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Aang stared at the familiar shapes and colors of the Air Temples, considering. Every crack and crevice the Fire Nation left was long since remembered, burned into his mind. Although he had only really seen the aftermaths of the attack once, he didn’t seem to be able to forget anything about it.
What he was pondering now, was the fact all scorch marks and destruction was gone, and it was instead full of young children, monks, and nuns. He gulped.
“Um, excuse me?” He tapped on one of the nun’s shoulders, desperately trying to remember her name. “What is the date?”
The nun smiled, “The day before travelling season starts.”
Aang wracked his brain for the date that travelling season started, coming up empty. He went through 12 years of travelling season, he should remember this!
“Thank you…” He started, unsure of how to finish it.
“Nun Wangmo is my name,” She pat him on the cheek, smiling just as warmly even after Aang didn’t know her name.
Aang smiled, trying to cover up his anxiousness, “Thanks Nun Wangmo, and I’m sorry for not knowing your name. Mine’s Aang.”
“Needn’t worry Aang, this is the first time we have met in person, though I have heard tons about you.” Aang in another life would’ve felt proud of her having heard of her, but instead he was left wondering if it was because he was the avatar or if it actually had to do with him.
He nodded and said a quick goodbye, not waiting for her reply and instead racing to the edge of the temple and flying off with his old air glider that he had watched burn, smile slipping off his face easily.
Aang landed on a small cliff, sitting down and hanging his legs over the edge and making a show of putting his face in his hands, lifting his head back up, putting his face into his hands again, then settling on keeping his head up.
He groaned loudly, flopping onto his back.
“What am I going to do?” He drags out the words. “Two time trips in one lifetime…”
He frowned, petting the lemur that had been attracted by the noise he was making.
Aang sighed through his nose. He was going to have to figure out a way to stop the Fire Nation from invading the Air Temples again, no debating it. He had to stop it.
He shot up quickly, scaring the lemur. He didn’t know what to do to fully prevent it, but he knew what he could do to hinder it.
II.
Using airbending to lift himself in the halls of the Air Temple, Aang crept through it, barely touching the floor and cautiously looking around to make sure nobody was there before he ran straight into Monk Gyatso.
He froze in Monk Gyatso’s hands when he saw his face. He hadn’t thought of what he would do when he saw Gyatso, Bumi, Kuzon, and everyone from his past again.
“Aang, are you alright?” Gyatso lifted his eyebrow, smiling warmly at him with a hint of worry in his eyes. “I haven’t seen you for 2 weeks! Nobody has. Neither Kuzon nor Bumi had seen you either. And the letter you made…”
“Gyatso the Fire Nation is planning to kill us all.”
“Excuse me?” Gyatso sputtered in disbelief.
Aang blinked, before realizing nobody, not even Gyatso would believe him without proof, as there has been no conflict. Good thing he has proof.
“Gyatso, I’m serious. The 2 weeks I was gone, I got stuck in an iceberg and woke up 100 years into the future where all the Air Nomads were gone and the world was at war with the Fire Nation, and when I was finally able to bring balance as the Avatar I was sent back here and-“ Aang took a breath. “Here.”
Aang pushed 5 scrolls into Gyatso’s hands.
“I took away… stole,” He corrected before Gyatso could question the wording, “their written plans and Firelord Sozin’s firebending.”
Aang fidgeted with his hands. “It’s not a permanent solution but it’ll help set the attacks back.”
Gyatso opened his mouth and shut it again, looking much like a fish.
“I will bring these to the counsel, but for now, you need to go to sleep. You look absolutely dead on your feet.” Gyatso nodded at him.
Aang gave him a thumbs up, stumbling around him and into his room. He fell onto his bed, allowing himself to relax for the first time in 2 days. His last thought was about how Kuzon would be expecting him for the festival before he drifted off to sleep.
III.
Walking through the streets of the Fire Nation again made him feel bare and exposed. Soldiers stationed at certain locations stared at him, not taking their eyes off of him for a second. He was glad nobody else was gawking at him, unlike people in the future after he had put a stop to Firelord Ozai.
He felt too out of place knowing what would happen. He started to wonder how many people had stuck up for the Air Nomads after and how many were killed for it. Was Kuzon killed? Would Kuzon have even stuck up for him?
Yes, he thinks desperately. He must’ve.
He jumped when he felt the very person his thoughts drifted off to (which was typical, his brain couldn’t help thinking of him, no matter how much it hurt) put a hand on his shoulder.
He turned his head to Kuzon looking at him with a mix of concern and curiousity.
“You’re sure stuck in that head of yours, Hotman,” Kuzon moved his hand from Aang’s shoulder to his hand, intertwining them. “Whatcha thinking about?”
Aang smiled, which definitely came out more like a grimace according to Kuzon’s face, and pulled Kuzon along.
“It’s nothing,” The lie tasted like filth in his mouth. “But what isn’t nothing, is this festival. How about a dance?”
It was cheap, he knew. Kuzon did too, seen as his face twisted into a grin that was a definite fail of holding back. Kuzon took the lead and Aang was no longer pulling him along, rather the one getting pulled along.
His laughs mixed with Kuzon’s as the music went on, their joint hands never leaving each others.
Yeah, he could forget about Firelord Sozin for the night. Seems all he ever did recently was think about him, he’d be able to make up for lost time.
IV.
Firelord Sozin means nothing to him, he thinks as he earthbends a whole tent of weapons camped out near the Western Air Temple. Nothing at all.
V.
Bumi is old, wrinkly, and has a crumpled voice. So alike but so different to the Bumi he sees now. Bumi was a mad genius with a life he never got to see, and he was convinced he would never get to see it.
Aang hopes he does it differently this time so he is able to see it.
(Does he have the right to be mad that he was ‘forcibly removed’ from both his homes? It sits heavy on his tongue. Does he have the right to wish that the Avatar Team was here with him? He feels like throwing up.)
Bumi’s looking at him like he’s a math equation he was given to solve. He didn’t seem to be able to find what he was looking for, seeing as he sighed and looked away.
Aang hopes he won’t ever need to find out.
VI.
If it didn’t help that Aang was the avatar and had already mastered all 4 elements plus another and the avatar state, it helps that he’s getting a ton of airbending training piled up on him that started easy but got more and more complicated the more Aang showed excellence in all the areas.
Aang flopped on his bed, sweating. The counsel has been harsh on him, but at least he wasn’t taken away from Gyatso this time around.
“Avatar Aang! It’s time to test your tornado abilities.” He groaned. Maybe if he made a huge one he would get let off the hook. He needs to find an escape.
VII.
It was on a whim. Bumi and Kuzon had been staring at me all worried and sending glances to each other. I couldn’t handle it anymore and I blurted it out.
“I’m the avatar.” Kuzon and Bumi had blinked in surprise and spluttered.
“What!?” and, “No way! You can’t be serious!” was yelled out from the two of them, and their voices mixed so I could barely tell who said what. Though from their personalities, it was easy to tell.
“Um, Aang? How would you even know that? You’re 12!” Kuzon breached a bit hysterical near the end. “You disappeared for 2 weeks then you came back— different! We’re all worried Aang. Even my mother is sending you glances and looking at me as if to ask ‘What happened?’”
Bumi nodded along with everything he said.
“It was a lot longer for me. the 2 weeks, that is. I would really tell you what happened but I don’t…” Aang cut himself off and Kuzon frowned.
Bumi sighed through his nose. He seemed to do that a lot recently whenever he was around Aang.
“I may have got stuck in an iceberg and woke up 100 years in the future where everything was out of balance and when I had finally got it peaceful again, I stayed a week going in between nations then I blinked and I was back in the past?”
Kuzon and Bumi looked at him like he went insane before Bumi seemingly got it together.
“Well, thats joyous!” Bumi clapped. “Pray tell, hows the nations in the future?”
Aang frowned. “The Earth Kingdom’s ok if you didn’t count that Ba Sing Se didn’t know about the war for 3/4ths of it, the Water Tribes… it depends on whether you are talking about South or North. North is pretty good if you ignore what happened right before I left… um…”
“What happened?”
Aang ignored the question, “The Fire Nation is well off.” He nodded. Kuzon and Bumi waited.
“What about the Air Nomads?” Kuzon finally inquired with a grin, faltering when Aang paled in a matter of seconds.
“The uh. You know how it was out of balance? Thats because I was the last airbender in the future. The…” Aang avoided eye contact with Kuzon as he said this. “The Fire Nation killed them all. Everyone.”
The torch on the wall flickered and the fire on it grew bigger, matching Kuzon’s emotions. Bumi looked at Aang biting his nails in horror.
Kuzon gulped. “It hasn’t happened yet, right? We have the ability to prevent it.”
“What do you think I’m trying to do!?” Aang snapped, immediately feeling guilt when Kuzon flinched. “Sorry, I’m just… stressed.”
“Don’t worry Hotman, we will stop it. Together.” Aang didn’t have any plans of putting Kuzon and Bumi in danger and doing that, but he nodded nonetheless and leaned his head on Kuzon’s shoulder.
(Later, when Bumi goes to do whatever princely stuff he has to do, Kuzon will ask about them. Aang will answer, “Bumi’s ok. Gyatso…” Kuzon will hug him when Aang goes rigid and Aang will feel as if hes lighted ablaze.
“I’m not sure about you. I tried to avoid thinking about you guys, and I really tried. But I couldn’t stop thinking about you at times like I could with everyone else. It was different with you. You’ve always been different.”
Kuzon would hold him closer and joke that him being the Avatar adds up. Aang will laugh with Kuzon, embracing the distraction with open arms.)
VIII.
When Monk Tashi asks in a moment of kindness when the sky goes red and the comet passes over if he is at all hurt by Firelord Sozin leading a genocide of his people after being his bestfriend in his past life, Aang smiles and says that he never knew Sozin anyway. It’s easier to pretend that Sozin had no effects on him and he doesn’t dream of him and Roku.
Besides, he has Gyatso and that’s all he needs. Gyatso was always a better friend.
He does not think about Katara, Toph, Sokka, Zuko, or Suki, and especially not Kuzon.
IX.
Aang is 10 years old. Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Suki, and everyone doesn’t exist. It’s him, Kuzon, and Bumi against the world and Aang is writing a love letter to Kuzon.
It makes sense for an Air Nomad, all of them were raised bathed in love and family with dance and songs and sweet kisses from the air. Aang cannot wait to see Kuzon again and crush him to death with a hug and get an equally painful but loving hug in return.
He’s 10, and he does not know he is the Avatar.
X.
Aang is laying on Kuzon’s lap in the middle of the night and forest with a fire Kuzon set with his blazing fingertips a few feet in front of him.
Kuzon’s tracing his tattoos again, like his hands were meant to trace them and he was meant to kiss every arrow softly, like a brush of air.
“You have a scar on your back.” Kuzon points out. “Does it have to do with the time travelling?” Gentle, not pushing. He’ll back off if Aang wants him to.
Aang breathed out. “Yeah, but not in the way you’re thinking.” Kuzon hums. Thinks thats all he’ll get out of Aang. He understands if it is.
“Its from this girl— Azula. She shot me in the back with lightning.” Aang explained, slightly surprising Kuzon.
Kuzon parts his lips. “I didn’t know you could do that.” How is that? Would I be able to learn it and help you? goes unasked and unsaid.
“It’s lightning bending. A substyle of firebending.” Aang hears and answers. He always does. “I would teach you it, but I don’t actually know how to do it.”
“That’s alright.” Kuzon wonders if that response is good enough. Kuzon wonders if anything he does is good enough. If he is good enough.
Aang smiles, wist-soft, and if Kuzon were to try to catch it in his palms he knows it would fly away.
“That’s sweet.” Kuzon doesn’t understand the word in that context, and Aang seems to realize that by the way he frowns.
“That’s good, that’s good.” He corrects, smiling again lazily as if he’s amused by the fact hes so far out of anybodys time.
Aang starts to drift off, and Kuzon presses a kiss sweetly to his scar before he fully drifts away.
Would he ever be good enough to keep him there? No, Kuzon doesn’t think so.
XI.
(The sunset paints Kuzon red and orange. Sunsets look good on him.
And the red-orange doesn’t make him look so far out of reach.
You also have a scar on your foot. Kuzon points out, not having seen any other time to bring the topic up again.
Are you gonna kiss it too? (Aang’s voice always sounds like he’s dancing around his words. Airy and light, Kuzon muses for what it seems to be the 50th time. He could think about Aang all day.)
Kuzon shoves him off the stair they implanted themselves onto and Aang lands in the grass, laughing with delight and Kuzon grins without his permission. Yaoro, Kuzon’s mother, looks at them from inside with mirth in her smile.)
XII.
Aangs 13. Aang is 13 and he is still fighting to prevent the Air Nomads from being destroyed.
For a year now, Firelord Sozin has been unable to use firebending Kuzon said the newspaper said.
Firelord Sozin left his heir, Prince Azulon, in charge of the throne. Firelord Sozin seems to have fully retired, saying he’s “led a life of prosperity and is ready to give it down to my son, who will do just as good of a job if not better as Firelord. Hail, Firelord Azulon.
Aang tries to pretend the words don’t fill him with dread. He doesn’t know how Azulon was when he ruled, but seeing how Ozai turned out and that Sozin is teaching him, Aang isn’t sure he’s looking forward to it. He walks to Gyatso’s room in his pajamas and takes a deep breath, breathing out all his worries when he sees Gyatso peacefully asleep and breathing.
Sue him, he has to check that he’s not insane and that everyone is actually alive sometimes.
XIV.
Aang hasn’t seen any Fire Nation camps next to the Air Temples in weeks, yet hes still anxious. His foot is tapping against the floor with Kuzon’s hand on his knee and Bumi right next to him.
“Aang, you need to calm down. Everything’s going ok, and my father has told my mother in a letter the Fire Nation army is no longer preparing for war. Though she still doesn’t understand why they were. The Air Nomad propaganda has went down a good amount too, and the comet passed months ago.”
Aang tries to calm his nerves at the words, but he cannot. Kuzon sighs and Bumi throws his leg over his leg as if that’ll help.
“Hey! You just kicked my hand!” Follows after. “It’s not my fault your hand was in the way.” Bumi jeers.
“You shouldn’t have thrown your leg over Aang’s in the first place! I was trying to calm him down and that doesn’t help at all!”
Aang flops back, used to their bickering. His hand intertwining with Kuzon’s is not brought up and his foot no longer tapping is not mentioned.
Kuzon understands what Bumi was doing, Aang knows. He’s helping him.
Aang yawns in the sun, and when Kuzon and Bumi is no longer arguing, Bumi mentions he’s like a cat. Aang doesn’t argue against this, he likes cats. He slips into the realm of sleep instead of replying.
XV.
Love isn’t that hard to understand, Aang thinks. He has always been in love.
XVI.
What cannot be said will be wept
——
Now in my
heart I
see clearly
a beautiful
face
shining back on me,
stained
with love
-Sappho
XVII.
The world was officially ending in Aang’s opinion. It got out that Sozin was going to exterminate the Air Nomads, and the Water Tribes plus the Earth Kingdom wants to meet up with the Air Nomads and Fire Nation to talk about it. In turn of being the Avatar and having balance discussed, Aang needs to come to.
Gyatso tries to argue against this, saying he is but a child, but they do not listen.
Representives from every nation sit at the table of the Firelord’s dining room with food on the tables. Nobody’s speaking.
Aang is sat closely next to Gyatso, as if he’ll run away. He’s not gonna lie, he was thinking about it. Running is an Air Nomads first instinct. He’s on alert.
The woman from the Southern Water Tribe speaks, and everyone starts talking. Azulon is met with threats of war if he makes any move to ready his warriors and attack. Azulon agrees that he will not, and Aang relaxes. They promise to keep Aang’s identity secret until his 16th birthday.
Aang takes some fire flakes before they leave and then they are on their way. Aang tries to ignore everyone’s stare burning into his back. 3 more years. He sighs.
If anything goes wrong, he’ll be ready. He’s done it once before, he can do it again.