Avatar: the Last Airbender is property of Nickelodeon.
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Whether they knew it or not, everyone had an aura. A color, a mixture of colors, a feeling, no matter what, everyone had a distinct aura, something to be recognized by.
Or something like that, Ty Lee thought. The only thing she knew was that she felt them, and whether or not they differed from person to person was a mystery.
She didn't know if she was pink to everyone, if Azula was always an empty black, if Mai was always a blood red, if the one in the distance was always a faint yellow, if the mongoose lizards were always--
Wait wait wait. The acrobat took a deep breath. To her right and a bit ahead was Azula's black, even farther over was a dark red, and ahead of her, far far ahead and a bit to the left was a ... Ty Lee furrowed her eyebrows. The color was wavering in and out of sight, but it felt like... yellow. A light yellow. Almost white, but not clean enough to be white.
"I'm hungry," she announced suddenly, receiving odd looks from her companions.
"So?" the princess snapped, making Mai send the other girl a look that said say another word and it'll be hell for us both.
"Can we stop for a bit?" Ty Lee asked, ignoring the sigh from her right.
"No."
"Just for a moment?" the girl begged, feeling like she was being pulled to the innocent aura a bit ahead of them. "Just long enough for me to gather some berries, I won't be more than a few minutes!"
"No."
"Please Azula?"
"I said no."
"Pretty please?"
"I'm not in the mood to argue."
"Ple--"
"Azula," Mai intervened, internally cringing under the glare her leader leveled on her. "Perhaps it would be best if we just took a short break. You know Ty Lee won't stop complaining until then."
The princess gave out a resigned sigh. "Fine."
But Ty Lee had already taken off.
----
The hard part had been giving up his helmet. Memorizing the plan, reciting his lines, embarking to do his mission, it was easy. But giving up his hat had been like giving up his identity.
Which of course was why he had to do it, but still, he felt vulnerable without it.
A snap of a twig brought him out of his musing, and he pulled his knees up to his chest and dug a stick into his side. "Who... who's there!" he cried out, pleased with the tone of pain he seemed to manage.
A girl stepped out between two trees. She was dressed all in pink, her hair up in a braid, and despite her warm demeanor, the boy made himself shrink away.
"Are you okay?" the girl asked, cocking her head to the side.
"Who are you?" he sniffled.
"I'm Ty Lee." She walked over and kneeled beside the boy. "Are you okay?"
He was quiet a moment, forgetting what he was supposed to say next, than asked, "Are you with the evil people?"
Ty Lee bit her lip. "Was your home attacked by the Fire Nation?"
Tears formed in the little boy's eyes, and he whimpered. "I want my mommy..."
"You poor thing..." she said, resisting the urge to scoop the young boy into her arms. "When was the last time you ate?"
"Well, I've had berries, but..."
It took all Ty Lee's will power to not smack herself. "Azula is gonna kill me."
"Who?"
"I'm traveling with two other girls and I really have to go..." she stood up, but looked down at the alone boy.
"Already?" he asked, scrunching his face into the best puppy face he could manage.
"Yes... but... I don't think Azula would mind if I brought you along."
His face brightened. "Really?" He bound toward her and wrapped his arms around her legs. "Thank you! It's so lonely out here in the forest..."
The acrobat smiled widely, but before she could say anything, she felt an angry aura coming their way. Agni help me. Without a word, she picked up the child and bolted back to her companions.
--
The boy watched from his spot where he had been dropped as Ty Lee girl fell into a kowtow, apologizing quickly to a girl sitting upon a big reptile thing.
With all the attention on his "savior", the boy began to inspect the other two girls.
He could only assume the one Ty Lee was apologizing to was Azula, the princess of the Fire Nation. Eying her clean appearance, superior pose and Fire Nation emblem, the boy felt like spitting out the foul taste in his mouth, but doing so would bring attention to himself.
The other girl seemed to be of Fire Nation ancestry, having the same dark hair and golden eyes. Between that and having his leader tell him nothing about her, he immediately disliked her.
It was then that he noticed that Ty Lee had stopped apologizing and Azula was glaring down at her.
Feeling like she'd be fried if he didn't do something, he gasped, "You brought me to the Fire Nation?"
Ty Lee sat up and looked at him, a startled look on her face. "No! Well, yes, but I promise they won't hurt you! That is unless you know of the Avatar's location, but..." the girl trailed off, not noticing how the boy had gone tense.
"Please Azula," the girl was turning back to her leader. "His family was killed, he has no where to go, let him come with us. You don't need to look at him, I'll care for him myself."
The girl turned her stare at the boy and pursed her lips. "What's your name?"
The boy blinked. He didn't remember his real name, and his nickname wouldn't work at all, nor was any of the others. C'mon, think, he told himself, then blurted out, "Chey."
"Chey?" the princess echoed, voicing his doubt.
"I think it's a great name!" Ty Lee said, jumping up to bow to the young boy. "It's a pleasure to met you, Chey."
"Can you take care of yourself?" the darker girl asked.
"Yea..." he replied, resisting the urge to step back.
"Then I don't mind him, so long as he doesn't get in the way."
Okay, maybe she isn't so bad.
"Azula?" Ty Lee said, turning around again to look at her leader.
There was a silence, then she said, "The minute he causes a problem I'll burn him to a crisp. Now hurry up, we've wasted enough time." With that, she spurred her animal to start walking again, the other girl following suit.
Ty Lee grinned and mounted her mongoose lizard, grabbing up "Chey" as she passed him.
----
After a few suffocating minutes, Azula stopped her mongoose lizard. Looking around at the forest, she said, "I can't help but feel like I'm being watched."
"I can't help it that you're pretty!"
Azula whipped around to stare at the small boy, Chey, that Ty Lee had picked up. There was something off about him. Little children weren't a common in forests miles away from surrounding villages, they weren't supposed to tense slightly at mention of the Avatar, and they weren't supposed to hesitate when asked for their name. There was something wrong about this situation, and Azula would be damned if she didn't figure it out.
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AN: Uh, not too sure what to say here. I'll admit I'm a bit hesitant about posting this (where am I going to go next, how long until canon screws me over, etc.), but I find the idea interesting, so why wouldn't a few other people? Hope you enjoyed it.