"WHAT?! Did I just see? What was the? How did you? You can't be a? Oh No, It's the Cactus Juice!" Sokka fainted. Landing with a thud.
Ikki and Meelo joined Jinora and Mako. They embraced, they were glad that things were ok. Aang looked as if the life had been taken out of him. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to say anything. Somehow inside himself, it felt like he knew all along. Like he had a connection with them, like Appa had a connection with them. He looked from Jinora to Toph. She wore the same expression he did. The same feeling of lack of attention. "So….. you three kids are airbenders…How?" zuko broke the silence.
"Are there any more of you?" Katara was quick to ask.
"Our Dad is….. ummmmmm. He's just.." There was confusion in Jinora's voice.
"I'm looking after them right now." Mako substituted. Team Avatar could only infer that their Dad was dead.
"I thought I was the only airbender, and I found 3 more. This is great! We can do airbending all the time now!" said Aang quickly changing the subject.
"Yeah!" Cheers erupted from the children. They formed airballs and circled around him.
"Just remember you have firebending training tomor…." Zuko cut in.
"Yeah, sure. We'll do that later. Hey! How do you guys know how to do the airball."
"Daddy taught us!" was all they said. Then they started racing around the house.
"Wait up!" Aang said forming an airball and chasing after them.
"So how long have you known?" Katara asked Mako.
"Ever since I met them I guess. Ever since then I've always looked after them."
"And their father?" said Katara with a discomforting tone.
"I don't know. The children only said that he was away."
"Oh. Well I didn't know about the whole airbender thing. I think it's really sweet that your looking after them and all. I'm sure Korra would think so too."
Toph was looking at Mako. Looking at him as if she could tell he was lying. He wasn't lying he was partially lying. He had to think of something truthful to say. "I feel like I'm taking care of them for Korra, she knows them better than I do. I feel very protective over them."
"Where is Korra?" Toph joined into their conversation.
"Training…" mako looked down "She's always training." It was true, sometimes he felt like being avatar was taking up her whole life. Those past couple of days she was always so serious. Discussing republic city or the United Nations. He missed the Korra that could hang out and practice pro-bending with them. If only he had confessed his love sooner. Maybe she would have been with him. He should've confessed after the kiss. He felt something, but he didn't want to admit it. The silence grew as no one said anything.
Zuko stepped in "Well training is what Aang should be doing, but instead he's doing airbending tricks."
They glanced at Aang. He had marbles twirling around in his hand. The old marble trick, classic. Ikki pointed behind him, distracting him and the marbles bounced off his forehead one by one. They all laughed. The next couple of days were the same, Aang rarely did firebending anymore. He barely practiced earth or waterbending either. He always spent his time with the airbenders, training them. Mako was kind of glad, the kids never met their grandfather. This was the perfect opportunity for them to continue airbending training and bond with family. He looked into Jinora's eyes and thought. She looks so much like Aang. She really is his granddaughter.
One day, they heard a strange buzzing sound. "Am I the only one, or does somebody else hear the buzzing."
"Have you been hitting the cactus juice again." Suki was quick to ask. Toph only nodded in agreement.
"No, I swear it sounds almost like….like…..BUZZARD WASPS!" sokka shouted pointing his boomerang at a huge swarm of buzzard wasps. Ironically, mako thought of the buzzard wasps pro-bending team. He had never encountered them in real life. In quick reaction Lightning erupted from mako's hand and shot one down.
Toph had created an earth shield in order to protect herself from what she couldn't see. Aang jumped to Action, binding the buzzard wasps into the earth. Toph then finished them off. Buzzard wasps brought horrible memories back for Aang, about losing Appa. He couldn't help but glance back to Appa a couple of time to make sure he was there. The children cowered in a corner, they really didn't know what they could do. Aang stood in front of them, waterbending water from a pot and swatting them all away. Katara was trying to freeze them in mid-air but they always broke loose. Nothing was working. Except for Mako and Zuko.
They used firebending to burn all the buzzard wasps. One by one they fell from the sky. Sokka and suki stabbed a couple, but they were too fast. "Aang! Firebend!" Zuko's tone was commanding. In a couple quick strikes, the firebending trio finished off the buzzard wasps. Leaving a graveyard of buzzard wasps in the courtyard.
"I guess I should really be hitting the firebending training more often." Aang chuckled nervously. Mako and Zuko gave him a skeptical glance.
"Buzzard wasps aren't common, they must've been sent here or breeded by someone." Said Zuko.
"One last airbending form, I promise." Aang walked over to the kids and said, "this one is called cleaning up." They circled around as the wind grew and grew and all the buzzard wasps disappeared.
"Sorry, we took up your firebending time Aang" said Meelo.
"It's alright, I guess I just missed…Home."
The children smiled, they finally got to meet grandpa Aang.