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“You’re fine when you fly with Appa?”
You grunted at the retort, wondering how many times you had to explain.
“He has a saddle and he is big. I can pretend I’m on a vehicle on the ground,” you tried explaining anyway, though they fell to deaf ears.
“Just think of me as Appa! Just smaller and less hairy, I even have the arrows to go with!” the avatar continued, excitedly jumping in front of you. Big gray eyes bore into yours, begging you to please give him a chance.
“And I proooomise I will not drop you! I won’t, promise!” he continued with his ramblings, staff out in his hands already. “You just have to hold me really tight, we can even ask Sokka if he can make you a custom-made harness to tie you against me.”
He really wanted you to come along. Ever since you had confided in Aang about your fear for heights the avatar had reacted by looking for every solution possible to get you into the air. For, so he believed; the only way to treat a phobia for heights was by exposing you to it.
“No, no, nonononono,” you pointed at the male, shaking your head furiously to accompany your words. “I already told you, Appa is fine, but Appa is also my limit,” you stood your ground, hoping that the male would finally let you off. Though you knew it was fruitless.
“Come on, [Name]!” Aang continued to whine, never one to give up. “If I gave up on firebending because I was afraid of fire I wouldn’t have beaten Ozai!” the male gave you, to which you rolled your eyes.
“Too bad I don’t have a flying Ozai I need to catch, huh?” you bit back, crossing your arms to close off the conversation. As much as you liked the male he was a handful whenever he put his mind to it.
“Think of your fear as an Ozai you need to beat!” Thinking himself witty Aang had brought up yet another argument to counter yours earning him another squint of the eye.
“That makes no sense?” you exclaimed with a groan before turning away from him. There was no arguing and it was a silly thing to get worked up over, you decided. “Anyway, not happening. Nope. No. Noooo,” you repeat yourself again as you walked back into the house.
Behind you Aang watched you retreat with sad eyes. He just wanted to share the joy of soaring through the sky.
“What about trying to fly on Appa without a saddle?”
The next morning Aang was back at it again. Immediately after breakfast he popped up next to you, smile wide on his face as if he had invented sliced bread.
Groaning you nearly smacked the door in his face again but decided against it.
“Fine, I will try your glider thing. But no higher than 5 feet from the ground,” you warned setting your conditions.
“Small steps, we can start with that,” elated the male nodded back at you, as he tapped his staff to reveal the wings. Of course he was ready to go immediately. “Hop on, passenger!” he exclaims, happiness radiating from his face.
“Where is Sokka’s harness?” you squirmed, feeling that you made a terrible mistake.
“Five feet is nothing. You will be fine without!” the male chirped back at you, either willfully ignoring your pale face or plain missing the point.
Appa without a saddle suddenly started to sound like a good idea.