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A new view

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This morning there was a mild argument between Toph and Zuko. It is most entertaining to watch the two most intractably stubborn people I know (arguably the two most intractably stubborn people in the entire world) having a polite argument. Me and Sokka bet the last mango on the winner. Toph won, so the mango is mine! (Zuko was always going to give in to Toph.)

Toph and Zuko both feel that Aang needs extensive training in eartbending and firebending respectively. This morning Toph got a bit cross that Aang hardly spent any time earth bending anymore and said that out of the four elements, Aang is the least confident with earth. Zuko started deploring Aang's ability with fire and how he's still not aggressive enough and sucks a bit at it. Toph said he sucked way more at earthbending. While they didn't use these exact words, they did get into a conversation about which element he sucked more at.

In front of Aang.

In fact it turned into a three way conversation with Zuko exclaiming that he hadn't even mastered shooting fire out of his feet yet, Toph lamenting that despite her best efforts, Aang's metal bending was worse than Haru's, and Aang saying seriously guys, I'm right here. Aang got a bit ignored in this conversation.

Zuko and Toph decided to settle it by playing fire,earth,water,air. Toph won the first game and Zuko made them try best out of three. Toph won again. Zuko grumbled but ceded victory to Toph. Toph took Aang to the cliff tops near the beach to practice his earth projectiles.

Go Toph!

Secretly I am very glad that Zuko has taken the morning off training Aang and I think Toph is the only one intractably stubborn enough to accomplish this task.

-?-

Sokka and Zuko decided to spar with their swords.

Boys.

Always needing to whack things with swords. This morning they discovered that they were both trained by master Piandao and spent a large amount of time making no way/yes way faces at each other when they first discovered this.

Suki and I watched their sparring and occasionally called out encouragement/sarcastic comments. We had a lovely chat about Sokka and his poor taste in girl-clothes and what the South Pole was like (Sokka wants to take Suki home after the war and show her how we live) and which of the boys would win if they were fighting for real. I think Zuko, but I would never tell either of them this in a million years. It would lead to over-inflated egos and hurt feelings and shenanigans.

I will say this about Sokka: he's actually gotten really good. He's quick and inventive and not just at sword fighting. It's amazing how far he's come in a year. Sokka, I am almost surprised to say it, is a good leader. I remember how much I teased him when he first tried to lead us and made us walk through the forest (and then we met Jet. I still don't quite know how I feel about that).

Now, for the most part, we all just fall in line with Sokka's ideas and plans. He's our plan guy. Sometimes it's a bit hard for me not to tease him and make fun of some of his more elaborate plans. Because he'll always be my sarcastic big brother with two fish hooks in his thumb to me. But I am proud of him and I probably don't tell him that nearly enough.

-?-

The boys tried an experiment where they swapped weapons. I called out that this was a silly idea. Sokka replied that he thought it was a fabulous idea and they had nothing to lose by diversifying (except their dignity and maybe an eye/limb). Despite my arguments/comments the swap happened.

Sokka was confused about what to do with the second sword despite how much 'helpful' advice Zuko called out. Zuko kept trying to block with his left hand and always realized a little too late that he didn't have a sword in that hand any more. There were shenanigans and it was most entertaining. Until it ended quite dramatically with Zuko bleeding and swearing and Sokka apologizing and saying that it was the sword's fault. What happened was that Zuko tried to block one to many times with his leftie and Sokka made a wild swing with his extra sword and clipped him on his shoulder.

Sword practice is over for the day.

-?-

We were all sitting lounge room having tea. Suki made it, she steeped the leaves for a little too long so it was a little bitterer than when Zuko makes it, but all of us were too polite to say so. I was healing Zuko's shoulder. He fussed a little at the start because healing open cuts stings a little but mostly he sat still for me. Zuko has rather nice broad shoulders. I've never noticed before, but they are nice. But he was so friggin tense that it was a bit tricky to heal his shoulder. I started rubbing both his shoulders to help him relax a bit. For healing purposes. This was also nice. He let out a sort of relaxed sigh at one point (when I ran my palm between his shoulder blades). That was most distracting.

Sokka wanted to make plans because Sokka loves plans as much as he loves Suki (but in a very different way.) The four of us left sat down to talk about where to go next. Sokka thinks we stand out too much on this island and Zuko suggested Ember Island again. There were many dubious faces all round.

Zuko was really keen on his Ember Island idea. He whipped out a list he'd written about the benefits of Ember Island from his pocket. What is it with the lists? Really, does he have a list for everything stashed away somewhere? Does he carry all his lists on him? What else does he write lists about?

His list of arguments in support of Ember Island included: The Ember Island house is big (big enough to hide Appa). It's mostly locked up and no one has been there in years. It's on a secluded side of the island but we'll be close to all sorts of services in the main town and because the island is so touristy in summer, a few new people won't stand out as much. There's virtually no military presence and only a small local home guard station. And it is literally the last place on earth anyone would think to look for us. There were a few other items on the list that he didn't read out because he didn't want to embarrass Sokka and Suki. I was still behind him, rubbing …err… healing his shoulders so I could see the list.

Eventually he convinced all of us. Well, he convinced Sokka first and then Sokka got a bit excited about the giant tiled map of the fire nation in the town square of Ember Island and then by their powers combined they managed to convince me and Suki. We decided to leave tomorrow morning, which will give us enough time to pack etc.

-?-

So Toph stomped in crankily and said that she hoped we'd figured out a plan for where to go next because we'd have to move this afternoon. Aang trailed after her and said she was making a big deal over nothing and he'd just helped some people and what was wrong with that. Toph told us that they'd come across some struggling villagers at the cliffs. They'd been rock fishing and there had been a big wave and some of them had been swept out to sea . Aang had got his Avatar on and saved them. And announced his Avatar status to the fisherman. Who had probably run back to their families and told everyone on the island by now.

Oh.

So we'd be leaving way ahead of schedule.

Aang sees nothing wrong in helping people who need it. Toph says she wasn't saying there was anything wrong with saving the fisherman, but he should have done it in a less showy, attention-seeking way and without announcing his Avatar status. Aang said that saving people is selfless and not attention seeking and there's nothing wrong with saving people anyway and their circular argument began anew. This argument has been going on for some time apparently.

We have been trying to keep Aang's identity a secret so we can just blend in and live in hiding but this has really thrown a big spanner in the works. There was much ado and shenanigans and hurried packing. Sokka was making sad panda faces at Aang because Aang has messed with the plan. Sokka hates it when people do that.

-?-

After much ado we got Appa packed with everything. I bended a big misty cloud around us so we could fly without drawing attention. Zuko had remarked that he noticed most of the navy had been deployed when we broke into that messenger hawk tower last week. So there are a few more firenation ships out there for us to avoid. I made the cloud huge so we would be less noticeable. It was hard work maintaining a cloud that size. After a while Aang handed over the reigns to Sokka and helped me. When Aang was standing near Toph, they both continued their argument.

Aang just wants to save everyone and help out wherever he can and that is something I love about Aang. He is unashamed of being the Avatar and doesn't want Toph to make him feel like it is something he should hide. He thinks it's time the world knows the Avatar is still fighting and that everybody probably knew he was in the Firenation after the Day of Black Sun anyway and… Toph was a meany-face for not wanting to save people.

Toph is adamant that she is not against saving people, but was saying that next Aang feels the urge, he should try and do so in a way that doesn't announce his Avatar status because we are trying to live inconspicuously. Announcing you are avatar is pretty friggin conspicuous in the firenation. Unless Aang wants to go back to hanging out in caves, we should all try to keep a low profile. Zuko piped up in support of Toph and said that he wasn't a fan of the living-in-a-cave idea and that it would be better if Aang kept his identity a secret. Aang launched into a rather long and meandering Air-nomad philosophy-I-give-people-hope-and-hope-is-good speech. I piped up in support of hope-giving-but also voiced my opposition to living-in-a-cave. Nobody wants that again.

Suki tried to play mediator, bless her cotton socks. But the argument went round in circles. Sometimes, it was like watching a tennis match between Toph and Aang.

"The Avatar is meant to give people hope! Knowing I'm out there gives people hopeToph." Aang would say.

"Yeah, well I hope we don't run into another barrage of airships! What are you going to do about that hope!" Toph would parry back.

Zuko ended their argument by announcing (in an exceptionally dramatic fashion-there were big hand gestures and everything) the fact that every single solider in the firenation army has been instructed to kill Aang on sight and every military unit is equipped with a special black ribbon carrying messenger hawk. If Aang is seen/recognized, we will all have to deal with the entirety of the firenation forces and his evil dad way sooner than we'd like to.

That put a dampener on everybody's mood. This is something Zuko excels at. All his dramatic announcements tend to be a little disheartening. So it is a blessing that he doesn't do them that often. Aang has, after Zuko's rather dramatic announcement, agreed to wear a hat in public and try keep his identity a secret when we are on Ember Island.

-?-

I am exhausted from waterbending that cloud the whole way here, but I will say this. I take back every negative thing I said about Ember Island. This place is awesome. It is so lush. The beaches are long and wide and sandy and there are so many fruit trees and the air is filled with that mango smell. It's just paradise.

We landed in one of the internal courtyards of the royal residence. There was a big fountain on the back wall that Appa started drinking from immediately. And everybody was all excited to explore the house and pick out their new rooms. All the bedrooms were on the second floor and it was going to be a race to get the best one. I asked Zuko quietly which one that was. Zuko whispered that I would probably like the room that was the third door from the left at the top of the stairs.

We had decided that the only fair way to divide up the rooms was a first-in-gets-the-room system. I already knew this would lead to chaos and competition and frantic racing. I made a beeline for the stairs and the third door to the left in the mad rush that ensued as soon as Appa landed. I got up the stairs first. I may have also used my water bending to get ahead of the others, but I don't think it counts as cheating. I just made the floor a little slippery. They'd just have to go a bit more slowly that's all.

But anyway, I opened the door and I was just greeted by the most amazing view. This room is so mine! I have a really large window that looks down to the beach on one wall and a nice little balcony on the other that would be big enough for a few chairs and a table. It has a view of the other side of the beach, the side with the small dock.

I opened up all the windows and the doors to air the place out and threw my waterskin on the bed and claimed the room! I've never had my own room before. It's great. I wonder who had this room before.

The sun was setting and it was just beautiful. I knew I should probably help the others unpack, but bloody hell, I help out all the time, and they could handle it without me for a few moments. I sat on the balcony and draped my legs over the edge and just enjoyed the sight and the smell of the place.

I heard a small polite cough behind me. It was Zuko. I thanked him for the room tip and waved him over and he came and sat next to me. He said he was glad I'd gotten this room because this room was the one least likely to have any evil Ozai vibes and he knew I was worried about that. Our legs were dangling over the balcony and we had a great view down to the sandy beach. There must have been a mango tree nearby because I could smell mango really strongly. I said I could get used to a view like this. Zuko smiled at me then and I smiled back. He asked, really shyly, if I liked the room.

Sometimes he is just so shy.

I gave him a big affectionate shoulder nudge and told him he was an idiot. Of course I liked it! I couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't like it. We watched the sunset together and it was nice.

Then we went down to help the others unpack because Sokka was calling us all sorts of lazy names from the bottom of the stairs.

-?-

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Authors note –long and rambly (again)

Lovely readers! You've reached the end of a new view. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for all your reviews and comments! I really appreciate them all and you guys are awesome for giving me feedback! I do get ideas/inspiration from your comments. Don't worry about Sokka and Suki my lovely readers! I hope to surprise and delight, not irritate and disappoint.

In this chapter: fire,earth,water, air looked like the avatar version of rock, paper, scissors when Aang and Sokka were playing it in that episode in Ba Sing Se.

I floated the memory of Jet (the ghost of crushes past) because I don't think Katara has forgotten about him at all. She just doesn't quite know what to feel. We will deal more with Jet in my chapters around the EIP but I just wanted to illustrate that Katara still thinks about him, even if it is just a passing thought.

I also wanted to acknowledge, or at least have Katara recognize Sokka's leadership role. While there's not really a hierarchy in the Gaang (I see it more as a six person love in), Sokka is the plan guy, the leader guy and I think the one they are all most likely to look to. Even Zuko looks to him for the plan in the boiling rock. I think Sokka is a very collaborative leader and always consults with the Gaang so he's not throwing his weight around like he used to in early season 1 when he was a bit more insecure about his place in the gang. I think Sokka feels quite secure in his plan/sarcasm guy role and he is one of my favourite characters so I just wanted him to get a bit of love.

Avatar Wiki tells me that Zuko and Sokka both trained under Piandao. I assume this would have come up in conversation at some point and they would have made no way/yes way faces at each other. So I wrote it.

It is entirely unnecessary for Katara to give Zuko a shoulder massage, but she does so anyway for… healing purposes – and she will claim that is the real reason to all and sundry. Bless her handsy cotton socks!

One of the bigger themes I wanted to start to develop this chapter was Aang's conflict with his air nomad beliefs and his avatar duties and his personality (which is a little attention seeking- and I say that with a ton of love for Aang) and how this can affect the rest of the group. I also wanted to explore the theme of differing points of view and how the Gaang interact when there is a dissagreement, because they would not agree with eachother all the time.

One of the things I love in Aang is how genuinely he cares for people and genuinely wants to help. Invariably Aang is a helper. It's what he does. I have a feeling Aang is almost physically or physcologically incapable of turning away from someone who needs him and not getting involved. Aang believes that all life is sacred and it would be abhorrent to him to turn his back of someone in mortal peril. For better or worse, Aang is always getting involved and trying to fix things.

To me, this would logically be a problem in the latter half of season 3. In the first half, before the Day of Black Sun, Aang begrudgingly accepted that he needed to keep his identity a secret and live in hiding. But he felt very strongly about not letting the world down or letting the world think he had died/abandoned them again. Maybe it's a result of hanging around Katara too much, But Aang recognizes the hope he gives people and how important hope is. I think Aang has flashes of feeling intense guilt over disappearing for 100 years. I also think he hasn't properly begun to work through all that entails, but I'll give him a pass on that one because the kid has a heap on his plate. After the Day of Black Sun, everyone knows he's alive and in the firenation. It's not so much of an issue at the Western Air Temple because there are no other people around but in the towns and villages of the firenation where there are people who *gasp* might need saving. I can see Aang realistically saving them and revealing his Avatar status in the process, without properly thinking through the consequences. This would drive other, more prudent, group members Bananas!

The morning with the fisherman-Aang's ego has taken a bit of a blow. I think when he sees fisherman in trouble and he can help with the two bendings he's great at (air and water) he would do so without thinking. But because he's the only bald headed airbending 12 year old in the entire world, he pretty much gives himself away instantly. I think Toph is very practical and quite cluey about these things and she knows the second he shows those fisherman his arrowhead and airbending that they will have to change locations and quick!

Zuko and his dramatic pronouncement. He assumes that Aang realizes the gravity of the situation and how screwed they will all be if he's discovered. When it becomes apparent (on Appa)that Aang doesn't quite grasp the gravity of the situation, he reminds him of it. Dramatically.

YMMV on everything!

In the next chapter: Zuko and Katara will err…let off some steam together.

Til then lovely readers.