A/N: Headcanon time! I've actually had this in my head for a while.
Pema is awesome, and all those fics with her being all motherly to the boys make me squee.
Italics are flashbacks. Single '/'s denote a three year time skip.
I do not own the Legend of Korra.
Dinner time is sacred on Air Temple Island. Tenzin's family eat in a private refectory. Pema is the usual chef, but Jinora occasionally helps out, and when she's in pain or too busy or just plain tired, one of the acolytes takes over.
Pema enjoys cooking the food herself, though; she knows just how Tenzin likes his rice (sticky and mouldable into little onigiri, just as his uncle used to eat them), she knows that Jinora prefers yams to normal potatoes, she knows that Ikki will only eat honey glazed vegetables, and she knows that Meelo just will not go near anything involving any type of nut.
The little refectory is usually silent, however; excepting the occasional siblingly spat, in traditional Airbender style, it is quiet apart from the devotions at the beginning and end.
Korra mixes that up a bit. She takes over the kitchen on some days, constructing seafood dishes with fish she caught herself, or broths liberally flavoured with salt. Pema has adapted to Korra's preferences, and stews sea prunes especially for her, even if she still wonders how Korra adores the disgusting things. The table is more lively with the Avatar there, as she ignores the silence and informs the family of how her day went, or reminisces about Water Tribe cuisine, or teases Jinora and Ikki. The only course that she shuts up for is dessert, for which the Air matriarch is thankful.
The silence is shattered completely when a gaggle of assorted orphans land at her quiet table. Mako insists on taking responsibility in the kitchen at least once a week, Asami shows surprising skill at making sweets, and Bolin finishes up any leftovers that Korra can't fit. It is very much worth it, though, when Tenzin actually goes bright red when Mako serves up some traditional five-spice noodle soup. Personally, Pema likes it, because it reminds her of her brief childhood. Her mother's family had been firebenders, and she was often served Fire Nation food as a young child.
That is not the only way the brothers remind her of her childhood. Through some simple observation, it is easy to figure out that the boys had once been homeless.
Malnutrition at a young age always leaves a mark. Mako's gaunt cheeks, and the way Bolin's cuts take longer to heal than Asami's, is a huge giveaway that the brothers have spent more than one week without a proper meal. She sees it in the way they eat almost desperately, as if their food will be taken away from them at any time; the way that Bolin's eyes widen at Meelo's half-full plate; the way Mako makes sure that his brother has taken his fill before he touches anything himself.
Pema knows this because she bears the same marks, has had to break the same habits.
/\/\/
She is seven, and it is Pema's first night on the streets. The ground is blanketed with snow, and shivering, she pulls Seba's sleeping form closer. Ba-Lu disappeared a few hours ago, promising to find shelter; but he has not returned, and so she stays under the battered awning of a long-closed shop, wondering why Mama disappeared so suddenly, why she didn't even bother to send them to an orphanage.
/
She is ten, slipping on the rain soaked cobbles, her heart in her mouth,a crying Seba clutching her hand. All they've taken are a few bruised moon-peaches, but the shop keeper is going postal, making the earth tremble beneath her bare feet. She knows that stealing is bad, but they haven't eaten in so long, and Ba-Lu has sunk into one of his moods. This is the only way they'll eat.
In the end, she only gets half a peach; Ba-Lu takes most of them, leaving two for her and Seba to share. All the same, the fruit is the most wonderful thing she's had in years, sticky juice running down her chin as Seba's tears recede like the tide,.
/
"Why didn't they take me? I'm older!" she yells at Ba-Lu's unflinching face. "She's only ten! I'm thirteen, I would be better able to deal with...why? Why would you do that?" She collapsing, sobbing, into his chest, but Ba-Lu does not embrace her; he never has. He looks at her coldly and pushes her away. He tells her that he's going to Ba Sing Se, and she's not coming.
She stares at his retreating back, filthy knees shivering. Her drunkard, useless brother is departing for the Earth Nation, using the money he got from selling his little sister to a pimp to pay. She has never hated someone so much in her life, not even her mother, the mother who abandoned them for a life of freedom and made their reality hell. She spits at his back, and turns her heel, resolving to find her sister, even if she has to trade her life for her.
/
She's barely sixteen, and she's going to die. The alley she ran into is a dead end, and she presses her back against the graffitied wall, mud splattered arms raised in a weak defence. The man bears down on her, wicked blade outstretched, and she squeezes her eyes shut, apologizing to Seba. Her poor little sister; all she can hop is that she will be welcomed into the Spirit World with open arms. She opens her eyes in a futile attempt to dispel the gruesome images of her sister's slit throat swimming before her, when she hears a yell and a gory squelch.
There is a quicksilver steak before her, black hair streaming behind her, and person clad all in orange rushes to her side. She focuses her gaze, and a man is supporting her. He's completely bald, blue eyes echoing that of the arrow spearing down his forehead. He's shaking her lightly, asking if she's okay, and she can't help it; she faints straight away in the Avatars' son's arms, as the Chief of Police's daughter kills her sister's murderer.
/
She's still trembling as Lady Bei Fong places a delicate cup of po cha in front of her. Pema murmurs a thank you, at which the woman smiles. She must be in her early thirties, and her silken black hair is long, reaching to her waist. Pema resists an urge to enquire about the trio of scars that mar the metalbender's otherwise lovely face. She settles into the chair opposite her with a little groan of pain, sipping her own cup of tea. After a short while, she breaks the silence.
"So, why was he pursuing you?" Her voice is business-like, but still sympathetic. They're the first kind words Pema has heard in a while.
She presses her lips together and takes another sip of tea before beginning her story. Pema had been pursuing her sister for a while, vowing to find her and free her. Seba had been so skinny, so violated that Pema almost hadn't recognized her; but she had dragged her from that sickeningly sweaty room, shaking her sister awake from her poppy-infused sleep. The pimp hadn't been happy to let Seba go. He'd cut her throat instead of holding her hostage as Pema had been expecting, and then she'd ran, leaving her sister's bloody corpse in the dirt.
It is only when she's at the end of her tale, tears falling freely, that she notices that the Avatar's son is standing beside Lady Bei Fong's chair. Both of their eyes are full of pity, their sad faces making Pema's stomach cringe. The metalbender sighs, standing up ungracefully. She strides over to Pema and wraps her in a spidery hug. She promises Pema that her sister will get a proper burial, and leaves the room. The Avatar's son takes her chair, blue eyes still crinkled in sympathy. He picks up the abandoned cup and cradles it in his hands, seemingly for its warmth more than anything else. Pema's is long cold, polluted by her tears.
After a few more minutes of scrutiny, the airbender clears his throat, and looks Pema in the eye. He starts to tell her about the Air Acolytes, an ancient organization that is more than willing to accept homeless orphans. She drinks in what he's talking about like water; the one thing Pema has always craved is acceptance, and here it is, being offered to her on a silver platter. Before he's even finished, she tells him yes.
/\/\/
She can tell that Tenzin is worried from his wrinkled brow and the way his eyes keep darting from the scroll he's supposed to be reading to the residential block that the visitors have been assigned. She pads over to him quietly, and lightly loops her arms around his shoulders, resting her chin on one.
"You've taken in street rat orphans before, Tenzin. Remember how well that turned out?" She butts her head against his, and he leans back a little, snaking an arm around her waist.
"From what I remember, you almost got thrown in jail." She chuckles a little.
"'Almost' being the key word. Besides, I would've done the same, had I been her...but I think I would have succeeded, huh?" She's incredibly glad that Tenzin is making amends with Lin; Pema can't help but remember her as the lady who set a hot cup of tea in front of a bereaved, starving girl, and the person who engraved the epitaph onto Seba's grave.
"Well, we're lucky you won." His shoulders slump back to normal and Pema stands with her chin resting on his head, staring at the window light of her orphans' rooms.
"One more never hurts," she murmurs drowsily, and Tenzin takes no notice.
GLOSSARY
Ba-Lu means 'rhododendron' in Tibetan.
Seba means 'rose' in Tibetan.
Pema means 'lotus' in Tibetan.
Po cha, otherwise known as butter tea, is a common Tibetan drink.
Yay for research, huh?
Please, do review. ~Gryfo