Late Night Snacks
Takes place right after Legend of Korra, Season 3 Episode 6 "Old Wounds."
Huan is still retouching his "improved" Harmonic Convergence sculpture when his older brother drops into the studio with their favourite calming tea.
That has been their routine since the days when they could barely walk and preferred sweetened milk. One thing that haven't changed over the years, even with the addition of new powers, responsibility, and siblings, is that Junior and Huan's daily routines have very little overlap; they wouldn't see each at all if they don't make time for it, so they did.
In fact, Huan is pretty sure that Junior doesn't see much of the rest of their siblings at all. There's really no reason why the two of them get along better than the rest of them. They share far more differences than similarities, but it's a good case of old habits die hard. Despite his generally gloomy outlook in the world, Huan believes in the bond of family. He can't imagine family being willing to turn on each other or drift apart, which is why he still shudders internally while thinking about his mother's fight with Aunt Lin from the morning.
Of course, that's what his brother asks about.
"I hear I missed quite a bit of excitement this morning." Junior says as he sets the tea down. He notices the Harmonic Convergence sculpture and gives Huan a questioning look. "That's an interesting direction you decided to take with the sculpture. I thought you were going to with something a bit more… smooth."
"It's courtesy of the 'excitement' you were referring to from this morning." Huan says with a grin. "Mom threw it across the yard. Or maybe it was Aunt Lin. I'm not sure. But I like the organic feel of it. It's an important part of the Harmonic Convergence. Republic City is covered in vines and new airbenders cropping up – all the changes and the difficulties of adjusting - there is a roughness to it."
He has been so excited by the new vision that he skipped dinner to work on it.
Baatar is an engineer, not an artist. Most of what Huan says about "feelings" and "vision" and "muse" doesn't make sense to him at all, but it's never stopped them from talking. "I always assumed airbending of all things would be better represented by smoothness rather than rough edges."
"There is a strength to airbending. It's important that we acknowledge it as a force of power as the rest of the bending styles. Opal used her airbending to stop Mom and Aunt Lin from literally trying to bury each other under huge boulders. It was quite impressive, really." Huan can't help but smile at the memory, and was glad to see the expression mirrored on Baatar's face.
There's solidarity between the three of them – Junior, Huan, and Opal – the misfits in their family. Junior the non-bender. Huan the artist. Opal the bookworm daughter. Their parents never said that they had be just like their mother or Grandma Toph, but they never knew what to with themselves in the context of Zhaofu and all its metal-bending glory.
"The twins wouldn't shut up about the fight over dinner no matter how much Opal glares at them." Junior says, and adds in the air quote – "Apparently Mom's still 'got it'."
"Wing and Wei haven't got a clue. They may have been Mom's favourite students all these years but they've got nothing on Mom and Aunt Lin. I've never seen someone moving around earth with that much ease. Maybe except for Kuvira. "
"Not even Grandma Toph?"
"She's never done any serious earthbending here, but she would have Mom and Aunt Lin personally, wouldn't she?"
Toph's legendary talents as an earthbender remained legendary in Zhaofu because very few people there has seen her in action. She used to say it's past her time, and most earthbending she did involved messing around with her grandkids - messing up Huan's sculptures or Junior's models because she didn't like them. Once upon a time, Baatar Jr. used to think she was simply picking on them for not being the kind of hot-blooded earthbender she was, but soon enough he realized that she messed around with Opal's hairpeices and Wing and Wei's metal discs all the same. It was her way of showing affection, if you can call it that.
"Apparently not all too well." Baatar says wistfully. "Mom told us at dinner that she gave Aunt Lin that scar on her face when they were younger."
Huan was so surprised that he flattened a small spike structure he wanted mould onto the sculpture. "Are you serious?"
"In her own words, she 'was sixteen and wasn't thinking it through'. She never thought it would scar her sister's face. Apparently her phase of teenage rebellion involved hanging out with Triads, so your ridiculous haircut is really tame in comparison." Junior grins as he says it, but Huan ignores the jab at his hair. He liked his hair, and no one, not his favourite brother who decided to stick that awful haircut, can convince him that it's not worth it.
"From all those stories she used to tell about how responsible and caring Aunt Lin was, you'd think they used to braid each other's hair and kiss each other goodnight. I didn't get Aunt Lin's deal at all the first day when she was just so grumpy and rude, but if someone left a scar like that on my face…"
"It would enhance your individuality and you should embrace that mark of distinction."
"I'll be the judge of what enhances my individuality, thank you very much. But enough gossiping about Mom's 'dark and troubled past,' where were you today? I knew you weren't working because Dad was there during the fight."
Junior's cheek suddenly turned a shade redder and he sputtered, "Well, no, I was just… I meant…"
Huan rolls his eyes. His brother has been at it way to long to be playing coy. "You were with Kuvira, weren't you?"
"No! I mean, why would you think that?"
"Because Zhaofu's guard didn't respond at all when Mom was technically attacked in her own home. Something must be distracting their captain." Huan's smirk morphs into a something a bit more devious, driving his brother to blush even darker.
"Kuvira was showing me a part of the new dance choreography. We put the music on – we didn't even hear the fight."
"I don't understand why you won't tell mom. If she isn't going to accept Kuvira then she would never accept anyone."
"Kuvira and I… it's nothing serious yet."
"It's been 'nothing serious' since you were sixteen, and you've had a crush on her since you were ten." Huan reminds him.
"Still. There's so much that Kuvira wants to do with her life and her career in Zhaofu, and she wants to accomplish them on her own merit. She doesn't think the time is right yet."
It goes unsaid that Baatar is willing to wait until she is ready. He has waited more than decade for Kuvira to see his feelings, so he can wait a few more for her to figure her life out. Kuvira is the only one who understands his simultaneous desire to belong in Zhaofu and leave it in the wind. It's the only home they've ever known, but despite all its comforts, it was never quite what they wanted or needed from a home. Huan and Opal love Zhaofu unconditionally for no other reason than it's home, but for Baatar, it just doesn't feel like that's enough anymore.
"But what do you want?" Huan asks him.
Good question, too, because Baatar has thought long and hard about it and he has a feeling his answer isn't one his parents would want to hear.
"I'm not even sure what I want with Zhaofu anymore. I just want to help Kuvira realize her dreams." He tells his younger brother, who seemed to understand him despite smirking at his answer.
"Oh, you sound just like Dad when he talks about marrying Mom. Especially since Kuvira's dream probably involves taking over Zhaofu one day."
"She would like that." Junior is completely serious when he says it. "Mom would like that too."
"True, but Kuvira still has to fight the Wing and Wei for it."
"Also true. And she would win. So you know, when the time comes, root for the right team, little brother."
Huan laughs and shakes his head. "I wouldn't wager my loyalty so casually, blood being thicker than water and all."
For a moment, something dark flickered across Baatar's mind. He wants to say something about how blood never made him feel closer to the rest of his family than he did to Kuvira, that blood didn't make him an earthbending prodigy like his brothers and mother and grandmother. Blood only ever made him feel tethered to Zhaofu – the city of his mother's dreams and his father's visions – the home that will belongs to his parents far more than it could ever mean to him. Maybe it's blood that allowed Huan and Opal to find a place a for themselves in Zhaofu, in the nooks and crannies of their large house where Huan can sculpt in peace, in the garden where Opal can read to her heart's content. Maybe it's blood that will forgive Aunt Lin – a stranger to them all – for storming into their house and attack and Mom and walk away without so much as a slap on her wrist.
Maybe blood meant more for everyone else – it circulated faster and hotter in their hearts and veins, enough to call forth those illusory bounds and of family and love that are supposed to be greater than even life itself. His mother spoke of it like it's as natural the rain falling from the sky, and Baatar grew up feeling like a freak of nature because he can't comprehend it. But what does he and Huan, or he and Opal, for that matter, share, if not blood? For all that he resents of Zhaofu, he can't compel himself to leave when he thinks of how his father and mother and sister and brothers will look if he does. For all that he resents of Zhaofu, he knows he'll fight to the death to defend it for his family and Kuvira. It's frustrating because it's not simple.
Maybe blood matters, but it most certainly does not play fair.
From the side table, a clock chimes once to indicate that it's midnight. This is when they say goodnight.
"Alright, I need to go – still need to work in the morning." Baatar says automatically. "Don't stay up too late. Your sculpture will still be here in the morning."
Huan looks up from his sculpture and spares a wry grin for his brother. "Goodnight, Baatar." He says, and it's all the brothers needed for a feeling of ease and happiness to settle in their hearts.
That's the feeling that had always been elusive to them in the metal-bending capital of their parents' dreams, but that's the feeling they have learned to discover in each other's company, somehow, despite all their differences.
Maybe being family should mean something, after all. Maybe if they are lucky, it would be enough.
-FIN-
A/N: Hope you liked that! Thoughts on this?