---I wanted to start a collection of Avatar: The Last Airbender drabbles to explore the relationships in the show. Like the scene below, not all of them will be romantic, but when they are, relationships will vary. I consider myself open-minded on a lot of the theoretical relationships, so feel free to request something, though I'll say it right here, my Zutara will not be very convincing. I am aiming for a very different style of fanfic writing with deeper insight into the characters, which hopefully should bring readers new, interesting situations-thus the title- but that's just what I'm aiming for. Enough of my blather, you wanted a fanfic! Hope you like it!---
Mari Did You Know?
PG for Aangst
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Tears coursed down the woman's face, though she kept her sobs caught in her throat so as not to awake the baby that she held close to her chest or the husband that was still sleeping on their shared mat. She was a traveling woman, an Air nomad, and no stranger to self-sacrifice and hardship. Her name was Mari, and in the morning she would travel to the Southern Air Temple to give up her son to be taught how to airbend. The ability had been apparent since the moment of his birth, and she had been silently dreading the coming day ever since. He was her first son, her first child, and giving him up would be giving away a part of herself. Nevertheless, it had been nearly one year since Avatar Roku had passed away, and it was of vital importance that the children who had been born near that time be tested. She knew that the world wouldn't last long without an Avatar in training, especially if rumors about Firelord Souzen's intentions proved correct. And since her son had been born three days after Roku passed away, and had clearly evidenced airbending abilities, it was her duty to forfeit him to the temples because of the likelihood that his little body cased the ancient spirit of the Avatars.
The baby sighed in her arms, and she held him out to let the moonlight caress his features. Sometime within the next week the monks at the temple would shave off the dark curls that sprouted from his head and put chemicals on his scalp to prevent the hair from growing back ever again. When he was allowed to visit his family again at the age of sixteen, the only features that would link him to them would be the expressive grey eyes he inherited from her and the prominent ears of his father.
Again she pressed the nearly-one-year-old to her chest and let herself breathe in the scent of him. Tomorrow she would allow him to be taken away, perhaps to become the Avatar of the Nations, and save them all from whatever evils would arise in his lifetime. Tomorrow she would kiss him goodbye for the last time and watch as he left her to pursue a life that she could never even understand because she, like her husband, had been born a non0bender. Tomorrow, on the holiday when all Air Nomads gathered at the nearest temple to perform the year's rituals, Mari vowed that she would be every bit as self sacrificing as the other mothers that would be giving up their sons and daughters to the monks and priestesses. Tomorrow, she would do all that. But now in the moonlight, she allowed herself one last moment of motherly selfishness as she gave her love and received her son's silent, all encompassing affection in return. She could feel the stars watching them, and the invisible spirits making silent witness of these precious moments. This child, Mari knew, had the irrepressible destiny of greatness before him. The midnight air whispered this unspoken promise, both ominous and comforting at the same time.
Tomorrow, you may be the Avatar, Mari thought, running the tips of her fingers through Aang's tiny, dark curls. But tonight, you are mine.
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(Comments on this chapter: Mmmkay, I realize that this might be slightly sacrilegious, but I just couldn't get the idea out of my head. We don't know too much about the Air Nomads, or Aang's biological family, but I LOVED the idea of a curly haired baby and a mother wondering if the child in her arms was going to be the Avatar. The last line is an adaptation from a song called Mary's Lullaby, which I've only heard during the Easter Pageant, but I'm sure that you could find it (it's a beautiful song) if you looked for it. I changed the spelling of Mary because Mari just looked a little more Avatar-ish. Hope you liked it! Review it if you have anything to say!)