The Mountain
by LizBee
Notes: (1) How do I not have a Pema icon; (2) sometimes "finished is better than "perfect"; (3) I realise that is not reassuring; (3) set early in season 2.
Pema paused in the entrance of the Southern Air Temple's library, looking around for a flash of saffron fabric or sunlight gleaming off a bald head. It was, thankfully, empty, except for Kya, curled in a chair with a book in her hand. She looked up as Pema entered the room.
"Hiding from someone?"
"No," said Pema, a little too quickly. She double-checked that they were the only people in the room, then lowered her voice and said, "Are you finding the Acolytes here a bit … strange?"
"Rude?"
"I was going to say obsequious?"
"To you, maybe." Kya put her book down. It was a first edition of Avatar Aang's account of his childhood among the Air Nomads; she left it face-down and opened, cracking the spine. "Once they found out Aang's daughter's a childless, gay waterbender, they stopped being so friendly."
"Because you haven't produced a new generation of airbenders?" Pema sat down, sinking into the deep cushions.
"And never even wanted to try." Kya smiled distantly. "I've been resisting the urge to construct rude ice sculptures. Don't want to give the kids ideas."
"Or Bumi," said Pema.
"Or Bumi. So I guess you have the opposite problem?"
Pema took a deep breath, but the rage she had been suppressing escaped her control.
"Abbott Shung just asked me when I was going to have another baby. Rohan isn't even weaned yet! And it's not even remotely his business! Plus-" she realised she was becoming shrill. "Plus," she added in a calmer tone, "Rohan wasn't exactly planned, and we can barely manage the three older kids, not to mention Korra and all her friends - and Jinora should be old enough to help out, but the only times she's not off in her own little world, she's picking fights with Ikki! And why Shung would even want more airbenders around, after what Meelo did yesterday…"
Pema exhaled slowly.
"Did your mom have to put up with this?" she asked.
"Oh, they couldn't stand her." There was anger beneath Kya's amusement. "Why do you think we never took any happy family vacations here?"
"She just avoided them? That doesn't seem like her."
"Well, Dad liked to avoid them, too, when he could. Some people just couldn't forgive him for marrying a really powerful waterbender."
"Instead of a nice, non-bending Acolyte whose kids would probably be airbenders."
"Right. And obviously they weren't going to hold a grudge against Dad, so…"
"I see it." Pema picked at a loose thread on her dress. "I didn't realise there was all this history. They're not like this at home."
But then, the Acolytes at home lived alongside them. It was hard to have illusions about magical airbender children when they were making mud pies in your vegetable garden or playing airball in your meditation circle. Sometimes Acolytes newly-arrived from the Air Temples seemed a little awestruck, but they got over it fast.
"Acolyte Joshi," she said, "I saw him the other day. He used to live on Air Temple Island. I'm pretty sure I threw up on him when I was pregnant with Jinora. He looked at me like - like-"
Like I was somebody special. Not in my own right, but through my kids.
The anger welled up again. "I'm not just a convenient womb for the next generation of airbenders!"
"You've read this, right?" Kya nodded at her father's book.
"Ages ago. Before I even became an Acolyte."
"I don't think I've ever read it properly before," said Kya. "It's all about Dad's airbender friends, and his life growing up here. It should be a really happy book. Or bittersweet, at least."
"Isn't it?"
"It's so angry. Monk Gyatso was like a father to him, and they were going to be separated. And, as he writes, he realises he never knew his parents, or if he had siblings, or - okay," Kya sat up straight, leaning her elbows on her knees. "Mom told me once that when Bumi was born, a few of the Acolytes thought Dad should do the traditional Air Nomad thing and leave the baby with them to raise."
"No!"
"That's what he told them. Then he wrote this. A big 'fuck you' wrapped up in cute stories about flying kids."
"I wish I'd known him."
"Me too. He'd have liked you. You've got that hidden bit of crazy he enjoyed."
Pema snorted. "I'll have you know I'm a very responsible mother. I'm sensible and patient, and I'm absolutely not going to sic my children on Abbott Sheng."
"Tell him you've decided to follow Air Nomad tradition, and you'll be leaving Meelo with him when you leave."
Pema laughed. Then she put her face in her hands.
"If the other Air Temples are like this, I may do something drastic."
"Come with me." Kya pulled her out of the chair. "There's one other reason everyone here loves you."
"Which is?"
"You're not Lin Beifong."
Pema pulled away from Kya.
"Tenzin brought her here?"
"Yup. Only once, though. And he wouldn't talk about it after. I had to get the story from her."
If they didn't care for Kya, Pema thought, and they had disliked Katara, Lin must have seemed like their worst nightmares coming true…
"Where is it?" Kya was peering through the windows. "The way she described it, I thought it'd be easy to - oh. Okay. Yeah." She pointed at a peak on the horizon. "See that?"
"I don't - oh. Yes. Yes, I do."
"The thing about obscene ice sculptures," said Kya, "is that they melt."
It wasn't precisely obscene. It was just a patch of bare rock that looked remarkably like a hand with its middle finger raised. It looked a little weatherbeaten, and there was lichen growing under one of the - well, the fingernails - but it was still unmistakeable. Twenty-five years ago,
"This used to be the breakfast room," said Kya. "The previous abbott decided the morning light was too bright."
"I see."
"He liked to sit facing the window. He found the view soothing."
"Well," said Pema, "I'm starting to feel soothed."
She was still happy about it the next morning, even after refereeing a fight between Ikki and Meelo over who owned which cup of bison milk. She faltered, though, when Abbott Shung approached.
"I just wanted to say again," he said, "how honoured we are that you and your family are visiting us. Master Tenzin couldn't have chosen a better wife."
Pema couldn't bring herself to disagree, but then he added, "You know, for a while we thought he'd marry - well, you're a much more suitable choice."
Pema felt her smile become fixed. She straightened her spine and said in a low voice, "Lin Beifong saved my family's lives last year. She risked her life and sacrificed her bending, and she volunteered. And I don't like her much, but she decided she didn't want to spend her life being patronised by Air Acolytes, and frankly, I'm starting to wish I'd made the same choice."
She had, she realised, backed Shung into a corner.
"And for the record, it's none of your business how many kids Tenzin and I have, and if Rohan can't bend so much as a breeze, he'll be just as much our son and Katara and Aang's grandson. Not to mention my parents' grandson, and they were quite powerful earthbenders, if you were wondering, so it's just as likely Rohan will be bending rock." She stepped back. "Thank you."
"You're … welcome?"
Shung looked like he wasn't sure what had happened, or why the nice, docile lady had suddenly turned on him. But he also looked like he knew better than to try and argue, so Pema counted it as a success.
She turned on her heel and walked outside. The baby would want feeding soon, and Meelo was no doubt finding something new to destroy, and maybe Kya would want some help with her ice sculptures.
end