When it was light out we all walked into the village to get some food, hungry from our midnight excursion whilst the people continued about their day, probably blissfully unaware of the fact that a meteorite and fire had almost burned down their entire town. "These people have no idea how close they were to getting toasted last night." Aang seemed to be thinking along the same line as me as I brought everyone the food we'd ordered, making sure the vegetarian option went to Aang before we all sat down eat dumplings and noodles.

"Yeah, the worst thing about being in disguise is we don't get the hero worship anymore. I miss the love." Toph sighed whilst eating a dumpling so I laughed.

"Well, that was the first real heroic thing I've ever done since meeting you guys, so I feel great! Though I guess it is a shame we don't get any recognition or appreciation for what we do since we can't tell people."

"Boo-hoo, poor heroes." Sokka drawled, making us all look at him as he sat on the floor by himself with his food next to him untouched. Now that wasn't like Sokka, he loved food and meat just as much as I did, what's up with him?

"What's your problem? You haven't even touched your smoked sea slug."

"It's just..." Looking back at us sadly, Sokka looked strangely crushed which made me pay more attention to what he was saying. "All you guys can do this awesome bending stuff like putting out forest fires, and flying around, and making other stuff fly around. I can't fly around, okay? I can't do anything." I guess last night must have really got to him since he couldn't help. Maybe we've been a little insensitive to his feelings. I mean, Sokka might like to act like a tough guy but there were some soft sides to him too.

"That's not true. No one can read a map like you." Katara reasoned, trying to cheer her brother up and everyone quickly joined in.

"I can't read at all."

"Yeah, and who keeps us laughing with sarcastic comments all the time? I mean, look at Katara's hair, right?" Aang put in a little unhelpfully, grabbing one of Katara's hair bunches that hung over her shoulder with a gesture. "What's up with that?"

"What? What's wrong with my hair?" Panicking that her hair looked bad, Katara embarrassedly started to tug and stroke at her hair as she looked around at us and Aang quickly tried to backtrack as I rolled my eyes.

"Nothing, I was just trying to..."

"Your hair is fine Katara, and Sokka, you may not be a bender, but you have your own strengths and talents that none of us will never have. I mean, you're a natural leader for starters. You're level headed in a tight situation and think about the bigger picture, keeping all us focused and although the others may not laugh at your jokes, I think you're funny." I smiled at him, patting his shoulder lightly trying to make him feel better.

"Look, I appreciate the effort, but the fact is each of you is so amazing and so special, and I'm not. I'm just the guy in the group who's regular." Guess my words didn't get through to him, huh.

"I'm sorry you're feeling so down, but I hope you know none of us see you that way." Katara comforted, pausing a moment before an idea came to mind. "I know something that's gonna make you feel better."

"You do?" Nodding her head, she urged Sokka to eat his sea slug whilst the rest of us finished our food before we all headed into town to where all the market stalls and shops where, Katara leading us into a weapons' shop where Sokka immediately brightened and started clapping his hands excitedly. "Shopping!" Rushing forwards like a little kid, I leaned into my hip as I watched him inspect all the weapons eagerly. "Maybe a little something to reinvigorate my battling." He mused before pulling one of the weapons off the rack and swinging it around with noise effects, going wild until he smacked himself in the head with them.

"You can look around but try not to break stuff, okay? If you break it we have to buy it and I doubt we can afford all this." I warned, keeping an eye on everyone as they all curiously looked at the wares. Aang was already messing around with a suit of armour and a sword hilt, talking with Katara so I left them to it, focusing more on Sokka as he played around with all kinds of different weapons, including a guandao, a metal club he couldn't even lift off the floor, a pair of swords, a chain he wrapped himself up in and a long spear. "Kids. They're all a bunch of kids." I sighed, shaking my head and deciding to just roll with it.

When Sokka happened to notice a rather decorative sword hanging on the wall, he went over to inspect it with an admiring look on his face. "You have a good eye." The shopkeeper said to him as we all crowded in to take a look at the rather distinctive blade. "That's an original from Piandao, the greatest sword master and sword maker in Fire Nation history. He lives in the big castle up the road from here." The shopkeeper told us proudly and I instantly recognised the name.

"No way! This is a Piandao original? That guy is legendary and his swords are no joke." I gushed with appreciation, gingerly lifting the sword down to handle it carefully. "My mother learned from him to incorporate sword dancing into our performances, she said that there was no better master in the art of the sword than Piandao." Drawing the blade free I started to demonstrate some dancing moves with the blade, using it to point and glide whilst holding the scabbard in my other hand. "I've always dreamed of holding one of his original swords in my hands, I can't believe it!"

"That's it!" Aang suddenly seemed to realise, looking at Sokka as I sheathed the blade and admired it for a little while longer. I wish I could afford something like this, the blade my mother has for dancing was made by herself under Piandao, it was the most valuable thing in her possession. It was different holding this sword, which was made by the master himself. "That's what you needed all along, Sokka."

"A sword?"

"Not the sword, a master." Aang corrected as I handed the sword over to Sokka so that he could get a feel for it. "We've all had masters to help us get better. You should see if you can study with Piandao."

"That's a great idea." Katara agreed, smiling at Aang. "I could've never gotten to where I am without Master Pakku. Everyone needs a teacher."

"And I couldn't have gotten to where I am now with my bending without Katara." I added, earning a grin from my little teacher so I rubbed her hair lightly.

"I learned from badger moles. They don't talk, but they're still good teachers." Toph supplied as we all seemed to be in agreement over what Sokka needed to make him feel better.

"It would be nice to be a master swordfighter. Alright, I'll talk to him." Clutching my face, I freaked out about it all.

"I can't believe you're going to meet Master Piandao. When you see him, you should mention my mother Azumi from the Golden Dragon Birds group, he'll know her name and tell him that you're a friend of mine. It won't make him take you on, but it's always handy to have a letter of introduction. It means he'll know you're not just some hillbilly who dropped in out of nowhere." I informed him and Sokka thanked me for the help. I really wanted to go there with him, but this was for Sokka to get a master, so I stayed behind whilst he went up to the master's house to seek tutoring. With nothing to do and no direction from Sokka, the younger kids all lazed on the ground under the heat out of boredom.

"What should we do today?" Aang asked, staring up at the sky blankly as I made an inventory of all our food, money and supplies.

"I'm tapped out. I already picked my toes, twice."

"Twice?"

"The first time was for cleaning, but the second time's just for the sweet picking sensation." Toph grinned as she wriggled her feet in the air.

"Sokka's been in charge of the schedule. I'm not sure what we should be doing." Katara admitted, everyone feeling totally lost. Maybe this was good. Although we never thought of Sokka as deadweight, being without him will make everyone see just how much we need him around.

"Plus, it's so hot today."

"Toph, don't pick your nose like that, it's gross." I called over to her as I carried on counting our inventory.

"How hot is it?" Aang questioned, hoping for some kind of joke or something as Toph flicked her nose bogeys away.

"I don't know. Real hot?"

"It's so hot, it's so hot...Momo is shedding like Appa!" Petting Momo and flicking away the fur that got on her hands, Katara looked around expectantly but nobody laughed. At least she tried.

"I guess the jokes don't run in the family."

"Oh, everyone's a critic." Getting up and dusting off my hands, I looked down at the neatly spread out inventory I had counted and made note of before looking up.

"I'm heading back into town for a couple of things, do you guys want to stay here or…"

"We'll come too!" Everybody immediately jumped up and sprung on me, taking me by surprise as I struggled to catch everyone as they looked up at me imploringly. "Please take us with you Kayo! We're so bored!"

"Uh…sure. Let's get going then." I waved before grinning at them, rubbing their heads affectionately. "Aw, you all feel lost without Sokka. It's adorable." Grabbing our money I brought everyone to town and stated to buy things we needed but decided it would be good to earn some more money, so I found us a prime spot with a lot of people traffic before handing an instrument to Toph, Aang and Katara each. "What are we doing with these?"

"You're going to play and I'm going to dance, and people are going to give us money. You watch. Toph, beat out a steady rhythm for me, Katara you follow along with the beat with your tambourine, and Aang, I'll leave the tune for you with the flute." I instructed, getting them all to sit down on a straw mat I'd brought along before putting out a pot to collect money whilst I took off my embroidered overcoat and belt which I used as a dancing ribbon as Toph followed my instructions. Soon enough we had plenty of people gathered around us, cheering and applauding but the best sound was when those coins hit the pot and clattered. Using the belt to add a flare of elegance and beauty to my dancing, I spiralled it over my head and sprung off the ground with a powerful backwards flick, landing lightly before continuing.

It didn't take long to rake in the coins and before long we had enough for this shopping trip as well as numerous shopping trips after today. "Wow, I didn't know dancing could make so much money." Aang whistled as we counted up what we had and started on our shopping.

"This is nothing. When I was working as a dancer in the dance halls of Ba Sing Se, I had a monthly income that would have set me up for life." When Katara asked me how much and I told her, everybody's jaw went slacked. "I know, it was great." Sighing wistfully as I stopped in front of a store I looked over their teapots, thinking about Iroh. I missed him. I missed playing Pai Sho with a great cup of tea to drink, I missed his interesting lectures and company. He's probably in prison right now, all alone without proper food or a bed to sleep in. I hope he's holding up okay, I really wanted to go rescue him but without knowing where he was and how to get him out, there was nothing I could do right now.

"Kayo? Is everything okay?" Katara worried so I took a deep breath to calm down before smiling.

"Sure, I was just thinking about some things. Let's carry on with shopping. Let me know if you see anything you like, today's on me." Holding up our purse of earnings, the kids all cheered before darting off in different directions. "But stay together! Aang no, that's not a toy don't touch that! I am not your damn mother so don't make me act like one!" Alarmed at how quickly they all scattered, I rushed around to keep everyone together and in some semblance of order so that we didn't draw attention to ourselves.

Once we had bought everything we needed and wanted we returned to our campsite where Momo and Appa were waiting for us. "Hey guys, did you behave whilst you were away? I brought some snacks for you both." I greeted as Momo flew over to me expectantly and I gave him a bag of nuts and berries before carrying the sack of watermelons I'd bought for Appa and rolled them all out onto the floor so he could eat them. He growled happily, lifting his face to lick me up and down in gratitude until I laughed. "Hey! That's enough Appa, I'm glad you're happy, hey that tickles!" Momo chittered, already eyeing up Appa's watermelons however when he landed on one I picked him back up. "No Momo, those are for Appa, you have yours there." I pointed to the bag he'd abandoned but he just struggled and complained loudly. "Appa's a lot bigger than you are so he needs more food. Here, have a peach."

Pulling a peach out from my pocket I gave it to Momo who eyed it hungrily before snatching it from me, flying off to hoard his food whilst Appa licked up the watermelons one by one and ate them whole. Rubbing his head I then set out organising the camp, repacking all of our supplies then started on making some refreshing drinks for everyone by freezing up fruit then mashing them into little pieces before mixing them with juice and water, swirling it in our cooking pot with my hands roving overhead to guide it.

"So where are we going next?" Katara asked as she and Aang frowned at the map they'd opened up to try and plot out our next course of action. "We're starting from here."

"No, we're over on this island." Aang corrected a little uncertainly, pointing at another spot as I glanced up.

"You noodle-brains don't know what you're doing. I miss Sokka." Toph complained, having taking to lying on her back staring upwards since she had nothing to do.

"Ooh, I got one! If you miss him so much, why don't you marry him?" Katara joked unsuccessfully, so before they could lose any more spirit, I lifted up coconuts filled with the cold and refreshing drink I'd made.

"Who's thirsty?"

"Me!" Everybody rushed on over so I poured out a drink for everybody, adding fresh fruit and a straw each for them to enjoy, making one for Momo too as well as one for myself before bending the rest into Appa's mouth so that he could enjoy something cold and refreshing as well to combat the heat. Once everybody was refreshed, they fell about under the sun and went to sleep just like that, too bored to do anything else. A nap sounded good, I'm exhausted. So I found the most comfortable spot under some shade and napped, hoping that Sokka would come back soon otherwise I'll soon run out of ways to try and entertain these bored kids.