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Bumi snored too loud!
This was a fact that Kya had quickly deduced after having been woken up for the third time in a row due to his loudness. She reluctantly sat up in bed, her hair feeling unusually tangled and unkept atop her head. She grabbed a fistfull of strands, her frustration rising at the audacity of them to fall out of her braid and wound themselves up in a pitiful tangle from her sleep. She’d have to get Mommy or Daddy to fix this, because clearly her brother couldn’t be trusted. This was his fault too! Last night, she went up to him because it was almost her bedtime and neither Mommy nor Daddy were home to get her hair ready for bed. He had been outside talking to another kid his age, one of the air acolyte’s daughters, Kya recognized. She could tell he kind of liked her from the way he was stumbling over his words, and he probably didn’t want to be interrupted, but that could wait! Bedtime was approaching!
She tugged on his shirt, preparing her best puppy eyes to go along with her request. Bumi nearly knocked her hand away before catching himself, blushing fiercely under the watchful gaze of his friend who was a girl. Kya thought he was being kind of lame.
“Do my braid, please!” She said, not giving him much of a choice in the matter before pulling him down by her hold on his shirt and handing him her brush, sitting down expectantly in front of him. The girl he had been talking to smiled kindly at her before asking her what her name was, and Kya eagerly took the bait for a conversation. She heard her brother let out an annoyed sigh before he started brushing at her waves of hair and she beamed.
But now she was mad! She had thought he finished a little too quickly when he had tapped her shoulder, handed her brush back, and told her to go upstairs for bed. But she hadn’t questioned his work because at that moment, she saw Appa nearing in the sky and knew her parents would be upstairs in a second to tuck her in. So she raced to bed with a sloppily done braid, a disaster waiting to happen, while Bumi went back to his conversation with his friend. How rude!
She had half a mind to go wake Mommy and Daddy up and tell them what he did! Or she could just go downstairs and mix a few fire flakes with his favorite cereal. Bumi hated fire flakes which made it the perfect plan. Except for the fact that she couldn’t reach the shelf the box of flakes was on, but maybe if she got Momo to help her that wouldn’t be a problem. She just had to find a couple berries in the kitchen to bribe him with and her plan would be set!
With newfound motivation, she leaped off her bed and began making for the stairs. She sent a short glare to her brother’s door, who she could still hear snoring away, unaware of his crimes. This really did feel personal. But just as she was about to take the first step downstairs to carry out her perfect plan, she heard her parents’ bedroom door creak open behind her and she panicked. Uh oh!
With the grace of an untrained waterbender, she ducked behind one of Mommy’s favorite vases, peeking her eyes out to see who it was. She watched as Daddy came out the door, dressed in his normal robes. He took a small detour to Bumi’s room, opening the door ever so slightly and peeking in before smiling and shutting it. She couldn’t understand what had made him so happy, considering Bumi’s snores only got louder with the open door, but she brushed it off. Daddy liked smiling, that wasn’t new. As he began moving down the hall, passing where she was hidden and making for the balcony, she let out a small sigh of relief that he hadn’t decided to check her room too. Then he would have known she was awake and she would’ve been caught!
She waited a couple more minutes after he left through the balcony doors before standing up again. She headed back for the stairs, her eyes wandering briefly to the windows, before pausing and doing a double take. Daddy was now sitting down, but he looked like he was sleeping. She could only recall one other time where she had seen him do something like this, but she hadn’t really paid it any attention at the time because he had been far away and she was getting chased by Bumi and Izumi. They were playing Capture The Avatar and she was it. Now, watching him so up close, she felt a wave of calm wash over her. She didn’t know what he was doing, and Daddy did a lot of weird things that nobody else did, but this felt right. Without thinking twice, she changed her course of direction, walking towards the balcony door and stretching up on tippy toes to reach the door handle. Mommy never let her go out onto the balcony without her or Daddy or Bumi with her, so she didn’t feel like she was breaking any rules this time. Daddy was here.
She walked slowly up to him, taking in the way he was sitting with his legs crossed and his foot placed on the opposite thigh. He breathed in and out evenly, his eyes closed and his face at complete ease. He made no indication he knew she was there, and it was that thought and the inviting energy swirling around them that encouraged her to take a seat next to him. She didn’t really know what to do or why she even wanted to do it, but she crossed her legs and took a moment to situate her feet the way he had. Her legs were a lot smaller than his so it was difficult, but she let out a congratulatory little eep when she got it right. She was so good at this already! Feeling motivated by that miniscule moment of success, she situated her hands like his on her knees and breathed in deeply as he did, letting go only when she heard and saw his exhale. She copied and followed his movement with her eyes for a couple more rounds of deep breathing, before feeling comfortable enough to close her eyes. She could be like Daddy.
Her muscles eased as she felt her earlier frustrations at Bumi melt almost completely away. In fact, a lot of her thoughts melted away the more she breathed in and out. She felt the hard texture of the balcony floor beneath her become nothing more than a minor sensation, one that she grew to appreciate, as the sounds of Air Temple Island began to overwhelm her senses. The lemurs were chattering loudly in the distance as they all stirred awake and she heard Appa grumble from down below in his stable. She didn’t really understand all of what she was hearing, and she felt something tug gently at her, like it was trying to get her attention, but she could tell it was something she wasn’t yet ready to prod at. Maybe with Daddy’s help.
This was nice. Kind of fun too.
—
Katara grunted, her eyes squinting awake at the bright early morning sun peeking in through the bedroom windows. She stretched in place with a yawn, her left arm unconsciously reaching over to grasp at the, unsurprisingly, empty sheets beside her. Her husband was always such an early riser and, much to her disappointment, never acquired the habit of staying in bed once awake. She sighed as a small smile lifted her lips at the thought of him meditating or running through firebending forms outside. It was rare that she woke up early enough to accompany him during his morning routines before the kids could wake up as well and require their attention, so with this realization, she eagerly swung her feet off the side of the bed, slipped into her slippers, and rose to gather her robe.
She quietly creaked their bedroom door open and made for Kya’s room, intending to check on the children before meeting with her husband. She expected to be met with the familiar sight of her little girl sleeping wildly, stretched across her bed in the most humorous positions, but was unfortunately met with only an empty bed and ruffled sheets, as though her daughter had woken just minutes before. Quickly, Katara crossed the hall to Bumi’s room, knowing Kya sometimes snuck into her brother’s bed after having a nightmare. But when she opened the door, all she found was the sight of her oldest fast asleep, snoring softly away. Her brows furrowed, her mind reeling with where her little girl could be. She took a quick moment to gently situate her son’s arm from where it had been hanging off the bed, giving him a small kiss on the forehead, before exiting the room.
She opted for checking downstairs, considering that perhaps Kya had gotten hungry and decided to clumsily make herself a snack. She mentally prepared herself for the considerably large mess she’d likely stumble upon before a flash of orange and blue registered in her peripheral vision. She turned her head toward the balcony windows, her eyes landing on her husband outside. His back faced toward the railing and he sat in lotus, his eyes closed and his breath falling evenly. It was a position she was so used to seeing him in, but one she never quite got over. He always looked so peaceful this way, almost as if he were asleep. She often took this time to admire his soft features whenever she stumbled upon him like this, focusing on the way his eyelashes rested against his cheeks and how his nose sat just right on his face. He was so perfect that it sometimes made her heart hurt.
This time, though, the sensation of her feelings was so intense that she had to fight hard against the fluttering of her heart to avoid letting out a happy sigh, afraid she’d disturb the moment even from this distance. Because sitting right beside her husband in a mimic of his position was their five-year-old little girl. Her eyes were closed and her breath fell almost as deep and evenly as Aang’s. They both looked so beautiful and alike in this moment that Katara wanted to paint this view into her memory so she wouldn’t forget a detail.
Kya had Aang’s face. It was a fact that all their friends had noticed, oftentimes teasing and joking that she was his little clone. And Katara couldn’t disagree, for she resembled Aang so clearly in her face, nose, and eye shape that Katara sometimes had to bite back a wistful gasp. It was like looking into a window to a time where her husband had been much younger, playing with other airbenders his age and causing the same amount of trouble at the Southern Air Temple that her children did on the daily. Although it was a sight she never got to see, Aang so young and free, she could see that kid so clearly in her daughter’s face.
And as she watched her husband and daughter engage in a morning meditation session together, she felt an overwhelming sense of affection at just how similar they truly were. Kya had not only Aang’s face, but she also had his gravity toward all things spiritual, and his carefree approach to the world. She loved laughing and pranking her brother and the air acolytes, and she had this deep connection with this one baby lemur that’d visit her bedroom window every other day that reminded Katara a little of how Aang communicated with Momo. Her giggles rang in the halls of Air Temple Island in a way that was reminiscent of Aang’s childhood laughter, and she had the same habit of biting her thumb whenever she was upset. She was truly her father’s daughter, his mini-me. And Katara would be damned if she allowed anyone to tell her otherwise.
As much as Katara tried to avoid entertaining outside conversations that were constantly revolving around their family, she wasn’t ignorant of the way people commented on their children and how little they resembled their father, usually referring to their skin color and bending ability. But she found that those people were always speaking in bad faith and wouldn’t be able to recognize Air Nomad ancestry if it slapped them in the face. Because whether they liked it or not, their children were the most beautiful, perfect mix of both Southern Water Tribe and Air Nomad lineage that Katara had ever had the blessing of seeing. Placing a gentle hand on her growing belly, a wave of protectiveness settled into her bones as she imagined holding this new baby in her arms, one that would be just as equally part her and equally part Aang. Completely and undeniably loved.
After a couple seconds, Kya peeked one eye open at her dad, sneakily trying to check that she was copying him right. She straightened her back a little more, attempting to sit as tall as he was, before closing her eye again and returning to her deep breaths. Had Katara not been paying such close attention, she would have missed the amused smile that settled on Aang’s lips. He could definitely sense that his little girl was sitting next to him, and he had never looked more at peace.