Book One: Water 水善

Chapter Three

"Seriously, Sokka, how long have we been working on your dodging skills?"

"UGH! Lai, I'm trying! Dodging while trying to hit is hard!"

"Sokka, the soldiers aren't going to stop attacking you so you can hurt them. That's not how war works."

"I know that!"

"Obviously." A sigh. "Look, let's just try this again. Remember, try and hit me while I'm moving."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Sokka, I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but I don't think you could hurt me if you tried."

Two weapons, one club and one sword, clashed against each other. The club was aggressive and unsure, while the sword was precise. Sokka tried to move around Lai as gracefully as he could, making sure to not slide against the icy ground. He thought he had the upper hand when he caught her off guard. Only, instead of her on the ground, he found himself flipped over on his stomach.

"Sokka, dude, stop overthinking! You literally had me!"

"I can do it! Just...-lemme stand!" He struggled to get up and refused Lai's hand when she offered. "I'm fine."

"I think we should stop for today. You seem tired."

Sokka groaned out as he threw his club on the ground. The young warrior was covered in small scrapes and bruises, some from his actual warrior training but most from his training sessions with Lai. He covered his face with his hands and groaned again.

"This is hopeless. I'm useless without bending! Why can't I just be able to magically bend water and hope for the best?! Everyone loves waterbenders!" Sokka sunk to the floor. "I'm useless in a fight. I can't even protect my own sister."

Lai sunk down to the floor with him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, Sokka, you're not going to get this overnight. I know I'm kind of hard on you, but that's because I see a great warrior in you. Besides, you don't need bending to be a good warrior. Look at me."

Sokka's head popped up from his self-loathing to raise an eyebrow at Lai.

"What?"

"Umm-" She glanced over at him, "-just forget I said that. You're going to be a good warrior, you just need some practice."

"Thanks, Lai, that actually means a lot."

"Ok Aang, why don't you try that form again. You're doing it all wrong." Lee calmly said. "You need to have a push and pull with your movements, one thing leads to another."

The airbender sighed before getting back into his stance. He worked through the movements again, piecing them together in one fluid motion. As he moved water began to move with him until a single ring was formed around him. He pushed the water to Lee who readily accepted and did the same.

"Good! Keep going!" Lee's voice was light as he encouraged the airbender, not that it usually wasn't. He knew Pakku had paired him up with the tattooed boy due to his kindess, but it was mostly because of his abilities. He was possibly one of Pakku's best students, not that the grumpy old master would ever admit to it.

"Hey! I'm doing it!" Aang stated happily as he passed the water back to Lee.

"Good. On this next one, try turning it to ice."

As the water was passed back to Aang the boy tried to turn it into ice. Instead, a puddle of what looked slush plopped ungracefully in front of him. The Avatar groaned loudly as he plopped into the snow, defeated.

"I can barely make ice! This stinks! Even Katara can do it and she's only been at this a week."

Lee went down to his level, his tangerine colored eyes staring into the airbender's gray. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I couldn't turn water into ice until-like-a year after I started training. I was a little older than you. You're doing far better than I ever did in the first month so don't get yourself down."

The Avatar smiled. "Thanks Lee. You really know how to make a guy feel better."

"Yeah," he scoffed, "tell that to my sister."

"You have a sister?!"

"Yeah. Lai. She's been helping your friend Sokka in the mornings with sword things and such. I tend to stay away from her pointy objects, yah know? No sense in getting mixed up with 'em." Lee scratched the back of his head. Lee bent some water into his hand and began the exercise, passing the water to the airbender.

"Really? Wow that's awesome! Where'd she learn how to fight?" Aang passed the water back. It moved as energetically as the young man spoke.

"Well, before we lived here, we lived in the Fire Nation. I know, I know, you're probably wondering how we ended up here and why I'm a waterbender. That's another discussion for another time when we're not in training." Lee passed the water back to the Avatar. His face became contemplative, almost like he was trying to figure out what words to say.

"We...were very good friends with Prince Zuko as children. He and I would usually go off and play while Lai would go into the library and read. Eventually our running around turned into playing with wooden swords. She'd join every once in a while and would try out new moves that she read about and completely cream us. When we came here, Artook decided that whenever it was extremely necessary Lai would protect his daughter. He made special circumstances for her to learn how to fight so then she could defend Yue if no one else could. He practically had to force them to train her. The sexist pigs didn't believe she could even hold a sword, better yet become possibly one of the best fighters they had."

"Wow. What was Zuko like when he was a kid?"

"Oh, he was extremely sweet but with a huge temper. With his mother there trying to weed out the crazy, I'm sure he ended up pretty normal. He also was sweet on Lai. It was honestly sickening."

Aang gave him an incredulous look. "He's been trying to capture me since I got out of the iceberg."

"Oh. Well...he's-uh-very-umm-determined?"

The two finished the exercise in almost complete silence minus Lee's encouraging words every couple of minutes. By the time they finished the exercise the training for the day was over. Katara began making her way over to the pair.

"Hey Aang! Lee!" She stayed excitedly.

"Hey Katara!"

"Hey Katara. What are you guys doing tonight?"

The girl in question shrugged as she stopped by Aang. "I was just going to make some food, possibly practice some bending with Aang, while Sokka brags about his training, why?"

"You guys want to come over and eat with my sister and I? She, surprisingly, is really interested to meet you guys." Lee stated.

"Surprisingly? Why are you surprised?"

"Well..." he began, "Lai doesn't necessarily like people all that much. She's also kind of moody. Sokka, somehow, has weaseled his way into her heart. She's been a bit happier, even if she constantly says how much of an idiot he can be."

Katara put her hand on her chin, a loud, joking 'hmmm' resonating from her. She smiled at Lee.

"We'd love to come. What time?"

"Around sunset, which reminds me! I'll see you guys at dinner? I gotta run and meet up with Lai!" Lee began to run away from the pair. Before he exited the training area, he turned around. "Sokka knows where our place is! Just tell him what's up and he'll show you around!"

He turned back around and took off sprinting.

Once Lee got closer to his home he slowed to a walk. It was nice, cold strolls like these that the waterbender valued. Sure, being with people was great, but the short times of contemplative silence he got made his mind clear. Walks like these also let him sort out his dreams, or visions as he liked to call them. The red moon had be a constant lately, plaguing his dreams every time his head hit the pillow. This time around he didn't let the dreams occupy his mind. Instead, he focused on the happy feeling that the young Avatar pumped through his veins.

That kid's happy attitude is really contagious.

He placed his hands together and whistled as he walked, glancing down every alleyway to try and find his other half.

He found her sometime later throwing fireballs at frozen targets.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine." she huffed as she melted another target. "Just. Fine." A fireball came out on every word, destroying yet another of the many targets.

Lee shifted his hands and the targets reappeared.

"Lai, what's wrong. I haven't seen you like this since we left the Fire Nation." Lee walked slowly over to his sister, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I've had a bad feeling since the Avatar showed up. What if they come back, what if they come to find us?" Lai slumped down against the nearby wall.

Lee took a seat next to his sister and sighed. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, the young waterbender brought her into him and smiled. "Your instincts have always been good, do you want to go talk to Arnook? The last time you had this feeling we avoided famine during the dry season."

"No, I don't think I-" Lai began, but she stopped mid sentence at the sight of black snow. Lai reached her hand out to catch one of the flakes. She rubbed it in her fingers and a coat of soot covered her fingers.

"Oh no. This isn't good."

A/N:

I just realized I haven't actually written an author's note. It's been like YEARS since I've written on here, and I'd like to thank all of you guys for reading so far! I really never thought anyone would pick up on this story, considering there are a lot of stories like this out there.

Whatever, anyways, thank you SOOOOO much for reading! Please leave reviews and tell me what you think! I really appreciate the feedback.

I'm trying to move as fast as possible through the first season to get to the second, that's probably where the majority of the meat of the story will be. When I started writing this, I really got into the second season of Avatar a lot more and that's kind of where the idea came from. So...sorry if the first couple of chapters seem a bit rushed. I just REALLY want to get to Book Two.

Yay...updates.

...is it bad I'm already planning a Legend of Korra sequel? No? Okay then.

-bandkid4life