rain pattered down on them as liara, aang, and zuko watched the fire nation and earth kingdom soldiers fight.
it was like the war never ended.
"one moment, I know that I should defend my people, but the next, I know that I have to follow through with the harmony restoration movement." zuko said and turned to the avatar.
"aang, how am I supposed to know what to do when his voice is all I hear?"
Liara looked at the teenage boy, looking at his pale face calmly. "you shouldn't have turned to ozai for advice," she said calmly and zuko whipped around and scowled at her.
"his uncle, make him turn to his uncle for guidance."
Liara thanked the uneverse for yao. he was the only one keeping her sane in this situation. he had the insight of predicting what will happen next, and he was the only one telling her not to keep her promise right now.
"your uncle is much wiser than ozai will ever be. he has a pure heart and great honour. you should have asked him, instead of turning to your lunatic father for help."
"my uncle runs a teashop in ba sing se." zuko seethed, "it will take me weeks to travel to him."
Liara's glare softened. "did you forget about me and aang? we're your friends, zuko. just send me a messenger hawk and I'll be there for you, even if it's for something as simple as flying you to iroh's teashop."
~
liara's eyes fluttered open, what a strange dream.
she groggily sat up and heard a groan from beneath her, smiling at a sleepy aang who tried to pull her back to her former sleeping position.
her hair was messy, but she ignored it as she looked over the edge of diki's saddle. they were almost there.
aang sat up and rubbed his eyes before giving his girlfriend a chipper "good morning."
the girl in question was contemplating her existence, it being way too early to live. judging by where the sun hung in the in the sky, it was between six and seven in the morning.
way too early to live.
after liara tamed her hair and freshened up a bit, she finally looked okay, although she still felt like sleeping.
she'd rather sleep than try and calm another war. the first one was tiring enough.
"alright, there it is." aang said, looking over the city before turning to liara. "are you helping me, honey?" he asked with a hopeful smile and the tired girl smiled at him. "of course, honey."
aang stood atop of diki and Liara aided his voice with soundbending it to be louder, "all fire nation residents of yu dao, you have to evacuate! your lives are in danger!"
but before aang could continue, a blast of fire almost hit him, while a meteor hammer was thrown at liara.
"careful, honey! we're being attacked by firebenders." aang said quickly. "earthbenders too." liara added, sending a gust of air to the meteor hammer, changing its trajectory by ninety degrees.
next thing she saw was throwing axes, and both she and aang airbender them away. "what the hell! if they want to attack us, they should make up their minds with a weapon of choice!" the girl hissed.
"there's the axe thrower," aang pointed before speeding after the man.
Liara flew diki higher and opened her glider. "go find somewhere safe, girl! I'll call for you soon."
the bison groaned and flew off as liara air-surfed down into the building aang was in.
"are you okay?" she asked the boy next to her, brown eyes searching for any sign of injury. "I'm fine I just caught our axe thrower."
"sneers?!"
Liara was surprised, she didn't expect a freedom fighter to help out yu dao.
"hi, avatar aang," he mumbled.
Liara raised an eyebrow. "why?" she questioned calmly but someone else answered it. "because you are trying to force us from our homes!" the girl wore fire nation clothes, but her green eyes showed that she had earth kingdom blood.
"my name is kori morishita, and we are the yu dao resistance." she said walking closer to the airbenders.
"kori, my name is Liara, and I know it's hard, but you have to evacuate the city." the airbender said, holding her staff firmly, "lives are at stake."
"it's true," aang added, placing his hand in the small of his girlfriends back. "please, just listen."
"you're missing the point," kori stated. "I am a fire nation citizen, but I am an earth bender and I live her in yu dao."
another man, in earth kingdom clothes spoke up, "my cousins are all fire nation on my mom's side."
another earth kingdom girl, "my favourite teacher,"
another man, "my stepfather."
Liara looked around as more and more people told them about their fire nation family members, and Liara sighed.
sneers stepped closer to her and aang, "I'm only fighting in the resistance as long as they keep both earth kingdom and fire nation intruders out, because yu dao is both!" he said.
kori placed he hand on her hips, "let smellerbee and her protesters come! we can handle them."
"this isn't about the protestors," liara deadpanned.
"what?"
"the earth King and his troops are on their way here to 'enforce harmony'. and a war will break out." aang said. and Liara agreed, "a ragtag group like this resistance can't stand a chance against an army. you have to leave."
"we can stand a chance if we have the avatar." sneers suggested, but aang shook his head. "no, I already told the earth King that I would see the movement through to the end."
kori folded her arms, "well if you won't help us, avatar, then maybe one of those avatars will."
wait what?
Liara turned around to se a munch of girls in air nomad clothes entering the building.
"what the heck is this? comic con?"
she heard yao in her mind and for a moment, she was confused but she let it go, gripping her staff tightly. why the hell were they dressed like that?
and why the hell did they shave their foreheads?! no one has done that in centuries!
Liara noticed their tattoos. she cringed.
"greetings, the yu dao branch of the avatar aang fanclub has been awaiting your arrival."
fanclub. always the damn fanclub.
"look liara, another fanclub!" aang smiled.
"yay."
she wanted to be happy, but the way they had dressed in air nomad clothes was just... too much.
she liked the other girls in ba sing se, they were nice and mostly respectful. but this? this was a new low.
Liara walked closer to the girls, alongside aang, but as he went to talk to the president, liara walked in between the other three girls, looking at their hair and clothes.
"your clothes look just like the uniforms that the western students used to wear,"
"yes, that's where you're from, right?" the girl said, seeming confident in her statement.
before aang could give a gentle reply, liara was stood in front of the girl, holding her beaded necklace in her hand.
"no, that's where I'm from. aang is from the south."
the girl's confident smile fell while liara continued speaking. "I'm flattered, these robes are fairly accurate. although this part," she slid her fingers over the upper robes, "should be cut a bit larger and the colour should be a more pronounced vermillion."
Liara finally looked up at the girl, their eyes criticising and threatening each other.
before liara could continue to openly ridicule the poor girls, aang spoke up again, "even the beads are accurate,"
"of course," the girl's smile returned, "we pride ourselves on authenticity. our girls even study the same philosophy and spirituality as you did when you were training."
"calm yourself, liara."
yao could probably sense the airbender's irritation, and told her to chill, so she took a breath and calmed herself.
"the arrows painted on your foreheads look almost exactly like airbender tattoos." aang marvelled.
"thank you, but these aren't painted! we use the same ink you-"
"wait what?!" liara looked up surprised by aang's sudden change of voice. she was also surprised by the fact that the girls tattooed themselves.
"those tattoos are supposed to be earned from years of mastery and hard work!"
Liara stepped forward, lifting the girl's arm sleeve. no arrow. they did it wrong.
"of course, for a fanclub member to receive her tattoos, she must master hundreds of airbender-like forms."
airbender-like?
the wind picked up, "these tattoos are sacred to our people!" liara equipped, wind swirling around the room. "they describe who we are and how we see the world! you have no right to them. you have no right to use them for a dumb fanclub."
aang placed his hand on liara's shoulder and the wind died down. she turned around to take a breath.
"i assure you, liara, our girls go through the most rigorous training to earn them." the girl tried to reason, but this time it was aang who shot her down.
"how can you study airbender philosophy and still do this?" he said, looking away in disappointment.
"but we-"
"no," liara was calm. she had her had placed on aang's shoulder, she could feel him shaking from anger.
"our culture is not a costume nor a game. it's sacred. and for you to call yourself educated is just disrespectful to our people. my culture is not a game."
she and aang then walked out of the building, and then they headed to the city gates on their gliders.