"This is it, the official rendezvous point for the invasion force."  

Asha slipped off Gumi with a dull ease. The gang had made her feel better with the whole 'Hama incident', but the fact that the power was still within her (even if it was just once a month) was enough to shake her.  Zulu gave her hand a gentle nudge as her hand slid down Gumi's scales, a smile falling upon the brunette's face. 

"How did you pick this place?"  Raiko walks next to Toph as he speaks, the girl leaning back onto him. 

"Before we split up, my dad and I found this island on a map. It's uninhabited, and the harbor surrounded by cliffs seemed like the perfect secluded place." Sokka explains, looking to the cliff side. 

"Nice choice Sokka. And we're here four days ahead of schedule." Katara stretches her arms behind her back as she smiles. 

All Asha can think is 'We could've saved that village without the bitching?'. Aang gives her an unimpressed look at the thought before something clicks in his head.

"Wait, four days?! The invasion's in four days?!" Aang screeches, horrified at the revelation. His nerves fry, just like that, and Asha can already tell this is going to be a long four days. Maybe she just needs a nap.

"Whatever. That's like...four days from now. Let's just calm down, and..." Sokka doesn't even finish his sentence, laying on his bed mat and falling asleep. 

"Sokka's got the right idea you two. We're here, we're ready. The best thing we can do now is get plenty of rest." Katara follows her brother, laying on her mat and sending a kind smile to the air benders.  Said air benders just stand in worry, watching as everyone lays for their well-deserved rest. 

"Uh...I guess." Aang walks over to Asha, offering her a hand. The two eventually find themselves knotted within each others limbs, the cold ground welcoming them as they fall into dream land. 

___

Asha is shaken into the waking world by Aang jumping up in a seemingly hurried panic. He pulls from her slightly, patting around his legs only to look over to Asha and reach a cold palm to her cheek.  He lets out a sigh of relief, standing and walking from the girl as she tries to blink herself awake.

"Aang?" He turns his head with a hum of recognition, but doesn't stop walking. "Are you okay?"

"It was just a dream. I still have my pants." He cracks a smile, but continues walking to an old bush.  Asha seems to miss the humor in it. "Doesn't matter. I have to keep training."   His foot quickly hits the bush, getting caught between two branches as it does; Aang loosing his balance as he tries to pull it back. He's caught with a warm embrace, Asha smiling down at him. 

"I'll help before you knock your last braincells loose."

___

Raiko had woken up not too long after Aang and Asha, dragging the girl away for some early morning training, leaving the poor avatar behind. It's as the two get back, the rest of the gang start to awake, Asha leaning her hands on her knees (catching her breath) as Raiko walks over to Toph, nuzzling her head as she sits up.  

"You know there is such a thing as over-training?" The brunette perks up at Katara's voice, slowly making her way back over to Aang, who lets out a full body shudder with a final punch to a tree. 

Her knuckles ache dully at the action making her flick her wrist.

"You don't get it, do you?" Aang has dark bags under his eyes (something Asha missed in the dark) and holds his hands out as he circles Asha and Katara. "My form is bad. I'm sloppy. And I still don't know any fire bending, not even the basics." He snorts, Asha absentmindedly scratching at the arrows on her neck.

"That's okay Aang. The eclipse will block all fire bending anyway, you don't need to know any. Plus it's a stupid element." Sokka offers, only semi-looking up from his map. 

"Watch it." Asha snorts out, pulling Aang's hands down. The boy only shakes her off, continue his series of comic and sloppy attempts at chops and whatever else.

"Well, I still have to work on everything else. I'd better spend the whole day training."

"Please don't, my hand already hurts."

___

Night falls quickly once again, most of the gang falling surrender to the sweet lullaby of  nature's call, once that would lure the most vicious creatures to a serenity.

Asha's serenity is disrupted by the very one that stole her heart, Aang once more shooting up in a blind panic; screeching about a math test or something, Asha wasn't overly sure. She was sure, however, that she eventually would have to drag Aang back to bed, so she begrudgingly got up-- groaning--  before walking over to him as he circled sleeping koala-sheep.

"Aang, my love, it's the middle of the night. You need to go back to sleep." She hums lightly, wrapping an arm around Aang's shoulder and nuzzling into the nook of his neck. He visibly relaxes, his arms hanging loosely on her hips. 

"But-" 

"But nothing. Please, go to sleep. For me?" Her soft smile and doe eyes are what gets to him. There's a reason she was his Onsra. She could get to him like no other girl could, she understood him, she loved him. 

He loved her.

You know what, spending a few hours asleep in her arms didn't sound like a bad idea at all.

___

Once more, Asha is thrown awake, this time a peice of paper being rattled in her face. She was getting really tired of this.

"Ash, I need you to do this test. In one of my dreams, we were fighting the fire lord and I lost you because you couldn't complete it." Aang looks into her tired crystals, the girl blinking slowly before sitting up slowly. She doesn't bother fussing, only taking the sheet and pencil offered and reading the questions. 

Name? What kind of question is that? Asha's blurry thought forces her to furrow a brow, squinting her eyes in an attempt to read the question and try to understand it.

" It's like every time I think about how stressed I am,  I just end up more stressed.  I'm like a big, growing snowball of nerves." Aang plops beside Asha as she scribbles notes for herself, simple formulas and such to keep track off (in actuality they were bullshit expressions where she replaced random numbers with even more random letters).

"Of course you are. That's 'cause you and princess have got to fight the fire lord and his queen. The meanest, baddest people on the planet. Even worse, you guys have to win or we're all done for." Raiko gives a small smile, not noticing Aang's nor Asha's horrified faces.

"You're not helping!" Katara hisses, elbowing Raiko. 

"It's true! They know it." 

Aang chitters next to Asha with fear, the girl momentarily stopping the stupid test before her to rub Aang's back. 

"You know what? I've got just the thing. Get ready to be "de-stress-i-fied". " Katara pulls Aang off, leaving Asha to finish the damned test. 

Stupid math. 

___

The test currently laid in shredded heaps below Zulu, the raptor claiming it her own bed. Asha gave the good ol' go at it, got stuck on question two (The date wasn't a question but whatever), and gave up. Like she should've done at question one (Her name wasn't a question either). The next time Aang wanted her to do a math test, she--Well, she'd probably do it anyway because...love or something... BUT she wouldn't be happy about it.

 Aang was currently stumbling in front of Asha and Raiko (the two passing an orb of water between them).   The two only looking up as he begins mumbling, stopping in his tracks and mumbling about his forever girl.  

"I'm pretty sure this is a you problem, princess." Raiko smirks, settling the water into his canteen.  Asha sends him a glare but nonetheless walks over to Aang.  With a gentle tap to his shoulder, Aang shakes his head, looking to Asha before looking to his arms then back to her. 

"You good?"  Aang shakes his head again, this time draping his arms around Asha's shoulders and pulling her close; the girl only offers an awkward but genuine smile. 

"Have I told you lately that your my forever girl?" He nearly slurs, but smiles brightly.  

"Not lately, love." Asha smirks, shaking Aang's chin with two fingers before pushing him off.

___

"Oh, look, another hallucination. An imaginary bed, made out of clouds." Aang eyeballs the bed of fluff as he pokes and prods at it, eyeballing it with a weary eye. After a recent hallucination, the rest of the gang had gotten together and came up with a plan-- even if some people were less willing to cooperate than others.

"Hey! It's real! We spent hours working on it!" Toph cries, her arms folded. 

"We made it for you. A good night sleep will probably to take the crazy away... we hope."  Sokka offers next, watching as Aang hops off the bed and approaches them, Asha not in his sight. He could feel the smallest bits of anger lingering from her, but nothing more seemed to come from her-- making him feel a little better.

"Look, you guys keep telling me I need to sleep, but I can't, the invasion's tomorrow-" 

"Aang..." Katara cuts in, but Aang cuts her off. 

"No, Katara, there's still so much I haven't learned. I don't need sleep. What I need is practice. Quick, hit me." Aang raises his hands feebly. 

"I'm not going to hit you." Katara groans, making a subtle motion behind her to the hidden blond, who nods with a thumbs up. 

"You want me to do it?" Toph nearly bounces with eagerness. 

"Listen to me, you've been training for this since the day we've met. I've seen your progress. You're smart, brave, and for sure strong enough." Katara places her hands on Aang's shoulder watching as Raiko drags out an unhappy Asha.

"You really think so?" 

"We all do. You can do this. You're ready."  Sokka holds his arms open, reassuring Aang with a smile.

"If we didn't, we wouldn't have put in the  effort to drag your girlfriend into some koala-sheep wool." Raiko smirks as he pushes Asha into Aang, the girl stumbling. Looking down, Aang gazes at the wool the decorates her. A long sleeve on top and shorts with knee high socks on the bottom, the perfect cuddle buddy. 

"You know what? I think I'm ready."

___

Aang breaks through the same dream door he has become fairly acquainted with. There, he's met with a giant fire lord, who stands in the fire pit before him. 

"Your days of tyranny are over, Fire Lord!" Aang stands proud, hands on his hips and chin pointed upwards.

"Really?  You're going to take me out? You're not even wearing pants." The Fire lord smiles menacingly. 

"No, Fire Lord Ozai." Aang looks over, a dream version of Asha standing beside him, just as proud.  "You're not wearing any pants."

"My Royal parts are showing!" Ozai screams in surprise, covering himself with a fluffy cloud like object from nearby.

Asha laughing victoriously as Aang stares at her, lovesick and hopeless, a soft smile playing his lips all the while.