I've wanted to do something similar to this for a while...
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She watched as the new one slept peacefully, curled over Appa's massive saddle.
It was not in her nature to feel jealous—especially over a small girl she barely knew—but somehow, she felt threatened.
The girl's small back moved slowly up and down with her calm breathing; her clouded eyes were closed in natural reflex.
She doesn't even need to close her eyes, mused the onlooker.
She would be in darkness either way.
The onlooker narrowed her own eyes, her thoughts turning back to that strange feeling of danger, of anxiety that the small girl had created inside her.
Why?
What was this feeling?
It was strange, that was certain.
Why should she feel apprehensive about this girl? Why should she almost feel regret at allowing her to join the group?
Hadn't she suggested it herself?
But the longer she looked at the prodigy bender, the more threatened she felt…
What was this feeling!
Her heart began to pound in her chest; the moonlight reflected pale blue in her widened eyes.
She was trembling, trembling. And she couldn't pry her eyes from the girl…
She felt…
She felt…
She needed to run, to hide from whatever this feeling was; she needed to escape it, destroy it, suppress it. She needed to look away.
She couldn't.
Why couldn't she? What force held her eyes to that small girl's back, rising and falling so sweetly?
She forcibly twisted her head away, her light eyes flashing pools of sky in the night.
They stared over that massive saddle, into the deep nocturne over the bison's massive head: intense, determined….
Movement caught her glance, and she focused on the smooth shape of…
Head.
Their ringleader's head.
Smooth shaven, round; a head she'd cradled many times before—a head she knew.
Following their accustomed habit, her eyes searched for the familiar arrow-shape on his scalp.
But the darkness was all encompassing—too encompassing—and she lost sight of his defining feature in its murky, suffocating grasp.
Much as she had lost sight of—
She closed her eyes, but opened them shortly, desiring, somehow, to look at him again.
To know he was there.
It comforted her, somehow. Her pounding heart slowed.
But then she thought of the girl again, and her pulse quickened.
The feeling!
Why did she feel so threatened?
Why did she feel somehow endangered?
Her eyes were locked on him as she mused, locked on the familiar reassurance of his features, locked on the soothing warmth of his shale stare…
His stare?
His eyes!
Her gaze had drawn his own.
She blushed.
The night disguised her crimson-hued cheeks; it hid them from view.
I …
I …….
She was tempted to break their stare.
She didn't.
He didn't.
Her pulse quickened again, remembering.
The darkness…
The stars…
Everything reminiscent of that moment…
Earth around them…
Light above them…
Earth.
Earth.
Earth.
Earth made her think of the girl, sleeping so close to her.
The girl aroused the threat in her soul.
His eyes soothed her.
His familiar, friendly, devoted eyes…
Devoted.
He was hers.
The girl's face flashed in her mind.
He was hers?
Of course he's mine!
The blush deepened; the night strove harder to conceal it.
Still their gaze connected.
Will he always be mine?
The girl's face flashed in her mind.
Her heart clenched with warning.
Chills.
A chill.
It shivered down her spine.
The chill of recognition…
She broke their gaze and looked out into the deep nocturne around them, losing sight of his features...
Losing sight of his shale eyes that shone even through the dark of night….
Losing his round, smooth shaven head; a head she'd cradled many times before.
A head she knew…
A head her heart knew.
She lost sight of him.
Much as she had lost sight of…
Of…
Her heart pounded.
Her heart clenched.
Her heart's recognition…
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