avatar was an airbender who disappeared a hundred years ago."

With this, a huge smile broke out on Aang's face, "That's me!" This caused me to smile slightly. I was glad that Aang was no longer running from being the Avatar. Instead, he now sounded proud to be who he was.

"Throw the imposter to the unagi!" The old man said still not believing what Aang was saying.

I watched as the warriors assumed a fighting stance. As the four of us started to panic, Katara spoke under her breath, "Aang... do some airbending..." Aang quickly broke the bonds holding him and gracefully leaped up in the air doing a backflip over the statue before landing softly on the ground. A choir of oohs and aahs was heard from the crowd as they watched Aang do some airbending magic.

"It's true... you are the Avatar!" The old man stuttered out amidst his shock.

Aang now realizing that he had everybody's attention, including Katara's, he pulled the marbles out of his shirt and got ready to perform his trick once again, "Now... check this out!" I couldn't see his face, but if I had to bet I would say he was grinning like a fool. He then did his trick hoping to show off his amazing abilities. As soon as he does his trick, the crowd burst out into cheering for him. And then you have the foaming mouth man. Ah, I love that man. He is like the ultimate fangirl, or boy in this case. I watched as he fainted on the ground, causing me to chuckle on the inside.

After the crowd had settled down we were kindly untied from the pole. I stood around kind of awkwardly while I watched the rest of the group interact with the people from the village. I kind of wanted to go shopping to get some things, since I didn't have anything at all really. But I got scared at the thought of asking Katara. And I knew that this was ridiculous, but I couldn't help the knots that formed in my stomach. All I had to do is go up and be like 'hey Katara! Can we go shopping since I own like nothing' and she'd be like 'Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun', but for some reason just no. Trying to let the thoughts fall to the back of my mind I watched as Katara finished talking to Suki and the old man. She wrapped up she was saying then she started walking over to me.

She stopped in front of me before speaking, "So, they said that it's cool if we stay here for as long as we need. So we can just relax and do whatever we want to for today."

Ok, this is it. I'm going to be real smooth and not awkward and I'm just gonna ask her if we could go shopping, "Hey, is it cool if we go shopping since I lost all of my stuff?"

"Yeah, of course," Katara said with a smile on her face. "How did you lose all of your stuff again?"

"Oh, well, I had a run-in with a polar walrus bear," I answered noncommittally not giving a lot of details on what had happened.

"Oh yeah, right. I'm still shocked that happened. They usually don't attack unless they're provoked."

"Yeah, well it must have just been having a bad day," I said giving a fake, funny reason for why it could have happened.

"Come on, let's go," Katara said before she grabbed my hand and dragged me behind her. I stumbled before I jogged up to her. We went to what I wanted to say was a shopping district area. I don't know exactly what they looked like in this world and where they were at. Even though we were here it still just looked mostly like a residential area except for the few stalls that were open selling food or little knick-knacks. Katara stopped in front of a building a surveyed it for a few moments before speaking, "Let's try in here."

I followed Katara through a curtain of beads which lead into a room full of clothes. The lights were pretty dim making it feel like one of those antique shops where barely anyone ever shops at. But instead of old relics and books this store was filled with clothes and accessories. The clothes gave off a very Asian vibe, but that was to be expected. They ranged from formal to casual but the one thing that almost all of them had in common was that they were green. There was a lot of green. This was something I found really weird about the nations. It was like you had to wear the color of that nation or else. It was so weird.

Both Katara and I started browsing through all of the clothes, trying to find something that looked decent. "What about this?" Katara called out while holding up a mucus green dress that had puffy sleeves and what looked to be like some mermaid styled bottom. To say the least, it may have been one of the horrifying things I've ever seen in my entire life.

"Oh, yes. I think that is the most beautiful dress I've ever seen," I said kind of sarcastically. But it was my kind of sarcasm, which meant it sound like I was being serious but I actually am not. I don't know. It's kind of like how a bitch would give a fake complement, only mine should be interpreted as not an actual complement. "Oh, you know you are so trying that on."

Katara's faces morphed into one of complete mortification. "Oh, no! No, no, no! There is no way I would ever even consider putting this thing on!"

"Oh, Katara you have to. It's a rule. If you find a beautiful piece of fashion you must absolutely try it on," I stated simply to her. She furrowed her eyebrows as she thought for a moment before her face lit up as she got a perfect idea. I waited patiently as she searched through all of the clothes. I gulped as I thought of what she was doing, how bad was it going to be? Eh, it will probably be pretty bad. Although I couldn't see what she had found, I saw a devilish smirk appear on her face.

Katara looked up and caught my eye, "Ok, I'll try on that dress as long as you try on this one." Oh, the horror. It made me cringe. It was a wool-made dress, that I wasn't too sure was a dress because it looked like a tube and not any clothing. And just to make it worse it was a puke green color of all colors.

"Oh, that is nasty," I said with disgust, eyeing the 'thing'. I stared at it a while before deciding that I could do this. I would be brave and face this challenge. I gave a small smirk to Katara before shaking her hand, "You're on." I took the dress from her arms and went into one of the curtained off areas for changing, while she took her own dress and went into the other one. I quickly disregarded the clothes from my own world and slipped on the dress over my legs. I pulled it up and slipped my arms through the two holes that had been made on the side. It ended up looking like a very bad homemade replica of an outfit that someone had seen on the red carpet. Too bad that there were no mirrors so I couldn't see myself in it, or maybe that's a good thing. "You ready?" I called out. Katara gave a small yeah before I started, "On the count of three. One…Two…Three!"

We both quickly pulled back the curtain and stepped out. I looked at her dress for a few seconds before my eyes met hers. There were a few moments of silence. I would like to think of these as the moments of calm before a storm. Slowly our smiles became bigger and bigger. Then neither of us could hold it back any longer. Our laugher bounced off of the walls echoing all around us. We both were laughing so hard we were using each other as support. I rested my head on her shoulder as my stomach started cramping up. I felt tears well up in my eyes and the corners of my mouth were now hurting, but none the less, I kept on laughing as did Katara. I don't know how long we just stood there laughing at each other. Every time we had almost calm down we would back away from each other and once again see what we were wearing then the laugher would burst out again. I would almost stop laughing every once in a while, but then Katara would laugh and I couldn't help but burst out into laughter once again.

"Come on… we need to actually get things done, or else we're going to be here all night." The sun was now setting over the horizon and if we didn't get our butts moving we were going to be walking to our temporary home in the dark.

"Yeah," Katara said, letting out a sigh. "We should." I stood up from my place on the ground before grabbing Katara's hands and helping her up. "I'm going to go get changed out of this dress." I gave her nod before I turned around and seriously started looking for something that I could buy. I slowly walked around before I had made my way over to the back corner of the store. There was a nice short dress with capped sleeves. It was very oriental looking, like one of those dresses that were worn at New Year's. Only this one was light green decorated with a flower pattern with just the slightest hint of pink here and there. It was perfect. It even had slits up the sides so my legs wouldn't be constricted. I grabbed the dress as well as a pair of dark green leggings to go under it. I arrived back over by the dressing area to see Katara coming out of one of the rooms, now fully dressed in her normal clothes.

I held up the dress that I had found for her to see, "What to do you think?"

"It's nice," Katara said smiling.

"I'm going to try it on," I told her receiving a nod in return before I stepped into the dressing room again. As I slowly undressed in the silence I started thinking, "Katara?"

"Hm?" I heard her say behind the curtain wall.

"It's so cool that you can waterbend. I'm so jealous. I wish I could waterbend." I said making conversation as I dressed.

"Really? I guess it is pretty cool," there was a few moments of silence that filled the air as we sat in the room. "Although, it's not great all the time. Sometimes I feel like it's more trouble then what it's worth… like I'm pretty sure it's what got my mom killed." My breath stop and my body froze in its position. Wow. I never imagined that she would just come out and say that. "I just keep on thinking that maybe if I had been more careful maybe the fire nation would have never come to our village."

"You know it's not your fault right? You were so young; you probably couldn't control your bending even if you wanted to. Besides, if it's anyone's fault it's the fire nation's fault."

"Yeah, I know but still," the silence now in the air was thick and I had no clue as to what to say. I can barely function in a normal conversation. What was I supposed to say to make things all better? "This other time, I was out on the ice with my brother. I slipped and fell down on the ice, but I instinctively used my bending to try and catch myself. But in doing so I accidently cracked the ice. Sokka fell through the ice and almost drown. If it hadn't been for my dad he would have… I love being a waterbender, but sometimes it's not always a good thing."

We let the silence fall back over us before I broke it, "I guess everything has its price."

"Yeah," Katara said distantly. I let a sad smile grace my face before I pulled back the curtain now fully dressed in my new outfit.

"What do you think? Looks good?"

"Yeah, it looks great. Although I'm not quite sure if it beats out those other two dresses."

"I don't think anything could beat out those dresses," I said exasperatedly. We both laughed and just like that the tensions that had been there were gone. Grabbing a few pairs of undergarments, we paid for the clothes and headed to the place where we were staying.

.

Before I went to bed, I went to the small bathroom that they had set up in the building. It wasn't really a proper bathroom, like back in the regular world. But it had a basin of water and a place for taking care of business. Most importantly, it had a mirror. It was the first mirror that I had seen while being here. I looked at the green eyes that stared back at me. It was weird. I don't know how quite to describe it. I knew the person that I was seeing was me, but it didn't really look like how I was supposed to look. It looked like I was a drawing. My light brown hair flowed around my too pale skin that had been gained from not going outside in forever, although I was already starting to tan. Strangely enough, I really quite looked like Hungary from Hetalia. In fact, I bet if we stood right next to each other we would look at least like sisters. I reached up and traced my reflection on the mirror, maybe to see if this was really a mirror and not someone else standing before me. But my hand did not meet a face but rather a cold, smooth surface of a mirror. I wonder if I'll ever get used to seeing this reflection in the mirror. If I'll look into it and see what I expect to see because I've seen it so many times before. Maybe one day.

.
I sat across from Katara and Aang at a wooden table in the morning. An assortment of pastries was strewn across the table ready to be eaten. Eating dessert for breakfast wasn't very healthy, but who needs to be healthy said the American. "All right! Dessert for breakfast!" Aang yelled out, obviously not caring about being healthy before stuffing his face full of food. "These people sure know how to treat an Avatar! Mmm... Katara you've got to try these!" I watched as Aang offered one of the sweets over to Katara. "Well, maybe just a bite..." Katara said not being able to resist the deliciousness of it all. While Aang was offering Katara the sweet, Momo took the opportunity to snatch the other pastry Aang holding causing me to chuckle at the little guy. Yum, they do look delicious. Thinking that food would be a good idea I grabbed one of the pastries sitting in front of me. I took a bite out of it and sweet goodness exploded in my mouth. "Sokka, what's your problem? Eat!" Aang called out to Sokka who was sitting in the corner pouting and being gloomy.

"Not hungry," Sokka replied in a very non-Sokka way.

Out of shock Aang stopped eating a turned to him, "But you're always hungry!"

"He's just upset because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday," Katara said knowing what was upsetting her brother.

"They snuck up on me!" Sokka called out defending his actions.

Katara was not buying what he was saying smugly replied, "Right. And then they kicked your butt."

Sokka stood up with anger, shouting at us once again, "Sneak attacks don't count!" He paced around the room for a few seconds while wildly gesturing to the air. "Tie me up with ropes! I'll show them a thing or two. I'm not scared of any girls." I watched as Sokka ferociously grabbed different sweets off of the table. He began to lower his voice now talking to himself so I could barely hear what he was saying anymore, "Who do they think they are anyway?" He shoved a sweet into his mouth as he started leaving the room. "Mmm... this is tasty." Ah, at least, Sokka was still Sokka even if he was upset.

"What's he so angry about? It's great here. They're giving us the royal treatment," Aang continued on after Sokka had left the room.

"Hey, don't get too comfortable. It's risky for us to stay in one place for very long," Katara spoke trying to get some wisdom into Aang's head.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. Besides, did you see how happy I'm making this town?" Aang said brushing off Katara's comment as he turned around to look at the window. "They're even cleaning up that statue in my honor!"

"Well, it's nice to see you excited about being the Avatar. I just hope it doesn't all go to your head."

"Come on, you know me better than that. I'm just a simple monk," Aang said before going over to the window. I could faintly hear the screams and cheers of the young girls that were down in the courtyard below. Aang's face broke out in a blush with a smile accompanying it. Katara went and stood slightly behind him before she stuck out her tongue and made a raspberry at the actions happening.

"A simple monk you say," I said slightly laughing before standing up from the table. "Anyway, I'm going to go see if Suki would train me a bit, k?"

"No problem. See you later, Rachelle," Katara said as I started to leave.

"Bye Rachelle," Aang called before I waved behind me as I exited the room. The walk to the training hall where the Kyoshi warriors were at wasn't far, but I spent some time trying to find it. I know that I could have just asked someone where it was at and had been there faster, but why ask someone where I could just find it myself. Why go through the bother? I stood back from the open door a ways. I felt the nervous knots form in my stomach. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all? I mean do really need to learn any self-defense. I know that danger will be lurking around every corner and that I'm now technically apart of a war, but do I really need to fight. Can't I just leave that up to Aang and Katara and Sokka? I mean I know that they would manage fine without me so…I let out a sigh…I know. I have to do this. I can't just not because I'm scared of interacting with people. I took a gulp and pushed the feeling of uneasiness aside. Step by step I made my way up to the door where I would no longer be able to run away from asking for help. The shadow of the room fell upon me as I took the final step into the room where they would now be able to see me.

I watched as the warriors stopped what they were doing and started to stare at me. Suki stepped forward to talk to me, "Can I help you?"

"Um, yeah, I was just wondering if you would be willing to help me train some? Because I really don't have any fighting slash self-defense skills. Which before I didn't really feel like was a really big deal, but now that I'm traveling with the Avatar I feel that they might be slightly important. So yeah…" I ended my little spiel awkwardly.

There was a moment of silence where Suki was thinking. I watched her as she thought through what I had just said to her. A moment later she spoke to me, "Hm, well I suppose that we could help you out, but you have to follow all of our traditions."

"No problem. Thank you so much." I happily said with a smile gracing my features. I was fine with following their traditions, after all, they were the ones who were allowing me to be trained here. I was actually kind of excited to get all Kyoshi warrior-fied, and to wear makeup again, my face been feeling empty. A little while later my face was painted and I was wearing a traditional Kyoshi warrior outfit. The makeup, at first, felt strange, but now that I was used to the makeup, it didn't even feel like there was something on my face. The clothes were a little bit heavier than what you'd expect from a workout outfit but it didn't seem too unmanageable.

"You ready?" Suki asked me.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I had never felt very comfortable exercising in front of others. It's just not something that comes very natural to me, so I'm always worried that I'll look like an idiot doing something. But I just pushed aside the feeling and got ready to be trained.

"So how much do you already know?"

"Well… I took a self-defense class once… when I was about 10. Besides that, nothing really," I slowing said. "Sorry."

Suki let out a laugh, "It's fine. A blank canvas. Besides everyone has to start somewhere."

I chuckled as well, "I suppose so." And with that, we started to train. We went over some basic drills before she started to teach me some beginner defensive and offensive moves. I don't think that I did too terribly bad, but I definitely wasn't a natural. I think it would have gone much better if I actually had some muscles, but at last, no muscles. But trust me when I say that I'm going to have some more after this is over because my muscles have burned more today than they have in a lifetime. And you know what they say: if it burns, it's working.

We kept working non-stop until about noon when an interruption walked in. "Sorry ladies! Didn't mean to interrupt your dance lesson," an arrogant voice called out interrupting the lesson. Suki and I lowered our hands to our sides as we look over at the intruder. There stood Sokka doing some sort of stretches. "I was just looking for somewhere to get a little workout?"

"Well, you're in the right place," Suki said walking up to him. "Sorry about yesterday. I didn't know that you were friends with the Avatar."

While though Suki was being nice and trying to make peace between the two of them, Sokka seemed to have other ideas and opened up his mouth, letting offensive crap just roll out of it, "It's all right. I mean, normally I'd hold a grudge, but seeing as you guys are a bunch of girls, I'll make an exception."

"I should hope so. A big strong man like you? We wouldn't stand a chance," Suki said sarcastically back to him, no longer feeling the need to apologize for her actions earlier.

"True. But don't feel bad. After all, I'm the best warrior in my village"

"Not to mention the only," I said softly to the rest of the girls. "I mean unless you count the 5-year-olds." I giggled slightly as did the rest of the girls at the cost of Sokka. He shot me an angry glare, but I wasn't really bothered by his actions.

Suki drew Sokka's attention back by talking again, "Wow! Best warrior, huh? In your whole village? Maybe you'd be kind enough to give us a little demonstration."

"Oh... well... I mean... I..." Sokka stuttered out nervously. His eyes caught mine screaming in panic that he needed my help. I lifted my eyebrows slightly telling him that he was on his own for this one.

"Come on, girls! Wouldn't you like him to show us some moves?" Suki continued getting the support of her girls. The girls giggled and nodded in agreement.

"Well, if that's what you want, I'd be happy to. All right, you stand over there." I watched as Sokka grasped Suki's shoulders and pushed her back a little, but Suki ended up not moving at all. Sokka continued on, though, not being bothered by this, "This may be a little tough, but try to block me." Sokka threw a punch at Suki but she blocked it with a thrust of her fan to his shoulder. Sokka rubbed his shoulder from where the fan had hit him, "Heh heh... good. Of course, I was going easy on you."

"Of course."

"Let's see if you can handle this!" Sokka lunged forward at Suki. She caught him under his leg before tossing him backwards towards the door. A thump was heard as Sokka landed on his butt.
"That does it!" Sokka yelled, fed up with losing against Suki. He lunged forward once again only to have Suki grab him by his arm before she spun him around in circles. Suki then took his belt to tie his arm to his foot and then threw him on the ground.

Suki walked over so she was standing over Sokka before laughing, "Anything else you want to teach us?" The rest of the warriors laughed at him, and I'll admit I laughed a bit as well. After I got the chuckle out of my system, I knelt down to Sokka and untied his arm from his foot. I grabbed his hand and helped him stand up. As soon as Sokka was on his feet he shoved my hands off of him before he roughly grabbed his belt back from me. He angrily glared at me for a second before he rushed back outside. My mouth dropped open out of the shock of what had just happened. Had Sokka really just done that? Was he really that upset? I mean, I know that it was a little mean to do that to him, but he was just getting what he deserved after making all of those comments. Even so, I guess I should have at least tried to have been on Sokka's side of the whole ordeal. I guess I should go apologize.

"Hey, Suki," I called out getting her attention. "I'm going to go make sure that he's ok."

"That's ok. You deserve a break anyway. You've been working really hard," Suki said giving me a smile. I returned the gesture before making my way outside.

Luckily, Sokka hadn't wandered off too far and was just outside of the building. I watched as he kicked a stone into the air letting out a deep sigh before falling down onto the ground. I quietly walked up behind him and took a seat on the ground next to him. "Hey."

"What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be inside with warrior buddies?" A grumpy grumble came from the boy next to me.

"Aw, Sokka, you know there's no place I'd rather be than here with you," I tried to joke with him.

Sokka let out a small snort in reply, "You could have fooled me."

I let out a sigh in response as I tore at the grass, "Look. I'm sorry that I was kind of rude back there. But it was just nice seeing you get put in your place after you had said all of those things about women not being able to be strong. Because I wanted you to see that women can be strong and they can fight just as well as men. Which was hopefully made clear by Suki."

"She definitely got her message across. But it's not even just that. You haven't seemed to like me much even from the start."

"What? Really?" Had I really been that distant and mean? I mean, I know that I may have messed with Sokka a bit, but that was only because I thought that he could take my sense of humor. Me joking around with him was me showing him that I liked him. Sokka's amazing. How could you not love him? "You thought I didn't like you. That's ridiculous. Of course, I like you Sokka. I'm sorry if it didn't seem that way."

Sokka stared at me as if I had just said something outrageously false, "But you were always saying those rude things."

"No, no, no, that's me being me. Around strangers I'm nice and polite, I just don't feel comfortable being completely myself. But when I feel comfortable around someone I open and be more me. I'm sorry if it seemed like I was being rude, but I was just joking. I didn't mean for you feel like I actually meant the things I said. Being jokingly rude is just the way I show affection. But I would never say something that would actually hurt the person."

"Ha ha ha, that's great. And here I thought you hated me."

I laughed at Sokka, "If it makes you feel better Sokka, you're definitely a better warrior than me. Hey, maybe one day you could even give a few tips on how to be a better warrior."

"Well, it would be a great honor for you to have that knowledge. And since now I know that you don't hate me, I suppose that I could allow you to have this once in a lifetime opportunity. But you have to follow my every order no matter how ridiculous it seems…and you have to call Sifu Sokka."

"Yes. Of course, wise Sifu Sokka," I joked as I did a small bow, or, at least, the best I could sitting down on the ground. "Come on," I said standing up from my position on the ground, "I think that you owe Suki an apology."

Sokka sighed from his spot on the ground, "I suppose you're right." He stood up from the ground and started walking over to the doorway but stopped right before he went in.

I nudged him with my shoulder, "Come on. They're not gonna bite you… Probably."

Sokka turned towards me and gave a firm nod. I smiled at him before he finished going inside of the building. I watched as Sokka hesitantly started talking to Suki, "Uh... hey, Suki."

"Hoping for another dance lesson?" Suki mocked him for his action earlier.

"No... I... well, let me explain," Sokka tried to get the words out of his mouth.

"Spit it out! What do you want?

I watched as Sokka got down on his knees to kneel in humility, "I would be honored if you would teach me." In my imagination, I wiped a tear out from under my eye. They just grow up so fast, don't they? One moment they're making rude comments and the next they're turning into a mature, responsible adult.

"Even if I'm a girl?" Suki questioned him.

Sokka quietly replied, "I'm sorry if I insulted you earlier. I was wrong."

"We normally don't teach outsiders, let alone boys."

"Please make an exception. I won't let you down."

"What do you think Rachelle? Should he be allowed to train with us?" Suki turned to me to get my opinion on the matter.

"Hm, well…" I said with my index on my chin as if I wasn't sure of my answer. Out of the corner of my eye, I see that Sokka had a flash of panic when I didn't answer straight away. I decided that I had tortured him enough and let a smile appear on my face. I laid my hand on his shoulder as I spoke, "I think that Sokka will live up to any expectation that you put on him."

"All right. But you have to follow all of our traditions," Suki told Sokka.

Sokka quickly replied, "Of course!"

"And I mean ALL of them," Suki finished up.

A little while later I sat on a chair finishing up a bowl of tasty rice. I watched as Sokka finished getting ready in the traditional Kyoshi Warrior dress and makeup.

"Do I really have to wear this? It feels a little... girly," Sokka said not sure if this was something that he really wanted to do.

"I think you look fabulous Sokka," I teased the boy with a smirk on my face. Sokka shot me the look of despair that he had on his face due to the situation which he had gotten himself into.

Suki continued on, "It's a warrior's uniform. You should be proud. The silk threads symbolize the brave blood that flows through our veins. The gold insignia represents the honor of the warrior's heart."

At Suki's words, Sokka stood up, now proud to be wearing the uniform, "Bravery and honor."

Just a Sokka said this Aang walked past the door before he turned and ducked his head into the room. "Hey, Sokka! Nice dress!" Aang called crushing the confidence that Sokka had gained by Suki's little speech. Eventually, Sokka got over the fact that what he was wearing wasn't exactly what he would prefer and we got down to business.

By this time, I had finished with my lunch and was working on some stuff with one of the other girls. I was sparring with the girl who was clearly better than me, but I kept trying my best. After a while, however, I got annoyed. It seemed that every time I would attack she would just block and then attack me back, which of course I was still dazed from my initial attack so then I wouldn't even try blocking so she would hit me then tell me to focus. I felt as if my whole body was a bruise.

"Come on. You have to keep moving on. You can't get focused in the past. Now try again," the girl yelled at me. I let out an annoyed sigh, but I got back into the stance that Suki had taught me earlier that day and got ready to go again. While though it may have at first felt like I was just failing. Epically. I think that I had actually gotten better. Even if just slightly. Maybe I might actually stand a chance to last at least 10 seconds in a fight. Which was 10 seconds longer than before. "Well, you still have a ways to go, but at least, you're getting better," the warrior told me with a smile. "Do you want to move on to doing fan stuff?" The warrior went and got a pair of fans for me and we started working. She taught me the best way to hold them and then the stances that you go through when using them. This was much easier for me and I picked it up fairly quick. It was just like dancing. We were just about ready to start on fighting with the fans when a thump came from across the room. We turned our heads to see Suki sitting on the floor with a smug looking Sokka standing nearby. Suki quickly got up onto her feet before she shouted out, "I fell on purpose to make you feel better!"

Sokka laughed in success, "I got you! Admit I got you!"

Suki started to laugh as well before she grabbed Sokka's hand and bent in back, "Okay, it was a lucky shot. Let's see if you can do it again." They got back into positions signaling that their commotion was done. I turned back to the warrior that was helping me and we started fighting with the fans. We continued to spar until an interruption came from the door.

"Firebenders have landed on our shores! Girls, come quickly!" The man called from the doorway alerting us of what was going on. I followed Suki as she quickly rushed out the door and into the village.

I leaned against a side of one of the buildings where Suki had designated for me to stand. I waited quietly as I listened for the moment where I would come out and strike. I felt my heart beat inside my chest so hard I thought that it might explode at any moment. I felt like I was in a video game, where I was pressed up against a wall, hiding from the enemy. But I wasn't in a video game. This was real. And I was really about to jump out and attack someone, who would then try to attack me back. Oh my gosh. What had I gotten myself into?

"Come out, Avatar! You can't hide from me forever!" Zuko shouted loud for everybody to hear. Oh gosh. This was it. I came out from where I had been hiding. I maneuvered my way around Zuko's men that the other girls were taking care of. As I came out I saw Suki jump to attack Zuko. Zuko turned his Rhino so that she was swatted out of the air by its tail. Sokka started to run forward to help Suki. This is where I came in. I would do the fan throwy thing so that it would hit Zuko in the head. I got into the starting position and took a gulp. I tried hard to stop myself from shaking but my hands were still not completely still.

I don't think I had ever felt this young. I felt like a child in an adult's world. I let my eyes close for a second. It now or never. I went through the motions that I had been taught just earlier today. A systematic order. Just like dancing. I controlled my breath as I came closer to releasing the fan. Then with the last step, I let it fly through the air, praying to God that I was on target. I held my breath for a moment as I watched the fan fly through the air. Then a ting sounded through the air as the fan hit Zuko's helmet. My throw didn't knock Zuko off like it was supposed to, but it did disorientate him long enough for another warrior to come down and knock him off.

As Sokka, Suki and another warrior approached Zuko to finish him off, I ran over to pick up my fan which was now lying on the ground. I turned back around in time to see Sokka being knocked out by Zuko. Every part of my body was telling me to run. To run and hide to never see the daylight again, but I knew that I had to go walk up to him… and stop him. Simple as that. No biggie. My hands tighten around my fans as I stepped forward into Zuko's view, "Nice ponytail." Zuko's scrawl deepened before he shot fire at me. I dodged right, as to not get singed. Ok. I forgot about the fire. Oh gosh. What if I ended up one big burnt crisp? Not really knowing what else to do, I just threw my fan at him hoping it would hurt. It hit him right on the forehead. His eyes closed for a second before they opened back up with flames spitting out at his fist. Ok, so maybe that just pissed him off more than anything.

He quickly kicked my feet out from under me leaving me rolled up against a porch. Gritting my teeth, I opened up my eyes enough to see him walking away. I watched as he stopped to pick something up before he turned around and looked me in the eyes. My eyes opened wide as my heart stopped beating. I closed my eyes because I couldn't bear to see what would happen next. Then suddenly something hit my forehead. Pain shot through my head as my hand reached up rubbed where I had been hit. Slowly as the pain started to dull, I opened my eyes to see the object in my lap that had been thrown at my forehead. It was my fan. Zuko had thrown my fan at my forehead because that's what I did to him. Twice. If I wasn't in so much pain I would have laughed.

"Are you ok?" Sokka said softly crouching down next to me.

"Yeah. I think so. Just a little tinder," I said still rubbing my forehead.

"Good. Come on." Sokka stood up before offering me his hand. I grabbed his hand before I stood up from the ground. I followed Sokka as he went behind the house that we had been fighting in front of.

When we arrived behind the house, I saw Suki there hiding, "Rachelle! Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. A little bruised, but nothing that I can't live with," I responded.

"Good," She said. "You guys have to get out of here."

"What about your uniforms and fans? Is it ok if we just keep them?" I responded in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, that's fine just think of it as a goodbye gift. Now. You guys have to GO."

I stood up to my full height and looked down on Sokka to see if he was coming. "Go on ahead, Rachelle. I wanted to say something to Suki," Sokka told me. I gave him a nodded before I came out from behind the house and onto the main road where I could see Aang and Katara already on Appa. I quickly ran up Appa's tail and sat down beside Katara.

"Where's Sokka?" Katara called out.

"He's talking with Suki. He should be here any moment." And as if Sokka could hear me talking, he came out from behind the house and ran up Appa's tail to take a seat next to us. As soon as Sokka was on the saddle, Aang called out to Appa getting him to take off in flight. I looked out over the village as we started to fly off in the distance. Houses were on fire and smoke continued to rise up into the air.

"I know it's hard, but you did the right thing. Zuko would have destroyed the whole place if we had stayed. They're going to be okay, Aang," Katara said trying to comfort the boy with all the stuff that had happened. Suddenly without saying anything Aang jumped off of Appa's head into the bay below. Katara cried out to Aang, "What are you doing?!"

The three of us watched in horror as he disappeared under the surface. Aang reappeared several seconds later before the unagi shot up out of the water with Aang riding on top. Using the whiskers, Aang managed to get the unagi to stream water out over the whole village putting out the fires that were raging, now the fires were put out and the smoke had stopped rising into the air. The unagi threw Aang up into the air where Appa swooped down and caught Aang in his paws. Moments later Aang climbed back up into the saddle with the rest of us.

"I know, I know. That was stupid and dangerous," Aang said trying to calm down the raging Katara he expected to find waiting for him.

"Yes, it was," Katara replied before hugging the boy. I smiled at the both of them before looking back at the village as it grew tinier and tinier. I used the sleeve of the uniform to slowly wipe off the remaining bits of makeup that still were on my face. In the port, I could vaguely see a ship setting off in the distance. Until next time, Zuko, until next time.


It's a Christmas miracle.

Ok, Ok. I'm so, so, so, so sorry that I haven't posted in forever. This chapter was just so difficult. First, I found this chapter to be super hard to write. Plus I was experiencing major writers block. I felt like I would get past one part I was struggling with just to run into another. Second, I have just been so busy with school. I'm part of the International baccalaureate program at school, which is a super rigorous program. Plus I'm part of a whole bunch of Drama stuff. I had a major role in my school musical so I was also doing stuff for that. Third, just laziness. By the time that I get done with all my homework all I want to do is just lay back and do nothing. And the longer I go without writing the more I forget how much I love writing and just bleh. Anyway, those are my reasons if you care to listen. Once again I am so extremely sorry. And I wish I had more to show for the time that I was gone. Even though this chapter was long.

Anyway, on with the story. Even though this chapter was a pain in the butt to write, I ended up really liking it. Some bonding between with the siblings happened which I liked. Is it just me or did you feel like Rachelle was being really mean to Sokka? I felt like she was so I kinda just wanted to have her be like 'hey Sokka. Don't worry. I do like you.' And so anyway I hoped you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks to all of you who faved, followed, or left a review. Please leave a review if you have any comments, question, things you liked, things you didn't like, things you would like to see, things that could be improved, any suggestions. Just leave a review or pm me. So hopefully the next chapter will not take half a year. I would like to at least get another chapter out during Christmas break, so be looking out for it. Thanks. And have a merry Christmas,or any other holiday that you may be celebrating.