Pemzin Week, Day 4: Loss
The loss of his father was a blow he hadn't expected. Everyone even slightly connected with the family knew that he was fading far too young, but his mother had been pouring healing into him and she was the most skilled healer in the world. His sister simply took a step back from the world and buried herself in solitude and his brother flung himself into his work with manic energy, but Tenzin had no such options. As the last living Airbender, he had to step into a position on the city council and manage Air Temple Island without being given a chance to mourn his father.
I watched from the background. Even though I was a woman grown, everyone seemed to forget I was no longer the child I had been a few years ago when I met them. I was there to see the circles darken under his eyes. I was there to see his shoulders slump under the weight of his duties. Many times I began to stretch a hand forward to touch him on the shoulder, to somehow give what comfort I could. Every time I couldn't bring myself to do it. Lin was often there. She gave him the rough, boisterous comfort I could imagine her preferring, but it made me cringe because of how wrong it was for such a gentle man. With her arm around his shoulders, she would glare possessively around the room and I would shrink back into a corner feeling as if I'd done something wrong. Soon, I'll find it in me to move past that. I will hold firm. I feel too much to watch him collapse from the inside out like this. Even if she hates me, even if he hates me, I will stand by his side and offer him all my strength that he may stand tall.