parallel lines

chapter xviii

Word Count: 3, 232 words

CHAPTER XVIII: 花は桜木人は武士

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Spring was a real beauty to everyone - flowers were in bloom, the skies are as blue as ever, colors would jump up from everywhere, rebirth of new and old, even the blind who appreciate the feeling of soft grass against their bare feet.

"That's not grass, Appa's shedding."

And all the more reason spring was a beautiful weather, animals also have the time of their lives doing whatever they please and shedding was what Appa wanted to do, rebirth through philosophical meanings of his fur falling of and growing again.

"Eew, gross."

Not everyone thought what Appa wasn't doing most probably unintentionally was the epitome of spring, at least one in their group wasn't convinced. Being surrounded by males wasn't always that bad, but seeing Sokka and Aang play around with the fur is just not for her.

"I'm just glad we finally have another girl in the group, because you two are disgusting."

Katara was covered in fur when Natsuko looked at her from the saddle, while Toph joined in on the disgusting things the other boys are doing, her armpits filled with Appa's shedding which is doomed to itch a little later. Aang, who just sneezed and was on laughing about it asked Katara about his other half, "What about Natsuko? She's a girl too."

"Natsuko is not always with us - being kidnapped and asked to do a job, even Toph didn't make much of a fuss but she went along with anyway."

"All for a good reason too." Natsuko threw the remaining of the sleeping bags down to Sokka who gave out an oof in contact with his stomach, which made all of them laugh even more and Katara joined in, chuckling at her idiotic brother.

Of flowers, the cherry blossom; of men, the warrior.

They were setting up camp somewhere and Natsuko was gathering water from a stream, coming back she felt as if the two other girls were fighting with one another about something with not helping and judging by the far end where Toph sets up her own tent. With all honesty, she knew that this was bound to happen anytime but didn't realize it would happen so soon, with being opposite to one another and judging by the way they lived it wasn't that hard to theorize it.

What actually made matters worse was the fact that Toph sensed something fast trailing behind them, cutting off what was supposed to be a good night's sleep, for Appa mostly. They saw smoke coming out of machinery that was able to travel at a fast pace once they were on air and got down to the ground at a long distance, still setting up the camp and tries to forget about the weird thing they just saw. Natsuko didn't need sleep but her head was pounding and throbbing due to the way she was woken up during her conversation with another half of her, it didn't help when the two girls were more vocal with their problems about one another too.

"Should we do something?" Aang asked beside Sokka and Natsuko.

"Hey, I'm just enjoying the show." Sokka said cheekily.

"I'm not." Natsuko opened her sleeping bag to ease her headache but her much bigger headache shouted "I'm completely calm!" before finally staying silent.

To their dismay, it wasn't until a few minutes when Katara was saying things about the stars being beautiful tonight and just being childish to make fun of Toph's disability. After another few minutes, she was sent flying with Toph's earthbending in which she totally deserved. And then another few minutes, the thing was back with the smoke could be clearly seen from the trees, making them fly away for the second time.