Hey, all! This fic came to life because of a one-shot writing prompt me and Smugdragonmama did. We each had the same prompt (which happens to be the title) and had an hour to write it. I finished the last sentence in this just as the hour timer I set finished. I meant to add a few more lines before finishing the fic, and considered doing that even after the timer went off, cause Smugdragonmama took a bit of extra time too so it would have been fine, but I also just couldn't think of how else to end it. So...if the ending seems rushed and incomplete, that's why!

I don't know exactly when in the series this takes place, so don't be expecting it to closely follow canon plot or anything, haha.

Also, this is not proofread at all, it's exactly how I wrote it in the hour. So, sorry for any mistakes!

Hope you enjoy!

Aang skipped his way across the clearing the group had set up camp in for the night, a huge grin on his face and a long, narrow, wrapped package under his arm. Sokka, Katara and Toph were all lounging around a campfire, quietly.

"Aaaaatchew!" Toph exploded.

Well, they were lounging around as quietly as this group could be, anyway. Aang blinked a couple times at how loud Toph's sneeze was, quickly threw out a "Gesundheit!" in her direction, then scurried off to where his tent was set up to stow his package. A few seconds later he popped back out, only to be questioned immediately by Katara.

"What have you got there, Aang? Find something good at the market?" She had one eyebrow raised, looking at him. Toph's face was tilted up, so Aang could tell she was listening in too, and he just knew that Sokka was keeping an ear out too. He paused for a bit, halting where he stood, then tucked his hands behind his back.

"Oh, nothing much," he said, "just something I want to test out. I'll show you guys tomorrow!" His answer seemed to satisfy Sokka well enough, and Katara looked like she wanted to dig more but was content to let it go for now, but Toph on the other hand, she was curious.

"Oh come on, Twinkletoes," she called out, having stood up from where she had been laying on the ground, and was now walking towards him. "You can't just dance through camp like that, holding a mysterious package, and then not tell us what it is!"

"Hey, if you wanted to know so badly, you should have stayed with me at the market," Aang drawled, looking confident on the outside and only slightly cowering on the inside at his earthbending teacher. They may be roughly the same age, and he may be the Avatar, but he knew he was no match for her, especially in an argument. He also knew that she could be stubborn, so at that point he was just hoping that she would let it go.

She didn't.

"I left the market because you were taking way too long and I got bored! If you were any faster on those supposedly light airbender feet of yours, then maybe I wouldn't have gotten so bored and I would be in on your little secret."

Aang leaned back and blinked a few more times, pursing his lips. Katar and Sokka were watching from their respective spots by the campfire, Appa was asleep, and Momo was…off doing whatever it was Momo did on a regular basis. It was just him and Toph for this one. Gulp.

"Hey, let's not argue about this." His pacifist side took over and went into autodrive. "I'm sorry for taking too long. But what I got is mine, and I don't want you touching it. I don't want you looking for it, or at it, or messing with it. Especially not before I test it out and show you guys!"

Toph seemed to be considering this, maybe. It was always hard to tell with her, but her arms were crossed and she had a thoughtful look on her face. He tried one more time.

"I don't go digging through your stuff, do I?

"He's got a point, Toph, he doesn't," Sokka chimed in. Aang perked up at the show of support, straightening his back and smiling innocently at Toph.

"I guess not," she grumbled, going back to her original spot and kicking the ground, making a pillar of earth jump up to lower her softly back to a lying position. "We had better get to see it though, Twinkletoes, and it better be worth it." And with that, the earthbender closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Aang exchanged a glance with Sokka, looking between him and Toph a couple times before shrugging and going to sit by the campfire. Near Katara. Doing his own thing.

…

No, doing his own thing was boring, and he was too excited to wait for tomorrow! He jumped back up and scurried into his tent, using a bit of airbending to propel him so he would go faster. He grabbed the package, tucked it under his arm and dashed away from the camp, yelling behind him "I'll be back later, don't worry!" before he was gone.

Katar and Sokka just looked at each other, shrugged, and then went back to their own projects. In Katara's case some sewing, in Sokka's case…contemplating the mysteries of the universe. Or, thinking about meat and wondering what they would have for breakfast the next day.

Aang finally reached a place he felt would be good enough—at the top of a cliff that was near enough to get to, but far enough away that his three friends wouldn't find him easily or quickly— and unwrapped his package.

What had been hidden before was slowly revealed as he unwrapped the long, off-white piece of material the street vendor had wrapped it with at his request. The object below was a deep blow, narrow at one end but steadily growing a bit wider for most of the length, then getting narrow again for a couple hand spans on the other end. Even at its widest point, though, you could still wrap both hands fully around it.

It was an umbrella.

Now, if you're questioning why Aang is so excited, and secretive, about such a simple thing as an umbrella, then clearly you don't know how his mind works. Because obviously it is for a great purpose, one that will help the Avatar, and benefit the entire world, by letting him practice his airbending. And yes, yes, he's already an airbending master and should be focusing more on the other three elements, earth especially, but! He doesn't want to lose touch with his airbending side, so clearly he needs an umbrella.

And a cliff.

Which he has. So now it's just time to utilize his resources and become the best Avatar he can be! Monk Gyatso would be so proud.

No more than a few minutes later and Aang could be found standing at the side of the cliff, umbrella held in one hand, still closed, and other hand propped against his forehead as he scanned the terrain below. It was rocky—very rocky. And they were sharp too. He had no doubt that someone would be impaled on them if they fell off the cliff. No normal person would want to get too close to the edge, and only an insane person would jump off. Well, an insane person or an airbender with an umbrella, apparently.

Aang walked a bit away from the edge, about ten feet, stuck his tongue out to one side of his mouth, took a running head start, and jumped off the cliff! The plan was to open the umbrella as he jumped and use his airbending to use it as a substitute glider. And it was going great! His running head start was perfect, he jumped far enough away from the cliff to get him plenty of room to maneuver, and his umbrella…was stuck.

This was fine.

Aang started panicking, feeling the ground getting closer as he struggled to get the latch on the umbrella to click into place. What felt like ages later, but was really only a second or two, Aang got the umbrella to open, sent a rush of air up towards it, and floated softly down to the ground, bracing himself against two very sharp rocks as he landed.

He breathed a sigh of relief, closing the umbrella again and dropping to the ground. "That was close!" he exclaimed, letting his head loll back for a second. Then it popped up. "Time to do it again!"

Aang jumped down the cliff about five times with his umbrella until he had the technique perfected to the point where he could speed up or slow down his descent with ease, and where he could make himself float on the wind like a leaf falling to the ground. It looked really cool, at least he thought so from his perspective, and he couldn't wait to show Katar and the others tomorrow!

Speaking of which, he should probably get back to camp before it got too dark out. He closed the umbrella, wrapped it back up in the long cloth, and made his way back to their campsite. A bit more slowly this time.

Toph was snoring her head off in her earth tent when he got there. Sokka was snoring his head off too, but he was still sitting by the campfire since he had fallen asleep before he could move to his tent. There was a rather large insect right in the middle of his forehead, and Aang briefly considered getting rid of it for him, but then decided against it. Katara was still awake, but she had put aside her sewing and was just cleaning up the campsite a bit and prepping for the next day.

"Aang, you're back," she commented, looking up as he entered the clearing. Momo swooped in and landed on his shoulder, chattering away excitedly as he ran across Aang's back along his neck, and Aang reached up to pet the lemur.

"Yep," he replied, stopping by his tent briefly to put his package inside, then flopping down on the ground by the fire. "And all ready to show you my surprise tomorrow before we head out!" He grinned up at her.

She smiled back, then started heading towards her tent. "Sounds good, but make sure it doesn't take too long, we should get an early start if we want to get to our next destination before dark. I'm heading to bed now, goodnight!"
"'Night, Katara!"

Aang lay there for a few more minutes, looking up at the stars, then decided to hit the sack himself. He was halfway to his tent before he was halted by a particularly loud snore coming from his watertribe friend. He looked back at Sokka, who had somehow lost the bug from his forehead. He could leave him there for the night, or at least until he woke up by himself and moved to his tent, but then Sokka would spend the next day complaining of how sore he was, and how no one woke him up. Even tho he hated being woken up. Aang smiled softly and went over to shake his friend.

Sokka mumbled unintelligible words as he was ripped from his precious slumber, but Aang didn't stick around much longer than it took to tell Sokka to get to bed. Then the avatar fell into bed and promptly fell asleep, his wrapped umbrella at his feet.

The next morning Aang woke everyone up bright and early, shaking them each awake. "Come on, guys, up and at 'em! The sun's in the sky, and I have something to show you all before we leave."

No one was happy about it, but they were on their feet and out of their tents within ten minutes. Aang was bouncing lightly on the balls of his feet, gesturing for them to follow him away from the campsite.

Momo flew ahead of them as they trudged down the trails, three of them rubbing sleep from their eyes and the fourth with a huge grin on his face. Once they reached the cliff he had been at the night before Aang held up his still-wrapped package in front of him. "I bet you guys can't guess what this is!" he called out.

Katara looked at leats semi-interested as she stared at it, but Sokka looked like he couldn't spare a care in the world.

"Can we go back and have breakfast yet?" The watertribe boy asked.

Aang's face dropped and he glared at Sokka jokingly. "No, Sokka, not till after you see something!"

"Well, Aang, maybe you should just get on with it then," Katara suggested softly.

"Yeah, just show us what you're going to do with that stupid umbrella, Twinkletoes!" Toph called out, arms crossed over her chest. "It's cold out and I want to get back to the fire."

"Yeah, yeah, in a sec—Hey! How did you know it's an umbrella?" Aang stared at her.

Toph blinked at him a few times, then looked away. "From the shape, duh."

"No, you couldn't tell what it was last night from the shape! So tell me, how did you know?" As he was talking Aang unwound the umbrella, since he figured it wasn't a secret anymore.

"Well you left it right at the foot of the tent, what was I supposed to do, not unwrap it and feel it?" Toph asked with a huff.

"Yes, that's exactly what you're supposed to do, Toph!" Aang was exasperated, a vein popping in his temple.

Katara stepped in. "Okay, you two. Aang, we know it's an umbrella now, so show us what you wanted to show us."

Aang frowned, but then perked up a tiny bit. "Fine. Watch this!" And without looking at the umbrella, and without any hesitation, he took a running head start and leaped off the cliff, opening the umbrella as he jumped!

Because of his practice the night before he didn't have any problems opening it this time. There was a problem however. When he sent a guts of air up into it like usual, hoping to make himself float like a leaf under his umbrella, there was a high pitched whistling sound and he started falling faster than he usually would. He looked up and, to his dismay, a huge hole in the fabric of the umbrella. Then it grew larger, and larger, and then he was free falling.

"Waaah!" he called as he fell down the cliff. He landed on a rock, luckily a smoother one this time, and tumbled off it to the ground. He had slowed his descent enough with the umbrella and his airbending that he wasn't too hurt. Just his pride. He looked up at the other three, who were leaning over the edge of the cliff with worried expressions on their faces. Then he looked down at the umbrella, inspecting the hole. Then back up at his friends.

"Toph!" He called. "I told you not to touch my umbrella!"

And, yeah, that's that. It was so much fun to write, I totally diverged from my normal writing style a lot, but I enjoyed it. I also didn't think I would get so much written in the hour, lol.

Also, I'm not entirely sure what happened to the umbrella, that can be up for your interpretation. I think either Toph did break it when she was looking at it, or else it just broke from Aang abusing it so much. I'm honestly surprised it didn't break sooner!

Let me know what you thought!