the wind in my sails | aang x oc

two

it's been a total of two months since liara woke up in that cave and came to the western air temple.

in that time, she had cleaned up the temple a little bit. so now she liked to meditate by the fountain at midday while diki took her nap.

while deep in her meditative state, she spoke with yao the wise, the bafoo-... baboon that took her to the spirit world in the first place.

"so aang lead an invasion today in the fire nation capitol?" liara asked the baboon, who nodded. "yes, but they failed, so they are all on their way to the western air temple, where you are now."

liara nodded with a sigh, "wouldn't appa get tired with all of those people on his back? should I go help them? how far are they out?"

yao stopped her, "go help them, young master," he said, "I bet that the avatar would be glad to see his long lost friend. they are around two hours of flight south from you. good luck."

liara nodded and smiled at the baboon before he touched her forehead and sent her back to the normal world.

liara got out of her meditative position and jumped onto diki. "wake up, girl!" she yelped, "we gotta go help aang!"

the bison groaned in dismay, shaking liara off of her head and onto the floor.

liara stood and placed her hands on her hips. "you'll get to see appa," she smirked at the large fluffy animal.

diki finally stoof and liara bended the saddle onto her back. making sure everything is secure, liara jumped onto her companion's head and took the reigns, "yip yip!" she said and diki took to the skies.

they flew southwards, just as yao told them they should.

after an hour and a half, liara and diki came across a large fluffy monster on the ground with around ten people with it.

liara's heart almost leapt from her chest when she guided diki down to land in front of the group of people.

liara smiled down at aang when she and diki landed. "need some help?" she asked him with a grin.

aang rubbed his eyes and leaned to sokka. "you see them too, right?" he asked, pointing to liara. "uh huh." sokka muttered with wide eyes.

liara jumped down from diki and stood in front of aang with a sheepish smile. "liara." he breathed, his eyes trailing up and down. her frame to make sure he's actually seeing her.

"hi, aang." she said to the boy. his face softened and he engulfed her in a tight hug. she could feel him shaking from surprise, but she hugged him just as tightly as he hugged her.

"how..? where..?" aang couldn't really fathom which one of the hundreds of questions he had to ask. he was so happy to see her after all this time. he had thought that she died with the rest of his people.

he took her face in both his hands as tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm so glad to see you," he said with a smile. liara engulfed him in another hug, but she then let go abruptly.

"let's get to the temple first, and then we can talk about this. I'll tell you everything you want to hear." she told the avatar.

"mind if I fly with you?"

"you know I don't."

teo, haru, toph, and katara were on appa while aang, liara, sokka, and the duke were all on diki. the two bison flew so closely pressed against each other that one could walk from one to the other, and the conversations could be shared between the two saddles.

"so, you're an airbender?" katara asked with folded arms, she had a very slight scowl on her face as she looked at liara who sat next to aang. she was somewhat suspicious of the thirteen-year-old, but she couldn't really put her finger on the reason why.

"sure am," the brown eyed girl told katara, who looked her up and down with scrutinising blue eyes.

"where were you all this time then? we're you just chilling at the air temple while we all have been fighting in this war? while all of our families were being killed?"

liara's face fell slightly, and she looked down, "I guess I have. sorry." a warm hand was placed on her back, she knew it was aang. he had always been the supportive friend. "no, no. its fine." katara said, in a. passive-aggressive tone.

diki and appa descended into the temple and landed near the fountain.

haru, the duke, and teo ran off to go explore the temple while katara called aang closer for a team avatar discussion. "we need to talk about you learning fire bending." katara told the boy.

liara laughed as he begrudgingly made his way to katara. she wanted to go sit next to him, but she was stopped by katara. "sorry, but this is sort of a team avatar discussion." she told the airbender, who only looked at her questioningly, "meaning it doesn't really include you since you're too new."

gripping her staff as a strange feeling bubbled in her chest, liara smiled at katara. "no problem, I wouldn't want to make anyone uncomfortable."

she then bowed at the waterbender and walked to her bison, and fed the large beast some watermelon.

when she glanced back, she saw a boy in fire nation attire standing before team avatar. using her glider to fly closer, she looked the boy over.

he was tall and built, but a nasty scar was over his left eye, making it look smaller than the right eye because of the tightened, leathery skin

"... and I can teach firebending to you." that was all liara heard and she looked at team avatar.

katara and sokka looked angry while aang looked conflicted and toph remained neutral. strange.

"no! go away!" katara yelled and waterbended water from the fountain at the scarred boy, almost sending him over the edge of the temple platform.

the boy got yo and walked away sadly and liara felt bad for him.

"why'd you send him away? doesn't aang have to learn firebending?" liara asked katara, who stood with her arms folded angrily. said waterbender gave liara a scowl. "why are you butting in?"

liara took a step back and her shoulders fell, "I'm just trying to understand." "well this doesn't concern you. it concerns aang."

liara gave katara a curt nod and padded away, in the direction of her room.

once she reached it, she sat down and meditated until she reached the spirit world.

"I just don't understand what her problem is! we just met and she's being irrationally rude to me. I haven't done anything!" liara told yao as she paced around in the leaf forest.

"liara," the baboon crossed his arms, "maybe she's hurting. I mean, she did lose her mother. be conciderate."

liara  took a deep breath and sat back down. "I'm sorry. I just.. I've treated with her with nothing but respect. it's frustrating." she told him.

yao looked up past liara, "somebody's trying to contact you in the living world, master liara." the girl nodded. "alright. I'll talk to you later, thank you spirit yao." she smiled at the baboon as she removed herself from the spirit world.

liara opened her eyes and turned around to look at the water tribe boy, sokka who was in her room. aang stood by the door.

it was almost dark, the sun sat at twilight and liara stood to face the two boys. "may I help you?" she asked them, looking calm. "I just want to apologise for katara. she's just.. like that these days." sokka told the airbender girl calmly.

liara nodded, "no, it's okay. we all get emotional sometimes." she said dismissively, taking some spark rocks from her drawer and lighting a candle in her room to add a bit of light.

"yeah..." sokka replied awkwardly and walked out of liara's room as she lit a few more candles.

aang walked inside and sat down on liara's bed. "so, tell me what happened. what did you do for these past hundred years?"

hundred?