Art drawn by me!
After it is revealed that Aang is indeed an airbender, Sokka promptly wants to return home. It is at that moment the trio realize that they have no way to get home. Seeing this, Aang speaks up. "If you guys are stuck, Appa and I could give you a lift."
"We'd love a ride! Thanks!" Katara agrees for them immediately.
"Oh no. I'm not getting on that fluffy snot monster!" Sokka voiced his apprehension immediately, not trusting any of this. Although not as vocal, Ayaan also wasn't sure about going near Appa. He didn't see any other way out of their situation, but... A strange beast piloted by a strange kid who put on a light show with his tattoos not ten minutes ago? All of Ayaan's common sense just didn't trust it. But Katara was already making her way up the side of the beast with the help of Aang, so he reluctantly made his way closer.
"Not you too, Ayaan!" Sokka was in disbelief that Ayaan was heading over towards them.
Ayaan gave his brother a glance before returning his gaze to Appa. He had big, brown, intelligent eyes. Ayaan reached out slowly to touch him, Appa seemed to not mind in the slightest, even leaning in to his touch. His fur...
"It's soft..." It was very soft. And it was warm. Appa seemed to really like Ayaan, because as soon as he started petting him, he licked him. Appa being as big as he was, ended up licking all of Ayaan from head to toe. Despite being disgusted by the saliva he was now covered in, he was glad that the bison seemed to like him. He used a bit of his waterbending to get the saliva off of him, Aang being shocked by it.
"You're a waterbender!" Aang was amazed by Ayaan. The teen gave a glance to the child, getting on the saddle with his own physical skill instead of Aang's offered help. He sat at the opposite of the saddle, his hand always resting on his spear as he answered the boy with a simple nod. The boy seemed visibly saddened by Ayaan's avoidance of any contact, be it physical or vocal, with him. But Katara covered for him.
"Ayaan just isn't a very talkative person, but he isn't mean, I promise." She said, giving him a smile. Aang seemed to accept the answer, but still gave Ayaan a glance before he got to the front to grabbed the reins. "Sokka, get up here already!" She called to her other brother, who was still standing where he was staring at Appa with apprehensive eyes. Giving her brother a look, she added, "Are you hoping some other kind of 'monster' will come along and give you a ride home? You know, before you freeze to death?"
Sokka opens his mouth to retort, but got nothing.
"We're late, let's go." Ayaan said curtly. With his input, Sokka finally gave up his protests and reluctantly got on Appa.
"Okay, first time flyers, hold on tight! Appa, yip-yip!" Aang whips the reigns and Appa responds with a grunt, he jumps high into the air, seeming as if he was really going to fly, only to belly flop in the water and trudge through it. He tries again, only to get nothing. Ayaan simply raises an eyebrow while Sokka gives a sarcastic remark.
"Wow, that was truly amazing..." Katara shot a glare at Sokka who scoffs at her, and looks toward Ayaan who hadn't let his guard down at all. Katara didn't know what to say about her two brothers, especially Ayaan; it wasn't like him to be this closed off. It was as if he didn't like Aang, even though he'd been nothing but nice since they met him.
She didn't understand that as the eldest son of the chief and their eldest brother, Ayaan was actually making a very big decision to let Aang, a stranger, come into their village during a time of war. On top of this, he was an airbender, something thought extinct until they met him. As much as he was thankful for him giving them a ride home, he had to think about the danger his presence could bring to them. Katara wouldn't understand the amount of pressure he was under right now.
The fact that he was going with his gut to trust in this kid despite everything he'd just seen was bothering him, so he didn't want to interact with him more than he already was. That did not mean that Aang wasn't a good kid. Helping them get home, his overall attitude, all of this was pointing to him being a good kid. He was just hoping that he wouldn't regret this decision later.
He touched his scar slightly; light, phantom pain coursed through it for a moment.
"Appa's just a little tired. A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see." Katara smiles at Aang's positive attitude. Seeing this, he smiles back at her. When she goes back, however, he's still smiling at her, and she becomes a bit uncomfortable.
"Why are you smiling at me like that?"
"Oh, I was smiling?" Katara seemed flattered by this, and smiles at him again.
Sokka groaned loudly in disgust, and Ayaan narrowed his eyes even more than he already was. Katara glares at Sokka, but when her gaze met her eldest brothers she became a bit embarrassed. What was this discomfort he was feeling at that reaction? His grip on his spear tightened.
He was really hoping he wasn't going to regret this later.
A few more hours passed, the siblings giving the air nomad directions on where their home was. It would take a few hours more to get home, but the fact that they were closer put the siblings minds at ease. Sokka had already been lulled to sleep by the comfort of the ride, and Ayaan found himself absentmindedly petting Appa's soft fur, much to the large bison's delight. Katara was studying Aang, finally mustering up the courage to ask a question she'd been thinking about for a while.
"Hey."
"Hey. What'cha thinkin' about?"
"I guess I was wondering, your being an airbender and all, if you had any idea what happened to the Avatar?" Ayaan's ears twitched, stealthily peering over to view the kid as he answered.
"Oh, no. I didn't know him. I mean, I knew people that knew him, but I didn't. Sorry." He gave her a weak smile, and Ayaan's eyes narrowed.
"Okay. Just curious." Her eyes show her disappointment, but she quickly dismisses it. "Goodnight."
"Sleep tight." With that, Katara joins her brother in the comforts of sleep. It had been a long day for both of them. Seeing as both of them were asleep, Ayaan took that as his chance to investigate. He went towards the front of the saddle, Aang had a guilty look on his face before it twisted into a startled one, not seeing the eldest of the siblings now staring at him.
"You lied. Why?"
"Eh? Um..." Aang was caught off guard. Out of the siblings, the one he couldn't place was Ayaan. Even with Sokka he openly showed he didn't trust him, but Ayaan was a mystery. How did he know he wasn't telling the whole truth? They only just met! He could feel the sweat rolling off of his brow, weren't they in the south pole surrounded by ice? How was he sweating? "But I really did know people that knew him!"
That wasn't a lie. Ayaan could see that Aang's gray didn't waver when he said that. His tone was confident and his body was steady. But something felt off, and Ayaan couldn't place it. When Ayaan's eyes narrowed, Aang shrunk beneath them.
"...It's really complicated." He relented just a bit under the discomfort of his gaze. But he just couldn't tell him the truth. He wasn't ready to tell anyone, himself or otherwise, the truth. Knowing that his small lie had been caught by the mysterious eldest brother, he could only brace himself for what was to come.
Ayaan's gaze softened just a bit at the obviously nervous air nomad. He didn't have all of the facts, but he was more willing to trust that with time, the kid would reveal what he was hiding from them. It wasn't like he never had a secret before, and he'd already decided to trust Aang this much. "Okay."
"Huh? Really? You won't press me for answers?"
"No." The answer surprised the airbender.
"...Why?" Aang couldn't stop the question before it came out. Ayaan studied him for a time before answering him honestly.
"A feeling." With that, he left for his spot at the furthest part of the saddle. Leaving Aang to his own thoughts about the mysterious brother. This was the first and only conversation he'd ever had with him. He was still distant, and didn't say much, but Katara was right.
'He's not mean.'
It made Aang feel better that he didn't press him for the truth. Ayaan was giving him time, and even showing that just a small bit, he trusted him. It made sense that he was kind, Appa liked him a whole bunch to lick him on their first meeting. It was the fastest Aang had ever seen his companion warm up to someone.
'Someone Appa likes that much couldn't be a bad guy.'
Aang found himself much more relaxed than he had been, and the rest of the ride to the siblings' home village was peaceful. Soon, he too fell asleep, leaving Ayaan who was secretly awake to watch over the three younger children as they slept.
"I just really hope I don't regret it." Ayaan whispered to himself. His hand absently went across his cheek and down his neck. Whenever he had one of those feelings, his scar would ache just a bit. If this was a wise or foolish decision, only time would tell.
...
..
.
The next day, Katara introduced Aang to the village. Of course, this didn't go how the young airbender thought it would, as everyone was wary of him. They eyed him in his strange choice of clothes, tattoos, and staff. It was natural for them to be wary like this, given that they were currently in a war and an Air Nomad hadn't been seen in the past 100 years.
"Uh, why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?" He checked his clothes, finding nothing. At that point, it was Gran-Gran who answered his question.
"Well, no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct, until my granddaughter and grandsons found you."
"Extinct?" Aang wasn't sure he heard her right. He knew that his people weren't that easy to come into contact with, his home being on steep mountains that only Flying Bison and other airbenders could access. But, extinct was taking the 'not ever seen before' a bit far, wasn't it?
Ayaan, standing at a distance with his spear in hand, silently watched Aang meet the village. Sokka was off sharpening his boomerang. He made it very clear that he didn't trust Aang, and to Ayaan it was understandable. They didn't know each other that well, and there was nothing to give them proof they could trust him. Katara on the other hand seemed to have taking a liking to this kid.
A very large liking.
Ayaan wasn't sure how to feel about that. But he was happy she'd made a friend her age. The only ones she'd been able to hang out with had been him and Sokka, their grandmother, and the children of the village who were barely between the ages of 5 and 7. Although Ayaan was also a bender of the same element, he wasn't around as often as she wanted him to be.
Then along came a strange bald kid with blue tattoos.
Sokka, noticing something, decides to make his entrance. Abruptly snatching Aang's staff from him, he examines the odd object. "What is this, a weapon? You can't stab anything with this!" Aang uses a small air current to suck the staff back to him, intriguing Ayaan just a bit.
"It's not for stabbing! It's for airbending." He does a movement with the staff, and it opens up, revealing its glider wings. Ayaan was further impressed. That must have taken great skill to build.
"Magic trick! Do it again!" A little girl excitedly gasps along with the other children. This made Ayaan smile just a bit. The children were always 'training' under Sokka and even himself at times, and because of the many things they had to do around the village, there wasn't as much time for them to play as children should.
As much as Ayaan wanted to play with them to their little hearts' content, in times like these, it just wasn't possible.
"Not magic, airbending." Aang corrected, motioning his glider through the air in demonstration. "It lets me control the air currents around my glider and fly."
"Ya know, last time I checked, humans can't fly!" Sokka didn't believe him for a second. Aang smirk, readying his glider on his back as he heard Sokka's words like a challenge.
"Check again!" With a blast of wind, he takes off to the sky amazing the villagers. The children were in awe, Sokka and Katara just as amazed and shocked. Katara's expression transforms into a broad smile. Aang sees this, and wants to impress her further by doing more tricks. This, however, lands him face first in Sokka's watchtower.
"My watchtower!" Sokka rushes to the tower, trying to hold it together by packing more snow into where it was damaged. Katara and some of the other girls helped Aang out of the snow pile he was buried in, giving him their praise. When Aang uses his airbending to shake the snow off of him, it knocks into Sokka who ends up buried in the snow instead.
Ayaan, shaking his head, went to Sokka to help him out of the snow. Using what little waterbending he knew, he pushed the snow away and helped him up. This help did not alleviate Sokka's irritation, however. "Great. You're an airbender, Katara's a waterbender. Together you can just waste time all day long." He then stalks off, upset that his tower was broken.
"Sokka." Ayaan reprimanded. They both knew that Katara worked hard for the village and deserved to make a new friend. Sokka halted just a bit, looking back, but was too stubborn to apologize and went on his way. Ayaan shook his head, but did not pursue him further. He knew how long it took him to build that tower, it was natural for him to be upset right now because it was broken.
Ayaan made a mental note to fix it later with his waterbending. That should make him feel better.
"You're a waterbender, too, Katara?"
"Well, sort of, not yet."
"She is more skilled than I am." Ayaan added, noticing how little confidence she had in her own skills. Katara felt embarrassed under the praise, but thankful he felt that way. At that moment, Gran-Gran came to collect Katara so they could do their chores, Ayaan following them to help out.
"I told you, he's the real thing Gran-Gran! I finally found another bender to teach me! No offense, Ayaan."
"None taken."
"Katara, try not to put all your hopes in this boy." Gran-Gran stated calmly to the exited girl.
"If you put all of your hope in one place, you will have nothing when that place disappears." Ayaan added, subtlety gripping his spear tighter.
"But he's special! I can tell!" She closes her eyes and clenches her fist with a hope they hadn't seen in a while from her. "I sense he's filled with much wisdom." Katara opened her eyes and look at the boy she said was 'filled with wisdom'.
Aang currently had his staff stuck to his tongue, the children pulling on it much to his dismay and their amusement.
"Wisdom, huh?" Ayaan teased, earning an embarrassed glare from his little sister. "But I get what you mean."
"You do? Really?!" Katara was once again happy, seeing that her brother agreed with her.
"Not to your extent though." He corrected, causing her to deflate again. "But I just have... a feeling."
...
..
.
Sokka was attempting, keyword 'attempting', to train the six young boys in their villages to be the men of the tribe. To be warriors, what it means to be men, manliness, their responsibilities since their fathers were away in the war. But to six children barely between the ages 5 and 7, this was very, very boring. One of the children waved his hand in the air frantically.
"I gotta pee!"
"Listen! Until your fathers return from the War, they're counting on you to be the men of this tribe, and that means no potty breaks!" Sokka angrily answered, but the boy insisted that he needed to go. Realizing that they were still, in fact, little kids, Sokka relented and asked who else had to go.
They all raised their hands.
Sokka was dumbfounded at the response, but that soon returned to being frustration as he facepalmed. Ayaan let a laugh slip by him, shaking his head as he went to Sokka's side. Sokka had been trying to train the children like this all day, but it always led to them being completely uninterested. Ayaan wasn't the best at teaching, but he was there long enough to notice where the problem was.
"They are children."
"I know."
"Then why do you act like they are men?" Ayaan asked. It took him a moment, but Sokka's eyes soon widened in realization. But by the time he looked in Ayaan's direction in astonishment, his brother was already walking away to greet their sister who had a worried look on her face.
"Ayaan, have you seen Aang? Gran-Gran said he disappeared an hour ago!"
"There." Ayaan lazily pointed to the outer hut which was designated as their bathroom. The children were currently huddled around the airbender, who had made a joke about everything freezing in there. Seeing this, Sokka becomes furious.
"Katara, get him out of here! This lesson is for warriors only!" He was about to leave, until he saw that the rest of the children were playing with Appa. They were using his tail as a slide, flying through the air before landing in the snow. Katara laughs as she watches them have fun, Ayaan also let a smile slip by.
'How long has it been since they were this happy?'
The children were having fun. And it was a welcome sight. They don't admit it, but they dearly miss their fathers. Some were so young when their fathers left for the War that they barely remember them. Sokka's classes, although they meant well, did not alleviate that heartache. Constantly being reminded that their fathers weren't there must have been painful.
Ayaan knew that for himself, Sokka, and Katara, this fact was true.
'They needed this.'
A new face such as Aang, who retained a child's fun-loving nature as much as they did, was a welcomed difference to the children. They shouldn't of had to endure the heartache that came from war; they deserved to be able to smile like this. To be the care-free children they were meant to be, not soldiers in a war. But the world they lived in was dangerous and unkind, so there was no way for them to live like that.
"Stop! Stop it right now!" The children's fun-filled laughter dies, Appa even turning his head, when Sokka's anger filled yell reaches them. Sokka also understood that painful truth, which was why he always tried to train and teach the boys of the tribe. he turned to Aang, who obviously wasn't understanding this. "What's wrong with you?! We don't have time for fun and games with the War going on!"
An annoyed Sokka takes his fishing spear that the children had been using to play with, them laughing as they escaped his 'wrath'.
"What war? What are you talking about?"
Ayaan's eyes widened. He knew that there was no way that he heard the airbender right. What did he mean by 'what war'? His siblings had the same expression on their faces. Sokka states the question they were all wanting to ask. "You're kidding, right?"
'There is no way he doesn't know.'
Aang raised his eyebrow in question, as if waiting for them to explain what they were talking about. His child-like attention span is then cut short as he spots the animal he wanted to go sledding on. "PENGUIN!" The Otter-Penguin is startled by his outburst and waddles away, only for the boy to chase after it with his airbender speed.
That left the three siblings to ponder over what they had just discovered about him.
"He's kidding, right?"
"No." Ayaan said, his eyes widening as it set in. "I don't think he was..."
Katara ran after him, as they did promise to go penguin sledding together. Sokka, not wanting to bother with that kid's weirdness, went back to trying to train the kids who were back to having fun with Appa. That left Ayaan there to ponder. All of his instincts were trying to tell him something. He found himself standing outside of a certain old woman's hut as he walked in his daze.
"Gran-Gran."
"Ayaan? What's wrong?"
"...A feeling."
At this, Gran-Gran's eyes widened at her eldest grandson. She quickly schooled it back to her flat and dull expression, but the words replayed in her mind.
'A feeling.'
It was not often that Ayaan told her he had one.
His instincts were to a level that one could say he had developed a sixth sense. Sometimes, Kanna thought that the Moon-Spirit's blessing was the cause of those 'feelings' he'd get from time to time. But she kept silent on her thoughts, thinking of them as just the ramblings of an old woman. Her grandson had come to her, this was also something he did not do often.
She led him inside, and they sat on the animal skin rug by her fireplace. It one that he'd gotten for her himself, a Polar Bear Tiger Rug. Gran-Gran lived alone, and refused to give up her house for anything even when they wanted her to live with them in their much larger hut. So, Ayaan wanted to get something that would keep her hut warm and cozy during their even colder winters, and thus, the rug.
"What's troubling my biggest grandson so much?"
"The foreigner."
"Oh?" Kanna had a feeling of her own that it would be about that boy. Ayaan had been keeping an eye on him from afar, and it was obvious that something was bothering him about the kid. Not including the kids obvious crush on his younger sister, of course, but something else.
"When we found him, he was glowing. Literally, tattoos and all." He started after a moment, "He didn't know about the war, Gran-Gran. He's the only airbender we've ever encountered, and he reacted strangely when you said we all thought they were extinct. Instead of being serious, he is carefree, as if he has never known the hardships the War had brought..."
"There is something else that's bothering you, isn't there." Gran-Gran accessed, most likely knowing her grandson better than even his siblings did.
During those hard years after their mother's death, Ayaan came to Kanna to confide in. His father was hurting too much for him to go to, his siblings were too young, there was only his grandmother, who had been their firm support during that time. He shared all of his feelings with her. His thoughts about the scar that permanently stained his skin, his pain at not being strong enough to save their mom, everything.
Being the wise old woman she was, she listened to her eldest son tell her things he didn't want to bother his grieving siblings and father with. He passed down her wise words of comfort to his siblings whenever they came to him with their own problems. Kanna was to Ayaan what Ayaan was to Sokka and Katara.
"...Yes, there is something else." Ayaan wasn't sure how to word what he wanted to say. Ever since Aang came into the picture, something felt off. He knew immediately that something was up. This feeling brought about an ominous chill around him, and the only thing he could associate it with was...
"His presence here might cause something to happen. I don't know if it is a good or a bad thing. The children love him, Katara made a new friend, even Sokka, despite his distrust, is warming up to him. His carefree presence helped them to forget the hard times we are in. It's been so long since I've seen Katara and the children so... happy."
He stroked his scar, letting his hand drift over the unnaturally smooth, dark skin. "But I can't shake the feeling that something horribly wrong is going to happen, and it will surround that kid. That's why I've kept my distance from him. Am I being too cautious?"
"Maybe. But then again, maybe not. The future is an uncertain thing." She said, leaning in and patting his head. "I don't know everything that goes on, but I do know that your instincts have gotten you through a lot." She grabbed his hand that was touching his scarred cheek, "You are strong, Ayaan. When the time comes, I'm certain you'll know exactly how to use this strength that you have."
She said it with certainty. It was this certainty that put Ayaan's mind at ease.
"Thanks, Gran-Gran."
"No problem." She said in her usual tone, making Ayaan chuckle a bit.
BOOM!
His laughter stopped as soon as it came. He rushed outside of the hut, his speed an amazing feat. In the distance, near the forbidden ship that rest outside the village a flare had gone up in the air. It was falling slowly, letting its position be known to everyone. Despite the biting cold of the south pole, Ayaan's scar felt like it was burning.
Katara and Aang were heading back to them from that direction. Ayaan couldn't believe his eyes. But soon, they hardened to be as cold as the ice surrounding them. With that flare, their position had been compromised. All thought that the war was just a bad dream vanished in that moment. All thoughts of fun vanished in that moment.
War had found them again.
The Fire Nation was coming.