The Day You Kissed Me
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, because if I did, Appa toys would flood the world. The title of the fic is also not of my creation, it's a song by a wonderful country group called Rascal Flatts.
Chapter 1: The Alternative
"Pleeeease, Momo! Please! Just one bite!" Sokka begged the large-eared lemur as the two scampered around and around the small camp area. "I shouldn't even be begging you; it was mine to begin with!"
Momo sqrrrrr-ed and raced up a nearby tree. Safely out of Sokka's yearning grasp, the fuzzy lemur began sorting out his small cache of ripe fruits, fruits that Sokka had gathered earlier in the afternoon but left unguarded for one crucial second. Sokka slumped at the base of the tree. "They were mine," he whined.
"Oh come on, Sokka," Katara said. "We have another basket of them. All right, Aang, try that again."
Aang stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he strained to bend the water from the small creek on the side of their campground as Sokka muttered, "But they were my special fruits…I was saving them."
The young Avatar swirled his hands together and back, together and back, as the water floating before him coalesced into a smooth sphere. Ice began creeping from the edges of the water towards the center of the sphere, crackling as it went. A fine sheen of sweat was already filming Aang's face, and from the looks of it, he would be sweating much more before the bending lesson was over for the evening. With a grunt of effort, the ball of water froze with a final CRACK! and remained floating in front of the Avatar, who grinned widely at his achievement. "Hey look! I did it!"
"Good job, Aang!" Katara congratulated him. "Now, keep your left hand outstretched, holding the ice up, and with your right, try to shave disks of it off. Don't think about throwing any of the disks yet, let's just get you to make them."
The ball of ice dipped momentarily as Aang shifted his concentration to the new task. His right hand came back and sliced forward, and a neat disk of ice broke off from the floating sphere and fell to the ground, breaking into small chunks. "Woo!" Aang exulted.
Unfortunately, at that very moment Sokka decided to throw a pebble at Momo in a last-ditch effort to recover his stolen treasure, and Momo in retaliation leapt off the branch he was perched on and onto Sokka's head. This unexpected move drove Sokka backwards and into Aang, who lost his concentration and dropped the iceball. "AGAH YEGG BLUH!" Sokka yelled in surprise.
Snrroq! Momo replied. With perfect precision, he launched off of Sokka's head and back onto the branch. His work was done.
"Aww…I was just getting it too," Aang lamented.
"Sorry Aang," Sokka apologized. "Hey! Don't think I don't see you up there! This isn't over! I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!" he ranted back up to Momo, sequestered safely in the tree.
"It's okay, Aang." Katara soothed. "You were doing well, and with some more practice, we can begin throwing the ice disks at targets. Now let's try the freezing and slicing move again before we go to bed tonight."
Meanwhile, an iron ship emblazoned with the Fire Navy symbol dropped anchor in a small cove not too far from where the Avatar and his friends were camping for the night. Onboard, Fire Prince Zuko studied a map studded with pins indicating the Avatar's last stops. His fist clenched in a sudden bout of frustration. HOW does that accursed Avatar always slip out of my grasp? His thoughts were interrupted by his uncle's entrance. "Prince Zuko, it's late," Uncle Iroh yawned. "Yep, a man needs his rest."
"Uncle, I cannot sleep, knowing that each and every time I come close to having the Avatar, he manages to escape!"
Iroh sighed. "You must sleep still. What good would it be if we came across the Avatar and you were too exhausted to fight him? Rest keeps the body working, keeps the fire burning strong inside."
"My fire, even if it were in perfect working order, has not yet managed to retain him for long. It's always something! He always manages to escape; his Avatar Spirit incapacitates my men or he gets help from the spirit world, or his little friends come to his rescue…those Water peasants, even that monstrous airbison of his!"
Iroh knew there was no reasoning with his nephew when he got like this. He decided to humor Zuko for the moment. "That bison of his is rather impressive, I would say. I wish I could fly on him."
"Uncle! That's not helping!"
"I'm sorry, Nephew," Iroh paused. "Have you considered striking at the Avatar's weaknesses, instead of attacking him directly? The termite does not bring down a house by battering it head-on, but rather by eliminating its supports."
A vein throbbed in the prince's temple. "What am I supposed to do? Kidnap his companions?"
"Perhaps if you held one of them ransom, the Avatar would come willingly."
"But how? How do I get one of them? Lay out a custard tart trail leading into the jail cells of our ship? The girl is a skilled Waterbender now; I have even heard rumors that she may be a Master already, the youngest in memory. To capture her would initiate a fight that would take a considerable amount of my energy, I am ashamed to admit, and then I would be in poor shape to take the Avatar then."
"The boy then?"
Zuko considered. "Perhaps. Neither of them would be easy to procure, however. It appears we have limited options."
Iroh stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Although…although there may be an alternative."
"Who?"
The old general smiled softly. "We need someone close to the Avatar, someone relatively easy to lure into a trap. You said it yourself, the Avatar is always being rescued by his friends: the girl, her brother, and…"
A light ignited in Zuko's eyes. "His bison."
A/N: All right, so I'm completely new to the fanfic world, and I mean COMPLETELY. My sister had to tell me my first story was called a one-shot and I had to have my apartment-mate give me a rundown on all of those funky acronyms and fanfic jargon. Please drop me a message to let me know what you think of my writing, any typos or incongruities with the series it may have, or just to say hi!
All right, before y'all go "WTF is this like, Zutappa or something?" (Zuko + Katara + Appa; oh lordy, what a thought…shudder), it's not. I'm not into bestiality. I leave that to others. I got a little bit of silly action planned before we get to the good stuff (c'mon, you know you read these just for the sappy stuff), and Appa is my absolute favorite and a major contributing factor to my addiction to Avatar. Eee, fuzzy things.
Anyhow, things will pick up, so come back soon! I'll have tacos!