A/N: Just a little something I thought up. Of course I would get an idea the night before school starts again! God bless!
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Korra or its characters.
Though they hadn't spoken a word to each other about their plans, they somehow ended up at the same place at the same time.
Calling in a favor from a friend, Bumi had been transported by boat across the bay. The moon was bright and allowed proper vision without the need of newly installed front lights, the light bouncing off the tops of the waves as they chopped through the water. His dark hair was all in a tousle from the night breeze and the nervous play of his fingers.
He stood at the front of the boat, silver eyes never straying from the proud statue of his father. The view made him want to shrink back, his broken arm throbbing from the fall off the cliff just a week earlier. Seeing the man that he had looked up to his entire life so strong and sure made him realize how weak he was in comparison.
When his feet hit the ground of Avatar Aang Memorial Island, he could feel the shadow of his father cast upon him.
"It won't take long, Rei," The former commander promised his friend, who gave him a slight groan knowing never to trust the flighty soldier. Bumi rolled his eyes at the man's response, but continued on his way as if he hadn't even heard him.
Bumi had never visited the memorial dedicated to his father; he had never really had the need to. Growing up with the former Avatar as the head of his household gave him plenty of insight to who the man was. He didn't need the stony faced pictures or the barely used artifacts to know how great his father had been. He had witnessed it.
Still that didn't stop a chill from running up his spine as he entered the dimly lit hall and met the unfamiliar painted gaze of Avatar Aang. His boots echoed loudly, the only other sound filling the room being that of his own breathing. There was no one else here. It was just he and his father.
He walked down the hall, glancing half-heartedly at the pictures he passed by. There were so many different depictions of the war, but they all had one thing in common and that was the hero standing in the middle of it.
He straightened his new airbender robes as he entered a room hanging off to the side, its spacious walls covered with small photographs and a cold statue standing beneath a skylight in the dead center of the room.
"Hey Dad," He cringed once he realized the words were the exact ones he had used before, back when he had been talking to his father at The Southern Air Temple. "You're still looking well! The Spirit World must be doing wonders for you."
He paused a moment as he tried to think of how to start this conversation, one so full of remorse that it weighed down his heart to the point that he had woken up in the middle of the night and crossed the bay just to relieve himself of it. He opened his lips to start his apology, but was quickly cut off by another voice suddenly filling the room.
"Bumi?"
The man's heart stopped, but he was quick to recover. For a moment, it had sounded like his father's voice. Tenzin stepped out of the shadows, a worried crease disrupting the pale blue arrow on his forehead.
"Hey Tenzin," Bumi called casually, waving his good hand in greeting. "Just came here to clean Dad's statue."
"Bumi, have you ever even set foot on this island before?"
The older man paused, before shrugging his shoulders up to the bottoms of his ears. "I don't really recall. Everything is kind of a blur in old age."
Tenzin gave him a dubious look. "Sure, whatever you say."
They were silent, neither knowing how to break the usual tension that filled a room when they occupied it together. Bumi coughed in to his fist, hoping that the noise would be enough to slice through the thick air surrounding them, but hoping so in vain as it only made the silence more apparent.
"So," The former commander started, brushing insistently at the shoulder of the statue in front of him to keep up his charade. "Why are you here?"
"I always visit the memorial."
Bumi's brow rose, "At night?"
"It's easiest," Tenzin shrugged, his shoulders still stiff from the fight that had taken place not even a week before with Zaheer. "Nobody is here. I can remember him on my own."
Bumi nodded slowly, getting the strange feeling that Tenzin was lying about his true intentions.
"I've seen you in the meditation pavilion at night," Bumi watched as his brother's eyes shifted to the side, refusing to meet his gaze head on. "Surely you don't come over here for a visit after spending all that time being boring? Come on, Tenzin. Why are you really here?"
"I didn't demand that you tell me the truth," The master airbender stated stubbornly, crossing his arms tightly over his chest. "Why should I answer to you when you made up some excuse about being over here, too?"
Tenzin's rant was cut short by a door opening and closing. Both men shut their lips tight, sharing a look of confusion as to who would be visiting the island at such a late hour. But when the sound of uneven footsteps hit their ears, they knew exactly who it was.
Kya hobbled in to the room, the crutches under her arms creating dull thuds against the tile. She raised her head up to meet the twin gazes of her brothers, both of their eyes wide in shock. She gave them a weak smile.
"Looks like we're having a family reunion."
"What are you doing here?" Of all the people Tenzin could see visiting his father's memorial at night, Kya was the last one he would think of. The waterbender and the late Avatar hadn't left on the greatest of terms, both saying some things they shouldn't have before storming off and refusing to address them ever again. To say he was shocked to see his sister on the island was an understatement; he was absolutely floored.
"Well, hey there, little sister!" The former commander boomed as if he had not seen her in years, when in actuality they had only been out of each other's company for a few hours. "To what do we owe this pleasure?"
Kya lifted up a small basket she had been holding on to with her right hand. Bumi clapped once loudly, causing Tenzin to jump as the sound bounced off the walls.
"Oh, a picnic! How kind of you."
The waterbender rolled her eyes, crossing the room so that she could stand beside them. "It's definitely not a picnic. There are incense sticks inside it."
"You're going to burn the memorial down?" Bumi's brow rose at his sister's words, worry filling him at what she might do with the power of fire on her side. Thankfully, Kya just laughed it off, knowing that honoring her father was a little out of character for someone who had fought so long and hard with him.
"No," Bumi sighed with relief, Tenzin's shoulders also relaxing at her gentle answer. "I was coming to burn them for Dad."
"That's nice of you," Tenzin stated, surprised at his sister's honest response. "He would be excited that you were coming to visit him."
Kya gave him a half smile, an ancient sadness evident in her eyes. "Yeah," She murmured, lowering the basket to the ground. "What about you two? What are you doing here?"
The brothers shared a glance, both raising a brow at the other.
"Uh, cleaning?"
The woman nodded, recognizing the excuse as one that Bumi had used previously.
The siblings were quiet for a moment; each surprised by the others appearance. It wasn't a usual thing for them to just randomly go visit their father's memorial at the same time. Surely this wasn't all just a coincidence.
Kya gathered her crutches in one hand and laid them on the floor, following them soon after. Sitting cross-legged in front of the Avatar's statue, the waterbender opened up her basket, lifting several incense sticks out along with a match.
Bumi and Tenzin both crouched down on the floor beside their sister, watching as she lit the sticks and placed them into the holder. Glancing to the side at her two brothers, Kya had to smile.
"You two are here to apologize about the air temple, too – aren't you?"
Both men didn't say a word, but they didn't have to. It had been no coincidence that they all showed up on the same night. They all had the same guilt harbored in their hearts.
"It's okay," Kya insisted at their silence, her blue eyes reflecting their anguish over the incident. "We have every reason to feel sorry. We failed him."
Tenzin bowed his head, his eyes staring at the tattoo displayed proudly on his hand. Bumi coughed into his fist once more but said nothing on the subject.
Careful with her injured leg, Kya sat on her knees, head lifted slightly so she could look up at the stony gaze of her father. Though the cold eyes made her want to shrink back in guilt, she kept her chin up.
"I'm sorry," She began, pretending as though her brothers weren't hearing the inner turmoil that had been eating at her for the past week. "I never focused my bending on fighting like I should of, like you and mom insisted. It is because of this that that witch was able to defeat me. If she hadn't, we may have had a chance of saving the temple and the airbenders."
Tenzin laid a heavy hand on his sister's shoulder, heart touched by the genuine apology pouring from her lips.
"I'm also sorry that through all this, I'm still not the airbender that you wanted me to be," Bumi and Tenzin froze at the mention, both having thought about it once Bumi discovered his bending. "At least now you have two sons that can live up to the legacy you left for one."
Bumi's hand joined his brother's on their sister 's other shoulder, his forehead creased with worry. "Kya," He spoke, his words soft but loud enough to bring her out of her thoughts. "Is that what you have felt this entire time?"
"Not really," The woman admitted, giving her brother an encouraging glance. "I was happy for you. It's just hard being the only one now."
"Dad wouldn't care," Tenzin insisted, his stormy eyes trying to convey the genuine belief behind his words to his sister in the best way he could. "All he cared about was that we were happy with who we were and the choices we made. He would never hold something against us that was out of our control."
"If you believe that - then why are you here apologizing along with me?"
Tenzin didn't know how to answer that.
"I'm sorry, too, Dad," Bumi broke in after a moment of silence, his voice gruff with grief. "When Tenzin told us that the temple had burned down, I can't even begin to tell you about the feeling I got in my heart. It was a bad feeling. Maybe if I had listened to Tenzin's teachings more, I would have been able to hold my own. But I couldn't."
Bumi released a frustrated sigh, an uncharacteristic anger overtaking his features. "I'm just as useless as a bender as I was when I was a nonbender."
It was Kya's turn to comfort her brother, an arm wounding its way around his shoulders. The man leaned into her embrace, but his expression didn't fade.
After a few minutes, the incense burned down to the nub. Kya gathered the sticks and the holder and placed them back into her basket. Bumi helped her up off the floor and grabbed her crutches for her when he bent down again for the basket.
Both older siblings looked over at Tenzin who stood slowly, his bones creaking as he did so. The airbending master remained quiet though, a crease etched between his brows.
"Rei gave me a lift over here if you two want to ride back with me to the island," Bumi offered, to which Kya gave a quick nod of her head. Waterbending the small dingy she had brought to the memorial had taken too much out of her to have to bend it all the way back.
Bumi and Kya left the room, allowing Tenzin his moment alone with their father. He heard their footsteps drift down the hall before the sound of a door opening and closing reached his ears.
"Dad," Tenzin began, his voice shaking with emotion as he stood face to the face with the late Avatar's statue. "I'm sorry for what happened at the temple. I put up a fight, but it wasn't good enough. You left me your legacy to take care of but I have already failed a part of it."
He breathed deeply for a moment, his next words bringing tears to his eyes. "Jinora's about to become a master. I won't be the only one to have this weight on my shoulders anymore. If you can't be proud of me, at least I know you would have been proud of her. She has done everything in her power to protect our people and the Avatar. She is your legacy, now."
With those words, Tenzin left the room and his father's statue, as well as his legacy, behind.