#al001

The days started bleeding into each other. She had no idea whether it had been a few weeks that she had been gone, or much longer. Usually she was better at keeping track of the time, but for some reason it wasn’t the case this time. Maybe it was the fact that she was away from Al for so long, much longer than she wanted to be. Or maybe it was the fact that this mission almost reminded her of the time she joined with Sokka and the rest, the moment she found out Ozai’s horrible plan to wipe out the world. She remembered that day vividly, and it still haunted her at night, especially on nights when she wasn’t next to Al.

All she wanted to do was return home to her love, and finally have some time to decompress. Hopefully she would be able to do that now that everything was taken care of. A part of her didn’t even want to think about what she had to do, what she had to endure over that long period of time. The fact that she didn’t have Al along with her on this mission was also a factor. It wasn’t really that she didn’t want him there, but more that she couldn’t. From the moment that she bared her heart to him and realized the sheer amount of feelings that she felt for him, she didn’t want to lose herself in him. She never wanted to be the kind of woman that would allow a man to do her work for her, to protect her all the time, to save her when she didn’t need saving. And she was worried that she was slowly starting to get to that level. In order to preserve the strength she had left, she had him stay on Kyoshi Island.

But now she was back and all she wanted to think about was him. It was supposed to be a sweet reunion, the kind filled with happiness and love. She wasn’t going to let the past get in the way of her present, her future, her “right now” moment.