A/N: I don't own Avatar: The Legend of Aang. Please don't sue me!

Switching Sides

Chapter One: Pain and Danger

Firstly, the girl tried to move, gasping at the sharp pain that shot right up her leg and through her body, jarring every one of her nerves. Everything hurt. Where was she?

The air was warmer than it should have been. It still smelt of salt, like she was used to, but there were other smells with it: Dirt, smoke and danger. This is dangerous jangled through her mind, and she couldn't think for the strength of it. The only things there were, in this tiny little world of hers, were pain and danger.

She could not open her eyes. Her head hurt too much. Something hot and sticky trickled down her forehead, but she didn't dare guess what it was.

Presently, she became aware that she was being rocked from side to side. It made her sick, once she noticed it, and it crunched her poor bruised ribs against each other, pain exploding in her chest. She had definitely broken something, she decided through the terrible pounding in her head.

There was something beside her, too. A heavy, soft lump that seemed to be moving differently from the motion of the world around her – in, out, in, out.

Breathing. It was a body.

And then, the girl realized it was her brother. How could she have forgotten him? Ignoring all the pain, she leaned up and opened her eyes – slowly, oh, it hurt – to gaze at his face. It was the same as she remembered it, save for a small, deep cut on his left temple, half healed-over now, blood trickling slowly to mat in his eyebrow.

Not wanting to think where he'd got that cut, not wanting to think where the pain from her leg and her head came from, the girl curled up on a ground that was cold and hard and convinced herself this was all a dream.

Mother will come to find us. Mother will come and find us and clean us up and make us dinner and put us to bed, soon, and then everything will be alright.

Nothing's changed. Nothing at all.

Ailin breathed in deeply, inhaling the fresh salty air of the port. If there was one good thing about working in the market, gutting fish all day for a living, it was the sea. After forty years of labouring by the port, Ailin had become used to it by now. It was like an old friend, a friend that never let her down.

Today it was choppy, shouting against the port wall. Moonlight glanced off it sharply, turning parts milky and parts pitch, glassy black. It was beautiful – but Ailin had never been a great admirer of beauty. She carried on trudging home, trying not to think about the empty house that awaited her when she got back. Before she turned off the road past the sea, she took one last look at it – and saw a tiny, lone boat on the water, being tossed about roughly by the sea.

It could be one of her neighbours' boats – but something told her it was not.

For one thing, it was too small for that. For another, when the moonlight struck it just so, she could have sworn that the boat was not made of the wood that was customary for the Fire Nation, but something whiter, almost like bone.

She had to get a closer look.

Ailin climbed down the steps that led from the port wall to the beach, when the tide was low enough for there to be any beach. She wondered how that little boat had managed to get past Azulon's Gates – perhaps it was simply too small.

She stood on the lowest step she could without getting her feet wet. She was in luck – the boat was heading straight for her, carried by the vast waves that almost toppled it. When it was close enough, she took a fishing pole out of the pack on her back and guided the boat towards her. "Come on…"

But just then, a great wave roared towards her and the boat. Ailin, fearing only for her life, hurried backwards up the steps; the sea might be her friend, but it was a one-sided friendship for sure – the water would drag her under without a second's thought.

The wave swallowed up the odd little boat, and Ailin, cursing, turned to go home.

But then she noticed something. As the wave slapped against the steps, covering the one she had been on completely, it deposited something onto the stone. Two somethings. Two little bodies that spluttered and coughed and screamed –

Ailin raced down the steps faster than she should and bent over the two children. They gazed up at her with dizzy, tired eyes. A boy and a girl, badly hurt and bloodied, already slipping into unconsciousness.

She did not notice their blue clothes, their dark skin, their blue eyes and brown hair. All she knew was that two children were in danger, and these were children she could actually help. Quickly deciding the best way to go about lifting them, she slung the boy – who was older, maybe twelve or so, and heavier – over her shoulders, and picked up the girl – who barely weighed anything, and felt like a ghost – in her arms.

Praying nobody would see her, she carried them home.

A/N: The beginning of what will hopefully be a much longer story. It's completely AU, and is about two Water Tribe siblings (guess who!) who end up in the Fire Nation (you'll find out how in later chapters) and get taken in by that lady –prods rudely-, who is an OC.

Tell me what you think, please! See that grey button? Press. Loved it? Hated it? Want to hand it to Azula, annoy her, and run? Whatever you think, please do tell. I value your opinions hugely and would love to know – otherwise, I'll just continue doing completely the wrong things, and you'll end up hating my story.

Personally, I think that maybe this first chapter was a little… samey, to some other stuff you might have seen. It will become original. I am very determined for it not to be another one of those 'whatever, seen it all before…' types of fics.

Thank you very much for reading! Next chapter will be up shortly. Don't get run over by any buses or destroyed in any Fire Nation raids in the meantime, okay? ;)