Last Time…

I sat at the edge of the lagoon and closed my eyes. She sat next to me. After a while, my eyelids started drooping. I got up without a word and left. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit my pillow in the big house.

I was awoken by an airball plopping me on the floor. I groaned and rubbed my head. Aang was leaning against my door.

"Come on Rei, they brought us some food. And it's desert for breakfast!"

I growled slightly and went to grab him. He ran away using airbending. I ran after him yelling, "Get back here! You do not interrupt my sleeping young man!"

"And who's gonna stop me grandma?"

I yelled in frustration and sprinted down the hallway after him. He took a left and I skidded into the room. Aang was looking down at the ground with his hands behind his back. Katara's angry face entered my view.

"You two are so childish! You shouldn't run in the house! Ugh! I don't even know what to do with you!"

"Let us off and we can all eat breakfast?"

Aang looked up hopefully at mom- (oops, typo) Katara. She narrowed her eyes, but then closed them and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Alright. Sit down and eat."

We both did so.

"Alright! Dessert for breakfast!"

Aang and I dug in. It was all super sweet and I loved it. I hadn't tasted stuff like this since Krispy Kreme back in my universe. Katara was looking at the sweets with hesitation.

"Mmm… Katara, you've got to try these!"

Aang held out a pastry to her.

"Well, maybe just a bite."

She took it and ate a bite. Aang looked over into the corner to someone I hadn't noticed thus far. "Sokka, what's your problem? Eat!"

I looked over munching on a sweet banana-melon pastry. Sokka sitting hunched in the corner glowering at the ground in front of him.

"Not hungry," He muttered.

"But you're always hungry!"

Aang looked shocked. A smug look curled up onto Katara's face and teased, "He's just upset because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday."

"They snuck up on me," Sokka protested.

"Riiiight." She smirked. "And then they kicked your butt."

Sokka stood up angrily and insisted, "Sneak attacks don't count!"

He started pacing and muttering to himself. He reached down and grabbed a couple of pastries from the table. He took a bite before huffing himself out of the room.

"What's he so angry about? It's great here. They're giving us the royal treatment."

"Hey, don't get too comfortable. It's risky for us to stay in one place for very long."

Aang got up from his seat and started walking toward the window.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. Besides, did you see how happy I'm making this town? They're even cleaning up that statue in my honor!"

"Well, it's nice to see you excited about being the Avatar. I just hope it doesn't all go to your head."

"Come on, you know me better than that. I'm just a simple monk."

Screams were heard from outside and Aang looked down. A large smile broke out on his face and he blushed from the attention. Katara stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry at him. I continued to eat because it was good food and they'd get over their little squabble eventually. They left before me. Katara went to get supplies and Aang to his fans. I made a small bag of water and food. Then, I sat in the little shrine. I talked to the small statue of Kyoshi. Once I started, I couldn't stop. Words just kept spilling out of my mouth. I told her my problems and my worries about affecting the timeline. I spoke all about my old life. My brother and my parents.

I cried a lot. It was a relief to talk. It wasn't necessarily to someone, but close enough. It came naturally for me to talk. I hadn't opened up about anything thus far. The peace and quiet must've had something to do with it.

The yellow sun breached the edge of the mountain around me. Strips of sunlight flooded the pit cave, somewhat filtered by the willow tree's canopy. A sigh escaped me as I soaked in the heat of the sun and unwrapped my lunch. As I was pulling out my healthy portion to just get it over with, I stopped short. I put it down on a napkin in front of me and reached back in the sack.

"Here Kyoshi. I don't think you can actually eat this, but hopefully you can appreciate the sentiment of eating together."

I stood, hopped onto the tiny island, and gingerly put the duckberry turnover in front of her gravestone.

"Are you serious? That's your offering?"

My hair flipped into my face and I spluttered while hastily dragging my hair back behind my ears. As I struggled to straighten it out, I heard barely concealed giggles. I turned a glare to the warrior who had surprised me.

"What is it to you?" I snarled. She took a step back and held her hands up in a mock surrender.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I come here to pray to Kyoshi before my lunch. I didn't expect to see anyone here."

I scoffed. "My offering is what it is. I don't usually pray and I thought, if she was here with me, she'd appreciate sharing the pastries." I hopped back over the small stretch of water to my sack and started to put my sandwich back in.

"No, you don't have to leave. I'm sorry that I startled you. Can you forgive me?" The warrior grabbed my sandwich-bearing arm and tugged it away. I pursed my lips, turned my glowering face to her and stared right into her eyes: Those big pleading eyes. I sighed. She was truly sorry and I was being a bit of a bitch about it all. It was only a mild scare.

"Look, let's just start over. Hi, I'm Rei. What's your name?"

The girl grinned widely. "I'm Nakeh. And I already know. You're one of the Avatar's companions. It's soooooo fantastic. Suki says I shouldn't get too close cause he'll have to leave soon. But I've been seeing all of the other kids running after him. But I'm a warrior so I have to be better than them. But it'd be really fantastic to meet him. But I want to impress Suki so I can be the best Kyoshi Warrior ever. But I-" I watched her literally devolve into arguing with herself. I scanned my eyes over her again. She was tiny. I didn't realise it before because of the uniform. She couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 years old. Why was she in the Kyoshi Warriors? Why would they take on that young of a girl? Nakeh was still ranting, "But I'm sure the Avatar has better things to do than talk to me about air nomad school. Probably fantastical Avatar things. Probably-"

"Hey Nakeh," I interrupted. She turned on her heel and ran up into my face.

"Yeah?"

How was her face not sore with how much smiling she was doing? Instead of asking that, I simply asked, "How old are you?"

"Oh, I'm 9 years old in a couple weeks. Suki said that this was my early birthday present. I get to be a Kyoshi Warrior!"

I raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Really? Suki agreed to that?"

Nakeh's smile abruptly switched from the bright grin to a self-satisfied smirk.

"Well… after months of begging and pranks. After I stole her uniform, I think she just accepted that I wouldn't stop until I got what I wanted."

I burst out laughing. Backing away, I clutched my stomach and bent over from sheer amusement. "Kid, you are… beyond insane. You got the makings of a master prankster." I let out a couple more laughs before falling down next to my sack. I gave it a glance and asked, "Hey, wanna share some pastries?"

We ended up laughing about all the pranks that she had pulled on Suki in order to get into the Kyoshi Warriors. I especially liked the one where she got one of the extra uniforms, dyed it pink, and replaced Suki's uniform with that one. Suki apparently hadn't even noticed because she was so sleepy and wore it all over the village and all the way to the house where the Warriors practiced. One of the early-risers hadn't recognized Suki in the different uniform and kicked her into a muddy puddle. Suki had made Nakeh clean and re-dye the uniform which took the whole day. Both Nakeh and I agreed it was worth it.

When the sunlight vanished back over the other side of the pit cave's walls, Nakeh left to go back to training. I decided to settle in for a nap. As adorable as she was, the little ball of energy was just a little too much. I rested against the base of the tree and slept the afternoon away.

The crow of a bird woke me much later when the sky was almost black. I felt my way around and grabbed my empty sack. In the dim light, I couldn't see that the gravestone had only a pile of crumbs left on it. Luckily, I remembered my way enough to get back to the big house. Some of the torches were still lit, so it was easy enough to get back to my room. A small, cold helping of dinner laid on a table in my room. I ate it gratefully and rested peacefully that night.

Breakfast the next day was… tense. Sure. That's a word we could use. Super intensely tense. Aang and Katara did not want to talk to each other, but Sokka was fast-talking all about the warriors and their techniques. He seemed really happy. He was so emphatic about his training that he completely ignored (or just didn't notice) that Katara's repeated use of 'oh cool' was fake.

I left as soon as Sokka did. I didn't really want to be around the tension that was permeating from both Aang and Katara. I planned to do the same thing as the day before. It had been so peaceful. I'd be able to talk through my problems with Kyoshi and Nakeh would be here at lunchtime. An extra portion of food was in my sack this time.

But as I was finally getting into the flow of my one-sided conversation, I heard screams and yells coming from the village. I saw smoke coming from that direction and I figured that it was time to go. The Fire Nation had arrived. I bowed respectfully to Kyoshi's statue before hurrying away. I grabbed my stuff and threw it all together. It was probably a mess of organization, but I could fix it later. I put it with Katara's stuff in her room (she'd get it onto Appa for me) and walked down to the road.

I stood refreshing my lipstick in the middle of the road while Zuko came in on his rhino. I smirked down at the ground before looking up at him with an eyebrow raised. He slid off his rhino and got into a fighting stance. I responded with the same, putting my lipstick in my pocket. He mocked me trying to get a rise out of me.

"You don't think you have a chance against me, peasant? You can't even bend."

"No, but I've got something you don't."

"No more talking. This bores me."

He threw a fireball at me and I blocked it with my sword. He gasped in surprise. I managed to not betray that I had no bloody clue how I did that. I was gonna say that I had determination, but now that I think about it, I guess he had determination too.

"How? That's impossible! A sword can't block a fireball."

I decided to roll with it. He didn't need to know that I had no clue that it was possible either.

"Impossible's my middle name dicktwat."

He growled and threw some more fireballs. I blocked one and dodged the other two. I ran under his attacks and swiped at his legs. He blocked with a quick spray of fire, but I retaliated quickly. We went back and forth until I caught his left cheek and left a little vertical cut. I stepped back and sheathed my sword. The Kyoshi warriors came out from behind the buildings and fought him and his guards. I was able to run away from the fight. I looked back and searched the Warriors, but I couldn't see Nakeh. Hopefully, she was safe and not fighting. Sokka was holding his cheek and blushing when I passed him. I grabbed him by his collar and dragged him over to Appa.

"Hey!" He yelled at me.

"Suck it up pretty boy. We gotta go. Aang! Let's move it!"

"Yip yip!"

We flew away from the village. Aang looked back with deep regret in his eyes. He dived off Appa and into the water below us. Katara gasped and leaned over the side of the saddle and yelled, "What are you doing?!"

Several seconds went by before the unagi burst out of the water with Aang clinging onto one of its whiskers. He grabbed hold of both whiskers and forced the Unagi's head towards the burning town of Kyoshi. Aang pulled back on the whiskers and the Unagi spewed water over the town. The stream continued long enough to put out the fires Zuko and his soldiers had lit. The Unagi reared its head and Aang used the momentum to leap back onto Appa.

"I know, I know. That was stupid and dangerous."

He looked down expecting some form of lecture about it from the resident mother of the group.

"Yes it was," Katara smiled and hugged him. He returned both the smile and the hug. We flew off away from the village northward. I'd miss that one day where I had peace. I sighed. At least I got one. There'd be no quiet within the coming days.