Chapter 7: A Little Fun in the Sun

When Zuko returned to the gardens he found Aang, Katara and Toph gathered around Haru who was laying flat on his back breathing heavily. Toph had her arms crossed and a smile on her face. "Great work-out, Haru."

The Earthbender lifted his head weakly. "Yeah, great," he replied, as he fell back exhausted. He was covered from head to foot in dirt, not to mention a few bruises here and there.

The Avatar's pet lemur appeared next to Haru, chittered, and then jumped up and landed on Aang's shoulder. "Momo! There you are! I was wondering where you went off to today."

Katara leaned over the Earthbender. "Are you okay, Haru?"

"I'm fine, just as long as I don't have to move anything for about a week," Haru groaned.

Aang giggled.

"Toph, you were supposed to go easy on him!" Katara berated.

Toph shrugged. "I did."

Haru opened one eye and nodded, "She did."

"Don't feel bad, Haru. You really weren't half bad," Toph replied. "You should have seen Aang when he first started earthbending. Man, did he suck!"

Haru looked at Aang in disbelief.

Aang blushed and shrugged. "It's true. I did suck. But I couldn't help it. Earth is my opposing element. Not to mention Toph is a pretty scary Sifu sometimes," he muttered.

"Hey, no pain, no gain, Twinkle Toes."

Just then The Duke raced excitedly up to them. "Come on guys, Sokka says Teo's almost ready to launch!"

"I think I'll just stay here for a bit," Haru replied exhausted.

"Are you sure?" Katara asked.

"Go." Haru waved them off with a tired smile. "And wish Teo luck for me!"

"Come on!" The Duke was practically dragging Aang off in his excitement.

Zuko followed the small group to the top of a grassy knoll that angled downward towards a cliff. Sokka was busy tightening the last fittings that attached the glider to Teo's wedge shaped wheelchair.

Momo jumped off Aang's shoulder and onto the top of the glider's wings attempting to catch a rather fast moving grasshopper.

"Sokka, are you sure this thing is going to work?" Katara asked a bit skeptically.

"I followed the Mechanist's design plans exactly. Stop worrying, Sis."

Teo lifted the goggles from the top of his head and fitted them snugly around his eyes. "I'll be fine, Katara. I do this all the time back home."

While the others watched, Sokka and Aang pushed Teo into position. Sokka went over to the edge of the cliff for one last double check, as if calculating the distance needed for Teo to get adequate acceleration. He looked over the edge and gulped. His features that had shown so much confidence just a few minutes ago, looked a bit worried now. "That's a long drop down, Teo. Maybe, I should double check those design plans."

Teo laughed. "Stop worrying guys! This is going to work, you'll see. Besides, Aang's going to be right there next to me."

"Yeah," Aang said, popping his glider open as Momo joined him. "Let's do it, Teo!"

The Duke hopped on the back of Teo's wheelchair. "Yeah! Let's go!"

Sokka pulled The Duke off. "Whoa! Not this time little buddy!"

"Hey, no fair!" The Duke protested. "How come Teo gets to have all the fun?!"

Teo looked at The Duke. "Sokka's right. I better do this first one solo."

"Aw!" Dejectedly The Duke stepped back to the sidelines and crossed his arms.

Zuko was standing next to Toph, who at that moment seemed to be concentrating more on digging the wax out of her ear than anything else. "You don't seem particularly interested in all this."

Toph shrugged, and then yawned. "Eh. Once you've NOT seen someone fly in the air, it pretty much looks the same every time. Besides, it's not my favorite activity."

"But you travel with the Avatar all the time on his flying bison."

"There's a difference between having to fly and actually liking it! If I get the choice, my feet stay firmly on solid ground where I can see!"

Zuko's eyebrow arched slightly. Who would have thought he'd have something in common with the blind and rather crude Earthbender?

Aang looked at Teo. "Ready?"

Teo gave him the thumbs up.

Aang looked at the lemur. "Come on, Momo. Let's have some fun then!" The Avatar grabbed the framework of his glider and leapt into the air. The flying lemur followed. He then started circling around as Sokka and Katara gave Teo a running push-off down the hill.

Teo's wheelchair accelerated quickly, reached the end of solid ground and then propelled off the edge of the cliff. It hung in the air a few seconds, and then dropped out of sight.

Sokka bit his nails nervously.

When Teo didn't reappear, he closed his eyes and grabbed his sister's forearms in a death grip. "Please tell me I just didn't plunge Teo off a cliff to his death!"

Katara bit her lip, eyes wide.

Then all of a sudden they heard The Duke let out a loud, "Whoop!"

Katara's mouth split open wide. "No, Sokka. Look!" She shouted.

Sokka turned around as Teo soared upwards into the air joining Aang. He started hopping excitedly around, an intense look of relief on his face. Katara laughed as Sokka grabbed her in a big bear hug and spun her around. And then, to a rather startled Toph, he picked her up and did the same.

"Huh! I knew I could do it!" He ran down the hill with The Duke as Aang and Teo buzzed past, both laughing as they flew high above the Western Air Temple. The pair began doing a series of interweaving spirals and aeronautical flips with the lemur following along.

Zuko looked down at the still surprised Earthbender wondering why her face was flushed.

A few minutes later, Haru even managed to join them as the group watched the two friends fly. "Wow, they look great up there!"

Katara's eyes were fixed to a point in the sky. "Yeah, they sure do, don't they?"

The pair criss-crossed over one another and then Aang flipped his glider completely upside down so that he was flying directly under Teo. Maintaining the tight form, the two arced together and then started a vertical plunge straight down towards the amazed group of onlookers.

Sokka's smile soon started to turn into a worried frown as the pair showed no signs of altering their course. "Uh…uh…Aang?"

Zuko was also beginning to think the two were going to crash right into the ground.

Sokka started to wave his arms frantically as the pair drew closer. His eyes bugged out and he quickly dove for cover shouting, "A…A...N…G!"

At the last second, however, they split off in opposing directions laughing hysterically as they smoothly banked away.

Eventually, Aang and Teo finally descended. About fifteen feet from the ground, the Avatar snapped his glider shut and airbended gently to the ground with a wide grin on his face. Teo touched down a few moments later and coasted to a stop.

Zuko stood on the sidelines, with arms loosely crossed. The group of friends quickly surrounded the pair, congratulating Teo, and praising a still wobbly Sokka for successfully building the working glider.

Momo joined in, jumping on top of Teo's head and eagerly picking the bugs out of his hair, causing everyone to laugh.

To his own surprise Zuko's own mouth turned upward at the comical scene before he noticed the Avatar watching him. The boy grinned happily back before turning his attention back to his friends.