spiralmovements | Tenzin-Aang, set IDK.

Tenzin-Aang, set IDK.

It just wasn't fair.

Tenzin is silent - even more so than usual, which is a hard thing to manage, since whenever he is in his training robes he is always more somber than other boys his age. But as soon as he decided to look down at the floor, he bolts through a window.

Katara bends down and picks up the newly-shorn wolf tail and breathes heavily.

"Don't even think about chasing him, Aang. He wouldn't listen to anybody right now."

Not that his mother blames him - even with one foot in two worlds, he just gave up a piece of his Water Tribe self.

No, she thinks. We made that decision for him.

"Can you tell where he is?"

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She's not wrong, and he knows it, but this simple fact does nothing to quell the anguish in his heart.

It's her question that prompts him to turn his attention from the window his son had used for his speedy retreat, to the wolf tail in her hands.

"I have a few good guesses in mind. I could find out for certain, but that might fall under the heading of chasing him." His attempt at smiling falls flat.

"Chasing is physical," is all Katara says. "You're still standing here."

She leans over and gives her husband a peck on the cheek before leaving the room, hair in hand.

But for how much longer? is the question that hangs heavily in the air.

The Avatar runs a hand over his head as he moves towards the window. His eyes fall shut as he exhales slowly, focusing his mind on the connection between all things.

"...there you are."

After a few moments Momo alights on the windowsill and chitters in Aang's direction.

"Care to do me a favor, buddy? I'll owe you one."

Tenzin is along the waterfront facing away from Republic City, skipping stones across the water with a flick of his hand - just towards the stone, if not actually touching it to throw.

Until he feels the wind move at his back, slightly above, and --

"Go away, Momo. Dad sent you."

Momo doesn't deny this accusation.
Nor does he go away. He's been too heavily bribed to do so. He does, however, perch himself on Tenzin's shoulder, wrapping his tail around the boy's neck.

Tenzin debates bending Momo away.

But...it's Momo, and Momo wasn't the one that did anything to him to make him even more different.

So Momo receives the most halfhearted of pets, but it's enough to signify acquiescence.

Halfhearted pets are not nearly enough, and so Momo leans into Tenzin's hand. And should that not encourage a more enthusiastic participation, the lemur will lick at the boy's temple.

Or at any tears that may happen to be present.

"Eww, gross!" Tenzin whines, but it dissolves into a sort of clutching hug, whuffing into the fur of Momo's head every so often.

Strictly speaking flying lemurs don't purr, but their normal chittering does take on a very purr-like quality when they are content. Much the way Momo is right now, perched on Tenzin's shoulder, his head resting on the boy's head. Ears flopping down to cover where a water-tribe wolf tail had once been. Momo lifts his head slightly, alerted to something in the distance. Something moving quietly towards them both.

"Hi Dad."

Tenzin may be upset, but he is and has never been known to be outright rude.

"May I join you?" Aang's tone is quiet, tentative. So much less animated than usual. He's not the laughing Avatar right now.

Petulant: "You're my teacher now anyway. Go ahead."

Aang is instantly reminded of something Hakoda once told him back before Kya was born. About how children have this uncanny ability to hurt and amuse with the same breath.

This is one of those times. Tenzin's words sting, but the simple fact that he sounds so very much like his mother works as a balm for the burn.

There's a slight breeze as Aang comes to sit next to his son, and joins him in looking out on the water.

"Would you prefer I not be?"

Wait. That's not an option. Right?

Tenzin actually bothers to look at his father now, confusion at the question. "You're the only airbender in the world."

"No, I'm not," he says keeping his eyes fixed on the horizon.

"But that would mean that I wouldn't learn at all, and that doesn't make sense."

Tenzin bends a stone into his hand and lets it float there. "So I'm the only airbending student, and now I'm not even Water Tribe anymore."

Aang gives his son a side-long glance.

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Bumi gets to keep all the same traditions with Uncle Sokka and I like bending but that doesn't mean I want to be the the different one all the time."

As Tenzin's speaking, Momo plops himself down between father and son, watching as though he is understanding the conversation flying back and forth.

"And then if I ever get those -- " pointing to the streaks of blue tattoo, " -- I might as well be in a museum before I even get to do anything I actually choose."

Aang becomes very still, and very very quiet.

He wants very much to tell his son he understands, but worries that by doing so he will inadvertently minimize the Tenzin's frustrations, or overshadow the boy's pain with his own.

"Tenzin," he begins, but pauses apparently distracted by the lemur to his side, who he pats. "You are no less Water Tribe now than you were this morning. Or yesterday."

"That doesn't even make sense."

Parents are dumb.

"It's just..." Tenzin gnaws on his lip a little, the corners of his mouth turning downward. "I love you, but I love Mom too."

Wait...when did this become about Katara? Wasn't Tenzin just talking about Water Tribe tradition?

"Well of course you do."

Aang tries to gather his thoughts, but when he mentally rearranges them the pieced don't paint a solid picture. Something is missing.

"Tenzin...what is this all about?"

"Mom's Water Tribe."

And Tenzin isn't.

"I am aware, yes."

He still doesn't get it.

"And so's Kya. And Bumi doesn't bend, but he definitely is far more like them than like me.

"But now I'm going to be a student, and I have to carry on tradition, and I'm going to be by myself."

Momo's back at Tenzin's elbow again, and it's easier to look at the lemur than keep talking.

Ah. There it is.

"And you think that by studying with me that you're leaving your mother behind."

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