#she cooks! she heals! she screams loudly and hides during fights! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kristallioness · 6 years

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Breaking the ice

Summary: When their parents end up having a huge row, Bumi and Kya decide to take matters into their own hands.

Word count: 6,770

Author's note: I was brainstorming ideas for some of the prompts that I hadn't figured out what to do with yet. Then I remembered that I had this idea of writing Aang and Katara fighting for one of them. I think that with these two, it must've been really rare when they were in a row, so that could be an interesting thing to write about and explore. My only problem was that this concept didn't connect with any of the prompts at first. At least, not until I figured out how their kids would interfere to help them make up.

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The household on Air Temple Island was eerily quiet, had been for almost two hours now. Nobody was bustling around, the delicious smell of Katara's cooking hadn't filled the corridors for lunch time, the usual screeches of the kids playing were absent, no gentle wind could be felt blowing in the hallways since the Avatar wasn't walking around and his airbending didn't follow his path. It hadn't been like this two hours ago. Not when the married couple had returned home and landed Appa in the courtyard.

"Argh!.. Look at us! Ugh.. We wouldn't be injured this badly if you didn't get in my way!" Katara had shouted. She'd groaned several times while holding onto her ribcage with one arm and carefully climbing down the sky bison's saddle on her own.

"At least I saved you from getting the worst! You could've gotten seriously hurt!" Aang had argued. He'd slid off Appa's head and walked over to her, hesitating for a second before tenderly grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Are you okay? Let me see.."

"Hrmph! I'm fine, okay? Ow!.." Katara had huffed and turned her back towards him, inadvertently hurting her sore chest with the sudden move.

"Maybe we should go to the hospital to have you checked over?" Aang had offered again in a worried tone, supporting her when she stooped down a little to catch her breath and let the pain subside.

"Spirits, Aang! I'm a healer, I can examine myself!" she'd protested, then eventually let him help her walk into the temple once she'd gathered enough strength to stand up straight.

Katara seemed fine now, after an hour-long private healing session. She was in their bedroom, sitting on Aang's side of the bed with her back facing the door. She wasn't alone, she was with baby Tenzin. She cradled him in her arms, gently rocking him back and forth, bouncing him now and again. She tried to play with him, but the baby could sense that his mother was upset, which made him feel upset, too.

Poor Tenzin had been crying more than usual. Not too loudly, but it was obvious that he wasn't too happy with anything. In fact, one could say that the mother and baby had both been crying together. Her son's cries only made Katara cry as well. A tear streamed down her cheek and landed on Tenzin's. She attempted to dry her own wet cheeks, then wiped the lonely teardrop away.

Tenzin reached his hand up several times, trying to grab onto something, such as the white fur collar of his mother's coat. Katara grabbed his tiny hand instead and pressed a soft kiss on the back of it. She lifted her son a bit higher and rubbed her forehead against his. She sniffed, then continued sobbing quietly in her room. The baby followed his mother's example.

Katara was too downcast to notice that someone had slid the bedroom door slightly open to peek inside. Kya had been watching her for nearly ten minutes, she'd heard and seen everything. Both she and Bumi had been playing with their baby brother in his nursery when they heard their parents arrive. Their bickering was loud enough to be heard all the way to the dormitories.

"Why did you jump in my way!? I could've gotten him right where he was!" Katara had exclaimed angrily, then groaned again.

"I thought you didn't see him coming! I wanted to protect you!"

She fidgeted her way free from her husband's gentle embrace and stood in front of him.

"I don't need any protection! I can take care of myself!"

"Katara, I just.. wanted to help," Aang was the first one to stop screaming, but Katara had no intention of stopping. She was still furious with him.

"Well, maybe I don't need your help!"

At that statement, Aang's grey eyes grew wide and his face fell. Katara knitted her brows and pouted, averting her gaze from his. She did her best to cross her arms.

Aang was lost for words. He hung his head and stared at the floor, afraid to look her in the eye or say anything. He would've wanted to tell her so much - how sorry he felt, or that if that was what she really wanted, then he'd respect her wish. But deep inside his heart he knew that Katara wasn't herself right now. Her emotions were speaking for her, hence he decided not to make the situation any worse.

"Well, I still need yours," Aang said and gave her a pathetic frown as he raised his bruised hand. Katara glared at him, then at the bruises on his hand and let out a heavy sigh.

"Fine.. Follow me to the healing hut."

Those were the last words she'd uttered to him. Silence prevailed between the two of them the entire time they were in the infirmary of the temple.

With great difficulty, Katara had ignored her own pain and helped heal Aang's injuries first. She sat beside him on one of the beds in complete silence while she waterbended the water all over his body, not missing a single bruise or scrape. Luckily, she couldn't detect any broken bones. She'd tied some bandages around one of his forearms and one of his legs to offer some support. Once she was done, she'd gone to their bedroom to heal herself in privacy, leaving Aang alone in the healing hut to do whatever he pleased without her.

Healing her own injuries turned out to be a lot worse than Katara had expected. During the fight between them and a group of thugs, Aang had jumped in front of her to protect her from a hard blow of earthbending. Unfortunately, the thug had hit him and he'd tumbled onto Katara. His heavy body had hurt her ribcage, which was why she was having trouble breathing in some positions.

After sitting in the same spot in the healing hut for almost a quarter of an hour, Aang had decided to follow her to their bedroom, but he didn't wanna enter. He stood behind the closed door for minutes, hearing her groan and yelp a couple of times. He was sure he also heard her sniff once. Whether it was due to the pain or because she was upset, he didn't know.

Aang hesitated to go offer her some support. If he did, he would've walked in calmly, ignored any of her screaming and just wrapped his arms around her shoulders to hold her. He would've let her cry and he would've cried with her. He would've apologized to her. He reached out his hand several times, but it always stopped before he could slide the door open. In the end, when Katara had become quieter and he couldn't hear her hurting anymore, he left to his own study to let her cool off.

After her healing session, she'd felt a bit more relieved. She could breathe and move almost normally again. Katara had carefully headed to the nursery, where she'd met the worried gazes of her two older children, who were sitting in a circle and playing with her youngest.

"Mommy, you're home!" Kya exclaimed as she jumped up from the carpet and ran over to hug her mother's legs. She looked up at her with her big cerulean eyes.

"Are you okay?"

Katara didn't squat down to her level, which was a tad unusual. She'd simply stroked her daughter's temple and given her a weak smile in return.

"I'm okay. I just came to tell you that your daddy and I are home, and that if you want something to eat, ask Bumi to help you pick some snacks from the kitchen or the greenhouse."

"You're not gonna make lunch?" Bumi wondered with wide eyes while his mother picked up his baby brother from next to him. She stuttered.

"I-I.. I need some time alone. I'll prepare supper later, promise."

Katara gave her children an apologetic look and a wave with her free hand before she left them alone in Tenzin's nursery and headed back to the bedroom together with the baby.

"Wow.. mom and dad must be really mad at each other," Bumi thought out loud a couple of seconds later, rubbing circles over his empty stomach.

"How long are they gonna be like this?"

Her big brother shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, probably not too long. I mean, it's mom and dad! You know what they're like. Once they get over it, they'll be back to their normal, oogies-inducing selves."

Kya frowned and stared at her tummy when it growled, too. Bumi stood up and grabbed her tiny hand in his own.

"C'mon, let's go eat something for lunch. When we're done, we can come back to have a look at how mom and dad are doing. Okay?"

His baby sister nodded and they spent the following hour finding something to nibble on. Bumi wasn't exactly sure how to cook a bigger meal, so they'd settled for crunching on some fresh carrots from the greenhouse and slices of blubbered seal jerky. He'd chosen a banana and Kya had picked a papaya for the fruity part of their meal, drinking lychee juice to the side. They also discovered some leftover dumplings for dessert.

Kya saved the last one for her mommy and took it with her when she and Bumi headed back upstairs to see how she was doing. They didn't expect to see their mother crying together with their baby brother. The little waterbender quietly slid the tiny opening in the door closed and they walked away.

"Mommy must be really sad."

Bumi held a supportive hand on his sister's shoulder as she stared at the lonely dumpling in her hands. She'd wanted to give it to her mother to cheer her up.

"You wanna go see how dad's doing?"

"Mhmm," Kya hummed and nodded in agreement, after which the two siblings began searching for their father. They didn't have to look for long since they knew his usual hiding places. One of them being his study, which was only a few rooms away from the bedroom.

Aang had been meditating ever since he'd arrived there. The entire chain of events that'd happened on the outskirts of Republic City earlier in the day replayed over and over in his mind.

How the two of them had led the chase together with Toph, her metalbenders right behind them for backup. How those thugs had lured them to the spot where reinforcements were waiting for them. How, despite being outnumbered and the seriousness of the battle, they only received some minor injuries and caught the entire gang in the end. How he'd witnessed one of them make an aggressive earthbending move towards Katara and his immediate reaction was to jump in front of her to save her.

The action had nearly given the gang the upper hand, with the Avatar and one of the most powerful waterbenders in the world knocked down breathless. Thanks to Toph's scolding for messing up, as well as seeing Katara lie down on the ground and be unable to get back up, Aang had entered the Avatar State to put an end to the fight for good.

He hadn't done anything wrong, at least he thought so. They'd caught the bad guys. He'd given her time to gather herself when she claimed it was hard to breathe and move. Why did she have to get mad at him for trying to defend her from harm? Sometimes she just didn't make sense to him.

Aang took another deep breath and let it out slowly. His train of thought stopped when he sensed that he was being watched. He attempted to ignore it and continue meditating.

"What's he doing?" a little girl's voice whispered. He recognized it as Kya's. They were peeking into his study from behind the corner, not wanting to intrude.

"I think he's meditating."

That was Bumi. He was together with his baby sister. The kids.. he hadn't even thought about their kids seeing them fighting at home. They were in separate rooms in the temple, not talking to each other. He assumed that Katara had completely forgotten about them, just like he had. He hated it, hated all the rare occasions when they had to see their parents this way.

"Is he okay?" Kya wondered ever so silently, her voice quavering a little because she was so worried about him.

Aang could feel how Bumi was peering at his blank facial expression for a while, trying to read any kind of emotions. The airbender withdrew his hands from his knees and broke the jnana mudra, but remained sitting in the lotus position. He slumped a bit as he covered his eyes with his hand to hide his tears. When he couldn't hold his sniffs back anymore, he turned his head the other way.

"C'mon.." Bumi whispered and pulled his baby sister further into the hallway, away from the entrance leading to their father's study so she wouldn't have to see him cry. She didn't dare to speak a word until they'd walked back downstairs and she felt sure her parents wouldn't hear them.

"Bumi.. I'm scared," she admitted as tears began to roll down her cheeks, too. Her big brother knelt down to her level and wrapped his arms around her for a hug as she wailed into his shirt.

"Hey, it's okay! It's gonna be okay.." he told her, softly stroking her head to comfort her. He wasn't too good at comforting others. Usually Kya was the one who helped everybody feel better. But right now, neither of them knew what to do.

"B-but.. what if it's not? What if mommy and daddy are never gonna make up?"

"Well, then.. we're just gonna have to come up with a way to get them to make up again."

"A-and how are we gonna do that?"

Bumi hummed in thought for a minute, letting his little sister cry it all out. By the time her sobbing had quietened down, he'd come up with a foolproof plan. He released his embrace and wiped Kya's cheeks dry, then looked her in the eye.

"I know how. I have an idea. But first, eat that last dumpling. You're gonna need the extra energy to help me."

Kya stared at the slightly smudged ball of dessert in her hands, then proceeded to take her brother's advice. He was right, they needed all the energy they'd gotten from the light lunch they'd had.

Bumi explained everything to his sister with such enthusiasm as they ran down the cliffside. On their way out of the temple, they'd met Appa still lounging around the courtyard and asked both him and Momo to tag along and help them as well. The winged lemur flew down the path alongside the kids while the sky bison simply flew straight down to the beach and landed near the shore, waiting for the trio to catch up.

The kids didn't waste any time and immediately set to work. First, Appa used his big paw to dig a large round hole into the sand. Bumi helped smooth out the edges before he asked Kya to bring some water to fill the hole with. She had some difficulty with getting the water to stay above ground. Luckily, she could sense where it went thanks to her waterbending abilities, hence she could easily pull it back up from the surface.

Next, she used her special breathing technique, which Aang had taught her last winter, to freeze the water into a bowl-shaped, thick layer of ice. Momo helped Bumi fill the inside of the icy bowl with the rest of the sand that Appa had dug up earlier. The shiny moat was ready.

Kya scampered to the shore to fetch some more water from the bay while Bumi began sculpting a couple of small sand figurines. She helped him make the sand wet so the figurines wouldn't fall apart. His sister was busy freezing the rest of the water into two separate slices of cracked ice while he went to search for a tiny stick for one of the figurines. Once she was finished with her part, she sat down on her knees and admired all the hard work they'd already done. The sculpture was beginning to look like what her big brother had imagined, like they'd heard their parents tell them.

Kya tried to shape the round pile of sand in the middle of the moat into two, making the bigger pile seem more fluffy and drawing a face in front of the smaller one. She smoothed the back of the bigger pile into a slide and drew stripes on them. The result reminded her more of some sort of a monster than a sky bison. She scratched her head for a minute before snapping her fingers. She had a much better idea.

"Momo, can you please fetch my plush sky bison from my room?"

Momo chirped at the little waterbender before flying away towards the temple. In the meantime, Bumi had found a small stick that he could attach to one of the sand figurines. He hurried back to his sister and plopped down in the sand, placing the stick in its place.

"There! I think it's ready," he declared proudly as he wiped his hands clean from the sand. He eyed the weird-looking sand creature behind his figurines.

"Is that supposed to be Appa?"

"I know, it looks terrible.. But Momo's bringing a replacement, just you wait!"

"Okay.." Bumi shrugged before he stood up to marvel at their nearly-finished sand sculpture. He hoped it would be enough to help their parents make up again. Kya knelt down to scatter the two piles in the middle and make room for the replacement.

"Uh oh.."

"What? What is it?"

"The ice is melting!"

Bumi squatted down to have a closer look. He ran his hand along the circular moat and felt cold water make his fingertips wet.

"You're right. If we leave now, it'll melt before mom and dad ever get here."

"But I can't stay here to freeze it over and over! I have to talk to mommy."

"Hmmm... The sun warms the sand and the heat it collects makes the ice melt faster. We have to find a way to block the sun from falling over the icy parts of the sculpture.." Bumi thought out loud as he looked around them for anything big enough to be used as a shade. His eyes stopped on their gigantic fluffy buddy.

"Appa! You're pretty big."

The sky bison grunted and watched the boy run around the sculpture. He was checking at which angle the shadows would fall.

"Come and sit riiiight.. over.. here!" he said, pointing to an empty spot a few feet away. Appa merely growled as he stood up and walked over to the spot, then curled up around the sand sculpture to protect it. Bumi took a few steps back to see whether the sky bison's shadow covered the icy parts.

"There, perfect! Now the ice won't melt so soon. You might wanna give it a fresh frosting, Kya."

"Okay, Bumi!"

She followed her brother's instructions and used her daddy's special technique to freeze the water one more time. By then, Momo had returned with her requested item. The winged lemur was carrying the toy with his hind legs and he'd also curled his tail around it so he wouldn't accidentally drop it. He flew over to Bumi to hand it over.

The boy helped his little sister clear the center of the excess sand before they laid the plush sky bison in the middle of the frozen moat, in between the two halves of cracked ice. After that, as the kids stood up, he also helped her dust the sand off her light blue tunic and then his own pants. Almost an hour had passed since they'd started. Bumi and Kya stared at their finished sand sculpture.

"I take it back, now it's perfect!"

"Do you think mommy and daddy will like it?"

"I don't think they'll like it. I think they'll love it," Bumi said and patted his baby sister's shoulder. He jumped a bit when Kya wrapped her arms around his waist to give him an unexpected hug. He held her close and rubbed his chin into her hair. Now came the hard part - it was time to bring their parents there.

When the kids returned to the temple, they were greeted by a similar stillness like when they'd left. They didn't have much time, hence they acted exactly as planned. Kya went to talk to their mother while Bumi went to talk to their father.

The little waterbender scampered upstairs and approached the bedroom near the end of the hallway quietly. She pricked up her ears, but couldn't hear anyone crying anymore. She hesitated for a second before she knocked on the door.

"Mommy?"

There was no answer, so she repeated what she'd done earlier and slid the door slightly open to peek inside. She saw her mother trying to make herself presentable by wiping her cheeks dry. She was sitting on her side of the bed now.

"Mommy? Can I come in?" Kya asked one more time as she slid the door more open so she could see her. Katara finally noticed, she sniffed and then smiled at her daughter.

"Yes.. of course, sweetie. Come here! Join me and your baby brother," she said cheerfully, patting the mattress with her free hand. Kya scampered to the bed and hopped up beside her mother. Katara pulled her closer to hug her for a moment, after which she supported Tenzin with both arms again. The little waterbender watched how her mother continued nursing her baby brother.

"What are you doing, mommy?"

"I'm feeding your baby brother. He started fussing because it's been a while since his last meal.."

Katara gasped.

"Oh my! I hope you aren't hungry, too! I didn't make lunch for you two."

"That's okay, mommy. Bumi helped me find something to eat," Kya explained whilst rubbing circles around her tummy. Her mother sighed in relief.

"Oh, thank goodness! Remind me to praise your big brother for taking good care of you when I wasn't able to."

Kya didn't know what to say. Her cerulean eyes fixed on her little brother instead. He seemed a lot calmer now. She stood up beside her mother and took a step closer on the mattress, supporting her weight on her mother's shoulder to lean forward. She reached out her small hand and tenderly stroked Tenzin's short black hair.

"Don't bother him too much while he's eating, okay?" Katara warned her in a motherly tone.

"Okay, mommy."

Kya plopped back down on the bed and simply sat there in silence for another minute.

"Are you mad at daddy?"

Her mother sighed and hung her head a little. Katara supported a hand on Kya's back, careful to make sure that Tenzin still felt cosy.

"No, sweetie. I'm not mad at daddy."

"Then why were you screaming at each other earlier?"

Katara remained silent after that question, pondering how she should explain this to her little girl.

"Because.. because I was upset with what daddy did and I was trying to tell him that, but daddy wouldn't listen."

"What did he do?"

The baby interrupted their conversation by gurgling and the two waterbenders turned their attention to him for a moment. Katara's thumb rubbed against the maroon blanket that was wrapped around him as she watched how he continued suckling. She frowned.

"He tried to protect me during the battle."

Kya quirked an eyebrow.

"But.. that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is. It's a very good thing. I just became upset because I knew I could defend myself. So when daddy tried to do it, too, he accidentally put us both in danger. I didn't want him to do that. I didn't want him to get hurt because of me."

"Is that why you were crying?"

Katara averted her gaze back at Tenzin, who was softly tickling the middle of her bare chest. He supported his tiny hand above her heart. She nodded to her daughter.

"Mhmm.. I was sad, because I started thinking over everything that happened and realized that this is such a stupid fight. I was crying because I didn't mean to yell at daddy."

"I don't think that daddy meant to yell at you either," Kya tried to comfort her by grabbing her free hand.

"He was crying, too."

"He was?" Katara wondered, receiving a confirming nod from her little waterbender. She looked the other way and squeezed her eyes shut to blink away the fresh wave of tears. She didn't mean to hurt his feelings. She wished she'd never gotten angry at him in the first place.

She opened her diamond blue eyes when she felt a small hand rubbing her cheeks. Kya attempted to wipe away those few teardrops that'd already streamed down.

"Do you wanna apologize to daddy and make up?"

Katara chuckled, then brushed her daughter's hands away to finish wiping her cheeks dry herself.

"Yes, I do.. very much."

Kya beamed at her as she waited until Tenzin finished eating. Katara pulled him away and gently put him down on the bed for a moment so she could put her clothes back on. She tucked her left breast back in her sarashi and clipped the two sides of her navy tunic together to cover the rest of her bare chest. Kya crawled to the other side of the bed to bring her mother's short-sleeved water tribe coat to her so she could pull it on.

Once she was fully dressed again, Katara picked up her baby and cradled him against her chest. She stood up from the bed and grabbed her daughter's hand to go look for her husband together.

"C'mon, let's go find daddy!"

"Actually, daddy said that he wants to see you down at the beach when you're ready."

Her mother quirked an eyebrow.

"Really? Did he say why?"

"I can't tell you, it's a surprise!"

At first Katara thought that it was strange, but knowing Aang, she wouldn't have been surprised if he'd done something extravagant. She let her daughter guide her there. As they exited the temple, the sun was about to set, painting the sky in a mix of orange and purple up north where it was already getting dark.

In the meantime, Bumi had been busy trying to get through to their dad. It went a lot easier for him than it did for Kya with their mom. He'd sneaked up to the doorway leading to his study, then peeped inside for a second before knocking against the wall.

"Dad? May I come in?"

Aang broke out of his meditation and glanced at his son shyly peeking at him from behind the corner. He grinned back at him.

"Hey, son! Of course, come in!"

He waved a hand to invite Bumi to join him. The boy went to grab the second pillow, which his mother usually used, from in front of the fountain. He approached his father, threw the pillow on the floor and sat down in the lotus position next to him.

"What've you been up to?" Aang wondered playfully as he snaked his hand around Bumi's shoulders.

"Do you want the ideal or the honest answer?"

"Honest."

"Okay.."

Bumi paused for a second, taking a deep breath.

"I've been worrying about you and mom."

Aang's smile turned upside down. He gave his son's shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"I'm sorry, Bumi. We didn't mean to worry you, or your baby sister. Is she scared to come and talk to me?" he asked, teetering backwards to see whether his daughter was hiding outside of her parents' study.

"Nah. She just went to talk to mom."

"Oh.. well, that's good. If there's anyone who can get through to your mother when she's mad, it's Kya."

"Why's mom mad at you? What happened this morning?"

"Ah, we were just trying to catch some bad guys together with aunt Toph and her police force. They escaped to the outskirts of the city where they were met with backup. They outnumbered us and put up a really good fight, at least until I went into the Avatar State and put an end to it.. Anyways, one of them wanted to hurt your mother, so I jumped in front of her to protect her, but we both ended up getting injured in the process."

"So.. mom's mad at you because you tried to defend her? No offense, dad, but that sounds kind of silly, and a very stupid reason to be mad at you," Bumi laughed a little.

"Yeah, I know.."

"So, why were you yelling at mom?"

"Because she was angry at me for what I did and wouldn't listen when I tried to explain why I did it. Sometimes she's stubborn like that. But it's one of the reasons why I love her. All I ever wanted was to make sure that she's safe."

Bumi recognized that fond smile on his dad's face. He smiled like that when he thought about mom. He grabbed his dad's shoulder.

"Maybe you should tell her that."

Aang chuckled at his son's suggestion. When had he become so wise about relationships? Perhaps he and Katara had set a good example to him.

"I guess you're right."

"I'll go check where mom is," Bumi told him, then got up quickly to hurry to his parents' bedroom. The door was halfway open, hence he tiptoed closer to peek inside. He heard Kya still talking to their mom. He saw her feeding their baby brother. They weren't done yet. It was the perfect opportunity to get dad out of the house first.

"Mom's not in the house, but she mentioned something about going down to the beach earlier," Bumi said casually as he walked into his dad's study. Aang smiled, he knew Katara liked to calm down by doing some waterbending. He grabbed his staff and stood up, supporting a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Shall we go look for her?"

Bumi grinned and nodded excitedly. He didn't suspect a thing. Once they were outside, Aang squatted a bit to let Bumi jump on his back. He wrapped his arms tightly around his neck and waited for his dad to open up his glider. Together they flew high above the temple and did a couple of spins around the blue rooftops before changing their course down to the beach.

Bumi's laughs alerted their furry friends about their arrival. Appa released a loud growl as his best friend and his son landed near them. Momo flew onto Aang's shoulders and began licking his face.

"He-he! Hey there, little buddy! I've missed you, too!" he said before closing his glider back into a staff and having a look around. Katara was nowhere to be seen, but he noticed his animal guide guarding something next to him. Bumi grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the sand sculpture. He was relieved to see that his clever idea had worked, the ice hadn't melted so fast.

"What.. what is this?" Aang wondered as they stopped and knelt down to have a closer look. Momo held onto his collar to lean forward, too.

"Don't you recognize it? It's the moment you and mom met. This is the iceberg that mom cracked open, where you and Appa were trapped inside. See, that's you, this is mom, and that's uncle Sokka!" Bumi explained, pointing to the sand figurines in front of the sky bison plush. Aang didn't know what to say, he simply stared at it with his wide grey eyes.

"Me and Kya built it, to get you and mom to make up again. She was scared that you'd stay mad at each other forever."

Aang's mouth remained agape. He looked away for a second and rubbed at the corners of his eyes. His heart melted at the gesture. He dropped his staff and pulled Bumi to his side for a hug.

"Do you know how much I love you, son?"

He started laughing when his father began ruffling up his already messy hair. Eventually Bumi managed to break free from his headlock and they were left sitting in the sand in silence. Only the calm waves of Yue Bay that splashed against the shore, as well as Momo's soft chirps, kept them company.

"You were really smart to build the sculpture further away from the shore so the waves wouldn't destroy it while you were away."

"Don't forget about using Appa as shade!" Bumi reminded him, after which the sky bison grunted. Aang chuckled and admired the hard work his kids had put into this, just to get them to forgive each other.

"Speaking of which, if your mother isn't here, then where is she?"

"Kya was still talking to her when we left home. They're probably on their way down here any minute."

"The old 'divide and conquer' battle plan, huh? My brilliant boy!" Aang praised and gave Bumi a gentle nudge against his arm. He stood back up to gaze at their small island in the glow of the sunset in the evening. His eyes traced along the path of the cliffside that led to the top. Soon enough he spotted two figures coming down. It was his wife and daughter.

"Isn't that your mother and baby sister?"

Bumi looked up and squinted to spot the girls walking down the cliffside.

"Yeah, I think it is.. C'mon, let's go meet them!" he said and tugged at his father's hand as he began running towards them to meet them halfway. But Aang didn't follow, he remained standing in the same spot, waiting for Katara to come to him.

"Wait a minute, what are your brother and Appa doing here? I thought you told me that daddy's waiting for me down at the beach?"

"It's part of the surprise, mommy," Kya told her before letting go of her hand to scamper to her father. She and Bumi exchanged sides as soon as her feet touched the sand and he began climbing up the last curve of the gravelled path.

"Kya! Come here!" Aang exclaimed with joy as he lifted his daughter in the air to spin her around, her giggling filling the otherwise quiet shore. He rubbed their noses together and peppered her cheeks with kisses.

"Hey, daddy! Did you like the surprise?"

"I loved it!" he said, bouncing Kya in his arms as they watched how Bumi ran to their mother and wrapped his arms around her middle.

"Bumi! What are you doing here?" Katara chuckled and patted her son's back with one hand whilst holding Tenzin steady on her chest with the other.

"We have something to show you.." he told her and held onto her hand like a gentleman to help her walk down the last few steps of the steep path.

As they approached the rest of the family, Aang put Kya down next to him and stared at Katara with a more worried, apologetic look. She seemed more confused than he'd been. Both their smiles had faded away by the time they were standing in front of each other, only a few feet apart. Neither of them knew what to say, until Katara noticed the sand sculpture behind Aang's feet.

"What.. what is all of this?" she wondered as she took a step closer, both to the sculpture and her husband.

"This is our surprise, mommy!" Kya declared proudly, pulling Bumi to her side and snaking her arm around him as Momo flew on the boy's shoulders.

"Your surprise?"

"I had nothing to do with this," Aang finally spoke and raised his hands for a moment, taking a step closer to his wife. She looked at him with her big diamond blue eyes. She was just as surprised as he'd been.

"Look, mommy! This is you and daddy, and that's uncle Sokka! And Appa's here, still inside the iceberg! It's cracked open and it's the moment when you found daddy," their daughter explained, pointing to each of the small figurines so Katara would know who was who and what the icy details represented. She averted her gaze back at her husband.

"They recreated the moment when we first met. So we'd make up," Aang said to her, tenderly laying his hand on top of hers, which was resting on Tenzin's back. He laced their fingers and gave her hand a squeeze.

Katara was speechless. She hadn't expected this kind of a surprise, much less from her children. Her bottom lip started to quaver and she turned her back towards him as she broke down crying.

"Katara? Sweetie, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Aang worried and gently grabbed her by her shoulders. She didn't respond, she merely shook her head and covered her eyes with her forearm. Tenzin also began crying from the commotion.

"I-I'm s-sorry!.." Katara hiccuped through her sobs. She slowly turned around to face her husband. She sniffed and attempted to wipe her cheeks dry, but it wasn't helping.

"I-I'm so sorry, Aang!.. I didn't mean to get mad at you.."

"Shh-shh! It's okay," he hushed her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his embrace but leaving enough room for her to break free if she didn't want a hug.

"No, it's not! I was afraid that you were gonna get seriously hurt. I-"

"So was I, Katara."

At this point, Aang couldn't hold his tears back any longer either. He squeezed his eyes shut and softly bumped his forehead against hers. She nuzzled her nose into Tenzin's hair, which helped muffle her sobs, to hear what her husband had to say.

"I'm sorry about what happened. When I saw that thug earthbend at you, all I could think about was jumping in the way to save you. All I ever wanted to do was to protect you, to not allow any harm to come to you."

Katara sniffed and rubbed her baby's back to soothe him, too. Tenzin's cries quietened down along with hers. She opened her eyes to look at her husband. She saw that his cheeks were decorated with wet streams similarly to hers.

"Me too.. I wanted to do the same for you."

She cupped Aang's chin and pushed his face further away from her own to look him in the eye, once he'd opened his shimmering grey eyes to look at her, too. Her thumb caressed his cheekbone, wiping away some of his tears.

"Can you ever forgive me for all the horrible things I said?"

Aang smiled. He placed a hand over her own wet cheek and leaned in, pressing a kiss on her lips, which she willingly returned. They took a relaxing breath after pulling away.

"Of course. Can you forgive me, too?"

Katara giggled and stroked his cheek. She planted another soft peck there before answering.

"I don't really need to. You didn't say or do anything wrong. But, yes. I forgive you."

Aang chuckled and dried his cheeks with the back of his hand. He closed his eyes and rubbed his nose together with hers, humming fondly.

"Mmm.. I love you, Katara," he murmured to her.

"I love you, too, Aang."

The kids had been watching their display of affection in utter silence. Kya held her hands in front of her mouth so she wouldn't start screeching with joy. She would've wanted to jump around when she saw her mommy and daddy kiss and forgive each other. She couldn't have been happier. Their plan was a success.

"See? Told you they'd be back to their oogies-inducing selves in no time," Bumi said proudly. Aang and Katara overheard it and started laughing. They knelt down on the sand, with Katara being careful while cradling Tenzin in her arms at the same time, and beckoned both Kya and Bumi to join them for a family hug.

Appa released a short growl before he walked over to the family and pressed his fuzzy cheek against Aang's back whilst Momo leaped onto his shoulders. The winged lemur purred as he rubbed his furry face against the airbender's, which tickled and made him giggle a little. The serenity that'd reigned over Air Temple Island earlier in the morning had returned by nightfall.

#Kataang Week #affection #Kataangtag #Kataang #the Kataang family #the Kataang kids #Aang #Katara #Bumi II #Kya II #Tenzin #Momo #Appa #ATLA and TLOK #my fanfiction #mine #shards of Kristal

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adventk-blog · 7 years

Photo

— ARE YOU WHO YOU WANT TO BE,

introducing JUNG JAEWON, a MUTANT, under the moniker of ICARUS — and currently a believer of NEUTRALITY. age ( twenty-two ) and gifted with the ability of EAGLE PHYSIOLOGY, they are currently working as COMPUTER PROGRAMMER.

WE ARE SO MUCH MORE THAN STORIES,

rule I. just because you can fly doesn’t mean you always will.

most children’s first memories are of playtime with their siblings or mothers cooking dinner, playgrounds and eating snacks, bedtime stories and fits of tears. and its normal, these things, woven into the basic structure of kids unburdened by their futures, kids making wishes on shooting stars, kids filled with innocence and curiosity and wonder. that’s the way kids are supposed to be, the way they are meant to develop.

icarus’s first memories are none of the sort; a combination of cold stone walls and giant iron bars. he remembers looking out through his cage, a hangman’s castle they designated just for him, and watching with steady, dark eyes as the men in white outfits drag a girl he’s considered to be his sister for the last two months from her adjoining cage and out of the room. she’s too exhausted to scream and icarus can’t help her, only able to cling to the bars and hope she makes it back somehow.

rule II. never forget the windchill factor

she never does. 90% of the other test subjects never do, and the men who hold them all prisoners are constantly telling him how unique he is to have survived the enhancement. special. remarkable. he doesn’t feel that way however, when they are constantly forcing him to run laps around the building, fly faster each day, lift more, breathe more, fight more. he doesn’t feel that way when they break his bones repeatedly to get him used to the pain, break him repeatedly to force his body to develop some sort of healing factor that never comes.

he is an experiment, born from no one, existing nowhere, the only friends under his wings being the other children who come and go from this place. he considers them brothers and sisters each, hoping they will stay with him, knowing they will leave him in the end. only a handful of them manage to survive a couple of years, but the sickness keeps claiming them. or the scientists break them too many times. they have somehow grown icarus and the others from a hodgepodge of human and bird dna, trying to create their own monsters, like the world isn’t full enough of those already.

rule III. stop feeling the storm, become it.

“i think they want us to be soldiers,” says his newest brother. the boy is a little bit younger than him but his wings are prettier, softer, and icarus is jealous. but that doesn’t change the fact that he might be correct though.

they train too much, fight too much, and unfortunately icarus is no good at fighting. he reaches an age when he no longer wants to try so hard for them, he feels rebellious. he becomes a coil of fury and discontent, yelling about needing the outside, about suffocating without open airflow. he’s dying in these facility walls, he’s drowning. they punish him a lot but instead of teaching him a lesson, he starts taking it as a challenge.

how much pain can he endure without flinching?

how resilient can he force his mind to be?

the others keep dropping off and he doesn’t know why. no matter what techniques he tries to impart to them, he continually watches them contract the same sort of illness, like a bad skin disease that transitions into a flu and some kind of breathing condition, as though they are suffocating, until eventually their eyes turn yellow and they begin coughing up blood. they get dragged out of the room then and he never sees them again.

over and over, he outlasts them all. no one will tell him why.

he becomes cynical. nothing lasts. he becomes a mountain. unmovable. despite the wings on his back growing larger every day and his eyesight sharpening every few weeks, he is no less the wiser about his situation. no more informed than he was when he was younger. he’s not even sure what age he is or what name he would have gotten had he been allowed to stay with his mother. if he even ever had a mother. surely he did though, right? doesn’t everyone?

rule IV. the sky has no limits, don’t adhere to any.

after a while though, it ceases to matter. bigger, better plans are made; he’s getting stronger and the base of his chest is getting hotter. maybe he isn’t a mountain so much as a volcano, set to explode. he and three others who haven’t contracted the sickness yet begin to devise a scheme to escape. icarus wants to leave but he’s scared to. he’s never been on the outside before. he only knows what the scientists and guards will tell him, what he’s overheard them talking about, snippets of conversation amassed over years of containment.

they have taken everything from him. except his wings. except the sky.

the plan works for the most part, but only two of them make it out alive. apparently for as valuable as they are, the scientists would still rather see them all dead than let loose upon the world. he loses track of his fellow escapee, but he can’t risk taking the time to hunt for him, too engrossed in the world he had, for a brief period of time, thought was actually non-existent.

rule V. open your chest to welcome the horizon.

it’s incredible. intense colors. sharp shapes. loud sounds. dialogue he’s never heard before, speech patterns that don’t really make any sense. common understandings of things he has to struggle through. and it’s worse that he has these great, impressive wings extending a little over 4 meters in either direction from his body. the people who live in the small hillside town are not amused, he guesses, from the way they all flee away from him, screaming something about the devil having come.

it’s only by chance that he stumbles upon the daybreak foundation, a place he actually manages to find peace in. he’s very unused to the care and understanding he’s received there, constantly worried that it’s all some sort of a trap, ready to flee at any given moment. there has never really been anyone on his side, no one who’s stayed with him long enough for him to learn how to trust something other than his own instincts.

but for a while, things in his volcano spirit are calm. he’s allowed to fly around the grounds, eat food whenever he’s hungry ( a novelty ) and focus on things other than survival of the fittest. he finds out that anything worth learning about can be accessed through the internet, so he adapts to that rather quickly, picking up coding skills and immersing himself in electronic knowledge. he picks things up like a bird to air, albeit out of the order of normality. he’s still not very good at jokes or innuendos. he probably overplays the memes.

they ask him for his name and he tells them it’s icarus. they ask him for his real name, and it’s one of the most depressing moments of his life. “i don’t… have one,” is all he can respond with. but they need to be able to put something down on paper, so he thinks about it for a day and decides on jung jaewon. it was the name of one of his brothers who died in the escape, who gave his life so that icarus could make it out.

rule VI. don’t forget rule I.

but then of course, it all ends in a hail of fire, as it was always supposed to do, as he always expected it would. as soon as he sees the broadcast, he knows it’s time to take flight. there’s no way in hell he’ll stay anywhere if there’s even a hint of experimentation or torture going around—he’s already had enough of that for one lifetime. he steals some money from a friend he’s managed to make, and slips out, taking to the winds and hunting for a new place to hold up.

rule VII. in·stinct. noun. an innate, fixed pattern of behavior, example: “birds have an instinct to build nests.”

he manages to find a small apartment, lucky in that the landlord is a parent of another potential, lucky in that he can afford enough to put his first payment down ( after having the process of rent explained to him in detail first ). he steals money for a little while, maybe a total of two weeks, before he manages to collect enough to buy a computer and apply for a job in online coding and computer repair.

all online though, of course. he can’t go outside, not during the daytime, not with so many angry faces, not while he’s being hunted by the government, by the population, by the scientists. he doesn’t know who all is out there and he can’t exactly hide himself well with these overgrown eagle wings. he still takes to the skies sometimes, when the boil-up is too much pressure, when the clouds call his name too loudly, and his stuffy little apartment is too small. but only in the middle of the night, only when he can’t be seen against the backdrop of stars.

rule VIII. the skies are the only home that matters.

THERE IS FLESH AND BLOOD BEHIND THESE TALES,

given icarus’s unique upbringing, it’s not a stretch to understand just how reserved and untrusting he is. like a bird constantly ready for flight, there is something inside him that is always ready to go, ready to fly, ready to get the hell out of here, like his adrenaline is always hidden just barely beneath the surface. he keeps his eyes alert but his mouth shut tight, only using words when necessary. he’s not shy, quite the opposite actually, but he believes in assertiveness and strength, power coming from within and the imperativeness of keeping secrets. he’s not a bad person, but he can be incredibly blunt and harsh, insensitive to the way he might affect other people around him. when he makes up his mind about something, it’s very difficult to change it. he despises seeming weak, having had it beaten out of him more times than he can count, so he lies very often when he can ( and even when it doesn’t make a lot of sense to ), preferring death over anyone’s pity.

AND EVEN MONSTERS CAN LEARN TO WEEP.

ABILITY : EAGLE PHYSIOLOGY- the presence of gigantic, golden eagle wings on his back allow him flight both high up in the air, as well as soaring down close to the ground, if there is enough room for his wingspan. outstretched, each wing is about 4.3 meters long, gold-brown with white and black peppering.

APPLICATIONS :

strength – not so much as to be able to bend metal or anything, but he must have a fair amount of superhuman conditioning to be able to lift and carry around the intense amount of weight on his shoulders and back, having to bare his wings and fly with them

speed – eagle wings are designed for power and speed, so while he has normal human limitations on foot, as soon as he takes to the air, he can cover great distances in short amounts of time

high altitude – he is able to survive in lower oxygen states, giving him the capability of flight high up in the atmosphere

heightened eye-sight – like eagles, he is able to see around 4 times better than average humans

LIMITATIONS : the more you put here the better! please list two limits for every application you’ve provided above to avoid overpowering muses. please keep in mind, the newer you are to a power or ability the more weakness you will have!

- while he is strong, his bones are hollower than the average human, making him extra breakable

- he cannot absorb or hide his wings, the best he can do is fold them up tightly against himself, but they are still incredibly obvious; the bone portion of his wings hover over his head, while the bottom feathers trail slightly across the floor

- while his wings can make him fast, they do not give him faster reflexes, so as long as he is in the city, he cannot maneuver close to the ground, between buildings. he has to gain altitude, where space isn’t so cramped

- because his lungs are abnormal and do not require the amount of oxygen that surrounds him, his system will occasionally malfunction and he’ll get very short of breath and start gasping, as though he’s drowning. it’s something like a reverse asthma attack

- his eyesight causes him intense migraines, to the point where he cannot function very well, and often has to go lay down or he’ll black out

THREAT LEVEL TWO. 04+ BRWN, 02+ RSLNC, 05+ INTLCT, 07+ WLLPWR, 03+ FGHTNG, 03+ SPD

#avt: follow #jung jaewon #krp #kpop rp #tw: experimentation #tw: death #tw: fire #tw: sickness

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hadesburns · 5 years