Rohan throws out his hands and makes a whoosh sound through his lips.
Like always, no air comes through them and into his control.
He looks down at them unhappily, like they are faulty tools in need of replacement. To Rohan, this idea is not unreasonable. His father and brother, his two sisters can all bend beautiful patterns and gentle sounds through their connection to a very essence of elements.
Here are two good hands, good for writing and climbing and carrying … and bending. If you are anyone else.
Rohan is just a little boy making gestures and wishes.
He goes through the big doors that lead outside, at the front of the temple. The air off the bay here is clean and fresh, even if across the bay it's musty with city smells. Air Temple Island is always pleasant-smelling, and pleasant feeling. His father says that it's the presence of airbenders and the memory of his grandfather, keeping everything sweet.
Rohan scowls and kicks at a stone on the path. An acolyte must have missed it while they were sweeping. The gardens here are generally impeccable, good for meditating and mulling over life's mysteries in.
Rohan decides that he must be a lot like the stone in the path, imperfect in a perfect place. They're the last of the airbenders, and here he is breaking up the Avatar's family line.
"Every Air Nomad is a bender," he mutters, stuffing his hands in his pockets and beginning to walk. Someone is laughing beyond the bushes – Ikki, maybe, she is always laughing at something or other.
"Every Air Nomad is supposed to be a bender and I'm just some useless kid."
Not to worry, his mother always tells him. Bending just isn't for everyone, and there are many other talents in the world. Everyone is the same, that's what Avatar Korra worked so hard to do, right?
Rohan loves his mother; she is sweet and gentle and takes wonderful care of the family. She always has a kind word or a hug for her youngest, especially since he is with her more often than Meelo or his sisters are. Rohan does not have to meditate or learn how to manipulate the wind, so he can help her around the temple or listen to her stories.
He doesn't usually mind, but her constant assurances that there is nothing wrong with him have turned stale to his ears. She wouldn't understand; her whole family are non-benders, and they're from the Earth Kingdom at that. Earthbenders are a dime a dozen in Republic City, as far as Rohan is concerned.
Airbending is too important, and Rohan's failure to connect feels like his own fault. He turns around and looks at the gleaming buildings with their sloping roofs. He is sure that his father must disapprove of his normality, when he spends so much time bending with Meelo and Jinora and Ikki.
Rohan jumps when someone sweeps past him, pulling him out of his thoughts and almost knocking him over. Someone cackles, and he realizes that it's only Meelo.
"You could've killed me!" Rohan sputters, getting back his balance before he whirls around to glare at his brother.
Meelo giggles, sitting on a ball of air and spinning around on the walkway. "Well you should learn to get out of the way, then!"
Rohan's face darkens, and he folds his arms defensively in front of him. Stupid Meelo, never watching where he's going and causing trouble all the way
"I can't, idiot! I'm not fast like you!"
Meelo only grins and sticks his tongue out. He has no concept of not being able to bend, no idea what it's like to be surrounded by that sixth sense and not get to participate in it at all.
"Well that's too bad, little bro! It means I can just keep knocking you over!"
Knocking him over, over and over again.
Rohan just doesn't have the same footing on Air Temple Island. Meelo knows it, and he is forever teasing him about it, but he has no idea how deep it cuts Rohan's heart when he does.
"Boys!" someone calls from a doorway. The brothers stop and look up.
Their mother appears, and her eyebrows furrow when she sees the state of her two sons. Meelo looks apologetic, and drops off of his ball of air.
"Just what are you doing to Rohan this time?"
"Nothing, Mom!"
Pema frowns, putting her hands on her hips. "You know your brother can't keep up with you when you do things like that. One of these days you're going to hurt him."
She thinks she's helping, she really does. It only confirms for Rohan that he can't even take care of himself, not around his wonderful, strong, bending family.
"I'm fine, Mom," he says, but she doesn't seem to hear him.
"Go on, Meelo, go play somewhere else. And Rohan, come here." Her expression softens, looking on her youngest son. The one just like her. "You can help me get dinner ready, okay?"
"Yeah, Rohan," Meelo crows, taking off back into the garden. "Go help Mommy! I'm gonna go see if Korra's here today."
Pema shakes her head, and motions for Rohan to follow her inside. He's standing totally still, watching after his brother.
That's all Rohan will do forever, isn't it? Watch his brother and sisters from the sidelines as they become powerful, beloved airbenders, and help his mother who tries to comfort him but who only makes him see his great failing in the family.
Rohan turns away and runs as fast as he can.
He barely hears his mother calling his name, and he barely notices when he almost plows right into Jinora on her way back to her room. There are tears on his cheeks, rolling off his face as he runs at full speed. He can't pinpoint why he is crying – the feeling of useless unhappiness pervades his whole life to begin with, so why would it become so crushing now?
Rohan bursts through a door and down a hallway, trying to choke his sobs back into his throat. He doesn't know where he is headed, his steps echoing through the buildings of Air Temple Island.
He isn't looking where he's going, and runs straight into a big, solid body.
"Whoa, kiddo! You've gotta watch where you're jetting off too … oh. Aw, little man, don't cry, tell me what's got you so wound up."
A pair of arms sweeps Rohan up and carries him into the next room, belonging to a tall, skinny man sporting wild black hair. He'd almost forgotten that Uncle Bumi is visiting them this month.
Bumi sits down on a sofa, pulling Rohan into his lap. It takes a couple of minutes before Rohan can stop gulping and shuddering with sobs, and Bumi is surprisingly quiet throughout. Normally he finds his uncle too loud and rough, the very traits Ikki and Meelo love about him. A sobbing little boy is plenty enough to make him solemn, it seems. Not that Rohan is thinking much about it.
Right now none of that seems to matter, or Rohan is so upset that he can't really think about it. So Rohan sits in his lap and cries it out.
He finally looks up, and pulls his hand across his eyes.
"S-stupid Meelo," he croaks. "He doesn't get it. Any of it."
Uncle Bumi smiles, ruffling Rohan's hair. "Don't get what, little man? Just how big is your problem?"
It pains Rohan every day, so it must be big enough. He sighs, relieved that he won't break out into tears again.
"I don't know. But I'm not good for this family. I've got Air Nomad in me, but not a bit of bending, and what good is that to anyone? I keep trying and it never comes."
He prepares for the worst. Uncle Bumi is very quiet, leaning back in his seat. Rohan listens to the soft creak of the sofa and the birds chirping outside.
"Aw, kiddo."
Bumi's voice is gruff. Rohan turns around to look at him.
"I've got Air Nomad blood in me too. More than you've got. I've never bent a raindrop, let alone a sneeze, or anything else that I should be doing." Uncle Bumi grins. "What do you think, am I getting along alright?"
Rohan feels like someone just punched him in the stomach. Uncle Bumi rarely visits, and Aunt Kya comes even less. On a quiet, timeless place like their island, it's easy to forget that you have aunts and uncles. Aunt Kya waterbends, of course, just like Granny ...
"You're not a bender," Rohan says quietly. "You're Avatar Aang's son, too, and you can't bend at all, can you?"
Bumi grins, holding his hands up in a helpless gesture.
"Not a bit, kiddo. Besides, bending's got nothin' to do with being the Avatar's kid. It's the just the way that some people turn out, right?"
Rohan scowls, his hands tightening into fists.
"There are only four airbenders in the world, Uncle Bumi, so I must've screwed up big time when I came along and broke up the line." Rohan knows that it is not his fault that the airbenders are gone, that no firebender alive had a hand in it either. The failure of being in his family and not bending at all, however, still falls on him. All of his siblings airbend, don't they? They're the last line and they need him.
He realizes that Bumi has gone quiet again. Then he reaches out, and sets Rohan on the couch next to him.
Suddenly Rohan is sure that he's said something wrong. When do the lines on Uncle Bumi's face crinkle in anything but laughter? His eyes are completely serious. Rohan stares down at the floorboards.
"Hey, kiddo. Look at me."
It takes Rohan a second to dare it. Uncle Bumi's expression is unchanged.
"Rohan, you're a big thinker, right? Just like your dad." Bumi's fingers drum softly on the sofa's armrest. "I need you to think about something new for me. When I was a little kid, there was only one airbender in the whole stinking world."
Rohan's eyes widen, and he whips his head around to stare at his uncle.
Avatar Aang was the last airbender.
Aunt Kya was a waterbender. And Uncle Bumi …
Bumi's expression softens back into a smile. "I didn't expect you to get the wrong answer, kiddo. There was a lot sitting on me, let me tell you, and it took your dad enough time to get born and learn how to bend."
Rohan blinks, looking down at his hands as his face scrunches up in thought. "Grandpa Aang didn't get mad at you … did he?" He can't imagine it, after hearing about how gentle the Avatar was throughout his life.
Uncle Bumi raises his eyebrows, shaking his head quickly.
"No, no! Your grandpa loved his kids no matter what we could or couldn't do, just like your dad does. Nobody in this family's ever gonna resent you for not bending, Rohan, never forget it." Uncle Bumi grins at him, showing the gap between his front teeth.
"Nah, it was other people and their big expectations that stung. Kids I knew, and people who worked with my parents, they were always askin' if something was wrong with Bumi. 'Who'll train the next avatar if there are no more airbenders to do it?' Luckily Tenzin was born and shut them up, but 'til then ..."
Uncle Bumi shrugs. "It was pretty depressing, to be a non-bender when everyone was looking for more airbenders and my sister had inherited water, y'know?"
Rohan picks at a stray thread on the sofa. "They were right, though, weren't they? If my dad hadn't been an airbender, who would've trained the next Avatar?"
No wonder they had been so worried, and no wonder so many hopes had been pinned on Uncle Bumi.
"Avatar Aang never worried about it," Bumi replies, grinning. "He said that there'd always be a way for the new Avatar to be successful. Of course, he more than anyone wanted the airbending line to continue. But that's not what matters here."
Rohan supposes it isn't, since there are a sample of airbenders now alive in their family. He looks down at his hands again, upturned palms that for years he has seen no use in.
When he doesn't answer, Bumi grabs him by his shoulders and he yelps with surprise.
"'Course you've got value, little buddy! Even if all the airbenders had died out and everyone in the world had blamed me, it doesn't matter! I'm a commander of an international fleet, your great-uncle Sokka was the greatest Water Tribe warrior in the world … and you, Rohan, you think hard on the world and how it works. Not a lot of people think that's important, and you've got a whole life to find out why it would be, right?"
Bumi gives Rohan a friendly slap on the back. "You're like your dad more than you realize, kiddo. You're quiet and you stop and think about everything. More than I can say about myself.
Rohan blinks. "How am I anything like my dad? I don't airbend … or do much of anything, Uncle Bumi." Useless hands and wishes, that's him.
Bumi rolls his eyes. "What did I just finish telling you? Don't let what you can't do define your life, or trust me, you're stuck! You and your dad are both out to understand the world quietly. Just in different ways. So don't worry about it."
Rohan looks out the big window, at the dainty cherry trees outside and the birds flitting from branch to branch. The distant sound of Ikki laughing. Jinora walking past with a scroll tucked under her arm.
Uncle Bumi grins at him again, and this time Rohan grins back, showing a rare, full smile on his serious face.
There's a lot to think about.
Author's Note: I never thought I would write Legend of Korra fanfiction, but here you guys go, I guess! I had some thoughts about Rohan and then I just hammered this out. I hope you guys like it!