Y/N's POV

          Y/N was running low on money again. She stood in the marketplace of a small neutral town, looking at the two silver pieces left in her palm. She opened her bag, hesitantly looking at the contents. Some food, the Fire Nation silks, some rope, and her old belt, still attached to the custom water containers. 

          She was hesitant to sell the silks, although it would probably pay for a ride back home, and enough food to feed the village for several months. It didn't feel right, even though it was a gift, and rightfully hers to make the choice.

          She sighed, closing her bag, and paying a vendor for the fruits she had just picked out, leaving her with one silver piece.

          "Thank you, have a nice day!" The old saleswoman smiled brightly, her energetic and kind demeanor making it impossible to not feel the same. Y/N smiled back, waving politely as she made her way through the streets.

          I still don't know what to do yet. Y/N sat down next to an inn, picking a fruit and taking a bite, watching the villagers go by with their carts and baskets. Should I get a job, make enough money, and go home?

          "You need to stop impulsively buying stuff like this. It doesn't even work!" Y/N's eyes widened in disbelief, snapping her from her thoughts. She knew that voice way too well. She abruptly stood up, stuffing the remaining fruits in her bag and looking around.

          "You don't know that. I just really think I needed it." Y/N spotted the trio, walking towards her. Aang held a small object that looked to be some sort of whistle, obviously the thing he and Sokka were arguing about. Katara and Y/N met gazes at the same time, both perfectly frozen for only a second before Y/N ran forward.

          "Y/N?!" Sokka yelped in confusion as Y/N pulled them both into a hug, squeezing them tightly. Katara hugged back, dropping her bag and laughing.

          "I feared the worst." Y/N said in a strangled voice as Sokka hesitantly returned the hug. "How could you two leave me like that? I nearly died worrying."

          "We're fine, Y/N." Katara rolled her eyes as Y/N pulled away. Sokka crosses his arms, but yelped when Y/N smacked them both across the face.

          "I don't know what the heck you all were thinking." Y/N crossed her arms, looking at each of them pointedly.

          "Hey! We knew you wouldn't let us go, and you never leave home! What are you doing here??" Sokka asked, rubbing his cheek with a sour expression.

          "I would've come with if I'd known your minds couldn't be changed! I'm here to make sure you both are safe, and not DEAD." Y/N shook a finger at her siblings, then turned towards Aang, who flinched. 

          "I appreciate the kind gesture for our people, but you've also dragged along my siblings without my permission. I've got my eye on you." She pointed two fingers at her eyes and then towards Aang, who gave her a wide grin in response.

          "Wait, you aren't here to take us home?" Sokka asked hopefully, but got a glare in response.

          "I can't force you to come back, I realize that now." Y/N sighed. "I'm still going to try convincing you, but for now, I just need peace of mind that you're in my sight and safe. Maybe once... uh... should we be worried about that?" Y/N became distracted from her words by a hoard of pirates running towards them.

          Sokka, Katara, and Aang turned around, spotting them.

          "RUN!" Sokka yelled, dragging Y/N along with him as they all began to sprint in the opposite direction. Y/N stumbled a bit before getting her feet under her, blindly following Aang as they tore through the streets, the band of pirates close behind.

          "What did you do?!" Y/N yelled at none of them in particular, dodging a stray sword and a cart full of cabbages. Aang airbent the cart towards the main group of pirates, knocking them back and making cabbages fly in every direction.

          "We didn't do anything! We just looked at the cool stuff on their ship!" Sokka yelled back. The group turned another corner, then stopped dead. Shoot. A dead end. They turned back to see the pirates advancing slowly, knowing they had caught them. 

          Y/N quickly whipped open her bag, strapping the water containers onto her waist and taking a stance, ready to fight, but the Avatar apparently had other ideas.

          "Grab on!" He yelled, flicking his glider open and running straight at the pirates. Y/N glanced at her siblings. This is a terrible idea, she thought, running up to Aang and grabbing one of his ankles as he lifted off the ground. Her siblings did the same, both of them grabbing the other leg, and they unsteadily flew up into the air.

          "Aang, I swear if you drop us I'll murder you and wait patiently for the waterbending Avatar to kill you twice." Y/N warned as they swooped through the air, lopsided and nearly hitting every single squat building they flew over.

                             —|〰️〰️〰️|—

          "I'd say that went rather well." Aang said cheerfully, sitting next to the waterfall, apparently this was where they had been camping.

          "You dropped me in the trees, and Sokka fell in the river. I hit 25 branches on the way down." Y/N pointed out, pulling pine needles, sticks, and leaves from her hair. "Why were they chasing us anyways?"

          "I kinda took this." Katara mumbled, taking out a blue scroll.

          "The waterbending scroll!" Sokka yelled, wringing out his hair. "I can't believe you stole it! We could've been killed!"

          "I didn't steal it. This belongs to the waterbenders. They stole it from us." She yelled back. Y/N opened her mouth to say something, but Aang jumped in.

          "Well, it's in the past, and as long as we have it, we might as well learn from it, right?" He snatched it up, propping it on a nearby stump and starting to bend the water around.

          "At least you two didn't break anything." Katara said with a smile, arranging the newly bought supplies. 

          "Says the girl who got a nice easy landing, got us into this mess, with no trees in her hair." Y/N stuck out her tongue, but gasped as a huge wall of water crashed over her. Aang relaxed his waterbending stance, grinning at her.

          "There! Now your hair's clean!" He said in a chipper tone. Y/N spat out some mud, sitting up with her H/C hair plastered on her face, her Earth Kingdom clothes sticking to her. 

          "I could've done that myself." Y/N complained, taking a few moments to disperse the water from her clothes and hair. 

          "Woah, how'd you do that?" Aang ran over, looking at her now dry clothes. 

          "Y/N is better with the little details of waterbending, while I've gotten better than her with larger attacks and volumes of water." Katara explained, and Y/N snorted.

          "You wish you were better than me." She said sassily, and Katara huffed, looking like she might argue, but she turned back towards Aang.

          "Ahem. Meaning she's good with converting water in its different forms, and extracting water from things. She could dehydrate the seal jerky in seconds, so we didn't have to dry it. Her REAL waterbending could use work though." She explained. 

          "Oh, you wanna fight? It's only been about two weeks since I destroyed you, and you've gotten so high and mighty all of a sudden? Right now, little sis, I'll beat your sorry-"

          "Fire Nation? They don't make canteens like this." Sokka interrupted, poking at the two containers strapped to Y/N's waist. Y/N paused, looking at him.

          "The symbol is really small too, a lot smaller than regular factories would make them." Sokka tapped the symbol, lightly engraved into the back of each container. "And it isn't black. These are custom made or something." Sokka, why to you actually have a good head on your shoulders sometimes?

          "That's a good point." Aang joined in, but probably not to agree with Sokka, but to prevent the fight between sisters. "Where'd you get them?" Y/N stepped back from the sudden barrage of questions.

          "Ummm..."

          "Mind you, the craftsmanship is good, but obviously they haven't done anything like this before, and they left certain prints on the fused metal. They almost look like fingerprints." Sokka unlatched one to look closer, and Y/N let him, actually curious about his observations.

          "They are fingerprints, they make a cool little design on the seams." Aang now seemed genuinely interested, and Y/N frowned, thinking as she studied the other one. A real Fire Nation factory or worker, whatever they were, would just use the tools they had. 

          "Y/N, you're being quiet." Katara pointed out. "Where did you get these?" Y/N looked at the three clustered around her, then down at the handmade containers.

          It hit her only a few moments later, and the words she probably shouldn't say came out of her mouth at the same time she thought them.

          "Zuko," She said simply. "Zuko made these himself."