CHAPTER THIRTEEN
( FIRE NATION SOLDIERS )

THE LATE AFTERNOON SUN streamed through the trees in the forest, casting a warm golden light on everything. Shadows covered certain areas because of the tree tops, and the air gradually got cooler as the sun set at the horizon. On the forest floor, Momo jumped and flew around, chasing after small bugs. Aang, Katara and Sokka all walked along the path with Appa close behind, and meanwhile Flo easily jumped from tree to tree out of boredom with Sleemo not too far away. As the tree line came to a halt, Flo leaned against the trunk as she stoof there, ankles crossed and feet pressed against the slightly upward slanted branch. On the ground, the rest of them came up to a four-sided notice board. Flo debated on getting down from the tree to join them.

The last twenty-four hours, she spent her time mostly removed from the group. For the most part, Flo wasn't that angry at them anymore, but that didn't mean she knew how to go about acting normal around them. She didn't even know what her normal with them was just yet. Now, regarding the confrontation with General Iroh? Flo suppressed whatever major feelings that brought out. Having talked to the old General and seen him face to face, it all felt surreal. Like it didn't happen, or it was some weird dream.

When Sleemo flew by her and to Katara, forcing herself into the girl's arms to be held and spoiled by love, Flo sighed through her nose and got down. The thoughts of General Iroh and the abbey got pushed to the back of her mind as she slowly walked over. Aang rushed to board and stood beside Katara. He pointed to the colorful poster.

"I bet we'll find something to eat here! The Fire Days Festival." He then read off of it, "Fire Nation cultural exhibits...jugglers, benders, magicians – this'd be a great place for me to study firebending!" he exclaimed, and grinned at the two girls.

Flo gave him a skeptical look just as Sokka spoke from the other side of the board, "You might wanna rethink that. Look at this."

They all walked over to the other side. Instead of a pretty poster showcasing the festival in the nearby village, wanted posters stared back at them. One was for an old man with two thin scars over one eye and white hair; the other was for a shaggy haired brunet man; then one for the Blue Spirit – which she only knew because of Aang – another for the Avatar, and finally one for the Fire Hunter. The dark green hood shadowed over her face, only showcasing her chin mouth. Unlike the others, which were of their faces only, hers was full body like Aang's; whoever made the poster made sure that her bow and arrows were noticeable. Her eyes raked over the characters of the words beside the picture. She frowned to herself.

"Hey, we have posters, Flo!" Aang shouted happily. He took down the one of himself.

"Wanted posters," Sokka corrected. "This is bad."

"I think we better keep moving," Katara suggested once she saw them, absentmindedly scratching between Sleemo's ears as she continued to hold her.

"I have to learn firebending at some point, and this could be my only chance to watch some masters up close," Aang said.

Katara looked down as she thought, unsure about the idea. "I guess we could go check it out," she said.

"What?! You want to walk into a Fire Nation town where they're all fired up with all their, y'know, fire?" Sokka asked incredulously. He turned to Flo, who still stared at the wanted power with a concentrated look. "Please say you agree with me." He blinked when she didn't answer. He leaned forward cautiously. "Flo? Hello?"

She finally broke from her concentration, and whipped her head around to see the others staring at her curiously. "Wha- huh? What?"

"We're going into this town," Katara explained and Sokka threw his hands in the air with an offended shout. "We'll wear disguises and if it looks like trouble, we'll leave." She then walked away with Aang not too far behind.

"Yeah. Because we always leave before we get into trouble," he drawled, then started to leave as well.

Flo hesitated. She glanced between the group and the poster a couple of times before she snatched it off of the board and folded it up. Then, she stuffed the paper in one of her boots, and hurried to catch up with them. Although before they got too close, Flo stopped walking and grabbed Sokka's elbow to get him to stop too. He quickly looked at her, confused.

"Do you know how to read?" she blurted out before he could say anything, and before her brain caught up with her mouth.

He stared for a moment. Then answered slowly, "Yeah... Of course I do. Why?"

At the question, Flo froze. "Um." Her hand subconsciously tightened on his elbow, and when she noticed that she jerked away and folded her hands together. "Just, uh, wondering." The words stumbled out, followed by a slightly forced chuckle. Before Sokka had the chance to question her again, Flo hurried off to the others.

He stood there confused and taken back before finally he walked again. Well, he thought, at least she wasn't ignoring him anymore.

+++

Together, they all head to the town, but stop on the top of a small hill. As the others went a little further, Flo stayed a few feet behind. The Fire Nation town was in view. Walls surrounded it, and with the dimming sky, various lanterns and festival lights lit up the town. Admittedly, it was a bit pretty for a Fire Nation town filled with people who took over her homeland.

"You guys stay out of sight here while we go to the festival," Aang turned and spoke to the animals. Momo flew and dived down into a small bush, and Appa walked over and laid down behind it. Sleemo stayed put on the ground between Flo's feet. Aang grinned. "Ready disguises," he said with a dramatic wave of his arms.

Both Sokka and Katara put on black cloaks, much shorter than Flo's dark green one that stopped just an inch or so above the ground, but theirs did the job well enough. They flipped up the hoods once they got the cloaks on. Then, there was Aang: he pulled the top of his shirt over his head. The teenagers stared at him.

"It's like you're a whole different person," Sokka told him sarcastically as Katara quietly giggled.

Just as Aang started to walk off, Flo stepped forward and grabbed at his tunic. She took off her own cloak and handed it to him. "Use mine," she told him. "It'll be safer."

"What? But you need it," he said, clearly confused.

She shook her head. "I'm not going." All of them quickly protested. "It's a Fire Nation town," Flo spoke over them. "I'm not going in unarmed, and with my bow and arrows the soldiers will arrest me in seconds." There were other reasons too, more so about the fact that she just didn't like the Fire Nation and didn't want to interact with the colonies in any way. She just didn't bother explaining that at the moment.

Aang pouted. "I hate that you're right. It is better if you stay."

Flo forced the green fabric into his hands. "Just take my cloak. And don't ruin it or lose it, got it?" As she spoke, he took it and put it on.

He stood straight, grinned, and saluted. "You got it!" Excited at seeing possible firebenders up close without it being a fight, he started to walk off without so much as waiting for the others. The cloak dragged on the ground some, but other than that it fit him fine and did the job of covering his tattoos and bright orange clothes. "Alright, let's go! We'll be back before you know it, Flo!"

Katara waved bye to Flo, who returned the action, and the younger girl rushed to catch up with Aang since he was already halfway down the hill. As for Sokka, he hesitated. "We will be back," he said quickly. "Ya know. Just in case..." He trailed off a bit.

It was her turn to hesitate. "Um. Yeah," she said, and unfortunately it came out awkwardly and tense.

"I swear, we–."

"No, Sokka," Flo quickly interrupted. "I know. I– yeah." And wasn't that something crazy. Even after what happened at the abbey, and even with Flo wanting to doubt them, something in her gut told her that she could trust them to come back to her this time. Not like they would leave anyone by a Fire Nation town, anyway. "Just go. I'll be here."

Sokka smiled wide – and that weird warm feeling from a couple weeks ago came back, and Flo had to do her hardest not to make a face at it – and he shouted, "Okay, bye!" as he took off down the hill. Not even two seconds later Flo heard pained yells and a crash. She rushed forward to peer down the side, only to see Sokka detangling himself from a bush.

"I'm okay!"

He then rushed off once again and as Flo held in a laugh, Sleemo chirped up at her from the ground. The two stared at one another. Sleemo tilted her head. "What?" Flo asked, a bit defensive. From somewhere in a nearby bush, Momo chittered and Appa groaned quietly from behind it. She somehow got the distinct feeling they were talking about her.

+++

Two minutes later and Flo wished she had gone with them, if only to subdue the anxious thoughts and feelings that came when she realized she was truly alone for the first time since she joined their little group – not including their animal buddies. One would think, in some way, she would be content with this alone time, with no one there to bother her. The reality of the situation was that she was the exact opposite of content. It didn't help that she gave Aang her main comfort in life – the cloak Hachi had given her moments before he and Ju-Li got arrested and later executed. She tried to distract herself by climbing trees, jumping from one to the other, but night soon fell over everything and it got too dark for Flo to safely jump from one tree to the next without accidentally spraining her ankle again. So, she hung upside down from a branch until she got too lightheaded.

Eventually, she ended up on Appa's head, sprawled out and face first in the bison's thick fur. Sleemo purred from where she laid on Flo's back, and Momo at some point came out of the bush and stayed perched on one of Appa's horns. Muffled exclamations and excited laughter from the town's festival met her ears as Flo shifted to her back; Sleemo wasn't happy about that, but still came back to sit on Flo's chest. Everything about the current situation made her anxiety about it all worsen by the second, and the noises from the town certainly didn't help. Flo scowled at herself first feeling that way as she pressed her hands to her ears.

Abruptly, she sat up. She didn't pay attention to how Sleemo got upset and being forcefully moved again, or how Momo jumped slightly, and breathed deeply after pushing her bangs off of her forehead. They just fell back down. But she was restless and jittery, and she needed to do something so she pushed them back again, and somewhat ignored whatever thoughts popped up about Aang, Katara and Sokka staying gone. She then laid down again, only to sit up two seconds later and climb into the saddle.

Of course that's when Appa decided to stand and fly so suddenly that Flo face planted before she even knew what happened. Pain filled her senses, and she groane from the impact. She clutched her nose, which was now throbbing and most likely bleeding, and stood on her knees. "Appa! What the hell!" she shouted as he flew to the town. Flo felt half tempted to scramble out of the saddle to sit in Aang's usual spot, but the feeling of not wanting to fall off overrode it. She clutched the side of the saddle tightly, her other hand over her nose still.

It wasn't until Appa flew into the town and down to an alley when Flo remembered the bison whistle Aang had. When he landed, sending a large gust of wind to a group of soldiers with his tail, Flo helped Katara and Sokka and a random man get on while Aang used his bending to take his usual spot. The task wasn't easy to do with one hand and arm, but she did it anyway. They flew off just as quickly as they came, and the random man threw a bomb into a giant bin of fireworks.

"Nice touch setting off the fireworks," Aang complimented.

"You seem to really know your explosives," Sokka said.

The man turned to finally face them, the mask that he wore earlier now lowered. "I'm familiar." And he was definitely familiar to them – they all recognized his face from the wanted posters on the board from earlier.

"You're a Fire Nation soldier!"

"Was," the man corrected. "My name's Chey."

Flo finally found her voice and looked at the brother and sister with mixed shock and anger. "You befriended a Fire Nation soldier?" It sounded stuffy since she still held her most likely bleeding nose, but it didn't smother the frustrated tone. It caught Katara's attention.

"Whoa, hey," Sokka was quick to hold his hands up, "no one said anything about befriending the guy."

"What happened to your nose?" Katara asked, keeping Flo from replying to Sokka as she grabbed the other girl's wrist and pulled her hand away. Katara winced at the blood. It wasn't much, but nosebleeds never look pretty.

The others stayed quiet as they waited for her answer. "...I face planted the saddle," she mumbled.

More silence followed as Katara and the two boys tried not to show any sort of amusement. Aang failed miserably, Sokka's lips were pressed into a thin line but his cheeks were filled with air and he looked ready to explode with laughter, and Katara was the most composed. Although, despite her efforts, a small giggle still escaped her.

An unfamiliar chuckle joined in alongside Aang's laughter. Flo snapped her gaze in Chey's direction; her brows lowered as her eyes narrowed into a heated glare. A threat sat on the top of her tongue but she held back – only because Katara got her attention by making sure her nose wasn't broken. The rest of the short ride to the woods was quiet after that.

+++

Chey told the truth when he said he wasn't a Fire Nation soldier anymore, Flo realized as he told them about Jeong Jeong – the man had been the first person to leave the army without dying, and Chey was apparently the second. That didn't mean she trusted him, or even liked him for that matter. The same went for this Jeong Jeong man that Aang wanted to meet with the hope that he'd learn some firebending. Her distrust towards the strange and unknown former soldiers stayed steady throughout the night, especially when Aang went to talk to Jeong Jeong by himself. Flo couldn't do anything about it though, and kept to herself, huddled in her cloak Aang gave back to her when they landed in the woods.

After Aang somehow convinced Jeong Jeong to teach him firebending, everyone went to bed. It was a restless night for her. The young archer got very little sleep, once again. Between not being able to relax enough and a small nightmare that plagued her mind when she finally did catch some shut eye, it didn't surprise Flo at how tired she was the following day. Being at Jeong Jeong's camp/hide-out/whatever certainly worsened everything.

Now, a few hours after everyone had started their day, Flo sat in a patch of grass near the river. Katara practiced her waterbending, Sokka sat on a rock as he fished, and Aang stood on a flat rock off the edge of the shore as Jeong Jeong told him what to do. Flo held the wanted poster of the Fire Hunter in her hands. Her brows stayed low as she looked at the characters and letters of the words on the sheet of paper, a poor attempt to make it all make sense to her. The lack of sleep didn't help anything. Letters stood in places where they probably shouldn't be in certain words, and when she thought she recognized one she would blink and everything would mess up again.

Katara and Sokka laughed at something – or someone, probably Aang – but Flo ignored them. She did eye Jeong Jeong as he walked away – it didn't go unnoticed to any of them that they recognized him from the other wanted posters as well – and that short break in her concentration was noticed. Katara plopped herself down beside the older girl.

"Can we talk?"

Flo refolded the poster and looked at Katara. Nerves shot up at the question, and she also grew slightly suspicious. "About what?" Flo asked slowly. The serious expression Katara had didn't go unnoticed.

"About what happened at the abbey," she replied.

"A lot of things happened."

Katara looked vaguely exasperated. It was odd being on the other end of that expression for once. "Which is why I think we need to talk."

Flo brushed her off and stood. "I'm fine," she said as Katara got off of the ground as well.

"I don't believe you. I'm worried," Katara admitted and followed Flo as she went to walk away. "Aang isn't the only one who considers you a friend, you know. You need to talk about it, Flo."

"Well, I don't want to." The idea of even talking about everything made Flo want to shut down, and caused some more anxiety to return to the surface of her feelings, which then started to make her irritated within seconds. Besides, what would she even say if she agreed to talk about it with Katara? It was hard enough with daily conversations she still hadn't gotten used to. Put emotions – her emotions – into the mix and she was completely clueless. It wasn't the best thing to keep them inside but she was used to it; she was fine with it.

A concerned frown etched itself onto Katara's face. "But–."

"Katara," Flo cut her off, on the verge of snapping at her. "Seriously. Drop it." After a beat of silence, she continued, "I'm gonna go on a walk – by myself." She added the last part the moment she saw Katara open her mouth to speak. Katara pressed her lips together and nodded. "Don't get into trouble while I'm gone."

The corners of her lips twitched up, though the smile didn't reach her eyes. "No promises."

+++

There were times when Flo just wanted everything to freeze. Times when she got overwhelmed. When she needed a pause, a moment or ten to think everything out, and let herself breathe. Those times didn't happen too often, but when they did Flo hated it. Like now, for instance. The past – what was it, a month- a month and a half? However much time had gone by, Flo felt as if she hadn't caught a break since she met the others. Not even then, really – since she first got ambushed by those soldiers; though she did get a few weeks in between. Life's been nonstop. Feelings were nonstop.

It was all mostly unfamiliar and the emotions were too up and down, and she didn't like it one bit.

Before she could continue down that thought process, the sound of footsteps met her ears. Flo didn't actually go far during her walk. She just went until she got a good distance away from everyone, and then sat at the riverbank to think, the wanted poster tucked back in her boot. And she left for her supposed walk hours ago. So at the sounds of feet falling on the ground repeatedly, she inwardly groaned, not yet wanting to be around people. Her annoyance didn't go away when she looked up to find Jeong Jeong. Instead it grew. The man sat down near her. Not too close, not too far. A comfortable enough distance.

Scowling, Flo kept her eyes on him. The hood of her cloak covered her head, while the rest of the dark green fabric sat on her shoulders and pooped on the ground behind her. "What do you want?"

"You don't trust me, I know," Jeong Jeong started with. "Given as to who you are, I don't expected anything less."

Flo felt herself tense up. "Why does everyone care about me being the damn Fire Hunter?!" she snapped suddenly, almost shocking even herself at the outbust; Jeong Jeong went unfazed.

So far, all the Fire Hunter brought her was pain. It didn't bring her anything remotely positive before, and it certainly didn't now. Frankly, she was getting tired of it. She also hadn't been this angry this often since her time with the Freedom Fighters, and she began to wonder what that meant at the back of her mind.

Jeong Jeong didn't spare her a glance. He continued to stare ahead of himself at the river's water. "It is who you are – your most known name among both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom." Flo didn't reply; he went on. "You have a lot of anger in you. That's why you hunted down the soldiers. And even though you stopped, it's still in you."

Flo's eyes narrowed. Her jaw clenched. Who did this guy think he was? She didn't need another former soldier to talk to her about her anger.

"I simply want to let you know that it would be wise if you let it go," Jeong Jeong told her when she said nothing in response.

"Why do you care?" Flo finally got out. "You- you're some random soldier who defected from the Fire Nation and is now living in the woods! What does it matter to you if I'm still angry? I'll be gone and reunited with my family again soon enough, so who cares?"

"You are a talented young girl. I hate to see and hear about your talents being used for such hate wherever you go. Anger can lead to many things, but eventually it all leads to destruction if you're not careful. Just like fire." He finally turned his gaze away from the river, and aged amber ones met young, dark ones. "I would tell you to be careful, or else you might end up just like those other soldiers. But I believe you already have, despite quitting it." Jeong Jeong then stood, eyes still on her. "The wise thing to do would be to let it go before you fall down that path again."

As Flo stared back at the old man with a glare that was much less heated and more or less came from the fact that part of her knew he was right. She just wanted to be stubborn and not admit that – offhandedly, she began to wonder if old men from the Fire Nation all spoke wisely. It was certainly different from King Bumi. Before Flo could find the words to reply to Jeong Jeong, one of his men walked over and whispered too quietly for Flo to hear. Then, a pain filled scream tore through the air.

Within a split second, Flo was on her feet and she ran to the others. The force of which she ran and the wind pushed the hood of her cloak off, though she paid no mind to it. She got back to camp just in time to witness Katara run off while she sobbed and held her hands close to her chest. Flo, concerned, frowned deeply. She was tempted to follow but didn't as she noticed Sokka and Aang on the ground in the grass. She hurried over and pulled Sokka off of Aang, though the younger boy stayed on the ground.

"What happened?" Flo finally asked, and when Sokka tried to step forward again, clearly furious, she put a hand on his chest to stop him. "Sokka. What happened?"

"He burned my sister!" he shouted.

She blinked and froze. "Aang?" Confused, she half turned to look at the boy. Guilt was written all over his face.

Sokka accusingly pointed away from them, and when Flo looked she saw that Jeong Jeong had followed her. "This is all your fault!"

"I know," Jeong Jeong said. "Now pack your things. You must leave immediately!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't–," Aang cut himself off when Sokka looked away and walked off. He absentmindedly grabbed Flo's wrist, forcing her to go with him. "I'm sorry!" Aang repeated.

After a few steps, Flo twisted her wrist from his grasp. "He probably didn't mean to," she said quietly.

He threw his hands in the air. "Why do you always have to defend him?! He burned Katara, Flo! Why aren't you mad?"

Flo couldn't stop the frustrated groan that escaped her throat. "I am! Just not at Aang, I have enough common sense to know he wouldn't hurt anything on purpose!" she shouted. She sighed, and calmed down a little. "Especially Katara. You'd have to be blind not to notice his crush."

"Heh. Yeah..." They stepped into the hut they stayed in, and quickly started to gather everything. "Sorry. It's just– she's my little sister. I'm supposed to protect her, so when she gets hurt..."

Flo nodded in understanding as she made sure she had everything of hers before she moved to Katara's few things. "I know," she said. "I'm not trying to defend him, by the way."

"I know," he echoed her words quietly. Then, a little louder, "I feel like it's my fault if she gets hurt."

"It's not, though. Accidents happen."

He sighed heavily. "Yeah."

As she finished with Katara's bedroll, she looked at Sokka, who looked right back at her. "Listen, if I've learned anything about you so far, it's that you're a good brother. She's lucky to have you, okay? Don't forget that." After she sent him a small ghost of a smile, one he returned, she stood and grabbed her things plus some of Katara's, and left to take them to Appa. Not too long later, Sokka joined her with everything else.

It didn't take too much time at all to get Appa ready. When Flo finished fixing the reins on Appa's horns, Katara ran up – uninjured and perfectly fine. She stayed long with them, and once she asked where Aang was, the girl rushed off to talk to him. It was only when she got back after when Flo noticed someone was missing. Momo sat in the saddle alone with no Sleemo to bother him.

A yowl echoed through the area. "Sleemo!" Flo jumped off of Appa and raced in the direction where the sound came from. When Sokka and Katara tried to stop her, she brushed him off. "Wait with Appa, I'll be back." And then she disappeared into the woods.

Flo stopped running when a small clearing started to get closer. She slowed herself to a walk and quieted her footsteps, hood drawn back up. Three Fire Nation soldiers stood together. One held a net with a wiggling hawk-cat, hissing and swiping at them. The trio of soldiers talked about something, but Flo didn't listen, and focused on where to shoot the arrows. A part of her wanted to do it her old way, while the other part of her knew it would be best to just get Sleemo out of the net and go.

She aimed – shot one in the back of the knee, the other in the crook of his elbow, and then finally used a third arrow to cut the net and lodged itself in the third soldier's hand. Sleemo escaped the net and attacked the third soldier's unprotected face before she dashed away to Flo. Finally, they got back to Appa and Sleemo, ears flattened and fur and feathers puffed up, sat in Flo's lap.

When she caught onto Sokka and Katara's slightly worried expressions, Flo rolled her eyes. "They're still alive, don't worry. Let's go get Aang."

+++

Appa flew through the clouds as the sun set. They had Aang back after he fought with Zhao. Jeong Jeong and the others disappeared when Zhao arrived, so they didn't know where he went but Flo was fine with that for now. While the others started to talk about Katara's new magic healing water abilities once she healed Aang's burned arm, Flo kept to herself. She curled in on herself, legs drawn up to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs with her forehead on her knees. The hood of her cloak was back up over her head, and Sleemo curled up on her feet.

Her head went around in circles about what both Jeong Jeong and General Iroh had said to her. Now that she really thought about it, she realized she was still angry. It hadn't gone away when she stopped being the Fire Hunter, she simply ignored it like she ignored most of her other feelings. And now that anger was coming back to the surface, and she was actually a bit scared.

"Um, Flo?" Aang cautiously spoke.

She sucked in a sharp breath of air. "I'm sorry." She didn't need to look up to know they had confused expressions. The silence was enough.

"Huh? What, Flo what are you talking about?" Aang asked.

"Getting angry at you guys," Flo forced herself to tell the truth. She sat up and pushed the hood off her head, sniffling. "I don't like being angry. I went down the wrong path at my angriest as the Fire Hunter, and even though I stopped..."

"Flo, it's okay to be mad," Aang said. "Especially when there's a reason. Trust me, I get angry too." At her disbelieving look, he barreled on. "Really! Back at the Southern Air Temple, I found the skeleton of my mentor surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers. I got really upset, but honestly I was pretty angry too and went into the Avatar State because of it. Katara had to calm me down."

"With what happened back at the abbey, I'm not surprised you've been angry still," Sokka spoke up. "Katara and I messed up and reminded you of Jet when we got upset with Aang. You said so yourself. Not to mention you faced the man who is the main reason your dad's dead." At the beat of silence that followed, Sokka held his hands up. "Hey, it's the truth. I'm not gonna sugarcoat that."

Katara sighed at him, and then said, "And I pushed your buttons earlier. I shouldn't have done that – you'll talk to us when you're ready."

"Yeah! And anger is a core emotion! It's normal. It's what you do with it is what matters. So it might help if you stop keeping everything bottled up on the inside." Aang smiled, wide and big and bright as if he just told her the best thing in the world.

"I do not–" Flo stopped herself. It was useless to deny it, at this point, if Aang knew. She gave Aang a glare with absolutely no heat behind it. "Shut up."

He laughed. "No thanks."

"So..." Katara carefully prodded. "We're good now?"

Flo sighed. "I don't know," she admitted. When they all tried to talk at once, Flo waved her hands out. "Whoa, hey! Not– guys, I don't– I'm not used to this! To having...people."

"People like friends?" Aang suggested with a large grin.

"But... The Freedom Fighters," muttered Sokka when Flo sheepishly nodded.

"Longshot was the closest thing I had to a friend, and he never talked. We just practiced with our arrows. Then there's Duke, but he's a kid," Flo explained. "I dated Jet but it wasn't a good relationship in the long run." She paused. Then frowned. "I think." Her knowledge about that kind of thing was limited, and she was honestly basing anything good off of her parent's marriage and what little she saw of it before her mom died. When none of them immediately reacted to her words, she looked up from where she stared at her hands, and asked a question, "So, like... What do friends do together?"

They beamed at her – bright and giddy and happy – and Flo nearly regretted her words. Keyword: nearly. It was honestly amusing to watch and listen to Aang and Katara interrupt one another to talk more with the occasional sentence or two, mostly teasing words and jokes, from Sokka.

(And Sokka would have spoken up more, if not just to annoy Katara, but as the younger two continued their antics, a natural smile started to gradually grow on Flo's face. It wasn't a big smile by any means, but it wasn't forced, or a half of one, or a ghost of a smile, or an amused smirk. It was, albeit small, natural and real, and he was completely fine with Katara and Aang taking the reins for now because he didn't think he could form too many words at the mome–.)

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

Sokka choked on air from getting caught staring, and Katara cackled while Aang hit his back.

Flo blinked, probably missing something, and frowned. "I am so confused." For some reason that made Katara laugh even harder.

***

A/N— Flo: smiles
Sokka: immediately becomes enamored

I was going to wait until I finished writing chapter 14 to post this, but for some reason I can't, for the life of me, get past the second scene, and I'm getting impatient with myself, so. Here's chapter 13 lmao!! Speaking of updating, I might not update again until I finish part one completely. After the Northern Air Temple, it's all going to take place in the North Pole, and I just feel like writing those chapters without the distraction of updating will be easier for me. So unless I'm able to somehow crank out 4-6 chapters within a week, don't expect an update for a while.

Shameless self promo time: I posted another a:tla fic! It's called Flamma Amoris, and its very angsty. It's not connected to this or the others, just fyi, and there isn't a love interest. It more so just about my oc developing as a person and maybe getting together with a minor oc. So, check it out if you want to!!