It was a relief to wander through the forest near the stone house now that the giant bugs were gone. Aang had wondered if he would ever get the smell of all their guts out of his nose for a little while there. Thankfully, he had, and the hugging had come along to be distracting too. He was aware people weren’t all enjoying it – even if it was hard to imagine not liking hugs. He was a little worried Zuko especially wasn’t having a good time.
Which was why he’d grabbed Zuko by an arm and pulled him out of the stone house for a walk. This probably wasn’t the best strategy, trading one forced socialization for another, but Aang was thirteen and overenthusiastic in all things. Besides, it was a nice day!
“So! How are you holding up this week?” he teased, balancing precariously on a log and then, with a small burst of air, hopping over to a string of rocks. Appa trundled along behind them, slow and steady and about as subtle as an earthquake. “I promise not to hug you if you say not well.”
Zuko had trudged along beside Aang, unwilling or unable to copy the younger boy's movements. Instead, he just jumped up to the log and then immediately over to the rocks with practiced skill and leg power. There was still a part of him that felt he had to show he could do anything the Avatar could do, even though he no longer felt any kind of actual resentment. Challenging himself, his uncle would likely say.
Shrugging, he zapped a small insect out of the air - they all deserved it, he'd already decided. "I'm fine. I'd be more fine if I could get a week or two of not being compelled to do something I wouldn't normally do."
Aang’s cheeky smile dropped off like a stone.“Oh. Yeah. That’s very very very fair. I’m sorry you keep getting hit with these things.”
Frowning, he hopped off his string of rocks to start looking for berry bushes. He was thinking over ideas on how to cheer Zuko up when a tree a little deeper into the forest started to rattle. The bushes next to it joined in shortly after. There was something big making snuffling noises and Appa lifted his wide face to sniff the air.
“Ummmmmmmmm. We might have company,” Aang whispered theatrically.
Zuko looked at Aang with his usual flat expression, then over at the moving vegetation. "Come on, I'm not going to fall for this." He took a few steps towards the movement and shouted, "Toph! Sokka! Give it up and get out here, you're not scaring me." Inwardly, he was a little pleased they'd go this far to prank him and put some real effort into it, but he didn't want to look like just every little thing in the forest would make him jump.
He turned a little triumphantly to Aang, mild smirk on his face. "Did you set this up?"
Zuko’s smirk made Aang wish he had set this up. But he had no clue what this even was. He rubbed at the back of his bald head and watched the vegetation continue to rustle and creak. “Uhhhh, as much as I want to say yes, totally me, ha ha, gotcha! Iiiiii….can’t.”
Realizing he was talking at a normal level to match Zuko, he dropped his voice back to a hissing whisper. “I don’t know what that is but it sounds bi--”
Appa cut him off, galloping past him and crashing through the bushes. “Appa wait! It could be a monster!” Aang threw his hands up in the air when his sky bison ignored him completely and disappeared from view. “I guess we should go after him. Maybe somebody’s hurt.”
Instead of answering, Zuko's instincts kicked in and he launched himself after Appa. It wasn't normal for Appa to go barrelling into the unknown without Aang -- or even with Aang, really. The sky bison was usually very… chill, as Ryuji would say. So, dodging torn branches and scattered leaves, he was quickly through the brush and taking on a defensive stance just in case something tried to come at them.
Except nothing was coming at anyone. In fact, he had to rub his eyes. Was he seeing double?
Aang was only a step behind Zuko but light as a feather as he picked up the air around them and pushed them both forward with a little more speed. It made their stop a little abrupt but Aang was too busy blinking at the two bisons charmingly circling each other.
“...Oh!!” One of the bisons jumped at Aang’s gleeful shout. The differences between the two - and the things that Aang instantly recognized as Appa - started to become more obvious as the other bison turned and shuffled towards them.
“Hi there! Oh wow, I think it’s a girl, Zuko.” It had been a long time since Aang had seen another sky bison but there were little ways they’d been able to tell them apart. The bison sniffed at Aang’s chest, bumping him back a step, and he laughed. Then she turned and snuffled wetly at Zuko’s face.
"Uh," answered Zuko, deft at language and wit. "Hello."
He quickly splayed a hand out at Aang in the universal help me, help me gesture. Failing that, he raised his other hand in greeting, like it would mean anything to a sky bison. Unlike Aang, he couldn't really tell them apart, but this one was clearly the newer one if it needed to… smell him? "I am not a cabbage," he asserted, completing his greeting and confirming that he would, in fact, not taste good.
"Do we, uhm. Need to find her owner?"
Aang snickered with his hands over his belly. He seemed in no hurry to “rescue” Zuko, but if the bison turned aggressive, the Avatar would be quick to help his friend. Zuko had a good point though. It hadn’t occurred to him that someone bonded to the bison might be around.
“Maybe another airbender has shown up?” It wasn’t smart to get his hopes up but Aang was king of getting his hopes up. His face lit up and he stepped over to scratch at the bison’s furry face. “Do you have a friend here or are you alone?” She turned to lick the whole side of Aang’s face.
“Blegh. Thanks,” he deadpanned. “I don’t know, Zuko. She doesn’t seem to be searching for anyone.”
"Maybe they're nearby, then," suggested Zuko, peering off towards the treeline. He wasn't entirely sure how it worked with sky bison and airbenders, or even if it had to be airbenders or if that was just how it had always worked out since they were airbenders or if they were airbenders why couldn't airbenders fly on their own and really, he didn't have room to talk because he had a turtleduck and that had nothing to do with fire.
"Hello, anyone out there? Is this your bison?" Two beats, three. With no answer, Zuko shrugged. "I guess she's yours until someone claims her, Aang."
Aang laughed and scratched under the bison’s chin, like Appa liked. Appa seemed unbothered by the usurper as he chomped on a berry bush, ripped it out of the ground, and carried it over to his new friend. He’d liked having another bison around and then had that taken away. Aang hoped this one got to stick around for longer.
“I don’t know about mine, but I think Appa and I will make a good welcoming party.” He grinned, a flash of bright energy to chase away the sadness thinking about the sky bison always gave him. “Do you want to see if she’ll let you ride her?”
"Sure!" answered Zuko, a bit more enthusiastically than he intended. "I mean, it couldn't hurt. She'd know we're friends and we'd know she trusts us. Right?" Settling his features, he tried to look serious and unbothered, but there was something about flying he'd always enjoyed. That sense of freedom, it was a big deal. He'd always secretly wondered if his great-grandfather's real reason for attacking the air nomads was just pure jealousy.
He didn't think the lack of a saddle would pose much of an issue, but he waited for Aang's go ahead before leaping on the bison's back. Maybe there was something that had to be done first, like asking permission or something airbender-ish. So he just looked back at Aang, with some kind of mixture of serious expression and hopeful eyes. "Well?"
Aang beamed even brighter and whooshed up on a blast of air in front of the bison’s face. Her eyes lit up and she lifted her snout to track his movement. He touched down in front of Zuko and clapped a hand on his back supportively.
“What do you say, mysterious bison lady?” He lowered his voice into an aside. “We’ll have to think of a name but first...care to take my friend for a ride?” He nudged Zuko towards her and then swept off like a hummingbird towards Appa, who was grazing lazily nearby.
“We’ll show you the way, come on!” He leapt up into the saddle and looked up at the treetops to see if there was enough room to take off. Appa promptly dropped the branch he was slowly gnawing on. Probably because he knew he’d get better at home. “Yip, yip!”
The other bison - Aang was right, they'd need to come up with a name, even if it was temporary - watched Appa rise into the air and moved to follow almost immediately. Zuko quickly lept onto her back and grasped two handfuls of her fur where his 'determined to succeed' face eventually gave way to a more jubilant expression as they soared into the sky. He didn't realize it, but he'd come a long way from sullenly sitting in Appa's saddle as they flew towards dealing with his father.
If anyone claimed to see a smiling Zuko riding across the sky with a smile on his face, though, they'd be met with a denial and possibly a challenge.