Much Ado About Nothing
A Silly Avatarfic by Anonde
Just a short, not to be taken seriously, hopefully will tickle your funny bone silly Avatarfic.
Shortly after defeating the Fire Navy Fleet at the North Pole and before Pakku's company set sail for the Southern Water Tribe, Aang came up with the -brilliant- idea of learning firebending from Avatar Roku.
Go
"I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. You can teach me firebending, Avatar Roku."
"Uh, Aang-"
"This way I won't have to look for Jeong Jeong or another Firebending Master to teach me firebending."
"Aang-"
"Is Avatar Kyoshi around here? She could teach me earthbend-"
"Aang!"
"Huh? What, Avatar Roku?"
His previous reincarnation sighed before gently reminding the young Avatar, "We can't do any bending in the Spirit World."
"... Oh," said Aang, deflated.
Feeling guilty for puncturing Aang's enthusiasm, Roku tried to lift up the boy's spirits by saying-
"It was not a bad idea, Aang. Just impossible," which really wasn't a very encouraging thing to say.
Roku sighed again when Aang became even more downhearted. He really wasn't very good at this sort of thing and was quite relieved when the young Avatar finally stirred out of his gloom.
"... Well... I guess I should be going back then."
"Yes, that would be good idea," said Roku perhaps a little too quickly for Aang then frowned at him.
"... Why are you in such a hurry for me to leave?"
Roku, who was a little distracted at the moment, said, "I have a Pai Sho game with Kyoshi and the others-"
"Really! That's great! I'd love to meet Avatar Kyoshi-"
"No, you can't!"
"... Huh? Why not?"
"... Because you shouldn't stay long in the Spirit World."
"... Why not?"
"... It's complicated, but really - you shouldn't stay long here, because you're not dead yet. Besides, your friends in the Living World will miss you."
"No, they won't. Katara and Sokka are waiting by my body at the Oasis."
While Roku struggled to come up with another excuse for Aang to leave immediately, the boy said, "Look, if it's about me not knowing how to play Pai Sho, don't worry. Monk Gyatso played Pai Sho with me all the time."
"But certainly not in the way Kyoshi plays Pai Sho," said Roku offhandedly. All of the sudden, he smacked his forehead the way Sokka does all the time as though he had just realized that he shouldn't have said what he had just said to Aang.
Curious and even more suspicious, Aang stared up at the tall firebender Avatar and asked, "How does Avatar Kyoshi play Pai Sho?"
"... You should go back now, Aang."
"... Hey. Wait a minute. Come back here!"
"Aang, go back. Don't follow me."
"I'm not going back until you tell me how Avatar Kyoshi plays Pai- Aah!"
Alarmed by Aang's cry, Roku whirled about only in time to see the boy's hand disappear into the murky depths of the swamp.
"Roku, you idiot!"
"Calm down, Kyoshi. No use getting excited. We have to figure out a way to get Aang back from the kappas. Shouldn't be too hard. I'm certain the kappas will return Aang to us for some cucumbers."
"And just where are we going to get cucumbers in the Spirit World? ... Roku, where are you going?"
"I'm going to offer myself as a trade for Aang. He has to return to the Living World soon. He can't stay here for more than-"
"Roku, that is very noble of you, but I should go instead."
"No, Aang is my responsibility."
"He's all our responsibility, but you shouldn't be the one to be traded for Aang."
"Why not him? It's his fault."
"Roku has another task he must do. We don't know for certain how long it will take for us to negotiate with the kappas for Aang's release. In the meantime, one of us has to take over Aang's body and pretend to be him; otherwise, his friends and many others in the Living World will panic if he doesn't awaken. They must see that the Avatar is conscious and well, and Roku is Aang's Avatar guide and the one amongst us who knows him best."
"Which makes this whole mess even more ironic."
"Now, Kyoshi. Let up on poor Roku."
"Oh no. I will not. This wouldn't have had happened if he hadn't been so prudish about letting Aang see me play Pai Sho."
"... Kyoshi, you barely wear anything while playing Pai Sho."
"It's part of my strategy."
"Aang, are you all right?"
Roku blinked and glanced at Aang's waterbender female friend who was kneeling beside him, seated on his sleeping furs in their room at the Northern Water Tribe.
The old firebender Avatar pretending to be the young airbender Avatar answered, "I am well, Katara. Thank you very much for your concern."
Katara's brother choked. "Thank you very much for your concern?" he repeated, staring rather beadily at their friend. "Katara's right. You have been sounding weird lately."
Realizing that his more formal speech mannerisms had made the Water Tribe siblings suspicious, Roku, his and Aang's mind racing, said slowly, "I just picked up on how Avatar Roku speaks. I like how he sounds." He felt quite pleased with his clever answer while Aang's friends glanced at each other with raised eyebrows.
It had only been a day since he had begun pretending to be Aang; Roku, quite confident that his charade was excellent despite the speech foible and the one time he had requested for fire flakes at breakfast and how he had forgotten to waterbend and wound up instead firebending into steam an enormous debris pile of huge ice chunks.
"Guess Jeong Jeong had managed to teach you at least one useful firebending maneuver," Sokka had commented in a grudging tone for Aang had just in seconds finished their entire assigned workload for that afternoon.
For a bender of his caliber, Roku however found it most awkward to pretend he hadn't yet mastered waterbending during the early morning training exercises.
After once again pretending to be unable to launch a decent counterattack against his waterbending instructor Master Katara, a tall elderly balding male waterbender came over to where they were practicing.
"Good grief. It looks like he's even worse than before."
"Aang's just tired from going over to the Spirit World two days ago, Master Pakku," said Katara quickly in defense of her friend and pupil. Roku had already decided that he liked her and thought that Aang was very fortunate to have such a friend. He wasn't yet certain about of her older brother, Sokka.
Pakku grimaced. "That was a foolish endeavor, Katara. Really, the two of you should start using your brains more often. You should have consulted your elders beforehand. Crossing over to the Spirit World isn't a trifle matter, even for the Avatar and most especially since he hasn't even mastered a simple ice shield maneuver."
Despite that he had only personally known the loud-mouthed waterbending master for not even a minute, Roku was quite decided in that he didn't like Pakku, who then told Katara that he would be training the Avatar one-on-one from now on.
"We only have a few days left before we leave the North Pole, and you're obviously being too soft with him," he declared before, without even a warning, launching a water jet straight at the boy's chest, knocking Roku back to land painfully and in a very undignified manner on Aang's rear.
"... Aang, that was incredible. What's that maneuver called? I've never seen that be- ... Master Pakku, no! Wait! Don't do -that- yet! Let me get away from Aang first!"
All in all, Roku was very happy when the other incarnations finally got Aang back.
Stop