Early the next morning, Aang awoke feeling like Toph had smashed his face into the cave wall again and again about twenty five times overnight. But despite the dizzy feeling that was currently making his vision swim in and out of focus, he still ate breakfast and headed off to school.
The 12-year-old Air Nomad cursed silently under his breath and rubbed furiously at his eyes. His head felt like a ton of bricks as he lifted his gaze to meet the worried faces of his friends, who were all staring at him as if waiting for him to say something.
After finishing his food, the young Avatar walked over to a shady spot and sat on a bolder and closed his eyes. His head was pounding and the sun was making his eyes burn and the bright light was not helping matters either. As he continued to sit there, rubbing his temples and trying to blockout the harsh sunlight, he desperately wished that he and Toph could switch places. Even if it was only just for a few seconds, Aang didn't care. All he wanted was his head to stop pounding and his eyes to stop burning.
The Airbender was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Toph standing there until she spoke directly to him.
"Are you feeling any better, Twinkletoes?" It was Toph who spoke up first, which was a nice change in pace for Aang because he still wasn't ready to face Katara after what had happened the previous day. "Oy! Hey Twinkletoes! You there?"
The airbender blinked his eyes a few times and shook his head from side-to-side, regretting it almost immediately afterwords when the world started spinning wildly around him.
"Who, me? Y-yeah, yeah I'm fine. No need to worry, Toph." The airbender replied quietly with a small smile and a roll of his eyes. "I'm just a little tired, that's all."
Toph didn't look convinced in the slightest, but she chose not to press him about it. She knew him well enough to know that if something was bothering him, he would tell her and the others when he was ready.
"Your vibrations feel a little off today. Mind if I touch your face, Twinkletoes?" The blind girl asked with a worried edge to her voice. Caught off guard by the question and feeling a little confused, all the young monk could do was nod his head and stand completely still. He didn't even flinch when she touched him. Instead, he simply watched her with growing curiosity, trying to pin-point exactly what it was that she was looking for.
While all this was going on, neither teacher nor student moved an inch. The Avatar just stood there, trying to stay as still as he could manage while his earthbending teacher continued to feel around his face. He let his face be poked and prodded as Toph tried to find an answer as to why the Avatar's vibrations kept changing in various different twists and turns every few seconds or so.
A few moments of silence passed over the two before it was broken by Toph reaching her hands up to touch his face for a second time. He bit back a sassy retort as his blind earthbending teacher felt around his face for a few seconds more before reaching up a little bit higher to feel her student's forehead.
She hissed and pulled her hand away as if she'd been burned. Aang groaned and shifted nervously under Toph's sightless eyes that seemed to see right through him without the use of said sight.
"Geez, Twinkletoes. Your skin feels like you just got blasted in the face with one of Sparky's firebending moves!" Although she said it in a teasing tone, the underlying worry in her tone could still be noticed if one was actively paying attention. "Are you sure you'll be alright walking to school on your own?"
Aang's breath hitched and he felt the gilt wash over him like a tidal wave. He didn't want to worry Toph, but at the same time, he was a little shocked at seeing this more softer side of the normally tough and hard-headed blind earthbender.
"I'll be fine, Toph. No need to worry." Aang tried to put as much cheerfulness into his voice as he could manage. "It's like I said earlier, I'm just feeling a little tired this morning." He was lying and he knew it. Lying was never something he was very good at doing. Cut him some slack, the Air Nomads were extremely honest people!
Toph scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. "You know that I can tell when you're lying, don't you, Twinkletoes?" His earthbending teacher stated it as more of a fact than a question. "But I'll leave you alone for now since you're kinda in a hurry."
"I'll be back in time for earthbending practice later this evening, I promise." Was all the Avatar said in response. "I give you my word as an Air Nomad that I won't be late."
Toph smirked at that and lightly punched her student in the arm. "You're also the Avatar and an airbending master. Geez, Twinkletoes, you really need to get your priorities in order." She said the last part with a teasing edge to her voice.
Despite how awful he was currently feeling at the moment, he managed to laugh at least a little bit at her joking tone while at the same time rubbing his arm where she'd playfully punched him.
"Yeah I know, thanks for the reminder, Toph. But you know, it's pretty hard to forget that I'm the "Avatar" when we're constantly being hunted and chased all around the world by Zuko and his crazy lightning-wielding sister, Azula, who's even crazier than Bumi." The last part of his sentence got a derisive snort out of his blind earth ending friend.
"No arguments with you there on that one, Twinkletoes. As a matter of fact, I'd say she's totally lost it. Even her own so-called friends abandoned her and joined us instead." Toph shrugged her shoulders with a small laugh, rolling her sightless jade-colored eyes and absentmindedly tossing a boulder at a nearby tree. "But enough smalltalk, Twinkletoes. We can talk more about this later. For now though, you'd better get going before you're late for school."
The 12-year-old Air Nomad laughed at that and said a quick farewell to his earthbending teacher before discreatly putting Momo inside his tunic just as he had done the previous day. He smiled tiredly down at his small lemur friend, who chittered happily in return and stared up at him with those bing, round forest green eyes.
Aang tied his new found bandana around his forehead and said a quick "Goodbye" to his friends before leaving their make shift camp. Ignoring Katara's worried calls for him to swallow the rest of his food, the young Avatar left for school.
He giggled to himself while walking through the Fire Nation village. It's been a while since he's last attended a class himself. It seems only yesterday when he last saw monk Gyatso but it's been a hundred years. The memory of his old friend pulled a knot round his heart so he swallowed thickly and thought of his classmates instead. It was nice to play with children his age and speak of things other than war and Avatar training. He knew this to be a very unique opportunity to learn about the Fire Nation. It's what he's been doing ever since arriving on the island, but he couldn't help but feel gleeful thinking about all the fun he would be having today.
Perhaps he'll visit after the war is over. Then he could show them all of his tattoos.
He grinned when he caught sight of On Ji. The girl was standing near the gates when she glanced over her shoulder with a wave of her hand. "Hey Kuzon! How are you?"
He was answering on autopilot and he knew it. "Huh? Me? Y-yeah, yeah I'm fine! Why're you asking?"
"Well, you look kinda tired. Did you sleep well last night?"
The knot around his lungs tightened. He could only recall Appa's soft coat of fur beneath his skin and the warmth radiating from the animal. He slept rather peacefully last night. Even his dreams had been pleasant. He couldn't imagine why he was feeling so tired. "I'm okay. Really," he replied back after a few seconds of thinking his words over in his head.
On Ji frowned worriedly and stepped a bit closer to the young monk. "Are you sure you're feeling okay, Kuzon?" She repeated her earlier question while looking him over with a concerned expression forming on her face. "You look kinda pale and you haven't said more than a few words since you got here."
He would have answered her or said something to brake the silence but his vision suddenly swam before his eyes and he stumbled forward, tripping over his own two feet as a wave of dizziness crashed over him like a raging gust of wind. His body no longer under willful control pitched forward toward On Ji and his vision began to grow dark as black spots started to creep to the corners of his eyes. The young Avatar could do nothing but brace himself for impact as his small, exausted body came closer and closer toward the fast-approaching and unforgiving dirt-covered ground below.
Well, at least, Aang would have gotten a face full of dirt if it wasn't for On Ji's quick thinking. He heard her gasp and mutter a soft curse under her breath as she grabbed the young Avatar by the waste, cursing once more under her breath and letting a relieved sigh pass over her lips as she brought them both gently to the ground.
"Kuzon! Kuzon! Hey, Kuzon! Are you okay?" On Ji's voice sounded almost frantic as she laid his head on her lap. "What's wrong, Kuzon? Are you alright?" He could only give her a pained moan in response. But that seemed to make it worse and she reached her hand slowly toward his face, reaching under the cloth of his headband and feeling his forehead.
"Oh spirits! Kuzon! You're burning up!" She cried, standing quickly to her feet and clutching her feverish classmate tightly to her chest and dashing away from the school building.
The feeling of being lifted up and jostled around made Aang's head start spinning and he bit back a pained cry. Well, at least he wasn't sneezing! His sneeze-blasts, as Sokka not-so affectionately called them, would definitely give him away as being an airbender and the Avatar without him even having to do much of anything.
"On Ji? W-where a-are we going?" Aang stuttered over his own words as he tried to squint against the bright light of the sun's blinding raise. "Aren't we supposed to be in class right now?"
On Ji frowned worriedly down at the sick boy in her arms and asked him where he lived. Through the fog clouding his brain, Aang was able to tell her as best as he could where she would be able to find the cave that he and his friends were staying in.
"Are you kidding? You can't go to school with a fever, Kuzon." On Ji sputtered and gave him a worried look. "I'm not going to school either. I'm gonna stay with you until you get better."
The rest of the short walk to the cave was silent for the most part, neither of them knowing what to do or say to break the ice. As the young 12-year-old Fire Nation girl kept walking, her attention alternated between staring straight ahead of her at the dirt path she was following and checking to see if the boy in her arms was still breathing.
By the time she found the cave in question that Aang had told her to head towards, the sun was already setting and On Ji was starting to feel the exhaustion of the days events begin washing over her like a tidal wave.
"Hello? Is anybody there?" On Ji called out as she hesitantly inched her way ever-so slightly closer toward the cave opening. "I don't mean to cause any trouble, I swear. I came here looking for help. Please, I'm begging you! My friend is sick and I don't know what to do."
Her grip on Aang tightened instinctually upon hearing the sound of shuffling feet. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the monkey she had seen earlier poked its head out and began to lick the boy's face, chittering worriedly and trying to get him to wake up.
The sound of hurried footsteps approaching the cave followed by a panicked, almost frantic cry for help made the three other occupants of the cave jump to their feet and look up with a mix of surprise and confusion blossoming on each of their faces. But the confusion soon morphed into shocked horror upon seeing, or in Toph's case, (Feeling the vibrations) and gasping sharply upon feeling how erratic and wild her friend's heartbeat was. As for the others, who could all see, were just frozen to the spot, not sure what to make of the sight that greeted them.
"Aa - uh, Kuzon!" Katara was the first to notice the slightly conscious form clutched tightly yet gently in the other girls arms. "What happened? Why aren't you at school? Are you hurt? And who the heck are you?" The waterbender focused a steely-eyed glare upon the brown-haired girl standing anxiously in the entrance of the cave opening. "Did you do something to him?" She growled angrily, not sure what to make of this random girl.
The other girl's face went from anxious to outraged in a matter of seconds. "Wait, what? You think I did something to him? I would never do anything to hurt Kuzon!" Her caramel-brown eyes were narrowed and a scowl now replaced the small smile that had been there moments before. "What's the matter with you? I can't believe that you would accuse me of hurting one of my friends! I came here looking for help! But the moment I step inside the cave to ask for said help, you start shouting at me and accuse me of doing something to harm him! As I said before: I would never lay a finger on Kuzon!"
After her outburst, On Ji took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. After a few more deep breaths, the young 12-year-old Fire Nation girl felt the tension leave her body and she slowly began to relax.
A tense silence fell upon the members currently inside the cave after On Ji's unexpected outburst. How in the world was someone meant to respond to that? No one was brave enough to open their mouth to speak up after an outburst like that.
Toph and Sokka both shuffled their feet and shared a nervous glance, no doubt remembering how Aang had had a similar outburst the night before. And here they were, yet again, just standing awkwardly on the sidelines as another fight reared its ugly head.
A few more moments of silence passed by before someone dared to do something. It was Katara. She didn't say anything, but she took a cautious step forward, wanting to get a better look at her friend.
She was about to reach out to touch Aang, but the look he gave her, even through fever-glazed eyes made the water tribe girl stop in her tracks.
"D-don't touch me!" His voice was horse but Katara felt his harsh words cut through her chest like a dagger. "I'm still mad at you." He muttered bitterly as he fought to keep his eyes open.
"Don't fight it, Kuzon. You need rest if you want to get better. Just close your eyes and get some sleep okay?" On Ji's voice was soft and her smile made Aang's face feel even warmer than it already was. "It's okay, we won't get in trouble for missing school if we inform the teacher and headmaster sometime tomorrow." The brown-haired girl chuckled softly at the look he gave her and she started to gently rub her fingers through the short dark brown hair that laid upon the top of his head.
Aang felt himself being lowered to the ground and he just faintly saw the small outline of Toph, who, despite not being able to see, was staring down at him with a worried look stretched across her face. She frowned sadly and turned her head toward Katara's general direction.
"His fever is pretty high, Sweetness. If we don't get it down soon: Twinkletoes might end up with a fried brain!" The blind earthbender might have been blind, but she wasn't just gonna sit there twiddling her thumbs. Aang was the one to give her the chance to be free. He was also her very first friend that she's ever had in her life.