Chapter 11- No Sleep Makes You See The Clown Again
Coming out of the bushes, you and the Gaang stopped as a field with a herd of koala-sheep.
"This is it! The official rendezvous point for the invasion force," Sokka explained while holding out his map.
"How did you pick this place?" You asked him.
"Before we split up, my dad and I found this island on the map. It's uninhabited, and the harbors surrounded by the cliffs seemed like the perfect secluded place," He explained as he motioned his hand around.
"Nice choice, Sokka. And we're here four days ahead of schedule," Katara smiled as she laid down, but Aang shot up by those words.
"Wait! Four days?! The invasion's in four days?!" He said in a panic.
"Whatever. That's like four days from now. Let's just calm down and-" Sokka didn't finished as he passed out from tiredness.
"Boomerang is right monk boy, we're ready to kick some Fire Lord, so go to sleep," You yawned and laid down with the colony, as Aang hesitantly nodded.
"I guess,"
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Waking up, you stretched your limbs out as you heard thuds coming from a tree. You turned to see Aang hitting and kicking a tree aggressively.
"Air boy, you were awake for how long?" You asked him tiredly.
"A couple hours. I got a lot more skills to refine if I'm gonna fight Ozai," He simply replied as he punched the tree again, but got a shock through his body and fell over, the leaves falling above him.
"You know, there is such a thing as over-training," Katara said worriedly.
"Not for me," You shrugged, and Katara just sigh at your comment.
"You don't get it, do you? My form is bad, I'm sloppy, and I still don't know any firebending. Not even the basics!" Aang argued with bags under his eyes.
"That's okay, Aang. The eclipse will block off firebending anyway. You don't need to know it. Plus, it's a stupid element," Sokka bluntly said as he looked at his map, so you punched his arm, making him whine.
"Okay, well I still have to work on everything else. I better spend the whole day training," Aang bowed and air scooted away to train. You, Sokka, and Katara looked at each other and you just shrugged and walked away to relax.
Night fell and Aang finally came back all groggily and laid down on the ground.
"Good night Sokka, good night Toph, good night (Y/N) good night Appa, good night Momo, good night Twig, good night Little Seed, good night Moss, good night Peb-"
"Go to sleep already!!"
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You woke up by the sound of movement on the grass, so you groggily sat up and noticed Aang walking in circles with Koala-sheep in the middle.
"Go to sleep air boy, your mind will deteriorate if you stay awake even more, trust me," You yawned while fiddling with your sleeve.
"But I forgot my pants and my math test," He said while pacing around the animals, so you just hummed and walked over to him, picking him up from the ground, and walked over to the others, and laid him next to you.
"Don't say anything else, just sleep," You mumbled, as a baby Tiger Monkey crawled on top of Aang, sleeping soundly, so Aang just rubbed his eyes and went to sleep.
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"Sokka, get up! I need to know what day it is!" You jolt up, with Twig jumping in a panic and got defensive.
"What? Who's talking?!" Sokka shouted with his sword out, and Toph just groaned.
"Relax! It's still two days before the invasion!" She told the Avatar.
"Sokka, you've gotta get up drill your rock-climbing exercises!" Aang demanded.
"What?" Sokka mumbled as he was being pulled by Aang.
"In one of my dreams, you were running from Fire Nation soldiers, trying to climb this cliff, but you were too slow and they got you!" He said all panicky.
"By that was just a dream, I'm a great climber," Sokka agreed with him.
"Then climb that cliff, climb it fast!" He pointed at a cliff, and Sokka reluctantly climbed it.
"Don't drink that!" Aang suddenly shouted at Toph, who spat out the water she was drinking.
"Why? Is it poisoned?" She asked, on guard.
"In my dream, we were right in the middle of the invasion, and you had to stop to use the bathroom! We died because of your tiny bladder!" He explained to her as he turned to Katara.
"And you need to start wearing your hair up! In my dream, your hair got caught in a train, and you were pulled in the wheels!" He yelled and turned to you.
"And you need to wear chest armor! In my dream, you were being chased by a soldier and you got stabbed through the chest and-"
"Aang! I know you're just trying to help, but you really need to get a grip. You're unraveling," Katara calmed him down, and Aang sighed deeply.
"You're right. I'm losing my mind," As he said that, Sokka fell off the cliff, which made you snort.
"Maybe this stress will blow over soon,"
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"It's like every time I think about how stressed I am, I just end up more stressed. I'm like a big growing snowball of nerves!" Aang rambled as he paced around.
'Maybe not,' You thought.
"Of course you are. That's 'cause you gotta fight the Fire Lord, the baddest man on the planet. And you better win or we're all done for," Sokka nonchalantly told him, which made the stress worse.
"Sokka! You're not helping!" Katara glared at him.
"What? It's true. That's the deal. He knows it," Sokka shrugged, which made you throw a rock at him.
And so, you all tried to lower his stress down, but nothing really worked.
Katara tried to have him do yoga in a sauna, but he panicked because of the heat.
Sokka gave him therapy, but didn't really help with screaming into a koala-sheep.
Toph did back massages, but Aang's back just had bruises since he didn't have thick skin like her.
You suggested on drawing out how he feels, but all he did was draw a lot of bodies surrounded by fire, so you kinda gave up.
"Thanks for everything guys," Aang sighed as night fell again.
"So, do you feel less stressed? Ready for a good night's sleep?" Katara asked him.
"Uh, I kinda think I sorta might slightly feel a little better, maybe," He trailed off.
"Then our work here is done," Sokka grinned and laid down, you following his actions and fell asleep with Twig on your stomach and the colony surrounding you.
But your sleep was soon interrupted by the screams of Aang, where you shot up and looked around.
"What happened?!" You gasped out as you all ran to him.
"It's the nightmares. They just get worse and worse," Aang pulled his knees close to him.
"Looks like it's time for another therapy session," Sokka concluded while taking out his fake beard, but Aang just shook his head.
"No. That won't help. Nothing helps. There's only one thing I can do!" Aang said while shaking.
"I'm going to stay awake straight through to the invasion!"
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"Hun, can you pass me the hammer?" Sokka asked you, in which you gave it to him without looking away from the armor you two are building for Appa. He smiled and thanked you, which you gave him a small laugh, but that small moment was interrupted by a gust of wind from Aang.
"Hey! We're tryin' build Appa some armor here so he doesn't have to go into the invasion naked. He's your bison!" Sokka told Aang, but he ignored Sokka and kept on training.
"How is he?" Katara asked you as she and Toph walked up to you two.
"Seems normal to me, though from experience, this is where he starts to see things," You told her as you all walked up to the Avatar, who started to talk to Momo.
"Aang? We're all starting to get a little worried about you," Katara said, concerned.
"You've been awake too long," Sokka told him.
"To the point where you're mumbling nonsense," You crossed your arms.
"And you're acting downright weird," Toph bluntly said.
"You've got to take care of yourself. You can't go on like this," Appa suddenly said with Twig on top of his head.
"Sleep is very important for humans and creatures," Twig piped in, raised an eyebrow. That made Aang groan.
"Look, I appreciate what you guys are saying, but the stress and the nightmares. They were just too much. Staying awake is the best way for me to deal with it!" He told you all with a smile.
"Yeah! Leave the kid alone!" Momo glared at Appa.
"Hey, who asked you?" Appa spat back, and the two growled at each other.
"You guys, come on," Twig tried to calm them down.
"No! I am sick of this guy always mouthing me and telling me what to do!" Appa pointed at Momo, who gave the bison a scowl.
"Oh, you don't like it? Well, let's go right now!" He shouted, and Aang grabbed your shot in a panic.
"(Y/N), what do we do?" He asked.
"About what?" You tilted your head.
"About that!" He pointed at the animals, where in his vision, Appa and Momo were in armor, with swords to charge at each other.
The koala-sheep were cheering for Appa, as the tiger monkeys were cheering for Momo, while Twig had a referee uniform and a whistle to set points for the two. Aang's mind started to lose it even more and he suddenly yelled out.
"I just need to jump in a cold waterfall!" He shouted and took off into the woods.
You all stared at him, with Katara tilting her head, dumbfounded.
"What just happened?" Sokka asked.
"He probably saw Appa and Momo having a sword fight,"
"What?"
"Nothing,"
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"Oh, look. Another hallucination. An imaginary bed made out of clouds," Aang sighed and pressed his head against the wool, and Toph crossed her arms.
"Hey! It's real! We spent hours working on it," She argued.
"We made it for you. A good night's sleep will probably take the crazy away, we hope," Sokka smiled.
"Look! You guys keep telling me that I need to sleep, but I can't! The invasion's tomorrow!" Aang argued at you all.
"Aang," Katara started, but Aang shook his head.
"No, Katara! There's still so much I haven't learned. I don't need sleep. What I need is practice. Quick, hit me!" Aang tried to fight, but he was swaying around.
"I'm not going to hit you," Katara told him.
"You want me to do it?" Toph grinned mischievously.
"Aang, as your girlfriend, along being the girlfriend of the others, I'm going to say that you have been training ever since we met at the South Pole. So trust me when I say that your going to do great, you're strong enough," You told him gently, grieving him a smile.
"You really think so?" He asked, and you nodded.
"Of course we do," Katara smiled.
"We all do. You can do this. You're ready," Sokka reassured him.
"You're the man, Twinkle Toes!" Toph gave him thumbs up.
"Thanks, guys," Aang smiled as the same baby Tiger Monkey crawled up on him, and curled herself up to him.
"You know what? I think I am ready,"
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Eyyyyy, we made it to the 100th chapter! Congrats to everyone who made it this far!
So here's a Sun and (Y/N) moment,
Stay healthy and stay tune!