@suitespringsprite || give me some precious gentle babs bonding
He wouldn’t call it STALKING…
Even though, where most people came from, it probably was considered as much.
But long had the young Avatar gone in a world so foreign—so unalike that which he was born into and sworn to PROTECT—without even the faintest hint of familiarity in anything, ANYONE. Without a shred of comfort to be found in the towering infrastructure, the busy streets, the flashing lights around every turn. It was no surprise the instant he felt some odd sense of NOSTALGIA after months, he’d go chasing after it.
After her, it seemed.
Though Aang hadn’t a clue who she was.
Wildflower was the name the city gave her. Or maybe the name she gave herself. He was still trying to catch up with this whole HERO business the modern world had crafted: secret identities and the like (not something he conformed to, strutting about with a blatant blue arrow on his head, but the prior seemed to be the norm). She was hard to find, everything considered, and his knowledge of her only existed due to a chance broadcast on one television in a storefront window. But it had been all he needed.
Because he saw that girl—that complete STRANGER—through the pristine image and was met with a strange feeling that he knew her. From another world. Another life. And his goal for the week that followed had been finding a way to MEET her.
Which meant finding a way to actually FIND her first.
He had concocted numerous ideas on just how to do that: hoping he’d catch her performing her heroic deeds and intervene, making note of her various locations throughout the city and hunting for clues that would lead back to her… quite the handful of scenarios relying far too heavily on PROBABILITIES. Aang even had half the mind to cause a bit of mischief himself for the sake of drawing her attention, but was ever quick to scrap the idea for all the OBVIOUS reasons. On the verge of giving up—assuming that warmth in his chest at first seeing her was naught but imagination—was the day LUCK just so happened to be on his side.
It was during a stroll through one of the city’s parks (nature a RARITY nowadays, apparently) that he FELT it. An abrupt and jarring tingle at the base of his head, down the length of his spine. Fingers in a loose hold around his glider TIGHTENED for the beat it transpired, and the Avatar only realized his feet had stopped moving when his surroundings stilled.
He angled his head to the side as if to LISTEN, though his eyes soon followed in a slow sweep of the trees and bushes ornamenting the path. Passersby skirted around him in his stationary pose, though the feeling persisted—dull, but hardly easy to ignore. Like having FORGOTTEN something moments after reaching a desired destination.
Aang turned, deliberate, and set his attention upon one of the only people around MOTIONLESS as him.
And at the precise moment of looking at the stranger seated atop a nearby bench, that sensation so close to COMFORT found its way back into his chest.
It was her.
It had to be her.
Perhaps in any other situation, the Avatar would have mulled over just how to approach someone who, for all intents and purposes, was a stranger. Perhaps he would have handled it with more tact—more GRACE as to not scare her off by coming on too strong. But it had to be desperation—a need for a companion who SOOTHED his nerves without even trying—and overwhelming curiosity that caused him to march right on up to her.
Only to discover he hadn’t a CLUE what to say.
“Uh—” His first attempt, marked by a hand on the back of his head while digging for the right words. “Hi.” His other hand lifted in a FEEBLE greeting, and a nervous smile played across his lips as his gaze fell. “This is going to sound weird, but um… are you”—Aang peered over his shoulder once before lowering his voice, though keeping CASUAL as possible—“familiar with Wildflower?”
