With my bag packed and ready to go, we all stood in the courtyard as the airship Asami was loaning us docked and was secured down and the drawbridge extended to see Asami standing there ready. "Did someone order a fully equipped Future Industries airship?"

"Awesome!" I breathed, staring at the huge thing as Korra smiled.

"It's perfect. Thanks, Asami."

"I figured if we're going to Ba Sing Se to search for air benders, we should do it in style." I am definitely a fan of that idea, and the kids seem to be too. Meelo and Ikki were especially excited, running over to the ship and air scooting their way on board whilst yelling, making me laugh at their antics before I heard my mom talking behind me.

"While you guys are gone, Pema and I will hold down the fort." She then proceeded to pick Rohan up, holding up high and jiggling him whilst cooing in a baby voice. Well, I knew he just ate, so I watched on with satisfaction as my mom continued bouncing him. "Who's excited to spend some time with your Auntie Kya?" As if on cue, my cousin vomited on my mom, making me snort and smirk as she looked down at the puke. "Oh."

"Aw, he likes you." Pema said as I looked away, mom water bending to remove the sick. Noticing that Mako was coming towards us, I nudged Korra and pointed him out so she walked on over as my mom then tried calling to me.

"Kanna, are you going to say goodbye?" She asked me, holding out her arms as if she expected me to go over there and hug her. As if.

"Goodbye." I said shortly and picked up my bag to sling it over my shoulder, making to walk onto the airship.

"That's it? Come on Kanna, at least give me a smile or something. I'm not going to see you for a while, I'll miss you."

"Well that makes a change." Turning my head towards her dryly, there was not a single trace of a smile on my face as my mom once again looked at me with hurt. "At least this time I'm the one leaving you behind. Maybe now you'll understand what it felt like."

"Kanna…"

"Kanna dear, how about we give Pema, Rohan and your mother a soldier's farewell?" Bumi suggested, grabbing my shoulders to squeeze me in tight to him as he saluted. "Until we return victorious with air benders galore, who knows when we might see our dearly beloveds again? Here, I'll do the horn noises." Bumi then proceeded to trumpet like a camelephant, making me finally giggle at his wackiness before I saluted for his sake, aiming it purposefully at Pema who saluted back and mom waved, smiling weakly at me but I ignored her. Once I was on the ship, Bumi ruffled my hair as I put down my bag. "You really give your mother a hard time. Don't you think you've tortured her enough?"

"No, and I don't care about her." I retorted harshly, folding my arms stubbornly. "She betrayed us first by taking off and leaving me behind. Why should I care about her feelings when she clearly didn't care about mine?"

"But Kya told me that when we were touring the air temples, you were starting to get along so well. You even had a sparring match. What happened?"

"I…I don't know. I just got mad again. That's all." I answered, gripping my hair in confusion. "For all she talks, she never really actually says a really sorry that makes me feel like she means it, and she never follows up her words with actions. She keeps on pushing me, and I hate that, like she thinks she can just wear me down and I'll give in. Forcing a relationship just doesn't work for me, so I figured if we just didn't talk and avoided each other, things wouldn't at least feel so strained and…fake. This whole family feels so fake sometimes." Bumi seemed slightly alarmed by my last statement, but it was true. "Although you were right, we did work together when our family was in danger, but it doesn't feel any different to the way it was before. I guess I just expected this grand sweeping change and everything would suddenly be perfect, and then I was disappointed when it didn't happen."

"Change in families doesn't happen in a day, and our family is so complicated, it's going to take more than some spirit harmonic convergence mumbo jumbo to set right, sweet muffin." Placing his arm around me sincerely, Bumi gave me a hug and I responded to it naturally. "No matter what, you've always got me kiddo."

"I know Uncle Bumi. You're the best." I gave him a smile before I then gestured at him. "So how does it feel to be an air bender? Everybody got so caught up in the moment, we forgot to ask you how you're handling it."

"It's definitely a first for me." He said, making me laugh at his simple humour. "Can't say I'm looking forward to being bossed around by my little brother to train, but it would be nice to learn real air bending forms. It'll be a way to feel closer to my old man." Both of us now feeling a little down, I patted Bumi's back to comfort him as others started to board. "Mako? I didn't know you were coming too." I said to him as he was the last to board, Bolin looking cheerful and ecstatic as he clapped his hands silently behind his brother as Mako awkwardly rubbed his head.

"Uh, yeah. Bolin pointed out…that, um…since you guys are heading to Ba Sing Se, uh…we might come across our…you know, family there. Grandma! Our grandma." Looking at him blankly, Mako stared back like an idiot until I just laughed at him humorously, reaching up to clap him on the shoulder and shake him a little, hoping that would loosen him up.

"You do realise you dated Asami and Korra, not me, right? You can relax around me, I'm not going to bite your head off. I mean, you did date my two best friends then broke their hearts, but hey. I'm not judging." Mako looked like he really wanted to leave as I tortured him a little more until my face softened at him and I relaxed my grip on his shoulder. "It's okay, I'm just messing with you. Good to have you back Mako, we all missed you. We didn't pressure you to come back sooner because we figured you wanted your own space to get your head straight. Glad that worked out for you."

"Wait, what?"

"You see?" Bolin grinned as he slid up to his brother as I leaned into my hip, clothing exposing the midriff as I still hadn't adjusted to just how hot it was over here compared to the south. "No drifting here! You were just a little lost for a while, big bro." Drifting? What's Bolin on about now?

"I just thought…you know…since the thing with Korra and Asami, it would be awkward with all of us together. So I just…backed off a little." Mako explained as I sent my questioning frown towards him, since Bolin made no sense whatsoever. "Then I got wrapped up in work and you guys were doing your own thing and I saw you all getting along just fine without me, so I felt like I'd…drifted." Ah, drifting. Now I get it.

"That's crazy Mako." I told him bluntly, shaking my head. "You're our friend no matter who you date and mess around with." His face fell.

"Nice. Real helpful, Kanna."

"I do my best. What I'm saying is the only one who feels and acts awkward around here is you. I mean, did you even see yourself the other day when you saluted us? Then you walked off like you had metal for legs, it was kinda funny." I reminded him and he groaned, wincing at the embarrassing memory as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Seeing that Mako needed a hug, I jumped on him, making sure to hold on tight to him as he stiffened, naturally returning to being awkward but I held out as Bolin then joined me.

Together we squished Mako in a friendship hug until he relaxed, dropping his free hand down onto my head to rub my hair lightly as I felt the tension ease away. "Thanks guys." He said to us and Bolin bumped fists with me as we drew back.

"See? No need to feel awkward. I mean, Kanna had feelings for me and then she confessed but then I rejected her because I was in love with Korra and now we're best buds!" Bolin grinned goofily at his brother as he slung his arm around me to suddenly hug me, making my cheeks flush momentarily before I frowned at him.

"You had to bring that up Bolin?"

"Sorry, I thought it was a good example." Unable to help it, I laughed as I pushed him off me, flicking my hair back as my braids clicked as the beads knocked against each other. "So…we cool?"

"Yeah, we're cool." Mako agreed, looking more at ease than I'd seen him since he'd got back from the South Pole. Tenzin then called out to us, asking for us all to come with him so that we could discuss our course and since Mako seemed to have the map, he was needed to show us where there had been recent reports of air benders.

"This is so exciting, I can't believe we're already on another Avatar adventure!" Bolin cheered happily as we followed Mako after Tenzin.

"Let's just hope no giant dark loving spirit monsters show up this time." I mused, taking a seat as we entered the room and watched as Mako pulled out the map from the cylindrical tube he'd carried it in so that he could spread it out and show us the markings he'd noted down.

"As of now, these are the towns where we've gotten reports about air benders." He informed us all, pointed at the crosses on the map. There's more than I expected, that's a good sign. "It looks like we can hit up most of them before we get to Ba Sing Se."

"We're going to bring the Air Nation back from the brink of extinction after nearly two hundred years." Korra said to Tenzin, exceedingly amped up about doing something so historic and important.

"And it's all because of you, Korra." She smiled to him happily.

"So what's the plan when we actually find these people?" I asked as I slouched back to make myself comfortable, kicking up my feet contentedly. "It's not like we can just ask them to join us and expect them to come along quietly." My Uncle Tenzin genuinely looked surprised.

"Why not?" I paused slightly, wondering if he was being serious before I sat up.

"Because they're going to have their own lives already. You know, homes, jobs, families, they're not going to leave all that behind just because they can suddenly blow puffs of air out of their hands." I tried to explain but my uncle didn't seem to understand what I was getting at.

"Of course they will, they're air benders now so they should be excited to learn about their culture. Why wouldn't they want to come?" He's…kidding…right?