#tloa

aang found any reason to be near you, which was easy enough since he was the counselor for your brother cabin. you two sat across from each other in the mess hall, surrounded by your eight year old campers.

“miss teacher,” one of them hollered in a squeaky voice. “miss teacher, do you have a crush on anyone?”

aang didn’t miss the way your cheeks flushed at the question. “no, i don’t,” you answered cordially, sneaking a glance at aang’s disbelieving expression. “min-li, do you have a crush?” you asked her back. she looked in the direction of one of the boys from aang’s cabin then vigorously shook her head.

you and aang looked at each other and laughed. when everyone finished eating, you and aang stood at the front of the mess hall and called for your cabins to line up to go out for arts and crafts.

you stood and inch apart, and aang could have sworn to the spirits that there was an electric current flowing between you.

he nudged you with his shoulder. “so you don’t have a crush on anyone?”

“none that min-li needs to know about,” you said, blush creeping across your cheeks.

“and can i know?” aang asked.

your conversation was juvenile, more like one that the girls of your cabin would have with one another, but aang gave you a giddy and childish feeling.

so, you smiled sweetly. “no. you can’t know,” you said as the kids lined up in front of you. “we’re going to be late for our crafts rotation.”

aang sat at a table with his campers in the crafts cabin. while they made sun catchers out of plastic plates, glue, and tissue paper, aang worked on beading a friendship bracelet for you.

while his nimble fingers wove the clear string through pearlescent beads, he thought of the conversation he’d had with sokka earlier that week during his allotted slot with the one phone at camp cypress.

he had looked around the office to make sure you weren’t lurking in the hallway somewhere to overhear him gushing about you. “sokka, you have no idea how beautiful this girl is,” he had said to his friend. “she’s like, i dunno, sunshine. just like, bright and bubbly and perfect.”

“too bad you’ll never see her again after this summer,” sokka had teased him.

the thought had bugged him, because how could someone like you only exist to aang for two short months.

“maaybe she doesn’t mind long distance,” aang had said to sokka. then it occurred to him, he didn’t know where you went to college, or even where you were from.

he could almost hear sokka’s face flatten. “right, because you’re mister long distance.”

aang had scoffed into the phone. “hey, i am faithful!”

“yeah, but imagine you can’t see your girlfriend or touch her,” sokka had dutifully pointed out. “you wouldn’t be able to kiss her or take her out to dinner. if you ask me, you’d be like a puppy who loves to get kicked.”

aang had rolled his eyes. “remind me to tell katara to keep momo away from you,” he said.

now, he watched you as you showed the girls of your cabin how you made a heart out of the tissue paper on your plate. you helped the young girls shape their paper into stars and hearts and fun swirling patterns as aang watched you, enraptured by every word you said. plus, as you bent over the table to help them, he got a decent view of your cleavage through the gap between your shirt’s chopped off collar and your chest, so that was nothing to complain about.

when he finally snapped out of his reminiscence, aang looked up to see that you were standing behind him.

“that’s really pretty,” you cooed. “i love those beads. i thought we were all out of them.” you frowned as you looked at the pearlescent beads on the bracelet he was making.

aang cleared his throat and his cheeks flushed, flustered you were standing so close. “oh, thanks. um, it’s for you.”

he watched as your eyes lit up. “really?” you asked excitedly, gaining a few stares from the girls in your cabin. “awww, thank you aang.”

“miss teacher soooooo has a crush on counselor guy,” you heard min-li say in her singsongy tone to the other girls.

you rolled your eyes. “are you looking forward to flag football?” you asked aang as he tied the completed bracelet to your wrist.

“ready to kick your butt,” aang teased.

you snorted. “i don’t think you’ve seen min-li play any kind of semi-contact sport. that girl is insane.”

aang paused for a minute, watching you admire the bracelet he’d made for you. “want to make a little bet?” he whispered.

“sure, why not?” you chirped. “it’s not like i’m gonna lose.”

he admired your cockiness, amongst other things. “if the boys win, you have to sit with me at dinner and answer all my questions about your life,” aang said. this seemed like a sure fire way to get to know you (because apparently just asking wasn’t an option). “and, well, what do you want if you win?”

quietly, you thought it over. “i get all of your dessert until the end of camp and you have to make me a picnic,” you answered jovially. “and the same, questions and blah blah blah.”

aang stuck out his hand and you shook on it. win or lose, aang would get to learn more about you, and you would either get dessert until your colorful plaid shorts no longer fit, or better company than your eight year olds for dinner.

either way, it seemed to be a win-win for both of you.

later that evening, the elementary cabins met in the large field, surrounded by the forest’s tree line. you helped the girls clip their flag belts on while aang helped the boys. when you were ready, both of your teams lined up facing the other in the center of the field. at the sound of aang’s whistle, most of the campers jetted off toward the perimeter of the field. you followed in the direction of a group of boys as you watched min-li zipping through the field, snatching blue flag belts from the boys as they lobbed the foam football to one another.

soon, it got down to aang, you, and seventy-five percent of your cabin. aang firmly held onto the ball as he expertly dodged the little girls trying to yank the flag from his waist.

you winked at min-li, who dropped to the ground and yelped in pain. aang was closest to her, so he tucked the ball under his arm and started to bend down to check on her.

“actually, i think i’m fine,” she said quickly, as you moved into position behind aang. “i think i just tripped on a root or something.”

before he could run away, you tapped aang on his shoulder. aang spun to face you as you reached out and yanked the belt off his waist. “i win.”

one of the boys screamed across the field. “that’s no fair, these ladies cheated!”

“meelo, let’s not be sore losers,” aang tutted. “these ladies won fair and square.”

you leaned in close to aang and sang in his ear, “and i won your desserts.”

after everyone washed up for dinner, you and aang convinced two of your fellow counselors to supervise your cabins so you sneak into the woods for your picnic. surrounded by the stunning landscape of the forest you and aang interrogated each other for hours.

he asked where you lived (republic city), where you went to school (ba sing se university), if you had any siblings (one sister and one brother), were your parents still married (no, they weren’t). he asked you what your favorite color was, if you’d seen any good movies lately, if you had a favorite number, how did you like your wear your hair most often, did you prefer to shop at a mall or order online.

eventually, when you both exhausted the questions of things you wanted to know about each other, aang leaned across the blanket to kiss you. it was a deep, passionate kiss. the kind your friends warned you might ruin your life when you told them you were going off to be a camp counselor. aang leaned you back on the blanket, his hands exploring your body, slipping under your shirt as the stars twinkled gorgeously so above you.