One-shot XXIII: The case of children's books
[Modern A.U]
Aang had the habit of reading books to the twins before going to sleep, they were always short stories that the children did not finish listening to because they fell asleep, although that changed when he started with 'The Little Prince' book.
The case of "The Little Prince".
Aang decided to try something with the children, he was starting with 'The Little Prince' book, he first showed them the well-known drawing of the elephant inside the boa.
"What do you see here?" Aang asked showing them the image.
"It's a mountain" Izumi said confidently "and it has a river below"
"Of course, it isn't" her brother replied "it's obvious that it's a sofa covered by a blanket."
"Are you sure? don't you see anything else?"
The children analyzed the image a little bit more.
"What do you see, pops?" Tenzin asked.
"A snake that ate an elephant" Aang answered confidently, and the children laughed.
"How weird, pops."
"That doesn't make any sense" Izumi continued.
The case of "Coraline and The Secret Door".
When the kids were nine years old, Aang had had the not so good idea to read them "Coraline and The Secret Door" book, they already liked the film, so he took advantage of his book to read to them a little. A couple of days after they finished reading it, the kids were behaving strangely, they are still laughing and running around but there was something unusual about them, something that neither Aang nor Zuko could decipher, until one day, Zuko was taking care of the food when the kids came trying to steal cookies from the cupboard.
"Where are you taking that?" he asked, stopping their steps.
"We get ready, we pack the survival bag" Izumi explained seriously.
"We need supplies" Tenzin continued.
"Why do you need supplies?"
"We will travel to another world... to the other side" Zuko looked at them without understanding, Izumi was silent, and Tenzin decided to explain the things better.
"In Coraline's book, she finds a door and goes to another dimension where a witch pretends to be her mother. But we will defeat her because..." the boy paused dramatically "we don't have a mother"
Although Zuko still looked at them without understanding what was happening, he only saw how they left the kitchen, although without cookies, only a couple of apples; Zuko turned off the stove and followed them to his bedroom where they carried two backpacks almost full of anything.
"Are those your supplies?"
"Yeah, look" Tenzin took his father's arm and led him to where their backpacks were "we have a warm blanket, marbles to distract the enemy, also a stuffed animal, this stick, cat toys because cats will help us and we want to bring some food"
"But you can't go to the other side, the witch won't hurt you."
"How do you know? maybe she's already watching us" Izumi claimed.
"There's no secret door here, it's also a book. Nothing there can hurt you" Zuko hugged both of them "and if you just want to have an adventure, there are other ways to have them, you don't have to go to another dimension, but you can't go out alone either" he ended up remembering a couple of escapades by his twins.
"I was scared" Tenzin confessed clinging to his father.
"Maybe me too, but just a little bit."
"Now I will check what you read before going to sleep."
The case of "Harry Potter".
The twins were about to turn eleven years old, Aang and Zuko were already planning a trip. Zuko wanted to take them to England, one day Aang was checking the reservations, he heard a lot of noise in the twins' bedroom.
"What's up kids? why are you making so much noise?" He asked before entering on the bedroom.
"We packed up" Izumi replied trying to put her Harry Potter things inside a backpack.
"You know I'll help you with that later, it's still too early."
"We will search for the wizarding world" Izumi replied excitedly.
"You're a bit too old to look for that kind of adventures."
"She just wants to take pictures in King Cross with the robe, we will not do anything weird" Tenzin continued, making his sister look at him badly "I want to go to Harry Potter themed park"
"We're looking that, and if you want a magical adventure, I can take care of that. Trust me" Aang told them before leaving the kids bedroom.
He had planned to send a couple of letters.
The case of "Percy Jackson".
"Parents, we have discovered your secret" Izumi cried entering on her parents bedroom where they watched a series quietly "we're adopted"
"We already knew that" Tenzin said softly to his sister, but not soft enough.
"And since you were six" Zuko continued.
"I mean, I already know where you got us from… ok, you had already told us that too, but we found out something else" on that, Tenzin interrupted her.
"We think we're demigods or something."
"How boring you are, what I mean is that everything matches. You found us on a quiet night, and we showed up out of nowhere, plus we're cool."
"I don't think it works like that" Aang told them with a smile.
"But it would be great, don't take away their illusion" Zuko replied, holding back his laughter "who do you think you are children of?"
"Athena or Zeus" Tenzin answered "I like to think that we are intelligent and strategists, but Zeus is one of the only ones who had important twins"
"I wanted to say Poseidon or Ares" Izumi continued "Percy has the coolest powers, but we would be great warriors with Ares"
"That's sounds interesting" Zuko said as both kids approached to fill him with data from their new favorite saga.