I Don't Own Avatar the Last Airbender

"Halt! State your intentions!" I gave a smile to the guard of the massive city behind which was looming in front of me. It had taken a little while longer than I had thought it would but we were here. It was enough to put me in a good mood, even if it had been about a day and a half since I had eaten, having run out of rations for all of us, and I had taken to giving my share to the kids. But I didn't mind as I said.

"Looking for work, and perhaps a place to stay for the winter" The guard looked at me for a moment before looking over at the group of mostly kids behind me before finally nodding. I gave him a thankful smile, and walked past him, waving for the others to follow after me. Which they did with varying reactions, Buo and Bahi both looking around in a happy amazement, they had probably been to young and to exhausted the first time around to really take in the sights, this time was much different.

Inaru was looking around with a mixed look on her face, more focused on the people around us rather than the building or how tall the place really was with how it seemed to touch the sky. She was more focused on the interactions around us, the simple folk around us just talking, seemingly at peace with no real tension in their bodies. It was such a difference to the rest of the world. I knew, it was my first experience with people not fighting, or tension in the air. It had been like I had been transported to a new world entirely.

Looking over at the two newest additions to our group, I noted that Ran was looking super excited and was actively talking Rina's ear off, who seemed to only be absently nodding to her little brother, to busy looking around at everything in front of her. Like she had never seen anything like it, which she honestly might not have before, in which case, for the solitude girl, this must be quite much, with all the sounds and smells. It was probably overwhelming her.

"Alright everyone, I think the first thing to do is to find a place to stay for a little while, then me and Inaru are going to go out for a bit to try and find a job. While we are gone, Rina is going to be in charge" The three kids groaned while Rina had looked up at me in a bit of shock. I didn't know why, she was the oldest here when me and Inaru were out, it only made since. Plus, from how she acts, I know she probably has the most common sense.

"Oh, and Buo, Bahi?" The two looked up at me after they had stopped looking at what seemed to be a food stall that had some meat on sticks, both with way to innocent looks on their faces. I just sighed at the sight of those two matching expressions before saying.

"You two can run off and play later, but promise me for today that you'll stay in the room until I get back so I don't have to worry while I'm out and about" The two both pouted, Bahi's was much more exaggerated than Buo's but the underlining tone was the same. I just raised an eyebrow and looked at them expectantly for a few long seconds, as I stopped walking to make them answer.

"Fiiineee"

"Ok Dad"

Bahi and Buo had answered in that order, with matching looks of acceptance and slight annoyance. I gave the two a happy and thankful smile, which instantly had the two look far more better about their decision. Moving my line of sight away from the two, I continued to walk onward towards where I remembered the last we had stayed last time I was here. The place wasn't the best, it was cheap actually, it's why I was there last time, it was the only place I could afford at the time.

It should be a good enough place to stay until I can find some place to rent for a while for the next couple months until spring breaks through the winter. It will take a while I'm sure, it's a bit hard to manage with how many of us there are but I know that there should be some places for rent or just to buy somewhere in this city. This was one of the most common refugee spots in all of the world, so there had to be places for us to live in, somewhere around here, we just have to find it.

Buo POV

Dad was gone off to find us a place to stay along with somewhere to work for a while. He does that every time we go to a new place, though this wasn't a new place was it? Looking around the walls in the room we were staying in, I couldn't help but think they just looked so familiar for some strange reason. It took me a moment to really figured it out.

The memories were kind of fuzzy, like all the bad memories Dad told me to not focus on when I felt sad, but these ones weren't bad ones, they were nice. It was when I had met Dad, we had called him Sho in the beginning, I remember that... And a bunch of running, we ran a lot when we met, I know that. No matter how much of it I didn't remember I know that much.

I didn't mind not remembering, the parts I do remember hurts to think about, the flames that threw me back into the memories were the worst. Dad's flames don't do that, anymore at least, they use to but the more I saw them the more I could see the differences in them, how the golden yellow just wasn't like the burning and hateful orange and reds that filled my head.

But that didn't matter now, as I looked around the walls, the fuzzy memories being recalled to the front of my head. Dad had slept on one of theses beds for what seemed like days. I remember Bahi thinking he was dead, but neither of us had left the room. I don't remember why, I think we had been scared that the fires would be right outside, and that the man that had dragged us from them could some how hold them at bay if we just stayed nearby.

So that's what we did, we stayed by him until he had woken up, the two of us to scared to talk to each other. I remember in the beginning he didn't talk to us much, like he wasn't sure what he was suppose to do, but I remember the first time we had ate with him, it was because he didn't have anything for himself, he just set to bowls in front of us before laying back on the bed and nearly went back to sleep.

I think it was after that in which Bahi started calling him Dad, I remember it being a joke, it was funny to see his face scrunch up in annoyance as he tried to convince us he wasn't that old and to call him something else, like his name, which he always repeated after we had called him dad. Until one day he didn't and we continued to call him dad, and over time that's all we started to call him, and one day he called me his son. I remember that day, there wasn't any fuzzy problems with that memory, at least the only fuzzy parts was when I had started to cry.

He had hugged me and just held on as I cried. I don't even know why I did it, I didn't even remember the first dad I had, even though I'm sure I must have had one, but something about it just sent me over the edge. I remember Bahi teasing and making fun of me about it, but I remember that the next morning her eyes were just as red as mine and Dad had commented 'that his kids were so alike' it took me a while to realize what that meant.

Thinking about my sister, I looked over at her and noted she had also been staring at the bed in the middle of the room, the place that Dad and probably spent a full day resting in. I couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking about at the moment. She had a better memory about our time before our Dad had taken us in, I heard from Dad that it was the reason she had a harder time sleeping than I did. I didn't like that reason, but I couldn't seem to do anything to help.

It always seemed to be the case, me and Bahi just couldn't seem to help Dad out any, he was always working or helping us, cooking for us, playing with us, or teaching us things, like earthbending, math, and reading- even if I don't like that last one to much. It's always been like that. Me and Bahi still try to help though, we steal! It worked out well enough but it always seems to make Dad upset or sad when we come back with something, so we stopped doing it so much... Though sometimes we still do it just because it's fun.

Normally that's what I and my sister would be doing right now but Dad had wanted us to stay here for a while, which I didn't really want to but he seemed so happy that we were that I didn't want to disappoint him by sneaking out and causing some chaos. He seemed really tired recently, and I knew he hadn't eaten as well so I didn't want to worry him anymore. Maybe once everything is sorted out, then we can worry him, but not right now while he's trying to help us out like he always does.

Sho

The work we had found wasn't anything special, and it wasn't anything the two of us had trained in, but it paid and that was all that really mattered. I'll have to put in a lot of hours soon but not as many as I was expecting to have to, and with Inaru helping me out, it was evenless than I would have originally would have had to take as well. It was nice to be able to rely on her and the others for things like this, it helped that I probably won't go grey before I reach my thirties at least.

Still, right now we were talking about renting out a nice, and kind of big, house out of the way from most of the other building and shopping district. It was the only reason why I thought we could afford it. With how out of the way it was, it wasn't really in a good spot for most people, with it requiring long walks to and from for simple things like shopping, let alone the trips it would take to the more specialized areas in the city.

The guide who apparently owned the place was talking a lot, which I listened to and nodded along to as she spoke out meaningless details, something about it been a tad cold in the winter, and that the mail delivery system was a tad slower with how far out it was from the main system. None of it really mattered to me, but I made a not of it anyways and continued to look around while Inaru was nice enough to hold a conversation with the woman.

I was to tired to. It had been hours now since we had left the kids, and I was hoping they hadn't gotten up to anything but that wasn't the reason why I was tired. That was because last night Bahi had a nightmare, and I had stayed up like always until she drifted back to sleep, it would have been fine if I had been able to go to sleep afterwards as well. I hadn't.

So along with the fact that I hadn't eaten in now about two days, well, I wasn't feeling to hot at the moment, figuratively at least. Anyways, thinking back tot he figures that the woman had talked about at the very start of our little look around, I knew we could only afford this place for like a day and a half at the moment, our funds way to small for actually staying here. Right this second at least, so I already had a plan forming in the back of my head while the two women talks for a while, I waited until I could get a word in and then said.

"I hope you don't mind, this place would be lovely and I think we would love to stay here, though we still need to get everything in order, so could we start renting it in about a weeks time?" It would give us time to gather the funds for hopefully the first months payment with the two of us pulling double shifts. Then we could start working at a more normal pace for the next months rent. It would also allow me to leave here sooner and get something to eat with some of our remaining coin then go to sleep so I was ready tomorrow.

"Oh? Of course, that sounds prefect actually, it would take a while to sign off for everything and I am needing to met someone soon so..." From the faint blush appearing on the woman's cheeks, it was pretty clear what type of meeting she would be going to but I just gave her a smile all the same. Before taking one last look at the house we would be staying in for a while.

Almost done with the week of daily updates, afterwards I'll do my best to try and keep updating it on occasion, like I'll probably set it up so it's like once a week or something but that's for later and my motivation to decide, so whatever. See ya.