Kya and Bumi made their way back to the air temple in complete silence. Both of them were still furious with their brother, and with each. With the angry, jealous feelings, as well as the biting remarks towards each other, still fresh on their minds, neither sibling said anything for fear of starting the fight all over again.
Kya hated this ugly, bitter feeling of anger. It made her feel five years older than she was, and also made her feel like she didn't know whether she wanted to shut herself away from the world, or bite the head off of anything that looked at her in the wrong way. Kya wondered if this was how Tenzin, who was the most quick tempered of the three of them, felt all the time. If it was, then maybe she would cut him some slack the next time he tried to act like the oldest, most responsible sibling...maybe.
What Kya hated most about this anger was that she was taking it out on the wrong people. It wasn't Tenzin and Bumi that she was really mad at, it was their father. Kya was...less than happy with the way that they had been raised. Kya had thought that she had been starting to forgive their father, or at the very least not be so bitter towards him anymore.
It had been years since their father had died, and ever since then Kya had been living with their mother, to make sure that she was alright. Kya had learned more about her father these past few years than she ever had growing up. Kya and her mother had had countless conversations about her father, conversations that explained, but didn't excuse, some of his actions towards her and Bumi when they had been growing up.
Kya knew that her father had been raised by air nomads. Back when he had been growing up, the air nomads hadn't looked at family's the way that other tribes and nations had. In their eyes, they were all family, no matter who ones birth parents may be. Thanks to her mother, Kya knew that her father had never known who his parents were, and he had never cared, because all of the air nomads were his family. That was just the way that things were.
So when it came to being a father, he didn't have any example to follow. Kya knew that, to her father, the entire air nation was his family, and that was why he had shown more attention to Tenzin. Kya was still frustrated about how she had often felt ignored by her father when she was growing up, and she would probably always feel that way, but after hearing about how important the air nation was to him, Kya had begun to get over her bitterness.
At least, she thought that she had. As soon as they had started this family vacation though, things began to fall apart. With Bumi at her side again after so many years, and Tenzin acting even more like a stick in the mud than before, Kya easily fell back into old habits. These old habits fed her resentment. In just a matter of days all of the progress that Kya had made over the years to heal from the lifelong pain had come undone, leaving her as angry and bitter as she had been as a teenager. In fact, Kya would go so far as to say that this anger was even worse, because as normal as it was for her to take her frustrations at their father out on Tenzin, who was just an easier target, she had never taken it out on Bumi the way that she had that night, and it scared her.
Kya knew that she had said much more biting remarks towards Tenzin than she had towards Bumi, but what she had said to her older brother had just been cruel and unfair. She knew how proud a man he was, and she had always admired how he always worked harder than anybody else she knew. And yet it was that stubbornness and pride that she had attacked that night.
Kya had all but told Bumi that no matter how hard he tried, he would never be as good or as special as a bender. She knew how sensitive he was about not having bending, and she knew how many years of self-hatred and low self-esteem he had gone through before he had gotten to the point where he was proud to be a nonbender. She knew how much this mattered to him, and yet she had thrown it in his face without a second thought. And Kya knew that what she had said had gotten under Bumi's skin, because he had asked Tenzin for backup.
Kya hated how her brothers felt like they needed protection from her...she hated how she made them feel that way in the first place.
Kya sighed and and stopped in her tracks. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bumi do the same. He hadn't said anything as they went, and for Bumi that was really concerning. Kya knew that he had to be just as upset and angry as she was, and she knew that a fair amount of that frustration was her own fault. He couldn't be all that happy with her, and yet he had walked alongside her. No matter how upset he may be, it wasn't in Bumi's nature to leave somebody on their own.
"Let me see your head." Kya knelt down on the ground and got out the small vial of water that she always kept with her. She smiled gently at her brother. "I promise, it will be without the lecture this time." Kya was willing to hold back her pride if that was what it took to make sure that his injury didn't get any worse.
Bumi looked at her dubiously, but he sat down on the ground next to her anyways. Kya used her bending to pull the water out of the vial and float around Bumi's head. Even before Kya began the healing process she could feel that the water was more gentle than it had been before. Many people didn't realize just how much one's emotions could affect waterbending.
As Kya worked she could feel her stress easing out of her. She had always found waterbending to be rather therapeutic, especially when she used it to heal. Bumi seemed to find it just as relaxing and therapeutic as she did, because he began to relax. Kya, who had always been particularly in tune with the emotions of those around her, could practically feel all of Bumi's negative emotions melting out of him. It was almost as though she was bending the bad energy away.
When the two of them got to the point of comfort where she thought that they could talk about what had happened without all of that anger returning, she decided that they were ready to begin the emotional healing.
"I'm sorry, Bumi, for what I said." Kya said quietly. "I was out of line."
"It's fine." Bumi said, and his tone was unlike what he usually used. He was far more subdued than Kya was comfortable with. "I've heard worse." Kya didn't doubt that was true, which was probably the single most unfair thing in any of their lives. One shouldn't have to get used to other people telling them that they weren't good enough, and never could be.
"I mean it, Bumi." Kya said firmly. "Bender or not, you're the most amazing person I know. I don't want you to ever think that you're anything less than incredible."
Bumi smirked slightly, clearly pleased with himself. "You haven't said something like that to me since we were kids." Back when they were teenagers, Bumi had constantly needed his ego to be fed before he could begin to wallow in self-pity. Because their parents hadn't always noticed Bumi's occasionally fragile state, the responsibility of making sure that he was okay fell on Kya's shoulders.
"Well, tonight has got me feeling like a teenager again." Kya sighed as she finished the healing and used her bending to put her water back in the vial. "So much for a relaxing vacation." Their mother would be so disappointed.
Bumi sighed and seemed to deflate. "Yeah." He muttered unhappily. Both of them were all too aware of how childish their fight with each other and Tenzin had been. They had all said things that they regretted (at least, Kya hoped that Tenzin regretted his nonsense remarks about having to carry on their dad's legacy on his own).
"I knew that this would happen." Kya admitted. It was why she had been reluctant to join Tenzin's family on vacation. And it was why she had left their family and set off on her own all those years ago. Whenever she and her brothers were together, they ultimately ended up getting into a fight that ended in all of them storming off from each other. Their fighting had only gotten worse as they grew older, and Kya hadn't been so naive as to think that any of that would change just because they were adults.
But their mother had insisted. It pained her to see her children fighting so much. She had hoped that some extended time with each other without the stress of the outside world would help them to be more open with each other. In a way, her plan had worked, but in all of the wrong ways.
Kya and her brothers had been far too open with each other, to the point that they had started to just blame each other for everything under the moon. They hadn't held anything back, and they had only ended up hurting each other because of it.
"Maybe we should just leave." Kya sighed. Bumi turned and looked at her in shock.
"You want to run away from this?" Kya despised how Bumi had said it like that. It made her suggestion sound extremely cowardly. She didn't see it as running away though, not when neither of them thought that they should have come here in the first place.
"Why not think of it as a tactical retreat?" Kya suggested. Bumi had been a commander in the United Forces. He should know better than anybody how important it was to run away from a fight sometimes.
Bumi scoffed at her words. "Do you think that Tenzin is stronger than you are?"
Kya glared at her brother. "No." Kya had always been stronger than Tenzin, both with bending and without it.
"Well, do you think he's your enemy?" Bumi raised an eyebrow at Kya.
"Of course not!" Why would he even suggest such a thing?
"Then there's no reason to take a 'tactical retreat' from him." Bumi said.
Kya punched her brother's arm. "You know what I meant, Bumi." She just thought that they should cut their losses and put an end to this vacation before they really hurt each other.
"Yeah, I do." Bumi admitted. He slung the arm that she had just punched over her shoulder. He usually saved this kind of action for Tenzin. It was his way of reminding them that he was the older brother. With Tenzin, Bumi usually did it to be patronizing. With Kya though, it was more reassuring than anything. "Look, I know it's hard, but we can't run away from who our family is."
Kya sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. Bumi's words sounded far too similar to the kind of thing that their mom had told her many times before, back when Kya had been living on her own. Bumi's words were just a reminder of everything that Kya had learned during that time. She had tried so hard to separate herself from her family. She had done her best to forget that she had a family back at home, waiting for her.
Kya had just wanted to be her own person, and she had thought that her family was holding her back from doing just that. Kya had thought that she would never be able to find herself until she had gotten rid of the part of her that was the daughter of Katara and the Avatar. It wasn't until she had accepted her family did she truly find herself.
By the time Kya had figured all of this out she had been ignoring her family for years. She had been away from them for so long, and a part of Kya was still worried that she didn't know her brothers at all. Everything that she knew about Tenzin and Bumi were things that she had known about them as children. She had changed a lot during that time, and she knew that they had to have changed too, but she couldn't help but treat them otherwise.
Kya wanted to know her brothers, really she did, but she didn't know where to start. It was much easier for her to make a relationship with Tenzin's children than it was for her to change the one she had with her brothers.
"I hate it when we all fight like this." Kya leaned in towards her brother.
"We'll figure things out." Bumi promised. He kissed the top of her forehead, just like their dad had done all the time when she had been a little girl. "Mom told us we would, remember?" Kya did remember. "And she's always right about everything."
Kya laughed. She swore, only Bumi could sound so wise and yet so childish at the same time. That was just who he was.
Bumi grinned and pulled away from Kya. He got to his feet and then held out a hand to help her up too. "Let's go back to the temple."
"Are you sure?" Kya asked. They may have fought with Tenzin, and it would probably be best for all three of them if they were away from each other for a bit. Ikki was still out there, all alone. They needed to find her, and it didn't feel right to let their own feelings get in the way of that.
"Tenzin will find her." Bumi said confidently. "He doesn't need us to hold him back." Kya wanted to argue that they weren't holding their little brother back. That night though, they were. Tenzin got flustered easily. If he was around Kya and Bumi, he wouldn't be able to focus on finding his daughter. It would probably be best for all of them if they spent some time away from each other. Allowed themselves a few hours to cool down.
Kya didn't have any guarantees that they would be able to fix things with Tenzin when he came back, but they had to try. Because Bumi was right, and so was their mom. One doesn't just run away from family, and they definitely don't give up on them.