*

Jigako bowed before the elders, Yai doing the same.

Elder Hoku nodded, "These two youths have transcended that of anyone their age as one had before them. Rise Monk Jigako, Nun Yai."

They stood, bowing honorably to the oldest Monk in the Southern Air Temple as well as Demoska's master.

"You are dismissed."

They looked at each other and then turned in sync, walking out of the chamber, proud of themselves, their family and friends outside of the temple cheering for them both.

Demoska ran up to Yai, hugging her, "You're now Nun Yai!"

Yai giggled, hugging back, "But you beat me to it. You've been Nun Demoska since you were 13."

Jiao looked to his brother and smiled weakly, reaching his hand out to shake it, "You did good buddy."

Jigako wanted nothing more than Jiao's approval, taking his hand, he pulled his twin towards him and hugged him, whispering, "You'll have your very own time soon. I promise it Jiao."

Jiao hugged back, trying to swallow his pride by thinking of what Yai told him. That being jealous of everything his brother had wasn't the person he was. He was peaceful.

Peaceful…you're peaceful Jiao.

Monk Kannin, Yai's adoptive mother, smiled at the youths, happy for them but concerned. Jiao was the only one of the four who hadn't advanced as a prodigy child. Though she knew he had great airbending skills. She believed she knew how to give him the courage and will to step up and claim his rightful place, no matter how long it took to snap the poor boy out of his depressed daze. In the meantime, she smiled along with Monk Jagu, the twin's father and both of Demoska's parents and they would all celebrate Yai's and Jigako's achievement at such an early age.

*

Jiao blinked, walking out to Monk Kannin's backyard with Yai, "Um, you wanted me for something Monk Kannin?"

Monk Kannin stood at the far end in the tall grass, drinking tea.

Yai quirked a brow, "Mom?"

"Children. You both know that I have traveled the world in my youth and even now. It was how I adopted Yai as my own daughter to raise. I saw that baby crying and my heart melted as she cried out for a mother's touch. I remember it all like it was yesterday."

Yai and Jiao looked at each other questioningly, "Mom we all know the story. Everyone in the Southern Air Temple knows that I'm an earthbender. It's why I didn't become a Monk with Jigako today and became a Nun instead."

Monk Kannin turned around, closing the fingers of her left hand together and airbending her teacup so that it floated above her fingers, "There's a moral to the story underneath the original moral and I think Jiao has to learn it for himself."

Jiao blinked, confused, "What's that?"

Monk Kannin smiled, blowing a gust from her fingertips and propelling the teacup far up into the air, "It seems my tea has taken flight. Can you get it before it falls and spills Jiao?"

He opened his glider about to fly up, though suddenly a chain of rocks grabbed onto the handle.

"Yai!? What are you doing!?"

Monk Kannin looked stern, "You do not have much time Jiao. Save every last drop of my tea please."

Jiao looked to Yai who was smiling, then Monk Kannin, and then blew towards the ground, propelling himself up towards the teacup, grabbing it and turning it to get all the raining droplets of tea, landing before Monk Kannin, "Here's your tea!"

Monk Kannin grabbed the tea and sipped it, "Thank you."

Jiao looked around, "What's all this about? Yai? Monk Kannin?"

Monk Kannin smiled sweetly, "Jiao. I am going to train you. I will teach you stances from each and every Air Nomad temple and teach you about the other nations, their stances, techniques that I have studied and have seen firsthand."

Jiao gulped and blushed, "T-train me? I don't need training…!"

Monk Kannin shook her head, "Yai and I will train you every night after you train with your master. You have to remember that Yai was taught advanced earthbending from the Avatar himself. She is as capable of being your teacher as I am. If you didn't need training you would be standing before me Monk Jiao today rather than just Jiao."

Jiao said nothing but sunk to his knees, placing his palms on the ground, "I…" he thought of how he kept feeling. He thought of his jealousy for Jigako. Of his obsession with Demoska. He thought of how much he hated Jigako for everything that he had. How he had the perfect girl, the perfect life. How he was now a Monk and could travel the world as he pleased. It all swarmed in his mind and his eyes stung, the tears dropping freely to the ground, "Y-yes. Please…teach me. Monk Kannin…Yai…teach me. I…I wanted to be a Monk today too. I don't want to do it when everyone else does. I want to be like Jigako. I want to advance."

Yai looked to him with sorrow. She knew he wasn't admitting to everything that was plaguing him. She knew he still loved Demoska but there was nothing anyone could do. She was keeping everyone's secrets and only Demoska knew that she still liked the boy crying in front of her. But at that moment, something in her mind changed. She didn't just like Jiao. No…she loved him. She always had and sugarcoated the love for like all this time.

Her mother didn't tell her that she was going to train Jiao, but a feeling in her gut was right when mom asked for her and Jiao to come outside after the celebration. She knew how nice her mother was. And other than she herself, her mother took no students. She wanted to be just like her mother. So kind and considerate of others. She wanted to be the earthbending version of Monk Kannin.

Monk Kannin looked at Jiao and knelt in front of him, opening her arms up to embrace him. He rushed into her arms, crying, "I…I've been so angry and hurt."

Monk Kannin nodded, rubbing his back, "Let it all out dear."

Yai released his glider from the rocks, and walked over to also hug Jiao, nuzzling her face into his shoulder, "It's gonna be okay."

Monk Kannin whispered hugging the children, "We are all the same people. We have to stand together always. We leave no one behind, no matter what."

Yai nodded, leaning and kissing Jiao's temple, "Hear that Jiao? We don't leave anyone behind. Emotionally or physically."

Jiao closed his eyes and kept crying, though something in his heart released. Like floodgates opening. He felt so relieved and hugged more into Yai than Monk Kannin.

Monk Kannin let them go and stood, "I'm going to fix tea for the both of you. I'll be right back."

She walked into her house.

Jiao looked up at Yai, hugging her tighter, "You're my best friend Yai…I see that now. Always have been."

She nodded, wanting so badly to tell him how she really felt about him. But now wasn't the time. He was traumatized and needed spiritual healing. She looked into his teary eyes and smiled at him, reaching to place her hands on each side of his head, rubbing to massage gently, "I'm always here for you." It hurt to give up speaking her feelings and take the place of a sisterly role to the boy she loved, but it's what had to be done. He wasn't ready and she wouldn't force him for the world.

*

Jiao arrived the next night after training with his own master, not seeing anyone in the back of the house at first, "Hey where is every one?"

Jiao widened his eyes as suddenly a tornado was headed his way, "What the!?" He took stance against it and suddenly found that he couldn't move his feet. He looked down, seeing the ground covering his feet, "I SUNK!?" No…that was earthbending…had to be! "Come on out you guys!" When no one answered, the tornado had gotten close enough to drag him in, the earth covering his feet gave way and he was swept up, following the current of the rapid winds. He had to think, and getting an idea, he created an air ball, spreading his hands outward to spread it out. He was going to use wind to break this tornado from the inside out before it moved and did any damage. Spreading his air ball, till it met the ends of the inside of the tornado, it suddenly ceased and he landed on his giant airball, looking down to see Monk Kannin and Yai standing and looking up at him.

He smiled, lowering himself to them and releasing the air ball.

Monk Kannin, clapped, "Almost had it. But we'll see improvement next time."

Jiao frowned, "Uh, so that was your tornado right? That's amazing, how could you keep it up so long?"

"Practice. Yai's told me that when you two were younger, you believed you could create hurricanes. I'd want to see someone other than the Avatar do that."

Jiao smiled now, "Okay."

"But not right this second. I will come back out with tea and I will start from the basics today."

Yai snickered and watched as her mother turned and walked back in to fetch tea for them all, "Good going dude. You almost broke her tornado, that's why she released it."

He rubbed the back of his head, "I guess so. And about the hurricane thing I told you I could just make the wind. I'd need a waterbender to actually make one!"

Yai shrugged, "That must have slipped my mind I guess."

Monk Kannin returned and handed Jiao and Yai tea, she took a cup herself and began to drink, "Ah. This is my favorite tea. Chamomile. It comes from a flower, did you know that?"

Jiao shook his head and went to drink some, then spitting it out, "Whoa lady this have anything in it to sweeten it!?"

Yai giggled, "I thought you'd have learned by now that my mom likes her tea straight." She sipped some herself, "And I'm my mother's daughter."

Jiao looked at the tea, deciding to give it a second chance and sipping it slowly.

Monk Kannin smiled, "This is your first lesson Jiao. Do you see how you were so easily able to forgive the cup of tea and give it a second chance?"

Jiao blinked, "Give it a second chance? What?"

Yai laughed, "Silly, you're drinking it right now even though you don't like it right?"

He nodded, clueless.

Monk Kannin explained, "Then you've given the tea a second chance. You must treat yourself like this cup of tea. Even though you have issues within yourself, just like the bitterness of the tea, you have to give yourself a second chance. You might like what you get after you forgive yourself."

Yai added, "You have to be able to forgive yourself in order to forgive anyone else."

Jiao nodded, sipping the tea, "Hey! This is really good! It's sweet now! How'd you do that?"

Monk Kannin laughed, "Everything turns from bitter to sweet after you forgive yourself."

Jiao nodded, "I get it now."

"That and I added a sweetener to yours that took extra time to dissipate. But I'm glad you understand my point."

Jiao nodded. This is gonna be some strange…but really interesting training. This is nothing like Monk Eiji's training.

"When you kids are done with your tea, I will show you waterbending techniques from the North Pole that should help with both of your elements."

Yai and Jiao looked at each other, then at Monk Kannin excited, drinking their tea quickly and setting their cups down. "We're ready!"

She giggled at the children's eagerness, "I see that." Finishing her tea, she set her cup down and stood before them, "Well then let's begin."

*

"Jigako!"

"Demoska!"

He came, smothering her face with kisses as he released his seed into her.

Panting, she stayed as she was, sitting atop of his crotch, still linked with him bodily. Looking down at him, she ran her hands over his chest, smiling at him as her long hair fell over her shoulders.

He looked up at her, giving a final thrust up into her, before resting. Her hair falling onto his stomach, he reached to play with the strands.

She panted, "I know what our child's name will be Jigako."

He smiled, "What will it be?"

"Aang."

He froze, thinking about it and then realizing that the name was perfect. It immediately reminded him of his long passed mother in a way, but at the same time the name was not too feminine for a first born son, "Demoska…"

She froze, "Oh! You look sad. Is it the wrong name? I'm sorry. I'll come up with a better name and…"

"No Demoska…it's perfect." He sat up, pulling her body flatly against his and kissing her intensely, closing his eyes and licking along her lips for access to the inside. As it was granted, he slid his tongue into her mouth, set for exploration and conquest.

She closed her eyes and kissed back, holding onto him.

As their kiss parted he whispered against her, "I love you so much Demoska." He reached to place a hand on her stomach, "We'll work hard to create Aang. As long as it takes."

She nodded, resting her forehead against his, "I love you too."

***

In the present…everyone looked around at each other, blushing madly. Toph seemingly looking at the ceiling.

Katara blinked, "I can't believe everything I'm reading. It's so…detailed… and precise. All of the diaries! I feel like I'm invading Demoska's personal space by reading about her and Jigako's secret um…meetings."

Sokka muttered, "Aang your parents were like two rabaroo's in a cage!"

Toph smiled, "I like Yai. She sounds awesome. She learned earthbending from an airbender despite the challenges her teacher faced and then learned advanced earthbending from Avatar Roku. Then started teaching Jiao how to control his anger."

Zuko shook his head, "I get something now. Jigako and Jiao were identical twins. That's why Fire Lord Sozin couldn't understand why one of them came three years later to fight him. He thought the brothers were the same person and that the first brother came back from the dead. But in the end, he ended up killing them both."

Toph nodded, "Yeah, but which one fought him first and died? And which one fought him second?"

Aang looked to the diary in his hands, "This Monk Jigako…is my father. And the description in his diary of Nun Demoska matches the vision Avatar Roku showed me."

Katara agreed, "But there's still so many lose ends. I mean. The Fire Nation launched their very first attack in history on the Southern Air Temple and failed. I know they had to have more in stored for them."

Aang looked in the diary, "Well look. Right now we're in the part of their lives where everyone is in their teens. In my vision, my mother looked young, but she wasn't 16 years old. She was older than that. And I was born a long time before Sozin's comet came."

Katara sighed, "I've got some bad news Aang. I'm almost done reading. I think as the years go by, we're getting closer to finding out what happened to your mother and why you never knew her. I have the feeling that when this journal ends is when she died."

Aang blinked, "We're getting to the end of Jigako's diary too. Jiao's and Yai's are the longest and oldest. So does that mean they lived the longest?"

Sokka rubbed his chin, "There's something else that doesn't make sense. About your father Aang."

Everyone looked at Sokka with a quirked brow.

Katara huffed, "I think it's pretty clear that Monk Jigako is Aang's father. You heard the passion he had for Aang's mother in both of their diaries."

Sokka thought aloud, "Call me crazy Aang but I have the feeling that we're gonna find out something…shocking. It's just that the location of where Jiao's diary was bothers me."

Zuko nodded, "He found it in your teacher's study. It's kind of suspicious. Why would your teacher leave your father's diary in the library instead of in his own study?"

Aang thought to himself, "I don't know."

Sokka nodded, "That's just why I think something really unexpected is gonna happen. I mean yeah Jigako and Demoska really loved each other. We get that. But your teacher was around at the same time all of this was going on at the same temple. He had to have known and met all of them at some point in time. He'd want to keep to himself the diary that would mean the most to him and you after that person died."

Toph sighed, "Instead of trying to figure it out geniuses, why don't you guys just keep reading?"

Zuko nodded, "I agree. But we'll start by reading the shortest two diaries. Then I'll pick up with Jiao's and Sokka can continue Yai's, whose is thicker than a textbook, compared to the other diaries."

Everyone looked, comparing the diaries.

Katara nodded, "You're right. Yai's is definitely the longest of all of them. I think the shortest is Jigako's." She looked to Aang, "And then is Demoska's."

Aang nodded, "Let's keep reading guys…in the order from shortest to longest so that we don't miss a detail."

Everyone nodded, and sat listening as Aang continued in Jigako's diary first.