Hello to all my fellow Avatar fans out there!
So, I'm not really new on FanFiction, but new at this particular fandom and hope to get a foot on the ground here, although the concept of an airbender OC is a bit overused... But at least I have a non-superpower explanation for how it could happen and what kind of consequences it might have. Enjoy!
"Kaaamiiii!"
I wince and the leaves I just practiced with flutter to the ground. I turn around to face my brother Mizulon, unmistakably named after Firelord Azulon, the father of our current Firelord. It's a waaay to impressive name for a ten-year-old, though.
"Mimi!" I call out in shock, then I manage to relax a bit. If it's him, it's okay. My parents would have been alright, too, sorta. They'd ground me and done. But anyone else catch me doing my stuff and I'm doomed.
"Are you doing these hideous things again?" Mimi asks and I wish he wouldn't have picked up that word. Hideous. It was unavoidable, though. Everyone calls my abilities hideous, or even worse things. At least everyone who knows of them, including myself. We don't assign much value to my skills, quite the opposite actually. Well, you can't even say 'skills', more like raw power waiting to be honed. Well, it can wait forever. I'm forbidden to practice, I wouldn't want to, either, but I can't help succumbing to the temptation of this savagery from time to time. Besides, I don't even know whom to practice with. I don't know how many people like me are out there, and those who exist are not going to make it public, understandably. But I know it's a rare ability I have. Very rare, deservedly rare, and the only known master of this practice is an enemy of the state. Well, and he's dead.
Sighing, I get up from my squatting position and straighten my robes. "I told you, I can't help it! It's a part of who I am, whether I like it or not. If dad told you to stop firebending, would you manage?"
Mimi turns away, face crunched up in a sort of special pout unique to him. He's really cute, my little brother, with that round face and big chocolate eyes of his. His black hair is tied in a topknot, as usual for a Fire Nation citizen. He looks a lot like mum, they say, while I may as well be from a whole different family. My hair is black alright, but slightly wavy, curling up at the tips, and my eyes are a dark shade of gray. I prefer wearing my hair in a braid rather than a topknot, so the waviness wouldn't show, but my eyes... Well, they just refuse to fit in with the brown-eyed members of my family. And let's not get started on my darker complexion...
"It's not fair!" Mimi declares. "It's not your fault that our great-great-grandmother married one of those filthy Air Nomads! You should be a firebender like me, not stuck with... that!"
He gestures to the leaves rustling in the evening breeze.
"It's called airbending!" I drawl, a bit annoyed with my brother. While I admit that I'd rather be a firebender, or even a non-bender like mum, I don't like people treating my abilities as something unbelievably obscene. It's like treating me as something unbelievably obscene, and the only person allowed to do that is myself. "What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you were going for a sleepover at Hirai's place?"
"Hirai is sick," Mimi explains, arms crossed in front of his chest. "I can't stay there." He seems a little offended by the fact, and I can't suppress a giggle.
"I don't think he chose to be sick today. I'm sure he wants you over as much as you do!"
"I suppose..." Mimi mumbles and his arms drop to his sides. "Well, anyway, mum sent me to fetch you for dinner. Dad will be home any time now!"
"It's dinnertime already?" I ask a bit bemusedly. "I never would have guessed..."
Time flies when I practice control over my bending in the backyard, so I'll someday stop sending things flying with a mere sneeze. I noticed that already. Still, it surprises me time and time again.
"Let's get inside, I'm hungry!" Mimi grabs my wrist and pulls me to the house. I laugh softly and yank free. "I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own, you know?"
Satisfied that he fulfilled his mission, Mimi parades through the curtain separating the interior from the back porch and the small garden. Inside, my mum is preparing the table for dinner, serving a huge pot of rice. The smell of fried vegetables and roasted hippocow wafts through the air, making my stomach grumble agreement.
"Take care not to drool, Kami," my mother Jimari jokes. She is a beautiful woman with glossy black hair tied up in a bun, flawless white skin, a small nose and eyes the color of cocoahazel. Even married and with two children, men are flocking her. They don't know she gave birth to a filthy airbender, that her bloodline is marred by the weak. My father didn't know, too, until I was born. But love is brightest in the dark, as everyone knows. Their relationship is none the worse for it, and we're all glad. Like Mimi said, it's not my fault I'm an airbender, and it's not my mum's fault, either.
However, for now, there is something else to make clear.
"Muu-uum! I'm not drooling!" I complain, waving my arms in protest. My brother chuckles.
"But you look like you do!" he joins in, making me growl with frustration.
"MIMI! Stop backstabbing your big sister!"
At that, he just grins at me and sits down at the table. "When is dad coming?"
As if just waiting for the question, I can hear the front door open. Not seated yet, I rush to the entrance and hug him tightly.
"Welcome home, dad!"
"Hello, Kami," he responds with that deep, velvety voice I love so much. Maybe I'm biased, but he is the best storyteller this world has to offer. His talents are wasted as a prison guard, but that's how it is. We're at war, a war which rages for a hundred years already. "Stormy as ever, I see," he teases, deliberately using a word associated with air. He's quite a stick-in-the-mud in his own right, but he makes his efforts. Using airy phrases is his way of showing that he doesn't mind me being an airbender. Could have fooled me. I don't blame him, though...
I let go of him. "Dinner is ready. You better hurry, or Mimi is gonna eat your share!"
"She's right, dear." My mum shows up in the door frame leading from the hallway to the dining room. She greets her husband (his name's Lin Yi by the way) with a peck on his lips and helps him take off unnecessary parts of his uniform.
My dad isn't exactly handsome. While his short hair is nice enough, his eyes are of an uncanny light brown color and his nose is crooked from having it broken by a rebellious prisoner a few years ago. But he's elegant and well-mannered, and my mum, for all her beauty, is by no means a superficial person. She knows how to truly appreciate someone, and I wouldn't want any other woman for my mother, even though she's an Air Nomad's descendant and passed his curse down to me. My family is totally worth it.
Without further interruptions, the three of us sit down (Mimi didn't bother getting up) and dig in. I can't say mum is a splendid cook, that's more like my field of expertise. And least I'm told that; personally, I'd say I'm somewhat overspecialized. I know only a few recipes, but they seem to be well-received if it comes as far as my mum allowing me, a fourteen-year-old, to handle the cooking fire. Unlike my brother and father, I have no natural defenses against the flames. Anyway, my mum made dinner, and both my brother and me steer clear of some of the vegetables. They're traditionally overcooked.
"Don't you want some of the sliced tomatocarrots?" my father prompts. "They're delicious."
I share a look with my brother and shake my head. "We're good on vegetables."
He shrugs and pointedly grabs another slice with his chopsticks. "You have no idea what you're missing out on."
My mother glows with pride. She thinks us children just don't know what's good. The truth is, my father even eats ocean kumquats, a so called 'Water Tribe delicacy'. After that, I decided I'm never ever gonna touch Water Tribe food.
"So, how was school?"
Of course, my brother immediately shoots off a string of praise hymns. His school days always seem exciting and fun, he has many friends to play with and subject matters aren't too hard for him.
I block out his rambling and search my mind for something nice to say. I hate school, there is no place in this world I wish so hard to set on fire. I don't have any friends to speak of, my classmates are too scared of the class bully. Who has singled me out as his personal punching bag, which pretty much means waking nightmare. It means name-calling, loneliness, and working double-time on the homework. Mine and his. He's smart, too. If he is in a bad mood or I don't deliver his homework correctly and punctually, he'd beat me up, but in ways it looks like I'm just being clumsy.
There was that one day some anonymous note appeared in my school bag, advising me to change schools, so I can be safe from him. I was thankful to know that there are still people caring about me, even though they don't do it openly. But I can't take the advice. The only other schools around are private schools and too expensive to attend.
"Kami?" a voice finds its way to my ears. "Kami!"
"Yes?" I hastily reply and look up from my food.
"You're spacing out," my mum notes. "Are you alright?"
I shrug, trying to look nonchalant. "Sure. Just thinking about school. We wrote poems in arts today, it was fun. I tried composing a haiku about plum blossoms, now that was something different!"
I manage to say it with some real enthusiasm. Writing poems is fun. I'm not particularly good at it, though. While I like playing with words, doing it in an artful way is not exactly my strong suit.
"Can I go to my room now? I have a lot of homework to do."
"Of course, sweetheart," my mum permits. "Don't worry about the plates, I'll clear the table."
"Thank you."
My room is actually the attic, and it has a window giving an amazing view of the sky right above my bed. I don't know if it is because I'm an airbender, but I've always felt a strong connection to the vast blueness up there. I sleep best when I can see the stars.
But the stars aren't going to help me getting a grip on my life, even if they were out right now. Heaving a deep sigh, I slump into my desk chair and rummage through my school bag, searching for my textbooks.
Thank the High Dragons it's nothing major today. Just some mathematics and drawing a time bar about Firelord Sozin's greatest victories. Of course, his biggest accomplishment is wiping out the Air Nomads, emptying the Air Temples and tracking down every single Air Nomad who escaped. A great accomplishment indeed. And yet the Avatar somehow slipped through his fingers, but that's okay. Prince Zuko killed him in Ba Sing Se, got rid of the only obstacle standing in the way of victory. And then, perhaps the rest of my family will finally come home, my uncle, my aunt, my cousin, my grandfather... all the people fighting for our homeland. It would be so great to see them again! Especially my cousin Tovi. He's a mechanic, he'd always build little toys and play with me and my brother, crack jokes and just be fun personified. I miss him. When I think about him, I'm always afraid he won't come back, that he would be killed in the Earth Kingdom, far away from home... It's a sacrifice we have to make, and be proud of it. But really? I'm just scared. I fear the day I will join the army. I hope I'll grow out of it.
I scribble down some last notes, taking care that my two time bars look nothing alike, seeing how one of them isn't officially mine. Once I'm finally finished, I drop everything into my satchel and sprawl on my bed, already loathing the morning to come. Just another day of hiding and avoiding being dissed and pushed around, just another day of loneliness, just another day full of uncried tears, just another day waiting for someone with the strength to make a difference. Waiting for someone who never comes...
Not exactly long... I usually write 3-4k chapters, 2k is weird on me... But I like this closing phrase, so the closing phrase it shall be.
I don't expect much chapters on this one, but I never do, so it might turn into something real long, or it may not. Writing Fire Nation children is pretty hard, we don't know much about them. So my foremost source is The Headband episode, for all it's worth. Well, and history books. Propaganda is actually quite a topic around my country. Especially how it's best avoided... But I'm digressing.
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Hope you enjoyed!