Chapter two
It took Aang, Katara, and Sokka almost two full days of constant flying to reach the Southern Air Temple, and by the time they got there, all three were exhausted from the sleepless trip. Once they landed within the temple boundaries, they decided to sleep for the night. Sokka and Katara got their sleeping bags out, and fell asleep almost instantly, while Aang stayed up on Appa, watching his two friends.
Aang watched for only a few moments as the small fire he had set up highlighted the ruins around him, and his eyes wandered around the camp sight, checking for any signs of movement, and his ears were listening intently to anything around him. After a couple minutes of doing this he let out a sigh and leaned back on Appa.
"Why am I doing this?" He asked no one in particular, "We're not wanted by the entire world right now… Only Zuko is after us, and he's on our side. So why can't I sleep?"
He glanced down at Appa, who was fast asleep, "How can you and the other two fall asleep so easily? I can't stop thinking about our situation -what's the possible outcome of all of this…" He shook his head, "I won't let history repeat itself."
With that declaration, Aang got on his side, and closed his eyes, trying to get to sleep, but even being as tired as he was, as soon as he closed his eyes he saw the day that he failed to save the world, when he fought Ozai at the age of thirteen…
"Urgh!" He groaned, opening his eyes again and opting to stay awake to protect his friends, even if it was a pointless gesture.
"I guess this is useful." He shrugged, again talking to himself, "I remember Sokka telling me to sleep one night, and I refused and stayed up. Turned out that night a group of assassins had found us, and if I hadn't been up, the chances of us being here now would be close to none," He let out a small forced chuckle, "Maybe that's why I do this every night now."
It was two hours later when the sunlight began to rise that exhaustion finally took him over, and he fell into a restless sleep.
A few more hours later, Katara began to wake up. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that the sun was all ready pretty high in the sky, meaning it was almost noon. She slowly sat up, allowing her body to get used to being awake. Though she still felt tired, her mind was screaming at her to get up.
It didn't take much longer for her to get out of her sleeping bag and let out a yawn as she stood up on both legs. Looking over to Aang, she noted that he was fast asleep on Appa, who was also still asleep. She walked over to Aang, and let out a sigh, "You were up all night again weren't you." She accused his sleeping form, "You know I can always tell." She watched him a little longer before going over and shaking Sokka awake.
"No…" Sokka muttered as he rolled away from Katara's shaking hand, "I wanna sleep."
"Come on Sokka, we've been asleep for way too long, the sun is all ready way up in the sky."
"What?" Sokka burst up, and looked towards the sky, "The sun is up? Why did I sleep this long!" He flew out of his sleeping bag, and looked around for his sword, "We don't have time to sleep, especially until noon!"
"I guess our bodies aren't used to getting up before the sun does." She suggested.
"Damn you body!" He fell to his knees dramatically as he yelled at his weaker form.
Katara watched all of it with a straight face, "Done now?"
Sokka looked over at her before standing up, "I could go on, but I doubt my audience would appreciate it."
"Ha ha." Katara replied dryly, "We should begin to train now; we also need to have some sort of alarm to wake us up earlier."
"Well, we could always have Aang wake us up until our bodies are used to getting up roughly six hours earlier than we usually wake up, he is usually always up before any of us. Speaking of Aang, where is he?"
"He's sleeping on Appa." She said pointing to his sleeping form, "He was up all night, again."
"Really?" Sokka asked, getting serious, "He really shouldn't do that."
"I know, but every time I try to talk to him about it, he just nods along with me, and then goes on and does it again. He claims that he is protecting us."
Sokka was silent, "He is though, and we would have died that one time if he hadn't done so."
"It doesn't matter now." Katara said shaking her head, "We're in the past, no one knows he is around yet, I just can't figure out why he keeps doing it."
"If he keep doing it we'll just start to take turns like we did before." Sokka sighed, "Anyway, just let him sleep for a little while longer, we need to begin training, and start looking for Momo."
"You're right." Katara sighed, "I already am a master waterbender, but I need to begin to physically get back to the strength I had back then."
"You're welcome to join me for my warm-ups," Sokka offered, "But you need to continue working on waterbending, or else you might get rusty with it."
"Thanks, I'll do that." Katara said smiling at her brother.
Meanwhile, out at sea, Zuko's ship is traveling towards Kyoshi Island at a slow pace, because he knew the Avatar would be making a detour at the Southern Air Temple. At the moment however, he was inside the ship in the break room, sitting across from his uncle having a cup of tea, being oddly silent.
The crew watched him with a careful eye, knowing that when he was quiet, it usually meant he was fuming on the inside, so they kept their distance with the teenage boy at all times. That meant however, that the entire room was empty except for the two occupants in it.
Iroh simply watched Zuko, as he took a sip of tea he watched as his nephew continued to drink his own, but doing everything in his power to avoid looking at his uncle. This is very uncharacteristic of Zuko, I wonder what's on the boys mind. He took another sip of tea before lowering his cup and examining Zuko by leaning forward and pressing his elbows on his knees, his eyes were narrowed, and they seemed unusually focused for the old man.
"What's wrong uncle?" Zuko finally said after a few more seconds of the uncomfortable silence.
"You're acting different Prince Zuko,"
"I see." Zuko simply said, not allowing any emotion to enter his voice.
"To be honest, it's beginning to concern me, In the past two days since we saw the Avatar you have been unusually silent, and you've not asked for any training since then either. Prince Zuko, is something bothering you?"
Zuko would have slapped himself across the face, I am being too obvious, He mentally cursed to himself, "Nothing is wrong." He said a little forcefully.
"Oh, is that really the case?"
"Yes, I am just thinking." Zuko said, looking off to the side.
"Is that why you're avoiding eye contact with me then?"
Zuko was saved from answering when an officer walked towards the two of them, "Prince Zuko, there's a docking base a little ways from here. We could stop there to resupply and rest if you wish to do so."
"No, we're passing it." Zuko said, "We can't waste anymore time."
As the officer began to leave, Iroh decided to speak, "Oh, Prince Zuko, I would love to go there to restock on some things – I am sure our crew would certainly appreciate it."
"No." Zuko said again, I refuse to see Zhao again so early…
"Why are you so against going there?"
"I told you uncle!" Zuko began to shout, "We can not waste anymore time than we all ready have!" He looked over to the officer who was still in the doorway, "Make haste towards Kyoshi Island, I am sure the Avatar will be there!"
Iroh watched as Zuko gave the command and continued to stay silent, and he watched as Zuko turned back towards him with his eyes downcast.
"I am sorry uncle, I have my reasons for not wanting to go there, I will explain things to you when I feel the time is right." The two sat there in silence again, both unsure of what to say. Finally Iroh let out a soft sigh.
"Zuko, would you like to play a game of Pai Sho with me?"
Zuko looked at the board, and considered it for a moment, before he shrugged began to play a match against his uncle.
"You call this a warm-up?" Katara called out as she came to stop, and leaned against a pillar of the temple, "I am exhausted!"
"It was when I was twenty something!" Sokka countered, "I didn't realize how weak I was back then, or now – argh, whatever!"
Katara slid down the pillar she was leaning against so she was sitting with her back against the stone, while Sokka just collapsed onto his back and took deep breaths from the ground.
"That's enough for now." Sokka called out, "We should go wake Aang up and make him train too."
Katara shakily stood up, and grabbed Sokka's hand, and jerked her hand back so he came rushing back up to his feet. "Thank you." Katara didn't respond, and soon the two of them dragged their feet back to where they camped for the night. On Appa was Aang, and lying on Aang's body was…
"Momo!" Katara shouted in delight.
The lemur looked up and let out a happy sounding yelp as he flew over to the two of them and circled them.
"It's nice to see you again too." Sokka said, as he pet Momo, who landed on his shoulder, Sokka then paused, "You wouldn't happen to know where there's some food in this place would you?" He asked the lemur, who simply took off.
"Do you think he can understand us?"
"Sure he can!" Sokka laughed.
Soon enough Momo arrived with various assortments of fruit in his feet, "Good boy!" Sokka called out, petting Momo.
Katara watched the display of affection with a small smile before she went over to Aang, and shook him awake.
"Who's there?" Aang muttered before sitting up and rubbing his eyes, "Katara?"
"Hello Aang." She answered, and leaned forward to kiss him, "Come on, time to eat something."
Aang was momentarily confused for a little bit, before he gathered his surroundings, and then looked towards Sokka and Katara, "Oh, right, the past." He muttered, shaking his head, "How are you guys this morning?"
"It's afternoon actually," Katara corrected, "And I know you stayed up all night again."
Aang looked down guiltily, "Sorry."
Katara sighed, "Why did you do it last night? We're in no danger right now, so I just don't understand."
"I don't know. I just feel better if someone is watching you guys while you sleep."
Katara sighed, "Do you want us to have night shifts again?"
"So early?" Aang asked surprised, "But we're in no trouble now…" He paused hearing his own words.
"My point exactly, there's no point for anyone to get no sleep at night if there's nothing to worry about, and if it's a problem we can take turns keeping an eye out for everyone in the camp like we did before."
Aang nodded, "You're right. I guess I am just a little paranoid."
"A little?" Katara asked, raising an eyebrow.
"All right, all right," Aang said waving his hands, "I'll just try to get to sleep from now on."
"That is all I ask for." She said and hugged him, before letting him go, "Look who Sokka found." She said pointing out Momo.
"Momo!" Aang shouted, and the lemur darted towards Aang and settled on top of his head, "Hey, I missed you too buddy!"
"Here Aang," Sokka said as he tossed the Avatar an apple, "Momo found it, and here Katara." He tossed her one as well, "So we're all here, what's the plan?"
"Aren't you the planning guy Sokka?" Aang asked, shrugging.
"Fine, I think we should probably stay one more night just to rest up and then tomorrow morning we should head out to Kyoshi Island." Sokka answered.
"Sounds like a plan." Aang said, "What should we do while we're here then?"
"Well, Katara and I already had our warm-up, so we're going to be training, you should do the same." Sokka said, before going over to Appa and picking up the sword that he had received from the Fire Nation ship, "I have to get used to this sword." He said pulled it out of the sheath, and doing a few basic swings.
"Ok, so we need to train." Aang muttered, "Sounds fun. Katara, want to practice Waterbending then?"
"Sure, why not." She said.
"Good, we'll go down to the waterfall in the lower levels. Sokka, are you fine staying here alone?"
"Yes, I'm fine; you two lovebirds go somewhere alone." He said intentionally getting a rise out of them.
"Sokka!" Both shouted, causing him to laugh out loud.
Down below the two Waterbenders faced one another in a small pond. Nearby was a small waterfall that supplied the pond with water, and then the pond went down into another, similar to the place at the Eastern Air Temple where Aang learned about his chakras. They started with basics, and slowly worked their way up until they were throwing near lethal attacks at one another, and successfully dodging them with ease.
Neither gave any ground, but it was soon obvious that their constant barrage of attacks at one another was taking its toll on both of them, and soon they both got out of the water to lie down on the grass nearby, both sat close to the clothes they took off before getting into the water.
"Well, that was productive." Katara muttered.
Aang didn't even respond because he was still breathing heavily.
They stayed silent, laying down next to one another for another few minutes, until both of them began to regain their breath.
"Remember the last time we were down here?" Aang said, speaking up for the first time in a little while.
"I'd rather not." Katara said, letting out a sigh, "It's not a very good memory."
"Yeah, I still remember that day when everything stopped going our way…" Aang muttered, his eyes glazed over as he began to remember his previous life.
"Give up foolish boy!" Ozai shouted as he jumped from pillar to pillar over the vast Earth Kingdom, he grinned insanely as he zoomed towards Aang, the comet's heat blazing against his back, creating a fearful illusion of a demon as he pressed on towards the Avatar.
Aang tried to create space between the two of them, constantly bending air towards the much older man, but it was futile as the newly appointed Phoenix King continued his warpath.
"I will never give up, I will defeat you."
Ozai stopped atop one of the large stone pillars as he studies Aang, and he laughed, "You cannot defeat me boy, but if you want death to come to you so bad, then I shall be the one to grant your wish, Avatar."
The two clashed again, but it soon became apparent that against the greater might of Ozai with the comet backing him up, Aang stood no chance. He tried with all his might to win, but soon he had created a shield around himself to keep Ozai away.
"You seek to hide?" Ozai called out, "Come out and face me Avatar, or I will break through your barrier!"
When he got no response, he began to Firebend the rock ball Aang built around himself, and after tense moments of firing at it, he broke through, and Aang crashed against a wall, shouting in pain.
Ozai walked over, and leaned down to pick Aang up, "Pathetic, a child cannot hope to defeat me." He then threw Aang a distance away, and laughed as he walked over to where he threw the boy, "Is that all you have in you?"
Aang shakily stood, but fell down to one knee. He glared at Ozai, but he knew that was defeated at that moment. He glanced upwards towards the large pillars of stone, and Airbended his way up, making Ozai take chase. When he reached the top, Aang tried to Earthbend Ozai into submission, but again was soon overwhelmed by sheer power. Ozai bended constant bursts of fires at Aang, covering the smaller boy in multiple burns, and every time he got close, Ozai would throw out a punch to further inflict harm. Soon Aang, was stumbling around, unable to stand much longer.
"I'm sorry..." Aang mumbled out as he began to lose consciousness, and fall to the ground. He took one last look at Ozai before his world began to turn dark. As his vision darkened, he could hear screaming around him, and the sound of a fight.
Aang opened his eyes once more, and found that he was somewhere completely different, he looked over and saw Katara and gasped, "What happened?" He tried to sit up, but felt an intense pain go through him and he let out a short cry of pain.
"Don't!" She pushed him back down, "You have a lot of burns covering your body Aang, several of them were third degree burns. You also broke a few bones, and bruised a lot more." She shook her head, "He did quite a bit of damage to you, I am so glad that you're alive." She whispered.
"How?" He asked.
"Toph, Sokka, and Suki saved you." She said, "They saw you losing against the Firelord, and went into save you when they saw you fall unconscious."
"I failed..." Aang lowered his head, "I can't believe it. When it came right down to it, I couldn't beat him." He gritted his teeth, "I was so sure I could beat him in a different way than outright killing him, that I threw away the only opportunity I had to finish him off with his own attack." he shook his head, constantly berating himself.
"Aang!" Katara nearly shrieked, "You can't berate yourself like this! You went out there and did your best, and everyone realizes this!"
"My best didn't save the world."
"There's still other chances." She sighed, "I hear Iroh managed to liberate Ba Sing Se," Aang shot her a confused look, "While you were gone we met up with him, and he was leading a force to take back the city," She clarified, "Also, Zuko and I beat Azula, so Zuko is technically the Firelord now."
"Where is he?" Aang asked, fearful, "Ozai won't let that go well, when he gets back there he is going to hurt Zuko, if not outright kill him! We have to go now!" He tried to sit up, and Katara quickly forced him back down.
"Zuko is here with us." She said quickly, "We knew the risk, and rather not take it."
Aang visibly calmed at that, and finally looked around the place, "The Southern Air Temple?" He asked looking at the nearby waterfall and ponds, "That is really far from where we were, how long was I out?"
"Almost two weeks actually." Katara answered, "I've been healing you every day since, but I thought you were gone a few times..." She wiped her eyes, "It's good to see you ok."
For the first time Aang realized how close to death he truly was, he looked down guiltily, "I am sorry Katara."
"No, it's all right." She mumbled, "You and I both know the risks of fighting in this war."
"Still," Aang pressed on, "I fought even when I knew I was going to be defeated because I had the duty to defeat him, I felt as if I couldn't run away, or it would be seen as running away from my duty as Avatar."
Katara was silent for a few moments as she tended to Aang's wounds, before she let out a small sigh, "Just promise me you won't do something so stupid again, ok?"
"I won't. I promise."
She allowed a small smile to grace her lips as she stood up, "I am going to tell the others that you're awake. Sokka has been going nuts over what to do now that we have a foothold in the war with winning Ba Sing Se back."
Aang nodded and allowed himself to lay back down on the cot that was placed beneath him, and allowed his eyes to close, "So it will be all right?" He asked.
"Yeah, you will get another chance to fight Ozai, and next time we will fight with you, and we will win."
At that Katara walked off to tell the others of Aang's awakening.
"We were wrong." Katara sighed, "And it all went downhill from there."
Aang was quiet, "It was entirely my fault."
"Please Aang, no it wasn't. Don't blame yourself again."
Aang sat quietly for a little bit before he got up and put his shirt back on, and began to walk away. Katara just sighed as she watched his retreating form walking upward in the temple.
He wandered out to a secluded part of the temple, and sat down and placed his fists together to meditate. Soon he began to feel his chakra pathways, and like before he could feel that his Avatar state was still locked away within himself.
"It seems even transcending time and space won't make it so I have not died in the Avatar state in a previous life." He groaned and fell onto his back and stretched his arms, allowing the afternoon sunlight to shine down upon him.
"I can't believe I failed..." He muttered, narrowing his eyes, "If only I had defeated the Firelord on that day, everything would have turned out differently."
He sat up, crossing his legs, and slapped himself across the face, "No, I can't think like that! It hasn't happened now, we can still change it!" He tried to encourage himself, but it did little to help. He sighed once more, and just opted to look across the horizon.
Soon he felt a hand come on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Katara, "Hey." He said, looking back to the horizon.
"Hey." She said back as she sat beside him, "Mind if I keep you company?"
Aang laughed, "You seemed to have already made yourself at home by my side."
"It's polite to ask, even if I wouldn't move even if you said no."
Aang smiled, but it disappeared after he thought about why she was sitting there. He glanced over at her, "Look, I know what you're going to say: Don't blame yourself for what happened."
"Yeah." She sighed, "That is what I was going to say, and I guess you're going to say that it was in fact your fault that it happened?"
He was silent.
"I thought so." She whispered, "Listen Aang, I know you don't believe me, but none of us blame you for what happened. You had to fight the firelord without the power of the Avatar state. You also had to fight him when he was powered by Sozin's comet, I am just glad the worse case scenario did not play out."
"What are you talking about?" Aang asked, "It did play out, I lost, and he took over the Earh kingdom, and soon destroyed everything that stood in his path. Katara, that couldn't have gotten much worse."
"No, it still could have been worse, you could have died." She looked downcast, "When I saw you that day, it was the scariest moment of my life, and when I thought I lost you…"
The uncomfortable silence reigned for a few minutes as the implications set in.
"But," She looked up, wiping her eyes, "You were ok, and we have a second chance. We can't keep dwelling on the past like this, so please Aang, won't you forgive yourself?"
"I don't think I can." He muttered.
She let out a low sigh, "I don't know how many times I have to talk to you about this before it gets through your head Aang, but the moment you forgive yourself, then you will begin to feel more relaxed, and see the bright side of things."
He looked away from her.
She watched sadly as he still struggled over the fact of the matter, "Do you want to go up to see Sokka and Momo now?"
"Not yet."
"Would you like me to stay with you?"
"Yes."
The two leaned on each other as they continued to watch the sun setting, the uncomfortable setting was slowly destroyed over time as they enjoyed each others company.
Sokka continued to practice with his sword, but it soon became apparent that he was worn out. His movements were sluggish, and he was gasping for breath. Finally he put the sword back in his sheath, and leaned on Appa, panting like a dog that just ran fifty laps.
"You know guys, having a sword that is heavy, and not having the muscle strength of the… future? Past life? Other Universe? Whatever, It's just tough to get used to this with my wimpy little body, you know what I mean."
Appa let out a low grunt, while Momo landed on his head and curled up, "Oh, sure, like you'd know what it's like Appa. You're a four ton flying bison, and Momo, you…" He paused, "You just fly around all the time. You know, I think you should begin to train too!"
He laughed as he found a bag and filled it with a couple rocks. "Here, Momo! Training time!"
He swung the bag across Momo's head, and watched in amusement as the lemur had difficulty even getting off the ground. Soon, Momo just grabbed the strap of the bag and got it off it's body, and then he flew away before Sokka could put it back on.
"Coward!" He called out to the fleeing animal.
Deciding on another course of action, he walked back to Appa, and pulled out some food that he had packed, "Just need a fire." He sighed, and walked around to find a few twigs here and there. "Would be so much easier to have Aang here to help…" He mumbled, "Make a small hole, put twigs in there, and then start a fire, but no, he has to be going around and flirting with my little sister…"
He paused, thinking about that, "I hope they don't do anything too bad, they're only kids," he paused again, and his face turned green, "Yep. They wouldn't do anything like that, or else I would have to beat the crap out of Aang."
Nodding to himself, he began to make a fire to cook the meat he had brought from the South Pole.
After cooking for a while, he heard footsteps coming from behind him, "hey guys, I made us dinner!"
"You know I don't eat meat Sokka." Aang sighed, "I'll just eat some fruit Momo brought us."
"Suit yourself Aang." Sokka said shrugging as he continued to eat.
The three ate in relative silence, only the occasional sound of Appa chewing loudly, and Sokka going through his food like a machine were heard. After a little bit, they finished, and Sokka leaned back on Appa and let out a sigh.
"Everything's going so well right now," He said, "I haven't felt this relaxed in years."
"Zuko said the same thing." Aang said, "when I was talking to him on his ship. I wonder how he is dealing with his uncle right now."
"I am sure he's fine." Sokka laughed, "He could keep his composure in almost any situation – remember that one time when he 'accidentally' saw the girls bathing?" He let out a howl of laughter, "Ah man, if he was still a fifteen year old kid I bet he would have bled out from embarrassment! But he just looked for a few seconds, turned around, and walked back to us, and told us he'd wait before he goes to take a bath."
"Wait, you knew about that?" Katara asked as she glared at her brother.
Aang laughed as well, "Oh yeah, Sokka told Zuko that the spring was open, so he went through the forest to get there, and then when he came back he gave Sokka a look." Aang tried to mimic it, "And just ignored us all night while… we…"
He stopped when he saw Katara's eye twitching dangerously, "I can't believe you'd do that to him!"
"Calm down Katara!" Sokka called out, "It never really happened!"
"Oh no you don't!" She bended some water and smacked him on the head, "I am not letting you get away with this like that!"
"He just seemed so depressed-"
"So you thought him seeing us naked would help him?" She shouted.
"Uh, you two have fun." Aang said as he got up and began to book it.
"I know you were involved Aang!" She shouted out to his retreating form.
"He's smart." He noted watching Aang get away, "Well, I guess I'll take a note out of his book and RUN!" Sokka rushed out of the area leaving an irate Katara behind.
"I am so going to tell Suki on you!" Katara yelled out, "Then you'll be sorry!"
Sokka decided to ignore her and follow Aang. They ran through the temple for quite a while until Sokka saw Aang stop. Upon coming closer, Sokka saw what had stopped the boy.
"Monk Gyatso," Aang said, kneeling down at the corpse of his long time friend, for the first time Aang got a good look at the remains, this time not having been blown apart by his unstable Avatar state, "It has been nearly thirty years since I last saw you, and even seeing your body like this now hurts."
Sokka walked up and put his hand on Aang's shoulder.
"This time, I swear to you that I will make up for my past mistakes, and I will save the world this time. It's my duty as the Avatar."
Sokka nodded in approval, and let go of Aang as the smaller boy reached down and grabbed at the object that was gripped in the fallen Monk's hand. It took a little bit, but Aang was able to reach the circular object out of Gyatso's death grip. It was a circular mirror, with the air nomad design circiling the entire edge of it. On the back was a large design of the four nations design.
"The Air Nomad's heirloom," Sokka noted, "What are you going to do with it?"
"We're in a new world Sokka," Aang muttered, "If we screw up again, we can go back to the past and fix our mistakes again. I think it will be smart to collect these as we come across them. That way we won't have to go gather them while the entire Fire Nation is following us around the world.
"I don't know. They could be damaged if they come with us. It'd be much smarter if you left it here Aang."
Aang contemplated it for a moment, "No, things will turn out differently this time around." He looked up at Sokka, "There's always a chance that it could be destroyed by the Fire Nation this time."
"Aang, that's really stretching it."
Aang looked down, "You're probably right."
"Here's the first piece!"Suki shouted in excitement as Aang lifted it out of the rubble of the temple. "It's a mirror." She looked it at for a bit, "Not like any mirror I have seen though."
Aang smiled as he handed it to her, "We've all ready got the first of the four heirlooms, what does the scroll say about the others?"
"It's all in riddles." Suki sighed dejectedly.
"Hey," Sokka said coming over, "I am great at riddles, let me take a shot at it!"
Aang watched his friends with a small smile. Even though it had been over a decade since Aang had lost to the Firelord, they still stuck around with him. Katara, Zuko, and Toph were all by Appa right now in a different part of the temple.
"Come on, let's go, we're just one eighth of the way done with gathering the objects needed to fix our mistakes." Sokka said, "I am sure the rest will want to see this – well, two of them would love to see it anyway."
Aang nodded as he followed the two out of there.
"Aang?" Sokka's voice called out.
Aang shook his head, "What? Oh, I'm sorry." He put down the mirror, "You're right, we should leave it here. I will go hide it where no one but I will know where it is."
"Good idea." Sokka said patting him on the back, "I will go calm down Katara, or just take her punishment for you."
"Thanks." Aang said as he zoomed across the temple to go hide the heirloom he had found.
At night, as Katara and Sokka were asleep, Aang went to lie down on Appa, and tried to sleep, but unfortunately, it did not come easy for him.
"I guess I will just stay up again." He sighed, laying down on Appa, "Katara's not going to be happy."
"No, I won't." He heard her say, making him jump from the sound.
"Katara? What are you doing up? It's late!"
"I could ask you the same thing." She said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes, "Get to sleep."
"I can't." He admitted, "It just won't come to me."
He was surprised when he felt her sitting next to him, "That's ok, I guess I'll stay up with you."
Aang opened his mouth to protest, but closed it, knowing it was no use to argue over this. "All right, that's fine." He said giving in.
The two sat side by side, leaning on each other as they watched out for their camp site.
Chapter two – End
Ending notes: Sorry for so much fluff, it wasn't in the outline, but I just wrote what I felt the characters would do if they were in this situation. Furthermore, it's also difficult to keep the characters in character. In fact, I am positive that I am going OoC for a lot of them, and I am attempting to fix it.
Thank you for reading.