First Dance: Water and Wind [Editing]

16 - Evaluation

"Katara?"

"Hm?" she hummed in response, fixing a slight tear in Tsu-Lyn's transparent cape. It snagged on a branch  when she was running in the forest and is now being removed in similar situations. Yes it is detachable.

"Thank you."

Katara awkwardly chuckled, "Of course. It's only natural I do it."

Tsu-Lyn just nodded, stroking her fingers through her hair and slightly tugging on her rugged ponytail.

Iroh did it for her the first time. Zuko was insistent that some part of her hair be put up--something about respect in the Fire Nation. Because it seemed so important to him she always had it up, but she hasn't had an actual comb and was too scared to ask Katara. Well, it's not like she could do it on her own, someone else did it for her during breakfast.

"Mama always did that. What's it called?"

Sokka looked over from staring at the clouds, "You don't know what sewing is? Aren't you a girl?" He cleared his throat.

Katara sighed in frustration, "Sokkkkka-"

"Wait, what does me being a girl have to do with anything? Papa did it too whenever Mama didn't want to."

"What a good guy," Aang smiled.

Tsuie's smile flickered off and she nodded.

They recognized that look. Especially Sokka, afterall his sister was the queen of that face. But what was he supposed to say? Something dumb like, "Are-" he coughs, "Are they okay?" Oh. He did it. Is that really the only thing he could think of?

"Huh? Of course!" Then she paused, "I'd hope so anyway."

The other airbend tilted his head, "What do you mean by that?"

She tapped her chin a couple times, her best emulation of Iroh stroking his beard, "I haven't seen them in a while."

That's odd. Out of the two siblings, her situation was more like Sokka's.

"Speaking of your parents, you mentioned being Air Nation," Aang changed the topic, "How exactly does that work?" Any glimmer of hope that someone- anyone survived the Nomad's Genocide would be enough.

Tsuie lifted her finger up to her lips to hide her awkward smile and avoided looking at him, "Uhm... that was... kind of a lie?"

His heart broke.

"A lie?" Katara stopped sewing.

"Once again," Sokka waved his hand around in a circle, but started huffing a cough, so placed his fist over his mouth, "Please, ahem, explain."

"Well, you see, there wasn't anyone at the temple for me to be part of the nomads or anything. But I'm an airbender so I kind of assumed." She bowed a little, "Sorry for lying and if I offended you."

Aang waved his hand dismissively, "No, no. It's nice just knowing that there's at least another airbender around."

Katara pointed out, "Did you say temple ealier?" 

"Oh yeah. She did, didn't she?" Her brother agreed.

"Did you live at one of the Air Temples?!" Aang cheered like a puppy.

She nodded, "The Western one. You were raised in one too, right Avatar?"

"Please just call me Aang. And yeah, the Southern Air Temple."

Her eyes were glowing, "Seriously?! There was this one area I would have loved to dance in! Plus the air was so great!"

"Western Air Temple huh? Is the giant Pai Sho table still there?"

"Mhm!" she aggressively shook her head up and down, "Papa and I played every week!"

"Giant Pai Sho table? Must've been some big wins," Sokka joked and warily hit his chest, coughing a bit more.

Katara groaned, leaving the airbenders giggling.

xxXxx

Tsuie leaned over the edge of the saddle, watching the land pass below them. It might have been a few weeks or so since she joined them--who knows? is anyone good with keeping the time?-- but just being with them was... a little... not something she was used to.

Aang was a lot like her. Super kind, vegetarian, optimist, an animal person, and not to mention an airbender. He just kind of understood her. It wouldn't be out of the question for them to say the same things. It was nice knowing what the air nomads were like before, any that those beautiful temples weren't just for show.

Sokka was funny. Katara doesn't seem to like his jokes and from what she can tell, Aang is indifferent. He usually laughs after Tsuie does. He also tries to seem like an alpha male, similar to Princey but very very different. He and Katara bicker but it seems harmless after she got used to it. He might be getting sick from the storm.

Katara. What was she supposed to say? That she reminded her so much of her mother that it's starting to hurt more than it should. It made her long to see the temple and her parents again. Don't get her wrong, Katara would fix her things and help braid her hair every once and awhile, but she definitely didn't trust Tsu-Lyn. Her body language and actions were an easy tell. She shifted her legs to anywhere but Tsu-Lyn, didn't talk to her unless the conversation was shifted to her, if they were to pair up she'd rather be with her brother or the Avatar, declined dancing with her (so did Sokka and Aang).

It really hurt.

Honestly though, Tsuie understood why she was untrustful. From the way they talked about the Fire Nation, Sokka and Katara lost someone because of them. Having to deal with traveling with someone who was with the Prince of the Fire Nation and who was trying to hunt the person that might be able to stop the war? Doesn't sound too pleasant.

Even so, Sokka did better hiding his distaste for Tsu. To her it was still as transparent as her cape. Or he just didn't know how to talk to her. That would be a safe bet too.

Still, Katara not liking her really stung, since she was so similar to her mother. If anything, Tsu-Lyn wanted Katara to like her more than she did with the boys.

"You good, Tsuie?" Aang asked, poking her in the back.

"Kind of stiff actually."

He looked back to the siblings, "Should we land and take a break?"

"Shouldn't we fly a little more?"

"Heh heh, that cloud looks like Momo..." Sokka started coughing again.

"On second thought," Katara looked over, "Let's land for the day."

xxXxx

1058 words

5:20 am i need to sleep some time in my life