EIGHT | OUR GRIEVING LUNGS.
( the southern air temple, part two )

❝ and i should know by now
it's better if i calm down,

it's better if i lash out,
instead of holding on. ❞

SOKKA SCREAMING WAS an oddly normal thing to hear in the dawn of early morning.

"AHH! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!"

Crystal snapped to attention from her place on Appa's saddle. Aang and Katara were snickering to each other. Peering down, she saw Sokka jumping around and screeching in his own sleeping bag. He fell forward, and the kids burst into laughter.

"Huh?" Crystal yawned. Sure, she'd woken up when Aang told them they were leaving for the Air Temple, but that didn't mean she was awake awake. She still had a good hour of discombobulation left. And because of that, she had sealed herself in a very grumpy mood for the rest of the day.

Sinking into the crook of Appa's saddle, she crossed her arms. "Oh, Appa," she murmured. Her hand dangled over the edge of his saddle, and she patted his thick fur. "Why must we leave so early all the time?"

Appa grumbled in response.

Sokka flopped onto the saddle next to her with a groan. "So. . . tired. . ." He mumbled. He reached for her so he could sleep in her lap, but Crystal pushed him away.

His eyes opened, and he flashed her a look of confusion. She wrapped her arms around her knees and swallowed. Yesterday she'd been eager to crawl into his arms to nap, but today she was back to bitterness. She still couldn't shake that fight they had earlier and felt horrible because of it. It felt like she was cheating him out of something because of what she promised him earlier—that she wasn't mad. But this morning, her gut was constantly writhing with the words he lashed the last time she'd been home.

Guess I didn't know any better.

Sokka furrowed his brows at her. She didn't usually push him away like that. "Get your own place, loser," she quipped to lighten the mood, forcing a smile.

He frowned. "You're my place."

"Not today," she drawled, curling in on herself and letting her head loll back. She caught a glimpse of his face as he scooted away. It was crestfallen—maybe a little longing.

"Aang, how long is it gonna take us to get there?" She asked the boy at the helm, trying to distract herself.

"Not long, if you're an airbender. Which I am!" He chirped, bright as ever. "I can't wait to see it again!"

The churn in Crystal's gut sharpened. He had been so eager to visit his old home when he woke her this morning, and she didn't have the heart to tell him that it was probably in shambles. She would tell him, of course—she had to. Even though it would kill them both just a little bit inside.

But she could let him dream a few hours more. That was the least she could give.

They flew for a while. Although she felt exhausted both emotionally and physically, the view sure was lovely. Even though it was mostly clouds and the occasional peek of water below, it was refreshing. (And the nook of the saddle was the perfect place to sleep inconspicuously.)

Sokka woke up too after a while, mainly to keep an eye on Katara and Aang who were perched on Appa's head. He was shifting between two moods—tired and hungry. "Hey! Who ate all my blubbered seal jerky?!" He asked, after rummaging through his bag and coming up dry.

"Don't look at me!" Crystal told Sokka, who was currently looking at her.

"Oh, that was food?" Aang piped nervously. "I used it to start the campfire last night. Sorry."

"You what?!" Sokka groaned. "Aww, no wonder the flames smelled so good."

They swept past mountains and cliffs, and Aang said that meant they were close. The air was getting thinner the further they soared. Crystal could feel herself getting hungry, too.

"Stupid seal jerky," she grumbled, snatching Sokka's bag and looking through it.

"There's nothing in there, I checked," Sokka said, yanking the bag away from her. They both stiffened.

"You're gonna forget all about your stomachs in a second," Aang said, tugging Appa's reins and soaring them higher. The silhouette of a large structure began to emerge from the mist. When they got closer, a spiralling sanctuary was revealed to them in all its glory.

"There it is," Aang breathed. "The Southern Air Temple."

And what a temple it was. Winding paths intertwined towers and balconies together. The tip of the highest spire was practically lost to the fog above them. Crystal had never seen anything like it. It stole breath straight from her lungs, and her hunger didn't seem all that pressing anymore.

"Aang, it's amazing!" Katara said.

"So cool," Crystal agreed.

Aang smiled at their enthusiasm. He looked down at Appa, whimsy flowering on his face. "We're home, buddy. We're home."

Crystal wished his hope didn't leave such a sour taste in her mouth.

—☯︎︎—

"SO WHERE DO I get something to eat?" Sokka asked as he trudged alongside Crystal and his sister up one of the twisty paths of the temple. Aang was skipping in front of them, colourful clothes gleaming against his desolate surroundings. She was right—there was nobody here.

"You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever visit an airbender temple, and all you can think about is food?" Katara groused.

"I'm just a simple guy, with simple needs."

Crystal tried not to pay attention to them. The conversation was making her hungry. She jogged up to Aang, who had stopped on the edge of a cliff. "So that's where my friends and I would play airball! And over there is where the bison would sleep!" He explained, enthusiastically pointing to different places in front of them. "And. . ." He trailed off.

"What's wrong?" Katara asked.

Aang let out a heavy sigh. "This place used to be full of monks and lemurs and bison. Now there's just a bunch of weeds." Crystal saw his shoulders slump, his head hung low. "I can't believe how much things have changed."

Crystal exchanged sympathetic glances with Katara and Sokka. Aang was usually so cheery, so seeing him in a moment of despair didn't feel right. "So uh, this airball game, how do you play?" Sokka asked to break the silence.

Aang's face lit up at the question, and Crystal was unwillingly proud of Sokka because of it. Soon enough the two boys were playing a game of airball—well, Aang was playing. Sokka couldn't do much since to play you needed, you know, airbending.

After the fifth time Aang knocked him off the playing field, Sokka groaned, "Making him feel better is putting me in a world of hurt."

Crystal and Katara spared him a glance. "I dunno, I think you were doing pretty okay—what are you doing?" Crystal cut herself off when Sokka's face changed. His eyes set on something in front of him. His face darkened, and he crawled forward.

"Guys, check this out." There was a shake in his voice as he moved so they could see.

It was a helmet. It was in deep shades of red, with a horned emblem, and a sooty skull-shaped mask. There was only one type of soldier who wore that armour.

"Oh no," Crystal muttered. "The Fire Nation was here."

"We should tell him," Sokka said intently.

Katara gulped, eyes shifting from her brother to the helmet. "Aang? There's something you need to see."

The boy raced towards them, bouncing the airball between the currents of his hands. "Okay!" He grinned.

Katara took one look at his lively face, and Crystal knew she wouldn't be able to go through with it. With a flick of her hands Katara took the snow from the snowbank on top of them and swept it down, covering the helmet (and Sokka, too). Katara would protect her friend a little longer. Just like she always did.

"What is it?" Aang asked, finally reaching them. He looked at the two girls, and Sokka's head sticking out through the snow. Crystal hoisted him up, wiping the tufts of snow off his shirt. Usually she'd be smiling fondly, but now her lips were pressed into a thin line. She avoided eye contact with him. Sokka stared at her, waiting for her to drop the lie that she was only doing this out of obligation, out of routine.

She didn't.

"Uh. . . just another waterbending move I learned!" Katara fumbled, hands clasped behind her back.

"Nice one, but enough practicing. We have a whole temple to see!" Aang said enthusiastically as he bounded away.

"You know, you can't protect him forever," Sokka said to his sister once Aang was out of earshot.

"He deserves to know, Katara," Crystal agreed, cleaning the last bit of snow from Sokka's hair. She barely noticed she'd done it. His gaze on her softened.

"I know," Katara sighed. "But not yet."

They walked through the temple a little longer. Crystal was amazed by how beautiful it was. No wonder Aang missed it so much.

"Katara, firebenders were here," Sokka kept saying. "You can't pretend they weren't."

"I can for Aang's sake. If he finds out the Fire Nation invaded his home, he'd be devastated!"

Crystal took a peek at the boy in front of them. He was inspecting every part of the temple top to bottom, getting more and more giddy when he found things that hadn't changed while he'd been gone. "Don't you think he'd me more devastated if he found out some other way?" She pointed out.

"Hey, guys! I want you to meet somebody!"

Aang had stopped in front of an old stone statue. It was of a lean, stoic man, sitting in a meditative position. "Who's that?" Sokka asked.

"Monk Gyatso, the greatest airbender in the world. He taught me everything I know," Aang said. He bowed down to the statue for a moment. He was still, as though he'd left his body and travelled somewhere else.

Katara came up and put a gentle hand on Aang's shoulder, pulling him out of his stupor. "You must miss him," she crooned.

"Yeah," he sighed. He left Katara's arm and made his way up the steps behind the statue.

"Where are you going?" Crystal asked.

"The air temple sanctuary. There's someone I'm ready to meet."

Katara looked back, and Sokka gave her a shrug. Crystal furrowed her brows. "Is he. . . okay?" She whispered.

"My guess is no, but what's the harm in entertaining him a little longer before we shatter his world into a million tiny pieces?" Sokka replied, following his friends.

Crystal let out a breath, watching it fog up in front of her. "Good point."

"But Aang, no one could've survived in there for a hundred years," Katara remarked as they walked deeper into the temple.

"It's not impossible," Aang said, "I survived in an iceberg for that long!"

Katara sighed. "That's true."

"Whoever's in there might help me figure out this Avatar thing!" Aang suggested. Crystal felt that hope littering his voice again. Her gullet soured with guilt.

"And whoever's in there might have a medley of delicious, cured meats!" Sokka rubbed his hands together, practically drooling at the thought of it. Driven by hunger, he sprinted towards the door to kick it down.

He smacked into it and crumpled to the floor.

Huffing, he pushed and tugged at the door, but it didn't open. Eventually he slumped over. "I don't suppose you have a key?" He asked, looking to Aang.

Aang smiled knowingly. "The key, Sokka, is airbending."

He drew a breath and pushed his hands forward. Crystal felt a whip of wind zoom past her and head straight for the door, passing through the elaborate maze of tubes sealing it shut. Locks clicked into place and before she knew it, the door was creaking open.

"Don't get your hopes up, Aang," Crystal said, watching the faint outlines of old figures reveal itself the more the doors spread. What was this place?

"Hello? Anyone home?" Aang called into the dark. When nothing called back, he glanced at his friends. They shuffled forward, willing to follow him wherever he chose to go.

Crystal coughed a bit as she entered. It smelled of dust and eroding stone. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw why.

A plethora of statues spiralled through the cavern. They were all finely detailed, preened with chiseled faces and robes, all intact even after the time they'd been sealed here. Each statue was different. There were so many that when Crystal looked up, she could see dozens more of them on ledges above them.

"Statues? That's it? Where's the meat?"

They walked through the sculpture forest, wide-eyed. Every one looked so distinct, yet so familiar. Crystal looked at one with an arrow on his head, like Aang, except he was older, with a hanging moustache and thick brows. "Who are these guys?" She asked. Who would need to preserve a billion well-made statues of random people? Wasn't that a little . . . much?

"I'm not sure," Aang said beside her. He was scrutinizing the sculpture just as she had. "But it feels like I know them somehow. Look! This one's an airbender!"

Katara looked at the one next to Aang. "And this one's a Waterbender! They're lined up in a pattern!"

Upon closer inspection, Crystal realized she was right. The one next to the airbender was undeniably Water-Tribe, with wolfskin fur and a parka similar to the one she was wearing—if a little dated.

"Air, water, earth, and fire!" Katara remarked, pointing to each statue in time.

"That's the Avatar cycle," Aang said.

"Oh, of course!" Crystal said, "These are Avatars! All these people are Aang's past lives!"

Aang's eyes grew ten sizes. "Wow. There are so many!"

As Aang wandered off through his sea of former bodies, Sokka approached them with a snort. "Past lives? You guys really believe in that stuff?"

"It's true. When the Avatar dies, he's reincarnated into the next nation in the cycle," Katara explained.

"That is so awesome," Crystal muttered to herself. Some of these statues looked pretty good. Aang was lucky.

Katara tugged on Crystal's sleeve. She pointed to their reincarnated friend, who was staring intently at one of the statues. Lost in something.

Crystal cocked a brow. "He does know he can't win a staring contest with one of those things, right?"

Katara went over to shake Aang's shoulders. He blinked a couple times, shaking himself out. There was a peculiar look on his face once he stared at the statue again. "Huh?"

Crystal walked over to see the fuss, fist-bumping a sculpture on her way over. It did not fist-bump back. "Who's that?" She asked, a skeptical Sokka trailing behind her.

Aang furrowed his brows. "That's Avatar Roku, the Avatar before me."

"You were a firebender? No wonder I didn't trust you when we first met!" Sokka stated condescendingly.

Crystal shifted uncomfortably. Right. Stuff like that made her mad at him.

"There's no writing. How do you know his name?" Katara asked, scouring the statue for clues.

"I'm not sure. I just . . . know it somehow."

Sokka growled. "You just couldn't get any weirder."

The sound of scuffling approached from behind.

Crystal whipped around, clutching her club. Katara clung to her arm. "Behind the statues!" Crystal whispered, yanking at her friends. "Go!"

Just as they glimpsed a long, dark shadow, Katara and Aang ducked behind a statue and Sokka and Crystal took the other, but she realized she was stuck with him too late. Both of them wielded clubs.

"Why do you always take my club? Don't you have your own stuff?" Crystal frowned.

"Not the time!" Sokka snapped. "Also I like the way it feels in my hand, okay? It's very useful!"

He peeked out from behind their hiding spot, and ducked back in. "Firebender. Nobody make a sound."

"You're making a sound—"

"Shh!"

They waited a moment. Sokka and Crystal huddled closer together to shield themselves. He could probably hear her heart bludgeoning against his side. They exchanged glances, trying to map this out. And for a second, she wanted to stay here forever.

"That firebender won't know what hit him," he whispered as he tore his eyes away, readying his club.

"Or her," Crystal whispered. Sokka rolled his eyes.

Sokka leapt from behind the statue, ready to face their enemy . . . and stopped. He blinked at their attacker.

Once the other three saw his confusion, they poked their heads out as well. And they saw why he hesitated.

It was no firebender coming to attack them. Instead it was a small, floppy-eared animal, with massive green eyes. It sat down in front of them, completely senile.

"Lemur!" Aang grinned.

"Dinner," Sokka salivated.

The lemur stared at them, twitching its ears.

"Don't listen to him. You're gonna be my new pet!" Aang said.

Sokka looked like he was about to strangle that animal. "Not if I get him first!"

The two boys scrambled behind their statues, running for the lemur at breakneck speed. It sprinted away. The chase was on.

"Wait, come back!"

"I wanna eat you!"

Crystal and Katara watched their bumbling friends speed out of the cavern. "Boys," They groaned.

The girls passed their time by ambling through sculptures, cracking jokes or inspecting bits of the room.

"Crystal, don't touch them!" Katara badgered as Crystal touched the blunted tip of an Avatar's stone sword. He had a funny hat on, too.

"Why not?"

"Because they're relics!"

"They're dead. I can fight a dead statue."

Katara rolled her eyes playfully, grumbling at her friend. Lovely, lovely Katara. So worried about people even if they were made out of granite.

The younger girl had linked her arm under Crystal's and held tight. "I'd like a statue," Crystal said absently as they wove between monoliths.

"Guess you should've been an Avatar," Katara joked.

"No, it would be way bigger than these ones. Huge. And I'd be doing something cool. Like . . . clubbing a bad guy or something."

Katara smiled smugly. "Not making eyes at my brother over a bowl of soup?"

Crystal whacked the top of Katara's head. "Ow!"

"Watch your mouth, kid," she warned, cheeks warming.

"I'm a year younger than you," Katara prattled back. "But . . . are you guys okay? Sokka told me about the fight you guys had. He feels horrible."

Crystal's jaw tensed again. She hated that memory. "I . . . I know. We're fine, yeah."

"You sure?"

Katara's gentle eyes drew something out of her. Screw you, Katara, for being so perfect. "I think I just need space, or something. Or for him to apologize and mean it. Or for him to stop ignoring the parts of me he doesn't like."

"What parts?" Katara asked.

"You know what parts."

Katara heaved a long sigh, resting her head against Crystal's shoulder. "I'm sorry," she murmured kindly.

"Don't worry about it. Worry more about all the statues whose eyes just lit up and are staring at us like we committed a crime."

Katara shot up like a rocket. "What?"

A thousand sculptures were glaring at them. Their eye-sockets overflowed with blue light, casting cerulean shadows on cavern walls.

"This is freaking me out!" Crystal blurted. "Why are they looking at us like that?"

Katara fell silent. Unease filtered through the air. Then a bang from outside.

"Aang!" She realized.

Crystal was pulled away from the room of statues, their fluorescent eyes blurring together as Katara yanked her away. She didn't know what was going on, but from the worry plastered on her friend's face she was sure it was nothing good.

They reached Sokka. He was at the bottom of the temple, taking cover behind a cluster of rocks surrounding an open space. A whirlwind raged at the centre of the clearing . . . and in the thick of it was Aang.

"What's happening?" Crystal yelled, braids whipping her in the face. She and Katara held onto each other as they pushed against the storm.

Sokka grappled them and tugged them forward the second they were in arms reach. They clung together, horrified by the cyclone ripping through the sky in front of them. "He found out firebenders killed Gyatso!" Sokka shouted. His voice was sparse beneath the gusts hollowing Crystal's bones.

"Oh no, it's his Avatar spirit! He must've triggered it!" Katara exclaimed. "I'm gonna try and calm him down!"

"Well do it, before he blows us off the mountain!" Sokka cried. His gloved hands started to slip off the rock he was holding onto. "Oh Spirits—Criss, help me!"

She grunted, struggling to keep a grip of her own. "Not much I can do for you, buddy!" She shot back. He clutched to her arm on instinct, gritting his teeth as he struggled to pull her to him. One of her hands reached the rock again and she lurched herself forward. Sokka tugged on her other wrist and although she didn't really want to be close to him right now, being trapped between him and a rock in the midst of a windstorm did more good than harm.

She swallowed thickly. His hands were clutching the rock on either side of her, so she was forced to press her back to the jaggedness of the stone to distance herself as much as possible from his body. "Sorry," Sokka said, a flush rising to his cheeks when he noticed how he'd cornered her.

A torrent of wind barraged them. Crystal clutched the collar of Sokka's parka and he lurched forward to keep them closest to the rock as they could.

"Are you still mad at me? Because I know you said you weren't before but I feel like you still are and I just want to—"

Crystal dug her forehead into his shoulder. "Our new friend is having an earth-shattering meltdown and you're thinking about that?"

"I wanna know!"

Crystal huffed, wincing. The cold was clawing at her neck. "Yes, I am, you idiot! Drop it!"

"But yesterday you said you weren't—"

"That was yesterday. Today is today. Drop it."

The wind was nothing compared to the harshness on her tongue. Sokka went stiff, words bobbing in his throat. "You're no fun when you're angry," he mumbled.

Her resolve faltered. "Sorry," she sighed. She wasn't sure if he heard it.

Katara's voice pierced through the commotion. She managed to clamber to a piece of debris closer to Aang's looming vortex, the tail of her braid lashing in and out of Crystal's limited eye-line. "Aang, I know you're upset. And I know how hard it is to lose the people you love! I went through the same thing when I lost my mom."

Sokka tensed, and suddenly Crystal's lungs were smothered in a weight that didn't come from the storm, but rather from him. She ducked beneath his arm, losing the blockade of his body and the rock as she braced to get to Katara. Wind bit at her, jaws tainted with anger.

No, not anger—grief.

As Crystal got to Katara's rock and cowered behind it for a moment, she realized the grief. Aang's grief. It struck her cold.

Her lungs, still smothered, were beginning to ache. Her lungs that still remembered what grieving felt like. Even after all this time.

"Monk Gyatso and the airbenders may be gone, but you still have a family. Sokka and Crystal and I, we're your family now!"

Her eyes stung. She tried to say something, to add onto Katara's sentiment or at least take it in, but her throat was coated with frost so thick that words caught before they'd even been assembled. Her body felt cold. The unusual flick of warmth in her stomach or hands had quelled.

Katara's words seemed to have the opposite effect on Aang. His whirlwind weakened, and his stiff body began to release itself from the sky and lower back down to the floor. The pads of his feet touched the ground, and the cyclone around them stilled.

Katara and Sokka approached Aang. Crystal couldn't follow. Her fingers kneaded together, shivering all the way to her elbows. She watched a leaf fall to the ground, crisp as a teeming fire, before being squashed by Sokka's boot. Her eyes weren't distorted by her own lashes anymore but with tears. She blinked.

The next breath she took seemed to rattle her ribs from top to bottom. It hurt, almost. She had to give her limbs a good shaking before making her way to her friends.

"Katara and I aren't gonna let anything happen to you," Sokka said as she finally reached them. "Promise."

"Yeah, Aang. We got your back," she added breathily, pressing her palms together to ward away whatever weird feeling her body had taken in.

Katara took Aang's hand. His arrow tattoo gleamed blue a second longer, before fading back into him as he slumped over. Crystal caught him in a hurry. He sighed, eyes drooping, so she sunk him down to the floor. Katara and Sokka crowded around them.

"I'm sorry," Aang murmured.

"It's okay," Crystal said, and she meant it. He looked so weak. So exhausted. Maybe all that time in the iceberg hadn't been a place for rest, but a place for worry. For pushing back the inevitable pain.

Katara put a protective hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. You're alright now."

Aang shook his head, tilting his face to the warmth of Crystal's parka. "But you were right. And if firebenders found this temple, that means they found the other ones, too." His eyes closed and opened, weighed with a fatigue they understood far too well. "I really am the last airbender."

Crystal hugged him tighter, the burning in her lungs returning, and Katara wrapped her arms around them both. Sokka put his hand on Aang's shoulder. They stayed there, letting their sorrow bind together in solemn chains.

Eventually, though, they had to pack up.

Sokka, Crystal and Katara tied string around sleeping bags, checked all their sacks, and gave Appa a big hug on the nose. (Crystal took care of that one.)

As they all sat scattered around the hall of statues one last time, Crystal felt him staring at her. She picked at her nails to feign nonchalance.

"You okay?" Sokka asked from a distance, arms around his empty stomach.

She stared down at her ghostly hands, still quivering with something unknown. Her back was hunched against one of the sculptures. "Yep," she lied, popping the 'p.'

He nodded. "Alright." And he left it at that.

The lemur from before skittered into view. Its emerald eyes ticked, ears twitching, as it scampered towards Sokka. An assortment of nuts and berries were dumped from the lemur's arms.

Sokka's face lit up. "Oh, thank Spirits!" He plopped to the floor and crammed as much as he could into his mouth at once. Crystal couldn't help but smile at him. Wasn't her fault he was cute.

The lemur turned to her, rolling a couple extra berries her way like it was charity. "Thanks," she chuckled. It did make her feel better—although she couldn't believe she'd been pitied by a lemur.

"Looks like you made a new friend, Sokka," Aang laughed. He was in a much better mood already. It was impressive. Crystal didn't know how he could recover himself that quickly after what he knew now.

"Can't talk. Must eat."

And eat he did. He ate all the way down to the edge of the temple, where Appa was waiting with impatient growls.

"Sorry we took so long, buddy," Crystal said as she settled herself on his saddle, hoisting up their supplies.

He swished his tail with a polite huff. That probably meant he forgave her.

"Crystal, Sokka, Katara . . . say hello to the newest member of our family!" Aang announced below. She peered down to see Aang approaching the other two. The lemur was perched on his arm.

"What are you gonna name him?" Katara asked.

The lemur started off Aang's arm and slithered around Sokka's neck, snatching the fruit he was eating mid-bite. Crystal snickered. She liked this lemur.

"Momo," Aang decided as his new friend returned to him. "His name is Momo."

After that, they were off.

Swathed in thick purple clouds, they were buried beneath the setting sun. Appa flew peacefully, tail parting the wisps of fluff that passed them by.

Crystal didn't know what had happened to her. She didn't know how to fix this. Sokka, her best friend in the entire world, was so resentful to her now. Yesterday she'd been able to push the things he said away. She pushed away the cruelty in his voice and existed with him like she always liked to. She told him she wasn't angry. But this morning clarity disrupted her and comfort fled, gnawing at her until every thought she had was how bad that fight went. Every thought multiplied, webbing together and suffocating the space behind her eyes like she had just woken up after centuries of sleep. She couldn't tell you why. She didn't know what suddenly shifted to make her best friend sound so hostile.

Guess I didn't know any better, he'd said.

It would take a while for that one to heal. That line had nestled itself in her brain-web and wouldn't come out until she fumigated it with smoke. Crystal thought that it might've been the worst thing anyone had ever said to her. Yet she still missed Sokka terribly. Even though he was only a few feet away from her.

She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. Her body felt horrible. Like it had forgotten how to contain human life. It was just a shell of flesh, all tensed up and heavy, void of spirit.

Sokka sat with Katara at the front of Appa's saddle. He was still cramming his mouth with food, babbling to his sister every so often. He'd distanced himself from her. Wasn't that what she wanted? Didn't she want space?

Her skin itched at the thought of her alone, like she was now. Alone in violet clouds, on a cold saddle, ridden with things she could and couldn't remember. She thought of taking back what she said earlier. That she really wasn't mad at Sokka, and that she forgave him, and that everything was fine so they could be normal again.

That probably wouldn't be fair to either of them. The way he acted had been eating her alive since they were kids, only festering as time went on. She had to stop it before it swallowed her whole.

When he learned some damn respect, then she'd forgive him. When he stopped tearing down firebenders in front of her like he chose to forget where she came from.

She looked to the back of the saddle. Aang was there, all alone like her, his head plopped over his arms as he stared at his only home vanishing in the fog. Poor kid.

Crystal crawled over to him. He looked up at her, shifting slightly when he noticed she wanted to stay. She gave him a smile.

They stared at the spires of the Southern Air Temple grow further away. The air was dense, but not heavy.

"You'll be okay, you know."

Aang flinched a bit, looking at Crystal again. There was a soft, albeit grave smile pulling at her lips. "You're gonna be fine."

His big, grey eyes flickered. The corners of his mouth quavered. "Thank you," he said quietly. He knew what she was talking about.

He tucked himself underneath her arm as tufts of cloud gave the Air Temple back to the mysteries of the sky. Crystal settled in the cold breeze. Her hands were warm again. Their lungs heaved together, united in hope and in grief.

____________________________
A/N. . .

i would like it to be known that i am so dedicated to these authors notes that when wattpad didn't let me put these memes i made into the chapter directly from my phone, i sent them to my computer, downloaded them, and put them in that way. it was worth it

anyway LAST SETUP CHAPTER CHECK?? EVERYTHING IS IN PLACE NOW CHECK?? THIS CHAPTER WAS SHORTER THAN THE LAST ONE CHECK?? kasumi and pearl are together, crystal and sokka are fighting, and i am well on my way to losing my mind as everything in book one unravels because it is SO GOOD

i honestly don't know what this chapter turned into and i didn't edit it as much as i liked, but i am pretty proud of that last part i think?? i've been dealing with a lot of fatigue these past few months and it's taken a toll on me, so if you're wondering why updates are a little slower, less edited, and i'm less interactive, that's why :( i'm trying my best to update consistently but things are really starting to get to me—writing for this book always makes me feel better though you guys are literally the best ever i think!! cheers me up every time!! i am so grateful!!

and if you need an incentive to stick around till next chapter/episode, guess which gfs meets for the first time 👀👀👀 any guesses 👀👀 am i talking about pearltara or crysuki or both 👀👀 also MAYBE we're getting a sokka pov next chapter if it works out >:) we'll see!

—perrie :]