Haruko had slept in the day after the fight. She hadn’t been planning to, she hated sleeping and the very prospect of the missing time she could’ve been using to work, but she had no energy after her brawl with Padma and ended up sleeping til about noon.

When Haruko did wake up, it was because of the light pouring in from her window and the sound of children’s voices from outside. It wasn’t a school day, which would’ve excited her if it didn’t mean having to pull another shift at Quan’s repair shop.

“Welp, gotta get up sometime.” The earthbender grumbled as she pulled herself out of bed. Her first objective of the day was a shower- she was still covered in dust from her fight and reeked of sweat and body odor. After that, she’d grab a quick breakfast (or lunch, at this time of day) and would head down to the shop.

After Haruko’s shower, she she walked downstairs to encounter an excited looking Aazir at the foot of the stairs. He was practically bouncing as he stood. “Haruko! You’re up!” He smiled.

“What happened?” Haruko asked. Even though he was the more enthusiastic of the two of them, it took alot to get Aazir this excited about something.

“There are airbenders in the plaza!” Aazir grabbed Haruko by the shoulders. From her stance on the bottom stair, she was taller than him. “Like, legit airbenders! From the Northern Air Temple! That’s not even close to here!”

“Huh….” Haruko pondered. “Wonder what they’re doing here.” She had heard stories of the airbenders before, peacebringers who brought the good will of the spirits wherever they went, but like a lot of things, she had never seen any in real life, only saw them on the vidset and in the movers Aazir made her take him to.

“C’mon! Let’s go see them!” Aazir said as he gestured to the door, clearly motioning for Haruko to follow him. “They probably are gonna leave soon, we gotta go meet them while they’re still here.”

Aazir was right, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, at least for those who lived in the middle of nowhere like Haruko did. Her work would have to wait.

Aazir dragged Haruko by the wrist the entire way to the plaza. It wasn’t that Haruko had put up any resistance, her younger brother just walked too fast for her to keep up.

When they finally got to the plaza, it was packed. A crowd had formed around a large animal- a sky bison - and two girls, around the ages of Haruko and Aazir respectively, both wearing crimson wingsuits and distributing supplies. Haruko couldn’t tell their features from so far away, other than that they both had bright blue arrow tattoos on their foreheads, just like in the movers and on the news.

“C’mon, let’s get closer!” Aazir exclaimed as he led Haruko through the crowd, once again by the wrist he hadn't let go of. Haruko had barely any time to object before they were standing in front of one of the airbenders. It was the taller of the two girls, and once they were closer Haruko could tell she was the older one. The airbender had pale skin, and light brown hair cut just above her shoulders. She had a thin, tall frame and eyes a color Haruko hadn’t ever seen before- a warm gray, like the color of tree bark.

“Hello.” The airbender greeted, and extended her hand. Haruko shook it.

“Uhhhh, I’m Haruko, and this is my brother, Aazir.” Haruko smiled awkwardly, putting her hand in her pocket.

“I’m Koto, and that’s Tahsi.” The airbender gestured to her companion. Haruko could now take in the other girl’s features, brown skin like Aunt Liling’s, olive green eyes like her own. She had dark hair, but it was shaved close to her scalp, exposing her round ears.

“We’re distributing supplies here after the rail line malfunction,” Koto explained. “Does your family need any food? Or medical supplies?” Haruko could feel Koto’s eyes go from the fresh cut across her lip, to the bruise on her jaw, to the bandage over her palm. She probably didn’t look too good right now.

“Uh…” Haruko thought. They had been running low on food for the season, and if the rail lines weren’t working, then they wouldn’t get any til spring at best. “Yeah. I guess we could.”

Koto nodded and pulled out a small notepad. “We’re distributing medical kits right now because they’re easier to distribute by mass, we’ll be making food deliveries later on Cloud.” She gestured to the bison behind her. “So can I get a family name and address down for that?”

“Uh. Saeed.” Haruko blurted out. Liling would be upset with her for using her father’s family name, but it was the first name she thought of. “As for the address, 1478, Sandridge avenue.”

“One order of food supplies for the Saeed family….” Koto muttered as she wrote in her notepad. “Could’ve sworn I’ve heard that name before. Anyways, it was nice meeting you!” Koto bowed at them both, using a gesture Haruko hadn’t seen before, she put her fists facing each other so the arrows on her hands would face each other. Haruko awkwardly imitated it out of respect.

“Do you guys have anywhere to stay?” Aazir blurted out.

“Aazir!” Haruko snapped at her brother.

“What, if they’re doing all these deliveries it’s gonna take them more than one day!” The boy retorted.

“Actually, we don’t.” Koto glanced to Tashi. “I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”

Something about the way the airbender said that stuck with Haruko, it made her want to know more about Koto. She was used to the way people acted in Jing Zi, but Koto was nothing like any of that.

“You could come stay with us!” Aazir offered.

“Aazir!” Haruko said through gritted teeth- she didn’t want to seem hostile to the outsiders, but she doubted Liling would be too happy about bringing home strangers.

“Really?” Koto smiled. “That’s very kind of you.” She called over Tashi and explained the situation to her.

“That sounds great!” Tashi exclaimed. “And way better than sleeping in a random inn. I hate inns.”

“So…. it’s settled?” Haruko asked. She still wasn’t convinced in the plan’s success, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now.

Koto nodded. “Yeah, we’ll finish up here and then head to your place.”

It didn’t take long for Koto and Tashi to finish distributing medical kits, and before she knew it, Haruko was leading the two air nomads and their giant bison to their home.

“Your bison’s pretty big.” Haruko said. She hadn’t meant to say something so obvious, she just was trying to make conversation and it was the first thing to come to mind.

“Cloud? Yeah.” Koto smiled. “She’s actually kind of small for a bison of her age.”

“Cool.” Haruko replied. “I actually have a meerfox. They’re native around here and

usually feral, I don’t know how I convinced Aunt Liling to let me keep little Pasha.”

At the sound of her name, Pasha climbed out of Haruko’s hood and sat on her shoulder.

“Aw, cute!” Koto scratched Pasha’s head, the unexpected closeness made Haruko’s heart race.

“Anyways.” Koto continued. “Are we going to a house or a repair shop? Because I’ve heard both.”

“Oh… uhh.” Haruko stammered. “It’s both, kind of. The repair shop is right next to our house, our uncle bought both properties a while ago back when land was really cheap because of the sandbender relocation act.” It struck Haruko that she was giving Koto too much information. “Anyways, Aazir and I were thinking you could probably keep your bison- uh, Cloud- in the yard of the shop. It’s not perfect but-”

“Thank you.” Koto cut her off. “Again, the alternative was a random inn. You’re being way more hospitable than you need to be already.”

Haruko smiled, then realized where they were. “Uh, we’re here!” The gestured to the small house and adjacent repair shop. She was briefly struck with the thought that to their companions, their home was nothing but a stop to stay for the night, and their real home was no doubt more beautiful, not to mention bigger.

“Uh, we should get inside.” Haruko said. Aazir was already at the door.

Koto said something to Tahsi before joining them. “Alright.” The airbender smiled.

The lights were on when the group walked in, which meant that Liling was home. Haruko directed the air nomads into the living room.

“Aunt Liling!” Aazir called into the kitchen. Apparently, he was more observant than Haruko and had noticed which room she was in. “We have guests!”

Liling marched from the kitchen, wearing a beige cloth apron embroidered with pastel flowers. “I swear if it’s more of your troublesome- Oh!” Liling’s eyes lit up at the sight of the airbenders.

Koto stood up and bowed to Liling, the same gesture she had done in the square. “We don’t mean to be rude, my companion and I are peacekeepers traveling to deliver supplies in your area and needed a place to stay for the night. Your niece and nephew offered your home, I hope that’s alright.” She sounded so calm, so confident in the way she spoke, Haruko guessed she spoke with authority figures all her life.

“Oh, it’s not a problem at all” Liling smiled and patted Koto on the shoulder. “Your people have done so much good for this world, you and your friend are always welcome in my home.”

Tashi jumped to her feet and enveloped Liling in a sudden hug. “Thank you!” The woman seemed surprised but didn’t object other than gently patting her on the back.

Koto gently pulled Tashi away, Liling straightened her glasses. “Well, I’m going to continue making dinner, you air nomads are vegetarian, right?”

Koto nodded. “Yep.”

“Alright, I’ll make sure to make something special for you two, it’s not often we have such important guests over!” Liling smiled before returning to the kitchen.

As soon as her aunt was gone from the room, Haruko turned to face the group. “Ok, uh, Aazir, you can help Tashi go figure out where she and Koto are gonna sleep.” She turned to the air nomads. “We don’t have any spare rooms, but we have couches and spare beds. I’ll help Koto get Cloud situated.”

As Tashi and Aazir ran upstairs, Koto turned to Haruko. “You’re quite the leader.” She remarked.

“Eh, that’s just bossing around my little brother.” Haruko shrugged. “Pretty easy stuff.”

Koto laughed, covering her mouth with a hand. “I wouldn’t know anything about that, I just have older brothers. But we should go, Cloud’s gonna get impatient.”

“If we clear out that.” Koto gestured to the piles of crates and scrap metal across the yard, “And get some soft blankets or something out here, I think this should do.”

Haruko nodded. “Alright, let’s get this cleared out.” She walked over to one of the piles of crates and dropped into a bending stance. “Stand back” She warned Koto before gently lifting ground a few inches and moving the crates to the side of the yard.

“You’re a pretty good earthbender.” Koto commented as Haruko continued to clear scrap.

“Thanks.” Haruko replied after she had cleared a sizeable area in the yard. “Though this technique’s pretty simple. I’d offer to show you, but … y’know.”

“Do you not get many other types of benders here?” Koto asked.

“Nah, it’s mostly just earthbenders. Sizable amount of us are sandbenders from the Si Wong desert, me and Aazir included, but that’s still just earth. I’m pretty sure there was a waterbender at our school once, but she graduated a few years ago and I haven’t seen her since.”

“Huh….” Koto looked to the horizon, lost in thought. Her hair seemed to float in the wind for a brief moment, until Haruko cleared her throat and Koto returned her attention to her.

“Uh… you were saying earlier how some blankets would be good… and we have some in the shop…. That we could use.” Haruko stammered. “If that’s good.”

Koto smiled. “Sounds great.”