OMG…Chocolate… -drools- Nu, I dun't own Aang. Or Sokka. Or anyone else. If I did, they'd be tucked inside my sweatshirt pocket. –grins-

Wait…I DUN'T HAVE ANY POCKETS ON MY SWEATSHIRT! –hyperventilates-

Chapter One

Enter the Aang-gumi!

"I dunno…uh…maybe?"
"Hunh?"
"I dunno…uh…maybe?"
"Stop saying that!"
"I dunno…uh…maybe?"
"SHUT UP!"
"I dunno…uh…maybe?"
Chikako whacked her best friend upside the head. "We're lost; shut up!"
"I dunno…uh…may…be…" Naoko toppled to the ground, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.
"Oh, c'mon, Naoko. I didn't hit you that hard…"
"Yes, you did."
"No, I didn't."
"Yes, you did.
"No…"
"Hai! Hai, hai, hai!" Naoko popped up beside Chikako and reached into her pocket, pulling out a box that looked like a cigarette box.
"Naoko! You told me not to smoke, way back when I said it looked cool, and now—!"
"That wasn't 'way back', Chikako…" Naoko laughed. "That was yesterday."
FLASHBACK OF SMOKES!
"Naoko…I wanna smoke. It looks so neat! And no one gets wrinkles from it."
"Are you kidding? My mom smokes!"
"Oh…nevermind then…"
"OH, YEAH? WELL YOUR MAMA!"
FLASHBACK OF SMOKES! END!
"Oh…I remember that now…"
"And besides; these aren't cigarettes. They're pocky…" The dirty-blonde reached into the box and pulled out a pocky. "See?"
"OH! Me want some!"
Laughing, the younger girl gave Chikako a pocky. "There. One for you; ten for me!"
"Hey!"
"Heh heh heh!"
"…You."
Naoko threw her head back, laughing, a pocky sticking out from between her lips. She was a twelve year old who had dancing blue eyes and long, dirty-blonde hair in a ponytail. Her long strand of bangs on the right side of her face had a blue bead at the top; on the left side of her face her bangs were poorly layered and reached her shoulder. She wore a waterbender's outfit, but the skirt part was cut short and she wore on shorts under that. Her sleeves were rolled up and her bare feet were dirty. She was short, thin, and strong, and proud of it, and her favorite thing to do was cling to someone's back like a monkey; ask Chikako. She'd know.
Her friend Chikako was just barely thirteen, and the two had known each other all their lives. She grumbled, sitting on a log beside her best friend. The girl had long red hair that was poorly layered, curling near her waist. Her sharp amber eyes glinted. She wore a red Fire Nation outfit cut off just above her knees with her legs wrapped in bandages. Her arms were bare, and she had painted fire all over them. Both girls were tan, and both sitting on a log in the middle of a forest, wondering how the hell to get out of the place.
Well, at least one of them was wondering…Naoko was just sitting there, drooling on her pocky.
Chikako reached over and poked her. Naoko's eyes widened and she yelped, falling backwards off the log. Chikako laughed hysterically.
"Hey!" Naoko stumbled back up and brushed her butt off. "Why'd you do that?"
Chikako tilted her head slightly. "You were just sitting there again. I think your attention span is getting low like that one time."
FLASHBACK OF THAT ONE TIME!
Naoko sat on the table, drooling, in a towel. Chikako walked in and blinked, her eyes widening. Stepping away from her naked-in-a-towel friend, her jaw dropped and she prevented anyone from entering the kitchen until Naoko's attention span went back from 0 to its normal 40-50.
FLASHBACK OF THAT ONE TIME! END!
Naoko snapped forward, falling onto the log with a grunt. "Hunh? Were you talking to me…?"
Chikako shook her head, laughing. Naoko blinked.
"What? WHAT?"
"Nothing…"
"MOUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
"…" Chikako doubled over, laughing her head off.

"Wait! Stop you guys…you hear that?"
Aang and Sokka stopped on the forest path. Sokka groaned, his head thrown back.
"Katara! There are no firebenders after us! Can we just WALK now?"
"Yeah, Katara. I thought we'd already figured this…No more walking!"
"I know, I know…but listen! Don't you hear that?"
Aang straightened up upon hearing peals of laughter. "What…that noise?"
"No, Aang, that loud roar," Sokka snapped. His feet hurt, his back hurt, Appa was trailing them, he was hungry, and he wanted to stop walking!
Katara and Aang glared at him and he toppled over with a slight moan. Shaking her head, Katara nodded to the airbender.
"Yes. That laughter. Nobody else should be in the woods, right? I mean, didn't you say that this place was dangerous?"
"WHAT?" Sokka popped up beside them. "DANGEROUS? I DIDN'T HEAR THAT!"
Aang shrugged. "All I said was that firebenders could catch us, but that's only because this earth province was taken over by firebenders. Didn't you see the road signs, Sokka?"
FLASHBACK OF ROAD SIGNS!
Aang pointed to the wooden sign on the side of the dusty road. "Look! A road sign!" Scurrying up to it, a cloud of dust forming behind him, he stood beside it with a grin.
"Quick! Take a picture!"
Katara and Aang glowered at Sokka. He shrugged.
"What? All it says is, 'Earth Village Kohako…Now under Fire Nation reign…Entrance must be recorded'."
"Yeah! That means we're getting closer to the Fire Nation dojo I visited before!"
"You trained at a Fire Nation dojo? Those are the best!" Katara beamed. Sokka rolled his eyes and started to march again along the road.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever…c'mon…I'm getting hungry…"
FLASHBACK OF ROAD SIGNS! END!
Sokka blinked. "Oh, yeah…"
Katara sighed and started to walk again. "C'mon! Let's see who that is…" Aang followed her excitedly. Sokka groaned and crawled after them, Momo laughing at him from where he perched on the teenager's pack.

Chikako slapped her hand over Naoko's mouth upon hearing the bushes rustle. The dirty-blonde blinked and tried to bite Chikako's palm, but only managed to erupt into laughter. The red-headed firebender glared at her and the younger girl quieted.
A twig snapped and suddenly a lemur popped out of the undergrowth, landing in front of the two girls. They screamed, both falling off the log. Momo cocked his head, purring slightly in inquiry.
A boy about Naoko's age jumped out after the lemur, tackling him and standing up, stepping back. "S…sorry about that; he didn't mean to scare you. He just doesn't like Sokka."
"Hey!"
Chikako and Naoko looked at each other and then the older girl stood up, about two inches taller than the boy.
"That's okay…I guess. But who the hell are you? And who's Sokka? And what are you doing in this forest? It's private property of the Kohako Exchange Center."
Naoko cocked her head. "It IS?"
Chikako sweatdropped. "And don't mind her. She's my brainless twit of a friend."
"YUP!"
The boy snickered. "Uh…okay. I'm Aang. Sokka is my friend. His sister's name is Katara. We're headed to the North Pole."
A girl climbed out from the foliage and stood beside Aang. "I'm Katara…do you know how far away from here it is to the North Pole?"
Naoko jumped up and swayed on her feet, her eyes rolling back into her head. "Thank you, God! We're saved!"
Chikako caught her before she toppled over, laughing nervously. "She had pocky…"
Aang and Katara glanced at each other and then back to Chikako. The firebender smiled.
"I'm Chikako. This is my best friend Naoko. We both belong to the Kohako Exchange Center. You two…know what that is, right?"
Katara's eyes brightened. "Yeah…yeah, I've heard of that place! All different people of the nations live there, right?"
Aang grinned. "Oh! So that's why you're both of different nations…"
A teenage boy with brown hair fell out from between two trees. "I feel forgotten…and hungry."
Katara rolled her eyes. "That's my brother Sokka."
Chikako and Naoko nodded slightly, a bit lost in the stereotypical first chapter introductions. Naoko suddenly straightened up, laughing nervously at how short she was compared to Aang.
"I'm Naoko! This is Chikako—!"
"I told them…"
"Oh…we belong to the—!"
"I told them…"
"Oh…hi!"
Chikako facepalmed and then looked to the teenager who had fallen from between the trees. Her face softened, and she blushed, and then narrowed her eyes.
"You're Sokka?"
Sokka sat up, nodding. "Yeah…?" He stopped his question as he noticed she was a firebender. An upside-down firebender…or maybe that was because he was upside down…
She crossed her arms. "What?" Chikako snapped, glaring at him. Naoko poked the lemur.
"He's cute…what's his name?"
"Momo…"
Naoko laughed. "Peach!"
Aang nodded, holding Momo out to Naoko. "Wanna hold him?"
"SURE!" She grabbed the chibi-like monkey thing and cuddled it, rubbing her cheek against his fur. Momo purred and scampered up to perch on her shoulder.
Katara turned to Sokka. "Be nice and say hi."
Sokka narrowed his own eyes, glowering at the upside-down firebender. "Hi," he snarled.
Chikako stuck out her tongue, tossing her long bangs over her shoulder. Two small bells were tied to the ends of the two long strands of red hair. They jingled as they flew over her shoulder. Dropping her arms, she knelt beside Sokka and formed a ball of fire in her palm.
"You got a problem with me being a firebender, water peasant?"
Sokka blinked. Where had he heard that before?
Zuko!
"NO. I just hate them."
Katara, hearing the familiar phrase also, touched Chikako on the shoulder. "You haven't met Prince Zuko before, have you…?"
"Oh, sure; I know him. I'm his sister." The thirteen-year-old looked up to Katara, her narrowed eyes innocently glinting in that way of Zuko's. Naoko snickered as Momo buried his nose in her hair. Aang spun around at Chikako's last words. Katara's eyes widened, and above the trees a flock of birds fluttered away from the branches as one word rang sharply through the air.
"WHAT?"

-snickers- Okay. Those flashbacks all actually happened to me, just not with the Fire Nation and stuff like that. LOL