This fic is also on my tumblr blog where my username is Kuno-chan and my blog name is Dragoness Ramblings.

Disclaimer: Legend of Korra belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

This fic was co-written by kuno-chan and spiritypowers


Birthday


Twenty-eight birthdays and not a one felt more alone than this one.

Each year in the last three years Jinora Gyatso would tell herself that same line. Twenty-five birthdays. Twenty-six birthdays... twenty-seven birthdays… and now here they were at twenty-eight.

Spirits, her life was just great, wasn't it?

Kids still weren't in her custody. Hell, she didn't even know where they were.

Of course, that was her fault. She should have gotten a better job after their dad left. Should have hustled more. Should have found some means to an end even if she had to go back to a little bit of stealing. Just from maybe some rich prick who wouldn't notice a few thousand dollars missing.

Just to have given her enough time.

But that was the thing with Child Protective Services.

They didn't give a damn about your time. It wasn't like she could entirely blame them though she wanted to. They had jobs to do and kids to make sure got fed.

Jinora sighed. She stared down at her little chocolate cupcake on top of her wobbly little dining table in her dismal little apartment for one. No, it had been her fault. Three years ago she swore to get her kids back. Yet, here she was. Kidless, friendless - being a bounty hunter did that to you - and nearly as penniless as she was three years ago.

With no skills, how was she to make real money? She tried to get jobs nearly everywhere, but with just a GED a lot of places just weren't going to take her. It wasn't like she could drag her pathetic little story from place to place until somebody offered her a job, although she had been very tempted to do so if the first person she had tried that on hadn't nearly outright laughed in her face.

Today hadn't been much either just by itself.

She had gotten her man of the day, a middle aged drunkard who ran off with his boss's money. A part of her wanted to let the guy go after she got snippets of how his old boss used to treat him like a maid service even though he was an accountant and not a personal assistant. She very nearly let him go when said boss just about ordered the man to wash his car unless he wanted to be fired.

Well, under those circumstances she might have run off too. Then again, the man was probably a better person than she was. Jinora would have run off with the money sooner than that.

On the other hand, the boss probably would have asked more of Jinora.

The whole thing had made her look in on herself. Reminded her of just how sad this all was and the fact was that she was a bounty hunter who couldn't hunt down her own children. Even then, what would she do when she found them? It wasn't like she was going to be allowed to have them back as of yet. She was penniless, practically jobless and in no condition to raise three children.

Being forced back into memories she simply couldn't - wouldn't - let go, Jinora remembered her babies and wished only for them. Her eldest, Nima, had been such a happy little sunray. Happy all the time even as a baby. It made her almost chuckle to think about how upset she suddenly was at the fact that she would be getting a sibling. Even more upset when she learned that her one sibling had then turned into two. Her heart ached remembering that brown skin and those green eyes. Her father's green eyes and brown skin. The children all had gotten slightly lighter shades of their father's skin, but they were beautiful all the same.

Her thoughts trailed off to her twins. A boy and girl five years Nima's junior, Rama and Taani had only been two when they were taken away. Tears pricked at her eyes at the thought that they probably didn't remember her. Forcing the bitterness away, she let out a laugh at her son's name. Ramashan. She always loved the book she got his name from. Taani's name had been chosen by her father. He'd heard it from a film they'd watched during her pregnancy and simply adored it.

Now, she cycled into her usual worries.

Did whoever have them know that Nima loved to dance more than anything? Did they know Rama thoroughly hated to have his hair cut? Did they know that Taani might struggle with some kind of disorder?

Jinora had never gotten to take Taani to a doctor to find out. She had never gotten to see Nima improve in her dance lessons. Never got to see if she could get her son to sit down and get just a little haircut.

Just a little one so she could have the severed lock filed away somewhere into some baby book.

She clicked on a kitchen lighter, a flame bursting at the end. Touching the flame to the tip of the candle, she clicked it off as the wick caught fire. It glowed a gentle orange in the dim light of the kitchen, dancing in the darkness. Mocking her. "Make a wish," the flickering light taunted.

The lonely candle atop of the cupcake nearly made a tear spill over, but she wiped it away and sat down on the chair in front of it.

She blew out the candle. She made the same wish she had made every year for three years. She ate her cupcake just the same.

When she was done, she threw the remnants in the trash and grabbed her laptop lying on her couch barely a room away. Onto her lap it went as she opened it and laid against the armrest of the couch. She impassively went through her rituals. News, work email, personal email. Not that her personal email ever had anything but junk mail, but sometimes the junk mail was worth looking at.

Browsing her personal email lazily, something in the bolded text caught her eye. Jinora narrowed her eyes at the strip of text and swore she felt her heart stop:

From: Nima Gyatso

Suddenly and completely alert, Jinora clicked the email harder than was necessary. No, that couldn't be. It couldn't. She had to be seeing things. Nima was only… spirits, Nima was ten. Did she even know how to work a computer? Well, somebody could have taught her, she supposed.

Forcing her brain to quit rambling, she noticed no words, but instead an attachment. Hurriedly clicking to open whatever it was her daughter had supposedly sent to her, Jinora bit her lip and watched with rapt attention as the black screen of a video popped up. Tears immediately sprang to her eyes when the tiny round face of a child - her child - with green eyes, brown hair and brown skin lighter than her father's appeared in the box. Behind her were purple curtains and what seemed like a nice neat little room for a little girl. Jinora knew that tiny mouth, those smiling eyes… like a kitten, she had always noted.

"Is this on…?" Nima pouted at the screen, reaching out to adjust something. Jinora actually did cry a little at hearing her voice… a light voice. A little high. Not too high, but… it was music to her ears. "I think I got it…"

"Hurry up. I wanna go get some juice," said an off-screen voice. Jinora frowned, but her eyes widened. A boy's voice. Was it…?

"Sssh, Rama!" Nima glanced somewhere Jinora couldn't see. "Hang on. We're going to send this to Mommy."

Rama's face peeked into the screen, brown eyes narrowed and Jinora actually squeaked. That was her son. Her only son. And he was looking right at her and didn't even know it.

"You promise Mommy's gonna be in here?"

"She's not going to show up," said Nima, shaking her head at her little brother. "We're gonna send her a video and then she's gonna show up."

"In the computer?"

"No, in person. She's gonna see the video and come here. It might take a while, but she's going to come. I promise. Now, where's Taani? Taani, come here! Yes, you can bring your stuffed animal. Now, come here. We're going to record something for mommy and send it to her."

A tiny girl with a wavy bob also popped into the picture. Her eyes were just as grey as Jinora remembered them. So grey they were practically silver. She had a round little face, warm dusty brown skin like her brother and sister, and still apparently never showed a shred of emotion on her face, big grey eyes looking rather sleepy and blank all the time. That was her baby. Her youngest baby. Still the precious tiny one Jinora remembered, clutching a yellow rabbit in her arms as Nima hoisted her brother and sister onto the side of her chair so they could all fit in the picture.

And that was what made the tears spill madly. Tear after tear fell as Jinora watched three little faces peering into the camera. They were all together just right there in the screen and she cried even more profusely at how close, yet so far they were to her right in this moment.

"Hi Mom," Nima said, her voice tinny and far-off through the built-in speakers of her laptop, but still so sweet to her ears. "Happy birthday! I didn't really remember when it was before, but I looked through a bunch of our files which led to yours, and… yeah, it was a lot of paperwork. Really boring, but that's okay 'cause I found your stuff."

She had grown so much. Children grew. Jinora knew that, but three years had matured Nima more than Jinora had anticipated. Was she safe? Well fed? Had she grown up too much like she had at her age?

"Anyway, we're actually contacting you because...we need you. I mean, this whole town needs you. Not just us. Though we need you too. We're in a town called Fablebrooke, and I learned some things you probably have to hear in person. Which is why we need you to come. You can email us back to say when you're coming and we'll wait at the border, and Zuko - that's our guardian right now - knows that you're coming. I mean, he doesn't know about the stuff I'm gonna talk to you about, but...he's nice. Well, I mean, it's...complicated, but he's nice to us. He let us contact you anyway and he's still nicer than a lot of the foster parents we had."

Complicated...?

Well, at least they were in a more stable situation than she could provide.

"Please come to Fablebrooke. It's just a few hours away from Republic City. You're still living there, right? Do you still live in our little apartment with the lumpy walls that look like animals if you stare long enough?" Nima giggled softly at the memory, and Jinora couldn't help but smile. "You can tell me when you get here. We can't wait to see you again… we miss you."

"Happy birthday Mama! We love you!" Rama piped up. Taani continued to stare at the monitor blankly, clutching her yellow rabbit to her chest.

The video ended with a click, and froze on the final frame of their faces. Her children's faces.

They were okay. They were safe. Safer than she'd dared to hope, anyway. They were still kept together; Spirits, she'd have to thank the merciful soul that had decided to adopt them all together. That had been one of her worst fears, that they'd all be scattered to the winds, denied one another after their parents had failed them.

She continued to stare at the monitor, tears still stinging at her eyes. It took a few moments to process - what was she waiting for? Her children were out there, asking for her to come back to them - before she clicked on the browser window, opened a new tab, and typed "Fablebrooke" into a search engine. Then, she clicked back to the email and hit the reply button, her fingers hovering over the keys for a moment before she finally typed anything.

I'm coming tomorrow. I love you.

Work and everything be damned. She knew where her kids were.

She knew where her kids were. She was going to be able to drive to a town and see them.

Jinora hadn't realized how much she had given up on that thought, how beaten down on the idea and how completely hopeless the situation had seemed to her until that email. She had almost completely resigned to the fact that she would never see her children again. Many nights she had cried to that thought. Sobbed at the idea that she would be alone forever while so utterly unsure if her children were even being properly taken care of.

And this man, Zuko, Nima had called him.

Was he taking care of her children?

Did he ever take Taani to the doctor about her possible disorder? Did he ever possibly take Rama to get his haircut? Did he support his daughter's dancing hobby?

These were just some of the things she needed to know. It was concerning. Beyond concerning, really, to think that some stranger was taking care of them. Not that she'd had a choice in the matter, of course, but the idea unnerved her. Then again, said stranger could actually be a very nice person, but it bothered her the way Nima talked about him. She said he was nice to them though it didn't seem like she had made herself much at home. At least in earnest.

She wondered about Rama and Taani. How had they adjusted to all of this? Jinora had caught that bit about being passed around foster parents and that thoroughly disturbed her. As she remembered it, the twins, especially Taani, took a moment to get attached to people they didn't know. Sometimes a long moment. With that in mind, she thanked the spirits that they had all stayed together. Nima was the one familiar face they needed. Their guide in all of this who would take care of them and comfort them when it was rough.

Sleeping that night was hard and restless. She was going to Fablebrooke starting tomorrow, everything be damned. The lease on the apartment was nearly up and she could afford to pay up a couple months rent to end it. It would take up just about all the money in her savings, but she could do it. Her car was nearly filled up… if she needed gas or food she could use the last bit of spare cash she just got from her bounty today…

She could do this... she could really do this.

The next morning, Jinora got up early to pack whatever little clothes she had and whatever was hers. Thankfully, it all fit into the one luggage she had. She went out as quickly as possible to the nearest bank - walking. She would need to save gas for the trip - and grabbed the allotted cash she'd need for the last few months of her lease. Honestly, she prayed her landlord would let her go easily. Even if she hadn't planned on going to Fablebrooke, she was just waiting to be free of this landlord who liked to make lewd comments whenever she passed by.

Thankfully, after some choice words of convincing and the bribe of so much cash at once, he did indeed free her from her lease - though not without making one last comment about how he'd "miss that ass" as she turned to walk away.

Good riddance.

With everything in order - for once - she stood in front of the driver's door of her yellow buggy and just stared at it. It was suddenly so easy. Years had passed and now she was just… just going to go see her kids? As if their location hadn't been withheld from her. Af it it'd always been this easy.

Getting into the car, Jinora took a deep breath. Spirits… how she loved and hated this buggy all the same. It had so many memories. Too many memories. She could never bring herself to get rid of it because of all the damn feelings she had gone through in here. So much of her life had happened in this car. At one point, she and… she and her kid's father had lived in here with nowhere else to go. A little stolen yellow buggy had been their home and yet… she'd been happy with it.

She nearly growled.

Nevermind that. No distractions. She had her kids to go see and her brain couldn't be off in lala land while on the road.

With a last determined flex of her hands on the steering wheel, she drove off.

-:-:-:-

Present day, Fablebrooke

Years of nothing but memories were going to pay off. Nima just knew it.

She was going through her family's pictures, as she always did before bed, on her little tablet she always carried around. Memories so precious, they were what kept the twins from forgetting who their mom was. After all, they were only two when the government people came to take them away. She herself had been seven years old so she remembered everything. Her mom, her dad, the house they used to live in… the twins just couldn't forget that. They wouldn't have been able to remember their dad - he'd gone away right after she started school and the twins were only little babies - but she refused to allow them to forget their mom.

And thank the spirits, she had kept so many videos and pictures that they could and did watch every day. She remembered the first night after they'd been taken away. Rama was crying because he couldn't find Mama and Taani was having a small panic attack on the inside even if her face didn't show it. That night, even she had been crying herself. Still crying even though she'd been crying all day already.

But those videos had been what stopped the tears. The videos and the pictures kept them comforted even if their mom couldn't be right there with them. The twins would point at the screen whenever they saw her and say "mama." So Nima kept showing them. Mom would wave from the screen in the videos and it would make the smile and they would wave back.

Every day she made sure they watched them. Every single day. And every day of the same videos and pictures made it so that the twins seemed to have a fairly fresh memory of who their mom was even if it'd been three years since they last saw her. Mom was still a familiar face and they still had memories from their two year old days. They never forgot and now it was all about to pay off because their mom was coming here.

Years of memories, tears, hope… it was all enough.

She had just shown the twins their video for the night after she'd tucked them into bed. Their favorite was the one their mom had recorded one night when she couldn't come home because it was snowing really hard and it was already dark. Daddy had taken out his laptop and showed it to them. Mom sang a little lullaby to them, said something to each of them and would wave and blow kisses at them. The twins always waved back, sometimes hummed the song as she sang and would blow kisses back. It was the perfect video with all the love in it.

In her own bed and unable to sleep, she flipped through the pictures until her eyelids got heavy. Just as she was about to put the tablet down and curl into the blankets, a little red number went off on the side of the screen. She tapped the number and nearly dropped the tablet on her face when it said "From: Jinora Gyatso."

The email was short, but oh god it was enough. Her mom said she was coming. She said she was coming tomorrow. Nima would get up tomorrow early and tell the twins so they could get ready and email her mom back. Because her mom was coming for them. It was a statement she couldn't quit thinking about over and over again. She was going to be in Fablebrooke and Nima was going to get to hug her again after being literally torn away from her three whole years ago. The twins were never going to forget her.

It was a struggle to realize and contain the excitement that it wasn't just going to be memories anymore. Not just hope that sometimes was replaced with fear when they were feeling sad. This was going to be the best back to school present ever and the twins had just turned five so… she nearly squealed at the thought that Mom could take them to school for the first time just like she had done when Daddy was still with them. Nima had always hated school for the most part, but this would make it okay. Better even.

I can hug her again, thought Nima as she felt herself drift off. I know she'll be happy to see us…

Closing her eyes finally, Nima smiled. She couldn't wait to tell her friend everything that was happening.

Their mom was coming to save them.


Just to be clear, this fic was written by myself as well as spiritpowers (who is both here and on tumblr). She and I wrote good equal parts of this fic (we have over 100 pages written right now) and so I wanted to make that very clear that credit goes to both of us.

Since this is co-written I don't want to be making too many comments, but reviews are always really appreciated and we each really love seeing them! They really keep the spirits up while we're writing and keep up writing those chapters! Thank you for reading! Tune in for next chapter!