Disclaimer: A:TLA and its characters are copyright to Nick and Bryke; just messing around with some minor characters that seriously need more love. Ruto's an OC though. Not entirely mine - he was named by a fellow RPing friend.
A Matter of Perspective
When Kanna looked at her husband, she saw another man.
She met Ruto in an Earth Kingdom port some weeks after she left the Northern Water Tribe. He was good-looking, brash, outspoken, and sported a smile that she wanted to wipe off his face. In retrospect, she supposed that these should have been her first warning signs. But she was too busy trying to ignore his sad attempts at courtship, attempts that reminded her too much of another waterbender she once knew.
He wasn't like the other men, though. He wasn't terribly inquisitive about why a woman like her was traversing the world on her own. He even respected her decisions, the sole exception being her apparent ignorance to his continued efforts to woo her. He was, however, a hardworking young man, well-respected, and made up for his lack of bending talent with his natural charisma. So she wasn't at all surprised when she found out he was the chief's son, when they finally got to the South. No, what surprised her was that she, Tui and La above, was falling to his incessant advances. Eventually, she gave in, against her better judgment, if only to put a stop to his persistence.
She hadn't expected his proposal until it was too late.
He cornered her under the moonlight, on the tundra, on a perfectly silent night, save for the wail of a sealtiger's call to its mate. When Ruto asked her if she would marry him, foregoing all tradition by not even giving her a shackle-of-a-betrothal-necklace, she knew she couldn't say no. But on that same night, by a trick of the light, she saw someone else. In more ways than one, she saw a certain, blue-eyed bending prodigy in her spouse. At the same time, he was different – a nonconformist to traditions, the Southern Water Tribe's ways would be reshaped and reformed under his leadership. Kanna realized that this is what Pakku might've become, were he raised differently: in another place, another time.
She felt horrible – she fell in love, not with Ruto, and not for who he was; but for who he reminded her of, and who she left behind.
Ruto knew. And she knew that he knew. And yet, he loved her still.
Years would pass, and the unorthodox methods that defined her husband would prove to be his downfall. He died in combat, falling victim to a Fire Nation raid, in a battle gone horribly wrong. He couldn't have asked for a better way to die. His only regret would be not living long enough to see his son marry the girl of his dreams. Hers, she realized as she kissed his cold, cold lips, would be never having the chance to tell him exactly why she could never love him as deeply as he loved her.
Decades later, she found herself victim to Fate's cruel ploy once again. Her eyes followed his figure as he bent an ice ramp leading down from the Northern boats. He had the same self-assured confidence and the same holier-than-thou attitude that she had no idea she would miss. But at the same time, there was a bit of Ruto in him, when his blue, blue eyes met hers.
For when Kanna looked at Pakku, she saw a changed man.
xoxo
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