"Well, I'm back from asking the fruit vendor and-..."

Aisha attempts to initiate a conversation once she starts to push the cupboard from the entrance but once the gap is big enough to look inside, she sees the children asleep on the dining table. Aisha momentarily panics and thinks they are dead but quickly relaxes when she sees all of their slow breathing motion.

Entering the house and pushing the cupboard back to cover the entrance, she takes a look around the house, feeling something is off. It isn't that hard to figure out why. The kids went through her stuff and Wan seemed to have joined them. Everything from the cup board are pushed the side which is the reason why the cupboard felt lighter when Aisha pushed it.

Walking towards the sleeping children, she is dumbfounded how they couldn't have heard her. They must be in a deep sleep due to exhaustion.

Poor kids.

"Where are these kids' parents?"

Aisha will ask them once they have rested. She looks at some of her collection scattered across the dining table. All Water and Air relics. Picking up one of the Air Nomad statues, she sees the commonality between the clothes of the statue and Aang.

Surprise is an understatement of what she feels when she connects the two dots.

These kids definitely need to explain themselves on who they are.

After their rest.

BAM!

"Aaah!" The children collectively scream from the sudden explosion that violates their ears.

"Rest is over." Aisha states as she removes her palm from the table and is not taking any deviance from her proclamation.

Still groggy from the rude awakening, everyone rub their eyes, stretching or yawning to ready themselves for the day. Technically it's still the same day. They just had an afternoon nap.

"Someone mind explaining this?"

Aisha reels back a curtain to reveal a giant brown eye staring into the room.

"Gwah!" The sight causes such a wave of fright that it sends Wan falling backwards off her chair and grunts when she landed.

The others, however, are pleased.

"Appa!" Aang is the first to jump out of his seat and rush to the cupboard. His friends follow enthusiastically and pull the cupboard from the entrance and rushes outside.

Curiously, Wan gets off the floor and rushes out with her mother following hastily.

The sight of such a beast just blows her mind.

"So this...is Appa?" Wan requests for confirmation but there is really no use. Aang, Katara and Sokka are already right next to the...'flying' bison, apparently.

"Yeah! Isn't he amazing!?" Aang enthusiastically asks as he airbends himself to the saddle on it's back.

A union of gasp of awe and wonder when the gathered crowd sees the tiny boy leap into the air. The flying bison is shell-shocking enough but Aang seem to have caused one or two to faint from overdrive.

"Who is that?"

"Who cares about the kid! Look at that beast!"

"That kid just flew! You better care!"

"It's so cool!"

"Momma, I want to fly too!"

"Stay back. it could be dangerous."

The adults stand protectively in front of the children. Some are theirs. Some not. Some children are cowering in fear while others are trying to break through the human barrier to get closer.

"Stunning." Is the respond Wan have chosen for Aang as she stares into the big brown eyes of the beast and it stares back into her smaller, human ones.

"Go on, pat him. He's friendly." Katara laughs as she sees Wan's child-like gaze of awe and how she is kinda leaning forward towards Appa but stays glued to the ground.

Wan turn to her mother eagerly, eyes just begging for her approval and she prays as she hold her eager fist in front of her chest. Her grin is one that is filled with hope that the mother have never seen. Aisha is dumbfounded that her daughter actually have the ability to pull such an expression and eyes Appa before looking at Wan, then to Aang.

"If you break my daughter, I'm going to break you."

Aang laughs nervously and salutes, "Yes, ma'am."

Like mother, like daughter.

Wan squeals excitedly as she performs a little dance before rushing to Appa. Her smile is agape as her eyes travel all over the bison.

"Now, I know Appa doesn't look like a flying bison right now but trust me, he can fly."Sokka encourages their description of Appa that they have told her before they fell asleep.

Right after the...tension and before they fell asleep, they gathered around the table and dropped the items onto the table. While sipping their tea, stories and explanation were exchanged. Wan felt like she just made some new friends and she loves it.

"Go on, pat him." Katara urges once again and Wan looks over to her nervously. But excitingly.

Wan moves to the of side Appa's face. Her heart is pounding in a whirlwind of emotions that numbed her mind. Unable to think rationally, her heart takes control of her body and lead her curious fingers to Appa's white fur.

But only just the finger tips!

Her fingers only brushes the tickling fur, feeling how soft it is.

Pushing further, her fingers touch flesh.

Before she can take in the joy, she had to flinch backwards from Appa when he had to suddenly shake his head furiously. The crowd expresses their fear by also taking a step back with terrified screams from the children and frightened gasps from the elders. Children that were eager to step forward are frozen still as if trying to hide by pretending to be an inanimate object.

"Whoa whoa! Appaaa!" Aang calls out as he hold onto the saddle tightly, feeling the body shake from the vigorous movement of the head.

Appa soon stops on his own to reveal that his head has gone a little fluffier from the shake. He raises his paw to rub the area where Wan had just touched.

No one made any movements as they warily eye every movement of the bison.

Wan, mirthful grin no longer on her features, focuses her attention to Appa's brown eyes. He is looking at her, as if waiting for her to continue.

Aang look over the saddle and examines Appa.

"I think you just tickled him." Aang offers an explanation. "Try again."

Wan contemplates his offer as she rubs the fingers that made contact with Appa, checking if they are still there and that it iss real and not viciously bitten off so quickly that she didn't notice the pain.

Nervously with quivering fingers, she draws in a shaky breath and she reaches out to Appa once more. Too overwhelmed with fear, she looks away and closes her eyes as she let her hand blindly move forward.

Fur on her finger tips.

Flesh.

Then her entire palm rests on the bison.

Wan remains still before the fear slowly start to fade away as a new emotion takes over. Curiously, she turns and crack open an eye.

Just a crack.

Seeing as there is nothing to be afraid of, she lowers her tense shoulders that have involuntarily risen. Letting go of the breath Wan was holding on to like it would have been her last breath, she looks back into Appa's eyes and can easily see amusement.

Is the bison laughing at me?

Wan moves her fingers that are stiff from fear and feel the flesh and fur beneath her hand.

She can't believe that she is touching the bison. An Avatar's bison.

Seeing as Wan iss not going to go any further than this, Appa moves his head to brush against a surprised Wan.

"Wha!...Ah...Aha...Ha ha ha ha ha!" The childlike spark is rekindled and Wan pressed her body against the side of Appa's head, burying her face into the itchy fur.

The adults of the crowd have lowered their guard at the sound of a child's laughter, allowing other curious children to break through the barrier and run straight towards Appa. They showe the same hesitation and Appa remains still, allowing the children to come up to him if they want to.

Aang can only look with a dreamy look on his face as the sound of children laughing are music to his ears.

Katara smiles as the sight of children slowly getting friendly and running around Appa with glee. She even went to help pick a child up and bring him closer to Appa.

Sokka crosses his arms and smirks coolly the best that he can.

"Well, how is it?" Aang asks with a mischievous grin.

"Wonderful! Amazing! This is so cool!" Not even trying to control her excitement, the level of it was as high as the volume she spoke.

"Want to ride him?" Aang asks as he waves an arm to Appa's tail, signaling the way up.

"Y-you mean..fly?"

"Yeah. Don't worry. It's completely safe."

Wan turns to Katara and Sokka for reassurance and they both nod to confirm this fact. She turns to her mother and Aisha didn't raise any objection.

Her nervous frown twitches upward as she jogs to the tail and carefully climb up the tail.

"Oh, my shoes!"

Only when Wan feel the fur in between her toes did she finally notice that in a rush to go outside, she accidentally forgot to wear her shoes.

"Don't worry about it. Just come on up!" Aang assures with a hand stretched out to her although she is quite a way until she would even be in reach.

Not wanting to keep him waiting, she rushes up the tail and clasps her hand with his. Just feeling the warmth from him in the palm of her hands makes her feel stronger. Like the airbender's confidence is flowing into her and washing away any insecurities she has. Any leftover trace of nervousness she had on her face has disappeared as she strengthens her grip.

Aang responds with equal strength and pulls her up. Wan crawls into the saddle and proceed to crawl to the center, refusing to let the dirt-hey wait.

"It's kinda dirty here. Don't you guys wash this?" Wan asks as she lifted up her palm to reveal that it has been covered with dirt.

"Oh..Aha ha ha. I guess I should do that soon." Aang says sheepishly as he walks to Appa's head and grabbed the reigns.

Her eyes wonder to his feet to find that he is wearing shoes. Quickly, she leans over to find Katara warning the children to step back. She is also wearing shoes. So is Sokka.

Even her mother.

Wonderful. I'm the only one with no shoes.

She decides to take a look inside the saddle. It's not that big so there wasn't much to look at.

Except for that thing over there.

"Aang, what's that?" Wan asks as she points to the animal.

"That's Momo. The newest member of the group."

Wan stares curiously but decide getting friendly with one animal is enough for today. This one looks like he's quick and most likely to bite her.

"Hmm...Where should we go?" Aang wonders out loud and looked at Wan curiously, clearly requesting a suggestion from her.

And she knows the perfect place.

"You scream pretty loudly."

"I wasn't ready!" Wan snaps back as she snaps the cloth to emphasize her 'truth'.

Truth to be told, no amount of getting 'ready' would be enough for her to not scream at her first flying trip. Wan was fine when Appa hovered from the ground but when he suddenly burst into speed, she completely lost it.

"And I think you did it on purpose." Wan adds as she wipes one half of the saddle with a wet cloth.

"No I didn't!" Aang defends himself.

"You weren't exactly quiet with your evil laugh either."

"I just find great joy with flying on Appa. That's all!"

Aang and Wan have a brief glaring contest but the silly topic ruined the serious atmosphere they are trying to built. In fact, trying to make this serious end up making the both of them laugh at their own silliness. Appa and Momo play in the ocean as Aang and Wan stay on land to wash the saddle. A large tarp is laid on the ground so the bottom part of the saddle wont get dirty.

The two kids wipe the saddle in comfortable silence.

"Hey! It's Wan and the Avatar!"

The sudden disruption to their peace causes them to jump. They turn to find a group of children who must be on their way home from school. It's already late in the evening after all.

Wan could only attempt to raise an eyebrow at what he just said. She didn't remember anyone telling anyone that Aang is the Avatar outside of the four of them. She guess word must have spread when they left her home.

But that's not the most important thing now.

Right now, Wan was just seething at the source of the voice.

Ming

That's the stupid earthbender kid.

"But that's just a kid!"

"Who cares. Avatar is the Avatar. Hey Avatar! Think you could teach me some earthbending moves?"

Aang looks at Wan nervously but found she is a little occupied so he had to respond with his own truth.

"Um...Sorry but I don't know any earthbending moves."

The group of children are stunned.

"What!?"

"You don't know!? What kind of Avatar are you?"

Knowing Aang's history, Wan hisses to Aang, "Ignore them. They're just bullies."

But that didn't help Aang's feelings. Saying that they are bullies didn't make what they say any less true. It didn't stop him from bleeding the same pain of failing as an Avatar again and again from his heart.

"Hey, hey! How about I teach you some earthbending moves! I'm the best on the island!" Ming-Ming offers arrogantly.

"You're the only earthbender on the island, stupid!"Wan retorts as the cloth in her hand starts to leak water from the strong grip of the little girl.

"That's a lie! We know you're an earthbender too! We didn't forget the rock incident!" One of Ming-Mind's friend yells out.

"Why don't you kids just shut up! Nobody cares about that anymore!" An elder male screams from one of the house nearby. His ferocity immediately takes effect at silencing any come backs all of them had planned for the argument.

Wan and Aang remain where they are while the group of bullies walk towards them.

"Stupid kids." Those are the last thing they heard before the man retreata from the window and leave the kids alone.

Welcome back, Tension, my old friend.

"What's the rock incident?" Aang asks curiously as he stands one step ahead of Wan, sensing that she is not comfortable being close to them.

"That little liar stole my pencil." Ming-Mind states as he points an accusing finger towards her which she scowls darkly in response.

"I didn't-"

"I'm not done, you thief."

"Now, now. One at a time. Wan, let them go first, okay? You can tell me your side of the story once their done, alright?"

Wan looks betrayed by those words. She thought that Aang is on her side but the longer she looked into Aang's pleading eyes, the more she understands how much he wants to settle this dispute peacefully. Even if it means letting her ego be bruised, she agrees.

"Fine." Wan says begrudgingly.

"Heh, looks like she does have some honour after all." The bully's mindless friends laughs along at the stupid joke.

"Can we get back on topic, please?" Aang requests to protect Wan from anymore insults.

"Yeah, sure. Like I said, she stole my pencil. She fell asleep in class and we left for recess, leaving her behind. No one wanted to wake her up anyway. Hmph, I mean, what for? Not like anyone was friends with her."

Wan looks to the ground as she feels the rough truth bruising her ego even more. Only a little but really, she really didn't care that much for her classmates. If they don't want to be friends with her then why would she want to be friends with them? Especially those rock throwers.

"Just a few minutes before recess, I headed back to class like the good student I am. When I was taking out my school supplies like my pencil, I found that it was missing. It was a pencil my father carved like a badgermole for me. I panicked and started asking around for my pencil but everyone had no idea. Then it hit me. Wan wasn't in class and neither was my pencil. It had to be her! So when I went to ask her, she say she didn't have it and had no idea where it went. Oh, but I know a liar when I see one. I head back to class and looked through her stuff and, surprise!-but not really, I found my pencil! I went to confront her about it but she still had the guts to lie. So I did what the great Avatar Kyoshi would. I earthbent the truth out of her. I almost had her where I wanted her! I almost broke her but then when I earthbent a rock at her, she suddenly bent it back to me! I just earthbent to scare her but the rock she bent to me hit me on the head! I was bleeding."

And crying.

"And that's that!"

Wan's facial features snaps out of her dark, overshadowing expression and into dismay at how sudden the ending is.

"Okay, Wan. Your turn." Aang signaled.

"Heh, be careful not to fall into her lies."

"Now, now. You had your turn now let her have hers. I mean, honour, right?" Aang attempts to bribe Ming-Ming to being obedient.

"Yeah..Yeah! I have lots of honour!"

Wan can only roll her eyes.

On what scale? Negative one to zero?

"Go on, Wan." Aang reassures with a small smile.

She can feel his reassurance calming and encouraging her.

"Okay...I did fall asleep and class but when I found out that it was recess, I quickly left to get some lunch. I did not steal anything. What happened next happened like he said. He trashed through my things and found his dumb pencil that someone else put in there."

Ming-Ming scoffs.

"Then he tried to intimidate me with his earthbending. It was so unfair because I couldn't and can't earthbend! You probably earthbent wrongly because you are stupid. Not like he had any teacher to teach him how to properly earthbend or else he would have some discipline!"

"Wan." Aang warns me as he tries to hold back the bullies from taking another step forward.

She apologizes mentally. Wan is kind of using Aang as an advantage because she knows he wouldn't let them harm her. This is her chance to insult them without any consequences.

I'll make it up to you somehow, Aang.

"So when he had to be dragged away crying, he started to spread the story. He used his tears to gain pity and because of that, kids started to throw rocks at me as punishment for earthbending a rock at Ming-Ming."

"It's Ming to you."

Ignoring him easily, Wan continues. "After the teacher found out that other children at school were throwing rocks at me, they called all of their parents. The island soon knew about this as the rock incident. I really tried to earthbend the rocks that were thrown at me like I did with Ming-Ming's, but I couldn't. Because I'm not an earthbender."

Aang looks horrified. And a little hurt like he was remembering something. What, the Avatar was bullied too? Doubt it, he's the Avatar! Everyone would line up to spend time with him! The good kind of spending time together. Lucky boy...

"They still throw rocks at me but they try not to hit me anymore. Just close enough to try and scare me into earthbending. It's been almost 1 year now?"

"9 months." Ming-Ming corrects her. Her teeth grinding together in irritation at the irritating noise of his sorry excuse of a voice.

It's not that his voice was annoying or anything. Wan just hates him enough to hate even his voice.

"It sounds like this is something really old? Can't you guys just forget about it?" Aang suggests only to be crushed between two stubborn as a boulder answer.

"No."

It is the first time Ming-Ming and Wan ever agree to something without them wanting to kill each other.

"I am not a thief. And I'm not an earthbender too! Who would want to be put in the same category is..THAT!"

"And I'm not going to let this go until I am proven that I'm right!"

The two enemies glare at each other with strong resentment, both leaning forward as neither refuses to back down. Aang had to squeeze himself in between the two and push them apart.

"Okay, since you both wont let this go, we should try to resolve this. As the Avatar, I shall do my best to bring peace but only if the two of you would cooperate with me."

The two earth children break their glaring contest to look at Aang, checking to see if he is seriously serious or is he just joking.

He is completely serious.

Aang focuses his gaze to Wan, silently putting his trust into her that she will support this decision. They're friends, after all. At least to him.

Wan can feel his message imprinting into her mind and slowly leans away from Aang's hand, to show she's not going to pick a fight. But she still believes that this is not gonna solve anything. Ming-Ming is an absolute pig head. Stubborn but the bad kind. He'll only stand up for things that are good for him but not what's good for others.

He's just a bully.

"Okay. Anything you say, Avatar." Wan sighs as she crosses her arms, looking away to the ocean. The only peaceful thing right now is Appa and Momo floating around in the water. Wan sighes again in envy and wishes that this heated argument could be easily washed away by just having some nice, cool water poured all over it.

"Awesome!" Aang concludes as soon as Ming-Ming nods his head reluctantly. "Both of you are willing to let this issue be resolve. That's a first good step."

Ugh, Aang. Please don't make it sound like we're gonna be best friends after this torment. At most, we'll just ignore each other and stay out of each other's way once this is over.

"Okay. Wan, you go way over there and Ming, you go to the opposite direction. Your friends should stay on the sidelines since the issue only involves you two."

Without saying anything, Wan immediately drops the wet cloth and move to where she is told to go. Anything to get away from that slime ball of swamp mud.

Oh, I'm just dying to see how well this will end.

Author's note: Woohoo! Chapter 5! I'm sure you readers who actually managed to read this far have noticed some change in the writing style, ahah. Because it's starting to get a little difficult to write out. And this is why I need to practice more.

Anyway, thank you for reading this far! You guys are amazing!