The rain from the previous night faded and the clouds cleared like the smoke of a smoldering fire to reveal a crimson dawn, waking the lava-crusted earth of Ember Island. Tigerdillos yawned and rolled from their dens while toucan puffins brought worms and lychee nuts to their hatchlings. Aang could feel it all. All life connected in the endless cycle of waking to dreaming. But he was distracted by a twinge of guilt, disrupting the flow of qi in his limbs now locked in a meditative stance. He could picture what it was, but he avoided the incoming regret as he had so many times. However, like the inevitability of Sozin's Comet, the regret poured into his mind, poisoning his focus with thoughts of the night before.
I'm such an idiot. He collapsed his shoulders and held his forehead in his right hand while punching the ground with his left. Why in all the four nations did I think it was a good idea to kiss her? He stood up and walked from the balcony outside of his room to sit on his bed.
And to top it all off, she ran away. Didn't say a word to me the rest of the night. He hung his head and got under the covers. Not like it matters any way. I love her, and she doesn't love me back. He lay on his side and tried to fall asleep. He had been meditating since they got back to the house from the play, unable to find it within himself to close his eyes and rest. When he thought he might catch an hour's rest, a small, closed fist unleashed itself on the door in five thundering knocks.
"Rise and shine Twinkle Toes! It's time to get your sparring in." Toph was on the verge of screaming. He thought he heard Sokka yelling through a wall but was unsure. She let go four more loud knocks.
"Let's go baldy!" Aang rolled his eyes and covered his head with the blanket. Of everything he wanted to do right now, sparring with Toph was not one of them.
Zuko walked down the rickety hallway, the floorboards creaking under his footsteps. He thought Aang would have been up by now, as he was always awake before anyone else. He came around the corner and saw Toph standing with her hands on her hips and tapping her foot before Aang's door.
"If you don't come out right now I'm putting you in scrap metal with Sokka's stinky socks! Now. Wake. Up!" She pounded on the door with both hands.
"He's not awake yet?" Zuko stood behind Toph and she turned in his general direction.
"No, and I'm done waiting. Let's get Sugar Queen and see if she can get him to come out." Zuko let out a sigh and put his hand on Toph's shoulder to move her out of the way. Assuming a horse stance, he faced sideways and breathed in through his nose and closed his eyes. Then he quickly opened them again and let out a blast of flame from his foot that he brought up into the door, disintegrating the boards. Aang was lying in his bed and seemed unperturbed by the break-in.
"Get up Aang." Zuko spoke with a mounting frustration that he was attempting to keep at bay for the sake of his Uncle and his positive attitude lessons from the Avatar.
"We don't have much time before the Comet comes, and we can't afford to waste another day." Aang did not move or say a thing.
"Are you serious Aang?" His frustration boiled over and was about to light the room on fire when a loud rumbling sounded underneath his feet. He looked up to Aang and a large pillar of stone erupted in the middle of the bed, sending him flying out the window.
Aang was shocked awake as he flew through the air to the ground beneath the house. Before he crashed on the stone, he bent a cushion of air beneath the blanket he was wrapped in, floating to the ground.
Zuko looked back to the doorway where Toph stood in an earthbending stance with her palms outstretched, smirking.
"He had his chance." Zuko looked at her in awe as she walked over to the new cavity in the side of the house.
"Where's Twinkle Toes?" Zuko walked over and looked out.
"He's just standing there with the blanket over his head."
"What's his deal?"
"I have no clue." Aang sulked away from the house to the sparring ground without looking back or saying a word.
The team had chosen a ravine not far from the house as a makeshift training ground where they could spar without alerting the island to their presence. The cliffsides were high enough to hide even the largest bending movements, and far enough removed from their neighbors that no one could hear.
Aang was looking across the crevice to the forest beyond and longed to take his glider and soar away from his rejection, the guilt blocking his chakras, and especially Katara. He sighed and slumped his shoulders, knowing he could not run away every time he felt helpless. I just wish I could talk to her, somebody about it. I don't want her to hate me. He sat cross-legged on the edge of the ravine and rubbed his head. Sokka? No he would freak out if he knew. Toph would probably throw me off this cliff and tell me to get over myself. I guess that leaves Suki and Zuko.
As he sat there, Toph and Zuko's voices cut through the brush behind him and he jumped up. Toph stepped out of the shrubs and stood next to Aang.
"Alright there Twinkle Toes? Your heartbeat is a mess." She put her hands on her hips and he blushed trying to lower his pulse so she would not detect his lying.
"Oh yeah, just – ya know – meditating." He stammered pathetically and winced after he finished.
"You keep trying to lie to me Aang and you'll be doing badgermole crawls until your elbows are made of rock." Toph pushed a menacing finger into his face that threatened to push him into the ravine. Zuko stepped out of the brush and stared at the two of them.
"Stop messing around. We need to start." Zuko barely moved his frowning lips as he spoke and took to the narrow path down to the stone floor below them. Toph turned around and followed, but not before giving Aang one more small poke that sent him over the edge. He cried out and flapped his hands wildly, bending a current of air that pushed him back to the top. Toph laughed maniacally as Zuko smirked and crossed his arms as Aang made his way down. Aang furrowed his brows and grimaced at Toph as he walked past them to the sparring ground in the middle of the ravine.
"Oh come on Baldy, what's your problem? You always think that's funny." Aang got in his horse stance silently.
"Whatever Aang. Keep your feelings to yourself, it was just a joke."
Zuko stared at Aang and tried to read him. He's never this quiet, or angry. It must be about the play last night. He shrugged and walked four yards away from Aang, ensuring he would have to close the distance quickly before attacking. Toph followed suit. They readied themselves and focused on the flow of qi in their veins. Zuko breathed through his nose and out his mouth, feeling the warmth of the Sun while Toph stood resolutely, quieting her inward thoughts and spirit to listen for the steady drum of Zuko's heartbeat, and the staccato quickening of Aang's. Aang attempted to focus his qi pathways once more, but to no avail. The heartbreak from before still clogged his mind, stopping anything from balancing his energy.
Zuko was about to release a fire fist until he looked around and realized someone was missing.
"Wait. Where's Katara, Aang?" Zuko relaxed his stance and looked behind him towards the house. A twinge of freshened guilt cut through Aang and he grimaced.
He kissed her again in his mind, the release a swift peace for the strife between them, but she immediately pulled away, this time bending a wave of water at him, sending him out to sea. I'll never feel that way about you Aang. What's wrong with you? When you fight Ozai just stay away from me. I'm done with you. He was clenching his jaw and crying out to her as the current brought him further and further away—
"Aang! I asked you where Katara is?" Zuko was peeved, his face growing redder by the second.
"Oh. Sorry, why should I know? I don't know – it's not like she's my girlfriend – " He stopped and blushed with wide eyes and put up his hands.
"I mean not that I wouldn't want that – er – I really don't know." He breathed out and Zuko leveled a confused stare at him.
"Okay…"
"Let's just start without her. We can all go later." Toph relaxed and raised an eyebrow.
"You never want to start without Katara." Aang blushed again.
"Er yeah but Katara is probably tired. Let's just let her sleep for now." Aang rubbed his head anxiously and Zuko squinted at him.
So it's something to do with Katara. I'll ask him about that later. Time to teach him a lesson about distraction.
"Whatever you say." Zuko took his traditional stance with his right arm bent at a right angle above his head and his left outstretched, both hands closed in fists. Toph and Aang followed suit and resumed their stances.
Aang was breathing rapidly, the guilt and hurt rising in him like bile as he attempted in vain to push it down. He tried to focus on keeping pace with Zuko and Toph, a feat he had been unable to accomplish without the aid of airbending. But that thought alone blocked his qi pathways with fresh anxiety, as only Katara would keep the others from going too far and hurting him. He knew Toph would relish the opportunity, and Zuko would not think twice about giving him scorch marks to match the scars Azula gave him. And Toph was right, he never wanted to spar without Katara, because they always did that together before everyone else was in the group, with Sokka's complaining in the background. That alone made him lose focus and let go his stressed stance, shoulders sloping and closing his eyes.
Zuko was incredulously spectating the theater of inner turmoil hidden behind the young avatar's joyful façade as it collapsed to depression, consequently ruining his stance and his focus. Wow. I have never seen that before. Can't let him get away with it. Sozin's Comet is almost here and we can't afford to waste time like this. Zuko drew on the sun beating on his slender shoulders and released a large ball of fire from his right fist, twisting and contorting like the movements of eel serpents from Caldera City myths told by the strict sifus of the Royal Academy to keep him in line.
"Lose focus and you'll be doing hot squats with your badgermole crawls!" Zuko's barking cut through the daydreams of dejection and the gleam coming off Katara's Fire Nation necklace in Aang's mind as an enormous ball of fire approached him. He cried out and bent it around him, redirecting it at Zuko. The firebender deflected it with his left arm as he took to a sprint, closing the distance and releasing a flurry of small fire fists. Aang ducked and leaped around the flames as they soared past his ears and singed the edge of his pant leg.
"Gotta be quicker than that Twinkle Toes!" Toph stepped forward with her right foot and flicked her wrist, sending three trails of rock twisting in different directions as they erupted into large stone pillars. Aang caught the first one and crushed it with his palm as he vaulted over and stepped on the second, leaping higher into the air with a smirk as he rested in his triumph of dodging Toph's attack. He neared the ground as the third erupted, sending a pillar straight to his gut and throwing him across the ravine.
"Gah! Toph, watch it that one almost broke my ribs!" Aang slowly rose from the ground and held his stomach.
"Yeah! Almost!" Toph let out a cackle and skated over using a rock slide. Aang took a breath thinking that he could rest for a minute before Toph reached him, but Zuko ran from his left and jumped over the pillars, sending a spiral kick of flame at Aang as he somersaulted and pushed himself into the air using a large gust of air he bent underneath his feet.
"No airbending!" Zuko unleashed a column of fire into the air and Aang looked around to bend it around himself as he fell on the hard rock, knocking the air from his chest. He coughed violently and sucked deep as he got on his knees and got back into his stance. Zuko sent another arc of flame into the air with his palms, throwing itself in a convoluted dance of unbearable heat and life. Aang absorbed the impact of the incoming attack and redirected the arc back at an unsuspecting Zuko, sending him careening to the other side of the ravine.
Aang smiled as he relished his small victory, but a low rumble sounded from behind and he turned to look, the smile fading. Toph was standing at the top of the other side of the rock formation with her hands outstretched, causing menacing cracks to appear in the cliff side. Sweat poured from his forehead and down his back, the exhaustion creeping through his outward determination to beat his bending teachers. With this much sweat I might be able to bend it, but I'm pretty sure only—Aang stopped mid-thought, as he avoided bringing himself back to thoughts of Katara. I'm training. That's what I need to focus on. He pulled himself out of the daydream in time to see the wave of stone blocking out the sun that Toph had conjured from the deep fissures of the Ember Island stone.
"Whoa, Toph!" Aang stood in awe of his earthbending master's power before realizing she was sending it his way, and with a panicked thrust he brought a pillar of stone up into the air, well above where the wave thunderously crushed the ground beneath him. He brought his arm around in a twisting motion and moved his feet along with it to slice a section of the pillar and send it hurtling towards Toph on the top of the cliff. Toph sidestepped the stone and jumped down to the hard rock floor, creating another avalanche, this time destroying Aang's pillar.
"Ah!" He tried to jump off without airbending, but was unable to grab any of the earthen pieces beneath him before falling. Fear sucked the breath from his lungs and widened his eyes as he desperately grasped for any foothold.
He thought he could smell the earth and blood as he would splatter on the ravine floor, but a chilled grasp tugged him from the air and placed him gently on the ground leaving a wet sting like a slap from an angry tiger seal. He turned around to see a figure in sapphire kimono and loose, dark hair sending large blasts of water at Toph and Zuko, shouting despondently and tossing every obscenity she had learned in their travels together at the soaking masters. Even when she was filled by pure rage and sending bolts of ice at firebenders or Toph, Aang was always distracted by her. Especially then. The way the water moved with her precise and elegant movements, the ferocity of her passion, and her stunning opal eyes that rivaled the cloudless day.
"Katara calm down!" Zuko put up his hands in surrender and defense as Katara sent another wave towards him.
"You could have killed him Zuko, and you want me to calm down?" She sent one last stream of water at him and Toph, Toph blocking it nonchalantly with a wall of earth. Katara paused in her stance and breathed out, letting her outstretched arm relax and looked at Aang. He winced and turned away.
"You think you can get off easy? I can't believe you would start without me." Katara kept her livid composure as she crossed her arms, but when she saw his face it broke the boiling anger stewing in her chest with thoughts of the previous night.
"I'm sorry Katara, I thought you knew," Zuko was drying himself off with a small flame in his right hand as he walked over. "Aang said we could start without you." Katara's eyebrows raised into an arch Aang knew only too well, that familiar expression of pure rage he had seen only one other time direct towards him.
"Oh he did now?" She turned to him seething and gathering more water to unleash, but Aang's dejected pout and his slouched shoulders begged her sorrow and she relaxed again and looked at her toes. Toph could feel her heartbeat change from the beat of anger to sadness in seconds and stepped towards her.
"What's your deal Katara?"
"Nothing, Toph. I'll just go drill by myself at the beach."' She snapped her head back up and glared as she turned on one heel emphatically and stomped away. If she had been an earthebender, the ground would have given way with every footstep. Toph could feel the heavy vibrations as they reverberated through the ravine and could sense in her pulse that Katara was close to crying or yelling. She could not always tell with Katara since she was usually the level-headed one.
I have no idea what is happening today, but I don't like all this mushy drama going around. She shuddered. Toph brought herself out of her head only soon enough to feel that Katara had turned around and was grabbing her by the arm.
"Why don't you let the boys alone and practice your sandbending." Katara spat and surprisingly picked Toph off of her feet and dragged her.
"Whoa, what? Why? Ugh. Ok, fine." Toph gave in and allowed Katara to drag her away while Zuko watched in horror.
Aang walked over and Zuko turned to him.
"Wha—" Aang kept walking.
"I'm going to go meditate." He picked up his glider and sauntered off, dejected shoulders bent low and his eyes brimming.
Should I really go talk to him? I hate stuff like this. Zuko looked at the avatar, then back where Katara dragged Toph and looked up, sighing and closing his eyes. Uncle would want me to at least try. Besides, I had my own issues with Mai, maybe I can actually help this time.
Zuko jogged to catch up with Aang, who quickly dragged his arm across his face to hide the tracks of tears on his cheeks.
"Hey, er, Aang. Can we talk?" Zuko touched his shoulder and he stopped.
"Er I guess?"
"What's going on with Katara?" At this Aang panicked and opened his glider, soaring away.
"Ugh. Typical airbender." Zuko huffed and walked back towards the house. I'll talk with him about it later.
The sun beat relentlessly through the dry air and a quiet breeze began to flow through the palm forests covering the island. Tigerdillos grazed on melons in a clearing while Toucan Puffins stole lychee nuts from bushes on a farmer's wide field. He chased them away and stared at the sky.
Was it getting warmer? It's never this hot in the summer. The agitation grew across the Fire Nation as Sozin's Comet drew ever closer.