Author's Note: A series of OnjiAang pieces, drabbles, sort of, from both their points of view (alternating by chapter. Chapter one is Aang's POV, chapter two will be Onji's, and so forth). I like this pairing, and lo and behold, I'm going to keep it canon, right down to the dialogue, but looking at things from the points of view of two people who need each other. It's an idea that would not leave my brain. And while I know I'll get an endless sea of flames for writing a non-mainstream pairing, I've been used to that since I first started writing fanfiction.

To all my few but awesome OnjiAang shippers: Review please. I'd like to think I'm not totally alone in supporting this pairing. I know you're out there, people.

I'm also used to and sick of disclaimers. I own absolutely nothing, at all, in any form, ever, not even a single word of dialogue, a single gesture, Onji or Aang. All characters are copyright to Nick and the creators of Avatar. I own this disclaimer, and am too lazy to make a new one each chapter.

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I've seen that look before.

That terrible look people get when they're scred. Maybe scared is too harsh of a word. But it's like fear. It's the fear that everything is about to go wrong, that everyone is going to reject you. It's something everyone feels on their first day of school. That stomach twisting moment where things could either go really well or really terrible. I saw that look in his eyes, the fear that this wasn't going to go right for him. His knees were shaking just a little.

Oh, he was from the colonies. That made me cringe. It's one thing to be the new kid from another town or school. It's another to be a new kid from another continent. If I had to go to school in a colony, I'd never stay as calm as he was. How did he manage to keep from bolting out the door? I could see he wanted to. I could see him struggle to make eye contact with the teacher. I could see, in other words, that it was really hard to be the new kid.

He didn't know things, didn't know about the hands. He mis-did them and glanced at the class. No one was watching him as anything more than a passing piece of entertainment, someone to be watched for amusement. I could tell certain people were already planning how to tease him. I looked at him. In the tiniest split second where his gray eyes met mine, I knew he was scared.

My hands moved quickly, into the correct position he needed.

I've seen the new-kid look before. I knew that all new kids would be teased at least once. I knew he would probably still be awkward here and missing his colony for a very long time. I knew that he'd have mess-ups where I couldn't be there for him. All these factors were out of my control. There was no way to make a person's life good all of the time. I couldn't do anything to change what the future held, not most of the time.

But at this moment, I could. At this moment all he needed was for one person out there to help him, just once. He needed a friend, I could see it in the way he tried to hide his new-kid fears and act normal. No one else seemed like they were going to help him. I am not like everyone else. My mother always told me that friendship is a two way street. I was willing to make it that way, make him part of the class. I couldn't do much. All I could do was be nice. That's all anyone can do when they meet someone new. But that seems to have been too much for the rest of my class. They'd rather let him look the fool in front of the teacher before they'd do a single thing to help him get through his first day as the new kid. I seemed to be the only one who remembered the speech on loyalty to fellow Fire Nation people. No one else was going to help him.

So I offered him a small gesture of friendship.

I didn't know it then, but he'd return the gesture soon.