Ba Sing Se Boarding High

Trauma

*Sokka POV*

Did Aang just scream? I stare at him. When he realizes that he yelled he turns bright red and runs out of the caf. I go running after him, but when I get to the hall, I don't see him. Right. He's an airbender. I'll never be able to catch him. But maybe I can predict where he'll go. I feel really crappy, knowing that I caused this. He like heights, so I should check the highest places in the school. Once outside, I look up at the clock tower. Yeah, we have one. This place isn't cheap. I climb as fast as I can and sit next to him. He doesn't look at me. Tears are running down his cheeks. He's sobbing quietly into his sweater. I try to pull him into a hug, but he moves away. 
"Just leave me alone," he says in a low voice. It's a little freaky seeing the happiest guy in the world collapse into tears. 
"No, I'm not going to leave you alone. You need someone here for you right now. I'm sorry I caused this to happen, but I'll be here when you need me. You can talk or we can just sit here. It's up to you," His eyes filled with tears. He hugged me and sobbed into my shoulder. We can afford to miss the sixth period. 

*Aang's POV*

I feel like crap, but Sokka's right, maybe I should talk about it. Get some of it off my chest. I'll just avoid mentioning anything to do with me being the Avatar. Easy. 

Flashback to 7 months ago

I'd finally gotten used to the rigorous training the monks had subjected me to. Traditions, stories, and airbending practice. Most of our knowledge was passed down by word of mouth. We avoided paper because it got burnt so easily. Which luckily for us, was a good plan. This wasn't the first time we'd nearly been wiped out. I was learning about the first one that day. There had been a massive comet passing over, which gave firebenders extreme power. Something along the lines of 200 times their regular power. It must have been terrifying. Only four of them had made it out, two men and two women. This was before we had temples. We'd tended to gather in mountains before, but during one of those gatherings, on one of our festivals, the airbenders were attacked. We'd begun befriending the sky bison many thousands of years before but many of them also got wiped out. Wild bison were still fairly prevalent back in those times, however, so that was not of concern. The four that managed to get away got onto a bison and flew to the safest place they knew. A place that is secret to the rest of the world to this day, and cannot be accessed unless you know the favourite poem of the spirit that guards it. It is an Air Nomad secret, only told to our greatest masters. Monk Gyatso was about to tell me when all of a sudden the room filled with smoke. We saw the fire licking at the edge of the window. Running towards the bison, where we were supposed to evacuate to if anything happened, I tripped over something. It smelled awful, and I realized I was face to face with a burning body. Covered in ash and coughing uncontrollably, I ran as fast as I could, but my lungs were burning. All of a sudden, someone came flying towards me and got impaled on a fence post. They were still alive. I pulled them off and tried to keep them alive while dragging them to the bison, but they died in my arms. Now I was covered in blood as well as ash, I couldn't breathe and my vision was blurry. I tried to save as many people as I could from the fire, but I only managed to get one out. I somehow managed to get to the bison and climb on Appa. 
"Yip yip," I said hoarsely. And then I passed out in his saddle. I was lucky that Appa knew to stay with the other bison. 

When I woke up, I looked down at my hands. They were covered in blood and my lungs were screaming. I realized what had happened, and I barfed over Appa's side. I crawled over to his head and pet him.
"Thanks, bud," I said before collapsing into a coughing fit. I attempted to airbend the smoke out of my lungs, but I got nothing. My lung tissue must have absorbed the toxins. It was awful. I couldn't stop coughing, and I could barely breathe. And that's scary for an airbender. If I couldn't breathe I couldn't do like half the airbending forms I normally could to the full extent. That's when the panic attack started. Not being able to breathe because your lungs are full of smoke is one thing, it's another to have that and your throat closing up because you're panicking. However, Appa pulled me out of it. Nothing wanted to cooperate with me. So I ended up passing out again. Waking up found me on the ground, still in Appa's saddle. We'd just landed in a distant patch of mountains. And everyone was looking at me. Great. Now I have to assure them that we'll be fine, but I can barely breathe. (I left out that part because it would take a while to explain why everyone was looking towards me like I had some sort of authority without mentioning anything Avatar related.) After what feels like an hour but was probably more like five minutes, I get everyone calmed down and we make camp with what little we have and improvised structures. Not that I'm any calmer. But my priorities are in order. We all manage to fall asleep at some point.