A/N: this chapter was really fun to write! Enjoy!
Responses from chapter 4:
Vapor23: Thank you for your kind review! As a response for your question, Aang does not know about the airbenders being dead. He does know that it has been 100 years though, and that nobody has seen an airbender in that amount of time. I also like protective big brother Aang :)) Thank you for your continued support!
micheala.s14: Thank you for your review!! I also think that the big brother role suits Aang. One of the reasons I created Akira was so Aang had somebody to be responsible for, since I feel like everybody is responsible for him. Yes, that chapter was very heartbreaking, I love writing sad Air Sibilings! This chapter has a lighter tone, but it still has some sadder moments. Hope you enjoy!
"You have no idea where we're going, do you?" Sokka asked as he looked down at our map.
"Well, I know it's near water!" Aang replied.
"I guess we're getting pretty close,then," Sokka sighed.
"Aang, we've been flying over this river for hours, are you sure we're going to the right place?" I asked.
"I'm certain," Aang replied.
"Momo, marbles please," My brother said. The lemur quickly reached into Aang's shirt and pulled out marbles.
"Oh no, not this" I thought.
"Hey Katara, check out this airbending trick!" Aang exclaimed before using airbending to move the marbles in a circle.
I snorted as I watched Katara continue sewing, finding Aang's failed attempt to impress her amusing.
"That's great, Aang," Katara said blankly.
"You didn't even look," Aang replied, disappointment in his voice.
"That's great!" Katara said again, this time with more enthusiasm.
"But I'm not doing it now," Aang sighed.
"Stop bugging her airhead, you need to give girls space when they do their sewing," Sokka said, earning him a glare from Katara.
"Nice one, dummy," I mouthed to Aang once Katara was turned around and yelling at Sokka.
Aang's cheeks flushed and he blew a raspberry at me, causing me to giggle.
"We just made a pit stop yesterday, shouldn't we get a little more flying done before we camp out?" Sokka asked once we finally made it to our stop.
"He's right, at this rate, we won't get to the North Pole until spring," Katara added.
"But Appa's tired already," Aang said, "aren't you boy?" Appa grunted in response.
"I said, aren't you boy?" Aang asked, nudging Appa on the arm with his elbow. This time, Appa yawned in response. Aang smiled and pointed to the bison.
"That was very convincing," I said sarcastically.
"Look!" Aang exclaimed as he pointed out into the water. Suddenly, a giant koi fish emerged from the water.
"That's why we're here- elephant koi," my brother said, "and I'm gonna ride it!" He stripped off his clothes before running into the water.
"COLD!" Aang exclaimed. Sokka moved his finger in a circle around his head, causing my heart to skip a beat. I giggled. Aang and the fish emerged from the water.
"Woo!" Katara exclaimed, jumping up and down while waving at Aang.
"He looks pretty good out there," Katara said.
"Are you kidding? The fish is doing all the work," Sokka replied, causing me to snicker.
"No, Appa! Don't eat that!" Katara demanded, running over to stop the bison from eating a weird plant. Suddenly, a large shadow casted in the water, and was coming towards Aang!
"There's something in the water!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Aang, get out!" I yelled. Suddenly, Katara came back.
"What's wrong?' She asked.
"Aang's in trouble," Sokka responded.
The water tribe siblings and I proceeded to attempt to get my brother out of the water, but Aang couldn't hear us. Suddenly, Aang was flung off the fish and plunged into the water. When he came back up for air, a creature bigger than the fish came out behind him.
"Why do things like this always happen when he tries to ride animals?" I wondered to myself. Aang quickly began running out of the water, and crashed straight into Sokka, slamming both of them into a tree. Katara and I ran over, Sokka was still sitting up against the tree, but Aang was putting his clothes back on.
"What was that?" I asked in amazement.
"I don't know," Aang admitted.
"Well, let's not stick around to find out," Sokka said,"time to hit the road," suddenly, tons of women dressed in green came down from the trees. One of them tied my arms and legs together, while another put a blindfold over my eyes. I dropped to the ground with a loud grunt.
"Or we could stay a while," a voice that I recognized as Sokka's said.
"You three have some explaining to do," A man said.
"And if you don't answer all our questions, were you back in the water with the Unagi," a teenage girl added.
"The unagi?" I thought, "is that the name of the thing that almost ate Aang?"
"Show yourselves, cowards!" Sokka exclaimed before the teenage girl ripped the blindfold from his eyes.
"Who are you, where are the men who ambushed us?" Sokka asked. I really liked him, but sometimes comments like this made me question my crush.
"There were no men, we ambushed you" the teenage girl said, "now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?"
"Wait a second, there's no way a bunch of girls took us down," Sokka scoffed. If my hands weren't tied together, I would have smacked my forehead. Instead, I just sighed and rolled my eyes, earning a giggle from Aang.
"A bunch of girls, huh?" The girl said, pulling Sokka by his shirt, "the Unagi's gonna eat well tonight,"
"No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it!" Katara exclaimed, "my brothers just an idiot sometimes,"
"Me and you both" I thought, remembering the countless times Aang's stupidity had gotten us into trouble.
"It's my fault," Aang sighed,"I'm sorry we came here, I wanted to ride the elephant koi,"
"How do we know you're not Fire Nation spies?" The man asked, "Kyoshi stayed out of the war so far, and we intend to keep it that way,"
"This island is named for Kyoshi?" Aang asked excitedly,"I know Kyoshi!"
"Ha! How could you possibly know her?" The old man said, "Avatar Kyoshi was born here 400 years ago,she's been dead for centuries,"
"I know her because I'm the avatar," My brother said. I was surprised that Aang didn't come up with a quick lie and actually admitted to being the avatar.
"That's impossible, the last avatar was an airbender who disappeared 100 years ago," the girl said.
"That's me!" Aang exclaimed.
"Throw the imposter to the Unagi!" The man said. The face paint girls slowly started inching towards us.
"Aang, now would be a good time for some airbending!" I said through gritted teeth. Quickly, Aang shot up, breaking his ropes with the top of the Kyoshi statue. I let out a sigh of relief as I saw the girls break from their fighting stances.
"It's true," the old man said breathily, "you are the avatar,"
"Now, check this out!" Aang exclaimed before doing the airbending trick again. I rolled my eyes as I watched the crowd of people freak out. One guy even began foaming at the mouth. Anytime we would go anywhere, Aang would whip out this trick to impress people.
The next day…
We were all sitting in the dining room of our hotel. Aang, Katara and I were all watching as an abundance of pastries were placed in front of us, while Sokka was pouting in a corner.
"All right! Desert for breakfast!" Aang said, raising his arms. I quickly grabbed the pastry closest to me and shoved it in my mouth.
"This is so good!" I exclaimed with my mouth full of food.
"These people sure know how to treat an avatar!" Aang exclaimed, shoving his own food into his mouth. Katara was apparently busy examining the food in her hand.
"Katara, you've gotta try these!" Aang said, handing Katara a pastry that he had already bitten into.
"Well, maybe just a bite," she said with a smile. I noticed that Momo was stealing the food from Aang's hand, making me laugh.
"Sokka, what's your problem? eat!" Aang said. I then noticed that Sokka wasn't eating. Which was weird, especially for him.
"Yeah! This is the best thing I've ever eaten!" I added.
"I'm not hungry," Sokka said flatly.
"But you're always hungry!" Aang said.
"He's just upset because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday," Katara said.
"They snuck up on me!" Sokka exclaimed.
"Right, and then they kicked your butt," Katara responded.
"Sneak attacks don't count!" Sokka said before getting up and grabbing food from the table.
"This is pretty good," he grumbled as he walked away.
"What's he so angry about?" Aang asked. I shrugged and made an "I don't know" sound.
"It's great here! They're giving us the royal treatment!" He continued. I only nodded in response because I had food in my mouth.
"Hey, don't get too comfortable," Katara said, "it's risky for us to stay in one place for very long,"
"I'm sure we'll be fine," Aang replied, "besides, did you see how happy I'm making this town? They're even cleaning up that statue in my honor!" I looked out the window to see that they were in fact cleaning up the statue of avatar Kyoshi.
"Well, it's nice to see you excited about being the avatar," Katara said, "I just hope it doesn't all go to your head,"
"Trust me, it will," I sighed. Knowing my brother, I figured that at some point the attention would get to his head, and he would start thinking he was the coolest kid in the world. Aang shot me a glare before speaking again.
"Come on, you know me better than that, I'm just a simple monk," Aang said reassuringly. Suddenly, screaming could be heard from outside the window. I peeked my head out and saw a group of girls screaming over Aang, causing him to blush. Katara rolled her eyes while I made a fake gagging noise, and we both began to laugh at each other's responses.
"Oh wow, look at how simple he's being," I said sarcastically.
"Yep, simplest guy in the world," Katara added. We both laughed again. Honestly, I have to admit I was kind of jealous of Aang though.
As the day went on, Aang was chased by the group of girls constantly.
I was sitting in the hotel, bored out of my mind. There had been nothing for me to do. I couldn't stare at Sokka because he was too busy being a woman hater, Katara was always practicing her water bending, and Aang was getting chased by his fans. I groaned and banged my head on the wall, wincing in pain after I realized how much it hurt. Suddenly, the door opened, and I let out an excited gasp when I realized it was Aang.
"Kiri, do you wanna come on a ride on Appa with the girls and I?" He asked, "I asked Katara, but she said she didn't want to,"
"Sure!" I said excitedly.
The ride was not as fun as I had hoped. The saddle was crowded, and I couldn't even sit next to Aang because a girl named Coco had already taken that spot.
"You're so good at steering, Aangie!" Coco said. I groaned and pulled my shawl over my face, this was going to be a long ride.
"Watch this, girls!" Aang said before doing the marble trick again. The other girls immediately began to erupt in giggles. I rolled my eyes.
"I'm about to jump off the saddle," I mumbled. Suddenly, I got an idea.
"Hey, guys! Check this out!" I said, "Aang, give me the marbles," Aang gave me a confused look. I extended my arm and gestured for him to give me the marbles. Aang sighed before placing them in my hand.
"Thank you," I said. I then used the marbles to juggle, with the assistance of airbending. But I got no response. No "ooh"'s, no "ahh"'s, and not even a single giggle. I sighed and handed the marbles back to Aang.
"I guess it's only cool when he does it," I scoffed, jealousy brewing in my body.
"What was with the attitude on the Appa ride?" Aang asked me once the ride was over, "and why were you trying to upstage me?"
"Upstage him?" I thought,"what does Aang think he is, a magician?"
"I wasn't trying to upstage you," I grumbled, "and I just wanted some attention too, it's pretty boring to just stand around all day, to have nobody care about you," Aang's eyes widened, he apparently wasn't expecting me to act like this.
"I don't understand why they like you more," I continued, "I'm an airbender too, and a pretty good one at that, So why don't they care about me?"
"I'm sure they care about you, Kiri," Aang sighed, "they just haven't gotten to know you yet!" He gave me a reassuring smile.
"I'm gonna try and ride the Unagi tomorrow, I'm sure that if you came too, the girls would be impressed!" Aang said. I gave him a confused look. In air nomad culture, people of the same gender were allowed to be in love, but Aang knew I didn't feel that way about girls. I just wanted the attention, not to impress them.
"I'm not worried about impressing the girls," I said flatly, "I just want people to be as excited about me as they are you,"
"Oh," Aang said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, "well, you should come anyway, it'll be cool!"
"Yes, watching my older brother try to impress a whole bunch of girls sounds so cool," I sarcastically sighed.
The next day…
"Have you seen Aang?" Katara asked me.
"I'm pretty sure he's trying to ride that giant fish thing," I said.
"Of course he is," Katara sighed, "I know he's your brother and all, but Aang's been being kind of a jerk lately,"
"I can agree," I said, "you know, I think Sokka is a jerk sometimes,"
"Guess it all comes full circle," Katara said with a giggle. I laughed too.
"Well, I should probably go check to see if Aang got eaten, wanna come with me?" She asked.
"Sure," I replied.
When we came to the shore, Katara and I noticed that Aang was sitting alone in the water.
"Hey,Aang," I said, "where's your fan club?"
"They all left," my brother sighed,"I guess they just aren't interested anymore," I nodded and tried to give a sympathetic look, but I was secretly happy that Aang was no longer getting all of the attention.
"We wanted to make sure you were safe," Katara chimed in, "you had me really worried,"
"Back there you acted like you didn't care," Aang said. I figured my brother had told Katara about his plans, and she had acted like she didn't care.
"I'm sorry," Katara sighed.
"I'm sorry too," I added, "I was being a jerk because I was jealous,"
"No guys, I'm the one that should be sorry," Aang sighed, "I let all the attention get to my head, I was the one being a jerk,"
"Well get out of the water before you catch a cold, you big jerk!"Katara shouted playfully.
"On my way!" Aang shouted back with a big smile. Suddenly, the Unagi came up behind him.
"Aang! Behind you!" I shouted. But it was too late, the big fish had already scooped him up.
"Oh, no! Katara! What do we do?" I asked frantically as I watched the water monster spit a bunch of water at my brother. Surprisingly, Aang was still holding on. He began to swing from this string looking thing on the monster, and I got more and more worried.
"I'm gonna try and get him, you stay here," Katara said. Her voice was calm, but I could tell that she was scared and worried.
"Don't worry, Aang!" The older girl called out,"it's gonna be alright! Just hang on!"
"Please don't eat him…please don't eat him…" I thought. Katara hadn't gotten too close to the monster before it flung Aang, sending him flying into the water. I gasped as I saw my brother. He was alright, but he looked like he'd gone unconscious. I began to run into the water, using my airbending as a boost.
"Aang!" I shouted before grabbing him the best I could.
"A little help here?" I shouted to Katara as I struggled to pull the entirety of Aang's weight. Katara had just began to wade over to us, when the monster emerged out of the water, causing me to gasp.
"Behind you!" I yelled. Katara gasped when she turned around, seeing that the child-eating water monster was right behind her, staring menacingly.
"Nice giant fish thing…" I said shakily, backing up and dragging Aang along with me. Katara used water bending to push us to the shore, and to keep the monster at bay. Once I washed up on shore, I began to sputter and cough. I had gone underwater, and now I was soaked! I groaned and put my fists together, forming an air ball that would dry me off.
"Are you okay?" Katara asked me, concern in her voice.
"I'm fine," I said with a smile and nod, "But right now, we need to make sure Aang's okay," Katara nodded.
"I have an idea," she said, gesturing for me to give Aang to her. I hadn't even noticed that i was still holding my older brother- or at least attempting to hold him. I passed him over with struggle, and Katara put his head on her leg. She began to pull water out of Aang's mouth, and I watched in awe. I always thought that water bending was cool, and I had only seen it a few times before I met Katara. Suddenly, I saw a very familiar ship in the distance.
"Hey! Isn't that the ship that took Aang? The one with the scarred guy on it?" I asked pointing to the ship. Katara whipped her head back.
"Zuko!" She exclaimed. Suddenly, we heard a cough, and looked down to see Aang, his eyes open.
"Katara, Kiri," Aang said weakly, "Dont ride the Unagi, not fun," I let out a small giggle, but then stopped due to the fact that I remembered Zuko was in town.
"Aang, remember that guy who captured you a couple weeks ago?" I asked apprehensively
"Zuko? Yeah, I remember him," Aang said, sitting up, "what about him?"
"He's…kinda…here," I muttered.
"What?!" Aang exclaimed, "how'd he find me?"
"We don't know," Katara sighed, "but what we do know is that he's going to do whatever it takes to find and capture you,"
"He's probably going to burn down the town!" Aang exclaimed, standing up, "I have to go stop him!"
I was standing behind a building. I knew that Aang could do this himself, so I was there for back up if things got flame-y.
"Hey! Over here!" Aang called out. I almost laughed seeing what the back of Zuko's head looked like, but I quickly covered my mouth with my hand.
"Finally," Zuko muttered. He sent a whole bunch of uneven, uncontrolled fire blasts, to which Aang just dodged before using his glider to go over to the scarred boy.
"I should help," I said to myself. As soon as I came out from the back of the house,I saw Aang use the Kyoshi fans to blast Zuko into a house.
"That was awesome!" I called out. Aang quickly took off into the sky on his glider, to which I followed suit. Everything was burned. The houses, the trees, even the statue of Avatar Kyoshi. I sighed as I began to glide closer to Aang, who had a sad look on his face.
"Hey, you okay?" I asked, to which he replied with a sigh.
"All of this destruction, it's because of me," he sighed.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, "this wasn't your doing, it was Zuko's!" Aang sighed again.
"I know, but I still feel responsible," he said, "if I didn't come here, this village wouldn't be in danger!" It was my turn to sigh.
"Aang, it's not your fault that Zuko's crazy obsessed with finding you, so much so that he'll burn down a whole town!" I exclaimed. Aang was about to reply, but he saw Katara, who was helping people get into their homes, and focused his attention onto her.
"Get inside," the water tribe girl said calmly as she lightly pushed a little girl into a home. Aang and I descended from our flights, landing next to her.
"Look what I brought to this place," Aang sighed sadly.
"It's not your fault," Katara replied reassuringly.
"Yes it is!" Aang argued, "this people got their town destroyed trying to protect me!"
"Well, like I said," I chimed in,"You weren't the one who endangered the village,"
"How about we get out of here," Katara said,"Zuko will leave Kyoshi to follow us,"
"I know it feels wrong to run, but I think it's the only way," she added. I nodded in agreement.
"I think that's a good plan," I said,"Aang, what about you?" My brother turned to me with a sad expression, then back to Katara.
"I'll call Appa," He sighed, lowering his head.
Once the bison had arrived, we all quickly scurried onto him. Sokka was later than Aang, Katara, and I, and he was wearing a full Kyoshi Warrior uniform too. I wanted to laugh at him, but I knew it wasn't the time.
"Appa, yip yip!" Aang exclaimed. We began to fly, and I looked down at the sizzling town below us.
"I know it's hard, but you did the right thing," Katara said, "Zuko would've destroyed the whole place if we stayed!"
"They're gonna be okay, Aang," She continued.
"I wish there was something we could do…" I sighed. Suddenly, Aang's head perked up. And he gave me a look that told me he was going to do something stupid and dangerous.
"Actually, there is a way," my brother said.
"Just don't break any bones, okay?" I groaned, half joking. Aang nodded before jumping off of Appa into the water below.
"What are you doing?" Katara called out in shock. When Aang plummeted into the water, Sokka and Katara stared over the edge of the saddle in shock.
"What's he gonna do?" Katara asked.
"He's gonna ride the Unagi," I stated flatly.
"How do you know that?" Katara asked.
"Siblings instinct," I answered with a shrug. Aang and the fish monster came up from the water, and just as I thought, my brother used the fish to put out the fire. After doing this, Aang lifted off into the air and Appa caught him.
"I know, I know, that was stupid and dangerous," Aang said.
"Yes, it was," Katara replied before giving Aang a hug that caused him to gasp in delight. I snickered at Sokka's dumbfounded expression, and we rode off into the sunset.
A/N: Jealous Akira?? chapter 6 coming next week!! Make sure to review!!