CHAPTER FOURTEEN
( NOTHERN AIR TEMPLE )

FLO SAT ON THE stone bench with Aang and Katara on one side of her, and then Sokka on the other. While Momo sat with Aang, Sleemo curled up snuggly between Flo's and Sokka's legs for warmth, and made low growling sounds anytime either shifted too far away. Sokka had his cheek in the palm of his hand, bored, and Aang paid full attention to what the man in front of the crowd said. Katara sat politely straight, and Flo leaned back on her hands, both girls listening to the storyteller with interest.  Though Flo occasionally tore her gaze away from the old man and to the night sky above them. Clouds were littered here and there, obscuring the sight of the shining stars. It kind of made her disappointed, but she didn't show it as she looked back down.

As she did so, Flo buried the bottom half of her face into the fur lined parka – or amauti, as Katara called it – that the others forced her to wear. The further up North they got, the colder it became, and since Flo didn't have any warmer clothes, Katara practically forced her into the thick coat with Aang's help while Sokka laughed. Flo had to begrudgingly admit that it felt much better wearing it than not, especially at nighttime, and both Katara and Sokka wore smug smirks for the following half hour and Aang merely said, "We told you so," way too happily.

"...So travelers, the next time you hear a strange large bird talking, take a closer look – it might not be a giant parrot, but a flying man! A member of a secret group of air walkers who laugh at gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it!" The storyteller finished off the tale dramatically.

"Aren't airbender stories great?" Aang asked.

"Very," Flo commented with a nod of her head.

"Was it realistic? Was that how it was back then?" Katara asked, curious, and Flo suddenly remembered that Aang was frozen in ice for 100 years.

"I laugh at gravity all the time! Haha, gravity."

A hand holding a hat upside down was suddenly pushed into Sokka's face, the movement catching Flo's eye. She lifted her gaze up and found the storyteller standing there as he wiggled the hat. "Jingle, jingle!" He expectantly looked at Flo while Sokka searched for something to give him, only to come up empty handed save for a few pieces of lint and a bug. Flo shook her head to tell him that she didn't have any money either, only feeling slightly bad about it with how pushy he was being.

"Sorry," Sokka sheepishly told him.

The man lowered the hat and walked away. "Aw, cheapskates!" Aang stood and followed him while the others stayed on the bench.

Sokka leaned back to sit like Flo as he attempted to act casual. "So. I have a question," he said.

Katara groaned and Flo gave him a wary look. "...Okay," she said slowly.

"Why'd you ask me if I can read the other day?"

Flo kept her face carefully blank as she stared ahead at nothing. Both Sokka and Katara were now looking at her, and she felt herself tense up. "No reason," she lied evenly.

With the dryest look he could muster, Sokka said, "Yeah, I don't believe that."

She shrugged carelessly. "Yeah, well, too bad," she said and stood. "I'm going to Appa. See you there." Sleemo made a noise of complaint, and didn't hesitate to move to Sokka's lap.

He watched her leave with a suspicious gaze and, once she was out of sight, abruptly turned to his sister. "She's acting weird."

Katara smirked teasingly. "Maybe she's finally catching on to your crush."

"I am not that obvious!" Sokka exclaimed, voice cracking as it went up in pitch.

She merely raised an eyebrow. "You blush, like, eighty percent of the time when she so much as speaks to you if we're not in immediate danger, and you try to flirt with her whenever you can."

He tried to come up with something to retaliate with – for split second he was tempted to point out Aang wasn't any better about the blushing thing, but he didn't want to embarrass the kid in case Katara didn't know or didn't return the feelings – but all he was able to do, was open and close his mouth as he let out half formed words and sentences. He glared and pointed at Katara, who smirked proudly. "You're a menace," he finally got out.

"But you love me."

Sokka didn't get a chance to say anything back, because suddenly Aang ran over and then away with his only intelligible word being, "Airbenders!" as he spoke so fast no one could understand him. Momo flew right behind him. Katara, Sokka and Sleemo hurried to follow. Whatever just happened, it made Aang downright ecstatic.

+++

"Hey, we're almost at the Northern Air Temple! This is where they had the championships for sky bison polo."

"How can you tell? There's just clouds everywhere," Flo spoke as she looked at said clouds. There were a few mountaintops that they could see, but not much at all. Nothing distinguishable, at least in her eyes. The clouds were pretty, though. As an afterthought, she added, "Don't go jumping in them."

Aang laughed. "Just trust me! And I won't." A beat of silence. "This time."

The night before, Aang had quickly explained to them that the storyteller's great grandpappy saw the air walkers, as they called them, a week ago. Now with Aang excited and hopeful, they were on their way to the Northern Air Temple. With a small sigh, Flo stopped leaning forward over the saddle and turned around, sitting with her back against it instead. She crossed her arms and huddled more into the extra parka Katara forced her to wear. She didn't think she would like wearing it, but it was rather comfortable and cozy.

"Are you saying I'm a liar?" Flo heard Katara ask Sokka and she folded her arms in front of herself, offended. Flo's brows raised the tiniest bit.

"I'm saying you're an optimist," Sokka replies, giving her no clue as to what they were talking about as he whittled some more. "Same thing, basically."

"Hey, guys, look at this!" Aang shouted in excitement.

Flo turned back around. She went to ask what he wanted them to look at, but stopped when she noticed the peak of a mountain through the clouds, followed by the tip top of a stone building. The Northern Air Temple. Snow covered the mountain peak and the Temple, as well as the other mountains that were starting to show up as well. Dark smoke came from two different areas of the Air Temple, and people flew around on gliders similar to Aang's, though the winged of them looked to be more boxy than rounded. Katara moved to be beside her, and both girls looked ahead as they stood on their knees to stare at the sight before them.

"They really are airbenders!"

Up front, Aang leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "No, they're not."

"What do you mean they're not?" Sokka asked from behind them. "Those guys are flying!"

"Gliding maybe, but not flying. You can tell by the way they move. They're not airbending. Those people have no spirit," he told them, so obviously disappointed and upset.

Flo, Katara and Sokka all shouted in surprise as one particular glider and its person got too close. They all instinctively ducked down, and the kid laughed as he continued on. While Katara continued to stand on her knees, Flo sat down, eyeing the kid gliding around with an unimpressed expression. She would like it if someone didn't try to decapitate them.

"I don't know, Aang. That kid seems pretty spirited!" Katara said and pointed to the other kid.

"Spirited or not, he should watch where he's going," Flo grumbled with a scowl.

As the kid did another flyby – this time without nearly taking their heads off, much to Flo's relief – Sleemo leaped and flew in the air as well. The hawk-cat made a pleased sound when Aang jumped up and started to fly on his glider too. Flo shifted to watch them just as other people started to glide around them. Two flew right in front of Appa. The suddenness of their movements startled him and he reared back, and all three teenagers fell to the back of the saddle in a heap.

Flo quickly moved to where she wasn't practically sitting on either of the siblings. Katara accidentally elbowed her harshly in the side as she tried to do the same. "Ow."

"Sorry," Katara winced.

"We'd better find some solid ground before it finds us," Sokka suggested.

A few minutes later found them landing at the Temple. The trio all climbed off of Appa, and watched Aang and the other kid – who Flo figured out was Teo by some other kids shouting his name – glide around in the sky with the crowd that formed. Aang's and Teo's little gliding competition continued on. Both of them did loops and tricks, and Aang at one point ran along the Temple's walls. At the end, Teo did something to make a trail of grey smoke follow him. Flo watched along with the others as he drew with the smoke; the ending result was a picture of Aang's face sporting a sour expression, which caused the group of kids in the audience to cheer even more.

The two boys finally flew down after that. Aang landed by Flo, Katara and Sokka with graceful ease while Teo skidded harshly to a stop in what Flo recognized as a wheelchair. A couple of kids walked over and helped take off the glider part of the admittedly impressive contraption. Teo came over once it was off. He couldn't be much older than Aang, if at all, with hair that was styled like Haru's had been, though it was shorter and fluffier.

"Hey," Teo exclaimed with realization as he stopped in front of them, "you're a real airbender! You must be the Avatar. That's amazing! I, I've heard stories about you!"

Aang smiled, a bit embarrassed but happy, and rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks."

"Wow! This glider chair is incredible." Sokka instantly walked over to it as two other kids came up behind Teo. He started to inspect the glider portion of the chair but paused when Teo spoke again.

"If you think this is good, wait until you see what other stuff my dad designed."

Teo rolled forward in the wheelchair, clearly expecting to be followed by them – and they did. Flo hesitated a little bit before doing the same. She glanced around at the crowd that had now dispersed, and then at the Temple itself. Eventually she saw Aang, who was the closest to Teo as they walked to the inside of the Temple, and she frowned. He had been expecting living airbenders. People of his own kind – maybe even aged friends like King Bumi. Instead what he found was a group of Earth Kingdom civilians. She felt a little sad for him. Maybe even angry, too. Especially when they got inside.

Pipes and gears and wheels covered the place. The pipes protruded from the walls, which caused various cracks in the stone. There were even two pipes coming out of the wall on either side of a statue's head – a most likely well known monk Flo didn't know but Aang probably did. The walls were dark and grimy looking. All in all, she's never been to air temple before, but Flo was pretty sure it shouldn't look like this. Just as she had that thought, dark gray smoke puffed out from one of the pipes as a woman used a machine to lift her up to a higher level. Flo grimaced. The negative connotation she had with machinery didn't help her feelings about what she saw. The only people she saw with some sort of advanced machinery were people of the Fire Nation. So seeing stuff like it in this place, used by Earth Kingdom citizens, made her uneasy.

Sokka exclaimed in fascination and ran forward. It made Teo grin proudly. "Yeah, my dad is the mastermind behind this whole place. Everything's powered by hot air. It even pumps hot air currents to give us a lift when we're gliding."

"This place is unbelievable," Aang said as he looked around.

"Yeah, it's great, isn't it?"

"No. Just unbelievable." He walked away, and Teo looked over at the two remaining teens. Flo let Katara step forward and talked to him, and she slipped away from them to avoid the conversation.

"Flo, look at this, this is so cool!" Sokka shouted and abruptly grabbed her wrist. He pulled her over to where he had been before: in front of one of the hot air powered cage-thing that took people to the next level.

"It's something, alright," she muttered. As Sokka basically squawked at her response and looked at her, Flo didn't hide the unimpressed stare she was no doubt giving the machine in front of them.

"How are you not in awe at this?!" He waved his arms around at, well, everything.

"It smells and it's ugly," Flo said without a beat of hesitation. "I'm pretty sure a Temple like this one isn't supposed to be so dark and grimy because of the smoke leaving the pipes."

Sokka stumbled for words in response but Flo walked away a second later.

+++

"It's nice to see at least one part of the Temple that isn't ruined," admitted Aang as they stood in a different part of the Temple – he had called it the satellite building a few minutes beforehand. There were patches of snow on the ground because of the lack of roof, and statues of various monks stood around. As the group stood in front of one particular large statue, Flo actually thought the area seemed relatively untouched.

"It's really pretty," she told him. He smiled up at her, though she didn't see since she halfway turned to see the other statues and the wooden double doors along the wall.

"Yeah. It is–."

"LOOK OUT!"

Barely any of them had time to react as a wrecking ball came through the wall. It destroyed the statue, and made a huge hole that caused gusts of cold wind hit them. Broken pieces of stone flew out and dust accumulated in the air around the area. It caused them all covered their faces with their arms for protection and coughed when the dust got in their lungs. As the dust cleared and they stopped coughing, they all gradually looked back up. At first the only thing that was visible was the wrecking ball that had been used. But then, four men carrying tools and a man in a white apron appear. As the others stopped, one man continued forward, and Flo saw that parts of both of his eyebrows were missing. His head was bald at the top yet on the sides his hair grew weirdly upwards, and his beard was medium length and rounded out at the bottom. A single monocle sat in front of his right eye.

Flo wasn't at all that impressed by the man.

"What the doodle? Don't you know enough to stay away from construction sites? We have to make room for the bathhouse!"

"Do you know what you just did?!" Aang shouted as he got into an airbender stance. "You just destroyed something sacred – for a stupid bathhouse!"

The man moved his arms and hands as he talked. "Well the people around here are starting to stink." He waved a hand in front of his nose for emphasis.

"This whole place stinks!" He shouted again. He struck the ground with his staff, and a harsh burst of wind went through the hole in the wall and knocked the wrecking ball down the side of the Temple. "This is a sacred temple! You can't treat it this way. I've seen it when the monks were here. I know what it's supposed to be like."

"The monks? But you're twelve."

"Wow, good job, Captain Obvious," Flo quietly drawled sarcastically with crossed arms. The words hadn't meant to be said, but she was angry on Aang's behalf and fully supported him telling the man off. Katara sent her a warning look. Teo also looked at her in a certain way, but it was short lived and she didn't care to pay too much attention to it.

"Dad, he's the Avatar," Teo explained once he rolled up. "He used to come here a hundred years ago."

"What are you doing? Who said you could be here?" demanded Aang.

Teo's dad hummed, and turned around as he spoke. "Doing here... A long time ago, but not a hundred years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood. My infant son, Teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother." He sniffled at the memory, halting his dramatic movements with his arms and stopped walking around for only a moment. "I needed somewhere to rebuild, and I stumbled across this place – couldn't believe it! Everywhere, pictures of flying people, but empty. Nobody home. Then I came across these fan-like contraptions!"

"Our gliders," Aang told him, and the man stopped right in front of him, hands moving as if trying to fly. Aang did nothing. Just kept his arms crossed as he glared.

"Yes! Little light flying machines. They gave me an idea: build a new life for my son in the air. Then everyone would be on equal ground, so to speak." He stopped in front of the hole in the wall with his back to the ground. He folded his hands together behind him. "We're just in the process of improving upon what's already here. And after all, isn't that what nature does?"

For a split second, Aang stayed silent. Then he walked up to the mechanic and said, "Nature knows where to stop."

"I suppose that's true. Unfortunately progress has a way of getting away from us." He paused and looked up. His eyebrows rose slightly as he looked at three burning candles. "Look at the time! Come," he ordered the workers, "The pulley system must be oiled before dark."

Sokka walked up to the candles. "Wait, how can you tell the time from that thing? The notches all look the same."

"The candle will tell us. Watch." The mechanist and Sokka stared at it. Not a second later, the candle sparked four times.

Not exactly interested in that stuff, Flo turned her attention back to the Temple itself. She inched away from the group to look closer at a few statues. Other than the giant hole in the wall, the room seemed to be one of the only remaining places in the Temple to be unaffected by the advanced machinery. Even aged with time, it was still beautiful to look at.

It wasn't until she noticed the others going in separate directions when Flo stepped away from looking at everything. She leisurely followed Katara, Aang and Teo rather than Sokka and the machinist. She merely didn't feel like hearing tons of words she didn't understand. At some point though, she lost track of the three younger kids and, not really worried about them getting in trouble, she continued on her own way.

+++

"Hey."

Flo looked up from where she sat underneath a bare tree, entertaining Sleemo with an old piece of string she found in her stuff while Appa slept a few feet away. The person who spoke stopped in front of her and her brows lowered in confusion when the boy didn't say anything else. "Hi...?" she hesitantly greeted, and intended on going back to play with Sleemo when he spoke again.

"I've never seen you here before," he said. The guy couldn't be much older than her, probably only by a year or so. He wore a similar hairstyle as all the other Earth Kingdom boys, and had on weather appropriate clothes for the cold climate on the mountain. He seemed decent enough – like just a regular teenager trying to make conversation with the strange girl. Unfortunately there was something in his tone that Flo caught onto that told her this guy wasn't there to just talk.

"Well I don't exactly live here, so..." Flo reached out and scratched Sleemo behind one ear when she paused from playing.

The boy laughed. When he sat down beside her, Flo startled slightly when their shoulders brushed and gave him an odd look. "You're funny," he said.

She just hummed. Then, tried to subtly move away to put more space between them. It didn't work too well.

"What? No thank you?"

Flo gritted her teeth. "...Thanks." Sleemo did a full body shake, starting with her head and ending with her tail, wings ruffling a little bit because of it. When the guy reached out to try and pet her, she moved away to the other side Flo. Other than making a displeased noise, the guy didn't say anything about it.

"I'm Watashi, by the way. I was thinking since you don't live here, maybe I can give you a tour of the place," he suggested. His lips were pulled into a smirk. He leaned even more into her space and Flo honestly felt like punching the guy in his nose. "It's pretty neat, if I do say so myself – and I do."

"No, thanks." Flo scooted away again and stood. "I gotta go find my friends." It was evident that this guy was not going to stop bothering if she's alone, and she'd much rather be stuck with either three kids younger than her or Sokka and the mechanist as they talked about science-y stuff – wherever they were. It's been a good while since she's seen any of them though, but she's pretty sure Katara flew by on a glider as she choked on a bug not too long ago.

Watashi stood just as Sleemo jumped up and landed on her shoulder. Flo turned around quickly and started to walk away. "Awe, c'mon, I promise I'm good company! And I never got your name." When she didn't response, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. "Hey, I'm still talking to you! It's not polite ignoring a stranger."

Flo immediately yanked her wrist out of her grip as she spun around, dark eyes narrowed into a glare. Perched on her shoulder, Sleemo bowed up and hissed; Watashi took a quick step backwards. "It's not polite trying to force girls into spending time with you, either," she snapped.

He scoffed. "I am not forcing you. You're being dramatic!"

"And you're being a dick."

He started, surprised by her choice of words. "Well that's not very nice."

"I'm not a very nice person," Flo admits. "Now leave me alone."

Watashi said something else. She didn't catch what because she caught sight of Sokka and the mechanist as they walked nearby. Both were in a deep discussion about something that she most likely wouldn't understand if she were with them, but her options were either that or the stupid boy who wouldn't leave her alone. Flo quickly made her choice. She turned on her heel and walked away without another word even with Watashi still talking. She heard him cut himself off, and then his footsteps followed behind her. Her teeth gritted together in annoyance.

"Sokka!" Sleemo got off of her shoulder then and flew over to him when he turned around. She quickly hurried her pace. "Hey."

Sokka scratched the spot between Sleemo's ears when she settled on his shoulder and grinned at Flo. "Hey, Flo! I thought you were with the others."

"We got separated." Her arms crossed over her chest. For a short moment, she thought she was in the clear – then she felt Watashi's presence not too far behind her. An eyebrow twitched.

Blue eyes quickly moved between her and the other guy. "Who's that?"

A parasite, Flo almost said but he beat her to speaking, "I'm Watashi." He stuck his hand out, and the two boys awkwardly shook hands.

If only she had a boyfriend again, because then this guy would most likely finally leave– wait.

Flo removed her gaze from the wall she was glaring a hole into, and glanced at Sokka. Then back to the wall. And to Sokka again.

"Sokka," he introduced. "I'm her–."

"Boyfriend." The word tumbled out of her lips before she could properly use whatever brain-to-mouth filter she had. Sokka made some sort of squeaking sound that made Sleemo jump away, and Teo's father – who she forgot was there – hummed thoughtfully. She turned around to face Watashi and grabbed Sokka's hand.

The Earth Kingdom boy raised a skeptical brow. "Boyfriend?" he repeated.

Flo squeezed his hand and Sokka jolted, face red. "Y- uh, Yes! Boyfriend. That's me."

"Yep. He promised me he'd show me some, um, machine stuff with Teo's father earlier, so."

Watashi frowned. "Alright. The offer to show you around is still up, though. Or even hang out later."

Her jaw tensed. "I already said no."

At that, Sokka's brows furrowed ever so slightly, but other than that he kept a somewhat relaxed stance. "Besides, Teo and his dad gave us a small tour already. Thanks though," Sokka said as he finally regained some composure to speak normally. He absentmindedly swung their hands back and forth, and Flo glanced down to watch for a second or two. "Also we're busy. Traveling with the Avatar does that, y'know? Got things to do, people to see."

"Or not see."

Sokka almost began to laugh, but feigned a cough instead.

Watashi's frown deepened, so obviously annoyed at the turn of events that Flo had to keep herself from rolling her eyes. "Oh. Okay. Well, have fun with...whatever." He stepped back and started to leave. Sokka was the only one who said any resemblance of a polite goodbye; Flo stayed quiet with a tense jaw and Teo's father merely waved.

When Watashi finally turned and got out of ear shot, Flo relaxed. "Um." Her eyes fell down to look at their conjoined, gloved hands again, clasped together securely. With every small move their arms and shoulders brushed together; she hadn't even realized how close they stood. The small distance made the small height difference more noticeable. A weird feeling began to form in her stomach. As quick as it came, Flo tore her eyes from their hands and looked off to the side, clearing her throat. She let go and so did he. "Sorry about that."

"I- I, um, it's... It's fine." His voice cracked on the last word. Flo acted as if she didn't notice. "Totally fine – cool. The coolest." A beat of silence, then, "You're okay, right? He kinda seemed...pushy."

"No, yeah, I'm good."

"Oh, okay, that's good."

"Mhm."

Neither of them stepped away.

But then Teo's father spoke up. His voice made both fifteen year olds jump apart in surprise. "Well! That was quite interesting to watch, but we are running out of daylight! Hurry up, you two!"

+++

There were many things Flo was annoyed about today. The Air Temple being stuffed with machinery and pipes, and by proxy Teo's father. Teo nearly nearly took off their heads earlier when they first got there, though she was less annoyed by that now. He seemed like a good kid, anyway. Not to mention Watashi's entire existence. It utterly pissed her off how he only left her alone after another guy said something, and she wanted to complain about to someone but Sokka and Aang wouldn't understand, and she didn't know if Katara would yet; she used to have Smellerbee for that kind of stuff. But other than that, another thing that annoyed her was that weird, buzzy feeling in her stomach that came to life every time she and Sokka got so much as of two feet of one another.

Flo's not an idiot. She knew how crushes worked and how they started out for her. She also knew today wasn't the first day she felt something like that, and frankly she wasn't in the mood for it. It wasn't a full blown crush just yet, that much she could tell. Meaning there was a possibility that it might go away quickly; that she was most likely just being ridiculous right now, and the feelings only existed because of the little incident earlier. There was hopefully no way whatever feelings inside of her would grow any stronger. She couldn't let that happen. But her stupid brain kept telling her, "Hey. Holding his hand was nice. He's also not exactly ugly. What do you say?" and she quite frankly wanted to scream.

Luckily for her, despite That Feeling, being with Sokka and the mechanist was distracting. Flo didn't understand a single thing about whatever the spoke about, but she did try her best to listen and pick up on some of the things they conversed about as the man showed them around his office, showing off inventions that had both failed and succeeded. When she spotted a design for a rather large drill on his desk, the mechanist easily explained it was made to break through thick walls without the help of earthbenders. After some time, he told them not to touch anything as he went over to his desk. Flo watched as Sokka did the opposite a few minutes later, scrolls and an experiment of some sort falling from the shelves and his arms.

"I said don't touch anything!" he chastised. Even more stuff fell. Everything tumbled to the floor and Sokka was quick to pick it up. "Oh, don't worry, that experiment's old, and that egg was just part of last week's lunch."

"Eugh! Week-old egg smell," complained Sokka.

"It's your fault," Flo muttered from where she had crouched down to pick up some scrolls. He childishly stuck out his tongue at her in retaliation.

"Quick! Find that egg!" The mechanist dropped the items he had collected and began to crawl around, Sokka doing the same exact thing. Flo actually set the scrolls she had gathered back onto the shelf before she started to look too.

"How could something that's so small, you can't even see it, make such a big stink?" Sokka asked.

"That's the solution to our problem!"

Flo froze. What problem?

Sokka apparently knew, because he turned around to face the machinist. "Yeah! If we put a whole mess of rotten eggs in the cellar where the gas seeps up..."

"The gas will mix with the smell of rotten eggs..."

"Then, if there's a leak..."

"You smell rotten eggs! Then you just follow your nose to the place where the smell is coming from..."

"And plug up the hole where the gas is escaping!"

"You're a genius!" They shouted at the same time.

Meanwhile Flo was even more confused. Nothing got explained, however, because a bell Teo's father had near a window began to ring as he moved back and forth by a string.

The man stood instantly. "Something's wrong. I've got to go."

Just as Sokka began to follow him, Flo scrambled to stand up as well. "Wait, are we really just gonna leave the rotten egg?"

+++

Another thing Flo was annoyed about: Teo's father building weapons and giving them to the Fire Nation. Annoyance didn't seem like the right the feeling, though. It wasn't a strong enough word for what she felt for the current situation.

It's safe to say she quickly forgot about the rotten egg, given the situation.

Katara, Aang and Teo had found a room no one had been in before with a door that only an airbender could open. Turned out, the room hadn't been has untouched as previously thought. All sorts of various types of machines and devices sat around on the floor and random shelves. But the largest of all was what Flo recognized as the failed experiment from his office. Instead of the white and brown, it was dark red with the black Fire Nation insignia smack dab in the middle. Teo's father quickly explained himself. For years now he had been building weapons and such and giving them away to the enemy – not necessarily because he wanted to, but because if he didn't the Fire Nation would attack. He did to protect his son.

The bad news didn't stop there, either.

Teo and Aang, once everyone had some time to actually process the new information, left to talk to the mechanist. It wasn't too long until they came back with the news that the Fire Nation was coming to attack – to destroy the Temple – because the mechanist refused to give them the war balloon.

"This is bad. Very bad," voiced Sokka when they finished explaining what happened.

"Dear Spirits, we're doomed," Flo whispered under her breath. It was one thing to fight the Fire Nation in small groups if they accidentally ran into them, or ambushed Fire Nation camps like she did with the Freedom Fighters. It's a completely other thing when an entire regiment of soldiers come their way, fully prepared for a fight.

"Aang, what are we gonna do?" Katara ask. "How can we possibly keep them all away?"

"I'll tell ya how – we have something they don't." He pointed to the sky. "Air power. We control the sky. That's something the Fire Nation can't do. We can win!"

A frown began to form on Flo's face. "But no one here can bend air like you. I get people can glide, but what are they going to attack with?"

"I believe I can help with that – I want to help." Teo's father spoke when he walked up, surprising the kids. They had hardly noticed him until then.

Aang smiled. "Good, we'll need it."

Flo couldn't help but be a little impressed that Aang was being nice to man – someone who was, to put it simply, wrecking the place that used to belong to Aang's people – even after that first not so great interaction earlier, and the fact that he'd been giving the enemy weapons and machines to aid them in the war. It also kind of confused, honestly. If things were different, Flo would be happy to decline his offer to help. Unfortunately, they needed the mechanist whether she liked it or not.

It's not like Flo could judge too much, though. Her track record wasn't the cleanest either, but at least she never helped out the enemy.

A hand grabbed her wrist, and it broke her out of her thoughts. "Come with us," Sokka said, and began to pull her in the direction Teo and his father were going in. Aang and Katara were headed to warn the citizens of what was happening.

Flo stumbled a bit but easily caught herself, that feeling in her stomach rushing back. "Huh? What, why?"

"I want to make something to help the fight, but I need your help with it," he told her.

"But I–."

"Just trust me. Also," he continued and half turned to look at her. "Stop thinking so hard. This is going to go fine."

"Maybe you're not thinking enough," she said.

"Okay, rude."

"Kidding."

"Well in that case–."

"Kinda."

The annoyed glare she received had her smirking slightly.

+++

The plan to fighting the Fire Nation seemed simple enough. Sokka and the mechanist ended up fixing the problems with the war balloon from the room it had been hiding in, and also came up with four types of bombs to use: smoke, fire, slime, and stink of all things. The idea was that the bonds would be tied to the handle of the gliders, and as the flew around the people would drop them on the soldiers that came their way. Katara and Momo would be stationed on Appa above the clouds, hidden from view, with extra bbs to hand off once people ran out. Aang would do his airbender thing, of course, and then Sokka and the mechanist would appear with the war balloon and four very, very large slimes bombs.

Meanwhile Flo was sat perched on a tree just off to the side of the road that led up the mountain. From her spot, she was to shoot at as many soldiers as she could with her arrows, saving the ones she and the others just made in the mechanist's lab for later. Said arrows were the reasons why Sokka dragged her back to the man's lab earlier. Between figuring out the rather simple solution to the war balloon – which was a lid, basically – they played with the idea of 'special' arrows. Bomb arrows, so to speak.

They ended up replacing the actual arrowheads with capsules, which held explosive powder inside. A few had some flammable gas instead, but either way once exposed to any kind of fire (or heat) they would explode. Theoretically. They never got the chance to see if any of them worked properly, and the mechanist wanted to make slime bomb arrows but the slime made the arrows too unbalanced no matter what Flo tried. Not a lot were made, either. Only six. Flo only wanted to use them unless absolutely necessary.

(And, admittedly, maybe the mechanist wasn't so bad. But that's a big maybe. He was still very weird, though.)

The plan ended up being...not terrible. They ran out of bombs halfway through, and the war balloon was late, and some soldiers tried to attack her but thankfully she beat them, and the arrow with the explosive powder that she used didn't blow up but all three gas ones did. Once they ran out of bombs of the air power, Flo used the new arrows they made. Then finally the war balloon showed up and dropped all four slime bombs on the Fire Nation soldiers, only for the mechanist and Sokka to dump said war balloon's engine into a canyon that caused a giant explosion.

They won, in the end.

The anxieties she had about it went away with ease after that. She still didn't completely like Teo's dad still, but he wasn't a terrible guy and clearly tried to do whatever would protect his son so Flo could at least tolerate him.

A few of the butterflies in her stomach decided to stay put, though. It was clear that her personal 'don't get too attached' rule was being broken, and she didn't exactly know what to do about it.

***

A/N— Is the last part rushed and sucky? lmao yeah. Do I care? Not in the current moment. Tbh I only like half of this chapter lol. anyway. Point is, after 6 months I FINALLY updated!!!

Like, I am so sorry for the long wait, I really am. But life happened – first writer's block, and then I got indecisive about whether or not I actually wanted to write this episode or not, and then my grandpa died right before Thanksgiving so for the past two and a half months I'm pretty sure I've been depressed lmao. Basically writing became hard for me. With that said, I am not promising when the next chapter will be out, because I don't even know. But I will say that the chapters involving the Northern Water Tribe with have both fluff and angst! Also you might hate me at one point!! :))

Also I just really have to tell you guys that if I had to choose someone to be a live-action version of Flo, it would be HER

Kieu My Vu from the show Druck! Idk the actress' name tho lmao but she just looks like Flo to me

Okay anyway, goodbye, hope you enjoyed!!