the wind in my sails | aang x oc

twenty two

liara returned to yu dao not long after she had left, and as she did, aang was in the avatar state, bending all four elements in a formation, just as he did on the day of the comet.

he spit the ground open, causing zuko to fall into the rift.

"firelord!"

before zuko was in too much danger, liara swooped down and caught him by his hand. "hold on, zuko!" she yelped, "I got you!"

she used her free hand to send a powerful blast of air downward, to accelerate herself and the firelord out of the rift.

they landed roughly on the ground, and aang helped liara up, so that liara could help zuko up.

once he was sure that they were both free of injury, he hugged liara tightly, "that was dangerous."

"i know. I'm sorry."

katara ran closer to them, with king kuei in tow, aang still had a grip on liara's hand as he spoke.

"your earthiness, look at who you're fighting." he said, "yes, firenation, but also earth kingdom. watertribe and now also air nomad." his grip on liara's hand tightened.

"we are who stand against both your army and firelord zuko's army." liara added. "it took me a while to understand, but this colony is the start of a whole new world."

"it's true, yu dao is the start of the future." aang agreed.

kuei had the protesters quiet down. "I need to see." he said, following katara into the city.

"zuko?" liara whipped around to to see zuko looking exhausted, "so my decision was right all along?"

he then fainted and the two airbenders ran towards him hurriedly.

~

Liara was seated inside of iroh's teashop, enjoying her favourite rose and lavender tea blend. she was dressed more casually, with her hair down and gracefully hanging to her mid-back. it had grown a lot over the past year.

"liara," iroh said as he entered the room. "would you go and get aang? zuko just woke up."

the airbender drank the last of her tea and stood, smiling at iroh. "we'll join you in a sec, iroh."

the older man returned her smile and walked back in the direction of zuko's room while liara made her way outside.

once she was out in the open, she propelled herself upward onto the roof next to aang. "hey. let's go inside." she said softly, noting how he quickly wiped a tear from his cheek.

she looked at aang's necklace, seeing that the fire nation bead was missing. then she looked at aang's right hand. it had ash in it.

Liara knew better than to question these kinds of avatar stuff, so she merely asked the boy if everything is okay.

"yes, of course, li." he said back, gently taking her hand in his.

liara smiled, "zuko just woke up." she said as the two of them stood and jumped off of the building.

like feathers, the two of them floated down, and headed inside.

Zuko had just sat down at one of the tables, his hair hanging around his face.

"thank you for bringing him to me, you two. he should have come much earlier, on his own, but he's still a stubborn boy." iroh said.

"any time, iroh. I'm actually sorry that I didn't bring him here much sooner," like yao suggested in that dream she had.