A/N: Somehow, I forget exactly what happened, but masoncara on tumblr is responsible for this. Somehow she prompted Aang and grandkids and thus this. Also I'm not sure I really know how to write Aang at all but I tried.
Disclaimer: I don't own.
"They ask about you all the time," she tells him as they stroll through the Spirit World. "Jinora especially. She wants to know everything about your life and talks Katara's ear off. Ikki asks as many questions but it's different. She wants to know about how you wooed Katara. And Meelo," she pauses and he's instantly curious as to what his grandson wants to know. "He wants to know who you were or, er, are." That hurts him the most. And Rohan is still too young to ask.
He's quiet. These aren't his only grandchildren, Kya's brood is five strong (sometimes he thinks Tenzin is trying to catch up to her) and he's certain Bumi has a kid or two that he doesn't know about. These children, however, are his hope, one he gave up earlier.
Lin had confided in him that she wasn't sure she wanted children. It hurt seeing the moonstruck eyes of his son and knowing there was a chance that he was the last airbender. Toph's hackles about how the kid would likely be an earthbender didn't help.
He'd met Pema when she was a child. She'd been sweet and kind but with an edge that he'd come to appreciate in Katara. Looking back he could see how she balanced Tenzin. But he's aware that it was only his death that caused Tenzin to reconsider his life and forced Pema to make her declaration.
Sometimes he wonders what his grandchild by Tenzin and Lin would have been like.
"Did I say something wrong?" the current Avatar asks.
"No just lost in thought." It's true enough.
"I can go then," she offers.
He nods because she's always too eager to leave. "Can you do one thing?" She shrugs; he takes that as a yes. "Tell my grandchildren I love them and tell Tenzin he's doing a good job and make sure all of them know how proud I am of them." It's her turn to nod right before she fades away.
He can watch them. Usually he tries not to but there are moments he doesn't want to miss. He watched Jinora's first airbending lesson (and every other subsequent first), watched Tenzin stand up for what he believed in to the Council, and actually cheered the Fire Ferrets in the finals.
So watching as Korra delivers his message isn't new. He loves how his granddaughters' eyes light up. Meelo's look of concentration shocks him. And Tenzin. Tenzin he watches blink his eyes and force his face blank. It's a face he recognizes immediately, one Tenzin wore often as a child before going to his room and crying.
He looks away because his baby hurts and there's nothing he can do to make it better and the helplessness is gnawing at him.
Korra returns a lot sooner than he imagined she would.
"They wanted me to ask you some questions," she explains. He waves his hand for her to proceed. "Jinora wants to know what the nuns' lives were like. Did they care for all the sky bison? Were there a lot of scribes? Ikki-"
"Jinora only asked three questions?" He's sure his inquisitive granddaughter has more to say.
"I limited her to three so I could remember. Anyway Ikki wants to know, in her words that she was insistent that I use, why Daddy and Mommy are married and you and Gran Gran got married even if it's not really an Air Nomad tradition. Meelo wants to know how often you shaved your head." He's laughing at all the questions and it's the best feeling he's had in awhile.
Once he finally calms down and smiles sympathetically to the current incarnation he tries to think of responses for each child. Meelo's is the easiest: he shaved every other day. Ikki is next with the answer of 'your Gran Gran can be fierce when she wants to be and times change, but mostly your Gran Gran is scary.' Jinora's is harder. He wants to tell her about his friends who lived in the Eastern Air Temple. How they showed him how to properly brush Appa and how to care for his own calligraphy set. He wants to tell her that no, not all nuns had to do this but how most of them wanted to.
Most of all he wants to tell them all that every Air Nomad he knew would welcome them with open arms.
He can, he knows, tell them this in person. He can posses Korra's body for a time. But he hated when Roku and Kyoshi did it to him. He hated how he felt like an intruder in his own skin, how he looked down at himself but not. How drained he felt after they left his body.
He decides to give her a choice. "Korra," he begins and she stops looking at the butterbee that's distracted her. "I can explain everything to them."
"How? No offense but you're dead." He likes how blunt she is.
"I can see them and they can see me. You are me and I am you. We can switch places for a little but only if you want to. I had it done to me without my consent and I don't want it happening to you." She's silent as she thinks. He waits and wants this more than he will admit. She's holding his hope in the palm of her hand.
"Can you give me more time to think about this?" She asks.
Of course he'll give her time. If he'd had the option he would have taken it. But he didn't and she does. He's learned from his mentor's mistakes. She fades away and he hopes she let's him do this.
He tries to not think about what he will say to them. He tries not to think about how this would be the most airbenders he's been around since his childhood. He tries not to think about how he'd tell them about his games of airball or how he invented the air scooter or-
"Let's do this." She's back and giving him a chance.
"Really?"
"Come on the kids are all sitting in one place and waiting and if we don't hurry up Meelo is going to do something and it will end up getting me dirty." He laughs and thinks Meelo is the most Water Tribe of the airbenders.
He closes his eyes, focuses, and opens them to his grandchildren with their mouths hanging open.
"You're not as old as Gran Gran," Meelo says.
"Don't tell her that," he says as Jinora and Ikki glare at their brother.
"Meelo that's not very nice to say. Now tell Grandpa Aang you're sorry." His heart aches because he'll never hear that title again.
"It's all right Jinora, we don't have a lot of time."
It's Ikki, of course, who blurts right out "why can't you stay too long? Does Korra want to come back? Is Appa with you in the Spirit World? What's-"
Jinora jumps in with her own questions "did the nuns really shave their foreheads too? Did you always want the United Republic to be a new nation? Did the Acolytes really start as your fan club?"
He smiles because Ikki has his eyes and Meelo has his ears and Jinora has his nose and all of them have his enthusiasm.
He gathers them in his arms, his hopes, his airbenders. He wants to tell them that the world is kind but he knows better than anyone (besides maybe Zuko) that it's not. He tried to leave a world at peace for them but ended up almost costing them their identities.
"Grandpa Aang I wish you could stay with us," Ikki says into his shoulder.
"If I could I would," he promises. He holds them tighter and closes his eyes and is back in the Spirit World.
He held them and he will always remember that.
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