Better nate than lever

[12goingon113]

Characters: Aang and...you?
Date: *cough*January*cough*
Location: Outskirts of the Metal Sector
Situation: Aang has just arrived, his memory is a bit fuzzy.
Warnings/Rating: None yet, but we'll keep you posted


"Tell me, then. What are the terms of your agreement?" he asked the other Avatar seated across the table from him. Not just any other Avatar, but Yang Chen the Air Nomad that had preceded him in the cycle.

"First," she started to respond, but was cut short when the earth beneath them moved. No, that wasn't right. It didn't move, it jolted. And not like any earthquake that Aang had ever felt before. Something was wrong. Very very wrong, and he didn't need Yang Chen's expression to tell him so.

There was a loud crack and then....everything around Aang went white.
Something had pulled him from the Spirit World and thrown him back into his body...hard.

His eyes hurt as he opened them, the light of day blinding his vision until he adjusted. The ground...wait, why was there light of day at all? He was in a restaurant with the Air Acolytes. Why ground? Where were the floorboards?

Aang's mind reeled. None of this was right. His first attempt at sitting up resulted in a wave of nausea that kept him down for another ten count. Steeling his resolve, as well as his stomach, he finally managed to sit, and then eventually stand.

The world around him was not the one he started from. This wasn't the town or the refinery.
Maybe this was a glimpse of the future?

"Yang Chen?" he called to no one in particular...

Comments

[12goingon113]

Nooooo, that sounds like the first question.
He specifically wanted to know about the other one.

But then she finds her way into his field of vision, and...Aang can't deny her.
Heck, he can't even lie to her. Not well, at least.

"We? We're great? Why wouldn't we be great? Unless you know something I don't."

[oceanblue]

Butterflies in her stomach stretch and flutter frantically. He's avoiding her, and she's not sure she wants to know...

But a part of her really wants to know.

"You've been home for two years longer than I have," she reminded him, gently. By circumstance, you should know more..."

[12goingon113]

"Right, right. I knew that. You were asking about Sokka and Suki?"

DIVERT ATTENTION. DIVERT!

[oceanblue]

She blinked, then relented, her shoulders sinking in obvious disappointment. "Yeah. So... they're together?" She wouldn't force him. Especially when she was unsure of the answers he might give her.

[12goingon113]

He watches as she reacts to his stonewall, well aware that this disappointment is all his doing, but he can't help it. He can't tell her what they are to each other in a future she's not experienced yet.

In a time she hasn't come to choose him.
It's too awkward, too painful.

So he smiles a little to broadly, and makes an effort to follow her previous course out of the water.

"Yup. Still. It's a bit more long distance than I think either of them would prefer, but it's working for the most part."

[oceanblue]

He's hiding something, and she knows it. Her suspicions knot together in her stomach, trapping butterflies, but she says nothing, and follows his lead out of the water and to the shore, bending the water out of their clothing as she steps into the grass, absently appraising the snow she's put in the trees. "Oh?" she asks, a little distantly. "Did she go back to Kyoshi Island?"

[12goingon113]

"She does, but these days she's more in the Fire Nation than anywhere else," he says watching her closely as she bends them both dry.

"It's beautiful." The snow, not Suki or the Fire Nation.

[oceanblue]

"The fire nation?" she asks, turning to look at him. "Why is she there?" Her eyes turn immediately back to the snow, though she can still feel his gaze on her. It's not uncomfortable...but... it.. it is. She's still not going to walk too far from him, as if she's worried he might disappear again.

She dares half a glance at him, before following his gaze. "It--" Her shoulders sink again. It was. It reminded her of home, and suddenly, she wondered if there was any way to coat the turtle with it. "Yeah, it is," she agrees, lifting the water she had taken from their clothes into the trees to join what was already there. "... how's dad?"

[12goingon113]

Oh, right. His past is still her future.

"The Kyoshi Warriors are acting as the...uh...Fire Lord's personal body guards. The number of people who still support Ozai isn't as big as it used to be, but...they're still there."

Aang feels better when he reminds himself that even if he had killed Ozai, there would still be people in the Fire Nation resistant to Zuko's rule...they'd just be supporting Azula rather than Ozai.

He shakes his head in an attempt to free his mind from such thoughts, it's then that he decides he's going to try and learn this snowbending that Katara's doing.

"He's good. Back in the Southern Tribe rebuilding. Pakku's there full time now, too."

[oceanblue]

"That's...interesting," she replies, rearranging the snow above her...before it collapses out of the tree to her feet. Blinking, she steps away. "I guess it does make sense though, even if he was crazy..."

She blinks, forgetting all thoughts of her father and the water tribe for just a moment. If Aang had defeated Ozai, then...Had Aang...

"Did you-- I mean... I know we won, but..."

[12goingon113]

She doesn't have to finish that thought for Aang to know exactly what she's asking.
Did he kill the Fire Lord. He looks down and away, sighing quietly.

"I couldn't take his life. I just couldn't. It wouldn't have been right. But...I did take his bending."

Because...that's a thing he can do now.

[oceanblue]

She relaxed at his response, then gaped at him, wide eyed as she took half a step back in surprise. "Took his bending? But how?!"

[12goingon113]

"With a technique I learned from a Lionturtle."

He chances a glance in her direction, wondering how she'll react in the here an now.

[oceanblue]

"A lionturtle?"

[12goingon113]

He makes and holds eye-contact as he nods. Then...ever so slowly, he grins.
The kind of grin that one flashes right before they dive into the bay to ride elephantkoi, or plans to ride hogmonkeys who don't want to be ridden.