I love you bunches!
Konno couldn't help but smile as she read over her letter from Yue again. There was nothing else she could do because they were flying on Appa. Most of her friends were either asleep or silent, so she had decided to read Yue's letter again. It had been a long time since she even looked at it, let alone read it.
She didn't expect to feel so sad when she read it again. It was the last piece of writing from Yue that she had left, and it made her upset that she would never be able to talk to her again. However, she knew that Yue's death had a purpose, and it was working itself out in that moment.
Konno gently placed the letter bag in her bag, underneath the small knick-knack that Sokka had found in the swamp. Another small piece of paper stuck out from under the knick-knack. Her fingers grabbed hold of it and pulled it out. It was the letter from her parents. She hadn't realized she kept it.
She traced the elegant letters of the words that were written on the page. It was her mother's handwriting; she knew it because of the way the letters were curled. Her eyes scanned the page, reading it again. It said that they wanted to see her, to make sure that she was safe and okay.
A part of her felt guilty that she left without a word. Her parents had just lost their oldest daughter, and then she decided to run away without even saying goodbye to them. She couldn't imagine the pain they felt when they realized she was gone. They didn't even know if she was alive or not.
Konno quickly stuffed the letter into her bag. She didn't want to dwell on the guilt right now. The only reason she left was because she couldn't stand it. She couldn't stand being in the Northern Water Tribe and seeing wherever Yue had been before but not being able to have her there in the flesh.
A cool breeze blew through Konno's hair as she sat next to Katara on Appa. This felt like the old times before Aang had died, with all of them flying to random places and having a lot of fun together. But everything was different now.
Aang was still a little weak, so Sokka volunteered to take the reigns and fly Appa. She thought it was really nice for him to do that for Aang. He didn't seem to mind at all, either.
Konno hugged her bag to her chest. Sokka was a wild driver, especially when he would accidentally fall asleep and pull on the reigns. She didn't want her bag to fall off of Appa because it held her most important things, like the letter from Yue and the letter from her parents and the little knick-knack from Yue's room. Even if she never wanted to read the letter from her parents again, she didn't want to lose it. Someday, she was going to go back home to make things right.
"Hey, Konno, can we talk?" Aang asked, tapping her on the shoulder.
Konno glanced at Katara who gave her a nod. Katara turned toward Toph with a smile on her face. She had been much happier now that Aang was alive and well. Konno was glad that she could finally have peace about him being okay.
"About what?" Konno asked Aang.
He scrubbed a hand over his close-cropped hair. It was a little strange seeing him with hair, but she was slowly getting used to it. It seemed like he didn't like his hair much. She thought it looked good on him, though.
"When I ran away from the ship the other night, I got stuck in the middle of a storm," he explained. However, Konno knew all that. She didn't understand why he was telling her this, but she didn't interrupt him. "I thought I was a goner because I didn't have the strength to survive. But someone helped me through it."
"Who?"
"Yue."
Konno's breath caught in her throat. She knew Yue was the Moon Spirit and that she had some abilities, but she didn't expect to hear that she helped Aang. Yue helped Konno through her darkest times, even when she wasn't there with her, so she knew that Aang was blessed to have Yue help him.
"That's great," Konno said, her voice thick. "I'm glad she helped you. She helped me a lot when she was alive, like with how women were treated in our city."
"I didn't notice anything wrong with the way women were treated in the Northern Water Tribe," he said with a frown. "Besides the time when Pakku wouldn't let Katara practice her water bending."
Konno laughed. "That's because you're a boy, and boys always get treated the same. But women . . . not so much. She helped me fight for us - for women."
"You went against what everyone else was telling you to do?"
"Yes." Konno nodded. "She was there with me, though. It's not that hard if you have someone to back you up. I couldn't stay quiet, and even though I love my father dearly, he was the one I had to go against."
"That's very noble of you, Konno," Aang said. He went silent for a second before blurting out, "She also talked to me." He wouldn't really meet her eyes when he said, "She told me to tell you something."
"Tell me what?"
"She said that she'll see you soon," he said with a frown. "And that she's been watching over you since day one."
"She'll see me soon?" Konno whispered. "What did she mean by that?"
"I asked her that," Aang told her. "She didn't answer."
"Weird," Konno said, her eyes glued to her hands. "Does that mean . . ."
"I don't know." Aang patted her hand, and she looked up at him. "Soon doesn't mean right now. You never know how long time passes for spirits."
"Yeah." She swallowed hard. "You're right. It could take forever for her soon to come to fruition."
Aang agreed with her. Of course it would take forever for it to happen. There was no need for her to worry about anything because she was safe with them.
When they got farther over land, Katara came up with the great idea to bend a cloud around them as they traveled. She didn't want anyone to see Aang, especially because they were flying over the Fire Nation outer islands.
"I think I see a cave below," Aang said, pointing down toward the ground.
"Shhush . . . keep quiet!" Sokka said quickly. His eyes flicked around the area as the cloud dispersed with a blast of airbending. Appa landed on the ground, so Sokka helped Konno dismount. "Great job with the cloud camo, but next time, let's disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud who knows how to keep its mouth shut."
Konno rolled her eyes. When they crossed into the Fire Nation, Sokka had been extra careful. She knew he was worried about Aang, but he needed to loosen up a little.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want a bird to hear us chatting up there and turn us in," Toph said sarcastically.
"Hey!" Sokka said. "We're in enemy territory. Those are enemy birds." He pointed upward to four of the "enemy birds" who were perched on a rock just behind him. One of the birds hopped down onto his head and squawked.
"Yes, those enemy birds are so very dangerous," Konno said, approaching the one on Sokka's head slowly. She reached out and brushed a finger across its head. "And they are so very cute, too!"
Katara and Aang and Toph all laughed while Sokka looked unamused. Konno and Sokka walked behind everyone else. She noticed that his eyes were still darting around, trying to find any sort of danger, so she took his hand in hers and said, "You don't need to worry, Sokka. We're safe here."
"You don't know that."
She pulled him to a stop and made him face her. "Seriously, calm down. Where's the Sokka I know and . . ." Konno trailed off because she didn't know how to finish that sentence. Her face flushed when he noticed what she was going to say.
"Know and what?" Sokka asked quietly. He pulled her closer to him. "What were you trying to say there, Konno?"
Fear rose up in her throat at the thought of what she was about to say. She wasn't sure if she felt that way about him. She couldn't even process the word because it terrified her. It terrified her because she never wanted to let her heart get hurt again, and if she did feel that way about him, she was opening herself up to the worst kind of pain. If they didn't work out later in life, she would be devastated. And devastated was something she never wanted to experience again.
"I wasn't going to say anything," she whispered to him. "It was nothing."
"You don't have to be afraid to open up to me about your feelings," he said softly. "I won't judge you for anything."
"I know." She blew out a breath. "I know, Sokka. I'm just . . . not really used to letting anyone see my emotions. It's still a little hard to open up."
Sokka brushed a lock of her hair out of her face and whispered, "I know that it's hard for you to open up. But you've been doing so well, and I'm so proud of you because of it."
Konno smiled up at him. "Thank you. I've been wanting to get better because I'm tired of living in this depression. It's just taking me so long to get out of it."
"Hey, take all the time you need," he said quickly. "There's not a time-limit on grief. It could take months, years, even decades. It's taken me years to get over my mother's death, and I still think about it to this day. I'm sure it's taken Katara longer because she witnessed the death and saw the destruction." He paused. His eyes had grown unfocused the longer he spoke. "Sometimes you never get over it. You just have to push through it. It'll live with you for the rest of your life and you just have to own it because it's the reason you're still alive."
Konno felt like he had started talking about himself more than about her. She knew that he missed his mother dearly, just like she missed Yue. They shared a sort of grief that no one would ever really understand. They both lost people who they loved so very much, but they had found each other just in time. Just in time to save each other from their worst enemy - themselves.