Ye Chang Meng Duo: Chapter 8

Ye Chang Meng Duo: Chapter 8

[Disclaimer: Nickelodeon (and all others) own “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”  I own whatever I write/create.  Don’t steal and don’t sue.]

[A/N: This is a collaborative work between myself, and the artist Mag (fortheloveofpizza.deviantart.com).  Please make sure to visit Mag’s deviantArt page for artwork that is, not so much inspired by this story, as the story is inspired by Mag’s exceptional imagination.  The title is Chinese for, “The longer the night lasts, the more our dreams will be.”]

“Come on, Aang!  Knock that firebender’s head off her shoulders!”  The shout was followed immediately by a yelp of pain as Sokka received two swift punches to either shoulder.

“Hey, I was just kidding,” he grumbled, rubbing his shoulders.  He frowned first at Toph, kneeling on the ground to his left.  When she did not react, he deepened his frown to a scowl, brows knitting.

“I still can’t see whatever dopey expression is on your face, you know,” Toph said.  Sokka blinked and pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, well—I still hate that about you,” he muttered.  He winced at the sting in his shoulders, reaching up to continue rubbing at them.  His head tilted forward and turned to his right.  Hova, sitting cross-legged next to him, stared at him a moment.  Sokka opened his mouth to speak, eyes narrowing as he took a breath.

“Say anything rude to Hova and we’ll tell Katara and Suki when they come back from their girly day out,” Toph said.  Sokka’s jaw dropped as he spun his head back around to stare at Toph.

“But I wasn’t going to!” he said.  “It was going to be another joke!”

“Sokka, be nice!” Aang chided, calling from where he stood a few yards away.  Sokka stared at the other man, jaw still hanging slack at the sight of Aang’s toothy grin.  He closed his mouth and made a high-pitched whine, the sound buzzing through his nose.  When he looked at Hova, she smiled and stuck out her tongue.  Sokka crossed his arms and returned the gesture, pinching his eyes closed to concentrate on extending his tongue further.

“Hova, stop that.”  Hova closed her mouth, ducking her head down into her shoulders and smiling sheepishly at Kailas.  The other woman chuckled, shaking her head.

“Okay, now that everyone’s stopped talking, do you want to get started again?” Aang asked.  Kailas nodded, shifting her heels to settle more firmly in her stance.  A few feet away, Aang did the same, bending his knees once before widening his stance further.  They lifted their hands, staggered forward and back with fingers loose and spread apart.

Sweat had broken on both their brows after the first few drills of various forms, and now glistened on Aang’s bare head and darkened Kailas’s hair.  They stood with their feet bare on the level, smooth ground, all pebbles and patches of loose dirt removed by Toph before the lessons had even begun.  After an hour, Kailas had removed her shirt and given it to Hova, preferring not to sweat through anything other than the cloth bindings around her chest.  The cloth covered little more than was necessary, looping over her shoulders and breasts.  On her right collarbone and the left side of her stomach, the pocked, thick red line of an old burn scar crept out from the edges of the bindings.

Aang smiled, shifting his weight.  Toph put her hands flat on the ground, head tilted forward.  Hova and Sokka swallowed in unison, breathing too quietly to be heard.  Kailas mirrored Aang as he took a step to one side.  They moved in a circle, stances resumed whenever one or the other paused for a moment.  Aang’s smile broadened before he clenched his teeth together.  He bunched the muscles in his legs and leapt, his right knee rising up and forward in a strike that, had he been close enough, might have cracked solidly against Kailas’s chin.  Flames rushed from his leg in a long-tailed sphere, crackling in a low roar as it shot toward Kailas.

Kailas pressed her hands together and thrust them into the core of the fireball, the red and orange heat parting to flash by her shoulders without leaving behind a single burn.  She pulled back her right hand as Aang landed on his feet, exhaling sharply when she jabbed her hand forward once more.  Her fingers were curled partway, the heel of her palm the birthplace of the stream of fire that came into the world.  Aang ducked down, one foot shifting forward to let him crouch low on one knee.  He dragged both hands along the ground on either side of him before clapping them together in front of his toes.  A trail of flames erupted from the dirt, spiking high enough to have washed over Kailas’s ankles had she remained still.

She leapt up, moving only slightly forward as she drew her knees to her chest.  Both legs snapped straight, fireballs bursting from her heels.  Aang rolled, his back smoothly curving from shoulder to hip over the ground, and brought his legs out from under him to return to his feet.  The fireballs exploded in a shower of sparks where he had crouched, and Kailas twisted her spine in midair to begin turning toward Aang.

He turned faster, one heel dragging on the ground.  More bright red sparks came before his foot rose from the ground and a wide arc of fire followed the path of his kick.  Kailas lifted her hands, a circle of fire growing between them.  The brunt of the heat slammed against the shield, spinning her back and about.  The tail of the fire missed her completely, and her feet touched the ground as Aang turned to face her once more.

“Ready to try against something else?” he asked.  Kailas nodded.  From the corner of his eye, Sokka saw Hova’s hands tighten in her lap.  He reached to pat her on the shoulder, smiling slightly when she looked up at him.  Toph kept her hands on the ground and her head down, but she grinned at the faint image that came to her from her right.  Aang nodded, rubbing one hand over his head to wipe away the sweat that had gathered.  When his arm came down, he lifted one foot.  He stomped down hard, a rock as large as his head breaking through the soil and into the air.

Before the rock could fall, Aang struck it with his fist and sent it flying.  Kailas brought her hands together and turned back, swinging her arms back around when the rock came near.  Her body twisted to block the stone and push it down and away, and she let the twist become a rolling flip forward.  Flames came off the heel of her leading foot as her shoulders and back rolled along the ground, a pillar wide and tall enough to encase Aang completely.  Aang gestured in a wide circle, pulling two walls of stone up to slam closed before him.  The flames hit the stone and dispersed in puffs of heat and light.

One portion of the wall was kicked sharply, snapping free of the ground to rush, flat and wide, at Kailas.  She leapt up from her crouch to dodge aside, barely able to resume her stance before Aang punched the other half of the rock wall.  Kailas brought her arms and legs in, standing on the balls of her feet with her arms over her head to have the stone fly by with inches to spare.  As Aang began to resume a ready position, Kailas quickly brought her arms down.  Her arms swept up and down before her, hands flourishing and fire curving from her fingertips to gather in long, coiling strands.

Aang drew one leg in to stand straight and tall, turning his right shoulder back.  With his palm flat and fingers extended, his arm dipped down low before rising high and fast.  A rush of air, as tall and broad as the fire Kailas had made moments before, came from his hand.  Kailas rose onto her toes and turned aside to dodge the air, arms still moving and fire building in her grasp.  Aang took a step forward, repeating the strike with his left hand.  Another burst of air shot toward Kailas, and she dodged once more.  As she turned, she let one of her legs be carried by momentum and rise.  Her kick, loosing a swift fireball, was met with the throwing of the snaking tendrils that had gathered in her hands toward Aang.

He bent backward, knees and spine curving far enough to let his hands touch the ground.  The fire came close to scorching the cloth of his shirt, and he grit his teeth at the heat he felt on his belly.  He bent his elbows and lifted his feet from the ground, pushing hard with his hands to launch forward.  More air came from his feet, moving too quickly for Kailas, proper balance barely regained from her kick, to dodge.  It slammed into her chest, lifting her clear off the ground and throwing her backward through the air.

Hova gasped, her hands clapping over her mouth.  Toph ground her hands against the dirt, a faint puff of dust rising from the broad patch that became soft powder.  Kailas hit the powder, rolling immediately from her back to her side.  Her breath, controlled and even throughout the hours of training, came now in short, squeaking bursts.  Her arms were crossed over her chest, hands gripping her shoulders as her forearms pressed down hard between her breasts.  Hova scrambled to stand and rush to Kailas as Aang flipped back onto his feet.  He paled, eyes widening, at the sight of the woman lying on the ground.

“I’m—I’m sorry!” he said.  He took a step forward and paused, patting his hands in the air without knowing why.  “I didn’t meant to hurt you!  What did I do?”

“It’ll be all right,” Kailas wheezed.  She sat up slowly, Hova’s hands on her shoulders despite the gritty powder that threatened to become a paste on her sweaty skin.  “Just haven’t—been hit in the chest for years.”  She lifted her arms slowly, Hova’s hands moving to her elbows.  She looked at Kailas’s chest, frowning at the clear fluid that shone between two of the many raised swells of tissue in the scar on her chest.

“I’m not bleeding,” Kailas murmured, Aang sighing in relief though Kailas’s eyes were turned to Hova.

“Yeah, well, you’re not sparring anymore today, either,” Hova replied.  She sighed, looking away from Kailas’s chest when the fluid began to slide down onto her stomach.

“I’m really sorry,” Aang said.  He rubbed at the back of his neck, shrugging with one shoulder as Hova stood straight.  She gave him a small smile.

“It’s not anyone’s fault,” she said with a sigh.  She went to where Sokka and Toph had risen to their feet, picking up one of the spare pieces of dry, clean cloth that lay folded on the ground by Kailas’s discarded shirt.  She opened it with a flick of her wrist and returned to Kailas, kneeling behind her and holding the cloth to her chest.

“Shouldn’t we try to find Katara and get her to heal you?” Sokka asked.

“It’s just a scar thing,” Hova replied.  “It’s tight, and it’ll tear if she does something stupid.  She’s done worse.”  She nodded, tapping her chin against the top of Kailas’s head to receive a chuckle.

“So is my entertainment for the day over?” Toph asked.  Kailas chuckled again, pressing Hova’s hand down more firmly.

“If you’re so bored that you’d be willing to watch me try to pass off what I do as firebending, why don’t you spar with the Avatar, miss Blind Bandit?” she asked.

“I thought you did great for just coming off of your first lesson,” Aang said quickly, grinning broadly.  “What was that thing you did at the very end?  I didn’t teach you that.”

“When you watch a woman dance for close to eight years, you learn something,” Kailas replied.

“So that was something you made up on your own?” Aang asked.  “That was great!”

“You can stop trying to kiss and make up now, Twinkle Toes,” Toph said.  “It was an accident, anyway.”  Aang turned to Toph, blinking at the way she stood with her arms crossed and her head tilted toward the ground.

“I know it was an accident,” he said quietly.  “I’m not being sarcastic.”

“I never said you were being sarcastic,” Toph said, her words nearly overlapping with his.  “I said you can stop trying to make up.  We all know that Kailas did well.  It’s stupid to keep telling her how great she is.  It’s stupid to do that to anyone.  You ought to know that.”  Sokka put a hand to his chin, stroking the stubble that he hadn’t bothered to shave away that morning.

“I forget if you were always like this,” he said.  “I mean, you’ve been sarcastic and rude ever since Suki and I got here three days ago, but this seems—more rude than usual.”  He turned to Kailas and Hova, raising an eyebrow.  “Has she been like this since she got here?”

“You’ve been getting bad since Sokka and Suki came,” Aang said, frowning at Toph.  “You weren’t like this before.  What’s wrong?”  Toph closed her eyes, her jaw tight and her teeth clenched behind her lips.

“I—haven’t done any earthbending for a while,” she replied.  “That’s all.”  Aang sighed and smiled.

“Why didn’t you just say so?” he asked.  “I’d be happy to spar.”  Toph opened her mouth.  Her eyes narrowed after a moment, her head falling to one side with a faint side-to-side shake.

“Fine,” she muttered.  “Let’s fight.  I haven’t had any good competition for months.”  She took a step away from Sokka before lifting her arms, palms upward.  He made a choking noise and rushed to where Kailas and Hova had settled, stopping only when he was standing behind them.

“Don’t you start fighting when I’m right next to you!” he snapped.  “I don’t want to nearly get crushed again!”  Toph frowned, lifting one heel from the ground before stepping down hard.  Sokka yelped as the ground stubbed itself against the toes of one foot, crouching down to rub at the sting.

“Benders,” he muttered.  “It’s always benders.”  Hova giggled, tightening her hold on Kailas.

“I like my bender,” she chuckled.

“Well, I like the woman I’m with to not be able to hurt me with weird magical powers,” Sokka replied.  “If you want to put up with it, fine, but it’s definitely not for me.”  He looked away, sighing abruptly and smiling with his eyes half-closed.  “Ah, Suki.”

“Are you done yet?” Toph asked.  The smile vanished, a new pouting frown turned toward Toph.

“Come on, Sokka,” Aang said.  “You were quiet for Kailas and me before.”  He smiled, crossing his arms over his chest.  “And I think that Suki could hurt you without the bending.”

“That’s not the point,” Sokka replied, putting his nose in the air.  “At least she does all her hurting normally, like a proper warrior.”  He balked at the frown on Toph’s face, lifting his hands and closing his mouth.  Aang laughed a moment before uncrossing his arms.

“Ready to start?” he asked.  He sucked in a breath as the ground under his right foot abruptly shifted to one side and dragged his leg out into a wider stance.  He wobbled when the dirt stopped moving, falling to one knee with a grunt.

“Rocklike, Twinkles Toes,” Toph said.  “You can’t start a fight if you aren’t rocklike.”  Aang stared at her before managing a laugh and rising to his feet.

“You got me, Sifu Toph,” he said.  “You never get too old to relearn a lesson, huh?”  Toph nodded once, watching as the man’s feet settled, wide apart and firm, on the ground.  The faint, soft-edged image of the airbender had gone, and she focused on the echoes that came to her.  He stood with his jaw set, his stance just shy of perfection.  As he had done when she began teaching him, he favored one leg, too much of his weight settled back.

Toph took a swift half step forward, one hand beginning to move.  When the balls of her foot pushed against the ground, rocks burst up under Aang’s foremost foot.  He was lifted, tilting back further on his rear leg.  Her hand jabbed, a large stone breaking free of the ground to rush toward him.  Aang lifted his hands, catching the stone before it slammed into his chest.  He stumbled back, heaving the stone to one side.

“I said, rocklike!” Toph snapped.  She took another half step as Aang scrambled to resume his stance, crouching down on one knee.  She reached down, fingers cracking through the dirt and digging down deep into the hard stone.  She flung two boulders at Aang, and he snatched them in either hand.  He grunted and threw them away, swinging his arms in opposite directions.  With her hands still deep in the ground, Toph felt the moment the rocks landed.  The tremors traveled up her wrists and arms, and they carried the image of Aang with his arms spread wide, chest exposed.

She pulled her hands from the ground and put her palms together.  Before Aang could bring his arms back up to guard, Toph thrust her hands forward once more.  A column of rock shot from the ground, moving too quickly for Aang to dodge or block.  It struck his chest as strongly as his air blast of minutes ago had done to Kailas, throwing him off his feet.  He turned in the air, hitting the ground with his shoulder and rolling backward.

“Quit leaving yourself open, air boy!” Toph said.  “I’ve already landed a hit, and you’re not doing anything to stop me!”  Aang frowned at her, rising back into his stance.  He stomped one foot hard against the ground, a wide line of the ground before him shattering into individual boulders.  With each punch he threw and every kick he snapped off, a stone shot from the pile.  Toph frowned and drew her arms into a formal guard, one arm over her torso and the other bent close to her chest with its hand near her face.  Two slabs of rock broke from the ground, closing in a triangulated shield before her.

Aang’s strikes grew more forceful, the stones breaking against the shield with cracks that made Sokka, Kailas, and Hova wince at the pain in their ears.  The splinters of rock that came from each dusty explosion came both from the breaking stones and the shield itself, dents and furrows being made with each attack.  Behind the shield, Toph smiled without humor.  She crouched and curled her hands half-closed, drawing her arms back.  With the next crack of stone against stone, she hit the ground with the heels of her hands.  A hole, just wide enough for her to pass through, opened for her.

With his feet so often off of the ground and his focus on destroying the shield, Aang did not notice the tremors beneath him until they threatened to throw him off balance.  He put both feet on the ground and stared at the dirt between his toes.  He yelped when hands emerged from the earth and closed tight around his feet.  The grip was too strong for him to break free, and he was carried up into the air as Toph erupted from the tunnel below him.  She hoisted him bodily up and back, tossing him over her shoulders.  He hit the ground face down, skidding a distance before rolling to a stop.

“You’re supposed to be able to sense things better than that!” Toph shouted.  Aang did not reply, rising up onto his hands and knees.  He pulled his legs under his chest and leapt, turning and straightening in the air to land in a stance, facing Toph.  He balled his hands into fists and brought them together, knuckles crashing together.  Two pillars of stone came from the ground on opposite sides of Toph, rushing in toward her ribs.

Her hands snapped out, the backs of her fisted hands meeting the pillars a good distance from her body.  The stone broke at the backlash, crumbling and falling back to the earth.  Aang clenched his teeth together, holding back a smile at the sight of Toph with her chest so open.  He drew one arm back and swung it in a low, deep arc.  Another boulder ruptured the surface of the ground, following the guide his arm provided toward Toph’s chest.

Toph made no move to dodge, and she did not bring her guard back up.  She grit her teeth and leaned her head back.  Before the stone could hit her chest, Toph stepped forward to meet it with her forehead.  It broke into small splinters, and she lifted her head from the cloud of dust to stare toward Aang.

“I already did that!” she snapped.  “Old stuff isn’t going to work anymore!  Face things head-on!”  Aang’s frown darkened to a scowl, and he started toward her.  She jabbed her hand forward, a loose stone rising and rushing out.  Aang put his forearms together and gestured in a tight arc, a wall of earth mimicking his motions.  The stone collided and broke, and Aang let his arms finish their sweeping motion to let the shield return to the ground.  His steps grew quicker, and Toph punched again.

He made another shield, his arms moving in the opposite direction.  Stone met and broke, and he continued on.  At Toph’s next punch, he was close to running, and slowed only slightly to create another rising and falling shield.  He came nearer, one arm drawing back for a punch of his own.  Toph frowned and kicked her heel against the ground as he began to swing his arm.  A column of stone met Aang halfway through his strike, slamming against his chest and throwing him back before his fist could connect with Toph’s face.  He hit the ground once more, groaning and rubbing at his chest.

“That came in right from under you, Twinkle Toes!” Toph said, crossing her arms over her chest.  “If you can't even beat me, what makes you think you're good enough to fight for Katara?”  They both stopped, Aang in his rubbing and Toph in her breathing.  He looked up at her, but only found that she had tilted her head forward and that her eyes were hidden behind the strands of her hair that had escaped the braid coiled on top of her head.

“I don’t have to fight for Katara,” he said.  “The war’s been over for seven years.”

“That—doesn’t mean that something won’t happen,” Toph said, gripping her elbows.  “I’m just saying you need to be more alert.  You can’t slack off just because you think there’s peace right now.”  Aang opened his mouth, but soon closed it and nodded once.  For a long moment, no one spoke.  Toph sighed and turned away from the others.

“Thanks for the match,” she muttered.  She began to walk away, arms still crossed.

“Want us to come get you when Katara and Suki come back?” Sokka asked.  Toph paused, wishing that the vibrations in the ground did not show her how Aang continued to sit on the ground with a hand pressed on his chest.

“Sure,” she replied.  “Whatever you guys want.”  She turned her focus to the ground ahead, walking forward without another word.  The bare flatland between the forest and the foothills of the mountain was near Kailas and Hova’s home, and so Toph made her way along the edge of the city.  She shuffled her feet as she walked, the sighs she let loose growing more forceful and frequent.  By the time she had returned to the small stone house, her teeth were grinding and her jaw was set.  She stood outside the house for many long moments before letting out a scream and kicking the ground.  Her toes tore up a boulder, launching it into the nearest hill.

With no one to talk to, Toph could only tighten her throat and storm inside the small house.  She held back what she wanted to scream, instead sitting heavily on the ground and pressing her forehead to her knees.  In the quiet, she wrapped her arms around her shins and pulled tight.  Every muscle tensed until she thought they would tear in her effort to keep from speaking.  Soon, her throat felt close to bursting, and she could not bite her lip any more tightly without drawing blood.

“This is so stupid!” she hissed.  The tautness of her neck threatened to bring tears to her eyes, but she rubbed her forehead and took a deep, slow breath.  The heat in her face and strain in her muscles began to slowly recede, and she let her breath out in a sigh.  A frown, small and sad, still lingered as she leaned back against the nearest wall.  She sat and waited, rubbing her thumb idly on the seams of her clothing and thinking of Katara.

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The evening was spent in another familial dinner, Suki and Katara relating their day out in Taonan to Sokka, Aang, and Toph.  More tales were told of exploits had over the years apart, and old favorites from the last year of the war.  Sokka was scolded when his stories were too fantastic, Suki occasionally delivering a slap to his shoulder and reminding him of one factor or another that had helped him in his struggles.

When asked about sparring and lessons, Toph and Aang offered nothing.  Sokka ended the long moment of uncomfortable quiet by mentioning that he thought Kailas did all right, for a bender.  Katara cracked the end of a water whip, made from cooling tea, against his nose, and Aang renewed the conversation by saying Kailas’s lessons had gone more smoothly than his first soirees into firebending.  More stories were told until the night had come, and Aang and Toph went their separate ways.  Candles were extinguished, and wishes for good rests were given before Suki and Sokka went to the room Katara had provided for them.

“I’ll come to bed in a while,” Sokka said as Suki changed into her sleeping clothes.  She paused, but soon smiled and nodded.  Sokka smiled in return and gave her a soft kiss before turning and walking from the room.  He made his way to the courtyard, sighing softly at the sight of Katara sitting at the edge of the sea.  Rubbing the back of his neck, he strode to his sister and sat down beside her.  She glanced up at him for an instant before her eyes returned to the water, chin resting on her knees.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked.  She nodded as best she could, sighing quietly.  He hummed and tilted his head back.  “Me neither.”

“Liar,” Katara chuckled.  “You’re always able to sleep, even when you’re getting chased.”  Sokka shrugged, staring up at the waxing crescent moon.  They sat together quietly for a time, the water breaking on the rocks below the only sound they could hear.

“Sokka?  Can I talk to you about something?” Katara asked, her voice soft.

“Is it going to be girly stuff?” Sokka asked in return.  “You’d better ask Suki if it’s girly stuff.  I’m bad at that.”

“It’s not—really girly,” Katara said quietly.  “I just need to talk to you.”  Sokka looked away from the moon, scratching his chin and smiling.

“Sure, Katara,” he said.  “What’s up?”  Katara lifted her head, mouth opening to speak.  She faltered, muttering half-formed words before sighing and biting her lip.  She raised one hand, a sphere of water rising from the waves below.

“Did you ever tell Suki that you were in love with Yue?” she asked.  Sokka groaned, his head falling forward.

“That wasn’t a fun month,” he grumbled.  “It took me forever to tell her that I don’t love her any less because of Yue.  There’s just—I don’t know—something kind of different in the way I love them.”  He picked up a loose pebble and tossed it at the water hovering over the sea.  It broke the rounded surface, and Katara let it splash back down and take the pebble with it.

“She was that mad?” she asked.

“Nah—not mad, really,” Sokka said.  “Jealous, yeah.”  He grinned toothily.  “What lady wouldn’t get jealous where I’m involved?”  The backhanded slap Katara delivered to his shoulder was halfhearted and barely left any sting behind.  Sokka blinked, leaning forward in attempt to see her eyes more clearly.

“She understood after a while, though,” he continued.  “She knows that I care about her right now, and that I always will.  We both want each other to be happy, so it was kind of stupid to just get mad at each other over something that happened before.”

“But what if it’s not something that happened ‘before?’” Katara asked.  “What if it was happening now?  If you had to choose between Yue and Suki?  Or if you had to tell Yue that you chose Suki over her?”

“After everything that’s happened,” Sokka said slowly, “I’d still chose Suki.  I loved Yue—and I still do, a little—but I know that Suki is the woman I want to spend my life with.  And I’d have to tell Yue that.”

“How?” Katara whispered.

“I’d just tell her,” Sokka replied.  “I couldn’t hurt her by not telling her, you know?”

“But wouldn’t she be hurt if you told her?”  Sokka shrugged, a small smile on his face.

“I think it’d hurt no matter what I did,” he said.  “But I’d want to be the one telling her.  Not Suki, and not anybody else.  Just—nicely.  Not trying to hurt her, or make her feel like she’s not good enough.  I’d tell her that I wouldn’t be able to love her enough, and that I still want her to be happy because I do love her.  But we all need to be happy as best we can, right?”

“Yeah,” Katara murmured.  Sokka smiled, but abruptly groaned and slapped his palm against his forehead.

“Man!” he said.  “You got me talking girly mushy goo!”  He grinned at Katara’s giggle, letting his hand fall from his face.  They sat quietly for another time, Katara’s smile fading soon after her laughter stopped.  Sokka’s brows furrowed soon after that, a frown pulling at his lips.

“Katara?” he asked.  “Why did you just ask me all of that?”  She shook her head and closed her eyes, biting her lip.  He watched her reach up to touch the pendant hanging from her necklace, sighing as her fingers rubbed at the symbol of the Air Nomads.

“You have to tell Aang this, don’t you?” he asked.  She swallowed and nodded.  When she opened her eyes, they were shining and wet, but she smiled at him.

“Don’t tell him anything, okay?” she said.  “I have to do it—and I will.”  Sokka drew in a deep breath, but nodded without protest.  It was only when another minute had passed that he blinked and looked back at Katara.

“Who are you choosing?” he asked.  Katara smiled, shyly, as she looked at her brother.

“Toph,” she said.  Sokka stared a moment before blinking.

“She knows that I’ll still kill her if she hurts you, right?” he asked.  “Even if she’s an earthbending master, the big-brother rule stands.”  He winked at Katara, putting an arm around her shoulders.  “Same thing applies for girls, too.”  Katara smiled and laughed, wrapping her arms around Sokka’s neck in a tight hug.  He patted her back and smiled, and did not push her away.

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Aang made no attempt to sleep that night.  He sat on Appa’s head, Momo sprawled in his lap.  The two animals slept, and he managed a smile at Momo when his paws curled and kneaded the air.  He divided his attention, scratching behind Momo’s ears with one hand and stroking the fur of Appa’s head with the other.  His mind whirred on, hands moving without real thought.

“What am I doing wrong, guys?” he asked in a low whisper.  “It’s like everyone’s mad at me.”  Momo snored and shifted in his sleep, his paws growing still.  Aang rubbed at a spot under the lemur’s chin and the creature began to purr quietly.

“Why did Toph yell at me about Katara?” he asked.  “She doesn’t need me to help her in a fight.  And it’s not like we were really fighting.”  Momo shifted again, rolling out of Aang’s lap.  He landed on Appa’s head with the soft shush of fur against fur.  He slept on, ears barely twitching when Aang began to scratch along the lemur’s spine.

“What if she wanted to fight?” Aang murmured.  “Maybe she is mad at me about something.”  He sighed and put a hand to his forehead, fingertips tracing the edges of the blue tattoo.  Momo’s purrs stuttered as his tail twitched from side to side, and Aang softened his scratching to petting.

“I don’t want to make her mad,” he said.  “But—why did she bring up Katara?”  He sighed once more and tilted his head back to look at the sky.  The soft sound of a flute echoed from nearby, and he dropped his gaze to the earth.  Appa snorted loudly in his sleep, and Aang was glad that they made their nightly camp in the upper hills of the mountains.  His eyes flicked toward the source of the music before roaming back toward the city.  When he found Katara’s home in the distance, he paused.

“Katara’s been different ever since Toph came here,” he whispered.  “They both have.”  He closed his eyes tightly, dredging up memories as best he could through the bleariness of sleep that had begun to settle on his mind.  “They keep saying they want to talk to me, and then they never do.  What do they want to talk about?”  Momo and Appa snored on, and Aang lay down on his back with a sigh.

“Is it about me?” he asked.  “Them?”  He yawned despite himself, rolling to lie curled on his side.  “Maybe it’s about all of us.”  He closed his eyes, tucking his hands under his head.  Momo’s tail twitched and struck his stomach, but Aang only yawned once more and pushed the tail away.  Before he was taken by sleep, he sighed and said to no one, “I just want to know.”

—to be continued—