A/N: I've caught the writing fever – help! Lol although you guys are probably happy with that XD This is the final set-up chapter, after that things get interesting! Or at least I hope you find it interesting. There's a spoiler for the film: Into the spiderverse, so this is just heads up for anyone who hasn't watched the film but intends to (I totally recommend it if you haven't btw, it's brilliant). Anyway, hope you enjoy.
At the University Library:
Friday:
Katara's POV:
My fingers run through my hair as I stare hard at my notes, trying to make sense about these optic nerves, but no matter how many times I re-read the words, it just doesn't make sense. With a groan I drop my pen onto the desk just as my phone vibrates with a text. Relief runs through my veins at the much needed break as I whip out my phone from my pocket to find a text from Yue. I blink twice, surprised to hear from her after she's been absent from lectures for the last few days. I open up the message:
Hey Katara, sorry I haven't been around. Something came up at home. Will see you on Mon!
Yue
My eyebrows furrow in concern at her wording and my fingers automatically dance across my screen as I type out a response:
No need to apologise! Are you ok?
"And here I thought you were the ideal student." My neck snaps up at the familiar voice to find Aang standing in front me with his bag draped across his shoulder as a smirk is painted across his lips. I roll my eyes at him and place my phone on the desk.
"Usually I am, but I needed a break. Yue has been missing from lectures for the last few days and she's finally got back to me." I answer as I glance back to my phone, but there's no reply yet. The airbender takes a seat in the vacant chair beside me and drops his shoulder bag on the ground next to him.
"Yue is one of your med friends right?" Aang asks as he takes out his exercise book. I nod.
"Yep. I hope she's ok. It's not usual for students to already skip out on lectures so early on in the term." I say while chewing my lip. A nudge to my elbow breaks me out of my worries as Aang shoots me a concerned smile.
"Hopefully it's nothing worrying." He murmurs gently, somehow already putting me at ease. The corner of my lips tug upwards.
"Yeah, I'm sure it's fine." I voice, already convincing myself as I slip my phone back into my pocket. My eyes drop once more my notes and I exhale at the still confusing terminology.
"You alright there? You look like you want to burn your paper into a crisp." The child genius jokes. I snort at him before shaking my head.
"Tempting, but no. I'm trying to figure out the difference between a block in the optic nerve and the oculomotor nerve, but it all sounds the same." I complain while massaging my forehead. I sense as the airbender shuffles closer to look over my shoulder. His eyes skim through the page before shaking your head.
"No wonder why you don't get it, the lecturer barely explains it." Aang points out. I release a low breath, relieved that I'm not a total dumb-brain.
"That's semi-reassuring, but I still need to know it." I mumble just as Aang picks my pen from the desk and tears off a spare page from his book.
"I can teach you if you want?" He volunteers and I try so hard not to gawk at him, but it's hard not to. 'Come on, he can't surely know everything, right?!' The airbender catches my look and must've guessed what's running through my mind as he opens his mouth. "I nearly considered doing medicine myself so I read up on some topics." He explains sheepishly, snapping me out of my self-induced daze.
"R-right. Wow, why change your mind?" I ask curiously, eliciting a shrug from the boy.
"Airbender, remember? I like the skies." Aang answers nonchalantly. I smile and nod in understanding.
"Well, in that case I'd love some help." I admit, trying to hide the shame in my voice. The boy grins as he starts drawing a similar picture to what the lecturer was using earlier today.
"Right, so the optic nerve is the sensory supply and the oculomotor nerve is the motor supply. Sensory supply refers to reaction to light, so when you shine a light in someone's light the pupil constricts right?" The airbender pauses to look at me, making sure that I'm following. I nod my head.
"Right." I affirm, 'that was the only part I did understand from the lecture.'
"Cool. So if you have a block in the optic nerve of one eye, then both eyes won't respond to light and neither will constrict to light. Now, the oculomotor nerve controls the muscle that constricts the eyes. If it's blocked in one of your eyes, your other eye will still be able to constrict because it can still detect light, so you have one eye that constricts and the other eye with the block won't. Erm, make sense?" Aang asks as he looks up from his drawing. I blink twice as the pieces of the puzzle suddenly click in place and a grin starts to work its way up my face.
"Aang you are a genius! That makes so much more sense than what that lecturer was droning on about. Thank you!" I babble excitedly and proceed to jot it down before I forget. I'm so busy writing that I miss the uneasy expression that flashes across the boy's face.
"No worries. Glad I could help." He expresses lightly as I finish writing it up. I glance back up to him as he flickers through his textbook.
"Well, I think I'm done for the day. Next time, I'm just going to ask you if I get stuck." I tease, earning me another smile from the airbender.
"Anytime. I like helping." He voices smoothly. His eyes dart around the library before leaning forward.
"If you're done we could watch that movie if you want?" Aang suggests hopefully. I quirk my eyebrow at him.
"Didn't you come here to do work though?" I query and watch as he shrugs his shoulders.
"I was just going to get started on an assignment due in March." He answers offhandedly. I balk.
"March? That's 5 months away!" I exclaim in disbelief.
"Can never get too far ahead." He states cheekily and the joke is certainly not lost on me, even if it's unexpected. 'Aang is willingly making jokes about his genius? That's new.' I wonder in surprise while flashing him a warm smile as a sense of pride runs through me at the improvement.
"Well, in that case a movie would be nice." I admit guiltily, knowing that I should be studying, but the break is all too tempting. But when I see the airbender taking out his laptop and opening the lid up, I blink.
"Wait, you want to watch it here?" I whisper in shock, pulling the airbender's attention away from his screen as he furrows his eyebrows.
"Yeah why not?" He asks, clearly confused and I can't help but wonder if he even went to school.
"We're in a library, I'm pretty sure we can't do anything that isn't study related here." I explain and watch as understanding dawns on him.
"Oh yeah that was a rule at school wasn't it? Sorry, it's been a while since I was at one. But things are different at uni. No rules about watching a movie. Well, as long as you're quiet that is." Aang explains as he whips out a pair of earbuds and offers me one. I furrow my eyebrows.
"Are you sure?" I ask anxiously, glancing around me for a librarian, but find none.
"Absolutely. Look over there, other people are doing it." The child genius expresses easily and I follow where his eyes are directed to indeed find another student watching Jurassic Park. I purse my lips before returning my gaze back to the boy.
"Ok?" I utter unsurely, eliciting a soft chuckle from the airbender.
"Trust me I've done this plenty of times, including when the librarians are around. I mean, libraries are also there for relaxing, right?" Aang reassures with a playful nudge, putting me at ease.
"Alright fine. You win." I grumble, prompting the boy to do a small fist pump in the air before going back to his keyboard. I catch a brief glance of a picture of some old looking house as his home screen saver, before it's hidden by an opened internet tab. I'm just about to ask about the significance of the house, but hold my tongue on the last minute, reminding myself that I promised not to be so pushy. A few minutes later, my eyes skim over the title of the film: Into the Spiderverse. I quirk an eyebrow at the boy.
"And here I thought you were going to choose some live action movie." I joke, earning an abashed expression from the boy.
"Sorry?" He apologises good-naturedly. I laugh and shake my head.
"Don't. I've heard this one is good, but haven't had the chance to watch it yet." I express with a smile. Aang wipes his forehead in mock relief as his eyes twinkle.
"Then I'm honoured to be the one to share the experience of it with you. I recommend it to everyone." The airbender explains as he presses play. I quickly shove the ear-bud into my ear and watch as the movie begins. I get so sucked in that I completely forget we're in the library as the shocking events unfold before me. It's only when we reach the part of where the uncle is shot dead do I notice a slight shifting movement beside me. My eyes flicker over to the boy to find his grey orbs filled with moisture as he flickers his gaze away from the screen. I frown and give the child genius a nudge. His gaze snaps up to mine and he quickly blinks twice to rid the tears from his eyes.
"Are you ok?" I whisper in concern, prompting a vigorous nod from the airbender.
"Totally! This part just always gets me." Aang waves away, but he must've realised that I don't believe him as he hurriedly expands on his statement. "It's just so sad, you know? I can't help being a hopeless sentimental kid." He adds with a small smile, but it doesn't reach his eyes and for the first time I'm hit with a sudden realisation. 'Does...does Aang relate to this?'
I swallow thickly and glance back to the boy to find that he's returned his attention to the screen again, all emotions are wiped off his face and his features have instead turned into a perfect mask. 'No. I'm just over-thinking things again. Besides, Aang's not wrong, he's certainly more in touch with his emotions than a lot of people. He's probably just as empathetic as I am. I mean, spirits knows that I could feel tears pricking at the backs of my eyes. Plus, he's still a child, of course he'll be more emotional.'
I chew my lip, wondering if my next course of action will be crossing any boundaries, especially since we've only known each other for a couple of weeks now. In the end, I don't allow myself to debate over it for a moment longer as I slowly stretch out an arm to rest it across the boy's shoulders in a side-hug. The child genius jerks his head up to stare at me in surprise, but I stubbornly keep my blue orbs glued to the screen, not knowing how to answer the question that must be in his grey irises. After a few moments, I feel his shoulders relax and we remain in that position until the credits roll in. At which point Aang turns to face me expectantly.
"Well?" He queries eagerly. I shake my head, speechless.
"That was...wow. That was really good. A lot more emotional than I was anticipating, but beautifully done. Thank you for showing it to me." I gush gratefully, eliciting a grin from the boy.
"I'm glad you liked it. It's such a brilliant film, definitely one of my top 5." Aang expresses as he closes his laptop. I'm just about to ask him what are his other four when his watch beeps. He glances down at it and pulls a face.
"Oh monkey feathers! I forgot I have a lecture in a few minutes. I've got to go, but I'll see you soon. Maybe the weekends?" The airbender suggests. I grin and nod.
"Sounds perfect." I confirm and watch as he shoves his stuff into his bag before slinging it over his shoulder. I bite my lip before grasping his wrist just as he starts to leave. He blinks and returns his gaze to me with a questioning eyebrow.
"We still haven't exchanged phone numbers." I blurt out before cringing when I realise the airbender has more pressing things to do. But instead of the mocking laugh I half expected, the boy simply shoots me a warm smile as he takes out his phone from his pocket and unlocks the home-screen before passing it to me to type in my phone number. I quickly key in the numbers and pass it back to him.
"Does that officially make us friends then?" Aang teases and I flush in embarrassment.
"Yes?" I mumble as the boy laughs while tapping at his phone screen. A second later a bing sounds from my phone and glancing at the screen I find one new message from an unknown number. I quickly open it and read:
Glad to be officially friends.
Aang ;)
I look up to find the child genius grinning. I snort and gently nudge him forward.
"Come on, you're going to be late for your lecture." I remind lightly in an attempt to distract myself from the storm that's swirling around in my chest. The boy's eyes widen comically as he slaps his forehead.
"Oh spirits yeah! See you later Katata!" Aang exclaims as he dashes towards the exit and out of sight. A ball of affection lodges itself into my heart at his easy going demeanour and I shake my head fondly as I go to save his number with a smile.
A/N: I seriously love Katara's & Aang's interactions, they are the sweetest. I tried to convey that, but I feel my writing was a bit patchy – who knew my best writing comes when I'm on the bus to uni XD Anyway, I thought it was important to try to build up their friendship more. Aang is starting to feel more at ease with Katara and Katara can't help but feel bursts of affection for Aang, I mean he's too adorable not to, right?
The whole science on the nerves was exactly what happened with me, I did not get it for the life of me until one of my friends explained it, so basically Katara's reactions are based on mine XD
As I said, next chapter is when things finally pick up, so I hope you'll enjoy it. Next update will be next month I think, but lol who knows – maybe this fever will carry on.
Medical terms:
Optic nerves & Oculomotor nerves are part of your cranial nerves (arising from the brain). Not sure if you guys noticed (I certainly didn't) but if you shine light into only one of your eyes, both will constrict, even the one where you didn't shine light. Doctors often shine light into our eyes if they want to check for any cranial nerve damage.
Sometimes you can get only one of your eyes constricting in response to light or you can get neither of your eyes constricting to light. Depending on which one it will suggest a block/damage to one of those nerves (either optic or oculomotor). Pretty cool huh? If you didn't understand Aang's explanation of it, don't worry – it's so complex and I'm not sure I explained it well, but it was the first thing I really didn't understand in med, so thought to use that in the story.
13/3/21