savedtheworld | Book 14: Autumn Breeze

[Action]

[The day is off to a normal start for Aang, starting with airbending practice. He also spends some of the morning using airbending to play around with the leaves on the front lawn of House 56.

After school, he then spends some time cooking at the bakery. He puts together a mix of cookies, cupcakes and some fruit pies of different flavors, and anyone can pop in while he's working on that. He leaves some at the bakery and takes the rest to the Welcome Center, where he sets them up as treats for visiting New Feathers. He spends some time lingering there to do what Welcome Center-ing work there is to be done. And before heading home for dinner, he takes Appa out for a ride flying in the air over Luceti.]

[Video]

[While Aang's at the Welcome Center, he sets up a video. The treats he prepared are visible on a table in the background. Those who met him during the last experiment can probably pick up over the video that he now looks 15-ish rather than 12, although it's easier to tell the difference in person.]

Hello. How is everyone? It's Aang here, and I've got a few things I wanted to say. First of all, isn't it great that it's autumn now? That's like the best time of the year! Does anyone know any fun things you like to do in autumn? I'd like to try out all kinds of new things.

I... also wanted to say something about the way I was a few weeks ago. When I was littler again. I lied and told some of you I wasn't the Avatar, but I really am. I'm sorry about that. [He pauses for a moment.] Other than that... I left some treats out in the Welcome Center to help greet any New Feathers! If you have any questions about this place, one of us there will do our best to help you. I know lots of things can be confusing and unfamiliar in this place. Come to think of it... Is it just me, or is this New Feather cycle going on longer than usual?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I do. [And almost instantly, her face is transformed. The smile nearly stretches from ear to ear and her grey eyes sparkle some. She'll never forget the look on her sister's face when she walked into the house and saw the party Katniss had so carefully set up. So many people had turned out. India the goat had behaved. It had been perfect.] She never had a party like that before. It was perfect.

I'm glad that it was. [He smiles - he feels very glad and satisfied just to see Katniss's smile.

Someone like that... How could she be bad?]

And I bet there'll be other times in the future. With your help, Katniss... she'll have as much happiness as she deserves.

[And as much life.]

She will.

[There's no doubt in her voice on that. Since Prim's arrival, Katniss vowed to do whatever it takes to keep her sister here. To keep her safe and alive and able to live the life that had been denied to her. She has Buttercup here, and she now has India. Maybe... maybe if their mother could be here, too, that would make life perfect for her sister.

Katniss, though, is happy to keep her mother far away.]

But I'm lucky to have help.

[He nods with a warm smile.]

I bet that help's just honored to help people like you and your sister. He feels lucky, too.

[Does that mean that he's forgiven her? Or, at least, forgiven her as much as he can? If that, even, was even the right term. But things had been different since August. Different enough that hearing this meant a lot to her.

If, maybe, he hadn't been behind the counter, if she were still that girl from the last shift, she'd give him a hug.

But the warm smile would have to do.]

I'm glad.

[It's a complicated matter. He's not sure that what he truly understand or forgive those actions of hers... but that's because he's come to accept that those actions are part of an entire different world and an entire different culture. If he looks at just this Katniss, in front of him now? Based on everything he knows of her in this world? He still sees her as someone he cares for and someone he trusts. Enough to be detached from those complicated events on her own world.]

I'm glad too, Katniss. You know, you should grab some extra treats for Prim, too.

[She had already planned on giving most of the treats she had been gathering to Prim. Maybe a few to Richard. Or just leave them out on the counter where anyone in the household could claim them in a free for all.

But... It couldn't hurt to take a few more, could it?]

You don't mind?

Of course not! It's like we were just talking about - we're gonna work on making Prim happy. And let me tell you something. Some of these cookies? I filled with special Avatar happiness powers!

[Even as her grey eyes regard him suspiciously, Katniss finds herself smiling. Special Avatar happiness powers. If anyone has special powers of happiness, it would be this boy.]

Guaranteed to bring a smile to anyone's face?

[If he's making Katniss smile like that, he knows that he has some powers that work.]

Yep!

[He holds up a cookie between two fingers as if it's a valuable coin and winks.]

And they work extra special on people whose names start with "P" and end with "rose"!

[She's not certain if she believes that. If anything, they might work extra special on people whose names start with "K" and end with "S". Not that she'll ever say so aloud. Even if her widening smile is some indication.

It feels good to smile like this. Like it's something she hasn't done in a long time.]

Isn't that unfair to everyone else?

I guess so... Unless you call them "peveryone elserose' instead!

[That even gets a faint chuckle. It's a mouthful, a name like that. And maybe not all that funny if she thinks on it.

But she appreciates the joke anyway.]

[And he chuckles right back.]

So feel free to take your pic.

I will. [She smiles and then, feeling a little impulsive, walks to the other side of the counter to give Aang a hug. Hopefully, he doesn't mind. Hopefully, he understands.] Thank you.

[Um hugs are the least thing he will ever object to. He smiles warmly as he lets her hug him and then wraps his own arms around her.]

You're welcome, Katniss.

Book 14: Autumn Breeze

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