Hello, People of Fanfiction

This is chapter 3 of the story, I'm sorry for the delay, I'm currently doing my military service and so I rarely get any spare time to continue this story. so I really apologize, and hopefully, I'm gonna make it up to you.

Hope you enjoy this.

The city of Yu Dao was a peaceful city, the best thing about it is that it didn't belong to just one nation, it was a firenation colony, and it was declared that the firenation colonies in the earth kingdom remain intact, so it means that it gathered people from all over the world in one city, people from various nations, the earth kingdom, the firenation, the watertribes, and an air nomad.

He used a jar to fill it with water from the will in the middle of the city, his long hair covering the arrow tattoo that once distinguished him, nobody knew who he was, that's how he was able to live in peace in the past two years, away from his duties, away from everything.

He didn't choose this peaceful life, but he had to, the consequences of him murdering a man were just too hard to bear, so he needed this peace and quiet to clean his head.

He lived alone in a small house in the city of Yu Dao, with nobody knowing his whereabouts but Zuko, and it was by accident.

Aang took the jar filled with water and got on his way home, he was known in the city as "Bomaang", that's the fake name he used, it was also by accident.

Aang, or Bomaang, was asked about his name when he first came to Yu Dao, he said his name was Aang, but once he realized his mistake, he said the first thing that came to mind which was "Bomaang", and so the people have known him with this name ever since.

"Good morning, Bomaang." An old lady said from her balcony.

The Avatar smiled, "Good morning, Nira." He said as he waved at her.

"Don't step on my merchandise, you idiot!" Aang heard someone yell at him as he was about to step on a bunch of toys.

He saved himself at the last second and stepped over them, "Sorry, Hunar. And good morning to you."

"Good morning to you too, Bomaang." The merchant returned the greeting nonetheless.

The Avatar was just so loved around town, which made it appeal to him even more, he's never felt so loved by the people, and as just himself and not the avatar, it made him cry tears of joy at times, he never wanted to leave this place.

But he knew that sooner or later, he's gonna have to assume his role as the avatar.

He decided to keep it at the back of his mind at the moment though.

As he almost reached his house, he found a couple of men with horses outside his small house, as he was carrying the jar filled with water.

He smiled at them as he knew them very well, "Good morning, Xo. Hope you are doing well this morning."

"Just give us the money, Bomaang."

The Avatar sighed, "I don't have any money, Xo."

"Well, you know the drill." Xo said.

He then grunted and used earthbending to generate a cone of rock around the avatar's body, making him unable to move, the jar filled with water water fell to the ground and broke to pieces, with water spilling out of it to the ground.

But the avatar didn't make any effort to move at all, he just stayed there looking at the ground in anguish, awaiting Xo to give the signal to his gang, just like always.

"Do the thing, boys." Xo said, before turning around to leave.

Xo's gang rounded up Aang's helpless body and started to beat him up so bad, blood was spilling everywhere from his mouth, he endured without saying as much as a word.

Eventually, Xo's gang got tired and left the avatar there inside the cone of rock.

When they were out of reach, the avatar used earthbending to free himself from the cone of rock, he could have done this from the start and used his power to beat up the gang, but he refused to do so, fearing that his anger might end up making him murder another person, so he just chose to suck it up, never allowing himself to be angry.

he swore off violence, he has to keep his promise.

The Avatar then moved back to his house with his shoulders slumped and his spirit defeated, looking back he noticed the broken jar on the floor, he waterbended the water from the ground and put it in his mouth to quinch his thirst, he then turned around and entered his house, closing the door behind, leaving the broken jar outside his house signifying his defeat.

The Firelord was at the port with his girlfriend, as soon as the messenger informed him of the upcoming watertribe ship, he didn't even await his carriage, he nearly sprinted all the way to the port to receive his friends, they aren't just any friends to Zuko, they are Katara and Sokka, two of the people he cherishes the most in his life.

He had the biggest smile on his face as he saw the ship dock, with Mai beside him finding herself feeling infinitely happy that Zuko has found his smile again, it's been so long since she's seen his face light up like that.

"Sokka! Katara!" The Firelord shouted as soon as they came within his sight.

"Zuko! My friend!" Sokka shouted back as he sprinted to Zuko, while Katara walked behind him with a smile on her face.

Sokka took Zuko's arm and performed a watertribe handshake, then he grabbed him and pulled him into a hug.

"We missed you so much, buddy." Sokka said.

"I missed you too." Zuko responded.

The Firelord then let go of Sokka, to receive the brunette female waterbender, Zuko pulled Katara into a hug which the waterbender happily returned.

"How's the best waterbender of all time?" Zuko asked.

Katara chuckled, "A bit much, don't you think?" Katara said, she then continued, "I'm doing good, how are you?" she asked.

"I feel great now that you've come to visit me, guys." Zuko said, his words appearing to be very genuine as his eyes were smiling just by looking at both of them.

"I doubt you'd feel the same after you know the reason behind our visit." Sokka said.

Zuko got confused by his words, only for Katara to save the situation by stepping in, "let's save talking business for later, shall we? Hello, Mai. How's it going?" The waterbender greeted as she noticed the black-haired girl behind the firelord, and brought her in for a hug.

Mai smiled back at her and returned the hug, "Hello, Katara. Sokka." She greeted Sokka with a wave, and the warrior returned it shortly after.

The curiosity of the firelord increased, he thought Katara and Sokka just came in for a visit, but now that business is involved, he got incredibly curious.

"Is something the matter?" He asked.

"I said we'll save it for later." Katara said firmly.

The two boys nodded immediately at her, Katara had such a way of convincing people that made Mai chuckle.

Katara looked at Mai with a smirk and then at Zuko, "Now allow me to borrow your girlfriend for some time, I want her help with something really quick. Let's go, Mai." Katara said as she dragged Mai away and right towards the palace.

"I can't believe you just ordered the firelord to do something. You're more amusing than I thought you'd be." Mai said, regarding Katara.

Katara just laughed at her sentiment and continued on her way with Mai to the palace.

With Zuko and Sokka standing there, staring at both girls' departing figures with their mouths agape.

"So… How's the firenation?" Sokka asked, breaking the tension.

"Not that great." Zuko responded.

Sokka could only respond with one sentence, "That's rough, buddy."

The light of the morning came into his window waking him up, his face still bruised from last night's beating.

The Avatar woke up unable to catch his breath, he was thankful for the sun that woke him up, as he was having a terrible nightmare.

He put a hand on his face, if it were up to him, he would rather have a beating like the one he took the day before than having one of those nightmares, he thought he got over the incident, he thought two years were enough, but they weren't.

The Avatar stood up, he went to the bathroom to wash his face in the sink, the water in the sink showed his reflection, his swollen eyelids and lips from the beating still fresh.

At least it looks better than last time. The Avatar thought optimistically as he pushed the thoughts to the back of his head and proceeded to wash his face, he then put on his clothes and decided it was time to head to work.

The city of Yu Dao had a lot of opportunities, although Aang had a chance of working as anything he wanted, he decided to work as a smith, merely because it's a job that would tire him out completely and make him return home to sleep without having any energy left to do anything else, or have a second of time to think, having as much as a second of thought makes him feel ill, as only bad memories rush into his mind at such moments.

Being a smith didn't turn out so bad, as his physique got way stronger and his body got a lot wider, being a smith taught him how to be stubborn and strong, Toph would have been very proud, he smiled at the thought as he was walking towards the smithy.

He arrived early, he found Ryu, the owner, still opening the place, he greeted him upon his arrival,

"Good morning, Ryu."

Ryu smiled as soon as he saw him, "Good morning, Bomaang. As early as ever.", the owner noticed the bruises on his face, "Xo again?"

The Avatar smiled, "Well, you know how it goes." He said as he started to slide into his gear and get into work.

"I still don't understand the reason behind your refusal to fight back." Ryu said.

Aang got his tools from the box as he said, "What's it matter? I wouldn't be able to beat them anyway."

"I have enough experience to know that there's more to it than that, lad. But it's okay, I won't push you to reveal your secret." Ryu said.

Aang started to hammer the steel but he still talked to Ryu, "What do you mean?"

Ryu looked at him pitifully, "your refusal to fight back, your hard work, I know there's a lot of pain behind that, my boy, a whole mountain of it. You're working so hard to run away from your feelings, and judging by the way you refuse to fight, the feelings you are running from have something to do with this, something that happened in the past, something that made you the person you are today."

Aang kept being silent, still hammering the steel.

Eventually, he decided to play it off with a joke, "Wow, Ryu. If I saw any potential in you becoming a truth seer, it's all gone now."

Ryu chuckled at this, "You can't even look me in the eyes and tell me that I'm wrong. That's enough proof to me."

"I'm totally fine. Don't worry about me." Aang said, unable to look at Ryu.

Ryu just looked at him with pity in his eyes, he felt bad for the poor boy, and so he decided not to push him any further.

He got closer to him, and put a hand on his shoulder, Aang immediately stopped the hammering and looked at the older man,

"You're a good boy, Bomaang, I've seen it firsthand to judge. Don't run away from your feelings, my boy. Face them head on; I know you're strong enough to." Ryu said, with a smile to The Avatar, before turning around and going on with his business.

Aang kept contemplating the words, how does this man know so much about him?

Who am I kidding? I'm an open book, Katara used to know what I was thinking without saying as much as a word. Aang thought.

The thoughts of Katara rushed back to his mind, his immediately cut his train of thought and continued to hammer the steel, it's the only way he'd forget about all this.

Maybe, Ryu is right, he has to face his feelings head on someday, but not today.

He was interrupted by a group of thugs that came into the smithy,

"Hello, Ryu."

Aang was alerted by this, he knows the voice very well.

"Xo." The Avatar said.

Ryu knew exactly what those boys came for, he narrowed his eyebrows as he spoke to them,

"What do you want, Xo?"

Xo looked at him with his expressionless face, "Your worker owes us some money."

"And?"

"We're taking it from you."

Ryu's face got even angrier somehow, "Get out of my place, you shameless thieves!"

Xo got dangerously close from Ryu, "I'm offering you a choice here, Ryu. Would you rather we take the money off your cold body, or your warm body?"

Aang stood there unable to move, he wanted so badly to do something, but the promise he made two years ago prevented him, he just stood there and watched.

"Is that a threat?" Ryu asked, his voice showing anger.

"You bet it is."

"Well then." Ryu said as he put a hand on his pocket, Aang knew exactly what he was taking out from it.

"Ryu, No!"

But it was too late, the shop owner took his knife out and tried to stab Xo.

only for the earthbender to deflect the attack and landed a punch on the shop owner's jaw, bringing him to the ground.

Aang still couldn't move, he just looked at the scene with his eyes wide open.

"Do the thing, boys." Xo signaled to his gang.

The boys rounded up Ryu and they started to kick him mercilessly, the shop owner was writhing in agony, all the while Aang was watching with tears in his eyes as he was unable to do anything.

"Yeah, keep watching your master getting beat up, boy. That's all you are good for." Xo said, looking at Aang.

Aang narrowed his eyes at the earthbender, something that made Xo raise an eyebrow.

Those silver eyes. Where did I see them before? The earthbender thought as Aang's intense look made him in a state of thinking.

Aang's eyes then relaxed as he took a deep breath, "Please, leave him alone, beat me up instead." Aang said.

"I don't think so, kid. We kind of got bored of you." Xo said.

Aang got closer to him, he took his hand and fell to his knees, "Please, let him go."

Xo brought his hand out of the boy's grasp, and slapped him on the face, "Keep your filthy fingers off me."

Aang got enraged by this, but he just couldn't forget his promise.

"I beg you, beat me up instead."

"If you don't stop talking, I'll tell the boys to double the dose."

Aang understood what he was saying, he then stood up and looked at the beating in silence, Ryu was getting beat up so bad, he was spitting blood out of his mouth.

Aang felt the urge to defend him, but he just stood there helpless, unable to do anything for the poor man who was getting beat up because of him.

Tears came out of his eyes, he couldn't help but drop to his knees and cry, the situation was helpless, it's either break his promise or leave this man to suffer.

In the end, he couldn't choose but the latter, the gang kept beating up Ryu with the avatar beside them having tears falling from his eyes like rain.

Eventually, Xo and his gang got bored, they took the money from the drawer.

He took only what he was owed, and left the rest in the drawer, "100 copper pieces. That's it. Pleasure doing business with you." Xo said.

He then took his gang and departed, leaving behind a knocked-out man and a sniveling avatar.

Well, you all asked of Aang's whereabouts.

Now you have it :)

Hope you liked this.

Please don't forget to review, I'd like to know your thoughts.

and have a good one :)